Which is to say something like this: Ship classes like frigate, cruiser, etc. Which all have simple abreviations available, which can be modified for particular purposes. But more importantly (for me) they just have names that we already associate with ships. This was the list the last time I messed with it. Not sure how well it plays into Starmade as it doesn\'t have mass values attached (and starmade ships are a little wonky with regards to some aspects of design). The list is effectively in order of size. Some of the naming is, admittedly, just so the designations go in alphabetical order from largest to smallest.
I do like that you came up with a system for turrets though.
Vessels:
LF: Light fighter. Small highly manueverable ship with minimal armaments. Mostly used for scouting or as a personal transport ship to a planet from a vessel too large to land there.
HF: Heavy Fighter. A fighter that is larger, better armed, and so forth. Depending on the design, may be well suited to destroying fighters, gunships, or turrets on larger vessels.
GS: Gunship (or Bomber). A small vessel with a bunch of forward-facing armaments. When said armaments have a lot of missiles or bombs, this vessel may be called a bomber.
GB: Gunboat. A moderately small vessel primarily designed around one or two high-power main guns. Or built around housing one turret with a single big gun. Has limited armaments otherwise. Intended to attack and destroy targets larger then itself, particularly in conjunction with other ships. Tends to be a bit weak to well designed heavy fighters and gunships, which can outmanuever it.
FR: Frigate. A moderately small vessel. Often slightly larger then a gunboat, but the opposite design as far as weapons and intended targets go. Has many guns, Including a good number of small turrets providing coverage from all angles. This vessel is intended to destroy things smaller then it. Fighters and gunships, in other words. Naturally, this makes it weak vs a gunboat. Frigates are good as escort for larger vessels, as their maneuverability and full coverage can help them avoid the firing line of some larger ships while allowing them to protect their allies from harrassment by fighters or gunships.
EC: Escort Carrier. A moderately small or mid-sized vessel whose primary purpose is to lug around a decent compliment of fighters. Its weapons systems aside from that generally a little on the light side, but usually have some degree of forward guns and/or light turrets.
DD: Destroyer. A mid-sized vessel designed around assaulting and destroying capital ships. Focuses primarily on foward-firing weaponry, or on a line of heavy turrets that share a common fire arc. Intended to bring the majority of its weapons systems to bear on a single target.
CR: Cruiser. A mid-sized all-purpose vessel, which tends to combine reasonable directional power with the ability to attack enemies in most or all directions. Intended to be useful against smaller targets, and to protect other ships from them.
CA: Carrier: A large vessel which carries smaller ones. This is typically restricted to gunships or smaller, though they may also carry gunboats or frigates docked on the outside. They are frequently armed with small to medium sized turrets and missiles, as their role requires them to have a lot of hollow areas relative to the more powerhungry systems a more \"solid\" dedicated warship can hold.
BC: Battlecruiser. A large multi-role vessel. Often does a little of everything. Carries weapons and turrets of various sizes and types, and can generally perform well against any target not specifically intended to destroy it (i.e. a battleship or a super-capital ship of some sort). Many have small hangars as well, or at least points suitable for docking small ships to.
BB: Battleship. A well-known type of large vessel intended to destroy other capital ships. They often sacrifice speed and manueverability for the ability to pump out as much damage as they can in a general direction. They are often armed with a reasonable number of anti-fighter turrets, but their main weapons systems are usually forward guns and heavy anti-ship turrets. If they are pointing at you, you will not go into space today (in one piece).
AT: Titan. Technically, may be called an \"Assault Titan\" (unless I find a better A-word to start it with). These are huge vessels with immense capabilities of some form or another. Depends on the titan. Very few have a dedicated intention though. Once you get that large, you can generally put whatever you want on the thing.
AC: Attack Colony (or something else that can be abbreviated with \"AC,\" if you have suggestions). Some wiseguy put engines on a military superfortress. He was posthumously promoted for his insight after accidentally floating between it and what was formerly an entire attacking enemy fleet. This last entry is just tacked on for the sake of \"what if we need something bigger then a titan?\" and honestly I couldn\'t think of any good names for a vessel that start with \"A\" that actually sound big. It may not be necessary.
Yes, I know, but after realizing that some classical designations were already in alphabetical order I didn\'t want to ruin it!
Ships may have a modifier tacked on to the end of their designation in some cases. An -X (like DD-X or CR-X) can designate a particularly experimental design. Adding -S or -SR might imply a vessel designed for stealth or strategic recon or something.
Classes used by civilians would have designations starting with letters M or later. M itself would work well with miners of course. T works for anything that can be called a transport, such as freighters. A second letter could be applied for the size of said vessel.
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