Future Tech Advice and Assistance Thread [O.O.C.]

[Lubyak]

I got bored so...

Have all the ship classes of my fleet to scale with one another.

A fun time for everyone involved.

I feel like I've seen these before somewhere else. I do like the stylistic flair that's present with these vessels.

http://i.imgur.com/mDn0Xos.png

These are the current generation main capital grade VRZ warships.

I've crossposted to reddit before, and I've shared/edited these many times. Could be that you're remembering.

[Neornith]

Mine:

http://orig12.deviantart.net/f0f5/f/201 ... asa71e.png

I cant claim all of those ships, but i found the designs and loved them, so i added more to match.

Very nice, I like the angles on them.

Is there some scale line there that I'm missing to get an idea on how big the ships are

[Achesia]

Mine:

http://orig12.deviantart.net/f0f5/f/201 ... asa71e.png

I cant claim all of those ships, but i found the designs and loved them, so i added more to match.

Very nice, I like the angles on them.

Is there some scale line there that I'm missing to get an idea on how big the ships are

I actually have not decided. In my factbook for FT and then my military I have a categorized list of ship types and what lengths equate to what ship types. But thee specific classes I have not written stats for just yet. Getting there though. I am In the process of redoing the art for my main dreadnought to be sexier.

[Neornith]

Very nice, I like the angles on them.

Is there some scale line there that I'm missing to get an idea on how big the ships are

I actually have not decided. In my factbook for FT and then my military I have a categorized list of ship types and what lengths equate to what ship types. But thee specific classes I have not written stats for just yet. Getting there though. I am In the process of redoing the art for my main dreadnought to be sexier.

I suppose I could probably find the answer if I dug through your Factbook but it's probably easier to just ask

I noticed you had three dreadnought classes, are their roles different or are some older and some newer classes

[Achesia]

I actually have not decided. In my factbook for FT and then my military I have a categorized list of ship types and what lengths equate to what ship types. But thee specific classes I have not written stats for just yet. Getting there though. I am In the process of redoing the art for my main dreadnought to be sexier.

I suppose I could probably find the answer if I dug through your Factbook but it's probably easier to just ask

I noticed you had three dreadnought classes, are their roles different or are some older and some newer classes

Haha I gotcha, I just dont have an answer atm, I havnt decided. I think I may have something for the Atuned Class but I forget off the top of my head.

But yes I do have three Dreadnought classes (possibly more to come). The reasons would most likly be a combination of what you have listed, some models being older than others and some serving a different role. Dreadnoughts in general I envision to be large forward deployed command centers, logistics depots, maintenance facilities, ground forces transport, and heavy weapons platforms.

From the little amount of time I have thought about what the roles will be I have envisioned the Duke class to be equiped moreso with missiles/kinetic weapons as well as a large fighter compliment. The Syzygy I want to be the energy weapons platform with a heavy emphasis on ground bombardment (greater surface area in the under belly). The Eve of Destruction is a single unit and the flagship of the whole fleet, to be equipped with the largest weapons, probably some sort of nasty kinetic warheads that do something spooky.

But thats really all the general concept and something I am still thinking about.

EDIT:

Found the designation. In addition the Atuned Class is 2200m if that gives you a sense of scale.

Fighter/Individual Craft- 0-25m
Transport/Patrol/Small Craft- 26-200m
Corvette- 150-400m
Frigate- 250-850m
Destroyer- 500-1400m
Cruiser- 1200-2400m
Battlecruiser- 2100-2900m
Battleship- 2800-3800m
Dreadnought- 3700-8400m

These basically are categories, if a ship falls under one of those they are classified as such.

[Neornith]

I suppose I could probably find the answer if I dug through your Factbook but it's probably easier to just ask

I noticed you had three dreadnought classes, are their roles different or are some older and some newer classes

Haha I gotcha, I just dont have an answer atm, I havnt decided. I think I may have something for the Atuned Class but I forget off the top of my head.

But yes I do have three Dreadnought classes (possibly more to come). The reasons would most likly be a combination of what you have listed, some models being older than others and some serving a different role. Dreadnoughts in general I envision to be large forward deployed command centers, logistics depots, maintenance facilities, ground forces transport, and heavy weapons platforms.

From the little amount of time I have thought about what the roles will be I have envisioned the Duke class to be equiped moreso with missiles/kinetic weapons as well as a large fighter compliment. The Syzygy I want to be the energy weapons platform with a heavy emphasis on ground bombardment (greater surface area in the under belly). The Eve of Destruction is a single unit and the flagship of the whole fleet, to be equipped with the largest weapons, probably some sort of nasty kinetic warheads that do something spooky.

But thats really all the general concept and something I am still thinking about.

EDIT:

Found the designation. In addition the Atuned Class is 2200m if that gives you a sense of scale.

Fighter/Individual Craft- 0-25m
Transport/Patrol/Small Craft- 26-200m
Corvette- 150-400m
Frigate- 250-850m
Destroyer- 500-1400m
Cruiser- 1200-2400m
Battlecruiser- 2100-2900m
Battleship- 2800-3800m
Dreadnought- 3700-8400m

These basically are categories, if a ship falls under one of those they are classified as such.

OK so you're breaking it up by size

One thing I might suggest you take a look at (and keep in mind this is just a suggestion for your consideration) is defining your ship classes by role
I myself tried this at one point and time and I grew frustrated with it and gave up but you might have a lot better focus then I do (I went with using size as a designation as well for the most part)

It does get a little hard doing classifications by role in a FT Navy because unlike a conventional water Navy you don't have ASW operations for your frigates, destroyers while originally intended for screening larger ships against torpedo boat attacks have grown into more a multiple purpose role, and battlecruisers were basically battleships without battleship armor (not to imply you didn't know this already)

So maybe you could go more in depth with your classifications if you felt inclined

[Achesia]

Haha I gotcha, I just dont have an answer atm, I havnt decided. I think I may have something for the Atuned Class but I forget off the top of my head.

But yes I do have three Dreadnought classes (possibly more to come). The reasons would most likly be a combination of what you have listed, some models being older than others and some serving a different role. Dreadnoughts in general I envision to be large forward deployed command centers, logistics depots, maintenance facilities, ground forces transport, and heavy weapons platforms.

From the little amount of time I have thought about what the roles will be I have envisioned the Duke class to be equiped moreso with missiles/kinetic weapons as well as a large fighter compliment. The Syzygy I want to be the energy weapons platform with a heavy emphasis on ground bombardment (greater surface area in the under belly). The Eve of Destruction is a single unit and the flagship of the whole fleet, to be equipped with the largest weapons, probably some sort of nasty kinetic warheads that do something spooky.

But thats really all the general concept and something I am still thinking about.

EDIT:

Found the designation. In addition the Atuned Class is 2200m if that gives you a sense of scale.

Fighter/Individual Craft- 0-25m
Transport/Patrol/Small Craft- 26-200m
Corvette- 150-400m
Frigate- 250-850m
Destroyer- 500-1400m
Cruiser- 1200-2400m
Battlecruiser- 2100-2900m
Battleship- 2800-3800m
Dreadnought- 3700-8400m

These basically are categories, if a ship falls under one of those they are classified as such.

OK so you're breaking it up by size

One thing I might suggest you take a look at (and keep in mind this is just a suggestion for your consideration) is defining your ship classes by role
I myself tried this at one point and time and I grew frustrated with it and gave up but you might have a lot better focus then I do (I went with using size as a designation as well for the most part)

It does get a little hard doing classifications by role in a FT Navy because unlike a conventional water Navy you don't have ASW operations for your frigates, destroyers while originally intended for screening larger ships against torpedo boat attacks have grown into more a multiple purpose role, and battlecruisers were basically battleships without battleship armor (not to imply you didn't know this already)

So maybe you could go more in depth with your classifications if you felt inclined

Good advice, though I need to figure out what sort of roles there are aside from "captial ship", "escort" , "carrier", and "landing ship" there are. Would it go more on the weapon types employed?

[The Federation of Kendor]

Can you tell me how big a ship can be on a Far FT nation like me, as well as nation that were able to go to other universes and controls 3 major galaxy and all of their minors

[The United Dominion]

Can you tell me how big a ship can be on a Far FT nation like me, as well as nation that were able to go to other universes and controls 3 major galaxy and all of their minors

However big you want, it really doesn't matter. You're already off the charts for any sort of actually-imaginable scale, anyway.

[The Federation of Kendor]

Can you tell me how big a ship can be on a Far FT nation like me, as well as nation that were able to go to other universes and controls 3 major galaxy and all of their minors

However big you want, it really doesn't matter. You're already off the charts for any sort of actually-imaginable scale, anyway.

So, what technology i suppose to generally have?

[Kyrusia]

However big you want, it really doesn't matter. You're already off the charts for any sort of actually-imaginable scale, anyway.

So, what technology i suppose to generally have?

While there is nothing stopping you from operating at the scale you described ("controls 3 major galaxy [sic] and all of their minors"), I would suggest reading the following two guides: "Size in Relation to Future Tech" and "The Train Set: A Future Tech Analogy." These go into considerable detail regarding scale in FT and how it is important to gauge whom you intend to roleplay with and recommends adjusting your star-state accordingly.

Most FTers operate on a significantly "smaller" (still astronomical, literally) scale than what you have described, tending to operate largely within a single galaxy (usually called "the Galaxy" or "the Milky Way Galaxy" due to familiarity in the NSFT community) and with a handful of star systems under their dominion. The often-quoted guideline here is the "Three Systems Guideline," though it is often not held to as strictly as one may initially believe. Regardless, the general principle is that it is best to start "smaller," typically between 1-3 (more conservative perspective) to 1-10 (more liberal perspective) star-systems, though even these numbers vary depending on who you speak with (I tend to, personally, recommend 1-6, for example).

Namely, this tends to be recommended as it provides players with significant room to play, while still being "small" enough that the gaps in a player's worldbuilding are not so pronounced. Such is to say that: when a player has their star-state claim, say, multiple galaxies, that is a lot of things to develop; countless systems, planets, and huge swathes of open space. Look at this analogy:

There are two people in two separate sandboxes building sandcastles. One sandbox is 10 feet by 10 feet. The person in this sandbox has built four or five, intricately detailed sandcastles; they have towering minarets, portcullises made of driftwood, little toy knights everywhere, and are generally quite impressive. They don't fill-up their sandbox, there is still plenty of room to build moats, little forts, and even towns and cities around their castles, but their little sandbox kingdom, nonetheless, looks amazing and alive as a whole. It "feels real" to the random passerby and they can believe that these castles and their little toy knights have interest in the other castles and knights.

The other person has a 100 feet by 100 feet sandbox. They, too, have four or five very intricate sandcastles with little toy knights. They even have begun building towns and cities around them, like the person in the other sanbox. Even so, compared to the open space, not much of their sandbox is really developed or touched. The sandcastles feel more like they are entirely independent things without any real connection to the others and, in general, the vast amount of untouched sand just makes their little kingdom in the sand feel incomplete and not alive.

Sunset's train analogy is far more polished (and touches upon other, slightly more nuanced reasons - namely ease of interaction between IC entities), so I would suggest reading it as well. I'll quote a particularly pertinent bit here:

Train sets come in various scales; That is, how large are the trains and how wide are the tracks that those trains run on. The most popular scale in the world is HO and thus the question becomes: What scale is your train set?

Hold on a second before you answer that question and consider this...

Some day, you and I might like to have our two train sets interact. You'll connect your trains to mine, I'll run my trains over your rails. They'll zip through the other's towns and cities and past the little charred corpse next to the alien tripod delicately sipping a cup of tea. But wait! Your train set uses G! You like your trains big and detailed and brightly colored so you went with the biggest set you could! Unfortunately, mine set is HO. Most popular scale in the world, you see - reasonably inexpensive, easy to get new models and pieces for the layout. A solid, average, choice. Now of course we could set up a loop where those two sets run over and around and near each other but we won't get that level of interaction that we really want and that is your trains stopping at my stations. And if the goal of setting up our two sets together is to smash two of them together head-on? Well, that will be even more difficult.

Again, you're free to claim and roleplay as you wish. I hope this helps in your creative endeavors into FT.

[Neornith]

OK so you're breaking it up by size

One thing I might suggest you take a look at (and keep in mind this is just a suggestion for your consideration) is defining your ship classes by role
I myself tried this at one point and time and I grew frustrated with it and gave up but you might have a lot better focus then I do (I went with using size as a designation as well for the most part)

It does get a little hard doing classifications by role in a FT Navy because unlike a conventional water Navy you don't have ASW operations for your frigates, destroyers while originally intended for screening larger ships against torpedo boat attacks have grown into more a multiple purpose role, and battlecruisers were basically battleships without battleship armor (not to imply you didn't know this already)

So maybe you could go more in depth with your classifications if you felt inclined

Good advice, though I need to figure out what sort of roles there are aside from "captial ship", "escort" , "carrier", and "landing ship" there are. Would it go more on the weapon types employed?

I suppose it could be since you have more a variety of weapons than I do (Avlana uses missiles and beam weapons while Usidia another FT nation of mine uses mass drivers and missiles which I do more for personal aesthetic reasons)

Maybe if you define why, as an example, destroyer class A has energy weapons while destroyer class B has kinetic weapons it might possibly narrow down your intended roles for them

This discussion has gotten me thinking more and more on Avan ship classes and I might actually give it another go and post the list here

That's if I don't get frustrated again and just ragequit XD

[SquareDisc City]

Spacecraft "classes" is something I've grappled with too, so far without getting anything definite down. I for one want to get away from the common "naval analogy", though on the other hand if I come up with totally invented stuff it gets harder for a reader to follow.

The smallest craft of the UPT Space Force are the fighter and strike fighter. Children of a Dead Earth reassured me of the use of them. Both normally operated as drones, but can be piloted in some situations. Pretty similar, the difference being that a fighter is optimised for combating enemy missiles and fighters while a strike fighter is more to shoot larger enemies.

The largest would be the mobile base, for want of a better term. Basically blurring the line between ship and station - they can move about, but they're not at all built to fight directly, but rather serve as basing and support for a fleet.

Largest after that in the military, well I'm happy with calling the big fighting spacecraft a battleship, and the carrier a, well, carrier.

Then it's a case of filling in the gap as it were. I suppose maybe if I can think about how the Space Force might have developed (an area I plan to retcon). For example if we look back at real world navies, a "Destroyer" started out as a Torpedo Boat Destroyer which was a ship design to combat Torpedo Boats (dur). Torpedo Boats are now obsolete and Destroyers have evolved significantly, but the name stuck. Maybe I could do something similar. Perhaps have a think about stuff that's now obsolete (like I already have in outlining the spacecraft propulsion methods) and how old names might stick around. Being a bit more concrete, well in CoaDE which I now take as a big influence I found a few interesting tactics. For example if you outrange your enemy you want to approach slowly, while if you are outranged you want to close down fast - maybe I can turn those ideas into a couple of ship class names.

Something that others haven't mentioned - are there larger non-military spacecraft? I think there would be. Bulk freighters for example. Media craft are another I've mulled over, being built large to carry capable sensors to bring the best pictures (and in my experience when they come into an RP they tend to get quickly shot at which I suppose is not surprising).

But that's enough rambling from me.

[Ella2 6]

Can you tell me how big a ship can be on a Far FT nation like me, as well as nation that were able to go to other universes and controls 3 major galaxy and all of their minors

Time for a bit of copy and pasting from a Discord conversation of mine.

I, for one, suggest something of a practical size. My advice for you would be figuring out the size, type and role of the most prominent unit in your navy/space force and then build everything around that. For this purpose, I suggest figuring out what your frontline cruiser does.

Some people may disagree with me but the cruiser is one of the key assets in the FT navy. This is mainly because of how versatile the classification for an FT cruiser is. It can be a carrier, a flagship or an escort. Or all three. In conventional modern warfare, the cruiser is the king of the high seas next to the aircraft carrier and maybe the submarine. In FT, the cruiser is the king of the void next to the carrier and dreadnought. The roles of a cruiser may vary depending on you military doctrine, which is established based on your nation's culture, its available resources as well as many other factors. For more on military doctrines, I recommend checking out Allanea's guide on How to Create a Military Doctrine.

You'll find that the average cruiser in FT is about one kilometre in length. for a mighty, intergalactic empire such as yours, you could scale it up a bit more. But I do not suggest going past two kilometres. I've seen people do five-kilometre cruisers, but that takes some skill and unfortunately I've not seen noteworthy examples recently. Personally, I'd stop at 1500m, but that's just me. Why? Because of the nature of a cruiser (in this case) as a military vessel. In my mind, a cruiser is a reasonably sized boat doing boating things and said boat should be able to be mass produced with reasonable speed and efficiency. It should be able to make a solid backbone of a navy/space force to provide a means of defensive capability and power projection to a star state. (The other reason being you'll intimidate everyone OOCly.)

Note, however, that size isn't determined by how large you want it to be but rather how large it needs to be as mentioned in Hyperspatial Travel's guide on Sizes in FT.

For example, I built my Starforce on the basis of my cruiser, the MkII Audacity-class general/all-purpose cruiser. Once I got its size (820m) and its roles (anti-capital fire and support for larger ships) I was able to develop more ships to work with it in combined arms. I developed a light cruiser and a heavy cruiser to work in conjunction with my primary cruiser. My light cruiser, really just a glorified corvette, is meant to be a sort of highly manoeuvrable ship meant for strategic strikes on enemy capital vessels, as well as providing anti-fighter firepower and supporting larger warships, and the heavy cruiser is a flagship meant to serve as a base of operations for the entire fleet.

My military doctrine is based upon Germany's world war two blitzkrieg tactics. Why? Because of my nation's limited population and war-time resources. Ella2 6 lacks the resources to sustain conventional attrition warfare, thus it must rely on the forces it's built up during peacetime. In order to 'win' a war, Ella2 6 must be able to overwhelm it's enemies very quickly with the forces that are immediately available to it. In other wars, our culture is making do with what we have at the current moment in time. What does that say about our starships? They need to be versatile and have a good survivability since if we must make do with what we have, every lost ship is a lost opportunity.

With this came my battleship. Yes, we can finally move on to other classes. The Paladin-class battleship is a huge, heavily armed, heavily armoured sponge meant to draw away fire from other vessels and soak up as much of it as possible to give our other ships a chance. What about planetary invasions? What about planetary blockades? What about the mundane things in controlling a star state like fighting off pirate and smugglers and patrolling your space sector? The first question there is to ask is; "How can my cruisers handle these and where do they fall short on doing so? and Why?" And with those questions answered, you can then build more classes and vessels around your existing, warfare-dedicated ships to specifically handle those problems.

From there, you can figure out every other aspect of your navy/star force based entirely on what you have right now, what you might have in the future, the culture and ethics of your nation and, most importantly, what you feel is most fun for you to roleplay. After all, if you're not having fun role-playing as an intergalactic starfaring super civilisation, chances are that no one else will be having fun either. And remember that this is just one of the many ways one may go about building a navy/space force and once you have nailed down the cruiser, the size and roles of everything else becomes a lot clearer. Welcome to NS FT. I'll be seeing you around.

[Neornith]

-snippety-

Cruisers in modern navies have been mostly fazed out the only remaining cruiser class is the Ticonderoga of the US Navy and it's probably not going to survive since the Zumalt destroyer essentially fills it's role. Just a minor note I wanted to make (inb4NeodevolvedtheconversationintoMTrawr) that being said, and I somewhat loathe myself for saying this, a better comparison instead of modern navies, which have far more budgetary constraints than even the smallest FT naval force, would be WW2 navies (which Ella2 6 had mostly done from what I can comprehend, it's 4 in the morning shut up) which more resemble most FT navies, most.

-snippety-

Since I like small craft I think that's where I'm going to start, likely the first class will be a "Patrol" class for the Avan, it'll be between 250m to 400m and it's key feature will be that it's capable of operating independently for upwards of 1 Galactic Standard Year, main weapons would likely be energy based with some missiles and this is done to utilize space more efficiently. It's primary purpose will be for guarding trade lanes as well as the outer fringes of Avan systems.

[SquareDisc City]

-snippety-

Cruisers in modern navies have been mostly fazed out the only remaining cruiser class is the Ticonderoga of the US Navy and it's probably not going to survive since the Zumalt destroyer essentially fills it's role. Just a minor note I wanted to make (inb4NeodevolvedtheconversationintoMTrawr) that being said, and I somewhat loathe myself for saying this, a better comparison instead of modern navies, which have far more budgetary constraints than even the smallest FT naval force, would be WW2 navies (which Ella2 6 had mostly done from what I can comprehend, it's 4 in the morning shut up) which more resemble most FT navies, most.

-snippety-

Since I like small craft I think that's where I'm going to start, likely the first class will be a "Patrol" class for the Avan, it'll be between 250m to 400m and it's key feature will be that it's capable of operating independently for upwards of 1 Galactic Standard Year, main weapons would likely be energy based with some missiles and this is done to utilize space more efficiently. It's primary purpose will be for guarding trade lanes as well as the outer fringes of Avan systems.

Well that kind of thing seems true to the original concept of a cruiser in the Age of Sail and through to the 19th C, as a warship capable of independent operation, commerce protection or raiding, and suchlike, and something that would be less valuable than a ship of the line which for many tasks suffered from being Too Awesome to Use. Of course the term evolved over time, in the World Wars they converged somewhat with battleships and since then they've come to largely overlap with, and as you say may be supplanted by, destroyers.

[Achesia]

Cruisers in modern navies have been mostly fazed out the only remaining cruiser class is the Ticonderoga of the US Navy and it's probably not going to survive since the Zumalt destroyer essentially fills it's role. Just a minor note I wanted to make (inb4NeodevolvedtheconversationintoMTrawr) that being said, and I somewhat loathe myself for saying this, a better comparison instead of modern navies, which have far more budgetary constraints than even the smallest FT naval force, would be WW2 navies (which Ella2 6 had mostly done from what I can comprehend, it's 4 in the morning shut up) which more resemble most FT navies, most.

Since I like small craft I think that's where I'm going to start, likely the first class will be a "Patrol" class for the Avan, it'll be between 250m to 400m and it's key feature will be that it's capable of operating independently for upwards of 1 Galactic Standard Year, main weapons would likely be energy based with some missiles and this is done to utilize space more efficiently. It's primary purpose will be for guarding trade lanes as well as the outer fringes of Avan systems.

Well that kind of thing seems true to the original concept of a cruiser in the Age of Sail and through to the 19th C, as a warship capable of independent operation, commerce protection or raiding, and suchlike, and something that would be less valuable than a ship of the line which for many tasks suffered from being Too Awesome to Use. Of course the term evolved over time, in the World Wars they converged somewhat with battleships and since then they've come to largely overlap with, and as you say may be supplanted by, destroyers.

If we are going with a WW2 analogy and just based off of my understanding, I would imagine anything smaller than a crusier would have to operate in "packs" of multiple ships to be able to sufficiently project force enough to ward off hostiles or supplant enough firepower on a target.

On the other hand I would think anything larger than a cruiser would need escorts to defend itself from smaller packs of ships.

Therefor I guess I can go with for my FT navy that crusiers and battlecrusiers are be only ships capable of really operating independently for extended periods of time.

[Neornith]

Well that kind of thing seems true to the original concept of a cruiser in the Age of Sail and through to the 19th C, as a warship capable of independent operation, commerce protection or raiding, and suchlike, and something that would be less valuable than a ship of the line which for many tasks suffered from being Too Awesome to Use. Of course the term evolved over time, in the World Wars they converged somewhat with battleships and since then they've come to largely overlap with, and as you say may be supplanted by, destroyers.

If we are going with a WW2 analogy and just based off of my understanding, I would imagine anything smaller than a crusier would have to operate in "packs" of multiple ships to be able to sufficiently project force enough to ward off hostiles or supplant enough firepower on a target.

On the other hand I would think anything larger than a cruiser would need escorts to defend itself from smaller packs of ships.

Therefor I guess I can go with for my FT navy that crusiers and battlecrusiers are be only ships capable of really operating independently for extended periods of time.

This is kinda why I mentioned earlier that I loathed using the comparison, again I'm not saying it's wrong to use any sort of Navy from any era and in fact they can be useful resources for beginning players, but I sometimes feel like they can narrow a players imagination when it comes to creating an FT naval force. I like to believe that other aliens or even environmental conditions for lost human colonies have remoulded and even done away with what we traditionally view as navies, terms like battleship and cruiser have no meaning to the Orlaka who value melee and close quarters combat, instead they have Brawler ships which are used to soak up damage as they close in for boarding action, stuff like is worthwhile for players to sometimes consider I think

[Achesia]

If we are going with a WW2 analogy and just based off of my understanding, I would imagine anything smaller than a crusier would have to operate in "packs" of multiple ships to be able to sufficiently project force enough to ward off hostiles or supplant enough firepower on a target.

On the other hand I would think anything larger than a cruiser would need escorts to defend itself from smaller packs of ships.

Therefor I guess I can go with for my FT navy that crusiers and battlecrusiers are be only ships capable of really operating independently for extended periods of time.

This is kinda why I mentioned earlier that I loathed using the comparison, again I'm not saying it's wrong to use any sort of Navy from any era and in fact they can be useful resources for beginning players, but I sometimes feel like they can narrow a players imagination when it comes to creating an FT naval force. I like to believe that other aliens or even environmental conditions for lost human colonies have remoulded and even done away with what we traditionally view as navies, terms like battleship and cruiser have no meaning to the Orlaka who value melee and close quarters combat, instead they have Brawler ships which are used to soak up damage as they close in for boarding action, stuff like is worthwhile for players to sometimes consider I think

I understand your point. I am just in love with the romanticized view of a "space cruiser" and "space battleships". They just sound so fun to me.

[Neornith]

This is kinda why I mentioned earlier that I loathed using the comparison, again I'm not saying it's wrong to use any sort of Navy from any era and in fact they can be useful resources for beginning players, but I sometimes feel like they can narrow a players imagination when it comes to creating an FT naval force. I like to believe that other aliens or even environmental conditions for lost human colonies have remoulded and even done away with what we traditionally view as navies, terms like battleship and cruiser have no meaning to the Orlaka who value melee and close quarters combat, instead they have Brawler ships which are used to soak up damage as they close in for boarding action, stuff like is worthwhile for players to sometimes consider I think

I understand your point. I am just in love with the romanticized view of a "space cruiser" and "space battleships". They just sound so fun to me.

Absolutely, I use it with other FT nation's as well because I to like the idea of an FT Bismarck or an Iowa barreling down on the enemy fleet with cannons blazing and the crew looking worriedly at the Captain as he screams for more speed with a maniacal glint in his eyes. I also like trying different things though too though from time to time

[Northwest Slobovia]

I understand your point. I am just in love with the romanticized view of a "space cruiser" and "space battleships". They just sound so fun to me.

This is where I think the idea of roles is useful. The "cruiser" -- however called -- is a ship meant for independent operations over a long period of time, either by itself or with a small group of similar ships. That's a really useful ship role for all sorts of character- and nation-based RPing. Defining a "battleship" to be a ship meant to be in the thick of combat is a similar RPing win.

I also tend to think of exploration ships, minor long-endurance warships, and mining ships as good ship roles for RPing. They all can spark interesting stories.

[Neornith]

So going on what we've discussed I've somewhat come up with some ship classes for my other FT nation Usidia which is a human nation and does still use the "classic" terminology for ships (IE battleship destroyer etc etc)
Now for the time being I've somewhat shied away from sizes and have focused on roles

Corvette- Smallest class of ship capable of independent operation, it's primary role is for patrolling a system as well as being capable of operating in groups in Usidian anti-piracy naval squadrons.

Frigate- Now this one was a little harder since frigates have had a wide and varied role throughout history, for Usidia they're slightly larger than Corvettes and primarily carry anti-capital ship missiles, their role would primarily be as skirmishers, mostly for harassing enemy fleets flanks with hit and run tactics

Destroyers- Multipurpose ships that have varied loadouts for a variety of missions, their primary purpose would be for flagships in anti-piracy naval squadrons as well as escorts against missile salvos and fighter attacks for capital ships

Cruisers- Smallest of the capital ships they would like be the flagship in Usidian Task Forces for quick response units as well capital ship engagements in a larger Usidian fleet

Battleship- Primary capital ship of Usidian Fleets involved in system assaults and attacks against larger enemy fleets

Carrier- Essentially a shell capable of FTL that transports a multitude of either planetary assault forces and missile attack craft incapable of FTL travel

And this is mostly just a rough draft for right now and I'll likely edit and add some more later

[Achesia]

So going on what we've discussed I've somewhat come up with some ship classes for my other FT nation Usidia which is a human nation and does still use the "classic" terminology for ships (IE battleship destroyer etc etc)
Now for the time being I've somewhat shied away from sizes and have focused on roles

Corvette- Smallest class of ship capable of independent operation, it's primary role is for patrolling a system as well as being capable of operating in groups in Usidian anti-piracy naval squadrons.

Frigate- Now this one was a little harder since frigates have had a wide and varied role throughout history, for Usidia they're slightly larger than Corvettes and primarily carry anti-capital ship missiles, their role would primarily be as skirmishers, mostly for harassing enemy fleets flanks with hit and run tactics

Destroyers- Multipurpose ships that have varied loadouts for a variety of missions, their primary purpose would be for flagships in anti-piracy naval squadrons as well as escorts against missile salvos and fighter attacks for capital ships

Cruisers- Smallest of the capital ships they would like be the flagship in Usidian Task Forces for quick response units as well capital ship engagements in a larger Usidian fleet

Battleship- Primary capital ship of Usidian Fleets involved in system assaults and attacks against larger enemy fleets

Carrier- Essentially a shell capable of FTL that transports a multitude of either planetary assault forces and missile attack craft incapable of FTL travel

And this is mostly just a rough draft for right now and I'll likely edit and add some more later

I like those definitions allot. I may have to write up my own for my factbook so i ensure I use my own forces correctly down the road.

[Vocenae]

So going on what we've discussed I've somewhat come up with some ship classes for my other FT nation Usidia which is a human nation and does still use the "classic" terminology for ships (IE battleship destroyer etc etc)
Now for the time being I've somewhat shied away from sizes and have focused on roles

Corvette- Smallest class of ship capable of independent operation, it's primary role is for patrolling a system as well as being capable of operating in groups in Usidian anti-piracy naval squadrons.

Frigate- Now this one was a little harder since frigates have had a wide and varied role throughout history, for Usidia they're slightly larger than Corvettes and primarily carry anti-capital ship missiles, their role would primarily be as skirmishers, mostly for harassing enemy fleets flanks with hit and run tactics

Destroyers- Multipurpose ships that have varied loadouts for a variety of missions, their primary purpose would be for flagships in anti-piracy naval squadrons as well as escorts against missile salvos and fighter attacks for capital ships

Cruisers- Smallest of the capital ships they would like be the flagship in Usidian Task Forces for quick response units as well capital ship engagements in a larger Usidian fleet

Battleship- Primary capital ship of Usidian Fleets involved in system assaults and attacks against larger enemy fleets

Carrier- Essentially a shell capable of FTL that transports a multitude of either planetary assault forces and missile attack craft incapable of FTL travel

And this is mostly just a rough draft for right now and I'll likely edit and add some more later

This is more or less my tonnage classes as well, though I've got like four or five different classes of frigate. I don't have battleships though, my super capitals are just Cruisers/Heavy Cruisers. For a long time I just did things Homeworld style but after I really got into building my own starships with DOGA, I kept having to branch off into Light Frigate/Support frigate/Frigate/Heavy Frigate, etc.

[Achesia]

So going on what we've discussed I've somewhat come up with some ship classes for my other FT nation Usidia which is a human nation and does still use the "classic" terminology for ships (IE battleship destroyer etc etc)
Now for the time being I've somewhat shied away from sizes and have focused on roles

Corvette- Smallest class of ship capable of independent operation, it's primary role is for patrolling a system as well as being capable of operating in groups in Usidian anti-piracy naval squadrons.

Frigate- Now this one was a little harder since frigates have had a wide and varied role throughout history, for Usidia they're slightly larger than Corvettes and primarily carry anti-capital ship missiles, their role would primarily be as skirmishers, mostly for harassing enemy fleets flanks with hit and run tactics

Destroyers- Multipurpose ships that have varied loadouts for a variety of missions, their primary purpose would be for flagships in anti-piracy naval squadrons as well as escorts against missile salvos and fighter attacks for capital ships

Cruisers- Smallest of the capital ships they would like be the flagship in Usidian Task Forces for quick response units as well capital ship engagements in a larger Usidian fleet

Battleship- Primary capital ship of Usidian Fleets involved in system assaults and attacks against larger enemy fleets

Carrier- Essentially a shell capable of FTL that transports a multitude of either planetary assault forces and missile attack craft incapable of FTL travel

And this is mostly just a rough draft for right now and I'll likely edit and add some more later

This is more or less my tonnage classes as well, though I've got like four or five different classes of frigate. I don't have battleships though, my super capitals are just Cruisers/Heavy Cruisers. For a long time I just did things Homeworld style but after I really got into building my own starships with DOGA, I kept having to branch off into Light Frigate/Support frigate/Frigate/Heavy Frigate, etc.

Building ships with DOGA? Is that a ship making program?