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Ship Class naming standards?


TheBlender

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I think there should be a thread in regards to what ship makers use as a standard for naming particular classes of their ships.
(ie what should the smallest ship be labeled as? how large is that class? what about the next size up? etc)


I for one like the naming from StarDrive as follows, for me its easily understandable and not overly complicated.

Fighter, Corvette, Frigate, Cruiser, Capital/carrier, Titan

What do you guys think?

Keep it Non-NDA breaking

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Glad I gave you an idea, it'll be a hilarious mess. Just watch

 

Oh and no, ppl can name their crafts as they want. 

Idc if it's a corvette, bomber or whatever. Only numbers count (agility, turning rate, acceleration, max speed, cross section, turrets, shield strenght,....)

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I think all organization (the big ones) will end up naming their ships just as they want. Still, I doubt we will end up with 500 meters long corvette class made by some huge company focusing on producing military craft, because the classic naming style will be there (corvette will always be small ship, battlecruiser will always be huge).

 

I also doubt that overall, there will be many ships that end up being mass-produced and available to civillian population. Many players will prefer building their own ships and only the best constructs will end up being mass-produced (simply because nobody will buy the ordinary ships...why spend lot of money to buy something which you could build cheaper for yourself and customize it as you become more experienced). Most of these will also be civillian ships, so the classic naming system for various classes simply cannot apply, even if they may have weapons. And these mass-produced ships will mostly be designed by those organizations which aim to do such things and therefore we can expect there will end up being (at least partially) unified naming system for classes.

 

Although, there is bound to be someone who names his ship Steven-class marshmallow.

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Oh dear. You do not understand the monster you just unleashed on this otherwise quiet and peaceful forum lol

 

But seriously, we don't need a universal  naming convention, in no small part because enforcing one will be impossible. People should call their ships what they want, and if that doesn't make sense according to some arbitrary definition then that's too bad. 

 

Edit: that being said, I'm sure my organization (along with many others) will have their own internal system for classifying ships. There's nothing wrong with that. Just don't expect me to abide by your personal definition.

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4 hours ago, 0something0 said:

I mean, there could be an in-game version of the International Standards Organization created and run by players because one of the core concepts of DU is emergent gameplay in a player-run universe.

Good idea. 

There could be people in-game, true. If people listen to them is another story ( I wouldn't. My system of special unicorns is best ofc)

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6 hours ago, 0something0 said:

I mean, there could be an in-game version of the International Standards Organization created and run by players because one of the core concepts of DU is emergent gameplay in a player-run universe.

Still, enforcing it will be impossible. I can already think of one example among existing organizations which would not name their ships according to these conventions: Empire. The main battleship (what would in this proposed designation be called Capital/Carrier) will be called Destroyer. And this is only at the pre-Alpha stage, when things are not that clear. So, once we progress and get closer to the launch, more and more of those big organizations will start creating their ships in Alpha and Beta and saving the blueprints, naming then how it suits them. What if they will create light carrier in size of Frigate? Who in their right mind would choose to call it XYZ-class frigate, when its sole purpose is to act as a small hangar?

 

Saying that, uniformity is often the easiest way to do things (that´s why metric system is so popular and easy to learn...you just multiply/divide by 10) and eventually, standard designations for ship classes will emerge. If two huge shipbuilding companies start talking to each other and agree upon having the same class designation, they may end up influencing the market so much that the whole naming culture will adapt to suit their new standards. Let´s say Freighter is meant to be quick and small transport ship that can be operated by one person, with one gun at least to defend itself. Those big organizations design ships like that to be freighters and because of this, the market is filled with ships of this type called XYZ-class freighter or ZYX-class freighter. Everyone will then soon understand what freighter means and if they ever want a ship like that, they simply search for freighters in market (I suppose we will be able to just type a name of what we want and get results including that name...just like WoW auction house. If it ain´t broke, don´t try to fix it). So, if someone wants to sell his blueprint, he will also have to name his ship FER-class freighter, to even be able to sell it, because every potential customer will be automatically searching for freighters and then choose the specific ship that he prefers.

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These commonly used classifications come from RL, and even there they are "flexible", so any system used in DU will most probably be very broad and largely "org-specific".

 

DU will impose it's own rules, of course, due to the existence of well-defined element sizes and the associated fuel/power/manning needs.

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Ships get their names due to the line of operation range.

Frigates and Destroyers / Hunter Killers, operate in a Line of Defense.

Cruisers are Ships of the Line, and are meant to patrol between two different places, with a greater operational range.

Battle-class ships, are not peacetime warships, they Line of Battle vessels, meant to openly engage targets.

Frigates, if outfitted for sieging ports, are dubbed Destroyers, they are meant to subdue enemy entrenchments with superior firepower and assist on landing oeprations, or assist by taking shots at a ship with larger caliber weaponry. Frigates designed to be fast and very effective close range - where enemy ships' large caliber weapons do not work very well or at all - are dubbed Hunter Killers. U-Boats the Nazis used, were retrofitted Hunter Killers, they could emerge RIGHT NEXT to an enemy destroyer or frigate and just machinegun anyone on board to death. 40mm machineguns at 10 meters range, are DEVASTATING, I am talking puncturing ship armor through.

Cruisers, when fitted with armor are refered to Heavy Cruisers, while those who are fitted for speed are referred to as Light Cruisers. All cruisers are designed with that convention in mind.

Battleships and Battlecruisers, are the exact same hull, one just has far less armor, hence it's more speedy. As you can imagine, Battleships are the costliest thing in a navy, and usually, the one everyone with a lick of sense wants to find themselves in.  Carriers are Line of Battle ships, it's just so happens their Line of Battle is as far as its Fighters can take off from.

Dreadnaughts are just Battleships on crack, more guns + more armor = no dread.

 

Corvette is just a frigate used for defense purposes only, like for the Coastguard.

 

 

As for the crew-size requirement... that's  not what dictates a ship's class. If that was the case Stealth Bombers would be called Air Porsche cause they are only demanding of two people, and Stealth Fighters would be called "Air Unicycle". It's the ship's cross-section that makes its class. It's also how stealth works for ships nowadays. Most of the newer "stealth" frigates, just work by confusing enemy RADAR to read their frigate sized cross-section as a sailboat cross-section. Enemy RADAR goes like "oh, nothing but a fisherman, nothign to see here".

And NQ has showecased they do utilise things like cross-sections in their videos. ;)

I'm not saying I'd build a hunter killer, but I am just saying I love small crew ships that go very up, close and personal with an enemy.

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I don't think the idea is to have predefined classes that players *have* to chose from - or is it? I wouldn't like that very much :huh:

 

As I understand it "the idea" is to have a thread (about ship classes) that will serve as general chit-chat, right? Quote: "I think there should be a thread" - okays, nice idea, do it, I think the thread should go into the General Discussions forum tho :P

 

Anyhow, since we are here now, I think the classes will be...

  • Hovercraft (can't cloud)
  • Plane (can't space)
  • Shuttle (can't... errr... outperform other classes)
  • Spaceship (can't atmosphere)

:D´

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My friend  and I or thinking of just going with Capital ships in three sizes and weight ranges from small , medium , large ! The organization or customer can then pick the weapons set that suits there taste . We figured this would be a simple way for most to have a better understanding of what we have to offer for ships and ship systems ! You pick the size ship due to manning and cost  and then you pick the weapons and systems sets due to the ship missions you want to run. I think customization and having modular designs to give customers unique ship and have reusability  will be a key factor ! Plus when the customer gets there ships they can always rename them and put them into what ever ship classification system they want.

 

We also plan on filling some exclusive orders for organizations that want to have there own unique ships only used by there organization but this will cost a little more! *wink*  =)

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Names are just a branding tool to sell your construct / accurately describe it.

 

The standard will emerge naturally. Trying to sell a small fast ship with close range guns as a "Battle-cruiser" probably won't go over so well for the person selling it.

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@Dorlas Yeah, we're pretty much on the same page of thought.
 

@vertex Well it is in the idea section, because its an idea of having some sort of uniform and agreed naming standards. I feel your list are more "types" than classes of ships with purposes. While it does make sense, we're speaking of different context here.

@Vellnn Very true, I feel that's how it'll go if no one is inclined to go by anyone's standards. There will be a sort of... dare I say... "natural selection"? lol

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TheBlender: Ya, me ken! I wos jost doin a pun.. :unsure:

 

Vellnn: Hey, what's wrong with that? In fact I already thought about a small orbital glider named "CVAN Megalore" and designated as "Multipurpose Carrier of Ark-Battlestar Class". Later maybe a capital ship called "Rural Speeder MK 2¼" classified as "Medium Sized Hovercraft". I'm especially fond of the "one quarter" part in the designation. No? :lol:

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I just now realized. We are talking about need to have some sort of basic naming system for ship types, but what about names for specific class of ship (like for example Nimitz-class aircraft carrier)? It will be like naming your character, with many cool names taken and you will end up spending an hour trying to find a good name that is not already in use.

Or worse, we will be allowed to use the same names and there will be 5 designs called Hammerhead Corvette or Millenium Falcon.

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1 hour ago, Dorlas said:

Or worse, we will be allowed to use the same names and there will be 5 designs called Hammerhead Corvette or Millenium Falcon.

Maybe it's not worse at all if the name is accompanied by the names of the designer, builder and owner? So it's not just some "Hammerhead Corvette", but the

 

Hammerhead Corvette, Property of Dorlas

by SirDrinksalot built at Gamma Curill Prime Constructions

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Or:

Puking Unicorn, Property of Lethys

by Ben Dover built at ß78zh7zj7k0

 

still don't really see a benefit here. The only things that are important are the numbers - why waste time with some random english words to search for the right ship for you when you could just search for:

8 atmo thrusters

6 space thrusters

10 turrets

acceleration > 1MN

turning rate > 10rad

...

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Mmh, ich steh auf #Einhornkotze :D

 

Another thought regarding double names: whoever names a ship "Millenium Falcon" doesn't care about originality anyways. My guess is that original names will emerge on their own - for original constructs.

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Regardless, ships are classified after their cross-section area. You can name your sloop-of-war a cruiser, it won't make it have the same firepower as one. But you can make a cruiser that can output the same damage as a battleship to trick people into a fight they "should" win, until they realise "oh shit ,this is not a normal cruiser". Point is, if I can script my ships, I'll make sure to identify them by their crosssections and pull a name next to their markers "[X-Org] Battleship 1" for example,. or "[X-Org] Frigate 1", with a number designating them on a table-array in Lua.

The rest of you can claim your 100 meters barge is a "Titan", you won't fool anyone :P

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  • 2 weeks later...

*Begin scan of enemy ship one*

Occupants: 1

Firepower: 3 Laser Guns, 1 Energy Nutraliser

Mass: 54,000 Kg

Speed: 7,450 km/s

 

*Begin scan of enemy ship two*

Occupants: 32

Firepower: 28 Laser Guns, 3 Energy Nutralisers, 2 Advanced Grapplers

Mass: 9,460,000 Kg

Speed: 9,450 km/s

 

...... Don't care what its called.... just care about how big a threat it is ;)

 

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