My second of these supplemental stuff posts deals with ships. I know Shadowwire has put countless hours in his ship list and I don't mean to tread on it so I have the Tel'Dabe Empire's ship classification list.
Enjoy or do not enjoy... the choice is yours.
Ships of the Imperial Navy
Since the beginning of naval history, warships have been classified into several broad groups according to size and role. At times some of these roles have been out of existence, and from time to time the classes evolve to adopt new roles as the technology and practice of war change. However in a given navy at a given date the sequence of labels always remains the same in terms of ascending size and power of vessels. A frigate is always something less than a destroyer; a destroyer is always less than a cruiser, and so on.
Fleets of the Imperial Navy are made up of multiple vessels that can be divided into eight categories:
Gunboat
A small, very fast vessel with anti-starfighter weapons, gunboats are primarily used to support corvettes and frigates in the escort duty of larger ships.
Corvette
A small, lightly armed, fast vessel, used mostly for convoy escort, ranging between a destroyer and a gunboat in size, corvettes can be instant death to fighters, bombers, and mechs.
Frigate
A naval escort vessel between a corvette and a destroyer in size, frigates are used to guard important convoys and other ships as well as being support for larger fleets.
Destroyer
A fast warship with guns and torpedoes used to protect other ships; destroyers are feared for their ability to destroy larger ships.
Cruiser
A warship of high speed and medium armament, cruisers can be found orbiting almost every inhabited system.
Carrier
A warship equipped with large decks for the launching and returning of starfighters and with facilities to carry, service, and arm them, carriers have moderate speed and are equal in tonnage to most battlecruisers and some battleships.
Battlecruiser
A warship of maximum speed and fire power, but with lighter armor than a battleship, battlecruisers make up the majority of a fleet. Though not as powerful as a battleship, battlecruisers are much faster and can still deliver a deadly blow.
Battleship
A warship with the heaviest armor and the largest guns; battleships are huge starships, with enormous amounts of weapons and shields, and usually serve as the flagship for the Sector Group Commander, though this is not always necessarily the case. Although very powerful, battleships are slow to maneuver. Because they represent such a vast expenditure of resources and require a fairly advanced technical base, these are typically constructed only in the largest shipyards. These vessels are expensive assets and are usually employed in only larger fleet formations.
Command ship
Prestige vessel of immense size, durability and armament, used mainly as flagship, communications center and base of operations for fleets of fleets, these large ships are usually one of a kind and modified to serve the commander’s needs.
A note on Imperial Ships – most, if not all, Imperial ships are built by Tacitus Fleet Systems in their massive shipyards above countless planets. All ships are built exactly to specifications with no variants, even if built by another shipyard.
11 comments:
Highly entertaining and informative. Two thumbs up for Pablo.
Excellent post, Pablo. I would like to see a little more diversity in your descriptions of the smaller ships. It seems that most of their descriptions are based on protecting convoys. I'm pretty sure that there are more differences between them. I'm not saying this to be picky, I really don't know the difference and I'm sure Shadowwire and yourself can give us the answer.
Good point Salvaggio. I'll update the improved list later. Thanks for the imput.
However you have to understand that most military ships that size are mainly used for escort and convoy duty or patrols. Their speed is key here, thats why you don't see many battleships doing convoy duty or on patrols. Also since they lack the firepower neccesary to do big ship things, like blow up big ships and such, it only makes sense that they would be used as escorts or patrols.
Hope this clarifies a little. If not let me know and the descriptions can be made more descriptive. :)
Maybe you could give us a technical description that is remeniscent of shadowire's galactic coordinate lesson? That would be interesting, no?
I am aware that because of their speed and size, they are best suited for convoy escort and such things, but I'm just saying that there should be some defining thing for each class that makes it different from the others. If they really weren't, then they'd be the same class now wouldn't they? Maybe we need some details on the roles they perform, like saying a Frigate is used in a supporting, defensive role, mainly staying near the main convoy to deter attack, as opposed to a gunboat that is capable of engaging most starfighters, and is also used as a quick strike offensive ship. Not that those statements are true, but I'm interested in knowing that kind of info. I also agree with Kang's comment as well.
Ah... gonna make me work for my awesome post are ya? :)
Tech descriptions will take some time, since I haven't actually made a ship in each class yet.
So I have work to do.
I liked the post. You're to good at this tech stuff Pablo!
More clarification... I based the ship classes off of modern day ship classes most navies would use. So it might not work for space fleets.
As for the defining thing for each class... sadly their isn't much difference in the smaller sizes except for speed, size, and weight.
A frigate for instance is basically a larger, heavier corvette.
However this is critical.
For example: A group of gunboats would be ideal for guarding/escorting a merchant vessel or patrolling minor areas of space. However it would not be sufficient for escorting a cruiser or carrier. These ships require larger, stronger vessels to escort them as well as the gunboats. A battlecruiser would be probably escorted by a cruiser, two destroyers, some frigates and corvettes and a few gunboats.
You may ask why are escorts neccesary? They are definately needed in times of war because a lone ship will be easily overpowered, no matter what the class, by multiple ships. In a realistic military confrontation a single man, tank, ship, anything is screwed against many.
Sorry if this sounds like a rant. I hope it didn't come across like one. As for the specs, I'll get to work after I review Shadowwire's list to make sure I get the stuff right.
Good stuff!
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