How are ship designations going to be made clearer? I am not attempting to change any roles. My focus is on clarifying designations with the roles. The following is an example that I put together: Size: Snub = Extremely small ships. Small = Able to use a small hanger. Medium = Needs to use a medium or large hanger. Large = Needs to use a large hanger. Capital = Cannot dock inside common hangers (not to be confused with needing to use a shipyard to repair a "capital" component). These would be Idris+ ships. Components: Number lists 1 through whatever. Special components, like the Polaris's power plant, would be a "Shipyard" component instead of a "Capital" component since it needs to be fixed at a shipyard. Jump Class: Small = Able to use a small jump point. Medium = Needs to use a medium or large jump point. Large = Needs to use a large jump point. Civilian Roles - Non-combat roles: Transport = Solid / Liquid / Gas cargo ships (Caterpillar, C2) Explorer = Self-sufficient and long duration ships (Carrack) Support = Refueler, medical, repairer, etc. (Vulcan, Apollo) Industrial = Data acquisition, research, science, mining, salvage (Mole, Endeavor, Orion) Competition = Racing (350r) Combat Role - Not Command and Control Capable: Non-designated = Combat ships that dock inside carriers (fighters, bombers, gunships) Corvette = Combat ships that are too big to dock inside carriers (Hammerhead, Perseus, Nautilus, Polaris, M2, A2) Combat Role - Command and Control Capable (Flagships): Frigate = Small warships (BMM) Destroyer = Medium warships (Idris) Light Carrier = Medium warships that primarily carry non-designated ships (Kraken) Cruiser = Large warships (Javelin) Battlecruiser = Extra-large warships () Carrier = Extra-large warships that primarily carry non-designated ships (Pegasus) Heavy (Fleet) Carrier = Huge warships that primarily carry non-designated ships (Bengal) Battleship = Huge warships () Super Dreadnaught = One of a kind massive warship (Retribution) Weight Class - Relative size to others of the same type: Light = Smaller than standard (BMM - Light Frigate, Hammerhead/Perseus - Light Corvette) Default = Standard size (Idris - Destroyer, Nautilus - Corvette) Heavy = Larger than standard (Polaris - Heavy Corvette) A label is intended to instantly convey distinct and important information. A gunship that is launched by a carrier has vastly different combat capabilities than a gunship that cannot due to is vastly larger size (redeemer vs hammerhead). Corvettes are a unique classification that encompasses many similar ships. Some are more durable than others, some specialize in bombing (polaris), destroying non-designated ships/torpoedos (hammerhead), higher firepower (perseus), battlefield multiplier (nautilus), etc. Yet, none can be launched by a carrier and none are command and control ships. Why is "it has a component that needs to be fixed at a shipyard" distinctive and important to the combat command staff or a combat pilot that is about to engage it in combat? It doesn't. Thus it should not be considered when giving a ship its combat label (non-designated vs corvette). Examples: 1) Why is the polaris currently a corvette, but the nautilus, hammerhead, or perseus are currently not? There is no distinctive difference. What is the distinctive difference between a Polaris, Idris, and Javelin? All three have distinctively different sizes while the polaris does not have command and control capabilities making it not able to be a flagship. Why is a truck a truck and a car a car? A car and truck have distinctive differences. 2) When a staff member is briefing the commander, it's obvious that him saying that "the enemy has 9 gunships and 1 corvette" extremely poorly conveys the actual threat compared to "2 gunships and 8 corvettes" (2 redeemers and 4 hammerheads, 3 perseuses, and 1 polaris). The commander wants information quickly and clearly. Corvettes: SC's corvettes are the equivalent to modern-day's frigates. Modern-day frigates are able to go for much longer periods of time without resupplying than corvettes. Modern-day corvettes typically are coastal-only vessels (US Navy doesn't have any, only the Coast Guard does). However, I believe that since SC's ships are able to resupply much sooner (hours vs modern-day's weeks), that the distinction has moved away from sufficiency to ability to function as a flagship. Modern-ship operational groups have at least a Destroyer as the flagship, one size up from the lowest naval vessel size (frigate). However, since SC's corvettes are able to operate throughout the universe, the corvette becomes the lowest with the frigate one size up. Corvettes tend to specialize while flagships tend to be general purpose (with the exception of carriers) and have command and control abilities. The corvettes all have specializations: Nautilus has mines(Minelayer), Perseus has big guns(STS), Hammerhead has many small guns(ATA), and Polaris has big torpedos(Bomber). With the Nautilus(13.5Mkg) as a normal Corvette and the Perseus(~5Mkg) and Hammerhead(4.25Mkg) as Light Corvettes. Polaris(17Mkg) is certainly much bigger than the Light Corvettes and is more self-sufficient which is why I labeled it as a Heavy Corvette. Polaris's specialization, its many huge torpedoes, requires it to be so much larger. All four are corvettes because they are near enough in size (4.25-17Mkg), have specializations, and, most importantly, none have command and control abilities (large nav room/table). If the Polaris or Nautilus had command and control capabilities, then I think they would fit in perfectly as normal Frigates. Remember that the distinction between a corvette and a frigate isn't size, it's being a flagship(command and control). However, since the Idris is 2.9x bigger than the Polaris, its distinct size difference supports that the Idris should be a Destroyer. If the BMM(9.6Mkg empty, ~14Mkg full) didn't have the huge nav table, then I would label it as a regular Corvette, similar to a Nautilus. If it didn't have its STS front guns (S6 currently but likely to be S7 later), then I wouldn't even consider it combat-capable. But, since it has both and it can function as a flagship, the UEE would likely give it a combat designation of Light Frigate. tldr; summary. Size: Based on ability to use hangers; Snub, Small, Medium, Large, Capital. Role: Combat capable vs civilian; Idris vs Endeavor. Capabilities: Command and Control ships (flagships) vs non; Idris vs Polaris. Self-sufficiency: Carrier-launched ships vs non; Redeemer vs Hammerhead. Specialization: Specialized ships vs general; Crucible/Starfarer vs Idris. Combat: relative to its type based on physically distinctive differences in size; Frigate, Battlecruiser, Battleship. Weight: relative to its type based on size; Light Frigate, Frigate, Heavy Frigate. Comparison Image: (Fullsize: https://imgur.com/9WNHlWI) Black text at the bottom are current designators. White text are my suggested changes which all have distinct size changes between designations; about 2x. Notice that all of the original designators clearly and distinctly jump between sizes, except for the Destroyer to Cruiser to Battlecruiser. I also find it strange that a Light Carrier (Kraken) would be classified as the smallest of flagships, a frigate. I made a few assumptions for the placeholder sizes. The Battleship would be near in size to a (Fleet) Carrier, I made it slightly bigger, perhaps I should have made it a little wider as well. I then sized down the Battlecruiser from the Battleship to allow for a distinct size change just like the Small (Escort) Carrier is from the (Fleet) Carrier, about 50% or so mass. I could not create a distinct size reduction from the Battlecruiser to Original Cruiser because the Original Destroyer was already there; notice that the Original Destroyer distinctively doubles in size from the Original Frigate. So, I sized the Original Cruiser in between the two. Removing the Original Cruiser allows for the designations to distinctly scale following the original pattern. Ships that were Original Cruisers (if any) could continue to be labeled as Cruisers or changed to Heavy Cruisers, depending on their actual size in relation to the Javelin, or possibly as Battlecruisers. Update: CIG's definition of Capital ship has been improved and is now more in-line with mine. "[Capital-sized components are] not the sole requirement of a capital ship (size and role also play a part)." Is the Liberator a capital ship...as it does not have any actual capital-class components? The Liberator has no capital components. While this is not the sole requirement of a capital ship (size and role also play a part), the Liberator being listed as ‘capital’ is an error on the matrix and should say ‘large’ instead. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/18365-Q-A-Anvil-Liberator