[Spaceships] Ship sizes and other categories (cruiser, battleship etc.)?

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by IrishRover

It would likely thrash a modern cruiser--even if the cruiser was the same size--because it's better armored and with biger guns.

Actually, I'd expect a WWII heavy cruiser to maul a pre-dreadnought. The only class of pre-dreadnought that saw action (more action than "sunk in harbor") in WWII was the Deutschland class, which would be hopelessly outclassed by the USS Baltimore. Baltimore is much faster, so it can maintain a range at which its higher velocity, faster firing, and more accurate guns can tear its opponent apart, while only a few lucky return shots have much chance to penetrate its lighter but higher quality armor.

[Zorbeltuss]

I'm going to focus entirely on The Destroyer/frigate area, just to show how you could name them, for these an area of maybe 5 SMs would be a good thing, one for frigate, one for light cruiser, one for cruiser, one for heavy cruiser and one for battlecruiser, these areas will likely be overlapping, destroyers might be the same size as a frigate or light cruiser but be heavily specialized in tracking and destroying small vessels, light battleships might overlap the two heavier, but be less specialized towards armament, protection or mobility, and carriers and escort carriers might overlap the heaviest three.
But over to cruisers and frigates again, these will usually be somewhat specialized although less than destroyers and gunboats etc, the specializations will likely be mobility (escort), armament (strike) or protection (armored), the escorts and strike has quite obvious duties but by the name itself the armored does not, it is though used as a guard to installations or recon unit as a perk of being able to put itself in front of a lot of fire.

/Zorbeltuss

[Kissamies]

Originally Posted by SuedodeuS

The old Starships of the Galaxy (for the d20 Star Wars RPG) had three classifications: Starfighter, Space Transport, and Capital Ship. It was mostly based on length rather than mass, but these three map approximately to SM+2 (o.O) to SM+6, SM+6 to SM+10, and SM+10 up, respectively. This is based on the lengths - SotG also gave masses, but these tended to be rather low (the progression was SM+2 to SM+5, SM+6 to SM+7, and SM+7 up).

The old, old Rebel Alliance Sourcebook (d6 SW, 1st ed.) Divides the capital ships roughly to corvettes (such as the CR90, SM+11), frigates (Like Nebulon-B, SM+12 or +13) and cruisers (Star Destroyers, Mon Cals and such). The lighter ships mainly screen the cruisers, which slug it out. Of course, "cruiser" is a very flexible term in Star Wars, especially "Star Cruiser." It can be almost anything that's larger than a fighter.

[jacobmuller]

I found the profusion of size/name options baffling.
I began with 30ton fighters and scaled everything else to fit. It didn't work. The capital ships were just too wimpy. The final format I chose allowed that battleships are gun wagons and I wanted "guns" with maximum Space range to match the missiles. It all scaled from there. Battlecruisers are cruisers armed with battleship guns. Zerstorer: destroyer, anti-fighter. Kruezer: fast is for merchant raiding, armoured is battle line, the other is multirole. Frigates are policing and politicking. Trager are carriers.
I decided to use the Damage Control and Hardened options.

5 ton Light Assault Craft (4 suited combatants with smallarms)
10 ton Dinghy/ Skiff/ Life Raft/ Ballistic Re-entry Craft
15 ton Fuchs Space-Dominance Fast Attack Craft
15 ton Dachse Multirole Fast Attack Craft
15 ton Hetzer Antiship Fast Attack Craft
15 ton Schirm Electronic Warfare Fast Attack Craft
150 ton Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol LOL
100 ton Gig (Captain's transport)
100 ton Scow Modular Lifter
100 ton Aerospace Lighter
100 ton Barge
300 ton Ships Launch
300 ton Assault Pinnace (20ton AFV and 12 battlesuits; autodoc; turret)
300 ton Reconnaissance Slup ("scout" ship?)
300 ton Kurier
1kton Survey Kutter
1kton Patrol Kutter
1kton Recovery Vessel
3kton Picket Korvette
3kton Escort Korvette
15kton Zerstórer
21kton Schnell Kruezer
30kton Fregatte
30kton Kruezer
30kton Panzer Kruezer
100kton Kampf Kruezer
150kton Kampf Zielen
100kton Geleit Tráger
150kton Angriff Tráger
220kton Kampf Tráger
Butterfly 700 ton Merchant Liner
Dilettante 700 ton Modular Star/Space ship

[Agemegos]

Isn't it odd that we have space fighters but not space bombers or space torpedo-planes?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Brett

Isn't it odd that we have space fighters but not space bombers or space torpedo-planes?

I certainly think that space 'bombers' (actually probably more properly called 'missile fighters') are essential. As in, those with 2 Spinal Missile Launchers. I always wanted to make space bombers, but according to RAW, bombs are just more plentiful than missiles, not more damaging.

[gjc8]

Originally Posted by Brett

Isn't it odd that we have space fighters but not space bombers or space torpedo-planes?

I wouldn't say that, though there is a certain tendency to call everything a fighter even if it fills one of those rolls.

I know Star Wars has TIE bombers, and a number of small ships that fill the torpedo-boat role (the B-Wing "fighter", in an example of the naming pattern above).

[Sam Baughn]

Originally Posted by Brett

Isn't it odd that we have space fighters but not space bombers or space torpedo-planes?

Some settings have space bombers - Warhammer 40k and the Homeworld games, for instance.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I certainly think that space 'bombers' (actually probably more properly called 'missile fighters') are essential. As in, those with 2 Spinal Missile Launchers.

I call them missile boats or missile corvettes, but yeah, it's really the most realistic form of fighter. I tend to make my "fighters" somewhat larger than most science fiction does, with a small crew rather than a single pilot, so the term corvette comes more naturally.

Also, by RAW I don't think twin spinal mounts are legal, since it would mean having two core sections in the center.

[vicky_molokh]

I don't think there's anything wrong with using SM craft if SS4 rules are in play as opposed to SM 5 or 6 ones, as long as they don't try to engage enemies more than 5-10 SMs above theirs. Having a -variety- of ship sizes seems to provide a strategic advantage against a force relying an 'just' big ships, as it raises the need for those big ships to pack a multitude of variously-sized batteries.

As for the Core systems, I actually an puzzled why I can't put up to 6 Spinal guns by putting the central systems in the CENTRAL hull instead of the Core. Even so, IMO a laterally-symmetric positioning of cores just to have dual spinal guns/launchers is perfectly plausible.