Shouldn't the frigates really be classified as corvettes?

Suggestions Balance
1

The definition of a frigate is a vessel ranging in size from a destroyer to a cruiser (roughly 300-600 ft in length), and would be considered capital ships with crew compliments typically in the hundreds. The frigates in Star Conflict however look barely larger than your typical yaht and seem to be crewed by only 1-3 personel at most.

By comparison, a corvette is smaller than a frigate (between 180-330 ft in length), armed with medium and small caliber weapons and typically crewed by only a few dozen.

Wouldn’t ‘corvette’ fit far more closely to what is depicted in Star Conflict than ‘frigate’ being that the frigates in Star Conflict seem to be only about double the size of a fighter and are armed with the same class of weapons as fighters and interceptors?

2

Have you even seen the hangars? There’s at a dozen humans stood outside the ship, and you could certainly fit 20+ in it quite easily.

Also, water-based ship hull size designations don’t necessarily directly carry over to space. So, who’s to say what is and what isn’t a frigate?

3

Have you even seen the hangars? There’s at a dozen humans stood outside the ship, and you could certainly fit 20+ in it quite easily.

20+ is still a far cry from ~250, and unless you’re just cramming people into cargo bays I still don’t see any of the frigates in Star Conflict possibly having a crew compliment above a half dozen.

4

it’s all about personal preference. Myself I would tend to agree with you but i can see the other side as well

5

frigate sound more badass than corvette, your argument is invalid

6

20+ is still a far cry from ~250, and unless you’re just cramming people into cargo bays I still don’t see any of the frigates in Star Conflict possibly having a crew compliment above a half dozen.

Lets not forget that this whole story happens in the far future so the requirements to man such a ship would be smaller, perhaps 10 - 20 persons depending on technology level @ the time and ship requirements.

 

Still i’d love to see these behemots depicted as huge ships and have at least cruisers running around. 

7

The definition of a frigate is a vessel ranging in size from a destroyer to a cruiser (roughly 300-600 ft in length), and would be considered capital ships with crew compliments typically in the hundreds. The frigates in Star Conflict however look barely larger than your typical yaht and seem to be crewed by only 1-3 personel at most.

 

Completely and utterly wrong. Check Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigate

 

Common PC-gamer misconception is that ship sizes are: cutter-corvette-destroyer-frigate-cruiser. 

reality: cutter-frigate-frigate-frigate-battleship-dreadnought-man-o-war(the big carriers). 

 

The definition of a destroyer is a frigate that is equipped to defend high value targets from small raiding vessels. The definition of a cruiser is a frigate that is equipped for long endurance fighting and raiding. Again, check wikipedia. 

 

As for corvettes, You can probably pass a fighter as one, unless you want to call a fighter “sloop of war”.

8

Completely and utterly wrong. Check Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigate

 

Common PC-gamer misconception is that ship sizes are: cutter-corvette-destroyer-frigate-cruiser. 

reality: cutter-frigate-frigate-frigate-battleship-dreadnought-man-o-war(the big carriers). 

 

The definition of a destroyer is a frigate that is equipped to defend high value targets from small raiding vessels. The definition of a cruiser is a frigate that is equipped for long endurance fighting and raiding. Again, check wikipedia. 

 

As for corvettes, You can probably pass a fighter as one, unless you want to call a fighter “sloop of war”.

 

Not really a misconception, for naval reality yes it is cutter->frigate->heavy frigate(cruiser)->battleship->dreadnaught->carrier

 

Space games have since like wing commander or freespace been

 

Interceptor -> Fighter -> Heavy Fighter/Bomber -> Corvette -> Frigate -> Destroyer -> Cruiser -> Battleship/Carrier -> Dreadnaught -> Mothership

 

See also the X series of games for spaceship classification.

 

“Frigates” in this game are at /best/ corvette’s and almost closer to heavy fighters.

9

A frigate is mainly a class that supports, much like cruisers, however there are usually sub classes of the ships for example, a frigate can be either a Corvette or a Destroyer. Corvettes being faster ships and destroyers being ships designed to combat frigates. A cruiser is much like this but can be broken down into functions, mainly cruisers are designed to take out destroyers, but can fill multiple support roles much like the standard frigate however they are designed for long range deployment as frigates are more limited. There are also ships called Heavy and battle cruisers,which are large cruisers designed to destroy cruisers and/or support them, but also do the same for battle ships mainly because their weapons are of a battle ship caliber.

 

A corvette, frigate, or destroyer does not necessarily have to be small, nor they have to be big, they just have to be fast, maneuverable, and fill a support role. Designed either as a fast attack ship, general support ship, or heavy attack ship.

 

Really the ships in this game can be designed to fill that Corvette or destroyer type of play as well as heavy and light bomber or whatever class you prefer.

10

I used the people for scale and worked out Frigates are about the size of a boeing 747 (slightly larger in fact) and if you look closely at some of the Fed frigs their bridge only has one seat in it, suggesting a single crewman (or at least quite a small crew).

 

To me, the term “Frigate” is one that should be reserved for true capital ships. These vessels are more like corvettes; small vessels designed to support the fighters and interceptors, but not really built to tackle a ‘true’ ship.

11

Why would there be any correlation between boats and spaceships when it comes to classification. A classification that is completely arbitrary to begin with.

12

Why would there be any correlation between boats and spaceships when it comes to classification. A classification that is completely arbitrary to begin with.

Because of all the parallels we have to what life in the void is like, the Navy comes closest. Consider:

 

Classical Navy ships (and modern Navy ships for that matter) often had to operate for extended periods without support. They could be weeks or months away from the nearest port, let alone a place they could go ashore. By contrast, the airforce does not deal in such long-term operations; flight times are measured in hours, not weeks.

 

When we do reach the stars, we will almost certainly be drawing upon the Navy for guidance. Their terminologies are likely to carry over for the simple reason that much of it still makes sense; the difference between a ship and a boat, for example, is just as valid away to distinguish a large, inter-planetary void craft and a smaller void craft designed for short ship-to-ship, ship-to-orbital or ship-to-planet trips. In other words, the Space Shuttle would likely be called a boat in space faring terms.

 

Finally, let us look at modern usage and see how that compares:

 

Frigate: A primarily anti-submarine vessel, larger than a Corvette but smaller than a Destroyer.

Okay… so what is a Corvette and what is a Destroyer?

 

Corvette: A small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship. Modern Corvettes measure about 180-330ft (55-100m) in length and are usually armed with medium and small caliber guns.

Let’s just take that description and run with it a second… excuse me while I boot up Star Conflict and fetch a ruler.

Okay, so, I’ve lined up the camera so that a person loitering under each of my ‘Frigates’ is about 0.5cm high. Assuming a person is 6ft tall, let’s look at the approximate lengths of these ships…

_Harpy: _23.5cm = 282ft.

_Hydra: _27cm = 324ft

Raptor: 24.5cm = 294ft

 

As you can see, those lengths fit nicely within the Corvette size bracket. But let’s go one better and look at the guns; the weapons on these ‘Frigates’ are little better than Fighter / Interceptor guns. They might be more powerful, but aside from specialist gear like the Disintegrators, Torpedoes or mine layers these ships are essentially packing weaponry off an attack craft.

 

By contrast, Frigates and Destroyers are armed with weapons intended for full-on warships.

 

So… the thinking is starting to add up. It’s becoming pretty obvious we aren’t flying Frigates out there.

13

As the guy above said, who cares? There is no military ship class designation for spaceships because that stuff doesn’t exist. The devs picked a name which makes it obvious that they are bigger and heavier. Corvette in some games refers to a 1-person scout, so that would be more ambiguous.

14

The only reason to have the current frigates reclassified as corvettes is we have informed that frigates will be the largest vessel to fly.

 

If we get them re-classified it means a new line of bigger ships to fly :smiley:

15

So… the thinking is starting to add up. It’s becoming pretty obvious we aren’t flying Frigates out there.

 

Your thinking is flawed.  You are making the assumption that there is a corvette class of ships in this universe, which we have no evidence of.

 

So going off the evidence we have, and without making up things that don’t currently exist, it is pretty obvious that we are flying Frigates.

16

In the age of sail, the term “Frigate” meant one thing. In the age of steam, it meant another.

 

Makes sense that in the age of space travel it will have yet another. 

 

No inconsistency at all here.

17

here you go then …

 

 

 

 

18

frigate sound more badass than corvette, your argument is invalid

i was gonna say that

19

i agree, they should be renamed to corvette

20

Because of all the parallels we have to what life in the void is like, the Navy comes closest. Consider:

 

Classical Navy ships (and modern Navy ships for that matter) often had to operate for extended periods without support. They could be weeks or months away from the nearest port, let alone a place they could go ashore. By contrast, the airforce does not deal in such long-term operations; flight times are measured in hours, not weeks.

 

When we do reach the stars, we will almost certainly be drawing upon the Navy for guidance. Their terminologies are likely to carry over for the simple reason that much of it still makes sense; the difference between a ship and a boat, for example, is just as valid away to distinguish a large, inter-planetary void craft and a smaller void craft designed for short ship-to-ship, ship-to-orbital or ship-to-planet trips. In other words, the Space Shuttle would likely be called a boat in space faring terms.

 

Finally, let us look at modern usage and see how that compares:

 

Frigate: A primarily anti-submarine vessel, larger than a Corvette but smaller than a Destroyer.

Okay… so what is a Corvette and what is a Destroyer?

 

Corvette: A small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship. Modern Corvettes measure about 180-330ft (55-100m) in length and are usually armed with medium and small caliber guns.

Let’s just take that description and run with it a second… excuse me while I boot up Star Conflict and fetch a ruler.

Okay, so, I’ve lined up the camera so that a person loitering under each of my ‘Frigates’ is about 0.5cm high. Assuming a person is 6ft tall, let’s look at the approximate lengths of these ships…

_Harpy: _23.5cm = 282ft.

_Hydra: _27cm = 324ft

Raptor: 24.5cm = 294ft

 

As you can see, those lengths fit nicely within the Corvette size bracket. But let’s go one better and look at the guns; the weapons on these ‘Frigates’ are little better than Fighter / Interceptor guns. They might be more powerful, but aside from specialist gear like the Disintegrators, Torpedoes or mine layers these ships are essentially packing weaponry off an attack craft.

 

By contrast, Frigates and Destroyers are armed with weapons intended for full-on warships.

 

So… the thinking is starting to add up. It’s becoming pretty obvious we aren’t flying Frigates out there.

okay omg that is a way to settle this subject you have my upmost respect i agree this should be changed we are in fact fly corvette out their