CoN ship classification guide

Battleship (B)

Classified as the largest ships in the fleet designed to directly engage enemy capital ships and win, they come equipped purely for that task with the largest Canon Accélérateur Magnétique only being rivaled by similar sized weapons on orbital platforms. A battleship can take on any other ship it comes across but is vulnerable to attacks by multiple ships at once due to its large size and weapons making it near impossible to deal with a large number of smaller ships, espessially at closer ranges. Battleships due to their very large sizes also lack the acceleration required to catch smaller ships such as cruisers making them unsuited outside of pitched battles against other large fleets.  

Battle Cruiser (BC)

Battlecruisers share the massive weaponry of battleships but have far reduced armour and defensive systems making them often much more slender looking. This reduced weight allows battlecruisers to match the accelerations of larger cruisers making them perfect for chasing down large enemy raiding groups but makes them very vunerable during fleet engagements lacking the armour or defence systems to stand up to a drawn out battle. Battlecruisers are very rarely assigned to a planet for this reason being far more useful as fast responding re-enforcements or as the head of hunter killer task forces to destroy individual or small groups of ships which are unprotected.  

Armoured Cruiser (AC)

Similar in speed and armour to the battlecruiser but with far less powerful weaponry the armoured cruiser is most useful because its cost to manufacture compared with a battlecruiser is so much lower allowing them to to be deployed far more widely across less critical areas where it is unlikely a fleet will arrive but loan raiding ships may take a pop at the planets space lifts or cargo ships. Amoured cruisers outside of very important systems, where they take second fiddle to the battleships, are placed in a largely defensive role at the head of small planetary defence forces.  

Light Cruiser (LC)

The light cruiser can often be confused for the slightly smaller sized destroyers they are almost always surrounded by, being the smallest class of ship to carry a Lower Space key light cruisers head up groups of smaller ships, such as destroyers, frigates and corvettes which it can provide lower space transport to. For this reason they are almost always more well armoured than destroyers and have many more defensive systems to prevent the loss of the groups only means of transport out of system. Light cruisers are very rarely found on their own, lacking the offensive abilities you would expect for a ship of that size almost always at least having one ship it is twinned with, such as a heavy cruiser.  

Destroyer (AD)

The destroyer is the smallest ship with true offensive capabilities, with a high acceleration and manuverability, and equipped with a small Canon Accélérateur Magnétique which allows it to damage even heavily armoured ships to some capacity the vessels are found almost everywhere, from convoy protection to fleet battle lines. Destoyers operate in tandum with a larger ship which can provide Lower Space key support allowing the small size of the vessel to not limit its range to orbital defence. Different sizes of vessels can accomidate different numbers of them, with Battleships being seen most often with up to 12 escorting vessels depending on its mission roll, light cruisers are the destroyers main pairing with almost always 3 destroyers to a light cruiser.  

Frigate (SD)

While a similar size to a destroyer for the most part (although a few classes of frigate have been as large as a heavy cruiser) frigates lack a Canon Accélérateur Magnétique making them functionally useless in an attack roll. Instead Frigates are equipped with a huge number of defensive systems of various types which define their roll as fleet protection ships from massively outsized shielding equipment too defensive mine laying or sweeping geer. Usually frigates are confined to the planet they are assigned to almost never being assigned to light cruisers or heavy cruisers, however specific high acceleration variants are often kept in the company of Battlecruisers who lack the armour and defensive systems to stand up in a battle on their own and so forgo destroyers to add more protection to the caoital ship.  

Corvette (ED)

Corvettes also lack a Canon Accélérateur Magnétique but unlike the frigate whos use is largely in defending larger ships from a number of different threats the corvette is a pure and simple convoy ship be that being the lightly armed escort of convoys against pirates or as communication ships using larger ships Lower Space key to travel quickly back to communication stations when no larger ships can be spared. It is for thise reason most capital ships have at least one corvette in a docking bay which can also conveneantly act as a life raft incase of the ship becoming unfunctional.  

Sloop (BX)

A sloop is a designation given to any ship that has not been purpose built for military use but has been retrofitted to be used in that capacity. This means they often rely on less effective weapons that would be unable to damage anything larger than a destroyer due to the ship not having the power plant capable to run advanced systems like AI or a Canon Accélérateur Magnétique. These are almost always the types of ships used by pirates and rebelious factions due tot he lack of access to actual naval vessels.  

Orbital Carrier (OTC)

Outside of some light defensive weapons to avoid stray projectiles or space debris carriers are planetary invasion weapons and do not participate in fleet actions. They are filled with smaller landing craft to ferry troops down to the planet along with orbital bombardment weapons such as tunsten rods to fire at high speeds toward the planet simulating a nuclear strike without the fallout

Re-entry Capable Carrier (RTC)

As the name suggests these vessels can enter the atomsphere of a planet and land on the surface, either water or land depending on the specific class of ship. These act as command headquarters for a sector and come equipped with not just the basic vehicles, weapons and basic supplies but also large amounts of construction equipment for the creation of fortifications, land clearance for further supply drops, creation of infrastructure, etc. 

Space Lift Carrier (SLC)

A planetary invasion lives and dies on the ability of the invading army's ability to set up suppy lines with the Auxillary ships that supply the fleet over extended periods of time, without a way to get reasources to and from the planet every supply run is a one way trip for the vehicles involved who have no ability to leave the planets orbit again. This is where the creation of a space lift becomes the single most important part of any invasion, after a re-entry capable carrier has set up and a safe distance has been provided between itself and frontline troops, the re-entry capable carrier will level a hug area and begin construction of a space lift anchor point in preperation. The space lift carrier then begins to unravel the wire, guiding the wire to the anchor point while it begins to set up the lift and counter weight, both made out of different sections of the ship. Once this is completed the ship begins work creating the orbital net to prevent any unwanted attacks on the space lift whether from hostile forces or stray debris.  

Supply Auxiliary (SX)

The most common ship in the fleet, no navy survives without weapons, ammo and food

Repair Auxiliary (RX)

Ships specially designed to peform on deployment repairs of ships and orbital infrastructure   

Medical Auxiliary (MX)

Usually very large the medical ships are essentially hospitals in space which deal with any issue ship medical bays are unequipped to deal with. This ranges up to and including termal illnesses such as cancer, paralysis and other life changing illnesses/injuries.   

Tug Auxiliary (TX)

If any ships are damaged to the point of being unable move and need to be pulled away the tug auxiliary comes with both far more power than any other auxiliary and a Lower Space key, allowing it to take even the largest ships back to dry dock for repair  

Fuel Auxiliary (FX)

While not carrying fuel for ships since even the smallest ships use fission reactors which can last upwards of a decade without needing a new fuel source, instead fuel ships are for the military on the ground which still uses fossil fuel or hydrogen power in vehicles too small for nuclear power.  

Personel Auxiliary (PX)

Your basic troop transport ferrying a new wave of poor sods to the frontlines and bringing out those who need to be redeployed somewhere else  

Exceptions 

In prototype designs the P designation is added to the end of their designation Any ships that cannot be fitted neatly into a single catagory or are too specialised for a classification are given (SR) for special roll