[T-Man]

Out of pure interest, has there ever been an official or fan consideration of what differs an FS 'Frigate' from a 'Corvette', and if not is i worth doing one? I know its not much of a worry as few ships use the term (the Icini and Hippocrates, and i dont think the latter is an official designation) but it is gaining in popularity (the Karuna in BP and the Atropos of TVWP), and Looking at them and at Corvettes, i can't see a great deal of a difference between them, and part of me thinks its a bit odd that there's two terms for the same ship (with BP its understandable as Earth was seperated from the GTVA, but in other cases that doesen't apply).

I know that trying to use modern naval examples doesen't work as FreeSpace's naval terminology is ordered differently, but i did read that the very first use of 'Frigate' meant a fast and manouverable vessel, and the one canon Frigate to exist, the Icini, was noted for having a high top speed. Could speed be used as the difference perhaps? So a 'Frigate' is built with speed as priority, sacrificing weapons and armour if necessary (making them fast but not as strong weapon-wise), while corvette designs (like the Deimos) focus on firepower and defence, with engines a secondary concern (making a slow but tough vessel). The ships would still be quite similar, but they would have a definable difference. Might also go partly to explain why the use of Frigates fell out of favour in canon; subspace drives and sensors lessened the priority of having fast ships on long-range patrols, so the corvette is a de facto replacement for the frigate.

So yeah, not very important, but just something that came to mind and thought i'd share. Do you think a non-canon difference is worth coming up with? If any of you want to add your opinions or ideas your welcome to.

[Snail]

I know that trying to use modern naval examples doesen't work as FreeSpace's naval terminology is ordered differently, but i did read that the very first use of 'Frigate' meant a fast and manouverable vessel, and the one canon Frigate to exist, the Icini, was noted for having a high top speed. Could speed be used as the difference perhaps? So a 'Frigate' is built with speed as priority, sacrificing weapons and armour if necessary (making them fast but not as strong weapon-wise), while corvette designs (like the Deimos) focus on firepower and defence, with engines a secondary concern (making a slow but tough vessel). The ships would still be quite similar, but they would have a definable difference. Might also go partly to explain why the use of Frigates fell out of favour in canon; subspace drives and sensors lessened the priority of having fast ships on long-range patrols, so the corvette is a de facto replacement for the frigate.

This doesn't make much sense at all, as the Iceni had more firepower and more armor than the Deimos, Moloch or Sobek.

I think the general consensus is that a frigate is basically a beefed up corvette, usually varying in size between a corvette and a destroyer.

[T-Man]

This doesn't make much sense at all, as the Iceni had more firepower and more armor than the Deimos, Moloch or Sobek.

Actually that did occour to me a bit after i'd put up the thread (dear god, please can i have precognition? ). It does make sense having it as you say; perhaps Frigates existed before technology allowed corvettes to have the same abilities (or slightly less) in a smaller package, so they're hardly used?

[ktistai228]

or maybe they are an emergent technology..

[Snail]

I'm more comfortable with saying that the Iceni was the first ship that fell into the "frigate" designation.

[The E]

Me as well.

If we define Frigate as being smaller than a Destroyer, with reduced capabilities either in terms of fighter capacity, or firepower, or both with the advantage of better speed, that would cover most of the ships currently designated Frigate.

[General Battuta]

A frigate falls between corvettes and destroyers in terms of size and tactical capabilities (just like in real life!) Hilariously, two of our three FSverse frigates so far (the Karuna and Iceni) are also pretty fast.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

More like coincidence. The Iceni was also pretty fast.

[General Battuta]

More like coincidence. The Iceni was also pretty fast.

A frigate falls between corvettes and destroyers in terms of size and tactical capabilities (just like in real life!) Hilariously, two of our three FSverse frigates so far (the Karuna and Iceni) are also pretty fast.

wat

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[Mobius]

I've always thought the presence of command facilities inside the ship made the difference between corvettes and frigates. A frigate could virtually replace a destroyer as leading ship of a fleet, and that's what the Iceni may have been capable of.

Other parameters (better armor and weaponry) would be a direct consequence of the importance of its role.

[General Battuta]

Frigates aren't command ships, they're vessels larger than corvettes but smaller than destroyers (unless you want to go by the USN tradition of designating ships by roles, in which case they should be specialized anti-fighter craft.)

A frigate can certainly be a command ship, but being a command ship doesn't make you a frigate. Note that the Iceni was, if I recall right, called a 'command frigate' at one point (verify?)

[Snail]

The Iceni is called a Command Frigate multiple times in the debriefings and briefings of Place of Chariots and Roman's Blunder.

[General Battuta]

Yep. Presumably to differentiate it from all those regular frigates, y'know. 

[Vip]

The Iceni looks like a pocket destroyer to me. Just look at the armament and armour, it screams 'destroyer' to me. My bet would be, that a frigate is basically a destroyer, but smaller and without the docking bays. A pure anti-capital warship. Unlike a corvette, a frigate packs enough punch to actually threaten a destroyer (3 BGreens anyone ?), while being faster and smaller than a destroyer. And at the same time the Iceni has nearly the same amount of hitpoints as an Orion.

Now, why haven't we seen other frigates, while they seem so perfect at taking out enemy capships ? Because they suck at anti-fighter capabilities. And as we all know, against the Shivans, lack of anti-fighter defences is basically a death sentence. Also, having fighter bays give the ship a lot of flexibility, something that a frigate doesn't have.

My 5 cents.

[headdie]

To me a frigate in FS is a sub destroyer scale command ship

[NGTM-1R]

A frigate is basically a destroyer with the fighterbay and related systems stripped out. Possibly a slight reduction in firepower, but not that much.

[Kolgena]

Yep. Presumably to differentiate it from all those regular frigates, y'know. 

Maybe frigates get elevated to Command Frigates when they're capable of spawning out of asteroids?

[Kie99]

The only difference between a Corvette and a Frigate is one of terminology.  The Iceni is referred to as a corvette at least once in the main campaign, and its Ship Class is RCorvette.  If the Iceni was mass produced it would simply be another corvette.

[Dr. Pwnguin]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StandardSciFiFleet

[asyikarea51]

I wouldn't care that much; if I was tabling a frigate I'd probably just up the stats over a corvette as per normal.

Then again... I guess corvettes and frigates in FS are relatively close, eh...


And to sidetrack a bit, there are custom ships like the Tennyson, now that one calls itself a battle cruiser with (iirc) a destroyer-like length and hitpoints... so would that be a cruiser, corvette, frigate or destroyer, if it wasn't renamed?