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salamimike
Durandals<Snipped quote by Willy Vereb>Well,to be fair just like how during modern times there's a confusion between ship classes it'd only get worse between two different interstellar empires.
I think one could do both- an escort-frigate would rely on its parent ship for, as an example, protection, with the parent ship's focus being on shields, so the escort-frigate would be hiding within the shields, using its own weapons to fire on enemies. Meanwhile, a warship-frigate would be, as you say, a ship that can operate independently, with substantial offensive and defensive capabilities. An escort may have a specialization in only one, while a warship uses both with a leaning towards one.
But using a common ship categories would be useful. That way a warship [which is actually a dreadnought] wouldn't be surprised and destroyed by another warship [which was actually a light or medium cruiser], which normally wouldn't happen, because a dreadnought has big thick armor and a light or medium cruiser has neither heavy guns, nor heavy armor.
Mind you, light or medium cruisers are just that- it's unlikely they'll have any particularly powerful weapons or shields in comparison to someone else, and would probably rely more on maneuverability or disruptive electronic warfare and drones. Take, for example, the Wyoming-class Battleship, which is a big-armor, big-guns, lotsa-guns, and slow. Then there is, say, the St. Louis-class cruiser, which is more of a heavy cruiser because it has like 14 guns (in comparison to other ships' 4-10), a buncha armor, and is quite slow. Then there's the Phoenix class cruiser, which has anywhere from 6-10 guns, isn't quite as armored as the St. Louis, but is just as fast as a Clemson-class destroyer, if slightly less manueverable. And, the Phoenix holds a couple turrets of the almighty torpedoes.
For starters one race may consider their 1200 meters long warship a hulking Dreadnought and the heaviest vessel they have.
Another civilization may not even use any ships below 1km in length. They'd think the other nation sent a mere Destroyer against them.
Nations which may have experienced such confusion before would probably try to estimate ships by a more objective scale, as in how much power they generate. Techno jargon like "battleship-class power readings" would be uttered for certain.
And this brings up another issue, differences in technology.
While I suppose there would be some balance but regardless there'll be certain rifts in tech level between the various players.
On the extremes one race's Destroyers would be more powerful than any battleship the other owns. This may be because different standards in size or just because the other has plain better and more sophisticated tech.
Said differences in tech may be balanced with smaller fleets and other factors.
Either way it means the scenario you envisoned is not only plausible but even allowed by the game.
I think the easiest way to solve issues if the player explicitly notes how his/her ships compare to the opponent.
"I may have 200 ships but my vessels are less advanced and weaker so don't worry!"
or
"In Derplexia the smallest warship is 5km long, so the Destroyer your patrol spotted is almost as large as your Dreadnought. Be mindful of that!"
And so on. Same could be achieved if the player mentions this during the IC.
"Oh my God! The enemy has 30 Dreadnoughts! All hands, prepare for battle stations!"
Sir McDouche declared. In reality the enemy ships were only Narmasian Frigates but regardless the threat was real.
As you can see, this is going to be a complicated business as always.