ship designations have changed a lot over the years. Technically most of the destroyers I see on this forum are not destroyers and most of the cruisers are not by any means cruisers.
For the record I've had several classes on naval warfare specifically, which I only bring up because they've been flatly useless in my life thus far but I wanted them to be, so I relish any moment where they matter a little.
Unlike most people on the forum, I don't classify my ships by size distinction but rather role. They are more-or-less in line with naval terminology used in the age of the sail, or very early steamships*
The concordance uses the following class designations:
- Frigates: Small, Fast shiphunters with "mixed armament", designed to kill larger ships and usually requiring larger support ships. The concordance's fleet doctrine derives a lot of power from "large gun" frigates that wield laser batteries far in excess of what would be expected for their size (I call these "Turbolasers" and most of my ships run them).
- Destroyers: larger, fast shiphunters, usually designed for a hunter killer role. My destroyers sport powerful sensors and run torpedoes instead of guns. Like most of my ships, they are short ranged but powerful. Currently my only destroyers in service are technically "destroyer escorts" but that matches modern terminology. My destroyers often perform a significant antimissile role.
- Cruisers: versatile ships designed for independent operation. My cruisers usually act as scouts, raiders, or harassers. I have many many models of cruiser, all of which can stand in for one another in a pinch. My cruisers usually sacrifice speed for range, but this is not a hard and fast rule. My missile cruiser model currently can act as a fleet command flagship, and is really the only ship I make that can fire missiles in excess of 10 million kilometers.
- Battlecruisers: like cruisers, but designed specifically for combat support. My battlecruisers are currently my most successful and effective ship, being fast yet deadly. I've only ever made one model but am about to make a new model. usually my battlecruisers do not operate on the main battle line (though they're capable of doing so) and instead act as advance scouts or in long-ranged torpedo support.
- Battleships: currently, I think, my most "powerful" ships in terms of the damage they can dish out, but they operate over close ranges indeed. These were designed off the old Man-o-war models and simply contain a huge array of very big guns. My main starfleet battle lines are 2 battleships supported by 2 destroyer escorts and 3 frigates, sometimes with 1 or 2 battlecruisers in support.
- Dreadnaughts: I'm experimenting with a new model here. One big problem I'm encountering is that I don't have enough jump ships, a consequence of my starfleet being primarily defensive. I'm also encountering significant hostile jump points, and finding that I need more powerful breachers. So, I wanted a new model of ship that was very very large and ran many many guns. I don't feel comfortable calling it a "battleship" because I plan to make many battleships or lineships and few of these ships, which differ substantially in their jump capability. I also wanted it to run faster-firing turrets because I'm running into jump point defenders in huge numbers (so, no slow-firing neon cannon batteries of enormous size, instead many turrets) and I wanted something longer-ranged than my normal ships. You are correct in your assessment that dreadnoughts were "all big gun" ships which were scary because they could easily destroy other large ships, however, I picked the name simply because it's intimidating and portentious. If I wanted to rationalize it i"d say that "dreadnoughts " were also revolutionary for their propulsion (the HMS dreadnought herself running a novel steam propulsion system which became common) and that's primarily what distinguishes this ship from a "very big battleship"
* one of my complaints with a lot of sci-fi is it degenerates into "world war II in space" which is cool sure but not ad infinitem. I've drawn the primary inspiration for my ships off of 18th and 19th century naval warfare, and you can see that in the emphasis on large slowfiring broadsides.
