HighFleet Ship Classification Guide

This is the investigation about how the game decides ship classes.

Introduction

Right now there are 75 stock ship designs in-game, and players can create an additional ship in Shipworks editor. Every of those, even player-created ships, have an automatically assigned class (e.g. main campaign flagship, Sevastopol, have “strategic heavy cruiser” class). These classes are shown at the New Game screen (where you decide how many Lightnings and Skylarks you want to bring with you), and at docks in cities in reduced form (e.g. Sevastopol is “strat HV cruiser”).

Ship class is mentioned in red text below the ship name.

Class by Mass

The class consists of two parts – in Sevastopol’s case, the first part is “strategic” – which explains its general purpose, and the second part is “heavy cruiser”, which explains how heavy it is.

For the second part (“heavy cruiser” in Sevastopol’s case), game just looks at ship mass and assign appropriate class as described below:

• 0-1,000 tons: light corvette
• 1,000-2,000 t: corvette
• 2,000-3,200 t: heavy corvette
• 3,200-5,000 t: frigate
• 5,000-7,000 t: heavy frigate
• 7,000-1,0000 t: light cruiser
• 10,000-20,000 t: cruiser
• 20,000+ t: heavy cruiser

There is one exception among stock ship designs: Kormoran is designated as a “light cruiser”, although it has a mass corresponding to “cruiser” (10,551 t). Nevertheless, if you load Kormoran into the editor and save it under any other name, its class will change to “cruiser” as it should be.

Class by Purpose

For the first part (“strategic” in Sevastopol’s case), the game has 5 possible classes, and the assigned class also defines the color of the ship card (at the New Game screen, where a list of available ships in the cards of different colors). These classes and rules by which a ship is assigned to one of them are described below:

1. If the ship has at least 1 missile silo with Kh-15, A-100, or R-3 (or any modification of those), then the ship is considered “Strategic” (black colored card), no matter what else is installed on it.
2. If the ship isn’t “Strategic” and has at least 1 aircraft, then the ship is considered a “Carrier” (blue colored card).
3. If the ship isn’t “Strategic” or “Carrier”, and its speed is above 450 km/h – then the ship is considered “Interceptor” (yellow-colored card).
4. If the ship isn’t “Strategic”, “Carrier” or “Interceptor”, and its range exceeds 2000 km, then the ship is considered “Auxiliary” (green colored card).
5. If the ship isn’t “Strategic”, “Carrier” or “Interceptor”, and its range doesn’t exceed 2000 km, then the game compares role values. If “AA defence” + “Tanker” + “Early warning” is greater than “Air superiority” + “Strike ship” + “Interceptor”, then ship is considered “Auxiliary” (green colored card), otherwise ship is considered “Attack” (red-colored card).

Class by Role

And yes, “role values” were mentioned above. Ship roles are 9 ship attributes shown as icons with corresponding values, which tends to show how well ship suited for a particular task. The role values can be found on the New Game screen when hovering the cursor over a ship card. Also, when doing this, the ship’s picture is replaced with a role with maximum value, with a short description of what tasks can perform ship with that given role (e.g. Sevastopol described as a “tanker”). Some ships may have two (or more) roles with the same value (e.g. Fenek has 2 in “AA Defence” and 2 in “Early warning”). In this case, the game displays the role of them that comes first in this order: air superiority > strike ship > interceptor > AA defence > tanker > early warning > aircraft carrier > missile carrier > nuclear missile carrier.

Role values are determined by ship attributes and installed equipment, as shown below:

Air superiority. The value increases with each installed gun or anti-ship missile:

• +0.25 for each R-5 Zenith, R-6 Nadir.
• +0.5 for each 2A37, AK-725 Vympel, AK-100, D-80 Molot.
• +1 for each MK-1-180.
• +2 for each MK-2-180, A-220.
• +4 for each MK-6-180.

Strike ship. The value increases with each installed bomb:

• +0.5 for each FAB-1000.

Interceptor. The value is determined by ship maximum speed:

• +1 for every 400 km/h.

AA defense. The value increases with each installed AA gun or anti-missile:

• +0.5 for each 2A37.
• +0.25 for each AK-725 Vympel.
• +0.1 for each AK-100, D-80 Molot.
• +0.2 for each R-9 Sprint (only if at least 1 fire control radar is installed).
• +0.2 for each MR-2M fire control radar.
• +0.4 for each MR-12 fire control radar.

Tanker. The value is determined by ship fuel capacity:

• +1 for each 512 t of fuel.

Early warning. The value is determined by radar/IR capabilities:

• +1 for each 200 km of radar sight range.
• +1 for each 200 km of IR sight range.

Aircraft carrier. The value is determined by the amount of aircraft:

• +1 for each La-29, T-7.

Missile carrier. The value is determined by the amount of non-nuclear missiles loaded in missile silos:

• +2 for each Kh-15, Kh-15P, A-100, R-3.

Nuclear missile carrier. The value is determined by the number of nuclear missiles loaded in missile silos:

• +2 for each Kh-15N, Kh-15PN, A-100N, R-3N.

Role values are rounded to the nearest integer: .4 rounded down to 0 and .5 rounded up to 1.

Ships Spreadsheet and Notes

Also here is my spreadsheet with all 75 stock ship designs and their attributes and assigned roles, sorted by price.

SPOILER WARNING: Spreadsheet contains all ships, included story-related):

• Link to spreadsheet