Frigates are capital ships?

[Senlin]

Why are the smalles ships (not counting fighters) are called capital ships in the game? I don't quite understand this.

Also, are battlestars considered capital ships too (they are separate in the blueprints screen), for the turrets autotargetting?

[Verios44]

I think its set that way for sake of simplicity in the research menus. Unless there is a lore reason I am unaware of.

[GHawkins the Grey]

Basically, they went for two ship classifications;
-Squadrons, which are not able to operate independently on the strategic field and require a carrier to be brought to the battlefield (Vipers Mk I and II, Raptors, Assault Raptors, Sweepers for the Colonials, Raider Prototypes, Raiders, Heavy Raiders, Wardrivers and Scorpions for the Cylons).
-Capital ships, which are able to operate without requiring another unit present. They are equipped with strategic FTL drives (Cylon Argos and Phobos can do microjumps in the tactical layer). All ships that are not squadrons are considered to be capital ships, regardless of their class (a frigate is as much a capital ship as a carrier or battlestar).

The smallest capital ship in the game is actually the Corvette. Both the Manticore and the Nemesis belong to this class. Despite that, these ships are still larger than half a kilometer.

[Senlin]

Thanks for explanation. It still feels wrong to have fleet composed from almost only capital ships. To me it doesn't matter what is the exact size is, only what it is relative to other ships in the fleet.

Squadrons are really something that is basically airplanes in space and I would not really consider them ships.

But of course it's not a big deal, I was just curious.

[Zig the Caver]

There is no lore reason to it as far as I am aware, and only in Blood and Chrome was a so called capital class other than a battlestar ever referred to. In the series it could almost be assumed that battlestars were the only form of capital in the colonial fleet.

If anything Deadlock is paving the lore path for the various classes.

The whole capitol or fighter convention is something that goes back to the distant past of sci-fi PC gaming.

[Verios44]

the real world definition of a capital ship is anything that is considered a main asset for a nation, if you look at WWI history, many ships, even cruisers were considered capital ships.

Its a fairly loose term even in reality.