A little decoding would be nice.

Space Empires IV handled this by having text files full of names that a race could choose from and name their ship classes with, I know that most people dislike suggesting that GC2 should have features from X game, But that would be one solution - Cheap, But effective.

Here's what I think I remember the typical AI ship names representing:

Fighter & Escort = tiny hull
Heavy Fighter, Defender = small
Frigate, Cruiser = medium
Battleship = large
Dreadnought = huge

Until now, I've laughed whenever I've seen "Battleship" and "Dreadnought" listed in AI fleets because those ships have been so outdated that they were complete rubbish. My small-hulled Intruders could take them on by themselves.

I've just started playing with the "AI Intensive Algorithms" turned on, however, which allows the AI factions to design new ships much more often. I had my butt handed to me two days ago for the first time, and never encountered anything larger than a Frigate; I can't wait to see up-to-date AI capital ships in action.  

i like muffins

I've just started playing with the "AI Intensive Algorithms" turned on, however, which allows the AI factions to design new ships much more often. I had my butt handed to me two days ago for the first time, and never encountered anything larger than a Frigate; I can't wait to see up-to-date AI capital ships in action.

They've started typecasting in 1.2, also. You can research Point Defenses against someone with photonic torpedoes, and as soon as you produce a few ships they'll upgrade to lasers. Nasty. They didn't do that in 1.1, and it's a very noticeable difference.

"Frigate M5-7" means that the design was made in year 5, month 7.
A number before and after, for example "2-Frigate M5-7X 4", means that the ship was upgraded into a M5-7 Frigate. I don't know what those two numbers are for.

Here's what I think I remember the typical AI ship names representing: Fighter & Escort = tiny hull Heavy Fighter, Defender = small Frigate, Cruiser = medium Battleship = large Dreadnought = huge

I think that the escort is small hull???
Escorts never use defence and use lots of engines. Defenders and cruisers never have any engines and are only for defending planets. Cruisers sometimes make for very stupid designs, for example ships with 2 attack and 20 defence. Heavy fighters and frigates are for attack.

Sweet. Thanks ignuss. Now I know what the ships are. In honor of you, I have named a Large Hulled ship design after you. The Ignuss НОВОИСПЕЧЕННЫЙ. Copy and paste НОВОИСПЕЧЕННЫЙ into the translator at

www.rustran.com

Thanks.

And thanks to everyone else.