Registry Number

On the Gudersnipe Registry, ships use identifing numbers based on their fleet revision, design, design revision, and construction number. N-808-B-305 means Nelson, hull-design 808, revision B, 305th constructed.

Fleet Revision

The first character or characters are letters reffering to the name of the Instructor who oversaw the revision. In the case of the Saratoga, that would mean Instructor Nelson as it belonged to the Nelson Fleet Revision.

Design Number

Design numbers can very in length, there is no set limit. In the Nelson revision, over a thousand designs were produced, so some Nelson ships have 4-digit design numbers. However, none of the 4-digit designs ever made it into metal prototyping or construction.

Desgin Revision

Once a design has been finalized, it will go into virtual prototyping. The initial design will recieve the revision designation A. A good design team will usually have most of the major flaws worked out before the official virtual prototyping stage(as unofficial prototypes will have been used at every stage of development), so most ships still use revision A. If major flaws are discovered at this stage, the team will go back for a re-design, making the next virtual prototype revision B, and so on.

Construction Number

Once a design is finalized, construction can begin. The last string of numbers is based on the number of ships built, in the example 305 would be the 305th completed vessel. The first ship in the run would be 001, if less than 1,000 ships were ordered. Typically, the fleet revision will have a set number of ships called for, and will order a production run of that many vessells.

This is where a key difference between capital ships and support ships becomes important: support ships are usually constructed at smaller shipyards, often contracted-out. The Foundation will order a "run" of ships, so the registry number will be based on the desired run. If a run of more than 1,000 is ordered, the vessel will have a 4-digit number.

In the case of capital ships, which are built only at major GS shipyards, the Foundation will assume 999 vessels of that model will be produced. The first ship gets 001, and so on. In the rare cases where more than 999 of a specific model of capital ship is built, a second string of digits will be added, making it ###-###, so the thousanth ship would be 999-001. Typically, a new fleet revision will be called for well before the 1000th mark.