Terminology

A lookup-sheet for many of the terms commonly used by From the Depths' community.

For ease of finding new words, they're all sorted into categories. If you're looking for a word for some aspect of, for example, hull design, then you'll find it in the "Hulls" category.

If you want to know the meaning of a particular word, press Ctrl+F (Windows), or Command+F (Mac) and type the word into the search bar.

General

 * CC: Custom Campaigns
 * Tetris: Placement of components within a certain space for maximum efficiency. Most commonly components of one subsystem.
 * Spam: The practical implementation of the belief that "If X doesn't fix the problem, you need to use more X". This is most obvious in the context of weaponry (e.g. encountering an enemy which is almost immune to lasers, and fixing this problem by using five times more lasers than usual), and in terms of the number of vehicles sent into a battle, but is also available in more subtle flavours such as using one hundred and thirty eight prefabricated torpedo boat engines to drive a battleship.

Hulls

 * V-hull/U-hull/box-hull: Refers to the crossection when looking from front/back.
 * V-hulls are generally built using 4m beam slopes and triangle corners, and because of this they are more likely to cause shots to bounce off, and may also experience less drag. Unfortunately this triangular hull shape also offers the lowest posible ratio of volume to surface area, meaning that you'll get to invest a lot of materials into a hull that offers relatively little internal space for weapons and machinery.
 * U-hulls are an in-between concept seeking to optimize internal volume for any given surface area. Their primary advantage over the V-hull is that they are typically flat-bottomed along the centreline which simplifies the fitting of prefabricated engines and weapons into the hull. In terms of armour, their beam is at its widest at the wateline, which provides ample space for side armour, but protection weakens towards the bottom as the sides begin to curve inwards toward the keel. As kinetic shells and laser beams rapidly lose their destructive potential when moving through water, this lack of protection near the bottom of the hull may be acceptable, through torpedo resistance may be insufficient.
 * Box-hulls are the most easily armoured, consisting of a simple bottom plate with two thick walls of armour running along the edges and an armoured deck closing off the top. They also easily accommodate prefabricated modules, but the simplicity of their design may come off as aesthetically off-putting, occasionally giving the impression of being a "vaguely ship-shaped brick".
 * Bow/Fore: Refers to the front of the ship
 * Aft/Stern: Refers to the rear of the ship
 * Weather deck: Refers to the upper most deck, that which takes the waves and bad weather.
 * Deck: If a boat was a house, decks would be its floors.
 * Bulkhead: If a boat was a house, bulkheads would be its walls.
 * Tumblehome: Hulls that get narrower above the waterline, to resemble a /_\ shape.
 * Beam: Designates the width of a hull, generally at its widest, having a wider boat makes it more stable with regards to roll.
 * Freeboard: Designates the height of the part of the hull that is above the waterline, having low water line is unrealistic and makes your boat prone to sink more easily when damaged, however it also makes it less prone to capsizing as it makes it less top heavy.
 * Draught (Draft): Designates the height of the part of the hull that is bellow the waterline, the part of a ship which is most vulnerable to torpedoes.
 * Sheer: Refers to the angle at which the bow of a ship elevates, most noticeable from a side view.
 * Flare: Refers to how the bow of the ship gets wider as it goes from the waterline to the weather deck, giving it a \/ shape. More often, giving it an exponential curve looks the best, it can be referred as the opposite of trumblehome.
 * Keel: The name of the bottom of a hull.
 * Compartmentalization: Refers to the way compartiments are made in a ship, placement of bulkheads and decks; it becomes important if you want to optimise the floatability and durability of a ship, alongside the armor scheme.
 * Spinblock Sheering: Designates a method using a couple of spinblocks to create a smoother sheer than when using slopes witout spinblocks.
 * Slope Staggering: Designates a method that consists of staggering slopes of a certain sizes with certain staggers at the bow or aft of a ship in order to have a smooth and good looking bow/aft shape.

Weapons

 * APHE: Armor piercing High Explosive, a CRAM or APS shell designed to penetrate armor, and explode on the inside, shells with other damage types may have HE substituted, such as APFrag
 * APS: Advanced Projectile System, once referred to as Advanced Cannons
 * Dakka: Firepower. Sometimes limited to high firerate, and/or cannons. Direct reference to the Orks from Warhammer 40k.
 * HEAT: High Explosive Anti Tank, it refers to a missile or APS shell with a shaped charge warhead, regardless of weather its intended target is a tank.
 * LAMS: Laser Anti Munition System (was once Laser Anti Missile System)
 * Noodle-Barrel: Excessively long barrel for Advanced Cannons, or more rarely CRAM Cannons.
 * PAC: Particle Accelerator Cannon
 * VLS: Vertically launched missiles, typically using a one-turn module to steer themselves onto the proper course to target after launch.

Turrets

 * Barbette: A somewhat cylindrical armoured structure built into a vehicle's hull to protect the "neck" of a turret. Whereas the neck is part of the turret construct, the barbette is a part of the vehicle's hull and thus the barbette armour does not slow down the rotation speed of the turret.
 * Cap: The lump of armour blocks which protects the firing piece of a gun turret. Also known as a Gun House.
 * Decapitation: A term referring to what happens when a turret's "neck" is destroyed, separating the "cap" from the rest of the turret. Typically caused by improper armouring of the neck and/or barbette.
 * Neck: A relatively narrow structure containing CRAM connectors or APS Gauge increasers/coolers, which connect the "tetris" inside the vehicle or fortress' hull to the "cap" outside the hull.
 * Superfiring: A term describing a turret which has had its neck and corresponding barbette extended so that it can fire over the cap of another turret.

Unit Designations/Hull symbols
Most are taken from the standard US Tri-service aircraft designation system and USN hull classifications

Ordered by approximate size.

Aether
[Nothing in here yet]

Basic aircraft

 * Attacker - Precision anti-surface
 * AWACS - Flying command post, typically fitted with a strategic antenna as well as multiple normal detection systems to support friendly units.
 * Bomber - Anti-surface. Typically big and lumbering, but able to carry a very heavy payload.
 * Fighter - Anti-air. Typically small and agile, able to dodge enemy weapons.

Deciphering the tri-service system
Some player-made aircraft, and a few of those in service with the Steel Striders Air Force, are designated according to the US Tri-service aircraft designation system. The system is laid out in the format: (Status prefix)(Modified mission)(Basic mission)(Aircraft type)-(Design number)(Series letter) (Name).


 * Status prefix - Shows what's currently going on with the aircraft, for example if it's grounded due to a game update messing with one of its systems, or if the aircraft is still a prototype


 * Modified Mission - Shows that the aircraft was modified to perform a different misison than originally designed.


 * Basic mission - What the aircraft was originally built to do.


 * Aircraft Type - For anything out of the ordinary.


 * For each basic mission or vehicle types, design numbers are assigned consecutively.


 * Series letters denote various modifications that don't modify the mission type.

Example tri-service system aircraft designations:

Land




Sea
Extensions


 * -C: Extension meaning it's a coastal vessel, most notably used for coastal submarines (SSC).
 * -L: Extension meaning it's a lighter version of its original designation, most noticably used for CVL- Light aircraft carrier, which were smaller CVs carrying less planes and with a shorter naval range.
 * -V: Extension signifing the ship has aicraft carrying capacities while its class is not originaly intended to, generaly used for conversions (CAVs, BBVs, etc...).
 * -G: Extension signifing the ship uses missiles and/or guided missiles, came in during the cold war on most standard ship types, FFG, DDG, DEG,.
 * -N: Extension signifing the ship uses nuclear propulsion, came in during the cold war, used most notably for SSN- Nuclear powered submarines and CVN- nuclear powered aircraft carriers. Since nuclear ractors don't yet exist in FtD, we mostly use this extension for vehicles powered by RTGs.