In the century since its first production, this feature has undergone significant shifts producing the Reliant, Lantree, and Saratoga subclass. For example, the Miranda class of light cruisers is an old design featuring a raised “rollbar” above the saucer section. In some cases, the ships of different design might not be considered of the same class each variation would either be its own class, or a subclass of the original class. In the course of building a class of ships, design changes might be implemented between the production of different ships. Cairo which is also a cruiser but of the Excelsior class. Enterprise-D is a cruiser (ship type) of the Galaxy class (ship class) and can be readily told apart from the U.S.S.
This is distinct from a ship type, in both the game mechanics sense and the in-universe sense, which reflects a similarity of intended use. Ship Classes A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design, developed and mass-produced by fleet shipyards to fill the needs of the government producing them.
