escort_fortress_(kantai_collection) and floating_fortress_(kantai_collection)

After looking into these two for a bit, their in-game portraits are the same. I'd been tagging with the floating one for a while, but the escort one seems more accurate. Would it be better to use a simplified "Fortress_(Kantai_Collection)" to cover both since distinguishing between them is impossible?

If it's actually called "floating fortress" in-game, then I'd rather use that than a made-up generic tag. We could alias Escort Fortress to it and make a note in the wiki that EF is identical to FF.

Well, the issue I take is that they both are separate characters that happen to look identical; the escort fortress even has two different stat spreads. I didn't look up much, but reached this conclusion:

escort fortress (kantai collection) appears more often and with more groupings

floating fortress (kantai collection) shows up with anchorage hime and southern ocean war hime; coincidentally, these two also feature fortresses in their in-game art.

data I based my thoughts on:
(common map)
armored aircraft carrier hime, 2 floating fortress, 2 [ni-class destroyer]], and yo-class submarine

(November event map)
airfield hime and 5 escort fortress

anchorage hime, 3 floating fortress, and 2 ro-class_destroyer

southern_ocean_war_hime and 5 escort fortress

wo-class aircraft carrier, southern ocean war hime, 2 escort fortress, ri-class heavy cruiser, and he-class light cruiser

wo-class aircraft carrier, southern ocean war hime, 2 escort fortress, and 2 ha-class destroyer

battleship-symbiotic hime, aromored aircraft carrier hime, armored aircraft carrier oni, and 3 escort fortress

battleship-symbiotic hime, 2 aromored aircraft carrier hime, and 3 escort fortress

maybe I'm over-thinking things?

If they were remotely humanoid I could see a case in keeping them separate in a twins-like capacity. However, from what I could tell, they're basically insentient floating orbs with teeth serving as minions to the bigger Abyssal ships. Not saying I mind them as character tags, but yeah, there doesn't seem to be much value in separating Floating Fortress and Escort Fortress.

Especially since the difference is related to stats only, not coloring/alternate versions.

Looking at the listing again, there's also escort fortress listed in kantai collection while escort fortress (kantai collection) and floating fortress (kantai collection) are listed in shinkaisei-kan.

Would aliasing them into each other be an acceptable solution?

Looks like they're portrayed in two variation: pinkish or blackish.

some pink ones
post #1556447
post #1594055

some black ones
post #1642693
post #1610216

Then there are ones with enough glowing to look like both or are greyscale, but would this line of thinking suffice to split these two?

Looks like the liberties of a few artists than anything official.

As noted before, their differences are technical (names and stats). They share sprites with no other changes.

Since they're characters, they have tags, but how should we use those tags? Should it continue to be as it is, or is there an agreeable alternative?

From my opinions:
"Separate by color" wouldn't be accurate but is a tag-able guideline
"Alias to each other" would allow the tags to remain accurate without needing a guideline
"Alias to alternate" would try to employ a single tag instead of either one separately
"Leave alone" it's not a major issue and can be left alone