Ship Status Screen

How to get to the Ship Status Page

From the Main Menu select Ship List and choose your ship. You should be at the Ship Status page. From this page you can select a number of different options which include:
  • Navigate Starship
  • Scanner Report
  • Local Commerce Menu
  • Ships Log
  • Manage Inventory
  • Others
Activating Equipment for Use

Before your Starship can use any Equipment (such as Sub-Light Engines, Scanners and all sort of other stuff) it must be "Activate[d]". You "Activate Equipment" from the Ship Status screen by selecting the "Engineering" link. Then select "Activate Equipment." Activating equipment removes it from your inventory and places it in use on your ship or base. This prevents you from accidently selling the weapons with which you want to fight. The one exception to this is Homing Missiles, they are removed from inventory as they are used. Missiles are considered a consumable like fuel.

Starship Navigation

How to get to the Navigation page

To move a Starship from one sector to another from the Main Menu select Ship List and choose your ship. You should be at the Ship Status page. Now select the Ship Operations link. You should now be at the Ship Operations - Navigation page.
Plot your course

At the Ship Navigation page in the Next Destination boxes enter the destination coordinates and press the Calculate Ship Course button. When the page refreshes you will notice a list of coordinates on the right side of the screen under the heading Ship Course. These are the Bend-Fold points through which your ship will pass on it's journey to the final destination. You will see the final destination listed on the left side of the page as well as your current location and the next Bend-Fold coordinates you are scheduled to visit. It currently takes one turn (or 5 mintues) to complete a Bend-Fold operation. Visit this ship's Navigation Page in a few minutes and will notice that the current location has changed, you are one Bend closer to your destination.

Example:
If you wanted to travel to the New Hampton Colony you would enter the following two numbers 11, 8. These two numbers represent the X and Y coordinates and may be written as (11, 8). A few minutes later your ship would arrive at the New Hampton Colony.
Ship Hulls

Hulls are functional sections of a starship that are attached to a superstructure. A ship's class is determined by the size and design of it's superstructure. Hulls may be easily reconfigured to support cargo, equipment, weapons and a wide variety of other items you might want to load or attach to a starship.

The number of full hulls you have will determine the mass of your ship. This is important when considering what size of Sub-Light Engine you will install in your ship. Greater acceleration means you can obtain greater speeds more quickly during Sub-Light travel and are more maneuverable in combat.

The number of full hulls has no effect on your ability to use your Bend-Fold Drive. A Bend-Fold Drive uses the same amount of fuel for each Bend no matter how full or empty it is or how long or short the distance of the Bend.

Maximum Hulls is meant to show the maximum number of hulls that can be held by the superstructure of this ship class. Hulls Available is the number of hulls functioning at the minimum level to contain cargo or equipment. You would notice this number drop of Available hulls if you suffered combat damage. Empty Hulls represent the number of hulls that are available and ready for use.

Sub-Light Engines

A starship uses a Sub-Light Engine to manauver around a solar system. It is used to engage, maneuver and disenagage from combat. A faster ship will be able to outrun a slower ship. A faster one can overtake slower ship. You can read more about the use of Sub-Light Engines use in the Combat Instructions.

When a ship has multiple Sub-Light Engines their effect are cumulatitve.

Bend-Fold Drives

The distances between star systems is very vast. Much too far for a ship to travel by sub-light speeds. Crews would grow old and new ones would have to take their place. Little space could be devoted to cargo because of the vast food and fuel that would be required.

The solution was the X'tron Bend-Fold Drive. The first Bend-Fold drive was developed by the great physicist Dr. Ralph X'tron, son of the scholar Pheolex X'tron. Dr. X'tron theroized that if you concentrated enough power into a single point of space you could tear small rip the fabric of space time. Small on a galactic scale, but large enough for a starship to slip through.

This way a ship and it's crew can cover vast distance in the twinkle of an eye. There is a catch though. Before a ship can 'Bend and Fold' it must generate and store enough energy for the 'Bend and Fold' event.

Bend-Fold Drives are calibrated to provide a fixed amount of power. This amount of power is just enough to allow a fully loaded ship to Bend. If you are not completely full it still takes the same amount of fuel to produce the Bend Event.

A foot note to this story is that Dr. X'tron was killed by the sub-atomic radiation that was released by the point. Other scientists were quickly able to construct a special sheild generator to contain this radiation. The shield generators are now standard with every 'Bend-Fold' drive.

Unlike Sub-Light Engines, Bend-Fold Drives effects are not cumulatitve. However, many ships carry a primary and secondary 'Bend-Fold' drives incase one fails or is damaged in combat.

Sensors

There are a number of different types of sensors found on the menu (a figurative menu, silly). Each has a specific place and purpose.

Long Range Sensor (LRS) are used to detect stars and objects such as astroids, bases and ships orbiting around distant stars.

Short Range Scanners (SRS) are useful in scanning other ships that are in the same sector and combat situations. They are required to conduct combat. If you are in combat and they are damaged beyond repair then you will be flying blind and unable to disengage from combat.

Try different combinations of Long Range Sensors, Short Range Sensors and Class Three Duo-Bio Brains to increase the size and range of your Starmap. There are a number of specialty sensors, these are all covered in the Encyclopedia section.

Salvage Operations

Basically you blast destroyed hulls off of the Starship or Base during the combat process. This leaves behind Debris and Rubble. After they flee or get blown up, you can move in and salvage the spoils. You'll find ore, metal and if you are lucky maybe parts of their ships or base.

Requried: Short Range Scanner and a Mining Scoop. Both must be Activated and in Working Condition.

Optional equipment: To increase accuracy of Samples with respect to Debris are: An additional Short Range Scanner will increase odds and accuracy of gathering Debris by 20%, Mineral Scanners (up to 10) will increase by 5% each. Each mining scoop can gather up to 2.5 tons of Debris per turn. Items to large to fit through your Mining Scoops requires a Tractor Beam to bring the Debris into your Starship. There is no guarantee that each turn you conduct a salvage operation you will find debris worth keeping.

Hint: Can you say Pirate? (we knew you could)
Starship Hull Types
Ship ClassPriceTonnage Mining PortsCapital Weapon Bays
Scout(Set by Players)600N/AN/A
Prospector(Set by Players)8001N/A
Express Freighter(Set by Players)1000N/AN/A
Light Freighter(Set by Players)2000N/AN/A
Mining(Set by Players)38004N/A
Medium Freighter(Set by Players)5000N/AN/A
Destroyer(Set by Players)5000N/AN/A
Heavy Freighter(Set by Players)10000N/AN/A
Cruiser(Set by Players)15000N/A1
Battleship(Set by Players)25000N/A2
Colony(Set by Players)95000N/AN/A


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