Ship/Structure Designs
Ships and structures available to be constructed can be found on the faction designs tab. Many standard designs are provided as a starting point.
Design Panel Controls
create a new design from scratch
create a new design using an existing design as a starting point
delete a design
edit a design
change the designation of a design
view a design
save the selected designs to disk, for use in other games
load a previously saved set of designs
Creating or Editting a Design
Designs for ships and structures is largely an identical process, with the exception that structures can have neither a warp drive or jump drive as equipment as they are fundamentally immobile. Below is an example ship design for a general purpose ship including combat, manufacturing, and research capabilities.
The features available are described in the table below. Volumes and modules are defined in standard cargo units (SCU), where one SCU is approximately 10m x 5m x 5m. One module takes up 30 SCU of volume, typically with 20 SCU of useable space, the rest taken up by supporting infrastructure.
| Parameter | Use |
|---|---|
| Type | Administrative ship/structure type used for classifying ships |
| Class | Administrative ship/structure type used for sub-classes of particular ship types |
| Prefix | A prefix used when automatically naming ships of this class |
| Volume | Not directly editable, but the minimum SCU required to include all configured properties of the ship |
| Acceleration (g) | Not directly editable, but the estimated acceleration of the ship based on the size of warp drive and the design volume |
| Jump Range (pc) | Not directly editable, but the estimated jump range in Parsecs of the ship based on the size of jump drive and the design volume |
| SEW Range (pc) | Not directly editable, but the estimated spatial early warning range in Parsecs of the ship based on the volume of SEW effectors mounted |
| Hull Class | Not directly editable, the hull class based on the volume of the design. The numbers in brackets indicate the minimum and maximum volumes for this class. Note that construction of ships is limited by the faction knowledge of hull architecture |
| Armour | Not directly editable, the estimated armour capacity based on armour equipment modules and the volume of the design |
| Deflector field | Not directly editable, the estimated deflector strength based on deflector field equipment modules and the volume of the design |
| Vacant Modules | Not directly editable, the number of modules effectively vacant given other parameters. Most commonly non-zero when effectors have been added to a ship that would otherwise be too small to mount them |
| Cargo Modules | Cargo bay size. Each module grants 20 SCU of cargo capacity |
| Dock Modules | Docking bay for carrying other ships. Each module grants 20 SCU of dock space |
| Equipment Modules | Not directly editable but implied by the configured equipment modules |
| Accommodation modules | Provision of accommodation for biologicals. One module provides living space for up to 5 individuals. |
| Recreation modules | Provision of parks and recreational areas for biologicals, increases happiness of biologicals which boosts the birth rate |
| Industrial Modules | Not directly editable but implied by the configured factories |
| Research Modules | Not directly editable but implied by the configured research facilities |
| Attributes | Up to 60 points can be distributed across the various attributes |
| Equipment | Basic equipment for motive power and defence |
| Surface Mountings | The number and size of surface mountings is limited by the volume of the ship design. If mountings are added in excess of this limit the volume will be increased automatically and initially assigned as vacant space |
| Factories | Manufacturing facilities. Specializations can be changed dynamically after construction, but can be given an initial value here. Initially vacant industrial capacity can also be allocated here |
| Research Facilities | Specializations can be changed dynamically after construction, but can be given an initial value here. Initially vacant research capacity can also be allocated here |