Ships

STARSHIPS

Throughout the first part of these rules we've referenced how ships move through space without detailing anything more about them - here's where we cover everything you'll need to know about spacecraft before you can start building and moving your own fleets.

Ship Types

As with all things in the game, the different types of ships you can design and construct can be placed into broad categories, each of which cover the ship's basic usage and classification. These categories are:-

Military - A rather obvious classification, any ship of this category is designed for combat. They may be defensive or offensive, but any ship designated as Military class has a wide range of design specifications available to it.

Troop - Allied with your Military ships are your Troop carriers. All ships within this class are provided with cryogenic bays which house and protect thesoldiers that are placed within. Troop carriers are rather basic and utilitarian vessels in truth, and the cryo labs within are only really suited for small numbers of strong bodies. The difference between the storage facilities of these ships and their Colonial sisters can only really be appreciated by colonists, who simply refuse to be placed in such vessels!

Carrier - The third arm of the military fleets are the Carriers. Constructed solely for a single purpose, these craft are simply booster and convoy vessels for fighter wings. Not small ships, the Carriers all have to have some form of protection of their own and so must have at least a minimum of shielding and weaponry. Carriers are often vulnerable though as their large size is a good target, and once the fighters have been launched and then later recovered, their offensive capability on their own is not as great as ships of similar mass.

Orbital - Basically, Military class ships that are used solely for planetary defence. Unlike PDF units, these ships remain in orbit around the world at which they are constructed and can take offensive fire on ships in the same orbit. No engines but plenty of firepower and shields.

Colonial - The Colonial ships that carry colonist between worlds. Usually larger than most other types of vessel, Colonial transports are kitted out to allow the conveyance of large numbers of people, all held in cryogenic stasis until arrival at their destination. As most of their make-up is composed of hull and cryogenic bays, there is not a great deal of flexibility in this design type:- they cannot, for instance, have weapons mounted on their hulls.

Merchant - The main method of transportation for anything non- organic, Merchant craft are basically floating cargo bays with an engine at one end and command centre at the other. They can be given very minor offensive capabilities, but most races tend not to do this as a merchant vessel is not supposed to look a threat to others!

Scout - The exploration vessels of your empire, Scout ships are the only vessels that must have Hyperdrive Jump engines included in their design. Small craft, no larger than a basic frigate, the Scouts are your eyes and ears, they are filled with sensitive scanning and detection equipment. Out of all the classes of ships it is these that are most capable when it comes to determining what lies on the many planets in the Universe. They generally have half of their mass taken up with Jump engines; no weaponry can be built upon these craft though - if you want to do that then build a Frigate!

A few of the terms (weapons, Jump drives, etc) above have been touched upon earlier, but still not described properly. All ships of any type are composed of certain "building blocks", with generic terms applied to that part of it's construction. The individual components shown are described as:

Hull: This is the basic structure of the ship, the framework to which all other units are attached. In all ship categories this framework will make up 20% of the ships mass and in conjunction with armour type provides the last defence against attack. Once the hull is breached the ship is destroyed.

Hyperdrive Engines: Also known as Jump engines, these move the ship into hyperspace so that vast distances can be covered in almost zero time. The size of engine determines the power it can provide the ship with and thus how far the ship can travel in a given period of time. They are VERY reliable if used correctly and a ship's basic movement speed is determined by the Jump engines rating. Trying to use jump 2 engines to move jump 3 or above has serious drawbacks, like the vaporisation of the overloaded engines, usually along with the ship containing it!

Thrusters: Engines that provide the ship with general manoeuvrability and mobility (they are generally given the slang term "Manu" engines). Useful in docking and dodging asteroids, essential in ship to ship attack - mobility and speed give your ships a distinct edge in battle. Any ship without Jump engines will take it's basic movement speed directly from this source, though Jump engines are always considered the main movement source if available, whether better or worse than the Manu capability.

Shields: These provide the main defences of all ships. They consist of large banks of power cells that activate when required and provide a fixed amount of protection until drained. They are always considered fully charged at the start of a battle but cannot be recharged during a battle. The Shield type that is used in the ships shield 'slot' determines the exact extent of protection gained.

Weapons: These can consist of a variety of offensive hardware. They range from laser cannon to missiles but each must be researched separately. Each unit comes complete with anti-missile defences and electronic screening. As your research develops more weapon types they become more accurate and effective in their striking power, as they will be more adept at foiling the counter- measures of their targets.

Cargo: Simple cargo bays that will hold basic materials. Each unit of space allocated here will allow the ship to carry ten units of cargo.

Command: This provides crew quarters, main computer banks, navigation equipment, sensors, engine and weapon control, ECM, and battle computers. This is where the crew sit in "Star Trek". You need this on every ship and it will take on tenth of it's construction mass.

Special: This section of a ship varies with it's use. On Troop or Colonial ships this space will be given over to cryogenic units for holding their human cargoes. They are self-powered and require no crew intervention. Each unit of space allocated to this area of the ship will allow the ship to carry 10 colonist units or 5 units of troops. For Carriers, this space provides fighter berths and hangers, each unit housing a maximum of a 5 fighter wing. It is worth noting that these special environments are made for a specific task, and cannot be interchanged in any way. A Colonial Transporter is assumed to have cryogenic units that keep hordes of colonists "asleep" for their journey, as well as hold units for keeping seedlings, foodstock etc. A Troop transport is an entirely different, more utilitarian method of transport and is suitable only to the toughest of soldiers. You MAY NOT load troops onto a Colonial Transporter, or colonists onto a Troop transport (they just won't get on!).

Ships Mass: - This is total number of units in ship design, divided by 10. Merely a yardstick by which to gauge the size and strength of any ship. A ship with a mass of 100 (1000 design units) is basically ten times the size of a 100 unit ship of 10 mass.

In addition to the basic building blocks of ship design, there are a number of 'slots' available to further tailor your ship specifications. The equipment that is available to be placed in each ship slot is gained through research, in each case consult the research table of the same name for the specifics of each piece of equipment:

1) Armour type
2) Shield type
3) Computer type - The computer systems that are used determine the speed and accuracy of weapons. 4) Offensive - weapon slots - Each ship has 5 offensive weapon slots for ship to ship combat and 1 bomb slot for planetary bombardment. The weapon slots determine the type of weapons that can be carried on a ship, the percentage of weapons units chosen for a ship design determines the number of weapons which a ship carries. For example a frigate of 10 units with 10% weapons will get 1 unit of weapon space in a slot, this could be 1 laser, 1 chemical missile or 1 fusion bomb. A battleship of 100 units with 30% weapons would have 30 units of weapon spaces which can be used in any manner, this could be 5 lasers in slot 1, 10 mass drivers in slot 2, 5 gauss cannon in slot 3 and 10 fusion bombs in slot 6 (the bomb slot) or any combination of 30 or less weapons. It's worth noting here that it is not necessary to fill all the weapon spaces available to a given ship design.

Your shipyards may build any of the ship types listed above, provided that the Research and Design people have blueprints previously submitted for the type of ship you are trying to construct. Each ship has a minimum technology level requirement and a "category" type, which designates the general usage of that ship (see above). Each shipyard may produce up to 100 shipunits per turn, provided you have the Construction points and credits to allow it. Remember that you will require two hundred and fifty population to work each and every shipyard if they are to operate and thus be able to produce ships.

Shipyards can also be used to maintain ships. There are a number of reason why a ship requires maintenance:
Firstly ships may have sustained battle damage which must be repaired. In this case the cost of repairing the ship is proportional to the percentage of damage coupled with the original cost of ship construction.
Secondly, Ships based on old ship designs may be upgraded to newer designs. ALL ships of the selected type within a fleet will be upgraded, if the planet doesn't have enough resources to upgrade all ships, none will be modified. The cost of upgrading ships will be the difference in cost between the two designs PLUS 50 con and 5000 credits.
Thirdly, hyperdrive jump engines require routine maintenance to prevent breakdown. The number in square brackets after the ship name is the amount of wear on a fleet's engines since last maintained, wear can be incurred by hyperdrive jumps and combat as well as a few other actions. Once wear reaches a certain level the drives have a chance of failing. A figure directly after the number of ships in a fleet will detail ships immobilised due to hyper drive failure. However a fleet can be moved to a shipyard and have their hyperdrive engines overhauled at a cost of 5% build cost per 10 wear units. If a ship has broken down the cost is increased to 25% of build cost plus the overhaul cost.

For example:-
Fleet: 1  Name: Fleet 1  Flt Jmp 2  Flt speed 0
Fleet located a: [ 7 , 2 , 1 ] 3 in shipyard. Def 0  Ret % 0
Fleet Att. 390  Fleet Def. 3490  Cargo 400  Pop. 0  Troop 0  Fght 50

2: 1 Fleet Carrier Mk : 1 Wasp[ 34 ] Jump : 2 Spd : 0 Dam : 0
    (^Immobilised)                      (^Wear)

Fleet has Cargo on board:
Comm1 44  Comm2 42  Comm3 75  Fght3 50
Hfght1 50  Hfght3 50

The above Wasp would require 15% of it build cost to overhaul or 40% if it had broken down and been towed to a shipyard.

As long as you have a shipyard you may produce 100 fighters per yard without cost, except for Con and Credits. These fighters have only the very basic design, need not be designed by the player. Small craft, they are not provided with any form of main engine, only smaller versions of standard Manu engines and may be operated from the planet's surface, or transported in fleet carriers. Fighters are immediately placed on the planet surface upon completion.

There are a number of "basic ship designs" that you learned of from your alien visitors. A current catalogue of all those you are aware of is listed here, and you must design your own blueprints from these before any construction can take place.

Presently known Ship Designs

Type Design Name Total units Tech level Use
1 m1 Frigate 10 1 Military
2 m2 Destroyer 20 2  
3 m3 Cruiser 30 3  
4 m4 Battlecruiser 50 4  
5 m5 Battleship 100 5  
33 m6 Dreadnaught 200 6  
34 m7 Star destroyer 300 7  
35 m8 Nova 400 8  
6 t1 Troop transport 30 1 Troop transport
7 t2 Heavy troop transport 80 3  
21 t3 Battalion troop transport 150 6  
8 o1 Satellite 10 1 Orbital
9 o2 Fortress 500 3  
10 o3 Star base 2000 5  
11 c1 Freighter 30 1 Merchant
12 c2 System freighter 50 2  
13 c3 Star freighter 100 3  
14 c4 Galaxy freighter 200 4  
15 c5 Universal freighter 500 5  
16 p1 Colonial transport 100 1 Pop transport
17 p2 Colonial liner 400 3  
19 p3 System liner 900 8  
21 s1 Scout 10 1 Scout
22 s2 Surveyor 30 3  
25 f1 Fleet carrier 50 1 Fighter
26 f2 Attack carrier 200 3 Carrier
27 f3 Star carrier 500 5  

These designs are the standard "class" of each ship, along with the category it fits into. So, if you want to build a Colonial category ship when your scientists lift you up to Tech 3, then you can opt to design and build a Colonial Liner, which is 400 units in mass instead of the 100 unit Colonial Transport. However, you must also remember that all ships can be built at a higher tech level than their original so you may decide that a Tech 3 Transport more fits your needs that the much larger Tech 3 Liner.

Before any ship can be built you must submit a design for that ship - this includes higher tech ships for the same design. A design for a tech 1 scout is not the same for a Tech 3 version of the same ship; separate designs must be submitted. Any designs for ships above the basic tech 1 will cost your treasury 2000 credits for their initial submission.

You may hold up to a total of five different design of each class of ship (e.g. Frigate mk 1-5, Cruiser mk 1-5), and more often than not these different versions are updated, higher Tech level ships of the same design. Please note that this limit is per category not per tech, so if you have three different Tech 1 designs of a Frigate, you can only have another two designs available for later Tech designs.

A ship design consists of allocating a number of "components" to a basic hull, the number and size of these components varying depending upon the use of the ship in question. There are limits and absolutes for each type of component on a ship, depending upon it's usage category. The total number of units (mass) allowed in the design can be taken from the table above and these units must then conform to certain design restrictions. The table below shows how the units can be divided up dependent upon the category of ship. All numbers shown are percentages.

  Military Troop Orbital Carrier Merchant Colonial Scout
Hull 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
Hyper 0-20 0-20 0 0-20 0-20 0-20 10-50
Manu 0-40 10-20 0 0-20 0-20 10-20 0-20
Shield 0-40 10-40 10-50 10-40 0-30 10-40 0-20
Weapon 0-40 0-20 10-50 10 0-10 0 0
Cargo 0-10 0-10 0 0-10 0-50 0-20 0-10
Command 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Special 0 10-40 0 10-50 0 20-50 0

The number shown represents the percentage of the total ship size that can be filled with the relevant component. For example, 10 means 10% - in a ten unit ship that is 1 unit, 2 units in a twenty ship, etc. Figures that allow a variance, say 0-20, means you have the choice of allocating between no units at all and up to one-fifth of the total mass. No fractions are allowed in a component, so 15% cargo of a 10-unit ship will result in an illegal number of cargo units (1.5), but 15% of a 20 unit ship equates to 3 cargo units, which is a legal value. After the makeup of the ship has been decided, the four 'slots' can be filled with whatever appropriate components are available.

Once a ship has been designed, the cost in construction points and credits can be calculated using the figures below. These calculations hold true for every type of ship, regardless of it's usage, and they also provide the method of determining the other attributes associated with the ship.

The table below lists the costs, in construction points and credits, of building different parts of the ships.

Component Cost in Con Credits
Hull 2 2 (multiply credits by tech level)
Hyperdrive engine 5 25
Thruster (manu) 3 20
Shields Cost as per specific shield type installed
Weapons Cost as per specific weapon
Cargo 1 1 (carries 10 units)
Command 6 50
Special 3 10 (10 pop or 5 troops)

The cost in credits must be multiplied by the tech level of the ship design; for example, the hull of a tech 3 ship costs 6 credits per unit allocated to it. The cost in con and credits for weapons and shield are # detailed in each appropriate research table no multiplication is required.

This process of designing a ship can seem rather complicated at first but as with all things, it becomes very simple once you have worked through it a couple of times. Let us take a typical ship, say a Scout at tech level 1 (probably the very first ship you'll need to design) and work through an example. The Presently Known Designs list shows the basic Scout as being as Tech 1 craft, from the Scout Category, built to a ten-unit specification. This final figure is an absolute for the craft - you can't build a five unit Scout, nor a twelve unit scout!

Check this design across to the Component Construction chart and we can see the following column:-

Scout
Hull 20%
Hyper 10-50%
Manu 0-20%
Shield 0-20%
Weapon 0%
Cargo 0-10%
Command 10%
Special 0%

Of these ten units of construction, the Hull is always 20%, and in this design that means it takes up 2 units from the 10 available. Remember, all units MUST be whole numbers.

Command units are always 10%, giving us 1 unit from the 10.

After these two definitive options, we are then free to manipulate the other seven units of construction as we desire. What must be borne in mind is what we want the ship to do, what duties it will be expected to perform, and how best to shape it to do them.

Hyperdrive may be anything from 10 to 50%. This allows us a choice of between one unit and five units for this section of the ship. The more units of space given over to Hyperdrive engines, the further a ship can travel in a single turn, so let's say we put in the maximum 5 units. For a Scout craft you want the ability to move over as long a distance as possible, so the maximum allowable is usually the best choice.

For this design we cannot allocate any space on the ship for weapons, as the category selection allows us 0%. The same goes for the Special (Cryogenic bays/Fighter hangers) so this too gets a 0%.

Scouts can be given minimal cargo capacity, but we will have little need for such space in our basic exploration vehicle, so this to gets set to 0%.

Manoeuvre (manu) engines may be none(0) to 20%. Again, we have a choice as to what to allocate to this part of the ship, but let's put in the remaining 2 units (20%) as speed is vital if the ship is attacked; scouts carry no weapons and can have only minimal shields - staying out of the way of enemies is well advised!

Shields could be none to 20%, but we have already used all the space on our ship with the previous components so no shields can be fitted to this model.

With this done, we check back to ensure we have not allocated more than ten units of space in the whole construction.

Finally the ship slots can be used. There are 4 types of slot: Armour, Computer, Shield and Weapon, the later being divided further into 6 sub slots - 5 ship to ship weapons and 1 bomb. Since the scout we are designing has no weapons or shields all that remains are the armour and computer type. Lets say our research scientists have managed to discover Exaferrium armour and Cybernetic computers both of which we wish to include.

This gives us a design that we can cost out as below:-

Component No of units Con Credits
Hull 2 4 4
Hyper 5 25 125
Manu 2 6 40
Shield 0 - - values as per shield research table
Weapon 0 - - values as per weapon research table
Cargo 0 0 0
Command 1 6 50
Special 0 0 0
Total cost 10 41 219

Armour : Exaferrium. Cost: 2 x 2 con = 4 con and 2 x 200 credits = 400 credits.
Computer : Cybernetic. Cost: 10 con and 1000 credits.
Shields : None.
Weapons : None.
Tonnage 10000 (1000 * Units)

Which gives us a total cost of 55 con and 1619 credits.

And from this basic design specification we can now work out the other parts of the ship's make-up, like it's speed, attack and defensive capability.

Mass=total ships units/10 (for use in the following calculations).

For ALL vessels (except Orbital which cannot move);

Jump = [Hyper engines / mass] + (tech lvl-1) (rounded down)

This figure determines the basic movement points available to any ship with Jump capability. If a ship has Hyperdrive engines, then this figure determines how much it can do in a single turn of movement.

Speed = (manu*ms)/mass + (tech*10)

where ms is as follows:
Military (i.e. frigates, destroyers, carriers etc...) ms=30
Troop ms=20
Orbitals ms=30
Merchant (i.e. freighters, colonial etc) ms=20
Scouts ms=30
Space mines ms=30
All aliens vessels have designs unique and not disclosed.

All Larger military vessels get bonuses...all the values are 30

The defensive capabilities of any ship are determined primarily by its shields. If a ship has any shields allocated to its design at all then;

Defence = (SU*STDV) + (tech*20) + (manu*5*tech)/mass

Where SU = number of shield units in the ship design and STDV = the shield type defensive value taken from the research table.

otherwise;

Defence = manu * 5

If a ship has zero weapons then its Attack is always zero, otherwise;

Attack=(NUM*WTAV) + (tech lvl*20) + (manu*5*tech lvl) / mass

Where NUM = the number of each type of weapon present on the ship and WTAV = Weapon Type Attack Value taken from the research table.

Each weapon type attack value should be summed to calculate the ships total attack value.

The value that is calculated using this method is a guideline only and can be modified by the ship computers, armour type, attack range and a number of other factors.

After putting all the basic number through these formulae we find out find out the additional information about our new Scout design.

Jump 5
Speed 70
Defence 10
Attack 0

Each ship design must have a name (though it need not be unique) and on the sheet provided for the design you must enter the ship NAME, design TYPE and both TECH and MARK (version) numbers for the design. Note that it is the TYPE that is required in this part, not the CATEGORY of ship, so you'd enter "Frigate" rather than "Military" or "Satellite" rather than "Orbital". However, just to confuse the issue, on our sample design the TYPE and CATEGORY are both the same, so we'd just enter "Scout". Let's assume we are going to name our new ship "Apache" and of course, make it Version number 1.

Once the Ship design sheet is submitted and verified, the design is available for use immediately. On the Construction Sheet the order to build the new ship will be written as;

No Item Location Con Credits
1 Apache (Scout T1 Mk1) [2,2,2]3 55 1619

This order would build a single Apache Scout craft, costing 55 Con and 1619 Credits at the world shown. The craft would be then moved into the Shipyard ready for use (as this is a Scout, it can be used on the same turn that it is constructed - the only type of ship that can!)

All newly built ships immediately get placed in the Shipyards, taking on the next available fleet number in your list if no ships are currently inside a shipyard above that world. The only exception to this rule is for Orbital category ships - these are immediately launched into space. If you have any Orbital ships above the world where they were built then they immediately join this fleet, otherwise they take up the next available fleet number.

Let's look at another design so that we can further test out the construction rules. A design for a tech level 1 Frigate, again of 10 units.

Component No of units Con Credits  
Hull 2 4 4  
Hyper 2 10 50 Jmp 2
Manu 1 3 20 Spd 50
Shield 2 - - Def 125
Weapon 2 - - Att 75
Cargo 0 0 0  
Command 1 6 50  
Special 0 0 0  
Total 10 35 234  

Armour : Exaferrium. Cost: 2*2 con = 4 con and 2*200 credits = 400 credits.
Computer : Cybernetic. Cost: 10 con and 1000 credits.
Shields : Optronic. Cost 2*5 con = 10 con and 2*50 credits = 100 credits.
Weapons : Slot 1 : 1 laser
Slot 2 : 1 pulse cannon

Tonnage 10000

For a total cost of 59 con and 1734 credits.

Here, in much the same way as the Scout design we have to apply a few absolutes (20% Hull and 10% Command Units), leaving us with seven other units to allocate. However Military category ships don't actually have a requirement for anything else as an absolute minimum in the way the Scout had to have some Jump engines, so there is a larger degree of flexibility. Still no Special units can be fitted, and as this is a warship we've decided to ignore the Cargo options while giving it the maximum allowable Hyperdrive capacity. The remaining units have been divided up over the Manu engines, Weapons and Shields in a pretty even spread - an all-purpose fighting craft. This design gives us the following statistics:-

Jump 2
Speed 50
Defence 125
Attack 75

No Item Location Con Credits
1 Sword (Frigate T1 Mk1) [2,2,2]3 59 1734

You may submit up to five new ship designs on any single turn, at no cost to the normal number of orders you may submit. You may change any design at any time provided NO SHIPS ALREADY EXISTS IN THAT DESIGN. You may only build ships of your current tech level or below but designs for higher levels may be submitted before you have reached the required tech level. Once a ship has been designed and built it cannot be changed in any manner - the only exception to this is on your very first turn (see later).

It is also worth remembering that your lower tech designs may still be built once you reach a higher tech level, though they will retain the same physical characteristics of the lower tech ship. This means that a tech level four Frigate can be built, and it will look exactly the same as a normal tech level one Frigate - until it gets into combat, that is!

Once a ship has been designed, you can build it on any planet with a shipyard. Orbital ships are launched into orbit once built and join any fleet in stationary orbit above your yard. Other ships are built and remain in the yard until you assign them to a fleet. When building ships remember that you must give class and version number of the ship, the name is not sufficient.