Information: Ships

Ship Information

"Welcome Cadet! You are here to train to be the best damned pilot in the vastness of space!"

-Every Earth Military drill Sargent in the S.O.F.

Introduction

If you're here to learn about ships, than you've come to the right place. Before we go any further though, make sure you read the ship section in the newbie guide first, that way you have a basic understanding of Ships and the different Classes. We will get more into those later. First things first...

Ships make up a majority of the role playing experience on this site, Ships aren't just objects here, they are in fact, just like an additional character. No, you can't play a ship, but you can play a pilot. Ships carry your characters from adventure to adventure and without them, he or she would be stranded.

Ship Engines

Human ships tend to use Ion Engines. They have a loud winding noise as well as either a blue or red glow. Ion Engines have great fuel to power ratio and are good in most atmospheres. Through mods, they can have even get to the top speed of most Anti-Matter Engines.

Some ship manufacture's, prefer Anti-Matter engines (AM engines) as they are quiet(er), cheaper, and tend to be a little faster than Ion engines. Sounds nice right? So why doesn't everyone use them? Well, despite their good qualities, they have a very high fuel consumption, and require a rotating core which can take up a lot of space on bigger ships.

Engines come in different shapes and sizes but most have the same function, moving a very large ship through sky and space. The bigger the ship, the larger the engines are going to be, and the larger the engine, the more things can go wrong. It isn't unknown for large ships, like dreadnoughts to have over fifty full time mechanics during any one flight.

On the site, we really don't care if you make up different names for different parts on the engines if you play a mechanic. After all who would questions a mechanic?

Ship Classes

We've discussed these briefly in the newbie guide, but in the ship guide, there is quite a bit more information, including base states for ships. This is very important. Through mods (Which will be addressed in the next section) you can increase the stats of your ships.

More information will be on the Ship Creation sheet located just below this post.

Shuttles: These are smaller ships that usually can only carry one or two people at a time. Most of them cannot access gates unless they are modified to withstand the transportation. These are basically cars of the future.

Modification slots: 2
Base Stats
Top speed: 2
Agility: 2
Attack Power: 0
Defenses: 1
Complexity: 2


Corvette: These ships are fast and agile. Used mainly by the military as fighters, thy can be easily deployed. Most come equiped with weaponry.

Modification slots: 2
Base Stats
Top speed: 4
Agility: 5
Attack Power: 3
Defenses: 2
Complexity: 3

Freighters: Freighters are much larger than shuttles or corvette class ships. Usually, they carry one or two shuttles on board and can travel through gates. These can house any where from 7 to 20 people depending on the size of the ship.

Modification slots: small- 5, medium- 7, Large- 9
Base Stats
Top speed: 6
Agility: 3
Attack Power: 0
Defenses: 4
Complexity: 4

Cruisers: These ships are usually the same size as freighters. Equiped with heavy weaponry and fast speeds, these ships are probably the most used ship in the military.

*Used specifically with military, there are civilian versions without weaponry *
Modification slots: small- 5, medium- 7, Large- 9
Base Stats
Top speed: 8
Agility: 3
Attack Power: 5
Defenses: 5
Complexity: 5

Dreadnought: These are the biggest battleships that are in space, housing over a few hundred personal, they are are slow, but have enough fire power to make any planet a living hell.

Modification slots: 15
Base Stats
Top speed: 15
Agility: 2
Attack Power: 20
Defenses: 20
Complexity: 12

Ship Mods

Mod's come in many different shapes and sizes and can add a wide array onto the ships systems. Weather its as simple as adding a new targeting system or as complex as adding a new life support, mods can accomplish so many different things.

Although most mods are expensive and legal, there are those that are illegal, for those inner criminals you have roaming inside of you. All of the mods that are available and known in the sites database are right down here.

Legal Mods

• Arapp Shield Generator- Adds 3 to defense; adds 1 to complexity
  -Creates a shield that's able to take damage
• Dual Skin Platting - Adds 2 to defense
  -Armor platting that helps prevent hull breaches
• Heat Sink Shield Core- Adds 3 to defense; adds 1 to complexity
  -Makes shields more efficient
• Advanced Life Support - Adds 2 to defenses, adds 2 to complexity
  -the advanced life support can separate the ship through the shielding unit, allowing large objects to pass, but oxygen is still retained.
• Advanced Targeting System- Adds 2 to attack
  -Sensors are put up around the ships exterior, and the on board AI system takes control and is able to target ships from all sides, except for heavily cloaked vessels.
• Cannon Auxiliary Power Unit - Adds 2 to attack; adds 2 to complexity
  - With the the power unit attached, cannon's have a faster cooling rate and increased rapid firing capabilities
• five-stage controls - Adds 3 to Agility; adds 3 to complexity
  - Rigging of a ship is changed to encompass greater maneuverability.
• Built in stabilizer thrusters - Adds 4 to Agility; add 3 to complexity
  - thrusters are added into a ships 'wings' or parts of the body, allowing for quick rolls and increased stability on landing.
• EX-Ion Engines (Ion Engines only)- Adds 2 to top speed; adds 2 to complexity
  - These engines have an overdrive function that increase the speed of the ship, but also increase fuel consumption.
• Ion flux Drive (Ion Engines only)- adds 2 to top speed; adds 2 to complexity
  - Resembles a turbo for a car and increases acceleration of ships.
• Anti-Matter Capacitor (Anti-Matter Engines only) - Adds 4 to top speed, adds 3 to complexity
  - Increases the bursting of the anti-matter engine, increasing both speed and fuel consumption.
• Anti-Matter accelerator (Anti-Matter Engines only) - Adds 3 to top speed, adds 1 to complexity
  - Spins the anti-matter core to produce faster speeds
• Superior AI hard-drive - Adds 3 to everything - adds 5 complexity
  With the ships artificial intelligence having a new drive, it allows the AI to process new information three times as fast, it allows the AI to increase it's cybernetic awareness, thus finding ships faster, and can even increase a ships engine efficiency.
• H0k Cloaking System - Adds 2 to defense - adds 3 to complexity
  -Along with the design of the ship this cloaking system produces a small pulse that can block sensor signals, making a ship appear invisible on radar. ((Advanced targeting system emits a stronger signal that can see through the pulse))
• Ion-Cloaking - Adds 2 to defense - adds 2 to complexity
  - The Ion Cloaking device is applied to Ion-engines. It resembles a vent and disperses Ion trails, making it harder to detect ships with Ion engines.
• Arapp Cloaking - Adds 5 to defense - adds 3 to complexity
  - A high level of Cloaking and can even hide from an advanced targeting system by creating a barrier that can block out enemy sensors. ((Military only)

User Created Mods

• Gravity Well Generator -Adds 2 to Attack - Adds 5 to Complexity
  
  A modification researched, designed, and manufactured for use on UPS Ships. This modification installs a system for generating super-dense gravity fields into the ships Shields, essentially turning it into a gravity well. This in turn pulls ships in FTL travel out of hyper-space by triggering proximity alarms in the shipboard AI's. If not properly installed this modification can cause the ship to crush itself.

[/LIST]illegal Mods

• Halo Controls - Adds 6 to agility; adds 3 to complexity
  - Controls similar to five-stage controls, these involve rings in the cockpit and the pilot put's their hands through them, when the hands are moved, the ship reacts, and can fly in spectacular fashion. .
• Trail Maker - Adds 5 to top speed; adds 1 to complexity
  - A special engine modification that is mainly used by smugglers and other criminals. It is illegal because when ruptured, can cause nuclear explosion with the same yield of the Hiroshima bomb.
• Valkyrie Engines - Adds 6 to top speed; adds 3 to complexity
  - Created by the Blood Gears, the Valkyrie engines are six interlaced ion engines,and when they are activated, they create a blast out the exhaust which can damage surrounding populated areas.
• Variable pitch wing engines - Adds 7 to agility; adds 5 to complexity
  - Highly dangerous, this is a mode where engine's mounted on wings can rotate to achieve fast vertical takeoff, but sometimes the mechanism can jam and it usually results in unnecessary death
• Rhino Cannons - Adds 5 to attack
  -Created by pirates, since they are idiot proof and can cause massive damage, they are illegal to all ships, and are considered an war crime to be used. Rhino cannons use an anti-mater blast that rips through armor plating like tissue paper and can level cities. Due to their massive size, these take up six modification slots
• Overdrive Regulator - Adds 4 to attack; 6 to complexity
  - Charges blasts before they leave the ship's guns and is designed to destroy enemy shields. If not installed properly, the overdrive function will backfire, killing everyone on board a ship.
• Red Baron Shields - Adds 6 to defense; adds 2 to complexity
  An advanced shielding unit that can cloak a ship as well as protect it. ((only ships equiped with advanced targeting system AND an AI hard-drive can detect.))
• Valiant Platting - Adds 4 to defense; adds 1 to complexity
  Created from a rare mineral that is used for medical supplies.
• Homing Flares - Adds 4 to defense; adds 1 to complexity
  - Releases flares that can blind targeting systems

Ship Shields

In space, there are very bad things that can happen quickly. One of the worst things, is when a rock the size of pebble zips through the hull of a ship and causes explosive decompression, killing everyone on board.

They came up with a shielding system that acts like a webbing that catches and deflects on coming projectiles. Most shields cannot be seen by normal human vision, but the more enhanced ones can. They look like moving shapes that constantly expand and contract and move like oil over water.

Military grade shields can even protect against enemy fire.

Ship Weapons

Space is a dangerous place, so good captains make sure their ship is prepared for anything. Most of the time, you have to worry about pirates or gangs, so you bring weapons to help defend yourself.

Ship AI's

AI's are the only ones who are capable of knowing if there's something wrong with the ship. They control the sensory systems as well as life support. They are essential if the ship wishes to keep operating in space for long periods of time. They listen and receive any commands given to them and are always obedient. At least they are now. Back in the day of the first human fleets, they didn't have any of the limiters that they do now, and many ships were lost because the AI went haywire or a virus was uploaded to them. There's nothing to worry about now...unless you fly a ship from the first space era.

Most AI's have their own personalities and quirks and can carry on a conversation. They were made this way to appear more human, and any lone pilots in space wouldn't suffer from Space Madness.

Ship Creation Guide

Basic Information

Al of the information below, is just basic information that won't require a lot of detail, hence the basic part...>.>

Ships Name: This is the name of your ship, it can pretty much be whatever you want it to. Weather its something simple like The Chase or something like the Lightbringer
Ship Class: There are a varity of different ship sizes, weather its something small like a shuttle, which is designed for only one or two people, to a military dreadnought.
Ship size: How big is your ship? Small, Medium, or Large.


Ship Crew: Right here is where you add in your ship crew. This can be a list form and it might be a good idea to also state what job your crew members do.
And thats it for basic information! woot!

Ship Attributes

Now than, part 2. Ship Attributes are basically stats that help determine a ships top speed, its agility, it's attack power, its defenses, and it's complexity. When building your ship, you are allowed to spend 30 additional points into any attribute other than complexity (unless you really wanted to) that add onto the base stats of your ships class[/white].

Top speed: This is pretty self explanatory. How fast can your ship get up to? This depends on a lot of factors.
Agility: How agile is your ship? This is really self explanatory isn't it? Basically what this means (if you don't know) is how well your ship can maneuver and this also includes your ships overall acceleration. Now this is where you need to be realistic, a skiff is going to be much more agile than a battleship, even in space. It's smaller, and has a tighter turn radius. But the Battleship will probably have bigger engines and more power, and most likely a higher top speed.
Attack Power: This is were you put down your ships offensive capability. It is not where you put down what kind of Ion cannons the ship has, but rather the figure to just show how much power it has. A skiff, won't have a very high attack power if it has any at all, while a battleship will have an outrageous amount.
Defenses: This section isn't about what kind of shields your ship may have. This is just a figure to see how much damage your ship can take. A skiff wont have much of a defense unless it gets some extra shielding, while a battleship would have a crazy ass amount.
Complexity: This is how complex your ship is to fly. Is it a ship that anyone with basic knowledge can pilot? Or does the pilot need to have extensive training to do it? This also goes into how mechanically complex is it, (eg: can a mechanic with basic training fix it, or does he/she need special training?)

Now then, on CS we use a number system which shows the level, this way, its much easier to compare two ships and see how they would match up. Still confuzeled? Heres an example

Top speed: 6
Agility: 4
Attack Power: 8
Defenses: 8
Complexity: 4

See, its pretty simple. But each class of ship has its own base stats, but through modifications, you can enhance different aspects of your ship. [color=white](*Remember you only have 30 points to distribute among the categories plus the ship modifiers*)

Modifications

Or mods for short, below is a section where you place down how many mods your ship has. Different mods do different things, (eg, a Ion Flux Drive gives your Ion Engines better efficiency and increasing your top speed.)

How many mod spots your ship has availiable depends mainly on its size. The bigger the ship, the more spots available. Bascially we've simplified this for you in the guide, by telling you how many spots are available depending on your class. Each mod listed might also add onto your ships complexity.

Usually this will be a list and if you don't know how to make one, it's quite simple. Just copy this code:

If you want to add more dots to the list, just add in more [*]. It's really simple.

An example of your modes may look like this:

• EX-Ion Engines(- adds 2 to top speed)
• Ion flux Drive (- adds 2 to top speed)
• Heat sink Shield Core (- adds 4 to defense)

So basically your old stats may be something like this without the mods:

Top speed: 2
Agility: 6
Attack Power: 3
Defenses: 1
Complexity: 4

and with the mods

Top speed: 6
Agility: 6
Attack Power: 3
Defenses: 5
Complexity: 4

Just add them up, also, its nicer to know what the mods do but it doesn't have to be included, and neither does the white but if you want it you can add it.

Description:

Heres were you describe how your ship looks. You can just use a picture if you want, after all, a picture is worth a thousand words. But, text is always a plus

And thats pretty much it on how to make a ship. Remember if you have any questions, go right ahead and ask.