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   Hulls at a Glance 
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  Ships!

Ships can do a large verity of things from transporting goods, laying mines, scouting, and last but not least combat! There are many different parts that are used to build a ship.

Ships are not the only thing you will find out in space, you will also find pods, minefields, worm hole, jump gate, and of course planets.

Fighters, which are a space ship, but are much smaller and can't cary any cargo. They also can not be customized. They generally are used to protect planets or docked with a much larger ship that has greater mobility.

Ship Parts:

Hull The Ships hull is what determines what you can put on it, and how fast it can go. Each race haves their own hulls, and most can trade or aquire other hulls from which to build and use. [more]
Engines These move ships through normal space at a speed of up to 190 light years. They also provide the ship with power. [more]
Hyper Jump Drive These drives allow a ship to instantly jump great distances and avoid most space hazards. They burn a fixed amount of fuel no matter what distance they jump. Two things can stop a jumping ship: gravitonic minefields and gravity well generators. [more]
Super Weapon A weapon so powerful that it can destroy most enemy ships with a single shot and even planets. Most ships are not able to mount these massive weapons. [more]
Large Weapons From as small as 30 kilotons to as large as 2000 kilotons. The size of large weapon that will fit on a ship depends on the size of a ship`s large weapon mounts. There are many different types of large weapons to choose from that have wildly different characteristics. [more]
Small Weapons These are weapons that have a mass of only 1 kiloton each and do only a limited amount of damage to the enemy ship. But they recharge at a very rapid rate. [more]
Point Defense These are purely defensive weapons that are used to destroy attacking fighters and intercept incoming weapons fire. [more]
Power Generator These devices produce extra power for your weapon systems when your engines don't produce enough. [more]
Shield Generator Produces an energy shield around the ship that protects the ship from incoming weapons fire from enemy ships and fighters. Once the shield are gone incoming weapons fire will hit the ship's armor. Shields are regenerated between battles. [more]

 

Anatomy of a Ship:

Armor This is a thin layer of duranium armor plate that covers the ship. Once the armor is destroyed it is gone for good. You must replenish the armor at a base that has a supply of armor. In an emergency you can use repair units to rebuild the armor. [more]
Fuel Tank

Holds all the ship's fuel. With out fuel you can not move your ship, but you can still defend/attack objects at the same location as you.

It is not a good idea to fill the tank, as it cost more fuel to lug around that extra fuel, and you usually do not need more than a handful of turns worth of fuel at any given time in that ships journey/life.

Cargo Hold This holds all the ship's standard cargo. These are all goods that can be moved around by the transporters. Standard cargo items are: duranium metal, tritanium metal, molybdenum metal, food, med, and supplies.
Repair Hold

The repair hold is the storage area that the repair units are kept in. Repair units are used to fix damage to your ship's systems. The bigger the better, but don't fill them unless you on a war rampage or going into crystal territory.

You can find repairs on planets or build them in a Ship Repair Shop.

Devices many ships have have special ship devices that give it extra capabilities.[more]
Ordnance Magazine This hold stores all the ship's ammo for its weapons, which is also know as ord. Ord is also used to product minefields if the ship has a special mine layer device built into its hull.
Pod Bays Holds one pod of any type. To dock a pod to a ship you give the order to the pod to dock with the ship. When the ship gets close to the pod the pod will dock. Docked pods will travel with the ship where ever the ship goes, safely tucked inside the bay. The pod will only detach from the ship when the ship passes the pod's drop target or the ship gives the order for the pod to drop.[more]
Fighter Bays Holds a fighter wing. To dock a fighter wing give the order to the wing to dock with the ship, when the ship and the wing are close enough the wing will enter the ship's fighter bay. If a ship with docked wings is attacked the fighters will launch from the ship to defend the ship from attack and return to the ship after the battle.[more]
Crew Quarters

This is where you ship's crew lives and works.

With out crew you can not move or control your ship. Also you ship could end up being auto captured by another race and HG or troops wont help it.

Most races train crew with training centers, others can use ships to train crew.

Guest Quarters These are extra rooms just for non-crew members. Colonists, troops, and high guard rangers can travel on board the ship in this section of the ship.
Skill Ship are the only unit in the game that have skill. But it is quite obscure, useful during certain phases of Boarding mechanics. Basically, you get a slight bonus to your Crew's fighting ability when boarded or boarding.
Experience

Ship are the only unit in the game that can get Experience

It helps weapon accuracy up to 25%, sweeping/laying mines, and boarding parties. You can gain more ship experience with combat and sometime other things like stealing.

The starting ship start with a random amount of experience (~1-99) while all others built buy you start with zero.

Privateers can only make troops and HG from ships with a lot of experience.

Ships with more skill, experience and high guard take their actions last. Meaning the one with a higher amount will then will sweep mines last or will lay mines last. You want to be last for these.

Help:
If you need further help with Ships and did not see what you are looking for, try one of the following: