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Ships have unique IDs displayed on their hulls and within menus. The generation of IDs is completey completely random.
The playership HUD
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- Sizes
- S
- Small ships are cheap and fast but fragile with only S weapon options making them useful for dangerous tasks like exploring unknown territory or for swarming larger ships (includes, scouts, fighters traders and miners).
- M
- Medium ships are the most common ship type covering a diverse range of economic and military roles (Corvettes, and larger Frigates).
- L
- Large ships are expensive and have limited docking options, but are considerably more efficient than their smaller counterparts at mining, trading and combat (Destroyers).
- XL
- Extra Large ships have limited combat options but cover specialised roles , eg station construction, resupplying fleets and as carriers (station construction and Carriers of large S/M ship wings).
- Roles
- Combat
- Ships built to engage other ships and stations in combat and either destroy or capture them. Fight ships range from small agile Scout craft to large and heavily armed Destroyers. In general as fight ships progress in size through Scout->Interceptor->Fighter->Corvette->Destroyer roles there is an increase in shielding, fire power and cargo bay size but at the cost of being slower and more expensive to manufacture. Other combat ships like Frigates and Carriers specialise in transporting wings of smaller ships at high speeds to where they are needed while delivering modest supporting firepower. Bombers and Scavengers are specialised combat ships with a small profile, focussing focusing on missile support and piracy respectively.
- Trading
- Ships with large cargo bays for shifting wares around the universe for profit, manufacture, construction work and to keep front lines supplied. Traders come in may sizes balancing speed with cargo space and armaments. Small Courier ships are fast, medium sized Transporter ships offer a good mix of mobility and cargo space while large Freighter ships are good for carrying wares in bulk.
- Mining
- Miner ships are capable of efficiently harvesting Solid and Liquid resources from asteroids and nebulae
- ConstructuionConstruction
- Large and lightly armed Builder ships able to construct stations
- Other
- Other ships include the player Space Suit, autonomous Drone craft used by larger ships and stations and NPC mass traffic Police Vehicle ships that scan for illegal cargo which are lightly armed.
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After a short delay the ship will accelerate to a higher speed enabling long distances of space to be rapidly traversed. While in Travel Mode steering is impaired. Loss of shielding will disable travel mode preventing it from being used to escape combat. Using Boost directly after coming out of Travel Mode can be used for a short burst of extremely high speed.
- Scan
- Colour-codes the modules and equipment of stations and ships (& asteroids & their nodules in v1.3+) when close enough. Getting really close to a station module passively obtain information about it. Similarly, getting close to a ship, right-clicking, and initiating an active scan will reveal info about the ship too (this can be done while paused, if in combat - Snafu). The amount of information gained being proportional to the type of scanner equipped (Basic Scanner < Police Scanner < Spacesuit Scanner < upgraded Spacesuit Scanner). Audio Signals and Data Leaks are highlighted with red and able to be scanned passively.
- Long Range Scan
- Enables the ship to charge a pulse to scan for objects in space near the playership. The longer the pulse is charged for the further it travels (200 km max), however charging for too long will cause the pulse to abort. The pulse travels away from the ship within the limits of 45o above and below the horizon as viewed from the cockpit.
- When objects are detected by the pulse, they emit a "ping" sound like submarine sonar and a circular ring temporarily shows their location on the HUD
- Size of objects impacts on performance:
- Very large objects (stations, gates and accelerators) are detected within a 360o radius around the ship (identifed bt identified by "?" icons on the map)
- Smaller objects can only be detected in forward direction, within the limits of 45o left and right along the horizon (parallel to the wave visual):
- Blue ring = wrecks and uncommon lockboxes
- Yellow ring = explosive asteroids and rare lock boxes
- Purple ring = anomalies and data vaults
- Grey/white ring = Other
- Nebulae have a blue/cyan glow
- Smaller objects can only be detected in forward direction, within the limits of 45o left and right along the horizon (parallel to the wave visual):
- Seta
- Singularity Engine Time Accelerator - Accelerates the passage of time for everything relative to the player ship by 6-times. Makes long journeys seem shorter, but applies to the whole X-verse, including NPCs. Think of it a 'sleep time': the game (ie NPC trading/battle/war etc) advances at its normal rate while you're asleep, whether you're aware of external changes or not