Ship hulls

A ship’s hull is the main component of its design. While a ship is of course to limited to a single hull, this choice has a lot of consequences, from influencing the space available inside the ship to the type of components which can be used to whether or not the ship requires a crew of officers to fly.

There are two main types of hulls. Standard, mechanical hulls are the most basic option, while it is possible later in the game to create biological ships if the proper technologies have been researched. Biological ships, while leaving slightly less internal space available, are more robust and possess natural regenerative properties; they also include a basic power generation unit.

In addition, it is possible to categorise ship hulls according to their size. Indeed ship hulls come in all sizes and shapes. The size of a ship hull determines how the ship will be used.

Ships using tiny hulls are appropriate as scouts, or later in the game, when miniaturisation has been perfected, as small fighters. Tiny hulls imply a high maneuverability but a low firepower and protection.

Small hulls make very good fighters. While still being highly maneuverable, they can support many more components than tiny hulls and are usually somewhat more robust. The default fighter design is based on a small hull.

Medium hulls are useful to make ground troops carriers, or high-power fighters. They are much less maneuverable by default than their smaller counterparts, but are clearly more robust.

Big hulls are appropriate for high-powered local defenses, or basic hyperspace-capable carrier crafts. They are about as maneuverable as a fridge, tho. However, they can take a beating before blowing up.

Huge hulls make excellent capital ships. Their size allows them to be outfitted with lots of weapons as well as hangar bays for smaller ships. While having a very low maneuverability, they are very robust.

Enormous hulls are, well, enormous. Whatever one might want to put inside a ship, it’s likely that this type of hull can handle it. However, their maneuverability is low, and while this is amply compensated by their great robustness, they will require a crew to fly.

Gigantic hulls are almost as big as possible. They are capable of carrying loads of equipment and are highly robust. They require a crew and are not quite maneuverable.

Colossal hulls are the biggest hulls available. Even gigantic hulls are small compared to these mastodons. Their maneuverability is as low as it gets, and they require a crew. But on the other hand, these can really be made into flying fortresses that can take as much of a pounding as an entire fleet of smaller ships.

The list of hulls players can use has been divided between mechanical and biological hulls. Both lists are ordered by size.

The first one deals with mechanical hulls.

Name Size Beta 5 equivalent Available by default
Karakuri Tiny N/A Yes
Aegis Small Fighters Yes
Gungnir Medium G.A. ships Yes
Mistcalf Big Cruisers No
Talos Huge N/A No
Titan Enormous Battlecruisers No
Dreadstar Gigantic N/A No
Colossus Colossal N/A No

The second list regroups biological hulls. None of these ships have direct equivalents in Beta 5, and none are available by default.

Name Size
Krill Tiny
Nautilus Small
Narwhal Medium
Wyvern Big
Ouroboros Huge
Kraken Enormous
Hydra Gigantic
Leviathan Colossal

3 Comments

  1. Yuckwitte:

    I reckon there should be some ‘Corvette’ class ships that are like destroyers. They are good for killing ships but have no hanger bays.

    What do you think?

  2. TSeeker:

    @Yuckwitte,
    The names we went for are usually mythical creatures of some sort (with a few exceptions). However, keep in mind these are hulls, not actual ships - and yes, ‘Corvette’ sounds good for an actual default ship design name.

    EDIT - Realised my reply was incomplete, so here goes. It could be a default design with, say, a Mistcalf or Talos hull - no hangar bays, just heavy weaponry and defences. Since the ship designs can be completely customised (and will need to be in an actual war, if your enemy changes his ship’s design you have to adapt), any combination can be used.

  3. Yuckwitte:

    Yeah, after looking back at the names, they are mythical (except krill, they are real enough), the Kraken is debatable as too it’s realness and the colossus sure as hell wasn’t alive :P)

    (that more spam-like for you :P)

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