So far, we've only been looking at properties that affect the ship as a whole. Much of the customization possible for a ship design comes in the form of the dozen or more systems that give the ship its specialized abilities. Each ship system is defined by a structure in the ship definition file. All of the system structures have a few properties in common, but they each have custom attributes as well.

COMMON SYSTEM PROPERTIES

Each system structure is introduced by a specific attribute name that identifies the type of system being declared. For example, reactors are declared with the name "power", like this: power: { /* reactor attributes */ }. The following system types are supported.

SYSTEM TYPES: Click each name for more info

The order that systems are listed in the ship definition file is significant. Each system must draw power from a reactor in order to operate (except for power sources themselves!). Each system is automatically attached to the power source that was most recently declared in the definition file. For example:

power: {
   type:    Fusion,
   design:  "Fusion Reactor",
   // ...
}

drive: {
   type:    Plasma,
   name:    "Plasma Drive",
   // ...
}

power: {
   type:    "Auxilliary Reactor",
   design:  "Auxilliary Reactor",
   // ...
}

shield: {
   type:    2,
   design:  "Grav Shield",
   // ...
}

In the above listing, the plasma drive will draw power from the main reactor, and the shield will be attached to the auxilliary reactor. Starship captains can adjust power distribution and connection during the game through the engineering screen. For example, a starship captain could easily move the shield system from the aux reactor to the main fusion reactor to help balance the load. However, fighter pilots do not have access to the engineering screen, so fighter power routing is fixed at design time.

Starships are generally designed with fixed weapons systems. If the ship definition file declares that a particular type of destroyer has two x-ray laser mounts, and one torpedo launcher, all ships of that type will always have those weapons.

Fighters, on the other hand, usually have underwing weapons hardpoints that can carry a variety of different weapon types. You can configure each fighter to carry an appropriate set of weapons each time one takes off during the game. In order to do this, fighter ship designs use two additional structures:

All good things must come to an end, preferably in a suitably noisy and colorful series of fireballs!

death_spiral: {
   time:             5,

   explosion_type:   10,   // SMALL_EXPLOSION
   explosion_time:   2,
   explosion_loc:    (-50, 50, 0),

   explosion_type:   10,   // SMALL_EXPLOSION
   explosion_time:   1,
   explosion_loc:    (60, 40, 190),

   explosion_type:   10,   // SMALL_EXPLOSION
   explosion_time:   0.5,
   explosion_loc:    (0, -48, -180),

   explosion_type:   20,   // LARGE_BURST (custom)
   explosion_time:   0.1,
   explosion_loc:    (0, -48, -180),

   explosion_type:   10,   // SMALL_EXPLOSION
   explosion_time:   0.3,
   explosion_loc:    (20, 80, -190),

   explosion_type:   20,   // LARGE_BURST (custom)
   explosion_time:   0.1,
   explosion_loc:    (20, 80, -190),

   final_type:       13,   // LARGE_EXPLOSION
   final_loc:        (0, 0, 120),

   final_type:       13,   // NUKE_EXPLOSION
   final_loc:        (0, 0, -120),

   final_type:       12,   // LARGE_BURST
   final_loc:        (0, 0, 0),

   debris:           "Debris1.mag",
   debris_loc:       (0,0,350),
   debris_mass:      100e3,
   debris_count:     1,
   debris_life:      600,
   debris_fire:      (-100,0,0),
   debris_fire:      (-35,20,-80),

   debris:           "Debris2.mag",
   debris_loc:       (-200,20,-300),
   debris_mass:      100e3,
   debris_count:     1,
   debris_life:      500,
   debris_fire:      (64,0,120),
   debris_fire:      (85,20,0),
   debris_fire:      (65,-10,-60),

   debris:           "Debris3.mag",
   debris_loc:       (300,0,-320),
   debris_mass:      100e3,
   debris_count:     1,
   debris_life:      400,

   debris:           "Debris5.mag",
   debris_loc:       (0,20,0),
   debris_mass:      1,
   debris_count:     12,
   debris_life:      25,

   debris:           "Debris7.mag",
   debris_loc:       (10,0,0),
   debris_mass:      1,
   debris_count:     7,
   debris_life:      15,
}