Damage, power and getting stranded

Hull and shields

Shields take hits first and recharge. Damage that gets through wears the hull, and the ship is lost when the hull is gone. Collisions hurt the hull too. Repair at any station’s Services tab, or patch the hull yourself from outside (see Aboard your ship).

If your ship is destroyed you wake at the station you last docked at with it rebuilt, for 15% of what the ship costs new (or what you have; a Wayfarer is free). Everything it carried is lost: unsold exploration data, cargo, module kits, and any tourists, with their tour.

Ship parts

Six parts wear with damage: the fuel scoop, the frame shift drive, the thrusters, the shield generator, the power plant and life support. A worn part does less of its job:

Part	Worn	Broken
Fuel scoop	Scoops slower	No fuel from stars
Frame shift drive	Shorter jumps	No jumps
Thrusters	Slower, turns less	The ship barely answers
Shield generator	Weaker shields	No shields
Power plant	Slower shield recharge, more fuel used	No power
Life support		The cabin air runs out

The flight HUD’s status line names the worst part, and the ship shows it. In the cockpit the canopy cracks and the dash sparks. From outside, and to your party, each 10% of hull lost is a scorch mark that sparks now and then, below 30% the ship trails smoke, a worn drive sputters and smokes at the engines, a worn scoop smokes at the nose, and a failing shield generator’s shield flickers. Aboard, worn machinery sparks where it stands (the power plant at the reactor, the drives in the engine room), the lamps flicker as the power plant goes and dim without power, and the air hazes as it runs out. A station repair mends the hull first and then the most worn parts, and the Services tab lists them.

Part repair kits

Far from a station, a part repair kit mends a part yourself. Every station sells them in the Market’s Kits tab, for 600 credits and a tonne of hold each. Fit one from the Ship tab of the Ship’s computer, or from the Stranded screen: it brings a part up by 25%, up to 75%. Only a station makes a part like new. A kit brings a broken frame shift drive back to life, so carry a few on a long expedition.

Ship status

O (or the Ship button along the top; outside on a world, where O calls your ship, just the button) opens the Ship’s computer on its Ship tab: how the ship is doing, updated while it’s open.

• Hull, shields, fuel, and cabin air (with whether the power’s on, and how long the air lasts once it’s running down).
• Each part’s integrity, and what its wear is costing you right now: the scoop’s rate, your jump range, speed and turn, shield strength, the shield’s recharge and how much more fuel the ship burns, and whether the cabin air is being renewed.

A station’s repair mends worn parts along with the hull. With a part repair kit in the hold, each worn part has a button to fit one.

Power and air

With the tank dry or the power plant broken, the ship has no power: no throttle, steering, drive, guns or shields, and you can’t take off. The docking computer still works, so a station can tow you in.

Without power or life support, the cabin air runs down over about ten minutes. Your oxygen readout shows it as “cabin”. When it runs out you black out and the ship is abandoned. Landed on an Earth-like or water world, the air outside keeps you breathing.

Stranded

When your ship can’t go anywhere (no power, no air, or no fuel to jump with no station and no star to scoop), the game offers you a choice. The Stranded button along the top keeps it there while it lasts.

Calling for help

A distress call goes out to every pilot online, for up to two hours. They see it on their Party screen; in your system your ship is marked, and listed in the bodies list’s Others tab. A pilot who reaches you (within 1 km in space, 3 km if you’re landed) can answer it: they hand over up to 5 t of fuel and patch broken parts to 20%, so you can fly again.

Rescuers are paid a bounty (more the further from Sol), once a day for each pilot they help, and earn titles at 1, 5 and 25 rescues: Good Samaritan, Lifeline and Guardian Angel.

Abandoning ship

Or you can abandon ship. You wake at the station you last docked at, in your next ship, or in a free Wayfarer with a full tank if you have none. Your crew and unsold data stay with you; tourists are lost.

The abandoned ship stays where it was as a derelict (up to six). Go back to it, on foot if it’s on the ground, and Use it to reclaim it: the ship returns to your fleet with its hull, parts and fuel, and its hold comes into the ship you’re flying, as much as fits.