A ship, seen from different angles
Ships are objects that can be controlled by the player in Avorion. They are made of blocks and are capable of moving and flying. When a server creates a new ship, it is usually randomly generated. The basic shape of a randomly generated ship depends on the style it was generated from, whereas the style depends on the faction the ship belongs to.
Building or deleting a ship
Building
Ships can be built directly from a drone, using a button in the top right corner.
Ships can also be built at shipyards, where the style and size of the new ship can be specified before it is constructed. Ships constructed this way can be randomized by seed, can embark a crew+captain to allow them to receive orders and can also be set as a 'station founder' (just be warned that the ship will be deleted when building the station).
Deletion
To delete a ship, switch to build mode. Then, disable Safe Mode, select all blocks and finally hit Delete blocks. Alternatively, you can destroy it with your weapons and then salvage it, but you will recieve far less resources back (not reccommended).
Characteristics
Turrets
Ships can have turrets attached to them. The number of turrets that can be placed on a ship can only be augmented by Turret Control Systems. A block will currently allow as many turrets as will fit on its surface.
Visuals
Unlike stations, ships usually have engine blocks attached to them, giving them the possibility to fly around.
AI
If a player controlled ship has a captain, players can give orders to these ships. This can be simply accomplished by selecting them and pressing the interaction button (default: F). Players can manage multiple ships with captains. Fleet management is relatively limited at the moment.
Scripting
Version 0.3 introduces scripting of ships, for interaction and more specific behavior.
Upgrades
Every ship can have at least one system upgrade. The more Processing power a ship has, the more upgrade slots it gets, until it reaches a total of 15 which is the maximum.
The following table* shows the Processing power required per ship to unlock each new upgrade slot.
| Number of upgrade slots | Ship volume approximation (m3) |
|---|---|
| 01 | 0k |
| 02 | 51 |
| 03 | 128 |
| 04 | 320 |
| 05 | 800 |
| 06 | 2 000 |
| 07 | 5 000 |
| 08 | 12 500 |
| 09 | 19 764 |
| 10 | 31 250 |
| 11 | 43 065 |
| 12 | 59 348 |
| 13 | 78 125 |
| 14 | 107 554 |
| 15 | 148 371 |
(* credits for this data compilation goes to reddit user NullAshton)
Upgrades of higher rarity will have a more significant effect.
There are 7 levels of rarity.
| Color | Rarity |
|---|---|
| Petty | |
| Common | |
| Uncommon | |
| Rare | |
| Exceptional | |
| Exotic | |
| Legendary |
Other ships
The following objects are also considered ships:
- Drone
- Abandoned ship: Those ones look like wreckages at first glance but can actually be claimed when interacted with (found in hidden mass sectors).
Special ships
There are some special ships in the game:
Trivia
It is possible to create a ship without engine blocks. However, this ship will be almost stationary and only able to turn around.
In rare cases the ship generator can generate ships without engines.