Section 1
I fondly call this section...wait a minute...I don't call this section anything...it's just there. The most important part of this section is choosing a ship type. For more info on ships go here.
The next choise is the class type. You can spesify what class type the ship is(like a cargo ship). This dosn't really matter much. It's just for organization. You can even leave this empty. Or you can mismach their types. Make a space staion a attack ship! Knock yourself out! Please! I'm getting tired of typing!
The next menu is where you name you ship. You can also make your own names. This is fairly fun(can you imagine getting attacked by 20 U.S.S. Flying Cows?). You have to name your ship no matter what.
This is the components section. The components section is your friend. Give the components section all your money. Did I metion my name is components? Really! Ok, now that I've got that out of my system(no pun intended), I'll explain this section. This is the section where you can choose which components and/or weapons you'll put in your ship. The screenshot shows the components subsection. To get the weapons subdivition click on the weapons list choise. Right click on a component or weapon to find out what it does or hhow effective it is.
In the components subsection(I'm just going to call it the section for now) there are four cells above all the cool stuff. First is level(lvl). All the cells below shows at what tech level you get this component. The next is comp name. Below it are the names of the components. The next collom of cells are the costs. The final collom is size. This needs some explaining. Each ship has a limit on how much it can carry. For example the largest(moving) ship(in the demo),the cruser, has 35 spaces. The first (moving) ship you get ,the escort, has 6 spaces. Each item can take up from 1 to 15 spaces(in the demo)
For more informaion on components (the things that arn't weapons) click here. Click here for info on weapons.
This is the ummmmm...additions window! Yhea, thats it, the addition window. This is where you put the components in the ship. To add somthing simply click on somthing in the components section and then click on the (gasp)Add button. To remove a somthing click on a component in the window and click on the (drumroll please)Remove button.
I will give you one tip. Put at least 1 Ion engine in every ship, unless of course it's a space or battle station. Otherwise your ship won't be able to move(space staions can't move in the first place).
This is the ship stat section. This is the section that tells you every thing you need to know about your ship. The information in this window changes as you add more stuff to the ship.
The first little box thingy(you try thinking of a better name) shows how much it will cost to buy the ship(If you save it right now. Most of the boxes are like this).
The box shows space left/space in ship This is quite possibly the most usefull feature of this section. This allows you to desern how much more junk you can put in your ship.
The next box shows the the speed of the ship. The number shows how many spaces you can move in the tactical window. The fastest your ship can go is 6.00(I think)
The forth box shows how many engines it takes for 1 move. In most (moving)ships(in the demo) it takes 1 engine for 1 move. The only exception is the cruser. It requires 2 engines to get 1 move. So if you want a cruser to go speed 6 yo have to put on 12 engines. What a ripoff!
Last but not least is the sheilds. Nothing but the space left in the ship will affect this box. This shelds are like armor, cost 1 each and take up 1 space. This is a good way to fill up emtey space. To add sheilds press the (dear lord it's not possable!)up arrow. If you want to remove some sheilds you've already put in the press the down arrow.
