Spacecraft

The spacecraft designer

Spacecraft (or craft for short) are aircraft-like small vehicles that can be launched from hangars on larger ships. They can perform a number of roles, including scouting, electronic warfare, anti-missile and anti-craft fire, and anti-ship strikes. Their ability to receive orders after launch makes them more flexible than other tools such as cruise missiles.

Spacecraft Mechanics

Controls

Right-Click Commands

Craft are controlled similarly to ships, but with context-sensitive actions depending on the item the cursor is pointing at when right-clicked. Where multiple valid controls exist, additional commands may be accessed by holding Shift.

Right-click commands

Object clicked	Modifier	Requirements	Action	Explanation
Space		None	Move	Opens the dial widget to allow movement. Holding Shift will allow placement of waypoints as normal.
Friendly Ship		None	Guard/Orbit	Craft will move into a holding pattern moving around the target ship. If it has anti-craft/missile armaments, it will be slaved to the ship's PD controller and will attack incoming threats.
Friendly Ship	Shift	Landing Pad	Land	Craft will line up and attempt to land on the target ship. It will orbit the ship until a landing pad is free and the ship is within flight quarters speeds.
Friendly Craft		None	Guard/Orbit	Craft will move into a holding pattern moving around the target craft. If it has anti-craft/missile armaments, it will be slaved to the craft's PD controller and will attack incoming threats.
Friendly Craft	Shift	Target of same craft type	Merge flight	Craft will join with the target craft/flight to form a unified flight.
Enemy Ship		None	Attack Ship	Craft will move towards the target ship and attempt to attack it with appropriate weapons. Behaviour is dependent on the craft's set stance toggles. Craft will automatically deauthorise weapons that cannot harm ships when given an attack ship order.
Enemy Ship	Shift	Craft has standoff illuminator/Jammer/EO module	Illuminate/Jam/Scan	Craft will move into range of the target with its module and enter a holding pattern, attempting to keep the target jammed/illuminated/scanned.
Enemy Craft		None	Attack Craft	Craft will move toward the target craft/flight and attempt to attack it with appropriate weapons. Behaviour is dependent on the craft's set stance toggles. Craft will automatically deauthorise weapons that cannot harm craft when given an attack craft order.

Stance Controls

The craft stance controls

Spacecraft behaviour is controlled by toggling behaviors in the craft stance control board, similarly to ship postures. Spacecraft launch with the default stances shown on the right. The stances are:

HBURN (Engine Hard Burn)

State	Behaviour
OFF	Craft will fly at their cruise speed, using the regular amount of fuel.
ON	Craft will fly at their hard-burn speed, (usually 1.5x cruise speed) and increased fuel consumption (XXXX%)

FORM (Formation Type)

State	Behaviour
WEDGE	Craft flights will fly in a wedge-shaped pattern, pointing in the direction of travel.
LINE	Craft flights will fly in a line-shaped pattern, perpendicular to the direction of travel.
CROSS	Craft flights will fly in a cross-shaped pattern, perpendicular to the direction of travel.
ECHE	Craft flights will fly in an echelon (diagonal line) shaped pattern.

MNVR (Maneuvering posture)

State	Behaviour
DIRECT	Craft will fly straight towards their destination, and remain still when loitering.
JUKE	Craft will constantly make small directional changes as they fly or loiter.
EVADE	Craft will constantly make large directional changes as they fly or loiter.

STNCE (Stance)

State	Behaviour
PSV	Craft will follow orders normally, unless dogfighting AI is triggered due to an enemy craft.
AGRSV	Craft will receive an attack order on craft and missiles in close proximity.
EVASV	Craft will run away from nearby enemy craft.

WRTB (Return To Base, by Weapon Status)

State	Behaviour
SKOSH	Craft will automatically return to base once all missiles in the flight are expended.
WINCH	Craft will automatically return to base once all ammo, including guns, in the flight is expended.
NEVER	Craft will not automatically return to base.

COHER (Combat Coherence)

State	Behaviour
AUTO	Craft will attack multiple different targets if assigned to attack a craft/missile but will attack the selected target if ordered to attack a ship.
FOCUS	Craft will always attack the selected target.
SPLIT	Craft will always attack multiple different targets.

SALVO (Missile/Bomb Salvo Size)

State	Behaviour
AUTO	Craft will fire as if on UNLIM against ships but will reduce missile amounts against craft/missiles.
ONE	Craft will not fire more missiles against a target if one missile is already in flight for that target. Resets on re-issuing attack order.
TWO	Craft will not fire more missiles against a target if two missiles are already in flight for that target. Resets on re-issuing attack order.
THREE	Craft will not fire more missiles against a target if three missiles are already in flight for that target. Resets on re-issuing attack order.
FOUR	Craft will not fire more missiles against a target if four missiles are already in flight for that target. Resets on re-issuing attack order.
UNLIM	Craft will fire missiles regardless of missiles already in flight.

RANGE (Attack Range)

State	Behaviour
STND-IN	TO DO
STND-OF	TO DO
GUN	TO DO

ATGT (Attack Target)

State	Behaviour
ALL	TO DO
ENGINE	TO DO
DEFWEP	TO DO
OFFWEP	TO DO
SENSOR	TO DO

RADAR (Radar Emissions Control)

State	Behaviour
ON	TO DO
OFF	TO DO

DEFND (Missile Self-Defense)

State	Behaviour
AUTO	TO DO
MAN	TO DO

DFTAC (Missiles Self-Defense Tactics)

State	Behaviour
AUTO
NOTCH
SCRAM
OUT-G

CMSR (Countermeasure Usage)

State	Behaviour
AUTO	TO DO
ALL	TO DO
NEVER	TO DO

Craft Stats

(Size, HP, etc.)

Designing Craft

(Different types of craft, ships that can carry craft, etc.)