Starfield:Ships

Ships are the primary mode of transportation in the Settled Systems. Ships are used to traverse the harsh conditions of outer space, carry cargo and crew, land on planets and moons, and engage in interstellar combat. Ships are fully customizable and can be both flown and walked through, docked at starstations, and crewed with your choice of NPCs. Ships also have multiple different systems and stats to consider, including weapon stats, hull and shield levels, cargo and crew capacity, and jump range.

Ships have reactors which provide power to all systems that need it. Reactors and many other components exist in three classes, A, B, and C. Components on a ship can only be the same class or lower as the ship's reactor. Piloting ships with class B or C reactors is only possible with an upgraded (rank 3 or 4, respectively) piloting skill.

The player can own up to 8 ships. The ships also have names, which can be changed in the ship builder.

Combat
Before entering combat you should give attention to power management. As long as you feel confident you can complete the engagement, you should remove all power from the grav drive. The grav drive's only purpose in a fight would be allow you to retreat, so unless you believe the fight has become unwinnable you should not be providing power to it. Even then, the grav drive can very quickly let you escape, so you only really need to power it up on the fly.

Be warned that if you lose your shields, enemy ships may target your grav drive, removing your ability to escape.

You will most likely want to provide as much power to your shield as possible, unless you are certain of your piloting abilities or advantage over the opposing force. Early on when you are more power limited, it may make sense to not fully power the engines to allow yourself to do more damage faster. Initially you will have three weapon systems, lasers, ballistics, and missiles. A balance between the lasers and ballistics may be easier than quickly switch between the three on the fly.

Although ballistic weapons do less damage to shields, if you are powering both lasers and ballistics and they are at full capacity it can make sense to continue to fire anyway to increase the amount of damage your are doing at any single moment. This is similarly true when an enemy's shields are down and you are doing hull damage. Although the lasers do less damage to the hull than they did to the shields, it can still be advantageous to keep firing anyway.

A very basic tactic is to close the distance between you and an enemy, and begin following behind them. This allows you to easily focus on taking them down, while also giving you a small bit of extra protection from their own ship being in the way of their opponents. Be similarly wary of enemies attacking you from behind as well, as they could quickly overwhelm your shields and hull if they can continue firing on you unabated.

The Targeting Control Systems skill allows you to lock onto a target. When you are locked on, if you activate the lock on time will slow down, and you can target individual systems. This can make it easier to disable a ship for boarding, or to ensure a specific component cannot be used in the engagement anymore. The Piloting skill unlocks thrusters on its first level which allows you to maneuver faster.

Ship stats
Known ship stats, which are affected by component choice, include:


 * Weapon Stats
 * Laser
 * Ballistic
 * Missiles


 * Hull level
 * Shield
 * Cargo
 * Crew
 * Jump Range (in light years)
 * Mobility
 * Top Speed
 * Mass

Customization
Ships in Starfield are fully player customizable. Between choosing your own engine and applying a new paint job, you can make your ship look and feel like your own.

Ship Editor
The Ship Editor is a powerful tool that allows the player to modify ships they own.

The game will issue Warnings for designs that will likely have issues, and Errors and designs missing critical modules. When customizing a ship the game will display the money the vendor has, and your own money. Ships can be modified at any spaceport with a ship technician, or at an outpost with a full-size landing pad.

Locations on a ship are described via nautical terms. "Forward" and "Aft" are used to describe if something is towards the front or back of a ship. "Port" and "Starboard" refer to the left and right sides, respectively. These are in relation to the ship itself and never change with the observer.

Grid
The Ship Editor comes with a grid for the user's reference. It does not have lines, rather it uses plus signs to indicate grid intersections and labels every three notches on each axis. Each notch appears to be 3 meters apart, though this is a rough estimate based on the Gameplay Reveal. Axis labels are displayed in meters in locations that vary based on the viewport.

Color
Modules can be customized. A module will have a number of color choices, likely related to the main color, secondary color, and trim of the module. You will be able to adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness of a color. Recently used colors will be saved, to allow you to match the colors of different modules easier.

Crew
Crews can be hired from NPCs that you chose. What NPCs that will be available to crew your ship is currently unknown.

Ship Modules
Ship Modules in Starfield can be categorized in 13 different categories.

Engines
Engines provide both forward thrust, affecting how quickly your ship will reach top speed, and manoeuvrability, affecting how quickly your ship will turn. In general the two are roughly proportionate within a size class (A, B or C) with some engines skewing a little towards acceleration or turning performance. Equipping all class A engines will provide a top speed of 150 m/s. Equipping one or more class B engines will reduce this to 140 m/s, and class C engines will reduce your top speed to 130 m/s. However, class B and C engines do have the advantage of higher manoeuvring thrust, allowing large, heavy ships to turn quickly at the loss of top speed.

Reactors
Spaceship reactors provide power to all of your ship's systems.

Fuel Tanks
Spaceship fuel tanks store Helium-3, which is used by the grav drive to perform a jump. Increased fuel capacity means you can jump further or more often before refueling.

Landing Gear
Spaceship landers come equipped with auto-deploying landing gear, to help pilots land on even the toughest of terrain.

Scan Jammers
Scan Jammers increase the chance of evasion during a ship scan if using a shielded cargo module and carrying contraband.