Ships & Modules

Ships are the core of Interstellar War. Every vessel is defined by its base stats, the modules fitted to it, and the crew skills of whoever is flying it.

Ship Stats

Every ship has base attributes determined by its ship type:

Stat	What It Does
Hull	Your ship's health. When it hits zero, the ship is destroyed. Larger ship classes have proportionally more hull
Shield	Absorbs damage before hull. Provided by fitted shield modules — each point of shield output adds a fixed amount of shield HP
Speed	How fast the ship moves per tick. Boosted by engine modules and piloting skill
Handling	Evasion in combat. Higher handling makes you harder to hit
Tracking	Weapon accuracy against moving targets. Counters enemy handling
Range	Maximum weapon engagement distance
Powernet	Total power available to run modules
Drain	Total power consumed by all online modules. If drain exceeds powernet, bad things happen

Power Management

Every module consumes power when online. Your ship's powernet is its total power capacity, and drain is the sum of all active modules.

Warning: If your total drain exceeds your powernet, your shields drop immediately and ALL non-reactor modules go offline. Keep an eye on your power balance.

Reactors are the exception — they contribute to powernet and are never powered down.

Module Types

Modules are what make your ship unique. Each module has an output (its effectiveness), power cost, and hull (its own durability).

Type	ID	Purpose
Weapon	1	Deals damage to targets. Has range, tracking, and reload (15s cooldown)
Reactor	2	Generates power. Cannot be turned off
Hyperdrive	3	Enables travel between star systems
Engine	4	Increases ship speed
Bomb	5	Specialised weapon for damaging planets. Deals bonus damage against planetary targets
Builder	6	Required to colonise planets
Miner	8	Extracts minerals from planets
Cloak	9	Hides your ship from enemy scanners
Shield	11	Provides shield HP. Higher-output shield modules contribute more to your total shield pool
Platform	12	Stationary weapon system
Handling	13	Improves evasion
Siege	14	Siege warfare module. Locks you in place for 5 minutes when activated

Toggling Modules

Modules can be switched on or off by the appropriate crew member:

• Engineer — toggles most modules
• Gunner — controls weapons
• Pilot — manages engines and navigation modules

Toggling a module on increases your drain. Toggling it off reduces drain but you lose the module's benefit.

Fitting Strategy

There's no single best fit. Your loadout depends on your role:

Combat Ship

• Max weapons for damage output
• Shield modules for survivability
• Handling modules to dodge incoming fire
• Balance power so drain stays under powernet

Scout / Explorer

• Fast engines for speed
• Cloak module to avoid detection
• Hyperdrive for system-to-system travel
• Minimal weapons — you're here to observe, not fight

Miner / Industrial

• Miner modules for resource extraction
• Cargo capacity for hauling
• Enough engines to escape if threatened
• Builder module if you plan to colonise

Siege Ship

• Siege modules for starbase attacks
• Bomb modules for planetary bombardment
• Heavy shields — you'll be stationary and taking fire
• Remember: siege locks you in place for 5 minutes

Ship Destruction

When your hull reaches zero:

1. Your ship is destroyed and removed from the game
2. Your crew is ejected to the nearest friendly starbase
3. A wreck is left behind containing salvageable items
4. The kill is logged on the killboard
5. You'll need to buy a new ship at a starbase

Ship loss is permanent. Fly what you can afford to lose.

Hull and Shield Repair

Between combat, your ship passively repairs:

• Base repair rate: a small percentage of your total hull is restored each tick, even with no engineering skill
• Engineering bonus: higher engineering skill and ship engineering level substantially increase the repair rate
• At a starbase, you can pay credits for instant full repair

Shields follow the same passive regeneration. The faster you can disengage from combat, the sooner your defences start recovering.