Cargo Ships

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Revision as of 22:20, 5 September 2015 by Two (talk | contribs) (Added spawn and despawn behaviour from source code)
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General information

If enable in the options the game will from time to time spawn random neutral ships from a predefined list (that can be extended with mods). Those ships are placed at a completely random location in fixed-size worlds, and at a random location close to a random player on infinite-sized worlds. They will travel at their predefined speed, but in a random direction. Those ships are usually equipped with a Beacon at just below 10 km range, that will give their position away if a player gets close enough. They will automatically despawn after they have traveled a certain distance, unless a player captures them in between.

Ships

The following cargo ships may be randomly spawned (as of Update_01.023.000)

Cargo Ship Category Mass (Kg) Speed (M/s) Booby Trapped Exterior Defences Interior Defences Game Version
Private Sail Private 72 447
25
No
2x Interior Turret Icon.png - 01.045.000
Business Shipment 184 972
17
No
2x Interior Turret Icon.png - 01.045.000
Commercial Freighter 463 395
10
No
3x Gatling Turret Icon.png 1x Interior Turret Icon.png 01.045.000
Mining Carriage Mining 266 084
25
No
1x Gatling Turret Icon.png - 01.030.000
Mining Transport 401 953
17
No
2x Gatling Turret Icon.png 1x Interior Turret Icon.png 01.031.000
Mining Hauler 1 540 908
10
No
4x Gatling Turret Icon.png 2x Missile Turret Icon.png 2x Interior Turret Icon.png 01.030.000
Military Escort Military 350 048
25
No
2x Gatling Turret Icon.png 2x Missile Turret Icon.png - 01.030.000
Military Minelayer 1 637 990
17
Yes
5x Gatling Turret Icon.png 2x Missile Turret Icon.png - 01.030.000
Military Transporter 5 578 454
10
Yes
5x Gatling Turret Icon.png 3x Missile Turret Icon.png 5x Interior Turret Icon.png 01.030.000

Defenses

Cargo ships may be booby trapped in the following ways

Booby Trapped (thruster damage)

Cargo ships are sailing through space at a constant speed, so their dampeners are switched off. If thrust is requested in a particular direction (usually reverse), a thruster may be hidden inside the ship to disable it (destroy all reactors), or even detonate a warhead.

Defuse Tactic

Due to the orientation of the truster trap it works only in one direction. So turn the ship around, activate the inertia dampener and you are good to search for the thruster bomb.

Anti Ship Defence

Gatling Turrets, or Missile Turrets may be placed around the ship to defend it against, well, you.
The Gatling Turrets and Missile Turrets are functioning and will shoot decoy blocks, player ships, and the player, regardless of movement. One counter to this is to shoot them off from long range using a Gatling Gun and the camera's zoom functionality.

Distraction Tactic

The turrets will target even chunks of raw materials, if they are moving with more than 3m/s. If you shower the target-ship with superfluous material (like Stone) as chaff, the turrets will be distracted and you can approach more safely. But keep some chaff between you and the turrets! When you have reached the ship, try to access a terminal and turn the turrets off.

Anti Personnel Defence

Interior Turrets may be found inside the ship to defend it against personnel.
As of v1.31 (list), the Interior Turrets are functioning and will shoot decoy blocks, meteors or anything that moves faster than 3m/s, including you. As of v.1.37 (list), all blocks on cargo ships are owned by enemy players, gun turrets will automatically shoot at any blocks or players not owned by the same faction.

Avoidance Tactic

Try to reach the reactor(s). Hack into them and turn them off to disable the offending turrets long enough to disable the turrets themselves. This can be especially hard if there are multiple reactors or they are hidden deep within the ship or protected by interior turrets.


Waste Their Bullets Tactic

Turret struggle to hit fast or erratically moving targets, especially small ships. This means you can dodge incoming fire or fly past at high speed, and the turrets will make few or no hits. Especially effective against Interior Turrets which have very limited amounts of ammo usually. Just remember to have multiple thrusters for each direction, so you can still control your ship.