Equipment
Equipment is all of the machinery that can be installed on or within a ship to perform a function.
Equipment initially arrives as a box with the equipment name on it. This box is treated like any other cargo. The equipment needs to be installed by a crew member before it can be used.
Getting Equipment
- Most equipment can be purchased via the Trade menu while in a Colony or Shipyard system, though some equipment may be out of stock in that system.
- Equipment may be left in space when a ship is destroyed. This equipment will appear in boxed form and can be picked up with Logistics Drones.
- Some equipment can be manufactured on the ship. This requires the ship have manufacturing equipment, and often requires research to unlock the recipe.
Installation
Once equipment is on the ship in boxed form, it can be installed by selecting it in the Construction -> Install menu, and then selecting the location to place the equipment. A crew member is required to perform the actual installation. If the install location is outside the ship, the crew member will need a spacesuit.
Each piece of equipment has a grid footprint. Some equipment footprints reserve a space for crew or passenger access. Most equipment also has cable and/or pipe connection points.
Placement
It's recommended to be in the top-down Schematic view when placing equipment, rather than the standard isometric view, as it's easier to see where the equipment footprint falls.
Equipment varies as to where on the ship it is allowed to be placed. Valid locations fall into common categories:
| Location | Description |
|---|---|
| Fully Inside | Must be within the ship and not intersect any walls. |
| Fully Outside | Can be placed on scaffolding outside the ship. It is sufficient for one square of the equipment to overlap scaffolding.
Currently all equipment capable of being installed outside can also be installed inside. |
| Hull wall | The equipment must intersect the hull wall.
Typically a portion of the equipment is required to fall inside or outside the ship. |
A few pieces of equipment break convention. Mining Lasers, for example, cannot be fully inside, but hull wall and fully outside are both valid.
Orientation
Some equipment can be rotated by pressing R. This rotates the footprint and changes where the cable and pipe connection points fall.
Equipment may display an arrow indicating a direction it operates in, such as a thruster's output. Typically this is hull wall placed equipment and the arrow points towards/through the exterior side.
Reserved Space
In addition to the equipment footprint itself, some equipment requires a certain amount of space along one side to be free of any other equipment. This limits the valid placement for this equipment, and also limits the valid placement of future equipment as it can't impinge on this space.
| Equipment | Equipment Side | Spaces Required |
|---|---|---|
| Docking Bay | Interior | 2 spaces beyond footprint.
Because the footprint already includes one clear space, this appears as 3 spaces after install. |
| Ladder | Arrow side | 1 space |
| Engine | Left | 6 spaces |
| Thruster | Exterior | 2 spaces |
| Drone Bay | Exterior | 3 spaces |
| Mining Laser | Firing | 6 spaces |
| All Weapons | Exterior | 6 spaces |
| Deflector | Exterior | 8 spaces |
Connection and Configuration
Most equipment has cable and/or pipe connection points, which need to be connected after the equipment is installed for the equipment to function.
Power
Equipment that requires power has a light red hexagon shaped connection point. A cable carrying power should be run to this connection point.
- When equipment is not receiving power, the equipment icon is darkened and a red lightning bolt flashes on it.
- When equipment is connected to power, it will begin powering up. During this time the equipment remains dark, but the flashing lightning bolt is replaced by a light red power bar that begins filling.
- Once the power bar fills, the equipment will be fully powered up, and the icon will lighten.
Configuration
Some equipment has configurable behavior, for example loaders can be configured to unload.
Pertinent to this section, the selected configuration can change the pipe connection types. This happens with Refineries and Chemical Labs for example. In this situation, the pipe connections aren't labeled until the equipment is powered, so it's recommended to select a recipe and power the equipment before connecting pipes.
Pipes
Pipe connections are circles that are color coded to match the fluid/gas.
- When not connected the circle is unfilled, has an arrow indicating the direction of flow, and displays text labelling the type.
- Once connected, the text and arrow disappear. If the connection is an input with nothing flowing, the circle will be unfilled, otherwise the circle will be filled.
- Tanks do not have a pre-defined type, nor a flow direction, so when empty and unconnected the circle will be a generic gray color and lack an arrow or text label.