Ship Models

A ship model is a custom construction plan that you save before starting production.

Saved models are shared across all the planets in your account. However, constructed ships, components, and buildings remain specific to each planet.

For information about saved models, their activation limits, and the Errants' own catalog, see the limits and exceptions for active models.

Each model combines exactly:

• 1 Infrastructure
• a quantity of Hulls
• a quantity of Reactors
• a quantity of Weapons
• a quantity of Shields

For each of the Hull, Reactor, Weapon, and Shield families, you choose a single component type and its quantity.

You can also add optional Hangars to carry craft.

The game then automatically calculates the model's final stats:

• attack
• resistance
• shield
• speed
• cargo
• consumption
• evasion
• total volume
• total cost
• required crew

Military and civilian models

When designing a model, you choose one of two exclusive types: Military or Civilian. A military model follows the usual equipment rules. A civilian model is unarmed: it has 0 weapons and cannot carry any hangars.

For a civilian model, the combined volume of the hulls, reactors, and shields cannot exceed 20 % of the Infrastructure's raw capacity. This limit is calculated before any cargo bonus. In return, its base evasion is doubled, up to a global maximum of 70 %; the full calculation is detailed in the evasion rules.

The type creates neither a compressed hold nor a cargo multiplier. The usual costs, prerequisites, crew, speeds, consumption, and mission rules still apply. A civilian ship can accompany a fleet and be targeted in combat, but it does not fire.

Older player models are military. Models in the preconfigured catalog also remain military and cannot be converted to another type.

Example

Two models built on the same chassis can serve very different purposes if one prioritizes speed and the other resistance or firepower.

Installing hangars on a model

When designing a military model, select a hangar type and then its quantity. A model can equip up to 4 hangars, all of the same type. They occupy volume even when empty and contribute to the ship's costs, mass, and consumption. Their volume is added to that of the other components and reduces the remaining cargo capacity. Civilian models cannot carry hangars.

These capacities are for carrying craft, not resources. Installing hangars does not automatically load any craft: you select them at departure in mission boarding.

Capacity is shared among the autonomous carrier ships in the same mission. For example, four carriers with 100 UL each provide 400 UL together: they can carry a Shuttle with 300 UL, even if no single carrier has that much room. A craft carried aboard another ship does not add the capacity of its own hangars.

Manufacturing prerequisites and component movement restrictions are described in hangar components.

From a personal model’s details page, Evolve model also lets you transform healthy ships available in dock into another saved model, even if it is inactive or uses a different chassis. The target must have an Infrastructure with capacity equal to or greater than that of the source. The target’s construction prerequisites must still be met on the planet. The quote charges only positive price differences per resource, increased by 5 %, with no refund; the duration is based on the absolute difference between normal build times, increased by 5 %, with a minimum of one second. Source ships are reserved and progressively replaced in the ship queue, without cancellation. Their points remain counted until replacement; the source and target compositions are protected during the operation. This transformation does not complete a construction, assembly, or recycling objective.

The Military or Civilian type is selected when the model is created. On its details page, this type is read-only: the name, description, and image remain editable under the usual rules. To have a model of a different type, save a new model, then use the usual evolution process if you want to transform existing ships.

Gross cargo is the remaining available volume on the saved model. Effective cargo is this value after active cargo bonuses are applied.

Each Infrastructure provides a total available volume.

The Frigate provides 600 000 m³ and the Battleship 2 200 000 m³ of total capacity. Their prerequisites, costs, masses, and crew are detailed in ship components.

Installed components occupy part of this volume:

• hulls;
• reactors;
• weapons;
• shields;
• optional hangars.

For a civilian model, only hulls, reactors, and shields can be installed, and their combined volume must be no greater than 20 % of the chassis's raw capacity. This design limit uses the raw capacity, not the remaining cargo or cargo increased by bonuses.

When saving the model, the game calculates:

available cargo = total Infrastructure volume - volume occupied by components

If the components occupy the entire volume, the ship has no cargo available. If the components exceed the total volume, the model is rejected.

This available cargo is the model's gross cargo. The game then calculates each ship's effective cargo using floor(gross cargo × cargo multiplier), then adds up the selected units' cargo. The bonus therefore applies to the cargo remaining after the components are installed; it never increases the Infrastructure's volume or allows more components to be installed.

Civilian model example

With an Infrastructure that has a raw capacity of 400, a civilian model can install at most 80 worth of hulls, reactors, and shields. If it installs 80, it retains 320 gross cargo. Cargo bonuses are then applied to that 320; they change neither the equipment limit of 80 nor the raw capacity of 400.

The Infrastructures technology adds +1,5% cargo per level, with no cap of its own. This bonus stacks with the +2% per level from the Seal of the Sleeping Pillars, capped at level 10. These bonuses also apply to specialized craft that transport or collect resources: Ground Drone, Small Transporter, Large Transporter, Recycler I, Recycler II, and Orbital Drill. No faction skill currently provides a cargo bonus.

On a space mission, the effective cargo of all selected ships and craft traveling under their own power is added together to form a shared capacity. There is no separate cargo hold for each unit in the loading interface. The same total appears in Operations when Fleet is selected as the means, and is used in the server-side launch check. Craft selected in Embarkation are carried in hangars: their speed and cargo do not contribute to the carriers' journey. See mission loading.

For a Transport mission by the Pillars, the displayed and validated capacity is calculated from all Small Transporter and Large Transporter units available on the planet of origin. For an attack or another mission by the Pillars, only craft actually included in the submitted manifest provide cargo. Only loaded Iron, Crystal, and Aether count against this capacity.

Fuel is also carried on ships. For a mission with a physical return, the reserve covers two trips and therefore occupies part of the available capacity, just like the loaded resources.

The transported load does not make the mission more expensive in fuel: the cost depends on distance, speed percentage, unit type, and, for custom models, the model's total mass when empty.

Example

A chassis with 400 total volume and 250 installed components retains 150 gross cargo. With Infrastructures at level 16 and the Seal at level 10, the total bonus is +44%: the ship displays and uses 216 effective cargo, while retaining 400 as its maximum design volume.

If a mission selects multiple ships, their available cargo is added together. The fuel required for the journey is reserved from this shared capacity before the rest of the useful payload.

Each ship has a required crew determined by its chassis.

The crew is not freely chosen at departure. It is dictated by the model's Infrastructure.

Depending on the chassis, a ship may require:

• Soldiers
• Pilots
• Technicians
• IT Specialists

The game automatically calculates this crew from the saved model.

The larger the chassis, the larger the required crew.

At departure, the required crew members are loaded aboard along with the hulls and removed from the planet. While docked, if the engaged defending fleet is missing a required profession, all of its ships suffer the penalty described in Units present in combat. Hulls protected before combat are excluded from the calculation.

During flight, this crew remains deducted from the population points of a human player. For an Errant, the crew aboard its hulls remains counted during the journey: departure, transit, and arrival therefore do not change its score or threat. However, a permanent crew loss is still an army loss and reduces the corresponding points. Other operational assets sent on missions, such as ships, craft, components, and transported populations, remain counted; returning damaged hulls and severely injured people are exceptions until the hulls are repaired or the people recover.

Example

A small, light chassis may require only 1 Pilot, while a large, heavy chassis may require Soldiers, Pilots, Technicians, and IT Specialists at the same time.

A model must respect limits on volume, speed, composition, and prerequisites.

The server rejects a model if:

• total volume exceeds the chassis capacity;
• speed exceeds 5 000;
• the model contains more than 2 reactors;
• the shield exceeds total resistance;
• a component is invalid or placed in the wrong slot;
• technology or building prerequisites are not met.

The model must also remain viable:

• at least 1 hull
• at least 1 reactor
• for a military model, at least 1 weapon
• for a civilian model, exactly 0 weapons, no hangars, and no more than 20 % of the raw capacity may be occupied by other equipment; a Fighter equipped with a hull with a volume of 80 and a reactor with a volume of 40, for a total of 120, therefore cannot be saved as a civilian model

The maximum number of active models depends on the Infrastructure technology:

maximum active models = floor(infrastructure / 2)

You can save up to 15 custom models, whether active or inactive. Civilian and military models share this limit and the active quota of floor(infrastructure / 2). Copies from the preconfigured catalog do not count toward the 15 custom models, but occupy a slot when active. You can keep several saved models of the same chassis and type; only the number that can be active is limited. To deactivate or delete a model, there must be no units of that model and no missions or production in progress.

For each Infrastructure, only one military model and one civilian model can be active across the entire account. Both types can therefore coexist on the same chassis, provided the global active quota has two slots available. A second active model of the same type is rejected, even if a global slot remains. Models specific to the Errants follow their server catalog and do not use this player slot.

If historical active duplicates exist for the same chassis and type, you can continue saving new inactive models. However, new activations and ship construction for that chassis/type pair remain blocked until only one model of that chassis and type is active again; other types and chassis remain usable within their usual limits. Existing stock, missions, and accepted orders continue.

To replace an active model A with a model B of the same type, B can remain inactive during the transformation. First transform or recycle all A ships, then wait for the other uses of A to end, including missions and queues in progress. You can then deactivate A and activate B. The game does not automatically choose or reserve a replacement model.

To install hangars on a model, see ship composition.

Example

A model may be rejected even if it seems powerful, simply because it exceeds the chassis capacity or a technical limit of the game.

A ship's rate of fire is equal to the number of weapons installed on its model.

Each weapon adds:

• attack;
• one additional shot.

The game then calculates:

• rate of fire = number of weapons
• damage per shot = total attack / rate of fire

Therefore:

• 1 weapon = 1 shot
• 3 weapons = 3 shots
• 10 weapons = 10 shots

If you add several identical weapons, you increase both the number of shots and the total attack. The actual rule is therefore: each additional weapon adds its shot and its power.

Example

If a ship mounts 3 weapons that are identical, each with an attack value of 200:

• total attack: 600
• rate of fire: 3
• damage per shot: 200