Starship
Starships are the main form of transportation on Horizon's End.
They can be custom built by players or purchased from a Ship Dealer, and can carry items and cargo crates, mine asteroids in space or on planets, and engage in SvS combat with other player built ships and NPC-controlled AI Ships.
Starship Classes
Starships must be assigned a class which dictates their block count, characteristics, and performance at different tasks.
A ship can only be constructed using certain blocks. A list of blocks that a starship can be built with is available at the Horizon's End github.
Civilian Ship Classes
Civilian ships are used for carrying Cargo Crates and mining asteroids using Mining Lasers, and can carry vast quantities of items.
Civilian ships require at least 25% of total blocks as concrete to be detected.
Indicated statistics on the table below are for a ship of the maximum size for its class. Ships that are below the maximum size for its class can carry fewer cargo crates and containers, and can fire fewer weapons and support fewer shields.
Light Freighters, Medium Freighters, and Heavy Freighters can fire 1 Heavy Laser in addition to other weaponry. Civilian ships have weaker shields than warships of the same size.
There is not currently a civilian ship class that is 12,000 - 16,000 blocks in size.
| Name | Size Range | Unlock Level | Maximum Crates | Maximum Storage Capacity (Doublechests) | Mining Lasers | Shield Count (Total/0.8i) | Maximum Turrets (PDT/LT/HT/TT) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shuttle | 100 - 1,000 | 1 | 15 | 7.5 | 1x T1 | 1/0 | 0/0/0/0 |
| Transport | 1,000 - 2,000 | 10 | 30 | 15 | 1x T2 | 3/0 | 1/0/0/0 |
| Light Freighter | 2,000 - 4,000 | 20 | 60 | 30 | 2x T2 | 6/0 | 1/1/0/0 |
| Medium Freighter | 4,000 - 8,000 | 40 | 89 | 60 | 4x T3 | 12/1 | 2/1/2/0 |
| Heavy Freighter | 8,000 - 12,000 | 60 | 109 | 90 | 6x T3 | 17/1 | 3/1/3/1 |
| Barge | 16,000 - 20,000 | 80 | Cannot carry crates | 150 | 10x T4 | 26/2 | 4/0/4/1 |
Warship Classes
Warships are used in SvS combat against other players and NPC-controlled AI Ships.
Warships require at least 30% of total blocks as concrete to be detected.
Indicated statistics on the table below are for a ship of the maximum size for its class. Ships that are below the maximum size for its class can fire fewer weapons and support fewer shields.
Warships can carry half as many cargo crates and containers as a Civilian Ship of the same size. Battlecruisers cannot carry crates. Corvettes, Frigates, and Destroyers can use 1 T1 Mining Laser.
| Name | Size Range | Unlock Level | Shield Count (Total/0.8i) | Maximum Turrets (PDT/LT/HT/TT/IT/QT) | Class Specific Weapons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interceptor | 150 - 350 | 1 | 1/0 | 0/0/0/0/0/0 | 4x Interceptor Cannon |
| Starfighter | 350 - 500 | 1 | 1/0 | 0/0/0/0/0/0 | |
| Gunship | 500 - 2,000 | 10 | 3/0 | 1/1/0/0/0/0 | 2x Pulse Cannon, 1x Heavy Laser |
| Corvette | 2,000 - 4,000 | 20 | 6/0 | 1/1/0/1/0/0 | 3x Pulse Cannon, 1x Heavy Laser |
| Frigate | 4,000 - 8,000 | 40 | 12/1 | 2/1/3/1/0/0 | 1x Phaser, 2x Heavy Laser |
| Destroyer | 8,000 - 12,000 | 60 | 17/1 | 3/1/4/1/0/0 | 1x Phaser, 2x Heavy Laser |
| Cruiser | 12,000 - 16,000 | 70 | 21/2 | 3/0/0/1/4/0 | 4x Ion Turret |
| Battlecruiser | 16,000 - 20,000 | 80 | 26/2 | 4/0/0/1/0/3 | 3x Quad Turret |
Other Ship Classes
Speeders are small ships used for quick, short range transportation. Platforms are used for detecting and printing large builds using Ship Factories.
Neither ship class requires concrete to detect, and they cannot use shields, weapons, hyperdrives, mining lasers, or starship gravity wells. Both ship classes can be detected oversize without any penalties.
Speeders can use starship drills and cannot move by cruising or by direct control.
Platforms cannot move at all.
| Name | Size Range | Unlock Level | Maximum Crates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speeder | 25 - 110 | 1 | 4.5 |
| Platform | 25 - 2,200,000 | 1 | Unlimited |
Starship Systems
A starship's capabilities are determined by the multiblocks used in the construction of the starship.
Weapons
Starship weapons are used to deal damage to other starships, players, and entities.
Light Weapons are fired by left clicking with a controller. Multiple light weapons can be fired at once if you are not using weaponsets and nodes to control which weapons fire.
Heavy Weapons are fired by right clicking with a controller after a brief charge-up delay. Only one type of heavy weapon can be fired at a time, so ships with multiple heavy weapons must control them using weaponsets and nodes.
Turrets can fire in any direction that they have line of sight in. All turrets except for the Tri Turret are light weapons. Light Turrets, Tri Turrets, and Point Defense Turrets can automatically fire on player or ship targets designated using /settarget [node] [player] or /st [node] [player]. Point Defense Turrets are light weapons and cannot be fired manually.
Some weapons such as Plasma Cannons, Interceptor Cannons, and Torpedoes, can only fire forwards. The direction of fire for these weapons is the opposite direction of maximum thrust.
Players take 5 hearts of true damage when hit with any starship weapon.
Shields
Shields are used to absorb incoming weapons fire and prevent explosions from damaging a ship.
The number, strength, and recharge rate of a starship's shields is determined by ship class.
The amount of damage a shield takes is determined by the blast resistance of the block a projectile impacts. Blasters, with the exception of the Blaster Cannon, cannot damage a starship's shields.
Thrusters
Thrusters are the primary source of propulsion for starships, and are required to cruise and fly in direct control. Thrusters add speed and acceleration in the direction that they are pointing. Applying thrust to one or multiple sides of a ship is possible.
A thruster's exhaust path may not be blocked by any block of the active starship at any distance, with the exception of one glass block or glass pane with no space in between.
Hyperdrives and Navigation Computers allow a starship to rapidly travel through hyperspace.
A starship can enter hyperspace by moving into the range of a Jump Gate or by using /jump. Two pieces of Chetherite per hyperdrive hopper are consumed when entering hyperspace.
A starship's hyperspace travel speed is determined by its hyperdrive tier, with higher tiers traveling faster while consuming more chetherite. A starship's hyperspace jump range is determined by its navigation computer tier and starship class.
Starship Gravity Wells
A starship gravity well disables hyperspace travel within its radius while active, and causes ships in hyperspace to enter real space when they pass through the area of the generated gravity well.
The cruise speed of ships in the gravity well's area can be temporarily reduced by 20% by pulsing an active starship gravity well, consuming two chetherite items.
The range of a starship gravity well is determined by a starship's size and class.
Mining Equipment
Mining Lasers and Starship Drills can be mounted on starships and used to mine asteroids in space and on planets, respectively.
The number and tier of mining lasers that can be used is determined by starship class.
The number of starship drills that a player can have active at one time is limited to 16. There are no restrictions on the number or tier of starship drills present on a starship.
Starship Concepts
The following concepts are important for understanding starship behavior in Horizon's End.
Ship Computer
A ship computer is a block (jukebox) on a starship where the main controls of a ship are accessed.
All interactions with a ship computer occur while holding a controller (clock).
Only one jukebox can be the active starship computer of a starship. Multiple non-starship jukeboxes may be present, but all activated jukeboxes on a starship must be owned by its pilot.
Ship Computer Functions
- Redetect: Redefines what blocks are considered part of the starship.
- Add pilot: Lets another player pilot the starship. Type the new pilot's username in chat.
- Change starship type: Changes the starship type. A redetect is required afterwards.
- Lock starship: Prevents the starship from being broken up or flown by players not on the pilot list. The lock takes five minutes to activate, during which the ship may be broken into. To clarify, it is illegal to steal a locked ship in unclaimed land, space, or in safe zones; if a locked ship is present within your claim, notify a staff member to unlock the ship for you or use the Take Ownership function.
- Take ownership: Adds the player to the list of pilots. Only settlement owners, nation leaders, and players given the TAKE_SHIP_OWNERSHIP permission by settlement and nation leaders can use this function.
- Change starship name: Changes the starship name visible on /listships and in certain server events. Type the ship's new name in chat. Starship names can be formatted by Patreon donators using formatting tags.
Detecting & Piloting Starships
Follow these steps to detect and pilot your starship:
- Left click the ship computer (jukebox) while holding a controller (clock).
- Click the ghast tear item to open a menu where you can select your ship class. Click the desired class.
- Some starship classes, such as the interceptor, are subclasses of other ship classes. Right click the parent class, then select the subclass.
- Left click the clock item to re-detect your starship.
- Right click the ship computer while holding a controller to pilot your starship.
- Right click the ship computer again or use /release to stop flying and release your starship.
Hull Integrity
A starship's hull integrity is the percent of blocks out of 100 remaining on an active starship.
When a starship's hull integrity drops below 80%, it will sink, drifting and causing explosions that damage ships and players in its path. Exploded blocks of damaged starships will regenerate where they were exploded after 5 minutes.
When a Supercapital Starship is destroyed, the central core block in its Supercapital Reactor will be permanently destroyed, causing a large explosion.
Crate Capacity
Trade ships can carry crates (or sticky pistons) up to 0.015 * block count or sqrt(block count), whichever value is smaller. The switch occurs for ships around 4444 blocks.
A ship can detect with more sticky pistons than the maximum amount of crates it can carry, but it will not be able to carry additional crates. Ships cannot be detected with more crates than their limit.
Warships can mount half as many crates as a trade ship of the same size.
Storage Capacity
Storage Capacity is the maximum number of containers that a ship can carry.
Ships cannot be detected with more containers than their limit:
- Speeders have a storage capacity equal to 25% of their block count.
- Civilian ships have a storage capacity equal to 4.5% of their block count.
- Warships have a storage capacity equal to 2.5% of their block count.
- Platforms have no limit on the amount of containers they can pilot.
The storage capacity used by a container varies by container type, with one unit of storage capacity representing 9 inventory slots:
- Chests and barrels use 3 storage capacity each. A doublechest uses 6 storage capacity.
- Dispensers and droppers use 1 storage capacity per block.
- Hoppers use 1 storage capacity each.
- Ender chests do not use any storage capacity, but cannot be obtained in survival.
Oversize Starships
Oversizing is the act of detecting a ship with more blocks than the class allows, and is often used to tow multiple ships together.
Any ship can be detected with 10% more blocks than the maximum allowed for the class, with a 50% debuff to ship power to thruster acceleration, shields, and weapons. The debuff is the same for any block count above the limit for the class. Speeder and Platform ship classes can be detected as oversize ships without any penalties.
Oversize ships are able to carry extra chests, allowing oversize ships to have slightly more storage.
When detecting a ship, it will warn the player if the ship is oversize.
Blast Resistance
The blast resistance of blocks affects the amount of damage that shields take and the strength of explosions when a shield is disabled.
A starship's hull should be constructed of armor blocks with high blast resistance such as stairs, slabs, walls, and terracotta, which have a modified blast resistance of 6.0. Core structural blocks such as concrete, which has a lower blast resistance of 1.8, cause shields to take more damage and explosions of unshielded blocks to be more powerful. Glass blocks and panes have a blast resistance of 5.0 and are often the only exterior weakpoints on a well-built starship.
Power Modes
Power modes can be used to change how power is allocated between three different systems in your ship:
- Thrusters: Acceleration (not maximum speed) in cruising and direct control
- Shields: Shield recharge rate
- Weapons: Weapon fire rate
You can change your power mode using /pm (Shield Power) (Weapon Power) (Thruster Power). The numbers you input must add to 100. A system's power cannot be below 10 or above 50. You can assign these modes to a sign by writing [powermode] on a sign and setting the second, third, and fourth lines to your desired shield, weapon, and thruster power.