Craft Management

Also see Craft Combat

Also see Craft Upgrades

The players craft (aircraft but referred to as craft to separate from humans) is how the player goes on missions to collect resources and items to progress through the game.

**Types**

* **Dropships/deployment** - Can carry weapons to defend against enemy craft.
* **Interceptors** - patrol and attack enemies. Can't do missions.
* **Resource collector** - Gathers resources from resource veins on geoscape.

**Craft Range**

Player’s craft are living vehicles. They can only travel so far without rest and recovery.  The craft’s range is broken down into these ranges:

* **Standard** - If the target destination is within this range, the ship will be able to fly there and back with minimal recovery time, fuel expenditure and also return with a full cargo hold.

*On Production Roadmap:*

* ***Longer** - To reach locations in these ranges, the craft must have a lighter load of crew and will not be able to return with half the cargo capacity. The ship will need a lot more time to rest and recover, preventing it from being used on other missions until it does.*
* ***Unsafe** - There is a risk that the ship won’t be able to make it there and back at all. Extremely long recovery time. If the player doesn’t succeed in the mission, the craft and all the crew are lost. Player is launched into a recovery or euthanasia mission immediately to destroy the evidence.*

**Craft range, Rest & Regen**

The craft has a travel range, cargo space, passenger limits and fuel limits. This combined with unloading/refuel & recovery limits the player’s range and rapid progress. Players can travel past their range by allowing the craft to set down on it’s journey to rest. Rest period depends on distance travelled. Missions with a craft that has set down slows down the time before it expires. That is for a maximum amount of days. During this time, the craft is vulnerable to attacks by enemy craft. If the ship is discovered and a human craft lands at the site, a mission automatically commences. If the player aborts, they lose their craft and all personnel. The player chooses where they want to set down the craft for rest by deploying a rest buoy from the launch craft screen for extended missions.

**Players Setting Waypoints mechanics**

Players can use waypoints to plot the course of the vulnerable mission craft around enemy patrols. In the craft launcher the player can select waypoints, then can assign waypoints to the craft. Craft will follow the waypoints when heading to destination as well as returning to base. Limited number waypoints to make things more strategic. Waypoints cannot be used when the craft has a rest point.

**Deploying Patrol Craft**

Players can protect their airspace by building interceptors. The player sets the waypoints on the screen and the game takes care of flying them. When the patrols run out of fuel, they return to base to refuel and then go back to their patrol.

When human craft is detected they follow their pre-set behaviours: Aggressive, Defensive, Passive and avoidance -  *auto fight with outcomes determined without involving the player . A summary of results are presented to the player. Results could be victory with damage/no damage, retreated with heavy damage, craft ditched & now recovery mission presented.* (not in pre-alpha)

Patrolling skies benefits:

* keeps threat levels lower in regions friendly to player
* Keeps the sky free of enemies who could attack mission aircraft.

**Patrolling Human Craft**

Human patrols will fly routes and will become visible to the player on the game board when they fly over a region without fog of war. When the craft comes within radar range of the player’s base(s) the deploy mission screen appears. Players can choose to pursue or ignore.  If they launch their interceptors, the first available interceptor will launch from base and follow the enemy craft until fuel gets low. They then return to base. Ignored enemy craft will attack the player’s mission craft if it is in range. Risk to players is that they could be discovered, lose their craft and either have to complete a recovery mission or take a time penalty by having to grow another mission ship or lose the game.

**Resource Craft**

Players can have multiple mining craft collect resources from this vein. Must go back to the same base. Mining craft  go back and forth from resource location to base which has the processing plant.

See Resource Management

## Craft Combat

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Equipping Craft

Upgrading Craft