Create / Mod files / Stations for mods

Stations for mods

A Station is a hull that never flies, authored once and parked by id. It owns a ship design for its hull, the services a docked ship may use, a storage cap, the stock its hold opens with and the credits it trades with. A Station spawn names it and adds what differs per spawn: where it sits, which side it is on, whether it is a derelict.

Stations are content like ships and sections. Create a new id to add a station, or reuse a base id to rebuild the base waystation everywhere it is parked.

This page is the field-by-field station reference. For general RON spelling rules such as double parentheses, Some(...), and asset schemes, see RON spelling rules.

Why a station is its own kind

A station is not a ship with the thrusters left off. It has no pilot, it is never ordered anywhere, and it keeps a store beside its own hold. Giving it its own kind lets the lint refuse a station that could fly, lets a save freeze it as a station, and keeps a ship's spawn fields (a controller, a capability set) off it.

The Station item

[
    Station((
        id: "my_outpost",
        name: "My Outpost",
        about: "A collar, a bridge and four plates. Dock to trade.",
        design: (
            hull: (
                sections: [
                    (
                        id: "collar",
                        position: (-1.0, 0.0, 0.0),
                        rotation: (0.0, 0.70710677, 0.0, 0.70710677),
                        source: Prototype(id: "docking_port_section"),
                    ),
                    (
                        id: "bridge",
                        position: (0.0, 1.0, 0.0),
                        rotation: (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0),
                        source: Prototype(id: "basic_controller_section"),
                    ),
                    // ... hull plates ...
                ],
                integrity: (collapse_threshold: Some(0.5)),
            ),
            services: [Trade, Storage],
            builds: [],
            storage_cap_g: 50000,
            stock: {"HullPlate": 4},
            credits: 1000,
        ),
    )),
]

Every field is required. id, name and about name the catalog entry; design holds the station.

The Docking section is what a ship docks to. The Controller section is what levels the station, see below.

A docked ship trades with a living station that offers Trade as it trades with a ship, and keeps items in the storage of one that offers Storage (see Trade and storage). Rebuild and Refit are in play too (see Rebuild, Swap, Add, Buy a hull and Hire an escort). Jobs posts the station's job board (see Jobs); Roster is checked and carried, and the screen that reads it is its own task.

How a station behaves

A station is a dynamic body, never a fixed one. Gravity pulls it and a ram shoves it, and a living station holds its post: the place its spawn gave it, derived on its first physics tick from its position and initial_velocity and kept across a freeze, a thaw and a world save. Moved off it, the station rides back on gentle RCS and pushes every hull docked at it along. A dead station keeps its post but nothing reads it: where a hit leaves it is where it stays, and a docked player tows it freely.

The proofs are system_station_body (a nudged station in a void) and system_station_orbit (a generated yard with a tender docked at each port but one: a hit that damages it without collapsing it, a shove and three orbits of a small planet).

Docking at a station

A ship docks with a station through its Docking section as it docks with a ship: a free port on each hull, inside the capture envelope, and DOCK. What differs is who the station lets in and who flies the pair.

The proof is system_station_docking: a living station holds the helm under a held burn, a dead station hands it over, and an Enemy station refuses - the HUD notice shows the refusal, the mode chip does not, and the DOCK chip draws dim.

Trade and storage

A ship docked to a living station uses the station from the Inventory pane. Every service below reads one gate: the partner is the docked station, it is not a derelict, and its services list the service.

The proof is system_station_storage: on a generated world, the player docks at a living waystation, buys, sells and stores through the pane, leaves until the station's cell retires, comes back, withdraws the same stacks, meets the over-cap refusal, and finds the storage in the leave save and after a Load.

Rebuild

A ship docked to a living station that offers Rebuild can rebuild a section it lost. The Ship pane lists each lost section under its old code (PDC-1) with a price or the reason it cannot be built. A lost section is one the ship's design places and the ship no longer has. A station crafts only what its builds lists, whatever its hold carries: a generated station builds the sections its civilization knows, which is every section at advancement 0 and a seeded subset of those above it, and the base waystation builds the sections open at advancement 0. So any station rebuilds a start hull's parts.

A section code reads the ship's design, not its live sections, so a lost section keeps its code and a rebuilt one gets it back. A key binding the player set on a section is kept when the section is lost and across a save.

The proof is system_station_rebuild: a ship loses a rebound PDC, docks, rebuilds it from hold and bought parts, and keeps it with its binding across a freeze and thaw.

Swap

A ship docked to a living station that offers Refit can swap a live section for another part of the same family. Select the section in the Ship pane: the panel lists each part it can take, with a price or the reason it cannot be paid.

The proof is system_station_swap: a ship docks, a thruster swap for a PDC is refused, a damaged and rebound PDC is swapped for the twin kinetic PDC, and the new part keeps its binding and its health across a freeze and thaw.

Add

A ship docked to a living station that offers Refit can add a part at a free attachment point. A free point is any socket of a live section that no section of the ship's design mates, so every hull has them and no content marks them. Select the section in the Ship pane: the panel shows its free points as buttons, the first one chosen, and lists each part that fits at the chosen point with a price or the reason it cannot be added.

The proof is system_station_add: an add at a taken socket is refused, a kinetic PDC is added to a base hull through the pane and to a generated hull, and each keeps its binding and its health across a freeze and thaw.

Buy a hull

A living station that a generated world places sells one whole hull per docking port but one, so one port is always free for the player. A hull that fits at no free port without touching the station or another parked hull is not offered. The world lays them out for the station's civilization from the world seed and the station's id, so a station sells the same list on every visit and keeps it across a save. Each hull's roles follow what the civilization can build, and its size grows with the civilization's advancement: a station near the origin sells small hulls only. A station a scenario places sells none.

Every hull for sale is a real ship parked at one of the station's ports. A parked hull is inert: nobody flies it, it is Neutral, it does not shoot, and it cannot be looted or stripped. Docked to a living station that offers Refit, the Station pane lists the parked hulls under Ships for sale: each a card with the real hull turning slowly, its name, length and price, and a Buy button, greyed with the reason as its tooltip while refused, beside an Info button that shows the hull in the Ship pane, read-only. A ship the player owns, parked there, lists above them under Your ships and says "your ship" in place of the price, over a Board button. Each list shows only while it has a card.

The proof is system_station_buy: on a New Game, the station parks its hulls for sale; the player buys one through the pane, the old ship parks as the player's own, the station's cell retires and thaws, the player boards the old ship for free, and the player's hull and the parked hulls come back after a save and a Load.

Hire an escort

After its hulls for sale, a living station that a generated world places hires out one to three armed escorts: scavenger and armored hulls its civilization can build, laid out from the world seed and the station's id. A civilization that builds no armed role hires none, and a station a scenario places hires none. Each escort waits outside the station, undocked and Neutral, coasting on the station's course a little ahead or behind it, clear of the station and of each other. The Station pane lists them under Escorts for hire, on the same cards as the hulls for sale, with a Hire button greyed the same way, under a header with the fleet's slots. The escorts stay with the station when its sector unloads, and in the world save.

The proof is system_station_hire: on a New Game, the player hires an escort through the pane, crosses sectors with it, sees it fly formation through a turn and finds it beside the ship after a save and a Load; a killed escort is gone from the fleet after the next save and Load.

Buy the station

A living station that a generated world places is for sale to the ship docked with it. The Station pane shows it under This station: its name, its price and a Buy station button, greyed with the reason while refused. A station a scenario places and a derelict are not for sale.

The proof is system_station_own: on a New Game, the player docks at an Ally civilization's generated station, buys it through the pane and sees it take the Player side and the owned name, leaves its sector and comes back, saves and Loads, and finds it still the player's, on the chart and the Map too. An Enemy-flagged ship, which its Player side would refuse, is admitted.

Spawning one

A scenario parks a station with a Station object. Its design names a catalog station with Prototype(id):

SpawnScenarioObject((
    base: (id: "outpost", name: "OUTPOST", position: (0.0, 0.0, -1500.0), rotation: (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0)),
    kind: Station((
        design: Prototype("my_outpost"),
        allegiance: Neutral,
        derelict: false,
        initial_velocity: (0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
    )),
)),

Or it carries a one-off station whole with Inline((hull: .., services: .., storage_cap_g: .., stock: .., credits: ..)), the fields of design above. The lint checks an inline station as it checks a Station item. A station spawn takes no section patches.

The editor writes the same pair. A ship marked Station in its inspector saves as a Station item under the ship's node id and a Station object that spawns it. The editor writes the hull and its side and fills the rest: the four services, a 100 kg storage cap, 5000 credits, and the base waystation's hull plates, rations and salvaged parts cut to fit the hull's hold. Driver None saves derelict: true. The content lint checks the saved station like any other.

Overlay and lint

Overlay is last-wins by id, as for every content kind: a mod that defines a Station with a base id replaces it whole.

The static lint and the load gate both refuse a station that:

• names a section prototype no loaded content declares, or gives two sections one id, or a reserved id;
• has no Docking section (nothing could dock with it);
• has any Thruster section (a station never flies);
• has no Controller section (nothing would hold its attitude);
• authors no integrity.collapse_threshold, or one outside 0..=1 (a station states the share it collapses at);
• lists no service;
• has a builds entry that no loaded content declares or that repeats, an empty builds with Refit or Rebuild, or a nonempty one with neither;
• lists Storage with storage_cap_g: 0, or sets storage_cap_g above zero without Storage;
• seeds its stock with an unknown item, or more than the hull's hold takes.

A service listed twice is a warning. A spawn naming a station id no loaded content declares is an error, like an unknown ship design.

Generated-world stations

The open world places stations itself. Every civilization keeps its stations at the clusters nearest its centroid: a living one keeps one, plus one per half of its advancement (one to three), and an extinct one left exactly one. A cluster holds at most one station; when two civilizations want one, the nearer centroid keeps it. The choice is a function of the world seed and the civilization alone, so a cluster holds the same station from every cell and in any visit order.

Where it stands follows the cluster. In a cluster with a planetoid the station rides a circular orbit around one world, at that world's radius plus the 500 m clearance margin plus the station's own clearance, with the orbit velocity the behaviour table names. In a cluster without one it stands at rest beside one of the cluster's rocks, 500 m clear of it, on the anchor-facing side when that side is free. A station is never placed inside another body, never across a cell face, and never where its cluster placed no rock or planetoid in its cell.

The generator builds every station from the loaded parts; no catalog station is placed. Each civilization draws one archetype, with an even chance each, and builds one design from it at its advancement a. All of its stations share that design, so a cluster shows the same station from every cell.

Every generated station offers Rebuild, Refit, Trade, Storage and Jobs. Its stock is half goods and half the recipe parts of every section its civilization builds: every part at advancement 0, and of the parts above 0 that its advancement opens, each with chance 0.5 keyed to the civilization and the part id. The parts hold at least one recipe of every part it builds: for each item, the largest count any one of those recipes asks, so the Catalogue can sell every part it lists from the station's own stock. Its goods hold ammunition only for the reloading weapons its civilization knows (PdcRound, RailSlug, Torpedo): at least 2,000 PdcRound when one of those weapons reloads from it, and at least one unit of each other such item. It draws the parts its civilization knows at its advancement, by draw weight, those within 0.25 below its advancement first, and carries flight computers for its mass, as a generated ship does. A dead station keeps the same stock and credits as loot.

The open world refuses to arm when no loaded style authors an archetype's style, or when no station hull, flight computer, docking port or turret part is open at advancement 0. A station that no layout fits fails its sector with the seed, civilization, archetype, advancement and failed constraint. A station whose opening stock, PDC floor included, weighs more than its hull holds fails its sector with a station_stock fault. block_waystation is for scenarios; the generator never places it. A mod's Station items are for its scenarios too.

A generated station spawns with a typed generated id and no scenario address, freezes as a station record when its cell retires, and thaws from that record: what a docked ship bought or stored is kept for the session, and across a save on the desktop build.

Civilization stances

Every living civilization holds one stance toward the player, Ally, Neutral or Enemy, and one toward each living neighbour. Never a number. The world seed draws both; the player's deeds move the first. A generated station or ship flies its civilization's stance as its side (Ally is the Player side), so admission, the AI and the HUD read the side alone.

The proof is system_civilization_stance: on a New Game as the pirate, the player docks at a civilization's station, neutralizes three of its other hulls, sees the station refuse the dock and the charter count the civilization, finds its rival warmed to Ally with every hull on the Player side, reads the stances back from the leave save and after a Load with a remote civilization untouched, and docks again once the Enemy decayed.

Dead stations

An extinct civilization's station is the SAME design spawned dead: its Station spawn carries derelict: true, so its hull spawns inactive and lootable, with DerelictShipMarker and LootableShipMarker, and no service is offered on it. There is no second catalogue entry for a dead station; the strip is the spawn flag, the same one a scenario's own Station object sets. A dead station keeps the Neutral side, and admits a dock on any side: see Docking at a station.

A living station fought down to its last turret or last flight computer turns into the same dead station in place (see the behaviour table), and freezes, thaws and saves as one.

Jobs

A living station that offers Jobs posts a board of three jobs (JOBS_PER_BOARD), put on its root as JobBoard once every sector in the cube of 27 around its own is live and settled. The station the player began docked at - the session's starting station, the nearest station of a civilization whose seeded stance is Ally, kept in the world save's start field - also wears StarterBoardMarker beside its board; it is the one board that posts the start role's starter jobs, and no other board ever carries the marker. When a slot there posts and no standing offer stays open to the player's current hull, the slot posts one the hull can do: a procurement the hold takes, else a distress call for a docking section, else an escort for a weapon. A held slot, and a slot that does not renew, stays as it is. Each board slot carries a posting number, the play-time stamp it was posted at and the offer it posted (SlotPosting, kept per station in the JobPostings session resource, saved with the world). A slot's offer is drawn once, when the slot posts, from the world seed, the station's generated id, the slot, the posting number, the cluster types of its sector, the start role's job mix, the board's standing offers, the field around the station and, on the starting station's board, the player's hull, off its own WyRand seeded from FNV-64 of (seed, "station_jobs", station id, slot, posting). The offer then stands as drawn until its slot renews: a looted wreck, a job held elsewhere, a thaw or a Load never changes it. A job's id is the posting station's id, its board slot and its posting number (<station>#<slot>.<posting>).

A slot renews - moves to its next posting, stamped now - when its job is handed in, when a player pays to delete a current unheld offer at the posting station, or when an unheld offer stands past the price table's jobs.offer_seconds (jobs.escort_offer_seconds for an escort). The bodies the old posting could have put in the world (a hauler, its raiders, a caller, each named <station stem>_job_<slot>_<posting>_<part>) are despawned before the slot posts again under the next posting number, with fresh body ids. Stations draw in id order. A job you hold is pinned: its slot never renews under it, so a held job never expires. A free drop, including loss of the hauler, wreck, caller or poster, retires the job and its bodies at once. Its slot waits until the original offer window expires before it renews; the old offer's Accept is refused as expired.

Each slot draws its kind by the start role's jobs mix (see start roles), as weights over Procure, Recover, Escort, Distress and Neutralize:

The fee is 50 to 250 cr. The sector's clusters pick the item categories a Procure or Recover asks for:

A Procure draws a distinct item from those categories while the pool allows (a catalog with none of them draws from every item) and a count of 2 to 8. A Recover names a derelict with a non-empty hold in the cube and one of its stacks; a Neutralize names an intact, un-neutralized Enemy hull in the cube. A new offer never names a wreck or hull that a held job, a body a held job spawned, or an unexpired offer on any board already names, so two boards never pay for one target; a slot with no candidate left posts a Procure instead.

The player accepts and hands in only while docked at a living station that offers Jobs (plan_job_accept, plan_job_hand_in). An accept is refused while the job is held or completed, while its offer's window has passed (Expired: the station no longer offers it), and for a Recover or Neutralize whose target is gone. An accept raises JobAccepted: an Escort spawns its hauler and its raiders, and the hauler waits with no helm order until the player stands undocked from the poster and within 1 km of the hauler, then flies a Move to its mark under a 100 m/s cruise cap; a Distress spawns its caller. A job is DONE when the open world sees its completion over the shipped event kinds: onundocked naming the wreck with the stack aboard and the wreck's stack gone (Recover), onshipordercomplete for the hauler's Move (Escort; the hauler neutralized or destroyed, or its Move failed because it lost its drives or its flight computer, drops the job and its bodies), ondocked with the caller (Distress), onneutralized or ondestroyed naming the hull (Neutralize). A hand-in needs the posting station, the job done (a Procure is done with the goods in the hold), and a station balance that covers the reward; it removes a Procure's goods, pays OnCreditsChanged with cause JobReward on both sides and lists the job completed. Held, done and completed jobs are the Jobs session resource, and every board's slot postings and offers are the JobPostings session resource; both save in the world state's jobs and postings fields and are checked on load: a job held twice, held and completed, held or completed and dropped, done but not held, an undone escort with no leg or a leg with no undone escort, with a zero count or reward, or naming an item the catalog lacks refuses the world, as does a board with the wrong slot count, a posting stamp ahead of the clock, or an offer that is not its slot's posting or that no board could post. A held job is checked by its own rules, not against its slot. A frozen sector keeps a spawned hauler, caller or raider as any ship, but not the hauler's helm order or its cruise cap: the jobs keep the hauler's mark and whether it left, so a thawed or loaded hauler that left flies to its mark again under the same cap. Authored Station content with Jobs in its services posts no board: only generated stations have the id and sector the board is seeded from.

Base stations

The waystation collapses at half its hull pool, as every generated station does.