Frequently Asked Questions about Sluis Van Shipyards

This is an attempt to answer common questions about Sluis Van Shipyards on SWmud.

1. What can I do at Sluis Van Shipyards?
2. I heard something about escape pods, what's up with that?
3. I hear Sluis Van Shipyards has condos. Any details about them?
4. Are there any guilds on Sluis Van Shipyards?

1. What can I do at Sluis Van Shipyards?
   You can upgrade any existing ship, you can custom build a sluis ship, and you can store ships.
   
   Upgrading means to boost the speed, shield strength, and hull strength of any ship by 10%. Each of these can be done a total of three times. Cost of upgrading is based off of the ship's current stats, so each subsequent upgrade costs more.
   
   Building a sluis ship means to completely build a ship from the ground up, you choose all of the components. See ship_construction for a detailed walk-through of how this is done.
   
   Storing a ship means to save it to file and remove it from the game. Later on you can retrieve your ship, which brings it back into the game. Storing a ship allows you to retrieve it after you have left, over a reboot, etc. A mud crash should not affect ships in storage. You can store multiple ships, but each time you retrieve a ship you are charged for it. This price is based off of the ship's stats, so storing a decked out capital will cost more than storing your sunday driving shuttle.
   
   There are other, minor things you can do with the ship ATMs. Look at one of them for details.
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2. I heard something about escape pods, what's up with that?
   All sluis constructed ships have escape pods in the cockpit/bridge, and in each of the turrets. Each escape pod is a 1-person craft, which is launched when 'eject' is typed in the room. *NOTE* You must not be in the bridge/turret command shell. So when a fight turns bad, type exit, and then eject, as fast as you can. The eject command does a sequence of actions: creating the pod, putting you in it, and launching it. The pods do NOT fly themselves, this is too complicated and mathmatically expensive to code. So when you 'eject', be ready to type 'start' and get into another bridge shell.
   
   Escape pods are very thick, but they have no weaponry, shields, or hyperdrive system. They are designed to carry you to the nearest planet, not finish off a fight. They are 'shuttle' class ships, so all pilots should be able to fly them. (Sorry non-pilots, you guys go down with the mothership.)
   
   Some may ask why every ship at SVS gets a pod, even fighters. The answer is because these are custom built ships, and you can put things like these in when they are being built. As to why X-wings don't have them, it's because the X-wing you pick up from another world wasn't custom built at SVS. Also note, at the ship ATM, you can restock your ship if you use a pod and the main ship survives.
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3. I hear Sluis Van Shipyards has condos. Any details about them?
   Yes, it has condos that should behave exactly as the DS and Soleada condos. They cost 45,000 credits.
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4. Are there any guilds on Sluis Van Shipyards?
   Yes, Pilot, Scientist, and Smuggler. Those ground-pounding guilds can go elsewhere to advance.
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- Written by Alexus, August 1996

2003: Some of this panic file has been removed due to being out of date. Alexus is now retired. Other space revamps are in the works by the new Head of Space, Mentos.