Two bays, 4 seconds out, 6 seconds in: the carrier hangar
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A Mk3 Striker leaves the carrier in 0.8 seconds on a hot launch, or in 4 seconds on a calm one. Here is how the hangar works.
Two bays, amidships
The carrier has two bays, port and starboard, on the flat of the hull side amidships. Not the stern, where the engines are; not the belly, because a landed carrier must still launch. Both bays launch and recover.
- The opening is 24 × 10 m.
- The door telescopes down in three segments in 0.8 seconds and rolls away under the hangar floor. A glowing blue force field fills the opening and flares as a ship passes.
- A bay is placed like a gun mount, but it has no arcs and fires nothing.
The line
One line for the whole hangar, first come first served. A ship joining to dock takes the least busy bay. Ships wait behind the bay’s approach point, 120 m out, each one 45 m further back. A ship waiting above or below the bay first comes straight down or up to the approach point at 50 m/s, then slides in.
While the carrier spools a jump, docking goes first: whoever is inside when it jumps goes along. While it hot drops or burns, nobody starts through.
Launch is key O, dock is key I.
Chill and hot
- Chill: a slow slide. Four seconds out to the approach point, then the ship keeps station by the bay. Six seconds in: recovering takes longer than launching.
- Hot launch: a catapult-style shot straight out along the bay’s line at full speed, 400 m, then the ship holds there or fights by its stance. A Mk3 Striker at 500 m/s covers it in 0.8 seconds.
- Hot dock: the catapult in reverse. The ship lines up on the bay’s line 400 m out, shoots straight in at full speed, and brakes only inside.
The hangar goes hot on its own when an enemy craft is close enough to matter: within its own reach, plus the carrier’s point-defence reach, plus the 120 m approach. A ship in a fight, or with an enemy on its tail, docks hot even when all is quiet around the carrier. Hot or chill changes the look only. It costs nothing.
A dock order beats the ship’s stance: an evasive ship told to dock flies straight in, enemies or not. The hangar is the safest place.
Docked
Docked ships ride with the carrier, jumps included, and nothing can see or target them. They are asleep: no processing, out of every shared list, but still selectable in the fleet list. (An early bug had a raid chasing fighters that were already docked inside the carrier. Docked craft are now out of every list.)
- Refuel: a docked ship’s tanks are topped up from the carrier’s at once, and the carrier tops its own tanks up from fuel containers in its hold.
- Rearm: an empty 500-round magazine refills in 20 seconds from the light rounds in the carrier’s hold. The carrier starts with 20,000. If the hold is empty, nothing is loaded.
Every small ship starts docked: the 4 Strikers and both Hawkeyes. Launch them to begin.
The reasons behind each number: the hangar.