Basic Guide To Build A Spaceship

Overview

This will give you the basic steps to build Spaceships in Space Heven. Compiled from Space Haven wikis. This makes it much more friendly to view in the Steam Overlay.

Building for minimum life support

• 1 Build tools facility – This is important to build in the beginning, as crew members cannot build without build tools.
• 1 Oxygen Generator and 1 Gas Scrubber – Oxygen generator will provide oxygen and the gas scrubber will remove hazardous gases.
• 1 Thermal Regulator – This module will produce heat or remove it, trying to maintain a optimal temperature for your crew members.
• 1 or 2 Power Nodes – These will provide power within an area, place them in a way where they create a link to the core and cover the modules you have built previously.

Made a mistake? Don’t worry, you can always move facilities around and even dismantle them to gain back all resources.

If you built these and linked the power nodes so that everything is working, congratulations! Your crew members should now remove their spacesuits (If they were on) and will be able to survive as long as there is food and Energy rods for the core module.

The tools facility is extremely important to build as a first facility, as it provides the necessary tools for crew members to be able to build any facility. The tools facility produces building tools for the construction guns crew members use to 3D print facilities.

To have functional power grid you need two things:

• A power generator to generate power
• Power nodes to expand the power grid network
• (More power generators if power network is too weak to sustain all facilities)

Remember to link power generators and power nodes to each other to create the power grid network. This can be done by selecting a power generator or power node and clicking the “links” button.

Certain modules are needed to establish a safe environment for the crew. These include:

• Oxygen Generator Module – Provides Oxygen.
• Gas scrubber – Purifies hazardous gases from the air.
• Thermal regulator – Keeps the temperature at optimal levels.
• Power nodes – Expands the power grid and helps provide power to all facilities.

How many to build
This depends on things like the amount of crew members, how walls might stop gases from spreading and so on, but a small area (15×15 tiles) generally only requires one of each. Use the view modes and the notifications crew members give. After this, continue using view modes to check temperature, various gas levels and how the power grid is extended.

Building for comfort

• Expand the spaceship hull – You want to start thinking about a Kitchen area and sleeping area. Keep the expansion small enough in the beginning, 8×16 tiles is a good starting expansion for more space.
• Build 1 bed for each crew member you have currently.
• Build walls to surround the beds, creating a bed room. Walls will block out uncomfortable elements like noise from noisy facilities.
  Place 1 power node, 1 thermal regulator and a light inside the bed room. This will make sure the crew members have a comfortable bed room. Make sure the power node is within reach of another power node already receiving power (Or build many power nodes to make sure that reach is enough)
• Build a Kitchen module
  Place a table and enough chairs close to the Kitchen module to let your crew members eat while sitting down.

Crew members love comfort, they are humans after all! Better comfort can be achieved through:

• Surrounding uncomfortable facilities with walls, or enclosing many of them in a room – This will prevent the discomfort from “spreading”. You cannot make an industry facility comfortable to be around, but you can limit how wide of an area it affects.
• Building lights – Light increases comfort, as it is not fun to be in the dark all the time.
• Building facilities, which increase comfort – These include:
• Beds
  
• Kitchen
• Arcade Machine
• Jukebox

Use the comfort view mode to check comfort values on your ship.

Building for production

The best facilities to begin with are:

• A water purifier – This will allow you to produce more water by mining ice found on asteroids and using the water purifier to create purified water.
• A recycler facility – The recycler will work really well in the beginning, as it will allow you to salvage derelict ships for scrap resources and turn them into usable building materials with the recycler.
• Grow beds – Build one or two larger grow beds and start growing vegetables, fruits and artificial meat. You want someone to be a botanist to speed up the process.
  Ensure you build a room specifically meant for grow beds only. You will want the room to have a light, a thermal regulator and a CO2 producer. Plants will grow faster when they have access to light, CO2 and a steady temperature.

When building for food production it’s important to realize that it is best to have a separate room for these. Crops will grow faster and have less risk of failing when they have access to light, CO2 and a steady temperature. Create a new room and place your grow beds in there, along with a light, a thermal regulator and a CO2 producer.

A botanist will take care of the plants and speed up the growing process based on their botanist skill.

Industry facilities, such as assemblers and refineries are also best placed in their own separate area, enclosed with walls. This will keep the discomfort from spreading inside the ship from all the noisy facilities.

Having the industry area close to the hangar area is usually a good idea, this will help keep the path distances when hauling resources to the industry facilities shorter.

Building for hyperspace capability

• Create two new expansions for a start to a bridge and another one for the hyperdrive.
• Expand the spaceship 8×8 to the left side for a bridge area.
• Expand the spaceship 8×10 to the right side for a hyperdrive (Engine area). Note! The hyperdrive cannot be rotated, so it is best to place the hyperdrive towards the right (back) of the spaceship.
• Build a navigation console and operations console in the bridge area.
  Make sure to build a power node if the navigation console is outside the current power grid.
• Build a hyperdrive in the engine area.
• Build a power node if the hyperdrive is outside the current power grid.
  If your ship mass is over limit, build one more hyperdrive to compensate. Hyperdrives increase mass capability.
• Build a hull stabilizer
  Hull stabilizers enables hyperspace jump by strengthening the hull, they also add to the total hull stability amount.

To make a ship capable of jumping into hyperspace it will need:

• A navigations console
• A hyperdrive

One of both is enough to make any ship hyperspace capable, but when mass increases more hyperdrives are needed.

Expanding hull is done with the hull expansion tool, found in the build menu. Hull can be designed with the hull sketching tool, which will only sketch hull tiles but not yet give the command to your crew to build them. You can use this tool to create a larger design before you start to actually build the hull. Sketches can be activated with the hull activate sketch tool, found under the same menu.

If you don’t want to sketch anything you can use the build hull tool, which will immediately give the command to your crew to start building new hull tiles. Note that new hull is built with mining pods, and will require hull blocks. As long as you have the required resources (Hull blocks) and some crew members assigned to construction the hull will eventually get built.

Building for ship-to-ship battles

• If you followed step 3 you should now already have at least one hull stabilizers.
• Build a shield generator and a shields console.
  Shields are operated via the shields console, and requires a crew member to function. Set Shields priorities in the crew management menu for at least one crew member per ship.
  Note that shield generators require system points, which are limited for each ship.
  
• Build one or more turrets and a weapons console.
  Turrets function as your spaceship’s attack mechanism.
  Turrets are operated via the weapons console. Set Gunner priorities in the crew management menu for at least one crew member per ship.

Using View Modes

The reason to use view modes is to find out where the ship needs improvement. Go through all view modes and check the legend to see if levels are ok.

If you find something lacking, fix it by building a facility to remedy the situation.

• If there’s too little oxygen in an area – Build an oxygen generator unit close to that area. Oxygen generators produce more oxygen but need water to operate.
• If there’s too much CO2 or other hazardous gases in an area – Build a gas scrubber close to that area. The gas scrubber will purify the air.
• If comfort is low in an area where you want your crew members to spend leisure time, try to build some walls to encapsulate that area and block out all uncomfortable elements like noise from noisy facilities. Note! It’s impossible to make certain areas comfortable, like an area filled with industrious facilities. It is best to simply have them in their own rooms, so build walls to close them in.
• If the power grid does not extend to some facility build a power node and link it to other power nodes nearby. This will extend the power grid.

Out of Resources

So you were merrily building your spaceship and noticed you’re out of resources? Are you doomed? Perhaps not! There are many ways to acquire more resources, depending on the situation you are facing.

Dismantling
If you notice you ran out of resources and really need some facility built to solve the problem, you can always dismantle something you have built earlier. When dismantling a facility the resources, which were used to build it, will be returned. You can use this to temporarily dismantle some facility of lesser importance, to solve the puzzle of acquiring more resources.

Scavenging and salvaging derelict ships
If the sector you are currently in has a derelict ship in it you can go on an away mission and explore the ship. If your spaceship is capable of jumping to hyperspace you can seek out areas where derelict ships are present.

If you manage to explore the derelict ship (and neutralize any possible threats), you will be able to salvage it for scrap resources. However, to transform scrap resources to usable resources you need a Recycler. Don’t have enough to construct the Recycler? Use the dismantle mechanism explained above to acquire enough resources for the Recycler.

Trading
If another ship is present in the same sector, you can try hailing them and ask for a trade agreement. Trade something you have plenty of and the other party wants to acquire something you really need in return.

Mining
If the current sector has asteroids you can mine for raw resources. You will need assemblers to create resources out of the raw resources. Again, if you cannot construct the assembler you really need, use dismantle to temporarily deconstruct some facility of less immediate importance.

Expanding Fleet

Expanding the fleet can be done via the management menu. This menu can be found in the upper left corner of the user interface. The plus button next to your existing ship(s) buttons will open a “Create New Ship” menu, from which you are able to choose a desired spaceship canvas to start building on.

• A new spaceship canvas requires ship points, and the amount depends on the size of the canvas.
• Toggle through various canvas sizes (In the lower section of the menu) and drag one of your liking to the sector area (The upper section of the menu).
• You have now created a new ship canvas you can start building on. You can use the same tools as before, and simply pan to the area of the new spaceship canvas to start building the new spaceship hull.

Even if the canvas is empty it still uses ship points and is referred to as a ship in the current sector.

Building a Prison

A prison can be created using the Prisoner area permission tool. This tool can be found in the build menu.

• The tool allows you to paint a prisoner area, where prisoners may stay on your ship.
• Use the tool to paint a small or large area, however you want it. Note that the prisoners have all the same needs as your own crew members, and will eventually complain if they do not have beds, a toilet, a Kitchen and so on.
• You can create a specific area just for the prisoners, with all the required facilities for comfort OR you can paint pathways to facilities like a Kitchen, to allow prisoners and your own crew members share these facilities.

When you bring a prisoner to your ship, where a prison area has been marked, the prisoner will aim to seek out such an area and stay there. You can also lead them to a specific prison area you’ve created.

Taking Prisoners

In crew combat situations one of the sides become overwhelmed and eventually surrender. Surrendering is individual for each character, and is calculated based on their traits and conditions like getting hit by bullets. When the character gets more and more hurt they are more prone to just give up and surrender, fearing they might die otherwise. Both the player characters and the AI characters work in the same way.

When the Player wins:

• When the whole boarding/defending AI crew has surrendered, an option to talk with the crew becomes possible. This is done by drafting a character and interacting with one of the other faction characters.
• The communication menu will open with options to interact with the faction.
• The player has the option to accept their surrender.

It is now possible to command the surrendered crew members to follow a player character. This is done by interacting with one of the surrendered crew members and choosing the “Follow me” command. Use this to have the surrendered crew members follow your own character back to one of your spaceships.

Once at the spaceship, the prisoners will seek out a prison area to stay at. You can also lead them to a specific prison area. Have a look at the building a prison section in the Building category to see how a prison area can be made.

When the AI wins:

• The AI will take one or many of your crew members as prisoners, and lead them back to their own ship.
• Your crew members will stay there until you contact them with your remaining crew (By hailing their ship) or they initiate a conversation.
• Even if all of your crew members are captured the AI should eventually initiate conversation aboard their ship, this will give you the option to accept paying a settlement for your freedom.

General questions

Space Haven works on a principle of priorities, meaning crew members will carry out tasks in a swift way but might have many tasks to take care of. If you order something to be constructed (or something to be dismantled) the facility will be marked, which means a crew member will eventually come and carry out the task. Don’t expect something to happen instantly, rather a character has to walk to the position and perform the task.

Which crew member will come is based on the priorities system, which can be adjusted in the crew management menu. If no crew member has at least a low priority for the corresponding task then nobody will carry it out. This is not something that needs to be modified right away, the starting crew has priorities set in a way where all normal jobs will be carried out eventually.

Furthermore, crew members have their own schedules with work (Cog symbol), leisure time (Coffee symbol) and sleep (Half moon symbol). Work related tasks (Like construction) will be carried out on work schedule. See schedule menu for information on adjusting crew schedules.

DO NOT LEAVE CREW MEMBERS DRAFTED. Drafting means to “take manual control” effectively stopping them from doing any normal job. Only draft when you want to equip crew members with weapons and when in combat and other special situations. See more information on drafting here.

By finding them aboard derelict ships and stations in hypersleep chambers.
By meeting someone who wants to join your crew.

Be sure to build a kitchen. Make sure that the environment around the kitchen is not threatening to your crew.
Crew eats when they their schedule is on leisure time. Make sure your crew has enough leisure time. 2 hours in a row of leisure time at some point during their schedule should suffice, enough for them to be able to travel back to their designated leisure time ship and eat.

Curing starving will need a more long-term access to food, as one meal cannot cure the starving condition right away. Ensure there is a more long-term stable access to food, and that the crew members have enough leisure time to be able to eat.

Plants need suitable environment conditions in terms of CO2, temperature and light. Make sure all these environment conditions are taken into consideration when building a room for grow pods! Extreme temperatures will kill them. If a crop failed, select a grow pod and then select a plant to see more information on why it failed.
Additionally, someone from your crew has to be assigned as a botanist and tend to the plants regularly. They will do it automatically as long as someone is assigned to be a botanist on the ship.

You can trade with a faction if you have a trade agreement with them.
Select a faction ship or station you want to trade with, then open the trade tab. Once a trade has been made, the trade will be carried out automatically, but might take some time. Your crew and also your trade partners crew have to carry resources to air locks for shipment.

A character can only be carried if they are truly unconscious. Select the character to check their current state.
If they are unconscious, you can draft another character and use the “pick up” command on the unconscious character. You can then move them to a shuttle, medical bed or other place.
If they are sleeping you can try to wake them up with the draft button.

Crew members will do it automatically, but you can also draft a crew member and order them to put out a fire.
By opening the vent on an airlock. NOTE! This will cause some damage to facilities.

Select a ship and then click the move command. You can now select multiple items to be moved.
If you want to eject items, press the eject button instead.

Select a power node that has been constructed and then click the links button. This will open up a view mode enabling you to create links between nodes.

Click the view modes button to be able to toggle through various view modes.

The character may be in drafted mode (Manual control). Select the character and then click the undraft button to set them back to automatic control. Do not keep characters drafted unless you want to move them around manually. Draft is mostly meant for combat situations, and specific situations like equipping them or carrying another wounded crew member to a medical bed. All normal tasks found in the priority menu are performed automatically when the characters are not drafted.
The character may be on leisure schedule or sleep schedule. Select the character and check their information.

Check that you have someone assigned to carry out those tasks in the crew management priority menu. Try making the priority for that task high. Note that crew being on leisure time (Coffee symbol) means they will not work, wait until the crew members are back on their work schedule (Cog symbol).

Your crew might be overwhelmed with logistics work.
If your refineries have the continuous setting on, try removing them temporarily and switching to a “IF” instead. Producing resources continuously will cause a lot of logistics work and your crew might not be able to keep up with moving them to storages.
Make the logistics priority high for crew members. This can be done in the Crew Management Menu.

Select the storage you want resources to and open up the management tab. Select a resource and use the bring here command.

Yes, based on need. You can change this for each ship by selecting a ship and opening the settings tab. You can also manually transfer resources between ships by using the transfer tab when selecting your own ship. This is easily done through the tactical map.

Go to tactical map. Select a ship and open the transfer tab.

Go to tactical map. Select a ship and open the resources tab.

You can do it from the resource settings button. This button can be found close to the resource window itself, see user interface sections.

Select the ship you want to communicate with and press the button for hailing them. Make sure your own communications is turned on in the systems menu.

Build more hyperdrives.

Forced work setting will prevent crew members from doing other tasks. Check the systems menu or ship settings.

Notes

Thanks to Space Haven Wiki, Bugbyte and friends for providing information for this guide.

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