Berth

Module

Berth

The berth is essentially a bed aboard a spacecraft. It is required, so that officers, crew and passengers can work and serve on a ship. A berth can also be used by an avatar to use the Recall Home CTRL + Backspace function.

While an avatar can still enter a ship without having a berth aboard it, they could only order it and its crew around, if they had a berth or are otherwise in the chain of command of the vessel. Without a berth, it is not possible for NPC to be aboard a ship at all, in order to perform functions or their duty.

Berth Types

There are several different types of berths aboard a spacecraft. The type of a berth is defined in the spacecraft design.

Berth
Captain*
Officer
Crewman
Troop
Passenger
*If no captain's berth is specifically defined, an available berth is reserved in this order: Officer > Passenger > Crew > Troop

From all the berths, one is always reserved for the captain. Which berth that is, depends on the number and types of berths aboard the vessel in question. Please check the following table, to learn about the order in which a berth is reserved:

Please Note: A berth is reserved only for the captain but for no other crew member! This means that it is essentially impossible, to hire an officer, if there are no or only one officer berths on that vessel (the one available, being reserved for the captain). In addition, you have to take the reserved berths into account when planning your ship, or you will run short on crew. If you have four control stations aboard your ship and place only four crew berths, without placing any other berth, one of these crew berths would be reserved for the captain, resulting in only three more berths being actually available for crew members.

Requesting a Berth

A berth can be requested from anyone who can establish contact to a spacecraft through the Comm Window. It is requested, with a click on the Request Berth icon, a Thumbs Up button, found below the chat line. Once clicked, you can select the berth, which you would like to request. You can also request berths from the spacecraft's roster menu. The options are the same as above:

• Captain's Berth
• Officer's Berth
• Crew Berth
• Troop Berth
• Passenger Berth
• Any Berth

Whether or not your request is accepted or denied, depends on two factors:

• The requested berth (or any berth, if selected), is available aboard the ship
• Ship Policies allow officers or crew to accept a berth (or an avatar is aboard, to manually accept the berth request)

Warning: By default, anyone with access to a spaceship over the Comm Channel can request a berth on a ship!

Whether or not a berth request is approved or declined, is defined by the ship's policies. It is common practice, to refuse automatic acceptance of berth requests for captain's and officer's berths and possibly even crew berths. In this case, you should try the passenger berth instead. If that is also refused, you should try another ship or find an active avatar aboard a ship, who can accept your berth request manually.

Berth Types

Next, we will take a quick look at the different berth types that exist.

Captain's Berth

The captain's berth is an officer's berth and is reserved for the avatar who will serve as the ship's captain. It is always the first officer's berth aboard a ship, but cannot be used for officer NPCs. If there is just one officer's berth, then the ship won't be able to take on an officer. If there is no officer's berth aboard the vessel, then a crew berth is reserved for the captain.

The captain has ultimate command over the ship. Only an avatar can take or request the captain's berth.

Officer's Berth

If there is more than one Officer Berth aboard a vessel, these berths can be used to assign an officer to the ship. An officer is able to take command of a vessel in the absence of the captain or any other avatar. It can complete a large number of missions and commands and can act independently in some situations. If there is just one officer's berth aboard a vessel, the berth will be reserved for the captain and no officer can be hired!

The officer's berth can be occupied by both an avatar or a NPC. The officer is often seen as the first officer aboard a spaceship. If more than two officer's berth exist, a ship can house more avatar or NPC officers, however, only one officer can take the Con at a time.

Crew Berth

The crew berth is the place where the crew of a spaceship or space station sleeps. Each ship or station requires a crew to run it, to operate the duty stations and to perform their shifts aboard. Since you can only hire as many crew as you have crew berths, you need to make sure that sufficient crew berths to man all stations exist.

Note: If a ship has only crew berths, but no officer's berth, one of the crew berths will be reserved for the captain, practically taking away one spot for the crew! While this is fine – you don't necessarily want or need an officer's berth on some ships – you must take this fact into account when placing the crew berths, so that you do not run short on crew later on.

A crew berth can be assigned to both an avatar or an NPC. Crew members have access to all areas of the ship, including the cargo hold or the armory!

Passenger Berth

The passenger berth is the place where the first class passengers are sleeping. For each passenger berth you assign, one passenger can come aboard. This is important for passenger ships, or if you want to allow your ship to take on and care for guests. A passenger has no duties aboard a spaceship, usually pays for the voyage and may be restricted to public areas aboard a ship.

A passenger berth can be assigned to both NPCs and avatars.

Note: If there is no crew or officer's berth aboard a vessel, one passenger berth will be reserved for the captain. You should keep this fact in mind, when planning and designing your ships!

Troop Berth

Lastly, a spaceship can have one or more troop berths. Troops are used to man the turrets or troop posts of the vessel, but can also be used to defend the ship, conquer planets, or for several other operations. Troops are a vital part on any ships with turrets, whose purpose is to drop off invasion forces on other planets.

A troop berth can be assigned to either an avatar or a NPC character. With no other berths aboard a ship, one troop berth will be reserved for the captain. Keep this in mind, when planning and designing your ships, so you don't run short on troops later on.

Releasing a Berth

Releasing a berth can be done on the Bio (F8) window using the Release Berth button, the button will be hidden if no berth is held. Alternatively it is possible to kick oneself off the roster by using the Spacecraft (F9) window's roster tab while on board the spacecraft.

Do however note that releasing the berth of a spacecraft that is held in stasis will cause the spacecraft to be lost forever.