Editing VB-Basic Ship Creation (section)

===Engines===

If we want to go anywhere we are going to need some engines so its time to design our first component. 

====Designing====
Open up the F2 Economics window and press the Design button (in the middle of the line of buttons along the bottom). This will open the Create Research Project window. This is only a small and relatively simple window but very important. In the top right is the Research Project Type dropdown menu. At the moment it should be showing Active Sensors / Missile Fire Control. Change it to Engines. This should change the upper half of the window to show seven dropdown menus. Choosing different options on these menus will result in different engine designs. We know very little tech at the moment so we don't have any decisions to make, In fact the only dropdown with more than one option is the bottom one, which allows military or commercial engines. Leave it as military. 

The lower half shows the stats for the engine design that will be generated by the selected options. '''Power Output''' is the power generated by the engine. The total power output from a ship's engines will determine the speed of the ship based on the following formula:

 Speed = (Total Engine Output / Class Size) * 1000 
So a ship of size 250 with a total engine power of 800 would move at (800/250)*1000 = 3200 km/s

'''Explosion Chance''' is the percentage the engine will blow up if damaged, causing a secondary explosion. '''Efficiency''' is the fuel efficiency of the engine. As you research fuel efficiency tech, you can design engines that will use less fuel for the same power output. The '''Thermal Signature''' is how much heat is generated by the engine. A ship's thermal signature at full speed is the total thermal signature from its engines and this is the value used to detect the ship on thermal sensors. You can design engines with lower thermal signatures by researching Thermal Reduction technology, although they will cost more to build. The '''Engine Size''' is 5HS, which is fixed for military engines. You can put as many military engines on a design as you want though. The '''Engine HTK''' is the Hit to Kill value for the engine. HTK is the amount of damage that would automatically destroy the engine, 2 in this case. If hit by 1 point of damage there is a 50% chance the engine will be destroyed and a 50% chance it will remain intact. Internal armour can be added to engines to reduce the chance of damage. The '''Cost''' and '''Crew''' are the Build Point Cost and amount of crew members that will be added to the ship by the addition of one engine. '''Materials Required''' is the type of raw materials required for the engine. In this case 3x Duranium and 9x Gallicite. The '''Development Cost''' is the research cost required for this design before it can be put into production, in this case 120 Research Points.

The name given to this engine is the Nuclear Thermal Engine E10. You could change this name if you wish before creating the design but leave it for now and press Create. Press Close to shut the Create Research Project window. If the F2 Economics window is still open, close that as well

We are now going to enter SpaceMaster mode so we can give ourselves the new engine without having to research it. Make sure the F2 Economics window is definitely closed, move to the main menu bar and press Ctrl-S. This opens a small box for the SpaceMaster password. We didn't set one so just press Enter and you will be in SM (SpaceMaster) Mode. This means that certain windows, such as Economics, will have a few extra buttons that are only available in SM Mode. Now open the Economics window and go to the Research tab.

In the centre of this tab is the Create New Research project section. Just below the section heading there us a dropdown that should have Construction / Production selected. Change this to Power and Propulsion. In the list of systems tech available for research should be our new engine. If you select it, it should turn red. If we were going to research this project, we would also select a suitable scientist and press Create. Instead, thanks to the usefulness of SM Mode, press Instant. A popup box will appear asking for confirmation so press Yes.

====Adding====
The new engine should immediately appear on the list of Available Components in the Class Design window. Double-click the engine to add one to the design. It should appear in the component list on the right and it should make some significant changes to the summary view, as shown below

 Tribal class Geological Survey Vessel    800 tons     73 Crew     164.5 BP      TCS 16  TH 25  EM 0
 1562 km/s     Armour 1-7     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/1     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
 Annual Failure Rate: 5%    IFR: 0.1%    Maintenance Capacity 129 MSP    Max Repair 100 MSP
 
 Nuclear Thermal Engine E10 (1)    Power 25    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
 Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 112.5 billion km   (833 days at full power)
 
 Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour
 
 This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

Firstly, note that it is now classed as a military vessel so it will suffer from maintenance failures. This is reflected in the 3rd line of the summary, which now shows the '''Annual Failure Rate''', which is the annual chance of a system failure, and the '''Incremental Failure Rate''', which is the chance of a system failure in any given 5-day increment (which is when maintenance checks take place). These values shown on a class summary assume a ship has one year on its maintenance clock. On individual Ship Summaries, the Annual Failure Rate and IFR will be based on the ship's actual maintenance clock. The Thermal Signature value in the top right has changed to 25 to reflect the thermal signature of the engine, the fuel capacity line shows the range of the ship in both kilometers and time and the speed of the ship is now 1562 km/s. Remember the formula from the engine section. (Total Engine Output / Class Size) * 1000. So in this case, (25/16) x 1000 = 1562 km/s.

Lets add a second engine and a second geological survey sensor. The speed increases a little and the thermal signature doubles. The armour is now up to 1-10 as the ship is larger and the failure rate has increased to 14% per annum, because the proportion of engineering spaces in comparison to hull size is lower than before. 

 Tribal class Geological Survey Vessel    1350 tons     123 Crew     280 BP      TCS 27  TH 50  EM 0
 1851 km/s     Armour 1-10     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/2     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
 Annual Failure Rate: 14%    IFR: 0.2%    Maintenance Capacity 130 MSP    Max Repair 100 MSP
 
 Nuclear Thermal Engine E10 (2)    Power 25    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
 Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 66.6 billion km   (416 days at full power)
 
 Geological Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour
 
 This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes