Berth
| 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.
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.