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 (F2) Window. It is requested, with a click on the Request Berth button. Alternatively it is possible to request a berth using the Spacecraft (F9) window's roster tab while on board the spacecraft, which will then broadcast the request on the intercom channel.
Once a request for a berth has been made, it will have to be accepted by someone on the spacecraft. There are however cases where the spacecraft itself or a NPC officer will accept the request automatically.
- While on board an empire spacecraft that does not have any commanding staff, the spacecraft automatically accepts berth requests on the intercom channel
- While on board a non-empire spacecraft that does not have any commanding staff and the empire's Commerce policy allow "Spacecraft Requisition", the spacecraft automatically accepts captain berth requests on the intercom channel and changes the empire ownership of the spacecraft to that of the requester
- While requesting a berth over a communication channel other than the intercom, an officer will accept the berth request made by avatars that are in chain of command over them
- The spacecraft has policies that enable automatic accepting of berths on the Spacecraft (
F9) window's policy tab, which are than accepted by an officer
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.