                               Concept : Ships

 Ships are units constructed by nations to transport  commodities,  to  gather
intelligence  about other nations, to project power abroad, and to assure com-
mand of the sea.  Some ships have specialized capabilities, such as the  abil-
ity  to  base planes, lay mines, or to spot and attack submarines.  Ships vary
in cost, speed, armor, cargo capacity, and firepower.

Ships, like the other kinds of units, are built  and  owned  by  nations.   To
build a ship, a nation must spend construction materials in a functioning har-
bor sector that has excess available civilian workforce.   This  initial  con-
struction  will  cost 20% of the full cost of the ship, and create a 20% effi-
cient ship in the harbor.

As time passes (assuming the harbor is 60%  efficient  and  there  are  enough
civilians  available  to  work  on the construction of the new ship), the ship
will gain efficiency each update.  Until the ship reaches 100%, it is not con-
sidered  as  "completely  constructed" and as such cannot be used for any mis-
sion.  For each 1% of efficiency built, the owning nation will be  charged  1%
of the ship price.

Once ships are completely constructed, they are free to perform  any  and  all

                               Concept : Ships

missions.  Most missions require and use  mobility,  which  is  accrued  every
update.   If  ships  receive damage, they can be rapidly repaired at any func-
tioning harbor.  The crew can also repair, but  typically  at  a  much  slower
rate.  Each 1% of damage will cost 1% of the total ship cost to repair.

In order to be eligible for a particular ship mission, a  ship  must  be  com-
pletely constructed, have mobility, be owned by the actor or an allied country
that has decided to allow allied use.

Ships are less affected by events in their sector than are  land-based  units.
For instance, ships are not automatically captured when the sector they are in
is seized.

Ship missions are generally limited to the current sector.   Certain  missions
can be proscribed by treaty.

      assault  Land troops on a hostile shore.
       engage  Engage hostile ships in a gun duel.
         fire  Fire at land sectors.
     navigate  Move ships from one sector to another.

                               Concept : Ships

         mine  Drop mines from ships.
         tend  Transfer commodities from one ship to another.
        board  Take possession of a hostile ship.
  load/unload  Transfer commodities or units to/from harbor.
embark/debark  Transfer commodities to/from non-harbors.
      torpedo  Torpedo enemy surface vessels using submarines.
          asw  Conduct antisubmarine warfare against enemy submarines.
        build  Create a new ship.
        scrap  Convert an existing ship to scrap.
      upgrade  Raise the tech of a ship to the current national tech level.

               The capabilities of each ship are given by  the  show  command.
               The headings are as follows. For the building data:

tech  The minimum technology required to build the ship,
cost  The total cost of the ship,
avail  The total amount of available work required to completely construct the
      ship,
materials  The varying types and amounts of commodities required to build  the
      ship.

                               Concept : Ships

The headings for the capability listing are

armor  armor plating on the ship
spd  the speed of the ship,
visib  how visible the ship is,
vrng  how well the ship can see,
frng  the range of the ships main guns,
mgun  the number of main guns,
 aa  the number of antiaircraft guns,
tube  the number of torpedo tubes
cargoes & abilities  the types of cargoes that can be carried and any  special
     abilities the ship has,

Each ship can carry a certain amount of products and has certain capabilities.
The abilities are as follows.

                               Concept : Ships

 fish  The vessel will accumulate food by fishing
 torp  The vessel can fire torpedos.
dchrg  The vessel can drop depth charges
plane  The vessel can carry naval planes,
 miss  The vessel can carry missiles.
  oil  The vessel can drill for oil
sonar  The vessel has sonar capabilities to detect submarines
 mine  The vessel can lay mines
sweep  The vessel can sweep the sector for mines and recover them
  sub  The vessel is a submarine
  spy  The vessel can engage in spying activities
 land  The vessel can be used as a landing craft

