                             Concept : Lifeboats

 When empire is compiled with the LIFEBOATS option defined, all ships, at time
of  construction,  are  automatically  equipped with lifeboats.  Each lifeboat
holds any combination civilians and military, up to a limit of 30 people  (uws
are  not  considered  to  be worth saving).  Each vessel always carries enough
lifeboats to hold all passengers aboard.

As a ship goes down, lifeboats are automatically launched for  the  survivors.
Each  lifeboat  has  a 10% chance of launch failure (a rope becomes tangled or
caught, the lifeboat is damaged, the pulleys jam, etc).  Successfully launched
lifeboats  are  pre-equipped  with  a small amount of food, and start out with
100% efficiency and full mobility.  Lifeboat  efficiency  drops  by  10%  each
update,  and  can  never  be  regained  (not  even in a harbor).  In all other
respects, however, lifeboats are treated just like any other vessel.

Lifeboats cannot be constructed with the `build' command.  They are not listed
by  `show ship build', although you can use `show ship cap' to see their capa-
bilities.  Also, lifeboats do not have radar.

See also : ship-types, show

