Ship structural beam
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Ship structural beam
A structural beam around which a starship can be constructed. Includes all the necessary conduits and transit pipes for communications, power, and materials transport.
Base Stats
Building
- Size
- 2 × 6
- Minifiable
- False
- Placeable
- True
- Passability
- impassable
- Cover Effectiveness
- 75%
- Blocks Wind
- True
- Terrain Affordance
- Heavy
Creation
- Required Research
- Starflight basics
- Skill Required
- Construction 5
- Work To Make
- 8,000 ticks (2.22 mins)
- Resources to make
200 + 
40 + 
3 + 
1- Deconstruct yield
- 100 + 20 + 1 - 2 + 0 - 1
- Destroy yield
- 50 + 10 + 0 - 1 + 0 - 1
The ship structural beam is a ship part that connects all other parts, transmits power, and hosts the ship cryptosleep caskets.
Acquisition
Ship structural beams can be constructed once the Starflight basics research project has been completed. Each beam requires 200 Steel, 40 Plasteel, 3 Components, 1 Advanced components, 8,000 ticks (2.22 mins) of work, and a Construction skill of 5.
It cannot be built under a roof, that is at least 5 out of the 12 squares it occupies must be uncovered. However, a roof can be constructed afterwards.
Summary
Ship structural beams allow the building of ship cryptosleep caskets. Each beam can support up to 8 caskets. They can also connect other ship parts together, though are not required to do so.
Analysis
At least one beam is required to host the ship cryptosleep caskets. In order to conserve resources when building the ship:
- Keep as much open space for caskets. Only 1 tile needs to be connected to the rest of the ship; using both tiles of the width will waste a casket spot, if you are planning to sent more than 7 colonists up to space.
- Connect as many of the ship parts to each other directly as possible, especially the ship reactor. Unless terrain is a restriction, there is no need to place beams for anything else.
Like the other ship parts, you can activate the ship reactor before the rest of the ship is completed. This both saves on raid points, as material gathering and construction adds to wealth, and limits what has to be protected during the raids.
Beams are also necessary if ship caskets are wanted for uses outside of the ship building, such as using its auto-eject feature to store colonists.
Version history
- Beta 19/1.0 Update - Reduced all costs to build the ship components by 30%