The ability for civilians to create their own shuttles has been under debate for some time, due to the strain on NC shipyards to maintain and produce both civilian sector and military sector starships. It is hoped that, should a civilian be able to build their own, that the NC shipyards be able to devote themselves to primarily military sector construction, rather than having to have a bay specifically for rebuilding escape shuttles every 2 hours.

The following will guide you through the process of building your own shuttle.

There is a supply crate available at Cargo Bay that grants you a one-use license to create a ship. This ship license first scans the room you're in, and evaluates whether or not it is ship worthy.

• After a clown attempted to convert their theater into a shuttle, it has been deemed that the room must NOT be a part of the main station. It must be a new room.
• For every 30 'tiles' (A tile being 1 meter squared), there must be 2 engines that:
  • Point towards space
  • Have a shuttle engine pre-igniter attached to their rear
  • The user must be facing towards space. This 'tile' they are on will be used to co-ordinate the docking port location.
  • The user christen it with a fitting name (Must not be blank.)

See Guide to Construction for details on how to build floors and walls. We recommend acquiring a Construction Permit from your nearest EngiVend, or acquiring a set of blueprints, as these will help you define the area of your ship. This is necessary, as through its use the shuttle permit can interface with this area, to more easily detect the bounds of your ship.

DIY shuttle engines are available for purchase at the Cargo Bay; these cost (as of the time of writing) 650 credits per crate, which contain a shuttle engine and a pre-igniter.

The engines and pre-igniters start off unanchored, and must be dragged into position and wrenched to the ground, and then the pre-igniters wrenched within proximity of it to attach to it automatically.

Within the ordinary stations Research Division, there should be a circuit imprinter that has the capability to print off a 'Universal Shuttle Control' board. It should be located under the 'misc' tab when using a R&D console, assuming you have the prerequisite research.

Once you have the board, head back to your ship, and build a console using the USC board, and press 'link to shuttle'. This will bring up a selection of shuttles available to link with. A civilian shuttle that has just been created should not require a password to link with it, so simply select your shuttle by name, and the link will be established.

A newly created shuttle will not have any pre-coded destinations, so you will require a destination disk. On every ship or station the common autolathe can print a destination disk for the Shuttle Bay or Shuttle Landing area; this will bring you back to the ship safely, if the shuttle is built correctly. From there, the sensor suite on the shuttle should show any nearby destinations, as well as the main ship or station, so it can travel to dock with other locations that have shuttle docking capability.