Hull wear and repair

Condition

• A hull has health, and combat and travel hazards take it down.
• SHIPYARD > REPAIR puts it back, for a fee and the days the yard's gang takes. A bigger station has a bigger gang.
• A job longer than a day offers a day's work instead, because a holed hull still flies but lets more rounds reach what matters.
• Under way, REPAIR HULL has your hands mend hull and drive with hold steel, far slower than a yard.
• STANDING ORDERS > REPAIR PARTIES sets which job the hands work first, the drive or the hull, and shows the steel and days.
• A hulk from a Belt salvage lot is restored by the yard, or by your own hands under RESTORE A HULK.
• Damage is not the same as wear. See RUNNING COSTS for wear.

Trading a hull in

• The salvage yard pays 45% of the hull price, less the cost of any repairs it needs, plus half the price of every module still fitted.
• A restored wreck, and every hull the salvage yard sells, carries a salvage title and fetches 30% instead.
• So a hull loses value the moment you fly it.
• Buy the hull the work needs, not the hull you want to own.

Maintenance

• A hull wears with USE and not with time, so a ship sitting at a dock wears nothing.
• The yard shows the bill as MAINTENANCE DUE, and you settle it under SERVICE.
• Every two weeks of travel left unpaid drops the drive a step: 85%, then 70%, then 55%.
• It never falls below 55%, so a neglected hull always still flies.
• A worn drive pushes less and wastes fuel, so each leg is slower and dearer.
• Unpaid wear stays with the hull, so a sale pays the yard first.
• CHOOSE THE WORK runs only when you can pay its whole bill. SERVICE pays what you hold.

Each value is read from the game code. Sort by any column heading, or filter by grade or by a word.

• A ship's drive and moving parts wear as they work, so a ship that stays at dock wears little.
• A working ship costs about a third of its price each year to keep, by one estimate.
• The largest part of a hull is structure, and renewing structure takes people, time and steel.
• A bigger gang finishes sooner, but only so many people fit around one hull at once.
• Major overhaul needs a dock or a yard, and doing it away from one takes longer and overworks the gang.
• A wreck is only worth the labor and steel that bring it back to sound.

• The mirror treats maintenance as a yearly job. The game wears a hull with use and not with time, so an idle hull pays berthing and nothing is charged twice.
• The yard bill does not follow repair labor. The game's repair notes ('The price did not move, on purpose') say that pricing yard labor at the dock wage was measured and refused, so time, steel and gang are physical and the bill stays the old tariff.
• Combat records damage as hull points, not as tonnes. getdamagetonnes converts points to tonnes until the damage record lands.
• A yard offers a day's work when a job runs over a day, because a holed hull still flies (SHIPS & OUTFITTING, CONDITION). This is a pacing choice, with no source.
• Crew under way renew hull with steel from the hold at the same hours per tonne as the yard, but a short gang is slow. The machine shop adds pace and mends nothing alone.
• A guns-knocked-offline repair and armor re-plate stay instant at the counter.

1. Atomic Rockets does not provide values for the following:
   1. Repair labor per tonne of hull. 230 person-hours comes from the Butler guide, unverified.
   2. Time to renew a drive part. The drive part share is an open question.
2. Atomic Rockets and the Navy damage control manual do not provide values for the following:
   1. Wear that grows with use and costs thrust. A 15% step with a 55% floor is authored.
3. No source on the shelf provides values for the following:
   1. Size of a yard gang. Yard share, hands per tonne, and crew pace are authored.
   2. Price or value drop for a wreck with a salvage title. 30% of hull price is authored.

• Atomic Rockets, starshipowner, cost of running a cargo starship: The page assumes a cargo starship costs $300,000 per tonne of capacity per year to run, against a purchase price of $1 million per tonne. That is a share of about 30 percent of the price each year. (all uses)
• Atomic Rockets, starshipowner, maintenance remarks: The page says annual maintenance comes sooner than owners expect and needs a dock or yard. It carries about one maintenance technician per $100 million of ship, because maintenance cannot all wait for a layover. (all uses)
• Atomic Rockets, appworkedexample, Structure: In the worked example a ship of 126 tonnes dry mass has 50 tonnes of structure, which is about 40 percent. The share changes with the thrust the ship needs. (all uses)
• Design notes: repair: The game records that renewing steel plate takes 250 person-hours a tonne up to 6 mm and 230 at 12.5 mm. UNVERIFIED here: this page did not open the Butler PDF, and the game note says an earlier session read it on 2026-09-28. (all uses)
• US Navy training manual, "Damage Control" (chapter 12), What it says (repair lockers) and Where the source is silent: The manual describes repair lockers and parties for a ship under attack. It states plainly that it gives no price, wage or time for any party. (all uses)
• International Convention on Salvage, 1989, What the game does with it: The Convention covers a reward for helping property in danger. The game notes that hulk work on abandoned property fits, but the Convention does not cover a yard that sells a wreck. (all uses)