Free Company Airships
Free Company Airships built from Free Company Crafting can undertake Exploratory Voyages, the exploration of uncharted lands in The Sea of Clouds. These explorations are carried out automatically, with airships returning after a fixed amount of time. Upon completion of an exploratory voyage, you will be provided with a voyage log detailing the results. You will also receive various items depending on the results of the voyage. As you continue to deploy airships on voyages, you will eventually discover new areas to survey.
Craft and Deploy Airships
Free Company Crafting in the Company Workshop is needed to craft and register airships using requisite components and flight credits. Each airship is built with 4 components: Hull, Rigging, Forecastle and Aftcastle. Each component has many types and requires numerous materials, multiple phases, lengthy wait time and a group of crafters to build. Note that you cannot build HQ components with HQ materials.
Airships require Ceruleum Tanks to be deployed on exploratory voyages. They can be purchased using company credits from the resident caretaker in any of the housing districts.
Airship Stats and Performance
The combination of parts used to build an airship will determine the distances it can travel, as well as the rewards you will receive from voyages.
Rank
When a voyage is complete, airships will gain experience points depending on its selected flight path, and eventually increase in rank. Higher rankings will allow you to outfit airships with new components to improve their performance on future voyages.
Stats
The stats of an airship affect the distance it can travel, the time required for voyages, as well as the rewards received from voyages. Stats of an airship can be altered by changing its components.
| Stat | Effect |
|---|---|
| Surveillance | Influences the probability of gathering a 2nd item per sector. May also influence the probability of finding new sectors. |
| Retrieval | Increases item extraction rating (higher quantities of a specific item). |
| Speed | Influences voyage duration. |
| Range | Allows you to visit more sectors per voyage. |
| Favor | Weather????? |
Airship Components
Airships are comprised of four primary parts—the hull, rigging, forecastle, and aftcastle. Bear in mind that durability of these parts will be depleted when sending airships out on exploratory voyages. When the durability of any given part reaches zero, it will need to be replaced or repaired.
Rank
The rank required to use airship components.
Component Costs and Airframe Capacity
When assembling an airship, the total cost of the components cannot exceed the airframe capacity. The airframe capacity increases with the rank of the airship.