Deep Space Airships is a game about flying 2D ships and shooting things.
You can shoot the circular bots to get materials which you can use to craft new components for your ship.
While a single person can man a ship, having at least 2 crew members is recommended.
Note that the controls are based on key position, not on the letters on the key.
At its core, Deep Space Airships is a platformer. Move your character around to interact with the various components of your ship.
Hold the jump key longer to jump higher.
Use objects by clicking on them. Your character must be near objects in order to use them. Use dropped items will cause you to grab them.
Your character has limited inventory space. While holding an item, click to use it.
Switch items using the number keys along the top of the keyboard, or by clicking on the desired slot.
Items can be moved between slots by dragging. Holding SHIFT while dragging will split the stack of items in half.
Items can be dropped or thrown by pressing Q, or by dragging them out of the inventory.
Certain items are wearable equipment. Open the equipment menu by pressing I or the small button in the inventory pane. Equipment can also be equipped by double clicking the item in your inventory.
You can pilot your ship by using a helm. Note that only one person can pilot at a time, even if you have multiple helms.
While piloting you can fire your ship's RC turrets (the orange ones).
The grey turrets can be controlled by players.
Load turrets by using ammo boxes on them.
Some items can be used to modify your ship. Many objects also require a floor beneath them.
Wrenches can be used to disassemble most objects.
Turrets and item ejectors must be placed on the outer hull of your ship, and require 3 hull blocks of space.
To adjust the size of your ship, use embiggeners and shrinkinators. Change the axis by pressing R.
The maximum ship size is 80x80 ship tiles, or 10x10 world tiles.
Fabricators can be used to create items from raw materials.
Materials (Metal, Explosives, etc.) can be used on the fabricator to load it.
The fabricator has a menu for selecting the items to be crafted.
More specialized items require a special fabricator type to craft them.
Keeping extra ammo and repair kits on hand is recommended.
The world of Deep Space Airships is made of several zones that are connected by portals.
To use a portal, fly over it and press Q. You will be teleported to a random position in the linked zone.
Overworld blocks can be damaged by bullets.
Normal blocks have a 25% chance to drop a stack of metal.
Blocks with white diamonds are guaranteed to drop rare items.
Ships that reach zero shields will become vulnerable to bullets damaging interior components.
Empty ships will start a 5 minute derelict countdown (30 seconds in safe zones). The ship will be saved if no crew joins before the timer ends. Ships can still be destroyed while this timer counts down, so this is not a recommended way to save ships.
If you have the Captain rank, you can administrate your ship by clicking the button in the lower right corner of the screen.
The Captain rank is obtained by creating a ship or by being promoted by another Captain.
You can use the Crew Control menu to ban troublemakers (or anyone you don't want in your ship) from your ship. The ban system is not perfect, especially in its current state. If griefers continue to raid your ship, you should set your ship to Private.
Ships are private by default. Private ships can be joined using an invite link. Anyone given the link will be promoted to crew and allowed to rejoin your ship while it is loaded.
Ships will be placed in Lockdown Mode when not all highest ranked captains are online. While in Lockdown Mode:
Once all highest ranked captains are present, there will be a short timeout before Lockdown Mode is disabled.
This timeout can be re-enabled or extended with the /lock command, which is documented below.
The system has a limited opt-out in the form of Lockdown Override Units.
See here for more information.