Except where noted, all statistics are pulled directly from the .shp ship description files for each vessel from the cataclysm.big archive that contains the game’s resources. A few are pulled from the manuals or official website. The stats are current as of game version 1.01.

Class: this is the behavior class specified in the .shp file that determines to a large extent how the vessel behaves.

Build Cost: the amount in Resource Units (RU's) expended to construct the vessel. Note that these values only have meaning for those ships that can be built by the player, but I included the values for the NPC ships also.

Build Time: delay (in seconds) required for a ship to be built.

Support Req.: the number of Support Units (SU's) each ship consumes while active. Each ship, once built, allocates to itself this number of SU's, which it keeps until it is destroyed or retired. If there are not at least this many SU's available, the ship cannot be built.

Maneuverability: this is an abstract value, taken from the manual and game fiction.

Acceleration: a more concrete value than maneuverability, this describes the ship’s forward acceleration in meters per second squared. For example, the Mothership has an acceleration of 10 and a max velocity of 50; it takes 5 seconds for the Mothership to get up to full speed.

Max Velocity: maximum ship speed in meters per second.

Hit Points: also referred to as “Armor” in the game literature; the number of damage points a ship can sustain before being destroyed. Unlike in Homeworld, in Cataclysm ships will lose functionality (most noticeably speed) as they are damaged.

Repair Rate: for those capital ships with self-repair ability, the amount of damage that can be healed for a given amount of time. For example, the Mothership, with a repair rating of 600/5, can heal 600 points every 5 seconds. Note that repair rates are different (usually lower) when a ship is under fire.

Sight Radius: the range (in meters) of a ship's radar capacity.

Firepower: this is a fictional value taken from the manuals and official fiction. The value that is displayed in the Build Manager is a calculated value that is misleading.

Coverage: another fictional value, taken from manuals and fiction. It meant to represent the percentage of the radius around the ship that can be covered by the ship's turreted weapons.

Mass: while the .shp file does include a mass value (which is displayed in the Build Manager), this is an abstract game value that doesn’t translate directly into tonnage. I have used the values from the manual and fiction instead, because they are more realistic (a frigate should weigh 15,000 tons, not 400) and consistent.

EMP Stun: the amount of time (in seconds) that a ship is frozen due to the effects of EMP from an ACV.

Salvage Points: the number of points at which Salvage Corvettes can lock on to the ship; this is usually the number that must successfully lock on before a ship can be salvaged. This stat is meaningless for most non-player ships.

Repair Droids: the number of Repair Droids available if and when the ship is upgraded to use them. This stat is meaningless for most non-player ships.

Nav Lights: the number of blinking red navigational lights on the ship. (This is a completely spurious statistic, included for fun.)

Dock Points: for those that have them, the number of points at which other vessels (usually strike craft) can attach themselves.

Leech Points: the number of spots at which a Leech may attach itself.

Max Fighters/Corvettes: for carriers, the maximum number of each class of strike craft that it may keep docked internally.

Required Tech: a list of technologies that much be researched in order for the ship to be constructed.

Upgrade Tech: a list of technologies that may be researched for upgrades to the ship. For most techs that are researched after a ship is built, the ship must be upgraded (strike craft must dock with a carrier/mothership, capital ships become inactive for a time). Ships that are built after the upgrade is researched automatically include the new features.

Weapon List: a summary of the weapons on the ship, taken from the .shp file, grouped by type. When the weapons are grouped in turrets, the number of turrets is shown with the number of weapons in each turret in parentheses. So, a cruiser has six gun turrets with one gun each: 6(1), and also two ion cannon turrets with two weapons each: 2(2), for a total of 10 weapons. Weapons are assumed to be able to swivel at least a little, unless they are marked as "Fixed."

Mult.: the "multiplier" applied to the basic weapon type damage. In Cataclysm, which allows for various modifiers to damage, including weapon upgrades and unit experience, each weapon type and size has a base damage value. Each weapon mount on each ship has a "multiplier" to the base damage for that weapon type, to get the specific damage for that mount (which can then be modified by other in-game factors). The base damage value is not listed in the .big files, and may be hard-coded into the game code; we have extrapolated the values as follows:

Damage: the value of damage points dealt by EACH weapon in the group, including the multiplier. Note that for projectile weapons this is a one-time value, but for beam weapons, it is continuous damage done for as long as the beam strikes the enemy ship. Note that this value may change based on in-game factors.

Range: the distance a bullet or beam will travel before disappearing. For most capital ships, this value is adjusted for the size of the firing ship (since it appears to be measured in distance from the ship’s center point).

Fire Time: the time that elapses between shots of the weapon. For beam weapons, the beam may be active during part of this time. In the case of burst fire weapons, there is an additional wait period at the end of the burst.