Starships can be decorated, repainted, and re-lettered to customize their look! They will also acquire rust, scorch marks, and fade as they are used, so it's up to you to maintain them if you want them looking nice.
As of this writing, degradation in your ship's appearance does not in fact reflect any malfunction in your ship's performance.
Starship Decoration
First of all, you can buy paint and lettering stencils at your local starship supply store. To repaint your ship, type PAINT [ship] WITH PAINT.
If you want to change your ship's lettering, then you simply use that same PAINT command while holding the stencils you want to use.
You can also apply additions to your ship such as spikes, chains, antennas, and other things, as well as decals. To do this, type USE [decoration] WITH [ship].
Plaques can be engraved with the ETCH [plaque] command. Be careful, you only have one shot at etching it!
Decorations and decals can also be painted, but they must be painted before they are applied.
If you wish to remove a decoration, use the REMOVE [item] FROM [ship] command. Items may not survive the process fully intact, but most can be re-used well enough.
Starship Maintenance
The appearance of your ship will degrade over time, as you use it. It will also acquire the marks of having been in battle. You can fix all of these things with cleaning supplies from your local starship supply store.
To clean your ship with a cleaning item, type USE [item] WITH [ship].
Checking Out Starships
With all this customizing going on, you want to make sure you go ahead and LOOK at other people's ships! Want to check out a ship that's in space? No problem! Type the VISUAL command in your ship's control room, and it will handily zoom in and provide you with a perfect view!
