The lab is a station facility that researches designs: a player's own versions of blueprints, from ships and fittings to stations, facilities and gates. It also prints and studies, and only a research station can hold one.
Research
A research project uses up materials from the station's hold, which become slag. The materials' properties decide which way the design changes. Light materials such as polymer make ships faster and roomier and lower their wear limit; hard ones such as shielding make them last longer and slow them down. Raw materials change nothing; only made goods move a design.
Every idle lab at a station works on the same project, so more labs finish it sooner. A station runs one project at a time.
Printing and study
- Printing copies one of its owner's designs onto data cores. Another player can build from a copy.
- Studying a relic of the builders' tech unlocks that relic's blueprint. A study uses up the relic.
Construction
It is built from processors, sensors, glass and steel plate. It draws power only while it researches.