Glossary

The following is a list of FtD-related jargon you might run into, both here on the wiki and elsewhere when interacting with the game's community.

A

• A. Just A: Shorthand for Alloy, as in Light-weight alloy when discussing armour layouts. "LA" is also common.

B

• Bulkhead: A wall inside of a ship's hull.

C

• CC: Custom campaign.
• Citadel: An armoured box around a combat construct's most critical systems; the AI mainframe, the powerplant, some fraction of the construct's resource storage, and the more vulnerable parts of the construct's weapon subsystems.
• CIWS: short for Close-In Weapon System. A weapon or weapon component assembly designed to shoot down incoming projectiles and/or missiles. Typically pulls double duty as a general-purpose Anti-Aircraft (AA) weapon.
• Conning Tower: A heavily armoured observation tower on a construct, used to command said construct from the 1st person perspective during combat.

D

• Dakka: The sound of rapid gunfire, and a term synonymous with gunfire itself. Alternatively: The process of "improving" an inefficiently tetris'd weapon subsystem by simply adding MORE of said system onto a construct.
• Deck: a floor aboard a construct.
• DOOMCRAM: When you can no longer tell whether a construct was hit by a CRAM cannon or by a Tactical Nuke, that's a DOOMCRAM. Bonus points for taking half a minute or longer to reload.
• Draught: how far a ship's hull extends beneath the ocean surface.

F

• Freeboard: How far a ship's hull extends above the ocean surface at its lowest point.

H

• HA: shorthand for Heavy Armour when discussing armour layouts.

M

• M. Just M: Shorthand for Metal when discussing armour layouts.

R

• Rambot: The default player avatar. Can be changed by accessing the character menu via the "Z" key.

S

• S. Just S: Shorthand for Stone when discussing armour layouts.
• Stability: A vehicle's ability to stay upright in spite of damage, flooding, poor weather, and the recoil of its own weapons.
• Steadiness: The gentleness of a construct's movements. Violent maneuvering will reduce the accuracy of some Weapon systems and Detection components.

T

• Tetris: The way components are arranged into subsystem assemblies. Terms such as "CRAM tetris" and "APS Tetris" are used very often due to the relative complexity of these subsystems, but virtually every subsystem component assembly can be referred to as having a "tetris".
• Transverse: Something that goes across the width of a vehicle (typically a ship).

W

• W. Just W: Shorthand for Wood when discussing armour layouts.