Loadout

A Loadout is a ship-equipment template — the named bundle of weapons, shields, engines, and software a ship receives when built or refit. Most modder interaction is via the loadout’s string id, not the runtime datatype.

Inheritance: None — loadout is its own root datatype. The datatype is minimal — only one accessor.

Properties

Property	Type	Description
`.wares`	warelist	All equipment wares in the loadout

That’s it. The runtime loadout datatype exposes the ware list; everything else lives in libraries/loadouts.xml.

How loadouts are referenced

Loadouts are referenced by string id through various contexts:

[Build](/game/behavior/build/) task: .loadout returns the loadout id string
[Construction sequence](/game/behavior/construction-sequence/) entry: .loadout returns a loadout datatype value
Ship macro: backend ID for default loadout
<generate_loadout level=> action: produces a loadout for a ship

Loadout level / variation / quality

The fuller loadout system uses level / quality / variation accessors on the parent Defensible:

Defensible property	Description
`.loadoutlevel`	0..1 — overall “tier” of the loadout used
`.minloadoutlevel`	Floor (from job definition)
`.loadoutvariation`	Variation range used
`.loadoutquantity.level` / `.variation`	Quantity overrides
`.loadoutquality.level` / `.variation`	Quality overrides
`.moduleloadoutlevel` / `.moduleloadoutquantity.X` / `.moduleloadoutquality.X`	Station-module loadout settings
`.loadout`	The current loadout (this datatype)

Common patterns

”Read all wares in a build’s loadout"

<do_if value="@$build.loadout">
    <do_for_each name="$ware"
        in="$build.loadout.wares">
        <write_to_logbook
            text="'Equip: ' + $ware.name"/>
    </do_for_each>
</do_if>

"Generate a loadout for a created ship”

<generate_loadout
    object="$ship"
    level="1"
    faction="faction.argon"/>

<apply_loadout object="$ship"/>

Pattern from vanilla ship-generation flows. See Ship → Actions → Create for the full context.

”Compute loadout-level differences across player ships”

<set_value name="$Total" exact="0"/>
<set_value name="$Count" exact="0"/>

<do_for_each name="$ship" in="$PlayerShips">
    <do_if value="@$ship.loadoutlevel">
        <set_value name="$Total"
            operation="add"
            exact="$ship.loadoutlevel"/>
        <set_value name="$Count"
            operation="add" exact="1"/>
    </do_if>
</do_for_each>

<do_if value="$Count gt 0">
    <write_to_logbook
        text="'Avg loadout level: '
            + ($Total / $Count)"/>
</do_if>

Common gotchas

⚠ The loadout datatype is minimal — .wares is its only accessor. All the level / variation / quality state lives on Defensible, not on the loadout itself.
⚠ .loadout on Build returns a string id; on construction-plan-entry returns the datatype. Same name, different types depending on context. Use the property docstring to disambiguate.
⚠ .loadoutlevel is 0..1, not 0..100. Vanilla normalises to fraction. Multiply by 100 for display.
⚠ Loadouts are race-specific by macro. Argon loadouts don’t apply to Terran ships. Engine handles this during generate_loadout — modders rarely override.
⚠ .minloadoutlevel comes from job definitions. Job ships have a floor on how degraded their loadout can be. Player ships are unaffected.

Build — .loadout accessor.
Construction sequence — entry-level .loadout.
Defensible — where loadoutlevel / quality / variation live.
Ship — what loadouts equip.
Ware — what’s in the loadout.