# Alt Ship Class

Accessed via the Alt Ship Class button in the Ship Editor.

Defines a prioritized fallback chain of ship classes to substitute if this ship's primary class is unavailable at mission load. The engine tries the primary class first, then works through the alt class list in order, assigning the first class that qualifies. This is primarily useful in campaign missions where the available ship pool can vary based on earlier choices or loadout configuration.

## The alt class list

Each entry in the list is one fallback candidate. Order matters. The engine tries them top to bottom and stops at the first one it can use. Use the Up and Down buttons to reorder entries. Add and Insert create new entries; Delete removes the selected one.

## Entry properties

Field | Description
--- | ---
From Ship | A fixed ship class chosen directly from the available classes. The class is resolved at mission load.
From Variable | A string variable whose value names the ship class to use. The variable is read at mission load, so the class can be set dynamically by earlier SEXPs in the campaign.
Default to this class | Controls how the engine checks availability. When unchecked, the engine assigns this class immediately without checking whether any slots remain in the loadout. When checked, the engine first verifies that ships of this class are still available in the loadout; if none remain, it skips this entry and tries the next one.