A Beginner's Guide To InterPlanetary Flight: HH-345972#560

Flying about in space is fun. It's also damn dangerous, but most of all it's fun. That doesn't make it easy though and many young pilots have jumped into the cockpit, fired up the engines and proceeding to slam straight into an atmosphere or go head first into another ship. This Beginner's Guide To... will get you past your first few flights and set you up so that you don't die in a pointless fireball within minutes of hitting the ignition switch.

Where Are We? What's That?
You're in your ship and can't figure out what the heck is going on. The ship is moving forwards but the view screen is moving sideways! Most modern starships have a virtual view screen mechanism and this allows you to view the galaxy from a variety of cameras (it increases visibility and allows you to see yourself looking cool). Although some ships may include additional views, the standard ones are:

Camera Activation Button
Rear View

F5

Right View

F6

Front View

F7

Left View

F8

Cockpit View

F9


Whilst flying you will mostly use the Cockpit View - This is how you would see the galaxy if you were looking straight out of the front of the ship. The Cockpit View has an overlayed technical readout which gives information about your status and the objects nearby:

Central to the main display is your crosshair (the centre of which indicates your direction of travel and shows where your fixed firing weapons will fire).
Embedded within the crosshair are two readouts. To the left of the crosshair is your velocity bar (which when fully red indicates full speed). To the right is your shield readout (when this is empty you're in trouble!).
To the bottom left of the cockpit view is your fuel readout with the gauge being green when full and red when approaching empty. Fuel is generally not a problem as most ships are equipped to convert solar energy into hyperspace fuel and continually recharge as you fly about. Fuel is mostly used for hyperspacing between systems and the amount of fuel dictates which systems you can jump to (see The Mechanics of Space Navigation (Ref. No.: HH-900013#012) for details on hyperspace travel).

When in cockpit view pressing the 'S' button will display a readout of your current status. This includes details of cargo space, funds, your ship's key features, and an overall rating.

At the bottom left of the screen the nearest planet to you is displayed, while at the bottom right of your cockpit view is the radar scope. Your ship is centred in this gauge, and all other ships are depicted as red dots positioned relative to you. The radar view will allow you to see objects within a range of 2500 clicks.

So You Want To Fly a Ship Ehh?
Flying a ship is easy...once you know what you're doing. Modern ship manufacturers have responded to the needs of pilots and made the mechanics of space flight as simple as possible, and now literally anyone can fly a ship. For now though let's look at the basics. Get yourself into Cockpit View (F9 button) and follow me.

In addition to the crosshair displayed in the Cockpit View, there is also the view cursor (resembling a set of concentric circles) and this dictates which direction your ship will turn in (the crosshair indicates which direction your ship is currently moving). Move the view cursor using the mouse and you'll see your ship turn in the direction you moved the cursor. The controls may seem to be anything from too course to too fine, but there is a method to this madness.

To keep your view steady move this cursor to the centre of your crosshair. To rotate slowly, move the cursor around the limits of the crosshair (You can look up, down, left and right using this technique). Now move the view cursor further away from the centre of the screen - The view should rotate a lot faster. Now this is great when you're dealing with large movements but the cursor isn't ideal for minute course adjustments...but the cursor keys are (just use them when the cursor is centred).

Ok, now steady your view and get ready to accelerate (so far we haven't moved an inch). Press and hold the 'A' button and note the velocity bar in the crosshair. Try changing direction as you move. A special point to note is that your top speed is affected by the amount of cargo in your hold. You may see enemy ships ejecting their cargo, in an effort to gain more speed! Now we're moving it might be a good idea to try stopping - Hit the 'Z' button to decelerate.

You've just mastered the rigours of flight! Yes there's a lot more to it than that but what you've just learned forms the basis of flying 90% of the ships in the galaxy.

That's all well and good and you can now get from place to place and planet to planet (for system to system we need a hyperspace jump - it would take hundreds of years using just thrusters). Thrusters are still slow though but there is a way to speed things up. Using a localised short range hyperspace jump, you can jump while within a system. And it's easy to do! Once you're moving towards your destination, just hit the 'X' button.

Orbits and Docking - Ballet In The Stars
You've flown around a bit and now you're heading towards a planet to do some trading (which you can only do in orbit dummy - Orbital supply shuttles can't fly out any further). How the heck do you get into orbit? If you go too fast then you'll fly straight past, but if you go too slow you'll end up getting sucked in by gravity. Actually it doesn't matter as the clever people at Masamo, Siemax, and indeed all the ships yards have come up with the Orbital Computer. Living somewhere between the navigation computer and the drive system, the Orbital Computer detects when you're approaching a planet and makes sure that you achieve orbit automatically! Now you're in orbit, get your trading done and then head off into the wide black yonder once more.

Like orbiting, docking is an automatic process. While requiring a little more skill than achieving an orbit, docking is still a very simple process. Ever since Kuari introduced the SS101, space stations have been equipped with auto-docking systems. These latch onto your ship and guide you in automatically. The trick is getting the system to latch onto your ship. Each space station has a launch tract and a docking tract, and ships enter via the docking tract and exit via the launch tract. The docking tract is indicated by a transparent green sphere at the head of the tract and all you a pilot needs to do is fly into the sphere. This activates the auto-docking system and docks you inside the space station which, when complete, allows you to access the Upgrades computer. When you've finished upgrading and enhancing your ship, exiting the Upgrades computer will launch you out of the space station via the launch tract.

Combat - The Deadly Art
It's a sad indication of the state of the galaxy that combat must now form a vital part of the pilot's skill set. There will be pilots who live for action, and young pilots who can't wait to enter their first dogfight, just as there will be pilots who run from the first sign of trouble, and pilots who play it safe and stick to the 'safe' trade routes. Whatever your approach to combat (or not as the case may be), being able to handle yourself is essential.

Most ships come equipped with some form of weaponry and can have additional weapons added. While the range of ships is just as immense as the range of weaponry available, the manufacturers agreed on a standard control interface long, long ago (it stops 'button blindness' when a pilot changes ship for example). The standard control interface includes controls for two weapon 'modes' and in most cases this is missiles and torpedoes.

We won't go into the weapons themselves, and we'll concentrate on how to fire them. Missiles and other line-of-sight (LOS) weapons simply go in a straight line (the centre of the crosshairs in the Cockpit View). Turn your ship so that you're pointing towards your target and then fire using the left mouse button. Easy.

Torpedoes are the perfect example of non-LOS wepons. While a missile or other LOS weapon can be avoided by simply turning away from it, non-LOS weapons will twist and turn along with an enemy until they strike. They're generally more expensive but the benefits are obvious. Once you have one or more torpedoes installed aboard your ship, they need to be activated. This is just a case of hitting the 'T' button (you'll normally get a message confirming the activation). Get your target lined up in the crosshairs, and when you're in sight, the target will be identified by the targeting system (it's name appears). Hit the 'G' button and let the technology do it's thing.

Exploring The Heavens
Hang in there, we're nearly at the end. Pilots start flying for a whole range of reasons, and one of the lesser (but more rewarding ones) is exploration. The galaxy is vast and there are still many uncharted systems and planets. Pilots willing to forego the 'glamour' of combat or the security of trading can go exploring. There are two real ways to do this: the dull way and the expensive way. The dull way involves flying to a planet, charting it, and moving onto the next one. The expensive way involves probes.

Probes are complex and expensive little beasts but they are excellent at what they do. By deploying a probe to a system you don't have to visit it yourself and it can save you an awful lot of time and effort. Using a probe has been designed to be an easy process too. Once you've purchased your probe, hit the 'T' button to activate the targeting system. Probes behave very similarly to torpedoes and the other non-LOS weapons but this time however we're interested in systems rather than objects. Hit the F1 button to bring up the System Map and select your target system by clicking on it with the left mouse button. Once you're happy, return to the Cockpit View and launch the probe on it's merry way by hitting the 'P' button. Watch it go!! The probe will report any new systems it discovers until communication is lost...

So now you can fly, dock, orbit, and fight. There's still lots more to learn, but as every pilot in the galaxy will tell you, you never stop learning. So put this manual aside, get out there, and start learning. Happy flying.

Crix deVeers

For more information please refer to the following:
The Control Interface (Ref. No.: GC127#689291)
The Mechanics of Space Navigation (Ref. No.: HH-900013#012)