Space quickstart guide
Introduction
Space... The Universal has an entire galaxy to explore, trade in and fight in. However, the space part of the game is still being worked on so please don't be surprised if you find something that doesn't work quite as you'd expect at the moment.
If you don't care about space and you just want to play on a specific world, you need to read this. Right, on with the space stuff.
Contents:
Starting out: basic controls, interface and more
Space stations: trading goods and things
Landing on worlds: in case you don't realise how ;)
Interacting with other players: how to chat, target and identify people
Combat: don't pick a fight until you've read this
What you can do in space: different ways to play in space
Guilds & Factions: join a guild, see the galaxy...join a faction, make new enemies
Other notes: read this and prosper. For example, by finding out what happens if you crash into a star.
Starting out
You start the game with a basic spaceship - an interplanetary shuttle. Like all ships in the game it has important features and limitations such as the amount of cargo it can hold, its top speed, and the number of offensive and defensive weapon systems that can be mounted on it.
Because it is the starting ship, the shuttle doesn't have too many features :) You can't carry cargo and it won't last long in a fight. However, the star system you start in is a relatively safe place (if you stick close to a planet or spacestation you'll be in a weapons-free zone) - so now's the time to get the hang of your ship's control systems.
Controlling your ship is pretty straightforward:
- The HUD - in the middle of your screen you'll see crosshairs, which show where your ship is pointing. To the left you'll see your thrust indicator, showing your current speed. To the right you'll see your altitude indicator, which starts out green and turns redder as you get closer to a major mass source (a planet or star). The HUD also shows blue targeting arrows to help you find targets selected for travel or combat (see below) as well as information about objects in your vicinity.
- Changing orientation - use the cursor/arrow keys to pitch and roll. Joystick support
is work-in-progress.
- Accelerating/deccelerating - your ship has two basic forms of thrust that let you travel about within a star system: Impulse Drive and Ion Drive. Impulse drive is for slow manoeuvering and combat. Ion drive is for getting from one place to another as fast as possible. Hold the Page Up or Page Down keys to increase and decrease thrust. Use with the Shift key to stop dead or accelerate immediately to Ion 1 and faster. Press the Home key to accelerate to full speed.
- Stardrives and Imp drives - on the left of the cockpit display you'll see a number of icons representing more advanced drive systems on your ship. To start with you have two of these fitted:
- Stardrive - your Stardrive is used to travel to other star systems, and is the only method of inter-system travel if your ship is carrying cargo. To use it, select a system on the galactic map (F6 - see below) and click the Stardrive button. Stardrives come in different sizes with increasingly longer ranges. They all use Uridium fuel, available at most good space stations.
- FiPro - Finite Probability drive. Click the icon and you'll see a list of popular worlds in the galaxy. Click one of those and - assuming you're not carrying cargo - you'll be transported there instantaneously.
- InfImp - Infinite Improbability drive. You don't start with one, but they don't cost much to buy. Once you've bought one click the icon and you'll be asked to enter the name of a world in the galaxy. Type in a name, press return, and you'll be transported there instantaneously. An essential buy for travellers who spend a lot of time visiting different
worlds. Like the FiPro, you can't use this while carrying cargo.
- Point Drive - legacy technology, currently unavailable.
- Weapons - press the Tab key to fire your lasers. Press the Shift + Tab keys to fire missiles, if you have any. Note that laser weapons do not work at speeds above Ion 1.
Also note that weapons aren't allowed in certain areas of Federation space (the starting system and the systems immediately around it): you can't fire weapons near spacestations and planets.
- Camera views - you start with the default "looking out the cockpit view" but there are a few more available. Hold down the Control key and you'll see the icons at the top of the
screen indicate the other view options available. To return to cockpit view, press Control + F3 or simply press F3.
- Communications - press F4 to bring up the (work in progress) communication console, and click a button to access The Guide, Galactic Radio and more. The most important button here for traders is the Trade Report. For a small fee it provides a listing of all commodity prices in the star system you're in.
- Navigation - system map - press the F5 key to show a map of the star system you're in. Your ship is shown as an 'x'. Planets are shown as orange squares with their orbit depicted with a dotted line. Any asteroid fields present in the system are shown as well. Click on a planet's square to target it, and use the button to switch between targeting the planet's space
station, or the planet itself.
- Navigation - galactic map - press the F6 key to show a map of the entire galaxy. Keep pressing the F6 key to zoom in and out. Each dot on the map is a star system. The one you're in is indicated with a little icon, with a dotted and solid circle around it. The dotted circle shows the maximum range of your ship's stardrive. The solid circle shows the actual range given how much fuel you have. To target another star system, click it.
- Inventory - press the F7 key to show your ship's current systems and cargo. You can also use this screen to jettison cargo, which might be useful to distract pursuing pirates....
- Turret mode - as turret technology is still being developed this doesn't do anything yet. When it does, press the F8 key to enter and control weapons turrets on your spaceship.
- Autopilot - you don't start with an autopilot, but when you've bought one press F9 to activate it. It'll immediately attempt to travel to any target (within your current star system) that you have selected. All ships currently use Autopilot v0.1, which to be honest isn't very intelligent. It can't go around things and it'll try to stop if it gets too close to a planet.
Sometimes it decides to go sunbathing. Just keep an eye on it and it'll be fine, really :)
- Docking - press F10 when you're close enough to a space station (the icon will light up when you are) and you'll automatically dock with that station.
Space stations
There's a space station in orbit around every inhabited world in the galaxy. Use the controls shown on screen to access the station trade system, your personal records and other functions. Some features - notably the spacestation lounge - are not yet fully operational. You'll probably
spend most time in the trade system, where you can buy commodities to trade to other stations, as well as ship upgrades and new ships.
Landing on worlds
To land on a world, simply crash into it. You can only land on planets that a)have been claimed by another player and b) that are currently online. For the most part these are easy to spot because they have names instead of being called "Unknown" - however, just because a planet is named doesn't mean it's available for landing. Each world in the galaxy is actually a server run by someone, somewhere, with its own gameplay, graphics, sounds and so on... and also its own uptime and downtime schedule. If a world server is currently offline you won't be able to land there. You can see which are online on the HUD and the system map.
Interacting with other players
While some parts of the galaxy are quiet and rarely travelled, you'll almost certainly run into other players while you're travelling and trading in and around the starting systems. At some point you're going to want to talk to them, or possibly kill them (often as a result of the preceding conversation):
- Chatting - There are a few different ways you can talk to people in space. At the bottom of your screen you'll see the chat region with a couple of "tabs" called Main and
StarSystem Channel. The "Main" tab is where you'll get information from ship systems (Trade Completed, Autopilot aborted, Incoming Missile etc). If you're a member of any private chat channels this is where you'll see that chatter, too. The StarSystem Channel tab is for public chat between any players in your current starsystem. Other tabs are possible too: for example, if you join a Guild you'll see a special Guild Channel especially for private guild communications. To use any of these tabs simply click on them and start typing.
- Identifying and targeting players - at the top right of your cockpit display you'll see an "In Star System" display. This shows the names of all ships detected in your current vicinity. Click on a name and you'll see a new menu with three buttons:
- Target Ship - click this and that player will become your target. The direction of the target is shown with blue targeting arrows in the HUD (you can also use the Autopilot to go and find them, if you have one).
- Open Comms Channel - click this and you'll request a private communication channel to be opened between you and that player. They will see a little "c" icon flashing next to your name in their player list, and they have to accept before you can start chatting. If they do you'll see a new tab appear in the chat box - click it and chat in the usual way. You may also see the option to initiate a voice chat with that player: this is work-in-progress, so don't be surprised if it doesn't work yet or crashes your client. We'll fix it up as soon as possible.
- Pilot Info - this is still under construction. In the future it'll show more
information about the player you're interested in.
- Locking on - to get a lock on a player's ship - which is essential if you want to scan their ship or shoot missiles at them - you need to get their ship roughly in the centre of your crosshairs - your ship systems will automatically lock on if they can. When you get a lock a little orange box will zoom in on the target ship with information about their range.
Combat
Combat in space is a tricky business, and is best avoided until you've built up a bit of experience. This is still work-in-progress but the basic elements are in place:
- Lasers - all ships start with a basic laser which effectively has unlimited 'ammo'. However, lasers don't work against targets with working shields, so don't waste your time unless you've disabled your target with...
- Missiles - you can buy Standard Missiles in most star systems, and there are one or two more advanced types becoming available in remote regions of the galaxy. Missiles will track any target they're fired at, but you must first get a good lock on that target. If a missile hits it will damage shields, engines and other systems. They do, however, have a finite range and will expire eventually. Missiles can be countered with...
- Countermeasures (ECM) - if someone fires a missile at you and you have
countermeasures installed, you'll see a special console with ECM launch buttons you have to click QUICKLY in order for the countermeasures to be effective. There are different types of countermeasure for different types of missile...
- Bursts - bursts are a special sort of countermeasure, recently introduced to the galaxy. An EM Burst lets you respond to an incoming missile attack by completely disabling the attacker's major ship systems for a short time, giving you the chance to move in for the kill or simply run away. EM bursts don't affect missiles, so you'll still need to counter that with a normal countemeasure.
A Gamma Burst will let you counter an EM burst. It also has the effect of taking out the shields of any ship in a large radius, which puts the emphasis firmly on dogfighting with lasers rather than relying on missiles and shields.
- Shields - you need these to protect your ship, so don't even think about engaging in combat until you can afford some.
All ships react to incoming weapons fire by entering "Red Alert" status, and immediately diverting power from engines and drive systems to shields and weapons. In this state the maximum speed a ship is capable of is Ion 1. Conveniently, this is also the maximum speed at which a ship can fire energy weapons. In other words, all combat takes place at sensibly low speeds. This helps avoid what is known by some as "The Frontier Anomaly", in which two ships trying to engage in combat just spend hours flying past each other at speeds of several hundred thousand kilometres an hour, until one of them eventually smacks into a passing planet or star. Note also that combat situations prevent the use of probability drives and stardrives.
If you actually manage to destroy a ship, any cargo it was carrying will be transferred to your ship. Cargo scoop systems are in development and should be in production soon.
Other notes about combat
- Death
If you die during combat you won't lose your ship (every ship comes with built-in insurance, which is why they're so expensive) and you won't lose your 'character'. You will, however, lose
everything you were carrying at the time of death.
- Quitting combat
If you leave the game while combat is taking place (ie, during "Red Alert" status) it will be assumed that you lost the fight, and you'll suffer the same consequences as if you were killed during the fracas. If you're in a fight and you really don't want to be, your best bet is to run for the nearest planet or spacestation.
- Bounty
A basic legal system is now in place. Every player has a legal status, which starts at "Clean" and progresses through "one-time offender" to full "criminal" status. This status is linked to a bounty system. If you kill an innocent player (one without a bounty) you'll then get a bounty placed on your head, which is shown in the player list in space. The bounty is a credit value: so, if you kill someone with a bounty, you earn that amount of credits from the player you kill.
If someone kills you and takes your bounty, you pay them from your galactic credits. If you don't have enough you'll start losing ship items instead.
- Police
At the moment there is no real police system at work in the galaxy. However, plans for greater
galactic law enforcement are well underway and pilots engaging in rampant piracy and/or trade in illegal goods can expect less than lenient treatment in future. Furthermore, several player clans are emerging aligned to pirate/non-pirate aims in space: so whether you're a trader, or a pirate, watch your back.
For more information, see this forum
thread and various others on the forum.
What you can do in space
The range of things you can do in space is expanding all the time. For example:
- Travelling - there isn't an awful lot to see in the galaxy at the moment, although some of the most daring travellers have returned with incoherent stories about aliens (space sickness, most likely). However, lots of people have fun just travelling about the place, discovering new worlds that have gone online, trying them out, listening to the galactic radio and perhaps doing a bit of trading and having the occasional dogfight.
For example...a typical Traveller might start by investigating the worlds available in the starting systems (Cirrus Minor and Tau Ceti) and those available through the FiPro drive. A common goal after that might be to earn enough money to buy an InfImp drive, which would take an hour or two's trading at most.
- Trading - traders are the hardcore profiteers of the galaxy. The top five richest players in the galaxy are listed on the homepage of this site, and there's also a list of the richest 50. Aside from fame and fortune, traders can afford bigger and better ships, with more weaponry and longer stardrive ranges... which means they can explore more of the galaxy.
For example...a typical Trader would immediately spend their starting credits on a cargo ship, buy a trade report for the starting system, and see what profit could be made from the cheapest commodities (such as water and food). They might even take a risk and buy some stuff to sell in a neighbouring system. Clever traders might find a way to visit that system first and work out the most profitable trade route in advance. All traders should remember to leave enough money for Uridium fuel, of course...
- Piracy - pirates are the bad guys of the galaxy, and thankfully still quite rare... but growing in number thanks to the introduction of missile technologies and a couple of nice piratical spaceship models. Is it possible to get rich through piracy? Who knows. Maybe you want to find out, but don't be surprised if a few angry traders show up to teach you a lesson.
For example...well, there probably isn't such a thing as a typical Pirate. What's certain, though, is that a pirate won't last long without a decent ship, good cargo and weapons capacity, a good sized stardrive and enough money to keep fuel and weapons topped up in the outer reaches of the galaxy. Much like a typical trader, in fact...
- Mining - if you buy an asteroid mining kit for your ship, you can... mine asteroids. Asteroids contain minerals and metals which you can sell at space stations, so it's a good (but very slow) way to make money for free... Crucially, asteroids also contain Uridium fuel, which can be a lifesaver if you run out in the middle of nowhere.
To mine an asteroid, first you have to find one. Look on the system map (F5) and any asteroid field will be shown circling the star in that system. Finding them can be tricky, but remember most asteroids were once, or will sometime be, part of a planet... so they tend to orbit the star in the same plane as the planets do. When you find one, position your ship right in front of it. You should see a little console open up with a "commence mining" control... click it, and mining will happen automatically. The longer you mine, the more you'll find. To stop mining, simply move away.
Guilds & Factions
There are a number of galactic guilds available for you to join, including the Traveller's Guild, Trader's Guild and Pirate's Guild. Guild membership depends on various requirements, and different guilds offer different benefits. Dock at a spacestation and select the relevant option from the menu to find out more.
There are a also a number of player-run Factions emerging, each with their own aims and methods... dock at a spacestation and click the Factions button to join one. Factions are work in progress. Check the forums and space chat to learn more.
Other stuff
Anything else? Oh yeh. Don't crash into the sun. You'll die :] You'll lose everything you own, including your ship, equipment and cargo. Got that? Don't crash into the sun: you'll die.
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