Difference between revisions of "Navigation Hints"

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* One unit of fuel will permit you to travel 10 units of distance in hyperspace. The number of engines your flagship has doesn't change this, you only travel faster with more engines. So you have to do the math to ensure that you'll have enough fuel to get to a named destination and back. There may be places to get fuel en route, but you have to know where these are for certain.  
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* One unit of [[fuel]] will permit you to travel 10 [[standard HyperSpace distance unit|units of distance]] in [[HyperSpace]]. The number of [[Antimatter Thruster|thrusters]] your [[the Flagship|flagship]] has doesn't change this, you only travel faster with more thrusters. So you have to do the math to ensure that you'll have enough fuel to get to a named destination and back. There may be places to get fuel en route, but you have to know where these are for certain.  
  
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*The nose of your flagship is indicated by the white dot. To click onto a planet, the dot must touch the center of the planet. If you aren't yet adept with the controls, or don't have your flagship improved much, and are about to zoom past a planet, you might be able to get it to touch by sweeping the nose of the flagship back and forth with the thruster controls (left and right arrows). You can't sweep past the critical point and thereby lose your rendezvous, for as soon as it touches, the screen will change to a close-up. Otherwise, you can cross over a planet (or a star) provided that your nose doesn't touch the planet's center.
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*The nose of your flagship is indicated by the light green dot. To get close-up on a planet (in orbit to do scans and send [[Planet Lander|lander]] crews down), the centerline of your ship (drawn from the green dot at the front to the red dot marking the engines) must touch the center of the planet. If you aren't yet adept with the controls, or don't have your flagship improved much, and are about to zoom past a planet, it can be effective to turn your ship as you approach the planet; approach slowly, and aim to hit the planet with your ship at a right-angle to the direction of travel. This gives you the biggest chance of hitting the planet, and makes it easier to make a last-moment course correction.
  
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* There are three different types of worlds from the standpoint of leaving them.
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*When navigating to a specific destination in hyperspace, the ship's autopilot can be helpful (if you find yourself missing the planet system by a little bit, having to stop, turn, and double back, losing time and fuel). To enable the autopilot, view the Starmap and move the cursor with the arrow keys to the destination system. Hit enter to engage the autopilot, and then space to leave map mode. Even a perfect human pilot cannot outperform the autopilot when moving in hyperspace, because a ship controlled manually can only thrust in sixteen different directions.  If you are trying to save game-time or fuel, you should only control the ship manually in hyperspace when you need to take evasive action or contact another ship.
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**If you're starting from a planet far from its sun, point yourself in any cardinal direction (up, down, left, right) and just go. When the screen shifts to the larger view, the flagship appears stopped, so you have time to point your flagship in the appropriate direction.  
 
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**If you're starting on a satellite of a planet far from its star, save time by pointing it in the cardinal direction that's closest to the edge; you will still be able to turn on the next larger view as well.  
 
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**But if you're starting from a world near its sun, you have to keep track of which direction you will go next ''before'' you reach it, because in the wider screen, your flagship won't be stopped; rather, the star will soon accelerate you, and whip you around to some other direction, so you'll have to take account of that, too.  
 
  
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* You can save a bit of fuel in the early stages of the game, when you do not expect to be attacked, by carrying an extra resource bin or two in place of weaponry and travelling along a circular route. An example is, if you are going northeast, to take in some stars to the northwest of the route on the way out and some to the southeast on the way back, or ''vice versa''.
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* There are three main different views that the game automatically uses as you navigate your flagship about: for HyperSpace, for general exploration of a star system, and for the region near a planet. It's important to know how the transition between each is handled.
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**When entering HyperSpace from a star system, your flagship will be completely stationary and facing the same direction you were facing when you left the star system. When leaving HyperSpace and entering a star system, you will always enter the star system from the center of the bottom edge of the screen, facing straight up.
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* Soon after you hear of an alien race, click on "Starmap" on the main menu to see if the map has been augmented to list its domains. You won't find a map in a drawer in this game.  
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**The view in the star system will is always centered on the star, but will zoom in and out depending on how far out you are. This zoom is not continuous, but happens only when your flagship passes certain threshold distances. Your flagship will still be pointing in the same direction as you transition between zoom levels, but at the higher zoom levels it will look like your flagship is traveling faster. This is just an illusion caused by zooming in, don't let it throw you off. You will leave this view by either exiting the system on the edges, or by touching a planet.
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**When your flagship touches a planet in the star system view, you will transition into the single planet view. The planet and any satellites it may have are in the center of the screen. Your flagship will enter this screen with the same orientation from the previous screen, but will be on located along the edge of the view so that it is pointing roughly at the planet and will be initially stationary. Similarly, when you leave this view, your flagship will still stay facing the same direction and will initially be stationary in the star system view.
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*When you're going to some specific destination in HyperSpace, you may want to bring along some extra [[Storage Bay]]s and collect some minerals on route, killing two birds with one stone.
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* After you meet a new alien race, click on "Starmap" on the main menu to see if the map has been augmented to show that race's [[Sphere of Influence]]. You won't find a map in a drawer in this game.  
  
 
[[Category:Game mechanics]]
 
[[Category:Game mechanics]]
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Latest revision as of 19:05, 23 April 2010

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  • One unit of fuel will permit you to travel 10 units of distance in HyperSpace. The number of thrusters your flagship has doesn't change this, you only travel faster with more thrusters. So you have to do the math to ensure that you'll have enough fuel to get to a named destination and back. There may be places to get fuel en route, but you have to know where these are for certain.
  • The nose of your flagship is indicated by the light green dot. To get close-up on a planet (in orbit to do scans and send lander crews down), the centerline of your ship (drawn from the green dot at the front to the red dot marking the engines) must touch the center of the planet. If you aren't yet adept with the controls, or don't have your flagship improved much, and are about to zoom past a planet, it can be effective to turn your ship as you approach the planet; approach slowly, and aim to hit the planet with your ship at a right-angle to the direction of travel. This gives you the biggest chance of hitting the planet, and makes it easier to make a last-moment course correction.
  • When navigating to a specific destination in hyperspace, the ship's autopilot can be helpful (if you find yourself missing the planet system by a little bit, having to stop, turn, and double back, losing time and fuel). To enable the autopilot, view the Starmap and move the cursor with the arrow keys to the destination system. Hit enter to engage the autopilot, and then space to leave map mode. Even a perfect human pilot cannot outperform the autopilot when moving in hyperspace, because a ship controlled manually can only thrust in sixteen different directions. If you are trying to save game-time or fuel, you should only control the ship manually in hyperspace when you need to take evasive action or contact another ship.
  • There are three main different views that the game automatically uses as you navigate your flagship about: for HyperSpace, for general exploration of a star system, and for the region near a planet. It's important to know how the transition between each is handled.
    • When entering HyperSpace from a star system, your flagship will be completely stationary and facing the same direction you were facing when you left the star system. When leaving HyperSpace and entering a star system, you will always enter the star system from the center of the bottom edge of the screen, facing straight up.
    • The view in the star system will is always centered on the star, but will zoom in and out depending on how far out you are. This zoom is not continuous, but happens only when your flagship passes certain threshold distances. Your flagship will still be pointing in the same direction as you transition between zoom levels, but at the higher zoom levels it will look like your flagship is traveling faster. This is just an illusion caused by zooming in, don't let it throw you off. You will leave this view by either exiting the system on the edges, or by touching a planet.
    • When your flagship touches a planet in the star system view, you will transition into the single planet view. The planet and any satellites it may have are in the center of the screen. Your flagship will enter this screen with the same orientation from the previous screen, but will be on located along the edge of the view so that it is pointing roughly at the planet and will be initially stationary. Similarly, when you leave this view, your flagship will still stay facing the same direction and will initially be stationary in the star system view.
  • When you're going to some specific destination in HyperSpace, you may want to bring along some extra Storage Bays and collect some minerals on route, killing two birds with one stone.
  • After you meet a new alien race, click on "Starmap" on the main menu to see if the map has been augmented to show that race's Sphere of Influence. You won't find a map in a drawer in this game.
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