Piloting

Piloting is accomplished with the keyboard (WASD) for movement and the mouse for weapons and shields. Piloting is relative to your ship's position: if you hit 'W' to go faster, your ship moves in the direction it is currently heading, not 'up' the screen.

Use the right mouse button to toggle shields and the mouse position to set the facing. Front shielded ships have shields that always point forward (surprise), while omni shielded ships can point their shields anywhere. The fastest way to swing the shield a large distance is to turn it off, move the mouse, and turn it back on.

Fire the selected weapon group with the left mouse button. Change weapon groups with 1-5. Toggle autofire groups with SHIFT+1-5. Selected weapons will track the mouse.

Tips:

• Many people find it easiest to put every weapon on autofire except missiles. This way the mouse position only governs shields, not shields and weapons.
• If you find yourself without enough flux to fire your weapons, try taking kinetic damage (white projectile) on your armor rather than shield.
  • Also try turning off less effective weapon groups (HE while attacking shields for example).
• In many smaller ships, the easiest way is to use 'face to mode' with SHIFT-A, SHIFT-D to target enemy ships. As long as SHIFT is held down, the ship will automatically point towards the mouse. There is a toggle in 'Settings' to make this the default mode.
• Check the Movement page for how different ship statistics relate to movement

Controls

Combat

• 'W' will accelerate your ship forward.
• 'S' will decelerate your ship and move backwards.
• 'A' will turn your ship to the left (counter-clockwise).
• 'D' will turn your ship to the right (clockwise).
• 'C' will brake the ship.

• 'CTR-A' strafes left.
• 'CTR-D' strafes right.
• 'SHIFT-A' strafes left and keeps the ship pointed at the current mouse location.
• 'SHIFT-D' strafes right and keeps the ship pointed at the current mouse location.

• 'V' vents flux at twice the passive rate. Active venting only stops once flux is empty and while venting weapons and shields do not function.
• 'F' activates the ship system, which is different for every ship.

• '1-5' selects weapon group. Selected weapons follow the mouse and are fired with the left mouse button. Selected weapons do not autofire.
• 'SHIFT 1-5' sets weapon group to autofire. This is shown on the HUD with a filled in square. (some computer systems have a problem with using the SHIFT+2 button combination, you can solve this problem by rebinding the buttons again)
• 'X' will hold fire; weapon group settings stay the same but nothing fires.

• 'LEFT MOUSE' fires selected weapons at current mouse location.
• 'RIGHT MOUSE' toggles the shields or phase cloak. Shields point in the direction of the current mouse position if their type is OMNI. If their type is FRONTAL then they always extend towards the front of the ship.

• 'R' sets the ships under the mouse as the current target. Information about the target is displayed on the HUD (hull, armor, etc.) and weapons will preferentially fire at the target.
• 'T' toggles the camera to lock to the current target, if there is one.
• 'Z' Toggles any fighters from this ship to attack or regroup. Only applicable to carriers.
• 'TAB' toggles the tactical map and will pause the game if unpaused.
• 'SPACE' pauses/unpauses the game.
• 'U' enables autopilot. To pilot manually, just press any button that normally controls the ship.

Strategic Map

• 'SPACE' pauses/unpauses the game.
• 'SHIFT' speeds up time while held
• '1-9' engage fleet abilities, corresponding to location on ability bar

• 'S' to "stop or go at a low speed", Hold to bring the fleet to a stop
• Hold control and left mouse button to move slowly

• "Slow" movement speed is just enough to receive the sensor profile reduction from being "stationary" in terrain, and is equal to level 2 burn
  

  At least two versions out of date. Last verified for version 0.9. Please refer to Version History and update this page.