Tips For New Pilots

This guide covers several key concepts for the new Lunar Flight Pilot. It covers some of the most important things to be aware of and suggestions for ensuring you have more successful missions and less crashes.

Quick Tips

Lunar Flight can be an infuriatingly difficult game but this difficulty curve is also why it is also very rewarding to play once you master some fundamentals. This list is a cheat sheet of tips that should hopefully give you a head start.

• Watch the Demo Replays to see what an experienced pilot can do. There is one Replay Demo for every Mission Type.
  
• Enable the Practice Mode so that you can crash as much as you want without losing any money. Practice mode also includes unlimited Fuel. Note: you cannot attempt missions while the practice mode is enabled.
  
• When you first start out in Lunar Flight the most important thing is to avoid using the Pitch & Roll inputs. Until your skill improves.
  
• The easiest way to fly is to use the Yaw (Q, E) inputs to turn to face the direction you want to fly to and then use the Forward (W) Translation thrust to start moving.
  
• Keep your speed below 5 meters per second, you can see your speed in the HUD next to the VEL text which stands for Velocity.
  
• Pay attention to your Vertical Velocity, avoid exceeding 3 meters per second.
• Buy additonal Fuel Cells from the Upgrade Shop if you keep running out of Fuel. They can make the difference between a near succesful mission and failure.
  
• Learn to use the Thrust Lock Feature detailed in another section of this guide.
  
• Understand what the Velocity Vector is and how to use it, it will become your best friend. (See Video Below)
  
• The first Upgrade you should buy is the Level 1 Stabiliser, this will make it easier to cancel out any rotations so you don't have to continually make corrections.
  
• The Mars Map features higher gravity and atmospherics which create drag. The higher gravity will require higher power outputs it is recommended you upgrade the Lunar Module to be able to complete missions.

Flight School Tutorial Video - Velocity Vector

Basic Controls

Flying the Lunar Module can be a complicated and confusing experience especially if you're not familar with how objects behave in space.

The Lunar Module has the ability to move and rotate along every possible axis.

Primary Thrust

Pressing the Space Bar activates the main Thrust engine and will move the Lunar Module along it's upward Axis.

To thrust downward press the Left Shift key.

Translation

Translation is the same as moving Forward/Backward or strafing Left & Right.
The default keyboard controls are the same as most First Person Shooters using the W,A,S,D keys.

Rotation

The Lunar Module can rotate around every axis.

Pitch: Up/Down Arrow Keys
Forward/Backward and can be thought of as looking down or looking up.

Roll: Left/Right Arrow Keys
Can be though of as Leaning Left or Right.

Yaw: Q/E Keys
Can be though of as the facing direction Left or Right.

Flight School Tutorial Video - Basic Controls

Understanding Thrust Lock and L.O.P.T.W

Lunar Flight features a system for making it easy to set the Thrust power to a specific setting. It's called the Thrust Lock.

The Thrust Lock can be toggled on & off by pressing the Left Ctrl Key or by clicking on the Switch undernieth the Power Display Bar in the Cockpit view.

When the Thrust lock is on, pressing Thrust up (Space Bar) will increment the setting and pressing the Thrust Down (Left Shift) will decrement the setting.


When the Lunar Module is unloaded with Cargo a setting of 36% will counter graivty. This is the 'Base' value listed in the L.O.P.T.W chart.

Flight School Tutorial Video - Thrust Lock & L.O.P.T.W

Stable Flight

This section is about combining the Thrust Lock, the Velocity Vector and the Vertical Rate to keep your Lunar Module under control. The video below offers a good explanation of how to do this.

Flight School Tutorial Video - Maintaining Stable Flight

Missions - Transport

Transport (Deliver a load of cargo to another base.)

Tips:

• The weight of the cargo affects the Lunar Modules performance
  
• Increased inertia
  
• Higher Impact Damage, the extra mass and resultant inertia will increase the magnitude of impact forces.
  
• Increased Fuel Consumption
  
• Due to the increase in weight, more power must be applied to move or stop the Lunar Module.
  
• Larger load deliveries have higher rewards.
  
• Cargo can be Unloaded with the U key or pressing the Cargo Switch in the cockpit. An Unload button also appears in the Mission Computer.

Flight School Tutorial Video - Transport Missions

Missions - Data Survey

Fly to a location and acquire data then return to the base and upload it.

Tips:

• The Acquire Key is Left Alt or Click the Data Switch in the Cockpit
  
• The location is above ground.
  
• You must hover within 7.5 mtrs of the location while acquiring the data.
  
• The Data Light will pulse yellow when you are inside the zone.
  
• Acquisition time is 10 seconds
  
• If you stray outside of the zone while acquiring you will have to start again.
  
• The Data Light will turn Green when the data is acquired and the navigation system will automatically select the home base.
  
• Return to base and upload the data, Press the U Key or Cockpit Switch to upload.

Data Light - In Zone
Data Light - Data Acquired

Flight School Tutorial Video - Survey Missions

Missions - Lost Cargo

Locate a Lost Cargo Container and Deliver it to its intended destination

Tips:

• Always take additonal Fuel Cells on these missions.
  
• Use the Transponder and Map to help locate the container
  
• The Transponder will start pulsing when you are within 150 mtrs of the container.
  
• The Recover Key is Backspace you can also press the Cargo Cockpit Switch. A Recover button is also displayed on the Mission Computer.
  
• You must be within 3 mtrs of the Container to be able to recover it. The Recover button appears on the Mission Computer page when you are close enough.
  
• Containers are heavy and the added mass will require more power to move
  
• The harder the map difficulty the heavier the Cargo containers are but they are worth much more.
  
• Deliver the Cargo to the destination

Flight School Tutorial Video - Lost Cargo Missions

[Apollo11]

I play exclusively in VR. Is there any way to edit the controls outside of the VR menu system, once the VR beta is activated? I had my controls pretty much setup in the 2D game, only to lose all my settings once the VRBeta loaded.

I hurt my neck trying to go through the menu to remap it.

[Chaffdog]

If there was a way to backup your pilot data online so you wouldn't lose everything if you have a hard drive crash, now that would be something worth while! It's awesome to be able to see my pilot's "rank" and "stats" on Steam and the Lunar Flight "Leaderboard" but it's worthless if you can't recover the pilot data and log on again!

[pepe]

How do you know where the north is?

[JegasCrazy]

I think it acts pretty much like a helicopter is slow slow mode... everything you do - takes just as much effort to undo. I have only had this game a little while and the more I'm playing it the more I'm wishing it did even more! Like if those space games were like this I'd love it - reasonably good physics I'd guess... I'm not a stickler like some "its off a little - not like the moon man" - bah - I'll show you a moon... lol - Thanks for the tutorial - I think I was sort of "up to speed" as I practiced a bit before stopping in and I think flying helicopter sims all the time has helped a lot - otherwise I'd probably be crashing all the time... at least for a time :)

[Dexter]

Thanks

[darquan0]

Completely useless to me :( It is really clear about missions, and about "what button to press to do what". But, main "howto" for me in this game is _how to level your craft_. That's what not covered in any manual...

[REALLY REALLY RED PANDA]

Excellent guide!

[tomk1]

Thank you

[SenorGrande]

[Artend]

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