How do I play?

[Klampus]

Game looks interesting, so I tried the demo, but I have no idea what is going on! Nothing seems to be explained at all. The UI also makes no sense to me.

The video tutorial does not tell you what buttons do which actions, so it doesn't seem very useful. For a game this complex, I don't care about the "immersion" before I even know what I'm doing!

Is there some sort of beginner's guide to the game? Thanks!

[hev]

The tutorial should give the basics of the controls, but i'll do my best to give a rundown of the basics (if there's still things that i didn't explain well. there's a decent guide that goes into extreme detail on the controls here:

There are two different control sets for your ship: manual controls (by default WASDQE and Shift), and autopilot controls (by default, arrow keys, X. and the left and right mouse buttons). I would strongly avoid using manual controls until you feel comfortable flying the ship, as they can be very sensitive and will be difficult to use in comparison, so I won't go into detail on them here.

I'll be mainly using the arrow keys as a reference point for this first, as they're a lot easier to use and make it a lot easier to use as they act relative to your ship. The left and right arrows will make the autopilot attempt to rotate the ship in the respective directions, and the up and down arrows will have the autopilot attempt to move the ship in those directions as well. The X key is a very important one as it asks the ship to stop, and you'll be using it a lot.

The next thing is to select a rock to destroy for it's ore chunks. You can do this either by left clicking on a rock in the area (you may need to fly around a bit to find one, but you'll always have some nearby). Once you've got something selected, you will see a triangular outline on the rock, and all autopilot controls will now act relative to the selected object instead. If you want to stop targeting anything, you can either click empty space, or press G.

To destroy a rock (you don't need to select it to do this, but it does make it easier), you want to be aimed at it, and press space bar to fire your mass driver weapon. A projectile will shoot out of the center of your ship towards your ship's angle. It's not perfectly straight all the time, so you may need to go close to the rock or take several shots. Out of it should come an ore chunk, which you can tell by green boxes appearing over it. Some rocks will be bigger than others, and will break into smaller rocks before they become ore chunks. These ore chunks may have a decent bit of velocity, so you may benefit to select it with the autopilot to catch up to it, although this can be dangerous and usually isn't too recommended if it's going fast.

To collect the ore, you want it to enter the excavator, which you can open with either the enter key, or the middle mouse button. It will open and you can fly towards the object to bring it on board. Do note that it won't be secured inside the ship, so if you reverse thrust while the excavator is open, you may lose some stuff.

Once you're satisfied with the run, you can return to Enceladus Prime station to sell your stuff and make repairs and upgrades. You can do this by either flying left until you exit the rings, or astrogating directly. Astrogation is done through the OMS menu (opened by pressing J), going to the Astrogation tab, and starting astrogation towards Enceladus Prime station. This menu will be used a lot later, but for now Enceladus is the main destination after a dive

[Klampus]

Thanks! Would you recommend playing this with a keyboard instead of a controller? Based on that guide, even the movement seems rather complex....

[hev]

Originally posted by Klampus:

Thanks! Would you recommend playing this with a keyboard instead of a controller? Based on that guide, even the movement seems rather complex....

honestly, controller works just as well, and imo is a little bit more intuitive when it comes to a few things. the major difference between controller and keyboard is that the autopilot controls work like they would when using the mouse instead of the arrow keys (i.e. relative to the screen instead of the ship), but selecting objects is a decent bit easier in some cases (i haven't used controller in a bit, but i believe it's pressing on the right joystick and moving it around. it uses a beam that comes from the center of the ship, so you do get a visual for it).

I would give both a try, see whichever works better for you

[iB13k]

Originally posted by hev:

The tutorial should give the basics of the controls, but i'll do my best to give a rundown of the basics (if there's still things that i didn't explain well. there's a decent guide that goes into extreme detail on the controls here:

There are two different control sets for your ship: manual controls (by default WASDQE and Shift), and autopilot controls (by default, arrow keys, X. and the left and right mouse buttons). I would strongly avoid using manual controls until you feel comfortable flying the ship, as they can be very sensitive and will be difficult to use in comparison, so I won't go into detail on them here.

I'll be mainly using the arrow keys as a reference point for this first, as they're a lot easier to use and make it a lot easier to use as they act relative to your ship. The left and right arrows will make the autopilot attempt to rotate the ship in the respective directions, and the up and down arrows will have the autopilot attempt to move the ship in those directions as well. The X key is a very important one as it asks the ship to stop, and you'll be using it a lot.

The next thing is to select a rock to destroy for it's ore chunks. You can do this either by left clicking on a rock in the area (you may need to fly around a bit to find one, but you'll always have some nearby). Once you've got something selected, you will see a triangular outline on the rock, and all autopilot controls will now act relative to the selected object instead. If you want to stop targeting anything, you can either click empty space, or press G.

To destroy a rock (you don't need to select it to do this, but it does make it easier), you want to be aimed at it, and press space bar to fire your mass driver weapon. A projectile will shoot out of the center of your ship towards your ship's angle. It's not perfectly straight all the time, so you may need to go close to the rock or take several shots. Out of it should come an ore chunk, which you can tell by green boxes appearing over it. Some rocks will be bigger than others, and will break into smaller rocks before they become ore chunks. These ore chunks may have a decent bit of velocity, so you may benefit to select it with the autopilot to catch up to it, although this can be dangerous and usually isn't too recommended if it's going fast.

To collect the ore, you want it to enter the excavator, which you can open with either the enter key, or the middle mouse button. It will open and you can fly towards the object to bring it on board. Do note that it won't be secured inside the ship, so if you reverse thrust while the excavator is open, you may lose some stuff.

Once you're satisfied with the run, you can return to Enceladus Prime station to sell your stuff and make repairs and upgrades. You can do this by either flying left until you exit the rings, or astrogating directly. Astrogation is done through the OMS menu (opened by pressing J), going to the Astrogation tab, and starting astrogation towards Enceladus Prime station. This menu will be used a lot later, but for now Enceladus is the main destination after a dive

Dude, that was very useful information, it was interesting to read. Thank you!
I have 1 more question...
1) Is there a story in this game? Or do we just collect ore, sell it, and upgrade the ship? And play for fun?

[hev]

Originally posted by iB13k:

1) Is there a story in this game? Or do we just collect ore, sell it, and upgrade the ship? And play for fun?

Yeah, there's a few bits of story around. Having a few crew onboard will give some exposition, as well as taking to some of the crews that you find within the rings, but nothing required and you can totally ignore it

[iB13k]

thanks

[NimrodX]

Try this (it covers strategy but not controls) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3332050641

Also, the controller works well enough in this game that I play it almost entirely on the steam deck.

[Klampus]

Thanks everyone!