Comprehensive early game tutorial

As Paragon has no comprehensive tutorial as of yet, I have endeavoured to try and make a guide for newer players.
I will edit and update as I learn new aspects of the game for myself.

Getting started

Hello everyone! So this is the first guide I have ever attempted to create, so you will have to bear with me here. As I progress in my learning and understanding of game mechanics, I will endeavour to update this with all and every detail I can think of.

You've just entered Paragon for the first time. You browse through the in-game text tutorial and realise that at this stage its pretty useless. The devs know. No point complaining. Time to learn for yourself.

That is exactly what I did. This is the part where I shall be writing things down for everyone who can't be bothered trying to learn themselves, which is what I'm getting from some stupid comments I see in the forums.
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This here is the first screen you are faced with. Allow me to explain (as sweatshirt has already so aptly done) some of these for you.


1) Your fuel. That one is pretty self explanatory. You run out of that in the middle of space and you are totally stuck. When you dock at stations, it is usually automatically refilled. There is the option in one of the menus to refuel as well.

2) Temperature. Also self explanatory. If you get too hot, you'll explode. The only time this has happened to me was when I was flying into the middle of a gas planet for fun. The pressure and temperature destroyed me.

3) I can only assume that means weapons. I've not used weapons yet, so I wouldn't know what this does.

4 and 5) Hull and shields. No need for me to explain what happens once those are both gone.

6) Your speed relative to the closest place. This rises and falls to your set speed.

7) Pressure. Too much pressure usually means you explode. As I experiencing flying into a gas giant.

8) Altitude. Pretty obvious.

9) Your set speed. Currently it is in docked mode, but when you are flying, the speed you have it set to will sit here. Your relative speed rises or falls to match your set.

10) This here is your view changer. You can change between cockpit views and two different views outside of the ship. To change the camera angle when in these two modes, you can use the directional buttons on the numpad.

11) Your starmap. You'll need this for jumping to other systems.

12) Information. This here has all info on your ship, your player, your cargo, missions and crew.

13) I would call this 'transmission'. When you are docked, it allows you to access the shop for commodities, ship modules, new ships, missions, ship repairs, police and allows you to request to launch. I will discuss its purpose in flying later.

14) This is your radar. I believe in game its known as a Lidar. It will show you a general location of other ships in the area.

15) Launch button. Pretty obvious what it does.

16) Time and date. This important to keep an eye in terms of the end of mission times.

Note that for 10-15, and also for each of the ship options when flying, these are keyed into F1 to F8.

Preparing to leave the planet.

Okay, so now you have got the basics on the user interface which I am sure will be updated eventually.

There have been a few people complaining about not understanding how the shop works, or stuff like that. So I figure it would be a good idea, while still docked on the starting planet, to go through the shop system. To buy or sell each item, it is simple; all you must do is click on them, as long as you have enough money, right ship and enough cargo space. In this section I shall also detail the mission system and how that works.
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First lets consider the ship modules.


1) All of your ship modules. The level of these, the cost, the mass and the number in stock are all presented there for you. Take careful note of the mass.

2) Your current ship modules. You will notice that out of all 4 modules installed, the only one with mass is the passenger cabin of 3 tonnes.

3) This is the current mass you have. My 2 out of 3 tonnes is 2 tonnes of hydrogen, 1 tonne of nothing in the cargo bay. If, for instance, I was to sell my extra passenger cabin which weighs 3 tonnes, I would then have 2 tonnes out of 6 tonnes.

To buy any more modules, you need to have both enough money and enough cargo space to fit them. I believe for weapons, you need to have to right class of ship, as I am unable to buy any regardless of having sold everything.
For early game, my biggest recommendation is to sell the passenger cabin and get ahold of a jump module, so you can do the decent paying delivery to other systems missions.

4) Cabins. Those heavy passenger cabins. I wouldn't recommend them for the starter ship.

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The next shop is the commodities.


1) These here on the left are the commodities you have a choice of. The shops found in the missions screen are black market commodities and it is likely you will get a legal status against your name if you buy any of them. To buy, you click on them. Each takes up space of 1 tonne each.

2) These are the commodities you have in your cargo hold. You can sell these by clicking on them.
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The final shop screen is the ships.
At this stage the ships are mega-priced and it is unlikely you will be able to afford them without some minor modding yourself. The developers are planning to balance this to make it a less steep purchase level.


1) The type of ship. Some examples are passenger, military, personal, tanker or mining pod, just to name a few.

2) The cost. Note just how ridiculously pricey these are. I personally won't be modding my game to lower the threshold.

3) The capacity in tonnes. This is the capacity of the ship to carry ship modules and commodities that you may buy.
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Missions. Everyone likes to earn money. Each planet and station will have missions available for you to do, ranging from a measly $25 to around $10000.
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Time to lay out how the mission screen works.


1) These are tabs where you can donate to a cause, a religion, or whatever the heck it says you are donating to.

2) The skulls normally refer to a termination/retirement mission. That is, ending someones life with your superior firepower, if you have a ship and weapons up to the task.

3) Crew for hire. Pretty obvious.

4) Ship required for passage. You require passenger cabins for these missions, and they quite often pay really well. Mission reward changes depending on how many people you transport at a time. You'll need lots of cabins per lots of people.

5) Fast ship required. I dunno what this means - perhaps a high level phase drive is needed.

6) It says honest but these guys (and all shops on the mission list) are always the scumbag black market dealers. Buy from them and you'll be labelled a criminal almost instantly.

Some of the missions not listed are delivering packages to places in the same system (a reward of $25 to about $60 depending on range), or delivering packages to other systems, usually around $100 to $900 reward.
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Time to fly.

You've done all your shopping and selected your missions. You're ready to embark out into the universe.

In the first section I made a note of the launch button or the request to launch. You can use either of those to throw yourself into the atmosphere.

You will notice immediately that your relative speed and set speed will rise. While you are in a planets atmosphere, you are able to do a maximum of 600m/s.

To control yourself you can use either the mouse (right click to get control first) or the directional buttons. A and D are to roll and W and S are to speed up and slow down. You are able to change these key bindings to whatever suits you in the options.
There is partial controller support but by all reports so far it is not that good just yet.
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Here are the basics of the flying hud laid out for you.


1) Your transmission button has a very different purpose now. Pressing this while you are in flight will bring up those on screen menus.

2) This is your autopilot. Be warned that it is incredibly buggy, but it is also the only really safe way to dock with most cities. And useful if you are afk while flying somewhere too.

3) This is your maneuver mode. Your ship will only do a maximum of 600m/s in this mode, regardless of where you are located.

4) Transit mode. Your ship will fly increasingly fast in this mode until reaching another planets atmosphere or you cause it to stop. Switching to maneuver mode can also cause it to stop.

5) This is your jump mode. For this to work you need to access your star map and select which system you want to jump to. For this instance, as you can see from the map below, i have chosen Sol, our solar system.
What you require is one hydrogen in your cargo bay and a jump drive and you're all set to go.

Warning: Crashes have been experienced by players initiating phase jump too close to a planets surface. To minimise possibility of crash until a fix is implemented, fly 20km out from planet surface before jumping.

6) These are your options for the autopilot.
Pressing 1 will ask for clearance to dock at a space station or city. You must press this.
Pressing 2 will cause autopilot to fly you to dock with the city or station.
Pressing 3 will fly you to the vicinity (Warning: has crashed me several times)

Autopilot comes with a big warning attached. It is very buggy. Do not use to dock with space stations. Once you fly in, the station will dock you on its own. Likewise, when docking with cities, let autopilot dock you and then you will need to maneuver slightly to get it to take effect. Always take care with using autopilot.

7) The second menu for the transmission button. Theres are autopilot suggestions for places in a system. Once you press one of these, options 1, 2 or 3 from number 6 will come onto screen.

8) This is the place you have either clicked on or engaged autopilot to. It will give you the name and the distance away. There is an option in the options for a navigation tunnel which can be turned on or off.
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Money.

Seeing as we are all alpha testing here, and trying to discover bugs, one of the many necessities to get things to test out and see if there are bugs is money.

To get money from the console command for ships, items, weapons, and modules, press ~ and type:

import("Game").player:AddMoney(N)

This will give you the amount you specify and will allow you to purchase things to test. The only variable that needs to be changing is the N amount of money, so for instance:

import("Game").player:AddMoney(1000000)

Conclusion

So that concludes my tutorial for the time being. Please feel free to suggest additions which I shall add whenever I get the chance if you feel it would help you or other players.
As I progress, I shall also update this as my understanding and findings in the game increases.
Don't forget to report any bugs or crashes you have on either the steam or Paragon forums, so the dev team can get on it asap!

Thanks for reading, I hope this can be of some help if you feel stuck or confused.
Good luck and have fun :)

[xander2245]

I can't seem to deliver passengers. It tells me what system to go to, but then it doesn't tell me where in the system to go.

[darkangel2370]

Question: How does one "deliver" a package?

[Robocreator223]

Question. I attempt to buy equipment and it says "Ship is fully laden" I have 27t left and the weapon only weights 3t at most? I have enough cash. Do I need a new ship?

[N8Mate]

Yes, you can find all ship modules in the ship part/equipment shop :)

[Boredome]

Where do you get the jump drive? I can't find it, i'm in "italian" language in my game and i can't find this jump drive. Do yo find it in the shop that sells ship parts?

[Zenzar]

i wonder if theres a way to change how much your ship can carry with the console

[TerranceFarrel]

weird. Wasn't working and now it is! TYVM for the confirmation!

[N8Mate]

Not at all, ive used "Game" in there and it works every time. As it stands, with changing the N for amount of money, is how it works.

[TerranceFarrel]

import("Game").player:AddMoney(N)

I am assuming "Game" is a variable with no quotes. A save game name?
Is player a variable? or just as it stands?

[Hex]

Looks like RocketGrrl -puts on glasses- glossed right over reading