Game Controls
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[edit] General Controls
- A handy reference image for those who haven't yet got a hang of the controls.
[edit] Text-Based Commands
In addition to the general set of keyboard controls, The Universal also utilizes a vast set of text-based commands to incorporate all the actions a player may want to do in order to interact with or edit their game. All commands begin with some sort of punctuation mark (e.g. *owner or !find zaroba) to set it apart from normal typing.
If you've checked out the list of all commands available on this wiki, you'll see there are more than a few. Don't be intimidated; however, you'll only need to know a few at first and those will be introduced slowly as needed.
[edit] Space Interface
- Movement: Arrow keys tilt the spacecraft up and down as well as rotating it side-to-side. The PGUP and PGDN keys control the ship's thrusters, holding shift while pressing them increases their affect. Press Home will automatically put the thrusters to full. To access a world, you must literally 'crash' into the side of it (this doesn't actually hurt you or your ship in anyway)
- Weapons: Tab key fires lasers which travel on a linear path and have a range of about 15 parsecs (varies with ship/target speed). Maneuvering the cross hairs in the general direction of another player will cause a missile lock to establish, that player will be highlighted by a box for the duration of the lock. Pressing Shift+Tab will launch a missile at the target which cannot be avoided by evasive tactics and must stopped using a ECM (countermeasure). ECMs can be used either by clicking on the ECM button that appears when you are targeted by an incoming missile or by pressing the Delete key. Keep in mind that missiles and ECMs must be purchased individually at a space station to be used.
Communications: (General) Simply type in the message you wish to say and press Enter. Your messages along with those of other players will be displayed in the window at the bottom. The window can be expanded by pressing F2.
- (Long-range) It is best to join an active chat channel to keep in touch with people when venturing out into deep space. To do so type in ?setchat followed by the name of the channel (ex. ?setchat Public1). If you are a member of an official guild (not to be confused with a player-made clan) then you will have a chat tab available labeled 'guild' this can be used to contact all other active players in that guild. Typing ?chat (or ?guild in the case of guild channel) will display who is currently on the channel. Note: these channels can also be used from the surface of a planet.
- (Immediate range) Players also have access to a an in-system chat channel that connects everyone who is in your current star system. Like the guild channel, this is given its own tab at the bottom. If you wish to have a private conversation with a player in your system you may do so by clicking on their name under the In-System list on the right side of your screen. They will then appear in your target window with some buttons. One of these buttons is for a 'comm channel', clicking this will send out a request to the other player. If someone is requesting a private channel with you, their name will flash red on the side of the screen, click it and then the 'Open channel' button to begin speaking in a private channel. This channel will only be usable while you are both in the same system (planetside does not count).
Traveling: Due to the general bigness of space, you cannot access every part of it using your conventional propulsion drives. To access another star system you have several options. To start off with you are provided with a L4 (Level 4) 'stardrive' and a Fipro (short for Finite Probability Drive).
- Stardrives are rather simple operate, simply click the star system you wish to go to in the F6 menu and hit the 'Stardrive' button in the upper-left corner of the screen and after a short animation you will find yourself there. However, you are limited in the systems you can currently stardrive to by the level of your stardrive (corresponds to its max distance) and the amount of uridium you have (1 uridium corresponds to 1 unit of length). Stardrives are the most practical for traders, for it is unaffected by the cargo you maybe be carrying. Besides stargates, they are used mainly for inter-galactic trading.
- The Fipro can be very useful, especially to new players. Clicking the 'Fipro' button brings up a menu displaying a small list of planets that have been pre-selected and a little bit of information about each. If you wish to visit one of these worlds click on it and your instantly teleported there.
Easy, no? Note: this drive (and the Infimp) requires a great deal of energy to use and so your ship is unable to warp more than the ship itself and its equipment. This means you cannot use it while carrying any sort of cargo.
- The Infimp which is short for Infinite Improbability Drive, is a step up from the Fipro. It is in many ways identical to it, except that in order to select a destination you must type in the name of the world you wish to go to. Making the number of different worlds you can visit limitless.
[edit] World Interface
File:World Interface2.JPG Getting to know the World: Typing *owner will tell the name of the person to complain to if your having a problem (a good place to start). If the world owner has done a thorough job, pressing Shift+F5 will bring up a detailed world guide. For worlds that have an economy, the *economy command can yield some valuable data. Occasionally you may find the newspaper (icon at bottom left) to also have some good stuff in it. It may help new players (or even veterans) to check the world's census information (look under the ? icon) for statistics on world employment and such.
Movement: For most worlds, the standard vehicle can be controlled with arrow keys. Like for space, holding shift increases the movement speed.
Interaction: Hitting Ctrl one or more times opens various menus (In order: Building Interface, Construction Interface, Player Info, Vehicle Status, Finances, General Information), they can also be accessed by clicking their corresponding icons in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Inventory: Pressing the Home key brings up your character inventory menu. For most worlds with some form of an economy you will have a few starting items with which to work with (often building supplies and/or food&drinks). From here you can choose to activate, discard or consume some items as well as view information about them such as their unit weight.
Character Status: Located along the bottom of the screen is a list of bars describing attributes of your Character/Vehicle such as Hunger, Fuel and Damage.
- Hunger & Thirst (for worlds on which they are active) increase at a rate based on the world's settings as your character spends time on the world (and many times when you are off-world as well). If either of these is allowed to progress too far your character will slowly lose health. Consuming items designated as food or drink will counter the increase of the corresponding stat. Being in a house usually helps slow the rate your character's needs to consume food and drink to stay healthy (helping to save money). When at home you will automatically consume any food or drink as it is required (assuming your house has some in stock).
- Health can decrease as a result of high hunger or thirst, consuming some types of items and possibly as a result of having your vehicle destroyed. If your health ever reaches zero your character will lose all buildings, jobs and any money in your bank account. You will maintain any on-hand cash, items or any skills you have learned, unless you've run out of lives, in which case you will have to start from the beginning.
- Fuel is the vital substance needed to operate many of the world's vehicles. If you have none, any vehicle that requires fuel will not move. Fuel can usually be purchased at any gas station. The maximum fuel capacity of your character (regardless of inventory space) is always 64 units.
- Damage is pretty self-explanatory. Damage can be caused by weapon fire, vehicle decay, 'drowning' in water and running into things (includes crash-landing a plane). If damage reaches its maximum, the vehicle explodes in a ball of fire. On most worlds this causes the player to respawn in a repaired version of the vehicle. While on others, you may lose your vehicle. Some 'armor' items have the effect of increasing your maximum damage and repair kits decrease your current damage. The mechanic skill allows players to repair vehicles without the use of kits.
(to be continued)
