Starbase/EGOTech/hexxer/USAGE.md

Usage

Flying the Ship

The left lever on the center console controls backwards thrust (braking) and the right lever controls forward thrust.

Interface	Function
ForwardThrust	Current forward thrust, maximum of 10,000 units
Cruise	Activates cruise control, forward thrust will not reset to zero unless turned down.
Turtle, TurtleRate	Activates turtle mode which sets forward thrust to a maximum limit of TurtleRate (percent) of full thrust.
Sloth, Sensitivity	Activates sloth mode which sets yaw and pitch thrust to a maximum limit of Sensitivity (percent) of full thrust.
Aim	Reduces the response time of key presses for pitch and yaw.
ID	Toggle for the transponder.
Distance & Range	Distance for rangefinder. Range toggles the rangefinders.
Scan, Material, & Credits	Material scanning controls. See Scanning Asteroids.
Approach & Load	Cargo loading controls. See Loading Asteroids.

Managing Power and Fuel

Interface	Function
Propellant	Total propellant remaining in propellant tanks, maximum of 10,000,000 units.
Battery	Shows current battery charge of the batteries, maximum of 10,000 units.
Generator	Current generator rate, maximum of 100%.
Min Generator Rate & Min Gen	Toggle and sets minimum generator rate. See Managing Power.
HeatTransferRate	Current heat transfer rate of the heat sinks, maximum of 100%.
StoredHeat	Current stored heat in the heat sinks, maximum of 15,000 units.
Fuel Rod 1, Fuel Rod 2, Fuel Rod 3, Fuel Rod 4, Fuel Rod 5	Total fuel remaining on fuel rods, maximum of 300,000 units each.
Shutdown	Will turn off all fuel chambers thus shutting down generators.

Managing Power

By default the generator will only run and ramp up when the batteries need charging so there is minimum management needed. But you can set a minimum generate rate by setting the Min Generator Rate value using the switch for the minimum rate and turning on Min Gen.

Scanning Asteroids

Scan turns on the material scanner. The beam has a range of 100m. Point the beam at an asteroid and Material will show the materials in the asteroid along with the volume of each in stacks. Credits will show the estimated amount of credits you will get for the asteroid if you drop it off at Origin stations. The calculation is 158.8% (worked out this with testing) of the cost of ore of the vendor price. This only has data for safe zone materials. The total volume of the asteroid in Mv is also shown.

Loading Asteroids

Interface	Function
Cargo Load & Toggle	Individual cargo loading controls.
Unload	Turns off all cargo lock beams.
StrengthFactor	Current strength of ship. May fluctuate as ore crates are filled. Anything below 1.0 means ship is damaged.
DurabilityErrors	Number of durability errors on the ship. If the asteroids are not position correctly it may cause errors
Timer	See Timer.

Approach an asteroid by pointing the center rangefinder at an asteroid and activating Approach. This will guide the ship to around 10m of the asteroid.

To load asteroids, use Load on the specific cargo compartment to use its beam to load.

Once the asteroid is in place the cargo lock beam should activate itself and the tractor beam will reset. If it does not activate for any reason, you can use Toggle to active the cargo lock beam manually and it will also reset the tractor beam.

All these can be done the automated Load function on the pilot center console. Point the rangefinder at the asteroid you wish to load and activate Load. This is activate Approach and Scan as well as smartly activating the Load of the right compartment. So you can just use Load each time and it will load the asteroids to the right compartment in the right order.

Unload will turn of all cargo lock beams.

Other Stuff

Timer

On the pilot left console there is a Timer panel which acts as a timer. It will run when the ship is active and show total time in years, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. To reset the timer, use your universal tool (U key) and clear the value of the Timer field.