Starbase/Reference/EGOTech/mapper/USAGE.md

Usage

To enter the ship, there are buttons on top of the ship that will open Hatch.

Flying the Ship

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

Interface	Function
Speed	Current speed in metres per second.
ForwardThrust	Current forward thrust, maximum of 10,000 units
Cruise	Activates cruise control, forward thrust will not reset to zero unless turned down.
Turtle	Activates turtle mode which sets forward thrust to a maximum limit of TurtleRate of full thrust.
Sloth	Activates the low sensitvity mode of pitch and yaw by limiting thrust. Use the Sensitivity switch to set the maximum thrust rate of sloth mode.
Aim	Reduces the response time of key presses for pitch and yaw.
Guides	Activates rangefinders (except center one which can be activated separately). Can be used as guide lasers. Red warning lights show location of obstacles (left, right and centre).
Nav, Autopilot, Avoidance & Target	Autopilot controls. See Autopilot and Crash Avoidance.
ISAN2	Current ISAN coordinates of ship.
NavGrid, NavP, NavC & Attitude	NavGrid system, see Using the Waypoint System.
SafeZone	Whether current location is in the safe zone.
StrengthFactor	Current strength of ship. May fluctuate as ore crates are filled. Anything below 1.0 means ship is damaged.
Transponder Toggle & Ping	Transponder controls, Toggle turns on and off ship transponder while Ping will activate transponder for three seconds
Lights	Turns on and off internal lights.
Hatch	Opens or closes ship entry hatch on top of the ship.
Timer	See Timer.
Odometer	See Odometer.

NOTE: For safety, firing full braking thrust will deactivate Cruise.

Using the Waypoint System

Viewing and Selecting Waypoints

This uses the NavGrid system. Use the Down and Up waypoints selectors to select waypoint. The selected waypoint information is shown on NavP and NavC panels.

On the pilot center console, NavGrid will show the compass towards the selected waypoint while Attitude will show the ship's pitch, heading and roll directions. NavGrid is best used while not moving.

Editing and Saving Waypoints

Use Set to save waypoint of current location to the current selected waypoint position.

To edit currently selected waypoint, use your U tool to add name, X, Y and Z values to nName, nX, nY and nZ respectively. Then use the Save button to save.

NOTE: Waypoint 1 to 6 are presets and can not be over written.

Loading Waypoint to Auto Pilot

Use Load to Auto Pilot to load curretnly selected waypoint to Target to be used with the auto pilot system.

Auto Pilot and Crash Avoidance

The ship uses a modified version of NavCas which uses the 3 in 1 ISAN from Compass. Waypoints are loaded from NavGrid waypoint system.

Use while the ship is stationary. Activating Nav will start point the ship towards Target waypoint and deactivate itself when done. Autopilot will activate Nav and fly to within 5km of Target waypoint with Avoidance activated.

NOTE: Nav may not be very accurate. I recommend using it in conjunction with the NavGrid compass. The dd panel on the pilot left console shows debugging information for NavCas.

Avoidance will activate Guides. If the guides detect objects it will cut thrust and strafe up or down (will flash either the top or bottom Blue warning lights on the pilot center console according to the direction) while sounding an alarm (check game settings if you do not hear the alarm). It will also flash Red warning lights on the pilot center console according to the position of obstacle detected. If Autopilot is activated, it will readjust and continue its flight.

Avoids will show the counters for number of avoidances. The Trip counter can be reset by holding down the Avoids Reset Trips button.

NOTE: There is very limited coverage of range finders for the crash avoidance system. Use at your own risk!

Resetting Navigation

If ISAN or NavGrid is not working, it can be reset using the Reset ISAN button. Press once to take ISAN offline, then press again to reset.

Managing Power and Fuel

Interface	Function
Propellant	Total propellant remaining in propellant tanks, maximum of 264,000,000 units.
PropTime	Time and distance remaining of propellant based on current usage.
FuelTime	Time and distance remaining of fuel based on current usage.
WithBackup	Same as FuelTime but takes into account backup rods available. Use the switch for Backup Rods to set the number of backup rods available. As standard there are 12 extra rods.
Fuel Rod 1 to Fuel Rod 6	Fuel remaining on fuel rods in individual fuel chambers, maximum of 300,000 units for each.
Generator	Current generator rate, maximum of 100%.
Min Gen & Min Generator Rate	Toggle and sets minimum generator rate. See Managing Power.
Shutdown	Will turn off all fuel chambers thus shutting down generators.
Battery	Shows current battery charge of the batteries, maximum of 10,000 units.
HeatTransferRate	Current heat transfer rate of the heat sinks, maximum of 100%.
Flow In & Flow Out	Toggle flow modes of resource bridges. See Refueling Propellant.
Service	Opens or closes access to propellant tanks from the top and bottom of the ship.

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.

Refueling Propellant

All four resource bridges can be used for refuelling propellant. To refuel from another ship, turn off Flow Out on the pilot right side console and leave Flow In turned on. Then connect a resource bridge to the other ship. To refuel another ship, do the opposite, Flow Out turned on and Flow In turned off.

Remember to turn Flow In and Flow Out back on if you are using the Endo to collect ore via any of the ship's resource bridges.

The Service button gives access to the propellant tanks. The tanks can be unbolted to used to craft refills if ice is available, then bolted back. The tank should be bolted to the support on top and bottom of the ship.

Other Stuff

Timer

On the pilot center 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, hold down the Reset Timer button on the pilot left console.

Odometer

On the pilot center console there is a Odometer panel which will keep track of the ship's estimated flight distance based on speed. To reset the trip odometer, hold down the Odometer Reset Trips button on the pilot left console.