Newbie Pilot

This is a very simple step to step guide to flying on SWmud. There is a lot more to space than written in this document. This panic file is meant merely to get a starting pilot to launch up in space, shoot something and land. All player input is written in bold. (For all those with ansi capable terminals and connections...)

So, you're standing in Newbieway dock and it looks something like this:

   This is the main docking area for the colonists of Newbieway Colony. There are
   several fighter ships docked here waiting for pilots to take them into space to
   combat the dreaded space pirates. The colonists could probably use extra pilots
   to help fly all these ships.

   The only obvious exit is north.

   Z-95 Headhunter [17702] and Z-95 Headhunter [17701] are here.

The number inside brackets [] indicates the ship number. Each ship has a unique number. To enter one of these ships, you type: enter <ship number>, for example: enter 17702.

To fly a ship you must begin the control shell. All commands must be given in this shell. To start the shell you must type start and to leave the shell you must type exit.

The pilot shell will look something like this:

   >start 
   Beginning Control Shell...
   Speed: 0]
   While in the shell you cannot give normal mud commands, unless you precede
   them with an exclamation point !. For example if you wished to say something
   you would have to type:
   Speed: 0] !say hello

Now to launch off the planet, you must type launch.

   Speed: 0] launch

And it will look like this:

   Launching Ship....
   Speed: 0] 
   Ship successfully Launched into space.

Next thing you can do is scan the system you are in, by typing scan.

   Speed: 0] scan
   System: The Newbieway System   CURR VECT: X:-1000    Y:0        Z:0
   Tie Fighter [46826] (tie 7)    D:511      X:-787     Y:584      Z:-194
   Tie Fighter [46823] (tie 4)    D:223      X:-461     Y:887      Z:0
   Planet Newbieway (Newbieway)   D:95       X:1000     Y:0        Z:0

D stands for distance. So, the planet is now 95 ticks away from you and you have two tie fighters in your sight.

You can shoot at anything which is closer than 250 ticks away from you.

So this means you can shoot down tie 4, which has the ship number 46823.

First you must turn your ship towards that ship, by typing:

   Speed: 0] v 46823

Then you must target that ship by typing:

   Speed: 0] tar 46823

Note, that as soon as you have targetted an enemy ship, they will open fire on you and they will keep shooting at you until either of you is killed. So be ready to start combat as soon as you have targetted a ship.

To fire in space, you must simply type f. You will have to type f several times until the other ship is destroyed.

After the enemy ship is blown up, it leaves behind a cloud of debris, which you can salvage. You will get ship components from the debris, which can be sold for money. The debris will appear as something like this in scanners:

   A cloud of debris from tie 4 (debris) D:514      X:-790     Y:581      Z:-193

You must be within 50 or less ticks from the debris to do a salvage. So, first you turn the ship towards the debris by typing:

   Speed: 0] v debris

Then you must accelerate, by typing

   Speed: 0] sp 20

This increases your current speed by 20. You can then accelerate again:

   Speed: 20] sp 20

after which your speed will be 40 and so on.

Keep scanning the system when you are getting close to the debris. Do not go too fast, slowing down will also take time. To slow down, you must decrease speed, in a very similar way than you just accelerated, except give negative values.

   Speed: 80] sp -20

Be sure to get speed to 0 before you do anything else. After that, type:

   Speed: 0] salvage debris

Now let's head back to Newbieway. Check from the scanners how far you are from it. Once your distance from the planet is under 100 ticks, you can land. If you are further away from the planet, you must move closer to it, exactly as you just moved closer to the debris.

First vector towards the planet (v newbieway), then set some speed and wait until you are within 100 or less from the planet. Then be sure to set your speed to 0 again before attempting to land or you will go crashing into the planet real quick.

Landing requires specifying the planet and (possibly) a dock. It will look much like this:

   Speed: 0] land newbieway
   The only dock is: dock
   Choose a dock description to land at.
   Speed: 0] dock
   Docking at dock.
   > The ship has landed.

Sometimes after launching the only thing you can see is the planet. This means that somebody already shot down all the other ships in that vector. It does not mean there cannot be other ships outside your scanners range or other side of the planet. You can try landing and launching several times to see if any ships will show up. Sooner or later the ships in space will reset as well.

Check through the other commands available to you in <panic topics space>. Auto-pilot and info especially are quite handy.

Be sure to read through the welcome files where space stuff is mentioned and also faq2.