SD:U1:Quest:Space Travel

Space travel can be complicated. This complexity leads to danger. There are many ways to get yourself killed while planet hopping. Exposure to the vacuum, crashing on a planet, splashed by an enemy, and stranded in the void are just a few of the more common.

The first task to complete is preparation. You need a good deal of money as with most things in the game. One can get by with over 2000 and 1000 is an absolute minimum. The more you have, the more times you can dock at a station to replenish shields and fuel. Then you will need a vacuum suit or one of the reflect suits. This is a necessity since none of the spacecraft are designed with sealed cabins. And if you don't have it on when you launch, you're as good as dead when you make orbit so wear it! Lastly for preparation is buying the shuttle. Every space ace needs their own renewable launch vehicle!

On reaching space, you must now deal with care. Let's get familiar with navigation. You have two Views to toggle between, and you start in Top Down View. Top Down View allows navigation in a single sector. Flying off one edge gets you to the other edge so watch out for planets or stations on an opposite edge of your heading. Forward view is used to hyperspace and for combat with the space enemy. We'll discuss this below after taking care of some top-down details.

Moving too fast into dock or while maneuvering about the sector could get you crashed into a planet or wrecked against a space-dock. Curiously, I've found you can fly right through a star. When docking, use minimum speed. Your ship's nose must fit perfectly into the docking collar or you'll nick off your shield points, 255 every time, bouncing off the station. Firing maneuvering jets takes 2 points of fuel while thrust and retro rockets burn 5 points each time they fire.

Station personnel require a 500 pence fee for docking and maintenance costs, payable at departure. When docked you can pick one of the other docked craft by the direction you take. Don't attempt to turn while docked. It is just as sure a way to waste shield points as bouncing of the outside. When you leave the space dock, you are charged the fees and the ship you chose has full shields and fuel, even if its the one you just arrived in. Each craft has its own shield resilience and fuel capacity.

Ship	Shields	Fuel
Shuttle	1000	1000
The space shuttle you flew up in. Its the only ship that can land but its low capacities don't make well for galaxy hopping. If you want to try, it has a hyperspace motivator and cannons to fight. Just don't stray too far from the friendly stations.
Fighter	5000	2500
Its the sleek one, looks like a Colony Viper from above. If you're worried about getting hit, these shields can put up with a beating; just don't stray too far from a base for refueling.
Freighter	1000	5000
You could travel anywhere in the known universe on this stocky ship with its fuel capacity. Just don't pick too many fights unless you think you can dodge!

Now we can discuss the Forward View and Hyperspace. There are 64 sectors in an 7x7 grid defining Known Space. Sosaria is the planet in the center sector. As with the world map, you can travel over the edges of the sector map to arrive at the opposite side. Your long range scanners are activated on Inform. The legend for sector data is as follows.

Your location in the scan is marked by the blinking icon. Hyperspace only allows travel to adjacent sectors on the scan. To choose the direction, in top-down view, point your ship toward the sector to which you are navigating. You can be moving or stationary before flipping to forward view. However if you were at rest, flipped to forward view then flipped back, you would find yourself moving on that heading. Your motion determines which direction your hyperjump will go. While in forward view you won't collide with objects in the sector. You will also not move within the sector relative to anything while in forward view. If you're heading at full thrust toward a planet, for whatever reason, this information could save your life. Maneuvering jets still consume 2 units fuel per burn in forward view but now all four directions are courses. Now in forward view, simply key the Hyperdrive to move into the next sector on that vector. Engines consume 100 units of fuel in each hyperdrive cycle.

You can go anywhere. But can you survive? The hostile fighters in the contested regions of space attack one ship at a time until the squad is defeated or an opposing ship is splashed. They are not the most original of pilots, though at gunning they can cause heavy damage. They always attempt to veer off of your craft's forward sight (the small cross-hair in the forward view), firing randomly (more often when closer) with random damage. Maneuvering is always sluggish so it makes sense to keep your sight centered. When your sight is to one side of the view and a hostile ship appears on the other, its going to get away. If you can out-turn one, you can sight it and fire (sighting center-high produced the best results for me). Its just a case of getting used to it. It is possible to clear the map of hostiles while docking only three times for maintenance.

While you have cash to pay the fees, you can hang out in the stars for however long you wish. Once you have scored enough enemy star fighter kills to be an ace among your peers, important people may notice and your task is done. Pick a shuttle and hyper back to the center of Known Space or vice-versa. Landing is the result of contacting your shuttle (only a shuttle) with the planet Sosaria. Any speed will do, docking thrusters to ahead full.