Here are some guidelines on how to play the game and understand the mechanics. First the bacis, then some advanced controls.
Fundamental game basics :
FLIGHT CONTROLS :
To move your ship, use numpad :
8 - accelerate
2 - decelerate
4 and 6 - turn
5 - full stop
CAMERA AND HUD CONTROLS :
Esential keys to control the game are camera related :
1 and 2 zoom in and out
3 autozoom camera (on/off)
TARGETING :
FW3 is “target oriented” game. To be able to fire any weapon at all, you must have a target locked.
T next target
N nearest target
FIRE CONTROLS :
Most ships has weapons and these are divided into groups. Mostly into 2 or 3. You control each group by following keys (from group 1 to group 3) :
A S D for volleys (shot from every possible weapon in that group)
Y X C for single shots (one shot, not necessarily supported by all weapons, some are linked and only allow volley fire)
Q W E munition/settings switching (some ships has different settings or types of munition available)
More info on how weapons work follows below.
SHIELDS :
arrow keys - shield reinforcements from battery (500TJ per usage) - you can manually reinforce target shield with energy from your battery (if you have enough). In such case, 500 TJ is moved from battery to selected shield. This process can not be reversed.
OTHERS :
TAB chat
F10 screenshot
Esc - quit game
HUD DESCRIPTION
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Some details available when pressing F3
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SUBSYSTEMS :
Your ship has some primary and secondary subsystems.
Primary are engines, weapons and shields.
Secondary are secondary engines (FTL), battery, tractor beam, sensors, cloaking device.
Primary :
ENGINES :
Engines are quite simple system. They move your ship. Ships have limited max speed, acceleration, turning speed (these vary from ship to ship). Parameters can be affected slightly by energy allocation (see energy management). When engines are damaged, it will affect their performance.
SHIELDS :
Every ship has 4 shields segments. Each segment is independent and has some basic power (e.g. 7000 TJ). Shields protect ship from incoming fire. When they are depleted, damage will go into your armor and hull.
In addition to overall strength, shields also has “immediate capacity” which is usually 25% of the total value. If the shield takes more damage over short period of time it will collapse for few seconds, even though the total strength is higher than 0 and damage will leak through.
Shields recharge slowly overtime (depending on allocated energy). And they can be reinforced by energy from battery.
WEAPONS :
Weapons can be divided into two main types : beam and projectile. In general, each weapon has a recharge (loading) time, range, firing arc and of course power. Reloading time and range depend on weapon type. Firing arc and power depend on the exact weapon on the ship.
BEAM :
These are direct energy weapons. Typically primary weapons on ships - weapon group 1. Their common reload time is 12 seconds and range around 6km. Firing arc vary from 45° to 270° or even 360°. Usual power varies between 300 TJ and 1000 TJ. Ships usually have 1-4 beam weapons.
PROJECTILE :
Projectile weapons usually do have "chambers". Meaning that the are loading more than one shot at the same time. So a ship with a torpedo launcher with 4 chambers can load 4 torpedoes simultaneously and then fire them within a short time.
These can be of two subtypes :
Pulse weapons - energy powered, non-guided weapons. Sometimes used as supplement or instead of other primary weapons on some ships - in weapon group 2. Their reloading tend to be a bit lower and range around 5km. Their firing arcs are quite narrow. These weapons usually have 4 chambers and are oriented forward.
Torpedoes - secondary guided weapons - in weapon group 3. They activelly track targets. Reloading time and warhead depends on exact type of torpedo. Basic photon torpedoes have reload time of 20 seconds and warhead of 270 TJ. Heavier torpedo types have reload time of 40 seconds and warhead of 540 TJ. Range is around 9km, Most ships have torpedo launchers oriented forward and backward. Usually with more than 1 chambers. Torpedoes are not energy powered (reloading even without assigned energy) but every ships carry only limited amount.
ARMOR :
Armor is ships second layer of protection when damages goes through shields. When ship is hit, the damage is first mitigated by the armor. It can be also fully absorbed by the armor, if it is strong enough. With more damage, the armor is reduced and as the armor is weaker, the more damage goes through to the main hull.
The strength of armor is expressed in TJ equivalent - so it is easily compared with weapon damage or shield capacity.
HULL :
Hull represents the state of the ship. As it gets damaged, more and more subsystems stop working. At 30% of integrity the ship is no longer operational, but it can still be repaired by it’s crew. At 10% of integrity the ship is derelict and no longer repairable. When hull drops below 0% it is destroyed completely.
The strength of hull is also expressed in TJ equivalent - so it is easily compared with weapon damage or shield capacity.
But I might try and do one in future. Currently it is only possible to play via some VPN/tunelling service e.g. LogMeIn (hamachi) or someone has to have public IP.
