Ship Control Panel
From the Ship Control Panel, you activate installed weapons, mining lasers, and modules; you can also open the scanner, cargohold and drone bay from here. Last, but not least, you can initiate the autopilot.
All Slot Modules can be activated and deactivated with hotkeys instead of using the mouse. To activate any of the High Slot items, press F1, F2, etc., for the corresponding high slot location. For Medium Slots, hold down ALT and then press the appropriate F-key. For the Low Slots, hold down the SHIFT key and press the appropriate F-key. Using hot keys is useful when speed is of the essence, so remembering where each module is installed is important when using hotkeys.
Topics covered in this chapter are listed below. To learn more about each of these, click the links.
Autopilot
Pressing the "A" button activates the Autopilot and will fly your ship to the destination you have set.
Setting your Autopilot's security options to the lowest possible option will often cut hours off long journeys - just keep an eye out for pirate blockades, or your autopilot will blindly drag you to your death! This option is set by pressing F10 and selecting Autopilot - Route Planning in the World Map Control Panel.
Cargohold
This opens your Cargohold. You can add items to your Cargohold from open containers by simply dragging and dropping from the open container to your Cargohold.
You can jettison items from your Cargohold into space; the item will then be placed in a container. When you are mining, you can fill your cargo, and then jettison the ore. Then, you can find the container on your radar and select Open Container. With both the cargo and the container open, you can continue mining and, just before your cargo is full, drag the ore to the container. Just make sure you have someone to transport (haul) your ore to a station; this is a good reason to be part of a Corporation. For more information on mining, please refer to Chapter 6.
- Jettisoned containers are free for anyone to take from. If you want to secure your ore from ore thieves, you should use Secure Containers, which can be bought on the market.
Ship Modules
High Slots
The High Slots show items like weaponry, miners, and other high slot items. To activate any of the high slot items, first target an object, make sure the object is selected after you have gained a target lock, and then click on any of the high slot items.
Medium Slots
Medium Slots hold items like shield boosters, propulsion systems, and many others. Some items require a target object (electronic warfare items for instance), but most have to do with the operation of the ship, and those you only have to press to activate.
Low Slots
Low Slots hold items like armor plates, power modules, and warp stabilizers. The same applies to these as to Medium Slot items. Most of the items can be run in manual activation mode or in continuous activation mode. To switch between the two, right click a module and enable or disable the autorepeat option.
Removing Passive Modules
You can remove all the passive modules from the display by right clicking on the small triangle to the left of the Low Slot row. Passive modules are those that do not need to be pressed to become active, such as Cargo Expanders, Ballistic Controls, Power Diagnostic Modules, etc.
Rearranging Modules
To rearrange the modules, right click on the triangle and start by removing the passive modules to give you more space to choose from. Then simply click on a module and drag it. Empty slots will then automatically show up and you can drop the module on any of those.
Ship Status Panel
Shield
The outermost row shows the state of the ships shield. When someone shoots at you, the shield will go first, then the armor, and lastly the hull. It is a good idea to carry a Shield Booster on your ship when mining or fighting to repair your shield.
Armor
The second row shows the state of your armor. Ships that rely on armor should carry an armor repair system.
Structure
The innermost row shows the state of the structure (aka hull). If the hull is gone and someone shoots at you, your ship will explode and you will find yourself in an escape pod, which you can fly to a station. At the station you will be supplied with a rookie ship.
Capacitor
In the middle of the Control Panel is the Capacitor Indicator, which shows how much capacitor you've got left in your power core. The more light-orange tiles there are the more power you have. The total number of orange tiles also indicates the maximum size of your power core.
Heat Status
In the middle of the Control Panel, around the Capacitor Indicator, is the status of Heat on your high, medium and low racks.
Hide Ship Tools Buttons
This will hide and display the ship tools buttons on the left.
Hide Ship Modules
Will hide and display the ship module buttons on the right.
Stop Ship
When clicked, your ship will stop. You can also stop your ship by pressing CTRL + SPACE.
Full Speed
This will set the speed on your ship to full throttle, but you can control the speed of your ship by clicking on the speedometer.
Options
This allows you to hide passive modules, and to show all the empty slots available to you for moving modules to.
System Scanner
The Scanner window's various functions combine to deliver a very powerful information-gathering tool to those who understand how it works. Most new pilots will not find a need to even open the window for the first few weeks or months of their careers, and some never use it even after several years. Many, though, will reach a point where they think "I need to find [whatever], and I know it's somewhere in here..."; at that point, the Scanner window becomes their new best friend.
To learn more about scanning, we recommend reading the guide on scanning.
Tactical View
Displays a tactical grid around your ship, and provides a visual indication of the distances between other ships and yours, your ship's targeting range, and your weapons' ranges.
- Each circle is marked by a number which re presents the distance from your ship in kilometers.
- When you zoom out, you will see a large sphere around your ship, which is your ship's targeting range.
- Move the mouse over your weapons and another sphere will be displayed which shows the range of that particular weapon.