Basic Gameplay Instructions

BootCamp

Welcome recruit to cruiser command academy. A bootcamp to learn the basics required to become a proficient member aboard any Battlecruiser. After completion of this course you should be proficient in ->communication ->using a console ->finding the hangar ->launching small ships ->basic mining and wraithing skills

Communication

Firstly cruiser command requires strong team work and this means communication. So if you enlist aboard any Battlecruiser make sure you hop onto Teamspeak3 (IP: merwins-island.dyndns.org), even if you don’t have a microphone, come anyway, communication is a 2 way street; listening is just as important! If you take the encumbersome road and decided not to use voice chat, then make sure you type! Let everyone on your team know what you are doing, what minerals your mining, what console you are using and why, what offensive ship you are flying around in, anything you plan to do. This allows your team to organise and also gives veterans a chance to advise you on how to better fulfil your duties or how your actions may jeopardise your teams chances of victory. Know that some responsibilities not properly filled will mean a quick death for you and your team, so be aware of chatter directed towards you, and if you are confused let your team know asap!

Some Common Abbreviations Cc – cruiser command – the game duh Nav – navigation – refers to the navigation console one of many consoles Cpt – captain – refers to the player put in charge with oversight of tactics SS – small ships – refers to any ship that is not the Battlecruiser

CONGRATULATIONS, you have hopefully learnt that communication is important in teams!  

Using a Console

Know that in cruiser command you are a marine with access to power weapons, ships and technology. To interact with all these things you use consoles, computer terminals scattered around the Battlecruiser. To access these consoles simply walk your marine into the blue beacons in front of the console you wish to use. When you are using a console the beacon will turn green and you will be able to use the consoles abilities and features. To get off a console simply press escape while you have the console selected or select your marine and move away. Only one person can use any console at a time, which may lead to a dire situations; your team needs to access a console to save your Battlecruiser from getting blown to pieces but some rookie is too busy reading everything the console has to offer. This is why communication is important! If someone is occupying a console that is critical to a situation and they don’t respond to the team, it can lead to the team’s demise. Generally it’s advised to familiarise yourself with the different consoles in solo play, higher level skirmishes require great optimisation and efficiency; severe brutality against the beginners!

CONGRATULATIONS, you have hopefully learnt what a console is, how to access it and the responsibility you take while you occupy one. I also hope you take 15minutes in a solo match and just access each console and see what they have to offer.

 

Finding the hangar

“Get to the Chopper!” translates to “Get to the Hangar!” As a less informed enlistee you will generally be advised to take roles that don’t involve consoles, which ironically requires you to first use a console. Roles such as mining and attack pilot all require you to get to a hangar console located at the hangar. The hangar console allows your marine to interact with small ships. Small ships are every other ship besides your Battlecruiser, these include but are not limited to miners wraiths and corvettes.

There are 2 main ways to get to the hangar 1. Use the goto menu/directions tab that is displayed bottom right of your HUD above the command card. Click hangar and your marine will automatically be ordered to move to the hangar (don’t give any commands while your marine moves otherwise you will have to click hangar again). Once your marine arrives you should easily see a hangar console.

2. Move your marine manually to the hangar. First get your marine from the spawn location to an elevator (orange circles on either wing of your Battlecruiser). The elevator will take you from the upper deck where you spawned to the lower deck where the hangar is located. Once through the elevator simply walk down abit and you should be at the hanger, where you can jump onto one of the 6 hangar consoles available.

Know that time is important, as soon as your marine spawns you are on a clock and should be off the Battlecruiser in your small ship in under 30 seconds.

CONGRATULATIONS, you have hopefully learnt how to navigate your marine inside your Battlecruiser to a hangar console.  

Launching small ships

Hopefully at this stage you can manage to get to a hangar console, because from this console you will be able to launch your own small ship. When you access the hangar console select the appropriate ship for your assigned duty, if you’re a miner click a free miner, if you’re an attack pilot select either a wraith or corvette. A small ship is free in a sense that someone else hasn’t already launched it from the hangar, ships that have already been launched will have an icon displayed, so select a ship that is both appropriate to your role and doesn’t have this icon. Once you have the ship selected click the LAUNCH button bot left of the hangar console UI.

You should now have launched a small ship, and your camera should shift to space view where you can see other small ships, your Battlecruiser and hopefully asteroids. Asteroids are the rocks in space and inside each asteroid is one type of mineral, the resources needed to do almost everything!

To fly a small ship isn’t difficult a very basic overview is (For default hotkeys) W – accelerate – speed your ship up (have to spam click it) S – decelerate – slow your ship down (have to spam click it) X – cut engines – slow your ship down till its not moving (click once) D/C – Dock – Docks your small ship with the Battlecruiser, hotkey C for wraiths, D for all other small ships Right Mouse Button – Steer – Aims your ship where you want to go

Note that when you dock your small ship, its hull will be instantly repaired and you can then relaunch the ship from a hangar console. Also when you dock your small ship becomes safe from enemy fire, thus its safer to be closer to your Battlecruiser.

CONGRATULATIONS, you have hopefully learnt how to launch small ships from the hangar console. You should also have a basic idea on flight controls and steering small ships as well as the effect of docking.

CONGRATULATIONS, you have completed basic training, now whenever you are involved in a cc match and have under 20 reputation shout at the start im CCBCA, which means you have been cruiser command boot camp approved! And wait for an ovation of relief from your team. I look forward to serving with you private first class.

MINING 101 (Required Course)

People who are new to Cruiser Command are usually asked to go mine asteroids.

To get to your miner, walk either to the left or to the right and hop on the big orange circle. The circle is an elevator that takes you to the Hangar deck.

Once you've arrived you'll notice six small blue circles next to six small light blue circles. Walk onto one of the light blue circles. It does not matter which one.

The select small ship screen will pop up and allow you to choose which ship you want to take for a spin. Select the miner and launch.

Once in space, you need to find some asteroids. Accelerate your ship by using the W key and Decelerate your ship by using the S key. Usually there are asteroids right next to the Battle Cruiser (BC), but sometimes you must go look for them.

After you find a field of asteroids use the Cut Engines skill (hotkey X) to stop the miner. Miners cannot mine while moving.

If the upgrades guy on the BC has upgraded your miner with Scanner Sweep use it (hotkey C). Scanner Sweep shows you the color of the asteroids around your miner.

Now you'll use the skill Mine Asteroid (hotkey E) to start mining.

You've been mining and you have around 50 ore in the hold (you'll notice the inventory in the bottom right of your screen just above the skill panel) you'll want to send the ore back to the BC. Use your Return Minerals skill (hotkey R) to send the ore back home. Be careful when sending the ore home. It's launched in a fast moving pod that can be shot down and if it passes an enemy player he'll know the general direction you're in.

Now you're mining, but there are still a few more things to learn.

If you look at your skill panel there's a skill called Accelerate Mining Beam (hotkey Q). This ability will triple your mining speed temporarily.

The next skill on your skill panel is Turbo Jump (hotkey T). This ability is a very important for survivability. Activating this ability will quickly accelerate you forward in the direction you're facing. It takes a second after you activate it to charge up, which gives you time to pick a direction to go. Don't point your ship at asteroids, and try to go where a friendly combat ship is.

If the enemy ship is at low health you can point at them, if you have good aim and kill them by ramming. The last thing to think about when it comes to Turbo Jump is that you should always have 250 power in your core so you can use it. The skill will not help you if you don't have the power. I usually only start using Accelerate Mining Beam after my power reaches 400. The reason for that is Accelerate Mining Beam drains 150 power from your core.

Okay, you've been mining for awhile, bashing into asteroids and being bashed by asteroids, and maybe taken some shots from the enemy. Your hull is damaged and you need repairs. To repair your ship dock with your BC and launch again. Your hull will be fully repaired, but your power core will be almost empty. Docking always drains your power core.

The last thing new people should know is the flying asteroids. The flying asteroids contain the only source of Kermiculite (green) ore in the beginning of the game. Try to mine them as they fly by. Later a field of green will spawn, but that field is generally contested (death trap).

See the small ships - Miner section for more information on Mining and tactics used in operating them.

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WRAITHING 101 (Required Course)

People who are new to Cruiser Command may be asked to assist as an Attack Pilot pilot on a Wraith.

Following instructions similar to MINING 101 above, use the 'Go To' box on the right to go to the hangars. Step on a launch pad and select a wraith to launch.

Immediately hit X to stop moving, and get comfortable with the command card of the wraith. Its page has more information regarding its abilities and how to use it.

As a new player, if you leave the vicinity of the Battlecruiser with less than 750 energy, you have a high risk of death.

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REFINING 101 (Elective course, formerly required)

Refining is a job which usually was assigned to newer players, due to the fact that it is harder to die in this role. Due to the nature of the role, most players find it boring. Generally a Drone is assigned to refine. Note: This is not a "job" it does not require constant attention. Refining what's stockpiled up every few minutes is more than adequate unless resources are needed immediately.

The ore the miners send back ends up at the bottom of the Hangar deck, and it's easy to see. The ore shows up as colored cylinders either yellow, blue, red, or green.

To grab the ore you can use your skill Drop/Pick up Items (hotkey Q). Use it when you're standing right on top of the ore, and your avatar will pick up all the ore he can carry.

Now you need to run the length of the Hangar deck (I know it's a long way. Take it up with the man who designed the ship. Your Sprint skill (hotkey T) can help with this.) to the refinery.

There will be a blue outlined box with red letters that say "Drop here to refine".

Run into the box and press Q. All the ore in your inventory should drop inside the box.

Run back down to the bottom of the Hangar deck and repeat in an endless cycle (Unless Command takes pity on you and buys a drone for the job).

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WEAPONS

The Weapons console is fairly straight forward. You get on it, it shows you an external view of the ship and access to the Cruiser's weapons. The primary weapon fires via hotkey or right click(can fire in any direction), missiles fire straight out the front when you click on a loaded missile. By default there is only the single burst laser and the missile bays. It's damage can be upgraded and triple and penta- burst can be unlocked. The triple and penta- bursts do fire 3x and 5x more lasers respectively but also have higher energy costs. The energy is removed from the weapons capacitor which receives energy allocated from the core(this will be discussed later).

In addition, you can also research kinetics and switch the weapons over to that. Kinetics does better damage against hull and less against shields. They also have divergent upgrade paths, just be mindful of that for now.

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TEAMWORK

This is a strategy map but even more important is the fact that this map requires massive amounts of teamwork and communication. Before any purchase is made it should be cleared by your commanding officer, whoever is in charge of upgrades is generally the one in charge of everything. He will tell you what minerals he needs and does not, he will warn you of incoming enemies. He will call you onto the BC for combat, or tell you to stay in space while he handles it with other players. This game requires that you are team player, following instruction is important not because the leader is on a high horse, but rather because if you want to win all team members need to be working towards the same objectives, working together towards the mutual goal being victory. As a miner you should communicate what minerals you have found, communicate incoming enemy ships and their location, communicate any useful information you can think of to inform other players of how to react for the best end result. Dont be afraid to use that keyboard and ask plenty of questions; most players will be happy to help you learn.