Ru:Manual:Basic flight

Основные полетные инструкции от Майора Dwight Somlen

... На обучении у майора Dwight Somlen (ret) вооружённых сил Конфедерации Обитаемых Миров...

(background, low volume) "Что заставляет Вас думать, что эти молокососы могут обучиться чему-нибудь? Вы действительно думаете, что они" (sounds of interference erupt from your PAD) "чтобы быть способным управлять средством... что? Уверены?"

(full volume speech) "Уважаемые пилоты! Я направлен руководством обеспечить обучение пилотов новичков тому как им летать на своих космических кораблях. Хорошо то, что независимо от того, на каком корабле, Вы летаете Llama, Goddard, Ox, Mule или другие - ваше взаимодействие с элементами управления полетом - одинаковое. Многие новички совершают прыжки, начинают разгон, делают повороты и фигуры пилотажа, не имея полного контроля над полетом. И расплачиваются за это. И я слышу, как обломки их кораблей стучатся о мои защитные экраны. Умные пилоты изучают управление кораблем заблаговременно. Так управлять своим полетом, чтобы за полсекунды умело пристыковаться к станции или искривленной поверхности корабля или при расстыковаться с кораблем типа Areus.

"Now, first things first. How do you move. If you want to change your direction of movement, you need some sort of flight instrument to relay your commands. Let's refer to your instrument documentation -" (low volume mutter, as though to someone beside him) "they DID get that didn't they?" (full volume) "There are three forms of control: joystick, mouse and keyboard. The joystick is pretty self explanatory. Push the joystick forward, and your ship's nose points 'down'. Pull back and you point up. What? Yes, yes you can invert the controls if you want. Push the joystick from side to side, and your craft will turn on the vertical axis. Some advanced joysticks will even let you roll if you configure your ship correctly. Now your mouse does the same job in two ways. First, we have mouse warping. That's where moving your mouse in a direction, moves your ship in that direction. Keep moving your mouse - yep, that's right - and your ship keeps turning. Mouse gliding, on the other hand, means that moving your mouse pointer away from the center moves your ship in the direction of the pointer." (low mutter) "Me, if I don't have my joystick in my hand, I prefer to glide." (full voice) "Lastly, you have the keyboard. Both the joystick and mouse imitate the keyboard. Use your cursor keys to move up, down, and sideways, and keys to roll left and right. You can also use the keypad to do the same thing: , , , and , to roll.

"OK, so now we're spinning around, going nowhere. What we need is thrust - can the laughter you lot up the back! To move anywhere, we need to have velocity. Velocity is determined in relation to the current system's sun. In Combat Mode (the other modes will be discussed in a later lecture) use the equal or and minus or keys to alter your velocity. Notice that you can have forward and reverse velocity. To obtain maximum combat velocity, use the backslash key. Use the key to reduce your velocity to zero. Essentially, what these commands provide is a Requested Velocity Vector, otherwise called a 'set' velocity. A Requested Velocity Vector is the speed that your craft will always try to move at. At times, like when turning, your velocity may vary up or down; but your craft will always try to return to this Requested Velocity Vector.

In Combat Mode your maximum set-velocity is limited to a predefined value. There are a few ways that let us get around the set-velocity limit though. For those of us lucky enough" (sotto voice) "- rich enough -" (full voice) "to have Overdrive capability on our craft, you can use the key to activate it. Overdrive capability gives your craft a greater velocity than your maximum combat velocity alone. The downside is that you have to hold the key down to maintain overdrive, and you only have a fuel limited time for Overdrive use. Where you don't have an Overdrive, you can still use the key to accelerate to your maximum set velocity, just like the key. In this case, though, releasing the key will then reduce your velocity back to the 'set' original. The other modes will be discussed in a later lecture.

"That's enough for now. You've probably heard enough of this old f- I know, I know, no swearing. Have a think about what I've just said - it just might mean that I'm NOT hearing your space dust on my shields."