Cadet I/Minimap

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The Basics

The Minimap displays a lot of information in a very small space. On the top of the minimap pane is the sector that is the current focus of the minimap, which is by default the sector that you are flying through or observing through the command view. The information in the Minimap is dependant on the team's sensors and probes, for if something is not eyed then it will not be on the minimap. Stations, once eyed, are essentially permanently eyed and will stay on the minimap until they are destroyed. Ships, however, only appear when they are eyed and will dissappear from the minimap as soon as they are no longer eyed.

Asteroids

When the minimap is expanded through the use of the arrow on the top right corner, it shows information about the asteroids in the sector. Regular asteroids are not included on the minimap, but Helium 3 asteroids and asteroids that a Techbase, such as a Supremacy, can be built on. While the information defaults to the sector the pilot is in, the minimap will show the asteroids that are in a sector that you hold the mouse pointer over in the minimap display. This is especially useful for finding sectors that have not been scouted yet.

Helium (He3)

Information about Helium asteroids is given in two places. The first information is listed as He3 followed by a number, and is at the very top above the asteroids in the sector. As you may notice, this is often a large number, and is not the number of Helium Asteroids in the sector. This is the number of units of Helium that can be mined from the sector. Keep in mind that each unit of Helium is usually worth about $80 and that miners can usually carry 90 units of Helium per load, making a fully loaded miner bring in about $7200. The second place that the information about Helium asteroids is listed is at the bottom of the asteroids list, below any tech rocks. The number beside this icon is the number of helium rocks in the sector, represented by the white asteroid icon:

Tech Rocks

Tech rocks are the asteroids that Techbases can be built on. There are three types, Uranium, Silicon, and Carbon. While in most cases there are rarely multiple tech rocks in a sector and it is even more uncommon for there to be more than one of the same type, the number of each rock is given next to its indicator.

• An Expansion Complex can be built on an Uranium asteroid ()
• A Supremacy Center can be built on a Carbon asteroid ()
• A Tactical Laboratory can be built on a Silicon asteroid ()
• Other tech bases (garrisons, drydocks, shipyards, palisades) build on generic asteroids.

Icons

In order to use the minimap effectively, you must know what each icon on the minimap represents. The icons that will be most important to most pilots are those found between the sector name and the minimap itself. These represent ships, bases, and the number of each that are in the sector. As with the asteroids, this information changes depending on which sector the mouse is over on the minimap.

Sectors

Sectors are the individual sections of the map, connected to other sectors through alephs. Sectors appear on the minimap as a circle, and are often filled in with one color or another. Aleph links appear as lines on the minimap, connecting the sectors together.

Sector Colors

The color of a sector on the minimap indicates which team holds it. A sector that is yellow is a sector controlled by the yellow team. Similarly, a sector that is blue is controlled by the blue team. A sector that is shown as empty is usually one that is not directly controlled by any team. However, a sector with an unspotted base in it will still appear to be empty until that base is spotted. Occasionally, bases from multiple teams will be in the same sector. In this case, the sector has one team's color surrounded by a ring of the other team's color.

Indicators

There are several important indicators that appear around or near sectors in the minimap. These let you know things such as where you are and where you clicked last on the minimap.

Indicator	Explaination
	Current location
	Last sector you clicked on the Minimap.
	Selected constructor can build in this sector.
	Teleport receiver available in this sector. If it blinks, you are ripping there.
	Enemy ship detected.
	Base killing/capping ship detected in a sector you do not own.
	Station at risk: base killing/capping ship detected in a sector you do own.

Additionally, beside each sector a number of colored squares will be shown, indicating the number of ships of each team in the sector. Like the sectors themselves, the color of the squares represent the team the ships belong to. While each square does not represent one ship, they do allow for the strength of each team to be estimated.

Piloting with the minimap

As covered previously, left-clicking on any sector in the minimap will engage your autopilot to take you to that sector. If there is a teleport receiver available in or closer to that sector, your autopilot will ripcord you there first. Ripcording will be covered in more depth in a later lesson. When you find an aleph to a new sector, it will immediately appear on the minimap. If you are in a scout, it is useful to select this sector to autopilot to, as any information about what is in that sector can help your team

Recap

Example Let's see how much information we can gather from a single minimap screenshot. You are midhigh (F, yellow icon) in the sector named Torc (A), which is currently at risk (F, yellow corona). In particular, skimming the ship row (A) you notice a lot of pods, fighters, an Heavy Troop Transport and two PT Bombers. Yellow has PT bombers, which are GT-only, and HTTs: this means yellow must've had a Palisade and an Expansion Complex. Blue instead has advanced fignans (around the fighter icon there's a small 'A' for "Advanced" and a small 'N' for "can nan") -- those are exclusive to Belters' Supremacy. The presence of the troop transport is somehow baffling -- it cannot dock at the teleport and the refinery blue have there (A), so their presence there poses only a marginal threat. We can do a number of educated guesses with regards with the situation: The HTT was going to use Nerve Gas (that's Belts SY only), or the HTT could kill bases and was supporting the bombers (that's Rix only), or the HTT is rolling to middle, or yellow captured a base (the blue sup?) in the sector, blue recapped it successfully, yellow sent its own recap HTT out -- but the base has been destroyed in the meantime by the bombers, or simplier This scenario is supported by the D portion of the minimap, which shows there is no tech rock in Torc, whereas a typical non-home sector has one. However, there are no tech bases in Torc (A): the most likely explanation is a tech base built, which was later destroyed. More educated guesses we can do: You are likely yellow. There are much more yellow dots than blue dots. E is only marginally active. You might have a couple miners there. The activity at your garr might suggest a cons just got out of base. Torc is approximately one miner load from being mined out (D), so if you were to go miner hunting you would try with He3 richer sectors first.

We now know what team you were, where you were, what faction each team was, what techpath they chose, what happened in Torc, what might had been going on elsewhere, and then some more -- and it's all packed in that tiny window.

This should be a compelling enough example of how important always checking the minimap is for your situational awareness.

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