Cadet I/Cargo
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Control overview
The controls for the F4 window are extremely simple. A number or letter corresponds to each slot. Generally, pressing Control+letter will toggle the ship part to be in cargo or equipped. Also, pressing the letter or number alone may have an action on that piece of equipment. Cargos contain everything that was displayed in the ship loadout window (F4 in stations). As a result, you have different items: weapons, missiles, turrets, shields, cloaks, boosters, etc. The action will differ according to the item you are playing with. No ship has every slot. Many ships have no booster slot, and/or no cloak slot, and/or no missile slot, etc.
The Rotation Principle: When you have many items that can occupy the same slot, but only one slot on your ship, you can use Ctrl-number/letter to rotate between mounting your different items. The rotation includes the first item, the second item, the third item, etc. and the empty slot.
Example of the principle: I have my Gattling gun mounted, and my Nan in cargo (a very common situation). Pressing Ctrl-1 will change my Gatt for the Nan. Pressing Ctrl-1 again will place my Nan in cargo and keep my weapon slot empty (assuming there is room in cargo for both weapons to be placed there). Pressing ctrl-1 a third time will equip my Gatt again.
NOTE: If your cargo space is full, the rotation will NOT include the empty slot (there isn't one), Therefore, you can only rotate between items.
This principle is valid for everything you have in your inventory. Whenever you place a piece of equipment in cargo, it becomes deactivated entirely. This means that shields in cargo are entirely decharged, cloaks are deactivated, missiles must be rearmed.
F4 turrets
Weapons (1, 2, 3, 4)
All the weapons mounted on your ship are activated by default. This means that when you press the fire button, your weapons will fire.
To activate only one of your weapons, press a number from 1 to 4. The weapon corresponding to the number will be activated, all others will be deactivated. You can only have one or all weapons activated. If you wish to reactivate all weapons, repress the same number you pressed earlier. If you activated only weapon 2, press 2 to reactivate all weapons. This is a toggle between activation of a single weapon and activation of all weapons. You cannot activate only two weapons while keeping another deactivated. If you really need to do this, place the third weapon in cargo, and activate the other two.
TIP: This is crucial with some factions ships where you have a nanite gun mounted and other weaponry. This technique must be used to prevent accidentally repairing an opponent's hull! GT and TF scouts are great examples of this. F4 1 weapon
In your F4 window, activated weapons are in bright text, deactivated weapons are in gray text. Also, when firing, the activated weapons' numbers will turn yellow, but the numbers of the deactivated weapons will not turn yellow. This goes for turrets as well, so you can see which of your gunners is firing. Firing a weapon increases your signature greatly, so be sure not to fire if you don't want to be detected.
F4 firing
To send a weapon in cargo, press Ctrl-Weapon#. Make sure you have room in your cargo bays, indicated by "<cargo mount>". To mount a weapon from cargo, press Ctrl-WeaponSlot.
Example: Slot 1 is empty. Pressing Ctrl-1 will mount a weapon from your cargo. If you press Ctrl-1 again, it will mount another weapon from your cargo. If you don't have another weapon, it will make slot 1 empty, keeping all weapons in cargo. It rotates like that. Try it yourself, it's a simple process used mostly to switch between 2 specialized weapons, like between 'Gattling gun' and 'nanite repair system'.
When there is no more ammo for a weapon, a red "A" appears, indicating that no more ammo is available. Of course, this never happens for energy-based weaponry.
no ammmo
The Inventory provides information about the weapon's range, and firing rate and damage.
Turrets (Y, U, I, O)
Ships can have up to four turrets, covering the letters Y, U, I and O in your F4 window. Turrets are controlled by pilots, so you cannot just activate or deactivate them like weapons. However, you can send their turret weapon to the cargo hold, or change the turret weapon with another stored in cargo, using the same controls as weapons controls.
Example: Turret Y must be switched from 'AC turret' to 'Skycap turret'. First, you must have a skycap turret in cargo. Second, press Ctrl-Y, and the AC turret will be stored in cargo as the skycap turret will be mounted for turret Y. If you have to send a turret weapon to cargo, because the turret gunner is being irresponsible or something, make sure you have room in cargo, and press Ctrl-letter. It will either send the turret to cargo, or replace the turret by another turret type (like in the previous example). If it does place another turret type, pressing Ctrl-letter again will take this last turret in cargo. This removes the turret gun from the turret gunner's control. As such, the gunner can no longer rotate his view around the ship, nor fire.
When you have other pilots in your ship as gunners, you can promote one of them to pilot the ship and take his/her place as turret. Pressing Shift-letter will promote the corresponding player as pilot of the ship. Note that they becomes the new pilot, and takes control of the F4 window and the ship controls. This can be useful if a gunner accumulates a high kill bonus by turreting in enemy territory, thus accumulating kills. Switching this pilot to the bomber pilot's seat, with his high kill bonus, will result in a damage bonus to the most important part of the job: the damage to the station.
Firing the turret, just like a weapon, increases the ship's signature. As such, if your bomber is not seen, make sure your turrets don't fire uselessly. You can use the Inventory window to see which gunner is firing (remember, his slot will turn yellow) and place his turret in cargo if you need to make sure he won't fire.
Turret gunners can eject from a ship if they wish. Pressing ctrl-shift and d (press d three times) will eject the gunner's pod out of the ship, which can be immediately recovered by the bomber pilot (or any team ship), sending the pod back to base.
The Inventory provides information about the turret's range, and firing rate and damage.
Missiles 5)
Missiles are one of the items which you will manipulate the most. Only slot 5 serves missiles. Press Ctrl-5 to rotate between missiles, including to empty slot 5. You will do this most often to unmount your missiles in order to hide, because armed missiles raise a ship's signature. Note that unmounting missiles includes dearming them. Therefore, when remounting the missiles, they must also be allowed time to rearm.
The Inventory provides information about the missile's quantity / range / damage.
Pressing 5 will fire the missile.
Chaff (6)
The chaff contains the countermeasures, released in space to save you from missiles. You usually won't switch between countermeasures, because each ship can only mount one type of countermeasures. The chaff is in slot 6. However, if you absolutely wish to store your countermeasures in cargo, press Ctrl-6. The only possible reason to keep the chaff empty is if your enemy does not use missiles (Rixian Unity, Technoflux) and you want to get a tiny bit of extra speed. Also note that if your enemy is relying heavily on missile technology (such as using a Tactical Lab), it's not a bad idea to bring a second load of countermeasures in cargo.
The Inventory does not provide any information about countermeasures.
Pressing 6 will release a countermeasure.
Shield (7)
Like for countermeasures, ships can only mount one type of shield, so no rotation other than mounting/unmounting will occur. The shield corresponds to slot 7. Press Ctrl-7 to mount/unmount it, an action you will perform solely for hiding purposes, because shields add significantly to you ship's signature. Note that unmounting your shield will completely discharge it. When remounted, a shield will be completely empty and will have to recharge, which can take over 1 minute.
The Inventory tells you the shield's current strength, as well how long before your shield is completely recharged.
Pressing 7 will have no effect.
Cloak (8)
Cloaking devices are stored in slot 8. Two types of cloak exist (signature and heavy), and some ships can use both. Therefore, pressing Ctrl-8 will allow for a rotation between the different types of cloak and the empty slot. Why you would rotate your cloak will be covered later. No strategic justification exists for keeping slot 8 empty when it could contain a cloaking device, other than increased agility, speed and acceleration, mostly for Bios small class ships which do not necessarily always need to equip a heavy cloak.
The Inventory provides you with the amount of signature that is removed from your signature by the cloak, as well the amount of time, in seconds, that you can remain cloaked. Note that if your energy is depleted, your cloak remains active, but has a much decreased effect on your signature.
Pressing 8 has no effect. Press k to toggle cloak off and on.
Booster (9)
Occupying slot 9, all ships that can have boosters can use both types of booster (booster and light booster). You usually will only use the regular booster, but rotating between boosters is done the same way as usual: Ctrl-9 for a rotation. No strategic reason exists to justify unmounting of boosters. Always have at least one type of booster mounted when it is possible.
Pressing 9 or TAB will activate your booster. Note that while increasing your acceleration, this also increases your signature greatly.
Dispenser (0)
The dispenser allows you to deploy all kinds of equipment in space, including probes and minefields. You will probably often rotate between different items here, because if you need a minefield, but you were probing a minute ago, you'll want to change from probe to minefield, using Ctrl-0. Rotate like you would for other items. No strategic justification exists for keeping this slot empty when you could have something in it.
The Inventory provides you with different information depending on what type of item is placed in this slot.
Pressing 0 or D will deploy whatever is in slot 0.
Cargo Bays (S)
Cargo bays are where you keep all items that are not mounted and all items that serve as refill (ammo refill for weapons and fuel refills for boosters), as well as what you pickup in space. The only time you will be using Ctrl-S is to dump items in space, useful when room is required either to unmount an item that is currently mounted but for which there is no room in cargo, or to pickup a piece of technology in space. However, you usually don't want to dump anything. Some things are more essential than others, and you must choose what you're going to dump. Press S to rotate between the different items in cargo, and then press Ctrl-S to dump the chosen item. There are five slots in a single cargo hold. Pressing S rotates the different items in cargo into slot S. Pressing ctrl-s ejects that item. (Note that no mounting will be required here, you are merely selecting items, not mounting them for further use.)
NOTE: if you can deploy an item rather than dumping it, do it. Deploying a probe will allow you to use it as a sensor, while dumping it in space will leave it deactivated and useless.
Reloading (*, Ctrl-R)
Reloading allows you to control the replenishment of ammo and fuel resources. If ammo or fuel is completely depleted, a reload sequence will automatically start. However, if you wish to reload even though you're half empty (in order to prepare for combat), use the Numpad * or Ctrl-R.
Reload your turrets' ammo whenever you have a chance. Empty turrets in the heat of battle that must wait for the reload sequence to complete can be costly. Turrets should always be full if they're not in combat. Apply the same rule to fuel and weapons' ammo. Reloading in a dogfight can render you defenseless for many seconds, which will surely cost you your ship and whatever mission you were engaged if you're up against competent pilots.
Reloading will replenish whatever can possibly be replenished in your ship. This includes fuel, weapons' ammo, turrets' ammo, missiles, dispenser (when applicable), and countermeasures. However, if you are using one of those resources, and press *, the resource will not be reloaded, but others will. For example, if I am boosting, the fuel tank thus being not full, but only have half ammo left in my weapons, I can press * and only my ammo will be refilled, allowing me to continue boosting. Note that this remains true for turrets. Since the pilot is never firing the turrets, reloading will reload turret ammo regardless of whether the gunners are firing them or not.
When reloading, whatever is being reloaded cannot be used for the duration of the reload sequence. Do not reload turrets seconds before a fight, they will be unable to fire for a few seconds, which can be crucial. Same for fuel/ammo.
A reload sequence will only occur if three conditions are met. 1) The resource must not be full. Full ammo will never be reloaded. 2) The resource must not currently be in use. If you're firing your weapon, engaging a reload sequence throughout your ship will not reload your ammo. 3) There must be refill present in cargo. You can't reload a weapon if there is no ammo left.
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