Universe and Exploration

With 10,000 sectors, around 160,000 solar systems and millions of planets to discover, you can spend countless hours exploring, fighting, trading and building a party of seasoned veterans that can dominate the challenges of deep space.

Basic space flight
First, let's look at a few basics:

Your camera is controlled by your mouse. RIGHT-CLICK, HOLD, and DRAG to rotate your camera around your ship.

You can use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

The W and S keys control power to your engines.

Press the SPACEBAR to engage your ships afterburners - handy for getting around quickly in gravity wells.

LEFT-CLICK anywhere in space to have your ship travel in that direction.

You can rotate your ship with the A and D keys.

You can set the camera into "follow" mode by pressing the left and right mouse buttons.

Getting around
To open the System Information menu, LEFT-CLICK the current system name in the upper left corner of the screen. This will display a list of all stellar objects in this system.

LEFT-CLICK your destination in the System Information menu listing. This will open up the Target Information menu in the upper right corner of the screen.

Select the Approach icon below the target information menu. This will orient your ship to the targeted stellar object and engage your basic thrusters. A small green indicator will point in the direction of the selected stellar object.

You can manually navigate your ship to travel to a destination, but it is easier to use the procedure described above.

Getting around faster
All ships can Micro-Warp. Micro-Warp is a way to travel quickly between objects in the same solar system. If you travel using basic thrusters or afterburners, it will take you a very long time to arrive at your destination. Micro-Warp is a function of your equipped warp drive. An FTL drive is not needed to Micro-Warp and this function is available even on your starter ship.

To use the micro-warp drive, you must first select your destination in the System Information menu in the upper left corner of the screen, and then select the Approach icon just below the Target Information menu in the upper right corner of the screen.

Once your ship is oriented in the direction of the stellar object, press the R key by default. Your micro-warp drive will engage and you will accelerate towards your target.

An important note. If you have entered a gravity well, your micro-warp drive will not function. You will need to leave the gravity well and a message will be displayed on your screen when Micro-Warp becomes available. The exception to this is when exiting space stations. You can Micro-Warp immediately after exiting a station.

Docking and landing
In order to dock at a space station or land on a planet, you must first select your destination in the System Information menu so that it appears in the Target Information menu. A space station will have only a single docking port, but any planet with one or more landing locations will display them as icons on the planet surface display of the target Information menu in the upper right of the screen.

To dock at a space station: Once you are within range of the station (and if you have permission to dock), a docking icon will be displayed just below the target Information menu.

To land on planet surface locations, select a landing location by clicking on one of the surface locations in the target Information menu. Once you are close enough to the planet a landing icon will appear under the target Information menu.

The FTL drive
When you first enter the Universe, you have a starter ship that is missing a FTL drive. You will need to complete a few missions and at the end you will have access to the only FTL drive for sale in Achmedius. Of course, there is a price. Once you purchase the FTL drive, the universe is open for exploration. Just drag the FTL drive from your cargo hold to the drive slot and you are on your way.


 * Your starter ship does not come with an FTL drive. You will need to complete a series of missions initially to retrieve a FTL drive for your ship. Once those missions are complete, you can then purchase a FTL drive and equip it on your ship.

FTL space allows you to travel vast distances between Star Systems.

Once you purchase an FTL drive, you will be able to travel to FTL space from any location in any Solar System as long as you are not in Micro-Warp or combat. To enter FTL space, open the upper left menu while in space and select the FTL icon. Your ship will power down and you will be transferred to the FTL map where you can navigate freely between Star Systems.

To enter a Star System from FTL space, approach that system and target it by left-clicking on the system label. When you are close enough to enter the system and drop out of FTL space a new icon will be displayed in the upper left of the screen. Click the icon and you will be transferred to the selected system.

Navigating FTL space
The Stellar Tactics universe is massive with 10,000 sectors and over 160,000 Star Systems. Getting to your destination is easy. Once you activate your FTL drive, you are placed in FTL space and can fly your ship anywhere. There are no restrictions. It is recommended that you stay in sectors that are near your crews level, however, if you want a challenge free to travel to the edge of the known universe.

The star map and log let you quickly identify mission locations and Star Systems in your area.

You can select an active mission and the Star System will be selected. Or, if you are exploring, select any planet of interest and information about the system, the number of planets, stations, and other useful information will be displayed.

Whenever you select a Star System, the system information displayed on your ships HUD is updated. It's as simple as selecting the approach icon and your ship will target and fly toward that system. Just apply full throttle and you are on your way!

Free flight is also possible. You never know what you might find. Some systems are hostile and entering these systems will trigger hostile ships that will attack you. Of course, that's not always a bad thing - enemy ships drop loot that can be sold for a profit. You can make a decent living blowing up ships and gain faction with their enemies.

Scanning planets in Star Systems may reveal ground exploration opportunities, hidden bases, and cave systems.

Scanning can also reveal rich resource deposits that can be mined using drones.

Note that active missions and Trade-Net pickup and delivery locations are displayed in the "Objective Tracker" UI in the lower right area of the screen. If you are in a Star System or on the FTL map, selecting one of the objectives in the list will automatically target the location for easy travel.

Fast travel and beacons
Beacons can be purchased from ship equipment vendors. They are used to mark systems of interest for instant travel and to populate the Trade-Net with trading data.


 * Beacons can be placed in several ways. Inside a Star System: Just approach any Jump Point in a Star System and when you are close enough, a new icon will be displayed in the lower-left corner of the screen. Select the icon and a list of Star Systems that you can instantly jump to are displayed. Translocating costs a nominal number of fusion cells. If you have beacons in your ship's inventory, you can place a beacon in any Star System. You can also delete old beacons you are no longer using.

Once you are on the FTL map you can approach any Star System and the same icon will appear. Place a beacon and you will start streaming data to the Trade-Net - assuming the system has space stations. Only systems with space stations stream trade data. You cannot translocate to another system from the FTL map.