Piloting FAQ from Adwei

Traveling through space is one of the most important aspects of LotJ and thus it is very important to know how to do it. This guide will attempt to walk new players through the most basic steps of space travel.

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HELP SPACE
SPACE SHIP SHIPS PILOTING FLIGHT SPACECRAFT
The following are the common commands for ships in LOTJ:

BOARD <shipname> Enters a ship.
OPENHATCH <ship> Opens ships hatch.
CLOSEHATCH <ship> Closes ships hatch.
LEAVESHIP Leaves a ship.
LAUNCH Starts the engine on a ship.
SHIELDS <on|off|idle> Sets the shields auto recharge rate.
RECHARGE Recharges shields manually.
LAND <planet> <pad> Lands at specified
SPEED <newspeed> Sets speed to specified speed.
COURSE <x y z> Steers ship towards specified co-ords.
FACE <ship> Another way to turn the ship.
RADAR Scans the surrounding system.
PROXIMITY Views readout for your ships proximity.
PROXIMITY VELOCITY Shows the speed of other ships in system.
NAVSTAT Shows your nav computer’s readout.
STARSYSTEMS Shows sectors of the known galaxy.
CALCULATE <system> Calculates hyperspace jump to system.
STATUS <ship> Shows ships status.
INFO <ship> Gives info on a ship.
HYPERSPACE Initiate hyperdrive, must have course locked.
RADIO <message> Sends a message to all ships in the sector.
HAIL <ship> <message> Sends a message to ship specified.
DOCK <ship> <code> Dock with specified ship.
TRANSFERFUEL <amount> Transfer fuel to a ship you are docked with.
UNDOCK <delay> Undock from docked ship.
OPENBAY <hangar> Open specified hanger on ship.
CLOSEBAY <hangar> Close specified hanger on ship.
REMOTEBAY <ship> <code> <bay> Used to transmit hangar codes.
TARGET <ship> Aims weapons or turret at specified target.
FIRE <missile|rocket|torpedo> Fires lasers or specified missile.
CHAFF Release a burst of chaff.
AUTOTRACK Ship follows target automatically
ADDPILOT <name> Allows a character to pilot your ship.
REMPILOT <name> Removes a character from pilot list.
CLANBUYSHIP <ship> Buys a ship for your organization.
BUYSHIP <ship> Used to purchase a ship.
SELLSHIP <ship> Sells the ship to the local shipyard.
TRADESHIP <ship> <target> Transfer ownership of ship to another.
REPAIRSHIP <ship part> Repairs damaged parts of the ship.
PILOT Take control of flight path.

For more info on some of the commands, try HELP <command>.

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Until you can afford your own ship, you’ll be using public ships (affectionately referred to as ‘pubbies’). Public ships vary from era to era, but they are usually BR-23’s or Lambda Shuttles. There are three different kinds of ships: small (fighters and shuttles), medium (freighters and corvettes), and large (capital ships). The commands used most in flying are pilot, launch, calc, and course. Anything beyond that won’t matter until you get your own ship and use it in combat. The commands are pretty self-explanatory: to launch from a planet, type LAUNCH in the cockpit. To assume piloting control, type PILOT. You can travel in realspace by using COURSE (course <planet or object> or course <coordinates>). To travel through hyperspace, you need to CALC first (calc <system> <coordinates within system>). Once your coordinates are laid in, you can HYPER to jump to hyperspace.

AN EXPLANATION OF SPACE

There are three different settings in the game: planet, realspace, and hyperspace. Planets are where you do most of the action. Realspace surrounds the planets, and this is where all ship interaction takes place. There are an unknown number of starsystems, laid out in a two-dimensional X-Y grid. Each system is its own 3-dimensional cube, laid out on an X-Y-Z grid. It is a confusing system at first, but once you understand it, it gets a lot easier.

Understanding how the starsystems are related is a biggie. Generally, midships and above can get from any one system to any other system on one full tank of fuel, but pubbies don’t have that kind of range.

You need to have a reliable idea of how CALC works in order to be successful. There are a few different ways of doing this:
calc LOCAL
calc <specific system>
Local confines the jump to the system you are currently in. If you need a quick escape from a sudden dogfight in space, CALC LOCAL and then hyper immediately after the calculation is done. Most ships should complete a local calc in less than two seconds. In order to reach other systems, you need to know either the coordinates or the name of that system. Typing ‘starsystems’ will give you a list of all known system. It should look something like this:

STARSYSTEMS
Coruscant ( 0, 0 )
Yavin ( 91, -39 )
Corellian ( -16, 10 )
Ryloth ( 84, 89 )
Tatoo ( 99, 86 )
Kashyyyk ( -62, 38 )
Horuset ( -119, -92 )
Wroona ( -9, 18 )
Hutt Space ( 68, -8 )
Roche Sector ( -55, -6 )
Drovian ( 19, -81 )
Bright Jewel ( -21, 71 )
Lorrd ( 26, 48 )
Naboo ( 32, 25 )

If you know the name of the system you want, type "calc <system>". Any calculation can be followed by the coordinates within the system for a specific point, or you can leave out coordinates for a random jump into the system. Examples:

calc coruscant : Random point in the Coruscant system
calc coruscant 300 300 300 : Jump to spot (300,300,300) in Coruscant space
calc coruscant 500 0 0 : Jump to spot (500,0,0) in Coruscant space
calc ‘0 0’ : Same as "calc coruscant" – random exit point
calc ‘0 0’ 300 300 300 : Same as "calc coruscant 300 300 300"

Not every system has a planet in it. These systems are considered uncharted space, and can only be reached using the X-Y coords. (1,1) is one of these systems. There is roughly a 1-in-3 chance that a given uncharted system will have NPC pirates which can be hunted.

The COURSE command functions a bit differently. You can only use it in a starsystem, but you can set your course toward certain objects within that system, namely planets. This is where another key command comes into play: PROX. This will check your radar and tell you how far away you are from certain objects in the system. Using this, you can course toward a planet or ship, or even the sun if you want to commit suicide. You can use course with planets or ships, or you can specify a set of coordinates. Typing ‘course’ by itself defaults to (0,0,0).

BOARDING AND LEAVING

To board a ship, you need to open the hatch. Unless it’s a pubbie, you will need to know the hatch code to open a ship’s hatch. Most locks in the game operate on keycodes instead of actual keys, or are voice-activated. From outside the ship, "open (ship name) (access code)". The ship name will only take the first word, so be careful in naming your ship. Access codes are always five numbers, between 11111 and 99999. After you’ve opened the hatch, "board (ship name)" to get inside. From the inside, to get out of the ship you need to OPEN HATCH then LEAVE. As a matter of habit, after I leave a ship I CLOSE (ship name). You will also need to REFUEL (ship) FULL if you have anything other than a pubbie.