Helms
The Helms console controls the ship's orientation and propulsion.
This screen is designed for crews of 5-6 officers per bridge.
- For crews of 3-4 officers, see the Tactical screen, which combines Helms and Weapons.
- For single-person crews, see the Single Pilot screen, which combines essential functions from the Helms, Weapons, Relay, and Science screens.
The Helms officer is responsible for these tasks:
- Navigating the ship per the Captain's orders while avoiding hazards
- Plotting safe long-distance courses by coordinating with the Science and Relay officers
- Docking with stations and ships by coordinating with the Relay officer
- Executing tactical combat maneuvers by coordinating with the Science and Weapons officers
- Safely operating and optimizing the ship's propulsion and maneuvering systems by coordinating with the Engineering officer
- Retrieving collectible objects, such as supply drops
The Helms screen has a short-range radar view that displays all detected objects within 5 Units (5U) of the ship. If the Relay officer has set any waypoints, they appear on the radar's edges.
The Helms officer cannot select objects on this radar, but can still identify several things within its range:
- hazards, including asteroids (yellow dots), mines (white dots), black holes (black circles), and wormholes
- their ship's beam weapon arcs, to aid with keeping the Weapons officer's target within beam weapon range and coverage
- radar symbols, facing, and callsigns of all detected ships and stations
- beam weapon arcs of friendly ships, to help coordinate tactical maneuvers
- beam weapon arcs of neutral and hostile ships that the Science officer has successfully deep scanned, to help evade attacks
- missiles within the short-range radar's range, which appear as small arrows that indicate their type by color (yellow for homing, orange for nuke, blue for EMP, and gray for HVLI) and their facing
- collectible objects, such as supply drops, as blue dots
To get more detailed information about the status of ships and stations on the Helms screen's radar, the Helms officer must request it from the Science, Weapons, or Relay officers.
- The Science officer can provide the heading and relative speed of any ship, probe, or station detected by the ship's long-range radar, or within 5U of the Science screen's active linked probe.
- On deep-scanned ships, the Science officer can also provide tactical information, such as the status of a target's shields and systems.
- The Helms officer cannot see the ship's currently selected weapons target, and should coordinate maneuvers with the Weapons officer to line up effective missile and mine launches or pursue the correct targets for beam weapon attacks.
- The Relay officer can identify any ships and stations visible on the ship's short-range radar, as well as any ally's short-range radars. They can also attempt to communicate with nearby ships, launch probes to detect ships and objects far from their ship, and place navigational waypoints that appear on the Helms screen's radar.
The Helms officer can set the ship's heading from 0 to 359.9 degrees, with 0 pointing to the top of the screen, by clicking or pressing in the desired heading's direction anywhere inside the short-range radar. The heading in degrees appears while clicking or pressing on the radar, and the ship immediately begins turning toward the selected heading after clicking or pressing a heading. Dragging while clicking or pressing on the radar continuously changes the ship's heading to the indicated direction.
A ship can change heading only while its maneuvering system is functional and powered, and cannot change its heading while docked with a station or other ship.
All ships have at least some of the following systems. If a system is unpowered, disabled, or overheating, its slider changes color and overlays text that identifies the issue, and the Helms officer should communicate such issues to the Engineering officer.
The Impulse slider sets the ship's impulse power from -100% (full reverse) to 100% (full ahead). At 0%, the ship is stationary. An overpowered impulse engine has a faster maximum cruising speed, and a damaged or underpowered impulse engine has a slower maximum speed.
Ships in EmptyEpsilon don't obey Newtonian physics by continuing to move at their current speed without thrust. Instead, if a ship's impulse system is unpowered or disabled while it is moving on impulse power, the ship immediately comes to a stop regardless of its previous speed. Likewise, when a ship exits warp or ends a combat maneuver, it slows to whatever impulse speed is set and available.
The Warp slider sets the warp drive's speed to a value from warp 0 through 4. Activating a ship's warp drive automatically sets its impulse drive to 0%.
A warp drive propels its ship forward at great speed; ships cannot warp in reverse. Because warp speed is many times faster than impulse speed, the Helms officer's short-range radar becomes much less useful for avoiding space hazards. The Helms officer should coordinate warp maneuvers with the Relay and Science officers to avoid warping into asteroids, mines, black holes, and other hazards.
A warp drive generates heat and quickly consumes energy while in use, even if it isn't being overpowered by the Engineering officer. The Helms officer should track the ship's energy levels while warping to avoid depleting its energy stores, and the Engineering officer should notify the Helms officer when the warp drive is about to overheat.
The Jump slider sets the distance that the ship covers during a jump. To initiate a jump, press the Jump button. Initiating a jump automatically sets the ship's impulse drive to 0%.
At standard jump drive energy levels, the jump occurs 10 seconds after pressing the button. (An overpowered jump drive counts down faster, while a damaged or underpowered jump drive takes longer to initiate the jump.) When the jump occurs, the ship instantly moves the set number of Units at whatever heading the ship is facing at the time of the jump (not the heading when the jump button was pressed).
After a jump, the jump slider displays the drive's recharging status. Jumps that cover more distance consume more energy and require more time after the jump to recharge. Energy and damage levels can also affect the jump drive's recharge time.
For jumps of more than 5U, the Helms officer can't see the ship's destination on the screen's short-range radar and should coordinate the jump destination with the Science or Relay officers. A blind jump could land the ship far from from its intended destination, or even in the middle of asteroid or mine fields, a black hole, or formations of enemy ships.
A jump generates heat in the jump drive system, even when the system isn't being overpowered. Jumping while the jump system is near to or already overheating will damage the jump drive, so the Engineering and Helms officer should coordinate jumps to avoid damaging the drive.
The Helms officer can initiate the ship's automated docking process when their ship is within 1U of a friendly or neutral station or sufficiently larger ship. The Request Dock button is active only when within 1U of a dockable object.
While docking, the ship automatically controls its speed and maneuvers; the Helms officer doesn't need to do anything. If either the impulse or maneuvering systems are unpowered or disabled, the ship cannot dock.
To cancel a docking request, press the Cancel Docking button. To undock from an object, press the Undock button.
While docked, the ship cannot move, turn, jump, warp, or fire weapons, even if the Helms officer attempts to activate these systems. Note that docking with a station doesn't automatically replenish the ship's supplies; the Relay officer must open communications with the station and negotiate the ship's provisions.
For quick maneuvers, typically during combat, the Helms officer can use the Combat Maneuvers sliders. This typically consists one rectangular slider for both lateral and forward movement.
Moving the slider horizontally pushes the ship laterally (from side to side, without turning), and moving it vertically rapidly accelerates the ship beyond its maximum cruising speed. When using each slider, the associated system rapidly generates heat--Maneuvering for lateral movement, and Impulse for forward movement. The slider consumes power from its own combat maneuver reserves, which regenerates automatically as long as combat maneuvers are not being deployed and the maneuvering system is functional and powered.
At the top left of the Helms screen, the Helms officer can review relevant data about the ship.
- Energy: The ship's available energy (max is 1000). If the ship is nearly out of power, the Helms officer's system sliders also display warnings.
- Heading: The ship's current heading in degrees.
- Speed: The ship's current speed in Units/minute.