Setting Ship Instructions

Ship Instructions fill two vital roles, and are key to your success in the universe.

It allows you to assign tasks to other ships, making it possible to own and use more then one ship at a time.

When you are offline, your ships can run to a safe place, or they can continue their tasks. You can even set your command ship to keep working when you are offline. 

Setting your ships to continue a task when you are offline does carry some potential dangers. They can be exposed to other players and privateers. Hiding at a safe planet is your best bet, but it's a very slow way to earn credits.

For now, in this example, we're going to assume that you only have one ship, and that you want it to do something while you are offline.

The instruction console can be reached by either the "instructions" button on ship  status, selecting a ship  from the ship list dialog, or by right clicking on one of your (non-command) ships and choosing instructions.

Below are the default settings:

Let's assume that you are in your trusty old Deocron 50.  If you're going to be off line for a while, and want to keep trading between two planets while you are off line... 

Make the following changes :

TO OFFLINE INSTRUCTIONS

Check "Loop Instructions"- we want this ship to keep going back and forth until we log back in
Check "Turn on Auto Pilot"
When Offline,  set to "Continue Instructions"

DEFENSE AND OFFENSE SETTINGS

If we're attacked, we want this ship to run somewhere with help. So, set this to "Defensive, run to safe space"
Assistance? Not with a Deocron50! If this thing even sees something that looks like combat... RUN!
So, set assistance to: "None, Run for safety if combat is in scanner range"

Now your ship is ready to receive instructions. The dialog should look like this.:

Now that we have all  the basics, lets fill out the actual instructions. For our Deocron 50, we will want to trade between two planets.

Set "Add the following instruction" to "Go to a planet" (the default) the press "select". It will open the planet list menu. For details on the planet list, and how to use it, see "your first trade".

Select a planet you want the ship to go to.

Once you have selected a planet, you then have more choices for the next instruction.

Instructions, are often dependent upon the previous instruction. Now that you are going to a planet, you can now  tell your ship to buy and sell at the planet.

Select the "sell all cargo, and buy" and pick the commodity you wish to buy at this planet:

In some cases you may wish to sell all cargo at a planet, and go empty to the next one.

The easiest way to set this up, is to pick 2 planets, one that sells low, and another that buys high.

By selecting two planets that buy and sell what the other needs, and choosing "loop", the instructions will then repeat, and your profits will mount!

Trade Instructions are not limited to just two planets. A ship will support an unlimited number of instructions.

GLOSSARY OF ALL INSTRUCTION COMMANDS AND SETTINGS:

Auto Pilot- Turn on, or Off. 

If you turn this off, non-command ships will coast to a stop, and do nothing. When offline, they will do nothing, unless you have offline set to "go to safe planet"

Loop Instructions

Instructions are executed until the goal is achieved. Once the goal is achieved, the ship looks for the next instruction. When it gets to the end of the list, it stops, unless "loop" is checked.

WHEN OFFLINE:

Go to nearest Safe Planet (default)

When you log off, the ship will stop all instructions, and proceed to the nearest law abiding planet. Planets of this type, prefer to keep peace and order within their region, and will defend ships if attacked.

Continue Instructions

The ship will continue the instructions, until a stance or assistance override condition  is encountered.

Stop Instructions

When you log off, the ship coasts to a stop, and just sits there.

INSTRUCTION TYPES:

Go to Planet

The ship will move to that planet. To pick a planet, use the select button, and the planet list will open. From the planet list, select "plot course to" and the selected planet will be appear next to the instruction type.

Go to Location

Ship will go to a specified location in space. The select button will open the Navigation dialog, where you can select a bookmark, or enter new coordinates.  Plot course will fill out the destination for the ship.

Follow Ship

This command will override all other commands, and can only be used by itself. The ship will attempt to follow at the selected intercept range. The ship can only follow other ships you own. This command setting is useful for having warships escort other ships.  When selected, a list of your ships will appear, select the ship you wish this ship to follow.

Sell all Cargo and buy

Useful for freighters, it will sell all cargo that the planet is buying, and buy a cargo of  the select type. When this command is selected, a list of all commodities appears.

Sell All Cargo

Sells all cargo, and does not buy anything at that planet.  This is useful for miners/refiners and harvesters.

Mine/Refine/Harvest at Planet

Useful for, and only visible for, ships that have harvesting/mining/collection units. Go to an unpopulated planet with the resource the ship can collect, then engage the unit. The cargo holds will fill. It will continue the task until the holds are full. Then have it go to a planet buying that resource, and sell the commodity.

STANCE/ASSISTANCE AND INTERCEPT RANGE COMMANDS:

Stance:

Stance is how a ship reacts when events occur around it. The ships stance can override an instruction set for that ship.

Defensive, Continue Task.

Ignore everything, and stay on task. Shoot back, if armed.

Defensive, Run to a safe place

Run for the safety of a planet, and stay there. Shoot back if armed.

Defensive, Pursue attacker

If attacked, pursue the enemy until destroyed (or you are). 

Aggressive, Pursue Attack Enemies.

In the "comms"  menu, you can set players to "known hostile" Any player that has fired on you before is set to known hostile (can be overridden). If this ship encounters one (in its scanner range) it will attack/pursue until one or both are destroyed.

Aggressive, Pursue/Attack all but friendly

Same as above, but will only pursue neutral and hostile ships.

Aggressive, Pursue all.

Same as above, but applies to ANYONE, including allies.

 

INTERCEPT RANGE

The Intercept range, is the range at which a ship will attempt to pursue or intercept another ship.  With the exception of fixed distance ranges (Parsec based) actual distance can vary based upon the scanner, and weapon range of a ship.