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Old 03-15-13, 11:11 PM   #16
TheGeoff
Planesman
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: 37°47'S 144°58'E (Melbourne, Australia)
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Sure. The interface is a bit unintuitive at the moment so any suggestions are welcome. This is the start of a readme/guide I've been typing up which will be included in the game in the future.

Controls (as of version 0.06)

General:
Arrow keys - move the cursor square around the screen
Enter - interact with the object at the cursor (eg. use a control panel, look through periscope)
Backspace - return to main screen (if you've opened a control panel or are looking down the periscope, this takes you back to the main game view)
Escape - return to game menu

Main screen
R - order crew to repair square or object at cursor
F - order the crew to extinguish a fire at the cursor
S - surface the boat (only works while submerged)
D - crash dive (only works while surfaced or at periscope depth)
O - open the door/hatch at the cursor
C - close the door/hatch at the cursor (crewmen can still open the door to pass through)
L - lock the door/hatch at the cursor (not recommended, may cause pathfinding errors)

Using a control panel
+ and - often control various settings. For example, in the reactor control panel pressing + or - will raise or lower the reactor control rods. [ and ] sometimes control other settings, as do ; and '
The number keys on the main keyboard (not numpad) are sometimes used to select an object to control - selecting a torpedo tube to fire, or selecting a reactor to control for example.
In the weapon control panel, Space fires the selected tube and R orders the crew to reload the tube.

To simulate a disaster aboard the submarine:
Tab - start a fire at the cursor
Left Control - damage the object/square at cursor


Basic tutorial
This is your submarine:

Most control panels are located in the control room, as well as the periscope. The reactor control panel is the small blue rectangle in the generator room adjacent to the reactor chamber.

Controlling the submarine:
Move the cursor to the maneuver control panel:


Press enter to access the control panel

Press + and - to change the target depth of the submarine. As soon as the target depth changes, the submarine will begin to rise or sink to attempt to reach the target depth.

Press [ and ] to increase or decrease the target speed of the submarine. When the target speed is changed, the turbines will automatically increase or decrease power levels to speed up or slow down the sub to match the target speed. If the nuclear reactors are running at a low power level or one turbine is shut down, the submarine may be unable to reach the target speed. If both turbines are shut down/destroyed, the electric motor will automatically engage - note that the electric motor is nowhere near as powerful as the steam turbines, so the maximum speed of the ship is dramatically reduced.


While the submarine depth is between 0 and 10 metres, pressing D will order a crash dive. This sets the target depth to 90m.

While the submarine is submerged, pressing S will order the submarine to surface. This sets the target depth to 0m.


Controlling the reactors:
Move the cursor to the reactor control panel and press enter:


The reactor physics model in the game is quite detailed; it helps to know how a pressurised water reactor works in real life.
Basically, use the control rods (+ and -) to increase/decrease the reactor power output. If the control rods are above about 75% the reactor will shut down, if the rods are below about 5% the reactor will overheat and eventually cause a nuclear meltdown (this will happen if the core temperature reaches 1000 degrees celsius). In an emergency, pressing Z will SCRAM the selected reactor, lowering the control rods to 100% in an attempt to rapidly slow down the reaction.

Firing torpedos:
Move the cursor to the weapons control panel and press enter:


Press 1, 2, 3, or 4 on the main keyboard (not the numpad) to select a torpedo tube. Tube 1 is selected by default.
Press Space to fire the selected tube, then R to order the crew to reload the tube. Reloading is a slow process - you can watch the crew in the fore torpedo room moving the new torpedo into position.

Managing power:
Move the cursor to the power systems control panel and press enter:


On the left hand side of the screen is a display of the power output of each nuclear reactor and the controls for the diesel backup generators.

Press 1 or 2 to select generator and + or - to increase/decrease throttle. As in real life, running a diesel generator at low power (less than about 30%) for long periods of time will result in carbon buildup in the cylinders and decreased performance. For optimal performance the diesel generators should be run at 60%-80% throttle - at very high throttle settings, the generators may be damaged. A damaged generator running at high power may even start fires so be careful!

On the right hand side of the screen is a summary of all the power generated and used aboard the ship. If the net power is negative, the batteries will slowly discharge. Up to 1 megawatt of (positive) net power can be used to recharge the battery - this will happen automatically. Note that while the electric motor runs off the battery, the steam turbines require power from a nuclear reactor to operate.

The turbines can be shut down from either of the turbine control panels, located in the turbine room at the rear of the ship. If neither turbine is operational the electric motor will automatically engage.

Disasters:
This is what a nuclear accident in the No. 1 reactor looks like:

(to set something like this up, put the cursor over the reactor coolant pump and hold Left Control for a couple of seconds to simulate a damaged pump. Or open the reactor control panel, set control rod position to 0% and wait a few minutes)

The squares with red and yellow particle effects are on fire, while the squares with black cracks are damaged. The blue cracked squares near the bottom are leaking seawater - this must be quickly controlled or the boat will flood.

First off, we must control the fires:

Point the cursor at the squares on fire and press F. The nearest crew will rush to extinguish the fires.

The explosion in No.1 reactor may have damaged the No.2 reactor as well. Open the reactor control panel, press 2 to select the second reactor then press Z to initiate an emergency shutdown.

Next, to control the radiation spread and flooding, point the cursor at the damaged bulkheads and hull segments and press R. Look carefully at the damage and determine which squares NEED to be repaired to control the flooding - be aware that the reactor room is heavily irradiated and avoid sending in crew for non critical repairs. You could also decide to repair the reactor unit (and/or coolant pump) to slow the spread of radiation.



Hope this helps a bit! There will be a lot more direction and purpose to the game once missions are added, it's basically a sandbox at the moment.
TheGeoff is offline   Reply With Quote