The Whaler is a multi purpose showcase command ship capable of mining, towing, cargo hauling, ore furnacing and combat. Although the Whaler is combat capable with missiles, laser guns, plasma guns and autocannon turrets, it has more of a role playing aspect as it is untested in real situations.

Usage

To enter the ship, there is are buttons on each side of the front of the ship that will open a Door on either side.

Flying the Ship

See Flight Systems on how to fly the ship and use its flight systems.

Combat

Both pilot seats have weapon controls. Activate Crosshair for aim assistance.

Combat activates combat mode which charges the laser and plasma guns as well as opening hatches for all weapons including the missile launchers.

Hold Fire to fire the laser and plasma guns. Use Weapon Mode to switch guns or use both.

Hold Launch to launch missiles. Use Missile Volley to adjust how many missiles are launched at a time.

LaserAmmo & PlasmaAmmo shows current ammo for each of the guns. The indicator lights on each side of the consoles show laser gun heat (red) and power (blue) levels. All gun heat and power levels can be seen on the main pilot left console. Missile Pod 1 to Missile Pod 4 show the current available missiles in each pod.

Gun Turrets

There are separate gun turret seats at the front, top and bottom of the ship and each has it own data network and has two autocannons each with laser sights. The front seat is shared with mining lasers and the bottom seat is shared with the tow beam.

For all seats use Combat to activate combat mode which will charge the auto cannons and turn on the laser sights. For the front and bottom seats, this will also deactivate the mining lasers and tow beam respectively. For the top and bottom seats, use Chair to change to either face the front or back of the ship.

Press C to activate mouse aim mode and press Fire to fire the autocannons. The red ligts are indicators that the laser sights have detected an object. For safety, the turrets have limited firing windows.

All turret seats have displays for autocannon heat and power levels.

Reloading

Access the bottom compartment of the ship using the access hatches inside the ship near the entrance doors. There are ammo storages for the laser guns, plasma guns and auto cannons (unused). From there is also access to swap out the plasma gun magazines (optional).

For the laser guns, access to the magazines is available through small hatches in the cockpit so the magazines can be optionally swapped.

The gun turrets currently can only be reloaded by swapping the magazines on the autocannons (See Known Issues).

Access to the missile launches is available through doors at the front of each side pod from inside the ship, which allows the loading of the missiles onto the launchers. Deactivate Lock to rearm the launchers and then reactivate Lock once done.

Using the Waypoint System

Viewing and Selecting Waypoints

This uses the NavGrid system. Use the Down and Up waypoints selectors to select waypoint. The selected waypoint information is shown on NavP and NavC panels.

On the pilot center console, NavGrid will show the compass towards the selected waypoint while Attitude will show the ship's pitch, heading and roll directions. NavGrid is best used while not moving.

Editing and Saving Waypoints

Use Set to save waypoint of current location to the current selected waypoint position.

To edit currently selected waypoint, use your U tool to add name, X, Y and Z values to nName, nX, nY and nZ respectively. Then use the Save button to save.

Resetting Navigation

If ISAN or NavGrid is not working, it can be reset using the Reset ISAN button. Press once to take ISAN offline, then press again to reset.

Managing Power, Fuel and Propellant

Managing Power and Fuel

See Power and Fuel Systems on how to manage ship power and refuel.

Refilling Propellant

See Propellant Systems on how to refill propellant.

Mining

Activate the mining lasers using Lasers. Turn on mouse aim by pressing C and adjust the Laser Convergence using the switch. The higher the Laser Convergence, the tighter the convergence will be. Collect turns on the two ore collectors.

If batteries start running out of charge while mining, turn on Min Gen. Continous use of the lasers and collectors at the same time requires a Min Generator Limit of around 20%.

Ore Scanner

Activate using the Scanner button. Scan results will show on the Scan panel in number of stacks. It has a maximum range of 100m.

Storing Cargo

Use Right Pod and Left Pod on the pilot right console or the exterior buttons on each pod to open the cargo pod doors.

Right Cargo and Left Cargo on the pilot right console and on each frame activates the cargo lack frames.

Towing Ships

The tow beam faces out the back of the ship so position the ship in front of, with the back facing the ship you wish to tow. From the bottom turret seat, disable Chair to face the back of the ship.

Activate Tow to turn on the tow beam and press C to activate mouse aim. Once the tow beam is locked on the ship, the Tow Status will be 2 and the mass of the locked ship will be shown as Tow Mass in kilograms.

Activate Auto Gen which will then turn on Min Gen with a Min Generator Rate based off the Tow Mass. Wait till the generators reach the targeted rate before flying off.

The Whaler has enough power generation to tow a ship of a mass of up to 15ktons or 15,000,000 kilograms. For large ships, it is recommended to turn on Min Gen to ramp up the generator before locking on and then activating Auto Gen once locked on to adjust the Min Generator Rate accordingly.

Large Display Screens

There are three large display, one in each pod room on either side and one in the main area in the middle of the ship. These screen can show a title message and a message of the day (MOTD). Each screen can be turned on and off independently but they all show the same information.

The screen messages can be changed using the console in front of the screen in the main area.

Title Display

Use the universal tool (U) to change the value of the TitleText and adjust the Title Size & Title Style. Use LoadTitle to apply the changes. Title Colour can also be changed at any time.

The title can only display uo to 25 characters on each line. L (Large) has 1 line and can display 5 characters without scrolling. M (Medium) has 2 lines and can display 10 characters on each line without scrolling. S (Small) has 3 lines and can display 25 characters on each line without scrolling.

The title text has three animation modes.

• Static mode has no animation and will diplay the message as is.
• Scroll mode will scroll the text to the left for longer messages and start again from the start.
• Blink mode blinks the title text.

MOTD Display

Use the universal tool (U) to change the value of the MOTDText. Use LoadMOTD to apply the changes. MOTD Colour can also be changed at any time.