New Player's Guide


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As a New player you may be wondering some or all of the following: All of these questions have answers. You don't have answers. That's why you came here (and you came to the  place so good for you!)
 * How do I move?
 * Why is it so laggy?
 * How do I talk?

How do I play this game?
The aim of the game varies according to the game mode, but a general objective is simply to survive. Escaping on the shuttle will keep you safe (and end the round) if you're not in an anti-station role (ie syndicate).

However, SS13 is a roleplaying game. For this reason, you should generally try to keep your speech in correct english, or it will seem like your character is mentally retarded. Additionally, it is important to compartmentalise - your character DOES NOT know everything you know OOC (out of character). This can have several effects. For example, most players will not appreciate you searching their headset for the syndicate frequency, because there is no reason that your character will know about this frequency ingame. As well as this, you should respond in-character for everything that happens around you, be that fleeing in terror from a monkey, or having your character get angry at another.

For information about Game Modes, check out the Game Modes page.

Alternatively, scroll down for a HUD overview and a tutorial.

How do I move?
To move around you use your arrow keys. You have a choice whether to run or walk, and walking makes you impervious to slipping on wet surfaces, put by the JANITOR

Why is it so laggy?
That's Stuntwaffle and BYOND's fault (but you should blame Nannek). It can also be caused by the server hosts' internet speed. I.e If they are downloading anything. Again it can be caused by things in game happening, I.e Several bombs detonating at once.

How do I talk?
To speak to fellow players, type Say, press spacebar, and write your message. Press Enter.

To speak on your headset, type Say, press spacebar, type a ;, then write your message. Press Enter.

To speak Out of Character, type OOC, press spacebar, write your message. Press Enter.

To speak to the administrators, type adminhelp, press spacebar, write your message. Press Enter.

The Guide!
This is basic stuff that isn't intuitive to start with, and if you ask in-game most people will find you and weld you in a locker. Always ask in OOC, because it doesn't give your character away as nooby, just your account!

First thing to notice is the lower left-hand corner. This is your equipment sheet.

1: Active Hand, 2: Mask, 3: Back

4: Right Hand, 5: Clothing, 6: Left hand

7: ID Card, 8: Protective clothing, 9: Headset

Acting on anything in-game involves your hands. You of course have a right and a left. If not, report to Medbay. Along with the green equipment slots, there's the gray "Active Hand" slot (Slot #1). This is the most important icon to learn! If you click on ANYTHING, it will attempt to use what is in your active hand. What is in your active hand is shown in the R/L Hand slots, #4 and #6. If nothing is in your hands, you will pick up small/medium things or interact with large things. Once something is in your hands, you can equip items by clicking on the slot they want to go to, like jamming a mask on your gob.

Along the side of #6, there's a very little bar, click that and we get a bunch of new slots. Gloves, Shoes, Eyes, Head, Belt and Ears. Of these, you'll probably only ever care about Head and Belt, and occasionally Gloves, but that's later, in Jobs. Most of us leave that equip bar open all the time. Lastly, on the right of #9 are your two pockets. You'll start with a pen there, but you can put any small thing there (ie non-container things). Things continue to work through your pockets! This is a good way to carry a flashlight so your hands are free. The belt also works just like pockets with things still working while equipped there, however the range of items that fit on belt is smaller.

Next up, notice the bar along the righthand side of the screen. From top to bottom, is your Health/Target Indicator, Internals indicator, Ox, Tox, Fire and Temp indicators, Overall Healthometer, Are-You-Awake-O-Meter, Are-down-on-ground-O-meter, and lastly Pull Indicator. Virtually all of these are 'trouble' lights, as in if they turn on, you're in trouble. Excepting the Health/Target indicator, of course: Much like the face of the guy on Doom, this guy will begin to look more and more like raw hamburger as you take physical damage (Suffocation and Toxins won't show up here). Equally as important, it shows where the damage is. Along the side is another pullout menu, and the functions should be obvious. For example, if you click on someone with bare hands with the Head/Chest selected, you will perform CPR (if set to Help), push them (if set to Disarm), or punch them (if set to Harm). Grab isn't really useful until you start loading people into sleepers, cryogenics machines, or genetics machines - basically some of the most newbie-unfriendly parts of the game.

If you get hurt and manage to get to medbay, you can tell the Doc where you are hurt and they will be able to help. If you're the Doc, see Jobs.

Next useful thing on there is the Pull indicator, in the very lower right. If you are pulling something, it will show up as a man with a box. Click him to stop pulling (or walk into the item you are pulling to push it away).

Next up on the UI is the action bar along the bottom. Drop drops whatever is in your active hand straight down. Throw is kinda tricky to get a hold of and isn't really useful except for grenades, which are rare anyway, so don't worry about it. Hand, as we said above, switches active hand from left to right and right to left. You'll use this one a lot. Last is Resist, which you use if someone is trying to force a cyanide pill down your throat or a needle full of toxins into your veins. Click this quickly if you get a red message that someone is attempting to fuck with you (unless you know they have good intentions, of course).

Finally, the last and arguably most important is the very, very lowest bottom left corner. Hover over something and this tells you what it is! The game is pixel-based, so make sure you hover over what you want to interact with if there is a stack of shit there. If you have trouble, right click the stack, go to what you want, and hit "move to top". Bam, easy click!http://