Quick-start guide for beginners Eclipse

This section or article is a Work in Progress and should not yet be relied on as factual or complete.
Assigned to: Wiki Team

Please discuss changes with assigned users. If no one is assigned, or if the user is inactive, feel free to edit.

Getting Started in BYOND

If you have just discovered Space Station 13 and want to start playing on our server, this guide can help you.
Space Station 13 is a multiplayer roleplaying game developed using the BYOND engine. In Space Station 13 (from here on to be referred to as SS13, players take the role of workers in a sci-fi setting. There are many different jobs available, and each player chooses and plays a role in the space station.

The Northern Light is a heavy roleplay server. As such, higher standards of roleplay than you may be used to are enforced here. Should you be new to roleplaying, consult A Crash Course in Roleplaying. Should you still have questions, poke any of the in-game admins.

Creating BYOND Account and getting to "NEV" Northern Light Server

• The first thing that you need to do is download the BYOND client.
• Then you should create your BYOND account.
• Done! Now you can connect to the server. This can be done by adding our URL to your client's notes: click on the "Open" button on the left corner of the client, then "Add" — and copy and paste this URL:byond://136.243.24.70:1780.

Joining the Server

Before joining Eclipse, please join us on discord and read the Community and Game Rules so you will not get yourself banned.

You will be taken straight to the lobby when you connect. Now you may create your character by clicking the "Setup character" button. Choose your appearance: gender, body shape, age, etc. You can also add some flavor text along with previous medical records if you wish. For more in depth guidance on how to make a character acceptable to our server, see: Character Guidelines

If this is your first time playing on The Northern Light, or on SS13 in general we highly recommend picking the Vagabond role, as this role has no job duties and little expectations. Do do this, go on to the "Occupations" and set "Yes" in front of "Vagabond". Now you are able to spawn as a Vagabond, which is perfect for newcomers.

Alright, let's get to the game! Click "Save slot" and close the "Setup Character" window.

Depending on round start, you can see "Ready" or "Join Game" buttons.

Readying up will simply set you up for joining the next immediate round, Joining a game in progress will require you to select your role. For newcomers we recommend selecting Vagabond.

Interface and UI

This is a general guide to the game interface; note that it won't be accurate to all UI styles.

Refer to the image on the right.

On the right side of the screen you can see the following:

• Internals - Whether or not you are using internal oxygen tank with mask or not; Green is on, Gray is off.

• Air Pressure (KpA) - The pressure level of the room around you; If it is blinking you're in a high pressure zone such as space. You will not survive that.

• Oxygen (O2) - Your oxygen intake, if it is blinking you are having trouble breathing. You will not survive that.

• Toxin - Whether or not you are near a toxic area or are breathing in toxic air. You will not survive that.

• Fire - Unless you are blind, it will blink when you are on fire letting you know you are, on fire.

• Sanity - Your Sanity level, Closed eye is good, opened eye is bad. See the sanity page for more information on how to prevent loss of sanity.

• Health - Anything other than gray will tell you are injured, light green are minor injuries, red are major injuries, and blinking skull means you are near death.

• Temperature - Your body temp. If it gets too hot you could start getting organ damage or pass out in pain. When you are on fire, your body temp will rise.

• NSA Threshold - Intaking too much of multiple drugs could lead to this maxing out and causing issues with your mental state.

• Hunger - Manage your hunger well, green with full bar means you are well fed. The lower the hunger the slower you are.

Below these are six labelled buttons:

• Pull - Click on this button and then on another object to begin pulling it. Click again to stop pulling.

• Look up - Click this button to look up, used to assist you in climbing or just looking up.

• Throw - With an item in your hand, click this button and then away from you to throw whatever is in your hand.

• Resist - Click this button when someone grabs you to try and resist them and run away, also used to escape handcuffs.

• Rest - Used to rest or lie down. Can help you take cover if you are being shot at and are behind a low wall or flipped table.

• Drop - Used to drop whatever item is in your hand.
  

Below those buttons, on the very bottom right of the screen are another series of buttons:

• Targeting Diagram - The image of a figure to the far right is used for choosing an interactable zone on a body (e.g. if you want to bandage your hand — aim on it, and use the bandage on yourself by clicking at your character sprite).
• Walk/Run - To the left of the Targeting Diagram is the walk/run button, used to select your character's speed. Running is obviously faster, but walking can avoid many hazards like wet floors and some traps.
• Intent - To the left of the Walk/Run button are the most important buttons for actions — Intents. Help, Disarm, Grab and Harm buttons define how you will interact with the environment. On HELP intent, you can help people up, hug them, and move through other people with HELP intent. On DISARM intent, you can disarm people and shove them down. GRAB lets you grab people, and HARM lets you punch/beat them.
• Crafting - The final button in this section is the craft menu button, when you want to craft something instead of clicking on the materials in hand, you can click this button to find out what materials you will need before finding them.
  

Finally, taking up the bottom left and middle of the screen, is the Inventory menu. This section contains all the slots for items you are currently wearing or holding in your hands, like weapons, clothes, IDs, and your backpack. Many items, like backpacks, belts, and some coats, have storage inside of them, click on the item to open that internal storage.

Interacting With the World

Interacting with your surroundings in Space Station 13 is mostly done by the mouse. You can click with an empty hand active to pick up items or open containers, click on something with an item in your active hand to use the item on it, click on a computer or device to view its display, and so on. Once you get the hang of managing your character's hands, things will make more sense: you can't, for example, open a toolbox in your left hand if your right hand is full.

A good way of interpreting the interaction system in Space Station 13 is to think of each click as 'using' the object (or hand) on whatever you're clicking on. For instance, to use a computer in real life, you'd essentially 'use' an empty hand on it to start typing. Using an empty hand on an object will pick it up, if you can hold it. Holding an item in your hand and clicking on something can result in three things:

• If the object in hand is meant to be used with the object you're clicking on, the desired effect should occur. In the case of containers, such as drink bottles or beakers, you'll transfer a certain amount of fluid units (usually 10) of the liquid from the container in your hand, to the container you're clicking on. For things like crowbar'ing the floor, you'll pry off a floor tile.
• If the object in hand is not meant to be used with the object you're clicking on, more often than not (and very annoyingly, sometimes) you'll attack the target with the object. This can result in rather funny cases of hitting people with first aid kits, hitting your drinks machine with a bottle of vodka, etc. Or more dangerously, hitting someone with a crowbar, scalpel, toolbox, etc. This happens to be the essence of Robusting, as well (which we do not recommend you to try on unsuspecting crewmembers for no reason), which is basically clicking on someone, but with a weapon or very damaging object in hand.
• If what you're clicking on is something that stores objects, the object will be taken out of your hand and placed in or on the target. This can be something like a table, opened locker or crate, which will place the object on top of the target, such that drinks will be placed on tables and jumpsuits will be placed in (technically, on) lockers. Objects like boxes and backpacks/satchels, which can be opened to reveal more slots for storing objects, will remove the item from your hand when clicked on, placing it in a slot inside.

Several interactions also use mouse drags to interact. For example, if you are standing adjacent to a cardboard box, dragging the sprite of the box onto your character's sprite will open the box and display the contents. Dragging your backpack that you are wearing to one of your hand slots will remove the backpack and put it in that hand. That's important because clicking your worn backpack just opens it and displays the contents, so this is one of the only ways to remove backpacks.
It's okay to memorize those, but playing jobs that involve more object handling, such as Chef, Barman or Cargo Tech, will really help you understand how the system interprets clicks, and what to expect when trying to use something.

Interacting with Other People

The Northern Light is a roleplay-heavy server, and so your interactions with those around you are going to be very, very important. You won't get very far with pointing-and-clicking alone, so there are several basic commands to remember when dealing with other characters on the station:

• Say:, Speak to those in sight. You can prefix your message a semicolon (;) to talk on the general radio channel, if you have a headset, or a colon and a letter (i.e. :m or :s) to talk on your department radio channel. (You can examine headsets to see which channels they can access.)
• Whisper: Speak quietly, only audible to those right next to you. Anyone farther away will be told that you're whispering something.
• Me: Lets you narrate your character's actions in an emote. This will have your character's name in front of the text.
• Subtle: Lets you narrate something your character is doing subtly and would not be obvious to those further away. 'Subtle' is to 'Me', as 'Whisper' is to 'Say'.
• OOC: Speak to everyone currently playing, in an Out-Of-Character way. This can be used to ask about game mechanics and other things not concerning the game. Do not send lots of messages via this. If you have a lot to discuss, join one of the out-of-game communication methods (forums, Discord, etc.).
• LOOC: Speak to everyone within your view in an Out-Of-Character way. This can be used to ask other players to explain procedures or ask for help without having to broadcast your request to the entire server.

Don't be afraid to be creative! Writing speech with an accent, or being descriptive with your emotes, will make you a lot more memorable.
For example:

Say ":n Dr. Glass, could you come to Xenobiology, please? I think you should see this...

Whisper "Don' bloody move, yeah, or you're a dead man.

Me grumbles irritably and kicks his feet up on his desk, glowering at his boss.

And don't forget to type properly! Consistently making typos or forgetting punctuation looks about the same to other players as showing up to a job interview drunk and slurring.
Here's a quick list of the different radio keys: (NOTE: YOUR HEADSET MUST HAVE THE CHANNELS TO USE THEM. EXAMINE THE HEADSET TO DETERMINE IF THEY DO)

• :h Will send your message to your department radio directly.
• :c Will send the message to the Command Channel
• :s Will send the message to the Security Channel
• :m Will send the message to the Medical Channel
• :e Will send the message to the Engineering Channel
• :n Will send the message to the Research Channel
• :u Will send the message to the Supply Channel
• :v Will send the message to the Service Channel
• :t will send a message to the Mekhane Church Channel

If you wish to emote something over coms then use " say;! [...] ".

Elements Unique to Eclipse

Z-Levels

Eclipse utilizes a multi z-level map which mean that there are 5 different floors(decks) of the ship, stacked on top of each other like a regular building. The easiest way to travel to another z-level is to go up or down stairwells, or climb ladders. Nevertheless there are also some advanced methods of traversing in between decks. For example, if the gravity generator is not currently working, you can use the "Move Upwards" verb in your IC tab to boost yourself off the ground up towards the ceiling. Another way to travel up onto the deck above, is by climbing. This only works on empty tiles,so ones with railings or walls will not work. If you think you have found such a spot, you can use the "Look up" verb in your IC tab to make sure its climbable. The last thing you will need is something to stand on such as a table or a chair or a rack. Climb up onto the furniture, use the "Look up" verb, and just click on the empty adjacent tile to start climbing it.

Initial safety precautions

You have a box with a mask, emergency oxygen tank, and inaprovaline injector in your backpack by default. If an air alarm on the wall is red, yellow hazard doors close around you, or you start gasping, you need to put on your mask and oxygen tank, then click on the Internals button (See UI Image) to set your internals and breathe. The Inaprovaline injector is for when you are in space and need to survive just a bit longer to find safety.

Weapons

It's obvious you will come across some weapons, as everyone aboard NEV "Northern Light" may have them. Because of this it is always good to know how they work aboard. Every character gets a set of skills, these come in Robustness, Vigiliance, Cognition, Toughness, and Biology. See this for more information Eclipse Stats. Vigilance relates to how you use weapons and your accuracy of such with automatic weapons.

• SAFETY: The first button above the selected weapon is your safety, before you can fire you must disable this! It will turn red upon selecting it.
• FIRE MODE: The second button is your firing mode, this mode allows you to select from semi-automatic or automatic.
• SCOPE: The third button is simply your scope, it allows you to zoom in on your target negating some of the effects your bad Vigilance skill may cause when shooting

Weapon Tips

• Pressing Shift + X will hold a weapon in both hands, used primarily for rifles for better aim, and melee for better damage.

Important Notes

If you are having an issue with Nano UI, please see this page Nano UI Fixes.

When choosing Augmentations, you can choose prosthetic limbs, eyes, and even body parts. But be aware of their difficulties! For example, a synthetic heart can be stopped by an EMP grenade effectively killing you and damaged robotic limbs may cause you pain and movement difficulty unless you get them fixed. If you do not mind the difficulties, your robotic limbs can be upgraded to include things such as blades and multi tools that are job specific and benefit surgery or crafting.

When you respawn, ALWAYS use a different character name. Having a similar or same surname is allowed and you may even role play as a relative, but do not meta grudge. If you are seeking out revenge for your relative's death you must gather evidence and a legitimate cause to actually seek revenge, otherwise you could land yourself in trouble.

Those are the basics of controls. Good luck playing on our server, and remember: be friendly, stay robust!

Where To Go Next

Once you have the basics down, there's much more to do on The Northern Light!

• Read the guides on the main page - There's a ton of info there to help you settle into the more advanced jobs on the ship.
• Try out different jobs - The wide variety of roles on our ship offers a plethora of unique experiences. A shift as an Aegis Operative is vastly different from one as a Lazarus Scientist.
• Help out the server - If you're experienced with programming, drawing sprites or maps, Wiki editing, or just have a drive to learn any of those skills, reach out to an Admin and we'd love to see what you can do!