There are two different windows used to launch a shellstar. Launch Board, and Shellstar Details.

#Launch Board Window This is the window you see immediately after you press Launch Seekers button on the main window.

It was designed to look like the Launch Board on the back of AV:T Ship Control Card. It contains basic information about launching unit, target, segment of launch, weapon selection control, targeting AVID, shot geometry table, RoC worksheet, missile burn worksheet and MPAT.

##1. Basic Information This section lists launching unit name, target name and launch segment.

##2. Weapon selection This section allows you to select what exactly is being launched. First, select either coilgun or missile through the radio button, and then select either coilgun type or missile burn duration.

##3. Targeting Avid In the lower right corner of the Launch Board window is Targeting AVID. It looks the same as on the back of the SCC. It shows launching ship and target velocity vectors, target and crossing vectors. It will also show launch windows once targeting solution is calculated.

This control is static; you can't change anything. If you want to move one of the units or change their velocity, you can do so on the main window, and then press Update Vectors button on the targeting AVID to refresh it.

##4. Course offset Course offset, right above the Targeting AVID, is calculated automatically, however if you do not agree with the calculated result or want to experiment, you can change it with this control. Once this is done, press Claculate button to see the rest of the targeting solution.

If the selected launch configuration does not produce a viable targeting solution, the message stating it will appear to the right.

##5, 6, 7, 8 Shot Geometry Table, Rate of Close Worksheet, Missile Burn Worksheet, Missile Position Adjustment Table These are static controls that show all the information normally filled on the Launch Board on the back of the SCC, including used row and column on SGT and MPAT. You can only adjust this information by recalculating targeting solution with different initial data.

##9. View Shellstar button Once there is a viable targeting solution this button becomes active. Pressing it will bring up the next window.

Shellstar Details

This window shows information that appears on shellstar card. It also allows to select launch window, if there are several possible windows and thus determine evasion directions. Kinetics tools does not manage seekers payload, so the zones for shells/warheads in the center are empty.

##1. Tag This text should allow to distinguish more easily between different shellstars attached to the same target. It might be a good idea to mention shellstar contents here, but you can write anything or leave automatically generated text in place.

##2. Launch window This control shows current launch window. In some cases, there may be more than one valid launch window as described on page 108 of the rulebook. In this case this control will e active and you will be able to select one of the possible launch windows from a dropdown. Doing so will update evasion information below.

Note: When seekers are launched directly upwards or downwards relative to the map (i.e. launch window is in magenta ring), all evasion directions lie in ember ring. In this case, according to F1.253, Up evasion direction is in the direction of target's top or nose. Since this tool does not handle orientation, you have to select this direction manually. As soon as either +++ or --- launch window is selected (which may happen as soon as Shellstar Details window opens), you will be present with the following dialog.

Should you close the dialog without selecting a direction or want to change the selection later, you can press Set Reference Direction button next to launch window. This button is only visible if +++ or --- selected as launch window.

Unless reference direction is selected, it won't be possible to attach the shellstar to its target.

##3. Select Custom launch window button If you do not agree with automatically calculated launch windows or want to experiment, you can click this button to select any window as launch window. You will see a window similar to the one for selecting reference direction, but this time ring selection will be available.

Note: Selecting a custom window will remove all previously calculated windows. To reverse this operation you need to reopen this window from the Launch Board.

##4. Other information This section displays target name, rate of closure and kinetic impactors damage, calculated based on RoC. Not editable.

##5. Evasion information This area shows impact window and evasion directions based on the selected launch window.

##6. Impulse track Impulse track shows per-segment range information relative to the target. It should look exactly like on shellstar card.

##7. Overspill area If it takes more than 18 impulses for the seekers to reach the target, this area will show how many additional impulses didn't fit into the impulse track. Hover the mouse pointer over it to get more details on these impulses.

Shellstar List

Once a shellstar is attached to its target, it is added to the list of incoming shellstars for that target. This list can be viewed by either pressing View Shellstars button on a selected unit or a similar button on a unit plate.

This window looks like the previous one, but instead of launch windows selection there is a navigation control.

It allows to switch between the shellstars attached to a unit, and delete them. Removing shellstar is permanent.