These buttons generally cover things you do at the start of a session. The main exception is the tweak player button under player ships. You may use that more than just at the start of the session.
images/InitialSetUp.png

+Start Region

You mainly pick your region here. The sandbox has a skeleton universe consisting of one Human Navy station from each region. Having different regions lightens the load on the server, making for smoother game play especially for lower powered servers and/or clients. Having a skeleton universe allows for communication across the entire universe. The stations selected from each region can communicate with the player ships (call for help, coordinate, provide role play color, etc.). This can be initiated by the GM or a Relay officer.

+Player Spawn Point

The player spawn point picks the region and the location in that region where a player ship is spawned. The regions are named after the Human Navy station in the region that is also in the skeletal portion of the universe. The sector provided is where that station is located - often in the center of the region, but not always.

As more regions are added, the player spawn point and the terrain button sections will likely be reorganized into a hierarchy.

• Icarus (F5)*
• Kentar (R17)
• Eris (WIP) work in progress, not available
• Astron (U33)
• Lafrina (T93)
• Teresh (K44)
• Santa Containment (J41)

+Terrain

These buttons let you add or remove regions as necessary. There are times when a session covers more than one region. Use the Terrain buttons to toggle in or out regions. The jump corridor between stations does region to region transfers semi-automatically.

• Icarus (F5)*
• Kentar (R17)
• Eris (WIP) work in progress, not available
• Astron (U33)
• Lafrina (T93)
• Teresh (K44)
• Santa Containment (J41)
• Add Kentar Whirlpool
  The Kentar whirlpool toggle was added to give the GM the ability to remove it. It's got a large number of moving asteroids. The number of asteroids combined with their motion can burden the server. The button lets the GM take it out or put it in as necessary.
• Add Wormhole Tour
  These wormholes take the users through four very distant points around the map. They're supposed to be transitory in the story line, so the toggle button was added.
• Tknolg Base
  T'k'nol'gut is a recurring alien character. He's been an outlaw, nuisance and savior. This buttons lets you place his research facility wherever the GM desires.

+Dynamic

This will be where several different pre-built terrain areas will be available for placing. Right now, there's only one.

Moveable Terrain

This is a 2x2 region with Kraylor emplacements

+Player Ships 0

The number at the end of this button is the number of active player ships spawned.

+Tweak Player

Many of the items under Tweak Player were written before the Empty Epsilon code had comparable features in the tweak button. Consequently, they may seem redundant. However, in some cases, these buttons give you finer or different control over the values than what the built in tweak button offers. Some of these feature may go away in favor of the built in controls.

+Engineering

These tweaks primarily relate to engineering systems. Of course, they have related impacts to other areas.

+Coolant

In older versions of Empty Epsilon, coolant was always a fixed amount. When it became adjustable via Lua, the default amount was 10. This button section lets you raise and lower the coolant amount in specified increments.

• Add 1.0 coolant
  Click this button to add 10% coolant.
• Remove 1.0 coolant
  Click this button to remove 10% coolant.
• 1.0 - 0.5 = 0.5
  This button sets the increment/decrement value. The text on this button has the following meaning: "1.0" = current increment/decrement value (1.0 = 10%), "-" = minus, "0.5" is the decrement the increment/decrement value, "=" means "after clicking the button and applying the math, the coolant increment/decrement value will be the value that follows" and "0.5" is the new increment/decrement value after you click the button. This will change the number in the add/remove buttons, too.
• 1.0 + 0.5 = 1.5
  This button sets the increment/decrement value. The text on this button has the following meaning: "1.0" = current increment/decrement value (1.0 = 10%), "+" = plus, "0.5" is the increment the increment/decrement value, "=" means "after clicking the button and applying the math, the coolant increment/decrement value will be the value that follows" and "1.5" is the new increment/decrement value after you click the button. This will change the number in the add/remove buttons, too.

+Repair Crew

In older versions of Empty Epsilon, the repair crew was immortal. They never suffered any losses during combat. Once the number of repair crew became adjustable outside of the template files, I enhanced the combat system so that there was a chance that a repair crew can perish. These controls allow the GM to manually adjust the number of repair crew.

• Add repair crew
• Remove repair crew

+Max System

In older versions of Empty Epsilon, there was no concept of maximum repairable system, so I added one. These controls used to adjust my internal max system variables. Eventually, Empty Epsilon added max fixable values and made them available to the Lua scripting as well as via the tweak button. You even see a nice red wrench in Engineering marking the max repairable value. These button controls have been modified to adjust the system health max in 5% increments. V means lower the value, ^ means raise the value.

• +Select Player
  The +Select Player button only appears if you don't have a player selected.
• +Reactor 1.00 (current)
  • V From 1.00 (current) to 0.95 (result after click)
• +Beam 1.00 (current)
  • V From 1.00 (current) to 0.95 (result after click)
• +Missile 1.00 (current)
  • V From 1.00 (current) to 0.95 (result after click)
• +Maneuver 1.00 (current)
  • V From 1.00 (current) to 0.95 (result after click)
• +Impulse 1.00 (current)
  • V From 1.00 (current) to 0.95 (result after click)
• +Warp 1.00 (current)
  • V From 1.00 (current) to 0.95 (result after click)
• +Jump 1.00 (current)
  • V From 1.00 (current) to 0.95 (result after click)
• +Front Shield 1.00 (current)
  • V From 1.00 (current) to 0.95 (result after click)
• +Rear Shield 1.00 (current)
  • V From 1.00 (current) to 0.95 (result after click)

+Beam heat/energy

These buttons change the beam energy per fire and the beam heat per fire settings. In the tweak dialog box, there are places for coolant rate, heat rate and power rate where each system can have a different value including beams. Those tweaks are more general than the settings controlled by these buttons. The change increments are 10% per click for these buttons.

• Beam Heat +
• Beam Heat -
• Beam Energy +
• Beam Energy -

shields degrade

This feature was added as part of a scenario where a virus could infect systems. The degrade gradually reduces the effectiveness of shields over time.

shields regen

This feature was added as part of a scenario where a virus could infect systems. The regen gradually increases the effectiveness of shields over time.

bleed energy

This feature was added as part of a scenario where a virus could infect systems. The bleed gradually reduces the energy capacity over time.

restore energy

This feature was added as part of a scenario where a virus could infect systems. The restore gradually increases the energy capacity over time.

+Relay

This set of buttons pertains to the things most visible to the Relay officer.

+Cargo

The sandbox adds cargo to the base Empty Epsilon game since it is not currently included. Three basic functions (buy, sell, trade) are built into the Relay system. These buttons let the GM manipulate the player's cargo directly. The cargo types can be divided into three categories: mineral, component and trade.

Mineral: dilithium, nickel, platinum, gold, tritanium, cobalt.
Component: impulse, warp, shield, tractor, repulsor, beam, optic, robotic, filament, transporter, sensor, communication, autodoc, lifter, android, nanites, software, circuit.
Trade: food, medicine, luxury.

The players can buy any of these from stations or freighters that offer them. They can sell any of these to stations that wish to buy them. They can trade food, medicine or luxury with stations or freighters if the stations or freighters want to.

• +Remove Cargo (requires that you select a player ship)
  • List of buttons: one for each cargo type on board the selected player ship
• +Add Mineral (requires that you select a player ship)
  • List of buttons: one for each cargo of type mineral (dilithium, tritanium, gold, etc.)
• +Add Component (requires that you select a player ship)
  • List of buttons: one for each component type cargo (circuit, filament, impulse, etc.)

+Reputation

This button requires that you select a player ship. Earlier version of Empty Epsilon did not have reputation as an adjustable field in the tweak dialog box. Now it does. I left this in here because it offers finer control over how much reputation is given or taken.

• Add one rep 50 (current rep)
• Add five rep 50 (current rep)
• Add ten rep 50 (current rep)
• Del one rep 50 (current rep)
• Del five rep 50 (current rep)
• Del ten rep 50 (current rep)

+Waypoint

This feature allows the GM to add a waypoint to a player's Relay/Helm/Science screen. Useful for storytelling when a character must give specific directions.

• Add Waypoint (uses GM click mode)

+Specialty Probes

Add specialized probes to the player ship. Sometimes the probe button gets stuck for a player ship where they cannot change the probe type. There's a refresh probe button to attempt to fix that problem under each of the probe types.

+Fast Probes

These probes move faster than the standard probes. From slowest to fastest: Mark 3, Gogo, Screamer

+Sensor Boost Probes

These probes boost sensors based on the proximity of the probe to the player ship. From smallest boost to largest: Spectacle, Binoc, Scope

+Warp Jammer Probes

These probes drop a warp jammer at their destination. From smallest warp jammer field to largest: Snag, Mire, Swamp

+Player Message

The built in messaging system where you select a player ship then click the Hail ship button works well to initiate conversations with the Relay officer. The GM identifies them self as a station, ship, or anything else desired, then sends text messages to the Relay officer. The intercept all comms button also takes the player and the GM to this two way text messaging format. These buttons allow the GM access to the other messaging facilities normally only available via Lua script. The sandbox employs some work-around solutions to inject dynamic text into these methods.

+Console Message

This set of buttons allows you to create a message to be sent to a specific console. Useful if you want pertinent role playing information to come from a source other than your typical Relay methods.

• +Select Msg Obj
  Select object that will have the message text and click this button. I suggest an isolated asteroid. Click the Tweak button and put message in the field labeled "Unscanned description:" (not the Callsign field). It's the second field down for asteroids.
• +Change Msg Obj
  Use this button to change the message object you wish to use to send a message: select the object and click this button.
• +Select Player
  Select the player ship that will receive the message and click this button.
• +Send to console
  This is the last step. When you click one of the listed console buttons, the message will be sent to the player ship selected to the console selected.
  • Helm
  • Weapons
  • Engineering
  • Science
  • Relay
  • Tactical
  • Operations
  • Engineering Plus
  • Strategic Map
  • Power Management
  • Damage Control
  • Ship Log
  • Database

+Ship Log Message

This button set allows you to place messages directly in the ship log. You can specify the source of the message as well as the color of the message.

• +Src:Unknown
  On the label of this button, Src stands for source. After the colon, the selected source appears. When you click this button, you may specify the source.
  • Unknown
    This means the source of the message is unknown and will be identified as such to the player.
  • +Input
    This button allows you to type the source by using another object.
    • +Sel Src Msg Obj
      Select another "source of the message" object (not the message object). Click the tweak button and type the source in the field labeled "Unscanned description."
    • +Chg Src Msg Obj
      This button lets you change the object that specifies the source. Select another "source of the message" object (not the message object). Click the tweak button and type the source in the field labeled "Unscanned description:."
  • List of buttons with station names in the area (alphabetic order)
    Use one of these buttons to specify one of the stations as the source of the message. This way, you don't have to type anything since the sandbox will use the call sign of the station as the source. It will even include the station's sector in the source identifying portion of the message.
• +Select Msg Obj
  Select the message object. I recommend an isolated asteroid. Click the Tweak button and type the message in the field labeled "Unscanned description:."
• +Change Msg Obj
  Use this button to change the object used to specify the message. Select the message object. I recommend an isolated asteroid. Click the Tweak button and type the message in the field labeled "Unscanned description:."
• +pShip:All
  Unlike the console message, the ship log messages can be sent to one player ship or to all players ships. The default is all the players ships. This buttons brings up the message destination options.
  • List of buttons: one for each player ship plus "All" for all the player ships.
• +Color:Magenta
  This buttons lets you change the color of the message in the ship log. The text after the colon indicates the selected color.
  • List of buttons: one for each available color
• Preview
  This button lets you see the message along with the various options selected before you send it. Last chance to see if you misspelled anything...
• Send
  Sends the message as specified.

+Hail Message

This button lets you use the Lua script feature to hail the player ship(s) and send a single message. This requires that you specify a station as a source.

• +Source
  This button brings up a list of stations in the area you might want to use as a source.
  • List of buttons: one for each station in the area.
• +Select Msg Obj
  Select the message object. I recommend an isolated asteroid. Click the Tweak button and type the message in the field labeled "Unscanned description:."
• +Change Msg Obj
  Use this button to change the object used to specify the message. Select the message object. I recommend an isolated asteroid. Click the Tweak button and type the message in the field labeled "Unscanned description:."
• +pShip:All
  Unlike the console message, the hail messages can be sent to one player ship or to all players ships. The default is all the players ships. This buttons brings up the message destination options.
  • List of buttons: one for each player ship plus "All" for all the player ships
• Preview
  This button lets you see the message along with the various options selected before you send it. Last chance to see if you misspelled anything...
• Send
  Sends the message as specified.

get hacked status

Provides a report on how much the players have hacked a particular enemy.

+Sensors

Older versions of Empty Epsilon introduced player ship adjustable long range radar in the Lua script language. At that time, I added these controls to the sandbox. Later, the long range radar range adjustment sliders were added to the tweak menu. These may go away

• 1.0 LRS ^ -> 1.1
  Click this button to increase the radar range by 10%. The "1.0" represents the current range (1 = 100% of normal), the "LRS" represents "Long Range Sensors," the "^" means "raise," the "->" means "clicking this button will take you to the following value," and "1.1" represents the long range sensor value after the button is clicked.
• 1.0 LRS V -> 0.9
  Click this button to decrease the radar range by 10%. The "1.0" represents the current range (1 = 100% of normal), the "LRS" represents "Long Range Sensors," the "V" means "lower," the "->" means "clicking this button will take you to the following value," and "0.9" represents the long range sensor value after the button is clicked.

+Helm

Tweaks for the helm officer. The only one right now is setting the base warp speed for a player ship.

• Warp (current speed)+50=(faster speed after click)
• Warp (current speed)-50=(slower speed after click)

+Spawn

Spawn a custom player ship. This button provides the GM with options for spawning the various custom player ships in the sandbox. You'll notice the player ships are grouped into active ships and scrapped ships. These lists frequently change as players destroy the ships they are deployed on. Feel free to choose from either list. In general, the ships are designed to be slightly weaker than the stock Empty Epsilon ships. They are also designed to have something different about them compared to the stock player ships.

• Ship Button Info This explains the labels on the ship buttons: There's a number, a letter, a number, a space then the ship name. The first number is the relative strength. The letter in the middle tells you the faster than light (FTL) drive:
  W = Warp
  J = Jump
  B = Both
  N = Neither
  The number after the letter is the long range radar range in units. The rest of the button info explains that clicking the --Active Ships-- button toggles the list to --Scrapped Ships--.
• --Active Ships--
  Clicking this button swaps to the scrapped ships list. This button appears at the top and at the bottom of the ship list.
• List of buttons: one for each active custom player ship.
• --Scrapped Ships--
  Clicking this button swaps to active ships list. This button appears at the top and at the bottom of the ship list.
• List of buttons: one for each scrapped player ship.

+Filtered Spawn

Reduced selection of player ships based on filter criteria. This helps pick a ship where you have a scenario that requires a player ship with particular capabilities. Not all player ships have all enhancements. The filters help simplify the selection process. Each filter button cycles you through the filter options available.

• No FTL Filter
  • Warp (only ships with warp drive will be listed)
  • Jump (only ships with jump drive will be listed)
  • Jump & Warp (only ships with both jump and warp drive will be listed)
  • No FTL Filter (default: no filtering based on faster than light [FTL] drive
• No Tractor Filter
  • Tractor (only ships with a tractor beam will be listed)
  • No Tractor (only ships without a tractor beam will be listed)
  • No Tractor Filter (default: no filtering based on tractor beam)
• No Mining Filter
  • Mining (only ships that have a mining beam will be listed)
  • No Mining (only ships that have no mining beam will be listed)
  • No Mining Filter (default: no filtering based on mining)
• No EPJAM Filter
  • EPJAM (only ships with EPJAM capability will be listed)
  • M or L EPJAM (only ships with medium or large sized EPJAM capability will be listed)
  • L EPJAM (only ships with large sized EPJAM capability will be listed)
  • No EPJAM (only ships without EPJAM capability will be listed)
  • No EPJAM Filter (default: no filtering based on EPJAM)
• No Patrol Probe Filter
  • Patrol Probe (only ships with patrol probe capability will be listed)
  • No Patrol Probe (only ships without patrol probe capability will be listed)
  • No Patrol Probe Filter (default: no filtering based on patrol probe)
• No ProxScan Filter
  ProxScan is short for automated simple scan of ships within proximity. Proximity varies.
  • ProxScan (only ships with proximity scan will be listed)
  • No ProxScan (only ships without proximity scan will be listed)
  • No ProxScan Filter (default: no filtering based on proximity scan)
• +NRF NCF NSF NPF NLF
  Instead of cycling through possible filters, this brings up numeric filters. Each numeric filter has a cutoff value that may be customized. The filter can be for ships with a value higher than or lower than the cutoff value. The default in all cases is for no filtering to occur. The button shows the filter values.
  • Relative Strength
    • NRF: No relative strength filter
    • R>25: List ships with a relative strength greater than a cutoff value of 25
    • R<25: List ships with a relative strength less than a cutoff value of 25
  • Cargo carrying capacity
    • NCF: No cargo carrying capacity filter
    • C>6: List ships with a cargo carrying capacity greater than a cutoff value of 6
    • C<6: List ships with a cargo carrying capacity less than a cutoff value of 6
  • Long range sensor radar range on Science console
    • NSF: No long range sensor radar range filter
    • S>30: List ships with a long range sensor radar range greater than a cutoff value of 30 units
    • S<30: List ships with a long range sensor radar range less than a cutoff value of 30 units
  • Sensor probe capacity
    • NPF: No sensor probe capacity filter
    • P>8: List ships with a probe capacity greater than a cutoff value of 8
    • P<8: List ships with a probe capacity less than a cutoff value of 8
  • Life pod carrying capacity filter
    • NLF: No life pod carrying capacity filter
    • L>3: List ships with a life pod carrying capacity greater than a cutoff value of 3
    • L<3: List ships with a life pod carrying capacity less than a cutoff value of 3
• List 0 matches
  This is where you actually list the player ships that match. No filters gives you zero matches rather than listing every ship which you can get without filters in the scrapped and available ship lists. The zero changes to match how many ships match the filter criteria. It's easy to filter your way to zero ships. If you do this, you'll be taken back to the available and scrapped lists.

+Teleport Players

This set of buttons let you instantly put the players at the start point of the region identified in the button. Reasons: you might have put them in the wrong place to start with, they're spread out all over the place and you need to bring them back together (you'll have to justify that in the story somehow - be creative). Note: This does not create the nearby regional territory. You'll have to do that yourself: Initial Set Up > Start Region > Terrain

• To Icarus
• To Kentar
• To Lafrina
• To Astron

+Wormholes

At one point, I wanted to select the destination of a wormhole. This was before I realized you can select a wormhole and then, wherever you right click, the wormhole's destination becomes that point. I have not yet removed this function, but it's a candidate for removal.

• +Icarus to default
  Text of the button shows the destination of the wormhole near Icarus. In this example, it's the default destination (near Macassa station). If Kentar were selected, the destination would be near Kentar station.
  • Default*
  • Kentar

+Zones

Zones get used primarily to identify areas where construction is to occur. Frequently, stations and defense platforms get destroyed by enemies. Between sessions, I update the sandbox to comment out the station or defense platform and in its place, I put in a zone. This gives a role play reason for the players to visit or revisit an area. I also use zones to help tell the story about constructing new stations and defense platforms. Once the construction is complete, these buttons let me delete the zone. It's a nice completion milestone. Zones can server other purposes, too. These buttons let you add and delete zones.

+Add Zone

Use this button to start the add zone process.

+Red

This button lets you customize the color of the zone. As a convention for construction, I use green for friendly construction zones and blue for construction zones of neutrals (Independent, Arlenian).

• List of buttons: one for each available color

+Via Object

This button lets you put a zone around an object.

• Sector
  The zone is the entire sector containing the selected object.
• Small Square
  The zone is a small square (1 unit) centered on the selected object.

+Via Click

This button lets you dynamically build a zone. You can either make a rectangle where you customize the width and height or you can make a polygon where you specify the points of the zone.

• +Rectangle W5 x H5*
  W = width. The number after the W is the width in units. Height = height. The number after the H is the height in units. The asterisk indicates that the zone type is a rectangle rather than a polygon.
  • Wider 5 -> 6
    This button makes the width wider. In this example, the text on the button has the following meaning: 5 = the current width, "->" means "clicking this button will take the width to the following value" and 6 is the value that width will become after the button is clicked.
  • Narrower 5 -> 4
    This button makes the width narrower. In this example, the text on the button has the following meaning: 5 = the current width, "->" means "clicking this button will take the width to the following value" and 4 is the value that width will become after the button is clicked.
  • Taller 5 -> 6
    This button makes the height taller. In this example, the text on the button has the following meaning: 5 = the current height, "->" means "clicking this button will take the height to the following value" and 6 is the value that height will become after the button is clicked.
  • Shorter 5 -> 4
    This button makes the height shorter. In this example, the text on the button has the following meaning: 5 = the current height, "->" means "clicking this button will take the height to the following value" and 4 is the value that height will become after the button is clicked.
• +Polygon 3
  This button starts the process of creating a zone out of points. I suggest you place the points in a clockwise direction around the center of the polygon.
  • More 3 -> 4
    This button increases the number of points in the polygon. In this example the text on the button has the following meaning: 3 = the current number of points, "->" means "clicking this button will take the number of points to the following value" and 4 = the number of points after the button is clicked.
• Put Rect Zone
  This button appears if the zone type being created is rectangle. When you click it, it goes in to GM click mode and the text changes to ">Put Rect Zone<" so that the next place you click will represent the center of the rectangle. Be sure to click it again to turn off the GM click mode. If you forget, you'll end up with another zone on the next spot you click.
• Set First Point
  Use this button to start placing the points of your zone polygon. The button text will change to tell you which point you need to place next.

+Delete Zone

This button only appears if there is a zone in the zone list to delete. Zones are added to the zone list in the script or dynamically via the add zone button as described above. The name given to the zone in the script should easily identify the zone. I usually try to name it after the thing that's being constructed and include the sector where it's located. For dynamically created zones, a name will be generated including the zone type, a letter and the sector in which it's located. This name will appear in a GM message when the zone is created.

• zone identifying label
  The text of the label indicates the zone to be deleted.
• Select Next Zone
  Click this button to select the next zone in the list for deletion.

+Warn Y Ship 30U D

The sandbox has a feature where the stations in a region will contact the player ships to warn of enemies if they detect them and even identify the ship type if applicable. From a GM perspective, this may be too useful for the player. This button lets the GM tone down or eliminate the warning messages sent by stations in a region.

The text of this button has the following meaning: "Y" means the warning feature is enabled. "N" would mean there is no warning. "Ship" means that a ship type is included in the warning if applicable. "NoShip" means no ship type is included in the warning. "30U" indicates the proximity to a station that triggers the warning, 30 units in this example. "D" indicates that the default proximity is in use.

• Warning On*
  Click this button to turn on the warning. Asterisk indicates it's selected.
• Warning Off
  Click this button to turn off the warning. Asterisk would indicate it's selected.
• Ship Type On*
  Click this button to include the ship type in the warning. Asterisk indicates it's selected.
• Ship Type Off
  Click this button to exclude the ship type from the warning. Asterisk would indicate it's selected.
• +Proximity 30U Dflt
  Click this button to change the proximity trigger for the warning.
  • Default 30U
  • Zero
  • 5U
  • 10U
  • 20U
  • 30U