Flight and Cockpit Controls

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Flight controls

The cockpit sends navigation intent. The server owns ship position, velocity, acceleration, range checks and the active navigation mode. The cockpit follows the ship’s full orientation. Direct controls and autopilot commands operate on the same authoritative flight state.

Operating a ship

1. Undock and select a station, belt, individual asteroid, gate or local vessel.
2. Choose Approach to close the distance, Orbit for a circular path, or Keep range to maintain the chosen separation.
3. Fly directly with W/S (forward/reverse), A/D (strafe), Space/C (up/down), Q/E (roll), and arrow keys (pitch/yaw). Hold right mouse over unobstructed space to aim. These axes are relative to your ship, including after a roll.
4. Release controls for assisted braking, or use Stop / Ctrl+Space. Keyboard controls do not run while typing or while the window is unfocused. Manual input takes over from autopilot; an explicit autopilot action clears stale input.
5. Warp to the station, belt or selected gate. At the gate, use Jump when within 1.8 km. Jumping changes systems after the three-second transition.
6. Select a particular asteroid in space or the Mining overview. Lock target, wait for lock confirmation, approach within 4.5 km, then activate a mining module. Its cycles repeat until stopped; only the confirmed asteroid loses ore. Selection alone does not switch the confirmed mining lock.

Distances use meters, kilometers and astronomical units (1 AU = 149,597,870,700 m). The belt lies 2 AU from the system origin and gates span multiple AU. Local interaction ranges remain meters. A buffered presentation timeline interpolates normal flight; warp samples the same analytic trajectory as the server. Rendering subtracts a nearby origin in double precision before converting GPU coordinates. These presentation calculations cannot change server state.

Switch between 2D Tactical, 3D Tactical, 3D External and Cockpit in the header or Settings. Changing views preserves the selected object and navigation state. Full quaternion orientation preserves roll independently of movement direction. Manual-flight presentation uses a shorter interpolation buffer than autopilot. Rotation input expires after 500 ms without a fresh command; translation then brakes instead of continuing stale thrust.

Persistence and connection loss

Ships stay in the world when the pilot disconnects. When the last authenticated session closes, the server stops manual navigation and retains the current ship position. An already initiated warp follows its durable arrival timestamp. Ship programs are not running in this build. A network blackhole is detected by timeout, so the server may not know immediately that a client has become unreachable.

Existing worlds gain flight state on loading without changing cargo, balances, orders or economic history. Movement is stored independently of economic events; the economic verifier checks the economy, not the truth of physical trajectories.

Preview boundaries

Three test systems run inside one server authority:

Junction <----> Ember Reach <----> Glassway
          gates             gates

Each system has its own visible rocks and local ships. The overview filters All / Mining / Travel / Pilots and orders objects by distance. Space brackets and rows select the same object ID. Gate jumps preserve cargo, credits and position in the destination system across restart. The economy remains a shared exchange.

There is no collision damage, ship combat, module fitting, physical mass/inertia upgrade system, ship-computer runtime or distributed simulation authority. Attack drones can damage other deployed drones; that limited model does not include ships. Asteroid acquisition takes 2–8 seconds, depending on hull sensors and target size. Each of up to five asteroid locks becomes usable only after server confirmation. Each of the two mining modules repeats independently while active. Pioneer extracts 25 ore every 6 seconds per module; Prospector 40/5s, Borealis 75/5s, Stratum 100/4s, Monolith 100/3s. The utility hulls remain Hauler 20/8s and Vanguard 30/7s. Cycle progress and stop reasons come from the server. There is no yield input. Stop cancels the current unfinished cycle without a partial award. The last cycle may award less when cargo fills or the asteroid is depleted. Lock/range loss, warp, docking, jumping, last disconnect and server restart stop modules. Reconnecting does not restart them; suspended time does not accumulate ore. Warp alignment/warm-up and gate transition durations are fixed preview rules. Long warps include a six-second local launch and six-second terminal approach. The ship crosses the first and final 30 km continuously, with matched velocity at phase boundaries. The direction-aligned tunnel is optical feedback, not a replacement for moving through authoritative world coordinates. Alignment is a fixed turn during warm-up; ship mass/agility and warp disruption are not modeled.

Command-client testing

Navigation commands keep their connection open for the supplied duration (1–300 seconds), then send Stop. Closing the process ends its authenticated session; when that was the pilot's last session, manual navigation stops server-side.

mine [SECONDS] starts module 0 on the confirmed target; extract ASTEROID_ID [SECONDS] names that target explicitly. Duration defaults to 60 seconds and accepts 1–3,600 seconds. These commands hold the connection open until the duration ends or the module stops automatically, then stop the module. Duration is not an ore quantity: ending mid-cycle awards no partial ore. stop-mining [MODULE_ID] defaults to module 0.

arkline --pilot TestPilot undock
arkline --pilot TestPilot approach belt 10
arkline --pilot TestPilot orbit belt 1500 20
arkline --pilot TestPilot range pilot:OtherPilot 1000 10
arkline --pilot TestPilot fly 3000 500 2000 10
arkline --pilot TestPilot stop
arkline --pilot TestPilot lock 1  # waits for confirmed lock
arkline --pilot TestPilot extract 1 30  # asteroid ID, activation seconds
arkline --pilot TestPilot stop-mining 0
arkline --pilot TestPilot warp gate:101
# Wait until warp completes, then:
arkline --pilot TestPilot jump 101

Keep the GUI and CLI credential stores separate unless deliberately transferring credentials. These examples use a dedicated command-client pilot.

Hull selection and station scale

Use Ship in the physical console or Hangar from the service rail while docked. Only hulls owned at the current station can be boarded. Selection persists, and each inactive hull keeps its own cargo and capacitor charge.

Mining tier	Hull	Length × width × height	Cargo ore	Ore / cycle per turret
1	Pioneer	72 × 38 × 18 m	1,000	25 / 6 s
2	Prospector	180 × 92 × 64 m	2,500	40 / 5 s
3	Borealis	640 × 260 × 180 m	8,000	75 / 5 s
4	Stratum	1,800 × 800 × 480 m	24,000	100 / 4 s
5	Monolith	5,200 × 2,200 × 1,400 m	80,000	100 / 3 s
Utility	Hauler	420 × 180 × 140 m	16,000	20 / 8 s
Utility	Vanguard	1,100 × 380 × 260 m	4,000	30 / 7 s

The preview grants one of each class, including migration of existing pilot saves; newly issued inactive hulls start at Junction. Movement tuning is currently shared, while cargo, extraction and power specifications vary. Mining rates are per turret; energy, target validity, remaining rock ore and cargo room still limit output.

The station is 20 km across and 6 km high. Docking uses the docking-port marker and an orientation-independent enclosing hull sphere with radius equal to half the hull diagonal. DOCK is available within 1.8 km of that envelope, so large hulls need not put their centers into the port. Berth placement scales with hull size to keep the entire hull outside the station's front plane. This interaction envelope is not a general collision model. Gate and asteroid interaction rules remain their own server checks; docking's envelope does not expand mining range.

Verdant approach and surface sandbox

Return to Junction station before attempting planet approach from the belt or another system. In Flight → Travel, select Verdant and choose Approach planet. The client sends normal flight to [0, -115000, 0] meters, approximately 5 km above the spherical ground. From the home station this takes roughly three minutes at the preview ship speed. This is continuous flight, not a planetary warp destination or teleport. At arrival, use manual thrust to descend and brake; body-relative down is C only while the ship's up axis points away from the surface. Check the authoritative altitude and ground-clearance readings rather than assuming your attitude is level.

Verdant has a 6,000 km radius and a 60 km atmosphere boundary. The home station is about 120 km above the surface, so returning by station warp leaves the ship outside the atmosphere. Planet approach then crosses that boundary in normal flight; descend the final 5 km manually. The server prevents the oriented hull support from going below the spherical surface and removes inward velocity at contact. Surface state reports altitude, hull ground clearance and whether the ship is grounded. It does not implement aerodynamic flight, walking or full rigid body/collision physics.

At ground clearance ≤100 m, Surface enables crates, pylons and platforms. East/north offsets choose a location; the server anchors props to the sphere. Spawn and movement destinations must be within 500 m of the hull envelope; moving/deleting also requires the original prop to be within that range and owned by the pilot. Limits are 32 owned props and 256 total. Position and ownership persist through restart. There is no terrain deformation, building economy or walking mode; this is the first bounded construction interface.

Station shuttles, freight tenders and patrols are decorative server-timed traffic. Their lights and movement convey background activity; they do not participate in the economy, mine, trade, create credits or appear as connected players.

Target acquisition and mining turret

The pending target displays a countdown; it cannot be mined before server confirmation. Individual unlock releases that target. Requesting another target adds an acquisition up to five total pending/confirmed locks. Select a confirmed target in the rack before activating each turret; active assignments remain unchanged when browsing other targets. Range loss, depletion, warp, docking and jumping invalidate targeting. Pending acquisition is cancelled on restart or last connection loss. The command client keeps its connection open until lock confirmation.

The two mining mounts independently track their authoritative assigned targets with a limited visual turning rate. Each active module uses its own turret muzzle for the extraction beam. This is a mining module, not a combat damage system or a general module-fitting inventory.

Cockpit console and drone fleet (26.10.10.11)

Cockpit operations are available through the fixed physical console tabs. Flight contains target selection and navigation; Modules assigns miners to independently locked asteroids; Drones launches and controls up to five drones of each class. Settings also exposes all view modes. Overview and flight-help overlays are hidden in cockpit mode to preserve the canopy view. Instrument clicks suppress flight input, and maps do not capture right-button aiming.

The upper side screens contain local 2D and ship-relative 3D maps. Scroll controls real-distance range; click contacts to select them. The lower left screen displays the selected drone. In Drones → Live camera, select a fleet row to choose its camera. Single feed and Raised are the defaults. Camera angles are POV, Raised, Top down, and Orbit camera; changing them does not steer a drone. Split feeds divides the physical screen into at most four real camera views. The selected drone chooses its page; Previous feeds and Next feeds move between stable ID pages. A fleet of fifteen therefore has four pages, never fifteen simultaneous renders. The chosen angle applies to all visible feeds. Drone screen hides or shows the display. A watched worker ship takes precedence; Restore drone feed returns it to these drone choices.

Feeds use bounded render resolution and update frequency to limit rendering cost; this is a monitoring screen, not a full-resolution second main viewport. Signal is authoritative and distance-based, with increasing noise as the link weakens. Recon is observation/navigation; mining drones repeat real ore extraction; attack drones currently fight other drones only.

Relay startup (26.10.10.12)

Startup presents the P.Industries relay sequence with animated rings, particles and staged status text. The relay/session check is earned by the real connection response; world synchronization requires the signed-in pilot in a server snapshot. Animation time alone cannot claim success. A short opening-shutter transition reveals the cockpit after synchronization; Enter cockpit skips the introduction once ready. Without a pilot, the introduction leads to the normal sign-in form. Failed connections stay on the relay screen with Retry and pilot/server settings. Flight commands are blocked while that screen is active. FTL relay is in-universe presentation of the existing TCP session, not a new network service or security protocol. Reconnection after playing keeps the existing recovery UI.

Permanent cockpit actions and power (26.10.10.13)

UNDOCK is always in the physical console header when docked, independent of active tab or content scrolling. In space that control becomes DOCK; STOP sits beside it. The visible capacitor gauge reports current server energy. Flight navigation and power remain accessible without finding the Station tab. The wrapping service-button grid keeps every destination visible.

Warp charges its reservation once, before departure. It does not continuously charge the same trip again. Turret mining, drone mining and attack-drone shots draw energy when work actually happens. The reactor recharges by elapsed server time, including while parked/offline, capped at hull capacity. A low capacitor blocks warp and stops unfunded mining/firing. Hover the gauge for per-action costs. Ship combat guns, thermal damage and customizable power routing remain unimplemented.

Ship computer and remote worker feed

AI opens the ship computer. Choose your ship or an explicitly delegated worker, set a goal, then Start gathering for one same-system haul. The ship must begin docked with empty cargo and no deployed drones. Server automation uses both turrets and up to five mining drones, recalls the fleet, returns and deposits ore. Cancel job stops automation; successful manual controls override it.

A worker grants or revokes permission in its own Fleet permission section. Watch ship displays the permitted worker on the left cockpit screen without changing the ship you fly. Restore drone feed restores the selected drone. A worker may be logged out while its controller remains connected; controller logout, worker reconnect/manual action, revocation or restart cancels the job.

Typed Submit instruction uses the optional Spark SSH adapter and directly submits supported validated intents. On macOS, Talk to ship provides optional permission-gated speech input through the same interpreter. See resource jobs for prerequisites, confirmed progress, stale reply protection and endpoint configuration.

Looking around and the 2D map

In Cockpit, hold Shift + arrow keys to look around from the pilot's seat. Release Shift to smoothly recenter. These keys change the view, not the ship's heading; ship rotation input is suppressed while Shift is held. The fixed interactive instrument overlays temporarily hide during head movement and return when centered so their click targets cannot drift away from the display faces.

In 2D Tactical, use the mouse wheel to zoom toward the cursor. Drag empty space with the primary mouse button to pan; dragging does not select an object or issue a flight command. Ordinary clicks still select contacts. Reset map resets the current map view, and Focus my ship restores the local view centered on your ship. Local/System choices, reset and focus controls are beside the view selector. Scrolling or dragging over an interface panel belongs to that panel, not the map.