Beginner Help

Cepheus Trader is a persistent game about commanding a person, a crew, and a starship in a shared far-future universe. Time and distance matter: ships take days to travel, news moves with ships, and another captain may act while your reply is still in the mail. You do not need prior knowledge of Traveller or the Cepheus Engine.

Press ? wherever it is offered to learn the idea behind the current screen, what the displayed choices do, and what a sensible first step might be. The help browser also contains concept articles and a glossary. Nothing in help reveals information your captain has not learned in play.

Beginner help introduces the ideas before the controls. Expert help is a compact screen reference. You can switch for one visit at any help pager prompt, or change your normal default in Player Preferences.

The papers on the desk carry your name. Beyond the port glass, ships are lifting for worlds whose news has not arrived here yet. Some carry cargo, some carry warrants, and some carry guns. One of them can become your command.

You are creating a captain, not solving an entrance examination. The offered defaults are competent and every starting command is playable. Your choices decide what sort of problems you want: trade and debt, licensed private force, or naval duty and authority. You will be able to inspect every offer before anything becomes permanent.

The universe continues while you are away. Travel consumes game time, messages move only as fast as beacon signals and ships can carry them, crews need pay and provisions, and damage remains until repaired. The door will always show the choices that are legal here and now. Press ? whenever a term or decision is unclear. Q normally backs out, but some decisions are irreversible, and for those you will be asked twice.

Take a breath, Captain. First we make the person. Then we find the ship worthy of the trouble ahead.

The options printed at the bottom of a screen are the controls for that screen. Letters are not case-sensitive. Enter usually accepts the displayed default, refreshes current information, or returns to the previous view. Q usually cancels or goes back; leaving the game requires confirmation.

Long output pauses before text can scroll away. Enter or Space advances one page. C makes the rest of that output continuous until the next keyboard input. Q skips the remaining ordinary output and takes you to the screen's menu without selecting an action. Player Preferences can durably disable these automatic pauses while leaving choices and confirmations intact. In help, B restarts the topic with beginner explanations, X restarts it in expert mode, and Q stops help immediately.

Angle-bracket keys move between list pages where shown. Some screens also accept arrow keys, but printable alternatives are always provided for terminals that cannot send arrow sequences.

After registration your ship begins docked. Start by opening the Command Console and looking at Crew, Ship Management, and the command's accounts. Notice crew coverage, fuel, provisions, damage, endurance, title, and the money or issued funds the command may actually use.

The next duty depends on the command. A trader inspects Tasks and commercial capacity. A privateer reviews Operations and the commission before considering any ordinary work the command is eligible to take. A naval captain reviews issued orders in Operations and does not need to visit commercial cargo, passenger, or offer screens. Every captain should read Messages, then compare the duty or chosen destination with Known Universe before plotting a course.

There is no prize for launching immediately. A well-crewed, fuelled ship with a feasible plan is safer than a grand vessel sent out on an assumption.

Guided First Watch is the command library's optional tour of your real captain, crew, ship, accounts, information, duty, charts, and departure procedure. Its route follows the command: traders inspect commercial Tasks, privateers review their commission before optional eligible work, and naval captains follow Operations and issued orders without being sent through commercial offer lessons. It does not create a practice ship, stop time, change prices, reserve an offer, accept work, or relax any rule. Other captains and the universe continue normally.

Each briefing opens the same ordinary manager available from the Command Console. S skips one explanation, Q leaves progress available for later, and H hides guidance. Player Preferences can begin, resume, hide, or restart the explanations without rewinding anything that happened in the game. First Watch ends only after the server accepts a real Flight Plan and the ship departs. A preview can always be revised or abandoned without filing it.

The browser is a map of the manual. Getting Started offers a guided entrance; Menus and Screens explains things you can see and operate; Concepts explains how the universe works; the Glossary gives short definitions.

Choose a numbered branch or topic. Q moves to the parent branch and eventually returns to the game. B and X change the reading level for this browser visit. D changes the level future ? requests use for this BBS account.

Player Preferences stores choices for this local BBS identity on later calls. The default help level controls what appears when you press ?. Automatic page pauses control long output, and First Watch controls its local guidance.

Generated Flight Plans separately default task routes and ordinary routes to Automatic or Hold. Automatic checkpoints may handle contacts under standing orders and continue while you are away. Hold checkpoints wait for arrival watch. New identities default both route types to Automatic; changing the preference changes future proposals, never an already filed plan. The last step is always marked terminal so the plan ends after it is completed.

A BBS account commands one persistent captain at a time. Registration creates the person whose money, ships, mail, discoveries, obligations, service record, and legal history survive between calls. This opening screen is useful because it is the last point at which you can return to the BBS without beginning the creation sequence.

Creation proceeds in stages: shape the captain, compare three career-backed commands, name and fit the chosen ship, review its crew, and confirm the whole package. The displayed defaults are legal and playable. Enter begins with those defaults available for review. Q asks whether to return to the BBS. Nothing is created or reserved yet, and later Back or Q choices return to an earlier stage without creating a partial captain.

For a first captain, press Enter, keep the balanced personal defaults unless a particular role already interests you, and compare the complete command terms before choosing a hull.

STR, DEX, END, INT, EDU, and CHA describe physical strength, coordination, endurance, reasoning, education, and social presence. They are not percentages. The DM beside each score is the modifier that characteristic normally contributes to uncertain work; crossing a three-point band matters more than moving within one. Cost is how much of the creation budget that score consumes.

Budget is the total available, Spent is the amount assigned, and Remaining must reach zero before the screen can be finished. A negative Remaining means the chosen scores cost too much. Raising one characteristic therefore means lowering another.

Choose 1-6 to edit the corresponding score. R restores the balanced defaults, Enter accepts only a fully spent legal budget, and Q cancels these edits and restores the values with which you entered. The balanced default is safe because specialist crew can perform many shipboard jobs. On a first visit, compare the DMs, change only a score whose modifier matters to the work you expect the captain to do personally, and keep Remaining at zero.

A skill is training in a kind of work. Skill 0 means the person is trained; higher ratings add expertise. Having no rating is different from having 0 and usually carries an untrained penalty. Jack of All Trades reduces that penalty but is not a professional qualification.

The captain summary shows each characteristic and DM, every selected skill and rating, and the continuing Training target with current progress and the weeks required for its next rating. Creation's skill slots show the rating each choice will receive; choosing the same skill in more than one eligible slot can build expertise. The training target is what the captain studies later over whole eligible weeks, not another instant skill.

E edits the starting skill selections, T chooses the ongoing training target, Enter accepts the displayed person, and C edits characteristics when that option is present. Q backs out without accepting the current person edits. Your captain need not cover every shipboard job personally because qualified crew members can act. For a first captain, choose training that supports the work you want to perform personally, then let the starting crew cover the other watches.

Career determines why the captain has a ship and who has claims on it. A trader emphasizes independent commerce and debt. A privateer combines trade with licensed force and legal restrictions. A naval officer commands public property under orders and uses restricted service funds for authorized expenses.

The career choice is represented by the three complete Starting Ship Offers rather than by a separate difficulty switch. Each offer's career, title, financing, authority, reserve, obligations, and exit terms belong together. The polity axes describe whether the home polity favors trade or combat and order or chaos; they help explain the offers but do not replace their actual terms.

Career is not a difficulty selector. Read all three offers, especially who owns the vessel and what money may be spent, before choosing the largest hull or strongest weapon. Cancelling the offer choice returns to captain customization; no career is accepted until final registration.

Each numbered offer is a complete command, not a free ship. Origin names the BBS, polity, system, and world from which the command begins. Polity axes summarize the local balance between trade and combat and between chaos and order. Each comparison row names the vessel and shows hull displacement in tons, maximum Jump rating, normal-space thrust in G, remaining cargo capacity, and crew complement.

Jump rating is the maximum distance of one jump; thrust governs in-system and tactical movement. Cargo capacity is space left after installed systems, crew areas, stores, fuel, and small craft. A large armed ship can have little commercial capacity and very high running costs. Selecting 1-3 opens the complete package: career and title, purpose, financial reserve and restricted funds, debt or bond, passenger spaces, fuel, ammunition, maintenance, authority, and exit terms.

Choosing an offer only moves to its ship detail and fit; final registration remains uncommitted. Cancel at the number prompt to revise the captain. For a first command, compare purpose, ownership, monthly commitments, usable cash, crew burden, fuel and cargo before optimizing a single performance number.

The ship detail explains the selected command before you name or fit it. Its class and role describe the design, while displacement, Jump rating, thrust, cargo, and crew summarize its scale and operating burden. Package, starting reserve, restricted credit, secured principal, and monthly payment explain what is supplied and what the command owes. Read the wrapped description for authority, maintenance, accommodation, stores, and exit conditions.

Enter proceeds to the public ship name; Q returns to the three offers. The name appears in traffic, messages, and encounters but does not alter performance. Each later refit group lists mutually exclusive equipment arrangements. Choosing one changes installed capability and possibly cargo, sensors, weapons, boats, accommodation, or endurance; it is not bonus cash. Choice 1 is the legal default, and cancelling a fit choice returns to the ship detail without retaining a partial set.

On a first visit, decide whether the base command's finances and purpose suit you before naming it, then read every option in a fit group and keep the default unless you understand the trade.

A starship is not flown by the captain alone. The roster lists each named officer or senior specialist and the service role that appointment covers. A role may represent supporting personnel as well as the displayed name; an optional marker means the command can be registered without that appointment. Pages appear when the roster is longer than the terminal can show at once.

Choose a letter to inspect an appointment. Detail shows Role, shipboard Assignment, and Name, followed by the person's characteristics, skills, and continuing training progress. N renames the named person, T changes that person's training target, and Enter returns to the roster. On the roster, < and > change pages, Enter accepts the complete roster, and 0 returns to the fit choices.

Before changing anything, look for command, bridge, engineering, medical, gunnery, steward, or other coverage required by the ship. The supplied roster can operate the starting vessel, so a sensible first use is to inspect the appointments, rename anyone you care about, and otherwise accept the operational default.

This is the first point at which the game can create anything. Captain is the persistent person; Career identifies the selected command; Ship shows the chosen public name followed by the catalog design; Crew counts the named officers and senior specialists in the starting roster. The fit, finances, title, authority, and obligations are the selections you reviewed on the preceding screens even though this compact confirmation does not repeat every term.

Y creates the captain, vessel, fit, crew, finances, and obligations together as one durable estate. N returns to crew review without creating anything. If any summary value surprises you, answer N and back through the earlier screens. Later abandonment destroys the entire captain and estate, so it is not a character-editing tool.

Crew Management answers two questions: who is attached to the command, and can they perform the work each vessel requires? The roster identifies every named person or represented appointment, current assignment and location, present condition, and shortages in established complement or duty coverage. Named appointments can include supporting positions, so compare current strength with established strength rather than counting only names. Casualties reduce the current number and make short-handed appointments visible.

Select a roster entry to open Crew Member Detail. That is where characteristics, skills, fatigue, food deprivation, morale, loyalty, articles, pay arrears, training, and the actions presently legal for that person are shown. Actions can include changing duty, training, leave or recall, first aid, surgery or continuing care, transfer, and dismissal. An action is absent or rejected when the person is elsewhere, unavailable, lacks suitable facilities, is not in your custody, or the change would violate command or crew requirements.

Moving or discharging one person can uncover a watch or remove a legal captain. Treatment, leave, payroll, and training consume time or money and persist after you leave. On a first visit, inspect anyone marked injured, fatigued, short-handed, unpaid, or uncovered, then return to the roster after any change. Enter refreshes current information and Q returns to the Command Console.

This view follows one real person or represented appointment. Service appointment is the person's formal role; On watch is the duty currently assigned. Condition and Injury show current health, while Fatigue affects readiness. Without food appears after consecutive unfed days; the first three cause discomfort, and later days can cause worsening Endurance checks, injury, incapacity, or death. Eating resets the counter, but starvation damage then heals through the ordinary rules.

Physical lists STR, DEX, and END because injury can reduce immediate capability. Availability says whether the person can work now. Present at names their physical location; Booked through marks approved leave or care time. Articles show pay terms and remaining service. Morale and loyalty describe willingness to serve; ARREARS is unpaid compensation. Service complement compares living represented personnel with the appointment's established strength. The skill list and Training line show qualifications and progress.

T changes continuing training, A changes duty, L grants leave, R recalls, F applies first aid, S requests surgery, M schedules continuing medical care, V transfers to another eligible ship, and D begins a separate dismissal confirmation. Enter refreshes, Q returns to the roster. Options can be absent or fail when location, condition, custody, facilities, time, money, or required coverage do not permit them. First inspect condition, availability, watch, and complement before changing an assignment.

The Command Console is the doorway to information and management that remains available while docked or travelling. Ship status at the top identifies the command's current broad condition. Home BBS and Home polity identify its institutional origin when that knowledge is public. The four numbered areas keep related work together instead of presenting every manager at once.

Vessel and Crew covers the people and physical ships in the command. Duty and Accounts covers work, authority, obligations, and money. Information and Communications covers delayed correspondence, public local radio, and the navigation knowledge actually carried by this ship. Captain and Interface covers personal presentation, browser alerts, optional guidance, the full help library, and the deliberately isolated command-abandonment action.

Choose 1-4 to open an area. Existing manager letters also remain direct shortcuts from this root screen. Enter refreshes, X returns to the current Docked, Voyage, Encounter, or Combat view, and Q asks before returning to the BBS. Within an area, Q returns here rather than leaving the game. On a first visit, inspect Vessel and Crew, Accounts under Duty, and Messages and Known Universe under Information before returning to the operational view.

This area collects the command's people and physical vessels. Crew Management shows who is attached to the command, where they are, their health and readiness, and whether required watches and specialties are covered. Ship Management shows the active ship's systems, damage, fuel, stores, upkeep, repair work, and the Fleet roster.

Choose C for Crew Management or S for Ship Management. Both remain inspectable in every operational phase, although hiring, transfer, treatment, repair, and other changes still depend on location, facilities, custody, time, and the ship's current situation. Enter redraws this area, Q returns to the Command Console, and X returns directly to the current operational view.

Before departure, inspect Crew when a watch is uncovered or someone is injured, and Ship when fuel, provisions, damage, maintenance, or an active yard operation may affect the plan.

This area answers what the command is committed to, what authority it has, and what resources can pay for the work. Task Management contains commercial offers, accepted obligations, carriage policy, and the ship's default encounter orders. Operations Ledger contains service orders, commissions, warrants, traffic, contacts, prizes, and interception authority. Accounts separates cash, reservations, restricted operating credit, debt, pending income, and the transaction journal.

Choose T for Tasks, O for Operations, or F for Accounts. These records are available underway as well as in port, but a record does not make a dock service or remote authority instantly available. Enter redraws this area, Q returns to the Command Console, and X returns directly to the operational view.

A useful review starts with accepted Tasks and deadlines, then any career duty or legal exposure in Operations, and finally spendable funds and pending settlements in Accounts.

This area separates three kinds of information that travel differently. Known Universe is the current ship's sourced and possibly stale navigation library. Message Management is the captain's delivered, retained correspondence. System Common Radio is transient public traffic spreading through the current star system at light speed and is unavailable in Jump.

Choose K for Known Universe, M for Messages, or R for System Common Radio. A message can update the navigation library without becoming the library itself, and radio reception does not provide instant knowledge of the entire system. Always compare observation, filing, emission, and receipt times before relying on a report. Enter redraws this area, Q returns to the Command Console, and X returns directly to the operational view.

Before choosing a course, review important Messages, then use Known Universe to inspect the destination and age of its records. Check Radio when local traffic or a structured hail matters now.

This area contains controls belonging to the captain's connection and presentation rather than the ship's physical work. Browser Alerts links or revokes portable receivers. Help Browser opens the complete manual. Player Preferences changes local help, paging, guidance, and generated-plan presentation defaults. Guided First Watch starts or resumes optional instruction; it can only conduct its live tour while the command is docked.

Choose B for Browser Alerts, H for Help Browser, P for Player Preferences, or W for Guided First Watch. A begins permanent abandonment of the captain and entire estate; it is kept here, away from routine managers, and still requires an exact phrase and a second confirmation. Enter redraws this area, Q returns to the Command Console, and X returns directly to the operational view.

Use preferences freely: they do not rewrite filed plans. Use abandonment only when you truly intend to destroy this captain's persistent command and start over.

A vessel is a physical asset with an owner or issuing authority, a current commander, a location, installed systems, fuel, stores, cargo, damage, and crew requirements. Ship Status gathers the active vessel's readiness facts. Displacement and Performance summarize hull size, Jump rating, and thrust. Fuel is aboard/effective capacity; Cargo capacity is total hold room. Damaged subsystems and Battlefield patches separate lasting damage from temporary recovery. Routine upkeep, Next automatic upkeep, and consecutive missed upkeep cycles show the repeating operating obligation. Life-support stores are person-days aboard. Magazine lists ammunition lots. Service history and Warranty matter to faults and eligible service. Active operation names scheduled work; Completes is its game date, and Time remaining gives both game duration and the corresponding real-world wait at the current clock rate. Charge and Recovery watch appear when applicable.

S opens the subsystem list, F opens the estate's Vessel Roster, P chooses a proper yard repair when eligible work is available, and R obtains a refit quotation. Enter refreshes and Q returns to the Console. Repair/refit actions depend on being at a capable yard, the ship's state and title, available parts, time, and funds, so they may be absent or yield no eligible work.

Routine upkeep is continuous shipboard work. Its cost is charged automatically every 30 game days, using restricted operating credit first and then liquid credits. If those balances cannot cover the complete charge, no partial payment is taken; the cycle is recorded as missed and can damage a subsystem. A later funded cycle resets the consecutive-miss count but does not erase existing damage. A refit quotation shows charge, yard time, damage repaired, and destroyed installations not replaced. Completion repairs non-destroyed damage, removes temporary patches, and may correct minor faults, but does not replace destroyed installations or reset age and use. Routine upkeep continues in the yard. A proper repair remains tied to the berth: Flight Plan preview warns about it, and actual departure cancels unfinished repair while leaving the damage in place. Other yard operations still prevent departure.

On a first visit, check fuel, life support, damage, upkeep, and any active operation before opening Subsystems for details or Fleet for another vessel.

Installed systems are the machinery that gives the hull its abilities: drives, power, sensors, weapons, accommodation, boats, and support equipment. The list gives each system's current status and pages when necessary. A warning row means damage, temporary coverage, or another condition deserves inspection. Ship-wide upkeep above the list shows whether service is paid through or has missed cycles, the next automatic charge, and consecutive missed upkeep cycles because each miss can create new subsystem damage.

Choose a letter for detail. Underlying damage is the lasting condition; Battlefield coverage is a temporary patch; Effective during encounter is what that combination presently provides; Current effect describes the operational consequence. Last proper repair, Installed, Last refit, and Recorded service establish age and maintenance history. Destroyed or otherwise unserviceable installations may require replacement rather than ordinary repair.

Enter refreshes, Q returns to Ship Status, and < or > pages the list. Detail Enter refreshes and Q returns to the subsystem list. Battlefield recovery can restore something for the moment; proper repair needs the relevant parts, skill, facility, credits, and game time. Start with warning rows and drives, power, sensors, life support, and weapons needed by the next plan.

The Vessel Roster lists every owned, assigned, or prize vessel in the estate. Name and class identify it; station shows its system and physical locus; control identifies the active command or crew control. PLAYER marks a player vessel and ONLINE marks the bridge presently receiving direct commands. Only one bridge is the active command, but other vessels remain real and can act under assigned captains and standing orders.

Select a vessel number for Class, Registry, Station, Captain, Control, Fuel aboard/capacity, and Cargo used/capacity. C assumes command when title, location, and captaincy permit it. A assigns an eligible officer as captain. T transfers a selected cargo lot, fuel quantity, ammunition lot, or provisions to a second vessel physically alongside with receiving capacity. These choices appear only when the estate and situation make them possible. Enter refreshes and Q returns to Ship Status or the roster as shown.

Changing command or moving stores is not a shortcut between abstract inventories. Verify station, title, captain, fuel, cargo room, and duty coverage before confirming. On a first visit, identify the active command and inspect any prize or unattended vessel before changing anything.

The Task Ledger separates accepted obligations from offers you might pursue. Available cash is spendable now; Reserved is tied up by claims, bonds, or work. Each accepted task shows state, performing ship, payment, route from pickup to destination, and other current terms. The carriage declaration shows which destination may automatically load ordinary freight, passengers by class, and electronic mail. Offers show title, payment, pickup, delivery, deadline slack, and any reason the current command cannot perform them. Hidden counts tell you whether the opposite availability view contains more offers.

S edits this ship's default Encounter Standing Orders. Each contact type has an ordinary response and a separate Fight rule: never, always, or only when the sensor-limited estimated combat outlook meets a chosen percentage. Unknown outlook never satisfies a percentage rule. Hostile contingencies are ordered emergency permissions such as surrender, abandoning ship, jettisoning demanded cargo, or breaking off. These defaults seed new Flight Plans; changing them does not silently rewrite a plan already filed. Automatic attacks on non-hostile contacts require explicit authorization because they can cause casualties, damage, warrants, liability, and loss of command.

V switches between available and unavailable offers. I inspects a signed offer; A begins acceptance of one. T inspects an accepted task; M offers only the termination, custody, default, withdrawal, dispute, or piracy-loss actions legal for that task's present state. C sets or clears automatic carriage capacity and destination. Enter refreshes and Q returns to Console. Actions may be unavailable because there is no applicable record, the claim or task state forbids it, cargo or passengers are in custody, or required notice has not arrived.

For a remote pickup, feasibility is one continuous projected voyage from here through pickup to delivery, carrying fuel and elapsed time across pickup. Unavailable does not mean forbidden: you may accept if you intend to change ships, hire crew, refit, or solve the stated problem. On a first visit, inspect existing obligations and their deadlines before browsing available offers; never treat the payment alone as the value of a job.

A Signed Offer Instrument is the complete proposal behind one ledger row. It identifies the issuer and service, pickup and destination, what cargo, passengers, or work are required, the performing-ship constraints, deadline and projected slack, payment, bond or reserved capacity, and liability or failure terms. An Unavailable section gives every presently known obstacle; it explains risk but does not prohibit a deliberate claim.

Receiving an offer is not the same as winning it. Claiming writes a signed response and reserves the displayed money or capacity while that response travels to the issuing office. The first valid claim accepted there wins. The winner later receives confirmation; losing claimants receive a release. Your captain personally carries a claim when travelling, so you cannot arrive before your own acceptance, and collection waits for confirmation.

The action to claim appears on the ledger or an attached message when the offer is still actionable. Enter refreshes the instrument and Q returns without claiming. First compare pickup access, whole-route fuel and time, deadline slack, crew and capacity, bond, payment, and failure exposure.

Message Management is the captain's filtered communications filing desk, not an all-knowing network and not the commercial offer board. Each row gives a page-local number, subject, and current filing state; Page shows which group of matching records is on screen. News, public notices, operational advisories, confirmations, settlements, and private correspondence move between systems with ships, so a message can be true when written and stale when read. Commercial opportunities belong in Task Management, where their current availability and full terms are easier to judge.

1-7 opens the corresponding record. N/P changes pages. I files a selected item as ignored, L for later attention, A as actioned, and R in the archive. These classifications organize the retained record; they do not change the reported event, obligation, or age. C composes a message to a system office or named captain with a time-to-live; transmission still follows physical routes. Enter refreshes and Q returns to Console. Selection actions have nothing to act on when no records match.

F opens Communication Filters. The four rows are News, Public service, Traffic, and Private, each with its minimum visible priority: Routine, Notable, Important, or Headline. The same thresholds govern this list and arrival review. Raising one hides lower-priority retained copy from both places; lowering it reveals that copy again. Choose 1-4 to select a service, then H, I, N, or R for its threshold; Enter refreshes and Q returns to Messages.

On a first visit, review the four thresholds, open important records, compare Filed and Received dates, follow any attached ledger action only after reading its consequence, then use Later rather than assuming the universe will wait.

The Communications Record expands one filed item. Subject names it; Service classifies its source; Priority is the importance used by communication filters. Origin identifies where it was filed. Filed is the creation time, Received is when this captain obtained it, and Expires is when time-limited copy ceases to be current; an expired marker means the retained record can still be read. Filed as is your present Ignore, Later, Actioned, Archive, or ordinary classification. The body may report an event or carry a legal or financial notice.

The first action changes with the attachment: T opens the Task Ledger; B opens Accounts; O opens Operations; K opens Known Universe. It is omitted when the record has no supported action. Enter refreshes and Q returns to Messages. Commercial offers themselves are inspected and claimed in Task Management. Read Origin, Filed, Received, and Expires before treating the body as current, and read the next screen's confirmation before changing anything.

On a first inspection, compare Filed with Received to measure transmission delay, check Expires, read the complete body, and use the attached ledger rather than inferring current state from old prose.

System Common is one public channel shared by ships in the same star system. Unread receptions is the count still held by this ship. An unavailable warning explains when the radio cannot operate, most notably in Jump. Each row shows a page-local number, sender or subject, reception class, received time, sender identity when available, and Action required for a structured hail. Radio waves travel at light speed, so Emitted and Received times can differ by location.

1-7 opens a reception once; opening consumes that ship's unread copy. N/P changes pages. B broadcasts printable text under the ship's transmitting name and transponder, subject to rate limits. M mutes an ordinary selected sender; U lists and removes a mute. Structured encounter hails cannot be muted because they require a command decision. Enter refreshes and Q returns to Console. Send/read actions are unavailable in Jump or when no eligible item exists.

On a first visit, open any Action required hail first, note its emitted age, then read ordinary traffic before broadcasting. Retain important text elsewhere because an opened reception is consumed.

The Ship's Navigation Library contains only what this captain has learned. Chart selection says whether the list is Direct range or All known systems; Drive is this ship's Jump rating; Page identifies the visible portion. Each row shows a system, distance, principal world, port class, and tech level. An asterisk marks the present system. A question mark warns of limited or stale navigation knowledge. Names, coordinates, ports, fuel sources, markets, affiliations, and routes can be incomplete or old; missing information is not proof that nothing exists.

1-9 opens a System Dossier. P opens the Course Plotter. M shows carried market reports with observation date, price and confidence. J switches direct/all selection, < and > page, Enter refreshes, and Q returns to Console. An action can be empty when no systems or reports match the current knowledge. A BBS, polity, or League appears only after public institutional mapping; private, withheld, secret, and still-travelling reports reveal none of it.

On a first visit, switch to All if necessary, open the destination dossier, check chart date, port and fuel knowledge, and only then plot. A route can fail because of range, fuel, money, law, or missing charts.

A System Dossier combines position with the captain's dated knowledge of the principal world. Range or Planning range is straight-line distance from the current system. Navigation or Direct leg states whether this ship is already there, can jump there directly, or needs a plotted course. Starport is broad port capability; Population code and Tech level summarize the world rather than promising exact services. Home BBS and Polity appear only when publicly mapped. Gas giants count charted possible collection sites, not guaranteed lawful access. Chart received and Chart source tell you how old and trustworthy this knowledge may be. Coordinates place the system on the three-dimensional coreward, spinward, and galactic-north axes.

S adds or removes a system from Secret Systems when that private classification is available. Enter refreshes and Q returns to the destination list or chart screen. This view does not reserve fuel, verify a live market, or file travel. On a first visit, compare range with Jump capability, then inspect chart age, port, tech level, and gas giants before using the Course Plotter.

The Navigation Course Plotter searches the captain's known space for an executable chain of jumps and fuel stops. Its opening choices select an ordinary Course, a route from the current Flight Plan, or all assigned Tasks. A plotted result names Fastest or Cheapest, shows the ship's Drive rating, current system, ETA, total game Trip time with real wall time, projected fuel purchases, total distance, and each waypoint with principal world and planned fuel source. An unavailable explanation tells you why no known executable route was found.

F computes the fastest known course; C computes the cheapest. < and > page long routes. Enter recalculates, Q returns to Charts. When choosing a destination, numbered entries select it and I opens its dossier. Import is offered by the calling Flight Plan screen after a usable course is found; importing edits a proposal and does not launch the ship.

The search tracks current fuel, tank size, known port sales, lawful frontier collection, money, and elapsed time. Task routing also respects pickup-before-delivery and deadlines through a bounded heuristic that is useful but not guaranteed mathematically optimal. On a first use, inspect the destination dossier, compare Fastest and Cheapest, read every fuel stop, then import and use Flight Plan Preview as the final fuel and deadline check.

Operations is where the captain deals with service, ships, authorities, and force rather than cargo and accounts. Service and Standing identify current career authority and status. Depending on career, the header also shows pay and service points or public heat, underworld standing, and crew pressure. The local-enforcement summary describes the present jurisdiction. Interception watch names any active target, craft class, purpose, locus, and starting time.

Posted opportunities list orders or reports with kind, location, payment or service reward. System traffic is cooperative transponder movement across the system; BERTHED and LANDED are physical states, PLAYER and ONLINE describe player control, and WARRANT marks a known association. Local contacts are ships at this vessel's present traffic locus that its sensors can resolve; sensor hull estimate and confidence are distinct from transponder identity. Prizes list condition, crew custody, and possible award. Warrants list authority, subject, bounty basis, satisfaction, associations, and last report.

A accepts a posted order or files an eligible report. I intercepts a local contact for armed attack, boarding/inspection, or named-subject arrest. P opens prize settlement, S creates or removes a standing interception watch, W opens warrant/prisoner settlement, C edits cruise articles, and M changes or reviews service/commission status. Enter refreshes and Q returns to Console. Choices appear only when applicable records and authority exist.

Authority and evidence matter: a warrant association is a lead, not proof that a person remains aboard, and a report may need physical delivery before a remote office recognizes it. On a first visit, read service standing and local enforcement, distinguish traffic from local contacts, then inspect any warrant or active watch before acting.

Operations shows two different traffic pictures. System traffic is the movement that traffic control can report from cooperative transponders anywhere in the system. Its rows show claimed vessel identity, class, present status or route, and BERTHED or LANDED state. It is useful for anticipating arrivals and departures, but distance means those ships are not automatically reachable. Jump space has no traffic-control reception.

Local contacts are ships at the same port, Jump point, gas giant, frontier site, or other traffic locus that your vessel can actually detect. Rows show claimed transponder identity when available, physical state, and a sensor estimate of class, tonnage, condition, and confidence. No reliable hull solution means only the transponder claim is known. PLAYER marks a player-owned ship under automation; ONLINE means a connected captain directly controls it. WARRANT marks a known investigative association, not proof that the wanted person is aboard.

I can select only a compatible local contact for immediate armed, boarding/inspection, or arrest action. A distant traffic report cannot be selected, and actions may be absent for no local contact or no legal intent. First use the traffic list for awareness, then trust the local sensor section--not the markers alone--when judging an encounter.

Delivered warrants are filed automatically in Operations. Each warrant identifies its instrument, authority and named subject, bounty basis, satisfaction notice if any, and last report. Ship associations appear beneath it: confirmed aboard is direct evidence at the stated time, while associated with only means the person previously served there. WARRANT on a contact is therefore an investigative lead, not proof of present custody.

I may offer Arrest named subject when the selected local contact, delivered warrant, jurisdiction, and current situation make a lawful demand possible. The other ship may surrender the subject, claim absence, run, or resist under its orders. Search skill, boarding party, concealment, and local enforcement determine what a search finds. Warrant court under W lists unsatisfied claims against this command and prisoners held aboard; selecting one settles the command's obligation or delivers the prisoner for the displayed bounty when the correct court is available.

Arrest, search, capture, court delivery, warrant satisfaction, and bounty payment are separate events. On a first visit, read authority, subject, evidence wording, last-report age, and delivery status before approaching an associated ship.

Interception means arranging to meet a real moving ship, while a standing picket waits at a traffic locus for future matching craft. I selects a current local contact and then an intent: Armed attack, Board or inspect, or Arrest named subject when a delivered warrant supports it. The confirmation states whether the ship must first leave a berth or landing site, whether the watch attaches to a frontier operation, and that armed action is irreversible. ONLINE warns that the other captain is present; otherwise that ship uses standing policy.

S configures or removes a standing interception order. Choose Armed-attack watch or Boarding/inspection watch, then All craft or an observed catalogued craft class. The Operations header later shows the watch target, purpose, locus, and starting time. A class choice is absent when no catalogued class exists in the current traffic picture. Removing a watch returns a berthed or landed ship according to the displayed result.

A ship in a berth cannot attack another berth without departing and paying what departure requires. Inspection demands boarding first and escalates only through policy and refusal. On a first use, verify the locus, legal authority, target rule, and your offline response policy; a broad All craft armed watch is a continuing commitment, not a one-time menu filter.

Command Accounts is the command's financial position wherever the ship happens to be. Liquid balance is the captain's cash account. Available cash subtracts funds reserved for accepted obligations, so it is the safer number to use when deciding what can still be spent. Reserved funds remain in the account but are committed as collateral or escrow. Restricted vessel credit belongs to the active ship and can pay authorized operating costs, not personal purchases or secured principal. Secured principal is remaining vessel debt.

Pending income lists certified task payments that have not yet reached the account. Entries are grouped by their estimated resolution day. The amount before the word released is expected new cash; a released amount is existing reserved money expected to become available again. The estimate follows the filing or remittance route through the delayed communications network and can change if transport changes. Date unavailable means no defensible route estimate exists. Pending income is never included in the liquid balance and becomes a real transaction only when remittance arrives.

T opens the Transaction Journal when the connected server supports it. The journal is newest first. F cycles transaction class, V cycles vessel, N and P move through older and newer pages, and a number opens the complete posting. Detail distinguishes increases, decreases, and carried-forward opening balances for liquid, restricted, reserved, and principal accounts and shows the resulting balance. Enter refreshes and Q returns to the Console. Existing estates begin with a carried-forward opening entry rather than invented historical purchases.

On a first visit, compare Available cash with the next obligation, then inspect pending dates rather than treating promised income as spendable. Open the journal when a balance changed unexpectedly and follow every posting in the relevant transaction.

Docked Operations is the command's port-side readiness and service board. The heading names the ship, berth facility, system, broad Port class, local Tech Level, and Law Level. Ship time is the current game clock. Cash is personal liquid credit; Ship account appears when restricted operating funds exist; Debt is secured principal. Berth account is the accumulated port fee. Export tariff is the outstanding origin charge on speculative cargo purchased here. Both become due when the ship clears the berth. Port control says whether departure needs clearance or is open. Fuel and Cargo each show the amount aboard or used followed by effective capacity.

Docked means secured in a berth, not hovering freely beside every ship at the port. A opens Authorities and Operations, B Banking Services, C Cargo Exchange, D the Flight Plan for departure, F Fuel and Supplies, J Jobs and Passage, P Personnel, U Universal Managers, and Y Shipyard. The universal Accounts manager is available through U even while underway. L opens the license, Enter refreshes, and Q asks before returning to the BBS. Banking, Personnel, or Authorities is omitted when no recognized local service exists; other services can still report that the port lacks stock, facilities, or eligible work.

Berthing and service work can cost credits and game time. Depart only opens a proposal: the ship leaves after an executable preview is filed and the berth and export accounts can be paid. On a first visit, compare cash with both departure charges, fuel and cargo with capacity, check port control, then review the services needed by the next plan before choosing D.

Cargo Exchange handles speculative trade through actual counterparties. Cash is spendable credit; Hold is used/total capacity. C opens the public commodity catalogue and its reference values; these are not stock and contain no executable price. Cargo aboard shows owned and entrusted lots, purchase or appraisal basis, and any export tariff still due. Counterparties are finite supplier or buyer lots found by completed work. A price appears only after negotiation. Each quoted offer then shows the commodity's universal minimum, lower quartile, median, upper quartile, and maximum price range, with * marking this negotiation. The range comes from catalog value, not the selected negotiator: purchase quotes span 80%-120%, while sale quotes can span 80%-156% after both the original purchase basis and buyer markup.

F starts a search. Ordinary physical Broker+Education and online Computers+Education searches take 1D6 game hours. Private introductions for locally prohibited goods use Streetwise+Charisma and take 1D6 game days; price negotiation still uses Broker+Charisma. Repeated searches in the same 30-day market month take a cumulative penalty. A maximum tonnage tells the broker to keep canvassing within that search until a source-sized lot fits; buyer searches are bound to one selected cargo lot. Completed counterparties remain through the later of month end or seven days after discovery.

N assigns a crewmember to a 1D6-minute negotiation. A accepts the quoted complete lot and J rejects it. Each of these actions shows and numbers only its currently eligible counterparties or quotes before asking for a selection. Supplier purchases automatically add the ten-percent loader charge. Rejecting a seller makes another negotiation with that counterparty harder for one week; rejecting a buyer closes that buyer. Purchased cargo cannot be resold at its acquisition port. Buyer markups use the lot's actual purchase price, or its catalog appraisal when extracted or captured. Import tariff is paid by the buyer; your export tariff is excluded from the quote and collected when the ship clears the berth. X lists and cancels scheduled work. D permanently deletes a selected completed, failed, or cancelled research record; active work must be cancelled first. Enter refreshes, and Q returns to Docked Operations.

There are no free anonymous quotes, direct spot purchases, reservations, or escrow. Capacity, source lot size, legality, crew skill, elapsed game time, loaders, tariffs, and cash all constrain a trade.

Port vendors accept refined or unrefined fuel purchases to 0.001 tonne, so a captain can fill the tanks exactly after fractional consumption. The proportional charge rounds up to a whole credit. Onboard processors also accept 0.001-tonne batches; frontier collection remains a whole-ton operation.

Fuel and Supplies is the ship's physical-stores board. Liquid credits are personal cash; Restricted operating is institutional money usable for authorized ship expense. Tanks shows fuel aboard/effective capacity, not an arbitrary reserve line. Unrefined aboard identifies the part of that total which still imposes the Jump penalty until processed. Life-support stores shows person-days aboard/installed limit. Captain meal fallback is the daily shore price used while docked when stores are empty. Monthly provision package gives this ship's indivisible package size and price. Magazine lots shows ammunition loaded/maximum. Together these fields answer whether fuel or stores can fit and be paid for before a plan is filed.

Jump drives consume large amounts of fuel. A Jump that actually burns any unrefined fuel takes the normal -2 success DM; ordinary power-plant use has no separate unrefined-fuel roll. Ports may sell either kind, neither, or limited quantities. A ship with scoops can instead collect unrefined fuel at a charted lawful gas giant or wilderness source even without a processor. Sources identify whether the named body is a planet, moon, gas giant, or icy belt and routine wilderness entries are unoccupied.

A processor makes refining the default, but the captain may keep a collected batch unrefined. Refining is Engineer (Power)/EDU 8+: failure doubles processing time and exceptional failure can damage the Jump drive. Preview separates travel, collection, processing, and failed-check time without revealing the roll. R opens Flight Plan with an onboard-refining step already added; U does the same from Flight Plan while docked or safely holding. Refining can precede later route items instead of requiring the route to be rebuilt.

Provisions are the food, air-processing consumables, and other routine life-support stores used by people awake aboard; ordinary shipboard water is assumed available. One person-day supports one awake crew member or passenger for one game day. People in low berths use the berth's life support and do not consume these provisions. Underway, multiply the number of awake people by the days until the next resupply, subtract the person-days already aboard, and cover any shortfall. The flight-plan preview calculates the voyage requirement and rejects a known shortage.

Docked crew arrange their own meals and do not draw ship provisions. The captain consumes one ship person-day by default. If stores are empty, the captain automatically eats ashore using liquid credits at twice the package's average price per person-day; restricted ship credit does not pay this personal expense. The service screen shows that daily fallback price and warns when neither food nor enough cash is available. A monthly package adds 30 person-days for every fitted awake-accommodation place, is indivisible, and cannot exceed the 180-person-day-per-place installed limit.

A character can go three days without food. Starting on the fourth, each unfed day requires a Routine (+2) Endurance check with cumulative DM-1 for every previous check; failure causes 1D6 damage. Starvation damage cannot heal until the character is fed, and death is possible. Crew detail shows consecutive days without food.

F lists known fuel sources with type, named body, routine-access status, and any unavailability reason. Tank room is shown once because it belongs to the ship, while every frontier source shows its own round-trip distance and travel time so you can compare the actual detours. Choosing frontier collection previews round-trip travel, collection, processing, normal and failed-check totals; a second F files that operation and can launch the ship. R schedules processing of fuel already aboard. P buys whole provision packages when chandlery stock and room exist. A reloads eligible magazine lots when a licensed dealer operates here. Enter refreshes and Q returns to Docked Operations. Options and sources depend on facility, charts, law, ship equipment, funds, and capacity.

Fuel, provisions, and ammunition are physical stores. The power plant burns fuel away from a berth and fired ammunition is gone. Receipts show what loaded, charge, payment sources, and balances. The Flight Plan can schedule future purchase, collection, and refining. On a first visit, compare tanks and provisions with the planned route, inspect each source's distance and travel time, and preview before filing an expedition.

Banking Services is the local office for financial actions that require a recognized banking house. The universal Accounts manager remains available underway, but this office can change insurance, cure arrears, and begin insolvency proceedings. Vessel title says whether the ship is owned, financed, sponsored, or institutionally held. Liquid credits are personal spendable cash. Restricted operating or Naval service credit can pay authorized ship expenses, not private purchases or secured principal. Reserved credits are tied to bonds and claims. Secured principal is remaining loan debt; Monthly payment and Insurance escrow are the recurring charge components. Past due appears in default. Destination aid says whether recovery coverage is active and through what date. Next payment is the next due game date. Standing summarizes good order, default, or a locally known impound order.

B buys one year of destination assistance when uncovered; C cancels active assistance without refund. P appears in default and posts the displayed overdue installment, withdrawing its active impound order. K appears only with defaulted secured debt and files an irrevocable bankruptcy petition; its warning explains liquidation, retirement, and succession. F appears only for an institutionally owned command with restricted credit and forges a selected expense receipt, risking later audit and legal consequences. Enter refreshes and Q returns to Docked Operations.

A privateer can have no purchase loan but still owe mandatory insurance. Authorized costs draw restricted funds before liquid funds; principal needs liquid cash. Remote enforcement knowledge still travels by mail. On a first visit, read the next payment and standing, and understand any warning before taking an exceptional action.

Shipyard Brokerage compares the active vessel's Trade-in appraisal and remaining Lien with ships offered at this port. Each offer shows name, Jump rating, cargo capacity, price, and used condition when applicable. B selects an offered vessel and buys it with the displayed trade-in. C opens the New-Build Catalog; rows show design, TL, Jump, role, cargo, 20% deposit, and construction time. O commissions a selected design, < and > page, Q returns to brokerage, and Enter refreshes. No offers or no commissionable designs means this port's actual yard and technical capability cannot provide them.

Proper subsystem repair and refit are ordered from Ship Management rather than this brokerage list. A refit quotation identifies charge, yard time, damage repaired, and destroyed installations not replaced. Completion repairs damage short of destruction and removes temporary patches, but existing machinery keeps accumulated age and use and routine upkeep continues. A disabled system recovered after battle is not necessarily repaired. Component replacement requires suitable work.

A commissioned hull appears in Fleet during construction but cannot receive captain, stores, or command until delivery; upkeep and loan dates begin then. Trade-in transfers a real vessel with the stores, custody, and obligations stated by the terms. On a first visit, subtract the lien from the appraisal, compare capacity and operating burden rather than price alone, and leave without ordering if the full consequences are unclear.

The Port Crew Exchange lists people actually seeking work at this facility. Each row gives candidate name, proposed role, principal skill and rating, and pay terms. An empty list means no suitable candidate is presently offering service, not that the command has no crew needs.

H selects and hires a candidate if funds, accommodation, legal status, and command circumstances permit. R opens the ordinary Ship roster and Crew Member actions for treatment, training, shore leave, recall, duty, transfer, or dismissal; which of those appear depends on the person and local facilities. Enter refreshes the exchange and Q returns to Docked Operations.

Hire to fill a real uncovered watch or specialty rather than increasing the name count. On a first visit, inspect Crew coverage through R, then compare a candidate's role, skill, pay, health, and accommodation burden before hiring.

Flight Plan is the editable sequence the ship will actually attempt. Revision identifies the filed version on which this proposal is based; a stale proposal cannot silently replace a newer accepted change. Drive is maximum Jump rating. Each numbered row is a logical route item, so a fuel purchase, Jump, and first in-system destination may appear as one useful leg instead of separate implementation steps. Hold or Through is the authority at its end; terminal marks where the plan ends. Active is the operation physically underway and completed items are retained history that cannot be edited.

A adds a charted leg in the order used by the navigator: choose the target system, choose its first destination (port, world or moon, gas giant, or belt), then choose standard or private/offset emergence. M adds another in-system stop; another A continues with a new Jump. E selects an item. A future item can change authority or settings, be deleted, have a charted leg inserted before or after it, move, or replace its charted destination. Jump Settings chooses onboard plotting or a tape, bad-plot authority, departure side, emergence mode, and first local destination. The active physical operation cannot be deleted, but an active normal-space destination can be redirected. The editor rebuilds dependent charted origins after reordering and refuses arrangements that would detach a local body or coordinate operation from its locus. C, R, J, G, U, L, B, O, and X add or generate plotted or task routes, fuel/refining, a traffic locus, belt work, port return, and coordinate exploration. S edits this plan's encounter responses, combat-outlook thresholds, and hostile contingencies; it can load the ship default or save the edited policy as that default. P opens Preview and filing. Enter refreshes; Q discards this proposal.

The conventional departure locus lies north of the system ecliptic and the primary-world arrival locus lies south. Both are published traffic convergence points: L can send the ship to either one and hold, including the incoming locus for an interception watch. For a selected body, standard emergence instead uses the safe 100-diameter-clear point nearest that body. Breakout is always followed by ordinary interplanetary travel to the selected destination. A private emergence chooses an unpredictable offset point with greater standoff, reducing ordinary arrival contacts at the cost of a longer maneuver. It does not exempt the ship from port rules; inspection at later docking still applies and may be mandatory.

Filing changes only the unfinished future. During normal-space travel, changing the active destination computes a new bounded-thrust intercept from the ship's actual position and velocity; merely changing later items or policy preserves the active leg and its due time. A collection, belt, or refining operation already underway is likewise not restarted. Once the ship is in Jump, its physical emergence destination is fixed, but later route items and standing orders remain editable. Completed fuel burn, time, contacts, docking, custody, and task consequences are never undone.

A plan may contain in-system travel, jumps, waits, purchases, collection, refining, and belt cycles. A fresh commercial course tape is bought while clearing a berth; after an in-system stop without docking, the next Jump must use onboard plotting. U accepts any available 0.001-tonne refining quantity and can insert processing ahead of later route items while docked or safely holding. Frontier fuel requires charts, a lawful source, equipment, and tank room; belt work requires a catalogued belt and equipment. Hold waits for arrival watch; Through may resolve contacts under the filed standing orders and continue while the captain is away. A fight percentage uses only the coarse combat outlook the ship can estimate from current sensors; unknown never passes a threshold. Automatic non-hostile attack is separately warned and confirmed.

On a first use, inspect every logical item, fuel stop, authority, and standing order, then always use P. Nothing changes until the reviewed Preview is filed; completed docking, not checkpoint readiness, delivers a task.

Preview is the last whole-voyage check and the only place the proposal can be filed. Estimated time includes every planned movement, velocity-changing maneuver, Jump, wait, purchase, and shipboard or frontier operation--not merely days in Jump. Jump fuel is the total projected Jump-drive requirement; other fuel use and the evolving amount aboard are included in validating the ordered steps. Every row repeats its action, Hold or Through authority, and final terminal state.

Fuel-operation detail separates travel, collection, processing, normal-total, failed-check time, and output. Numbered markers beside steps refer to each warning once below the route. The unrefined-fuel warning appears only on a Jump projected to burn some unrefined fuel; refining it all beforehand clears it. Provision shortage marks every step reached after cumulative awake-person consumption exceeds stores. Other warnings explain capacity, funds, feasibility, carriage, encounter authority, changed commitments, or proper repair that departure will cancel.

A repair warning means the work continues while you remain berthed but the marked departure step will abandon it and leave the damage in place. Other yard operations remain departure blockers. A red deadline footnote means completed docking will be late, or that a timely Hold checkpoint still requires arrival watch before delivery is due. Reaching the checkpoint alone does not deliver a task. F files exactly this sequence and can launch or replace the future plan; Q or Enter returns to revise without changing the filed plan. F is unavailable when validation rejects the proposal. On a first preview, read every numbered warning, compare the final docking time with every deadline, confirm fuel and provisions, then file only if the sequence and authority are intentional.

Arrival Checkpoint appears only while a Hold waypoint has left the ship clear of its destination waiting for the captain. Ready since is the game date when the physical approach became available; it is not the docking or delivery time. The task section lists every still-active delivery assigned to this ship at this destination, with task number, title, Due date, remaining time, or deadline-passed warning. A refresh warning means the task ledger could not be checked, not that the obligations vanished.

A takes arrival watch. That can reveal a contact that needs an Encounter response or complete the planned docking or landing. Enter refreshes the ship and deadline information. Q leaves the ship holding without taking watch; time and deadlines continue. Through checkpoints normally use standing orders and do not open this manual screen unless automation is interrupted.

Mail, reports, offers, notices, and instruments can arrive before watch is taken, but an assigned task remains undelivered until docking completes. First compare every Due line with Ready since and current ship time; take watch promptly unless you deliberately need the ship to remain clear.

The Arrival Packet is the first review of communications that reached this command at arrival. Each item shows Received time, Service, Origin, Age, and Subject. Service explains the kind of record; Origin says where it was filed; Age is based on the underlying observation or filing and can be much older than receipt. The packet includes only unreviewed items meeting your per-service importance filters, not every message in the archive.

I or Left files the item as ignored, M or Right marks it for later, N or Down advances, Enter opens full Message Detail, A files it as actioned, and Q stops packet review without destroying remaining items. A System Mapping Notice may separately offer P public disclosure, D a sealed filing to Earth, W withholding, S withholding as secret, or Q deciding later. The final communications receipt reports beacon bag custody, local delivery, forwarding, expiry, stipend, and new records when applicable.

A captain-carried signed instrument uploads on arrival even if the ship declined a general beacon mail bundle. On a first review, inspect action-bearing or headline records and compare Origin and Age before acting; mark uncertain items Later and continue to the full Messages manager when ready.

Voyage Status is the ship's underway watch summary. Look here to learn what the vessel is doing now, when that work should finish, whether the next planned event is close enough to wait for, and whether changed fuel, timing, or obligations make replanning worthwhile. The universe continues while you are away, so this is also the quickest way to reorient yourself after returning.

Flight state is the broad operational condition, such as normal interplanetary flight or Jump. Stage is the particular work now in progress: clearance, acceleration or other in-system movement, Jump, arrival, holding, docking, landing, or a filed shipboard operation. Together they distinguish where the ship is from what it is presently doing. From names the system the vessel has most recently occupied; Destination names the current physical target, not a promise that every later step remains unchanged.

Ship time is the present game date and time at the vessel. Next event is the game date and time when the current scheduled stage should resolve. The parenthesized value is the corresponding real-world wait at the game's current clock rate. These values are a snapshot rather than a ticking display; R requests current status and redraws them. Compare that event with task deadlines, provisions, and any time-sensitive message before leaving the ship unattended.

Fuel shows tonnes aboard followed by effective tank capacity. Capacity is the physical maximum the current ship state can use, not a suggested Jump reserve. The Flight Plan preview validates the complete proposed sequence and its fuel requirement.

F opens the Flight Plan editor. Outside Jump, changing the active destination computes a maneuver from actual position and velocity; future-only edits preserve the active leg and its due time. In Jump, the physical emergence destination is already fixed, but later route items and encounter standing orders can still be changed. Replanning cannot undo fuel, time, contacts, or other events already completed. R refreshes this summary. Enter opens the Command Console; managers remain available underway, while dock services do not.

On a first visit, read Flight state and Stage, compare Next event with your nearest deadline, check fuel aboard against capacity, then press F if the remaining route or standing orders no longer serve the command.

An Engineering Casualty Report means the ship acquired physical subsystem damage while a scheduled operation continued without the captain at that exact watch station. The report is durable: it appears at the next safe prompt if you are connected, or before ordinary command work when you next sign on, and remains until you acknowledge it. Several reports are presented oldest first. Time and the filed plan continue while a report waits; acknowledging confirms that you have read the result and does not repair damage or cancel movement.

Date is when the damage occurred. Ship identifies the affected command vessel. Cause distinguishes a discordant Jump transition, an exceptional fuel-processing failure, or deterioration after unpaid routine upkeep. A Jump report names the plotted origin and destination; Inaccurate emergence gives the additional normal-space approach days, while Misjump means the vessel emerged in deep space. Subsystem names the damaged installation. Damage gives newly sustained hits followed by its resulting physical hit total and maximum. Effect states the current operational consequence after damage and any battlefield coverage.

Enter positively acknowledges this report and advances to the next pending report or the ordinary command view. Q leaves the game with the report still pending; ? opens this help. On first review, read Cause and Effect, compare the revised voyage timing with obligations, then inspect Ship Management and replan or seek proper repair when the damage changes what the command can safely complete.

Contact on Arrival reports a meeting at the ship's present traffic locus. Declared identity, Transponder, and Declared class are the other vessel's transmitted claims; Sensor classification and confidence are your ship's independent physical estimate. An exact claimed class can therefore accompany a 45% approximate size return. Role/range describes why it is present and separation. Authority is the apparent legal or criminal capacity behind an order or demand. Assessed threat is a coarse comparison; Combat outlook translates that same sensor-limited assessment into the estimated chance used by percentage-based standing orders. Unknown means the crew lacks enough information and never satisfies a threshold. Neither number guarantees a result. Demand and exposed property show the immediate stakes.

Responses name the actual decision. Routine traffic exchanges identification; traffic control can be followed or declined; inspection submitted to or refused; distress assisted or reported; a derelict investigated or reported; a hazard avoided or tracked; a military challenge answered or refused; and a departing hostile pursued or allowed to go. F always treats the contact as hostile and enters Vessel Combat. Without an accepted order or commission naming a non-hostile contact, that is an unauthorized armed interception which creates heat and a warrant and can change an Independent force career to Pirate.

A physical response can consume authoritative crew/action time; the pending completion time is not a wait for the other ship's permission. Hostile choices may attach ordered emergency fallbacks--Surrender, Abandon ship, Jettison demanded cargo, or Break off. Fight receives a separate Y/N confirmation. Compare claims with sensors, then authority, outlook, exposed property, demand, and response deadline before transmitting. Fight is intentional escalation, not merely manning battle stations.

Vessel Combat is the live engagement board. Round counts resolved activations; Range is current separation; Order window is the game and real time left before sealed or standing orders resolve. Each Contact row names the vessel, marks YOUR SHIP, ONLINE, or PLAYER control, and shows initiative, speed/thrust, hull/structure/armor, pursuit, attack bonus, and every weapon mount with damage and ammunition where known. General quarters lists named actors, stations, and unavailable condition. Signal and damage log records recent ordered events. Engagement ended or Joint orders sealed explains why new orders may be unavailable.

D loads conservative defaults, T lets the tactical computer prepare orders, E edits the Joint Order Book, A selects a defeat objective, W withdrawal, B boarding/capture, and S surrender. P edits standing combat policy used when direct orders are absent. Enter refreshes, Q returns to Console where allowed, and ? explains the current board. Options are omitted when the engagement has ended, orders are already sealed, or the objective/action is not presently valid.

Combat uses real ships, people, ammunition, systems, position, and sensors. Damage, casualties, expenditure, custody, and legal consequences persist. On a first round, identify your ship, read range and order time, inspect unavailable crew and ammunition, choose the objective, then review the complete joint order before sealing; winning a firing exchange can still produce repair bills, warrants, or a disputed prize.

The Joint Order Book is the complete order set for the next activation. Actions entered is the count of assigned jobs; Speed change is the requested maneuver; Reactions standing is the number of conditional reactions. The book opens separate sections for Reaction Watch, Command and Signals, Helm and Navigation, Sensors, weapons, engineering, medicine, damage control, and boarding as those jobs are available. Actor lists show only eligible conscious personnel and their stations; contact and weapon lists show only usable targets or mounts.

Each displayed letter adds or edits that class of action, selecting an actor, target, mount, system, speed, signal, or reaction as required. Removing or revising an entry frees its people for another job. The final Seal choice commits the whole joint set for the activation; backing out returns without sealing. An action is absent when there is no eligible person, detected target, working system, ammunition or power, or applicable objective.

Gunnery competes with engineering, medicine, maneuver, command, damage control, and boarding for qualified people and time. On a first use, assign command and maneuver, cover urgent damage or casualties, then weapons and reactions, and reread counts and speed before sealing. Standing policy guides the crew when direct detail is absent but cannot create knowledge or capability.

When firing stops, the consequences do not. Ordinary combat return leaves the lasting results in Crew, Ship, Fleet, Tasks, and Operations: first aid and battlefield recovery can stabilize people or temporarily restore machinery, while proper treatment and repair may require a port, parts, credits, and weeks. Captured cargo, prisoners, and vessels have custody and title questions; reports, prize judgments, and warrants may travel long after the battle.

If command was lost, Command Loss Report is the mandatory next view. Incident shows Date and Location; any transmitted Declared identity, Transponder, and Declared class; the independent Sensor classification/confidence; Apparent authority; and Assessed threat. A dark or non-identifying contact may have no declared class. Standing Orders says whether automation responded, the chosen Response and Fallbacks, and whether the tactical controller acted. Outcome names the loss, ship, and damage. Personnel records captain and other crew fate. Material and Carriage lists owned and entrusted cargo, unique objects, fuel, and affected passengers. Proceedings says whether recovery is eligible or a successor is required. These are consequences to understand, not editable fields.

L opens the chronological Full Incident Log. Enter acknowledges the report and unlocks the available Command Recovery or succession action. Q leaves the game without acknowledging. Until recovery succeeds, V from the recovery surface reviews the report again. Bankruptcy can produce the same report-and-successor sequence. Recovery actions are shown only when the reported estate and career permit them; abandonment is separately warned and confirmed.

Before another plan, inspect crew strength and condition, ship systems and patches, fleet custody, tasks, fuel, provisions, ammunition, prizes, and warrants. A sensible first response is to read the summary, inspect the log only if the sequence matters, acknowledge, and then repair readiness before chasing the next objective.

Cepheus Trader has one shared universe that keeps advancing while players are offline. There is no instant interstellar network. Ships carry mail, contracts, reports, warrants, and market knowledge, so two captains can honestly possess different information about the same place.

Game time describes events in the universe. Real time is how long the server makes you wait for that interval. Always compare an observation date or ETA with the game clock, especially when money, deadlines, or danger depend on it.

When an outcome is uncertain, the game resolves a task using a relevant characteristic, skill, difficulty, circumstances, tools, help, condition, and time. A modifier--often called a DM--moves the result but does not turn skill into certainty.

Skill 0 is trained. No skill usually means an untrained penalty. The best person for a job may be a crew specialist rather than the captain, and injury, fatigue, morale, missing equipment, or too few helpers can change the attempt.

A ship's displacement tonnage is the volume of its hull, not cargo weight. Drives, tanks, cabins, weapons, boats, and machinery consume that volume before the remaining cargo and stores are counted. Performance therefore comes from trade-offs rather than a single power score.

The crew supplies continuous watches and specialist work. Named leaders may stand for appointments containing several people. Ownership, command, physical custody, and legal authority are separate: a naval captain can command a ship the captain does not own.

Tech Level, or TL, measures a world's scientific and production capability and the complexity it can manufacture locally. It is not the same as population, wealth, law, port class, or the capability of one particular facility. Imports can exceed local TL, while a poor port or closed yard can prevent work that the world's TL would otherwise permit.

The broad scale is: TL0: no technological base. TL1-3: primitive through early mass production and steam. TL4-6: industrialization, radio, electrification, combustion, fission, and increasingly capable computers. TL7-8: reliable orbital and then practical interplanetary travel. TL9: gravity technology and the first steps toward Jump. This is the lowest TL in Cepheus Trader's current vessel catalog. TL10-11: early interstellar technology and increasingly autonomous computers. TL12-14: mature interstellar technology, including advanced planetary engineering, armor, computers, and weapons. TL15 and higher: high stellar technology.

These examples explain the scale; they do not promise that every named technology is implemented as a game system. In play, compare TL with the actual port and facility. A world below TL9 can have a working port but no locally eligible ships for sale.

A star system contains separated places: the main world and port, Jump arrival loci, gas giants, downports, and wilderness sites. Ships spend real game time travelling between them, and even radio is delayed by light speed.

Jump rating is the maximum parsecs crossed in one Jump. Each Jump normally takes about a week of game time and consumes fuel based on the ship and rating. A longer course chains jumps through systems where fuel can be bought or collected. Thrust controls travel and maneuver outside Jump.

Speculative trade means buying cargo with your own money and risking where to sell it. Freight, passengers, and charters instead belong to agreements with capacity, skill, deadline, bond, and liability terms. A high payment can hide a difficult pickup, expensive berth, missing steward, or impossible schedule.

Offers and acceptances travel. Claiming can reserve resources before the issuer confirms that you won. Read who owns the goods, what must happen, when, and what is lost on failure.

Mail is electronic store-and-forward data. Within a system, mail beacons broadcast or relay it at light speed. Across a Jump boundary, a beacon downloads an electronic bundle to a departing ship and the destination beacon accepts the upload on arrival.

A captain can retain a signed claim or report aboard even without accepting a general beacon bundle. A report still has separate observation, creation, and receipt times; recent delivery does not make an old observation current.

Civilian ships normally transmit a transponder claiming a name, registry, and type. Traffic authorities can repeat those claims across a system. Your own sensors only detect local objects and estimate physical details according to equipment, range, damage, and circumstances.

Neither source is magical. A transponder can identify something too distant to attack; a local sensor contact can be physically present while withholding identity. Confidence and source matter.

Systems have different laws and enforcement. Authority can come from local government, naval service, a privateer commission, a warrant, or immediate necessity, and each permits different acts. Powerful weapons do not themselves make an inspection or arrest lawful.

Warrants move by mail and name people, while ship associations are investigative clues. Demands, searches, arrests, seizures, reports, courts, and bounties form a chain; skipping the evidence or delivery step can turn enforcement into piracy.

Space combat is expensive even for the winner. Ammunition, casualties, damaged drives, lost cargo, repair time, law, and retaliation can matter more than the immediate score. Boarding puts people directly at risk and can be used for inspection, arrest, surrender, or capture as well as piracy.

Because the universe continues while players are away, standing orders tell crews how to react. They can distinguish authority, demands, odds, targets, and escape chances, but they still operate with the crew's knowledge and ability.

Berth: A secured place where a ship is docked; departure may incur a fee.

Bond: Credits reserved as security for promised performance.

BBS: Bulletin Board System, the service through which this door identifies the local player.

Captain: The persistent player character and commander, not automatically the owner of the ship.

Characteristic: STR, DEX, END, INT, EDU, or CHA; a basic personal capability.

Claim: A response seeking an offered job; it is not an award until the issuer confirms it.

Cr: Credits, the standard money unit.

DM: Dice modifier, a bonus or penalty applied to a task.

Displacement ton: A ship-volume measure, not a tonne of cargo weight.

Entrusted cargo: Goods carried for another party rather than owned for resale.

ETA: Estimated game time of arrival.

Gas giant: A large planet where a suitably equipped ship may collect unrefined fuel.

Game time: Time inside the simulated universe.

Interplanetary: Normal-space travel between locations in one star system.

Jump: Faster-than-light travel between star systems, normally taking about one game week.

Jump rating or J-number: The maximum parsecs a ship can cross in one Jump.

Law level: A broad indication of local restrictions and enforcement.

Light-speed delay: The time a radio transmission needs to cross in-system distance.

Locus: A modeled local place where ships can meet, such as a port, Jump point, or gas giant.

Low berth: Suspended passenger accommodation whose occupant does not consume ordinary provisions while berthed.

Mailbag: The game's name for an electronic bundle downloaded from a beacon to a ship for one interstellar hop.

Parsec: The distance unit used by Jump routes, about 3.26 light years.

Picket: A ship waiting at a locus to intercept craft matching standing criteria.

Port class: A broad A-through-E or minimal rating of primary-world starport capability.

Refined fuel: Processed fuel that avoids the normal risks attached to unrefined fuel.

Restricted credits: Institutional funds usable for authorized service expenses, not ordinary personal cash.

Roster strength: The number of people currently represented by an appointment compared with its established complement.

Skill: Training in a category of work; rating 0 is trained competence.

Standing orders: Policy used by a crew when the player is not supplying immediate decisions.

Steward: Crew qualification needed to care for higher-class passengers.

System Common: The shared public, light-speed radio channel within one system.

Tech level: A world's scientific and production capability and the complexity it can manufacture locally; it is separate from port and facility capability.

Thrust: A ship's normal-space acceleration and maneuver performance.

Transponder: A broadcast claiming a ship's civilian identity and registry.

Unrefined fuel: Collected or minimally processed fuel carrying normal operational penalties.

Warrant: A legal instrument authorizing pursuit or arrest of a named subject.

Wall time: The real-world wait corresponding to a game duration at the current clock rate.