Game FAQ
So by this time, you've checked the Quickstart and have a basic understanding of what happens in game. But you've got more questions. Good thing you came here!
How do I speak on the radio?
Radio chatter is an essential part of the game. Joining the conversation is quite simple and mainly depends on the type of headset Nanotrasen provided you with. No special access or equipment is typically required for:
| Channel | Frequency | Prefix | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| General | 145.9 | say ;[your message] | |
| Hand-held radios | varies | say :lh / :rh [your message] | Speak into a radio held in your left or right hand respectively. |
| Intercoms | varies | say :in [your message] | You have to be within range or it won't work. |
| Devices with an open mic | varies | N/A | Range may still be a factor (radio in your inventory vs. on the floor). |
If you have a job-specific headset such as engineering, medical or security, one or more department-specific channels are available to you.
| Channel | Frequency | Prefix | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job-specific | varies | say :h | All-purpose prefix for the regular version. |
| Command | 135.8 | say :h | For fancy command headsets. |
| Robotic | N/A | say :s | For cyborgs, the AI and people with a machine translator implant. |
| AI's internal radios | varies | say :1 / :2 / :3 | Available to the AI, AI shells and AI-controlled cyborgs. Each prefix controls one of the three radios, the settings of which can be manipulated with the Access Internal Radios panel of the mainframe itself. |
| AI's private channel | 144.7 | N/A, tune in manually. | In case PDA messaging is unavailable. The mainframe monitors 144.7 by default. |
This list is not complete (see Clothing for further information). If in doubt, simply examine your earpiece by right-clicking on it to get an overview of all supported frequencies.
I'm a traitor (or other antagonist), what do I do?
Remember that your objectives are just a suggestion. You can complete them if you want but it's fine to ignore your objectives completely and just murder people if you wish. However, it's probably best to adminhelp if you don't intend to do anything traitorous at all so that a new traitor can be appointed.
How do I open containers?
There are a few ways:
- Hand-held containers: Drag the sprite to your character sprite. As mentioned further down, this is also how you loot other characters.
- Lockers and crates: Open and close by clicking on them. Standing on top of a locker while closing it will put you inside.
- Cigarette packs and pill bottles: Hold the item in one hand, click it with your other (empty) hand.
- Satchels: Special equipment that miners and botanists get. Drag an item (seed, fruit or ore) onto it and you will start pulling all items of that type adjacent to you into the satchel. Click the satchel to dump everything in it on your tile. Click a table to dump it out there, or a suitable machine (the mining fabricator, mainly) to fill it with the contents.
- Crates can be filled by dragging items on top of them, much like satchels.
- Sleepers, cryo chambers and genetic scanners accept people. Have one grabbed and click on the container to put them in, right-click it and select "Eject" to get them back out.
- The machines in artlab accept large artifacts. Drag the artifact to the machine to put it in, drag from the machine to an adjacent tile to pull the artifact back out. You, the machine and the artifact all have to be adjacent for this to work.
How do I loot people or put items onto them?
Drag their sprite onto yours, click the item you want to remove. To add an item to them, hold the item in your active hand and click on the slot which the item fits in.
I was arrested, how do I remove handcuffs?
Click the resist button and wait a minute or so (longer if you're laying down). You have to stay still while removing your handcuffs. If you're moved around, you'll be interrupted and have to start over! Other people can also remove them for you using the method in the question above.
How do I buckle people to chairs?
Drag their sprite onto the chair sprite. This will buckle them in. You can unbuckle them by clicking on the chair, or they can do so themselves.
Why am I so slow?
The game sometimes slows down massively, making you (and everyone else) move at a pace of a few tiles every half minute. If it's not that, check the following:
- Are you wounded? That will slow you down. Having one or both your legs missing will also severely slow you down, if that wasn't obvious. Observing yourself will reveal if you're missing any limbs.
- Are you cold? That will slow you down a lot. Being cold is also often caused by being near a hull breach, and hull breaches tend to slow down the game overall.
- Are you wearing some kind of emergency suit, or not wearing shoes? That'll do it.
- Did you accidentally click the "walk" button?
Are there any handy shortcut buttons?
For a list ingame, use the 'Hotkeys' command in the command bar.
| F1 | Use adminhelp. |
| F3 | Use mentorhelp. |
| ALT + C | Speak in OOC. |
| ALT + L | Speak in LOOC (Local OOC). |
| ALT + Click | Examines object. |
| SHIFT + Click | Throws item in your active hand. |
| CTRL + Click | Pull object. |
| CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + Click | Displays all the objects on the selected tile on the right-hand info box. The objects can be interacted like normally: picked up, examined, etc. |
| Page Up or Middle Click | Change your active hand. |
| Page Down | Uses item in active hand as if you clicked on it. |
| Home | Drops item in your active hand. |
| Del | Toggle throw mode. |
| CTRL + P | Toggle point mode. Move the mouse cursor over an object and click to point at it. |
| CTRL + Up and CTRL + Down | Scroll through command history. Highlight the command bar first. |
Cyborg/AI only
| CTRL + Click | Open closed door / close open door. |
| SHIFT + Click | Bolt / unbolt door. |
| Numbers 1-3 | Selects your item slots respectively (WASD only). |
| Number 4 | Deselects your active item slot (WASD only). |
| CTRL + B | Use the *birdwell emote. |
Space pod controls
| Space | Fire main weapon. |
WASD mode
An AZERTY compatibility mode can be activated by using the aptly-named Toggle AZERTY verb. If WASD mode was already set, you have to disable and then re-enable it before you can use the new layout.
| Tab | Toggles WASD mode on/off. |
| Numbers 1-4 | Selects your intent: Help, Disarm, Grab, Harm respectively. |
| W A S D | Move up, left, down and right respectively. |
| Z Q S D | The AZERTY equivalent. |
| E | Switch your active hand. |
| C | Uses item in active hand as if you clicked on it. |
| V | Equip the item in your activate hand if possible. Identical to the HUD button. |
| T | Talk. |
| G | Switches your keyboard input's focus to the command bar. |
| X | Toggle throw mode. |
| P | Toggle point mode. |
| B | Point shortcut. Hold down and release B over an object to point at it. |
| Q | Drop item in active hand. |
| F | Fart. |
| ALT + S | Juggle items, honk. Equivalent to the *spin/*juggle emotes. |
Emotes
| CTRL + A | *salute |
| CTRL + B | *burp |
| CTRL + D | *dance |
| CTRL + E | *eyebrow |
| CTRL + F | *fart |
| CTRL + G | *gasp |
| CTRL + H | *raisehand |
| CTRL + L | *laugh |
| CTRL + N | *nod |
| CTRL + Q | *wave |
| CTRL + R | *flip |
| CTRL + S | *scream |
| CTRL + W | *wink |
| CTRL + X | *flex |
| CTRL + Y | *yawn |
| CTRL + Z | *snap |
What happens after I die?
There's a chance you'll be revived if someone finds your body and drags it to the medbay before the chef finds it. In the meantime, you can type observe to keep your camera focused on one specific player or ghost to spectate the station freely.
See Ghost for details.
Everything on my screen is white/rainbow colors, what's going on?
If you can see icons but everything outside of arrivals is covered in white squares, click this link for instructions.
If you can't see any icons/can only see your HUD and everything else is a white screen, see this forum thread for instructions.
If everything looks like it's covered in rainbows, update BYOND. Updating your Direct X will also help resolve this issue, go here to Microsoft's website.
If you are on the escape shuttle and all you can see is the wormhole background, update to the latest version of BYOND.
What do I do if my question isn't answered here?
Use the mentorhelp command in game or press F3. Mentors are community volunteers who know a lot and are happy to share their knowledge. If you run across a question in game, you can always use the mentorhelp command, and if a mentor or admin is on you can expect a quick and efficient answer. Mentorhelps also show up in the admin as well as mentor IRC, so it's worth asking even if there are no mentors online as someone might see it and answer.
Do not discuss anything identifying (such as your name or where you are) with your mentor. This is considered metagaming and is frowned upon. Acting on information about the current round gained via mentorhelp (such as the identity of antagonists) is not allowed.
For more details, see Mentorhelp.