Getting Started

Too much to read in too little time? Try this this quick tutorial made by admin that can be read in just a few minutes!

So, you've never played the game before and you're looking to get started. Sweet. New players are totally awesome and there are a ton of people playing on the servers who would love to help you get going. However, even they can't help you if you don't have an understanding of how the very basics work. Let's get started on that!

Connecting

Step 1: Download BYOND

Build Your Own Net Dream (or BYOND for short) is the platform that Space Station 13 runs on. We aren't going to lie - it's pretty bad. It's mostly held together with equal parts duct tape and prayer, and it took numerous attempts to work around the slipshod code to make it so it could be played with minimal latency. You will likely be cursing BYOND at least once. The sooner you get used to this, the better off you'll be.

It doesn't really matter whether you pick the .zip or .exe file. Both give you basically the same BYOND client. But installing by the .exe will allow you to join servers via links in an internet browser, such the ones on this very wiki's main page or Goonhub.

Step 2: Log in

As we don't allow guest accounts to join our servers, you'll have to register an account with BYOND and log in to it on your fancy new BYOND client. If you miss this step, you'll probably get a "connection closed" error.

Step 3: Find the appropriate server

File:SS13BYOND2014.png

Where to find Goonstation in the BYOND game browser.

Since the vanilla version of Space Station 13, many servers have branched out in their own ways and developed many different ideas. Many have borrowed code from one another, but most of them are different in some way. Given that you're reading up on Goonstation, you're going to want to look for Goonstation Roleplay and Goonstation, followed by a station name, the current game mode for that server (e.g. "mode: secret"), a website link, and (Previously LLJK). The exact server name will differ from the picture, but the "Goonstation" part will always be there. There are currently three official servers:

Goonstation: The standard Goonstation experience and codebase. Goonstation, often just called Goon or Goon #2 (its old name), usually has a good number of people to play with and ask for help from. If you're starting out, this is good place to learn the basic mechanics of the game.

Goonstation Roleplay: The Goonstation roleplaying server, often abbreviated to just Goon RP or referred by its old name Goon RP #1. Same codebase as Goonstation, same Rules but with added light (but very important) RP Rules and toned-down motives, a basic simulation of hunger, thirst, hygiene, and energy. Somewhat less populated, but rounds (and lives), tend to last longer. Players here are often glad to personally guide you through things, so it's good place to learn the ins and outs of jobs once you've got basic mechanics down.

Goonstation Roleplay Overflow: Same as Goonstation Roleplay, but tends to have less people around. Intended to take on extra players when Goonstation and Goonstation Roleplay get so many players it starts lagging the server too much.

Goonstation Overflow: Same as Goonstation, but smaller pop, so it's less laggy and a little more cozy. Similar to RP Overflow, it's intended to take on extra players to ease server load.

If you can't connect via the BYOND Hub, try clicking the links on the Main Page or Goonhub or directly connecting to the server through the Open... button in the top left above the list of games (Goon RP's server/port identifier is byond://goon1.goonhub.com:26100/, Goon's is byond://goon2.goonhub.com:26200/, Goon RP Overflow's is byond://goon3.goonhub.com:26300, Goon Overflow's byond://goon4.goonhub.com:26400).

Fundamentals

Game Startup

Welcome!

Successfully connecting to a server will bring you to the screen shown to the right. It's very likely that you'll catch any given server in the middle of a round. The menu options when you just join are:

Character Setup -- Has a bunch of options to choose from, which is broken down into the collapsible below:

Option	Description
Profile name	Sets the profile name of your current save file.
Character name	Sets the name of your character in game.
Random name?	Y/N - if you want your name randomized every round. Picks from a pool of unusual names.
Random appearance?	Y/N - ditto, but with your appearance. Does not randomize gender.
Gender	Purely cosmetic, as you can still wear women's clothing as a male, or have a full-grown wizard beard as a woman.
Age	Has very minor effects in the game, one of which affects the tone of your voice clips, which are used for stuff like screaming, gasping and farting.
Blood type	Has a minor interaction with MSG, but otherwise has no effect.
Bank pin (Randomize - Y/N)	Sets the pin of your ID card for use at ATMs. Check your Notes in the command tab if you forget it. Can be selected to be randomized.
Security Note	Whatever you put here shows up as an Important Note in your Secmate record. It has no effect on gameplay and is entirely for roleplaying purposes, so put whatever you'd expect a Security record to have, like the one time you ran a gambling ring or attended a Harambeist party rally.
Medical Note'	Whatever you put here shows up as an Important Note in your MedTrak entry. Again, it's entirely for enhancing roleplaying and is meant for things like mental disorders your character has/may have or medications they're on and what conditions they're treating.
Fart Sound	Choose between shrill squeak to a more trumpety sounding bowel movement.
Scream Sound	Unfortunately no Wilhelm scream option, but plenty of pained yelling to choose from.
Chat Sound	Choose what tuba clip you'll make when talking as a human.
Occupation choices	Allows you to choose which jobs you would prefer to have or not have. Until you get a hang of the game, you probably don't want to mess with tricky jobs. If you set a job as "Unwanted", you are usually guaranteed not to get it - you'll be a staff assistant if nothing else is available. If the game has already begun, you don't need to bother setting your Occupation Choices, since you'll be choosing your job from the late available list. Down on the bottom are the Antagonist options. By default, all of them are crossed out, which means you won't spawn as those antag types at roundstart. (You can spawn as late-joining antagonist, but it's nothing you should worry about.) You can leave these that way until you've a better grasp of the game.
Trait choices	Gives your character a bunch of buffs and debuffs or if you want your character to hefe-a eccent Bork Bork Bork! Please note that in order for your character to have more than one buff you'll have to balance it out with a debuff. Recommended that you don't mess with these settings until you get a full understanding how useful (or detrimental) this would be to your character. A list of traits and their particular mechanics can be found here.
Appearance	Customize what your character looks like, from skin color, underwear to hair and general features. Click on the arrows to get different views of your character. Note that your characters details can be changed by the Barber, or can be changed completely by the Geneticist.
HUD style	Changes the appearance of your Heads Up Display. There's not much difference between each style besides colors used, so free to pick one that suits your tastes! For more info on your HUD see below.
Targeting cursor	Changes what your targeting cursor will look like. This cursor is only used in abilities such as wrestler or wizard's spells, etc.
Display OOC / LOOC chat?	Displays whether Out of Character speak is displayed. OOC is enabled pre-round and at round end, mainly for discussion about the previous or previous round. LOOC is Local OOC, however, this is essentially obsolete. Best to keep these both on, you can always toggle OOC on/off in the Commands tab.
View Changelog automatically?	Automatically displays the Changelog upon booting up the game. The changelog displays new updates to the game.
View score info automatically?	Automatically displays a bunch of interesting information (such as the amount of corpses, richest escapee, if the station was powered, etc) at the end of the round.
View tickets/fines automatically?	Automatically displays the list of recorded "offenses" by Security at the end of the round.
Queue Combat Clicks?	The game has a minimum wait time in between actions for balance reasons. If you click during the post-action delay, the action will be executed as soon as the delay ends. Basically, you will only have to click once on stuff, while with before during the action delay clicking something may not be registered.
Admin music volume	Occasionally admins will play music in the background, or players may be given DJ status to allow play music themselves. Either way, this option allows you to change the volume of the music playing. Note that you can adjust the music volume in-game via Adjust Admin Music Volume or mute it entirely via Stop the Music!, both of which are in the Audio menu in the top left corner of the game window.
Radio Music Volume	This option lets you control the volume of the server-wide music/ads playing at the radio station somewhere in the Debris Field. You can also adjust the volume in-game via Adjust Radio Music Volume or mute it entirely via Stop the Radio!, both of which are in the Audio menu in the top left corner of the game window.
Display Tooltips?	Tooltips basically give you a quick rundown of an item when you mouse over it, which can be nifty for a few items. If these get annoying, set this option to Disabled, or set it to ALT, where tooltips will only display if you hold Alt over an item.
Default to WASD mode / Use AZERTY layout	Change your keyboard layout. WASD/AZERTY layout has different keyboard shortcuts, which can be found here.
Preferred map?	A few minutes before the round, the server opens up a poll for the next round's map. You'll automatically vote for whatever map you set as your preferred here, unless you manually select for a different one.
Save/load profile / cloud saving	Saves/loads your customized character, with 5 slots available. Occasionally BYOND likes to forget that you even saved your profile, resulting in most if not all of your data going AWOL. A fix for this would be to use my cloud save function, as this is saved externally.

Declare Ready -- Hit this to play. If the round is in the pre-game countdown, you will be assigned a role based on your preferences and placed in your workplace when the game starts. If the round has already begun, you'll get a popup asking you to pick an available job, and you will begin on the arrival shuttle.

In addition, whenever you hit Declare Ready, you'll also get a popup asking you if want to spend some Spacebux for the round. Spacebux are an out-of-game currency Goonstation awards you with for playing through rounds, and you can spend them on a number of cute little trinkets and baubles. Feel free to skip it; it's nothing to worry about.

Observe Round -- Fly around as a ghost and see everything that's going on. If you choose this, you can't switch to being a player until the next round.

The UI

Take it a bit at a time.

The user interface is a bit tricky at first.

The left side of the screen is the game window. It is centered on your character. You can move around with the arrow keys, or toggle WASD mode via Game -> Interface. The right side of the screen is the info box and chat window. At the bottom of the screen is a text parser where you can type in what you want to say or certain commands.

To talk out loud, you say "whatever" or press the T key.
To talk over the radio, you say ";whatever". For more info, check out How do I speak on the radio?!
To get help from a mentor, enter mentorhelp and a popup box will appear. You can also press F3. Please do not confuse this with adminhelp, which is for issues related to the rules, also please do not ask if mentors will kill somebody for you.

Interacting

An overview of the user interface as a human.

In the game window, left clicking is the basic interaction. It's based on your hands. At the bottom of the screen is your character interface. You have a right and a left hand, and the highlighted hand is your current active hand. You can click your other hand slot to switch hands. PgUp, E in WASD Mode, X with /tg/code keys on and the MMB all switch your active hand too.

How your character interacts depends on what's in your hands, what you are interacting with, and what your intent is - the four small, colored hand icons. Clicking something with an empty hand will often try to pick it up (if an object), use it (if machinery), or shake/grab/punch it (if another player or creature). If you have something in your hands, you will attempt to use it on whatever you're targeting. Things in the world react differently to different objects, and if nothing else happens, the default action is to simply hit the targeted object with whatever is in your hand (so be careful about clicking other players with anything that might be mistaken for a weapon). You will get feedback on your actions in the chat window (not illustrated) on the right.

Right-clicking on a thing brings up a menu list of verbs. Common verbs are Examine (gives a description of whatever), Pull, Pick Up, or Drop. Verbs may change depending on the object and how close you are to it.

Equipment & Indicators

The row at the bottom of the screen shows your equipment and inventory. You can click the toggle inventory (INV) button to bring up/close an extension showing equipped clothing. If you click the INV button with something in your active hand, you will automatically equip it if possible. If there is already an object in the relevant spot, it will switch places with whatever is in your active hand. If you're accessing the inventory of something you're wearing, e.g. a backpack, it'll also try to store it in there. If you don't, it'll try to put it in your pockets.

Your backpack, belt, and pockets are extra places to store things. Simply click an empty slot with your active hand to stow away whatever you've got (if it will fit). Clicking your backpack with an empty hand will bring up a small window showing everything in it, and dragging and dropping the sprites of the items inside will move them around the backpack's inventory. The contents of backpacks and other hand-held storage containers (box, briefcase, toolbox, belt, first-aid kits and certain pill bottles) can be dumped out in a pinch. Hold the container in your hand and then drag & drop it onto a table or floor tile. You can also take things out of a container without picking it up by dragging and dropping it onto your character.

At the top right-side corner of the game screen is the health indicator. You begin at 100 and your indicator will turn red as you take more damage. If you enter critical health, you will occasionally lose consciousness and be unable to interact until you recover. Other health indicators may appear adjacent and typically mean that there is something wrong/dangerous about the area you are in.

Also located there is the stamina indicator, which governs your endurance. By default, your stamina total is 200 and regenerates at a rate of 10 per tick - click on the indicator to find out about your current status. Every offensive or defensive combat interaction with a player (like attacking or disarming them) will drain stamina. You may also use stamina to move significantly faster by holding the SHIFT key. Once your stamina reaches less than 0 you will be unable to talk, stand up or even interact with any items. Your odds in combat can be improved with a variety of drugs and by wearing protective clothing.

Body temperature is another important aspect. If it's too cold, you'll move at a crawl. You'll take burn damage as well when you're standing on a space tile. This status takes a while to go away, even if you move into a room with a normal temp. Space HVAC units, certain exosuits and hot beverages will help you heat up. If it's too hot, that's usually an indicator that you're on fire. If you can't find a fire extinguisher, use the stop-drop-and-roll technique. To do this, click the RESIST button, which will automatically make you roll until the flames have been extinguished.

Context-sensitive icons can appear in the top left-side corner of the screen. Many items have a unique HUD icon, such as portable light sources or gas tanks. Holding a fire extinguisher gives you the option to spray foam all around you, for instance.

The toggle ability bar button is only relevant if you have superpowers. It will add one or several clickable icons to the top of the screen, each representing one of your genetic abilities. Content-sensitive and superpower icons cannot be displayed at the same time.

Other Controls

There are other buttons on your main interface:

Intent settings determine what you will do when you interact with another person or creature and have an empty active hand. The top left/green hand is Help, which will shake someone up or attempt CPR. The top right/yellow hand is Disarm, which tries to knock something out of someone's hands. The bottom left/orange hand is Grab, which is aggressive and can lead to choking someone. The bottom right/red fist is Harm, which will punch or kick someone.
The small picture of a person is the target settings. It determines which part of the body you want to target when you are interacting with another player. You don't really need to worry about this if you're just starting out, but it is essential for surgery.
Throw toggles throw mode. Once in throw mode, clicking on a floor tile/person/etc will then throw the item in that direction. You can toggle throw mode by SPACE, X if you're in WASD Mode, or R if you have /tg/code keys on.
Drop is also fairly straight-forward. You'll drop the item in your active hand on whatever tile you're on. The WASD hotkey for this is Q.
Run/Walk toggles between movement speeds. You generally want to stick with run.
Pull will, depending on the interface style chosen, will have an orange border or be highlighted if you are currently dragging something, and you can click on it to release the object. The keyboard shortcut for this is the CTRL key.
Resist has a few specific applications, such as slowly putting out a fire if you're on fire, breaking out of handcuffs or shackles, and escaping from aggressive grabs.
Stand/Rest toggles between standing up or lying down and crawling. This is also the button to use when you're asleep in a bed and want to wake up.

Gameplay

Getting Around

When you join the game before roundstart, you will spawn in either your workspace (depending on whatever job you've been assigned), or, if you're on Clarion or Destiny, one of the many crew dorm rooms. If you join after a round's started, then depending on the map, you will spawn on the arrival shuttle (Cogmap1/Cogmap2), pop out of the industrial cryogenics unit (Clarion/Destiny/Linemap), or find yourself in a pod careening straight into the Arrivals area (Oshan Lab).

In any case, you don't have to worry about doing your job or anything like that. The AI, security officers, and the captain have some obligations to be aware of, but otherwise, you're free to wander around exploring at your leisure. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the station. Feel free to ask a local crew member or ask over the radio for help if you're lost.

Cogmap2Cogmap1DestinyClarionLinemapOshanKondaru