NEW PLAYER GUIDE

Some things that are not immediately obvious are:

* Press f10 to see your frame rate and your ping rate. If you have low frame rate try lowering the resolution and disable star clouds.

* TAB shows score at any time in the game, ping rates for all players are also shown in the list.

Choosing ship

While we strive to keep all ships balanced, they are given very different attributes. Some attributes (or lack of) makes ships hard to use for beginners. While preferences among people differ, we've found that most beginners find a ship with not too high velocity, high acceleration and decent turning ability easy to control. Also high health and shields are to prefer as that will help you stay alive longer.

Some ships we think are well suited for beginners:

SHUTTLE	This is probably the ship we'd recommend first to a new player. It can take alot of damage, second only to the big ships. It is easy to handle, due to it's low velocity. It's only drawback is it's inability to use the dodge move, which for a new player is no drawback at all. And even a lot of *-players never use the dodge move. It's lower than average turning ability makes it easier to aim when shooting at a distance. In the hands of a good pilot this ship can be a fearsome advesary with it's ability to cope with alot of damage.
SLAVE	Superb handling, and able to use the dodge move. Compared to SHUTTLE it cannot take as much damage, but still alot compared to most other ships. It's fast turning ability might make it hard to aim for some people.
JUDGE	Similar to SLAVE in many ways, the difference is that JUDGE is a bit slower, but in return it can take a bit more damage. Both SLAVE and JUDGE are very capable ships in the right hands.

If you want to try out a ship with more speed, we recommend using PHANTOM or MAULER, both excellent ships, and first pick ships for some *-players.

In the mid range there is FIREBIRD, GOLDCLAW among others. These ships can't take as much damage, but have very good handling and should be easy to use with a little experience.

The big ships EXECUTOR and DESTROYER are both great picks for the novice. Both can take alot of damage, EXECUTOR with it's triple lasers is very dangerous even without powerups. DESTROYER on the other hand is much easier to handle. These ships will give you an upper hand against most other novice players, but experienced players will have no trouble taking you down because of the easy target the big ships make.

NOVA, FIREFLY, SPIDER, JUGGERNAUT, DREADNOUGHT are not for the beginners. These ships are fast, the three first can take very little damage so you need excellent skills, while the last two are harder to handle than most other ships.

Some hints to make you a better player:

• When your shield / health goes low, leave the current fight to pick up health packs, this way you will stay alive much longer and not have to collect all weapons again.
• Get the bonus shield as often as possible, a great way to extend your life time.
• Get some extra weapons as soon as you respawn. While it can be tempting to go fighting straight away, you will stand a better chance with some good weapons.
• Practise strafing early on, it is the key ability to be able to avoid enemy fire. When you handle strafing good start practising dodge move (pressing twice in the same direction, also works forward and backward).
• Use strafing when you turn, to get a much better controlled turning ability. (Strafe in the same direction as you turn).
• Use the shocker (sound wave) to pluck down enemy fire while trying to escape.
• Use missiles to kill someone using the shocker.
• Don't use the low health, small fast ships in the beginning. They require alot of practise to be good (hull equal or below 100 will make it hard for you to stay alive). Good beginner ships generally have: High health/shields, high acceleration, a bit lower velocity.