Manual

Pioneer is a space adventure game set in the Milky-way galaxy at the turn of the 31st century. The game is open-ended, and you are free to explore the millions of star systems in the game. You can land on planets, slingshot past gas giants, and burn yourself to a crisp flying between binary star systems.

This work-in-progress manual provides a brief overview of the game.

Main menu

• Start at Earth: You start the game in the Solar system, on Earth, at London Spaceport with an outfitted Sinonatrix. It can be considered an easy start. Sol is the capitol of the Solar Federation
• Start at New Hope: You start in Epsilon Eridani, the capitol of the Commonwealth of Independend Worlds. Your Pumpkinseed stands on Itzalean Spaceport on New Hope. This is a bit more difficult starting point then Earth. Itzalean is in an area of frequent solar eclipses.
• Start at Barnard's Star: You start on the dock of High Security Prison Tranquility, orbiting Barnard's Star, not far from Sol. You have a poorly outfitted Xylophis, so you can consider it a difficult start.
• Load Game: You can load previously saved games here. Saves created with older versions of Pioneer might not load. This usually happens when some mayor thing changes in the game.
• Options: you can access Pioneer's Settings Menu. You can set up graphics, controls, volumes or language for example.
• Quit: Exit the game.

Info View

You can access various information by pressing F3, or the Info View button on the dashboard.

Ship Information

Hyperdrive & Hyperspace range

The class of hyperdrive installed on the ship. Higher class hyperdrives are heavier, but can jump to greater distances. Common hyperdrives consume Hydrogen, which can be bought on stations, or could be scooped from the atmosphere of gas giants, if the ship has a Fuel Scoop installed.

Military Drives are generally faster, but they use Military fuel, which is more expensive, harder to obtain. Military drives turn fuel into Radioactives.

Current Hyperspace range is displayed based on ship mass and the amount of fuel in the cargo hold. You can see the theoretical maximum range shown in brackets. Shows information regarding your spaceship

Mass data

• Weight empty: Dry mass of the ship, without any cargo or propellant.
• Capacity used: Used and available cargo and equipment capacity of the ship.
• Fuel weight: Amount of propellant, and the maximum capacity of the tanks. Propellant is Water. Tanks are refilled upon docking or landing on a station, if the player has enough money ($1-6 usually). It's possible to buy extra Water in the Commodity Market for in-flight refill.
• All-up weight: Sum of hull, cargo and propellant mass.

Weapons

Cannons installed on front and rear facing hard-point.

Fuel & Delta-v

Propellant and delta-v reserves. Delta-v shows, how much speed change can be done using the propellant in the tanks. Generally, more delta-v means faster in-system travel.

For a brachistochrone transfer (accelerating halfway, then decelerating) you can use up half of the delta-v. If you exceed that, then you will be unable to stop your ship. It's useful to save a good amount of delta-v (about 500-1000 km/s) for course corrections and landing.

Delta-v display doesn't take additional Water in the cargo hold into account, so refilling can increase it. Ship mass can also change delta-v capability dramatically.

Accelerations

Shows the acceleration the ship is capable with it's current load. Displayed both in m/s^2 and Gee. A ship with higher acceleration will feel faster, especially around station. It affects travel times less then delta-v.

If Up acceleration is higher then the gravity of the planet, then the ship might not be able to take off or land, especially using the autopilot.

Acceleration increases while the ship uses it's propellant, and can be further increased by jettisoning cargo. Selling cargo or equipment can help too.

Crew

Minimum crew shows the needed head count to fly the ship (currently ignored). Crew cabin shows the crew capacity of the craft.

Crew can control the ship, engage the enemy or repair damages. Each crew member has strengths and weaknesses, their abilities improve by time.

Equipment

Shows the list of installed equipment.

Personal Information

Shows information about your character. Currently only rank and combat ratings are available.

You can also change your name and gender. Face can be changed here too.

Economy & Trade

Shows the contents of the cargo hold in detail, and allows in-flight refueling. You can find the list of cargo in your hold, and you can jettison any of them here. Refueling transfers 1t of Water to the propellant tanks, if there's available. Available and occupied cabin space can be checked here too.

Missions

Shows information about accepted missions.

Crew Roster

You can access information of your crew. You can issue commands to them here too.