Pilots Guide
This guide is designed to help a new or experienced pilot get the most out of their spacecraft. It uses the Falcon Delacy Sidewinder as an example but the concepts are applicable to all spacecraft in the universe of Elite: Dangerous.
Cockpit
Centre Area (from left to right)
The centre area shows important tactical information.
(1) Current target info
This shows textual info on the current target, e.g. their name, currently targeted sub system. If no target selected then it shows information on the system and shows a planet in the target holo.
(2) Current Target Holo
Shows a holographic image of the current target. Additional info provided include its shield strength, hull health, and where on the shield and hull shots are hitting.
(3) Internal Temperature Gauge
Displays the total temperature of the ship. Normally a ship runs with vents open, allowing the ship to radiate away its heat. If Silent Running Mode (see below) is engaged, heat will climb depending on the systems that are active (see below).
(4) Scanner
Displays the surrounding area, objects are displayed depending on their position to the player's ship. Colours denote hostile targets, neutral and also show other large objects such as large asteroids. The contacts on the scanner are picked up by a combination of heat and distance. Hot ships can be picked up at a much further distance than cooler ones.
Scanner Icons
- Green is friendly.
- Yellow is neutral.
- Red is hostile.
- Red flashing white is shooting at player.
- Square means weapons not deployed.
- Triangle weapons deployed.
- Solid is NPC.
- Outline is player.
- Flickering yellow shows a possible or unresolved contact. Move closer to validate it and get a full lock on.
(5) Speed Gauge
Shows the current speed. The indicator that moves is the throttle set, the bar then rises and falls as the fly-by-wire system matches the ships actual speed with the desired speed. Engine Boost will accelerate the ship further, reaching speeds beyond the ship's max speed. Once the boost subsides, it will slowly drop back to the indicator speed.
The blue zone on the speed gauge shows the speed range within which the ship is most manoeuvrable (generally around 50% full thrust).
(6) Ship Holo
A holo showing the current state of the ship, its orientation, shield status, hull health.
(7) Power Capacitor Gauges
Represents the capacitors of the ship as 3 bars: SYS / ENG / WEP. Energy in a capacitor (displayed by the fill status of each bar) allows the connected ships systems to charge faster, overheat less or provide more energy. Power can be reallocated to enhance certain aspects of the ship in favour of decreasing others. The points below each bar are called 'pips' and represent the power distribution among the 3 capacitors.
Capacitors with more pips assigned to them will recharge faster. Capacitors with no pips will not recharge their associated ship systems at all.
SYS - Systems
Shield and ships systems take energy from this capacitor. The more energy here the faster shields will recharge. Pips in this capacitor will influence the overall strength of the shields.
ENG - Engines
Boosting uses up energy from the engine capacitor, a boost can only be activated if there is a sufficient amount of energy stored. Pips in this capacitor will also influence the ship's maximum speed, optimum maneuverability range, and top boost speed.
WEP - Weapons
Energy in this capacitor will allow weapons to cool faster, slowing the overheating process. When weapons are fired, energy is drained. A higher number of pips allows more shots to be fired before thermal overload and quicker time to full cooldown.
(8) Signature
Shows how "visible" the ship is to another ships sensors. The waveform indicates heat signature, thus a flatter The flatter wave means the ship is less visible and will be harder to be resolved as a contact by other ships. Enabling silent running mode stop all heat emissions, but will build up heat in the ship. A ship can only withstand a certain amount of heat before taking damage.
Heat sinks can be used to temporarily cool the ship by heating them up and ejecting them.
Left Side Panel (Contacts Panel)
This panel shows Contacts and Subsystems for the selected contact. On this panel a target from the ship's scanner can be selected. It shows the type of target, the hull health and shield health.
The Subsystems panel shows more information on the selected target (once scanned). Here specific sub-systems can be targeted, and their health is displayed.
Right Panel (Systems Panel)
This panel has two important sub-panels: Modules, Fire Groups
Modules
The modules panel shows each system module of the ship, its health, and the type and the amount of power it draws from the power planet (this translates in to heat generated).
From systems can be turned on/off and re-prioritized. Prioritization affects which systems will shut down first if the ship cannot sustain energy flow for all modules (due to damage to the power plant).
Disabled systems don't draw power and thus don't generate heat. Total power usage and heat generated are shown below the list.
Fire Groups
Ships can hold multiple weapons of all varieties and kinds, e.g. a Beam weapons, Missile Launchers, Heat Sinks. Fire groups can be assigned to weapons. Yellow squares represent the primary, blue the secondary. Multiple fire groups can be created - e.g. missile as primary, beam as secondary in fire group 1, heat sink as primary and beam as secondary in fire group 2. Fire groups can be switched on the fly using the cycle fire group button.
On the first single-player combat mission there is only one fire group with both weapons assigned as primary - so they both fire when the trigger is pressed. A player could set up another fire group and assign only one gun to each of the two fire groups. It will help to try around with this to get a good understanding of the mechanic.
Centre top
(9) Proximity
The two elongated white panels (with the red lights in) actually flash red or yellow depending on if in proximity to another object, like an asteroid. These panels may be in a different location or have a different shape depending on the ship's type.