Difference between revisions of "Game interface"

Revision as of 14:55, 10 February 2016

Top page for in-game interface references. These pages cover most of Auroras screens and user interface elements, at least in brief. It does not necessarily tell you how to accomplish every task you might need to, but instead just describes what you see on the screen and what various options do.

See tutorials and the many other articles on this wiki to help you tie all of this together by describing the sequence of actions needed to accomplish various things in the game.

Initial Screen

Illustration

When you start up Aurora you will be greeted by a "Game Details" screen. This shows 'Basic Information' and 'Options' for the currently selected game. Usually some game run by Steve Walmsley, the creator of Aurora. You can tell what version you are using by looking at the top right of the screen

The 'Game name' dropdown at the top, allows you to switch between available games. Across the bottom are four buttons:

New: Opens the new game creation screen, where you can setup a new procedural generated galaxy.
Save: Save or update selected game 'Options'.
Delete: Permanently removes the currently selected game and any associated races and systems from the DB.
Select: Load the currently selected game and continue playing. Takes you to the Game main menu bar. If you accidentally press Select and get to this menu bar before setting up a game, you can go back to the Game Details window by pressing Ctrl+I or choosing Game Info from that menu.

Main Menu Bar

Illustration

Upon entering your newly created game, you will see the 'main menu bar' with your game name in the title. It affords access to most of the screens in Aurora, and is the only way to access certain functions. However, most of it's function is duplicated by the System Map F3 that is found in the 'Empires' sub-menu.

Empire

Key	Menu item	Function
`F2`	Economics
`F3`	System Map
`F4`	Commanders
`F5`	Class Design
`F6`	Ships
`F7`	Fighter Squadrons
`F9`	System Information	Lists every body in the current system, along with vital statistics.
`F11`	Galactic Map
`F12`	Task Groups
`Ctrl+F2`	View Race Details
`Ctrl+F3`	Event Log
...	...
`Ctrl+F8`	Production Overview	An overview of all Empires industrial, research and shipbuilding projects from all populations on a single window.
...	...

SpaceMaster

Gain access to basic SpaceMaster Mode functions.

Key	Menu item	Function
`Ctrl+S`	Spacemaster on
`Ctrl+O`	Spacemaster off
	Add Sol system
	Add Extra NPR	It will generate one NPR of TN Tech in a new system just like the NPRs you can generate at the beginning.
`Ctrl+F3`	Events Updates	A listing of events that occurred in your empire during the last turn.
`Shift+F9`	Fast OB Creation
`Ctrl+F9`	System Summary

Game parameters, Miscellaneous and Help

Reduced Height Widows - 1280x800 ?
Reset windows positions
Music on, Voice and Effects On

@@ Line 73: / Line 73: @@
 |
 |-
-| {{key|Ctrl+F8}} || [[#Production Overview|Production Overview]]
+| {{key|Ctrl+F8}} || [[Production Overview]]
-| An overview of all Empires industrial, research and shipbuilding projects from all populations.
+| An overview of all Empires industrial, research and shipbuilding projects from all populations on a single window.
 |-
 | ... || ...
 |
-|}
-====Production Overview====
-Provides an overview of all Empires industrial, research and shipbuilding projects from all populations on a single window. Items that will complete within 3 months are highlighted in green and items that will complete within a year are highlighted in light blue. There are four tabs - one each for Research, Shipbuilding and Industry and a fourth called Imminent Events. This last tab lists all items from all three sectors that will complete within three months, ordered by estimated completion date. This allows a player to quickly look at all of his major production tasks and see when they will be completed. It also has a subset of the time buttons so you can advance time from this window.
-In SM Mode, you can look at all Research, Shipbuilding and Industry tasks from all player races on the same window, which will make keeping track of multiple race campaigns MUCH easier. If you click on a task (either in player or SM mode), the Economics window will open for the appropriate combination of race, population and tab. Here are some screenshots from the NATO vs Soviet Union campaign using this new window in SM Mode.
-{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" width="100%"
-!screenshots
-|-
-|align=center|[[File:production overview-industry.png]]<br />[[File:production overview-shipbuilding.png]]<br />[[File:production overview-research.png]]<br />[[File:production overview-events.png]]
 |}

Aurora is on version 2.5.0 C#, available at the Aurora Forums.