The Basics

Shores of Hazeron is primarily played from a first person perspective, all windows and menus are modular windows that can be moved and re-sized as desired.

Mouse-Look Vs Hand-Cursor

The hand cursor.

In mouse-look mode the player is in control of their character. Moving the mouse changes the direction the character is looking.

In hand-cursor mode, the player has a cursor that looks like a hand when over the main scene. In this mode the player is also able to use any window and buttons in on the UI. The hand cursor is also used to pick up items in the main scene. While in hand cursor mode all keyboard controls are disabled.

Movement

While in mouse-look mode, you are able to move your character.

By default the movement keys are as follows:

• W S A D

  Moves the players character forward, backwards, and also strafes left and right.

• SHIFT

  Sprint/Run.

• CAPS-LOCK

  Hold to crouch and release to stand.

• X

  Toggle between going prone (laying flat on the ground) and standing.

• SPACE

  Jump.

  In zero-G it is used to brake.

• E

  Enter/Exit vehicle, turret, chair, bed, attach/detach from a ladder.

• C

  In zero-G it is used to ascend.

  When attached to a ladder, it is used to climb up.

• Z

  In zero-G it is used to descend.

  When attached to a ladder, it is used to climb down.

For more information, see the Controls page.

HUD

The HUD is fairly simple.

Status bars

• 
  • Hunger
  • Indicates how hungry the character is. The lower it is, the more hungry.
• 
  • Stamina
  • Indicates how much the character can sprint and jump.
• 
  • Health
  • Indicates the physical health of the character.

Orientation

• 
  • Mini-Avatar
  • The mini avatar is a way to view the avatar as an alternate to 3rd person view (Shift+Backspace by default). Players can see their avatars actions as everyone else in the game would see them.
• 
  • Mini-Avatar Orientation
  • In most instances the mini-avatar will face in the direction the player is currently facing in relation to a vehicle or planet, however if the player is seated in said vehicle or control-station in a ship, they will receive an arrow across the mini-avatar that points in the direction of "forward" relative to said vehicle.

Crosshair

• 
  • The cross-hairs perform the basic function of knowing what the player is targeting directly. The cross-hairs will close on objects within a second or two, locking on to said object; this either gives the name of the NPC/avatar near said cross-hair, or what building/ship/structure the player is looking at displayed at the center-top of the scene. The above images represent, an open, closed, and targeted cross hair.
  • Open
    • An open cross-hairs means the player has recently moved targets to another object within the world. Trying to attack while the cross-hairs are open usually results in a miss.
  • Closed/Targeted
    • A closed set of cross hairs means the player has locked-on or targeted the object/NPC/avatar in the scene, and are now able to attack with a moderate amount of confidence.

Selected Item

• 
  • The selected item, located at the bottom (left or right depending on the avatar's handedness) of the screen is the current item that will be used when the Left Mouse Button or F is pressed in Mouse-Look mode. The current example above is a knife, that deals 20 damage. The icons next to it represents piercing, and physical damage respectfully. The blue bar represents the condition of the item.

Windows

There are many windows and menus in Shores of Hazeron. Many if not all of the windows can be resized to fit the player's personal taste. Many of these windows can also be docked to the top, bottom, left or right of the screen, resizing the scene window to fit accordingly. Docked windows can be stacked on one another in order to create tabs for the docks and the player can switch between those windows without re-opening them. The docks also can be "split" and have two windows docked on a shared side next to each other.

• Mail
  • Default F2
  • Used to send and receive mail from players and important notifications.
• Communication
  • Default F3
  • Also called the Comm, is used to communicate with other people and entries in the game. trading and job searching is also done through here.
• Spacecraft
  • Default F9
  • Contains all information about a spacecraft, and controls to manage its roaster and mission.
• Unit Orders
  • Default SHIFT + F3
  • Used to give orders to individual crew members aboard your spacecraft. Also used to manage your crew's equipment.
• Gear
  • Default F4
  • Also known as the inventory. Used to manage your equipment and items.
• Cargo
  • Default F5
  • Used to manage/transfer/jettison the cargo on board a spacecraft, or load ordnance into heavy weaponry and vehicles. Also used to access the private sea chest.
• Locator
  • Default F7
  • Contains map information. Both a world map of the current planet, and a star map of all explored space.
• Bio
  • Default F8
  • Contains information about the avatar, its DNA, its current jobs, its bounties, and controls to change some minor appearance details.
• Building
  • Default F10
  • Formally known as the labor or city window. Used to manage buildings in a city as well as doing manual construction.
• Construction
  • Default F11
  • Used to place new building construction sites on the surface of a world.
• Governance
  • Default F12
  • Used to manage or view empire policies, government structure, empire member list, diplomacy, cities in the empire, and taxes.

Camera Views

• There are three different camera views players can use to play Shores of Hazeron. 1st Person View, 3rd Person View, and Top-Down View.
  • 1st Person View
    • The default view of the game's scene window. This acts much like one would expect in a first person view game.
  • 3rd Person View
    • Default Shift+Backspace
    • This view gives the player a slight over-head shot of the scene also showing the back of the player's head; pressing the key for 3rd person view again will return the scene to 1st person view.
  • Top-Down View
    • Default Backspace
    • This view is intended to give the player a better grasp of the land, and resources surrounding them. Very useful for construction, and searching for much needed resources. Pressing the key again will return the player to their previous 1st or 3rd person view.