Quick Start Guide
From The Skybrary
|
| This article is a stub, or an article that needs to be expanded and improved. Help out The Skybrary by contributing to this article and bringing it up to a better standard. |
[edit] A Quick Start Guide to Skyrates
By Phil Light Edited for Updates by Hans "Firefox" Raginhart
[edit] UNDER CONSTRUCTION
[edit] Signing Up
Trying skyrates? Awesome! This is a quick-and-dirty guide to help you get started and point out things which aren't obvious. For the real (authentic) information, check the manual page at the top of every page, or log in and shout out a question on the radio! Most of the players are very nice. :)
By the way, this guide is being drafted by phil. You'll see me in game pretty often; while I'm not a developer, I've playtested the game for many, many hours. Feel free to ping me with questions.
The first thing worth mentioning is what Skyrates is: a game specifically designed to be played in short bursts throughout your busy day. The point of it is to amass a fortune by buying and selling goods and flying them around in a plane, while fighting off pirates and earning bounties along the way! Flights happen in realtime, meaning a typical one will take somewhere between 1-3 hours. Play as much or as little as you want—you can be successful in skyrates in something like 10-20 minutes/day. And you'll have better abs and a whiter smile, too!*
*results may vary
Here are a few things to know when creating an account:
- Your real name is essentially invisible. Feel free to be honest.
- The Skyrates team won't sell your email address; a legit one is safe. In the past, they have used the addresses to send announcements about new versions which come out, etc. In almost a year of testing for them, I've gotten about a dozen total.
- "Login name" will be what shows up when/if you post to the forums.
- Your character name will be used everywhere else
- Your aircraft can be renamed whenever you like, so don't worry about it too much.
<insert picture here>
[edit] Beginning Play
Log in. You’ll see something like this:
<insert picture here>
Right here, you’re on a skyland, a hunk of land floating in the air somehow. This one is called Goldenrod. You might also start on it, or you might start on any of several others.
There are a number of buttons along the bottom, and pictures of your plane and character. Feel free to play with any of those anytime, but they’re not immediately important, so if you actually want to read about what they do, check the manual: http://badges.etc.cmu.edu/skyrates/help.php
Your radio button will probably be flashing, meaning someone’s chatting on it. If you click it, you can talk too. Currently, the radio is one big chat room for all players.
[edit] Skyland Actions
[edit] The Hangar
Ok, enough talk. Let’s fly! Click on the “Hangar” button, with a wrench, for your skyland. You’ll see this:
<insert picture here>
There’s a bunch of stuff to do here to your plane: refuel it, upgrade it, and eventually, buy a new one when you have enough money. For now, let’s just try some combat in the plane we’re in. Click “patrol” and then the poster on the right. (Then start.)
[edit] Patrols
Let’s fight! Click the button on the top.
Combat will probably feel difficult at first. Your plane won’t turn fast, and you will need a number of hits to win. Here are some tips:
- 1. Don’t go easy on the ammo. Feel free to hold down fire anytime you’re remotely close to hitting your opponent. It takes a number of hits to down him, and you shoot 10 times/second.
- 2. Not every shot you fire will be a hit. Instead, there’s a random chance you’ll hit, which is mostly based on your plane’s firepower rating and your opponent’s maneuver.
- 3. Slowing down your plane will make it turn sharper. This is one of the keys to winning.
- 4. If you find yourself spiraling the other plane seemingly endlessly, try going the other way. You can actually out-turn him, so if you break out of the spin you should come up with the advantage.
Good luck! I hope you win.
You can patrol 3 times when you land on a skyland, so once you’ve done all 3, or simply tired of it, it’s time to fly away. Let’s look at the map!
From any main screen, click the map button in the upper left. You’ll see this:
<insert picture here>
Notice that _________, the skyland we’re on, has a circle around it.
Most of the time in skyrates, you’ll be ferrying goods from one place to another. But where? And why? The map will answer both questions. Click on the “show cargo” tab in the lower right.
