Last updated: 30 Oct 2015

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Battle for the Solar System - The Pandoran War is a 2D space shooter, based on the space opera novels by Stephen J Sweeney.

Note: this game is still under heavy development and will feature bugs, incomplete sections, and a numerous other issues until it reaches v1.0. Likewise, this gameplay manually will evolve over time, to become more detailed and helpful.

Title Screen

This is the first screen that you will see upon starting the game. You may select from the following options:

Galactic Map

This is the main mission select screen. Here, you can move around and select star systems in which to undertake missions. Star Systems that have missions will emit red circles at regular intervals. Yellow circles will be emitted by star systems that have no active missions, but still have challenges that can be attempted. Green circles will emit from system that have missions and changes that are 100% completed. You may replay any of these missions, at any time.

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  1. Mission indicator arrow - points in the direction of star systems with missions that are currently off screen.
  2. Number of completed and total missions.
  3. Number of completed and total challenges.
  4. A star system.
    1. Blue: CSN star system.
    2. White: Independent star system.
    3. Red: Pandoran-occupied star system.
  5. System select reticle.
  6. Star system detail - shows details of the currently selected system.

Controls

Arrow keysScroll galactic map
ReturnSelect Star System
EscapeMenu

Star Systems

The Star System view shows a list of missions available for that star system. Missions must be played sequentially, with the next available mission being highlighted in yellow. The right-hand side of the star system view displays an overview of the mission, including the class of craft the player will be piloting, and the name of the pilot and their squadron.

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  1. Star system name, and completed / total missions.
  2. Available mission list.
  3. Mission name (White: complete, Yellow: incomplete).
  4. Mission detail.

Controls

Arrow keysScroll galactic map
ReturnSelect Star System
EscapeMenu

Missions

Each mission has various objectives that the player must finish in order to complete the mission successfully. The mission ends when the player either successfully completes all the objectives, or is killed. Note: there is no friendly fire between those on the same side (in other words, you need not worry about firing upon your team mates, or them hitting you - no damage will be taken).

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  1. Player armour and shield.
  2. Selected weapon.
  3. Number of missiles.
  4. Target armour and shield.
  5. Distances to target and mission objectives.
  6. Messages.
  7. Radar
    1. Green: friendly unit.
    2. Yellow: current target.
    3. Red: enemy unit.
    4. White: mission target.
  8. Number of allied craft.
  9. Number of complete / total objectives.
  10. Number of opposing craft.
  11. Player
    1. Red arrow: points in direction of current target.
    2. Green arrow: points in direction of mission objective.
  12. Current target (boxed in red).

Controls

Left arrowRotate anti-clockwise
Right arrowRotate clockwise
Up arrowAccelerate
Down arrowDecelerate
Left controlFire main cannons
Left shiftSwitch main cannons
ReturnLaunch missile
TabDisplay objectives
EscapeMenu

Most craft are equipped with offensive weaponry, with some fighters featuring more than one type of gun.

Epic Missions

Epic Missions are special types of mission. Typically, if the player's craft is destroyed during play, the mission will be failed. However, in Epic Missions the player will be given the chance to select a new craft to pilot, upon the destruction of their current one. This will continue until no more craft are available to the player. Epic Missions are also characterised by the number of active participants. There may be dozens of craft battling at once, victory going to the side to eliminates all their opponents. Note that even though there may be over 100 craft available to each side, only a certain number of these (for example, 32) will be present in the battle. Other craft will arrive as each side takes losses, to shore up the numbers.

Options

Various game options can be changed:

[1] - changes to this option will take effect next time you start the game.

About

This game is based on the Battle for the Solar System novel trilogy by Stephen J Sweeney. You can learn more about the trilogy by visiting:

www.battleforthesolarsystem.com

The Battle for the Solar System and related related materials are Copyright ©2009-2015, Stephen J Sweeney. All Rights Reserved.

License

See the LICENSE and README.md files that came with this game for information on the various copyrights of the source code, graphics, sound, and data. Additionally, you may visit https://github.com/stephenjsweeney/tbftss to get the source code itself, and view the files there.