n00bspace
Newbie's Guide

Welcome to the newbie's guide. In this section, I will try to provide information that might answer many of your first questions, and walk you through the interface, chat area, and other specs of Darkspace. Choose from one of the following:

Installation/Setup - What programs to download, how to install them, system requirements, etc.

Getting Started - After you've installed everything, starting Darkspace for the first time.

Darkspace Chat - Explains the layout the chat screen, and how to manipulate it.

Tutorial - What to expect in the game interface, as well as some tips and hints.

Installation / Setup

To run the Darkspace program, you will need to download the Darkspace Client.  This is a self-installing program file, and you can dowload it from the following locations:

File Name

File Size

Locations (mirror)

Darkspace Client Full

32 MB

FilePlanet (US)

- -

DarkSpace Station (DE)

- -

DarkSpace Portal (DE)

-

Aycuens.com (SPAIN)

Darkspace Client Minimum

3.34 MB

DarkSpace Portal (DE)


The system requirements for Darkspace is as follows:

Hardware Requirements
-
300mhz Intel/AMD
- Windows 95/98/Me/2000
- 2nd generation 3d Card (GeForce, Matrox G400, Graphics Blaster)
- 64 MB of ram, 300 MB of hard drive space
- Internet connection, 56kbits modem or faster
- Direct Input compatible Mouse

Software Requirements
- Internet Explorer 4.0
- DirectX 8.0

If you do not have IE 4.0 or DirectX 8.0, you can download them from the following sites:


After you have downloaded all the required componenets, simple run the DarkSpace.exe setup program, and follow the step by step instructions.

Getting Started

Now that you have everything setup to the right requirements, it's time to play. Once the installation is complete, you should have a shortcut on your desktop screen to Darkspace. Double click on this shortcut. This will bring up a full screen screenshot with a menu at the top. The menu contains the following choices:

Play

Enters the DarkSpace Chat Lobby, from which you can enter games. For first time players, you will be asked to create a username and password.

Tutorial

Starts an offline tutorial, where you will be taught the basic controls of Darkspace.

Mission Viewer

While playing Darkspace, you can save your games onto your hard drive, making them accessible through the Mission Viewer.

Setup

Change your video/audio settings.

Quit

Exits the Darkspace program.


First, check out your video/audio setting by click on Setup.  This will bring up a menu looking like this:

Display Mode
This setting controls what graphics card DarkSpace will use when playing, also this control what resolution the game will initialize your display too. The minimum resolution is 800x600, but it is recommended that you use 1024x768 since this provides the best game play experience.
Texture Detail This setting controls how much video and system memory is used by the game. High detail uses the most amount of memory, whereas Low detail uses the least amount.
Enable Specular This setting controls whether the calculations are done for specular highlights or not. Disable this option if DarkSpace is running to slow on your system.
Enable LightMaps This setting controls whether lightmaps are used by the game for ship portholes and other special effects. Disable this option if DarkSpace is running to slow on your system.
Mixer Khz This option controls the mixer rate of the audio system. 44100 offers the best sound but uses the most CPU in some cases, depending entirely on the type of sound card you have installed in your system.
Channels This option controls how many sound channels to use for DarkSpace.
Voices This option controls the number of sound effects that can play at the same time. Lowering this value will reduce the amount of CPU time needed for sound.
SFX Volume This sets the sound effects volume.
Music Volume This sets the volume of the music.
Enable Voice Chat If you have a microphone you can enable this checkbox for voice chat within DarkSpace.


After everything is setup to your satisfaction, the next thing you should do is check out the
Tutorial.  This will give you basic information about ship movement, the tactical / navigation / engineering / chat screens, as well as jumping, target ships, and other general information.  I will discuss these topics in further detail in the Your First Game section.

 

Now you are ready to enter the Darkspace Universe. Click on the Play to continue into the Darkspace Chat Lobby.  It should look something like this(click on a section to learn more or scroll down):

1. Menu Bar
In the menu bar, you have a selection of many buttons. Clicking any of these buttons will load a page in the Main Screen.  Here is the breakdown of each one:

Lobby Clicking this link will give you two choices: Darkspace or GameCQ.

Darkspace Link - brings you to the Darkspace Homepage.
GameCQ Link - brings you to the Palestar Homepage, makers of Darkspace.

These links will show up in the 2. Main Screen.

Servers This button brings up a list of servers currently running Darkspace Scenarios. Each server is listed by name of server, name of scenario, ping (lag), and number of players. To find out more information about the servers, move your cursor over the name of one of the servers, and wait until a box pops up with the server information.  This will tell you information such as the background of the scenario and the the maximum rank that is allowed on that server.
Download This will bring you to the download page. From here, you can download the Darkspace client, as well as wallpapers, sounds, and chat logs.
Home This brings you back to the Darkspace homepage.
Rooms Lists the available rooms.
New Room If you wish to create your own room, click this button.  It will then prompt you for a room name, and then place you in your new room.
Friends This brings up a menu that lists all of your friends and their current status on Darkspace
Clans If you are not currently in a clan, clicking here will bring up the Clan homepage. This is the entire list of all the clans involved in Darkspace, their cumulative prestige, and their number of members
Profile This will bring you to your personal profile page.  Here you will find information on what date you joined, your current rank, your prestige and prestige breakdown, and the badges you have currently earned.


2. Main Screen
As mentioned before, this is where various pages will show up after click a certain button on the Menu Bar.

3. Navigation Bar
The Navigation Bar contain different links on the Darkspace Homepage. Here's where each one takes you:

About Gives a backround of Darkspace and it's game features.
News This is the default page when you enter the Darkspace Chat Lobby.  Newest Newest issues are always listed first.
Forum Brings you to a web board where you can discuss different topics in many discussion forums.
Screenshots These are actual screenshots from the game.
Downloads This will bring you to the download page. From here, you can download the Darkspace client, as well as wallpapers, sounds, and chat logs.
Manual Online Manual for Darkspace.
Rankings Brings you to the ranking page, 1-100 listed first
Clans If you are not currently in a clan, clicking here will bring up the Clan homepage. This is the entire list of all the clans involved in Darkspace, their cumulative prestige, and their number of members
Support Gives you 3 support options: FAQ, Knowledge Base, and Forum.
FAQ A list of frequently asked questions.
Knowledge Base This is a list of different hardware / drivers and players rating on each. If you need a new driver, look here and see what people recommend.


4. Chat Screen
Like any chat program, this is where chat is displayed, with timestamps before everyone's name.

Changing Font Color
You can also change the color of your text.  At the bottom of the screen, you should see a space where you enter your text to chat.  To the left, there is a small letter "A" with a color bar under it.  

The color bar indicated the current color of your text.  To change it, click next to the "A" to the right.  This brings up a color selection.  Just pick and choose, and you're done!

Editing Emotions (Emotes)
To change your list of emotions, go to the VIEW > OPTIONS menu. A dialog box will be brought up, and you will be able to see a list of set emotions that are currently in your list. To create your own, simple click ADD, give your emotion a name, and write the string that you want it to display when you choose that emotion. Remember, all emotions should start with the /me command. To edit an existing emotion, simple double click on the emotion you wish to change.

Also, $d will list the players name that you want to emotion to apply to. For example, if my emotion string was "/me laughs at $d.", then when I select a player and select this emotion, it will display, "captnsmooth laughs at <player name here>".

GCQ Client Commands
/? ... Display chat help
/room ... List/Join/Create/Find Rooms
/status ... Set status
/away ... Set status to away
/back ... Restore status from away
/find ... Find another user
/who ... Show profile information
/clan ... List/Join/Create/Find clans
/friend ... List/Add/Remove friends
/ignore ... List/Add/Remove ignores
/say ... Send message to players in current room
/whisper ... Whisper message to another player in the room

GCQ Server Commands
/? ... Display chat help
/me ... Emotion
/send ... Send message to another user/friend/clan
/report ... Send message to moderators
/broadcast ... Broadcast a message
/mute ... Mute/Unmute another player in the room
/kick ... Ban player for 10 minutes
/ban ... Ban player for 24 hours

5. Player List
This is the list of players currently in the Darkspace chat room. You will notice all the players have a little "person" next to their names. For normal players, the color of this "person" will be yellow.  Moderators will have a green person next to their names, and for administrators the color will be white.

Moderators are players who have volunteered to help administrators enforce the rules.

Administrators are the creators of the game Darkspace or the Community Managers.

Home
n00b Guide
tutorial home
servers

entering a game
helm control
interface
planets
cap planets
building
combat
Build Guide
History
Factions
Ranks
Prestige
Badges
Ships
Contact
Darkspace
About
Palestar
Articles
Links
Downloads
Darkspace
GameCQ
Screenshots
Music
Wallpaper

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