This page will introduce you to the most used elements of the interface. If you are already familiar with the controls, you may want to Skip Ahead to the tutorial game. If you have Master of Orion available, you may find it helpful to load (or start) a game, so that you can practice a bit with each element as we go. This would not take a lot of time, and would surely help cement your understanding.

Here is the galactic map as shown at the start of the tutorial game. The currently selected item (Sol) is marked by the outlines (corners) of a small box. Learn to look for this outline in the map display so that you will understand which object is currently selected.

The green crosshair is your cursor. (Wouldn't want anyone to mistake it for a map feature). At certain points in the game, the cursor will change icons. This will be obvious as you play, but could be confusing if you are reading without the aid of having the game available.

To the left is the map display. Some elements within the map are clickable -- stars, ships. Clicking an object will select that object. Selecting an object will display some information about it and may allow you to take action. Clicking in space will recenter the map to the location you click. Clicking in space near the center will move the map a little. Clicking near the edge will move the map in larger chunks. To move across the galactic map, especially in larger galaxies, may take several clicks.

To the right is your control panel. Information about the currently selected object will be displayed here. When clicking on a ship icon, you will be shown information about the ship or fleet you selected. If you own that fleet, you may be able to issue orders. When clicking on a star, it may be Unexplored, Explored, or Colonized. Unexplored stars will offer a tidbit about stars of that particular color, and will show the star's distance in Parsecs from your nearest colony. Explored stars will reveal information about a habitable planet in that system, if any. The names of colonized stars will be displayed in the color of the owning player. (Our color for the tutorial is blue, thus Sol shows up in blue letters). When clicking stars inhabited by other races, the right hand panel will display some information about their colony. When you click on one of your colonies, you will be shown the control panel (as in the picture above).

Your colony control panel contains a five-part slider to determine spending priorities, buttons to control ships and transports, as well as important displays of information. Your most frequently used controls are right out in the open, easily accessed. You can go from planet to planet using the map display and operate the sliders without having to open any subpanels. Those are reserved for complex operations you won't need as often.

At the bottom of the screen is your menu bar, which grants access to subpanels with additional controls and displays. To avoid drowning you in data, I will not explain the subpanels until they become relevant during the tutorial game.

Each planet will spend 100% of its available resources on every turn. It is possible to save up a cash reserve and distribute extra money to specific planets from that reserve, but money sent to the reserve is taken off the top. Whatever remains WILL BE spent. The sliders in the colony control panel determine what it will be spent on. Thus each slider represents a percentage, and the total will always add up to 100%.

There are 25 "clicks" on each slider. You must spend in clicks. Thus, you allocate spending in blocks of 4%. Each click allocates one 4% block. You can put five clicks to each slider, or all twenty-five clicks to one slider. However you divide it amongst the sliders, you will always have twenty-five clicks, no more, no less. The worth of each click depends upon your planet's production.

Let's look at Sol again.

Let's examine the control panel. At the top is the name of the star. Next is a button that displays the planetary class and maximum population. (Clicking this button takes you to the planet screen). Next is some information: Population, Missile Bases, and Production. Then the five part slider that controls spending, and at the bottom, three buttons for managing ships and transports.

The Production line holds vital information. The number on the far right, in green, in parentheses, is the BASE production value. That displays how much production this planet generates. The yellow number to the left is the ACTUAL production, after maintenance costs, tribute, trade and other costs or sources of income are factored.

Notice that the base production for Sol is 56, but the actual production is only 43. The colony ship you start the game with is expensive. It costs 10bc per turn to maintain. After the colony ship is used to settle a new colony, a great maintenance burden will be lifted and ACTUAL production at Sol will increase significantly.

The ACTUAL production is what is managed by the sliders. Each click represents 4% of actual production being allocated. Thus, if the yellow production number were at 100, each click would allocate the spending of 4 BC (billion credits). With the actual production at 43, each click represents (on average) just under 2 BC.

The Ship slider spends money on ship construction. The design currently being built is shown in the lower part of the display. Change to another design by clicking the Ship button or clicking on the ship picture.

The Def slider spends money on building Defense Bases. These are immobile and are bound to this planet. Bases are upgradable with the discovery of advanced technology, while ships are not. This grants advantage to the defender over time, limiting the useful lifespan of starships. As starship designs become obsolete, they must be scrapped in favor of new designs, while defense bases remain viable with small amounts of additional expense to upgrade their technology. This effect is vital to the quality and balance of this game, and represents an element of gameplay that all would-be sequels and successors have failed to account for!

The Ind slider spends money on industry: factory construction. Factories are necessary to increase production so that the planet will have more resources to spend. Each colonist produces 0.5 BC per year in production. Each operational factory produces 2 BC per year. Building factories is an investment in growth and productivity, but factories also generate waste, which must be cleaned up by spending on Ecology.

The Eco slider spends money on ecology. Primarily this means cleaning up factory waste, but it also applies to terraforming the planet (improving the environment with use of advanced technology).

The Tech slider spends money on research. We'll save the subject of research for later in the tutorial.

Each of the five sliders may be locked and unlocked. Click on the name of the slider (Ship, Tech, etc) to toggle the lock. Locked sliders turn red. You will come to love the slider locks. They can save you time and frustration when adjusting the sliders.

Use the arrow buttons to left or right of each slider to add or subtract clicks. Realize that when you add a click to one slider, it must be removed from another. If you remove a click, it must be added somewhere else. Use the locks to prevent interaction with sliders you don't want changed.

You may also click INSIDE the slider reading to set a slider to a particular level. That is, you can add or subtract many clicks at once. Slider locks are especially useful when doing this. For example, if you have spent just enough into Ecology to clean up waste, and the rest of your spending is on Industrial to build factories (as in the screenshot of Sol); if you wanted to leave the Ecology spending alone (a very good idea) but switch the rest from factory construction to ship building, then you should lock the Ecology slider. Then you could transfer all of the Industrial spending to the Ship slider with one click. In two clicks, you've completed the job.

Below the slider panel are three buttons. The Ship button changes which starship design will be built at this planet. Each planet may build only one type of ship at a time.

Newly built ships begin in orbit of the world that produced them. The Reloc button allows you to choose a destination for any newly produced ships. You must choose one of your colonies. If you have used the Reloc button to relocate newly produced ships, they will automatically fly toward the destination you have chosen, and in fact, they get a free turn of movement this way. That is, if you are going to send newly built ships from their planet of origin to another of your planets, if you do it manually, it will take an extra turn compared to using the Reloc button.

Finally, the Trans button moves population from star to star. You may only send population to an inhabited star.

Feel free to play around with these controls until you become comfortable with them. When you are ready, move on to the tutorial.

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