Fighter Station: Player Guide

Fighters were added in Artemis 2.3.0, and other single seat craft were added in 2.6. Only certain ship classes have access to fighters. In general, only ships classified as Carriers or Dreadnoughts will have fighters. The Fighter Station allows a player to act as a pilot, and launch a single seat craft from his home ship to do battle with the enemy.

As of Artemis 2.6, the Fighter station is usable for all ship classes. For ship classes other than Carriers and Dreadnoughts, the only single seat craft available will be one shuttle. This shuttle will have limited firepower and no missiles, but can be sent on non-combat missions. 

Fighter: Abilities and Responsibilities

• Command a single seat craft, which is launched from its home capital ship:
• Set heading and direction, in three dimensions, and execute roll maneuvers
• Activate Boost to increase speed, or Brake to stop
• Initiate docking and undocking with home ship
• Monitor supply of missiles (fighter or bomber only)
• Monitor damage to the craft's shields
• Target enemy ships
• Fire beam 
• Launch missiles (fighter or bomber only)
• Manage available supply of single seat craft
• When a single seat craft is lost, the pilot is returned to the Fighter Bay and must choose another.  Lost fighters can be replenished by docking at a base that has spare fighters. 
• The Comms officer can ask bases for status to see how many fighters are available. Fighters are stored as a bare frame, and can be refit as either the TSN, Ximni or Pirate Fighter, depending on the race of the carrier that picks it up.
• Bombers and shuttles will not be available from base stations unless specified in a script. If a bomber or shuttle is specified in a script, it must be a specific type, i.e. a TSN Bomber. If a Ximni or Pirate carrier picks up the Bomber, it will be a TSN Bomber. A specific fighter can also be specified in a script, so a Ximni or Pirate might pick up a TSN Fighter in a script. 
• Shuttles cannot be replaced unless the script specifies that a shuttle is available from a base station. A shuttle CAN be replaced by a fighter if the ship's shuttle is destroyed.
• When a single seat craft is returned to the Fighter Bay, repair and refit will begin for that single seat craft.
• The pilot may wait for his single seat craft to be readied for launch, or choose another and take it out immediately.
• Each single seat craft has its own designation, or "call sign" which is set by the crew on the Customization screen before the game starts. Scripted missions may override this designation. If no designation is given, the single seat craft will be assigned a designation consisting of three letters, (the first two will be random, the third will be a duplicate of the first) plus the single seat craft's bay number. (Prior to Artemis 2.6, fighter designations began with "TSN" and ended with a random number, as in the image above.)
• Fighters are equipped with three missiles, Bombers with 6. When all missiles are fired, the pilot must return to the home ship to reload with a new supply of missiles. An infinite number of missiles are available for reload. Shuttles have no missiles.
• As with all consoles (crew stations), tabs at the top of the screen allow access to LRS and VIS screens.
• The LRS tab allows the pilot to see an overview of the sector and perhaps set a course for an enemy ship. 
• If a single seat craft has been launched, the VIS screen will show the view around the craft, from the first person point of view. (The "chase camera" will be turned off.)  If the player is still in the Fighter Bay, the VIS screen will show the view around the home ship, again from the first person point of view. This same view can also be seen through the "windows" in the Fighter Bay. (This behavior is new to Artemis 2.5.)
• This VIS screen will also display the silhouette of the home ship, if the player is in the Fighter Bay. This allows the player to monitor the damage to the home ship, and its shield status. When the player launches in a single seat craft, the silhouette will change to that of the craft. This silhouette will be non-functional, as single seat craft cannot raise or lower shields, and do not take internal damage.  
• It is possible to select multiple consoles from the same home ship, including a Fighter console. In such a case, the VIS screen will show the view from the home ship, as if the craft was still in the hangar, if the other console was selected last. There may be synchronization issues between the single seat craft and the ship consoles, so this is not recommended.  
• The VIS screen view of the single seat craft is always level with the plane of the sector, even if the craft is diving or climbing. This can be very disorienting. It is not recommended to play a single seat craft from the VIS screen. Although the radar is available from the VIS screen, the directional ring (described below) is far more effective when tracking enemies.
• Note that if multiple consoles are selected, the VIS screen may display the home ship from the third person point of view prior to selecting the Fighter console. Once the view switches to first person point of view, it will not switch back, even if another console is selected. This should not affect gameplay, but is noted here in case a player notices this behavior and is concerned about it.
• If a Fighter client terminates unexpectedly and the player reconnects to the server, the connection to the single seat craft may be lost, and the craft will continue unpiloted. In this case, the player must select another craft.  

Fighter: Basic Play

• Basic controls:
• Heading, Pitch can be set with the WASD keys. A and D will turn left and right, W and S will pitch up and down.
• Roll maneuvers can be performed with the Q (roll counterclockwise) and E (roll clockwise) keys.
• If a USB joystick is connected, it can be used to perform roll and pitch maneuvers, as well as yaw, if the joystick can twist. If the joystick doesn't twist, turns can be performed as a combination of roll and pitch.
• Boost is enabled by holding down the INSERT key, or button 1 on the joystick. This will triple the craft's movement speed, as long as the Boost is held. Releasing Boost will return the craft to base speed. A typical fighter at Boost speed can catch up to an Arvonian fighter, but the Arvonian fighter is faster at base speed.
• Brake is enabled by holding down the DELETE key, or button 2 on the joystick. The speed Brake will bring the craft to a halt, after a short period. Releasing the brake will cause the craft to begin moving forward again.
• The Beam is fired by pressing the SPACE bar, or button 0 on the joystick. All single seat craft have one beam. The standard fighter beam does 4 damage, and can be fired once per second. Bombers (2.6 only) carry the same beam, while shuttles have a weaker beam that does 1 damage.
• Missiles are fired by clicking on "Launch Torp", pressing RETURN on the keyboard, or button 3 on the joystick. Missiles are fired without a lock, and will fly straight forward from the fighter. If a ship is detected in the missile's path, it will home in on it. Missiles can home in on friendly ships and bases, so be careful when firing missiles. A number next to the "Launch Torp" button shows how many missiles are remaining. Once all missiles have been fired, the button will be greyed out.

• Docking: 
• To dock with your home ship move within 300 meters and click "Request Dock" or hit the "R" key or button 4 on the joystick.
• You will be returned to the Fighter Bay. You may launch immediately in another craft, of any type, if one is available.
• Docking repairs all damage to the craft's shield/hull, and reloads missiles (for fighters and bombers) from the ship's unlimited supply. This will take about thirty seconds. A countdown timer will show how long it will be until the craft is readied.  

• Targeting:  
• Enemy ships on screen will appear with a red square, or target reticle, around them. This reticle gets larger as the ship gets closer.
• The target's identifier (name) will appear under the reticle. This allows squadrons to call out their targets, and consult with Science about the strength of the targets. (This is new to Artemis 2.6, and does not appear in the image above.) The LRS screen can also be used to identify targets, including those out of range.
• Friendly player ships will appear with a green square, and allied AI ships with a yellow square. The single seat craft's own home ship will appear with a green circle, with the word "HOME" under it.  
• Drones may be targeted as any other enemy ship, and will appear with a red square around them. Getting a lock on a drone and shooting it before it can hit you takes a great deal of piloting skill. (This is new to Artemis 2.5, versions 2.3 and 2.4 could not target drones.)
• Monsters can also be targeted, and will appear with a purple square around them. BioMechs appear in red, like enemy ships.   
• No other objects can be targeted, including friendly bases. Bases do not show their identifiers, since they cannot be targeted, although they will be shown on the LRS screen as noted above.  
• To target a ship, rotate the view until the ship is centered on the viewscreen. A grey diamond (the lock on indicator) will appear around the red, yellow, purple or green reticle.
• If there are multiple targets, the lock on indicator will always select the one closest to the center of the screen. This will not necessarily be the closest target.
• It can take concentration and precise maneuvering to maintain a lock on a specific target. If you cannot maintain a lock, try to overshoot the target, keeping it between the center of the screen and any other targets nearby. (For example, in the image above, you would veer left, especially if there were another Kralien behind the one targeted)
• When the target is in beam range, the grey diamond will turn red. This is true of all ships. including your home ship, so be careful not to fire on friendly ships. The difference between the color of the target reticle and the lock on indicator can serve as a reminder to hold your fire.
• A target lock (red indicator) is required to fire beams. As with ship beams, single seat craft beams will swivel to follow the target, and cannot miss, as long as they are in the beam's firing arc. This arc is fairly narrow compared to a ship beam, but still covers a good portion of the viewscreen.
• A target lock is not needed to fire missiles, and the target does not have to be in beam range. Missiles may miss their target, or hit allies, as noted above.
• New to Artemis 2.5 is the "directional ring". When a potential target is in visual range, but not on the screen, an indicator will appear pointing in the direction of that target. The indicator will normally appear in the same color as the reticle (red, purple or green, allied AI ships also appear in green) along a "ring" around the center of the screen.
• In the image above, two target reticles appear, both red, and two directional indicators, one red and one green. The green indicator points to the player's home ship, which is off screen to the left. The red indicator shows a third target that has passed off screen to the pilot's right. The two reticles outline the two enemy ships in front of the fighter, which has a target lock on the enemy in the center. The pilot is firing at the center ship, while the second ship to the right is firing back at the fighter. The damage indicator shows that this fighter has taken minimal damage so far. (The difficulty was 1.)

• Damage:
• The green bar to the right represents your craft's current shields. A typical fighter has 120 shield points. Bombers have the same shield strength as fighters, shuttles have 220.
• Unlike with capital ships, a single seat craft's shields do not regenerate. However, shields can be restored to full in the Fighter Bay.
• Single seat craft shields do not need to be raised or lowered, and do not use any energy.  
• EMP blast effects will drop the shield to half strength. Be cautious if the home ship is launching EMPs into an enemy group.  
• When the green bar begins to get below one half of the full bar, it is probably a good time to return to the Fighter Bay. You can be less cautious on low difficulty, but should be very careful on high difficulty, unless you are willing to sacrifice a fighter to finish off an enemy.

• Tablet Versions of Artemis:
• The Android and iOS versions of Artemis have slightly different controls for the Fighter console, since there is no access to a keyboard interface:
• The craft is "steered" by touching the tablet surface and dragging in the direction you want to fighter to go. The pilot can perform both pitch and yaw maneuvers in this way. Lifting your finger will stop all pitch/yaw maneuvers, which will stop left/right movement, but your craft may still be pitched upward or downward, resulting in further altitude changes.
• Additional button controls (Marked with "<<" and ">>") can be used to make the craft roll.
• There are also buttons to "Fire" the beam, and for "Boost" and "Brake".
• It may be possible to play with a Bluetooth joystick. (This has not been confirmed) 
• Since the current version of Artemis on tablets is 2.4, there will be no directional ring indicator for ships off screen. The Fighter Bay will also display a black screen, and not the background described below. Bombers and shuttles will not be available.
• Unlike the PC version, or the VIS screen on tablets, the background of the fighter screen will not move. It is assumed this is because it is harder to make the background move in three dimensions than to simply rotate it left or right. There is also no horizon indicator on the tablet version. You will have to use the compass and altitude indicator as a visual indicator of your craft's movements.

Fighter: Advanced Play

• Coordination between single seat craft and the home ship is vitally important if the crew is to succeed. The Captain should give the order to launch fighters and bombers, and make sure the ship has come out of Warp or Jump at a safe distance from the enemy before launching. The Captain should also be prepared to give the order to retreat well in advance, so all single seat craft can be retrieved before making a run for it.
• The targeting reticle, marked "HOME", will always appear around the home ship, even if the ship is out of visual range. This can be very helpful to orient the single seat craft, and especially helpful when trying to return to the home ship.
• It may also be helpful to learn to read the compass readings at the top of the viewscreen and relate them to the fighter's heading on the LRS. Players who are already familiar with the compass ring from Helm or Weapons may visualize that as an aid.
• As hinted above, fighter pilots should not launch if the home ship is within weapons range of the enemy. By the time a single seat craft gets oriented, the enemy will have shot it to pieces. The Captain should coordinate launches, and close with the enemy only after any single seat craft are launched. Likewise, the Captain and Helm may need to be ready to withdraw from battle momentarily when the pilots dock for repair and resupply.  
• It is possible for Comms to taunt the enemy ships before the fighters launch or enter battle, in order to draw fire. However, taunting the enemy will have no effect if they have already fired on the fighters. Thus, taunting will effectively give the fighters two minutes of immunity before they are attacked.  
• Since it is difficult for fighters to target drones, it is the responsibility of the home ship's Weapons officer to provide cover fire. This can be a difficult job, particularly if the fighters are making a strike far from the home ship. The fighters may have to retreat back to the safety of their ship's firing arcs if they are overwhelmed by drones.
• Conversely, if fighters are close to their ship and threats are at a safe distance, they can set up a defensive perimeter while the Weapons officer prepares a salvo of EMP and Nuke torpedoes. This keeps the fighters out of the blast zone, while keeping the Weapons officer from constantly having to switch targets.
• This role is doubly important for shuttles, which have no reason to strike out against the enemy, and can target drones while remaining safely within the home ship's radius of fire. The shuttle should watch out for enemy fighters, however, as it cannot destroy them alone and will need the Weapon's officer's help.
• Both Science and Comms can be helpful in identifying potential threats for fighters and directing them to attack specific targets. If enemy ships are out of visual range, the flight commander may have to be creative in directing fighters, trying to place themselves in the fighter's point of view in order to determine the angle of approach. 
• Prior to Prior 2.6, flight comms may have to refer to ships by type or position, instead of identifier. (Since that is not visible to the fighters)
• Keep in mind that fighters may not be able to see threats approaching from behind. It may be helpful to refer to directions as "six o'clock", "three o'clock" and so on instead of trying to report the compass bearing.
• Since fighters' beams cannot be tuned to a specific shield frequency, there is no need for Science to report this value to them. (although the information may still be useful to Weapons)
• Players may decide to route all communications with fighters through voice chat with Comms, for maximum realism.
• Pilots should be sure to report to the Captain when fighters are lost, and how many remain. The Captain may need to be more cautious with fighters once they are down to one or two remaining, asking the crew to make extra effort to protect them, or retreating to a base to replace them.  
• In Artemis 2.5, fighters always launch facing in the same direction as their home ship, positioned either to the left or right of the ship. If you are entering a firefight immediately after launch, you should keep this in mind and not become disoriented. Prior to 2.5, fighters launched facing away from the home ship to the left or right, and had to re-orient themselves on the direction of the home ship. 
• Shuttles, which were introduced in Artemis 2.6, call for a different strategy. Shuttles should be launched and utilized only while the home ship is not in combat. Some mission scripts may call for use of a shuttle for special operations, such as escorting an ambassador from a base station to the ship. If you are using a shuttle to retrieve anomalies, the home ship should move out of the area if still in combat. Even when using a shuttle as point defense against drones the shuttle should stick close to the home ship and not travel outside of its radius of protection.

The Fighter Bay

While waiting to launch, potential fighter pilots wait in the Fighter Bay. Since single seat craft like fighters and shuttles are not equipped with Warp or Jump drives, they are dependent on their home ship for transport to the combat zone. Pilots are also returned to the Fighter Bay if their fighter is destroyed. 

All ships (as of Artemis 2.6) are equipped with a single shuttle, which will appear as the first slot on this screen. Carrier-type ship classes will have additional slots for a complement of fighters and bombers. The number depends on the class of ship, but will usually be between 2 and 5. Depending on how many players are available, there may be more fighters than pilots.

The Fighter Bay Screen shown is obviously for a Carrier, since there are six slots available. The first slot, as with all ships, is for the ship's shuttle. The next three slots are taken up with TSN Medium Fighters, and the last two slots with TSN Bombers. The Odysseus, the first fighter in the bay, has just been recovered, and is currently undergoing refit. It cannot be launched until the timer runs out. The other fighters are all ready for launch, and the player may choose any one of the four of them, or the shuttle if desired.

If any of the fighters had already been launched, they would not appear on this list, and only the available fighters would appear. A space will appear in the list for any fighters that have been lost, preserving the location of the launch buttons for the remaining craft. Once a fighter returns to the carrier, it will appear in the first available empty space. This may cause the fighters to change order in the list, if they land in a different order from how they launched. (This behavior is new to 2.6, in previous versions fighters would be removed from the list when launched, and be added at the bottom of the list when they landed)

Once the player clicks on "Launch", the chosen fighter will launch, and the display will change to the fighter viewscreen, as shown above. You will want to choose the fighter or bomber that you designated with your call sign on the Ship Customization screen when signing into the game. If that craft has been lost, and there are fewer pilots than there are single seat craft, you can designate spare fighters with a different call sign, and choose whichever one you prefer. In the image shown, the shuttle, the three fighters, and the two bombers have all been given unique call signs with a Greek mythology theme. Note that any craft not given a call sign will be assigned a random designation, as described above or on the Ship Customization page. Bombers will never appear unless specified on the Ship Customization screen.

If a pilot loses connection to the server while out of the Fighter Bay, the fighter will go out of control, and continue aimlessly across the map.  The player will have to reconnect to the Fighter console and launch in a new fighter. It should be possible to change console selection by clicking on the OPTN button without losing connection to the fighter, but you should be careful not to click on the close box on the application or shut down your computer while the game is running without bringing your craft back into the hangar first.

Playing Blackjack in the Fighter Bay

• To keep players from getting bored while waiting for the Captain to give the order to launch, it is possible to play a game of Blackjack while in the Fighter Bay. Each player has their own game of Blackjack, which is played against the dealer. Each player automatically places a bet of 1 Cash, and then can Hit or Stay until either the player or the dealer win. If the player wins, his Cash will increase by 1, if the dealer wins, his Cash will decrease by 1.
• Cash has no in-game use, and is just for fun. Cash can go negative. If you disconnect from the game and reconnect, your amount of Cash will remain, and if you end a game and start over, Cash will carry over to the next game. Terminating the server and starting another will reset everyone's Cash to the default, which is 9 Cash.

Official Help Text: This is a transcription of the official helptext from the game 

The fighter station lets you control a single-seat ship, usually a fighter or shuttle.

Control with joystick or keyboard.

Joystick turns fighter

Fire Beams = button 1 (trigger)

Boost = button 2 Brake = Button 3

Missile = Button 4  Dock = Button 5

Keyboard controls

Turn with WASD keys, roll with Q and E

Fire Beams = button 1 (trigger)

Boost = INS, Brake = DEL, Fire = SPC, Dock = R

Fighters have homing missiles; shuttles do not.

Dock with your carrier to reload. 

Missiles auto-home on the nearest target; careful where you fire them.

Height meter is on the left, damage bar on the right. 

Compass heading across the top. Point at an enemy ship to get the blinking red target reticle. 

The F1 helptext is bugged and displays the second part of the Comms help instead. Fortunately, the help text is also displayed in an area to the bottom of the screen when a fighter is launched. This helps a fighter pilot adjust to the controls quickly, without the need to press F1. Note also the help text refers to the trigger as 'button 1' when many flight sticks and this wiki refers to it as 'button 0'.

Joystick Controls (recommended)

• Joystick: roll and pitch
• Twist joystick: yaw (if not available, use roll and climb to turn)
• Trigger/button 0: Fire beam
• button 1: Boost speed
• button 2: Brake
• button 3: Launch missile (or on screen button if not available)
• button 4: Docking (or on screen button if not available)

Hot Keys

• WASD: heading and pitch
• Q and E: roll 
• Insert: Boost speed
• Delete: Brake
• Space: Fire beam
• Return: Launch missile 
• R: Docking 

*The Fighter Station and Carriers are still under development. New fighter types and additional improvements to the fighter gameplay are expected. If you have comments or suggestions, please post them to the Artemis message boards at http://artemis.forumschitchat.com.

**If you have additional notes or wish to add new Advanced tips please make this guide better by adding them.

***This guide refers to the ordnance fired by fighters as "missiles", even though they are identical to Homing Torpedoes. The game is inconsistent in the terminology, calling them "missiles" in the help text, but "Torp" on the launch button. The supply of missiles is infinite, and does not cross over with Homing Torpedoes, even if they are the same in the code.