The Helm console is manned by the Helmsman, who is responsible for all functions related to movement of the Artemis. The ship's course and heading, its speed with both Impulse engines and Warp Drive, and even fine maneuvers such as docking are under the control of Helm. If the ship is equipped with Jump Drive instead of Warp, Helm is responsible for inputting the jump coordinates and activating that system as well.

The Helmsman also shares with the Weapons Officer the ability to raise and lower shields and change the view on the Mainscreen. Along with the Captain and Weapons, it is one of the three most important roles in the game.

Helm: Abilities and Responsibilities

• Set heading
• Set impulse speed
• Set warp speed
• Set ascent/descent 
• Use jump drive 
• Initiate docking and undocking with space stations
• Control the main screen
• Raise and Lower shields 
• Monitor player Shield strength
• Monitor player Torpedo count
• Monitor player energy level

Helm: Basic Play

• Basic controls:
• Heading can be set by clicking on the desired heading or grabbing the artificial horizon trackball with the mouse and rotating it. Heading can also be set with the A (left) and D (right) keys, or a USB joystick.
• Impulse speed can be set with the vertical green drag bar on the left side of the screen. Your speed from 0-20 is indicated by the number of lit segments on the bar, with 20 being full impulse and 0 being full stop. The throttle can also be set with a USB joystick, or the keys Shift for full impulse, Ctrl for half impulse, and the space bar for full stop.
• Warp (if enabled) can be controlled by clicking on the Warp button above the green drag bar. The bar will then control your warp speed, with the 20 segments divided into 4 steps.
• Each step is designated by a different color: 
• Warp 1 is Cyan
• Warp 2 is Blue
• Warp 3 is Yellow
• Warp 4 is Red
• This immediately distinguishes Warp from Impulse and conveys your speed and how quickly you are consuming available energy
• Note that Warp 4 is not an absolute speed. Ships that are faster at Impulse, like the Scout, are also faster at Warp.
• An even more efficient way to control Warp is with the number keys 1-4. 
• If your joystick is equipped with enough of them, you can use the joystick buttons.
• Warp 1 at least should be defined for every joystick.  
• Clicking on the same number key a second time will immediately take you out of warp and leave you at full impulse speed (20 segments on the slider)
• Joystick buttons usually have to be held down to maintain warp.
• Reverse:  Clicking "Rev" or pressing the Ctrl-R key will reverse the direction of Impulse travel, causing your ship to move backwards at up to full speed. (20 on the Impulse slider) Warp cannot be engaged while in Reverse, and Reverse cannot be engaged while at Warp.
• Ascent/Descent: Rotate the artificial horizon trackball up or down by dragging it with the mouse or use the W and S keys to climb and dive.
• Note that the artificial horizon is relative to the ship's compass heading, so it may point upward and to the left, upward and to the right, or upwards and towards you to indicate that you are climbing. The trackball will work the same no matter what its orientation, i.e. dragging at the top of the widget will climb and at the bottom will dive.
• You must hold the cursor very close to the top or bottom of the widget to climb or dive. It is actually easier to rotate with the trackball, which may affect your heading. 
• There will be a short hesitation when using the W and S keys, and the inclination will return to neutral when the key is released. 
• This is not true for 3D Controls mode. See below.  
• The ship can be set to climb above, or dive below, the sector plane. 
• Target objects within 5000m of the ship will display a number of up or down chevrons to indicate the height above or below the ship. Each chevron seems to represent 100-500m of difference, depending on how far away the object is from you. The maximum is three chevrons, indicating you will have to dive and climb by a significant amount to get to that level in the distance remaining.  
• The Science console can see how far above or below you contacts are at any distance. It may be helpful to bring yourself to the same height as a distant base station before Warping or Jumping there. Otherwise, you will have to adjust your height once you arrive.
• By default, the Artemis can dive or climb even when not moving, although it is much faster if Impulse is engaged. This is not true in 3D Controls mode. See that section for more details.  
• If Jump Drive is enabled the Warp control section will be replaced by the Jump Controls, pictured below. See that section for more details.
• All stop: When at warp, pressing space will immediately bring you out of warp. When at impulse, space will bring you to all stop. 

• Docking: To dock with a space station move within 600 meters and click "Initiate Dock" or hit the "F" key.
• The station will drag you in with a tractor beam, which is much slower than your engines. If you are in a hurry you should move closer before clicking "Initiate Dock".
• The base will refuse to allow you to dock if there are enemies in the vicinity of the base. This varies by difficulty but is around 1,500 meters at Difficulty 5. Communications will receive a message explaining that "enemies are too close."
• You cannot dock while at warp. 
• As you dock, the ship will be rotated until it is facing away from the station. If you are in a hurry, try to dock from the side you want to depart from.
• Docking recharges the ship's energy, reloads weapons from the station's supplies, and replenishes damage control teams. 
• The Communication console can request Priority Docking prior to your arrival. This provides a large bonus to docking speed, even larger than in Artemis 2.0. Be sure to coordinate with Comms to request docking clearance.  
• While you are docked, certain other ship systems will not be available (you cannot get a weapon lock, and you cannot initiate or complete a jump) 
• Once docked, the button will change to "Release Dock". To break dock, click on the button again. Jump drive cannot be used while docked, the jump will "fizzle" without doing anything. 
• While you may engage Impulse and even Warp while docked, the docking moorings will hold your ship in place until you release dock. This is new to Artemis Cosmos. Players of Artemis 2.0 may be used to being able to engage Warp to undock. Be sure to click on "Release Dock" before moving away. 

• Combat Maneuvering
• If flying using keyboard or joystick, or if you are dragging the artificial horizon trackball manually, the ship will continue to turn as long as you hold the control in position. If you release the trackball or let the joystick return to center, the artificial horizon will stop rotating. 
• Clicking a heading will bring the ship to that heading and stop turning, give or take network lag.
• Ships make tighter turns at lower speeds.
• Artemis's rate of turn is affected by damage to the Maneuvering system and the amount of power that Engineering has allocated to Maneuvering.
• The Artemis is generally more maneuverable and faster than enemy ships. Typical enemies seem to move at roughly half impulse, but Elites are faster than full impulse. Enemies typically will not use warp drive in combat. 
• Ascent and descent may be affected by damage and power to the Maneuvering system in Engineering when the ship is in Trainee mode. In other modes, only the change in inclination is affected by Maneuver power, the ship's movement in one direction depends on power to Impulse. This was never confirmed even in Artemis 2.0, more testing is needed. 

• Terrain
• Nebulae restrict you to Warp 1, and obscure sensors.
• Asteroids will damage your ship if you collide with them.
• Mines will explode if you approach them too closely.
• Singularities will pull you towards them and destroy the ship if you get sucked in. Most enemies cannot escape a singularity. A gutsy captain with a skilled helmsperson can bring a warp-enabled ship close to a singularity and live to tell the tale. This can be an effective tactic for escaping anything but another warp-enabled ship. Only an insane captain (or a Ximni captain with Combat Jump charged) would order a jump drive ship to attempt this maneuver.

• Mainscreen UI
• The ship's Mainscreen includes a tactical UI that can help the Helmsman orient himself with the sector in which the Artemis is operating. The Helm's overhead view cannot provide a lot of information about the position and orientation of his ship in space. This information is conveyed by the Mainscreen. 
• The "Navigation Ring" is displayed under the ship on the Mainscreen. This is a diamond shaped indicator with a circular opening in the center that shows the orientation of the ship relative to the plane of the sector. If the navigation ring is flat and around the Artemis, the ship is level and parallel to the sector. If the ring is at an angle, the Artemis needs to roll or pitch in order to level off. The Artemis should level off automatically unless 3D Controls are in Full 3D mode. See below. 
• A compass and altitude indicator above and to the right of the navigation ring indicate the ship's heading and altitude. There is a pattern on the navigation ring which should be helpful to associate the rotation of the ring with the compass heading, no matter the view of the ring. 
• The navigation ring and the Mainscreen UI as a whole are supposed to be optional and can be made transparent or removed completely with the Navigation Ring Brightness and GUI Panel Transparency sliders, located on the UI Play Options page described below. Unfortunately, at this time the sliders are not working. 
• Once the sliders do work, they will affect the Mainscreen for all consoles. Other players should be careful not to override these settings if the Helmsman has a need for them.  

Helm: Advanced Play

• Full 3D Controls
• If Helm wants to enable further 3D freedom of movement, there are three levels of Helm Control. To access these Helm Control options, press "O" or click or the "Options" button and select "UI Play Options" or click "N".  Then click on the button marked "Helm: Trainee" and select from the dropdown. 
• Trainee: The default is for 3D movement to be used only to dive and climb, like a naval submarine, to match the altitude of bases in the sector. 
• It takes effort to make the ship dive and climb, and it will return to level movement when the controls are released. 
• Capital 3D:  This option allows full freedom of the dive and climb control, allowing the player to control the speed of ascent or descent with the horizon trackball.
• The ship still remains parallel to the plane of the sector and the roll controls are not enabled, although it may take some time for the ship to level itself at Impulse speeds.
• The ship will immediately level off at Warp, similar to the Trainee mode.
• The ship can be made to directly approach a higher or lower target at Impulse speeds. (Or even do loops! The ship had a maximum inclination in Artemis 2.0) 
• Full 3D:  This option enables full 3D control of the ship. The ship will not remain parallel to the plane of the sector and can move and Warp in any direction.
• Roll of the ship can be set with the "Q" and "E" keys, or with a USB joystick.
• The ship will essentially be controlled the same as a fighter or shuttle on the Flight Hangar console.
• It is extremely easy to get disoriented, so an autolevel button may be added in the future. For now, use this option only if you are very experienced with the Helm console. 
• Arrow Key controls:  Unlike for the Flight Hangar console, the arrow keys are not enabled for ship control by default. You may replace the WASD controls with the arrow keys by editing the hot_key_settings.txt file in the /Artemis Cosmos/data directory. 
• Limited Crew Ships:  A number of ships in Artemis, often called "Corvettes", appear to be very small patrol ships with only a handful of crewmen. Helmsmen of these ships may want to make use of Full 3D to take advantage of the speed and maneuverability of these light spacecraft and recreate the feel of piloting a fighter. 

• Jump Drive
• Ships enabled with Jump Drive will display the Jump Control shown on the right. Direction (heading) is set with the upper horizontal drag bar, and distance with the lower drag bar. These settings can also be entered by pressing Tab, entering the direction in degrees, pressing Tab again, and entering the distance. The numeric boxes will update as the drag bars are moved and can be clicked on to enter values.
• Note that ships with Jump Drive will lack the Warp button above the green Impulse slider.
• To activate Jump, click on "Jump" or press Return and confirm (press Return again) when prompted. After a warmup of default 5 seconds the ship will jump. All screens will black out and return after a few seconds.
• If you unintentionally Initiate jump, press Space or click Cancel when prompted. 
• The direction set for a Jump is independent of the ship's current facing, and is the absolute bearing, as shown on the Helm background or by Science's direction indicator. The ship can jump backwards, to either side, or in any direction relative to the ship's course at Impulse speeds.
• At this time, only Ximni ships have access to Jump Drive.
• Pirate ships should also have access to Jump Drive, but they are not yet implemented. TSN ships all have Warp Drive by default.
• It should be possible in future versions of Artemis Cosmos for TSN ships to be refitted with Jump Drive for a mission, or Ximni ships to use Warp Drive, but unlike Artemis 2.0, this will not be something that is selectable during Server Setup. 
• Ximni ships also have access to Combat Jump, a special short-range instant jump. The Combat Jump Control is located above the Direction and Distance sliders. In the image above, it is a vertical green rectangle, with grey arrows above and below it. 
• To activate Combat Jump, simply click on one of the two arrows. The ship will jump, with no warmup delay, although the screens will still black out.
• Clicking the up arrow will jump 5000 m in the direction the ship is facing, while clicking the down arrow will jump 5000 m in the opposite direction. (About the range of the ship's torpedoes)
• Unlike normal Jump, Combat Jump does depend on the ship's facing. This makes it more intuitive and easier to use.
• After a Combat Jump, the rectangular indicator will drain, indicating that the Ximni ship's Jump Drives have "discharged". The drive must charge back up before it can Combat Jump again.
• The indicator will fill from bottom to top and turn green when it is again full. The Jump Drives will then be ready for another Combat Jump. Recharge of Combat Jump takes about 10 seconds.  
• USN Jump Drive Training:  http://cattail.nu/artemis/artemis_jump_drive.html. 

Concepts

• Warp 1 is slow and efficient for a reason; an experienced helms officer should be spending a good deal of time using warp 1 to control the battle. Remember, the Artemis out-turns everything else, and no other ship has warp, so you should be literally running rings around the enemy.
• Dogfighting may be easier with the WASD keys or a joystick. A savvy pilot with fine control over the ship's speed and maneuvering can thread the firing arcs of multiple enemy vessels at a time, allowing Weapons to fire with near impunity.
• Foresight: A good pilot will be able to look ahead and figure out where the enemy is going to be and plan to be at a location that will intercept the target shield facing, or stay out of the weapon arc, or whatever the plan is. You CANNOT pilot on a moment-by-moment basis, you MUST be thinking ahead. (This doesn't mean you're not making moment-to-moment course corrections--see below--it just means that your fancy flying needs to be in service of a definite and consistent goal.) 
• Helm and Weapons should be working together closely with Engineering, since unfocused blasts to the enemy's shields will do nothing. You should choose one side and try and keep the weapon lock solidly on that half of the shield. You'll save time, energy, and maybe some space stations, too.
• Helm can see the weapons lock as a spinning red ring around a target. Helm can also see the targeting reticles used by Science and the Captain's Map, if in range of those targets. If the captain is using the Tactical screen to describe an attack plan, you will be able to continue to track his target once you get in range.
• Keep all your weapons on target: It is sometimes useful to not engage in a turning fight with an enemy. Even though the Artemis class ship can out-turn anything else, at best, you will be firing with one beam at a time during parts of your turn. And depending on which enemy you are fighting, and your skill level, this situation may continue for a relatively long time. And remember, the longer each fight takes, the more energy you are burning, and the closer the other enemies are getting to your starbases.
• It is often best to break away from a turning fight and either turn the other direction or at least veer away for a few seconds to get a better angle. Yes, that means that you won't be shooting at the enemy for a few seconds, but once you get him back in your sights, you can do so with BOTH beams, and more quickly kill him and move on.
• And with good coordination, you may even be able to fire off a few rounds at another enemy ship while swinging around for the second pass on the first enemy ship.
• Remember that keeping the enemy on the fringes of your firing arcs is not as useful as flying straight for a few moments and then executing a hard turn to get him back in your full-powered arc. (Again, good coordination with ENG for more impulse/maneuvering power will make your job easier, but you don't want to be hogging all that power yourself all the time so try to learn how to do this with as little extra power as possible.)
• Another advanced tactic is keeping track of multiple enemies. Since you can click to turn, or even use a joystick, there is no reason that you can't focus on more than one thing at a time, which means that you should be aware of what the other enemies in the area are doing. If SCI has told you which ship is the battleship, are you maneuvering your ship into his aft firing arc? Can you coordinate a rapid target-switching maneuver to fire a couple shots at each enemy to get them to break formation and become less threatening for a few seconds?
• On turning rate and power levels to maneuver:
• Default turning rate is 10 degrees per second. That equates to 36 seconds to pull a full 360-degree turn.
• This turn rate is affected by the power level in the "Maneuver" system, and it scales directly with the power in the system.
• So at 300% power, your turn rate is three times as high as the default rate, or 30 degrees per second. At 200% it is double the default rate, and so on. 
• Zoom/Scroll: 
• As with most consoles, the map display may be zoomed or scrolled by clicking and dragging or using the scroll wheel. Although the map centers on the Artemis as a default, it may be moved to view other targets out of visual range. 
• The three radar-like icons at the bottom of the screen select between 3 Zoom Ranges, allowing you to focus on the area around your ship, a longer ranged view, or a view of the entire sector. The latter may be useful for plotting a course for one base station to another, or to a group of enemies targeting a distant base. 
• Zoom level 2 is somewhat redundant with the Tactical screen and Zoom level 3 with the LRS screen. The zoom ranges may be reduced in later revisions of the game, on Helm and Weapons.  
• At the different zoom levels, the compass ring has the following approximate radius:
  
  

  Zoom 1	Zoom 2	Zoom 3
  3500m	12,000m	65,000m

• Relative Display Mode: In addition to accessing Full 3D Controls, the Options button in the upper-left corner lets you change to Relative Display Mode. With RDM turned on, the top of your screen is no longer 'north'. Instead, the top of your screen is always in front of your ship. As you turn, your ship remains pointing up and the map rotates around it.
• To turn on Relative Display Mode, press "O" or click or the "Options" button and select "UI Play Options" or click "N".  Then click on the button marked "Relative 2D Display". A small light will appear on the button to indicate that the mode is active. This option is local to your console and will not affect other players.  
• Showing Weapon Arcs: The UI Play Options screen also lets you turn weapon arcs on or off. Click on the button marked "Weapon Arcs: All" and it will cycle through the available options. 
• Weapon Arcs: All: This will display all weapon arcs for both player and enemy ships. 
• Weapon Arcs:  Players: This will display only the weapon arcs for the player ships. Enemy and allied ships will not display firing arcs. This option is useful for Science or Comms to remove clutter from the screen, but keep in mind that it may be helpful for Helm to maneuver around the firing arcs of an enemy ship. 
• Weapon Arcs: None: This will display no firing arcs at all. Again, this is primarily intended for Science or Comms, which do not need to track the player ship's firing arcs.   

Techniques 

• High Energy Turns require co-ordination with Engineering. Put maneuvering to a short burst of 300%, turn quickly, and then resume normal operations. Often used with other techniques, this can help gain a significant positional advantage.
• The J-hook is a simple technique. 

1. raise shields, since you're going to pass the enemies closely 
2. warp past the enemy and then drop to impulse
3. coordinate with the engineer to perform a High Energy Turn back towards the enemy you just passed
4. warp right up to the enemies' back door

• Kiting takes advantage of the enemy AI, which will generally head in a straight line towards the Artemis. Use this to lead enemies into minefields, asteroids, space monsters or even singularities.
• Monster-baiting is a dangerous technique but one which can pay dividends if used correctly. Fly at a medium warp factor past a space monster and keep your shields up - it will start following you. Fly near or through an enemy formation and increase warp to disengage. The space monster and enemy ships will often start attacking each other while you deal with other matters.
• Ramming can actually be quite effective if you need to separate a group of enemies before you engage, as you will literally push the other ships aside. (this will not damage the hull or shields of either ship, although some monsters deal damage in this way)
• Hovering close to a singularity is possible if you face away from it just outside the blue ring on the display and engage approximately quarter impulse. Experiment to find out what works for your position and ship. You can also use the fact that the singularity pulls you towards it to make tighter turns. This technique is particularly useful in PvE because the AI is not good at dealing with singularities, though beware of Skaraan ships jumping away from the event horizon!
• Using Jump Drive in combat comes in a few forms:
• Panic Jump - With a jump drive, you won't be able to warp out if you start taking heavy enemy fire. Panic jumping usually just involves moving the jump range slider down to around 10-12km as quickly as possible and initiating immediately. Sure, you might not know exactly where you're jumping to, but the precious few seconds you save not fiddling with the sliders could save your crew's lives. Combat Jump allows this maneuver to take place even faster but is limited in range. 
• Tail Jump - An advanced combat maneuver, this involves moving at full impulse away from an enemy ship, inviting them to chase you. When they do, simply Combat Jump backwards, making sure to overshoot. Since relative facing is maintained after a jump, this (when done correctly) will put you behind the enemy ship and chasing them. The hunter becomes the hunted!
• Vaulting - Similar to tail jumping but using the terrain to your advantage. Flying towards a dangerous terrain feature like a minefield or a singularity, it is possible to make a Combat Jump through the obstacle and keep going. This has the added bonus of potentially kiting your enemies directly into the feature you just vaulted.
• Jumping can also require co-ordination with Engineering. More power into the Jump Drive will enable a faster Jump, and a shorter black out period after the Jump. For Combat Jump, more power to Jump Drive will reduce the amount of time it takes the Combat Jump to recharge. Remember, the Ximni Combat Jump is a constant 5km.   

Hot Keys

• WASD: turning and climb/dive (heading/altitude)

• Q/E: (Full 3D only) roll 
• 1-4: warp toggle
• Space: stop warp (first press)/All stop (second press)
• Ctrl-R: Toggle reverse 
• Z: Raise/Lower shields 
• F: Docking 
• Shift: Full Impulse
• Ctrl: Half Impulse 
• Tab: select direction/distance for Jump
• numeric keys: enter distance/direction for Jump
• Return: Initiate/Confirm Jump
• Escape: Cancel Jump  

• U: Front Screen
• Y: Left Screen
• I: Right Screen
• P: Rear Screen
• J: Tactical Screen
• K: Long-Range Screen
• L: Status Screen
• 7: Inside
• 8: Chase
• 9: Track
• 0 (zero): Cinematic
• O (oh): Options   

Customizing the GUI

The Helm controls can be rearranged to suit the Helmsman by pressing and holding the "F5" key. This will cause the widgets that make up the display to be highlighted. The widgets may be moved with the mouse or resized by clicking on a corner of the rectangle and dragging that corner. Different resolutions of the window may define different locations for each widget.

*Much of the information in the Basic and Advanced Play sections is duplicated from the Artemis SBSt bulletin boards athttp://artemis.eochu.com/forums.php#/help/. Permission to use this material is assumed from its being posted.

**This page was copied from the Artemis 2.0 version of the console and edited to match the changes to Artemis Cosmos. Please make this wiki better by editing this page if you have any ideas for improvement.