This guide is intended for players new to Space Station 13, or at least new to our flavor of SS13. If you're here from Goonstation, you probably already know all of this.
Installing the game[edit | edit source]
If you got here from the game, skip to the next section.
Coolstation and SS13 run on a unique engine & client pair, called BYOND (Build Your Own Net Dream, formerly "Dantom's Universal Net Game"), which has been around since the late 1990s, as have you, the reader. You can download BYOND Here. We highly recommend using the latest stable release most of the time.
NB: Compatibility with emulators such as WINE is limited. Most features work well enough to allow an experienced player to complete a round, however, many interfaces will break due to the engine's reliance on IE.
Creating an account[edit | edit source]
If you have not done so yet, Click Here to create a BYOND account. You'll need it to connect to 99.95% of game servers.
Pro Tip: your life gets easier if your username contains no spaces, no capitalization, and no punctuation. It's old software.
Joining a game[edit | edit source]
Most servers have dedicated community landings, such as websites, internet forums, or discord servers. We are no exception. You can CLICK HERE to join the main COOLSTATION game server, and that's that!
HOWEVER: you may wish to browse other available servers, or discover new games and communities on BYOND. You can do this from the BYOND Pager. Simply select a game on the lefthand bar, (press [Favorite +] to save it to your home tabs) and scroll a list of games in progress. It really is the bright future of TYOOL2K03.
Servers are listed by # of players online at any given moment, so they move around a LOT.
We're probably near the bottom.
Click JOIN and you're in!
CUSTOM CHARACTERING[edit | edit source]
BEFORE joining the round, whether its counting down to start, or it's already in progress, There's a button where you can click to customize the looks of your little buddy.
The basics are to Pick a name (you may leave this random) and also pick your hairs and colors (you may also leave this random)
It's important to click save on this. That way you won't have to set it up every single time. You have multiple save slots you can freely use! This may change in the future, there will be ample warning.Sometimes it's nice to be random appearance and name, but it's like any social game: reputation is tied to a consistent appearance. People will recognize you and remember what you've done.
The ultimate victory in coolstation is for people to see you and go "wow! that's THIS PERSON (YOU), they're REALLY ROBUST/FUNNY/COOL/NICE, i would LOVE to bring them along on a hijink or plural!!"
HOW TO PLAY (Controls)[edit | edit source]
The basic controls are indicated on that little blue image at the top, but let's go through them in detail.
NB: this game actually has 3 possible control schemes, but for the sake of clarity and brevity we will only be discussing the default control scheme, colloquially known as WASDmode. The others are TG controls, and Arrowkeys.
| KEYS | Special Uses | |
|---|---|---|
| Left Click | Interact. By far the most important control: this game is primarily mouse based. Click on a thing with an empty hand to touch it, grab it, pick it up. Click on a thing with an item in hand to hit it with that item. | |
| W,A,S,D | These keys move your character. Movement is tile-based, press a key, move one tile. Hold a key, move more tiles. Simple as. | |
| SHIFT | Sprint. Move like 50% faster than your current speed. | |
| SPACE | Throw Mode. Holding space and clicking on a distant tile will throw your held item at that tile. Holding space when an item is thrown at you will let you catch it. | |
| CTRL | Pull Mode. Holding CTRL and clicking on an object or player will Pull it. Move around while Pulling to drag that thing behind you as you go! Repeat action (Ctrl + click) to release, or click the HUD icon. | Ctrl + [letter key]: various emotes |
| E | Swap active hand. Active hand is highlighted in orange on your HUD. 
|
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| Q | Drop held item, the one in your active hand. Check which one is orange!!!!! | |
| V | Equip item if possible. If the item in your active hand is a piece of apparel, it will be placed in the appropriate slot, replacing the existing equipped item. Useful for changing! | Open/Close EQ HUD (empty-handed |
| C | Use held item. Functionally identical to clicking on an item in your active hand. You can use this to activate handheld devices, prime grenades, reload and cycle firearms, and eat food! | Climb Ladders (empty-handed) |
| F | Press this button a lot. Press this button as a greeting, as a farewell, as an expletive, as a threat. Press this button like your life depends on it: It does. | |
| T | Speak: The most important key in the game, bar none. T opens a dialogue that permits you to lie to other players. Do this often. Prefix your message with a semicolon (;) to speak over the radio. | |
| Y | Speak over Radio: Same as above but a shortcut, to encourage you to spill your secret plan over your bluetooth headset by accident. Do this often. |
