Cadet I/Loadout

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Preparing your ship

Loadout screen Click on the image to view a larger version.

Getting the right gear for your flight

Each different task, such as miner defence vs bombing vs probing, requires a different set of equipment. Note also that everything you equip on a ship has an influence on all of its statistics (agility, acceleration, etc).

Optional: Detailed information can be found in the Allegopedia section. Namely, ships, weapons, missiles, dispenser equipment and other equipment.

Knowing what each item does is of capital importance for you to make an informed choice on what to place on your ship. Many veterans still place some items on their ships by habit, not thoroughly considering what they need, often an unfortunate error. If you feel something may be useless to what you're about to do, verify its characteristics. If it cuts your ship's acceleration by up to 10% and you don't think you need the item then seriously consider taking it off altogether. Remember though that what you are planning to do may differ from what you'll have to do, and so don't remove items lightly.

Quick item information

Hovering your mouse over an item will display all the information about that item at the bottom of the screen, including its name, its level of sophistication, its description and all its statistics. If you don't know what something does, place your mouse over it before asking for help. In the picture above, the mouse was over the large shield. Notice the "item information" that appears.

If you don't know what a certain ship does, notice that right under the ship's name, you can read a short description of the ship. Of course, thorough knowledge requires you to go through all the Academy pages and/or be experienced.

Loadout controls

There are a few buttons that you must use when preparing your loadout.

• The "Launch" button has the obvious function of launching your ship with the selected loadout.
• The "Default Loadout" button changes the whole loadout to the one considered as default by the core developer.
• The "Confirm Selection" button saves your current loadout for that ship. If you don't hit this button before leaving the loadout screen then when you return all your changes will be undone.
• If a loadout costs money (either the ship, the equipment, or both), the "Confirm Selection" button is transformed into a "Buy ship" button and the "Launch" button is greyed out until you have the required credits. If you don't have enough credits to purchase the ship, pressing the button asks anyone with the required amount of credits (usually the commander) to give you the money. Pressing this button repeatedly produces repeated requests and is considered spam by many, so use moderation. If no one has the required amount of credits, the button cannot be activated.
  If someone has the required amount of credits and gives it to you, you will receive an "Affirmative" message while receiving the money. If your request is denied, you will receive a "Negative" message. Once you have the credits, you can press on "Buy ship" and the button turns gray: your selection is confirmed. This acts both as buying you the ship and confirming your selection. Note that launching your ship also confirms your selection, and that people cannot board your turrets until you confirm your selection.

Making loadout decisions quickly

Preparing a good loadout takes a lot of time, so knowing in advance what you will need to equip is crucial. Also knowing which ship must be used for each task is crucial. For example:

• An advanced fighter defending a base would probably use the default loadout.
• An advanced fighter that intends to swarm a minor base with his teammates in order to destroy it would need to load a EW Galvonic Blaster
• A Bios bomber who means to go for a head-on assault would load its shields and missiles, and leave its cloak behind to improve acceleration.
• A Bios bomber doing a stealthy assault would put shields and missiles in cargo, and mount its cloaking device
• A scout can mount many different loadouts for a huge variety of roles.

As you play more you will discover what loadouts you commonly use, and learn where items are in the loadout lists, which will speed up your selection process.

Costly equipment

Certain ships and equipment cost credits and as such represent an investment of the team's resources. For ships, be sure that you know how to use it and why you're paying credits for it before requesting it. Otherwise, leave it to someone who knows what they're about. You don't want to waste your team's credits. As for equipment, make sure you load the right amount, avoid overbuying which would also be a waste. If you're loading costly equipment make sure you don't get killed before you use it.

Starting out as a newbie, do not request to purchase a ship from the commander. It is a waste of time and money for the team. It is a wast of your time as the commander will ignore you 9 times out of 10. As a new player the commander will tell you when he wishes you to get one.

Parts for other ships

Not all items can be used by all ships, for instance a scout can't use a capital ship's shield! But if a ship requires reload parts any other ship can bring them. For example, a Cruiser on a lengthy mission lacks missiles and ammo, so a scout loads some Nukes and ammo packs and heads to the Cruiser. To do this, when you click on a cargo slot all the items that your ship can possibly use are listed. In addition there is a section called "Parts for other ships" which contains all the items that your team can possibly use. Any ship can load them in cargo. Although useless for your current very ship, it can eject the items in space next to a ship that needs them (the Cruiser in our example). However, when dumping the parts, be sure that the other ship can get to them quickly, for they expire after a short time.

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