Space Station 13 Guide

(WIP)

Welcome to Space Station 13! This is a 2-d game that takes place on a space station. It looks very basic, but the game is very complex. Almost every mob is player controlled! There are many different servers with their own style of playing. I hope this guide helps you learn how to play this amazing game!

Getting Started

Rules

Every server has their own set of Rules. You MUST read all if the server rules before you start playing. If you don't you could get banned.

Setting up a character

In the lobby screen select "Setup Character" and a page will open allowing you to customize your character and set your jobs.

Descriptions of what everything does in the table below:

Name Of The Button:	What it does:
Name	Lets you change the name of your character. Many servers want your name to be realistic, but not based off something popular, which includes this server.
Gender	Lets you change your character's gender between male and female.
Age	Lets you change the age of your character. This DOES NOT change the look of your character. It's just for roleplaying
Ui Style	Changes the look of your in game interface.
Play Admin Midis	If enabled you will hear sounds that admins play during the round.
Play Lobby Music	If enabled you will hear the lobby music while you're in the lobby.
Ghost Ears	Lets you chose to hear all sounds in the round or only sounds near you while you're a ghost.
Ghost Radio	Lets you chose between hearing all the radio chatter or only the radio chatter of the people near you while you're a ghost.
Custom Loadout	Lets you pick items like berets and cigars to spawn with at the start of the round.
Set Occupation Preferences	Allows you to pick what role you play when the round starts. I recommend that you set Squad Marine as HIGH when you play your first few rounds.
Body	Lets you chose your blood type, skin color, whether your character needs glasses, if your character has synthetic limbs or not, if you wear underwear or an undershirt, if you have a backpack or a satchel, and your relations to the corporate. If you press (®) the settings will be randomized.
Character Records	Allows you to edit your medical, employment, and security records.
Set Antag Options	Lets you chose your uplink type and give you exploitable information.
Set Flavor Text	Lets you describe certain parts of your body.
pAI Configuration	Lets you describe your pai style for when you play as a pAI.
Hair	Lets you change your hair type and colour.
Facial Hair	Lets you change your facial hair type and colour.
Eyes	Lets you change your eye colour.
Body Color	Lets you change your body colour.
Home System	Lets you change the solar system you come from. This is only for roleplaying.
Religion	Lets you change your character's religion. This is only for roleplaying.
Be Alien	If selected it allows you to spawn as an alien when the round has started if you observe.
Be pAI	If selected it allows you to become a personal artificial intelligence device.
Be Survivor	Allows you to have a chance at spawning as a survivor when the round starts if you are readied up.
Be Responder	Allows you to become a responder during a distress signal.
Be Predator	Allows you to spawn as a predator when the round starts. You must be whitelisted to play as a predator!
Be WO CommanderI	Allows you be spawn as the commander when the map Whisky Outpost starts. You must be whitelisted to play as a commander!

Joining a Round

• If a round hasn't started yet you can select "Ready Up" and you'll spawn in when the round starts.

• If you join in the middle of the round and want to play as a marine you select "Join the USMC" . When you select "Join the USMC" you'll get a list of roles you can play. Select one and you'll spawn in.

• If you join in the middle of the round and want to play as an alien select "Join the Hive" . When you select "Join the Hive" you'll need to wait until a larva bursts for you to play.

In the Game

The Tabs

On the top right side of your screen you will see the tabs for the game.

Descriptions of what each tab does can be found in the table below:

Name Of The Button:	What it does:
Text	Hides the tabs and shows the game's logs instead.
Info	Shows the tabs on the top right corner instead of the game logs.
Wiki	Opens the Colonial Marines wiki in your internet browser.
Forum	Opens the Colonial Marines forum in your internet browser.
Rules	Opens the rules thread on the Colonial Marines forum..
Changelog	Opens the changelog.
Donate	Allows you to donate money to the sever.
Status	Shows the status of your character.
Lobby	Shows the how many players are ready and how long until the round starts.
Admin	Allows you to send an Ahelp and see the online staff.
Ghost	Allows you to become a ghost and do many things as a ghost. (Note you will only see the Ghost tab if you are dead.)
IC	Shows you what you can currently do "In Character"
OOC	Shows you what you can do "Out of Character"
Preferences	Allows you to enable and disable many different preferences.

Marine Interface

This is the human interface in CM.

• The GREEN area is what your character is WEARING. It consists of your head, ears, eyes, face, hands, suit, exosuit, hands, feet, belt, back back, and identification card.

Name Of The Button:	What it does:
Text	Hides the tabs and shows the game's logs instead.
Info	Shows the tabs on the top right corner instead of the game logs.
Wiki	Opens the Colonial Marines wiki in your internet browser.
Forum	Opens the Colonial Marines forum in your internet browser.
Rules	Opens the rules thread on the Colonial Marines forum..
Changelog	Opens the changelog.
Donate	Allows you to donate money to the sever.
Status	Shows the status of your character.
Lobby	Shows the how many players are ready and how long until the round starts.
Admin	Allows you to send an Ahelp and see the online staff.
Ghost	Allows you to become a ghost and do many things as a ghost. (Note you will only see the Ghost tab if you are dead.)
IC	Shows you what you can currently do "In Character"
OOC	Shows you what you can do "Out of Character"
Preferences	Allows you to enable and disable many different preferences.

• The RED area shows what your character is holding. Your active hand is always highlighted. The main actions take place with what you're holding. You can see that currently the right hand is the active one as it's highlighted. You can switch between hands by using the middle mouse button or X if you have hotkey mode toggled on.

• The ORANGE area is your pockets. They allow you to store small items on your character. for example currently the player has stored a Flare pouch and a combat knife.

• The PINK area is your weapon actions. Starting from the Top left, there is "Toggle Rail flashlight which if you press it and you have a rail light attachment on your gun it'll toggle the light on it. To the right is Use Unique Action, this when pressed will pump a shotgun in your active hand or turn on flamethrower in your active hand, highly useful. Below Toggle Rail flashlight is the Eject magazine button, when pressed this will eject the current magazine of the weapon in your active hand, note that you can't eject shotgun shells this way. To the right of Eject magazine is Activate Weapon Attachment, when pressed this will use the scope on your current held weapon (If it has one) or it will toggle the under slung attachment to your weapon (If it has one). Finally in the bottom right is Toggle Burst Fire, when pressed this will toggle burst fire mode for the weapon in your active hand, note that not all weapons have burst fire mode.

• The PURPLE area contains 6 buttons, starting from left to right the first one you'll see is the button with the words labelled "Run" this shows that the your character is in run mode, effectively you'll run everywhere, if the player was to click that it would change to walk which is effectively where you'll walk everywhere.

Next we've got the box divided into 4 called the intent wheel in the top left is the Green intent, otherwise know as help intent which is the one the player currently has selected, this allows you to shake up your fellow marines to get them up if they've been stunned, hug them and perfrom CPR on them if they are sufficiently damaged. Next there is the Blue intent which is disarm, this allows you to disarm the mob you click on, you can't use this on xenos. Below disarm intent is grab intent, this is a yellow intent and when you grab a mob with this intent you won't cause it's wounds to bleed and tear open causing more damage but you will move slower, to grab someone just select the grab intent and then click on someone with an empty hand. Finally to the left of the grab intent you'll see a red intent which is harm, this allows you to point blank any enemy if they are in range or to attack them with your current object held.

Next is your AIMING area, this is the human figure in the bottom right of the Ui to the right of the intent wheel, this allows you to aim for someone's head, eyes, mouth, chest, arms, hands, legs, and feet. Right now you see the chest is being targetted by the player.

Above the aiming area button, you have three buttons, starting from the left, you have "Resist" which if you click it you'll resist, reasons to resist are if you are trapped in a resin nest you can resist to get out, if you are stuck in a welded locker you can resist to get out and you can resist to get out of handcuffs. The next button is "Drop", which if you click it, it will drop whatever is in your active hand at the time, the same can be done in hotkey mode with Q, and lastly there is the "Throw" button which if you click on it, it will toggle your throw on and if you then click on the desired tile you will throw the object in your active hand to the desired tile if the code allows it. You can quick toggle throw with R on hotkeys. Lastly there is the button called "Fire" currently it's selected on free fire which essentially means you shoot where you click, if you click on the button you will switch to aiming mode which means if you click on someone you'll aim at them with your gun.

• The YELLOW area shows your character's STATS. The top icon shows whether your INTERNALS are on or off. They are currently off. The middle stat shows you your character's HEALTH, 100 being full health. Finally, the bottom intent shows your character's NUTRITION. It will be coloured if you're hungry, you won't see if if you're full, and it'll be grey if you've eaten too much food.

• The CYAN area is the toggle state buttons, for example in the picture the marine armour is there, it's there due to how that button allows you to toggle on/off the inbuilt armour light. The welding goggles are there as if you press that button it allows you to toggle them over your eyes or pushed up out of your eyes, currently they aren't covering the players eyes.

Alien Interface

This is the alien interface.

• The RED area is your hands. It shows what you're HOLDING. The active hand is always highlighted, so in this case the active hand is the left one. You can press X in hotkey mode to swap hands or you can press middle mouse button without hotkey mode to swap hands.

• The BLUE area starting from the left is "Tail stab", tail stab allows you to charge up your tail to unleash a powerful tail attack on the mob you hit, to charge it up you click the tail icon, then to use it on a mob, you just click on them with harm intent. Next is RESIST, this is the button you press when you're on fire to effectively do an alien version of stop drop and roll. If the fire isn't put out after a couple of tries and it's still causing damage, keep resisting. If it isn't causing damage any more it's a sprite bug which can be reset if press "Rest" in the IC tab.

• The PURPLE area contains five buttons, starting from left to right the first one you'll see is the button with the words labelled "Hunt" this shows that the current xeno player is in Hunt mode, effectively running, if the player was to click that it would change to stalk which is effectively walking, however for the Hunter caste only by stalking you can partially invisible.

Next we've got the button labelled "Help" if you click on that a 4 box intent button will appear, on it in the top left will be the Green intent which is the one the player currently has selected, this allows you to nudge your sisters to get them up faster if they've been stunned. Next there is the Blue intent which is disarm, this allows you to tackle any mob if you have an empty hand, you'll use this often as a xeno to drag mobs back to the Hive. Below disarm is grab, this is a yellow intent and when you grab a mob you won't cause it's wounds to bleed and tear open causing more damage but you will move slower. Finally to the left of the grab intent you'll see a red intent which is harm, this allows you to slash any mob, make sure to have an empty hand if you want to slash.

Next is your AIMING area, this is the human figure in the bottom right of the Ui to the right of the intent wheel, this allows you to aim for someone's head, eyes, mouth, chest, arms, hands, legs, and feet. Right now you see the chest is being targetted by the player.

Above the aiming area button, you have two more buttons, starting from the bottom down, you have "Drop", which if you click it, it will drop whatever is in your active hand at the time, the same can be done in hotkey mode with Q, and lastly there is the "Throw" button which if you click on it will toggle your throw on and if you then click on the desired tile you will throw the object in your active hand to the desired tile if the code allows it. You can quick toggle throw with R on hotkeys.

• The YELLOW area shows your STATS. The one on the top shows the amount of PLASMA you have. The blue empties as the amount of plasma is lowers, you can also check how much plasma you have by clicking on the status tab. Right now it's full. The middle shows the QUEEN'S LOCATION according to your location. Right now the queen is dead/not in the game. The bottom one shows your HEALTH. The green empties as your health decreases. Right now it's at full health.

How To Play

• Movement- You move your character around with the ARROW KEYS. Alternately if you press the tab key you can enable hot keys which allows you to walk with wasd.

• Interacting with People and Objects- The game mostly involves using the mouse. You can pick up objects by clicking on them and they'll go into your hand. To set them down, find a table to set them on or use drop on your hud. You can also throw objects using throw on your hud. You can grab people and certain objects with your grab intent. You can also hurt people using your harm intent.

• How to Speak-

This is the chat bar for SS13

This will be below your game. If it doesn't say "Say" then click on the button that says "chat" on the right side. type your message after "Say" to talk.

Communication

As a marine and alien you can communicate locally (Locally as in yo can see them on screen) by the use of Say" (which you can type out manually or you can press T in hotkey mode to bring up a chat pop up window to type what you want to say.)

To contact marines and aliens over a long distance you can use a radio key after Say" even the hivemind functions similarly to a radio. Here is a list of radio keys:

Radio Channel:	Key for the channel:
Command	:v
Military Police	:p
Requisitions	:u
Medical	:m
Engineering	:e
Alpha Squad	:q
Bravo Squad	:b
Charlie Squad	:c
Delta Squad	:d
General comms	;
ERT comms	:h
Alien comms	:a

More Information

There are more guides to help you start your first few rounds in Colonial Marines.

The Marine Quickstart Guide and the Xeno Quickstart Guide are very helpful.

List of other guides

• Marine Equipment Guide
• Supply Crate Guide
• Marine Law
• Marine Ranks
• About the Marines
• About the Aliens
• Alien Hive Guide