Vehicle Controls

Now that you are in your Vehicle, you are ready to begin your career as a Terran Warrior! In this section you will learn the basic controls for operating your vehicle. The operations listed here are based on the Rhino Main Battle Tank - the primary vehicle used by most players in the game. All land-based vehicles in the game use the same basic control systems.

What am I Seeing?

There are two screen views available to you in Terra - Cockpit View and Full-Screen View. The default view you see when you start the game is Cockpit View. This view gives you visual access to all of the basic controls required to operate your vehicle. This includes weapon selection, SAT Map controls, radio controls, etc. You can activate these controls by simply clicking on them using your mouse. Full-Screen View gives you a greater field of view of the battlefield... a significant advantage in combat however, you will be required to use your keyboard shortcuts to operate your vehicle since the control buttons are not on the screen. Ctrl+D is the command to toggle between Cockpit and Full-Screen Views.

Location Coordinates

The position indicator shows the location of your vehicle by showing your longitude in kilometers (E)ast or (W)est followed by the latitude in kilometers (N)orth or (S)outh. You can also use the position indicator to find the map coordinates of items on your map by moving your mouse pointer over the map. The mouse's current coordinates will be listed on the second line of the display (followed by an M).

Compass and Damage Indicator

The compass shows the direction of your tank in relation to the cardinal points - (N)orth, (S)outh, (E)ast, or (W)est. The damage indicator uses a color-coded system to show damage to the four areas of armor on your vehicle: front, back, left, and right. As a general rule, your front armor is the strongest and the rear armor is the weakest. As you take damage to an area, the armor changes color from blue (undamaged), to yellow (slight damage), red (heavy damage), and finally black (destroyed). Any further hits to black armor destroys the vehicle.

Cash and Alert Indicator

This window alternates between showing the amount of Lukers (cash) your vehicle is carrying, and the current weapon status. When not firing, the window displays "L" and the amount of Lukers in your vehicle. When firing, it will display "reloading" or "out of ammo" messages. Vehicle Controls

Throttle Buttons:

These buttons/indicators control the various functions of your vehicle as well as its speed and direction. The throttle can be clicked anywhere along its length to adjust your speed, or you can click anyone of the throttle buttons to set a specific speed.

• STOP Sets the throttle to idle. If moving, your vehicle will coast to a stop.
• MIN Sets the throttle to 5%, the lowest throttle setting which will cause forward motion.
• MAX Sets the throttle to 100%.

Panel Buttons:

• #X Zoom: Makes everything in your viewing area appear closer. Continue clicking to cycle through the various zoom levels.
• STLH Stealth: Makes your tank virtually invisible. You cannot move or fire while in stealth or transitioning into or out of stealth.
• SHO Show: Flashes your vehicle's location on the map of all nearby players.

• IFF Identification - Friend or Foe: Your vehicle's onboard radar. Helps find enemy vehicles, but also makes you easier to locate as well.

  If you have IFF on:

  • Friendly vehicles within 3km will show up as blue dots on your map.
  • Enemy vehicles within 500m will show up as red dots on your map.

  If you have IFF off:

  • Friendly vehicles within line of sight will appear as blue dots on your map.
  • Enemy vehicles within line of sight will appear as red dots on your map.
  • Other vehicles within 3km who have their IFF turned on will appear on your map as blue or red dots.

• REV Reverse Gear: Allows your tank to move backward.

• LOCK Hull Lock: Allows your turret to rotate without changing the direction of your tank.
• PATH Lights up when you use SHIFT + Right Mouse to set your autopilot. Clicking this button turns off your autopilot.
• SUP Supply: Used when parked on the wreck of a destroyed vehicle to repair and rearm your tank.
• HELP Pressing this button will activate the in-game Help Menu.

Map Controls:

These buttons control your radar/map display. You can zoom in, display elevation, and move the map from the small window to your heads-up display. The radar shows enemies as red dots, structures as white dots, allies as blue dots, and projectiles as yellow dashes.

• MAP Switches the map display between the small dashboard display and the larger Heads Up Display - HUD.
• + or - Zoom In or Zoom Out the map display.
• ELEV Displays the surrounding terrain on the map, including mountains and water.

Radio Control

This area displays information messages generated automatically by the game as well as "Chat" messages between online players. Pressing your Enter key activates the Chat control which allows you to type messages that will be visible to all online members using your current radio frequency. Pressing Enter again after typing your message will send the message. Pressing the Esc key will cancel the message you are typing. You can scroll forward and backward through your message history by using Ctrl + Mouse Wheel.

The COMM indicator beneath the chat box displays the radio frequency you are currently monitoring. The frequency automatically defaults to "100" when you start the game. You can change the frequency by typing @channel ### in the radio chat control to select a new frequency. You will only be able to see chat messages typed by other players on the same frequency.

Weapon Selection

These buttons allow you to select from the various weapons available on your vehicle while the numbers below indicate how much ammunition is available for that particular weapon. Each vehicle type is equipped with a different assortment of weapons. Please see the Vehicle Description and Weapon Description sections of this manual for details on the various weapons and their effects.

Keyboard Short-Cuts

Using the control buttons in the Cockpit View may be fine while you are learning the game and fighting against AI bots. However, clicking on the screen to change weapons, etc. takes valuable time on the battlefield and can easily be the difference between victory and death when in battle with an experienced human opponent. Every command on the Cockpit Dashboard (plus many additional commands) has a matching keyboard command. Learning and using these short-cuts will be key to maximizing your battlefield performance. You can access (and modify) the keyboard commands from within the game by hitting the Esc key then selecting "Key Bindings".