How to use it

Three steps to a character you can talk to.

1 Add one on Asset Mgmt › Characters.

Open Asset Mgmt, press Characters, press ADD A CHARACTER, type a name and press SAVE.

The name joins YOURS in the sidebar. Its page opens with the picture, voice, notes and where they are.

2 Select them, then use the comms key.

Say "comms Harlan", then hold the comms push-to-talk and say "are you there".

The character answers in their own voice, shaped by your notes, and answers every comms question while they stay selected.

3 Say where they are.

Check Aboard for someone on your ship, or leave it clear and type the system they are in.

An aboard character is clear on the intercom. One elsewhere is fainter the further away they are, and out of range beyond 500 light years.

Why it works this way

One page for everyone you can talk to, with the same controls for each.

1 Three kinds of character share one page.

The sidebar lists your carrier's captain and tower, the cast of the story you are following, and the characters you made. Each page has a picture, a name, a voice, personality notes and where they are. What you can edit depends on who owns the value.

2 The captain and tower keep their settings.

Their names and voices are settings, the same for every Commander on this PC. Your notes on them are yours alone, kept with your other characters.

3 A story sets its own cast.

A story gives its characters their names, voices and pictures. You can add notes, kept for that story only.

The details

Asset Mgmt › Characters has a sidebar and a detail page, in the window and on the headset’s big panel.

CARRIER   the captain, then the tower
STORY     the running story's introduced cast, in the order they were introduced
YOURS     your own characters, in the order you added them, then ADD A CHARACTER

Each character’s page has the same rows:

Row Your character Captain and tower Story cast
Picture change or use the default change or use the default shown
Name text box the setting speech.carrierCaptainName or speech.towerName read-only
Voice voice picker the setting speech.carrierCaptainVoice or speech.towerVoice read-only
Personality notes up to 600 characters up to 600 characters up to 600 characters
Where Aboard, or a system the carrier’s callsign, system and distance Aboard, set by the story

An existing character saves each field as you change it. A value that breaks a rule is not saved, and the field shows the reason:

  • the name is empty, or longer than 32 characters;
  • you already have a character with that name;
  • the character is not aboard and has no system.

ADD A CHARACTER opens an empty NEW CHARACTER with SAVE and CANCEL. REMOVE CHARACTER asks first, in place, and cannot be undone: the name, voice, picture and notes are forgotten.

Away from the ship, the distance is looked up with Galaxy search. With Galaxy search off the page says the distance is unknown, and the character is clear on the radio. A character is stored in data\characters.json for each Commander; their picture is character.<id> in the pictures folder.

The page has no tool and no setting of its own. Your characters are on the Characters comms channel: select one, then speak on the comms push-to-talk to reach them. Crew reaches a hired pilot the same way.