This is where you’ll spend most of your time playing Star Rangers. Every button and display is active and serves a function.

In the center of the screen is the Computer Reticle. A faint glow in the reticle will appear when Tracking is on and operational. Sections of the Reticle will glow brighter when you are tracking an enemy or you are in a sector with a Base.

• Chronometer – The clock in the upper-left corner shows the running game time. In some missions enemy ships may move to new sectors at certain intervals, so the clock is programmed to flash before and during the period when the enemy ships change course. Tapping the Chronometer will Pause the game and bring up the following options:
  • Save Mission & Exit . This will save the game exactly as things are and exit Star Rangers to your device home screen. The next time you tap the Star Rangers icon on your device’s home screen, touch the Resume Game button in the Main Menu to continue playing where you left off. Again, note that you cannot save the game, keep playing, get killed, and reload the game from the last saved point – you have to play through an entire mission without getting destroyed.
  • Abort Mission. Tapping this will bring up a confirmation window asking if you want to quit the mission. Tapping OK will end the mission and bring up another Option window.
  • Resume. This continues the game.
  • If you complete a game you will have the option to Issue a Challenge. This will bring up the OpenFeint Challenge Friends panel, allowing you to select which friend(s) you wish to challenge and send them a personal message.

If you Abort the game you can:

• View High Scores (check your personal High Scores)
• Return to the Main Menu
• Start a New Mission on the same level as the previous game.
• Replay the same mission you just ended with all ships and bases in the same sectors

Steering your Starfighter is easy to learn – simply tilt your iPhone or iPod Touch in the direction you wish to turn. Small tilting results in slight changes, while aggressive movement will turn your ship rapidly. This is an easy skill to learn but “leading” enemy ships and avoiding objects (such as asteroids) requires some practice and quick reflexes.
In the center of the screen is the Computer Reticle. A faint glow in the reticle will appear when Tracking is on and operational. The quadrants of the Reticle will glow brighter when you are tracking an enemy (they will indicate if an enemy ship is up to your left, or down to your right, for example) or if you are in a sector with a Base.

In the screen above you are tracking a ship indicated by the red Tracking Grid; the upper-right quadrant of the Reticle is also glowing in the direction of the enemy.

Turn in the direction of the “glow” until you see the object or the red tracking grid. A red targeting grid identifies the ship as the one you are currently following. The enemy ship’s distance from you will be displayed inside the red grid. Ships very distant from you will be shown as 9999 units away. As they close in, the numbers will eventually begin to count down. When they enter within the 350-unit attack range the numbers will no longer appear.

Any additional enemies in the sector will be indicated by a green tracking grid. Tapping anywhere on the Reticle will lock onto the next closest ships to yours automatically. If an enemy ship is behind you, Tracking will automatically switch to Aft view, where you can fire your aft torpedoes.

As you move in on an enemy ship and center it in the Reticle the Computer will lock your weapons on the enemy. If the enemy is turning or moving at an angle you may have to “lead” it by firing where the ship is going to be, not where it actually is. You’ll know when lock-on is achieved when the Reticle changes to the view below and you hear a quick beeping tone. Pressing the Fire button will fire both your torpedo tubes simultaneously, where they will home in on the enemy ship.

Tapping the Forward/Aft control will toggle your view between forward and aft. Note: if Tracking is enabled, tapping the Fore/Aft control will disable Tracking until you tap the Reticle again.

To initiate a Hyperspace jump to a predetermined destination via the Galactic Map (or as an emergency escape to another sector), tap the Hyperspace control. Tapping once will arm the control – it will start flashing and beeping, giving you 3 seconds to touch the control again to jump to warp. If you leave it alone, it will cancel after 3 seconds. This prevents you from accidentally going to warp (and using up precious fuel and mission time) if you hit it by mistake. A quick double-tap will bypass the alert and start the hyperspace sequence. Tapping the Hyperspace control again or dragging on the Velocity Control (before you’ve begun to enter the hyperspace tunnel) will abort the jump.
Playing the Warrior and Ace levels require that you steer while entering hyperspace. After initiating your jump you may see the computer crosshairs in the Reticle begin to shift away from center. Tilt your device in the opposite direction until the crosshair is at or near center. If the crosshair is far off-center you may need to use extreme measures to center it. The further off-center the crosshair is when you enter the warp tunnel, the further from your intended galactic sector you will end up, wasting time and fuel.

This far off and you could wind up across the galaxy from where you wanted to be.

Tapping on the Fire Control will launch your Energy Torpedoes. Left and right torpedoes launch individually in sequence and can be steered to a limited degree by moving your ship after firing. Try firing at a distant ship and as the torpedoes near it, move your ship in the direction of the ship to fine-tune their heading. Each torpedo expends fuel – if you’re a trigger-happy pilot, wasted shots may lower your rank by the end of a mission, so aim wisely! Smaller enemy ships can be killed by one torpedo, while heavy cruisers with shields will take several direct hits to take them out.

The Velocity Control changes the speed of your Starfighter in normal flight. Sliding the bar up or down will allow you catch up to distant ships faster, pull ahead in the middle of a dangerous dogfight (while you remain in the same sector), slow down when docking at a base, or stop your ship entirely. As with all your ship’s systems, more speed equals more fuel usage. Tapping the bottom edge of the control will shut down your engines with one touch.

TThis is your Energy Bar. As you zoom around the galaxy, fire weapons, or use your computer and shields, you consume fuel. The faster you go in a sector and the further you travel during hyperspace jumps, the more fuel you consume.

Tap the Energy Bar and the Systems Display shows icons (reading from left-to-right) for Shields, Tracking, Computer and Ship Systems Status. By default all systems are turned on at the start of a game. You may choose to shut down some or all of these functions to conserve power or increase the challenge level of the game.

• Turning off shields makes your Starfighter vulnerable to even a single asteroid collision. One hit, and you’re toast!
• Turning off Tracking will make it difficult to spot enemy ships from great distances. The individual enemy ships targeting grids are turned off as well as the directional finder in the Reticle.
• Turning off the Computer will shut down Targeting and the Reticle. With the Reticle off, centering your Hyperspace jump crosshairs on the advanced levels will be more difficult.

Tapping the far right “bolt” icon brings up the Ship System Status display. A quick look tells you if any of your main ship functions are damaged or destroyed. Systems still green are fully working. Any systems in yellow will be partially damaged. If DESTROYED appears on a system it will not work at all.
The panel will close automatically after about 5 seconds, or you can just tap the panel again to make it close. If you open the panel when docked at a starbase it will remain open during the refuel/repair process or until you close it, so you can monitor your ship’s refit status.