STORYLINES

TAXINAUT also has storylines. These are the equivalent of quest in other games. They will help you discover important places, unlock items and give you more insight into the Kyprei-41 galaxy. Storylines will start automatically after some event. Most can also be started by purchasing them at an oracle like Moon-Man.

The main storyline in TAXINAUT is called BIRDIE. It puts you on a quest to find a lost friend. Storylines are meant as something that you can dip in and out of as you become a better taxinaut. You can leave them as long as you want, especially in the beginning. Although I do suggest you follow up on Moon-Man and their BEING A TAXINAUT storyline to help you find your bearings in the game.

MAIN-MENU

Pressing 'Escape' or clicking the main-menu tab at the top-right side of the screen will pause your game and show the main-menu. The main-menu has the following options:

STATUSBAR

The top of the control-panel shows your cabbie's portrait and name. Underneath that it will show a circular, clock-like indication of the current time of day and your current vudu in blue (or redish if you're losing vudu). Underneath that, in red or green, will show your current speed-setting (normally a number from 0 to 3). Underneath the time-of-day indicator it will show what day it is. If the game is paused it will blink, alternately showing the day and the word "PAUSED".

You can click the portrait to see the gongs on your clone and the modifications on your ship. You can hover over the gongs and mods to see more information about them. The first number under each gong is the level of the gong while the second number (in parenthesis) is the progress you've made towards the next level (by eating certain foods). Note that levels shown are always the total of levels from gongs on your clone plus of any active buffs (e.g. from drinks).

Note: The speed-setting shown is not really your speed (see "Controlling your cab" for details).

WIDESCREEN TOGGLE

The little arrow button at the top-left corner of the control-panel can be clicked to make the main-view cover the full screen. The control-panel will slide to the right, off screen and can be brought back by moving the mouse over the arrow button at the middle right-edge of the screen. In widescreen mode when your mouse leaves the control-panel, the control-panel will automatically slide back off screen.

Clicking the widescreen toggle again will return the main-view to its normal size and the control-panel will be permanently visible on the right-side of the screen again.

See also the sightseeing mode setting for an even "wider" view-mode.

INFORMATION PANEL

The information-panel shows the name of the zone you are in (normally the planet's name when on a planet or the system's name when in space). Next to the name it will show icons indicating general information about the zone. Usually, the first (round and red) icon is a difficulty level indicator for that zone. Other indicators might include whether it has a spaceport, is generally lacking amenities or has some kind of hazard etc. Underneath it the mini-map, an overview-map of the zone, is shown. Your cab's position will show as a yellow flashing triangle while your destination (if any) will show as a green flashing square.

When showing a planet's surface map or a subterranean zone or station's map, the map can be panned and zoomed by dragging it with the mouse and/or using the mouse-wheel while over it. On developed planets with an expressway-network the expressway-network is shown in white: The white dots are the junctions and the lines are the expressways that connect them. Planets with traffic-lane systems, subterranean zones and stations will show the lanes / corridors and other areas where you can fly in black.

When in the system-view the star will show in the center and all other planets and stations will initially show as triangles (yellow or pink depending on the time of day). Once a planet or station becomes known it will show an appropriate symbol:

• Striped disc: Gas giant (you cannot descent to these).
• Yellow disc: Low- / no-population planet.
• Orange disc: Medium population planet.
• Red disc: Large population planet.
• Purple pentagon: Space station.

To the right of the mini-map is a list of those locations in the displayed map that are known to you. This is refered to a the zone's "directory". Each location in the directory can be clicked to set your destination to it. The list can be paged through by using the mouse-wheel while the mouse is over it. Underneath the directory is a little row of buttons that can be used to switch between different mini-maps (e.g. planet-, system- or galaxy-map) and to order or filter the directory in certain ways. You can hover over each button to see what it does.

ITEM-PANEL

Underneath the information panel sits the item-panel. The item panel consists of rows of icons that represent effects, abilities, equipment, storylines, etc. that are active or that you have. Some of these can be clicked to activate or toggle certain things. Others only represent a certain effect being active, for example that you're hungry. Each item will show what it is and/or how to use it when you hover your mouse over it. If there are more items than can be shown on the item panel then you can page through the item-panel by using your mouse-wheel while over it. Items are normally shown in the reverse order that they where added: most recently added item first.

Items can be pinned / unpinned by right-clicking them. Pinned items show before any other items (starting from the top left) and always show regardless of what page you are on (if there are multiple pages of items). Pinned items are shown in the order they where pinned and will show with a cut top-left corner and on a dark-yellowish or dark-pinkish background (instead of black). Pinned items, like items that are not pinned, will only show if they are included by the active item-filter. Some items when pinned (especially consumables like "warp-jump") will leave a pinned placeholder once you run out of them. Once you obtain one or more of such an item again, it will reappear where the placeholder is. You can unpin a placeholder by right-clicking it just like a normal item.

ITEM-FILTERS

The first few pinned items are always item-filters. Item-filters are always pinned and cannot be unpinned. They always show before all other items. When clicking an item-filter the item panel will only show items (pinned or unpinned) that are included in that filter. This way you can for example filter the item panel to only show ship equipment items. Most filtered views contain more specific filters that can be clicked in turn to filter down to more specific items; sort of like a directory structure. If the item panel is currently filtered then the very first item is always the "FILTER BACK" item which backs the item panel out of the current filter into its previous / parent filter. The top-filter / unfiltered view (how the item panel is displayed by default) simply shows / includes all items. Note that pinned items also only show if the current filter includes them.

DEFAULT PINNED ITEMS

What follows below is a description of the default pinned items that show when the item panel is unfiltered (showing all items).

ATTENTION FILTER

Will filter the item panel to only show items that require your immediate attention (e.g. injuries).

CLONE FILTER

In TAXINAUT your character's body is typically referred to as your "clone"; this will filter the item panel to only show personal / "on body" equipment and abilities (e.g. "body armor").

CAB FILTER

Will filter the item panel to only show ship related equipment and abilities (e.g. "warp-jump").

STATUS FILTER

Will filter the item panel to only shows informational items like effects, conditions, relations and storylines.

RECYCLE

This initiates a cycle. Sometimes you get stuck. For example, when you suffer an "GCF failure" and can't take off anymore and you don't have enough vudu for a tow. In those cases your only choice might be to cycle.

LAND

Clicking this will land you at your current position (when not in space) even when there is no clear site there (like a diner or motel for example). It can also be used on the galaxy-map to reenter a system that you have just exited (if you're still over it on the galaxy-map).

GALAXY MAP

This toggles the galaxy-map which can be used to look up information on other planets and systems or do things like initiate warp (if you have the right equipment and are in space). Whenever you are outside of any system (in interstellar space) you will automatically be shown the galaxy map. For more information about warping to another system see "Traveling to another system".

The galaxy-map can be panned and zoomed by dragging the mouse and using the mouse-wheel. Clicking on a star will set that system as your destination (e.g. for warp). If the system is known to you then it will also show an "INFO" button which you can click to open up System details for that system. System details will show you the name of the system with some icons indicating general information about the system (e.g. whether there is traffic control in operation in that system). It will also show all planets and / or stations in that system. If the planet or station is known then it will show in more detail and you will be able to click it to open up Zone details for that planet or station. Zone details will show information for that planet or station similar to what would be shown in the information-panel if you where in that zone. It will also show the possible types of sites and vessels (or other large moving things) you might encounter there. If such a type of site or vessel is known to you (even if on another planet) then it will show an image of that site or vessel and you can hover over it to see some more information about it. Clicking a known site type will set your destination to the nearest known site of that type (if any) in that zone.

LANDING SYSTEM

Normally when flying over a site (like a diner or trader) at speed <= 1 you will automatically land there. This toggles this automatic landing which can be handy to turn off when flying in dense traffic where you have to fly slow or stop frequently to not fly into other traffic without triggering a landing just because you are over some site like a diner. When toggled on you will land automatically at any site, place or pickup you fly into with speed <= 1. When toggled off you will not land anywhere automatically (except for your destination). Left-clicking the land item will also always trigger landing regardless of how this is set.

RADIO

Clicking it will show your radio and bulleting board controls. You can turn it ON/OFF to start/stop playing music (you also turn this ON/OFF with the jukebox setting).

You can also turn ON/OFF your news feed here (also possible with the news feed setting). This will start/stop news and ads appearing on your bulletin-board. Important messages like item notifications or traffic control messages will still show.

You can also change the volume of music and sound here the same as through the music volume and sound volume settings.

HUD

This toggles the little mini information HUD under you cab that shows you speed, vudu and distance to your destination.

CONTEXT-PANEL

The context-panel shows relevant information depending on what you have clicked on the item panel (e.g. clicking a bookmark item shows bookmark information). It also shows the fare panel when you have a passenger (which you can toggle by clicking the little passenger portrait item in the item panel). If there is nothing to show in the context panel then the bulletin board (see below) will stretch over it instead.

BULLETIN-BOARD

The bulletin-board is at the bottom of the control-panel. It displays all kinds of messages and notifications some of which are important (e.g. messages from traffic control). Some of these messages and notifications can be clicked. For example: Call-out notifications can be clicked to open up their details in the context-panel. The bulletin-board will stretch automatically to cover the context-panel if there is nothing showing in the context-panel.

LANDING

You can mostly land anywhere while not in space by left-clicking the land item.

Designated interactive sites like shops, bars, nexus, etc. are marked by a bright icon that stands out from it's surroundings. The icon depends on what type of a site it is. Places, when undiscovered, show as a white circle with a green circle in it's center. Pickups have different shapes but they usually flash and are often in the shape of a person raising one arm. The yellow ones are of most interest to you because these are usually people looking for a cab. Provided you have your landing system toggled on, to land at a designated site, place or pickup fly into it at speed-setting = 1. You have to fly into it quite precisely with the center of your cab very close to the center of the marker.

Note that landing "in the rough", that is, not at a designated site (by using the land item) is illegal in a lot of places.

You can also turn off automatic landing (see "Landing system") which can be handy while flying in zones with heavy traffic.

DEPARTING AND DESCENDING

To depart from a planet you can fly to a spaceport (if the planet you are on has one) or you can use an anti-graviton charge. If a planet has a spaceport it is usually located at the center of the map and is also likely to be automatically listed in the planet's directory as soon as you've discovered the planet. Using "assisted planetary-departure" at a spaceport normally costs around 100 vudu. Be aware that you can be checked by security when landing at a spaceport.

To start departure with an anti-graviton charge simply left-click it. If you are landed somewhere you will normally automatically leave.

During the ascension sequence all controls and buttons will be temporarily disabled.

To descent onto a planet simply fly into it at speed = 1 like you would when landing at a site. During the descent-sequence all controls and buttons will be temporarily disabled. Note that you cannot descent onto all planetoids. For example you cannot descent onto gas-giants and stars.

TRAVELING TO ANOTHER SYSTEM

The most common ways to travel to other star-systems are:

• By using transports.
• By using galactic-liners.
• By using warp-jumps.
• By using a warp-beacon.

To use a warp-jump to warp to another star-system all of the following conditions must be met:

1. You must be in space (that is not on a planet or inside a space-station).
2. You must have your destination star-system selected on your galaxy-map.
3. The selected star-system must be known (known systems appear on the galaxy-map with a regular name, a star or starport icon and are clearer than unknown systems).
4. You must have a warp-jump available that's capable of traveling the distance to the destination system.

Warp-beacons are a feature that is available on some sites, most notably on non-rented homes. They work similar to warp-jumps except that you do not need / consume a warp-jump to use them.

NAVIGATION

You can set your destination in a variety of ways, including:

• By left-clicking a location in a zone's directory (either to a location in the current zone in the information-panel or in another zone via that's zone's zone-details).
• By left-clicking a bookmark item on your item-panel and then left-clicking "SET DESTINATION" on the bookmark-details that appear in the context-panel.
• By left-clicking a star on the galaxy-map.
• By taking a fare your destination is automatically set to the fare's destination.
• By left-clicking "SET DESTINATION" on the fare-panel (shown in the context-panel when you have a fare).
• Often left-clicking a storyline objective will set your destination to whatever makes sense in that storyline.

If the destination is known to you, you will see directions to it in the form of a green arrow close to your cab or a yellow "DEPART" notification blinking at the top of the information-panel. Depending on where you are, you might also see a green square on the minimap indicating your destination and / or if you're close enough to your destination, a jumping green triangle in the main-view over the destination site or planet or entrance leading to your destination. The green arrow simply points in the direction of your destination or the planet or entrance leading to your destination. The flashing, yellow 'DEPART' notification means your destination is in another zone (usually another planet or system) and you should leave the current zone to travel to your destination.

If you are in a station, subterranean zone or a planet with a traffic-lane system then you might also see a green path leading to the next milestone towards your destination.

SAVING

Depending on your "allow manual save" setting, TAXINAUT save-games are created in a number of ways:

• Automatically when you quit.
• Automatically on some occasions (e.g. after reviving).
• When you save it manually by clicking "SAVE" on the interaction-panel while landed at a site that allows manual saving (e.g. at your home, a nexus or a motel).

QUITTING

You can quit at any time by clicking "QUIT" in the main-menu and you will be able to continue where you left off the next time you start TAXINAUT by clicking "CONTINUE". However there are some game situations during which "quit and continue" is not available (for example: in the middle of a conversation with people or while being chased by security). If you attempt to quit at such times, TAXINAUT will warn you that all your progress since the start of that session will be lost (if you made any manual saves these of course will remain there). This is mostly done to discourage cheating (e.g. quitting while being hunted and then reloading to not find the hunter there) or because it would be technically very awkward to save at that point.

CYCLING

Cycling is sort of like dying and being reborn. When you cycle your vudu is set to 1, all your material possessions including your cab and clone (body) are lost and you revive in a new clone at your home (or the nearest nexus if you don't have a home). Because your cab and everything in it is gone, any passenger you had will be gone too. Because your clone is gone and you revive in a fresh one, all injuries you had will be gone. Any vudu you had uploaded to the nexus and things like permits, your knowledge of locations and many other things will be exactly like they were. Some jobs or story-lines might have their own consequences for cycling and some items are always lost when you cycle even though they are not material.

When you revive at home you will be able to replace your lost cab with one from your hangar (if you have any). Otherwise you must contact the local cab-company (there will be a "CONTACT LOCAL CAB-COMPANY" button in your hangar or at the nexus where you revive). They will loan you a cab of theirs in return for a percentage of your profits. You won't be able to leave without a cab.

NOTES

If you are looking for a way to backup your progress: You can backup the files under the 'sav' directory which is in the user-directory (see "user-directory").

ACTION-SEQUENCES

While interacting with people around the galaxy either you or them can start an action-sequence. An action-sequence is started for example when you click on a weapon item in the item-panel while talking to somebody; this will start an attack with the clicked weapon on the person you're talking to. In a similar way, people can start an action-sequence on you. They can start it while you're talking to them, as soon as you click their portrait, while trading with them or even immediately upon landing somewhere.

An action-sequence is made up of two parts: the start-action followed by the response-action chosen by the other party. Each is shown in turn by a round icon indicating what the action is. The icons will show in the same place where conversations are normally shown. After both the start- and response-actions are shown each will be replaced with an effect-icon in a star-like shape, indicating the effect of the action. If the action has no effect a grey cross will be shown instead. The effect of an action usually comes in the form of an item that is added to the player (e.g. an injury in case of an attack) or an attribute that is added to the non-player character. After the effects of the start- and response-actions are shown, the action-sequence ends.

When an action-sequence ends four things can happen:

1. You return to whatever conversation or trade-panel you were at when the action-sequence started. It can also be that these are now not accessible (because of your actions) and you will be faced with a blank panel with the option to leave (e.g. "ADIOS"). This is common, for example, after attacking somebody because they do not want to talk to you or trade with you after you have attacked them. It can also be that the dialog you come back to is now different. If you want, you can start an action-sequence again at this point by clicking on an action-item in the item-panel.
2. The other party immediately decides to start an action-sequence again.
3. You cycle as a result of the actions and will revive at your home or the nearest nexus.
4. The other party cycles, in which case you will sometimes be able to pick one of each item they had on offer against no cost.

The above covers the basic flow of an action-sequence. Below are some extra explanations to help you understand action-sequences.

Actions by the player that affect the non-player character are always shown on a white circle. For example: the player hitting a non-player character with a hammer will show a black hammer on a white circle. Actions taken by a non-player character that affect the player will show on a red circle. For example: a non-player character hitting the player with a hatchet will show a black hatchet on a red circle.

In the case that a non-player character starts the action-sequence and the response-action must come from the player, a flashing circle saying, "CHOOSE ACTION" will be shown where the response-action icon would normally show. The player can then click an action-item on the item-panel to choose an action. The item-panel will at this point only show items that the player can actually use in this situation. A white on green flag is always shown as the first item and it can be used to choose to do nothing. After the player chooses their action it will show in place of the flashing "CHOOSE ACTION" icon.

Sometimes right after an action-icon appears, a smaller icon appears at the top of it. Icons like this indicate something that the party subject to the action has that might change the outcome of the action. For example: An attack with a club might have it's effect reduced by the defender's body-armor. Each action will always only suffer one of these automatic counter-effects.

If the responding party chooses not to take any action (shown by a white on green flag) then no effect-icon will be shown for it (it won't even show a grey cross).

Be careful when carrying a passenger: If while carrying a passenger you are interacting with somebody else (e.g. you are landed somewhere or have bumped into another ship) then clicking a weapon item will start an attack on that other person, not the passenger. But if you are not interacting with another person, clicking a weapon will start an attack on your passenger (if you have one).

KNOWN & DISCOVERED

There are roughly two levels of knowledge you can have about a location:

DIRECTIONS FROM PEOPLE

People generally have directions to sites in the same zone (e.g. same planet), planets and stations in the same system and nearby systems. They also often have directions to where some type of item might be obtained.

Directions to common sites like diners, traders and motels, generally show in white with a white square icon whereas directions to special sites often show the site's icon. If the directions only tell the system or planet/station a site is on then they show a system, planet or station icon.

General directions to planets, stations and nearby systems normally show in a blue/purple color with an icon indicating what they are. Sometimes directions to a system are actually directions to a major populated planet; these are shown in a pinkish color and are a little more expensive.

MANTRAS

Mantras are (among other things) 5 letter, grey codes you sometimes see underneath the names of sites and planets. You can share these codes with other players and they can be used by them to obtain bookmarks to a similar site or planet in their game by going to a Catalog and asking about MANTRA QUERY. The same mantras refer to the same types of sites and planets across all games.

WARNING: Obtaining locations like this can of course spoil the game since you're usually supposed to find these on your own or through a storyline.

NOTE: The cost of MANTRA QUERY is always 4000 vudu even if the mantra you enter turns out to be invalid or you already know of a site or planet that the mantra refers to: in that case you will simply get a bookmark to the nearest site or planet you already know.

NOTE: It is important to understand that mantras usually don't refer to specific locations and that the location you get back from them might be different from the location for the player you got the mantra from. Things like colors, what people are at the location and what items are sold there will probably be different and the layout of the planet will probabably also be different.

NOTE: The mantras that you see underneath the names of places are for the planet the place is on not for the place (general or specific) itself.

ANTI-GRAVITION CHARGES

Anti-gravition charges allow you to depart from a planet's surface whenever you want, wherever you want. When on a planet's surface (not in a cave or dungeon) click the item to start the departure. Anti-gravition charges can be bought at some traders but might be hard to find.

NOTE: that some planets might prevent you from using anti-gravition charges. This will normally be indicated for the planet on its information panel.

NOTE: damage to your cab might prevent you from using anti-gravition charges.

GONGS

Gongs occupy a deep and complicated place in the structure and history of the Kyprei Galaxy and can refer to many things. For the purposes of game-play gong refers to both a type of leveled improvement on your clone and to those things that create these improvements. The improvements are things like: being able to squeeze more range out of warp-jumps and scanners, increased ability to negotiate lower prices for topics and doing more damage with melee attacks.

In general gongs come in the form of an Isochrome or an Goyaepoid larvae that when manifested causes a mutation. The mutation resulting from gongs bought at clinics should always be positive and result in a level-up of a gong on your clone. Some gongs are fully identified when you see them at a clinic while others will only reveal what they do once manifested.

Gongs also come in other forms and some level-up more than one gong at a time and/or do other things. It is recommended you only use a gong at your home because after manifesting a gong there is a consolidation period often accompanied by Gong fever. Recovering at your home will clear any Gong fever (and most other diseases).

Some gongs can also level-up by digesting certain foods. Also, some can temporarily level-up by using drink and/or drugs.

A lot of gongs have a maximum level and can't normally be levelled beyond this.

You can see the current level of your gongs at your home in the cryonary or by clicking on your portrait on the statusbar at the top of the control-panel. Note that the level shown is always the sum of the level of that gong on your clone plus any levels from active buffs (e.g. from drinks).

INJURIES

One of the most common effects of an attack is an injury. There are many different injuries that one can suffer but they all fall in one of four levels of severity: minor, major, critical and fatal. Each level has a maximum number of injuries that one can have of that level. When that number is reached any subsequent injury of the same level will be aggravated and become an injury of one level higher. When a critical-injury is aggravated the sufferer cycles. Suffering a fatal injury also results in immediate cycling. The maximum count for each injury-level is as follows:

1. Minor-injury: maximum of 3 (the 4th and subsequent minor-injuries will turn into a major-injury).
2. Major-injury: maximum of 2 (the 3th and subsequent major-injuries will turn into a critical-injury).
3. Critical-injury: maximum of 1 (the 2nd will result in cycling).
4. Fatal-injury: maximum of 0 (the 1st will result in cycling).

If an injury is aggravated and the next level of injury is also at it's maximum then the injury will simply be aggravated again into the next level (until a level is reached that is not at it's maximum or cycling occurs).

INSURANCE CREDITS

Insurance credits allow you to recover a ship you lost (e.g. when you cycled) and all the mods on it. Insurance credits can be bought at most garages.

RE-GEN

Re-gen allows you to transfer back to any Imago in your Cryonary. Each time you transfer to another clone either because you cycled or through other means, an Imago of your previous clone will be added to your Cryonary (unless there is already one there for that clone). The I M A G O Company assures you that Re-gen and Imagos do not use cloning. Re-gen can be bought at most clinics.

Note that Imagos also include any mutations (e.g. gongs) on the clone. So these will also be recovered when re-gen is used.

BOOKMARKS

Bookmarks are directions to a certain place, site or location. You'll often receive these when people give you directions. They appear as items in your item-panel. When you click them more details about them will show in the context-panel. Here you'll be able to set your destination to the bookmarked location or delete the bookmark if you don't need it anymore.

Note that deleting a bookmark does not erase you knowing where the bookmarked location is. For example, if sometime after deleting a bookmark for a certain place you pickup a passenger that wants to go to that place then you'll still get the usual direction cues (e.g green arrow) even if the passenger doesn't know where it is. You will still know where the place is and will still be able to find it through your galaxy-map's zone details.

FOOD

About twice a day, depending on what you last ate, you need to eat. When you're hungry a "hungry" item will be added to your item-panel. If you ignore it you will eventually start losing vudu.

You can buy food at diners and inns. When you buy food, you immediately consume it: you can't take it with you to consume later. While digesting the food, it will show in your item-panel and you won't be able to eat any other foods. Once digested it will be removed from your item-panel and after a while you'll get hungry again.

Most foods have one or more effects. These can be both positive and negative (e.g. you can smell bad after eating certain foods). Importantly: a lot of foods, while you digest them, progress a particular gong. Once a certain amount of progress-points is gained for a certain gong, that gong will level-up. You can see the status of this progress on the hover on food items and by clicking on your portrait in the statusbar at the top of the control-panel. Each time you level-up a gong through progression by food the next level-up this way (of any gong) will cost more: For the first level-up you will need to digest food for about 1 day, for the second 2 days, for the third 3, etc. Time spend waiting or sleeping somewhere will not contribute to this progress (you have to be flying around with food in your belly). gong progression through food does not affect leveling-up gongs by using gongs as for example bought at clinics.

Note that sleeping at a motel or inn or recovering at your home will cure any hunger and make it so you won't get hungry for a good while but doesn't progress any gong.

DRINK & DRUGS

Throughout the Kyprei Galaxy you can find people and places that sell drink and/or drugs. Drink is sold at bars and some inns and is legal to carry mostly anywhere in the Galaxy (it's mostly NOT legal to fly around drunk however). Drugs are mostly sold by dealers on the streets and are illegal to carry but their intoxication is mostly not detected by security (so unlike flying around drunk, flying around on drugs is usually not a problem).

Both drink and drugs can have multiple temporary effects. For one: most drinks and drugs can change the speed of time (under certain conditions). On top of that they can also temporarily increase the level of one or more gongs. There's also other effects. Some last quite long (e.g. 15 minutes) while others are very short (e.g. 15 seconds).

A lot of the effects, except for the time-speed effects, can be stacked (taking something with a time-speed effect while another time-speed effect is active will simply cancel the old time-speed effect and replace it with the new one). Stacking drink & drugs will increase your intoxication-level. When you go over your intoxication-limit you will get nauseous which can cause you to puke. When you puke you lose all intoxication effects and any currently digesting food but remain nauseous. The nausea will go away by itself after a while. Consuming anything while nauseous will make you puke. Certain maneuvers (e.g. planetary-descent) while nauseous also have a chance of making you puke. You can see your current intoxication-level and limit when hovering over intoxication items like drunk, high or doped. Note that there is a gong that increases your intoxication-limit.

Drink & drug effects can mostly all be canceled in one go by for example taking Elucin (available at some clinics).

Note that drugs can cause addiction. Addiction is not cured by something like Elucin but can be cured at certain clinics. If you don't like the addiction mechanic then you can turn it off with the addiction game-setting.

HOMES

Throughout the galaxy you will find residences available to rent or buy. When you rent or buy a residence it becomes your home. You can only have one home at a time so before you rent or buy a new one you have to cancel the rent or sell your current one. You start the game with a rented home on Yamo. Rented homes require you to pay a rent at the start of every 10 day period. If you are behind on rent, your home will still be accessible to you but you won't have access to most of its services. You can talk to your home's "cloud" (an artificial intelligence that comes with every home) if you want to know more about your rent or if you want to cancel your rent or sell your home.

It is recommended that you buy a home as soon as you can. Bought homes have some advantages over rented homes:

• You only have to pay for a bought home once.
• You cannot be locked out of its services.
• When you sell a bought home you get most of your vudu back.
• Bought homes come with at least a warp-beacon (a warp-beacon allows you to warp to your home's system from anywhere in the galaxy without something like a warp-jump).

HOME SERVICES

The most important function of a home is having a comfortable place to revive when you cycle. On top of this homes commonly offer the following services:

NEXUS-CONDUIT

Every home offers a nexus-conduit similar to those you find at a nexus. You can use it to transfer vudu between your clone and the nexus.

CRYONARY

Clicking the portrait on the left of the home UI will open your Cryonary. In your Cryonary you will see your current clone listed together with all Imagos available to you. Imagos are provided to you by the I M A G O Company and allow you to transfer back to any clone you previously inhabited by using re-gen. Each time you transfer to another clone either because you cycled or through other means, an Imago of your previous clone will be added to your Cryonary (unless there is already one there for that clone). The I M A G O Company assures you that Re-gen and Imagos do not use cloning. Re-gen can be bought at most clinics.

You can see the gongs on each clone/Imago and access the ability to re-gen or purge (destroy) it by clicking on its portrait in the grid on the right. (Use mouse-wheel to page through the grid). The clones/Imagos are numbered in the order that you first inhabited them.

HANGAR

Click on the image of your ship (or the button that says "NO CAB") on the right side of the home UI to access your hangar. In your hangar you can see all the ships you own, lease or lost. Clicking on any of the ships will show you what mods are installed on it and allow you to install/improve mods on it. You can also recover any lost ship here by using an insurance credit.

RECOVERY

Left clicking "RECOVER" while in your home's main menu will do 4 things:

1. You will sleep until the next phase of the day, lose any "tired" item and you won't be tired again for at least a day (same as when sleeping at a motel).
2. All your injuries will be fully healed.
3. All damage to your cab will be fully repaired.
4. You will lose any "hungry" item and won't be hungry again for at least a day.

The overall effect of recovery is similar to reviving at your home except that you don't lose anything.

STORE

Your home's store is a place where you can store items for later use and buy items that you have unlocked for purchase at your home. Items are unlocked for purchase at your home by buying them at certain specific places or through storylines. What place or storyline unlocks an item is generally different per item. Items at your home typically only cost about a quarter of what they cost anywhere else.

The store will show any items that you have stored there or that you can buy at your home. If you have one or more of a certain item stored at your home then it will show the number you have stored underneath its icon in white on black. Clicking the item will transfer one from your home store to your item-panel. Clicking an item on your item-panel will transfer one from your item-panel to your home store. While in the home store your item-panel will only show items that are transferable to the home store.

If you don't have any of a certain item stored but the item is unlocked for purchase at your home then it will show the price in blue underneath its icon. Clicking such an item will buy one for the listed price and add it to your item-panel. While in the home store you can use the nexus-conduit to download vudu from the nexus to your clone so that you have enough to buy an item there.

Items of which you have none stored and that aren't unlocked for purchase at your home simply don't show in your home store.

CLOUD

Every home has a personality called a "cloud". You can talk to it about administrative things having to do with your home like paying the rent or canceling it. It's also what you talk to when considering a residence for rent or purchase.

LOUNGE

The lounge is a place where all kinds of things may appear. By default it contains your achievements.

WARP-BEACONS AND TELEPORTERS

If your home is a bought (not rented) home then it comes with at least a warp-beacon. Some more expensive homes come with a teleport-beacon. Some even more expensive homes come with a full 2-way teleporter.

A warp-beacon can be used to warp to your home's system from anywhere in the galaxy without the need for something like a warp-jump.

A teleport-beacon can be used to teleport to your home from anywhere in the galaxy.

On top of the above services, if you have allow manual save turned on (which it is by default) you can create a save-game while at your home by left-clicking "SAVE" at the bottom of the home main-menu (next to "ADIOS").

NEXUS

Nexus are ancient places build before recorded time. There are many beliefs about who build them and what exactly for but nobody seems to know for sure. Each nexus provides a conduit to what some refer to as "The great sea of vudu" but is generally simply called "The Nexus". Most nexus are administered by some corporation, government or cult. At a nexus you can transfer vudu between your clone and the Nexus in the same way as at your home. Any vudu uploaded to the Nexus is inaccessible to others and can only be downloaded to the individual it was uploaded from (either at a nexus or at their home). vudu uploaded to the Nexus is not lost when you cycle.

For some reason, people who cycle and don't have a home will revive at the nearest nexus. Cycling, vudu and the Nexus are clearly deeply related but how and why exactly is uncertain. When you revive at a nexus you will be given the opportunity to contact an enterprise body suited to your skills. In your case that means contacting a local cab-company so that you can arrange for a new cab to fly.

The nexus closest to where you were born is your origin nexus. You can ask at any other nexus for them to cycle you to your origin nexus, for free. This can be handy if you cycled and wound up at a nexus on a planet you don't like. For a fee, you can also transfer your origin to another nexus.

If you have allow manual save turned on (which it is by default) you can create a save-game while at a nexus by left-clicking "SAVE" at the bottom of the interaction-panel (next to "ADIOS").

MOTELS

Motels (and inns) are places where you can pay to sleep when you get tired. When you sleep at a motel or inn the following happens:

• You lose any "tired" item and wake up at the start of the next phase of the day (e.g. if you went to sleep at night you generally wake up in the morning, if you went to sleep during the day you generally wake up in the evening).
• Any hygiene issues you or your cab might have had will be gone.
• All damages to your cab are patched.
• All your injuries are patched.
• If you where hungry it will be gone and you won't be hungry for at least a day.

On top of the above, if you have allow manual save turned on (which it is by default) you can create a save-game while at a motel (even if you don't pay for a room) by left-clicking "SAVE" at the bottom of the interaction-panel (next to "ADIOS").

CLINICS

Clinics allow you to patch and/or heal your injuries. They also sometimes sell things like healing equipment for on the go and things like re-gen and gongs there.

GARAGES

Garages allow you to repair or patch damage to your cab. They also sometimes sell things like repair equipment for on the go and things like insurance credits.

SPACEPORT

Spaceports enable you to depart from a planet without an anti-gravition charge. When landed at a spaceport you can pay (usually around 100 vudu) for an "assisted departure". The effects of these will be otherwise the same as using your own anti-gravition charge. Some planets will force you into a "guided descent" that forces you to land at their spaceport when you descent to them.

Spaceports are usually located in the center of the planet and their location is always immediately known to you as soon as you discover the planet.

NOTE: When you enter a spaceport (either when descending into it or departing from it) you might be checked by security.

See also: Departing and descending.

TRANSPORTS AND LINERS

An alternative way to travel between star-systems is by using transporters and galactic-liners. These don't require you to have a warp-jump or for the destination system to be known to you. They are also a lot cheaper than warp-jumps.

You can book a trip on a transporter at a travel-agent. Travel-agents will sell tickets for transport to neighboring star-systems. After buying a ticket, clicking the ticket will set your destination to where you can board the transporter (this is normally somewhere in space, in the same star-system where you booked the ticket). Transporters leave at a certain set time. If you board early the transport will simply leave immediately. If you arrive late the transporter simply won't be there because it has already left. The description on the ticket item as well as information given before you buy the ticket will tell you when the transport will leave at the latest (even if you haven't boarded yet). Be aware that there are star-systems that are not serviced by transporters or galactic-liners.

Galactic-liners are faster, cover larger distances and leave immediately but are only available in star-systems that have a starport. Booking a place on a galactic-liner and boarding it are all done at the starport at the same time (you board and travel as soon as you book your place). If a system has a starport then it is always located inside one of its space-stations. Known Systems that have starports will show on the galaxy-map as a pentagonal purple icon instead of a star. Also, travel-agents will list destination systems that have a starport with a pentagonal purple icon. Systems with a starport will also indicate this via an icon in their system-details (underneath their name).

Often you won't be able to find a transport or liner that goes directly to your destination and will have to make multiple trips. Usually this means booking a transporter to the nearest system with a starport. Then from that starport take galactic-liners from starport to starport until you are as close as you can get with liners to your destination. Then take one or more transports to get to your final destination.

INFORMATION

Most civilized planets and stations have an information site where you can buy directions to nearby systems, planets, sites and places. Unlike when buying directions to planets from random people, when you buy directions to planets at information the planet always becomes discovered.

GATE-NETWORK

Some systems have a gate-network that allows you to travel very fast between some planets and/or stations in that system. Usually these gates can be found near the checkpoint station or the star and around planets and stations. If the system is under traffic control then any gate-network in the system will be displayed on the minimap in your information panel. Buying a system map from people or information will also show any gate-network on your minimap. If you have an active membership to a taxi-company that is active in the system then the gate-network will also show on your minimap. All systems that have a gate-network will show an indicator to this effect in their system details.

Note that In some systems using a gate costs vudu in others it's free.

HAZARDOUS REGIONS

Most systems have hazardous regions. These regions might contain a lot of crime, asteroid fields or other dangers. They also occasionally have some salvage left by other unlucky travelers. It is advised that you generally try to stay clear of these regions.

System with hazardous regions indicate this in their system details. When you enter a hazardous regions you will be notified and the region will show itself on your minimap in the form of a red or orange disc indicating the extend of the region. If the system is under traffic control then all hazardous regions in the system will be displayed on the miimap regardless of whether you are currently in them. Buying a system map from people or information will also permanently show all hazardous regions in that system on your minimap. If you have a membership to a taxi-company that is active in the system then the hazardous regions will also show on your minimap.

PENALTIES

When you break the law different things might happen depending on the jurisdiction. Most often you will receive some form of penalty. Commonly there are three levels of penalty:

TRAFFIC CONTROL

Some systems that fall under one or more jurisdictions might have an active traffic control. They can give you all kinds of instructions and information through your bulletin-board. Most commonly they ask you for your intended destination when you enter the system. They also regularly ask you to fly to the main station or checkpoint station in that system to clear customs before you continue on your way. Penalties for not complying with traffic control might be severe. It is therefor important to pay attention to your bulletin-board especially when entering a system.

HOW DO I LEAVE YAMO AND GO INTO SPACE?

You either go to the spaceport and pay for an assisted departure or use an anti-graviton charge. See Departing and descending.

USING CONTROLLERS (OR THE KEYBOARD)

TAXINAUT was designed to be played with just a mouse. I highly recommend you learn to play TAXINAUT with a mouse if possible. Controller support is there for when it's not possible to play it with a mouse (e.g. on a Steam Deck) or when it's very inconvenient. Controller support will be functionally fully maintained but I won't spend time tweaking it to fit everyone's tastes.

TAXINAUT can be played with a controller provided that the following requirements are met:

• You have a way to map the controller's buttons and directional-pad(s) to keyboard keys (e.g. through Steam).
• The controller has a joystick / thumbstick / analog stick and you have a way to set it to control the mouse-pointer (e.g. through Steam).

SETTINGS

UI SETTINGS

CONTROLLER & KEYBOARD

You can turn this "ON" if you want to play TAXINAUT with a controller or your keyboard. (See Using controllers or the keyboard for more information).

If the automatic focus is giving you trouble you can turn off "AUTO FOCUS" by clicking it. You will still be able to use the focus system but when focus is lost or unclear TAXINAUT won't attempt to give something focus automatically. You will have to tell it to give something focus every time (for example by clicking the TAB key or whatever controller button is mapped to it).

By default when you turn "Controller & keyboard" "ON" your mouse-pointer will be disabled (e.g. your cab won't turn towards it) and hidden while the game is NOT paused. The assumption is that your game-controller will turn your cab (e.g. with a d-pad) and the mouse-pointer will just be a nuisance. You can toggle "HIDE MOUSE" off if you always want to see the mouse pointer. However, this will mean that every time you unpause, your cab will start turning to where the mouse-pointer is.

See also Using controllers or the keyboard.

SHOW ON-SCREEN KEYBOARD

By default (YES), whenever you need to enter text, a keyboard that you can use with your mouse or controller pops-up at the bottom of the screen. If you're playing it with a real keyboard and don't want his thing to pop-up everytime then you can set this to NO.

Note: This option cannot be changed and is always set to YES if CONTROLLER & KEYBOARD is ON.

DISABLE MOUSE-STEERING

If you want to control your cab purely by keyboard you can set this to ON (the default is OFF). This is implied to be ON when above under CONTROLLER & KEYBOARD HIDE MOUSE is selected.

Note: This option cannot be changed when CONTROLLER & KEYBOARD is ON (it's controlled by the HIDE MOUSE option of CONTROLLER & KEYBOARD in that case).

TEXT SIZE

Here you can select the size at which regular text is displayed. Titles and labels that where already bigger will stay the same size. Some labels will not be affected by this despite them being small but all dialog, button and hover-help text will be displayed at the size set here. The default is 14pt which is the size TAXINAUT used to use before this setting was added in version 0.8.27.

ACTION DELAY

During an action-sequence (e.g. a fight between you and an NPC) this determines the time in milliseconds an effect is shown before the sequence moves on. If these action-sequences seem to run to quickly to make sense setting this to a larger number will make them run slower. The default is 1000ms.

HIDE OPTIONS WHILE TALKING

By default (when set to "ON") when in a dialog your response options are not shown until the dialog's text is fully shown (i.e. when the NPC is done "talking"). Setting this to "OFF" will show the options immediately as soon as any text starts showing.

OPTION SCROLL SPEED

Options for which the text doesn't fit will scroll their text when you move the mouse over them. This setting determines the speed of this scrolling in pixels per second.

SIGHTSEEING MODE (UNSUPPORTED)

When "ON" (the default is "OFF") this will add a sightseeing item to your item-panel. The sightseeing item can be left-clicked to toggle the main-view to cover the full screen and give you a larger field-of-view than even the regular widescreen view does. The image below shows the differences in perspective and how much of the coordinate-space you see in the different view-modes:

Like in regular widescreen, the control-panel will slide to the right off screen and can be temporarily slid back by hovering the mouse over a small widget at the right-side of the screen. This mode can be toggled at will mostly at any time during the game (except when landed somewhere).

ATTENTION: Flying around in sightseeing mode can result in low framerates and / or stuttering in some zones. There is no way for me to improve this (I've done all I reasonably can there). The sightseeing mode will be functionally fully maintained but there will be no improvement to the framerate or stutter. It is therefore UNSUPPORTED. If you want to use the sightseeing mode and are getting low framerates or stutter then you can try and turn down some other things like rendering quality or limit decorative site density.

HIDE COMPLETED STORYLINES

When "ON" (the default is "OFF") storylines like "Being a TAXINAUT" will not show in your item-panel anymore once they are completed.

SLIDE MAIN-VIEW ON CONTROL-PANE TOGGLE

When "ON" (the default is "ON"), when in widescreen and sliding open the control-panel the main-view (and your cab) will move slightly to the left to keep the cab centered in the visible main-view: the UI will look the same as in normal (none-widescreen) mode. When "OFF" the main-view will stay as it is and the control-panel will slide over it, leaving the cab shown where it was (in the center of the whole screen).

SHOW BULLETIN ON BOOKMARK GAINED

When "ON" (the default is "ON"), every time you gain a bookmark you'll receive a notification to this effect in your bulletin-board. When "OFF" you don't receive a notification (the bookmark is still added to your item-panel of course.

SHOW WARP ANIMATION

When "ON" (the default is "ON") the warp animation will show when you use a warp-jump or warp-beacon. If you prefer to just see your cab traveling over the galaxy-map (like it used to be in older version) then you can set this to "OFF". Toggling away from the galaxy-map will still show the warp-animation.

SHOW SAVE-GAME FILE NAME

When "ON" (the default is "OFF") save-games will show the name of the file instead of the amount of vudu the player had when that save-game was created.

LIST ALL SAVE-GAME FILES

When ON (the default is OFF) all save-game files will be listed instead of just the most recently used one for each character even when ALLOW MANUAL SAVE is set to NEVER. This can be handy for cleaning up your save-game folder when it's getting too big (e.g. for use with Steam Cloud; see STEAM CLOUD DOESN'T WORK).

PAUSE ON THREAT ALERT

Some creatures and ships (not all) will flash and sound an alert when they become hostile. With this setting ON (the default) TAXINAUT will automatically pause when this happens so you can get a chance to plan on how to deal with the threat at the earliest opportunity. You can turn that off by setting this to OFF (you will still get the alert but the game won't automatically pause).

RESUME SUSPEND

The time in milliseconds that you can't resume the game after the game was automatically paused because of a threat alert. This prevents the situation where you try to pause the game because you see a threat but end up resuming it instead because the automatic pausing had already just paused it (this can be very irritating).

If you still find yourself unintentionally resuming the game after a threat alert you can set this a bit higher. If you find yourself constantly wanting to resume the game after a threat alert but having to click twice then you can set this a bit lower (or to 0ms if you don't want it at all).

This setting is only enabled when PAUSE ON THREAT ALERT is ON. The default is 1000ms.

PAUSE WHEN TIME SLOWDOWN ENDS

When ON (the default is ON) then whenever a time slowdown effect (e.g. as gotten from drink or drugs) ends, the game will automatically pause. This is handy because otherwise, as soon as the time slowdown effect finishes and you're not hanging still, your cab will suddenly shoot forward because time suddenly speeds up again, possibly crashing you into traffic or worse, an attacker. This way you can take your time and for example decide to adjust your speed or take something else to slowdown time again. If you think this is annoying and/or like to deal with this yourself then you can set this to OFF.

STOP WHEN LANDING

Normally when taking off from a site your cab will immediately move off at the speed you landed at. When this is "ON" your cab's speed will be automatically set to zero when you land so that when you take off again your cab will not move off until you increase the speed again.

BLINK ATTENTION FILTER

When ON (the default is ON) then whenever you have items that require your attention (e.g. injuries) and that show under the ATTENTION item filter, the ATTENTION item will blink red instead of just showing red. You can turn the blinking OFF with this setting if you find it annoying (it will still show red when you have items that require your attention).

NEWS FEED

This turns ON/OFF news and ads appearing on your bulletin-board. You can also control this through your radio.

IMPORTANT FILES AND DIRECTORIES

	C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\TAXINAUT

	~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/TAXINAUT
	
	~/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/TAXINAUT
	
	~/snap/steam/common/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/TAXINAUT

	C:\Users\your_windows_username\appData\Roaming\taxinaut

PROBLEMS, CRASHES AND TROUBLESHOOTING

If you think there's something wrong with the display of the game read the section on Display-Settings. If it's stuttering a lot you might want to read The game stutters abnormally.

If the game crashes a "Sorry!" message will appear on a black screen and after a short pause TAXINAUT will close. A file called something like:

taxi1231231231231.crash

Will appear in your user-directory. I would very much appreciate it if you can send this file together with a description of what your were doing leading up to the crash to:

mosgrom1@gmail.com

If you think that something is not working as intended you can similarly send a description of the problem to the above email address.

A common reason for TAXINAUT suddenly crashing is running out of memory. TAXINAUT requires 2Gigs of RAM to be available to it. Systems with just the standard 4Gigs often don't have this available for applications. TAXINAUT therefore requires at least 6Gigs of RAM installed on the system.

If the game appears to hang / freeze (e.g. is unresponsive), if you can, leave it for about a 30 seconds. It should eventually detect that it is hanging and crash. The information in the resulting crash-file can help me a lot in determining what the cause of the hang was.

You can also try and force crash / quit TAXINAUT by pressing ALT-F4. Although if TAXINAUT is already hanging that probably won't work because most likely the event-thread is blocked.

assistive_technologies=org.GNOME.Accessibility.AtkWrapper