Priming Equipment

There is a wide range of additional less-standard equipment available – new inventions, prototypes, specialist items, military technology, scientific research kit, and so forth. As the standard equipment almost fills a typical instrument panel, the following keys can be used to activate extra equipment.

Controls

N: cycle selected equipment (hold Ctrl to reverse cycle direction)

n: activate selected equipment (primary activation) - makes it happen!

b: activate selected equipment (secondary activation - usually affects the effect of the 'n' key)

The exact meanings of the 'n' and 'b' keys vary considerably between equipment (“activate” and “change mode” is common) and you should consult the equipment's manual when it is installed.

For fast activation of particularly useful extra equipment, the 0 and 'Tab' keys may be set to send the primary activation signal to an installed piece of equipment without needing to select it first. You may configure which equipment items use these keys, once you have such equipment installed while docked, through an interface on the F4 screen. If you do not configure it yourself, convention is that a 'defensive' item will be assigned to the '0' key, and an 'offensive' item will be assigned to the 'Tab' key.

Extra Equipment HUD displays

To allow additional fitted equipment to display information to your HUD, it is fitted with a number (depending on layout) of multi-function displays (MFDs). If equipment is providing MFD content, you can cycle the display between the various options with the ; key. If your HUD has more than one MFD, you can switch between the MFDs with the : key.

The manuals provided with the additional equipment will tell you if it uses MFDs or not.

Controls

: select next MFD - ie move from MFD slot 3 to MFD slot 4 on your viewscreen

ctrl : select previous MFD - ie move from MFD slot 4 to MFD slot 3 on your viewscreen

; cycle current MFD forwards - ie choose which of your possible MFDs you want in slot 3 on your viewscreen - or if you want to leave that slot blank

ctrl ; cycle current MFD backwards