Getting Started

*This page is a work in progress.*

## Launching the Game

### The Main Menu

The first thing you will encounter when you launch the game is the main menu screen. From this page you have access to **Play**, **Options**, **Controls**, **Credits**, and **Exit**.

### Finding a Server

To get started into the actual game, go to the **Play** tab of the main menu and you will find the server list screen. You can sort by any of the headings to determine what kind of server you would like to play on, whether that be an "Official" CodeHatch hosted server or a "Community" server, a Player versus Player server or a Player versus Environment server.

A - These tabs allow you to sort through servers that you have either recently played or have favorited.
B - This symbol shows that a server has a ping limit.
C - This symbol shows that a server is an official CodeHatch server. Any other server will be a Community hosted server.
D - PVE stands for Player versus Environment, and denotes a server that does not allow in-game fighting between players or player-base griefing.
E - PVP stands for Player versus Player, and denotes a server that allows in-game fighting between players and player-base griefing.
F - This symbol shows that a server is private, and requires a password for access.
G - This is how to join your own server, very similar to a single player experience. This option can be open to co-op play as well.
*See Single Player Mode for more details on how to start this private server.*

H - This column allows the servers to be organized by map type, and currently there is only one map type.
I - This column allows the servers to be sorted by game version.
J - This column allows the servers to be sorted by player count, and also displays the maximum amount of players allowed on a server at one time.
K - This column allows the server to be sorted by ping, which may be useful for determining which servers will allow you a better connection. This column also displays which servers a ping limit, and the denominator in any fraction shows the maximum ping count.
L - This button allows the server list to be refreshed.
*See Choosing a Server for further help on finding the right server for you*.

### Character Creation

The first time you log into any server you are greeted with the character creation menu. The character and flags you create for one server will not carry over to another server. The concept behind the character creation screen is that you are on the train that drives around the map, and once you complete the character creation process you jump out of the train into the world of HEAT.

A - The character avatar that you will play as, updated in real time throughout the character creation process.

B - Sliders and toggles that will change everything about the appearance of the character except for the head, hair, and face. You can alter the **Skin Tone** of the character under this tab.
C - Sliders and toggles that will change the appearance of the head, face, and hair of the character. If you are having trouble getting the look you want, presets are a good starting place, then further tweaking with the sliders.
D - This tab allows you to choose from a variety of voices that will be your character's battlecry in the game.
E - The **Gear** tab will allow you to choose what sort of under garments you will start with, as well as what colour they will be.
F - When using the **Body** tab, you have the option of choosing whether your character will be either **masculine** focused or **feminine** focused.
G - Give your character a first name and a last name (optional).
H - Input the name of your guild, group, or clan. This is what will show up as the name of your land claim when other players come to your land. See *User Interface* on this page for further explanation.
I - Choose what type of guild you plan on owning (unconfirmed whether or not this has any impact on the playing experience).
J - The panel to the right of the screen allows the player to create the flag that will represent your group. When you place a flag or use a flag in-game, this is the decal that will show up on the object. The purple box in the example above is what would be displayed in-game.
K - Add more layers onto the flag to create more complex designs.
L - Choose what pattern each layer will show.
## Keyboard Controls

This image was created by CodeHatch at the time of launch as a reference for players. Controls may be re-mapped in the settings menu.

## Spawning in the Game World

### The User-Interface

###

### The Game World

The game of HEAT is not kind to the uninitiated; danger lurks around every obstacle, and even the deer want to kill you. There are hostile NPC's, friendly NPC's, ruthless rabbits, giant bears, and not to mention the other players who want that cash you're carrying. But the wildlife, and yourself, now inhabit a massive map that loosely resembles a scaled down United States of America. There are 20 unique biomes spread out over 67 square kilometres, each with it's own sub-biomes to explore.

*See Map for a breakdown of the different biomes.*

When exploring, it is important to understand that certain tiles (gridded sections of the map), may be claimed by other players, which may be hostile to you. If you are given a warning that you are trespassing, you have found a hostile land claim. When the timer runs out you will be given a "HEAT" level and hostile NPC's will spawn to try to kill you. To avoid this situation, quickly take the path from which you came to leave the land claim that is hostile. Once the warning has gone, check the map to see how far the land claim extends (the colored tiles), and go around the hostile area to avoid gaining a HEAT level. The purpose of the HEAT system is to prevent raiders from breaking into your base while you are offline by spawning hostile NPC's that will attempt to protect your land. The longer the raider is on the hostile land, the higher the HEAT level will be and thus more NPC's will spawn.

Almost everything you see can be harvested with a tool by swinging at it, but some plants, flowers, and bushes require an interaction (default "E") in order to harvest a specific resource.

### Resource Gathering

You have just jumped out a moving train and tumbled as you fell; now what? All you have on you is your Hobo Stick, your under garments, a torch, and some cigarettes. It is a big world out there, with lots to build, craft, collect, and kill. As in any sand-box survival game of the genre, the first ting you need to do is collect resources.

*See Resources for a comprehensive list of the materials that can be collected in HEAT.*

Almost everything can be harvested. Some materials can be picked up using the interact key, like certain pieces of wood and stone, as well as specific flora. For the bulk of the materials needed to progress, like sticks, wood, stone, and fiber, you will use tools to harvest them. The first tool you own is your hobo stick, which can be used to hit trees, smash stone nodes, and hit the ground to pick up sticks and fiber.

When you use a tool to harvest, the material is turned into an entity which falls on the ground and needs to be picked up. It is not always easy to see the harvested material on the ground, so moving around as you are harvesting will help to pick up materials you may not have seen fall. The most effective source of wood at the start of the game are fallen trees and stumps, and for stone you need to continue hitting at any stone you see until you can afford to create your first stone pickaxe. Sticks are harvested as a by-product of harvesting wood, and fiber can be collected by hitting most green-coloured vegetation on the ground. Some biomes and their plant types will yield more fiber than others, such as rushes beside ponds and lakes, which are very dense in fiber vegetation types.

### Crafting Tools in Player Inventory

To craft a tool, open your **Player Inventory (default tab or I)**.

The left panel shows the items currently in your possession, and the right panel is a list of items that can be crafted at the station you are using (in your player inventory it will always be what can be crafted on the player). To craft a full set of starter tools and weapons, scroll to the bottom of the crafting panel (to the right of the screen), and find a stone hatchet, stone pickaxe, wooden club, a bow, and arrows. If you are having trouble finding the materials to craft these items, see the Resources page for further explanation. The wooden club is the first specific weapon that can be crafted, but any tool, including your hobo stick, can be used as a weapon. A bow and arrow is one of the first range-based weapons available at start of game. There must be arrows in your inventory for you to be able to use the weapon. An arrow is consumed every time you fire the weapon, but can be picked up by interacting with it with the interact key (default E).

There are other stations you can craft in your player inventory that will grant you access to more craftable items. The first major bench that will allow access to recipes for more crafting stations is the workbench. The items that are hid by a question mark (?) are recipes that have to have their blueprints first unlocked, but that will be discussed later in this guide.

The player is limited to how much they can carry in their inventory, a statistic that is measured in pounds (lb) for weight. The current weight of the player's inventory is displayed in the top right part of the player inventory menu, beside the current amount of currency the player is holding. Once the player's inventory weight exceeds the maximum that can be carried, the player begins to slow down and an "overweight" icon is shown in the bottom part of the player's user interface while not in any menus. The maximum carrying capacity of the player can be increased by spending perk points as the player levels (see **Progress, Leveling, and Blueprints** below in this guide).

### Claiming Land

Since this is a sandbox game, there is no one direction and path of progression. Some players may be happy to not settle down to own land and would prefer to always be on the move, or try to claim one of the seats of power and progress that way (more on this later). In any case, claiming land and building a homestead is a very common starting place for many players.

To claim land, the player first has to choose a grid location to claim. If you open the map (default "M" but also accessible through the player inventory), you can see that the map is broken down into a grid, each tile with a two digit coordinate associated with it. Each tile can be claimed (except for specific areas near seats of power). Choosing a location is important for how you intend to play. Would you prefer to be isolated? Do not set up your homestead at the top of a mountain where it can easily be seen or near the railroad tracks, which is where most players will spawn.

To claim a specific tile, the player has to create a "Land Claim Flag" in their player inventory. Once created, drag the land claim flag into one of the hotbar slots at the top of your player inventory screen so it can be used when not in the inventory screen. Select the land claim flag by pressing the corresponding number on your keyboard as the hotbar slot (or use the mouse wheel to scroll through the hotbar slots, and right click the flag within the tile you wish to claim. That's it! You have just staked a claim for land in the world of HEAT. You can now start to build on this tile and you will own every piece you place.

*See Building for a guide on how to build and upgrade your structures.*

Note: You will need to put currency into your land claim flag in order to maintain your claim on the land.

*See Land Claims for further explanation on this topic.*

## Game Mechanics and Concepts

### Progress, Leveling, and Blueprints

As long as you are connected to a server in HEAT you will slowly gain XP (experience points) that will level your character. Performing various actions will cause the player to increase XP at a faster rate, such as hunting, gathering resources, and unlocking blueprints.

Achieving higher levels is how the player gains access to more craftable items, like better weapons, building tiers, and complex resources. To see all of the craftable items, go to the Blueprints page by either hitting the "B" key (default), or by going into your inventory and navigating to the blueprint tab at the top right of the screen. Each one of the tabs on the blueprints page has several research trees, each needing the previous item to be unlocked before allowing access to the next. The requirements for unlocking each blueprint can be seen by hovering over the item. See diagram below.

Most blueprints require an amount of currency and objects in the player's inventory to be unlocked, as well as the minimum level requirement. Once the blueprint is unlocked, more advanced items require special work stations for access to the crafting recipe.

As the player levels, you will accrue perk points that can spent on either increased **health**, increased **carrying capacity**, increased **maximum nutrition**, and increased **maximum thirst**. Each level gained will earn the player one additional perk point which may be spent on any of these statistics. All of this, as well as the player's level and current companions, can be viewed in the "Player" tab found in the player's inventory menu, or by pressing "P" (default).

### Seats of Power

There are four Seats of Power in HEAT, each with their own benefits. Seats of Power can be claimed by any player, so long as the player is not currently holding another Seat of Power. These titles can also be refereed to as, "holding an office." There is the President, the Governor, the Chief, and the Sheriff.

#### President

The office of the President can be claimed by going to the White House on the Map and "starting an election" by holding the interact button on the president's chair. An election is not actually taking place, there is no voting process, that is just the language that the developers chose to employ. If the seat is not there, then it is below, and either the player can jump down, risking their life to fall damage, or the player can find the staircase down.

When the player becomes President, they are given the opportunity to rename the world, then they are sworn in as the \_\_\_th President of America (the blank being the number of players that have become President on the server plus one). The player instantly gets multiple NPC companions: an intern and two Secret Service agents. The president also gains access to various items found in the chest in the room next to the presidential seat on the main floor.

The President also sets the Sales and Property Taxes on the server, which governs how much cash the President gains every time the shipping bin is used (Sales Tax), and how much property taxes are for land claims. These taxes will automatically be deposited in the Tax Safe in the other room next to the president's seat.

As President, the player also has exclusive building rights to the land immediately adjacent the White House grounds.

The finally asset gained by the President is the bear in the basement that belongs to the President. The bear can be mounted by opening it's inventory and adding a large saddle into the slots below it's inventory slots. The large saddle is in the chest with the rest of the President's items.

#### Governor

The office of the Governor can be found within the Governor's Mansion, and can be claimed by holding the interact button on the governor's chair. The Governor gains access to various items found in the provision's chest. As Governor, you have exclusive rights to the land on which the Governor's mansion is built and the areas immediately surrounding it.

#### Chief

The Chief is the leader of the Sacayo people, and the title can be claimed by finding their land and going to the largest tee-pee and holding the interact button on the chief's chair. The Chief gains access to several warrior NPC's, a war chest with the Chief's provisions inside, and a horse. The player will also gain access to the buildable area below the Chief's tee pee.

#### Sheriff

The office of the sheriff can be claimed by going to the town called Tombstone, finding the sheriff's office, and holding the interact button on the sheriff's seat. The sheriff then gains access to a chest with the sheriff's provisions, a horse, and a safe where the player can collect the sheriff's salary. The sheriff's salary is decided by the President, and can be anywhere from $0 - $25 that will generate once every hour.

### Currency

Currency is an element of HEAT that makes the game unique in the open-world sandbox survival genre. Currency can be gained by taking it off from the loot bag of other dead players, as random loot from dead NPCs, or by selling items in the shipping bin.

*Selling items in the shipping bin is the best way to earn cash in HEAT.*

Every item, with the exception of items gained by claiming a Seat of Power, has a value and can sold in the shipping bin for currency. The currency is a physical element, and will show up in your inventory as either a dollar bill ($1.00), a dime ($0.10), or a penny ($0.01). The amount of cash that the player is holding will display as a total in the player's inventory at the top right corner of the screen next the the carry capacity. Currency can be stored in any storage container owned by the player, but stored currency will not add to the displayed total in the player's inventory and cannot be used to purchase items in the shipping bin or to unlock blueprints.

*Currency must be in the player's inventory in order to be used.*

Currency can be used to buy items in the shipping bin or to unlock blueprints. The shipping bin can be crafted in the player's inventory and placed anywhere in the world. Like any building or piece of furniture, it will decay over time if not on a claimed tile.

While not all items in the game can be purchased in the shipping bin, most of the essentials can. Many players choose to make their money from selling pelts from slain animals and using the money to buy materials for building, rather than grinding for the materials directly.