Hiring A Pilot

Thanks to U3.00's Terminal Interface (TI), you can now hire pilots (thugs) to work for you. First you have to find one of these available pilots. They don't have a Moth or any equipment. They have to use yours and you have to give them specific orders.

Now lets find a thug. Start a new game as "Godfather" and go to Hardwarp FM. There are thugs placed throughout the game. There's always one at Hardwarp FM and Trade Central. Below are some other locatons to check:

Resevoir Trading Post, Resevoir

Gamma Trading Post, Gamma

Hunger City, Gamma

Alpha Trading Post, Alpha

When you enter Hardwarp FM, you won't see the thug. He doesn't have a Moth. To "see" him you must 1) Exit your Moth, and 2) Open the TI and enter Look or L. The text message of what's in the hangar will state that someone is standing there.

Pilots available for hire always have unique six-letter names like Topdog, Budnip, Lidday, etc. I'll be using the name "Topdog" in this tutorial. To recruit Topdog, enter

recruit topdog

This will cost you $1000. Now Topdog will follow your orders throughout the rest of the game.

Now that we've got a pilot, lets get him in and out of a Moth. To order Topdog to enter our Moth (that's parked in bay #1) we'd enter:

order topdog,board,1

We begin all orders with the word order followed immediately by a space. Next comes the pilot's name we're giving the command to, Topdog in this case.

This is followed by a comma and immediately by the order you want to give. Don't use spaces after commas. The order board tells Topdog to get in a Moth. This is followed by a comma and a number. The number is the bay the Moth is parked in. Use the bays command to see where your Moths are. Your hired pilots can only get into your Moths. They just can't board any Moth.

Now lets get Topdog out of the Moth. Enter:

order topdog,disembark

It's the disembark that does the trick. Notice that the basic syntax is the same as boarding a Moth except no bay number is required. He'll just get out of whatever Moth he's in. He won't disembark unless he's in a hangar.

Flight Orders

You pilot will now follow a list of orders you give him. Lets have him board our Moth and fly us to Trade Central. First, lets enter the Moon Moth as the passenger using boardpass 1. The "1" is the hangar bay the Moon Moth is in. If it's in a nother bay, use that number instead. You can use bays to see which bay your Moon Moth is in.

Now lets get Topdog in the Moth and flying using the go order:

order topdog,board,1 [hit Enter]

order topdog,go,trade central [hit Enter]

This will have Topdog do two things. First he'll board the Moth in bay #1. Next, he'll fly to Trade Central and park. To have a pilot enter a hangar use go.

order [pilot name],go,[building name]

You can make a list of orders as long as you'd like.

Sometimes you want your pilot to go somewhere, but not enter and park in the hangar. For this use the buzz command:

order topdog,buzz,psycho bobs 1

This command will have Topdog fly to and around Psycho Bob's 1, but not enter the hangar. (Note: Don't use apostrophes in hangar names. Use "psycho bobs 1", not "psycho bob's 1".

You may get a "No such building exists" error. This is probably due to a mispelling of the building's name. We all know where the After Dark nightclub is, but it's official name is "the after dark". It takes some practice. The building names are exactly what's on their tag (white text near hangar door when you're flying around).

Lets get Topdog to fly around a couple of places and come back to Hardwarp FM:

order topdog,buzz,downtown estates

order topdog,buzz,tech parts

order topdog,go,hardwarp fm

This will have Topdog fly to Downtown Estates, then Tech Parts, and come back to the hangar in Hardwarp FM and park.

Just remember that buzz keeps your pilot outside and that go has him enter and park in the given hangar.

NOTE: Sometimes the pilot has trouble getting into a hangar. If this happens clear his orders and give him a new order:

order topdog,clear

order topdog,go,hardwarp fm

The order topdog,clear clears his current list of orders. All of them. Now he's ready to receive new ones. Don't leave a pilots orders clear unless he's parked in a hangar. They tend to bump themselves to death against crater walls if left outside without orders. It's also for this reason that a list of orders should end with a go to have him park in a hangar.

SELLALL

You can order your pilot to enter a hangar and sell any goods you've loaded up for him. Try this by getting your pilot out of the moth (order [pilot name],disembark). Now get in the Moth and run to Downtown Recycling and buy some Sheet Metal.Return to Hardwarp FM and exit your Moth.

Have your pilot get into the Moth. Have him sell the Sheet Metal to Downtown Moths and come back. We use the sellall to have him sell stuff:

order topdog,sellall, Downtown Moths

order topdog,go,hardwarp fm

Topdog will sell all of his cargo to Downtown Moths and then come back to Hardwarp FM. Things get glitchy if the hangar doesn't buy the pilot's goods. In this case, clear his orders and get him back home.

The money from the transaction goes into Topdog's account, not yours. You'll have to get a hangar and preform another operation to get the cash from him. Also, remember that pirates will attack your pilot if he's carrying valuable cargo. He's just like anyone else. If he is attacked, he will defend himself as best he can before delivering the cargo.

KILL

You can order your pilot to kill another pilot using the kill command:

order [your thug's name],kill,[pilot to kill's name]

Lets have Topdog kill Ron Brightblade:

order topdog,kill,ron brightblade

order topdog,go,hardwarp fm

Now Topdog will attack Ron Brightblade and do everything he can to kill him. His weapons choice is limited to what you've fitted his Moth with, but he will use what he has intellegently. He may not win. If Topdog gets killed, you lose your Moth and hired hand. If you're in the Moth with him, it's "Game Over" unless you're cloned. Then you still lose your pilot and Moth.

If Topdog gets badly damaged, he'll try to get to a repair shop and get repairs. He pretty much acts like any other AI pilot about repairs, cell charging, and dogfighting. You might want to get another Moth and give him a hand.

After killing Ron Brightblade, Topdog will come back to Hardwarp FM. It's always a good idea to make your last order one that will have your pilot park in a hangar. They go glitchy if left with no orders and will bump into crater walls and stuff.

You may have your pilot kill a series of other pilots. He'll even attack you. Just remember that he gets damage, too. It's best to have him go to your hangar to check his Moth and give him some free repairs. He won't repair himself in your hangar. You'll have to jump in the Moth and do that yourself. He will, however, go to a repair shop and spend his own money on repairs if his damage is bad enough.

When you are flying another Moth using your hired hand as a wingman, you can see him on the radar as a light green triangle. This really helps you keep up with which Moth is his. If he's being attacked, target the nearest Moth (yellow on radar) to him. That's probably the attacker.

If you thug kills an innocent pilot, you will get on the Police's Wanted List. If he kills a pirate, you'll get the bounty or amnesty. Same goes with faction kills.

Monitoring Your Hired Thug

We've already discussed the clear command. It erases all of your pilot's instructions and prepares him for new ones. Don't let your pilot run aruond without instructions or he'll tend to bump himself to death against a crater wall.

The clear comes in really handy when your pilot has problems executing an order. They have problems getting into hangars from time to time. Just clear their instructions and have them go somewhere else:

order topdog,clear

order topdog,go,hardwarp fm

The above would clear any instructions Topdog still had, and order him to park at Hardwarp FM.

You can check up on your pilot by using the status and report commands.

order topdog,status

order topdog,report

The status command will list where Topdog is parked or if he's in flight. It will also tell you how much money he has and that he's still alive.

The report command will display a text report of what Topdog is doing and what he has left to do in his list of orders.

Execute Commands

Besides issuing orders, you can have your pilot do most of the things you can do. He can be an extra set of eyes. Lets use him to see what Downtown Moths has in stock while we're doing something else:

order topdog,go,downtown moths

exec topdog,goods

It's the second command beginning with exec that presents the list of goods. This is just like you going to Downtown Moths yourself and entering goods.

To get cash from your pilot's account, you'll need a hangar and he'll have to be parked in it. Now issue the following command:

exec topdog,deposit,20000

This would have Topdog put $20,000 in your hangar's account. You can now get it with the withdraw command. Leave him some money in case he gets in a dogfight and needs repairs.

By using exec you can have Topdog do pretty much anything you can do like look, bays, goods, cash,etc.

Alternate Method Of Getting Your Hired Pilot's Cash

Violet Sky sent me the following workaround for getting money from your hired pilot's account without having to meet him at your hangar:

After installing the new U3.00b5 patch, I had recruited a Jetdog pilot. I was trying to give him money (get cash into his account) to make him able to buy some decent guns, but I was having no success.

This is what I tried:
I gave my hangar 10000$, then I tried with "exec jetdog withdraw,10000", which got me a nice "you are not authorised to withdraw from here" message, or some such.

Then I got an idea: I had jetdog deposit a negative amount of money:

"exec jetdog,deposit -10000".

Presto, Jetdog was $10000 richer. Apparently, the deposit command is not influenced by the authorisation (or lack thereof) to use the "withdraw" command, so Jetdog effectively withdrew $10000 while making the game think he deposited them.

I noticed a possible flaw in this, so to verify it, I went to bargain moths and deposited a negative amount. And wouldn't you know, I became a thief :P While this is a good thing as it allows players to balance things a bit if the economy gets screwed up, I do believe it'd be better to just have a command that'll allow you to give money to your thugs... maybe allow negative depositing
only to Admins.

-- Violet Sky

Hired Pilots Tips - Isocryd

If you hire pilots, be careful NOT to:

Order them to board a passenger seat, on a taxi or even on a moon moth of yours. (They don't disembark from passenger seats)

Order them to enter a full hangar.

Get into a moth dealer and sell the moth they are piloting.

If you do any of the previously mentioned, you'll lose your pilot. "Standing in limbo!" (Painfully discovered, lost 3 pilots like this...)

-- Isocryd

To Administrative Commands >>

Full Index Of Patch Pages

TI Beginning Tutorial

TI Cash Management

Hiring Pilots

Adminstrative Commands

Index Of All TI Commands