Cold & Dark Start

NOTICE: This page is a Work in Progress as much of the lore/Development for the game is yet to be established.

Cold & Dark refers to a selectable starting condition for the player vessel in Starship Simulator. It represents a state where the starship is completely powered down, requiring the player and non-playable characters to initiate the power systems and connect them to the required systems.

Selection

Players can choose their desired starting state from the Ship Configuration section on the Ship Selection screen before launching a mission. As shown in the interface, the primary options typically available under "Launch Configuration" are:

Flight Ready
Cold & Dark
(Other options like "Alarm Ready" may also appear)

Selecting Cold & Dark before clicking "LAUNCH MISSION" will start the game session with the ship in a powered-down state.

Comparison to Flight Ready

Cold & Dark State: When starting Cold & Dark, the starship is inert. All major systems are offline, including the main Fusion Reactor, primary lighting, Bridge consoles, Life Support (potentially running on minimal emergency power), propulsion, and Sensors. The ship must be brought online manually through a detailed start-up sequence.

Flight Ready State: This is the default starting condition. The ship begins with the Fusion Reactor operational, essential systems powered, Bridge consoles active, and standard lighting/life support running. The ship is ready for immediate operations like piloting or scanning.

Gameplay Implications

Choosing the Cold & Dark start provides a significant gameplay challenge, particularly for players taking on the Engineering role. It requires performing the full, multi-step Fusion Reactor Startup procedure to bring the ship online before any other major operations can commence. The "Flight Ready" option bypasses this entire sequence, allowing players to jump straight into other activities.

For the detailed steps involved in powering up the ship from this state, please see the Cold and Dark Tutorial.