Choose your vessel and cave. The mission is to pilot the vessel safely to its destination and to carry the goods to there. Watch out walls, cannons and mines!

If you are a registered user of Playray and have logged in on our front page with your nickname, you can start playing right away.

In case you haven't registered yet, the game will assign you a random visitor nickname. A wavy line (~) will appear automatically before your name in order to inform other players that you are not a registered player. By this we make sure that your nickname won't be confused with those of registered users.

After having logged in, you will be able to enter the main lobby where you can choose where to go. Your options are: "Settings", "Game", and "Editor". If you are playing "Rockets" for the first time, we suggest that you visit the "Settings" page to check the keyboard settings of the game. "Editor" is available to our registered players only.

In addition, the Top 5 lists showing the players who hold the total highest number of track records, or track records for individual ships are displayed in the main lobby.

The settings page allows you to select the keys with which the rockets are steered as well as many other settings. If you are a registered user, your settings will be saved automatically for the next time you enter the "Rockets" game.

In the game lobby, the tracks list covers most of the screen space. On the right side of the list there is a menu from which you can choose which ship you want to use in the game. Below the list, there is a chat area where you can chat with other users who are in the lobby.

You can rearrange the order of the tracks by clicking the title of any column. The meaning of the columns is the following:

[..] - Indicates whether the track is only available to Registered users "[R]"
Track - The name of the track
Created by - The user who created the track
Published - Date (month, day) when the track was made available to other users
Record - The record time (seconds, hundreths of a second; or minutes, seconds, hundreds of a second)
Record holder - The player who has established the record
Grade - The average grade that players have given to the track
Status - Indicates if the track is officially in use or still being tested (For further information, see "General information on tracks" section)

Please note that there are separate record times for each ship for each track. When you change the ship from the menu on the right, the records displayed on the records list will be changed to correspond to the records made using the new ship.

Starting the game: Choose one or more tracks from the list by clicking them with the mouse, and then choose a ship from the right side. After this, click the "Start game" button.

The Purpose of the Game

The purpose of the game is to go and fetch all blue boxes and bring them to the starting area or to any yellow landing platform. The quicker you complete the task, the better.

If your ship is destroyed, you will be able to continue the game from the previous landing platform by pressing the "Fire" key. In case your ship is destroyed three times, the game is over and you will have to start again from the beginning of the field or to move on to the next field.

Display Screen

The game area, which is located on the left side of the screen, covers most of the screen space, and your rocket is in the middle of the game area. You can change the scale of magnification of the screen by pressing the keys "1", "2", "Page Up" and "Page Down".

In the top right corner you'll find information on the track that is currently being played. The name of the track, the creator of the track, the track record and the record holder's name. In addition, the degree of gravity and air resistance directed towards the track are displayed on the screen. Different circumstances influence the nature of the game greatly.

On the right in the middle, there is information on your ship: the condition of the ship, the amount of load, and how much fuel you have left. Moreover, information on how many ships you have left, and how much time you have spent so far to do the track is displayed.

In the bottom right, you will see a map of the track that is currently being played. The location of your ship is indicated by a blinking tick symbol, and the boxes you have to pick up are displayed as blinking blue squares.

Steering

The rocket is steered by the following keys in case you haven't altered the settings on the "Settings" page:

Up arrow: Accelerates the rocket forward
Left arrow: Turns the rocket left
Right arrow: Turns the rocket right
Spacebar: Fires

There are no actual brakes in the rocket, but if you want to slow it down, you'll have to first turn the rocket towards the direction you are coming from and then accelerate. An exception is the "Sport Ship" that can be slowed down in any position by pressing the "Down arrow" key.

A Stealth Ship can become invisible and then visible again by pressing the "S" key. However, while the invisible mode is active, a Stealth Ship can't fire, and the power of the ship engines is somewhat reduced.

playing

Fly the rocket in the cave complex, but be careful not to hit the walls, because it means instant destruction. In addition to dodging the walls, you might encounter cannons that are trying to shoot your ship, and mines that approach your ship. (When a Stealth ship is in invisible mode, cannons and mines don't, however, approach the ship.)

As soon as you have found a blue landing platform with a blue box, land on the platform. When landing, the ship must be as upright as possible (the nose of the ship must point straight up) and you must land slowly. If your ship is not upright enough or if it hits the landing area too fast when landing, your ship will be destroyed. After you have landed, the blue box will be loaded into your ship automatically but this might take a couple of seconds. If your ship's cargo space is full, you will be notified about this. Then you must go and unload your ship. More information on how to do this is available in the next paragraph.

Once you have found a green or yellow landing platform, you can land on it in the same way as you landed on the blue ones mentioned above. As soon as you have landed, your ship will be repaired and refueled, and the cargo will be unloaded automatically. You can leave the landing platform any time by pressing the Acceleration key..

Skilled players can also land on landing platforms upside down so that the ship is at the bottom of the landing platform (provided that there is enough space). In water, where a ship goes up towards the surface, this method of landing can even be easier.

Landing Platform

In addition to cannons and mines, you might encounter the following objects on the fields:

Black hole - Sucks in everything around it. If your ship goes too close to the center of a black hole, the ship will be destroyed.

White hole - Pushes everything away from it. It is not easy to go past these.

Ship repairing bonus (a green ball) - Your ship will be repaired when you fly into this.

Extra fuel bonus (a yellow ball) - You will get more fuel for your ship when you fly into this.

Teleportal (a dark bluish square) - When you fly into the square, your ship will be moved to another place on the field. (The teleportal exits are indicated by small, dark bluish rhombi. )

Evaluating Tracks

After you have completed a track or you have been destroyed, you will be able to give a grade (scale: 1-5) to the track. 5 is the best grade and 1 is the worst. Please note that the length or the level of difficulty of the track shouldn't influence the grade. A track that is short and easy can also be bad and a difficult and long one can be good. But then again, a track that is impossible to complete can't be good. The grade you give should, in general, indicate how much fun you had playing it and how carefully it was made.

Note! You will be able to give a grade to each track only once. Non-registered users are not allowed evaluate the tracks.

The "Editor" option is available to the registered members of Playray only. This option allows you to create your own fields and publish them for other users.

Display

The editor display resembles that of the game. On the left, you can see the editor area itself in which you will create your track. In the beginning the area is empty (solid rock). Just like during the game, you will be able to change the scale of magnification of the display by pressing the keys "1" "2" "Page Up", and "Page Down". In the top right corner of the editor area you can see a prototype model of the basic ship. This makes creating a track easier when you can see the size of the ship that will be used during the game.

In the top right corner, there is the main menu, and by clicking its buttons submenus will be opened. When you are in the normal landscape editing space, the submenu will display a "world map" showing your track in miniature size. The map also shows a red square which indicates the part of the map that is visible in the editing area on the left. By clicking the map with the mouse you can move from one place to another quickly.

At the bottom right corner you will see a "Your tracks" button. By clicking it, a window displaying the tracks you have created will open. You can download and remove your tracks via this window.

Menus

Tools - Contains different kinds of general tools that make creating tracks easier
World - Here you can adjust the degree of gravity and air pressure to suit your track
Landscape - This allows you to add new elements such as empty air, rock, or water, to your track
Objects - Here you can add objects such as landing platforms, cannons, mines, and teleportals to your track
Empty - You can empty the track and start over with a blank landscape
Save - Saves your track in your own private tracks folder on the server
Test - Here you can test your track whenever you like provided that it includes all the necessary basic elements such as a Starting point
Publish - Publishes your track and makes it available to other users

Creating a Track

1. Make a plan. We suggest you make a basic track plan instead of starting to build it right away without a plan.
2. Make the lansdscape. After having selected an element that you want to add from the Landscape menu, click the corner points of the element with the mouse. Each point you click will be joined to the point that was clicked previously. When you don't want to add any more points, click the right mouse button and the first and the last point will be joined. The area created will be filled in with the element selected from the menu. After this you can add more parts. You shouldn't make the parts too large, which means that you shouldn't try to draw the entire track at once, but rather you should build the track from several small parts. The parts can overlap with each other.
3. Add objects. As soon as the landscape is ready, you can continue by adding the landing platforms and other objects of your choice to the track. Most of the objects can be added by clicking the place where you want to put the object. Square-shaped objects such as landing platforms can be added by choosing one corner point and then another opposite the previously selected one.
4. Test your track carefully.

This procedure doesn't have to followed exactly. You can add, remove, or modify the landscape and the objects any time. Modifying and removing can be done as follows: Choose the option "Modify/Remove" from the "Landscape" or "Objects" menu and then select the object or the part of the landscape that you want to modify. Once a part has been chosen, a menu showing different options such as "move" and "remove" appears on the right.

Part of the objects need to be modified after they have been added. For example cannons point always straight up as a default setting. In "Modify" menu you can choose the direction at which a cannon points. The "Modify" menu also allows you to choose for example the endurance and speed of cannons and mines, the size of the boxes, the number of the teleportals, make the rock breakable, and much more.

Tips

How to create a good track:

1. You don't necessarily have to use the entire world map - a small track can be fun as well.
2. Use cannons, mines, black holes and other special elements sparingly. 1000 cannons don't make a track better, rather on the contrary. If a track has been designed carefully, playing it is fun even with only a few special elements.
3. Use lights, especially the blinking ones, sparingly.
4. Test your track often also during the creation process.
5. Make sure that there are no tiny pieces of rock left in your track: these are not easily visible during the game and when a ship hits them it is destroyed, but from the player's point of view it might seem that the ship was destroyed by itself.

Publishing a Track

Once your track is ready and you want to publish it, click the "Publish" button in the main menu. Then a window opens and you will be asked to confirm that you want to publish the track, and the name of the track and who is allowed to play it will be asked.

After your track has been published, it will be accessible to other users. Once a track has been published, it is no longer possible to make any modifications to it, and it is not possible to remove it within 5 days of the date of publication. After 5 days have passed, you will be able to change your track back to private via the "Your tracks" window of the "Editor", or you can let your track stay available to all players as long as you like.

Note! Before you publish your track, please test it carefully by using all different types of ships! Publishing tracks that don't work, are impossible to complete, don't make any sense, or have been made with "how-cool-here-we-have-a-million-cannons-and-bonus-balls" attitude may be removed and the player who created the track may lose his/her access to "Editor".

There are two different types of tracks: official tracks and test tracks. The official tracks are tracks made by the site administration or tracks that have been made by the users and have been made official. Test tracks are tracks that our users have made using the Editor.

Every night some of the worst tracks will be removed according to the grades given by the players. (However, these tracks won't be removed entirely, but they are made private, and the maker of the track can still continue to use or develop his/her track in the editor).

Moreover, every week during the Sunday night one of the best test tracks will be made official. A prerequisite for this is - in addition to a good grade - that the track must have been in use for at least 5 days and it has been played with all possible ships at least once. For this reason, the track that has recently got the best grade is not necessarily the one that is made official.

Once a track has been made official it will no longer be possible to remove it or change it back to private. The creator of the track won't be able to modify the track any more, but s/he can, of course, make a new one for test use.