The screen is divided into several parts:-
At the top is basic information about where, when and what the ship is.
To the left is a panel showing the state of the ships internal systems. For each class of devices there is a button which can be clicked to bring up detailed information about the devices of that class. There are also three lights giving a summary of devices status's as described in the devices section.
To the right are statistics about the ship's performance. At the top are speed indicators for warp and impulse speed. Beneath these are a group of bar graphs displaying the ship's power budget :-
'Pwr' = Power produced this phase.
'Usd' = Power used this phase.
'Bat' = Power stored in ships batteries (if present). This is to smaller scale than the other bars.
In the centre is the main ship display
At the bottom is a 'wom wom' light and a group of buttons which select what is displayed in the central area. There are a few 'fixed' buttons:-
Red Alert/Stand Down - This changes the 'state' of the ship. This is important because the devices control panels can be used to make a different set of devices active in each of the alert states.
Docking/Launch - Used to designate other ships/stations to dock with.
Politics - Used to define the relationships between yourself and other players. This, coupled with the battle computer's settings, determine who your ships will automatically fire on.
Screen Off - Stop displaying anything. Totally useless. You can't see anything but the scanners must remain operational for the rest of the 'crew'.
This provides a brief description of how to survive the first few minutes:-
First it's a good idea to be able to see what's going on ... left click SRS button.
You should see you own ship in the centre of the screen and possibly some bad people elsewhere.
Run away ! ... find an unoccupied corner of the screen and left click on it. Your 'nav comp' should power up and take you there. Keep doing this until well out of harm's way.
Figure out how your ship works. Test fire your weapons by right clicking on some empty space. Test your damage control by right clicking on your own ship. Observer what stop's working when various devices are damaged.
If the opposition have not yet turned up switch to the LRS and left click on their location. Switch back to the SRS and open fire when in range.