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Interface Guide

Interface Guide

A comprehensive breakdown of the MWarfare user interface elements, their functions, and how to use them effectively.

Main Layout Overview

The game interface is divided into several key areas:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      RESOURCE BAR                            │
├──────────┬─────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┤
│          │                             │                    │
│   LEFT   │      CONTENT CONTAINER      │       RIGHT        │
│   MENU   │     (Main Game Area)        │       MENU         │
│          │                             │                    │
├──────────┴─────────────────────────────┴────────────────────┤
│   CHAT    │     PLANET SELECTOR      │    MESSAGE PANEL     │
├───────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                      FOOTER NAVIGATION                       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Resource Bar

Resource Bar

Located at the top of the screen, the resource bar displays your current resources in real-time.

Resource Types

Resource Color Icon Purpose
Metal Gray Metal Primary building material for all structures
Crystal Blue Crystal Used for electronics, ships, and research
Deuterium Cyan Deuterium Fuel for ships and advanced technologies
Energy Yellow Energy Powers mines and facilities (not stored)

Reading Resource Values

Each resource display shows three pieces of information:

125,430 / 500,000 (+1,234/h)
   ↑         ↑         ↑
Current   Storage   Production
Amount    Capacity   Per Hour

Resource Bar Indicators

  • Normal - Resources within safe storage limits
  • Yellow Glow - Storage at 90%+ capacity (resources being wasted)
  • Red Glow - Negative energy balance (production reduced)
  • Storage Timer - Metal, Crystal, Deuterium, and active Fuel Cell lines show a small countdown to the right of the bar so you can see when that storage will fill at your current production rate.
  • Energy Satellite Hint - When your energy is negative, the Energy line shows how many Solar Satellites you need to break even based on that planet's current per-satellite output.
  • No Fusion, No Fuel Cell Timer - If a planet has no Fusion Reactor, the Fuel Cell line does not show a timer text.

Hovering for Details

Hover over any resource to see:

  • Exact production per hour
  • Current storage capacity
  • Time until storage is full
  • Production breakdown by source

Mobile Header

On phones, the same controls move into a tighter top bar so you can reach them with fewer taps.

  • The planet selector sits in the top-left corner.
  • Your resource totals stay centered in the header for quick scanning.
  • The quick menu sits in the top-right corner and gives you fast access to home, wiki, issues, options, and logout.

The planet icon still shows queue rings, so you can spot active building, research, and shipyard work before you open the selector.

Left Navigation Menu

Left Menu

The left side contains production and construction-focused pages:

BUILDINGS

Access your planetary structures:

  • Resource Buildings - Mines and storage facilities
  • Productivity Buildings - Factories, labs, and support structures
  • View current levels and upgrade costs
  • Queue building upgrades

RESEARCH

Manage your technology tree:

  • Browse all available technologies
  • See requirements for locked research
  • View research progress across planets
  • Queue research projects
  • On desktop and mobile, the research interface first asks you to choose a specialization: Military, Intelligence, Exploration, or Industry
  • After choosing a focus, the interface switches to a dedicated grouped tech tree for that specialization instead of mixing in secondary support lanes
  • You can change that focus until you start your first research from the new interface; once a research begins, the chosen focus locks for that account
  • Military, Intelligence, Exploration, and Industry each use their own focused tree so you can see the full unlock path for that specialty at a glance
  • Desktop now includes an Active Bonuses panel, and mobile includes a Bonus Summary sheet, so you can review the bonuses from completed research in one place
  • Section 1 starts with no cross-tech requirement beyond the normal planet setup, section 2 unlocks after 8 total levels in section 1, section 3 unlocks after 4 total levels in section 2, and section 4 unlocks after 2 total levels in section 3

DEFENCE

Build planetary defenses:

  • Damage Dealing - Rocket launchers, lasers, cannons
  • Shielding - Small and large shield domes
  • Missiles - Anti-ballistic and interplanetary missiles

SHIPYARD

Construct your fleet:

  • Military Ships - Fighters, cruisers, battleships
  • Civil Ships - Cargo ships, colony ships, probes
  • Queue ship construction
  • View build times

RANKINGS

View the leaderboards:

  • Player rankings by score
  • Sort by General, Economy, Research, Military
  • Browse the Hall Of Fame tab for the biggest delayed combat reports
  • View player profiles and alliances

Right Navigation Menu

Right Menu

The right side contains strategic and exploration pages:

OVERVIEW

Your planet dashboard showing:

  • Planet image and basic info
  • Active building construction
  • Active research project
  • Shipyard queue status
  • Planet statistics (fields, temperature)

GALAXY

Explore the universe:

  • Browse solar systems [Galaxy:System:Position]
  • View planet owners and alliances
  • Send spy probes
  • Launch attacks or transport missions
  • Find debris fields for recycling
  • On desktop and mobile, selecting a debris field opens a Harvest action even when the slot has no planet; if you have at least one Recycler on your selected world you can launch a partial or full harvest trip

LAUNCH PAD

Send fleet missions:

  • Select ships for your fleet
  • Choose target coordinates
  • Pick mission type
  • Load resources for transport
  • Set fleet speed
  • Deep-space mission hold times use quick-select buttons, with 1 hour preselected by default
  • On desktop, ship and missile tiles keep the available unit count anchored at the bottom of the art so fleet counts are easier to scan during launch setup

MISSIONS

Track all fleet movements:

  • View active missions
  • See incoming fleets
  • Recall your own fleets
  • Attack countdowns
  • Return times

STATISTICS

Review account performance based on your locked research focus:

  • Explorer: current-season expedition returns, losses, ship finds, hostile encounters, daily/weekly/season profit, and mission fuel spent
  • Industrialist: trade mission conversions, whole-account economy totals, and mission fuel spent for the current season
  • Military: current-season combat destroyed/lost totals, loot, patrol outcomes, daily/weekly/season combat profit, and mission fuel spent
  • Intelligence: current-season recon throughput, scouting archives, alien attacks, hidden debris, embezzlement, ship defections, detection activity, and mission fuel spent

ALLIANCE

Manage alliance features:

  • View alliance members
  • Alliance messaging
  • Circular messages
  • Leave/join alliances
  • Alliance rankings

Planet Selector

Planet Grid

Located in the bottom center, the planet selector lets you quickly switch between planets and moons.

Planet Display

Click the large planet icon to open the selector panel. Each coordinate appears as a single tile with the planet on the left and, if you have one, the moon on the right. Click the planet or moon icon you want to switch to. From Options -> Gameplay, you can also change the order of your planets so the selector follows the sequence you prefer on Buildings, Overview, Launch Pad, and other planet-switching screens.

Empire View Shortcut

The bottom-center selector also includes an Empire shortcut. Use it to open a cross-planet cache view showing the last synced state of every planet and moon:

  • Resources, storage, and energy at the time that body was last visited
  • Building and facility levels
  • Ships, defenses, and current queues for that body
  • Filters to show only planets, only moons, only bodies with empty building queues, or only bodies with empty shipyard queues
  • Quick switch links so you can jump to a planet or moon and refresh only that body
  • On mobile, the same Empire view is available as a quick-action tab from Overview in a compact row-based table with one body per row

Alternate Bottom Row Mode

From Options -> Gameplay, you can enable Bottom selector mode (all planets + moons). When enabled, the selector panel is replaced with a centered single-row list of all your planets and moons along the bottom of the screen.

Queue Ring Indicators

A colored ring around each planet/moon shows active queues:

Ring Position Color Meaning
Top Right Green Building in progress
Bottom Blue Research in progress
Top Left Red Ships/Defense building

Selection Indicator

  • Cyan Glow Ring - Your currently selected planet or moon
  • The active tile and active icon both stay highlighted inside the selector panel

Chat Window

Chat

Located in the bottom-left corner, the chat allows real-time communication.

Chat Channels

Channel Letter Description
Global G Universe-wide public chat
Alliance A Private alliance chat
Private P Direct messages to players

Global chat is mirrored to the official Discord so players can follow public universe chat outside the game.

Using Chat

  1. Select Channel - Click the channel dropdown (G/A/P)
  2. Type Message - Enter your message in the input field
  3. Send - Press Enter or click the send button

Private Messages

When using Private (P) channel:

  1. Enter the recipient's username in the "Username" field
  2. Type your message
  3. Send

Chat Features

  • Auto-scroll - New messages appear at the top
  • Timestamps - Shows time of each message
  • Player Colors - Different colors for different player ranks
  • Link Support - URLs are clickable

Message Panel

Located in the bottom-right corner, this panel shows recent game messages.

Viewing Messages

  • Collapsed State - Shows only the header
  • Hover to Expand - Panel expands on mouse hover
  • Fade Animation - Smooth transition when expanding
  • Combat report tech rows - Defender details now split fleet bonuses and defense bonuses onto separate lines so fixed-defense modifiers are easier to read

Message Types

Type Content
Combat Reports Battle results and outcomes
Espionage Reports Spy probe intelligence
Espionage Activity Alerts when another player probes you
Fleet Reports Mission completions
Alliance Messages Communications from alliance
System Messages Game notifications

Footer Navigation

Footer

The footer appears when your mouse approaches the bottom of the screen.

Footer Buttons

Button Action
Home Return to Overview page
Wiki Open game documentation (new tab)
Options Access account settings
Issues Report bugs or problems
Logout Sign out of your account

Proximity Activation

  • Footer is hidden by default
  • Appears when mouse is within 60px of screen bottom
  • Fades away after 2 seconds of inactivity
  • Stays visible while hovering over buttons

Content Container

The central area where main game content is displayed.

Scrollable Content

  • Vertical scrolling for long content
  • Hidden scrollbar for clean appearance
  • Scroll position remembered when switching pages

Page Transitions

Content updates instantly when clicking navigation buttons without full page reload.

Tooltips

Fixed Tooltips

Hovering over many UI elements displays helpful tooltips:

┌────────────────────────┐
│ Building Name          │  ← Title (cyan)
│ Level 5                │  ← Current level
│────────────────────────│
│ Building...            │  ← Status (green)
│ Time: 01:23:45         │  ← Countdown
└────────────────────────┘

Tooltip Information

  • Buildings - Name, level, upgrade time, requirements
  • Ships - Name, count, stats, build time
  • Resources - Production rates, storage info
  • Research - Technology name, level, effects

Queue Displays

Building Queue

Shows current construction with:

  • Building icon
  • Level being built
  • Time remaining countdown
  • Total queue completion time
  • Spinner animation on active item

Research Queue

Shows active research with:

  • Technology icon
  • Level being researched
  • Research lab location
  • Time remaining
  • Total queue completion time

Shipyard Queue

Shows ship/defense construction:

  • Unit icon
  • Quantity in production
  • Per-unit build time
  • Total queue time
  • Later queue items already factor in queued Shipyard, Robotics Factory, and Nanite Factory upgrades once those upgrades finish

Visual Indicators

Activity Animations

Animation Meaning
Spinning overlay Item currently building
Pulsing glow Requires attention
Slow rotation Selected/active

Color Coding

Color Meaning
Cyan (#00e5ff) Interactive, selected
Green (#4ade80) Positive, building
Blue (#3b82f6) Research, information
Red (#ef4444) Military, warning
Yellow (#fbbf24) Caution, queued
Gray (#848484) Inactive, disabled

Responsive Design

Desktop (1024px+)

  • Full layout with side menus visible
  • Hover effects active
  • All features accessible

Tablet (769px - 1024px)

  • Side menus hidden
  • Content container full width
  • Touch-friendly buttons
  • Footer always visible

Mobile (768px and below)

  • Stacked layout
  • Larger touch targets
  • Simplified navigation
  • Optimized for vertical scrolling

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key Action
Enter Send chat message
Escape Close modals/popups

Accessibility Features

  • High Contrast - Cyan on dark backgrounds
  • Clear Typography - Readable font sizes
  • Focus Indicators - Visible focus states
  • Hover States - Clear interactive feedback

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