THE QUIET WHEEL

Tutorial · Version 1.0.0 · Tronsoft Games · TIFE Core 2.3.0

Wheel Station Ninth Bell was decommissioned eight months ago and is scheduled to be dropped into the atmosphere in forty hours. You have been sent up to collect one small object so that the disposal is legal. The station is listed as uncrewed.

How to begin

Press GO ABOARD on the title screen. Narration and station ambience are optional and can be switched on there, or later from the ACCESSIBILITY panel in the footer.
You start in the shuttle Kestrel. Read the room description, then TAKE ORDER, TAKE CHIT and TAKE RATION.
TALK TO HALVO to hear your dispatcher's briefing.
Type OUT to cross into the station's spoke airlock.
Everything in the emergency locker is worth having. OPEN LOCKER, take what is in it, and then SEARCH LOCKER — a search often finds what an open does not.

The identity chit matters. Without a certified chit aboard, no shuttle in the fleet will release a clamp. Take it with you, and be careful who you show it to.

Controls

Type a command and press Enter, or build one with the buttons: choose an action in the ACTIONS band, then choose a target from the CONTEXT band that appears below it. The DIRECTIONS band always lists the exits that actually exist where you are standing.

Command	What it does
`LOOK` / `L`	Describe this compartment again.
`EXAMINE x` / `X x`	Look closely at an object or a person.
`TAKE x`, `DROP x`	Pick something up, or put it down.
`OPEN x`, `CLOSE x`	Work a hatch, locker, cabinet or safe.
`SEARCH x`	Look inside or behind. Most of this story's evidence is found this way.
`READ x`	Read a document, log, placard, decal or tag.
`TALK TO x`	Speak to somebody. Keep talking until they start repeating themselves.
`USE x ON y`	Apply one thing to another.
`INVENTORY` / `I`	List what you are carrying.
`WAIT` / `Z`	Let a turn pass.
`HINT`	A three-rung hint for your current situation. It never costs a move.

Movement

Directions are NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, UP, DOWN, IN and OUT, and the single letters N S E W U D work too. Some exits are gated: a lift with no power, a hatch that is bolted down, a door frozen into its seal, a blast door with its interlock on the far side. Each one tells you plainly what is wrong with it, and each one can be solved.

The eight story verbs

This station adds eight verbs of its own. They are the amber buttons in the ACTIONS band, and each has at least one moment where nothing else will serve.

Verb	What it does
`COUNT`	Ask the inventory drone to count what is present. The most useful verb in the game.
`PRY`	Force something with a bar.
`PATCH`	Bridge a damaged circuit.
`SUIT`	Seal the pressure suit.
`LISTEN`	Stand still and listen. Twice in this story that is the whole solution.
`OVERRIDE`	Assert charter authority over a station system.
`BROADCAST`	Send on the station transmitter.
`GROUND`	Dump a charge to the station ground.

Turn order and the clock

The game is turn-based and waits for you; nothing happens while you are thinking. Each command that changes the world costs one move. LOOK, INVENTORY, SCORE, JOURNAL, QUESTS, HINT, SAVE and RESTORE are free.

Above the map is the deorbit clock, counting down from forty hours. It is charged in blocks when you finish a piece of work — boarding, restoring power, the cold store, the core vault — and never turn by turn. A complete run charges 38 of the 40 hours.

You cannot lose to the clock. It is there to make the station feel like it is running out, not to punish you for reading. Explore, search and talk freely.

Scoring

One hundred and fifty points. One hundred and twenty come from the eight required objectives and cannot be missed on a winning route. The other thirty are optional: two side objectives worth five each, and four keepsakes worth five each — a brass bell, a crew photograph, a service medal and a tin of seed. Check SCORE, QUESTS and ACHIEVEMENTS at any time.

Everything optional stays obtainable right up to the moment you board the shuttle for the last time, so nothing can be permanently missed while the story is still running.

Winning

You win by recovering the Custody Seal, learning what happened to the crew of seven, dealing with what has been keeping their count, obtaining departure clearance from the tender Bellwether, and boarding the Kestrel with the Seal and your identity chit in hand. There are two endings, and which one you get depends on whether you found somewhere to put a copy of something before the end.

Losing

There are exactly three ways to die, and all three are announced before you can reach them — in the room description, and again in something you can READ.

Entering the inerted cold store without wearing the respirator. The hazard decal beside the door says RESPIRATOR REQUIRED FOR ENTRY.
Going out through the outer hatch into the antenna cage without sealing the pressure suit first. There is no air out there.
Grounding the antenna trunk while you are standing inside the cage. The placard above the hatch says DO NOT OCCUPY THE CAGE DURING DISCHARGE.

There is no other failure state. There are no dead ends, no unwinnable positions, and no timer you can lose to.

Saving, restoring and restarting

SAVE keeps a slot called quick; SAVE trunk keeps a named slot. RESTORE and RESTORE trunk bring them back.
The SAVE MANAGER button in the footer lists every slot with its compartment, score and move count, and can restore or delete them.
Saves live in this browser only. They survive closing the tab; they do not travel between machines or browsers.
RESTART begins again from the shuttle. It does not cost a move and it does not touch your saves.
TRANSCRIPT shows everything printed so far and can download it as a text file.

If you get stuck

Check QUEST LOG for the objective that is still open.
SEARCH the furniture. Desks, bunks, tables, cabinets, racks and drone chassis all hold something.
TALK to everyone again. Nobody aboard says everything the first time.
COUNT the compartment you are in.
HINT, and then HINT again — each ladder has three rungs, from a nudge to the exact command, and none of them cost a move.

Tronsoft Games · The Quiet Wheel v1.0.0 · Requires Tronsoft Games Portal v6.12 or later · See docs/manual.pdf for the full player and developer manual.