Saitek III - Manual (Page 34)

33
Pilots Manual
THE DESCENT UNIVERSE
Doors
There are a wide variety of doors that you will encounter throughout the
facilities. Most can be opened by either bumping into them or by firing
weapons at them, but others require special actions to be performed first
before entry is allowed. Some doors are locked and require special keys to
open them.
Some facilities have gone as far as to camouflage doors in an attempt to
keep wandering crew from entering them. These "secret" doors are not easily
found and can sometimes only be entered by obtaining the proper pass key
or by destroying the mechanisms that control the locking devices.
Switches
Large devices found in facilities and mines are controlled by power switches.
Bumping or firing at these switches will always have an effect, good or bad.
If you encounter an area that is impassable, it’s probably due to an active
switch.
Glass
While glass is used rarely as a material in the facilities, it does exist and
sometimes can be destroyed to allow entrance into an area. Energy weapons
have no effect, so be sure to use any weapon of mass to clear a path.
Force Fields
Another form of security predominately found with the mines and facilities
are force fields. These force fields will repel and damage your ship upon
contact and reflect all weapons. Force fields are almost always powered
internally within a facility. Find the power source and you will find a way past
the force field.
Energy Centers
Found throughout the mines and facilities are energy centers. Designed to
provide "on the fly" energy boosts for robots, fly into these centers to
replenish your ship’s energy level up to 100.
Materialization Centers (MatCens)
Materialization Centers are found in facilities as a means to automatically
create additional robots as needed by the situation. Their unusual
appearance is easily recognizable and in most cases something to avoid
entirely when eradicating infected robots.