◈ COMMANDER'S FIELD MANUAL

ELITE TACTICAL NETWORK — COMPLETE USAGE GUIDE

What is ETN?

The Elite Tactical Network (ETN) is a live BGS (Background Simulation) and Powerplay intelligence portal for Elite Dangerous player squadrons. It connects directly to the EDDN (Elite Dangerous Data Network — the community-driven network where players automatically upload in-game telemetry when running tools like EDMC or the ETN companion app) and transforms that raw data stream into actionable squadron intelligence.

First-Time Setup

When a new tenant is provisioned, the portal runs a setup wizard to configure the faction filter. This is the single most important step — get the faction name wrong and the portal sees nothing.

Step 1 — Enter Your Faction Name

• In the setup wizard, enter the exact in-game faction name (e.g. Chimera Collective, not "Chimera Squadron")
• Optionally enter your Inara squadron name — this pulls roster data, kill count, and stats from Inara.cz
• Set your PMF HQ system — the faction's home system. Distance badges on every hex card are measured from here
• Click SAVE & ACTIVATE — the portal immediately begins filtering the live EDDN stream for your faction

After saving, the portal queries Spansh to seed your initial system list. Systems appear on the grid within a minute as EDDN telemetry arrives, or faster if you click ↻ RESEED.

Tenant Isolation

Leadership Cipher

The Leadership tab and Settings are protected by a leadership cipher — a password set during provisioning. This separates leader-only controls (rosters, settings, strategy tools) from general member access. Members with registered CMDR accounts can see all operational data but cannot change configuration.

Logging In

The portal has three access levels:

Data Sources

The portal combines several data streams. Understanding what each one provides helps you interpret what you see and why some data may be more current than others.

Interface Overview

The desktop layout is a three-column grid. On mobile it collapses to a vertical stack with a bottom navigation bar.

The divider between the center and right panels is draggable — click and drag the thin handle to resize the right panel to your preference. The setting persists per browser.

Header Bar

Stats Row

BGS Tick Clock

The countdown shows time until the next BGS tick, along with a confidence indicator. The tick fires at approx 07:00 UTC daily but can shift — the portal detects tick confirmation from EDDN and updates the estimate accordingly. When the tick lands, you'll see new influence values cascade across all your system cards.

Status Dots

Header Buttons

Live Event Feed

The left panel shows real-time EDDN events for your tracked systems. Each entry shows the system name, current influence, active states, and time of the event. Entries flash briefly when they arrive.

Clicking any event in the feed selects that system and opens its detail in the Intel tab on the right.

◈ ID CMDRs Button

In the top-right corner of the feed panel is a small ◈ ID CMDRs button. This opens the CMDR Intel panel — a full list of every EDDN uploader hash seen in your systems, with correlation confidence and any resolved CMDR names. This is your adversary intelligence view. See the CMDR Intel section for full detail.

System Grid

The center panel shows all your faction's tracked systems as hex cards — compact tiles, one per system. The card format lets you scan your entire territory at a glance and immediately spot influence drops, active conflicts, or unusual pilot activity without clicking into each system individually. Systems update live — influence bars animate, state tags appear/disappear, and the hot-dot (pulsing dot in the card's corner) lights up whenever new EDDN data arrives for that system.

Reading a Hex Card

Border Colours

The card border gives you a quick visual threat assessment: Red = active War, Yellow = Election, Green = Boom state, Gold = bookmarked/favourite. In PP2.0 mode the left border is coloured by the controlling Power's faction colour.

Grid Views

Three display modes are available in the center panel toolbar:

Priority Mode

The ◈ PRIORITY button (also in the panel header) filters the grid to your top 30 most critical systems by threat level and CMDR traffic volume. This is the fastest way to identify where your squadron needs to focus immediately.

PP2.0 Overlay

Click ★ PP2.0 in the time filter bar to overlay Powerplay data on every hex card. The BGS health bars are replaced with Powerplay state badges and a Steadfastness bar. Left borders are colour-coded by the controlling Power. This mode is most useful if your squadron has a pledged Power set in Settings → Branding.

Filters & Search

Intel Tab

Clicking any system card or feed event opens the Intel tab with full detail for that system. This is the primary analytical view.

System Detail — What You See

Setting Objectives

Leaders and senior commanders can click ◈ SET next to any faction row to open the objective picker. Choose from RAISE / LOWER / MAINTAIN / EXPAND / RETREAT, optionally add a target influence % and notes. The badge appears on both the faction row and the hex card in the grid.

CMDR Intel Panel (◈ ID CMDRs)

The CMDR Intel panel (accessed from the Live Feed header button) shows every uploader hash seen in your space. The portal's hash correlator attempts to resolve each hash to a real CMDR name through three tiers:

1. Hash matching — MD5/SHA-1 patterns from known CMDR names
2. Authenticated hints — cAPI-verified CMDRs who are registered in the portal
3. Portal activity — cross-referencing journal uploads and BGS-Tally submissions

Each profile card shows: CMDR name (or hash if unresolved), confidence level, last-seen system, ship class, PP pledge, PP rank, BGS faction, and the systems they've been detected in. VERIFIED means cAPI-confirmed identity.

Squadron Tab

The Squadron tab has four sub-sections accessible via the sub-navigation bar below the tabs.

Overview

Shows squadron-level stats pulled from Inara (member count, ship classes, combat rank distribution) and recent journal submissions from your CMDRs. Each submission entry shows the CMDR name, systems worked, activity types (missions, bounties, trade), and any new medals earned.

BGS Intel

The BGS Intel table is the most operationally valuable section of the portal. It shows, per system and per faction, the accumulated BGS work done by your CMDRs since the last tick: mission count, bounties redeemed, combat bonds, trade profit, exploration data submitted.

Below the tally table is the Hostile CMDR Intel panel — high-confidence rivals detected in your systems via hash correlation. This shows CMDRs who are likely working against your faction based on EDDN activity patterns.

Journal Submission

CMDRs can manually upload their Elite Dangerous journal file here for a one-time AI analysis. The portal reads the last 24 hours of the journal, calculates what activities the CMDR did, which systems they worked, and outputs a personalised report with medals earned. Limit: one AI analysis per CMDR per 12 hours.

Journal location: %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous — pick the newest .log file.

CMDR Lookup

Search for any registered CMDR by name. Shows their rank, role, last activity, registered systems, and any medals. Useful for leaders checking on specific squadron members.

BGS Activity Tab

A live scrolling log of BGS-relevant EDDN events specifically for your faction's systems. More granular than the Left Panel feed — shows full event detail including faction name, influence delta, and event type.

Filters

The ⏸ PAUSE button freezes the log at its current position — useful when reviewing a stream of events without them scrolling away.

Awards / Commendations Tab

Lists all medals awarded to CMDRs who have submitted journal logs. Medals are awarded automatically when a CMDR's BGS activity in your faction's systems crosses defined thresholds.

Click any CMDR's name or medal badge to open a full citation modal showing the medal name, category, description, the exact stat that triggered the award, and the submission count.

Medal Tiers

Orders Tab

Leaders and senior commanders can issue standing orders to the squadron from this tab. Each order specifies a system, an action type, a priority, and optional notes.

Creating an Order (Leaders / Senior Commanders)

• In the ISSUE NEW ORDER panel, choose who it's assigned to (All, or a specific CMDR)
• Set the Priority (Normal / High / Critical)
• Enter the System name and select the Action type (Missions, Bounty Hunting, Trade, Exploration, Combat Bonds, etc.)
• Add specific instructions in the notes field
• Click ◈ ISSUE ORDER

Issued orders appear in the list for all logged-in CMDRs. When a CMDR has completed the work, they can mark the order as reviewed. Orders greyed out have been superseded or completed.

Optimize Tab — Personal Action Plan

The BGS Optimizer generates an AI-powered personal action plan for a specific CMDR, cross-referenced with the current state of your squadron's systems.

• Step 1: Enter your CMDR name and click ↻ LOAD STATS — pulls your activity history from the server
• Step 2 (optional): Upload your latest Elite Dangerous journal file for session-accurate analysis. More data = more precise recommendations.
• Step 3 (optional): Choose a specific system to focus on, or leave as "All tracked systems" for squadron-wide recommendations
• Click ◈ CALCULATE PERSONAL ACTION PLAN

The output tells you: which systems need your specific activity type most, which actions give the highest BGS efficiency relative to your usual playstyle, and where the greatest threat exists right now. The recommendation ranks systems by urgency — highest efficiency work first.

Alerts Tab

Alert rules watch the live EDDN stream. When triggered, they flash in the event log, open a full-screen warning popup, and play a siren sound for 10 seconds. The popup auto-closes after a countdown but can be dismissed early.

Alert Types

Click + ADD RULE, select the type, fill in the parameters, and give it an optional name. Rules can be toggled ON/OFF individually without deleting them.

PP2.0 Tab — Powerplay

The PP2.0 tab shows your squadron's Powerplay picture across all tracked systems. For this tab to show useful data your leader must have set a Pledged Power in Settings → Branding.

PP States Explained

Frontier (cAPI) Tab

Requires authenticated Frontier accounts. CMDRs who log in using Login with Frontier appear here with live data updated every ~3 minutes.

Diagnostics Tab

The Diag tab is your transparency window — it shows what the EDDN stream is actually delivering and how the BGS filter is classifying events. Use it when you suspect data isn't flowing or when a system's influence hasn't updated.

Support Tab

Submit a ticket to the ETN platform administrators for technical issues, account problems, or feature requests. Requires a logged-in CMDR account.

• Click + NEW TICKET
• Enter a clear subject and a detailed description of the issue
• Click SUBMIT TICKET

Once submitted, the ticket thread appears in your list. You can reply, and admins can respond and change the ticket status. Click ✓ MARK RESOLVED once the issue is fixed.

AI Query Engine

The bottom bar is your primary AI interface. The portal runs AI from whichever provider key is configured (Groq, Gemini, OpenRouter, or Mistral) — it falls through providers automatically if one is rate-limited.

ANALYZE vs TRANSMIT

Example Queries That Work Well

Time Window

The selector next to the query bar (1H / 4H / 24H / 72H) controls how much EDDN history the AI has access to when formulating its response. For strategic briefings use 24H — captures a full BGS cycle. For real-time threat analysis use 4H.

Suggested Strategy

Available from the ⬡ STRATEGY option in the Leader menu. This generates a comprehensive AI strategy brief for your entire squadron: which systems need the most attention, which conflicts to focus on, which systems are at expansion or retreat threshold, and a clear action plan with system names and numbers.

The strategy brief is displayed in the Intel tab and can be referred to throughout the session. It uses all live data for all your tracked systems — the more data flowing in via EDDN and the companion app, the more accurate the strategy.

BGS Optimizer

The Optimize tab generates a personal action plan for a specific CMDR based on their activity profile and the current state of your systems. See the Optimize Tab section above for the step-by-step process.

The output ranks actions by BGS efficiency — missions in a Boom system are worth more BGS than the same missions in a non-Boom system, and the optimizer knows this. It also cross-references your CMDR's preferred activity type (if you typically run missions, it won't tell you to grind bounties unless that's the only option).

The optimizer also accounts for BGS daily caps and diminishing returns. BGS mechanics have hard limits on how much a single CMDR's activity can move influence in one system per tick — the optimizer recognises when a system has been saturated and redirects you to where your effort is still effective. Cap and diminishing-return awareness is the primary design goal of the optimizer: stopping squadrons from wasting sorties in already-maxed systems while systems elsewhere go unworked.

Leadership Tab

The Leadership tab is the squadron command centre. It requires the leadership cipher to access. Once authenticated, the session persists for 24 hours in that browser.

What Leaders Can Do Here

Leader Menu

The LEADER ☰ hamburger button in the header opens the leader action dropdown. It's only visible after cipher authentication.

Rival Monitor

The Rival Monitor opens as a fullscreen overlay showing detailed intelligence on a rival faction — their influence across all systems they share with you, recent trends, state changes, and CMDR activity correlated to their systems.

• Open the Leader menu → ◈ RIVALS
• Type the rival faction's exact name in the search field
• Click SCAN

Each rival faction card shows: current influence %, trend direction, active states, estimated CMDR traffic, and when they were last seen active. Use this before planning an offensive campaign to assess how entrenched a rival is.

Mandate Dispatch

Leaders can send messages directly to their squadron's registered CMDRs via the portal inbox. Open the 📨 DISPATCH option from the Leader menu.

Messages can be sent to all registered CMDRs simultaneously or targeted at a specific CMDR. Recipients see an orange unread badge on their CMDR Account button and the message appears in their Inbox when they open their profile.

Companion App

The companion app runs alongside Elite Dangerous on your PC and streams your journal data to the portal in real-time. It's the primary way your BGS activity appears on the portal without manual uploads.

Installing the Companion

• Click ⬡ COMPANION in the portal header
• Download the Windows installer (.exe) or Linux package
• Run the installer — no configuration needed; it finds your journal folder automatically
• The companion creates a system tray icon. It connects to the portal using a unique key displayed in the companion setup screen.

What the Companion Sends

The companion streams: FSD jumps, docking/undocking, mission accepted/completed/failed, bounty redemptions, combat bond redemptions, market transactions, exploration data submissions, and Powerplay events. All of this drives the BGS Activity log, medal awards, and the BGS Intel tally table.

BGS-Tally Integration

BGS-Tally is a popular EDMC plugin that tracks BGS activity. The ETN portal has a native integration that accepts tally data directly from the plugin.

Setting Up BGS-Tally

• In ETN, go to ⬡ COMPANION → BGS TALLY INTEGRATION section
• Copy the BGS-Tally API endpoint URL and your API key
• In EDMC, open BGS-Tally settings and enable the "Send to URL" option
• Paste the endpoint URL and API key

Once connected, BGS-Tally submissions appear in the Squadron → BGS Intel table, and your CMDR's tally data flows automatically at the end of each session.

Discord Bot & Integration

The ETN Discord bot can post tick reports, live alerts, and respond to slash commands directly in your squadron's Discord server. One bot instance serves all tenants — it routes each command and alert to the correct squadron by matching your Discord server's Guild ID against its registered tenant list. This mapping is set when you save your Guild ID in Settings → Discord. If the Guild ID is missing or wrong, slash commands will return no response and webhook alerts won't fire — always confirm the Guild ID is saved correctly after setup.

Setting Up Discord

• In Settings (Leader → ⚙ SETTINGS → DISCORD tab), find the bot invite URL and click INVITE BOT
• Enter your Discord Server (Guild) ID — right-click your server name in Discord (with Developer Mode on) → Copy Server ID
• Create a webhook in the Discord channel you want alerts in: Channel Settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook → Copy URL
• Paste the webhook URL into the Alert Webhook URL field
• Click ◈ SAVE DISCORD CONFIG

Slash Commands

Notification Types

In the Discord settings, you can fine-tune which events post to your webhook. Categories:

CMDR Account & Personalisation

Click 👤 CMDR LOGIN in the header to open the account modal.

Registration

Register with your CMDR name (3+ characters) and a password (6+ characters). Your CMDR name is how you appear in the BGS Intel table, activity log, and awards. Use your exact in-game CMDR name for accurate cross-referencing with your journal submissions.

Color Themes

In your profile (Profile tab in the account modal), you can set custom colours for Primary, Accent, Highlight, and Panel Background. Five presets are available: DEFAULT, AMBER, RED, PURPLE, WHITE. Changes apply immediately to your session and persist across logins.

Display Size

Four text sizes: SMALL (13px), DEFAULT (15px), LARGE (17px), X-LARGE (19px). All portal text scales uniformly — if the interface feels cramped on a small monitor, bump to SMALL.

Interface Sounds

The portal plays audio cues for tick events, alert triggers, and AI response ready. Adjust the volume slider in your profile — set to 0 to mute all sounds.

Anchor System

Set a personal home base system. Every hex card shows a small distance badge in light orange measuring light-years from your anchor — useful for planning your session's route.

Custom Views

Save up to 3 personalised layouts. Each custom view stores which panels and right-panel tabs are visible. Create a "Combat Only" view that shows just Intel and Alerts, or a "BGS Overview" view that defaults to the Influence Board. Switch between views via the VIEW: bar above the tabs (appears once you create your first view).

Settings (Leader Only)

Open via the ⚙ SETTINGS option in the Leader menu. Four tabs:

Faction Filter

The core configuration — your faction name, Inara squadron name, Inara squadron ID, Inara minor faction ID, and PMF HQ system. Also shows live filter stats (how many EDDN events have matched your faction name since startup). If your system count is 0, check this first.

Branding

Set your squadron's initials (displayed in the header hex), primary/accent/highlight colours, and upload a logo (PNG/JPG/WebP — auto-resized to 512px). The logo replaces the initials in the hex badge. Also where you set your Pledged Power to unlock PP2.0 action recommendations on hex cards.

AI Keys

Configure API keys for the AI providers. Groq is recommended (free, fast, generous quota). You only need one key — the portal automatically falls through providers if one is rate-limited (Groq → Gemini → OpenRouter → Mistral). If no key is configured at all, a shared community trial key is used as a fallback with a 5-minute cooldown between uses. Keys are stored server-side — never in the browser.

Getting a Free Groq Key

• Go to console.groq.com → Sign Up (free, use Google or GitHub)
• Click API Keys in the left sidebar → Create API Key
• Give it any name (e.g. "Elite BGS") and copy the key — starts with gsk_
• Paste in Settings → AI Keys → GROQ API KEY → Save

Discord

All Discord configuration: bot invite URL, server Guild ID, alert webhook URL, leader Discord user ID, authorised lockdown users, command access control, webhook alert type (BGS / PP / Both), and all notification preference toggles. See the Discord section above for full detail.

Daily Workflow — Best Practices

A recommended daily session flow for leaders and active squadron members:

Before the Tick (morning)

1. Open the portal and check the BGS Tick Clock — plan your session around the tick window
2. Check the BGS Intel table (Squadron → BGS Intel) — see which systems have received work this cycle and which haven't
3. Run the AI briefing: type "Give me a full executive briefing on our squadron operations right now" in the query bar → TRANSMIT
4. Check the Alerts tab for any triggered rules overnight — especially retreat risk and conflict detection
5. Check the Priority grid (◈ PRIORITY button) for the top critical systems today

During the Session

1. Keep the companion app running — this is what feeds real-time activity to the portal and earns your CMDRs medals
2. Monitor the BGS Activity tab — you can see your own events flowing in and confirm the portal is tracking you
3. When entering a contested system, click the hex card and run ANALYZE for the latest situation report
4. Use the Optimize tab to get a personalised action plan if you're unsure where to spend your time

After the Tick

1. The tick should cascade through your system cards — influence values update, state tags change
2. Run a post-tick briefing: "What changed at the tick? Which systems gained or lost influence?"
3. Update system objectives in the Intel view to reflect the new state
4. If Discord is configured, a tick confirmation post should appear in your webhook channel automatically

Tips & Tricks

Power User Shortcuts

AI Query Tips

• The AI has full access to all your live system data — be specific. Name the system. Name the faction. Say what you want.
• Use 24H window for strategic questions — it captures a full tick cycle
• Use 4H window when asking about real-time threats — more current, less historical noise
• The ANALYZE button (not TRANSMIT) is the fastest path to a system-specific brief — click the card first, then ANALYZE
• Quick preset buttons in the Intel tab are pre-optimised — use them before typing your own query
• If a response seems incomplete or truncated, try reducing scope: ask about one system rather than all of them

Data Quality

• EDDN data is only as good as the CMDRs reporting it — a system with no EDDN badge may simply not have had a CMDR dock or hyperspace-jump nearby recently
• The EDDN badge on a hex card is the gold standard. If only EDSM or Spansh badges appear, the data may be hours or days old
• If influence hasn't updated after the tick, the system may not have been visited by an EDDN-uploading CMDR yet. Send a squadron member there to dock and trigger an update.
• For conflict data to be accurate, at least one CMDR needs to have been in system after the new conflict started — the portal can't infer conflict scores from EDDN alone

Mobile Usage

• The portal auto-detects narrow screens and switches to mobile layout. You can also toggle manually with SWITCH VIEW.
• Mobile shows a bottom nav bar: Systems / Intel / Squadron / Activity / More
• The Live Feed is hidden on mobile by default — access it via the LIVE FEED button in the More drawer
• All AI query features work on mobile — the query bar appears at the bottom