FullControls
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If you are a brand new player you might have stumbled in here by accident. You can see the basic controls if you want to get into a round ASAP on the new player tutorial page. Otherwise this page is meant to be a break down of all (probably) relevant controls. It explains the how. More importantly it explains the why. Read this page and use the tasks at the bottom for practice and SS13 controls will become second nature in just a round or two.
Left Click: Interacting and Eating
Click a burger to pick it up in your hand. Click a terminal to open the interface. Click your backpack to open its inventory. Click a person while on help intent to hug them. And so on. You will figure it out. Left click on yourself with food or a drink or medicine to “use” it on yourself. You can also click on people to “use” it on them as in trying to force them to eat or drink it. Don’t.
Right click: The context menu
“Using” Items with the Z key: Why and How?
What this means changes depending on the item. Use it on a can of coke to open it. Use it on a light us light it. Use it on an e-gun to swap to lethal mode. And so on and so on. Don’t be afraid to liberally use this. Most of the time nothing will happen. Combine with SHIFT + left click and you can answer A LOT of your own questions.
Here is a perfect example: you buy a can of coke from the vending machine in the main hallway. How do you drink it? You must first open the can by “using” it your hand with Z. Then you click on yourself to with the opened coke in your hand to “use“ it on yourself to drink it.
ALT + Click: How and why?
Use ALT + click – perform specific, context sensitive actions. Literally alternative click. Examples are: Removing an ID from your PDA (or pen if there's no ID in it), toggling the lock on a locker, split a stack of items, crawling into vents (as something small like a monkey)…
A very common usecase is opening an “inventory”. Toolbox, normal box, backpack, toolbelt… Why use this? This is used to open such “inventories” without having to pick them up or equip them. You don’t ALT + click “container” like items such as crates or lockers. They are simply opened by left clicking them and then taking the items directly from them.
Communication
Press the T key – to talk. Your sentences will be automatically capitalized and end with a period. Unless you use “?” or “!” or even “!!” if you really want to scream something out. The last on is usually used with “;HELP!!” to scream for said help in the global radio chat.
As shown above If you add a semicolon (;) before anything else, you'll transmit your message to the general chat radio. You can also speak on department specific radio channels. The format is the same for each, just with a different letter. To speak on the medical channel, for example, type .m or #m before your message.
Use the T key to talk BUT place a * (asterisk) followed by one of the preset non-verbal actions (emotes) to use them. Most common ones are: *clap, *laugh and *scream. These will make an in-game sound! You can use *help to see all the options. Not all of them have sounds and sounds can be different depending on the species e.g., moth or lizard (stinky).
Press the O key – to talk in out of character chat. This is special yellow text with no rune text (text over the head) only visible in the chat window. As a new player you can use this in the game to ask control related questions to the people around you. If you have such questions also try the mentor tab.
Use SHIFT + Middle Mouse Button - to point at something. This creates a message in the chat and temporarily displays an arrow over the thing you point at.
Why is the drop items (Q key) used for?
Think of the ground as a temporary inventory extension. If you have an item that is too big for your backpack, but you need a free hand because you need both hands and because you are holding something else in the other hand simply drop the big item on the ground. Don’t worry it won’t get “dirty” and no one will steal it (almost certainly).
Throwing Mode: How and Why?
R – toggle throw mode for one throw. Next time you click somewhere on the screen your character will THORW the item. Why would you want to throw stuff? Because it’s convenient. Why walk 6 tiles to drop that hat on the table when you can just chuck it at it? Why walk to someone to hand an item when you can just throw it NEXT to them? Do not throw items at people. Unless you want to, in cases where you might try throwing stuff for self-defense, for example. Will it break or something? The vast majority of items are safe to throw. The exception are items made from glass such as cups. Even if they don’t break themselves, they will spill their contents on the floor or hit thing.
Pulling Things: How and Why?
CTRL + click – Pull a thing or person. Your hand must be empty to pull. Halt as in stop pulling with H. Why would I want to pull a thing? You can gently pull people if you want to lead them somewhere. You can pull items such as crates or anything too big to carry in your hands.
Use the H key – to halt pulling something. H for halt as in STOP. This one is straightforward. If you are pulling something or someone you will stop. Incredible.
Click-dragging yourself or a held person or item – used for certain actions such as: to climb onto a table, to put things on/take things off someone, click-drag their character onto yourself. You can also buckle, sit, or lay down yourself/others (if you are holding them with CTRL + click) to chairs and such using this.
QoL Hotkeys
While the following controls are not mandatory at all technically, they are very useful once you get used to them.
Press the E key – to quick equip. If an item can be “equipped” as in placed in any slot, including your inventory or any other inventories such as belts or the suit slot it will be. For example, if you have gloves and press E you will “quick equip” them into your gloves slot. If you already have gloves they will instead go to your backpack or other valid slot. There are too many cases so just experiment with the E key on items and you will figure out the behavior.
Using SHIFT + B and SHIFT + T – you can place an item in/on your backpack or toolbelt respectively. If used with an empty hand, then it will instead take the last item you placed inside the backpack/toolbelt into your hand. An engineer might use this to quickly toggle between a wrench and his empty hand when working with pipes.
Goals to practice you SS13 control skill:
Here are a few suggestions for things you should do on your first round to effectively learn the controls. After all the best way to learn is by doing. In no particular order:
Make a paper airplane and throw it.
Smoke a cigarette.
Drink a can of coke.
Pull a chair into a funny spot and then sit on it.
Climb up onto a table.
Talk to someone and use a preset emote.
Get a drink or a meal from the crew area and tip the server.