Menus
Edit
All game controls are accessed by clicking items on the Main Menu. In addition, many/most of the commands have an equivalent keyboard shortcut.
<updated menus still under construction... old menus are below>
File MenuEdit
Pretty self-explanatory
| Command | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open Side | Ctrl-O |
| Duplicate Side | |
| Reload Side | Ctrl-L |
| Remove Side | Ctrl-K |
| Remove All Sides | |
| Close Window (Mac Only) | Ctrl-W |
| Exit (Windows Only) | Ctrl-Q |
Views MenuEdit
Brings up one of several information views
| Command | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| About | |
| Roster | |
| World | Ctrl-V |
| Minimap | Ctrl-M |
| Statistics | Ctrl-S |
| Types | Ctrl-Y |
| Debugger | Ctrl-D |
| Tournament | Ctrl-E |
| Shared Memory |
Simulation MenuEdit
Controls to affect how the game is played
|
Command | Shortcut | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Run | Ctrl-R | Starts the clock again after pause |
| Single Frame | Ctrl-F | Advance clock 1 whole frame |
| Step Brain | Ctrl-B | Advance selected robot's brain by 1 command |
| Pause | Ctrl-P | Halts the clock |
| Start/Stop Brain | Halts execution on the selected robot, but keeps the rest of the simulation going | |
| Slowest Speed | Ctrl-0 | Sets clock to 2 frames per second (FPS) |
| Slow Speed | Ctrl-1 | 10 FPS |
| Normal Speed | Ctrl-3 | 30 FPS |
| Fast Speed | Ctrl-6 | 60 FPS |
| Faster Speed | Ctrl-9 | 90 FPS (I think) |
| Unlimited Speed | Ctrl-U | Sets the clock as fast as your processor can handle it. |
| New Round | Ctrl-N | Stops the round, reseeds all sides, and begins another one |
| Clear Map | Del | Stops the round and resets the map (Windows version) |
| Restart` | \ | Same as Clear map (Mac version) |
| Add Seeds |
F12 / = | Seeds each side on the board randomly. F12 for Windows, = for Mac |
| Reseed Dead Sides | ||
| Rules | Shows a dialog that allows changing of various world parameters (Mac version only) | |
| Tournament | Ctrl-T | Turns Tournament Mode on or off. In the Mac version, also brings up a dialog to select the number of rounds to run before stopping. |
| Save Tournament Scores | Creates an html output file with the current tournament scoreboard | |
| Reset Tournament Scores | Sets all scores to 0 |
Tools Menu Edit
Makes your mouse do different things to the map when clicked.
| Key | Tool | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| space | Scroll/Follow | click to follow an object, drag to scroll |
| M | Add Manna | add some manna |
| R | Add Robot | click to add a cell of the selected type |
| S | Add Seed | multiple cells of the selected side |
| M | Move | drag individual objects around |
| P | Pull | drag to create a forcefield |
| X | Smite | creates a large explosion |
| B | Add Blasts | fire a bunch of shots in all directions; good for testing cells' response to shots, or just killing them |
| E | Erase | delete an individual object |
| A | Erase Area | delete multiple objects |
Older Versions Edit
Before the menus were revamped in July 2012, keyboard shortcuts were not tied to the menu, and were specific to the view that was most recently clicked. They are still in the code, and in cases where they do not conflict with the newer shortcuts (and haven't been overwritten by menu keys), they still work.
MinimapEdit
There are keys to change the graphics settings:
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
| F | Toggle whether foods are shown |
| R | Toggle whether robots are shown |
| S | Toggle whether sensor-shots are shown |
| D | Toggle whether decorations are shown |
| T | Toggle whether trails are shown |
| W | Switch between black and white backgrounds. (This feature was an experiment and may go away.) |
Any double-buffered windowEdit
In any double-buffered window (the main view or the minimap, currently) you can type '!' to toggle whether the window is actually redrawn, or '@' to toggle whether the back-buffer is actually copied to the screen. These are of interest only for measuring the cost of graphics.
