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2.8 User interface

2.8.1 A reduced set of keys

Liquid War 6 can be controlled using a reduced set of keys. This is to make the game more portable and allow possible ports to platforms where a full keyboard is not available. Depending on the graphics backend, exact mapping might change, they should hopefully be obvious and intuitive.

Those keys are:

Basically,

2.8.2 Combining mouse, keyboard and joysticks

It's also possible to control the game with the mouse only, or with a joystick. By default the interface will trap all events and respond on any of these possible devices.

Keyboard Mouse Joystick Menu action In-game


up mouse pointer stick previous menu item move cursor up


down mouse pointer stick next menu item move cursor down


left mouse pointer stick change menu item value move cursor left


right mouse pointer stick change menu item value move cursor right


enter left-click button A validate menu validate chat line


esc right-click button B back to previous menu quit game


ctrl right-click or double-click on any button button C N/A fire


alt middle-click or triple-click on any button button D N/A alternate fire


pgup wheel up button E previous menu item zoom in


pgdown wheel down button F next menu item zoom out

A final word about joystick buttons: there's no such thing as standard joystick buttons, some will come with A,B,C,D, others will have A,B,start,select,L,R, there's no way to know. By default, the game will use the buttons with the lowest indexes (returned by your driver) for the most usefull functions. Validate menu entries is the most usefull action, zooming in and out the one you can live without.

2.8.3 Quit with F10

There's also an (almost) hardcoded shortcut which will quit the game immediately, or at least as quickly as possible, without any prompt or warning.

It is the F10 key.

Think of this feature as the procastinator's “whoops, here comes my boss!!!” emergency function.