Rebinding keys

You rebind the keys of play in the Controls screen: open the main menu or the pause menu, then Controls. The keys of menus and screens, text fields, the question windows (y and n), the info pages (the digits and Tab), the rest prompt (h, d, n), and aiming (Tab and Enter) are fixed. The hints on screen name them.

Controls lists the commands in groups, by where they are used: in play, while aiming, at --more--, on menus and screens, in text fields, and on the info pages. Outside play, each group holds only a “back” or “previous” command. It has no key until you give it one, since Esc and Shift already do it, and it cannot take a key that is fixed there. Last come the ability keys, which have no key until you give them one.

A command can have several keys: moving north is numpad 8 and Up. To change them, select the command and press Enter. Its keys open in a short list under it, one per line, with Add a key last. The first key is the main one, the key the hints on screen name.

• Replace a key: select it, press Enter, then press the new key.
• Add a key: select Add a key, press Enter, then press the new key.
• Remove a key: select it and press Delete. A command may be left with no key.
• Esc closes the list.

If another command in the same group already uses the key you press, the key moves to this command and the screen says what moved. The old command keeps its other keys, or shows (none) if that was its only one.

A key of play can be held with Ctrl, Alt, or Super (on a Mac Ctrl, Option, or Cmd; Controls calls Option Alt): hold them while you press the new key, as in Ctrl+r. A modified key is its own key: Ctrl+r never does what r does, and r does nothing while Ctrl is held. Shift counts with keys that type no character, such as Shift+Up; a letter carries it already (K is not k). Keys your system or browser keeps for itself, such as Cmd+Q, Alt+F4, or Ctrl+W in the browser, cannot be bound, and the screen says why. The back commands of menus, screens, and prompts take no modifiers.

The same key can mean different things in different places. Tab is the next target while aiming and the next page on an info screen. d drops in play but rests until dawn in the rest prompt.

You cannot lock yourself out. Esc always backs out of every screen and cancels every prompt, and it cannot be taken. The keys of the menus, which you need to get back to Controls, and of text fields, which you need to name a new character, are fixed. Delete on a command whose keys are closed puts its default keys back, and Reset all keys resets every command. If your keys still get in the way, start the game with ascmearc --reset-keys: every key goes back to its default, and the game starts as usual. Your keys are kept with your settings.

Sharing your keys

Export keys… in Controls writes all your keys to a file, ascmearc-keys.toml, in the folder with your settings (Settings, then Files, shows where). In the browser it downloads the file. Import keys… reads it back; in the browser, you choose the file. Use it to copy your keys to another computer, to back them up, or to share them.

It is a plain text file you can edit. It lists each command by name with its keys, in the same groups as the Controls screen, as in descend = [">"]. An import changes only the commands the file lists and moves keys the way rebinding does. It skips anything it does not know, says so, and is saved at once. From the command line, ascmearc --export-keys FILE and ascmearc --import-keys FILE do the same. The desktop downloads come with the default keys in such a file, keymaps/default.toml.

See also: Controls, Settings, and Menus and lists.