Some user-interface features that aren't obvious are described here. Many of them also have menu equivalents, but the shortcuts described here are more convenient.
There are keys to select tools. Space selects the regular scroll/follow tool (click to follow an object, drag to scroll).
| Key | Tool | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| space | Scroll/Follow | click to follow an object, drag to scroll |
| M | Add 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 | a bunch of shots in all directions - good for testing cells' response to shots, or just killing them |
| E | Erase | |
| A | Erase Area |
Also, you can press return to follow a randomly selected object, preferring interesting
ones like shots and moving robots. Tab will follow a random nearby object. If you were following something but scrolled away, backquote will resume following the original object.
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.) |
You can stop or start a brain by clicking on the status, or typing 's'. There are also keys for simulation control: 'b' steps the brain, 'r' runs, 'p' pauses, and 'f' advances one frame. (These exist because menu shortcuts don't work yet on the Windows version.)
Press 'N' to move to the next hundred addresses, 'P' to the previous hundred, or '0' to go back to the first hundred.
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.
Grobots by Devon Schudy and Warren Schudy