Keybinds
This article is a work in progress
Introduction
Keybinds are some of the most important settings. They are also highly personal, and directly influence how people play. This article is intended to help new players select keybinds that will serve them well long-term. Armagetron Advanced relies heavily on muscle memory, so it is important to choose good keybinds early, as the longer you wait the more difficult it becomes to change.
Turning
Multi-binding
In Armagetron, it is possible to bind multiple keys to the same action, including, most importantly, turning left and right. The first decision to make when deciding what keys to bind is how many keys you want for each direction. For most players, the answer will be either 2 or 3, regardless of gamemode. Multi-binding provides a huge competitive advantage. In low-turn-delay modes like dogfight, high rubber, or fasttrack, there will be a greater tendency towards 3 keys. In gamemodes with higher turn delay like sumo or fortress, you will find a much closer split between players triple and double binding. Because of the turn delay, it is possible to bind equally tight whether you use two or three keys.
Placement
After deciding how many turn keys you want, you must decide how you will distribute them, and where on your keyboard you will place them.
As far as placement goes, it is most important to choose a comfortable setup where your hands and wrists can be relaxed and comfortable to limit strain. This leaves many possibilities, but I recommend using the home row keys. Playing Armagetron with the natural typing keys positions your hands centrally with easy access to the whole keyboard. It also allows you to quickly transition between typing and playing. Finally, it also takes advantage of existing muscle memory and lets you find your keys without looking down.
Of course, players have landed on other solutions, like a wasd+arrowkey setup, top or bottom row setups, V shaped hand positions, and many more. In the end, be comfortable, and be able to reach the keys you need.
The next decision to make is whether you will bind left turns to your left hand, and right turns to your right hand, or whether you will use a kind of double wasd setup, where each hand has a left and right turn. Most experienced players fell into one of these camps as soon as they started double/triple binding and never looked back. For most, it is impossible to fathom playing the other way. Generally, pick whatever feels natural and go with it.
Brakes
With turns out of the way, we can begin to fill in the rest of our binds. The next most important keys are brakes and glances. With brakes you have two options, brake and toggle brake. Brakes slow you down as long as you are pressing the button. With toggle brake, you tap once to start slowing down and tap again to stop. Brake gives you more control, and you are less likely to forget to toggle off, allowing you to replenish your brakes. Toggle allows you keep fewer keys pressed at the same time, focusing your brain on your other fingers. You can play effectively with either, or even combine them. Maybe you’ve decided to double bind, and use your extra free fingers to take advantage of both kinds of brakes. The most important thing when choosing a key for brakes is that you are still able to make all the turns you need while braking. For many, this means using your pinky or thumbs. If a WASD style setup is comfortable for you, it is common to have your brakes on your middle finger, between your turning fingers. Maybe you’ve got some racing pedals around and want to get your feet into the mix, give that a go. As long as you can continue turning, and are comfortable, you should be good.
Glances
As we’re running out of fingers and moving into having to shift our hands around, it’s important to figure out your glances. Armagetron is as much an information game as it is about reflexes, and being able to see what’s going on around you is important. Most importantly, you’ll need to glance right, left and back. Depending on your game version and camera settings, you may find it worthwhile having forward glance as well. If you still have enough free fingers to incorporate all the necessary glances, do that now. If you don’t, you’ll need to figure out a system that requires minimal hand shifting. Maybe one pinky glances back/forth while the other handles left/right. Like braking, you want to be able to glance without affecting your turning fingers. Avoid putting your glances out of the way on the arrow keys or similar, as you want to avoid moving your hands when at all possible.
Instant Chats
That’s the important keys out of the way, but there are still plenty of situational binds to give some consideration. If you intend to play team based gamemodes, or just enjoy some trash-talk your next step will be to customize your instant chats and their binds. More discussion about suggested instant chats on this page↗️. Because there are so many instant chats available to you, it can be tough to reach them all. This is where selecting a central hand position is beneficial. You can try to surround your hands with instant chats, but most players end up filling the top rows of their keyboards with instant chats and just building the muscle memory for them over time. You may opt however, to move a couple of your most used instant chats to be more easily reached.
Other
Finally, a few optional considerations. Beyond individual player settings, we have Global Keyboard Configuration under system settings. This menu has a few more helpful binds you may want to adjust. Toggle Fullscreen is the first one to consider, for some people on some systems, it is helpful to be able to toggle fullscreen. For others, it can lag their client out, causing more issues than it solves. Decide whether or not you want this bound, and whether you want it easily accessible or tucked in the corner to limit accidental presses. Speaking of accidental presses, do your peers a favor and unbind Toggle Spectate. Rarely is there a scenario where you need to switch to spectator faster than you can manage through the team menu or with chat commands. Countless fort matches have been lost or restarted due to someone accidentally spectating without noticing. Toggle spec causes more trouble than it solves. On the other hand, a few helpful keys to make sure are bound are page up, page down, and scroll to end. You may even find it worthwhile to move these to be more easily reached. It can be helpful to clear a busy chat in a hurry mid-round.
Lastly, make sure you still have scoreboard, chat, and console bound, and didn’t overwrite any keys.
