ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hotkey Bar
1. You can change the size of the icons on your toolbar. You can also add up to 3 rows of icons. Game Options ->Toolbar Rows and Game Options ->Toolbar Icon Size. I prefer 32x32 icons on 2 rows for the best organization. I also keep some slots empty to organize talents together like Melee attacks, AoE attacks, Runes/Infusions, Items from the inventory, Rod of recall and orb of scrying always last to the far right.

2. Don't forget you can also drag talents from weapons to your toolbar and use them like any other talent. Just drag the weapon to your toolbar. If it's not equipped yet, click the icon once to equip the items (take 1 turn) and then again to use the talent.

Autoexplore
Autoexplore = Middle mouse button. Bind it now

Mouse Gestures
Not many people are aware, but the game does support mouse gestures. Nothing is configured to use them by default. If you go to the Key bindings menu in Game options, you will see a third column on the right with nothing in it ( -- 's all the way down the column). This is where you bind mouse gestures. This is probably the best and most under appreciated option in the game. huge timesavers.

To begin a mouse gesture, just hold the right mouse button. then move the mouse a specific way. then let go of the button.

For example, I have pickup object set to the mouse gesture "D". If I am standing over an object, just hold the mouse button and move down then let go. the weapon is picked up without moving my hand to the keyboard or waiting for a right-click menu to appear.

Gestures for Menus and General Purpose
U = Move to next level. (Think you are moving "into" the level by moving the mouse towards the screen)
D = Pickup Object (Think bending over to pick something up by moving the mouse backwards)

UDU = Inventory Window
DUD = Level Up screen

LRL = Rest until full. (Shake off the damage)

Gestures for Hotkey Bar

Gestures for Combat Talents
1 = Middle mouse (click on enemy) = primary alternate attack, whatever that may be. For a zerker, that becomes Stunning Blow. For an archer, Steady Shot. For a Reaver, Drain.

2 = DRU (Half circle forward) = Primary AoE attack or a regularly toggled talent. Death Dance for a zerker, Aim for an archer, Retch for ghouls, etc.

3 = DLU (Half circle back) = Secondary whatever attack.

Gestures for Runes/Infusions
For slots 7,8,9,0,-,= , I always put infusions and runes there. They end up being in the middle of my screen, so I can quickly see what I have available without taking my eyes too far off the action.

I consider the 9 and the 0 slots to be in the middle of that sequence of keys. I keep my most commonly used runes/infusions on those two keys. Usually Wild on the 9 and Regen on the 0.

The 9 is to the left of the 0. My mouse gesture is L for that key.
The 0 is on the right. Mouse gesture = R

So, L = wild infustion, R = Regen. Very easy in the middle of the battle! If I was an undead, L would be phase door, R would be Shield.
Furthermore, the 8 becomes LU. The 7 = LD.
On the right side, the - becomes RU and the = becomes RD.

This keeps the bindings and the mouse gestures easy for me to keep track of in my head. By the middle of the game, you might have 4 infusions and a rune and it could easily be difficult to manage that many gestures. With this method you could do something like keep all Status Clearing or Escape talents on the "left" and all Healing or Shielding on the "right."

9 = L = Wild, clear physical
8 = LU = Phase Door
7 = LD = Movement infusion

0 = R = Regen
- = RU = Heal
= = RD = Shield

You use a lot of the same customisations as me, though the LRL for resting is a cool idea that I'll have to copy. Autoexplore I keep bound to both middle-mouse click and 0 on the numpad, so that when playing with the numpad I can tap 0 to auto-explore. Makes keyboard play much quicker. The other numpad keys can be handy to bind certain talents or actions to depending on the class.

A tip for casters - bind your favourite ranged talent to left-click. That way you can just click on an enemy to automatically cast that talent at the enemy. Works especially well with frequently used spells like Flame or Moonlight Ray. When not clicking on an enemy it'll just move as normal. Just be careful if the enemy is next to you and the talent is on cooldown - it'll melee the enemy instead then.

Interesting.

One thing I've started doing after using an infusion by accident once to often, is to restrict single-key activations to targeted talents. That way if you hit a key by accident, nothing bad happens, since you can just back out of targeting.

Aha, works well with a trackpad too (laptop ). I never even thought to use mouse gestures. Definitely helpful.

I actually prefer to keep primary ranged attacks bound to a key, since it auto-targets the nearest enemy. That way, whenever auto-explore is interrupted and it's not a trap (Admiral Ackbar: It's a trap! Me: No, it's really not.) I just hit Q space and whatever entered my field of vision usually just dies without me even having to look at it or know where it is.

Incidentally, most of the time this method allows me to determine the location of stealthed enemies that I can't see on the map. I'm not sure why this is; it seems like either a bug or just poor design but either way it probably shouldn't be happening.

I don't use mouse, you insensitive clod!
Really, some people playing it on netbooks, with different keyboard and touchpad, and I'm not sure those gestures would works on Linux.

I'm a fairly new roguelike player, so my left hand always gravitates to the WASD keys. I think one of these days, I'm just going to sit down and take a moment to remap everything to facilitate the WASD + mouse set up. With the tips provided here, I feel like it would be pretty comfortable. On the other hand (get it?)... I feel like ToME's flexibility is spoiling me. I want to eventually try out some other roguelikes, and I don't know if they'll allow remapping of keys.

Most big roguelikes allow remapping. However it's very hard to effectively map 8-directional movement around WASD. You might wanna try and break the habit a little! (Though my personal habit is for numpad, and I find it difficult when games don't support this. I similarly can't play games well on a laptop.)

The thing with the WASD + mouse setup is that you have easy access to both the letter and digits on the keyboard (left hand) and the mouse (right hand). I wouldn't mind playing with just the keyboard, but I find that the interface is not quite optimal for that (the main problem for me being the long lists once has to go through sequentially when using the keyboard : talents and inventory).
I'm fairly comfortable with my setup : WASD + Q,E,Z,C for diagonals and space to skip a turn. Whenever one of these letters was already used, I remapped the function to shift + letter : shift+C for character sheet, shift+Z for autoexplore, etc. Chat also has to be moved from space.

I also tried a wasd scheme at one point and it's definitely doable. I'd still bind autoexplore to the middle mouse in your case. You use it way too often to have a shift-modifier.

Tried a gamepad/mouse setup that worked surprisingly good too with a little configuring. The left hand can access about 25 different buttons/combinations with the right gear and keymapping software.

But in the end the mouse is the best way to play the game, IMHO. I have ToME setup so that the only time i have to touch the keyboard is 1. to get out of the quest window and 2. if i accidentally unbind a key (shift-M to rebind). Between the gestures, right click menus, and a well setup hotbar, I play the entire game with just a mouse. Those two examples are literally the only time I ever touch the keyboard while playing.

It's faster, there is no question on that. I find it more efficient too but that is debatable. Targeting has been fixed for a few betas (the screen doesn't go crazy when you target from the hotbar), so that minus is gone. It also feels kinda like a fighting game with the right mouse gestures. Plus I can comfortably play on my stomach, and you're gonna eventually have to play using mouse(finger) gestures if this game ever gets on an iPad or whatnot