Moving Through the Menus

Press one key to choose. You do not press Enter to pick a menu item. Each item shows its key in brackets, like (1). Press that key and it runs at once.

Every menu leaves with the 0 key, labeled "Quit". On a turn menu (Spending, Attack, Covert, Trading), Quit moves you to the next step of your turn; you cannot go back to that menu until your next turn. On a side menu (like the Bank or the System Menu), Quit takes you back to where you were.

The System Menu opens with the * key from the Spending menu. It holds extra options like Preferences, Set Tax Rate, and Show Instructions.

Pressing Enter with no other key also chooses Quit — the prompt shows "Quit" so you can see what Enter will do. On a turn menu, this only happens if you turn on "Enter exits Buy menu" in Preferences; on a side menu, Enter always chooses Quit.

The help browser and other pick-a-topic lists move a highlight with the arrow keys: Enter chooses the marked row, typing a few letters jumps to a title, and Backspace or Q goes back. If your terminal cannot show colour and cursor control, those lists are numbered instead — type the number and press Enter.

Choosing who an action goes to

Send Message asks (A-Y,Z=All,?=List) Send to: and takes a whole list, not one name. Press a realm's letter to add it and press the same letter again to take it off. Z marks everyone at once, ? shows the roster, and * marks your treaty partners. Press Enter when the list is right — that is what opens the editor. Enter with nothing marked leaves without sending.

Every Diplomacy option that names a realm takes the same list: offer a treaty to several realms at once, or declare war on several. There ? shows your relations rather than the scores. Mark one realm only and you get the full negotiation with it — you can accept its offer or break the pact you hold.

The letters belong to the realms, not to the rows, so a letter may be missing from the list: it is either yours or a realm that has fallen. A realm keeps its letter for as long as it stands, whoever else joins or falls, and it is the same letter on every screen — the Id column on See Scores is that letter too, which is why those rows are not in letter order. The letters of everyone a message went to appear at the top of it when it is read.

A letter is freed when the realm holding it is swept from the map, and a later baron may be given it. So a letter names whoever holds it today, not whoever held it when an old message was written.

Who else is on

An O beside a realm's letter — on See Scores, the attack and message target lists, and the View Treaties roster — means that baron is on the board with you. Your own realm never carries it. It clears when they log off, and also a few minutes after their last keypress, so someone sitting on one screen can drop off the list without having left.

Press ? at a menu to open this help.