# BattleTech 4.11 — controls reference

Two ways to fly: the **keyboard/pad** (the ~25 core actions) and the **cockpit panel**, where
every one of the pod's 72 illuminated buttons is mouse-clickable exactly where it sat in the
cabinet. Left-click presses; **right-click latches** a button held.

Rebind keys in `content\bindings.txt` (delete it to regenerate the defaults).
Cockpit layout and display sizes live in `content\environ.ini` (likewise self-documenting).

---

## Keyboard

| Key | Action | | Key | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W/S or ↑/↓ | throttle lever | | X or NumPad5 | all stop |
| A/D or ←/→ | turn pedals | | Alt | reverse thrust |
| Q/E | torso twist | | Shift | throttle up |
| R/F | torso aim | | NumPad 8/2/4/6 | torso aim/twist |
| 1 or Space | main trigger | | 2 | middle thumb |
| 3 or Ctrl | upper thumb (missiles) | | 4 | pinky |
| V | external camera | | B | look behind |
| M | control mode (BAS/MID/ADV) | | N | schematic |
| J/K/L | MFD preset pages | | H (hold) | coolant flush |
| C | cycle a coolant valve | | G (hold) + fire | regroup a weapon |
| − / = | volume down/up | | F5–F9 | generator select / mode |

**You spawn in BASIC control mode.** In BASIC the stick steers and the pedal keys do nothing.
Press **M** once for MID, where the pedals steer and the stick twists the torso — the full
experience. If "turning doesn't work", this is why.

Numpad aim keys need **NumLock ON**.

> Control mode (BAS/MID/ADV, the M key) is *not* the menu's experience setting
> (novice/standard/veteran/expert). That one changes the simulation — heat, damage — not your
> controls.

---

## The cockpit panel — all 72 pod buttons

Each display carries the bank of buttons mounted around it in the real cabinet. Click anywhere on
a display: the buttons reach *under* the glass, so the whole screen is a press target and only the
lit strip at the edge shows.

### Heat / coolant display — the loop controls
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| `0x28` | **Balance coolant** — equalise every condenser valve |
| `0x29`–`0x2F` | the six **condenser valves** (Cond 6…1) and the **coolant flush** (`0x2C`, hold) |

⚠ The valve detents run 1 - 5 - 50 (max) - **0 (CLOSED)** - back to 1. One press past max shuts
that loop off and everything on it overheats. Boosting one loop starves the others — the supply
is shared.

### Weapon and engineering displays
| Bank | Display |
|---|---|
| `0x00`–`0x07` | Right Weapons (lower right) |
| `0x08`–`0x0F` | Left Weapons (lower left) |
| `0x20`–`0x27` | Engineering (upper centre) |
| `0x30`–`0x37` | Comm / target hotbox (upper right) — pilot select |

Each display's buttons are **page-gated**: on the Quad page the outer buttons jump straight to a
populated Eng page; on an Eng page they drive the subsystem shown — generator select A–D, bus
mode, coolant toggle, trigger configure, and **eject** (tap to clear a jam, hold ~3 s to jettison
a burning ammo bay).

### Map / radar — the side columns
| Button | Action | | Button | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `0x10` | map zoom in | | `0x18` | cycle control mode (BAS/MID/ADV) |
| `0x11` | map zoom out | | `0x1A`–`0x1D` | generator A–D on/off |
| `0x12` | thermal / IR sight | | `0x16`,`0x17`,`0x19`,`0x1E`,`0x1F` | no function (as shipped in 1995) |
| `0x13` | **crouch** | | | |
| `0x14` | searchlight | | | |
| `0x15` | cycle display mode | | | |

### Flight controls
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| `0x3D` | panic / config lamp |
| `0x3F` | throttle head — reverse thrust |
| `0x40` | main trigger |
| `0x41`–`0x44` | hat: behind / torso centre / right / left |
| `0x45`–`0x47` | pinky, middle thumb, upper thumb — the mappable fire buttons |
| `0x38`–`0x3C`, `0x3E` | intercom and door lines — no function on a desktop |

---

## Controllers

An **Xbox controller** works out of the box.

**Flight sticks, HOTAS and pedals:** run `joyconfig.bat` once. A wizard asks you to move each
control in turn — stick, twist, throttle, fire buttons — writes the bindings, and drops you into
the solo menu to try them. It only rewrites its own section of `bindings.txt`, so hand edits
elsewhere in the file survive.

**RGB keyboards** with Windows Dynamic Lighting mirror the panel: any key you have bound to a
lamp button glows in the panel's own colours and flashes in step with the on-screen buttons. Turn
it off with `BT_KEYLIGHT=0` in `environ.ini`.

---

## Cockpit layout

Set these in `content\environ.ini`:

- **`BT_MFD_SCALE`** (and `_UL`/`_UC`/`_UR`/`_LL`/`_LR`) — size of the five MFDs, as a percentage
  of their pod size. Turn them up if you want to actually read them while you fly.
- **`BT_RADAR_SCALE`**, **`BT_RADAR_POS`** — size the map, and move it out of the middle of the
  road: `CENTER`, `LEFT`, `RIGHT`, `MIDLEFT`, `MIDRIGHT`.
- **`BT_GLASS_PANELS=1`** — break every display out into its own desktop window instead of the
  composited cockpit. Good for reading one display at full size.

Run with **`-fit`** for a borderless window over the whole monitor. The cockpit scales to any
window shape at one uniform scale, so nothing ever stretches — a window that isn't the cockpit's
shape just gets black bars.