OTC key bindings and UI, an overview

Overview

Overview of key bindings and clickable things available in OTC.

Intro

This guide will teach you how to use the keyboard and mouse effectively in OTC.
While OTC presents a clean and informative User Interface (UI), there are some semi-secret features that may have gotten overlooked.

Guide v1.01 (2017-01-06), OTC v1.10.14+

TL;DR Gameplay Tips & Tricks

Tactics I have pulled off with expert use of OTC UI features:

Found 2k in debt (just a tick before others), use Claim Mode (C) to snag up key resources in a nanosecond. Gain monopoly. Opponent ragequits without founding.
Be in a tight competition to reach upgrade and use the new claims to secure tier 2 resource hexes. Upgrade just after the competition. Use Claim Mode (C) and quick wits to claim high resources just before others.
Enable shipment paths, see an intersection of competitors’ key resource shipment paths. Buy a magnetic storm. Smash 10k worth of glass in a single explosion. Cry because glass shards in eyes.
Press TAB repeatedly, see everything the competition does. Press TAB a whole lot more. Get confused which HQ is yours. Claim land next to competitors HQ, not own. Regequit.
Toggle resource overview midgame, see that silicon hex still unclaimed. Save for a quicker upgrade/claim bribe, secure lategame resource.
Anticipate auction at noon every day, hit Bid (B) to bid immediately as it comes up without bothering to check what’s on offer, at 4k anything will be useful. Be a step ahead in the bid race (have competitor pay 28k for a claim bribe, instead of 24k)
Play scavenger, get notified about an imminent [glass, chems, chips] shortage in early game. Shift-sell everything to low-but-not-too-low prices. Shift-buy the shorting resource ahead of competition. See competition buy the resource after you, bumping the price by 20. Wait 12 seconds (just before competition begins to sell). Shift-sell the resource like mad, gaining a couple grand on competition.
Play scavenger, get notified about an imminent [resource no competitor has a stock of] shortage in late game. SPACE to sell all and Shift-buy the shorting resource. Wait 15s into the shorting and SPACE to sell all again. With 500k in cash at start, good timing and hoodwinked competition can land you with 50k+ in profits.
Be in a death-race to buy out a competitor before they buy out you. See competition be at 90% of buying you out. Freak out and SPACE-sell everything. Collapse the market for the local-market-only competitor. Teeter on 99% of being bough out. Hold Shift and pray to the Invisible Hand to be the first to reach 100%. Buy out the competitor even as they already have 100% on you for a second.

Important Bindings

You can find bindings under Options -> Hotkeys and reassign them as you see fit.

Ingame bindings:

Hide Buildings (Z) – use to see the resources on hexes that have buildings on top of ’em.
Toggle Grid (Ctrl + G) – I play with grid on.
Toggle Shipment Paths (Ctrl + T) – very useful for determining pirating positions and ascertaining who has significant fuel/power expenditure.
Cycle HQs (TAB) – keep TABs on the competition.
Toggle Resources (BACKQUOTE) – also achieved by clicking on “resources” button on top left. Replaces prices with an overview of available resources.
Claim Mode (C) – allows claiming a hex without the need to build anything on it. Crucial for quick and tactical landgrabs.
Bid on Auction (B) – hit the second auctions come up.
Sell All Resources (Ctrl + Shift + DOWN) – remap to SPACE and spam tactically.
Toggle Everything Off (Ctrl + Shift + T) – Clear this binding and lose less. May be useful to stop catastrophic power use, but then again, why would you not be producing power to begin with?

Post-game bindings:

Toggle Player (Shift + #) – Allows viewing the game from selected player’s perspective in replays and post-game. For example pressing Shift + 2 will switch perspecitive to player 2. Doublepressing Shift + 2 will also move the view to the player’s HQ.

UI Elements

The Resources button – click to toggle available resource overview. Furthermore, in the overview, click on resource stacks to cycle through them. Useful for getting a sense for where key resources are.
Production/Consumption column – mouse over to see a breakdown of what you produce and consume.
Sell/Buy columns – click (with ctrl and shift at times) to buy and sell resources, yo!
Build tab – click to select a building for construction. Mouse over to see present profitability (positive and higher is better)
HQ upgrade button – save up and upgrade. Gives more claims and access to advanced buildings, but also increases lifesupport needs (unless you’re robotic).
Advanced buildings – some become available at HQ lvl2 and onwards. Build if you will be able to afford the chemicals needed to use their services.
Tab switches – in order those are [Building, Patents, Optimization, Hacking, Offworld Market]. Can also use function keys to switch, for example pressing F2 will open the Patent tab.
The Black Market – click to buy the chosen black market service.
Pay Debt button – click to pay back 10k of debt. Shift-click to clear all debt you have the cash to. Mouse over to see some details. Hold off on repaying the debt until you are at HQ lvl3.
GameOptions button – click to bring up the ESC menu, mouse over to see map seed and details.
Company panes – mouse over to see details
Share Sell/Buy button – click to buy shares (notice that the Shift+click variant allows me to buy out Paulo Rubini in one go)
Colony modules – mouse over to see what and how much they consume. Will make used resource price increase over time.
aka Z Resource Column – click to cycle through *all* unclaimed hexes with the resurce.

“Secret” Bindings and Click Modes

These modified behaviors are achieved by holding down SHIFT, CTRL or SHIFT + CTRL and clicking on things.
As a general rule, holding down Shift when clicking will have a greater effect than otherwise. For example Shift+Sell will sell 100 instead of 10 units, same with buying. Shift+Build will allow building in a quick succession.

Shift + Leftclick (while building) | Keep building of the same type – drop down a cluster of buildings of the same type effortlessly.
Ctrl + Shift + Leftclick (on a building) | Toggle buildings of clicked type on and off (saves power and losses on unprofitable buildings)
Shift + Leftclick (on a building’s destroy button) | Destroys all buildings in the cluster.
Ctrl + Leftclick (on resource minus [sell button]) | Sell just one of the resource, useful when every dollar counts and you don’t want competition to have too much of a resource.
Ctrl + Leftclick (on resource plus [buy button]) | Buy just one of the resource.
Shift + Leftclick (on resource minus [sell button]) | Sell a hundred units, useful for unloading en-masse.
Shift + Leftclick (on resource plus [buy button]) | Buy a hundred units, useful for storing up en-masse (like just when a shortage is announced).
Ctrl + Shift + Leftclick (on resource minus [sell button]) | Toggles autosell of that resource, selling it immediately as it comes in. Allows diverting more life support to debt and getting more cash.
Ctrl + Shift + Leftclick (on resource plus [buy button]) | Just kidding, there is no autobuy.
Ctrl + Leftclick (on share button) | Sells a block of shares, if available. Can also sell own shares to get some cash back.
Shift + Leftclick (on competitors share button) | Holding down Shift toggles “Immediate Buyout” mode for shares. This allows buying all of the company in one go if you have the cash.

Keyboard VS Mouse Trading

I am a lowly Mouse Trader.
I enjoy navigating the map with WASD and shift clicking on Sell/Buy buttons, but I also realize that doing business this way takes up attention.

An alternative way to play would be to enable edge-scrolling and remapping WASD to resource selection and sale/purchase by setting these key binding options:

Select Resource Up (W)
Select Resource Down (D)
Buy Selected Resource small(Ctrl + D)
Buy Selected Resource (D)
Buy Selected Resource large (Shift + D)
Sell Selected Resource small (Ctrl + A)
Sell Selected Resource (A)
Sell Selected Resource large (Shift + A)

Such a setup would allow one to trade with the left hand, leaving eyes and right hand free to follow the game more closely.

Thanks

Learned something new, found a typo or have something to add? Please leave a comment and upvote!

Special thanks to cheesecakenl.

Offworld Trading Company Guide