You will need both mouse and keyboard to fully control the game.
There are several keys that you probably want to learn in order to control
the main window:
And now let's discuss main game controls:
Let's leave mouse buttons aside for a while and discuss only mouse pointer.
First of all the client will behave absolutely identical in
Tactical and Galaxy windows.
No matter where you point in one of the windows your client will take mouse
coordinates relative to your ship and depending on command you submitted will process it.
The main purpose of mouse is to add coordinates to every action that you want to perform.
For instance if you want to shoot (left mouse button or 't' on keyboard) the torps will fly to where your mouse pointer is located.
Every mouse has buttons and you can use them to perform whatever action you want. The default settings for 3-button mice are:
It is possible to change defaults by remapping (reassigning) mouse buttons to different actions. It is also possible to use button clicks in conjunction with Ctrl+Shift, Ctrl or Shift keys. We will discuss all of these in Changing Defaults section.
Well, there is nothing special about keyboard in Netrek. It behaves exactly same as in any other application. You press key and something happens.
The only thing you should remember when dealing with keyboard is that every action (well, almost every one) will use your mouse pointer coordinates to complete. So when you want to kill someone you should use your mouse to point at him and only then press your favorit weapon key to shoot.
Technically there are default bindings for keys in Netrek, but I will not list all of them here. You can check them under Default Bindings section.