The Isle - Basic Controls - Beginners Guide

[Absolute Malice]

Especially since the Isle lacks a beginner tutorial it is considerably hard for one to
get used to basic mechanics and controls of the game.
To help you get used to the game here are some basic controls and tips to make
your gaming experience more enjoyable!

Dinosaur Controls

Once ingame you control your dinosaur with the average WASD keys, note however that you cant walk backwards. You can toggle your movement between walk, trot (Z), and sprint (holding shift; consumes Stamina)
Pressing H on your keyboard makes your dinosaur rest, which helps you regain more stamina over time and consumes less water/food as well as a increased healing rate.
Some smaller creatures are able to jump, which is done by pressing the Space bar.
Use C to croach, this makes your dinosaur move slowly, but also more quiet than just walking.

Communication in the Isle is either through the Chat or through roars. Use the voice wheel (V) to acces the different roars and their meanings: Broadcast, Friendly, Threaten and Help. This can also be done by simply pressing 1,2,3 or 4 on your keyboard.

Once you feel a need to eat, search for trees and bushes as a herbivore, or kill other dinosaurs as a carnivore. Note that you cant eat every plant as a herbivore (only dark trees and big bushes with many branches at the bottom). Press E as soon as you point your snout at the foodsource.
E is also used, for drinking, this however requires a lake or river. For more information regarding water sources see the dedicated chapter on Orientation.

If you are uncomfortable with the key bindings, you can always remap them in the settings.

Chat Controls

The chat is the easiest way of communicating and organizing in the Isle, it is therefore necessary to learn how to use it properly. Access the chat by pressing Enter and send your message with the same key.

Currently there are 3 chatrooms available in the game: Global, Group and Local chat.
Global is usually a chatroom exclusive to admins and mods, you therefore have to switch to Group or Local chat.
Group chat is for members of a group only, perfect for organizing ambushes as carnivores or migrations as herbivores. You can participate in a group, when pressing Tab (usually above capslock). There you can see every player on this server. Invite a certain player by pressing the green dot with a + in it.
Once you recieve a invitation you have the option to accept (f1) or reject (f2).
Many keyboards however usually have other functions on the f keys, for example help or brightness. You can still accept the invitation by pressing both your Fn key plus F1.

Sidenote: Accepting a different invitation while you are already in a group, will make you get kicked out from you previous group!

Sidenote 2: As a herbivore you can group with any other herbivore, however a carnivore is only able to group with his own species (rex plus rex, etc.)

Local chat: If you are not in a group, you can still chat with your own species, by just using the Local chat. It is useful to remind others to reinvite you to your group, because you died or similar.

To switch chats use the [ and ] keys. Make sure that you are not writing these in chat, otherwise it wont work. If you dont have these keys on your keyboard you can set them to any other key by remapping them in the settings.
One you changed chats, you will start at the top of the chatbox again and will not be able to see following messages.
To scroll down you therefore have to use the PageDown or the PageUp keys. If you dont have these remap them, or hit escape and scroll manually with your mouse.

Camera Controls

Our current version of the game is pretty buggy and the camera often has a weird angle to it.
In order to zoom out you have to open the console ingame (~ on windows; it depends on your keyboard, Fn + left arrow works for me; you may have to figure that out somehow...)
and type in "fov 100".
You can replace the number with a number of higher value but i suggest something between 100 and 140, depending on the size of your dinosaur and your playstyle.
It is completely normal, that the camera is somtimes zoomed in in a ridiculous way, when near water or swimming. Sadly, we will have to wait until it gets fixed.
Because of that eating and drinking is often buggy, and you have to look at the food/water source in a weird angle to be able to drink.
It helps to press insert (usually 0 on numpad). You will see a lot of numbers but you are looking for a small crosshair in the middle. When its pointed at a valid source you should be able to drink or eat!
You can also identify which plants are edible or not: If the dot gets bigger that means you are fine to eat it.

My game is lagging - tips

To be honest, the Isle requires quite a beefy computer to run it at higher settings, so it is absolutely normal to have a lower framerate than normal, especially because of the optimization of the game.
However if you follow these tips, you should be ably to play the Isle and still have a great gaming experience.
Firstly access the graphic settings. You do this ingame by hitting escape - settings - graphics. Change everything except the textures to low (textures can be at high or medium).
Next, type "r.bloomquality 0" in your console. If it is still lagging, access the graphic options once again and change the render option to 70. If its still lagging try a lower number.

Basic Orientation

While the easiest way of orientation in the Isle is by certain geographical landmarks, your best bet is at first to use the coordinate system. This is done by pressing Insert ingame (see "Camera Controls"). In the first line, above all else you will see three numbers in brackets. These are your coordinates! (it should look like this:[ xx.xx, yy.yy, zz.zz ]) You will only have to remember the first 2 (x + y) for you position, as "z" is the height.
If you now know the location of your friends, because they told you in group chat etc. you can head into their general direction by watching the numbers increase/decrease in value.
Example: Your friend is at 100 , -100 while you are at -100 , 100. You now have to go in the direction in which you x (-100) increases to 100 and your y (100) decreases to -100. It takes a bit of practice but you will get used to it!

To start of here are all water sources on every map currently in the Isle: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=681646756

How to remap my keys

Every key from DebugHUD to Crouching or Resting is remappable, which means you can set your own keys instead of the defaults for example if you dont have the PageDown key.
This is done by accessing the control section of the settings.
Press escape - settings - controls (far right) and then scroll down to your key you want to remap. If you found it klick it. It should now say somthing like "press a new key". It currently is a bit buggy, so follow these steps:
-click on the panel next to the function you want to remap (DebugHUD for coords etc.) with your left mouse button and hold left mouse
-while still holding now press your preffered key for that function
-after a few seconds release the key you just pressed and still hold left mouse
-then (still holding left mouse) slowly drag the cursor out of the panel and release it
This worked for me you may have to try it out a few times, but you will get used to it aswell!



Well, thats it! Im sorry for the long post and for the typos :P I hope i could help you a bit and please let me know if i forgot something!
Have fun :)

[KeurigDrPepper]

This is an awesome guide, Morgoth! Thank you for adding this :D

[Absolute Malice]

Originally posted by PreposterousWorld:

This is an awesome guide, Morgoth! Thank you for adding this :D

np, thank you! :)

[Laacer]

This helps a lot, especially those water spots are really important to memorize. Soon by heart when they finally get rid of the coords.

[Laacer]

About the chat that seems so difficult to people, if you wan to change the command keys for scrolling the chat or changing between the chats, you needt to press the key you want to use and press left mouse button at the same time and while pressing move the cursor to the "apply"-button and klick it. It should work.