Which hotkeys did you feel weren't working? I tried to match as close to the original as I could, although the dramatic UI changes meant that in some cases it just didn't work.
I think I was just awkward after being away from the game for years. I think in the original you can see all commands on the screen. I found "talking issues" with people to be very time consuming but i probably just forgot the hotkeys
If you are still working on this game I'll reinstall and play around with it.
No I was wrong the hotkeys do not work. When trying to recruit i need to click both my liberal and the target before choosing issues.
In the normal game you use 1-6 for squad and a-f for encounter.
Also in the original you do not need to specify what squad member if there is only one in the squad.
This makes it pretty much unplayable for me, recruiting is simply too tedious, specially without external mouse.
I love LCS but will stick to ascii version for now.
Also esc should take you out of char screen and in general bring you back towards root menu. F should make you "go (F)orth and..."
The ability to click adds a new element, but no interaction should require you to click, if the game isn't fully playable with keyboard only it's sadly unplayable to me, using the touchpad to do most everything is a big source of frustration.