on the german layout these are , and . and can be remapped, in earlier versions they have been scale up and down brushsize and this is what i have them mapped on.
Seriously awesome that you are using oils and not the standard layout for this piece. Definitely got some work ahead of you, excited to watch the progression of this!
The Alien is very unpredictable. Obviously it is scripted to a certain degree in terms of level layout etc, but it's AI is completely dynamic, as far as I was aware!
You should be able to move the time slider to where the layout is how you want it, then delete all the keys and whatever is there will be the new normal.