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[qwortec]

When holding down the left mouse button to fire my selected weapon group I am unable to simultaneously activate my ship's active system; I need to let go of the fire button and then press the activate button to get it to work.

This is annoying when you have a ship that increases ballistics fire rate or a similar type system.  I want to be firing and hitting my target, then instantly activate the system without needing to stop and lose that precious dps.

I have tried this with 2 keybinds: (1) [Mouse 1 = fire] + [Mouse 4 = active system] and (2) [Mouse 1 = fire] + [F = activate system].  Neither setup works.

[Alex]

Hmm. Just did some testing, using the Hammerhead.

While firing: activating the system (with the default 'F' binding) works.
While firing and holding down W: works.
While firing and holding down W+A: works.
While firing and holding down W+D: does not work.
While firing and holding down W+D, changing system binding to 'G': works.

Any chance you're holding down some other buttons while trying to activate the system?

(Btw: did you actually manage to successfully bind something to mouse button 4? AFAIK that won't work with the version of LWJGL currently used by the game. It *should* when I upgrade to a later version, though - but not now!)

[qwortec]

OK. So I went and did some specific testing.  

Mouse: Razer Imperator
Keyboard: Steelseries G6v2

Weird weird weird.  It turns out I was using [mouse 3]  for active system (AS).  This is my thumb button on my mouse.  When I have just [mouse 3] bound for AS it does not work while firing with [mouse 1].  However, if I set the alternative AS key to [mouse 4] (my second thumb button), then [mouse 3] does work while firing as does [mouse 4].  If I set the alternative AS to anything other than [mouse 4] (another mouse button or keyboard button) then [mouse 3] does not work while firing.  The alternative AS buttons all work while firing.  It's just [mouse 3] that's giving me issues.

Can you test and see if it's my mouse?  Seems weird to me that it would work sometimes and not others.  I have not problems with key binds in other games (but I'm not sure if this particular key combo ever comes up).

P.S. [mouse 4] works just fine for me in this game.

[Alex]

Weird weird weird.  It turns out I was using [mouse 3]  for active system (AS).  This is my thumb button on my mouse.  When I have just [mouse 3] bound for AS it does not work while firing with [mouse 1].  However, if I set the alternative AS key to [mouse 4] (my second thumb button), then [mouse 3] does work while firing as does [mouse 4].  If I set the alternative AS to anything other than [mouse 4] (another mouse button or keyboard button) then [mouse 3] does not work while firing.  The alternative AS buttons all work while firing.  It's just [mouse 3] that's giving me issues.

That is really, really weird, since your hardware/mouse drivers don't care what the bindings in the game are, so this makes it seem like an issue with the game. On the other hand, the fact that other mouse buttons work makes it sound like it IS a mouse-specific issue. Oddness!

(I can't reproduce it with a couple of different mouse button combinations I've tried, btw, both for primary and alternate bindings. I've only got a 3-button mouse (the scrollwheel being the third), though.)

[behrooz]

Alex -
Just a quick heads up that W+A+S+D testing via keyboard is not entirely reliable when troubleshooting possible input-conflict issues.

The contact overlays used on most modern membrane-switch keyboards are not physically capable of discerning additional keypresses or releases when some related combinations of keys are already active.

Any two simultaneous keypresses are guaranteed to register correctly even on the cheapest keyboards, as each combination has a unique signature of an input being shorted to an output.  Additional keys may not register dependent on how the contact grid is wired-- mo' manufacturing resources assigned to additional contacts or layers typically being associated with fewer keys associated with any given input or output and thus a better chance that additional keypresses won't run into a conflict.

In case anyone is curious, imagine the simplest setup: Nine keys, each row of keys is assigned to an input A/B/C, and each column is assigned to an output X/Y/Z.  Pressing the key makes contact between its input and output.

So, the sequence of events is:
First key A-X  outputs connect AX - only one keypress combination produces this state.
Second key B-Y outputs connect AX and connect BY - only one keypress combination produces this state.

At this point, adding either the key A-Y, or the key B-X outputs connected ABXY, so EITHER keypress combination will have the same output.  Designers tend to avoid false positives, so this input will not register because there's no way to tell which was actually pressed.  Other permutations can get even weirder, like AX then BX then CX then CY each registering because there is only one keypress that can produce the state changed, but leaving the system in a state where releasing CX will not register because the output does not change.

Rule of thumb:  Two simultaneous keys will always register correctly.  Three keys will usually work. Four keys in one area of the keyboard is likely to run into trouble for many users, and in nondeterministic ways because it is entirely dependent on the keyboard's internal layout.

"Crap, when i tried to jump, strafe left, move forward, and melee, it didn't smack him in the face!"

A massive geek am I.

[Sproginator]

My brain hurts from reading that

[qwortec]

Just an additional note given the last comment.  I am using a mechanical keyboard with n-key rollover, so multiple key presses should not be an issue.

[Alex]

My brain hurts from reading that

No off-topic or substance-free posts in this subforum, please. (Really, anywhere else, too, but particularly important here, since I have to keep track of everything.)


@behrooz: Right, mostly aware of that, except for the juicy mechanical details In my experience, 3 nearby keys generally don't work too often, either - like AQW, or WED, etc, only two generally register. But I suspect that may have to do with the kinds of keyboards I generally have.

Just an additional note given the last comment.  I am using a mechanical keyboard with n-key rollover, so multiple key presses should not be an issue.

Particularly since the mouse is heavily involved