I mentioned this in my testing feedback, as well as filing a bug report in-game, but I thought I would post here as well in case others are having the same problem. Prior to the UI update, if you played on keyboard the game would leave you facing whatever direction was pressed last (i.e., pushed WEST last, would face WEST). Now, however, whatever direction was pressed last, the game will snap you to face the direction of your cursor (i.e., pushed WEST last, but suddenly facing SW or NW--or sometimes a different direction entirely). I thought this was a bug connected to AT at first, but after a lot of experimentation it seems to be a general bug regardless of AT.
This is a pretty game breaking bug for keyboard players, as it means that whether or not you have AT on, you quite frequently miss your intended target all together--suddenly flipping to unleash an attack in a totally different direction despite the AT glow indicating what your intended target was. Please give this a look.
character snaps to curser direction after UI update
As a keyboard+mouse player, I can't say I've noticed this bug. Gamepads don't have this problem, just so you know.
Oh man, so that's why I keep hitting the wall to, say, the east, when I'm aiming for the mineral to the west. Dang. And I'm on a laptop, playing with a mouse isn't gonna happen.
Wow, since I don't play with keyboard only I didn't know about that bug. Well, I only played about 2 hours with new UI anyways..
I've meet quite a lot of keyboard only and mouse only players, and always, I was quite suprised on how well they are doing. That was a big plus in my mind, that you are able to play the game like that, and to be very very good at it! Not many games are designed with this in mind.. Big plus OOO, big one.
But yea, agreed, they should fix that ASAP! But hei, just another thing that is horribly wrong.. There is no ending in this!!! Bugs are discovered every day, while none of them get fixed..
Just another thing that wasn't tested out properly, or they just didn't care about it.. Ok, I understand whining about new looks and all.. But to break the most important thing- how the controls work?! That is not even funny, that is a straight slap into players face.
I would recommend for you to find another game. I don't believe anything will get fixed, if anything, they will just add more bugs into the game.
Im seriosuly thinking.. Does OOO want everyone to stop playing?
@Autofire: I'm not a keyboard+mouse player, I'm talkin' keyboard only. Eh, have to start doing some research into what gamepads are compatible with my system, I guess.
@Sroell: Yes! That's exactly what I'm talking about. I have tried numerous combinations of keybindings and nothing has fixed the problem thus far. If switching on AT at least worked to properly target enemies I could live with randomly missing crystals, but I am getting really tired of facing an enemy and suddenly unleashing my charge attack in a totally different direction.
@Exxorex: Bugs happen in every game, and many games have it much worse than SK. This system has only been in place for a week, and I can accept that there will be bugs. I can also accept that this bug likely got by because most players (including OOO, and certainly those that tested the material on the preview server) use a mouse, and therefore--as Autofire mentioned--wouldn't notice. I'm not reporting on this bug to vent rage, or trying to position this as part of a pattern of behavior, and ultimately I feel connecting this problem to some kind of conspiracy of indifference or neglect is counterproductive to actually fixing anything. So let's leave off from pointing fingers, shall we? I just want to get this thing fixed.
Hello! Could you guys please try the following:
Open the Main Menu (Escape key, by default), go to Controls, and configure your key bindings as such:
- Set "Move North" and "Face North" to the same key (whatever you want to use to control your knight).
- Set "Move South" and "Face South" to the same key.
- Set "Move West" and "Face West" to the same key.
- Set "Move East" and "Face East" to the same key.
(Note that there are also key binding for "Move Fwd", etc. You'll probably want to ignore those if you're a keyboard-only player)
Hopefully by setting the same key to both MOVE and FACE a given direction, this will override the position of the cursor.
Please let me know if it works!
Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, however, I've already tried binding 'face' and 'move' to the same keys. A quick test if you want to try this for yourself: using the arrow keys, try to spin in a circle and stop in the last direction you pushed. I think you'll see what I mean (in terms of it kicking you in a different direction).
[EDIT]: I play with the default controls, if that helps.
I've spent some time playing keyboard-only today and unfortunately haven't been able to reproduce the bug. Very occasionally, my knight will face, say, northeast when I meant to face east, but it sounds like you're experiencing something much more dramatic.
Narfle, are you certain that your knight is turning to face the cursor? If you put your cursor in the top-left of the screen, does that cause your knight to continually try to face in that direction? Or does the direction seem truly random?
After more experimentation, the direction does seem random. Placing the cursor in a specific place and then doing the same test will still kick me in a random direction (almost always a diagonal) regardless of where I left the cursor. When I touch the trackpad to make the cursor appear again, it has jumped to the direction my character is now facing. If I can find a program that works with my system I will try to capture some video. It is the same problem you experienced, but it happens almost every time you press the action button to interact with anything (same thing happens to me when just running to check the auction house--running North, stop at AH to click action button, suddenly facing NW).
The problem seems to occur less if you continue pressing the arrow key toward what you are trying to hit while pushing the action button, but that isn't a very practical fix as it means having to hug an explosive block if you are trying to set it off (for example). Again, if it were just confined to interacting with NPCs, blocks, etc. it wouldn't be such a problem, but the same thing happens with enemies as well--as any of my guildies can attest through watching me go from facing a mini-cake to suddenly unleashing a charge attack in a different direction.
And here is the aforementioned video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf5SKviRQa4&feature=youtu.be
I'll have to try binding face and move to the same keys next time I get on...
Side note: It's particularly annoying when using Flourish and Snarble Barb lines. Swap, stab, stab, swip, stab, sta- No not towards the spi- *dead*
EDIT: Now my cursor snaps to whatever direction my character was last facing, but it's right in the middle of the screen, so it doesn't really matter. :3
Still messing around with this looking for a solution. Something I noticed when reviewing the video, however: in addition to the problem of the character snapping to a different direction, you can see that nearby enemies aren't being recognized by AT (no AT cloud). The gremlin that I slide right by with my BTB combo doesn't have a cloud, despite being the next closest enemy. Neither does the mech at the end of the video: after sliding by the crystal without hitting it (even though it HAD been right in front of me before the direction change) the mech knight has an AT cloud at first, and I hit it with my BTB, but when I switch to polaris I'm again snapped to firing in a random diagonal, and the AT cloud is gone.
Maybe your SK is glitched? Or maybe you're bumping your touch pad as you play? (Not likely because this is a new glitch.)
You might want to reinstall SK if you have the time to do so.
Unfortunately it seems it's not just me, as other keyboard players have been experiencing the same problem since the UI update. Definitely not touching my trackpad. You can actually see it in the video: my cursor appears whenever I use my trackpad, but the whole time actively playing in that video, the cursor never appears unless I stop to specifically try to aim at a target with my trackpad. Thank you for the suggestion, though. At this point anything is worth a try.
[EDIT: Also, this seems like it might be a related problem that other people are experiencing: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/78769]
Just so you know, I don't get Youtube... >.>
Well...I can't use direct links anyway. Can you please give the search tags/name of the video?
I will give you a free bump because i SUFFER THE EXACT PROBLEM AS NARFLE
and yes the turn around in circles with arrow keys its the best way to test this bug since it will face you to southern east-west northen est-west depending on the last key you pressed and this its not funny. always make you fail your attacks. also another trouble i have its when i use vials or pills when the knight uses the pill or the vial it will stick when its running to the last direction where the knight uses the pill / vial and will stop when you stop moving.
Seriously Guys you should test everything before release something.
Thanks very much, Narfle. The video is particularly useful in pinning down what's going on.
The issue looks to be related to a recent change in how keyboard input is interpreted for the purposes of your knight's rotation/orientation. We've changed it so that, when a keyboard player is moving their knight diagonally and stops moving, the knight will continue to face in that diagonal direction. Previously, your knight would always snap to face one of four cardinal directions (N, S, E, W).
The change was made due to player feedback, and we agreed that it was an non-intuitive quirk to be fixed. It seems like perhaps our fix needs some fine-tuning though.
I've passed the problem onto the team and hopefully you guys can look for improvements soon.
Thanks for helping make SK a better game, everyone!
Thanks, Boswick! I suppose I never really thought about movement ending in a cardinal direction as being counterintuitive, as so many of the things you interact with as a players are in those cardinal directions (AH, alchemy machines, traveling between areas in haven, etc.), but then again I've also been playing the same way for so long now that I didn't actively think much about how I moved my character until I noticed the change on the preview server.
I've spoken with several other keyboard players, and all of them are having the exact same problem--pretty please, OOO, take a look at this. Whatever it is, it makes it extremely difficult to accurately land a hit with either swords or guns, and with or without AT. Stubborn of me, perhaps, to not want to have to re-learn how to play the game with a mouse, but at this point I would probably just find a new game to play rather than starting from scratch in order to learn how to play all over again.