Resolved Grappling Hook Doesn't Work Sometimes

[zokula]

Steam or GOG

Steam

Single Player/Multiplayer

Both

Operating System

Windows 10

Terraria Version

1.4.4.5

Controls Used

Keyboard/Mouse

I've noticed that when I run right, jump, and try to grapple, it doesn't grapple. However, it works when I run left. Specifically, I can hold down A, Space, and press E and it works, but it doesn't work when I hold down D, Space, and press E. I have to let go of the space bar or D and then E works. When frantically moving around, it's tough to remember to release a key so I can grapple.

 

[Sigma90]

Welcome to the forums zokula!
This might be a hardware limitation of your keyboard. Some keyboards are limited in the number of keys that can be pressed at the same time. Are there any other games you could test on perhaps? Or a utility that shows you the keys being pressed?

 

[zokula]

Thanks Sigma90. I can troubleshoot further. As part of that, can you confirm that you aren't able to reproduce this bug? When 'D' and 'Space' are in the key down position, can you press 'E' with a grappling hook and it works? If it doesn't work, please confirm that when you go left (i.e. 'A' and 'Space' are in the key down position) that pressing 'E' does engage the grappling hook.

It seems odd that if it works going left and not going right that it would be a keyboard limitation with the number of keys pressed at the same time since the same number of keys are pressed down in both scenarios. It seems like a software issue, but maybe there's something going on with hardware.

If you can't reproduce the bug, what utility would you recommend I use to continue troubleshooting by showing what keys are being pressed?

 

[esotericist]

Thanks Sigma90. I can troubleshoot further. As part of that, can you confirm that you aren't able to reproduce this bug? When 'D' and 'Space' are in the key down position, can you press 'E' with a grappling hook and it works? If it doesn't work, please confirm that when you go left (i.e. 'A' and 'Space' are in the key down position) that pressing 'E' does engage the grappling hook.

It seems odd that if it works going left and not going right that it would be a keyboard limitation with the number of keys pressed at the same time since the same number of keys are pressed down in both scenarios. It seems like a software issue, but maybe there's something going on with hardware.

If you can't reproduce the bug, what utility would you recommend I use to continue troubleshooting by showing what keys are being pressed?

you can try to use something like microsoft's keyboard ghosting demonstration

notably, keyboards are often arranged internally in a 'row and column' system, and it's common for there to be limitations that can occur with two keys on the same row or the same column to have trouble when other keys are sharing certain circuit paths. it can get pretty convoluted, and how much trouble (and what kind) one can have depends a lot on how the keyboard is arranged internally (and to a degree the quality; reliably allowing any three keys to be pressed at once has a substantially higher engineering requirement than 'two work reliably and sometimes you can press a third'.

edit: while it's not directly analogous to your problem, on my (admittedly rather expensive development-oriented) laptop i'm able to generally press any combination of three keys, but i can start to exhibit the same kind of "wait, why does this work and that not" problem when i start looking at four key combinations:
if i hold 'a', 's', and space, i can get all four arrow keys to successfully register as a fourth key. this also holds true for 's', 'd', and space, or even 'a', 'd', and space. but if i combine 'w' and space with any of 'a', 's' or 'd', then left, right, and down arrow keys register, but up does not.

 

[zokula]

Thanks for explaining. And for the keyboard ghosting demonstration link. I learned something new about keyboards. As you would imagine, my keyboard wasn't registering a 3rd key press with 'd', 'space', and 'e'. I switched to another keyboard to try it out and was able to register all 3 keys pressed down. I might need to switch to my other keyboard while playing...as I love the other one when I develop. I know, I know... It's a little thing.

Thanks again for your help and great insight.

 

[esotericist]

Thanks for explaining. And for the keyboard ghosting demonstration link. I learned something new about keyboards. As you would imagine, my keyboard wasn't registering a 3rd key press with 'd', 'space', and 'e'. I switched to another keyboard to try it out and was able to register all 3 keys pressed down. I might need to switch to my other keyboard while playing...as I love the other one when I develop. I know, I know... It's a little thing.

Thanks again for your help and great insight.

it's no problem. this is one of those weird pitfalls we really shouldn't be having decades into gaming being mainstream, but here we are

 

[Sigma90]

Thank you for the explanation @esotericist. That was exactly what I was thinking but couldn't think of the right way to describe it.

@zokula, to answer your earlier question, the combination of D + E + Space does work on my keyboard (inbuilt laptop keyboard). But I have experienced a similar keypress issue in another game (probably Aquaria) where I couldn't move diagonally and attack simultaneously.
You could try remapping the grapple key to another key (e.g. Q or F) and see if that helps? I will mark this thread as resolved now but if you have any other issues, feel free to leave a reply or create a new thread.