Matrix Games Forums

I was late into day one of Operation Highland. All controls were working and then I got a new Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse for my machine. Installed them and now cannons will only fire for about 5 seconds into the mission and then will not fire again. I cannot target anything. I can order my wingman and manipulate the landing gear. External view keys work. Can fire missiles (just not at anything since I cannot get a target). Some stuff works, some stuff does not. Throttle meter registers on the HUD (the bar goes up and down with throttle movements) like it is at least being acknowledged but speed stays at 0 forever, even when I go on autonav. Any thoughts on this? As far as I know, I did nothing to the system except change out the mouse and keyboard but I am open to suggestions. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game thinking maybe the switcharoo had somehow goofed the config, no luck, same problems.

I tried a few other games I had installed beforehand and they seem to work fine (Mechwarrior: Mercenaries being one of them).

Help!

Thanks,

Ken

Ken,

If you still have them around, can you confirm that switching back to the old keyboard and mouse solves the issue? Did the new keyboard and mouse require software to be installed?

Regards,

- Erik

I do still have the old ones. Not sure how much of a hassle it would be to go back completely to the old configuration as the new ones did require software to be installed. Might be as easy as plugging the old ones in or I might have to uninstall the Logitech software. Should not be that big of a deal and I can always reinstall it and get back to where I am now. I can give it a try and see if the controls "come back."

Thanks,

Ken

Have you checked Logitech's website to see if you have the latest drivers for those devices?

I have not checked for updated Logitech drivers but I will do that. The weird thing is that the joystick and throttle are not new and not from Logitech. Those have not changed. Just the keyboard and mouse. Do you think it could be a driver problem with the Logitech drivers affecting stick and throttle operation? I tried other games to make sure they worked and they seemed to be unaffected.

Thanks,

Ken

Just for grins, try renaming the file "key.cfg" in the Starshatter game directory. Call it anything you like - "key.txt". Then restart the game and see if anything changes.

I just put the old keyboard and mouse back on and everything works fine after I rebooted. I put the new ones back, rebooted, and things are back to busted.

I will try what you said and report back.

Incidentally, the set is a Logitech Cordless Navigator Duo SE.

Thanks,

Ken

Milo,

I renamed the file and no joy. Same problems. Anything else I can try to help figure this out? Any more details you need?

Thanks!

Ken

Geez, this is weird.

Is it just the keyboard keys not working or is the mouse goofed up as well?

Can you run the game for a few minutes until things get all messed up, and then exit and send me a copy of the errlog.txt file? It might give me a clue if the APIs are returning error codes, but I kind of doubt it. The symptoms almost sound like a simulated power drain - ability to fire missiles, but not energy weapons, throttle moves but engines don't light up - but I can't see how that could be related to the keyboard or mouse.

Do you get consistent results across different missions - scripted single missions, training missions, campaign missions?

Ten bucks its the keyboards fault! Damn wireless keyboards are wonky. Eventually gave up on mine...

Actually, he could be slipping EMCON modes somehow...beh?

Wow, good call Shoe! EMCON 1 would definitely behave as described in kiloton's post. Either that or the engineer just decided to eject the warp core and run a level twelve diagnostic on the plasma relays...

Kiloton, next chance you get, run the game with your new keyboard and look in the lower left MFD. Near the bottom of the status list it should display your EMCON level. If it is anything other than 3, we may be onto something.

The EMCON level keys are F9 to reduce EMCON and F10 to increase it. If your new wireless keyboard has a flakey F9 signal, you can just remap that key in Starshatter using the keyboard configuration screen. Either way, please let us know how you're doing, OK?

Thanks,

Milo,

The mouse seems to work fine (although I did not play with it much) and yes, I can fire the cannons for about 5 seconds and then they will not fire again and my speed drops to zero. So a power drain might be the cuplrit. I am still not sure why the targeting would not work, though. The only missions I tried were an escort mission in the Highland campaign and then the first training mission after I reinstalled the game. So I cannot say how it works across lots of missions, just those two. In each mission I did not stick around for long since I could not move and I did not get very close to the target drones, and even though I could see them visually I could not target them or any friendlies. Would EMCON affect my ability to target?

I will check out the EMCON level when I get home tonight and see what it says. If it is not level 3 I will remap the key and see what happens.

Do these wireless keyboards have lots of problems like this (errant signals)?

Thanks!

Ken

Another weird thing that I noticed last night when trying to remap keys is that with the old keyboard and mouse, I would go to bind a new key by pressing the new key(s) and they would stay in the edit box. I would hit apply and all was well.

With the new keyboard and mouse I would press the new key(s) and when I released them the edit box cleared. I had to keep them held down to apply them and even when I did that I think it only bound one of the keys (or the key and not the joystick trigger, I should say), not both that I had pressed.

Does that make any sense?

Thanks again. I know this is strange. I will try this again tonight but I wrestled with this for a while trying to remap keys that I thought were not working (trigger, target keys, etc.).

I appreciate the help. I really like the game so I hope we can get this figured out soon. I guess if I start to get twitchy I can always put the old ones back on to play for a while, but I would obviously like to get this addressed.

Does anyone esle have a wireless keyboard/mouse? Any problems?

Ken

EMCON it is! Good call guys. I need to try the key remapping but it toggled to level 1 on launch and I toggled it back. Now all seems well. I even restarted the mission and it stayed at level 3 so maybe the key was flaky or stuck until I pressed it for the first time. Maybe I am wishful thinking.

Anyway, I will play around and keep my eye on this and report back anything else I find.

Thanks for your help, milo and Shoe!

Ken