Can't attack?

[Wisp Cat]

What do people do about not being able to attack in this game?

I keep running into situations where, after combos, my left mouse button is kick and my right mouse button does nothing.

But, also, after watching my health go down in a boss battle while I am trying to regain control, I might burn a goddess grace, and - after that, my mouse remains in "mouse pointer" mode, and it seems like hitting escape doesn't turn that off.

Tons of fun, really, I suppose... but is there some obvious configuration or keybinding or something that let's people cope with these things? Or do I simply have to avoid using the [otherwise nice] combos that are buggy like this?

[[R] Nerva]

If your game goes into mouse-pointer mode, just tap ESC to get back in control. Not sure why that's not working reliably. Getting locked in kicking mode is also very strange as well.

Are you running a controller alongside keyboard & mouse? Have you rebound your control scheme at all? What character are you playing? Have you verified your installation through Steam to ensure it's intact and uncorrupted?

[Wisp Cat]

I had changed my mouse sensitivity.

I am playing Eira.

Anyways, I did a verify, and two files failed to validate (and downloaded nearly instantly) and my controls seem to be better behaved now (but it didn't always happen, either, so I'll have to play a while to be sure. Thanks for the reminder.

[Wisp Cat]

Eh... but if I validate after playing the game again, those same two files fail to validate again. So that's probably just a quirk with the game updates not having been pushed to steam.

I am suddenly not so confident...

[crackmonk]

you shouldn't need to validate befor/after each time you play, has your controls stuck and are working now? or still having issues?

[Wisp Cat]

When I validate and encounter an issue, I always make it a habit of validating again after running the game.

This is the only way I can distinguish between game-induced validation issues and validation issues that are not because of modifications the game introduces to the files.

[[R] Nerva]

Typically, Steam validation will turn up 1-2 bad files. Usually, this is a false alarm if it occurs after the first re-validation.

The real test to see if re-validation has worked properly is to play the game and see if your problem reoccurs. If it does, then no amount of re-validating will fix it, and it's usually time to start poking through system or game configuration options, or in extreme cases, the game's configuration files themselves.

[Wisp Cat]

Well, ... I have not managed to figure out how to deal with the game's bugs by poking through system or game configuration options or files.

Probably the simplest way to deal with this problem would be to play a different game...

[[R] Nerva]

Well, this is why we asked if the problem is still occurring as before, or if it's changed or improved any since validation. If nothing's changed, we can start guiding you through where to look amidst the game's configurations and files.

That's how troubelshooting works; we try the most common solution for the problem, then test it by playing the game to see if it's fixed. If the problem persists, we try the next-most-common solution and then test that. Repeat until the problem's found out or there's no more solutions left, at which time it's time to start digging into related problems that could be producing the symptoms.

From what you've talked about your symptoms, it's almost as if your computer has a sticky alt key. Alt brings up the cursor and takes you out of combat, and in Windows, holding ALT will disable or change the functionality of other inputs; for instance ALT+ESC will attempt to switch windows without bringing up the window-switch dialogue, instead of attempting to close the current window. This holds true in-game as well.

Do you have the StickyKeys functionality in Windows turned on, or use it at all? Maybe try disabling that and see what happens.

[Wisp Cat]

Well, this is an intermittent collection of problems, so it's difficult to say if it has gotten better or worse.

I do appreciate your suggestions, within limits (remedies escalating, and specific enough to be an actual course of action, consistent with observations).

I checked my sticky key settings and I did find a setting which would have enabled sticky keys if numlock was held down for five seconds. I don't use my numlock key, but I have removed that setting now. I did not find any other sticky keys settings in the accessibility section of windows configuration.

I will also try to see if I can reproduce any of my symptoms by holding down the alt key.

What I would really like, I think, would be a way of displaying key events on my screen for video recording. Perhaps ids sweeping across the top of the screen, or vertically in the chat window, and triggered game attacks in a similar way on a different part of the screen or in the same chat window. Right now, there's no way for anyone to know which keys the OS is telling the game I am hitting, nor when. And, also, right now, the three left mouse, two right mouse attack sequence is visually almost indistinguishable from the four left mouse one right mouse attack sequence (so I have been avoiding using those mouse button sequences while I try and learn about this issue).

Sleeping on this: one of the possible issues here (not necessarily the only issue) could be that sometimes I hit keys and their events are being retained (queued) for a time and I am mis-interpreting them as some other key whose key-press is time-coincident with the action I am seeing. There's no hint for me, other than what I see on the screen, when a key press gets ignored (or, for that matter, when a key press is being used).

But, also, I have been seeing hints that the game is losing (or not receiving) events:

When I start it up, I have to say yes on a security prompt within maybe 5-15 seconds or the game launcher exits. And I have to select the security prompt from my task bar before it displays. Then, after that, when the full screen presentation appears, there's a blue progress indicator at the bottom of the screen. That indicator will often freeze, for several minutes and to get the game to launch properly I have had to alt-tab to remove focus from the game and bring it back. When I do this, the progress bar will advance and the game will eventually launch.

[[R] Nerva]

Okay, a couple issues I can at least explain, if not provide solutions for.

The last issue you mentioned, the security prompt? That's a part of Windows, I'm guessing specific to Windows 10, as it does not occur on my Windows 7 machine. You may want to look into security settings for Windows 10, such as User Account Control, to see if you can't make an exception for Vindictus.exe and BlackCipher.aes so that they can be started without being obstructed.

The blue loading bar is freezing for several minutes because Vindictus is loading its security process, called BlackCipher.aes. BlackCipher scans other programs and services you have open, looking for any that are hooking into the Vindictus process, and checking each against a list of programs that can hook into the Vindictus process in some way. If it finds a match, it force-ejects you from the game and forces Vindictus to close messily. Ostensibly it's to keep Vindictus secure from bots and cheats, but... in practice it's less than functional. In any case, because of BlackCipher.aes, that several-minute freeze-up is actually normal - if annoying - behavior and just waiting for Vindictus to continue is sufficient; you typically don't need to alt+tab. Reducing the number of programs, processes, and services that are running at the same time as Vindictus will likely shorten that load time a bit, as BlackCipher.aes will have to scan fewer things.

When it comes to key queuing, this is something that can happen. It's possible that you're accidentally tapping alt, or some other key, to trigger the unusual behavior. A cursory search of the internet revealed this article[www.lassanamagassa.com] that lists several pieces of software that displays keystrokes in real time. I can't vouch for any of them as I don't use any program of the like, but it should be a good start for research. I can, however, recommend a small change in your typing technique that may help reduce the problem - lift the heels of your palms off the keyboard. Type with your palms elevated and only your fingertips on the keys. Especially when your left hand is on WASD, it helps keep the base of your palm and your thumb from tapping unintended keys.

When it comes to combos, what character do you play? Most characters have a system where their combo has 4 strikes and either ends when you press right-click for a smash, or your smashes take over where your normal attacks leave off. What's essentially happening is that when you start using right-clicks, is that you're 'swapping' combo routines from your normal-combo to your smash-combo.

[Wisp Cat]

I have uac set to always prompt when programs make changes to my settings. I am using windows 10. I don't know how to make a vindictus exception for whatever specific settings that it always updates, but I can live with clicking that prompt every time I launch - I only mentioned that startup prompt because I did not know if it was relevant here and its contribution seemed to fit a pattern that might have been relevant.

Also, I will try QiPress and see if it helps me with any insights. QiPress looks like it should overlay gameplay if I'm using vindictus in windowed full screen. Hopefully, QiPress will not offend BlackCipher.aes... I might eventually try video recording, also... though this whole thing is getting to be laborious enough that I also might simply give up.

I tend to have very few applications running, if any, but Windows 10 has many dozens of programs that it always runs and which I mostly can't do anything about. Anyways, ... I'll try taking a nap the next time I start vindictus and see if that's sufficient to let it get started on its own. My superficial experiences with waiting and delays have suggested that that won't work, but it's easy enough to try...

I will also try lifting my heels of my hands, during gameplay. I already try to do this, so this is a reminder of a habit I should have.

And, like I mentioned in post #2 in this thread, I am playing Eira.

Thanks.

[Hare+Guu!]

Having dead pets or mobs on the ground causes Eira attacks to turn into kicks. Same applies to broken boss parts or dead players littering the floor. Eira is effectively played by using tab + smash. Using normal smash is the worst way to play it because of the "kick" attack. Tab + smash ignores this problem entirely.

[Wisp Cat]

So defeating monsters turns her combos into kicks? Ugh...

Well, thank you for the information.

[[R] Nerva]

Originally posted by wild card:

So defeating monsters turns her combos into kicks? Ugh...

Well, thank you for the information.

WAIT JUST A SECOND. You can disable that!

In your options, under Controls -> Advanced Settings, there's a tickbox for "Press Smash to kick downed enemies."

Uncheck it.

Now you will no longer auto-kick (the downward shot Eira has that functions as a kick) when you attempt to smash when standing near a corpse or downed enemy!

[Wisp Cat]

Well, that's not exactly it.

I mean, sometimes I am shooting a corpse when my normal attack mouse button (left mouse button) does kicks instead of normal attacks. But all too often, this also happens when nothing has died yet (for example, on boss fights where the boss is the only opponent).

Also, this is my left mouse button (normal attack) and not my right mouse button (smash attack) that's doing this... (And it's mostly after the bullet storm sequence that I am currently getting this...)

Still, this is promising, since it suggests that it's not just me having this issue. Intermittent issues are difficult to understand, so it's entirely possible that other people have been experiencing the same thing, but not knowing quite what to report.

Anyways, I can hope that people with direct contacts to the developers at some point play test these combos enough to help isolate the problem.