Literally just bought the game and keyboard input doesn't work? Can't do anything at all?

[thaumaturge]

So, as title says, I just bought the game, DL'ed and started a new game, and right off the bat I can't press V to scan for iron, I can't press Tab to open inventory, I can't dismantle my landing pod, or interact with anything! I have tried completely exiting the game, restarting my computer, etc.

Furthermore I see dozens of threads about this issue on reddit and elsewhere some of which are two years old! But I can't find a single thread that actually has A FIX for the issue. So, what I just can't play this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game I just bought? I know this is early access but how is such a gamebreaking bug still in a game this popular after two ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ years?! That simply isn't excusable even in an EA title.

So, rant aside, IS THERE A FIX or am I just refunding this immediately?

[Grandaddypurple]

Did a very surface research on this, here are a couple of questions:

Did you modify the offending keybindings? Try resetting to default (even if you didn't remap anything)

Did you install any mods upon installation? (not likely but some people do even when they just bought a game) If so, uninstall them

Do you have more than one keyboard or a controller plugged in? If so, try disconnecting any input controller you're not using while playing

Are you playing on windowed mode or fullscreen? Whichever, try switching from one to another

Are you playing on DX12 or Vulkan? Whichever, try switching from one to another

[thaumaturge]

Thank you for the reply.

I have not changed any keybinds whatsoever.

I have not installed any mods. Literally bought the game, DLed and started a new game. That's it.

I do not have any controllers beyond keyboard and mouse.

I have switched between windowed and fullscreen and that did not make any difference.

I do not understand the question about DX12/Vulcan I do not know what those are or how to change them. EDIT: Figured that part out, I am on DX12, changed to Vulcan, didn't seem to have any effect.

[Grandaddypurple]

OK, other leads:

Make sure your GPU drivers are up to date,

If you're on windows, go to your device manager, expand "Human Interface Devices", and check if any are faulty. Apprently they can overload a machine with inputs that some games try and respond to

[thaumaturge]

Update: tried making a completely new save, and everything was working for a minute, I got into my inventory and equipped the scanner, but when I got out of the pod and was told to dismantle the drop pod, it all went to crap again. I thought maybe I was just not doing that step right so I checked a YT video real quick, and yep, I'm hitting the right buttons, it just doesn't work.

So I created a THIRD new game and clicked the "skip onboarding" to start at T1 and all keys appear to work, so it seems (for now) like a bug specific to the onboarding/tutorial bit at the beginning. I'll play around some more.

[thaumaturge]

Seems like something in the tutorial breaks if you do anything out of order. My first attempt, when stuff broke, I somehow equipped my scanner before it actually gave me the quest to do so, but I started yet another new save and didn't touch ANYTHING until the game explicitly told me to, and everything seems to be working normally now.

[Obz3hL33t]

That's some good investigating! I hope Coffee Stain appreciates your troubleshooting efforts.

[some moron]

Watch out, apparently I accidentally pressed Alt and I couldn't get rid of the stupid pinging. I had to press Alt again.

[Zak]

Luckily, myself I never had any major kb issues, except for some weird binding conflicts, but I remember people reported such weird, game-breaking kb issues in the past.

Perhaps it's worth filling out a proper bug report.

[Obz3hL33t]

Come to think of it I do have a keyboard complaint: when you use keys instead of mouse wheel to rotate machines in build mode they whizz around way too fast. I've just gotten so used to being super-quick on the rotate keys I've forgotten to mention it.