The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

K well it's kind of ridiculous that I still have key jamming issues in 2008 but since I do, I suggest the following:
Since I have the Pkunk's special held down the whole time anyway, can we just make it perma-on? Then it can still insult and be funny but not jam up my keys unnecessarily. It's kind of pointless.

... am dreading the "but not keyjamming makes it part of the strategy" argument.

I anticipate this will be rejected since "we are not going to change the game". I just dont want pointless obstacles blocking my full enjoyment of this gem of a game.

FYI, if anyone makes this argument, I will personally rend them.

I thought the modifier keys (which the secondary for player 1 defaults to) didn't have that problem? *shrug*

Actually, key jamming seems to be getting worse all the time. I can't even press CTRL-ALT-\ (i.e. CTRL-ALT-ALTGR-+) on my laptop; apparently, using both ALT keys at once is not expected behaviour. I've had similar problems using both SHIFT keys at once on other keyboards.

The only reason I can think of for not having the Pkunk special permanently on (or automatically activated when needed) is that someone may find it vaguely amusing to have a button for insulting the opponent.

Implementing this would probably involve zapping the condition in line 526 in sc2code/ships/pkunk/pkunk.c (0.6.2), which would ensure that the Pkunk always throw insults whenever they have less than maximum energy. Unfortunately, this would probably break netplay compatibility. Fiddling with the input data instead is likely to be a bit more complex, as the input layer doesn't really know what ship it's controlling.

Well, you won't get it from me. It's a hardware problem (and varies heavily depending on hardware and key configuration), so working around it is OK.

Yeah, topic name is correct, the Pkunk secondary is mostly irrelevant. I'd hate to see it be changed though. That's a break from the original game. If we do that, we'd better make those mineral deposits stun-ray proof too.

Really, there seems to be no reason that would preclude use of Special constantly, both for Pkunk and for Probe.
Introducing limitation for Pkunk looks easier: if resurrection probability decreases when you swear and gradually raises back after some time, you'll use Special only when disengaged and not going to engage in combat right after replenishing full capacity. Perhaps with "intact" probability slightly raised if you want to balance it back. Computer-controlled Pkunk favor “hit-n-run” tactics anyway, so it's not very big issue.
As for Probe... perhaps, using Special precludes attack for some time (until it “digests” captured matter)? After all, as we know from game, Probe's lightning discharge is not a separate weapon but merely abuse of supplementary function represented in melee by Special.

You're right about this. If I want to play a local game of melee, I first have to break out my old keyboard (circa the 486 era). I generally find the keyboards that make real 'clicking' sounds to be the best for avoiding key jamming issues.

On the same issue - can two different USB keyboards be plugged into the same laptop and this way avoid keyjamming between two local players ?

Connecting one external keyboard would probably be enough. Connecting a gamepad would, of course, be a more traditional variant of this idea.