Keys won't respond in-game with B18 running on a Mac

[samwow18]

For some reason in game, rim world won't respond to any keys pressed on my keyboard. any other application on my computer works fine, but rim world won't respond to any keys pressed. In addition to this, when I press keys in rim world for some reason an error sound occurs upon every press. I run rim world on mac and on the steam version, and I have my log file to the game. I do run some mods, but the game was running fine with all the same mods installed previously, and just started to not work today, without any application or system changes being made.



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[Calahan]

Can I please ask what language settings you use, and what keyboard layout you use?

Another user recently reported that the lettered keys do not work when using a Russian keyboard layout of the game on Linux. If you are also using a Russian keyboard layout then these problems might be related. https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=38262.0

[samwow18]

I use the english language in game with a standard US keyboard layout, I can link it to you if you'd like.

[Calahan]

Thank you for the info. This doesn't seem like the same problem as the other user is having. So... can you please confirm whether the keys have worked in-game with B18 for you previously? Or is this an issue that has only started after you updated to B18? And if the latter, what was the last version of the game you played, and when the keys were working. (Note, from your OP I'm pretty certain your answer is that B18 was working fine up until very recently. But still need to ask for 100% confirmation of this since all subsequent support will be based on your answer. Which means it's worth checking with you just in case I've assumed wrongly, or mis-read your OP (since both of those would result in us both potentially wasting our time without getting close the identifying the cause or a solution)).

There have been no changes to the game since B18 was released (in mid November). So if your keys were working fine with B18 previously, and now they are (suddenly) not, then it is almost certainly something your end that has caused this problem. Meaning this is a support issue rather than a bug in the game. I won't move the thread to support though until you confirm the keys have worked with B18 previously. As if not then this could still be a game bug (but if this thread suddenly disappears from the bugs forum then please check in the support forum for it).

If it is something your end then there could be a variety of possible causes. And unfortunately, many causes that I personally have no knowledge of having not used a Mac for well over a decade. AFAIK none of the other moderators use Mac's either, so apologies in advance if any subsequent support you receive for this issue is 'lite' at best. As we may need to rely on the someone from the community to solve this (especially if it's some difficult/rare Mac-only related issue).

First thing to check would be if the key worked when running in Windowed/fullscreen mode (depending on what you use normally). If the keys don't work with either, then your next step would be to end/close any and every non-essential program you have running. As there could be something that is preventing the game from gaining the system permission it needs to use the keyboard, which could be another program, hence try shutting everything down. (it could also easily be caused by system settings, but my lack of Mac knowledge means I really wouldn't know where to start looking to check for that).

If still nothing, then the next step would be to check if the keys work in a vanilla game. I can't see how a mod would cause your issue, but it's still worth checking a vanilla game to be sure. And maybe check this after you have performed a clean reinstall of the game (since this would be next on the list anyway, as it's a good multi-purpose troubleshooting step that can solve a variety of weird technical issues). Details on how to do this can be found in the following OP: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=4805.0

I'll leave it at that for now and await your reply.

[samwow18]

Yeah the game was running fine for me in b18, i literally encountered the issue randomly one day, so it didn't have to do with  any update. I've tried the full screen/windowed thing and I've cleaned out all other programs as well. I'll try reinstalling the game I guess,but  how can I reinstall without losing the worlds/games I have saved.

[Canute]

Does the keyboard generaly don't work at Rimworld ?
Just try to change a name of your pawn, does this work ?

At the option you got Keyboard configuration, all the keys are still set and ok ?

[Calahan]

Thanks for confirming B18 worked fine for you before. As such I'm moving this to support as it's unlikely to be a bug in the game (since B18 hasn't received any updates).

Yeah the game was running fine for me in b18, i literally encountered the issue randomly one day, so it didn't have to do with  any update.

The usual rule of thumb is that something must have changed to have caused a sudden technical problem like this. It doesn't have to be a major O/S update or the like, or even an update you were notified of, and sometimes the most trivial inconsequential thing can cause a totally unforeseen problem in something unrelated. Which itself makes it harder to find if it was something very minor, and/or it was a stealthy and automatic update to a program.

If your Mac has not had access to the internet between the point B18 used to work, and the point it started having problems, then that would be hard to explain. But if your Mac has had internet access during this time then any number of automatic updates could have been performed without you being directly informed about them (again, my lack of Mac know-how factors in here as I don't know if it keeps full and comprehensive logs, or how to check them if it does).

I've tried the full screen/windowed thing and I've cleaned out all other programs as well. I'll try reinstalling the game I guess,but  how can I reinstall without losing the worlds/games I have saved.

Have you tried changing any Steam options or features? Either before this problem occurred, or since (to try and solve it). As a Steam related issue would be the next most likely cause (if shutting down other programs hasn't helped).

how can I reinstall without losing the worlds/games I have saved.

The clean reinstall shouldn't affect the saves as you are only deleting your mods and config folder. Although if you want to be sure you can manually backup your saves yourself just in case. Details on where you can find your save files on a Mac can be found here (see #5): https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=513.0

[samwow18]

I haven't changed any steam options or features until after the problem, as I changed options in an attempt to fix it. I was testing to see if the problem was through all steam games or just rim world to pinpoint the issue, so i was changing some steam options, but it wasn't until after the problem occurred, not before. Ill try a full reinstatement of the game to see if that fixes the issue.

[samwow18]

Okay so I just tried to run the game and I think steam wasn't connected or something because I got a debug screen saying steam wasn't running or something and that without steam running rim world won't save achievements etc... but the game was working fine, with keys responding in game. I quit out and tried again, but with steam fully running, and the game went back to not responding to keys pressed. Because of this I think something on steams end is prohibiting the game from responding to my pressed keys, because when steam isn't connected to rim world it works fine.
EDIT: Im also getting a popup that says "Updating Steam" "Extracting Package" right before the game starts up.

[Calahan]

Based on your last two posts I'd say it's 99% certain that your problems is being caused by Steam. What you say also matches what I said earlier about how a sudden technical issue like this is likely to have occurred. In this case via an automatic update to Steam's client (and Steam regularly pushes out updates for its client).

So the source of the problem is either directly as a result of a Steam feature that you are using (such as the Steam overlay), or a stalled or corrupted Steam update. Or likewise a bad Steam update (since not all updates are good) that has installed correctly, but has broken something Steam related (as a result of being a bad update).

Unfortunately there might not be anything you can do apart from waiting for Steam to fix the issue their end (and reporting it to Valve in case they don't know already). Or you can try reinstalling the Steam client to see if that fixes the issue (which it should in the case of a stalled or corrupted update).

[samwow18]

Reinstalled steam and it seemed to fix the issue, thanks for the help Calahan!

[Calahan]

Good to hear everything is working properly again. And thanks for posting again with a follow-up (so that we know this issue has now been resolved).