Key Buffering problem with timed puzzles

[Pipsissiwa]

I'd personally be happy with one key press buffering then you'd still have to pay attention to what you were doing and couldn't just patter out the sequence (although most classic dungeon crawlers did operate that way and were still fun - it was easy to over key-hit and ooooof into the wall hehe) but at least you could press the next move while the first move was happening, rather than waiting for the move to end. For me, I'm finding timing that very hard - i'm either too soon and it doesn't take (except sometimes it does, even i press right as they start moving), or I press too late and thus waste precious nanoseconds (esp valid on long sequences). Or as I'm finding, even if i wait and are sure the movement is complete, still nothing happens when I press a key all too often.

Thats why I'm wondering if I have a a bug (probably not but it still seems ood if this is running as intended) as although its only really relevant when it makes the timed puzzles extra hard, even just wandering around sometimes I have to press a key 2 times, even when the party is standing still (eg after I've picked up an item) before they will turn or move.

[bugnomore]

Actually there is buffering. If you hold the key down you will keep moving in the direction even if you let go before the animation finishes which is rather imprecise. What helped me through the more annoying puzzles was to just quickly tap the keys and time them in a rhythmic fashion. Also saving mid-animation if I was on track so I didn't have to repeat the sequence from the start. Otherwise that one iron door puzzle on lvl 7 or so where you have to play squash with the lightning bolts would have been unbeatable.

[Pipsissiwa]

Actually there is buffering. If you hold the key down you will keep moving in the direction even if you let go before the animation finishes which is rather imprecise. What helped me through the more annoying puzzles was to just quickly tap the keys and time them in a rhythmic fashion. Also saving mid-animation if I was on track so I didn't have to repeat the sequence from the start. Otherwise that one iron door puzzle on lvl 7 or so where you have to play squash with the lightning bolts would have been unbeatable.

Yeah, if you hold a key down they tend to run 1 or 2 squares AFTER you take your finger off which is even worse lol. The rhythmic tapping has helped a little but it still seems a bit hit and miss whether the key presses take for me.

Saving mid sequence - Good tip - TY!

[dbgager]

You realize you don't always have to turn to face the way you are moving.. Hitting the strafe keys ( a and d ) will move you sideways..and save you a keypress if it fits correctly into the puzzle. For example a puzzle with a left hand turn, followed by a right hand turn..if you simply do not rotate to the left entering the 2nd leg, and strafe with the "a" key, when you get to the third leg you will be facing forward, and you have gained 2 key presses.

[Pipsissiwa]

You realize you don't always have to turn to face the way you are moving.. Hitting the strafe keys ( a and d ) will move you sideways..and save you a keypress if it fits correctly into the puzzle. For example a puzzle with a left hand turn, followed by a right hand turn..if you simply do not rotate to the left entering the 2nd leg, and strafe with the "a" key, when you get to the third leg you will be facing forward, and you have gained 2 key presses.

Yeah, I sidestep wherever possible - veteran of these games hehe

[maethlin]

Snap - you finished Demon Souls - now THAT is a hard friggin game. Gave up on it myself, heh.

[Kektimus]

Yeah, if you hold a key down they tend to run 1 or 2 squares AFTER you take your finger off which is even worse lol. The rhythmic tapping has helped a little but it still seems a bit hit and miss whether the key presses take for me.

This! I have failed puzzles and died in fights just because when I release a key it will complete the current move AND make another one, which is not precise (which it should be, considering it's grid based and exact).

[jansaresinas]

since i have the very same issue, i looked at how people solved it on youtube .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct-Gk1ySreU

seems nice and easy, you can hear the first trap door close about two moves after he hit the first button. i am terribly sorry, but on my machine i do the exact same thing and half the time i cannot get off the first trap door in time! there are not 'two heartbeats time after'.

i have an e6750 with a 8600GT, grimrock version is directly from the store here (i think 1.13 it says), running on 1080p or 768, min or high doesnt change anything. when i get to the first button, i have about 0.5 seconds to spare, the same can be said for the second (actually that is even worse), i have not been able to get off the third platform (have pressed the button, just cannot seem to get off the trapdoor soon enough). have been trying for oh, 200 loads.

i tried exchanging mouse and keyboard with wired one (i have some logitech wireless), no change.

when i get home, i'll try timing the thing to see if it is time based and what can be done to correct it.

would be nice if any of the dev team could chime in.

[Pipsissiwa]

since i have the very same issue, i looked at how people solved it on youtube .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct-Gk1ySreU

seems nice and easy, you can hear the first trap door close about two moves after he hit the first button. i am terribly sorry, but on my machine i do the exact same thing and half the time i cannot get off the first trap door in time! there are not 'two heartbeats time after'.

i have an e6750 with a 8600GT, grimrock version is directly from the store here (i think 1.13 it says), running on 1080p or 768, min or high doesnt change anything. when i get to the first button, i have about 0.5 seconds to spare, the same can be said for the second (actually that is even worse), i have not been able to get off the third platform (have pressed the button, just cannot seem to get off the trapdoor soon enough). have been trying for oh, 200 loads.

i tried exchanging mouse and keyboard with wired one (i have some logitech wireless), no change.

when i get home, i'll try timing the thing to see if it is time based and what can be done to correct it.

would be nice if any of the dev team could chime in.

So wonderful to know someone else is experiencing the exact same issue (although obvously not wonderful for you - I really feel your pain more than you can imagine!). All these people keep telling me there is tons of time when for me there just isn't. After playing it almost non stop (except for sleep) since launch I figure I'd be used to the interface and step speed now too. I finally managed to get the Gear Key (after about 300 loads, a lot of AAARRRGGHing, one slam of my laptop lid and a break for a cuppa) by turning every game setting to low/minimum/off and putting it in full screen in the lowest rez. It made the keys very slightly more responsive, even though nothing else noticable (for me) really changed in performance (they didn't actually move any faster, mouse look moves the same etc). Sounds like you've tried it already but its how I finally did it. I've also personally found muting the game helps with the frustration level as you don't need to hear the 'Aaahhhhh' of them falling down the pit after 200 tries lol.

I'm now in a room full of trapdoors that open briefly in order to form a convuluted path across a room. I've watched the pattern and its LONG. Went to bed on that one - I need to be well rested for the anticipated frustration.

I can't believe this otherwise amazing game is intended to be this variable in UI response across different people/different machines - its more than just some of us not 'getting' the movement - after acting on all the advice here its still laggy (unresponsive? slow? - really not sure how to describe it accurately) for me, and it seems others too. It seems that for (me at least) there is a microscopically longer delay in speed of resposnse of the UI after a key press (or something like that) although the game itself is otherwise running properly at the right speed. The UI is sort of at a very very slightly slower speed than the game itself or something. (Thus we cannot make our party move as fast as the game expects us to be able to). Thats also why I postulated cumulative error in an earlier post since turning the settings down seemed to help it a bit for me, which you wouldn't expect normally, but who knows. Disc access? Drivers? Memory? Its an odd one indeed. Devs?

Your machine sounds better specced than mine; its interesting to hear the same problem happening anyway. It being an issue with lower spec machines that I first wondered doesn't fit. (This isn't the sort of game you'd expect to need an insane gaming rig for anyway ) I'll try to tear hubby off our gaming rig at some point (he's just bought a shiny new graphics card so I'll be lucky) and try this on it and see how it behaves.

Just my thoughts (/waits to get flamed again for 'not listening' because I still have the problem lol) but something odd is going on or this issue wouldn't be bothering those affected so much.

[Melvoid]

Dont really know what to suggest here, some thoughts tho, the movement system in Grim does feel very different to DM etc, took some getting used to, i am 46 and my brain was hardwired with DM`s way of moving, not helped by playing the original intensly while waiting for Grim to unlock.
I havent found a timing puzzle yet i could not complete(only just hit lvl 6) but a couple took some figuring out, the sidestep move does seem to be the way to do it on a lot of em but its counterintuitive to not look where you are going.
My machine runs it fine fully maxed out but i would suggest anyone on a wireless keyboard and mouse to get wired soon as, there is a measurable (albeit tiny) lag on any wireless system,fact, its the way of the world so ive never used wireless for gaming, its not optimal, had players in WoW express their thanks when i pointed this out to them, their reactions sped up in raids for example,
As for those on laptops or slower older systems turn down some settings experiment with computer settings in background maybe, anything else running in the background will slow you down a bit ( do you really need that facebook page open all the time?).
Not being funny but youd be amazed how many people have all kind of apps open so they can tab out and browse stuff,or just dont realise how much of a system hog some things can be, frinstance i cant leave Steam running in the background while playing WoW online it just kills my bandwith.

I am not suggesting the Op or any others of you with the problems your describing are not pc aware etc but if it helps someone a lil bit i will be happy for you.

Also this is version release 1 of this game, no patches so far on PC, name me a PC game from the recent past that didnt benefit a few weeks down the line from release from a few tweaks and patches.
And have patience this team seem very good but there are only 4 of them and they have a lot to do.