Is the 'PSOBB Input Map' Tool Allowed?

[Roland 7]

Hello,

I've noticed that third party tools are strictly regulated here. I'm also a diehard keyboard player, and there's one tool that could help me. But, since it's a third party tool, I wanted to ask here to be safe, as I don't want to get in trouble. Please advise, thanks!

 

Is the PSOBB Input Map program allowed for use here?

• It remaps keys the way the ingame UI does, by modifying the mappings on our server profiles. It allows us to remap any key exposed in the Keyboard Config vanilla UI. As a reminder, many keypresses in that UI are locked and uneditable, or just for show, and this tool resolves that. You can find it here: link to page, link to file
• Just to clarify, I'm not speaking of the Key Remapper program. That one runs on the OS and aggressively takes 0-9 presses and simulates numpad 0-9 presses. This means it also interferes with all other programs running on the machine. To my knowledge, this is the only way to remap the hotkeys to the numpad.
• One noteworthy issue I've noticed with it is that people can back themselves into a corner if they mess up crucial keypresses such as confirm, cancel, menu, or the directionals. One user had a huge issue after mapping confirm and cancel to the same key; they couldn't undo the mapping and, after reloading the game, they couldn't even get past the character select screen! So, beware. In such cases, the server admins/devs have to manually remediate their account's button configuration server-side. Having the default template available for copy/paste purposes in such cases could save some headache. Also, having a personalized version of this with more safety rails - like a reset to default option - could definitely be an advantage.

Edited November 20 by rolandj
Fixed my bad memory, the input map tool doesn't touch 0-9 keys

[Magic 1513]

Thanks for asking first before using. 

I personally don't see a reason to disallow this tool, however, we won't be providing support for it like other servers do as you mentioned.

We don't currently have a procedure in place to reset keyboard configuration.

And while it's possible to implement a reset button with automated procedure in our GM environment I'm afraid it's not a priority right now as we already lack time to work towards most of our own goals.

Bottom line, while you're allowed to use this, I don't recommend it as we can't currently save your character if something goes wrong. It's completely at your own risk.

[Roland 7]

Thank you for your understanding!

So, if I go through with this and my cat jumps on my backspace key while re-doing my mapping for confirm - causing a terminal same-confirm/cancel key scenario - it might be time to make a new account, right? Beware, guys! Be very careful with this tool.

[Magic 1513]

Correct, in that case you pretty much bricked your account until we implement a reset. 

[Orgodemirk 310]

Regarding the Key Remapper utility, that is based on something I wrote over 10 years ago. If there is interest in it, I could remake something so that it can be configured to only allow the remapping to happen within the PSO client and support other similar remapping features, but without affecting game memory / account settings.

I would be interested to know your use case for remapping other keys and also what issues system wide remapping has caused for you.

 

[Roland 7]

Thanks for your contribution to the Key Remapper utility, it is handy! The improvement you proposed would be great! My use case for remapping keys is, as a keyboard-only user, I prefer using only WASD/arrows/numpad for ergonomic reasons. On the numpad I prefer to have my hotkeys, menu shortcut, F2 (equip), and a quick-menu shortcut (ctrl+chat, unable to make with current tools). The issue with it running system-wide is that when I have many programs running on my machine and are performing various tasks, the system-wide implementation often interferes with other tasks, requiring me to turn it off and turn it back on in between tasks; a mild or noteworthy annoyance, depending on how frequently I'm changing tasks and how much it affects the other tasks.

BTW: it turns out that the PSO Input Map program doesn't work with this client, probably due to a changed process name or something of the sort, as it gives a process not found error.

Edited November 22 by rolandj