Pressing 'E' crashes game 90% of the time.

Sioryn · May 2014

This is getting worse and worse. Yesterday the game only crashed a few times when I pressed 'E' to do various tasks, but today it has happened almost every time. Thus I can't take attachments from mail without crashing, can't deconstruct items, can't craft items, can't collect anything in the world (pressing 'E' is needed for 'Take'). And so on.

This 'E' crash was actually happening to me during the first few days of launch. Or was it even beta, I don't remember any more. Then a patch or a maintenance fixed it for what seemed like at least a month. Now it's back again, after latest patch.

I haven't tried changing the key-bind yet, but will do so now.

GossiTheDog · May 2014

Any addons?

Sioryn · May 2014

Yes. Removing them temporarily didn't help.

Fairydragon3 · May 2014

what about reassigning the hotkey to something else?

Auric_ESO · May 2014

I read about this in another thread. When you have e bound to multiple things it seems to crash the client. People redid thier keybinds and it fixed it. CSR rep threw it up to the devs for a fix but no eta on it

Sioryn · May 2014

Yes, re-binding the keys fixed it. But it's not a good solution when you have been using the same letter for specific stuff for the last two months.

I have 'E' bound for 'jump' too (default is space bar), so the "bound to multiple things" seems the reason for the crashes. I find it odd that it doesn't happen every time though, but just mostly / 90% of the time.

I hope a fix comes soon.

Skillet · May 2014

Me too. I want to bind a single key for all my actions.

crowfl56 · May 2014

This isn't a bug its player's poor use of key binding.

GossiTheDog · May 2014

It is a bug, as previously it worked. Just tested it - yes, if you dual bind E, it crashes the game.

Sioryn · May 2014

crowfl56 wrote: »

This isn't a bug its player's poor use of key binding.

No it's not. Plenty of key bindings work together without crashing, it's apparent that there's a specific issue with the letter 'E'.

And besides, if the game crashes because "player's key binding choices are poor" then obviously the game shouldn't allow binding it in the first place.

Crashes occur because of bugs, not features.

Volsh · May 2014

crowfl56 wrote: »

This isn't a bug its player's poor use of key binding.

***

Volsh · May 2014

Volsh wrote: »

crowfl56 wrote: »

This isn't a bug its player's poor use of key binding.

***

Volsh · May 2014

Volsh wrote: »

Volsh wrote: »

crowfl56 wrote: »

This isn't a bug its player's poor use of key binding.

No it's your lack of observation

Soliduparrow · May 2014

So dont press E. I dont see whats the problem

Bangstin · May 2014

Oakes wrote: »

Crashes occur because of bugs, not features.

But if a bug stays unfixed for a long time, it becomes a feature

Sedrethi · June 2014

I've been having issues with this as well.

All addons turned on and off, it happens regardless. Strangely, it only seemed to affect my main character (Dunmer Nightblade) last I checked, but it's irksome nonetheless.

Currently, the only solution appears to be to rebind other instances of the "e" key elsewhere (my problem had to do with my jump key being mapped to "e" as well as certain menu interaction keys sharing the same letter), but I agree it needs a proper fix.

Merlin13KAGL · June 2014

@Oakes‌, you're dead on. It's an issue with keybinding.

See:
This thread...

Change your UI primary interaction so something other than 'E' and it will function for you while we wait on the fix.

It's not about add-ons, my friend and I don't run any either.

It's not about dual-binding...change the above and change another action to the same as the new key and it will not crash... It happens at the bank (use the 'E' to move an item and it will crash.), and it happens when you accept mail attachments.

Currently (on my set up), 'R' is used for sheath/unsheath weapon...it's also used to TAKE ALL when opening a contianer...no crash.

And @crowfl56‌, it's not 'player's poor use of key binding,' It worked before 1.1.2 ~ after it did not. Everywhere else in the Controls section, when you bind a key that it already assigned, it notifies you of the current assignment. Code can't perform two subroutines at once, and the code should check for the valid routine to use, regardless.

Offer something useful to the thread or don't offer at all. Same for you @skillet, @Soliduparrow‌

It's in the monitoring of that key for that subsystem or it's in the return from the subroutine....

This has been reported to CS. We will continue to follow up to push for a fix.
It's been narrowed so far for them, the find and fix should be simple enough. I doubt most bugs are hand delivered, gift-wrapped with a bow and card in the way this one has been.

GossiTheDog · June 2014

This isn't fixed in 1.1.3 patch notes, for info. The cause of problem is very clear and needs fixing.

zeuseason · June 2014

I have D bound to multiple actions and it works fine. I'm not a WASD player so I don't use the default E, I change it to D. I use QWES instead of WASD.

tanthil · June 2014

crowfl56 wrote: »

This isn't a bug its player's poor use of key binding.

really? game crashing is the intended outcome? its not a bug then its an intentional crash.. ok buddy

seaef · June 2014

Bangstin wrote: »

Oakes wrote: »

Crashes occur because of bugs, not features.

But if a bug stays unfixed for a long time, it becomes a feature

Works for Microsoft.

elblobbob14_ESO · June 2014

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

..... the find and fix should be simple enough. I doubt most bugs are hand delivered, gift-wrapped with a bow and card in the way this one has been.

I'll only step in and say how, as a developer, I could see how this bug might not be as simple a fix as you think it is.

To be honest, I was surprised to find out you could bind a key to multiple actions and didn't realize it until I read this topic.

Merlin13KAGL · June 2014

elblobbob14_ESO wrote: »

I'll only step in and say how, as a developer, I could see how this bug might not be as simple a fix as you think it is.

To be honest, I was surprised to find out you could bind a key to multiple actions and didn't realize it until I read this topic.

@elblobbob14_ESO‌, I'll give you that. We were happy to help narrow it down some & try to do this (within reason) for other bugs as well. (Initially it was something with the bank and something with mail attachments.) Happened to be gaming with a friend when we figured out the correlation and tested the workaround.

How often, as a dev, did you have any narrowing of the suspect issue? I know, as a coder, anything that helped narrow (or eliminate) was one step closer to finding the issue.

I'm certain many of the bugs they experience are far more elusive and more difficult to reproduce.

I'm hopeful, and certain, they will locate and fix the issue. I'm glad there is a workaround for the time being. I just want to be certain they are aware that this is occurring on multiple systems and not a machine specific glitch.

I'm also hopeful they'll improve the multiple bind check...even if the user is notified of the current binding, it's usually enough to have them pick a different key, especially for something that is not real-time sensitive (such as combat).

Thanks for the input.

I know we haven't made the Dev's job easy...I'm just hopeful, in this one instance, we may have at least made it easier!

Adventure on!

Sioryn · June 2014

Hey again. Thanks for your constructive additions, Merlin13KAGL.

I reported a new finding to ZOS a few days back, and they already answered and said the newly found info helps quite a lot for narrowing down the problem.

(Note: like I mentioned in my first post, I have 'jump' bound to 'E' alongside its default binds)

The thing I found out is that if I use 'E' to make my character jump immediately after I have logged in – i.e. before using the key for something else, like taking mail attachments or using the bank – then I am able to get around the crash.

But pressing 'E' to do something else BEFORE just that one jump – even if it's 30 min into the game – makes the game crash 100%. It's almost quite amusing how this is all structured.

So that's why this topic's title's "90 %" comes from: earlier I didn't know the remaining "non-crashing" 10% came from me randomly and unknowingly making my character jump before using the E-key for other stuff.

I bet this also works for other player-customized binds for 'E'. You have to get the bound action "out of the system" before using said key to stuff that is bound to it by default.

Anyway, they said they know of this problem and that it's affecting a good number of players, and that the devs are working on it.