Irritating stage lock

[Kevlarburrito]

Ok I played this game before this irritating stage lock feature was added. Now I cannot seem to get any rockets to launch without manually activating the engines by right clicking on them and selecting "activate engine". I realize that I am missing something. The tutorial mentioned something about a "stage lock" but went into exactly zero detail about what it is, why it was implemented, and how to turn it off so you can actually launch a rocket.

So...someone please tell me how to turn off this stupid lock...so I can go blow myself up.

Thank you.

[Scorpi15]

Alt + L is to turn off stage lock, now go blow stuff up! Make sure you aren't time warping as well, I somehow forget that sometimes.

[Pecan]

It was added so a cat walking across your keyboard doesn't drop half the rocket.

Alt-L toggles it on and off, it's like having a safety catch.

[Tex_NL]

I love the Alt-L stage lock. Not much is more frustrating than having your payload trying to escape the cargobay of your cargo SSTO after accidentally hitting space.

[James_Eh]

Aha! Is this why I find that I have to hit space repeatedly during ascent to activate the next stage since I installed .25?? I had assumed it was just part of the general oddness with 64 bit.

[Tex_NL]

Alt-L locks ALL staging. Stage lock is either ON or OFF. Hitting space multiple times does not disengage stage lock.

[Motokid600]

Oh...my... god... The amount of times I restarted KSP because I thought IT WAS A GLITCH! STAGE LOCK?! ... ALT- L?! ... Wow.. last night couldnt get my staging to work to ascend off the Moon.. drove me nuts.

[Pecan]

specifically - when the stage is unlocked the light (bottom-left of the screen) is green, when it is locked the light is pink/purple and when KSP thinks it's required (as at launch) it flashes.

[Zylark]

It was added so a cat walking across your keyboard doesn't drop half the rocket.

...snip...

No prizes for guessing what else is also right in front of me as I'm sitting in front of the computer...

Edited November 9, 2014 by Claw
Off topic

[Leszek]

I keep forgetting to check if I can do this with key bindings, but for me a better solution than stage lock is two key staging. In Silent Hunter 3 and 4, the enter key used to fire torpedoes. But that led to many poorly time shootings so I set it to be CTRL+Enter.

Now that I am thinking about it, I am going to try to set staging to ALT+Space and see if it lets me. Much better than stage locking IMHO.

[Claw]

When this little cuddle-cat demands a belly rub, there is no ignoring him.

While I appreciate the humor of your post, pics of your pets can be directed here (So that this thread can remain on topic.)

Cheers,

~Claw

[Kevlarburrito]

ALT+L does not work. I restarted the game and it seemed to be working fine now...not sure what I was doing wrong.

[Kerba Fett]

If your mouse pointer is in the stage area it will lock the staging and the light goes pink. Presumably this is so you don't accidently trigger it while tweaking your staging setup. If you're not paying attention it can seem like it locks for no reason.

[cicatrix]

Is there any visual indicator whether the lock is on or off?

[AlexinTokyo]

The light at the bottom of the staging display - it will glow pink/purple when staging is locked, and green when unlocked.

Additionally it will flash when unlocked under some conditions (launch, for one) which I think means the game thinks you should stage.

The light will go out (black) if there are no stages left untriggered.