Force Key Pressed (Entity Action Type)

Holds a Key down on the target, as if they had pressed it themselves. On a player that is a genuine press on their client; on any other entity it drives that entity’s key-bound powers directly.

Type ID: apoli:force_key_pressed

Aliases: apoli:press_key, apoli:force_key

Fields#

Field	Type	Default	Purpose
key	Key	key.apoli.primary_active	The key to press. Any vanilla or modded keybind translation key, or an Apoli active key.
duration	Integer	1	How many ticks to hold it. Values below 1 are clamped to 1.
release	Boolean	false	Cancel a force that is still running on this key instead of starting one.

On a player, the forced key reads as both held and just clicked, so it drives movement, attacking, using items, opening menus, and any Apoli active power bound to that key. Because the press is genuine client-side input, apoli:key_pressed conditions and apoli:action_on_key_sequence see it too.

Pressing a key that is already forced extends the hold to whichever duration is longer and queues another click edge.

On entities that are not players#

A minion, a clone, a zombie or any other entity has no client and no controls, so there is nothing to press. Apoli holds the key server-side instead, and that is enough for everything a data pack can observe:

• Key-bound powers on that entity fire — apoli:action_on_key_press, apoli:toggle and apoli:fire_projectile all activate on the press.
• apoli:key_pressed reports the key as held for the whole duration.
• A key whose Key is "continuous": true re-fires its power every tick of the hold, exactly like a player holding the button down. A non-continuous key fires once, on the press.

What it does not do is move the entity: key.forward on a zombie is not a movement input, it is a key the zombie is now holding. Give the entity a continuous power bound to that key to turn it into motion:

{
  "type": "apoli:action_on_key_press",
  "key": { "key": "key.forward", "continuous": true },
  "cooldown": 0,
  "entity_action": {
    "type": "apoli:add_velocity",
    "z": 0.1,
    "space": "local_horizontal_normalized"
  }
}

Force key.forward on the minion for 40 ticks and it walks forward for two seconds under its own steam. /apoli:key does the same thing from chat, which is the quicker way to try it out.

Examples#

Make the target jump:

{
  "type": "apoli:force_key_pressed",
  "key": "key.jump",
  "duration": 4
}

Force a two-second forced march:

{
  "type": "apoli:force_key_pressed",
  "key": "key.forward",
  "duration": 40
}

Stop an ongoing force early:

{
  "type": "apoli:force_key_pressed",
  "key": "key.forward",
  "release": true
}

Notes#

• On a player this needs Apoli on the client — a vanilla client silently ignores the packet. The server-side hold used for non-players needs nothing.
• Key names are keybind translation keys (key.jump, key.attack, key.use, key.sneak, key.forward…), the same strings the Key data type accepts everywhere else.