The pre-boarding reload

[BFM_Donut]

It's kind of a pet peeve of mine: You fired off 2 or 3 rounds from the assault rifle to get my attention, so I stopped to let you climb aboard the hog I'm driving. It's a risk I'm taking; I'm making myself a big, fat, juicy target for some rocket or nade, but hey, I want a gunner. It's more laps for the team, and (assuming we can survive past the boarding stage) it improves our odds of survival (especially if you know how to gun). And it's just neighborly. So I'm fine with stopping.

But could you please not suddenly remember those 2 or 3 extra bullets just before you board the hog, and stop to reload, adding agonizingly long seconds to the boarding operation? Do you honestly think those two extra bullets in the chamber are going to make a big enough difference in your chances of survival after a subsequent spill to justify the increased chance that we're both going to go BOOM while you reload?

Arrgh. I sometimes feel tempted to just drive away in that situation. I know it would be obnoxious to do that, and I don't actually do it, but seriously, I'm not sure there's any other way to break people of the pre-boarding-reload habit (which, in the spirit of full confession, is a habit I need to work on myself).

Pvt Donut

[BFM_JANE]

It's actually not a habit, it's an unfortunate mistake resulting from their eagerness to get in and get going.

You know you press E to get in, right? E is the action button. E will also reload your weapon if you're not standing in front of or on something (empty hog seat or available weapon to pick up, respectively).  So if they start pressing E too soon, before the "press E to enter gunner's seat" (or whatever it says) shows up, they will start to reload. Grr!

It's just as frustrating to the reloader as it is to the person who stopped to pick them up. Hopefully everyone survives it and thanks for stopping!

[Toe Tag]

What Jane said.  I may well be the fat-fingered reloader that, um, causes Pvt Donut to respawn.

[Liam]

They shouldn't have made both E and R reload......tis a pain

[McSkittles]

I thought you had to it R to reload and E to get into a hog? or does E also reload? I don't believe it does for me

[Toe Tag]

E is a multipurpose "do what needs to be done" or "do what it says on the lower left corner" key.  If the message says "Press E to swap" $weapon, "Press E to activate light bridge",  or "Press E to enter" $seat, then pressing E will do just that.  If there is no message or thing to do then pressing E defaults to reloading.

If you figured out how to change that, McSkittles, then I'd like to know how you made the change!

[Liam]

If you figured out how to change that, McSkittles, then I'd like to know how you made the change!

Yes plz

[BFM_Booyah]

There are two things I do to minimize this happening.  I have a habit of always reloading my weapon the second I am done firing.  The E button can't default to the reloading action when your weapon is full.  You will also very rarely ever catch me hitting the E button only once...when it comes to getting in and out of hogs that is.  When it is time for me to hit the E button to get in the hog I will start tapping it rapidly until I see that the action has started.  As long as you are not still tapping by the time the action (either getting in or out of the hog) is finished the extra taps will not carry over and perform more actions.  So in the event that I did not reload like I normally do and my first tap starts a reload, it won't be but a fraction of a second later that my next tap gets me in the hog.  The good thing is that the reloading action does not have to finish before it will let you get in the hog so, with practice, there is no reason why that dreaded delay has to happen even when an accidental reload happens.

[·WídgêT·]

Going off what Booyah said, you can also shorten the reloading process by meleeing. I learned this tactic when I was in a heavies clan way back when. As soon as the rocket is put into the chamber you can melee and complete the reload, shaving off roughly 1 second off the reloading time and giving you the opportunity to fire quicker. This becomes EXTREMELY important when you're in a duel with another rocketeer and you're both reloading at the same time. Getting that shot out faster could mean the difference between a kill and a death.

What ticks me off more about this whole situation is when I accidentally press "E" to reload WHILE IN THE HOG! Gahhh!!!

(Thankfully I mash the E button and usually get right back in )