Escape Key Function Lost

Issue description

Using the esc key to close dialog boxes of all types does not work one has to use the mouse and find the X button
Using the esc key to close the screen for research and go back to the game no longer works there is no x button so one has to find the back key
Using the esc key no longer works .......

Reproduction steps

Select a production machine
Interact with the dialog
hit esc to close the dialog - no response
one has to use the mouse and find the X button

Same on many interactions through out the game. Surprisingly annoying - so used to using the esc key

Game version and build number

v0.8.1a b550

Operating system

Linux

After extensive troubleshooting, I've identified that this issue was not a bug in Captain of Industry, but rather a system-level global shortcut in KDE Plasma that was intercepting the Escape key.

Root Cause:
A custom shortcut in Plasma Workspace → "Activate Panel Widget" was bound to Esc alone. This caused the window manager to capture the Escape key before it could reach any application, resulting in:

Escape minimizing the game in fullscreen mode

Escape doing nothing in borderless/windowed mode

Applications losing focus when Escape was pressed

Solution:

Open System Settings → Shortcuts

Navigate to Plasma Workspace section

Find "Activate Panel Widget"

Either:

    Delete the custom Esc binding (click the red X), or

    Change it to a different shortcut like Shift+Esc

Log out and log back in

After making this change, Escape works correctly in:

Captain of Industry (opens game menu)

Firefox keyboard testers

Native Wayland applications like Kate

Confirmation:

✅ Two different keyboards tested

✅ evtest confirmed hardware was sending Esc events

✅ Issue persisted across game updates and system rollbacks

✅ Fix confirmed by multiple application tests

Closing:
Since this is a system configuration issue and not a game bug, I'm closing this report. Thank you for the excellent game, and I hope this helps any other Linux users who might encounter similar behavior!

system configuration issue and not a game bug, Thank you for the excellent game, and I hope this helps any other Linux users who might encounter similar behavior.