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FireAlpaca has great pressure responsiveness, but sometimes individual users don't get pressure sensitivity.

FireAlapaca uses the slightly older Wintab pressure/location interface, which requires a Wintab implementation by the tablet manufacturer (in addition to the purely hardware driver). A number of art programs have changed to using the Microsoft Ink pressure/location interface (also known as Tablet PC API, although it applies to graphics tablets as well, not just tablet PCs), which now comes built into Windows, so you may see different behaviour in different software.

My collected tips so far:

Update your tablet software:

Firstly download and install the latest pen/tablet driver/software from the manufacture's website (warning: some tablet brands are just rebadged from another company's product, and the latest driver may not always be under the rebadged name).
Always restart your computer after installing hardware drivers.

Earlier Genius tablet drivers (which may be the ones on the CD in the box) have known Wintab pressure problems. For Genius tablets, install a 2013 or 2014 tablet driver from the Genius website, which seems to have fixed most pressure problems (many of the Genius models use the same driver, so if the update isn't listed under your model you may be able to use the driver from another similar model).

Surface Pro 3 users need the Wintab driver from here: www.microsoft.com/en-us/downlo…
(All you need is the Wintab download. Get the 64-bit download, not the 32-bit download)

Surface Pro 4 Wintab drivers available here: www.microsoft.com/en-us/downlo…
(All you need is the Wintab download. Get the 64-bit download, not the 32-bit download)

Surface Pro 1 and 2 use the Wacom Feel driver (hopefully already installed): us.wacom.com/en/feeldriver/

Turn off Microsoft/Windows Ink:

If you've installed the latest driver, and you're on Windows, the most likely cause of no pressure is the new Ink pressure system in Windows (used now by some graphics programs) stealing the pressure information before it gets to the Wintab pressure system used by FireAlpaca and several other graphics programs.

For Wacom tablets, see this to turn off Ink and only work with Wintab: forum.wacom.eu/viewtopic.php?f… and viziblr.com/news/2013/6/23/the… (but some art programs require Microsoft Ink for pressure, so if possible create a FireAlpaca profile)
For Huion tablets: Open the system tray app that installed with your Huion tablet driver/software and, if there is a checkbox on the first tab labeled "Support Tablet PC Feature", make sure it's unchecked.

Clean up old driver remnants:

If you have had a previous tablet, sometimes they don't uninstall all their software cleanly, which can interfere with another tablet later. Did you have a previous tablet? If so, see this post from Wacom: forum.wacom.eu/viewtopic.php?t… The wintab files in particular will probably apply to non-Wacom tablets also. Uninstall your current driver using these steps and reinstall.

Turn off conflicting features:

Some Windows services can interfere with the Wintab pressure signals reaching FireAlpaca (it may only show up as a problem in FireAlpaca because other programs may be using the newer Microsoft Ink pressure system, while FireAlpaca is using the older Wintab pressure system, and this only seems to interfere with Wintab). Try turning off Windows services such as pen flick macros, pen to text input, press and hold for right mouse button, etc. Your pen driver/utility/software may have options to change these settings, or you may be able to change some settings from other Control Panel utilities such as Pen and Touch or Tablet PC Settings (may control some tablet/pen behaviour even if you don't have a tablet PC).

If that still doesn't work, this program can check and turn off those services: viziblr.com/news/2011/8/13/fix… (although it says for Wacom tablets, it should work with other brands too, as it is turning off generic Windows programs, not tablet-specific settings). Warning : you may lose long press for right mouse button, etc. (you can set a side button on the pen to right-click if you need it).

Other tips:

- sometimes a computer restart is enough to fix it
- From the Adobe forums: try opening FireAlpaca by double-clicking with the pen, not the mouse.
- If the newest pen/tablet driver doesn't work, try installing an older one
- some USB ports don't supply enough power for proper tablet functionality, try plugging it into another USB port
- restarting the tablet service can also help: zeico.tumblr.com/post/39457145…

If pressure worked earlier in FireAlpaca, but has stopped working:

Try this:
Open task manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc on Windows 7 and up, or Ctrl-Alt-Del and select Task Manager, or search for and run it from the Windows search box)
Click on the Services tab
Find the “Wacom Professional Service” or WTabletServicePro (for some, not all, Wacom tablets - depending on your brand, driver version, and tablet version, it might have other names - try searching for your brand name or the word tablet).
Right click the service and Stop it
Right click the service and Start it
You may also have to restart the “Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service”, or “TabletInputService”

If that doesn't work, try this (Wacom tablets only):
Start > All programs > open the Wacom Tablet folder > select Wacom Tablet Preference File Utility > click on Remove under All User Preferences. (Also documented here: siosism.com/how-to-fix-wacom-p… )
Restart your PC.

[On my little low-powered Thinkpad 10 tablet, the preference utility doesn't show up on the Start menu, but the PrefUtil program is hiding in Program Files > Tablet > ISD > Setup. For non-tablets, it might be some other folder e.g. Wacom rather than Tablet, and will not be ISD]