I wouldn't go as far as to say that the combat system is "broken", but it certainly doesn't work as intended on occasion. And as already said it is the most noticeable in Warzones. I experienced the issue alot when I played Sniper and thus had to take cover whenever possible, but playing on my Operative it is hardly noticeable, sure some spells clip a bit and some times the vibroblade attack doesn't really happen the way I expected it to, but it was much worse on my Sniper. I believe it is a problem with ranged mostly, though melee suffers from it as well but to a lesser degree.

Maybe it is the double latency from player-to-player that kicks in? Fighting mobs it only needs to be regiestered by you and the server, in PvP it is both you, the server and whomever poor soul you are attacking. Then add ranged combat and the time it takes for projectiles to land it should become quite a mess.

I do remember when people went to the WOW forums to identify issues and problems after the release of Cata. The devs treated them with contempt and fanboys attacked. That is when they were not being ignored or having their threads and posts deleted. That was two million subs lost ago and the population is still dropping like a rock. I do hope that there is a response from BW and it is not "working as intended".

 

I have read any number of posts from top notch and competitive players (like the keybind everything guy/gal) in this thread. I am neither. I am BWs worst nightmare because I am an average player and am one drop in the main ocean of their subs. As such, I am seeing the issue identified by the OP and it is detracting from my gaming experience. I have cast spells and had them lag terribly before they actually fire. I have cast spells and had them misfire. I have cast spells (like mind maze against non droids) and have them fire with no effect at all (no stun after they hit). I have cast mind maze (a sixty second stun) against an npc and done nothing after (so as to not deal damage) to watch it's effect and seen the npc come out of it in three to five seconds. As a JC Shadow, I am not overpowering in the direct damage dealt by my attacks. I depend on stuns and dots and if I can't stun when I have to and lag when I try to apply my dots, I am toast. If an average player is noticing the issues raised by the OP and having his/her game play affected then indeed BW has a problem. I am not saying that it will kill the game or whatever. I am saying that the combat system with the problems identified (and a few others) will make my time playing the game much less. If a significant number of people (average players) who do not come to the forum are feeling as I do, it does not bode well.

Warcrafts subscriptions have leveled out at 10 million, hard to call that 'dropping like a rock', take your blinders off.

I was one of the people having this issue especially while healing. In some cases it was so bad the skill wouldn't even go off at all.

Last night I posted here and after replacing my dual ( SLI ) 8800 GTS 512mb with a 560GTX 1G I no longer have this issue. Sure it's a little choppy although not nearly as much when I hit the IMP Fleet but this card was a major upgrade.

I also no longer have the slow ability delay issues. I did four or five bg's and had not one problem. If you would have asked me that yesterday I would have told you a much different story. Looks like a new Vid card resolved my issue.

The only thing I can recommend for those that are still suffering...I was there with you...make SURE your GPU drivers are up to date. Also realise that WoW ( I played it for 6 years ) was a much less demanding game on your systems hardware. Most of you probably already know this.

Lastly look under your preferences and I think it's the Graphic option....if you are struggling make sure you settings are low to increase your performance. I think they are set to low by default but I could be wrong.

Good luck folks...I know it worked for me...but my way may not work for everyone. See you online.

Stephen Reid answered this question recently:

 

 

 

source:

How much time do they need to come up with a response to a problem that has existed for years?

This is a ridiculous statement he made, the beta testers brought this problem up over and over and begged the devs to fix this problem before release.

The problem is the animations carry on beyond the GCD ( or cast time) and if you try to use another ability while this 'hidden animation GCD' is still going, then you basically bug out your combat control and it makes the game won't respond to your key presses correctly.

 

When you are doing easy content, you are more likely to sit back, smell the roses, and watch animations, and play off animations instead of the GCD.

 

When you PVP, you are trying to activate abilities asap, so you really start to notice the problem then.

 

The easy fix for this is to just increase the GCD to match the 'hidden animation GCD'

So if i have a particular instant ability with a 2.5 second animation, then my GCD should take 2.5 seconds to spin up, so it matches up with the animation.

That's why I said that allowing animation clipping when you are flagged for PVP could help alleviate this issue. Increasing the GCD would impact people who don't notice or have the issue much. Also I think 1.5sec it's about right, more...I dunno

How much time do they need to come up with a response to a problem that has existed for years?

 

This is a ridiculous statement he made, the beta testers brought this problem up over and over and begged the devs to fix this problem before release.

Keep in mind that Stephen reid does zero in-game code, as far as I'm aware.

I think he should definitely get the consensus from the people who do that first.

Stephen Reid answered this question recently:

 

 

 

source:

This is neither a proper response nor respectable considering the size of this discussion.

Warcrafts subscriptions have leveled out at 10 million, hard to call that 'dropping like a rock', take your blinders off.

Two millions in 6-8 months (that we know of) isn't exactly small change either

Warcrafts subscriptions have leveled out at 10 million, hard to call that 'dropping like a rock', take your blinders off.

LOL, I will wait to see the next few quarterly reports before I take my blinders off. The reported subs alway lag actual experience so we will see. LOL, LOL and LOL again but I know that my one cancelled sub in December has yet to be officially announced. It may be the tiniest of pebbles but many of them (and we will see how many) make a rock.

This is off topic and I was responding to a post that implied that legit issues brought up on a forum just represent a few people and can be ignored. The combat problems are a legit issue and definitely should not be ignored.

Last night I posted here and after replacing my dual ( SLI ) 8800 GTS 512mb with a 560GTX 1G I no longer have this issue. Sure it's a little choppy although not nearly as much when I hit the IMP Fleet but this card was a major upgrade.

 

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I am not sure SLI or Crossfire works correctly in this game, as it doesn't with most MMOs so that would explain, you practically went from a single, so-so card (as you probably weren't using correctly the second card) to a modern card.

This is neither a proper response nor respectable considering the size of this discussion.

That is the same response that we recieved with respect to the grace period issue and a month went by with nothing from the devs. Eventually at launch a two day grace period magically appeard, but we never did get anything (at least that I saw) from the devs on that.

I also don't understand why such (non) responses are made in Twitter or other sources and not in the dev tracker.

I am not sure SLI or Crossfire works correctly in this game, as it doesn't with most MMOs so that would explain, you practically went from a single, so-so card (as you probably weren't using correctly the second card) to a modern card.

Nobody is talking about latency lag or FPS lag. Please respect us enough to at least assume we know the difference. This is simply a delay on your abilities, that is the easiest way to describe it. I had the problem, googled it and it led me here where apparently everyone else also has the problem. Everyone I know in my circle of friends, almost all of them at least semi-pro gamers, also has the problem. Some of them have already completely quit the game after powerleveling to 50 in 4 days.

It is not FPS lag. It is not a latency issue. The only way to accurately describe it is an interface delay, an ability delay or UI responsiveness issue.

Before you say you don't have the problem, queue for a Warzone and run around while attempting to cast your instant casts in rapid succession. You will experience it, just like the rest of us.

I am not sure SLI or Crossfire works correctly in this game, as it doesn't with most MMOs so that would explain, you practically went from a single, so-so card (as you probably weren't using correctly the second card) to a modern card.

Fair enough. The only other MMO that I had issues with was WAR. Rift, WoW was just fine. Were they utilizing SLI? Probably not is the answer. The only thing I do know is the ability delay is gone. In the bg's I ran last night I didn't have one problem with them delayed or not going off at all. So that leads me to believe it was a hardware issue.

Nobody is talking about latency lag or FPS lag. Please respect us enough to at least assume we know the difference. This is simply a delay on your abilities, that is the easiest way to describe it. I had the problem, googled it and it led me here where apparently everyone else also has the problem. Everyone I know in my circle of friends, almost all of them at least semi-pro gamers, also has the problem. Some of them have already completely quit the game after powerleveling to 50 in 4 days.

 

It is not FPS lag. It is not a latency issue. The only way to accurately describe it is an interface delay, an ability delay or UI responsiveness issue.

 

Before you say you don't have the problem, queue for a Warzone and run around while attempting to cast your instant casts in rapid succession. You will experience it, just like the rest of us.

Sorry I called the warzones BG's. Old habit I guess. Trust me I had this ability delay in beta and all the way until last night. I ran five bg's to the point I finally hit 20 on Valor and got my duelist title. I had no issues at all. Not one. I don't know what to say. Again this may not be the fix for everyone but it was for me.

Stephen Reid answered this question recently:

 

source:

Wow... that has got to be the most pointless interview I have ever read.

So much talking and yet in the end he didn't say anything, really.

This is worse than Blizzard's Soon™.

Everything was answered by "I don't know but maybe."

The people who are not experiencing the problem are people who press an ability, then watch the animation, then press another ability.

 

They are watching the animation and waiting for it to end to use their next ability.

 

The people who are having problems are the ones who are using the GCD to choose when to press another button. Or people trying to use off the GCD abilities, without waiting for animations to end.

 

It is pretty obvious the animations are the problem, and some hidden GCD attached to animations that bugs your combat controls out if you press a button while it is still going.

 

I don't notice the problem questing or doing 4mans cause i watch my characters animations, cause the content is extremely easy so i don't 'play well' or maximize my character.

 

When I try warzones, i see the problem immediately, because i am actually trying to maximize my effectiveness.

The problem exists even if you wait for the animations to finish. I think there are actually two different issues that relate to each other.

Theres an issue where if you use an ability before another abilties' animation finishes then the character sometimes does a weird 'double-pump' of the move but it doesnt complete.

This issue is usually avoidable by just letting the animation complete, and is not really a great design for pvp, but is probably working as intended.

But there is another issue where instant abilities that are off the GCD just dont work when you use them. You can wait for the animation of your previous move to finish, click the off GCD ability, it uses your focus and resets the GCD, but the off GCD ability does nothing. I think this is actually a sync error where the client and server are out of sync which is causing this problem.

Its not really about the animations because you can stand still, wait til you are still again, use the ability and nothing happens. Just like in this video:

Notice how the guy who made the video actually found a work around to make the issue stop happening by right-clicking before the ability is activated, which means its the client causing this to happen not our PCs. I also have a feeling it has soomething to do with the targetting in the game, because it almost feels like you are losing your target for off-GCD abilities even though the reticle is still on the target, which could explain why right-clicking before using the off-gcd abilities stops the issue from happening. I wouldnt be surprised because thee targetting in this game is terrible.

This is what made me search for answers for this issue because I was encountering this issue on both my sentineel and my gunslinger. It has nothing to do the speed of your rig or internet lag I have a decent rig that runs the game fine at 60+fps with 30MB internet and I usually have 50ms latency.

I've also noticed that this issue happens a lot less when you use keybinds than when you click. So a lot of people that use keybinds or a naga mouse (I recently bought one to test it out) arent experiencing the problem, which I have a feeling is what the people in this thread that say they dont experience the problem are doing.

I fully support the OP!

I can describe one more bug (or should I consider this a feature for Animation-lovers?):

As Jedi Guardian I cast Saber Throw from maximum range and then go for Force Leap. The GCD is lost and Force Leap doesnt happen! So I stand there and wait! Should I have waited for the Saber to return? If I do the same from 20m distance instead of 30m everything works as it should, the Force Leap works without losing a GCD!

I am coming from WoW. Have quited playing the game on a daily basis long ago, did some League of Legends and some AION, which I happily threw away for SWTOR. I love the story, I love the animations, I love the sounds!

What I dont love is being in a battle ground and not being able to follow somebody because of lags (strange with an 60ms connection?) and having my abilities not working as they should (interupt is one of the best examples).

I dont care about minor bugs. I dont care to fall through the ground and have to issue a command to free my char. But I really want my char to act and react properly...

2 days ago, before I found this post in the forum, I canceled my subscription and left a report, describing why I did so: the game, casting, feels like having glue on your hands and since lvl 50 pvp is the only thing I care to do once the interessting and nice level up experience is through, I dont think I will be able to enjoy it under the given circumstances: so I cancel and hope they realise, that this is a GAME BREAKING ISSUE for some of us. They have 23 days now to get my subscription back, long time to react properly, if not providing a fix, at least providing the feeling, that they take this f'ing serious!!!

I remember how I quited AION in January 2010 (sic!) to find it in the same state on October 2011 (sic!). I am not willing to trust Bioware, unless they show their sincerest interesst!

This issue is under active investigation.

The complication is that there are actually a number of different issues with very different causes and potential resolutions lumped together in this thread.

All we can say for now is 'we are actively working on the topic of character responsiveness'.

I fully support the OP!

 

I can describe one more bug (or should I consider this a feature for Animation-lovers?):

 

As Jedi Guardian I cast Saber Throw from maximum range and then go for Force Leap. The GCD is lost and Force Leap doesnt happen! So I stand there and wait! Should I have waited for the Saber to return? If I do the same from 20m distance instead of 30m everything works as it should, the Force Leap works without losing a GCD!

 

I am coming from WoW. Have quited playing the game on a daily basis long ago, did some League of Legends and some AION, which I happily threw away for SWTOR. I love the story, I love the animations, I love the sounds!

 

What I dont love is being in a battle ground and not being able to follow somebody because of lags (strange with an 60ms connection?) and having my abilities not working as they should (interupt is one of the best examples).

 

I dont care about minor bugs. I dont care to fall through the ground and have to issue a command to free my char. But I really want my char to act and react properly...

 

2 days ago, before I found this post in the forum, I canceled my subscription and left a report, describing why I did so: the game, casting, feels like having glue on your hands and since lvl 50 pvp is the only thing I care to do once the interessting and nice level up experience is through, I dont think I will be able to enjoy it under the given circumstances: so I cancel and hope they realise, that this is a GAME BREAKING ISSUE for some of us. They have 23 days now to get my subscription back, long time to react properly, if not providing a fix, at least providing the feeling, that they take this f'ing serious!!!

 

I remember how I quited AION in January 2010 (sic!) to find it in the same state on October 2011 (sic!). I am not willing to trust Bioware, unless they show their sincerest interesst!

I suspect there will be thousands having the same feeling. I totally know what you mean when you say you have 'glue in your hands'. Its an almost unquantifiable characteristic that the vast majority of gamers won't be able to articulate effectively - and many won't even try. The game just feels sluggish for all of the reasons (and maybe more) contained in this thread.

For every person that posts about it in this thread, how many wont bother and will simply cancel instead?

For me, this is a catastrophic error from Bioware. Given the simple reality that so many people will come to this game directly from World of Warcraft, its astonishing that they didn't realise this problem would/could set in - and that they were repeatedly notified of it in beta. There is a lot of random whining about utterly trivial nonsense such as faulty nodes, class balance, lack of quality of life features. Its all bull! This thread is about the issue that will decide the fate of this game. Guess its just fingers crossed time until we hear the official response.

The problem exists even if you wait for the animations to finish. I think there are actually two different issues that relate to each other.

 

Theres an issue where if you use an ability before another abilties' animation finishes then the character sometimes does a weird 'double-pump' of the move but it doesnt complete.

 

This issue is usually avoidable by just letting the animation complete, and is not really a great design for pvp, but is probably working as intended.

 

But there is another issue where instant abilities that are off the GCD just dont work when you use them. You can wait for the animation of your previous move to finish, click the off GCD ability, it uses your focus and resets the GCD, but the off GCD ability does nothing. I think this is actually a sync error where the client and server are out of sync which is causing this problem.

 

Its not really about the animations because you can stand still, wait til you are still again, use the ability and nothing happens. Just like in this video:

 

 

Notice how the guy who made the video actually found a work around to make the issue stop happening by right-clicking before the ability is activated, which means its the client causing this to happen not our PCs. I also have a feeling it has soomething to do with the targetting in the game, because it almost feels like you are losing your target for off-GCD abilities even though the reticle is still on the target, which could explain why right-clicking before using the off-gcd abilities stops the issue from happening. I wouldnt be surprised because thee targetting in this game is terrible.

 

This is what made me search for answers for this issue because I was encountering this issue on both my sentineel and my gunslinger. It has nothing to do the speed of your rig or internet lag I have a decent rig that runs the game fine at 60+fps with 30MB internet and I usually have 50ms latency.

 

I've also noticed that this issue happens a lot less when you use keybinds than when you click. So a lot of people that use keybinds or a naga mouse (I recently bought one to test it out) arent experiencing the problem, which I have a feeling is what the people in this thread that say they dont experience the problem are doing.

That video is VERY interesting...

I fully support the OP!

 

I can describe one more bug (or should I consider this a feature for Animation-lovers?):

 

As Jedi Guardian I cast Saber Throw from maximum range and then go for Force Leap. The GCD is lost and Force Leap doesnt happen! So I stand there and wait! Should I have waited for the Saber to return? If I do the same from 20m distance instead of 30m everything works as it should, the Force Leap works without losing a GCD!

Yes, someone posted this far back in the first thread I believe and it was defended by the BDF (Bioware Defence Force) fervently for its amazing realism...

I fully support the OP!

 

I can describe one more bug (or should I consider this a feature for Animation-lovers?):

 

As Jedi Guardian I cast Saber Throw from maximum range and then go for Force Leap. The GCD is lost and Force Leap doesnt happen! So I stand there and wait! Should I have waited for the Saber to return? If I do the same from 20m distance instead of 30m everything works as it should, the Force Leap works without losing a GCD!

This is the same issue. You basically are trying to use an ability off the gcd while the gcd is ticking and its not working. Like I said in my post above yours if you right click right before you use force leap it will probably work.

This issuee is much easier to notice on all the melee classes, but the ranged classes also experience it. It has to do with using off-gcd abilties while the gcd is still ticking. I dont even think its the animations unless the problem is they actually are using two different GCDs (one for abilities and one for animations)

I have read nearly everything in this thread and the thread before it, before putting in my own bit. This took the better part of a day and a half between having my companion do Slicing//tab back out to read. I finally caught up to the growing pages.

I wanted to thank everyone who attempted to add information to this listed issue-- even if some of you come off hostile while doing so. I'd also like to thank a few of the trolls for a lot of good laughs. It was entertaining to break the constant post perusing.

I experienced this firstly on my own Sorcerer. I tend to try chaining spells together-- Crushing Darkness to Affliction, Force Lightning//Lightning Strike to Shock-- and sometimes it would work. Sometimes it would not. Glad to see I was FAR from the only one.

I am in fact going to be upgrading my video card soon-- an 8600 GTS GeForce isn't really cutting it so much anymore. (I've 8 GB of RAM so I'm sure that's fine) Anyway. Big thanks to Xcore and everyone else that took time trying to examine what issues existed for this problem and what might solve them. Even when arguments arose, it progressed, and that's a telling thing when spanned across....350+ pages.