I have a gripe about the Datacron farming. Most of them require platforming - jumping from object to object. However, the controls of the game are not set up to encourage success at these mechanics. When I press the spacebar to jump, 5 different things may occur. In order of likelihood:

 

1) There is no jump at all - my character just walks off of the platform.

2) She jumps a short distance with a short height.

3) She jumps a short distance with a high height.

4) She jumps a long distance with a short height.

5) She jumps a long distance with a long height.

 

I don't get to pick between these options. My testing has revealed that the option is sometimes affected by whether you are standing still or running, but it is inconsistently affected. Having sprint active makes the distances a little longer, but still has all 5 options. If the jump distances and heights are going to be variable, please allow me to actively choose between them, and please remove the 1st option, which happens most of the time, when the game just ignores my jump command.

 

A 2nd problem is that when I move forward into a raised platform that is connected to my current platform but the jump achieved is a short height, all forward momentum is changed to sideways momentum, and I end up moving sideways off of the platform I am on.

 

A 3rd problem is invisible walls in midair. I'll jump forward towards another platform, when suddenly, halfway there, my character changes direction and moves sideways at full-speed.

 

A 4th problem is changing strafing speeds. If I switch from left to right or vice versa, sometimes I'll suddenly go at twice the speed and fall of a platform.

 

Spending an hour on one datacron repeatedly falling off of the same platform is not fun.

 

Edit: I've now spend 90 minutes on a datacron without anything to show for it, I give up - until the controls are improved, it is not possible to grind out these datacrons.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Salion

I have not had the problems you have experienced. Rather, I do not see anything you are describing that I have not seen in other games and cannot attribute to just the way I was jumping. The sole exception to that is the invisible walls. If you are runing into invisible walls and can repeat the situation, bug report it. Keep in mind that the world doesn't actually exist, and everything that is happeing is just mathematics. If you run into a wall anywhere that doesn't belong there, it is an indication a variable (or set of variables) is off and they need to know where it is so they can fix it.

 

Regarding most everything else, I don't find this game's jumping controls any different than other games. For instance, I got the datacron for extra cunning from the Justicar area on both my Trooper and my Shadow. With my Trooper a few days ago, it took me about three tries to make it all the way there. When I did it again last night with my Shadow, I made it in one trip without a single misstep.

 

Granted, one difference is that I have a new mouse and keyboard since I did it with my Trooper, which undoubtedly helped. However, it was mostly that I knew what I did wrong the first time. This time, I made sure I gave myself enough room to get a little forward momentum before I jumped when trying to get up on the crates, and I jumped soon enough to make sure I did not jump into the side of the crate. For the pipes, where I fell at least twice with my Trooper, I made sure to move out a bit from the wall, and angled towards the wall for the jump. This gave me a little room to get some foward momentum on the pipe/suface I was jumping from and allowed me to jump into the wall to kill my forward momentum so I did not jump over the pipe. It also allowed me to jump onto the pipe fitting where the pipe joins the wall, which is a little wider (and flatter) than the pipe itself.

 

There are other things you can do, such as letting go of the forward movment keys/mouse buttons before you hit the ground when you are jumping to a narrow landing area so that you don't hit the ground running. You can make sure you jump before you hit the edge of the surface you are jumping from so that you are jumping from the starting point, not after you already ran off it. When jumping up onto crates, you have to make sure you are not jumping into the side of the crate. This means you have to get back far enough to get some forward momentum and jump before you get to the crate. Alternatively, if you are right next to the crate, jump up and only move forward once you are at the peak of your jump. In the first case, if you jump too late and, in the second case, if you start moving forward too soon, you end up hitting the side of the crate rather than clearing it.

 

Other than that, I cannot tell you why you are having so many problems. I always have to work at these kinds of things, and I really don't see any problems with this game I have not experienced in others.

 

I hope it gets better for you.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Sotaudi

I'm sorry, but this response in a joke. The original post is spot on. The controls need to be consistant. The toon doesn't do what he is commanded to do at all. They need to fix this. I have several friends all having tr same issues, so it isn't a pc issue or a control issue

I'm also having the same problem. No apparent lag on my end or control problems with any other aspect. My friend sitting next to me in the same room running on an older PC can jump to datacrons with ease, while I'm trapped at the first jump.

 

And before anyone questions skill, that friend tried it on my machine and failed same as me. It would seem I've eliminated network, pilot error, and machine stats. Unless there's some odd setting I'm missing I'm at a loss for the cause. I've seen quite a few posts and threads with this same problem and a hope a cause or a fix can be found soon.

I've been having this issue as well and it makes it incredibly frustrating trying to get some of these datacrons when you are jumping from pipe to pipe and all of a sudden your toon goes "derpa derp" and just steps off without jumping.

Same problem here! I spent 3 hours last night on 1 datacron before finally just turning the game off. The jumps are so random you never know how to plan it out.

 

Either fix the platforming or move the datacrons.

I'm also not happy how jumping is currently implented into the game... it's so frustrating to get all the datacrons.

Farming the Belsavis Rakata energy cubes was orders of magnitude worse than any of the jumping puzzles.

Yeah these datacron platforming games are such a pain, i mean theres one on coruscant where you have to climb up several boxes and one jump is just impossible because of the jump height combined with a gap right where i'm supposed to jump, where realistically a character could just jump and grab the ledge, surely a climbing animation could be added for crates?

Farming the Belsavis Rakata energy cubes was orders of magnitude worse than any of the jumping puzzles.

It just took like forever, but it was not so frustarting like fail an important jump to get the datacron and have to start over again the stupid jumping game.

i would like to now which jumping one giving poeple issues. i gotten aprrox. 90% of teh datacrons, the only ones i find i have issues with i'm a type 3 large body, but i can not fix between small cracks to get so far 2 datacrons easily. one i ahd to die to get, the next one idk how to get at this time. it in corlira(likely misspelled) under a platform and the only way to get to it is to walk in a crack on pile. which i'm to ig for.

I have a gripe about the Datacron farming. Most of them require platforming - jumping from object to object. However, the controls of the game are not set up to encourage success at these mechanics. When I press the spacebar to jump, 5 different things may occur. In order of likelihood:

 

1) There is no jump at all - my character just walks off of the platform.

2) She jumps a short distance with a short height.

3) She jumps a short distance with a high height.

4) She jumps a long distance with a short height.

5) She jumps a long distance with a long height.

 

I don't get to pick between these options. My testing has revealed that the option is sometimes affected by whether you are standing still or running, but it is inconsistently affected. Having sprint active makes the distances a little longer, but still has all 5 options. If the jump distances and heights are going to be variable, please allow me to actively choose between them, and please remove the 1st option, which happens most of the time, when the game just ignores my jump command.

 

A 2nd problem is that when I move forward into a raised platform that is connected to my current platform but the jump achieved is a short height, all forward momentum is changed to sideways momentum, and I end up moving sideways off of the platform I am on.

 

A 3rd problem is invisible walls in midair. I'll jump forward towards another platform, when suddenly, halfway there, my character changes direction and moves sideways at full-speed.

 

A 4th problem is changing strafing speeds. If I switch from left to right or vice versa, sometimes I'll suddenly go at twice the speed and fall of a platform.

 

Spending an hour on one datacron repeatedly falling off of the same platform is not fun.

 

Edit: I've now spend 90 minutes on a datacron without anything to show for it, I give up - until the controls are improved, it is not possible to grind out these datacrons.

You're doing it wrong. I haven't had any problems with the jumping. As for #1, that's a common problem that I've experienced in almost every game with platforming starting with the original Mario Brothers. You're trying to jump while you're too close to the edge.

 

A 2nd problem is that when I move forward into a raised platform that is connected to my current platform but the jump achieved is a short height, all forward momentum is changed to sideways momentum, and I end up moving sideways off of the platform I am on.

So why do you keep running forward? If you actually tried to learn from your mistakes you would have realized after the first time that you have to jump first, then move forward. If you jump while stationary and then move you go forward barely enough to get onto the platform. You get no sideways movement that way.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Game-Hermit

Overall the jumping controls may be difficult, but it does not mean they are impossible.

 

Next you're going to complain about how you have to wait about 30 minutes for a balloon to show up then ride it for another 30 minutes on Tattooine for 2 more datacrons.

 

I have managed to adjust myself and actually try again and again until I got a ton of the datacrons. If you're taking 3 hours to get 1, then take a break and come back to it. You might see something different when you come back.

 

The only gripe I have with datacrons is the one on Alderaan, castle panteer. The passage doesn't allow body type 3 or 4 through it.

I'm lucky. My guild does Datacron runs every so often and we use each other to help. If someone falls we duel and use abilities like Harpoon or storm (Vanguard) to get to each other from one hard spot to the next.

 

I think harpoon may pull a fatty through the Alderaan small door too maybe. I have seen others let themselves die then a partner rez them inside the door.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Derfmiolleh

Ive been having the same issue here, tried jumping to datacrons in Taris, my toon doesn't jump, she hits a wall or she jumps but lands on the ground underneath the platform she was supposed to land on. Issue still isn't fixed for some people....really makes the jumping for datacrons a pain and something i don't really wanna attempt...

My friend jumps to all the platforms with ease, her toon jumps high and lands where she is supposed to. This seriously needs to be fixed...

The jumping will always be consistent if you follow one easy trick. It's difficult to describe with words, though. But I have gotten every datacron in the game on first try without falling or failing, by employing this technique.

 

If W is your move forward and spacebar is your jump, do a "galloping" motion with your hand, such that W is pressed down a split-second before spacebar is, and then release spacebar as soon as possible with your thumb but keep W held down.

 

If you try to press W and spacebar at the same time often the jump will register without W so you will have no forward motion and fall off.

 

Note: For most datacrons it's helpful to turn off Sprint. Also, when jumping down from a higher platform to a lower one, aim your camera directly down so that you can see where the platforms are located in the XY plane rather than having to guess from a 3D angle.

 

I hope this helps. It has saved me hours, and I get every datacron on every character just because it's so easy and reliable now.

Edited May 18, 2013 by Jenzali

Actually, jumping is pretty consistent. I will assume [W]=forward and [space]=jump

You have these types (to my knowledge)

Holding [W] + [space] = long jump (running and jumping)

[space]+[W] = short jump (frog-like leap from spot)

[space] = vertical jump (jumping in place)

 

I never had any problem with jumping to datacron, unless I missed the platform I tried to get to (Makeb +10 end)

I also helps to get on a speeder for longer jumps, and turning off sprint for more precise jumps

 

As to the difficulty, I managed to collect majority of the datacrons (45+) in maybe 5 hours of playing, and I am Datacron Master now

I may be late to this party, but I must disagree with those who say, "You're doing it wrong".

 

I have created 8 different characters, of which 5 are at Lvl 55. My first was a Sith Assassin, which had major platforming issues. My second was a Mercenary, which has every datacron in the game, and had no issues platforming. I also have a Vanguard with no issues.

 

However, I am currently playing a Scoundrel, and this character, 'Plain and Simple', WILL NOT JUMP CORRECTLY. There is something intrinsically wrong with this characters platforming abilities.

 

I am at a loss as to what is causing this. Is it Class, Species, Gender, Body type, Armor or a combination of attributes.

Whatever it is, it has absolutely nothing to do with keyboarding skills or the players experience level.

A lot of the issues stem from client/server sync, and where the server thinks you jumped rather than from where you see yourself jumping.

 

I have a low ping with the server, but there are times when I hit spacebar well away from the edge of something, but I still fall off as if I never hit the bar. Other times it stutter steps before doing the jump.

 

I relate that to the same issue as the ability misfire bug. Where you use a power, but it doesn't fire, yet still puts it on cooldown.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. There is certainly room for improvements. I run into the issues of the OP, in that there is a delay between pressing space and the jump if moving. If sprint is on you end up taking a two or three extra steps (there seems to be no set number), and whole walking one or two. It is extremely frustrating. Adding a ledge grabbing function would be very helpful, or even a boosted jump via force or rocket boosters. I understand that the datacrons are supposed to add a challenge, however there is a difference between a challenge and fighting the controls.