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Ability Delay -- Character Responsiveness (This will make or break SW:TOR)


Xcore

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Hello,

 

Updated: 01-21-12' (This is Continuing Thread 6)

 

Ability Delay -- Character Responsiveness (The Video)

 

- Preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVFNpTxOH7c <-- Cinematic and Fun

- Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33rZGc3EpZM <-- 50min full length... I hope you enjoy it and it gives definition to this issue

 

Original Thread: Thread 1 -- http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=84943

Thread 2 -- http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=95738

Thread 3 -- http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=105955

Thread 4 -- http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=119676

Thread 5 -- http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=133110

 

**BIOWARE RESPONSES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST**

 

Before you label me a Troll please read my Early Review here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=76222

 

My Reflection of the entire Thread: 3000+ Replies (Read every single one), 120,000+ Views... http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=95738&page=82

 

 

Other forums discussing this issue:

 

(MMO-Champion) http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1052920-Ability-Delay-Character-Responsiveness-(This-will-make-or-break-SW-TOR

Incredible Post on Rift Forums: http://forums.riftgame.com/rift-general-discussions/pvp-warfronts/276611-rift-pvp-woes-feedback-long.html

 

ArenaNet's (Guild Wars 2) Combat Timing and Fine Tuning:http://www.arena.net/blog/guild-wars-2-year-end-development-update#more-6955

 

 

Video Examples of the Discussed Subject

 

Thank You - Baznasty (Thread 1, Page 87) -- WoW Example/Contrast:

Thank You - Sanchpanza (Thread 1, Page 123) -- TOR Example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzP0xjNLyX4

Thank You - Samdbtto (Thread 1, Page 124) -- TOR Target Switch Responsiveness

Thank You - Badchx (Thread 1, Page 181) -- TOR Healing Issue:

Thank You - Devolution (Thread 1, Page 210) -- TOR Melee Ability Delay:

Thank You - Hulduet (Thread 2, Page 89) -- TOR Ability Activation Timer:

Thank You - Badchx (Thread 2, Page 148) -- WoW/TOR Cast-Moving Responsiveness:

Thank You - jtype_sw (Thread 3, Page 24) -- Kolto Injection Healing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fc79BNC-zI

Thank You - Owarida (Thread 3, Page 27) -- Imperial Agent, Delay + Snipe Cancel etc.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTX3VYtZGhE

Thank You - jtype_sw (Thread 3, Page 83) -- Ability Trigger Fail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbFgyeRFbdo&context=C3d50270ADOEgsToPDskJYu1y-3uG_uWyCstMK7nMz

Thank You - Nikita_Kilemal (Thread 4, Page 79) -- Bounty Hunter Delay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPQSvpfTaho&feature=plcp&context=C3ac0d9bUDOEgsToPDskIueQtIRmnTZX-jzIDR07ra

Thank You - Mdrunx (Thread 5, Page 80) -- Sith Warrior Ability Fail:

 

Thank You - Allocator (Thread 4, Page 36) Diagram of Ability Delay Problem: http://i.imgur.com/oGeam.png

 

 

Note: Please, if you agree with these points and this subject, rate the thread. Perhaps this will raise Bioware's awareness. Anything we can do to make SW:TOR the best it can be because the truth is you and I are here because we want it to succeed and we see it's potential.

 

The game has been out long enough for the masses to finally realize the negatives. As people are getting out of the starting planets and the "new and shiny" feeling starts to subside, the cracks in this new wonderous world are becoming apparent.

 

Ability Delay and Character Responsiveness: -- It is not Latency or FPS Lag

 

I will attempt to discuss this issue and I will do so in a manner that I hope will make everyone understand it better. The "Character Responsiveness" for lack of a better term, is how "smooth" the game plays from your avatars perspective. I have played SWG and EQ to a lesser degree as well as Warhammer Online and several other MMOs and I must honestly say that Bioware has gotten this all too important aspect much better than any previous MMO that I have experienced (with the obvious exception, to which we will get soon).

 

You see, I really want you (The Reader) to understand the importance of this topic. To drive home "how" important this is. In fact I will say this: I am in no way shy to say that, the reason Warhammer Online, EQs, Rift, SWG etc. etc. could never "ever" get to anything near WoW subscriptions is the Character Responsiveness. All these games failed for many reasons, and a game "can" fail for many reasons and on many fronts but this single-one-category... is by "far" the #1 Reason why World of Warcraft is World of Warcraft.

 

Again, I must drive home the fact that no matter if you understand this issue or are new to the subject (and perhaps MMOs) or if you believe the game is fun and enjoyable and think that this is just a vocal minority piping up on something nonsensical. This is the undeniable truth and any game developer or serious gamer worth their salt will agree.

 

 

What is Character Responsiveness and Ability Delay? -- It is not Latency or FPS lag

 

It is the feeling of connection between the person behind the keyboard and the Avatar that is being controlled. Basically, the better the Character Responsiveness is, the smoother the Game Plays! You may HATE World of Warcraft and believe it is the worst abomination on the planet... that is fine. HOWEVER, you "must" objectively admit that it is the absolute, smoothest Character Responsiveness in a Western Available MMO ever.

 

If you are a WoW player, and have played WoW with any amount of skill, competitiveness, you cannot help but cringe when in a Warzone in SW:TOR. It feels unresponsive, frustrating... as if something is wrong with you! but there is nothing you can do about it!

 

If you have never played WoW, perhaps you come from SWG or EQ2 or Rift etc. that is fine! You are WELCOME in this thread, it is not WoW Players against the Rest! I just "need" you to understand that SW:TOR is "noticeably" and "objectively" bad in this crucial department. I am not writing this because I am trolling or because I love WoW, on the contrary. I am doing this because I want SW:TOR to be amazing, I love so many aspects of this great game... but if this is not addressed it "will" die like every other one.

 

 

Why is this "so" important?! -- It is not Latency or FPS lag

 

From here on I will say 0.5 for emphasis but reality is 0.2, 0.3 (ANY) Ability Delay is unacceptable.

 

And here is the real problem. It is so important because MMO gaming has become so "tight", so competitive and so smooth (through WoW), that it is completely and absolutely unacceptable for an ability or animation to be delayed by 0.5 seconds.

 

0.5 seconds is a lot of time, to our visual cortex. 0.5 seconds is the difference between interrupting a CC of the enemy player or not (and thus being disadvantaged/dying). 0.5 seconds is the difference between landing a Taunt on the "add" that just came into the room and thus having it come to you or it one-shotting your healer and thus wiping on the Boss you've just spent 3 Days wiping to.

 

Zero Point Five Seconds is a ******* Long Time

 

 

Bioware, I plead that you dedicate as many resources as required (all if needed) to address this. You cannot cram story/companions/new flashpoints - operations... Class Balance into patches and hope that is good enough.

 

I hate to be a crazed doomsayer but I must state: Mark my words, if SW:TOR's Character Responsiveness and Ability Delay is not on par with WoW's by March-June it will be just another Rift.

 

Bioware, please see the importance of Character Responsiveness and Visual Stimulation of Ability Animation Correctness. It should be impossible for me to have an ability's cooldown activated without seeing it animate.... this is unacceptable. I just truly hope that this isn't a core coding issue or engine issue, because then we're f'd.

 

 

Notable Mention:

 

Thread 1 -- Page 133 -- Poster: ajjw

 

"In a game like WoW, if your previous spell's animation is still playing when you use your next spell, the old animation immediately ends and that of the new spell beings. However in TOR, if an animation is still playing, the game will not let you cast another spell, even if the cast time and GCD have already finished.

 

In other words, if a spell has a 2s cast time but a 2.5s animation, you'll be sat there looking stupid for 0.5s unable to cast anything after the first spell, whereas in WoW the last 0.5s of the old animation will be "clipped" (ie cut off) and you'll be able to cast a new spell immediately, the animation of which will also begin to play immediately."

 

 

Thread 2 -- Page 109 -- Poster: Reedful (Professional Gaming Experience)

 

His Proven Credentials: http://www.arenajunkies.com/user/174129-threatslol/

 

WC3 Tournament Player

WoW Tournament Player

CS:S Tournament Player

 

Attended regionals and most MLG events from 2008-2010

 

Xcore: On a personal note, I value input like this a lot as this is someone with a very high understand of the intricacies of "Competitive Combat Design". I realize that the view may be a little "Hardcore" but nonetheless it is invaluable and coming from an individual that is perceiving the "Gameworld" at a higher level.

 

"Speaking from a professional gamer's standpoint, the game is simply unplayable. It is barely possible to outplay your opponents with a 2 second median reaction time. Olympic is .4, I'd settle for .8. It is hilarious how they were bragging about taking subscriptions away from World of Warcraft when anything in this game after the single player parts might as well have been made in 2003... by Blizzard, and then discarded so their game would actually be successful.

 

I can interrupt my own instant casts. There's at least a 1 second delay on every single one of my abilities(even instants not on the global) with a professional gaming computer and 3 MS. I live right down the road. You should hire me, throw away the Hero Engine and maybe we can fix your issues.

 

--

 

Say I'm CC'd by the door in Voidstar and I want to trinket to interrupt the cap - here we have a perfect example of how you've ripped off World of Warcraft almost to the letter with everything from the battleground style in this, "Warzone," to "Tenacity" AND it's cooldown, et al, holy moly.

 

So anyway, here I am playing a WoW clone, stunned by the door. I trinket(I am not going to call it Tenacity because it is a blatant rip off of World of Warcraft and it hasn't established a real name for itself.) Nothing happens. Nothing happens for almost an entire global. I am spamming Concussion Charge. At this point I have only casted Tenacity, which does not use my global and I have waited for 1.5 seconds. Finally, the game registers that I have casted my PvP trinket, takes the cooldown 2 seconds late, frees me from my CC and allows my Concussion Charge spam to activate the ability except I get knocked back, the UI tells me my instant cast ability was interrupted and my Resolve bar has already decayed to 75%.

 

There is no saying, "hehehe don't spam your abilities." There is no saying, "well I still like the game anyway!" There is no saying, "well if everyone has the same lag, it's balanced!""

 

 

Thread 3 -- Page 13 -- Poster: Asabalana (Casual Gamer)

 

"I am an average player who will never be on the list of greats and I see the issue very clearly. Yesterday I ran Esseles on a Trooper alt. It was painful. Spells misfired, spells cast after the gcd was over and ability bar was lit had delays before they activated. At points trying to cast while straffing was an adventure. As bad as the problem is in solo play, you can work around it, but in group play it is really bad. You feel that you are letting the group down because you can't function and play your part.

 

Yes I have played WOW and the only thing that I liked about the game was the combat system. But I am a noob at heart. This is an issue that affects everyone. The only difference between the top tier well experienced players and noobs newbies and newcomers is that the top guys/gals can understand and verbalize why game play does not feel good. The rest just know that it does not feel good although they can't put their finger on why.

 

I can't speak to whether this will make or break swtor, but believe that it will cost the game a great many subs and result in a great deal of lost revenue for EA/BW. It will cost the loss of most of the top tier players who although small in number contribute a lot to the game and community.

 

The game still has a lot of bugs. LOL, yesterday a level 17 player asked for help with a boss in general. I responded with my 26 JC Shadow. We fought the boss and he was killed quickly but I got the boss to 0 health and the thing still kept fighting. That went on for ten minutes and the boss just kept on with 0 health and would not drop. I told the person that I was trying to help that the instance was bugged and that he should just move on. No big deal (one bugged quest out of thousands that will be fixed eventually). But the combat system problems are a prime big deal. They need to be given top priority with communication to the community and be fixed post haste. Otherwise people will start leaving the game. It will be a real shame because most of the people who end up leaving really like the game and want to play, but find it not playable because of the combat issue.

 

To the OP, I think that BW owes you big time. You have identified and described a problem and forced their attention to it. BW is much better off facing this right now than rather seeing subs drop and somewhere down the line when it is way to late identifying why."

 

 

Bioware Responses

 

 

Thread 2 -- Page 123 -- Georg Zoeller

 

"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'."

 

Georg "Observer" Zoeller

Principal Lead Combat Designer

 

 

Sticky Post -- Emmanuel Lusinchi

 

During the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’ve been paying a lot of attention to the game’s responsiveness. As pointed out by some people on the Forum, a very responsive experience is one of the factors that separate the best MMOs from the others. This is something we are fully aware of and take extremely seriously.

 

Several of the issues brought forth by the community have already been dealt with and you should see the fixes integrated in coming patches, including those coming this month. Every lead mentioned on the forum is being investigated and I cannot stress enough how useful your feedback is – especially when coupled with the level of details found in some of the posts.

 

So I’d really like to thank the community for this very constructive feedback.

 

Thanks again and best regards,

 

Emmanuel Lusinchi

Technical Design Director

Star Wars: The Old Republic

 

 

Blog Post -- Georg Zoeller

 

Hi everyone; I wanted to give you all an update on the ability delay situation.

 

Thanks to constructive feedback from the community, including some great videos, we were able to identify an issue that could cause abilities on global cooldown to appear available to the player, resulting in unresponsive/ignored player input. A fix for the issue is currently scheduled to go to the public test server with our next update.

 

Additionally, we have located an issue that would cause player input for certain instant abilities to fail in frantic combat situations, resulting in unpredictable and frustrating gameplay issues for the affected player. A fix for the issue is currently scheduled to go to the public test server with our next update.

 

Finally, our engineers have identified an issue introducing a significant delay between player input and ability execution in certain game situations, most notably (but not limited to) fast paced PvP. The magnitude of the delay varies with a number of factors, including processor hardware, but can, especially on dual core CPUs, result in a very perceivable reduction in game responsiveness. We are in the later stages of testing a fix for the problem and hope to be able to roll it out to the servers very soon.

 

We're still investigating a number of additional issues, along with some usability and quality of life improvements for responsiveness regarding player input, but the above mentioned developments should provide a very measurable improvement in combat responsiveness.

 

Thanks again for your patience and support and we hope to see you on the public test server to help us validate these improvements before pushing them to the live servers.

 

Georg Zoeller

Principal Lead Combat Designer

 

 

P.S.: It is not Latency or FPS Lag... also very important to understand.

Edited by Xcore
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Hello everyone!

 

We have recreated this thread because it has reached our post threshold of 1,000. Feel free to use this new thread to continue the discussion. We would also like to point out the following post from the Developer Tracker from Georg Zoeller regarding this issue.

 

Original Post

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'.

 

Emmanuel Lusinchi has also created a pinned topic on this matter: A quick update on Ability Delay.

 

A reminder that regardless of the topic, it is part of our Rules of Conduct that:


  • Never insult another member of the community.
  • Respect other community members, whether they agree with you or not.
  • Flag, don't fight. Use the "flag" feature to report posts to our Community Team if you see someone breaking the rules – don't respond to them!
  • Make constructive, on-topic posts that add to the discussion.

Thank you for understanding.

Edited by Noviru
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I've noticed something strange with my Sith Sorc. Offensive abilities are almost flawlessly responsive.

 

This first video shows a little target swapping with no negative impact on responsiveness, including damaging two targets simultaneously before the animation on the ability damaging the second target begins playing:

 

This video shows two targets being damaged at once twice, and one target once at the end. In the first case, force lightning begins damaging the second target before the animation from lightning strike finishes. After knocking both down a little bit, you can see lightning strike and shock hit them at once, killing them both at the same instant. Shock fires before the animation from lightning strike finishes. At the end, you'll notice the last target being killed by lightning strike and shock hitting at the same time, despite the animation from lightning strike not having finished with shock does damage:

 

By contrast, here's how my heals behave:

 

You'll notice that they are very consistently NOT triggering until the animation completes, in stark contrast with offensive abilities. Given the type of sharp response needed to heal well, this is a major problem.

 

This video demonstrates how severe the delay on Dark Infusion is. I'm chain casting them on Khem, and as you can see, they don't land until about a second after the cast completes, and even more odd, they don't seem to land until at least half a second after you see the heal animation actually hit him (the little purple cloud):

 

Clearly, something is way off with the heals here.

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I've noticed something strange with my Sith Sorc. Offensive abilities are almost flawlessly responsive.

 

This first video shows a little target swapping with no negative impact on responsiveness, including damaging two targets simultaneously before the animation on the ability damaging the second target begins playing:

 

This video shows two targets being damaged at once twice, and one target once at the end. In the first case, force lightning begins damaging the second target before the animation from lightning strike finishes. After knocking both down a little bit, you can see lightning strike and shock hit them at once, killing them both at the same instant. Shock fires before the animation from lightning strike finishes. At the end, you'll notice the last target being killed by lightning strike and shock hitting at the same time, despite the animation from lightning strike not having finished with shock does damage:

 

By contrast, here's how my heals behave:

 

You'll notice that they are very consistently NOT triggering until the animation completes, in stark contrast with offensive abilities. Given the type of sharp response needed to heal well, this is a major problem.

 

This video demonstrates how severe the delay on Dark Infusion is. I'm chain casting them on Khem, and as you can see, they don't land until about a second after the cast completes, and even more odd, they don't seem to land until at least half a second after you see the heal animation actually hit him (the little purple cloud):

 

Clearly, something is way off with the heals here.

 

can you post a video of you casting the heal on an injured target?

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Since the last patch or 2 I've now got a new problem where my abilities simply won't fire no matter how much I mash the button.

 

I can see the button being fired on the ui and a GCD is triggered but the ability just won't go off for anywhere between 2-8 seconds. Again, the ability is getting triggered on the hotbars but it won't actually fire no matter how many times I push the button.

 

It really sucks when I want to stealth and instead sit there mashing my stealth button only to see it fire 6 seconds later and 10 button presses later.

 

The ability lag has always bothered me but they did something a few days ago that has made it even worse.

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can you post a video of you casting the heal on an injured target?

 

Just jumped off something real quick to test it. Advancing the video frame by frame, I note a ~.3-.4 second delay for both casts, which is significantly less than what the floating combat test makes it appear to be, but still more than I'd like:

 

That .3-.4 is calculated by advancing the video frame by frame. For the first heal, the cast bar fill completely at 3.38, lights up at 3.44, and my healthbar moves at 3.81, a .37s delay from the cast bar lighting up.

 

Second heal, cast bar fills at 8.85, lights up at 8.88. My healthbar moves at 9.25, a .37s delay from the cast bar lighting up.

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Just jumped off something real quick to test it. Advancing the video frame by frame, I note a ~.3-.4 second delay for both casts, which is significantly less than what the floating combat test makes it appear to be, but still more than I'd like:

 

That .3-.4 is calculated by advancing the video frame by frame. For the first heal, the cast bar fill completely at 3.38, lights up at 3.44, and my healthbar moves at 3.81, a .37s delay from the cast bar lighting up.

 

Second heal, cast bar fills at 8.85, lights up at 8.88. My healthbar moves at 9.25, a .37s delay from the cast bar lighting up.

 

i wanted you to post a video of your character healing an injured target because i wanted to see if the heal took effect during the final part of the animation or during the floating text. as i suspected, the floating text is just delayed and the heal works as intended. if you use the ability in rapid succession, the animation is accelerated and the heal takes effect as soon as the casting bar fills. the brief animation at the end doesn't hinder other abilities and moving during the animation doesn't interrupt the ability. i don't really see a problem.

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Just jumped off something real quick to test it. Advancing the video frame by frame, I note a ~.3-.4 second delay for both casts, which is significantly less than what the floating combat test makes it appear to be, but still more than I'd like:

 

That .3-.4 is calculated by advancing the video frame by frame. For the first heal, the cast bar fill completely at 3.38, lights up at 3.44, and my healthbar moves at 3.81, a .37s delay from the cast bar lighting up.

 

Second heal, cast bar fills at 8.85, lights up at 8.88. My healthbar moves at 9.25, a .37s delay from the cast bar lighting up.

 

Looking at that video, I see no problems. Your HP goes up right after the cast bar finishes (after it lights up), before your character is even finished the animation and before the floating combat text even appears on screen. Seems to work fine to me.

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watching your video i noticed the delay right away, thx for the contribution

 

Where? He casts Charged Burst, it immediately animates, and he quickly and seamlessly is able to go right into his next move throwing the grenade.

 

you mean like the damage taking effect before the animation is completed? thanks for playing, redneck.

 

Edit: Sorry, forgot to add the above in about the damage working properly but this poster already said it for me!

Edited by Leiloni
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i wanted you to post a video of your character healing an injured target because i wanted to see if the heal took effect during the final part of the animation or during the floating text. as i suspected, the floating text is just delayed and the heal works as intended. if you use the ability in rapid succession, the animation is accelerated and the heal takes effect as soon as the casting bar fills. the brief animation at the end doesn't hinder other abilities and moving during the animation doesn't interrupt the ability. i don't really see a problem.

 

I'm not sure about "as intended", a third of a second of delay is still a bit much, IMHO. .2s should be the upper limit, but it certainly isn't as bad as the UI bugs make it appear to be.

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What I'm seeing and hearing from some other players is either bugs that need to be fixed (i.e. a skill not firing at all), or user not knowing how to use the options menu (ability queue, nameplate/secondary cast bar). But seeing some vids, I don't think there is some huge game breaking delay between the cast bar finishing and the damage/healing taking effect. Literally so minute I don't see the issue. Edited by Leiloni
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I'm not sure about "as intended", a third of a second of delay is still a bit much, IMHO. .2s should be the upper limit, but it certainly isn't as bad as the UI bugs make it appear to be.

 

well, it's just that the part of the animation that coincides with the effect happens after the casting bar has filled, giving the impression that the effect is delayed. for some reason, it doesn't happen when you spam the ability. the same thing happens with charged burst and underworld medicine but it's not a hindrance as the animation doesn't prevent you from using other abilities. i find it really hard to believe that this is what's causing all the uproar on the forum.

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I'm not sure about "as intended", a third of a second of delay is still a bit much, IMHO. .2s should be the upper limit, but it certainly isn't as bad as the UI bugs make it appear to be.

 

can you do me one more favor and make a video of you hitting the ability as fast as possible on a target so that each heal restores hitpoints? i want to see if the animation is accelerated when you use the ability in rapid succession.

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Messing around on my JK a lot and it seems to me that skill stuttering only happens when you repeatedly hit the same skill button.

 

I changed my skill queue time to "1" (in the first option in the options menu) and it resulted in much smoother gameplay, as you can have your next skill queued up before the GCD. You just have to train yourself to not mash the key until you see the skill go off ;)

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