Jump to content

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


Xcore

Recommended Posts

A few hundred hours logged now, and nope. I do not.

 

I think at least half of these people are whining about the character animation, and GCD.

Other than that.... Anything I have ever pressed happens immideatly.

 

This can happen on abilities that aren't even the GCD (and in fact is VERY likely to happen in that event.)

 

I've even done things like open with force lightning on a low level mob for fun and watched a channeled ability stutter-cast (starts force lightning, stops then starts again immediately afterwards) with nothing preceeding it.

 

There is something odd at play here and if you don't see it then I guess you're lucky or maybe you take a more measured pace at the game or something. It's also pretty easy for me to reproduce if I electrocute a mob then immediately run to its back and attempt to maul by spamming the button. The character will start to execute the attack but it never actually lands through the duration of the entire 4 second stun.

 

edit: this issue happens quite frequently when I attempt interrupts in PVP.

Edited by blargness
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 1k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Keeping it at the top.

 

I could care less about level 50 content right now. A new game needs to establish itself from the beginning. SWTOR has done this with quests, graphics (matter of opinion), abilities, and a whole lot of neat stuff. But ability delay makes me cringe and want to stop playing which is upsetting because this games potential is through the roof.

 

Warzones are unplayable. Period. I don't even mind going up against 6 level 50s when my team has none. But when the server/engine/whatever can't register my cat like reflex ability pushing skills it makes it that much more frustrating.

 

Heres hoping.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keeping it at the top.

 

I could care less about level 50 content right now. A new game needs to establish itself from the beginning. SWTOR has done this with quests, graphics (matter of opinion), abilities, and a whole lot of neat stuff. But ability delay makes me cringe and want to stop playing which is upsetting because this games potential is through the roof.

 

Warzones are unplayable. Period. I don't even mind going up against 6 level 50s when my team has none. But when the server/engine/whatever can't register my cat like reflex ability pushing skills it makes it that much more frustrating.

 

Heres hoping.

 

If you're so good at this game with your cat like reflex's why cant you get used to this until it is fixed in the near future?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're so good at this game with your cat like reflex's why cant you get used to this until it is fixed in the near future?

 

It's easier said than done (particularly for PVPers coming from other games.)

 

For instance, you might get CC'd next to a gun tower in the 'Civil War' warzone and decide to hit tenacity (which is not on the GCD) and immediately follow with an instant attack (say Electrocute) to stop the node cap.

 

This rapid succession of events ends up with a very high failure rate for that attack ever actually going off. You might sit there for 2-3 seconds doing a "false start" of the animation while the ability never actually lands on the target. You might even see the animation go off entirely but nothing actually happened.

 

If I hit 'r' I expect jolt to go off immediately; not after waiting patiently for the game engine to accept input from me. Even if it was a GCD scenario and I'm just mashing a hotkey in rapid succession then the ability should fire at the next available GCD.

Edited by blargness
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow you're way off, this thread has nothing to do with jumping...or running those are perfectly fine. It's about the character abilities firing on animation finish rather then cast finish.

 

You've obviously never tried to get one of the mario datacrons. -.-

 

This can happen on abilities that aren't even the GCD (and in fact is VERY likely to happen in that event.)

 

I've even done things like open with force lightning on a low level mob for fun and watched a channeled ability stutter-cast (starts force lightning, stops then starts again immediately afterwards) with nothing preceeding it.

 

There is something odd at play here and if you don't see it then I guess you're lucky or maybe you take a more measured pace at the game or something. It's also pretty easy for me to reproduce if I electrocute a mob then immediately run to its back and attempt to maul by spamming the button. The character will start to execute the attack but it never actually lands through the duration of the entire 4 second stun.

 

edit: this issue happens quite frequently when I attempt interrupts in PVP.

 

Most, if not all, skills that are supposed to ignore GCD appear to have this problem: some part of the system is apparently deciding that it's not allowed when it should be, and the client doesn't get the full memo and gets confused, and starts playing the anim. There's a video that shows this quite clearly, and also pretty blatantly suggests it's not going off because it's obeying the GCD despite supposedly ignoring it: it finally fires correctly almost immediately after the GCD finishes.

 

 

Finally, since there's been so many posts, I present:

http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/6273/debunkify.jpg

 

I won't say proudly as it's a lazy hackjob. But regardless, it still demonstrates the point: the delay claimed in the video is purely an animation delay: the second ability has already been activated and accepted by the server, evidenced by the second notch of resources being gone. And the animation for the first ability is right about halfway done.

 

If you watch the vid (linked in OP), you'll see two separate hits coming out of whatever smugglers call their resource in quick succession: the first shortly after charged bolt finishes casting, the second a frame or two after the second ability is activated, while the castbar for charged bolt is still fading and the bolts are still in the air.

 

The animation for the second ability doesn't play until until the first finishes, but you'll note that the rakghoul takes damage AND gets the knockdown debuff the very instant the animation starts to play. The visible knockdown doesn't occur until the grenade arrives, but the 'ghoul freezes in place while the 'nade's en-route.

 

In short: the animation was delayed. The ability was not.

Edited by Tiron_Raptor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're so good at this game with your cat like reflex's why cant you get used to this until it is fixed in the near future?

 

It's not possible to get used to it. There is a randomness to the unresponivness ability queue system.

 

I did like the ping pong analogy.

 

I like the analogy where it's like trying to fight someone in RL. I tried to kick the guy in the balls, but I tried 3 times and it didn't work, and all this time he was punching me in the face.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's easier said than done (particularly for PVPers coming from other games.)

 

For instance, you might get CC'd next to a gun tower in the 'Civil War' warzone and decide to hit tenacity (which is not on the GCD) and immediately follow with an instant attack (say Electrocute) to stop the node cap.

 

This rapid succession of events ends up with a very high failure rate for that attack ever actually going off. You might sit there for 2-3 seconds doing a "false start" of the animation while the ability never actually lands on the target. You might even see the animation go off entirely but nothing actually happened.

 

If I hit 'r' I expect jolt to go off immediately; not after waiting patiently for the game engine to accept input from me. Even if it was a GCD scenario and I'm just mashing a hotkey in rapid succession then the ability should fire at the next available GCD.

 

I'm a PvP'er that came straight from WoW, yes it's annoying yes you can get used to it until they fix it. Saying that warzones are unplayable is just exaggerating. Once again i have the problem too no need to explain it to me i'm simply saying it's not just you EVERYONE has this problem.

 

People are acting like it puts them at a huge disadvantage they said they're working on it, so until then deal with it the game is perfectly playable. It's almost as if you want them to post on every 5 pages saying 'Hello we're actively working on this thank you for your patience.'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not possible to get used to it. There is a randomness to the unresponivness ability queue system.

 

I did like the ping pong analogy.

 

I like the analogy where it's like trying to fight someone in RL. I tried to kick the guy in the balls, but I tried 3 times and it didn't work, and all this time he was punching me in the face.

 

Right there, bingo you just said it the other player HAS THE PROBLEM TOO. You're acting as if you're the only man in the entire game with it. it'd be more like hes also stuck punching you in the face 3x.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not possible to get used to it. There is a randomness to the unresponivness ability queue system.

 

I did like the ping pong analogy.

 

I like the analogy where it's like trying to fight someone in RL. I tried to kick the guy in the balls, but I tried 3 times and it didn't work, and all this time he was punching me in the face.

 

Yeah the ability queue is kinda busted, and does introduce a slight delay if used. You can leave it on, however, and still get instant responses if you manage to hit only AFTER the GCD. It only delays you if you hit early, which triggers the queue.

 

If your playstyle is to spam the button repeatedly each time you activate it, setting the queue to 0.0 will ensure that your first post GCD hit will activate it instantly, without any delay from the queue.

 

I wouldn't suggest 0.0 in any other situation: the delay's better than having to wait while you realize it didn't go off and have to hit it again. Maybe try setting it to 0.25 and trying to get the timing precise: if you miss, the queue catches and it goes off with a bit of a delay. If you hit, it goes off instantly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to hear from someone who has any knowledge of the inner workings of game creation, coding, whatever goes on. Can we be optimistic about something even being done? I mean, I'd rather know that drastically altering an engine can't truly be done than hoping for the game getting awesome character responsiveness.

 

I mean, isn't changing something like this extreme? Like drastically altering the very engine used to create the game? I don't know. I ask those who do.

 

Thanks for replies. Here's to hoping something can and will be done. This game is so close to being great, for my part of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm betting everyone of those who don't see the problem use their mouse to activate abilities, don't pvp, and when they do they stay there befouled and watch the scenery.

 

And if you say you don't care, it's okay it's your choice and i can respect that, but remember there are at least as many if not more people who see the problem and can't enjoy the game because of it.

 

If you say it's not your problem, well your wrong - IT IS your problem even if you don't see the ability delay and character responsiveness bugs because lots of players eventually leaving the game because of it will severely affect you too.

 

notice how i've said "eventually leaving" that dose not mean now or tomorrow or the next month it means probably when a better game comes out and it can be in the following weeks or in the following months.

 

Truth be told i see and experience the problem but i at this time do not care about it that much but i can see it making me quit when i eventually get bored of all the content or at least be a big part of my reason for quitting.

 

Don't get me wrong i love the game, and i want it succeed and get better and all the fluffy stuff but having sub par combat responsiveness in a combat orientated game is just wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...