What it sounds like to me is you had 2 opposing views on the dev team. You had one team that was saying "GCD should be the governing body for moves." Then you had another team saying, "but we want the animations that we spent so much time on to take priority, so forget the GCD and just have animation timers." Then you have someone saying, "let's compromise and use both!" Unfortunately, this is not a place where you can have your cake and eat it too. You must choose one or the other. Having both is one of the most absurd combat choices I have ever seen. Some moves adhere to GCD because it's animation is less than 1.5 seconds. Some moves have animations that are longer than 1.5 seconds; thus, overriding GCD. It's our job as the consumer to know try to figure out which one is really taking precedence on a move-by-move basis. Fun...

That email is very concerning to me. I know we are getting very vague responses here from devs as to the issue in their minds; however, this email sounds like their official response. If their response is "GCD is just there for show, you should be watching the animations instead because we here at Bioware are more about pretty than practicality" then...um...no thanks. You will still retain your casuals and your young'ns, but your hardcore and competitive will say, "thanks, but no thanks." Simple as that.

Because I've never had a tooltip in the upper-left-hand-corner of my MMO telling me how many are in that zone, I couldn't tell you; however, I can tell you that, in practice, other games feel "alive". I don't care whether it's Rift, WoW, Warhammer, or Aion (love or hate those games) they felt "alive". You could run into the opposite faction at any given time. Remember hillsbrad foothills? It was a gosh darn warzone. On PvP servers, that was the most intense leveling experience ever. All the way up to when they implemented LFD tool (now nobody leaves town) the game was alive. This is 100% truth: I have been playing since EGA, starting on Fatman. Due to rediculous quetimes after I made it to 20, I switched to Infinity Gate. I now have been playing on there exclusively. I have a 41 sorc and a 23 BH. There isn't a queue, but it stays at heavy-very heavy during peak time. I have NEVER, repeat NEVER seen a member of the opposite faction. Not only is instancing keeping the PvP from existing, but the fact that the planets are intentionally designed to keep opposite-faction-interaction- at a minimum. For people who roll PvE servers and shun PvP combat; this is no big deal at all. They get to kill their mobs free of competition; however, people like me who THRIVE on PvP, combat feels empty. I hate to use the word "dead" but that is precicely the way this game feels to me at the moment.

I think that part is the most vital part to this discussion. It is elementary. It is the most basic function. In this regards, the controls are like water: Water may seem bland and really simple to some; however, without this water, we will die.

Best way I can explain it is like this: For people who say there isn't an issue, the issue is there you just don't see it. It would be the same as, let's say you have a very low end computer. You are able to play battlefield 3 and modern warfare 3 on that computer but both have to be played on "very low" settings. Now, because of your computer limitations you might say to someone, "I don't know what everyone is saying, COD looks just as good as BF3 to me." The reason you can say that, and it's true for you, is because your computer won't let you see the difference. Now, someone like me and people with top-end computers can see immediately that BF3 is one of the best looking games ever made and CoD looks outdated. Lighting engine etc is a masterpiece. If you put them side by side with both of them on Ultra, anyone could tell that they are way different. Same applies here, we are playing this game in such a manner that we can see things that the "casual" player doesn't see. We notice minor defects (although to me this one is major) that someone who isn't interested in squeezing every last ounce of potential out of their class may not see. Again, the issue exists, you just may not see it.

Never said it discredited you. I stated that you are wrong. I don't have even 1 ability that I click, so that disproves your 1st statement. And I believe that anyone who COMPETITIVELY plays doesn't click, at all. I've read your posts, I see that you are in no way trying to hold us back. I am not angry or attempting to discredit you from making statements; but, this issue does exist for all. It is not "lag" or "fps" or anything computer related. You have it, your class might be less effected but I have experienced it on each class (different moves are effected but universal for each player who uses those moves) So, you can't say that you don't have it, you can say you haven't noticed it..which is fine.

Wrong and wrong. I am an avid PvP player. If any of my teamates that I arena with used even 1 move as a click ability, I would throw up in my mouth and kick them from my team. I have a nostromo and a razer naga. 100% of my abilities are keybound with 0 exception to that. Again, I believe you just proved his point. If you click...at all...then you don't play competitively.

I'm going to educate you, and it will be free! Definition of entitlement: a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract. So, in this case, or entitlement comes from purchasing a product. For instance, if you were to buy a new vacuum from walmart and you have issues where during the application of this vacuum, it wasn't sucking properly, you could then contact either walmart or the vacuum manufacturer and request it either be fixed or outright take it back. So because you bought the product you are "entitled" to requesting it to function properly. In our case, the game is our vacuum and we want it to in-fact, not suck.

In every MMO I've ever subscribed to, I cancel my auto-sub everymonth. As soon as my 1 month of game time takes effect, I cancel. Then, I resub the following month. I can still post on these forums and every other MMO forum I'm a part of. Nice try though Edit: You might ask why. Well, I'm paranoid. I don't want my credit card info "attached" to an account. Also, If I was to "expire" I don't want my wife to have to struggle for months over a silly $15 a month fee, sending in records of my expiration and such just to cancel.

I do not like how the OP stated it (it's so easy), but what you just said is absurd. "you cant just wave a magical wand and their are no ques and seemless zones. As someone in the coding industry you ahve no clue how complex it is and what it takes. "--- um...there was a game made about 7 years ago with about 1/4 of this budget that did exactly that. Can't remember the name of it, but I think it did pretty well....it'll come to me

I actually agree with each one of your bullet points. I would just consider changing statements like "why are you so blind" and "it's so easy" What you are describing is an MMO that I would really really enjoy. Just consider how you say it.

I have updated my video in the OP to have a link to the first video there in your post. That way you can "compare" the 2 better.

I think I should have been more specific in my video where I say "can't be done in SWTOR". What I mean is, "any ability that has an animation that lasts longer than the cast time won't allow this to happen" So, because some moves, like the ones you showed, have cast times greater or equal to the animation, they work fine. There are plenty of other moves that it's impossible to perform this spell stacking.

This last post lets me see a little more into your mindset. You are angry with Blizzard, you find anything from that game coming over here as an invasion. One thing you are failing to realize. We all left that game too. We now are here, hoping for this game to hold our attention for, in my case, 7 years. Some of us have the foresight to be able to tell that this is game-breaking. We've played rift, we've played Aion, we've played Warhammer. Most of us had the same complaints in those games. I can only speak for myself here, but I have never posted in those forums about it because I really didn't care that much. This game on the other hand has importance to me. I've been following for years. I pre-ordered the CE the day it was available. I want to give them my money. I just will not give them my money if this is something that will be an issue months from now.

This is exactly right. In WoW the animation is finishing WHILE the next moves cast time is starting. It make everything seem organic and responsive.

As crazy at it sounds: I'm ok with that too. If I know going into it that a spell will actually take 4 seconds to cast, I'd make a more informed decision on whether that spell is the proper spell for the situation. What I don't like is when I am told it's a 2 second cast and then I find myself locked out of casting anything else for 4 seconds. I do not like being lied to.

I don't understand why everyone who disagrees with us doesn't have this exact same mentality. If you are not seeing it and it's not hindering your experience, great! But, if they fix it, it doesn't negatively effect you at all. Wish everyone shared your outlook

So, when I cast a 2 second cast time spell and I am unable to cast my next spell for 3 seconds, what does GCD have to do with it? I need you to take a deep breath and understand the issue. I cast spell A. A begins and so does the GCD 1.5 seconds later, GCD is up .5 seconds after that spell cast time is down You push spell B but nothing happens 1 seconds goes by while the animation finishes Push button B and now it casts. GCD is out of the equation in this instance, and animation is the problem here.

I just have a hard time understanding why you can't see this is a problem. The easiest way I can explain it: You have an ability with a 2 second cast-time...when should you be able to cast your next ability? Common sense says 2.1 seconds. However, somehow you are totally OK with not being able to cast it until 2.5 or 3 or in some spell cases 3.5 seconds. What is the point of cast times at all if you aren't going to adhere to them? Your solution would be to just throw out varying cast times and have every spell take 3 seconds to cast, instant or not.

Not a biggy, your original video does a good job showing the difference. The WoW video shows the move being cast immediately while your video shows the instant cast taking almost an entire second to initiate.

I believe this thread at least puts a large dent in your last sentence.

1 thing about doing a video where you are showing that it doesn't work is most of the fact that it doesn't work is felt. You can see it if you really really look closely and know what you're looking at; however, it is very discernible if you are the one actually playing. I do see it in the video though.

One thing would have been great is while the grenade was being thrown all of your moves were off CD, but you should have tried to cast one while your were locked in the grenade throw animation. That's where the issue really becomes apparent. You can't cast your next move at that point because your grenade animation is still going well past the GCD.

If you post it I will then link it on my video and you can do the same. I should have made a new video and linked it, but I didn't want to wait another 1 hour to upload it.

I think some of you are misunderstanding the point of my video. The point of this is to show you when a move is done casting you should be able to cast the next thing. Now, 2 instant cast moves shouldn't be able to immediately be cast on top of each because the GCD governs this. But, when a move is longer than the GCD the move's end should signify a point when you can IMMEDIATELY cast another move....period. I could have just as easily displayed this by being at a target dummy and casting frostbolts back to back to back with 0 downtime in between.