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

[psyquest]

Thanks, got it added to the list. Was the same kinda thing happening to your consular, do you remember?

 

I personnaly stopped playing my sith sorcerer at 32.

 

Abilities not casting while the GCD shows they are ready.

Character showing a cast animation and no damage is done.

Abilities going on GCD while the character does nothing.

Abilities cancelling for no reason and having to recast while the character was stationary the entire time.

 

On my jedi shadow 25, too often I find the character locked in a animation and being unable to chain a second ability. The game is just not giving the smooth combat I am expecting from the UI feedback I am seeing.

[Radagastimus]

Thanks, got it added to the list. Was the same kinda thing happening to your consular, do you remember?

 

I do not remember

[AlexRose]

Thanks, got it added to the list. Was the same kinda thing happening to your consular, do you remember?

 

Anyways thanks for bumping the thread ....

Keep good work.

[Radagastimus]

Anyways thanks for bumping the thread ....

Keep good work.

 

Anyways ANY info that seems to connect to this issue should be welcomed and encouraged to express since in case that someone on BW that is assigned to investigate this issue reads this thread. From the info we give they can summarize many things out or possible cause of the issue so please give some info here also added to the usual "I also have this isue" comments

[Reedful]

one of you geniuses want to explain how spamming your abilities is a bad thing?

[Vodswyld]

You are hijacking the thread, misleading and confusing the people and most importantly plainly insulting people who have gone to great length to explain this issue. This has nothing to do whether you play at peak hours or not or on which server you play.

 

I do not feel that I am hijacking the thread. I am asking people for specific information about the issue in the hops of pinning down concretely what the issue is caused by.

 

I was interested in the issue because I have not experienced it, tho it is plain to see by the videos that it is very real. Since I am not experiencing the issue, I figured it would be a good idea to get some specifics to test and then report back if I am having the same issue with specific classes, abilities, and servers. I feel this will help narrow down the issue and get a resolution. I know a lot of this was probably being done in Beta, but at this point the test results are probably stale, and it never hurts to have more test results.

 

If people think that I am being insulting then I do apologize. That was never the intent. If the general request is that I am being a nuisance or a BW rep wants me to drop it I will, no problem.

[daeseer]

As far as I can tell, this seems to be a server lag issue. I have encountered somewhat similar behavior in WoW on their beta realms during WotLK testing. The casting animations would begin, but the spell bar wouldn't actually start to fill up for up to a couple of seconds sometimes.

 

I have also had fewer troubles on my laptop, which has a faster CPU than my desktop at the moment, but that could simply be due to fewer people on the planet at the time.

 

Anyway, it would be nice to have this problem investigated further. It's frustrating, especially when trying to heal on my Sorcerer. It often takes quite a long time after the cast bar is full for the spell to actually hit, allowing me to start casting another heal. Healing should feel very responsive, and it certainly does not at the moment.

[belleflop]

I see what you are saying. It also looks like you are pounding the button. Can you try just hitting it once and seeing what it does? I want to see if it is an issue with the ability not firing at all and the second key press is working, or if the second key press is interrupting. It looks like you hit it somewhere between 3-5 times.

 

 

I actually have started to just single tap buttons and the problem is accelerated because I am then forced compensate for this sequence by losing a lot of up time on my abilities.

 

1.) Push Ability button

2.) Wait for game to respond to input

3.) Did the game produce the results you wanted? (did the ability trigger and complete)

3a) Yes: Move on to next ability

3b) No: Start sequence over again.

 

 

Me "mashing" buttons should have no consequence as to the input to the game. Which makes me believe the issue is hardwired into the coding and will be extremely hard to remedy.

 

This system should not punish nor reward people who single tap abilities or mash their keyboard. Nor should said play style choices hinder the in game animation and output of said input. I've played in MMO's for 15+ years, I've always double tapped buttons, and never have I had an issue with the game responding this badly.

 

For example. Another popular MMO added the mandatory ability que system. This allowed players to sequence their abilities ahead of time, which gave people who knew what ability they wanted to press a way to get ahead of the lag input time delay from user to client, and it helped newer players by giving them a sense of continuity between each spell.

[Vodswyld]

I personnaly stopped playing my sith sorcerer at 32.

 

Abilities not casting while the GCD shows they are ready.

Character showing a cast animation and no damage is done.

Abilities going on GCD while the character does nothing.

Abilities cancelling for no reason and having to recast while the character was stationary the entire time.

 

On my jedi shadow 25, too often I find the character locked in a animation and being unable to chain a second ability. The game is just not giving the smooth combat I am expecting from the UI feedback I am seeing.

 

Are there any specific abilities that are the worst offenders?

[Radagastimus]

As far as I can tell, this seems to be a server lag issue. I have encountered somewhat similar behavior in WoW on their beta realms during WotLK testing. The casting animations would begin, but the spell bar wouldn't actually start to fill up for up to a couple of seconds sometimes.

 

I have also had fewer troubles on my laptop, which has a faster CPU than my desktop at the moment, but that could simply be due to fewer people on the planet at the time.

 

Anyway, it would be nice to have this problem investigated further. It's frustrating, especially when trying to heal on my Sorcerer. It often takes quite a long time after the cast bar is full for the spell to actually hit, allowing me to start casting another heal. Healing should feel very responsive, and it certainly does not at the moment.

 

You speak like Blizzard customer service people in WOW O_o

 

Not meant as an insult

[Cherme]

As someone else mentioned, have we had a formal response from any dev yet?

[Corwingeorge]

I do not feel that I am hijacking the thread. I am asking people for specific information about the issue in the hops of pinning down concretely what the issue is caused by.

 

I was interested in the issue because I have not experienced it, tho it is plain to see by the videos that it is very real. Since I am not experiencing the issue, I figured it would be a good idea to get some specifics to test and then report back if I am having the same issue with specific classes, abilities, and servers. I feel this will help narrow down the issue and get a resolution. I know a lot of this was probably being done in Beta, but at this point the test results are probably stale, and it never hurts to have more test results.

 

If people think that I am being insulting then I do apologize. That was never the intent. If the general request is that I am being a nuisance or a BW rep wants me to drop it I will, no problem.

 

there is no specifics, every ability is delayed at least .2 seconds.

some people dont notice,

some people do.

some people notice and it doesnt bother them.

some people dont notice but it still bothers them.

 

i notice and it bothers me

Edited January 2, 2012 by Corwingeorge

[AlexRose]

Anyways ANY info that seems to connect to this issue should be welcomed and encouraged to express since in case that someone on BW that is assigned to investigate this issue reads this thread. From the info we give they can summarize many things out or possible cause of the issue so please give some info here also added to the usual "I also have this isue" comments

 

Yes all comments and information are useful and please post about them but ...

This is the 4 reincarnation of this thread. If you want to look all the videos and explanations you should go back.

The problem is that some people intent is not to promote the correction of this issue but simply mislead or troll.

Why would anyone post in a thread that is trying to achieve a correction of an issue if he is not experiencing the problem at all?

 

Edit:

If he is trying to understand the issue he should read all the posts explaining it.

Edited January 2, 2012 by AlexRose

[Vodswyld]

I actually have started to just single tap buttons and the problem is accelerated because I am then forced compensate for this sequence by losing a lot of up time on my abilities.

 

1.) Push Ability button

2.) Wait for game to respond to input

3.) Did the game produce the results you wanted? (did the ability trigger and complete)

3a) Yes: Move on to next ability

3b) No: Start sequence over again.

 

 

Me "mashing" buttons should have no consequence as to the input to the game. Which makes me believe the issue is hardwired into the coding and will be extremely hard to remedy.

 

This system should not punish nor reward people who single tap abilities or mash their keyboard. Nor should said play style choices hinder the in game animation and output of said input.

 

I do not disagree that mashing a button should not be an issue. I was asking purely for testing purposes, and by no means am I saying you should not be able to just mash the key and for the ability to go off correctly.

 

It sounds like you have the issue with the ability not going off regardless if you hit the key once or many times.

 

The reason I asked was because it looked like the ability was staggering on the second key press, which might point to a key buffer issue, and if it was then that would be something that would help to know. It does not look like that is the case.

[Reedful]

Are there any specific abilities that are the worst offenders?

 

queue for a warzone

 

strafe

 

target an enemy

 

keep strafing

 

use all your instant casts in rapid succession

 

--

 

it is insulting to think we don't know the difference between latency, fps lag and ****** coding.

[Adric_the_Red]

I have seen this issue as well. Not always, but when it happens, it's incredibly annoying.

 

1. Hit a button for an ability.

2. Watch the CGD "timer" slide down all the hot buttons.

3. Wait even longer for the skill animation to finally begin. If it's an "instant" skill, it fires at this point, if it's a "timed" ability (like Charged Burst for Smuggler), this is when the timer for the ability will finally start.

4. Wait for skill animation to end, so hitting the next skill doesn't "interrupt" the one in progress.

Repeat.

 

Worse yet is when hitting the key for a skill causes the mob to "notice" my character and attack, while I'm still waiting for the skill (or skill timer) to start.

 

Best workaround I've found for this (when soloing) is to always hit Ctrl+1 first, so my companion starts attacking. Not an option when you're in a group and companions are all dismissed.

 

1. Left click first mob to select it as "target", then hover cursor over second mob.

2. Hit Ctrl+1 to order companion to attack first mob, then click on second mob.

3. Click on a skill and watch the GCD run while waiting for skill to actually "fire" (or skill timer to start).

4. Hope step 3 ends before companion finishes off his current mob and moves on to my currently targeted one and kills it, too.

5. Try to target another mob before my companion kills them all and repeat steps 3 & 4.

 

 

I haven't noticed that companions have this delay in skill activation. So while the companion automagically does all his/her/its skills without any delays, I muddle along, targeting mobs and hoping I get a skill or two to fire before my companion kills it.

[Givro]

bumbing thread

 

Rated :sy_star: :sy_star:

[Lhaim]

Wheres the official statement?

[JonnyBigBoss]

Just got on for my first time in 3 days. There's definitely a feeling that the animations take precedence over combat fluidity, and the GCD messes up quite often. PvP is a great way to see just why the combat isn't polished.

[belleflop]

Here is retaliation locking up like all my previous examples. The only difference is I'm single pressing (or as best I can) each ability and not "double tapping" or "mashing" abilities. The results are the same, the ability locks up and my character winds up his saber.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Utw4UoKurk&context=C3d50270ADOEgsToPDskJYu1y-3uG_uWyCstMK7nMz

[Bawheidbob]

Wheres the official statement?

 

I think it has gotten lost over the last few days as the thread keeps having to get restarted.

 

It is an issue they are looking at so at least that is something.

[Aeliah]

Bump

 

I will say we all won't this game to succeed; although, this game will not succeed if this issue is left unresolved. Unfortunately, WoW is the most popular game on the market and i for one would love this game to sink WoW. BioWare, get the nerds out and start coding fixes to this and you will see this game sore to the top!

 

Ps.

If you wish to destroy WoW you need to offer a game that topples their costumer service and character quality, hence character responsiveness.

 

BioWare, get er done!

[thunderwut]

Bumping the thread! :3

[aedseed]

I have noticed this phenomenon from time to time as well, although I play a Sage (caster) and it seems far more irksome for melee fighters. I urge everyone to be patient as the development team irons out this issue as it is NOT a simple fix and will require a large investment of time and resources.

[allocater]

WAR used a modified version of gamebryo engine, Rift proved that gamebryo can indeed yield good results in the MMO market - it's just that Mythic was unable to do so.

 

Heroengine may yield good results - maybe bioware just was unable to do so? (Dominus may be a good start to see if it's really the engine :>)

 

Do you know what Star Trek Online used? Because STO also felt delayed, unresponsive sluggish, clunky, slow, annoying and disconnected (dusc-sad! ;-)) to me and that is why I quit it after 1 month.