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

[Xcore]

Perhaps if enough people voice that this should be stickied it will... I think the fact that this is the 5th version of It In just over a week deserves that much...

 

/please sticky

[AlexRose]

/sticky

[Thegroundissour]

/sticky

[Selestian]

I normally don't use ability queing (tried 0 when I first started playing) but I had to push it to 1 second (max) for me to get a semblance of abilities working properly.

 

Please consider the OPs discussion.

[Vorlia]

/sticky

[Dumpiduke]

For some reason, I don't think that a thread exposing the key fundamental flaws of SWTOR's combat is going to get stickied...

[Holden_Dissent]

I have greatly reduced my play time due to the ability delay. I hope it is fixed, my weekend is coming up and I would want to play swtor with my friends, but then I remember the ability delay, so I'm not making any swtor plans.

 

I was going to remember the ability delay but then I took an arrow to the knee.

 

 

 

I agree to an extent though. In pve I'm very happy with how my character's abilities fire. In Warzones, not so much.

[Waypoc]

great post. thanks.

[Tinkersw]

Gooooood morning thread! /Robin Williams

 

Wow up to #5 now? Well time to add some more vids to the pile. And I will add to the troubleshooting that outside the sith temple I have noticeably less ability lag, second I hit an inside zone though...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmugfJ6W4v0&feature=youtu.be

 

Watch the birdie or the sith as at 0:07 blaster bolt is activated, but by the time it decides to actually fire I've been forced pushed and get an out of range error.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME-M7dEIA28&feature=youtu.be

 

Another ability delay or being caught in animation locks? 0:26 Rocket punch is activated on hotbar. Then it's a couple seconds of me in dodge animations before I finally attack at 0:28.

 

And if you look the GCD is fully finished before that first rocket punch goes off.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k59uvFXlP5A&feature=youtu.be

 

Another rocket punch vid. 0:15 to 0:17 And again the GCD finishes before the attack decides to fire.

 

I can't help but wonder if this is how some of us are having issues with attacks not firing properly? Are we seeing a ready hotbar, hitting something, then the server decides to just ignore the first press? Either way its still inexcusable.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpyra8heSUk&feature=youtu.be

 

Speaking of the exact issue I raise above! Ability delay double whammy, and I didn't even notice it till I slo mo'ed the vid after capture.

 

Watch the flame blast activation at 0:21. Like other delay issues it decides to finally fire about 0:23. (And a ready GCD on my hotbar yet again)

 

This however is the same moment I activate rocket punch. Keep in mind I wasn't aware of the delay problem on flame blast till AFTER I made this vid, in fact I had to rewatch it about 6 times before I saw what happened. In game I saw ready hotbar and hit the punch.

 

Problem is my "instant" attack can't go off till a second and change later, I'm still stuck in flame blast's animation. If you pause at 0:24 you'll also notice that the GCD is almost fully cooled down, and I'm still on the ground.

 

very start of 0:25 (requires a quick pause) GCD ready, still waiting for rocket punch to animate.

 

And while not tied to animations, here's some bonus vids showing off combat lag or outright bugged?

 

ONCE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwCB0SAXLwM&feature=youtu.be

 

TWICE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10qY2PKQphQ&feature=youtu.be

 

And third time is a charm! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax7T-RdRkUk&feature=youtu.be

 

Three videos of my stun breaker refusing to work. If you want extra giggles you'll notice in the first two it says can not use this while stunned. While in the third it totally ignores the first activation attempt.

 

Psst trion, this is the part where you come in and tell me it's my 50 ms latency to blame for everything.

 

WOW your once, twice, third times a charm videos, unbelievable

I am unable to heal due to this ability delay ...I feel like a noob when trying. Have had no desire what so ever to play the game /sad.

I have been working in customer sales for the past 15 years. I have many clients. I have always done my best to communicate with them. I believe this is why I am succesful in my trade.

The customer service here is terrible. As many have asked ....just give this thread some answers. TALK TO US! wHaTeVer!

I have Unsubed and gone back to my other hobby digital artwork.

I am looking forward to GW2.

 

Thanks Xcore for all you have done to help this ability delay, game breaking issue.

 

I will continue following this thread but done with the game.

Take care guys .....hope to see you all in GW2:)

[Xcore]

WOW your once, twice, third times a charm videos, unbelievable

I am unable to heal due to this ability delay ...I feel like a noob when trying. Have had no desire what so ever to play the game /sad.

I have been working in customer sales for the past 15 years. I have many clients. I have always done my best to communicate with them. I believe this is why I am succesful in my trade.

The customer service here is terrible. As many have asked ....just give this thread some answers. TALK TO US! wHaTeVer!

I have Unsubed and gone back to my other hobby digital artwork.

I am looking forward to GW2.

 

Thanks Xcore for all you have done to help this ability delay, game breaking issue.

 

I will continue following this thread but done with the game.

Take care guys .....hope to see you all in GW2:)

 

Thanks for following and supporting since thread 1. I have the greatest of faith in ArenaNet, very solid people...

[ersgutermii]

this need to be pushed want to play this game but its impossible with this

[Isende]

mainly replying to keep this "up" in the postings ... #5. i will say, i do heal AROUND this, and am learning how to not QUITE lose my tank, but tanking with this issue? well, there are a lot off issues with tanking, period -- this one's the icing on the cake.

 

i'm stuck, bw/ea. i want this game to be good, because my guildies and my bf have such HIGH hopes for it. but, like, today? i'm not ingame. i'm reading. at least i have no ability delays with reading!!!

[belialle]

I am very interested to see what the conclusive word from BioWare will be on this issue. I think the answer might be very surprising to some people.

[Dumpiduke]

I am very interested to see what the conclusive word from BioWare will be on this issue. I think the answer might be very surprising to some people.

 

Surprising in a good way or a bad way?

[kalexkhan]

mainly replying to keep this "up" in the postings ... #5. i will say, i do heal AROUND this, and am learning how to not QUITE lose my tank, but tanking with this issue? well, there are a lot off issues with tanking, period -- this one's the icing on the cake.

 

i'm stuck, bw/ea. i want this game to be good, because my guildies and my bf have such HIGH hopes for it. but, like, today? i'm not ingame. i'm reading. at least i have no ability delays with reading!!!

 

Hah, funny as soon as you said this I hit back and got placed in forum queue, which I immediately had to smirk as it could be considered forum delay!!!!

[Khoranth]

WOW your once, twice, third times a charm videos, unbelievable

I am unable to heal due to this ability delay ...I feel like a noob when trying. Have had no desire what so ever to play the game /sad.

I have been working in customer sales for the past 15 years. I have many clients. I have always done my best to communicate with them. I believe this is why I am succesful in my trade.

The customer service here is terrible. As many have asked ....just give this thread some answers. TALK TO US! wHaTeVer!

I have Unsubed and gone back to my other hobby digital artwork.

I am looking forward to GW2.

 

Thanks Xcore for all you have done to help this ability delay, game breaking issue.

 

I will continue following this thread but done with the game.

Take care guys .....hope to see you all in GW2:)

 

Have you healed as a sage? Sage has a talent that descreses cast time of your big heal by 1 second, so with talents, big heal is normally 2.5 seconds, and after you cast your HoT, the talent reduces next cast by 1 second.

 

So if you do this, cast the 1.5 second big heal, then immediately try to cast another heal, you get interupted, cause the big heal animation fits in a 2.5 second window, so you lose out on the 1 second cast time reduction.

 

WHAT A JOKE, why did bioware provide players with a haste talent to make a 2.5 sec spell 1.5 seconds, if you wont allow players to cast another spell before the animation ends anyways?

 

I hate to say mean things, but whoever designed the sage talents and animations is really dumb. And if they were designed by two separate teams, did they not talk to eachother? or test out the abilities? they were really dumb either way.

 

Sorry to be rude but there is no other word besides dumb to describe that.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Khoranth

[Isende]

Hah, funny as soon as you said this I hit back and got placed in forum queue, which I immediately had to smirk as it could be considered forum delay!!!!

 

*chuckles*

 

that was a good one, lol

[Etravex]

Thanks for following and supporting since thread 1. I have the greatest of faith in ArenaNet, very solid people...

 

 

Xcore,

 

From your research do you think the character response and ability delay is something that can be fixed within the game or do you believe it could be a permanent problem?

[gavicon]

First post on a message board ever....

 

feel like I bought a broken game. I thought it was my computer too but then when the game stopped lagging I had the sinking feeling that it was not me, but the mechanics that didn't work correctly. Tanking is awful, its not really fair to call it tanking...you just stand there waiting for failed abilities to fire. i had high hopes for the game, and figured that because it was newer than WoW that they would have at least gotten the combat right. on the verge of canceling the subscription...

 

Fix this issue and it could be an amazing game...

[Isende]

First post on a message board ever....

 

feel like I bought a broken game. I thought it was my computer too but then when the game stopped lagging I had the sinking feeling that it was not me, but the mechanics that didn't work correctly. Tanking is awful, its not really fair to call it tanking...you just stand there waiting for failed abilities to fire. i had high hopes for the game, and figured that because it was newer than WoW that they would have at least gotten the combat right. on the verge of canceling the subscription...

 

Fix this issue and it could be an amazing game...

 

*knocks on monitor of bioware/ea folk*

 

hey, guys! see? this is what you're facing. even just a communication would help ... but considering the cries for fixing this in beta, and your apparent steadfast determination to consider it a non-issue ...

 

this guy WANTED to play. he WANTED to enjoy playing. he WANTS to continue giving you his money. it's all on you, now. either you'll make a product he doesn't mind paying monthly for, or you won't. but it's on the wall, either way, guys.

[Etravex]

You know what the sad part is? A great deal of players came from WoW to play this game. They canceled their WoW accounts (not all but some) and transferred over to test out SWTOR. Because of the gameplay they are going to lose almost every WoW transfer this month if they don't come out and at least talk about the problem and address the players. Gameplay is definetly a downgrade from WoW; and players won't put up with this especially if BW doesn't start communicating.

 

"We are investigating the issue" doesn't shed any new light on the problem. BW you have a great deal of subscribers ready to jump ship and you wont even post about this..."

Edited January 5, 2012 by Etravex

[Blue]

I am going to keep bumping this for one reason.

 

I WANT THIS

 

 

GAME TO ROCK.

 

 

I WANT TO THROW

 

 

EA AND BIOWARE

 

 

TONS OF CASH!!!!

 

 

 

As it is now... the cash flow will stop once I hit 50. So maybe 2 months of time.

[Drolnar]

I have canceled my subscription as for now. Won't give them any money until they fix this. It's gamebreaking. Twitch reactions in PVP are impossible.

[Liquid_Drano]

I'm also curious if we should even be optimistic. To those who have ANY knowledge of coding or general game creation, CAN this even be addressed?

 

I mean, isn't this the very ENGINE that the game was created on? I would rather know it's a monstrous undertaking for Bio, and thus not a reasonable hope that this combat can be overhauled, than lie in wait hoping for a huge patch.

 

I guess almost anything can be patched in, right? I have no idea. I ask those who do.

 

Thanks

[Etravex]

I have to say I'm a little worried.

 

1. This is one of the biggest continued threads on the forums so you know Bioware is reading it.

 

2. The only thing we've heard so far on character response and ability delay is "We are investigating it."

 

3. Many other subjects of interest have been addressed by Bioware in detail. So it's not like they are just giving short answers to everyone.

 

4. They are choosing to remain silent on character response and ability delay.

 

To be honest, BioWare hasn't even addressed animation interference. They have only responded to character response and ability delay. They could very well put a patch in that makes things feel more smooth and responsive, but if they aren't willing to override animations with new ability ques then we are screwed.

 

I'm starting to think that maybe they realize they can't fix this and they can't tell us "Hey guys we can't fix this it's going to remain the way it is," otherwise they would instantly lose a great amount of subscribers.

 

I'm not sure if BW would do this, but I'm getting the feeling like I'm being dragged along just so that they can get 1 or 2 monthly payments out of me.

 

Frankly for me this is the only issue that changes the game for me. If they fix it then I'm here for the long-haul if they can't or don't then I'm done.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Etravex