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

[Iceblack]

i have noticed a delay on my lvl 50 sorc, trying to knockback and it triggers too late is a problem.

 

Saying that i can normally forget about it to a certain degree until this last patch today 06/01/12 i don't know why but it seems i am all of a sudden having massive delays on all my spells, pvp is realy becoming frustrating when i'm trying to heal

[Oneirophrenia]

For those who refuse to acknowledge the existence of this issue, make a Sith Warrior and play around with "Vicious Slash" and "Ravage". I encounter this issue every few mobs I come across with my Marauder. With Vicious Slash, he would go half way into the animation (raising both lightsabres above his head before he plunging them into the target) and then just abruptly stop. With Ravage he would go through the entire animation process without actually activating the CD or damage. Edited January 6, 2012 by Oneirophrenia

[Cirphe]

Just another /signpetition to fix this issue. During a short time playing a healer I noticed CONSTANT “cancelled” on my target’s cast bar…but most weren’t done intentionally or by interrupts. Watch it sometime.

 

Also, now I can really see weirdness when I use Tendon Blast. I fire Tendon Blast, my target immediately stops in place, then my animation starts, by the time my animation is finished the 2 second stun from Stopping Power is up and he is moving again…all followed by the damage.

 

The lag/bugginess is definitely there. Really annoying and clunky.

[Light_Valkyrie]

Bumping this again..

[Vastaire]

Don't know if it's just me, but it seems that the first snipe [right after I enter cover] won't fire off.

 

The casting finishes but nothing happends.

 

Very frustrating.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Vastaire

[Hammerholm]

I will copy & paste what I wrote in the PT - forum.

Don't misunderstand, I love SWTOR but I see this as an serious issue and a blow to the game mechanics.

 

I've run to this exact problem ever since I started tanking at lvl 50, and the issue gets worst and worst the better gear you get.

Playing now with item ranking 136+ tank gear you do parry / block / deflect / dodge / whatever a lot and this results in you having to press the same BLOODY instant button over and over again.

The irony is funny because this is working as intended according to Bioware, at least that is what they said before they changed it to "We're looking into it".

The responses I've been given from the in game support is that Bioware don't want us to "smash" on buttons but this is EXACTLY what we are FORCED to do because not even our instant abilities are triggered!

As a tank or a healer, you CAN'T be looking at the bloody animations of your character, you need to put your focus elsewhere and if you do not, then you'll either not heal enough or not hold aggro the way you should. Absolutely ridicolous.

[daeseer]

I was experiencing large delays in casting and such.

 

This week I upgraded from my old Athlon64 X2 to a Core i5 2500K.

 

I don't have any casting delays anymore.

 

Sometimes the animations delay, usually when something like Forked Lightning happen (an extra lightning burst from Lightning Strike or Chain Lightning), but the subsequent spell is still casting. My rotation is very fluid now, even if the animations aren't entirely.

 

I think the combat system is very, very CPU dependent, as is most of this game. I would have to fault Bioware for not making the game more widely accessible for people with less-than-recent hardware. But with a good CPU this game sings.

 

Luckily, good hardware isn't expensive these days. I was able to get the CPU, a new motherboard, and 8 GB DDR3 1600 for about 425 bucks. The RAM is especially cheap.

 

If you're experiencing bad ability delays, save up your dough and upgrade your processor. It's absolutely worth every penny.

[gangbot]

I was experiencing large delays in casting and such.

 

This week I upgraded from my old Athlon64 X2 to a Core i5 2500K.

 

I don't have any casting delays anymore.

 

Sometimes the animations delay, usually when something like Forked Lightning happen (an extra lightning burst from Lightning Strike or Chain Lightning), but the subsequent spell is still casting. My rotation is very fluid now, even if the animations aren't entirely.

 

I think the combat system is very, very CPU dependent, as is most of this game. I would have to fault Bioware for not making the game more widely accessible for people with less-than-recent hardware. But with a good CPU this game sings.

 

Luckily, good hardware isn't expensive these days. I was able to get the CPU, a new motherboard, and 8 GB DDR3 1600 for about 425 bucks. The RAM is especially cheap.

 

If you're experiencing bad ability delays, save up your dough and upgrade your processor. It's absolutely worth every penny.

 

Yes because my CPU is causing my toon to bounce up n down a few times before doing force sweap after 5-10 press's.

[Skizzik]

I was experiencing large delays in casting and such.

 

This week I upgraded from my old Athlon64 X2 to a Core i5 2500K.

 

I don't have any casting delays anymore.

 

Sometimes the animations delay, usually when something like Forked Lightning happen (an extra lightning burst from Lightning Strike or Chain Lightning), but the subsequent spell is still casting. My rotation is very fluid now, even if the animations aren't entirely.

 

I think the combat system is very, very CPU dependent, as is most of this game. I would have to fault Bioware for not making the game more widely accessible for people with less-than-recent hardware. But with a good CPU this game sings.

 

Luckily, good hardware isn't expensive these days. I was able to get the CPU, a new motherboard, and 8 GB DDR3 1600 for about 425 bucks. The RAM is especially cheap.

 

If you're experiencing bad ability delays, save up your dough and upgrade your processor. It's absolutely worth every penny.

 

I have an i7 2600k with an MSI 580GTX lightning. It's not a hardware issue. It's the game.

[Iceblack]

I was experiencing large delays in casting and such.

 

This week I upgraded from my old Athlon64 X2 to a Core i5 2500K.

 

I don't have any casting delays anymore.

 

Sometimes the animations delay, usually when something like Forked Lightning happen (an extra lightning burst from Lightning Strike or Chain Lightning), but the subsequent spell is still casting. My rotation is very fluid now, even if the animations aren't entirely.

 

I think the combat system is very, very CPU dependent, as is most of this game. I would have to fault Bioware for not making the game more widely accessible for people with less-than-recent hardware. But with a good CPU this game sings.

 

Luckily, good hardware isn't expensive these days. I was able to get the CPU, a new motherboard, and 8 GB DDR3 1600 for about 425 bucks. The RAM is especially cheap.

 

If you're experiencing bad ability delays, save up your dough and upgrade your processor. It's absolutely worth every penny.

 

Ummm odd i am experiencing delays with my i5-2500k 8gb ram and gtx580

[Tiron_Raptor]

I was experiencing large delays in casting and such.

 

This week I upgraded from my old Athlon64 X2 to a Core i5 2500K.

 

I don't have any casting delays anymore.

 

Sometimes the animations delay, usually when something like Forked Lightning happen (an extra lightning burst from Lightning Strike or Chain Lightning), but the subsequent spell is still casting. My rotation is very fluid now, even if the animations aren't entirely.

 

I think the combat system is very, very CPU dependent, as is most of this game. I would have to fault Bioware for not making the game more widely accessible for people with less-than-recent hardware. But with a good CPU this game sings.

 

Luckily, good hardware isn't expensive these days. I was able to get the CPU, a new motherboard, and 8 GB DDR3 1600 for about 425 bucks. The RAM is especially cheap.

 

If you're experiencing bad ability delays, save up your dough and upgrade your processor. It's absolutely worth every penny.

 

There isn't any one overarching 'delay'. There are a serious issues, ranging from abilities failing to work at all to castbar abilities stopping combat entirely for a few hundred milliseconds when the bar finishes to the ability action queue firing a few hundred milliseconds late and even abilities that are supposed to be off GCD sometimes respecting it anyway.

 

The animation delays appear to be largely cosmetic, but there ARE at least or 4 bugs that actually affect your ability to do things in combat, and maybe more (the thing with ravage firing the animation but not actually having the ability go off has been posted a few times, so ravage may be broken too. Master Strike, the JK counterpart, seems to work fine).

[Xcore]

There isn't any one overarching 'delay'. There are a serious issues, ranging from abilities failing to work at all to castbar abilities stopping combat entirely for a few hundred milliseconds when the bar finishes to the ability action queue firing a few hundred milliseconds late and even abilities that are supposed to be off GCD sometimes respecting it anyway.

 

The animation delays appear to be largely cosmetic, but there ARE at least or 4 bugs that actually affect your ability to do things in combat, and maybe more (the thing with ravage firing the animation but not actually having the ability go off has been posted a few times, so ravage may be broken too. Master Strike, the JK counterpart, seems to work fine).

 

Yes, I'd just like to put a little emphasis on the Importance of the cosmetic issues. Visual feedback as well as sound has to be just as perfect as the actual mechanical aspects that are causing the more obvious bugs.

 

If the cosmetics are off or sound it aids incredibly to the feeling off jarring disconnect with your avatar. We're dealing here with technical/mechanical flaws in the coding AS WELL as cosmetic flaws in animation and sound sync, both contribute to responsiveness issues.

 

The key to success of the "illusion" of perfect response is attention to detail in all areas. SW:TOR shows the contrary, neglect of the attention to detail. I attribute this to an casual, inexperienced and naive developer team.

 

Absolutely neglecting this all important perfection of combat gameplay in favor of making sure that one can **** their pet that is dressed as a slave.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Xcore

[daeseer]

Yes, the animation delays are a bit jarring. But to be honest, as long as I can cast spells as soon as the castbar for the previous ability is finished, and the damage lands, I'm happy.

 

If there are issues with specific abilities, those obviously require fixes. But on my Sith Sorcerer, my rotation is now as fluid as any of my WoW toons, and that's really all I'm looking for.

 

I'm honestly surprised at how CPU dependent this issue was for me, but I'm glad I upgraded.

 

Oh, I do notice that a few of my abilities, Lightning Strike in particular, sometimes set a castbar going twice. Mounting up also does this. I don't know what the deal is with that, and it's a bit annoying.

Edited January 6, 2012 by daeseer

[Oxboy]

Yes, the animation delays are a bit jarring. But to be honest, as long as I can cast spells as soon as the castbar for the previous ability is finished, and the damage lands, I'm happy.

 

If there are issues with specific abilities, those obviously require fixes. But on my Sith Sorcerer, my rotation is now as fluid as any of my WoW toons, and that's really all I'm looking for.

 

I'm honestly surprised at how CPU dependent this issue was for me, but I'm glad I upgraded.

 

Oh, I do notice that a few of my abilities, Lightning Strike in particular, sometimes set a castbar going twice. Mounting up also does this. I don't know what the deal is with that, and it's a bit annoying.

 

You need to heal, tank or melee to feel the real pain. Ranged DPS rotations are bit more forgiving ATM.

[daeseer]

You need to heal, tank or melee to feel the real pain. Ranged DPS rotations are bit more forgiving ATM.

 

I have also healed, and it's vastly improved with my new CPU. I haven't tried ops yet or anything, so I guess I can't comment on that.

[Xilentor]

I was experiencing large delays in casting and such.

 

This week I upgraded from my old Athlon64 X2 to a Core i5 2500K.

 

I don't have any casting delays anymore.

 

Sometimes the animations delay, usually when something like Forked Lightning happen (an extra lightning burst from Lightning Strike or Chain Lightning), but the subsequent spell is still casting. My rotation is very fluid now, even if the animations aren't entirely.

 

I think the combat system is very, very CPU dependent, as is most of this game. I would have to fault Bioware for not making the game more widely accessible for people with less-than-recent hardware. But with a good CPU this game sings.

 

Luckily, good hardware isn't expensive these days. I was able to get the CPU, a new motherboard, and 8 GB DDR3 1600 for about 425 bucks. The RAM is especially cheap.

 

If you're experiencing bad ability delays, save up your dough and upgrade your processor. It's absolutely worth every penny.

 

Whatever the issue was you were having before you upgraded your CPU and how you believe is fixed is not the same issue everyone is complaining about.

 

It has nothing to do with your hardware or Internet connection, it's game mechanics.

[Bazeleel]

I have had the special privilege of playing on a T1 line with a computer worth more then my car.

 

You still get combat delay, server sync issues, not to mention game performance bugs. Not to mention the "high" settings seem like then are only med settings.

 

I will agree that this will make of break the game. I really do believe that it will get fixed. It is frustrating that is has not been yet.

 

BUT

 

Bioware is at least talking with us, needs to be more imo, so we do know that they are aware of the issues.

[jgmcdee]

Not directly related to character responsiveness but another issue with abilities is that the don't queue properly.

 

To give an example: as a scoundrel healer I have the ability 'Underworld Medicine' which grants a buff, and 'Emergency Medpac' which consumes that buff. However, if I attempt to queue EM whilst UM is casting I get a "you don't have the buff" message immediately, rather than EM being queued and cast as soon as UM has completed.

 

I'm don't know if there are similar issues with other classes but it's a massive pain for me and again makes the whole play experience a chore, and far more of a button-mashing exercise than it should be.

[cnosyt]

Unless this is fixed within the first month I see a lot of people not subbing for next month. I really like swtor and want it to succeed so I hope they figure out a way to fix the ability delay, potentially speeding up any animations that are over the 1.5s global cooldown or having animations clip off when another is used.

[Qishari]

Hello!

 

We wanted to let you know that Emmanuel just posted an update to the Abilidy Delay issue here:

 

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,

 

Edited January 6, 2012 by Qishari

[Skizzik]

Hello!

 

We wanted to let you know that Emmanuel just posted an update to the Abilidy Delay issue here:

 

 

 

 

Awesome! See everyone, people aren't just complaining for the sake of complaining. There IS an issue and I'm glad to see that Bioware is all over it. Good show.

[Vinadin]

hmmmm so maybe this will help my derpness :-P Edited January 6, 2012 by Vinadin

[Xcore]

Hello!

 

We wanted to let you know that Emmanuel just posted an update to the Abilidy Delay issue here:

 

 

 

 

Well, thank you very much. The threadline has needed this. I am very pleased to read that response and my hopes have been renewed to a degree. I would like to point out however, that the post itself was very vague in terms of actual meaning/fix/severity (detail) etc.

 

So, while I am extremely happy that it "appears" to be taken serious and this reply certainly is uplifting. I would caution against cheering as though it has been dealt with.

 

I woild encourage further discussion, arguments, anything to keep this issue at the forefront of attention. Because the one thing that I have not forgotten or unlearned over the past 5 threads is that this very issue raised is the single most important aspect determining the future success or failure of SW:TOR.

 

Thanks for the update Quishari, you need to stop by more often.

[asbalana]

I was experiencing large delays in casting and such.

 

This week I upgraded from my old Athlon64 X2 to a Core i5 2500K.

 

I don't have any casting delays anymore.

 

Sometimes the animations delay, usually when something like Forked Lightning happen (an extra lightning burst from Lightning Strike or Chain Lightning), but the subsequent spell is still casting. My rotation is very fluid now, even if the animations aren't entirely.

 

I think the combat system is very, very CPU dependent, as is most of this game. I would have to fault Bioware for not making the game more widely accessible for people with less-than-recent hardware. But with a good CPU this game sings.

 

Luckily, good hardware isn't expensive these days. I was able to get the CPU, a new motherboard, and 8 GB DDR3 1600 for about 425 bucks. The RAM is especially cheap.

 

If you're experiencing bad ability delays, save up your dough and upgrade your processor. It's absolutely worth every penny.

 

Sorry, but I am running an i7 950 on an EVGA Classified with 16G of ram and am having plenty of issues. My internet ping, in a sequence of fifty, averages about 35ms with little variation.

[Hairless]

Now that we have an official confirmation of the problem from BW, I have to ask this.

 

HOW SERIOUSLY BAD/INATTENTIVE/UNOBSERVANT/SLOW DID YOU HAVE TO BE TO NOT NOTICE THIS PROBLEM WITHIN THE FIRST HOUR OF PLAYING THIS GAME?

 

I can't believe the sheer number of people who denied this problem even existed and called us whiners when the problem was so painstakingly obvious. Seriously.

 

I hope to God that I don't group with any of these players because these are probably the same players that fail to observe a gigantic firewall coming at them at 10 miles per hour.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Hairless