NO troll intended. But anybody have an IDEA how they can fix ability delay?

[RossaK]

Not even close. Hero engine is actually good, and Bioware heavily modified the engine.

 

@Rossak

 

Link or its not true.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=897912#edit897912

 

 

And to the person who is in complete denial about ability delay: Play a SW and you'll see what me and the masses(yes, there are enough of us to be considered 'masses' now) are talking about. It has nothing to do with ping unless my 13 ping to the west coast server is too high. All classes suffer from the problem and its felt in the later levels.

[CygnusMX]

I always thought the delay was do to button mashing from mortal kombat type player technique.

 

I see it as not letting you do one thing until the other thing has completed its cycle.

Everyones probably just button mashing.

[mattdell]

Read my edit. And I'll be happy if they copy WoW's combat. Even if what you speak is true. (of course I don't believe you, I don't see any proof other than your text and while it's been years since I last played WoW, I remember their combat perfectly and it's 100x smoother than SWTOR.) If it comes out to be true though, nothing wrong with that, just make it like WoW's.

 

Believe me or not, doesn't really matter to me. I pride myself on being a truth teller, even at the expense of others feelings. You really need proof? You think I conjured up that very eloquent explanation straight from my butt? Do I strike you as the type of person to troll with great intelligence? Please. I really wish you could review peoples posting history, that way you could review mine and realize that I'm a knowledgable person with great aspirations for this game, and I understand deeply how they work.

Edited January 6, 2012 by mattdell

[sw_dragon]

Hard fix. Its a problem with the game engine, WoW spent years trying to fix it. Realized they couldn't, so they cleverly hid it.

 

Try this out for some brain candy. You're in WoW, on your epic flying mount. You agro a caster mob. That caster mob fires a fireball at you, while you're flying.

 

In your combat log, the ball has already hit you, and damaged you, yet the fireball remains behind you in mid air, trying to catch up. The client doesn't show the damage on your health bar, or in the floating combat text, because they are hiding the inherit delay that was complained about for years. If you stop flying, the fireball will catch you, and hit you, and you'll see the red numbers for damage, and your health bar will go down.. But in reality, it already happened, long ago.

 

Those same basic principles of coding are the current flaw we're hearing about with the ability delay. It's not a delay, its your ping time fluctuating between client-server communications, and the expected results are not being received in the very small window of time that they are given.

 

 

/thread

[CygnusMX]

you really need proof? You think i conjured up that very eloquent explanation straight from my butt?

 

""lol""

[supertouch]

i'm able to use all of my abilities seamlessly, and i'm not a casual clicker. i can cast something like underworld medicine and then click another ability that takes effect immediately.

 

maybe i'm just lucky

[darthdoll]

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=897912#edit897912

 

 

And to the person who is in complete denial about ability delay: Play a SW and you'll see what me and the masses(yes, there are enough of us to be considered 'masses' now) are talking about. It has nothing to do with ping unless my 13 ping to the west coast server is too high. All classes suffer from the problem and its felt in the later levels.

 

Ok? That link shows no proof that other games have ability delay.

[mattdell]

I always thought the delay was do to button mashing from mortal kombat type player technique.

 

I see it as not letting you do one thing until the other thing has completed its cycle.

Everyones probably just button mashing.

 

Somewhat. Another example of the "Ability delay" can be seen trying to mount up.

If you're the type of person that wants to move immediately after mounting, you might have noticed the game dismounting you every now and then. This is the same problem.

The client sends the data to the server, and automatically begins the animation. If the server hasn't responded to the client, telling it "OK you're mounted", by the time your cast bar finishes and you try to move on your mount, the game dismounts you as an exploit thwarting device. Same thing happening with abilities. The server has not told the client that your ability is done yet, and your client cancels the next button push in an anti exploitative fashion. WoW has an even cleverer fix for that one, but its much too technical to discuss here, and frankly I'm too tired to type it out.

Edited January 6, 2012 by mattdell

[CygnusMX]

the only ability delay ive experienced was due to constipation.

[CygnusMX]

Somewhat. Another example of the "Ability delay" can be seen trying to mount up.

If you're the type of person that wants to move immediately after mounting, you might have noticed the game dismounting you every now and then. This is the same problem.

The client sends the data to the server, and automatically begins the animation. If the server hasn't responded to the client, telling it "OK you're mounted", by the time your cast bar finishes and you try to move on your mount, the game dismounts you as an exploit thwarting device. Same thing happening with abilities. The server has not told the client that your ability is done yet, and your client cancels the next button push in an anti exploitative fashion.

 

Your concept sounds logical to me.maybe they can mask this and calm everyone down or there could be a fix ?

 

I really dont have much issue with this delay thing,there is hesitation or it sometimes feels as if its delayed when doing certain things,feels more like , well i executed my next move a bit to early.

Edited January 6, 2012 by CygnusMX

[JSykes]

Not even close. Hero engine is actually good, and Bioware heavily modified the engine.

 

@Rossak

 

Link or its not true.

 

Here.

 

And for the lazy,

 

Ability Delay. Have you guys discussed this internally, and if so, is there an ETA for a fix on this issue?

 

Hey! It has been discussed internally, and we'll talk about it publicly soon. It's not a simple issue so we don't want to issue a quick, off-the-cuff response.

[mattdell]

Here.

 

And for the lazy,

 

Ability Delay. Have you guys discussed this internally, and if so, is there an ETA for a fix on this issue?

 

Hey! It has been discussed internally, and we'll talk about it publicly soon. It's not a simple issue so we don't want to issue a quick, off-the-cuff response.

 

My god. Ok. Do yourself a favor and just be neutral for a second. I'll do the same.

Ability delay, ping, lag, whatever you want to call it. It is not a game design issue, at all. It is a problem with how the internet works, and cannot be fixed. It can only be masked, simply for the sake of alleviating frustration and QQing.

 

You are all spoiled from WoW, because WoW devised a way to HIDE it from you. If you still play WoW, run a system datalog of your wow button press timing VS your recorded combat log. You will see THE SAME DELAY, except they hide it.

Edited January 6, 2012 by mattdell

[darthdoll]

Here.

 

And for the lazy,

 

Ability Delay. Have you guys discussed this internally, and if so, is there an ETA for a fix on this issue?

 

Hey! It has been discussed internally, and we'll talk about it publicly soon. It's not a simple issue so we don't want to issue a quick, off-the-cuff response.

 

And for the lazy person who did not want to read the guy I @ too.

 

He said in EVERY game that uses the Hero Engine has ability delay... Stop acting smug when you didnt even read.

 

"Ability delay has been observed in every game which uses the Hero Engine."

Edited January 6, 2012 by darthdoll

[Zebular]

There is an ability delay issue and it needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

 

This is keeping me from playing as fighting is no longer fun. If I go too long without being able to have fun, I will get bored. When I get bored, I find something else to do.

 

Lately, all I have been doing is crafting and exploring. But now I am so broke, it is not funny - and no desire to get aggravated at this ability delay while trying to make some credits by fighting.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Zebular

[RossaK]

Ok? That link shows no proof that other games have ability delay.

 

Sadly those links were lost in the 4 remakes of the ability delay thread. Each time it hits 1,000 posts they have to remake the thread. Feel free to ask for the links to the other game forum threads that discuss those games suffering the same problem. Or wait for them to be posted again, I'm sure they will be.

[CygnusMX]

Well it looks like they acknowledge the issue and will address it when they address it .

 

I'm not finding this to be game breaking or really interefere with my extravagant button pressing techniques.

[RossaK]

Well it looks like they acknowledge the issue and will address it when they address it .

 

I'm not finding this to be game breaking or really interefere with my extravagant button pressing techniques.

 

They've acknowledged it, even if some here can't accept that it exists.

[Yahkx]

Believe me or not, doesn't really matter to me. I pride myself on being a truth teller, even at the expense of others feelings. You really need proof? You think I conjured up that very eloquent explanation straight from my butt? Do I strike you as the type of person to troll with great intelligence? Please. I really wish you could review peoples posting history, that way you could review mine and realize that I'm a knowledgable person with great aspirations for this game, and I understand deeply how they work.

 

Dude , going to your reference to the fireball chasing you while in mid air, you say that you take damage when it hits you after you land 15 million light years away, but in reality you took the damage long before that. You just get the animation of it hitting you when you land. And yes ability delay is a real bug, and if you think WoW has it too then you obviously have never left the starting zone. On the SW:TOR forums there are 4 completely full post with over 200,000 views all with people saying they are receiving the same issue, just because you don't have it doesn't mean the "masses" as someone else put it, do not.

Edited January 7, 2012 by Qishari
insults

[Yahkx]

They've acknowledged it, even if some here can't accept that it exists.

 

Yeah I don't understand how people say it doesn't exist when BW has come out and said it's a problem.

[mattdell]

Dude , going to your reference to the fireball chasing you while in mid air, you say that you take damage when it hits you after you land 15 million light years away, but in reality you took the damage long before that. You just get the animation of it hitting you when you land. And yes ability delay is a real bug, and if you think WoW has it too then you obviously have never left the starting zone. On the SW:TOR forums there are 4 completely full post with over 200,000 views all with people saying they are receiving the same issue, just because you don't have it doesn't mean the "masses" as someone else put it, do not.

 

That is because over 200,000 people do not understand how the internet works. Trust me on this one, I've been doing this a long time. Ability delay is NOT a bug, it is a fluctuation in ping time's between sending and receiving, and the small window of opportunity inside of the ability queue system. It's NOT fixable, it's HIDEABLE. Read my posts again, this time with a little less bias. Stop pretending that Bioware is bowing to your every whim and treat them like a multi million dollar corporation. They know the truth. Just because they tell the user base there is a problem doesn't mean there is. They're going to mask the problem, but it will still exist because its a ping issue, tied to the TCP protocol. Cannot be fixed, ever.

 

You do not understand how these games work, nor do you understand how the internet works. When you have someone like me, sitting here telling you the ABSOLUTE TRUTH, instead of hiding behind corporate things like "we acknowledge theres a problem", you don't jump down my throat. You're supposed to take that knowledge and learn from it. Explore it. Stop denouncing it simply because you don't understand the terminology. I'm tired of trying to help you people. I can put it all into numbers for you if you'd like, but it would be pages long. Why bother though, right? You're going to denounce this information as if I'm a witch in Salem.

 

BTW, the fireball in WoW reference is factual. It is THE technology that Blizzard implemented to get around all sorts of game delay. They developed it specifically for this issue, in house. Go test it if you still play. Open your combat log, watch the fireball hit you(in the log), and observe that your health bar hasn't moved. Now, kindly shut up with your spreading of misinformation. I seek to inform the masses, not dumb them down like some posters in here.

 

In WoW, the client delays what it shows you until the server has given the OK. In SW:ToR, this is not the case. That is your elusive "ability delay".

Edited January 7, 2012 by Qishari
quoted insults

[CygnusMX]

The only ability delay ive noticed is comprehending what I typed after i hit the "submit reply " button in the forum.

[Skoshini]

Look if you do not notice the ability delay you are not playing at a level of skill that it matters to you. Anyone who has done any competitive gaming (Raiding or serious PVP) will notice the problem. Coming out and stating that you do not is just stating that you are not an experienced gamer. No big deal, but don't claim that this problem doesn't exist.

[lunabaguna]

Protip: Stop button mashing, focus on one ability at a time, you will see the delay disappear. You are all so used to pushing buttons in anticipation of 3 moves ahead and spamming til they happen, that you dont realize that without autoattack and with gcd, you have to play this as a strategy game when it comes to combat. EQ2 had the exact same "issue." As the smart guy on this thread pointed out, button mashing triggers the anti-exploit capabilities of your CLIENT. I used to experience this issue when I first started because I was trying so hard to button mash. Once I eased up and actually respected that there is a GCD that no amount of me mashing will overcome, the ability delay disappeared entirely.

[lunabaguna]

Look if you do not notice the ability delay you are not playing at a level of skill that it matters to you. Anyone who has done any competitive gaming (Raiding or serious PVP) will notice the problem. Coming out and stating that you do not is just stating that you are not an experienced gamer. No big deal, but don't claim that this problem doesn't exist.

 

Science will tell you that whats true of the goose is not true of the gander. WoW has a different engine that compensates for your playstyle, it holds your hand and lets you spaz out on your keyboard. This game dosnt do that, so you are actually forced to play in the real world. I pvp just fine, I group just fine, I'm a jugg who can hold aggro just fine on whole groups with no issues. Learn how to play with a different set of tools.

[MagicTiger]

Maybe instead of calling it ability delay, we should call it animation delay.

Maybe then people will understand what it's all about and stop trying to explain it away as "well that's just how the internet works" or some other rubbish.

 

To fix it, make it so that any animation can be interrupted. Activating an ability should trigger the GCD if not an instant and play an animation. Activating the next ability, even if the first animation hasn't finished, should interrupt that animation, execute the ability, and trigger the most recent ability's animation. So far, that doesn't seem to happen. If so, the game engine is still preventing action until the animation would have finished, or so it seems to us. Unfortunately, all we can do is tell Bioware about the problem and help them reproduce it as best we can. It's up to them to bash the engine with a spanner until it does what we need.

 

Don't stick characters in limbo until the animation finishes. It may look a little goofy when people are doing a lot of things in rapid succession, but you can redo your animations so that they fit where appropriate.