A quick update on Ability Delay

[FuzzPop]

A Radeon 4200 is an integrated card and not a very good one at that. Whats funny is the minimum system requirements aren't very clear as they say 256MB of Onboard Video Memory but then list the Intel 4100 which has no Onboard Video Memory, only shared.

 

A Radeon 4200 is slightly faster than an Intel 4500m. Since they list the Intel 4100 as a minimum then this is above the minimum but still very low spec.

 

Anyways his problem is the processor, that processor does not even come close to the minimum game requirements as even though it is quad core, the clock speed is way too low and needs to be 2.4 ghz+ to be the equivalent of the Athlon Dual Core. Clock speed is the most important factor of the processor for this game as it is a Single Core engine (well technically dual core but 1 core is the UI and 1 core is everything else).

 

Bioware's fault for making their requirements vague.

 

No, it is not Bioware's fault. At all.

 

They cannot be expected to list every single machine configuration and every single this or that. They have already listed the minimum system requirements right on the box.

 

And that system by that poor fella, did not even come close to the minimum requirements. Honestly as a PC gamer, it's your duty to know that any Integrated Intel chipset for graphics is absolute garbage and you shouldn't even expect to run any games with that - at all.

[Lightmgl]

No, it is not Bioware's fault. At all.

 

They cannot be expected to list every single machine configuration and every single this or that. They have already listed the minimum system requirements right on the box.

 

And that system by that poor fella, did not even come close to the minimum requirements. Honestly as a PC gamer, it's your duty to know that any Integrated Intel chipset for graphics is absolute garbage and you shouldn't even expect to run any games with that - at all.

 

Yes but they could at least explain what about each item fits the minimum requirement. They don't mention the clock speed required for the AMD solution.

 

They list an ATI X1800 as the minimum ATI requirement which by pure speed is still a very high end ATI card falling into the top 30 even though it is 6 years old. Ditto with the Nvidia 7800 which is probably still one of the top 20 or 25 fastest Nvidia cards on the market even though it is 5 years old. Many people do not realize that the first # in the model is the generation and typically only refers to features like software (Shader Model, DirectX version) and the last 3 numbers (or 2 in the newest Nvidia cards) represent the tier of the card so that a 7800 is much faster than a 9500...

 

Listing what were once top end video cards really, really does not help. One would naturally think a card with a larger number released years later is better but in many cases here it is not.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Lightmgl

[Supershammey]

Yey, great news!

[stocean]

BW is the new Blizzard! Except they're better.

[Myrmedus]

One additional thing I'd like to add: I've started encountering an issue with ability activation that I'm not sure is quite the same thing as the ability delay.

 

The ability delay is usually a case where an ability, such as Force Kick, doesn't go off because of an ability already in the process of activation - however, you clearly see the ability not activating, no animation is displayed etc.

 

However, I've started to encounter another problem which has been occurring more and more often and is different in nature: when I play my character quickly, using a stream of abilities within quick succession, I am often getting issues where an ability - any ability - isn't activating yet the animation is displaying as if it were activated and the global cooldown is initiated.

 

For example, my main is a Jedi Sentinel; if I am fighting an elite or champion enemy I need to be on my game - I need to be playing quickly and with high efficiency, so I'm using alot of abilities quickly. Let's say I do this:

 

Force Leap

Cauterize

Force Stasis

Wait for stasis to end

Pacify

Master Strike

 

On many occasions I will get one of those abilities display its animation, as if it's gone off, but the ability won't activate - its effects don't go off and its cooldown isn't initiated. Sometimes this can happen more than once.

 

Today, it happened on Master Strike. I used Pacify and then I activated Master Strike. My character displayed the animation of Master Strike, doing his elaborate attack animation ending with the backwards double-saber attack so for all intents and purposes it looks like the ability has gone off. However, no damage was appearing over the enemy's head? And the ability isn't on cooldown? It hasn't activated! So I use the ability again. Once again, the animation displays, but again there's no damage over the enemy's head and the ability is still not on cooldown. Often, I need to then wait a second or so before trying again, or use a different ability, before the issue corrects itself.

 

This has happened with Force Stasis before in that ability chain above aswell, and this can be much worse because the animation displays but the enemy is still moving freely.

 

I don't think this is the same issue as ability delay - it's almost like latency but it definitely isn't because my ping is -always- sitting pretty around the 50ms mark. As you can imagine, in any kind of tight encounter this is a killer issue. It can easily mean the difference between winning or losing, and with the animation displaying sometimes you don't initially realise the ability hasn't activated. With an ability like Force Stasis aswell, it can mean that you fail to interrupt an ability you needed to interrupt. Right now I am fighting Sith War Apprentices on Alderaan. With the Lightning-specced Sorcerers I need to interrupt Force Storm. If I use Force Stasis to interrupt and it doesn't activate, this means they get off Force Storm and will pretty much guarantee my death.

 

I'm not sure what the issue is, and if it is the same thing as the ability delay I apologise, but I thought I would bring this up here because I'm finding this problem pop up more and more frequently.

 

Thanks.

[Myrmedus]

Considering it is your engine, I would say it can be once you figure that out and stop blaming it soley on your customers rigs, your engine has poor opitmization and doesn't keep a constant load on a GPU, which causes the constant FPS drop along with the memory leak that creates slow degridation and the clunky textures you created, all you have to do is find the rotten apples in your code and create better textures to render.

If you would like me to walk your progs through it feel free to PM me

 

The highlighted part of your post is whole-heartedly antonymous with being easy or quick to figure out, and if you knew as much about coding for high scope projects as you suggest in your post you'd know that.

 

Why? Because you're looking for subtle issues in thousands and thousands of lines of code - and yes, it's subtle because it's a question of optimization not function.

 

Good luck doing that 'quickly' or 'easily'.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Myrmedus

[asbalana]

One additional thing I'd like to add: I've started encountering an issue with ability activation that I'm not sure is quite the same thing as the ability delay.

 

The ability delay is usually a case where an ability, such as Force Kick, doesn't go off because of an ability already in the process of activation - however, you clearly see the ability not activating, no animation is displayed etc.

 

However, I've started to encounter another problem which has been occurring more and more often and is different in nature: when I play my character quickly, using a stream of abilities within quick succession, I am often getting issues where an ability - any ability - isn't activating yet the animation is displaying as if it were activated and the global cooldown is initiated.

 

------

 

Hi. I truncated your post to save space. I think that this is part of the abilities issues that have been lumped in under the delay heading. BW has identified the fact that there are multiple interrelated issues. Your experience, as described, had been identified and discussed in Xcore's threads. I believe that there were videos posted that demonstrate that exact issue. Athough you would have to dig through a lot of pages to find it, there was a good deal of great discussion between Trion, Xcore, and others about client - server communication and the concept of client initiating an action and server not recognizing or validating it and about what happens at each end of the chain. This is all new to me (I have just played mmos as a game without being concerned about how they work) and I am learning a lot. Some people have identifed that certain abilities are bugged without relation to the other issues.

 

But indeed this is a real issue that a number of people have brought forth and it well belongs in this thread.

[Your_Ad_Here]

Hi DeltaGun,

 

Customer service is routing incoming bug reports to the appropriate developers.

 

You could also just add a /bug section to your dropdown menu. Just saying.

 

Would make things faster and CSR could deal with the problematic .... problems.

[Arkimor]

Mis-post.

 

Yay Bioware?

Edited January 8, 2012 by Arkimor

[supertouch]

uploaded a couple of videos showing no ability delay

 

 

 

 

 

let's have bioware add auto attacks and animation clipping to hide the "delay" and appease people who most likely have network problems.

[Alianiren]

Yo guys I was about the fraps it myself but found it on youtube someone else posted it if you press a action button multiple times I mean I do it does this. and if anyone says they dont have the problem! Im sorry if I offend you but then you have a problem in your head! there is this delay thats been bugging everyone I just want a smooth game smooth like world of warcraft. Btw I hate world of warcraft. but hey the game is good. I have a level 29 jedi guardian and I cant enjoy the game everyone has this problem how can Bioware do this! I know its a mmo but if they just waited 1 extra year and listened to the people they would have 20mil extra subscribers!

 

please watch it, delay is with every ability not just smash I read that they are gonna fix this problem but I know this aint true I can sniff a lie from lightyears away:mad:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2s4laFfdqM

 

[supertouch]

Yo guys I was about the fraps it myself but found it on youtube someone else posted it if you press a action button multiple times I mean I do it does this. and if anyone says they dont have the problem! Im sorry if I offend you but then you have a problem in your head! there is this delay thats been bugging everyone I just want a smooth game smooth like world of warcraft. Btw I hate world of warcraft. but hey the game is good. I have a level 29 jedi guardian and I cant enjoy the game everyone has this problem how can Bioware do this! I know its a mmo but if they just waited 1 extra year and listened to the people they would have 20mil extra subscribers!

 

please watch it, delay is with every ability not just smash I read that they are gonna fix this problem but I know this aint true I can sniff a lie from lightyears away:mad:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2s4laFfdqM

 

where's the delay in the first video? your character is starting and completing animations while you're in GCD. the second video doesn't demonstrate ability delay.

[Excedrin]

Great, now all the highly defensive fanboys can stop pretending like this doesn't exist.

[Alianiren]

where's the delay in the first video? your character is starting and completing animations while you're in GCD. the second video doesn't demonstrate ability delay.

 

You clearly have something wrong with you, get yourself checked. I hate hate fanboys I WILL PUNCH YOU:mad:

[zoofar]

+1 for communicating with players

[Ozbaab]

Great!

[Terko_Koslah]

The ability delay is a manifestation of the force.

 

Some people are sensitive to it and some people are not.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Terko_Koslah

[RasereiAmok]

Its to bad the ENTIRE game is delayed.... Graphics, abilities, responiveness in everything. So good luck fixing the ENTIRE game. It wont happen...

 

When you go free to play in a year, ill be here. Come at me bro

[Flowerslayer]

Its to bad the ENTIRE game is delayed.... Graphics, abilities, responiveness in everything. So good luck fixing the ENTIRE game. It wont happen...

 

When you go free to play in a year, ill be here. Come at me bro

 

See u at launch.

[zoofar]

Its to bad the ENTIRE game is delayed.... Graphics, abilities, responiveness in everything. So good luck fixing the ENTIRE game. It wont happen...

 

When you go free to play in a year, ill be here. Come at me bro

You may actually be right. But to me personally the mere fact that they care enough to make this sticky and actually communicate with players, makes me wanna stick around to give them a chance to try and improve it.

 

To me bugs don't really destroy games (well mostly...). But unwillingness of devs to communicate openly with players about issues can destroy games (once again, for me personally).

 

Gotta say BW show signs of wanting to improve in all these areas. Now I'm just waiting for my fanboy T-shirt to arrive in mail.

[blackcerberus]

dear BioWare

 

Im not gonna be another mindless fanboi thanking for you for admitting there is a problem, and comunicating with us. I would have sworn thats the bare minimum you should meet, and until recently you werent meeting it.

 

 

maybe I'll thank you when (if) you fix it, until then, keep on working to deserve the money I pay you for this critical-bugs-infested game

Edited January 8, 2012 by blackcerberus

[Adrar]

lol funny

[MercurySeven]

Response time also affects jumping--like trying for one of the nightmarish datacron locations (with no room for error). The jumps are often delayed--whether it lacked the necessary height or forward momentum. I truly wish that there was a "catch" section(s) so response failures would not force me to start at the very beginning of a jump sequence--which in turn fills me with murderous rage.

 

Please look into this.

Thank you.

[Aurainsoph]

Pretty annoying to lose pvp matches because of the skill delay. Nothing like having 8.0/8.0 seconds on the bomb and moving and having the bomb not plant. Also pretty annoying to use mash a skill and not have it go off because the animation from the previous skill hasn't finished.

 

Really crappy idea to wait to see the blacklash when the game launched to announce a game breaking thing like skill delay hoping your pvp customers wouldn't realize until after they bought the game.

[ThaDoggfather]

I really hope that they fix this issue quick, it's impossible to play PvP with delays:mad:. This games needs to have more fluid combat if it's going to work out for the PvP'ers.

 

Other than that im really satisfied with the game.