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

[JediMasterShake]

Kind of funny how this got unstickied.

[Ryzerion]

I think you are confused.

 

People are not threatening to do anything, at least not on this thread, and not on most threads i've personally read (way too many). They are simply stating a fact.

 

The idea is that a lot of us are looking for a new MMO not necessarely because we hate WoW, but simply because, as with everything in life, things eventually get stale and you will want to experience something different... something new.

 

That being said, we wont settle for anything. There was an industry standard for fluid combat way before WoW. Lineage, Lineage 2, EQ, Dransik, all the F2Ps like Rappelz and Flyff... Players expect a game to feel fluid. It has nothing to do with looking for another WoW, but rather simply because they want an experience that feels at least as enjoyable to play.

 

The problem seems to be that those new western MMOs run on a business model: they place the marketing department's need above the developpement's. Result? ******** of hype, massive budget games... and a gameplay that somehow does not manage to achieve what NCSoft did in the 1990s.

 

Yes, it is a huge undertaking. It is no reason to release unfinished products, and thats exactly what EA has been doing for years. They push for marketing reasons (in this case, to make the xmas lists) when things are not finished.

 

Now the good news is, some people, like me, simply do not wish to pay 15$ for a month of something we cannot enjoy, but since we like everything else about the game, we will gladly come back when this is fixed. The bad news is: a lot of people wont.

 

Truth

[Inraika]

Hopefully this gets addressed, I'm not sure if it will however.

 

Bioware may just blow it off and expect people to forget about it, but they wont...

I'm going to keep playing though, because its a damn good time.

[DeusEck]

I've been noticing this more an more so on my Sith Juggernaut.

 

It is amazingly frustrating to try and use an ability only to have it not do anything. Which in turn during a flashpoint or "instances" equals me loosing a significant amount of threat on targets. If I'm standing there doing nothing because my abilities appear to be broken, I'm not attacking the target so therefore I'm loosing threat...quickly.

 

I love this game and I wan't it to do well. Little things like this will add up over time though and I will take my money and time elsewhere.

 

 

I hope to see major changes and fixes in many aspects of the game over the next few months.

 

Character Responsiveness is at the top of that list. There is nothing more distracting than choppy game-play.

[Ravaran]

Is this the same issue as when I press an ability and it doesn't activate? I have spam "esc" a couple of times before I can actually fire it off.

[va_wanderer]

Trooper player here.

 

We tend to have trouble with this sorta thing in the Full Auto/Mortar Volley use- animations seem to be disjointed or even resulting in missed tics (FA).

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=48516 is our big thread on the subject, should a dev actually catch this.

[Fujitasix]

I canceled my sub until this is addressed.

 

I can handle the bugs on the bosses in instances, I can handle the currently imbalanced PvP classes, I can tolerate the lack of UI customization... but I cannot tolerate wonky gameplay.

 

I played some Rift the last couple of days, and it was a tiny bit spongy compared to WoW, but it still puts TOR to shame for responsive gameplay and modern graphics. If Bioware can get this worked out, I'll be happy to subscribe to their MMO again. Until then, no dice.

 

I played gunnery commando FYI, makes quite the impact in your gameplay.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Fujitasix

[Zallan]

Having obtained a few Gladiator titles during WoW's earlier years I must say that the combat system in this game is highly frustrating. I often waste invaluable time attempting to Maul someone but instead being greeted by the inherent "ability lag" that has been integrated within the combat system. The several points outline by the OP do indeed hold significant value and must be addressed. Until several changes are rolled out, competition in this game is nonexistent.

 

Oh yeah, add combat logs already. Other than that, still enjoying the game.

[YourFutureEx]

I canceled my sub until this is addressed.

 

I can handle the bugs on the bosses in instances, I can handle the currently imbalanced PvP classes, I can tolerate the lack of UI customization... but I cannot tolerate wonky gameplay.

 

I played some Rift the last couple of days, and it was a tiny bit spongy compared to WoW, but it still puts TOR to shame for responsive gameplay and modern graphics. If Bioware can get this worked out, I'll be happy to subscribe to their MMO again. Until then, no dice.

 

I played gunnery commando FYI, makes quite the impact in your gameplay.

 

I still don't see any abilities NOT working here. I have a Jugg and he plays very fluidly in PVE. The Warzones were hit or miss though, I'll agree to that. But if you just leveled one toon to 50 and are going to quit, you've missed the other 85% of the game IMO.

 

Cya later, I'm going to go spend $15 on food. Hope I don't break the bank.

[FerrusPA]

I still don't see any abilities NOT working here. I have a Jugg and he plays very fluidly in PVE.

 

Then either stop clicking or try tanking.

[Fujitasix]

I still don't see any abilities NOT working here. I have a Jugg and he plays very fluidly in PVE. The Warzones were hit or miss though, I'll agree to that. But if you just leveled one toon to 50 and are going to quit, you've missed the other 85% of the game IMO.

 

Cya later, I'm going to go spend $15 on food. Hope I don't break the bank.

 

I played up to valor rank 55 and 533 expertise - I gave it more than a fair shake. $15 might be a pittance, but why pay for something that isn't to my liking?

 

I think putting the GCD before the animations is going to be a major undertaking - if Bioware succeeds, I come back. If not, I continue playing Rift - I'm having fun there at the moment and not experiencing the frustration of tossing a cryo grenade on someone only to have them 15m ahead of where they were "frozen" and conveniently now out of LoS. 45ms response, my ***. Input lag + poor server response = sloppy PvE only, and paying $7.50 a month for half of the game isn't currently an option.

[TheDrJack]

bump for great justice as this is really annoying. /signed

[Vargrir]

Bump, this must be fixed soon.

[Isgarot]

bump for the game sake!

[Dorins]

Let me be honest, I'm shocked that this "glitch" actually never caught the attention of developers in time. As I understand the game gone through a long period of development / testing before going live. I just find it hard to believe that, as it is...well kind of obvious after a maximum of 2 days playing.

 

Anyways, that's my personal dilemma of not being able to find a logical answer to that without offensive theories . So it doesn't really matter

 

What does matter however, when can we expect an official statement which is a bit more than "looking into it". If I missed it, please point me into the right direction and ignore my post completely.

 

Thank you.

[Jedikillar]

While the ability delay is annoying, my real concern is the "stutter" effect I often experience while playing melee characters in PvP. Nothing more annoying that hitting the same ability 3+ times. only to have it hang mid animation and never actually activate. This is probably going to be the main reason I do not renew my account. I have played WoW, DAoC, Rift and Aion, yet I have never experienced this kind of issue.

 

Your talking about ravage(master strike) arent you? Thats where i see this problem come into play the most-i leap at a target, im standing right at them, i use the ability, and it triggers a gcd and an animation that wont let me move during it, but dosnt doany damage or trigger the cd. Anyways, i could deal even with things as terrible as this if they would just fix the fkng warzone lag. It, combined with this, will ultimately be the thing that sends me packing to TERA or GW2(never thought i would have to consider either of those as a possibility when looking at the gameplays for this...big business is deceiving...)

[Yonn]

Do we have an official comment on this yet?

[Isgarot]

Do we have an official comment on this yet?

 

a just we are working on it no ETA no word if they find the problem or what the problem is ...

 

The fear its that they use the WAR way and just tell that its all right ... or its just an ui bug like texture XD..

[oflow]

They unsticked the thread and are hoping all he ppl complaining quit on the 19th then they dont have to fix it since you wont be able to post anymore when you are unsubbed and only the fanbois that say it doesnt exist will still be playing. Edited January 17, 2012 by oflow

[PhantomLordTOR]

Bumping so this doesn't get buried. Unsubbing till this is fixed, IF it ever gets fixed. Perhaps if they see they are losing people they will care about it.

[blackcerberus]

Let me be honest, I'm shocked that this "glitch" actually never caught the attention of developers in time.

it did

 

they just though that the star wars IP and 99% of the budget spent on voiceovers and cutscenes would carry the game along regardless

 

 

oh boy, how wrong they were...

Edited January 17, 2012 by blackcerberus

[Froth]

Let me be honest, I'm shocked that this "glitch" actually never caught the attention of developers in time. As I understand the game gone through a long period of development / testing before going live. I just find it hard to believe that, as it is...well kind of obvious after a maximum of 2 days playing.

 

Anyways, that's my personal dilemma of not being able to find a logical answer to that without offensive theories . So it doesn't really matter

 

What does matter however, when can we expect an official statement which is a bit more than "looking into it". If I missed it, please point me into the right direction and ignore my post completely.

 

Thank you.

 

Investors probably blew their lids and demanded a return on their money, forcing the game to launch half baked so they could cash in. I'm sure everyone at BW and their dog knew these kinds of bugs were there but could do nothing about it before launch.

[monjiay]

What we have learned from this is that if you are going to spend tons of money on an MMO, you better write an engine from scratch like Wow did.

 

The combat engine is THE most important part of a game. I agree with the OP.

[Isgarot]

You will combat for 80-90% of the time .... who care about voice after the story end...

 

We need solid combat

[oflow]

I have come across a possible work-around which is very annoying but abilities do work.

 

In a PVP match i was fed up with a defensive cooldown not working, so what i did was stand motionless in 1 position and pressed my defensive cooldown numerous times just testing when it would actually work. My teammates were killing my target and as soon as my target died (so i was not targeting him anymore), the ability worked on the next press.

 

My next fight there were about 3-4 empire players near me, guess what my taunt and defensive abilities weren't working, force sweap made me bounce up and down etc etc... tapping on these buttons i hit TAB and switch target, as soon as i switched target on the next press my defensive cooldown worked 1st press... also tested with every other ability i hate using and they all seem to work on the first press after i change my target.

 

I hope the fix comes soon.

 

 

 

Ya its also something to so with the targetting in the game. When i first started experiencing this issue back at launch I was still leveling my sentinel and I went looking for ways to fix the issue.

 

I found a post by a player that made this video:

 

 

And basically his original solution was to right click before activating the ability. I also also tried this and it worked so at the time it almost seemed like activating an ability off the gcd followed by an instant was causing the game to think you had lost your target even though you still had a recticle on your target which is why right clicking before activating the ability made the issue stop happening it was 're-targetting' before activating the ability.

 

Since then the creator of this video says he isnt experiencing the issue anymore and I actually shelved my sentinel because it was too frustrating to play.

 

I'm still experiencing the issue on my Guardian though, but I do believe the crappy targetting in this game has something to do with it as well. Or the targetting is just terrible because the clients are so out of sync that tabbing to nearest target doesnt happen because you are actually farther away that the client-servers think you are.

 

Overall, it sucks and I think they've waited too long to fix the issue ppl are already starting to leave the game because of the bad responsiveness of the UI combined with the buggy end-game.

 

I think they shot themselves in the foot by not being more open with their community. A lot of people really want to like this game and probably would be willing to support it thru this debacle if they got some honest feedback.

 

But people have been complaining about this issue for a long time even in beta, just like people complained about the raid frames not working and BW wouldnt even acknowledge it. It took them 6 maxed threads on this topic to even make an official response.

 

edit: Oh yea, I also believe they left the combat log out of the game on purpose because they knew this issue was happening and with a combat log you could actually show abilities not doing anything.

Edited January 17, 2012 by oflow