Update on Ability Delay from Georg

[fallenvirtues]

Same problems but on the mirror class of marauder the animations are the bloody problem they defo ,are not in sync spamming buttons like hell just aint a great way too play any game period

 

Now I am not saying there is no problems, because in PvP, I experience it no question...

 

The only thing that gets me wondering though is why does this problem seem to be so severe to some and not so severe to others?

 

As I said, with PvP its hit or miss...Sometimes I get a lot of problems...sometimes none...But with PvE, I really never have a delay problem..Sometimes maybe something buggy happens like hitting a skill like force choke and it will do the action and what not, but in reality it doesnt do anything, but thats about it and it doesnt happen often...

 

Example...I ran all my belsavis dailies yesterday, ran HM Black Talon, and we also cleared EV and not one single time did I have a problem with delay or anything at all...Once a GCD was up, I was executing the next ability without skipping a beat...Interrupts and etc all worked perfectly...And my main is a Marauder...

 

So let me repeat, I know there is a problem...No doubt about it...But why is it so severe for some and not so for others...And please, keep the "You dont know how to play" comments to yourself...I've been in top raiding guilds for years and know how to dps my arse off...and even though Im not the greatest at pvp, I still average 20 to 30 kills and well over 100k dps in a pure PvE spec...And no, I dont keyboard turn

Edited January 30, 2012 by fallenvirtues

[sabresandiego]

This issue alone is probably the cause of at least 10% of unsubs from this game. I mean who likes to play a game where the commands you issue dont even work, and when they do work your character simply stutters in place instead?

 

How can this company spend millions of dollars on voice acting and create a game which does not even respond to your control inputs?

Edited January 30, 2012 by sabresandiego

[Vylentqt]

Thank God. I'm gonna hold you to this BW.

 

I also hope this addresses the ability stuttering issue where, for example, Master Strike casts, and then either casts again and is uninterruptible (precious seconds!!!!), or the animation plays but the damage/GCD is not registered.

 

^ This. 100%. Its very frustrating as a sniper. Also, the .5sec GCD is way to long imo. It really slows down the "action" of a battle. IS there any way this can be reduced?

Edited January 30, 2012 by Vylentqt

[Dawginole]

I feel really bad for a lot of you.

 

I was not experiencing this problem hardly at all before the last patch. I was seeing it a little, but not enough to be completely frustrated by it. But after the patch it has been awful. So whatever improvements were made actually made it much more noticeable for me. PvP is basically unplayable for a time sensitive class like Sent. I've dropped from averaging about 24 kills last week to about 9-12 this week.

[DevilDogSixEight]

Well, add me to the list of frustrated players. I'm playing a Sage. Before last patch, I would notice occasional glitches with abilities not working and animations out of sync. Now I cannot play for more than about 30 minutes before it starts.

 

It's never immediate with me. I'll be playing and for the first 15 minutes or so, things are fine. After that, abilities stop casting. Project just doesn't work. If I move two steps in any direction, it will work. Next time it may work or I may have to move a little. Telekinetic throw seems to have a mind of its own.

 

I'm not going to unsub just because of this. If you think this is bad, you should been there for AoC at launch. Man, no mailboxes, no banks, and birds could knock you out of stealth if they targeted you. No, I'm not kidding.

[Spangles]

lol@ bird attacks.

 

Folks rave about WoW,.. but Cata had herbs that would aggro on you, attack, and break you out of stealth in PvP quest areas ^^

 

Latest bug update - i'm getting some imp gunslinger firing blaster rounds which stop input responsiveness, but also mean that my toon can't stop running/turning. Same multiple cc situation, although twice now in simple combat. It makes Huttball impossibe. When i res i am still running out of control.... not noticed this one before just a spec i've not fought or a new bug?

 

Are we going to get any kind of clarification on this issue before the patch(es) is (might be) implemented? It seems that there are a great number of situational and class related issues. At least if i had an idea how to avoid problems i might get some playability.

 

For e.g. is this linked to my using the "ctrl" in binding hotkeys, 'cos i still can't move if i have [ctrl] pressed.....

Edited January 31, 2012 by Spangles

[Larlar]

 

For e.g. is this linked to my using the "ctrl" in binding hotkeys, 'cos i still can't move if i have [ctrl] pressed.....

 

This is an incredibly important issue for my personal play aswell. Its not directly related to ability delay but its one issue among many that makes my play less than enjoyable on occasion. And given people in the know are probably reading this thread...

 

Please get working on allowing us to purge all keybind functions please and not just the seemingly random ones some guy put on a list some time during testing. Permanent keybinds, especially when linked to ctrl, and even more especially when linked to movement keys, are utterly ridiculous.

 

I grind to a halt in pvp on a daily basis by accidentally hitting ctrl+a in combat - and that happens to be a permanent unchangeable bind to the incredibly important "Ambience On/Off" function. Yes... I know.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Larlar

[Spangles]

y i really so badly need to be able to hotkey switch ambience on during combat with 2 Sith and a gunslinger bugging me - i find it improves the quality of the experience.

[Wikar]

1.1.1 goes live, ability delay still not FULLY fixed, any new deadline? 1.2 patch?

 

I know placebo can work for some people, but i have investigated "clunky" combat before i even know where swtor forum is , so im not realised this issue right after i watched youtube videos, i can feel it right in the game and i know exactly where to look.

[Slightlycampana]

I haven't tried combat in today's patch (1.1.1 — 1/31/2012) but saw that there are two fixes for ability delay issues. I hope these help, and even if these two fixes don't sort all the problems, it's good to know that you are looking into it and working on it. Thanks!

[Fellthar]

My sith warrior was almost unplayable yesterday due to the amount of times I would have to click a button before it would go off (note, by click I mean hit my keybind, I don't actually click). This happened constantly, and after reading today's patch notes I note that the bug fix for some abilities displaying off cooldown when they really are not (or something to this effect). Today, I have not yet once noticed a situation that I clicked an ability and it did not trigger as expected, so for me this has made my sith warrior fun again. This fix was needed and wanted, thanks. Edited January 31, 2012 by Fellthar

[Matteis]

The issue is still better but nooooot quite fixed yet. My Force Leap failed to activate several times so far today, but Riposte is working MUCH better.

 

Keep at it.

[Spangles]

Display fix helps, but no change to he feeling that my controls are frozen out.

[Godfather]

I have played my Guardian for a couple of hours today after the new patch and it seems that ability delays aren't completely fixed. There are times where you click and still nothing happens. I'm hoping this will be addressed soon.

 

The most serious issue for me personally is the animation stutter. It is has become really annoying and it just breaks the gameplay. It seems a bit worse after todays patch. Almost every ability i use, stutters and the animation resets before it goes off. Looks especially bad on Force Sweep, Blade Storm and Master Strike. It makes the combat look so slow, although it really isn't from the few times that it all goes smoothly for a few seconds. I hope there is a fix for this soon cause it's driving me mad.

[Faulhaber]

This should never ever been started to be removed from the game.

 

I bet this hysteria about ability delay was started by players that used to play another mmo and wanted to make a clone here so they would be already be familiar with the playstyle... pay attention to the cooldowns or enemy casting bar and press x.

 

I think it was revolutionary watching animations in order to decide what to do, use a faster counter or move out. Of course it would require some tweaking in order to make the system better, but I enjoyed much more watching and learning enemy moves and reacting properly.

 

A pity it can't be that way anymore, as a lot of class balancing would need to be done as some class abilities were specifically designed to be that way and have an execution time.

 

Really sad, regarding gameplay mechanic there are other games much superior now as SWTOR attempts to be a clone.

 

I really hope a massive FPS with RPG elements gets done soon to draw these masses away and true mmorpgs would have a niche back again.

[Dawginole]

This should never ever been started to be removed from the game.

 

I bet this hysteria about ability delay was started by players that used to play another mmo and wanted to make a clone here so they would be already be familiar with the playstyle... pay attention to the cooldowns or enemy casting bar and press x.

 

Do you think you are responding to 60 pages of retarded people? We are watching our CD's. They show they are ready, and are unresponsive to clicking on them.

 

 

I think it was revolutionary watching animations in order to decide what to do

 

FFXI has had this for 10 years. Animations gave away boss moves for recourse by players. Old hat. And should be used. Watching for text lines to respond to a certain attack in a particular way is dumb.

 

A pity it can't be that way anymore, as a lot of class balancing would need to be done as some class abilities were specifically designed to be that way and have an execution time.

 

I really don't think you understand the problem that they are fixing. They are not changing any game mechanics. This is an issue with responsiveness of the user interface.

[bvalley]

This should never ever been started to be removed from the game.

 

I bet this hysteria about ability delay was started by players that used to play another mmo and wanted to make a clone here so they would be already be familiar with the playstyle... pay attention to the cooldowns or enemy casting bar and press x.

 

I think it was revolutionary watching animations in order to decide what to do, use a faster counter or move out. Of course it would require some tweaking in order to make the system better, but I enjoyed much more watching and learning enemy moves and reacting properly.

 

A pity it can't be that way anymore, as a lot of class balancing would need to be done as some class abilities were specifically designed to be that way and have an execution time.

 

Really sad, regarding gameplay mechanic there are other games much superior now as SWTOR attempts to be a clone.

 

I really hope a massive FPS with RPG elements gets done soon to draw these masses away and true mmorpgs would have a niche back again.

 

You obviously have no clue as to what you are talking about, or as to what this issue entails. You do this game absolutely NO favor by defending a broken or flawed combat system.

[sabresandiego]

This should never ever been started to be removed from the game.

 

I bet this hysteria about ability delay was started by players that used to play another mmo and wanted to make a clone here so they would be already be familiar with the playstyle... pay attention to the cooldowns or enemy casting bar and press x.

 

I think it was revolutionary watching animations in order to decide what to do, use a faster counter or move out. Of course it would require some tweaking in order to make the system better, but I enjoyed much more watching and learning enemy moves and reacting properly.

 

A pity it can't be that way anymore, as a lot of class balancing would need to be done as some class abilities were specifically designed to be that way and have an execution time.

 

Really sad, regarding gameplay mechanic there are other games much superior now as SWTOR attempts to be a clone.

 

I really hope a massive FPS with RPG elements gets done soon to draw these masses away and true mmorpgs would have a niche back again.

 

This ability delay is not an intentional feature. Come on now, you honestly think that the developers intended that every time I hit sweep that my character stutters over and over again only going halfway through the animation then stopping? That is not a feature of the game, stop defending broken gameplay.

[Oobly]

The new patch has improved things a lot for me. There are still animation stutters (especially noticable on Force Sweep for me) which break immersion a bit and I haven't tested the block reset thing, but it's made my Guardian fun to play again The abilities seem to trigger more consistently.

 

THANK YOU BIOWARE!

 

But please keep working on it.

[aleiro]

That patch helped things....very little I still have huge ability delay, with stuns, snares finishing moves like dispatch....there is nothing like casting dispatch and watch your godamn lightsaber freeze before hitting the target....only to realize that while your lightsaber never hit him he got healed to half health....*********** frustrating and game breaking. The half *** work of people that spend more time playing the game than fixing it..

[Fezzhan]

Ye the delay still exists... better than b4 but isnt fluid and sometimes it gets worse with certain abilities... In any case the game is playable and enjoyable and this is the main one.

[Spangles]

I disagree the game is frustrating, frequently unplayable, and I reiterate "should not have been shipped with these issues".

 

I just rolled my 4th class (republic) to see how it plays, but gunslinger, shadow, medic commando are unplayable imo.

 

Certainly PvP is a waste of time. I just moved to another server because I found the Sith who was bugging me out most is in my guild -.-

 

edit- just got into pvp first match 1v1 - i can shoot, but can't use medpac, wz medpac, no cds on, but no ability with cd seem to work... taken down from 2/3 hp to dead while firing of a couple of lame Hammer Shot and..... finally... a farewell Explosive Round. How is this not gamebreaking? Sure it might only happen once or twice in a wz but that can lose it very easily. e.g. i was solo defending a door in voidstar at the time.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Spangles

[Xcore]

I have not had the chance to test 1.1.1 thoroughly enough to judge how much it has Improved the feeling of responsiveness and avatar control or If at all... but I will in the coming days and report back.

 

One thing I can confirm however is, inconsistencies in channeled abilities is still very jarring. When used in a tight rotation, channeled abilities can be completely unreliable and out of sync. The ticks at times do not appear until the castbar is halfway completed, I'm not sure about the effect itself but the animation/UI/castbar and effect display is completely out of sync.

 

It also appears as though the damage or healing ticks of th channeled ability are not evenly timed apart at times, at least not the display of them. This feels very clunky and contributes to this feeling of reliability and responsiveness, in a system like this It Is very hard to be confident in the control of your avatar while in hectic situations in PvP or PvE.

 

If we had a timestamped combat log, we could assess this more accurately....

 

 

I should note that I am incredibly pleased with the improvements from pre-1.1.0b to now 1.1.1. It is very much like playing a completely different game. I realize that those with a lower tolerance for imperfection and flaws, and perhaps those who play at a higher level of competition still notice the issues but I would like you to be constructive because it does appear that Bioware is taking this serious and so there is hope here that it can become as responsive and tight in gameplay as WoW.

 

 

 

To Bioware, please continue to take this serious, even though It has been improved, it is not there yet and the this "feeling" of complete responsiveness and control of ones avatar Is absolutely paramount, consciously to some but at the very least subconsciously to everyone else.

 

I know you've already considered this and discussed but can you please give us a reply post or blogpost explaining how Client/Server communication ties into this? I believe that WoW provides an illusion of responsiveness through this which may be the last "key" here to perfecting this. I am worried that SW:TOR will simply never bridge that gap of good --> perfect feeling of control and responsiveness due to how Client/Server communication is handled.

 

Ty, otherwise Bioware you have done A LOT of good in VERY short time to improve gameplay, it is very impressive and I believe the game is now completely enjoyable even at higher levels of play (though I must stress, not the highest).

[Spangles]

just to clarify - this is not a simple delay/synch issue. I am still experiencing a complete loss of input capability.

 

Voidstar with my Shadow i stealthed near combat, but was not directly involved, when I reached the door I could not destealth... I was rotating my camera to scope the area. When i rotated back I have managed to destealth, but am stuck running, so cannot plant the explosives.

 

This is not even in combat....

[Xcore]

just to clarify - this is not a simple delay/synch issue. I am still experiencing a complete loss of input capability.

 

Voidstar with my Shadow i stealthed near combat, but was not directly involved, when I reached the door I could not destealth... I was rotating my camera to scope the area. When i rotated back I have managed to destealth, but am stuck running, so cannot plant the explosives.

 

This is not even in combat....

 

I have never experienced this or read anyone experiencing anything like this and I've read about 8000+ posts on this topic... I think it may be an isolated case but if this happens often to you, record it and upload to youtube so we can have a look.

 

I know that clicking the door in Voidstar, does not de-stealth you automatically but rather gives an error message that you cannot do it while stealthed. So perhaps that + autorun happened to you? probably not but hey....