Ability delay

[Aarex]

Am I the only person with this issue still?

 

Sweep and merciless strike are the biggest problems.

 

Animation starts, I hit the button again animation cancels and restarts.

 

I don't know about you guys but I have always spammed my buttons so that i get them off as soon as GCD is gone. If this is a "feature" its a ****** one.

[metaIsaber]

You're not the only one. Sometimes it takes me 2 or 3 secs for Merciless slash to activate. It's supposed to be an instant attack but seems more like it's set to channel. It's one of the only commands I notice that is suppose to be instant but isn't.

[Bejarid]

I've never noticed any sort of ability lag on my Sentinel, but I recently rolled a Juggernaut and he suffers from extreme ability lag. I've stood there, pressing buttons through my rotation, only to watch my Sith stand there, global after global, and do nothing. Most infuriating, especially against strong or better mobs.

[KruelhandJorb]

Merciless is a bit 'sticky' but compared to how it was a month ago, it's night and day, the class is actually playable now.

 

I'm sure this will continue to improve as the dev's work out the kinks, give it time.

[Garrum]

Leg slash is the worst offender for me, though sweep, merc slash, blade storm, and master strike do it pretty bad too. Leg slash, bound to scroll wheel back for me, routinely stutters 4 times before actually firing, and because you are hitting the 'button' faster than a normal key, the stutters are faster too.

[biowareftw]

Am I the only person with this issue still?

 

Sweep and merciless strike are the biggest problems.

 

Animation starts, I hit the button again animation cancels and restarts.

 

I don't know about you guys but I have always spammed my buttons so that i get them off as soon as GCD is gone. If this is a "feature" its a ****** one.

 

The one that bugs me the most is cauterize. You have to stop moving half the time OR hit the hotkey 20 times to make it actually fire on a moving pvp target.

 

There is also a stupid delay on our execute where you have to press it 5 times. Sweep? Mostly a server lag issue. Master Strike? Bugged as hell. Thankfully Watchman is our best tree, because that stupid ability is the one that gets "stuck". You have to move and do it again.

[SteveGarbage]

I play PvE exclusively and since most of the time I'm not moving and my enemy isn't moving, I have NO problems with ability delay. In most cases it seems like people have trouble with it when they're trying to run around and drop the skills at the same time.

 

I did have some problems before, but the patches addressing them seemed to completely resolve it for me.

[Mahdii]

Ability delay is caused by either server overusage or the clients Pc's inability to process the command from client to host correctly.

 

From my testing the cause is usually one of CPU architecture used.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Mahdii

[Psybin]

When the last patch hit I was kinda sticky for a couple of days. But now it's smooth and silky. Lovin' it

[Prash]

Since the last patch that said they addressed this, i haven't had an issue. I have noticed, however, that the people who are still experiencing this are the button smashers.

 

Don't spam your abilities. If you have the queue up time set correctly, in preferences, it's extremely smooth if you queue it up .75 seconds in advance. I have a crappy system and haven't had any issues recently.

 

When you play swtor like your sister used to play you in Mortal Kombat back in the day by constantly spamming a leg sweep, you'll lose in swtor.

[Garrum]

Since the last patch that said they addressed this, i haven't had an issue. I have noticed, however, that the people who are still experiencing this are the button smashers.

 

Don't spam your abilities. If you have the queue up time set correctly, in preferences, it's extremely smooth if you queue it up .75 seconds in advance. I have a crappy system and haven't had any issues recently.

 

When you play swtor like your sister used to play you in Mortal Kombat back in the day by constantly spamming a leg sweep, you'll lose in swtor.

 

Or they can fix their garbage ability system so it doesn't freak out when a button is pressed quickly. Telling players to slow down because your game is frail and sickly is just pitiful.

[Mahdii]

I have noticed, however, that the people who are still experiencing this are the button smashers.

 

This is not true.

[Mahdii]

Or they can fix their garbage ability system so it doesn't freak out when a button is pressed quickly. Telling players to slow down because your game is frail and sickly is just pitiful.

 

 

When someone tries to use an ability that observes the GCD while their GCD is active two things can happen: 1 - Ability is not triggered and the GCD continues on with its remaining duration. 2 - GCD is reactivated to its full duration with the ability not being used.

 

CPU architecture on the client machine is the root cause. Everytime an ability is activated the client machine must go through a line of coded text to meet specific predefined values in the code. Once that is complete another series of code must be sent to the server.

 

I've tested for work a program that taxes cpu's for an indoor standalone GPS system. We had issues with specific processors running at 100%. Once we used Visual Studio to see how the program reacts you will notice that the under performing processor accidentally skips certain aspects of the code to keep up. In the end this isnt bad coding, just the inability of the processor to perform the needed functions in a predefined time.

[Itisfinished]

Cauterize does it to me a lot, its really annoying, i put in a ticket about it...but you know how that goes...

[Garrum]

When someone tries to use an ability that observes the GCD while their GCD is active two things can happen: 1 - Ability is not triggered and the GCD continues on with its remaining duration. 2 - GCD is reactivated to its full duration with the ability not being used.

 

CPU architecture on the client machine is the root cause. Everytime an ability is activated the client machine must go through a line of coded text to meet specific predefined values in the code. Once that is complete another series of code must be sent to the server.

 

I've tested for work a program that taxes cpu's for an indoor standalone GPS system. We had issues with specific processors running at 100%. Once we used Visual Studio to see how the program reacts you will notice that the under performing processor accidentally skips certain aspects of the code to keep up. In the end this isnt bad coding, just the inability of the processor to perform the needed functions in a predefined time.

 

If I have enough rage to cover the cost and I am in range, pressing mortal strike causes my character to mortal strike instantly. No long delays, no stuttering, character spasms, or total lack of effect while still consuming resources/time. The same for hamstring, overpower, raging blow, bloodthirst, and all other instant abilities. The button is pressed and the ability happens without any delay other than general latency between you and the server, which is a VERY short delay.

 

The delays and stuttering in SWTOR cannot be laid on the user's system. It they could, people would have the same problems in WoW, but no one does. The problem is this game, and how it handles things.

[Mahdii]

The delays and stuttering in SWTOR cannot be laid on the user's system. It they could, people would have the same problems in WoW, but no one does. The problem is this game, and how it handles things.

 

One cannot throw out such a blanket statement like "its the games fault" without understanding how software works. Comparing it to WoW in this case is frugal for both engines were designed at different periods of Pc architecture.

 

90% of the ability delay is caused by the clients machine. Remaining 10% is caused by the server. Those of us who dont usually experience ability delay begin noticing it at peak times a day or two prior to server restarts. For the database on the server is taxed and needs to properly compress/clear out things from its memory that are unused.

 

Here is a rough idea on how this games code works when using an ability like Strike:

 

Range met - yes/no

GCD active - yes/no

Adequate Focus needed for ability: yes/no/null

Positioning of target met: yes/no/null

Guaranteed critical hit: yes/no/null

Guaranteed critical multiplier: yes/no/null

Character stunned: yes/no/null

Character snared: yes/no/null

*Above criteria met for ability Strike: yes/no

Begin ability animation: yes/no/null

Activate ability: yes/no

 

* Each ability would have its own predefined yes/no answer for each line of code. Strike can be used when snared, crushing leap can not - as an example.

 

Its during this process that ability delay occurs. Clients machine in an attempt to do the process in a split seconds time can not for other tasks are demanding processor resources. Thus it accidentally skips one line of code causing the user to begin the process all over again.

[Garrum]

No, we can very easily say it's the game's fault, and be 100% correct. The exact same checks are made in WoW when an ability is pressed, and even when there is an absurd amount of things happening around you in the raid/BG/arena/wherever, your abilities still work as they should.

 

Of course people will say "But WoW is 8 years old! Anything that old will run good on today's systems!" That's part of it, but the thing is, WoW runs good on systems that AREN'T very good, too. WoW is very well optimized, something that can't be said for SWTOR. Is it the difference in the engine? Some checks that don't actually need to be run? Pointlessly over the top polygon counts on some things? I don't know, but I suspect it's all of those and more, on varying levels.

 

The bottom line is that it is NOT wrong for us to keep badgering them to make our abilities obey us as they should. There is no excuse for the delays when there are such readily available examples of good combat ability coding in a game they ALREADY 'borrowed' so much from.

[Mahdii]

If you ever played a game through a few year process that is updated regularly on the same machine. You will notice ability delay in some form every new patch. Game i noticed it the most was Americas Army for the Pc during the time frame of 2002-2005.

 

WoW even has ability delay on occasion. Only difference is that it happens so fast/infrequently some may not notice it.

[Venator-Falco]

I am experiencing it a LOT of late, I am also experiencing a lot of lag of late… Correlation? I think so.

It is worst for me on Pommel and Opportune strike, not worse because it happens more but worse because you have such a small window of opportunity for these to execute so it is an all or nothing proposition.

I am not sure that mashing is much of a contributor either. I have been particular to single tap, as well as sent some triple tap or mash time and haven’t really noticed any particular difference in the number of good to bad executions

[Griftter]

For a long time I was of the same mind that it was CPU based also.

 

I have always experienced ability lag with my Sentinel and the ability lag combined with the GIGANTIC RED TEXT in the middle of my screen 80% of the time have driven me to the brink of quitting my Sentinel all together. But I digress.

 

I have been fighting the issue pretty much since day 1.

 

My first attempt at fixing the issue - change settings in the UI, etc, etc, we have all been there done that. - Didn't fix the issue.

 

My second attempt at fixing the issue - It has been said many times that it could be attributed to animations not finishing for having to finish, graphics lag. - I went out and bought a new video card, Nvidia 560 SC. - Should be more than enough to handle this game. -Didn't fix the issue.

 

My third attempt at fixing the issue - OK maybe it is CPU. SO I upgraded my MOBO, CPU, and RAM. I am now running an I7 3.4 GHZ CPU and 16GB of RAM, pretty much the best CPU you can buy right now. - Guess what? It didn't fix the issue.

 

So what does that leave? What it leaves is very, very poorly written network code. The code is not efficient enough to handle all of the data being transmitted to back and forth between client and server in a way that prevents this ability lag. And it is especially prevalent with melee classes as I believe there is more data being transfered in regards to all of the checks mentioned in one of the above posting.

 

 

You can see evidence of exactly what I am talking about by just jumping on your speeder and trying to move forward at exactly when the animation ends. You will be promptly booted from your speeder with the timer reading 0.5/0.5.

 

So yeah I would say you can lay this squarely on Bioware's shoulders. Unfortunately I don't believe there will be any attempt to fix the issue further as they have not commented on it further, even though there are still plenty of people experiencing the issue.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Griftter

[Psybin]

Have you tried turning shadows off and the rest of your graphics settings to minimum?

[Mahdii]

For a long time I was of the same mind that it was CPU based also.

.

 

 

I did the same as you. First got a new GPU-didnt fix it. Then built a new Pc-ability lag disappeared 95% of the time.

 

Next thing i would do is investigate the HD your using. Then follow up if needed with your network communication to the server.

[Garrum]

I did the same as you. First got a new GPU-didnt fix it. Then built a new Pc-ability lag disappeared 95% of the time.

 

Next thing i would do is investigate the HD your using. Then follow up if needed with your network communication to the server.

 

If this game had state of the art, eye meltingly good graphics and a super high level of polish and finely tuned character balance in both PvE and PvP, I might be more inclined to say, "yeah, this is a really high end game and I need a bleeding edge system to run it."

 

But it doesn't have any of those. The graphics, while nice, are certainly not what you point at when you want to point at the paragon of computer gaming visuals. While it's more polished than WoW was 8 years ago, it's still lacking in even basic stuff: You can't even use the guild list to invite someone to a group. As for the balance...well I guess 15 sorc huttball doesn't point at balance issues SPECIFICALLY...but it doesn't not point at them either.

 

The point being, this game is neither impressive enough nor advanced enough to warrant buying/building a whole new brute of a system just to TRY and get rid of ability lag. Given all the visible sloppy/careless stuff we can see in game, from the animation speed disparities, to the cooldown disparities, to the broken quests/mobs/items, missing functionality in the UI, among myriad other issues and problems, how is there any doubt at all that there might be the same careless mistakes 'under the hood' so to speak?