UI Targetting and ability activation bug.

[LeenPonyD]

I will start off with a warning, I am so annoyed by these bugs and glitches I'm a hair's breadth from leaving the game. These issues have persisted through multiple patches, reformats and clean installs all the while my calls for help and petitions have gone ignored!

 

Since 2.0 launched I've been encountering some strange User Interface and Targetting bugs on my characters, but only when I'm grouped or in raid.

 

At first it started as a minor annoyance on my Sorc where every time I activated an ability it would swap to the next target in view. SO I hit Deathfield and it swaps, then I hit Lightning and it swaps again. never once did I hit tab or click on another target, the switch happens simply because I am activating an ability. This forced me to position my camera in such a way that only one enemy is on the screen at any given time so that it wouldn't change targets but on some fights with adds this is next to impossible.

 

This bug is not 100% of the time, it only crops up here and there. It will last for an attempt or two and then go away. Only to return at the most inconvenient time.

 

It gets worse on my alts, however. On my Assassin Tank and my Sniper I get a bug I can't work around. I will have an enemy targeted and it will be right in front of my and yet when I try to use an offensive ability like Wither or Corrosive Dart I get a red error message saying either "Target is Not an Enemy" or "Target is dead" both of which are 100% inaccurate as the enemy in question has no problem attacking and doing damage to me.

 

I can use drop AEs like Orbital Strike or Lacerate, and it hits enemies and does damage, but I cannot use targetted abilities at all.

 

Again this bug is not 100% of the time, there are brief periods where i can attack just fine, but unlike with my sorcerer, it is bugged 95% of the time and my sniper and assassin are rendered useless.

 

I've reinstalled the game 3 times since 2.0. I've reformatted my entire computer twice. I've deleted every profile and pointer that SWTOR was ever on my machine and started fresh, only to finish setting everything back up and realize the bugs are all still there.

 

I've submitted multiple tickets on the problem and have tried posting here for help but no one at EA or BioWare has responded to me even to apologize that most of my alternate characters are useless.

 

I make this post today because after almost two years of subscribing to the game I am so frustrated not being able to play that I'm on the verge of calling it quits.

 

I literally shake my fists and scream at my computer monitor and I know my guildies are sick and tired of hearing me ***** every five minutes on vent. It's not worth it. I'd rather walk away than stress over the fact that the game is too buggy to even be played.

 

I spent almost two years, i have 11 characters 50+, with just about half of them 55 and in full 72 gear. I enjoy the game, when I can play. But I cannot even main swap to my sniper for our raid dps.

 

I use a Razr Anasai keyboard and Naga mouse, I've thought they might be the issue and have since gone back to a simple lazer mouse and 15 year old Micros PS/2 Keyboard...and I still have these issues!

 

I'm going to recrod a video later tonight of the "target is not an enemy" "no target" bug when I very clearly have an active red reticle targeted on the proper enemy, but for now here is a video i took last week on my sniper.

 

In this attempt I HAVE NOT set a focus target at all, this usually makes it worse. I have Thraser as my target and am able to use damaging abilities on him, however, my target reads K'ain, one of our Marauders that is actually over 90meters away running around up on the walls taking care of snipers. It has also added Thrasher as my focus target automatically as the bug begins. I did not do that and in fact have totally disabled my shortcut key for Focus target because of this bug. It still sets the enemy to focus and refuses to tab target off the friendly unit. I can actually click and target other enemies, the red target over the enemy will move to the new target, I will attack the new target, but my UI refuses to change from K'ain.

 

You can see my target never switches from K'ain, and it appears red as an enemy, but I keep attacking Thrasher. Thrasher is the Target of Target even though K'ain is targeting snipers and demos. This bug isn't one of the unplayable ones, but it sure makes raiding EXTREMELY difficult.

 

 

I will make my raid suffer through an attempt with my sniper tonight to capture the "Not an enemy" bug too and post that.

 

PLEASE HELP ME! I'm so close to quitting due to frustration that I can't bear it any longer!

[LeenPonyD]

once again, a topic altered or moved without any response. this is exactly why I'm considering quitting the game over this. If there is a problem CS and the dev team don't undertand, instead of responding, they sweep it under the rug. more than aggravating when you have been paying $15 a month for almost two years. The one time you actually need some help, they just sit on your small pile of cash and ignore you.

[AmberGreen]

Hello LeenPonyD,

 

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing some frustrating issues! With bugs that are difficult to nail down (there are a couple of targeting issues we've been investigating for a while), we generally will allow for other players to weigh in, give their experiences, and help us reproduce the issue. The most appropriate place for bug reports is this forum, so that's why your thread was moved.

 

Furthermore, if you look at others threads in this forum, you'll see that lack of acknowledgement on the forums (or a post of one, for that matter) is not an indication that your issue is being ignored. Sometimes the first time I post in an active thread is when we've got a fixed locked in; sometimes we never post, but the issues are resolved; sometimes I'll post but an issue will persist for a long time. In the latter case, especially if we have multiple posts about an issue, it is because making the issue happen internally has proven difficult or impossible, and that's the first step to getting it fixed. More details and information can be found in this thread and the second post in the http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=641546 thread.

 

We'll keep an eye on this for updates and other reports. Also, there are a couple of similar threads, which might be better for you to post in, as we'll be able to keep all of the similarities and differences between your experience and others in one place.

 

tl;dr: Please continue to provide additional details if you have them. Telling us what happened doesn't always tell us how it happens, and it doesn't always ensure a fix.

[LeenPonyD]

I would believe it if this hadn't been the first CS response since I started reporting the issue right as 2.0 went live. I've posted in as many different threads concerning the issues I'm experiencing as I can find, as you can probably find by checking out a post history on my forum account.

 

It's been months and months of me and others reporting these issues without so much as a head nod that people who correct bugs even ACKNOWLEDGE that were having these game breaking bugs. The issues me and a few other players are experiencing totally prevents us from playing the game while on our characters, through no fault of our own.

 

Some of us pay every month and to continually not even get even a " we have no idea what this bug is but we're trying to nail it down" is more than aggravating. through 4 major content patches, not a whisper that the dev team has even heard about our plight.

 

I tried to main switch to Sin tank for my raid only to find out I can only use AE Taunt and Lacerate to hold threat. I've tried to main swap to my Sniper for more dps than my madness sorc can lend, only to find that no matter the gear level, game bugs prevent me from attacking enemies that are killing my character.

 

Only 1 out of my 5 raid characters can actually do anything useful in game, so I'm forced to deal with minor bugs on my sorc simply because I can grit my teeth and bear it enough to keep playing.

 

Two or three past threads posted to the Bug Reports have been deleted after weeks and weeks of no official response.

 

As I said, I have a video posted in my original post of one of the issues, where my target is replaced by a friendly raid member and does not change no matter how much I tab or click. I will record and post videos of the other two issues.

[Warrgames]

Hello LeenPonyD,

 

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing some frustrating issues! With bugs that are difficult to nail down (there are a couple of targeting issues we've been investigating for a while), we generally will allow for other players to weigh in, give their experiences, and help us reproduce the issue. The most appropriate place for bug reports is this forum, so that's why your thread was moved.

 

Furthermore, if you look at others threads in this forum, you'll see that lack of acknowledgement on the forums (or a post of one, for that matter) is not an indication that your issue is being ignored. Sometimes the first time I post in an active thread is when we've got a fixed locked in; sometimes we never post, but the issues are resolved; sometimes I'll post but an issue will persist for a long time. In the latter case, especially if we have multiple posts about an issue, it is because making the issue happen internally has proven difficult or impossible, and that's the first step to getting it fixed. More details and information can be found in this thread and the second post in the http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=641546 thread.

 

We'll keep an eye on this for updates and other reports. Also, there are a couple of similar threads, which might be better for you to post in, as we'll be able to keep all of the similarities and differences between your experience and others in one place.

 

tl;dr: Please continue to provide additional details if you have them. Telling us what happened doesn't always tell us how it happens, and it doesn't always ensure a fix.

 

BS Amber

I've been reporting the same bug ingame and on the forums since 6/24/2013. I'm not the only that has reported this bug. You guys have not made no attempt to acknowledge the bug or fix. You guys don't care about fixing bugs. Because to you guys everything is working as intended. They only time that you try and fix a bug or acknowledge one is when it effects YOU.

[MarkusBiggus]

I've had something very similar since 2.0 in that targets switch automatically in combat, I'm not targeting the guy I was. It always happens when grouped and I notice it most in raids when we are all supposed to be burning down the same target. I start on the right target and then later on I'm suddenly on a different target or I suddenly have no target at all (don't even know how that is possible with the detarget preference disabled) or I am targeting a friendly player.

 

It also happens in PvP when targets switch spontaneously or there is no target at all. The switching happens when there are multiple targets very close in combat.

 

I have a key bind to target closest enemy which is my primary targeting mechanism, quite often that ability does nothing when a target is standing withing a few meters right in front of me. I notice that in PvP a lot because they can get several hits in on me while I'm pounding target nearest enemy and I have no target at all.

 

A lot of guild mates have also mentioned (and I have frequently experienced) they target friendlies from their auto next enemy after a target is killed.

[Glzmo]

I've actually been experiencing that abilities frequently fire at the previously targeted target instead of the current one, even when the current target has been selected for a while, so it doesn't seem to be lag related. This has also been happening approximately since Game Update 2.0.

Such bugs need to be fixed immediately, not put on the backburner. It can cause wipes and ruin the gameplay for the entire group if your attacks and other abilities fire at a different target than the one you are currently actually targeting.

[LeenPonyD]

I've actually been experiencing that abilities frequently fire at the previously targeted target instead of the current one, even when the current target has been selected for a while, so it doesn't seem to be lag related. This has also been happening approximately since Game Update 2.0.

Such bugs need to be fixed immediately, not put on the backburner. It can cause wipes and ruin the gameplay for the entire group if your attacks and other abilities fire at a different target than the one you are currently actually targeting.

 

I've seen this same thing once or twice before myself, but it happens more infrequently than the other three I listed so it totally slipped my mind, thank you for mentioning it. My sorc has seen this more than twice since 2.0 patched in.

[Alias_Nighthawk]

Same here on my Shadow Tank, happens many times i'm inside a OP or FP.

[Laiov]

I've actually been experiencing that abilities frequently fire at the previously targeted target instead of the current one, even when the current target has been selected for a while, so it doesn't seem to be lag related.

I have been experiencing this bug as well. Typically in ops. One thing I've noticed about it is that it doesn't seem to occur at all if you switch targets with the tab-target function, but will occur often if you switch targets with the leftclick-target function.

 

The game seems to treat these differently in terms of priority, with the leftclick-target function losing priority to spellcast activation in circumstances where target switching and spellcasts are occurring in rapid succession. Such as during the second boss fight in hardmode TFB.

 

Doesn't sound like OP's bug though.

[AmberGreen]

Thanks for your reports, folks! I understand that those of you posting here have been reporting this issue for a long time. It's not one that's been prevalent here in the Bug Report forums, and details haven't allowed us to reproduce the issue internally thus far. As I said before, we'll keep eye on this; there may not be new information available right away; but As new information becomes available, we'll post updates and update the Known Issues.

[Laiov]

Thanks for your reports, folks! I understand that those of you posting here have been reporting this issue for a long time. It's not one that's been prevalent here in the Bug Report forums, and details haven't allowed us to reproduce the issue internally thus far. As I said before, we'll keep eye on this; there may not be new information available right away; but As new information becomes available, we'll post updates and update the Known Issues.

Thinking about it some more, this may have something to do with the setting Ability Action Queue Window in the Preferences -> Controls -> Combat menu. Neglected to mention that mine is set to 1.0.

[eartharioch]

I didn't notice this before on my high-level chars, but I rolled a Juggernaut the other day and I've noticed that unless I click targets I'm not "in combat" much after the initial target. I've noticed it happening on my high-level chars now that I'm aware of it.

 

What happens (the most) to my Jug is that I leap in and attack something, kill it quickly, and then stand around while Vette kills the rest.

 

I have "auto-target nearest enemy" turned in, so I expect that after I kill my initial target, I don't start attacking the adjacent one as expected. Since the kill effect happens before the kill animation completes, what is happening is that I have killed my initial target without "seeing" it die and pressed the key for my next attack (since attacks queue). Since my target is dead when the next attack triggers, it should go (auto-target) to the adjacent mob, but it doesn't, meaning I'm standing around at least 1 GCD. Given that I'm up close melee, there are a lot of visual effects going on, so sometime it's more than just 1 GCD before I can "see" that I'm not actually attacking anything, and then I click to make sure I have a target, but in most combats, Vette (or my group, if I'm in a FP) has killed everything else.

 

I think the reason I didn't see this before on my high level chars is that mobs don't dies as fast, so the % of time I think I'm attacking but really am not is lower. As a spoiled Alt, my Lvl 17 DPS Jug already has a high presence and is very well geared, and at the high-end of the level range for DK. My 55 Conc Op is also very well geared (66s-69s), but the level range of planets I'm usually on (Czerka and Makeb) has a "tighter" level range (lol, 55-55).

 

Anyway, I'm able to reproduce this fairly consistently, so please let me know if there are any specific things you'd like to know.

[cashogy_reborn]

Thanks for your reports, folks! I understand that those of you posting here have been reporting this issue for a long time. It's not one that's been prevalent here in the Bug Report forums, and details haven't allowed us to reproduce the issue internally thus far. As I said before, we'll keep eye on this; there may not be new information available right away; but As new information becomes available, we'll post updates and update the Known Issues.

 

Try playing the game since 1.2?

 

GCD misfires are very, very common

[eartharioch]

Try playing the game since 1.2?

 

GCD misfires are very, very common

 

We're talking about targeting errors, not GCD misfires, here. Not saying those aren't a problem, they're just not this problem.

[DarthAeonis]

ive actually had this problem too and I mentioned it to a BW executive when I had an additional issue some time ago. they weren't sure the cause then cuz it wasn't reported often. but for me it usually happens when im engaged in a group of enemies tho or runnin an op. it'll always target the enemy right next to them. im not saying this happens every time I fight an enemy but probly happens atleast once a day. tho ive been tryin to deduce why it happens. usually when im about to engage an enemy im running towards them while targeting them so that may be a factor. (like i'll start running to them and as im runnin i'll click on them with my mouse to target them)

[jasoneth]

Firstly, I can sympathise: what you're describing would drive me nuts!

 

To try and shake out a little more information to help BioWare diagnose what's going on and ideally reproduce the issues, some questions/thoughts are listed below. The reasoning behind what I'm asking is that the vast majority of players have never seen anything like this, thus there is something different either in your setup, or (somehow?) in your account (possibly what's stored server-side). The questions are designed to help shake out what that difference is.

 

1. Does the issue occur using one of the standard UIs? From the video, you've customised your UI using the Interface Editor (which is something we've all done, of course). I'm curious whether running with one of the "out of the box" UI setups makes any difference.

 

2. You've eliminated most of the obvious causes through full re-installs of both the game and your system. Did you do full downloads each time? I'd assume so, just checking.

 

3. Is it possible to access another computer with SWTOR installed? It'd be interesting if this issue is tied to your computer (somehow, though switching peripherals kind of eliminates most causes), or your account.

 

4. If you create a new character, and change absolutely nothing (stock UI, keybindings, options), does the issue occur? Given the severity of the issue, it'd be worth the time to level a new character through one of the starter worlds, grouping with a friend to hopefully recreate the issue.

 

5. As a way of confirming it's not somehow your account, try create a second, free-to-play account, and again spend some time grouped on a starter world on a new character, to see if the issue occurs.

 

Regardless, good luck to both you and BioWare in tracking this bug down!

[Woodynz]

I have seen this issue a few times..

 

I may have missed it, but I did not see anyone list any other exampes / locations.

 

I did however watch the posters video.

 

Personally for the poster, I would go to C:\Computer Name\AppData\Local\ here you will find your Swtor Personal Preferences files, you can just right click the folder labelled SWTOR, and select Properties.

 

Personally I would Remove the "READ ONLY" selection, and apply this to all files within the folders contents, it will be a secondary pop up just by removing read only to the folder itself.

 

If your so inclined you can even change the location and size of the text for your 'Chat/Social/Options Wheel' for quest hand in's within here, but that is a different matter.

 

I have seen many other forms of targeting issues, granted this is the first Target UI lock up I have seen, due to the Forums title, I will list some examples and work arounds for the others.

 

While tanking final boss in TFB , if your camera view/angle is all the way out, and you have your back to the boss; The reason for that is that you have a Screen full of the Boss, making it impossible to Target the Tenticles in Phase 1, tab targeting does not work either.

 

Recently I have seen this issue mirrored in the new Operations ie: if you use a phase portal to do a role challenge, Tanking, Dps, Healing.

 

Same thing you can see what your wanting to kill/dps, but you have a screen full of the portal, creating an invisible wall that you can not manually target, or tab target through.

 

The Smart way to fix this as a player from what I have seen , is TFB .. Angle your view downwards, from a sky view, Scroll your camera distance in further.

 

Dread Palace portals.. Move 5 feet to the left or right before you try to target/heal/dps what you want. The portals are not translucent so you can not Target through them.

 

For those finding that they are automatically changing targets, you have your Target nearest enemy inside your field of view turned on in preferences, you have an object like TFB Boss in Phase 1 or a Teleportation portal or even an object not listed obscuring your view, it will auto target something that you can see.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Woodynz

[da_jon]

I have seen this issue a few times..

 

While tanking final boss in TFB , if your camera view/angle is all the way out, and you have your back to the boss; The reason for that is that you have a Screen full of the Boss, making it impossible to Target the Tenticles in Phase 1, tab targeting does not work either.

 

The Smart way to fix this as a player from what I have seen , is TFB .. Angle your view downwards, from a sky view, Scroll your camera distance in further.

 

Spot on, I had been having this issue in TFB and never even thought about why I was sometimes unable to target the tentacles. Sounds like this could be the issue for many of the posters. It hadn't crossed my mind but I started using a much more zoomed in view recently and many of my targeting woes have gone away. But I have also seen targeting issues on CZ-198 on the upper levels because of the overhead canopy, if you are looking top down you are unable to tab target enemies because you can't "see through" the canopy even though it is semi-translucent and you can literally see through it. Great post!