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

[Xcore]

I am so grateful for this post. I have played some free MMO's in my time (Fiesta by Outspark for example) and I have been so excited for the release of SW:TOR because it looked like something that was worth spending money on. I have an HP Envy 14 1260se Beats edition so i was praying that... like my computer couldn't handle the gameplay, and that the action delay was a problem with my settings or that my comp wasnt powerful enough (which i was very sure wasnt the problem) I pray that Bioware sees these and gets to work on the issue because i so want to play the game how I imagined it when i pressed the "Purchase" button.

 

Lots of Love,

Razalas36

 

PS: where in the world do i rate up this thread so as to raise awareness? i want to help any way i can

 

Hey Raz, thanks for the input and support. You can rate the thread as you reply, scroll down and you'll see a "Rate Thread" drop down menu.

[TheJmoney]

Uh, when I press Medical Probe to cast after Medical Probe, the second cast bar appears the moment the first one disappears. I'm without a cast bar for all of .1 seconds or less. I never stop casting, really.

 

What are you doing wrong?

 

Are you in combat? In pvp? If not then yes. I was just testing this, and out of combat it is alright, in combat it's a different story.

[Teloss]

Ok good. Because I'm also of the opinion that syncing the animations to cast times by speeding them up is the best solution.

 

Gives epic, fluid gameplay.

 

Looks pretty.

 

Doesn't break with Alacrity / Skill Trees reducing cast times (just play the animation even faster).

 

Sounds like best of everything to me.

 

You'll still have people whining that they can't use back stab a second time fast enough.

 

Imo, what you are saying could be a temporary "holder fix", until they change the animations to conform to cast time, or revamp cast times entirely to retain balance while adhering to the current animations.

 

I say it would be temporary because if they just speed up the animation speed, it may look more more forced or artificial unless they pay more attention to the details to make it seem like it's the speed it's actually meant to be at.

 

The most difficult idea would probably be, completely revamping all cast times AND animations in a way that retains at least the current level of balance. Yet I think this would be the highest of quality improvements.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Teloss

[Eramith]

Yes, YES, 1000x YES. Please fix this. Combat is very frustrating. The story keeps me here, but the gameplay makes we long for WoW.

[TheJmoney]

You'll still have people whining that they can't use back stab a second time fast enough.

 

Imo, what you are saying could be a temporary "holder fix", until they change the animations to conform to cast time, or revamp cast times entirely to retain balance while adhering to the current animations.

 

If it is indeed a placeholder, they should let us know. With no developer response to an issue with so much outcry, it's just plain wrong.

[ajjw]

You'll still have people whining that they can't use back stab a second time fast enough.

 

Imo, what you are saying could be a temporary "holder fix", until they change the animations to conform to cast time, or revamp cast times entirely to retain balance while adhering to the current animations.

In WoW, animations are static - They always play at the same speed. If the animation is still going when you use another ability, the old animation is cancelled and the next one played.

 

With my suggestion, the animations would dynamically speed up / slow down to match the cast time, such that when a cast ends, the animation always ends the same instant.

 

As such, the two methods would be identical. So there would be no complaining as you say there would be.

 

It's literally the perfect solution.

Edited December 27, 2011 by ajjw

[Teloss]

If it is indeed a placeholder, they should let us know. With no developer response to an issue with so much outcry, it's just plain wrong.

 

No, I mean his idea that they speed up animations to cast bars in order to balance cool downs with the animations. That would be the placeholder. After that, BW would then begin working on keeping the game within their vision without sacrificing animation, or cooldown time.

 

You shouldn't have to sacrifice further game play, to make another facet of game play better. That's why patience is needed because something like this wouldn't be an over night, or even a one month deal.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Teloss

[JediMasterKent]

I completely agree with this post. Combat is not as fluid or responsive as it's supposed to be and it's getting less and less appealing to me.

[Layden]

In WoW, animations are static - They always play at the same speed. If the animation is still going when you use another ability, the old animation is cancelled and the next one played.

 

With my suggestion, the animations would dynamically speed up / slow down to match the cast time, such that when a cast ends, the animation always ends the same instant.

 

As such, the two methods would be identical. So there would be no complaining as you say there would be.

 

It's literally the perfect solution.

 

Agreed.

[Humdot]

Fully agree with OP. I thought it was because I'm Australian and have 200 ping, sad too see everyone is affected by this. Edited December 27, 2011 by Humdot

[tarcin]

BUMP.Still not a single comment from Bioware.

[SuperomegaOP]

DO. SOMETHING. BIO. WARE.

 

that is all

[TripleOG]

I honestly love this game, and haven't played any mmo since i quit WoW during the beginning of Cata. After trying to heal Boarding Party last night, this issue really effected me for the first time. My rotation was sooo messed up from this delay that it was almost impossible to heal. Anyway, just wanted to state that I too am having a serious problem with this issue, and i honestly cant see myself playing endgame content with a delay like this.

[Tempos]

this, completely this. It really is regardless of latency. Some abilities never go off either due to the animation or whatever reason. It seems incredibly random when it happens too. My main culprits are my shadow strike, my aoe knockback, and my interrupt. This needs to be looked at and acknowledged.

[chizhik]

This is mostly a rating post. I'm not a competitive PvPer or a serious raider, but the combat does feel sluggish to me. It sucks a lot of fun out of the game, to be honest - I'm constantly checking to make sure abilities triggered when they were supposed to, with defensive CDs and procs being particularly bad in that regard. MMOs are traditionally combat-heavy, so getting X zebra flanks Y times still has to be fun, even if instructions to do so are fully voiced.

 

Thanks to the OP for starting the thread. I hope this gets looked at.

Edited December 27, 2011 by chizhik

[Taboo]

Got my video up.

 

This is a perfect example of how it SHOULD be.

 

 

Enjoy and feedback please.

 

Absolutely perfect example mate, well done.

 

Hopefully this will clear up any confusion that people are having.

[Teloss]

Posting in John's page.

[ChaotistRazor]

Thank you so much for that video, it's a perfect example of what I thought was wrong with this game's responsiveness. Edited December 27, 2011 by ChaotistRazor

[Teloss]

Absolutely perfect example mate, well done.

 

Hopefully this will clear up any confusion that people are having.

 

=/ '

 

I think this is something that is good to be gone. Sleight of hand in insta-abilities is fine with a game as arcadey as WoW. Bring it into the more stylized realism, heroic gameplay of SWTOR, and doing that would look aweful strange.

 

It would also give sorcs in swtor a HUGE advantage in PVP because they have the most nuke abilities to queue up. I just don't see how BW could immitate the fluid mechanic that WoW has, without taking a large part of SWTORS current potential, and throwing it to the wolves.

 

WoW has more fluid animation queueing, but is it a better game because of that? I don't think having invisible magic hands, makes or breaks a game.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Teloss

[ajjw]

=/ '

 

I think this is something that is good to be gone. Sleight of hand in insta-abilities is fine with a game as arcadey as WoW. Bring it into the more stylized realism, heroic gameplay of SWTOR, and doing that would look aweful strange.

 

It would also give sorcs in swtor a HUGE advantage in PVP because they have the most nuke abilities to queue up. I just don't see how BW could immitate the fluid mechanic that WoW has, without taking a large part of SWTORS current potential, and throwing it in the garbage.

I've already given you the solution.

[Rafkin]

In WoW, animations are static - They always play at the same speed. If the animation is still going when you use another ability, the old animation is cancelled and the next one played.

 

With my suggestion, the animations would dynamically speed up / slow down to match the cast time, such that when a cast ends, the animation always ends the same instant.

 

As such, the two methods would be identical. So there would be no complaining as you say there would be.

 

It's literally the perfect solution.

 

Except that if you can not interrupt animations then abilities that ignore the gcd are pointless.

[Teloss]

I've already given you the solution.

 

Your solution isn't about trying to imitate WoW. (good thing )

Edited December 27, 2011 by Teloss

[ajjw]

Then use WoW's way. I don't care. But SWTOR's current implementation sucks. Period.

[ajjw]

Your solution doesn't imitate WoW.

You really are trolling me aren't you.

[Teloss]

You really are trolling me aren't you.

 

Am I?