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

[mydsmbr]

It's exactly what I'm telling everyone. It's why WoW is popular and it's why iOS is popular too. Smoothness.

[Homeostasis]

I don't mind waiting, but others probably won't. What people don't seem to realize is that the first months of any MMO are probably the most important. If you wait too much before fixing an issue, people will just go back to WoW or stop playing.

[Parckie]

Ability delay is terrible in swtor.

[Digitalpossum]

its nothing to do with that, why dont people get this. This just how long before one spell finishes you can click on the next one to q it.

Look at the speeder example click on speeder it appears move forward and it boots you off if you do it too quick, even though the speeder is there and your on it

 

I agree the delay in responsiveness is an issue. And for those who say they don't see it, try the speeder. I've had this happen multiple times. I click the button, see my speeder, start to move, bam. Dismounted. It's one of the easiest ways to demonstrate this issue.

 

Or another good example... farming mats. I stop, scan a node of something, and then start to move (because I use autoloot). If I move before the loot window opens and closes, the stuff doesn't get into my inventory. Even though the chat window indicates that I received the item(s). I have to go back and loot again to get it. I know others have had this issue because I've looted nodes that I couldn't yet actually scan. They had been left by someone who apparently had this issue with looting.

 

Now, take that issue and put it in combat. Now it's not just a question of whether you walk or ride, or whether you get your loot or don't. It's quite possibly a question of whether you live or die.

 

Seems to me, as others have already observed, the pain could be relieved by moving the action to the beginning of the animation rather than later in the animation.

 

I too love the game. I love the story. I want the game to succeed and be enjoyable for a long time to come. Please Bioware, address this issue.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Digitalpossum

[oflow]

Thanks for the link and response; that was interesting. So, this isn't something that is unique to TOR apparently. One of the posters in that thread didn't have the problem anymore after moving to a Mac ... so... ...

 

okay j/k

 

Anyways: the last post was the 17 of Dec of this year and tech supposrt didn't see anything wrong on their end, so far, and the same type of responses ('I'm gonna quit') are there also. Evens things out a bit imho so thanks for the 'balanced' perspective.

 

Haha np.

 

I'm just glad to find a civil discussion for once on this forum about a real issue. Half the time these threads get derailed by people saying, 'mine works just fine you just suck l2p noob swtor is the best game evar'

 

I am also positive it has something to do with abilities off the GCD because just testing with multiple classes they all experience the issue with abilities off the GCD.

 

Those most notably effected by it are melee classes since they have a lot of proc abilties off the GCD and Smugglers because it does effect the Take Cover ability too.

 

Hopefully this gets fixed sooner than later because this is a bad enough issue where people will leave if something comparable comes out.

Edited December 26, 2011 by oflow

[Siem]

 

I too love the game. I love the story. I want the game to succeed and be enjoyable for a long time to come. Please Bioware, address this issue.

 

Just quoting for truth here. I'm really engrossed in the experience as a whole, and this issue really seems to be what could determine the long term fate of the game.

[WingsofCrystal]

Yes default is 0.5 but it is important to understand that it is not the Queuing of Abilities that is the issue, it is the execution of an ability.

 

It has nothing to do with this sadly, for example... I cast "Aimed Shot"... about 0.5 seconds after I hit my button it starts to cast (at 40-50 FPS and 20ms Latency). Also, my "next ability" that I am spamming already before the Aimed Shot Cast Time is completed (as to not miss any time between) never goes off and no animation ever happens...

 

I mean, the whole system is just messed up, not smooth... not responsive.

 

Great original post. I am a noob and have noticed the problems in the combat system. I cited the above quote because it seems that some casts go off well after I hit the button and some do not go off at all. It is somewhat disconcerting and does ruin the feeling of the combat. I love swtor and intend to play for a long time, but indeed somewhere down the road the combat issues as described, if not fixed, will cause me to start looking elsewhere.

 

I have to agree with the comments about the feeling of the WOW combat. Long after the game just bored me to tears, the only reason I logged in was because I enjoyed the feeling of combat so much. It is smooth, natural, and responsive and gives a great feeling when you fight mob(s).

 

I do hope that this is something that can be fixed and not an intrinsic flaw in the system / engine that is beyond repair.

 

Edit - One thing that hit me when I reread some of the posts here is that when I play WOW I do not look at my cast bars for CDs or consider the GCD. I can just "feel" them after some time and experience and the combat has a flow that I can internalize.

Edited December 26, 2011 by WingsofCrystal

[Nephrahim]

I agree with many in this thread, this IS an issue, and while it's one I can TOLERATE for the sake of the game, it's also definitely an issue that will hold back the game, in the long term.

 

I'm not sure the cause of the issue, how it can be fixed, or even if it's being looked into to be fixed., but it would be a huge mistake to 'rest on your laurels' and ignore this problem just because the game is 'good enough.'

[Spirodex]

Is there any way to up vote this forum post or something?

[Split-Moon]

I like how the OP spends over half the post bringing up irrelevant nonsense. Personally, it destroys the entire argument...if it was even there.

 

At least from the rating of the thread, I will assume other people do understand what he's talking about, as do I.

[Siem]

I do hope that this is something that can be fixed and not an intrinsic flaw in the system / engine that is beyond repair.

 

Well, I think that's the answer we're all looking for from Bioware.

 

Is this issue:

 

1) a design flaw planned to be looked at and remedied in the future?

 

or

 

2) is this a development philosophy where animations are the priority and ability responsiveness takes a backseat?

Edited December 26, 2011 by Siem

[Digitalpossum]

Is there any way to up vote this forum post or something?

 

 

When you post your reply, scroll down to the very bottom of the page, there's an option to rate the thread.

[Nephrahim]

When you post your reply, scroll down to the very bottom of the page, there's an option to rate the thread.

 

Good looking out.

[Spirodex]

When you post your reply, scroll down to the very bottom of the page, there's an option to rate the thread.

 

Awesome.

[Siem]

Up goes the rating, then.

[Godsfear]

They would have already fixed this if they could.

 

That's my suspicion. This could be like pet's in WARHAMMER. They said they were working on pet pathing when the whole time pet pathing was a fundamental flaw of their engine. They simply can't fix pet pathing but they'll never say it.

[Ragefatha]

I agree 100% with this post, and have been telling anyone who would listen for years how this was the biggest failing of other MMO's that have come since WoW. Most of the time all I need to do in a game is run in a couple of circles and hit jump a few times and I instantly know how the games going to handle.

 

Now don't get me wrong...I think SWTOR is arguably the best I've felt since WoW, but if it doesn't match it, then it's not really good enough...and sadly it doesn't. It's early doors, so time will tell, but personally I don't see this being adressed.

 

Top thread btw!

[baznasty]

For people who try to derail this by saying "you want this game to be WoW, go play WoW."

 

First, no we don't, we quit playing WoW and have all the hope in the world for this game to succeed. What type of psycho would spend money on a game only in hopes to drive it into the ground. We post on here because we want this game to take more of our money.

 

Second, take a mutant from outerspace. Plop him down in front of a computer and have him play this game for ten minutes and WoW for 10 minutes. Only have them attacking mobs over and over again.

 

At the end of both of his/its ten minute play sessions, ask him, "Which game's combat felt more responsive and enjoyable?"

 

I think we all know the answer to that.

[SaltAU]

WoW is without doubt the smoothest and most responsive MMO period. After playing TOR for the last week I logged into WoW last night and forgot just how well that game responds. Credit to Blizzard. TOR hopefully can get a handle on this and come somewhere close to it but I'm not holding my breath. Edited December 26, 2011 by SaltAU

[Skoll]

Just want to chime in with my personal, "This is an issue I find very annoying and frustrating."

[WingsofCrystal]

Bump to rate thread excellent.

[Metajedi]

I read through this post, and read through many of the replies. And it is well thought out and well written, and I know exactly what your talking about. I am an ex -wow player for 6 years and been playing MMO's over 10 years.

 

I can honestly say I cannot relate to your problem. Every single button I hit feels completely responsive, whats more the combat feels like it has a lot more impact then wow ever did.

 

I am trying to figure out why you feel like your character is slow to respond if your not having lag or FPS, my best guess is your not used to the pacing of the game. The game itself is more slow paced then wow, the animations take longer, the Auto attack for the shadow takes about 1 full second to complete, and it consumes a GCD. This is the design of the game.

 

Every ability seems smooth to me, if there was some sort of delay I would be here complaining with you guys, but honestly I think what your talking about is the animations and the longer GCD getting in your way, especially if your used to wow.

 

I have no problems with interrupts, or emergency CC's, or stuns everything goes off as soon as I click in, and when I am mashing something and it isnt working I usually am holding down the wrong hot key lol or its on cool down.

 

I'd say give it more time, when I first got more then 10-15 abilities that I was using in combat fairly often I really took the time out for practice combat on weaker enemies to learn how the game tends to operate.

 

IMO I think your mislabeling your problem. Its not a problem on biowares end, if it was, this thread would be much larger then it is. When there is a universal problem with peoples play time the forums will overload, remember launch day's server wait times ? Huge forum overload.

 

There is no character delay, not unless you have lag. If there is a delay your experiencing I am willing to bet you just haven't gotten used to the slower pacing of the game compared to wow.

[oflow]

If it was an "execution" scenario I would understand, but its literally any sort of attacks. Even generic blaster fire, i become completely locked down, key presses trigger GCDs but nothing fires off.

 

Against champs it basically means you are fighting them with 90% hp as, if their next hit would kill you, you wont be able to prevent it from happening.

 

Yeah I've noticed this as well. From what I've been able to tell the automatic defensive animations interrupt other triggered actions too.

 

So for instance if you are a jedi in combat and a group of people are attacking you and your character is doing the animation to block blaster fire, your abilities wont trigger until your character stops doing that animation, which is making it get out of sync. So sometimes when you are doing the block the lasers animation and you use an ability it triggers the gcd but nothing happens.

[Nerexis]

Great OP, and kudos to all the players in support of having this fixed. I logged off in frustrating after a PvP match yesterday, wondering why exactly I found the PvP so frustrating. Then I read this post and it's like BAM, that's exactly what I was thinking and just couldn't crystallize.

 

I can't count how many times I've jammed on my "Back Blast" (melee) button but had the enemy get out of range before the skill fired. Even though it's an instant and I wasn't on a GCD. So frustrating.

[baznasty]

IMO I think your mislabeling your problem. Its not a problem on biowares end, if it was, this thread would be much larger then it is. When there is a universal problem with peoples play time the forums will overload, remember launch day's server wait times ? Huge forum overload.

 

There is no character delay, not unless you have lag. If there is a delay your experiencing I am willing to bet you just haven't gotten used to the slower pacing of the game compared to wow.

 

Much larger than 38 pages where 90% of the people are posting that they not only agree but find it game-breaking?

 

You know how the people in the insane asylum think its EVERYONE ELSE who's crazy? Well, I'm afraid you might be the one that's not all there.