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

[Phokas]

I agree with the OP. Wow is unarguably a smooth game, love it or hate it. Swtor needs to be this. Swtor pvp makes me SOOOO sad at the moment because it's so jumpy and delayed.

[mikeyboii]

Thankyou!!

 

somebody notices this problem, its such a pain in the ***.

 

Fluidity > Animation

 

I'm sick of having problems mounting up...

 

Sick of being in a bg, seeing a enemy cast something, and by time i push my keybind to counter it, its already missed and wasted because of the delay.

 

The game engine needs to be fixed.

[_Skyanne_]

I hadn't noticed this before...but now I'm looking for it people are absolutely right. I can't execute abilities when I'm parrying for instance.

 

I'm not outraged or anything by it personally, but I can see why this would be really annoying for a twitchy player! I hope they fix it.

[Ayari_]

While I agree that SWTOR's Character Responsiveness isn't as fluid as it could be, the game hasn't been out for a full week. There is truly four years of development time in this game.

 

I am reserving all of my complaints for ~3 months from now, when hopefully the game is more polished. For now, I think the best solution is to send in tickets to costumer service about bugs and issues, and let them be documented.

[Xadre]

In games, tenths of seconds can seem like an enterntiy. Ask someone who raided in WoW what it was like when their screen would freeze dude to lag for even half a second.

 

End of the world.

 

Yes I know, I have raided in warcraft myself, i'm now a level 50 sentinel in this game and have had the issue quite a lot during leveling and also now in warzones and the like.

I simply tried to explain it to people that might think it's not that big a deal, some people might go "it's only a few seconds, if that is the biggest worry in your life I feel sorry for you" if you catch my drift ;p

[Putok]

I mentioned this already. If people would read what I say rather than nerd-raging.

 

This would break combat animation and destroy the type of gameplay BW aimed for in PVP. It's not moving an inch because if they did this, combat would "look like crap". Or how about something else I already said. "Harry potter wand poking".

 

I think that quotes what I said earlier... As to others questioning my reading comprehension? Please read my posts more carefully before cleaning to hypocrisy. I am against broken game play animations. You might be fine with it as long as you get to spam abilities, but I am not for taking the lazy way out and ruining the game.

 

Then how about the correct the cast bars to reflect how long it ACTUALLY takes an ability to fire? If something prevents you from performing an action for 3s, it should have a 3s cast bar, not a 2.5s cast bar, and .5s of doing an animation that keeps your character from responding to inputs.

[ajjw]

While I agree that SWTOR's Character Responsiveness isn't as fluid as it could be, the game hasn't been out for a full week. There is truly four years of development time in this game.

 

I am reserving all of my complaints for ~3 months from now, when hopefully the game is more polished. For now, I think the best solution is to send in tickets to costumer service about bugs and issues, and let them be documented.

While I agree that bashing the game for its flaws so soon after release is silly, this issue NEEDS as much attention as possible.

[Ignito]

Like it or not, the OP is 100% correct. It needs to be dealt with quickly.

[TripleOG]

The people that raise this issue do have a point, several times when I have used an instant ability and then tried to execute a 3 second cast for example, the animation has begun but the actual attack is not executing.. which leaves me hanging for a few seconds.

Some might not think a few seconds is a lot, but it sure is, especially as everything you do is manual, there is no auto attack.. a few seconds lost can be a lot of damage.

 

Exactly, Try healing Boarding Party as a Operative medic and at the designed level. During that 1 second delay, my tank has dropped into a HP deficit and when the delay effects me the second time my tank goes down. The delay kills the game, and turns an amazing game that i love into something that frustrates the sh*t out of me.

[Unseenhands]

Ayari, I think the hope is that this thread -- 100x pages or whatever -- is a documentation of sort. We can't hope that things get fixed/changed if we don't bring it up.

 

And most of the people wanting the fix aren't complaining or being overly critical -- they WANT the game to succeed. This is just a very big issue.

[Scelerant]

In games, tenths of seconds can seem like an enterntiy. Ask someone who raided in WoW what it was like when their screen would freeze dude to lag for even half a second.

 

End of the world.

 

I can just imagine how happy my arena team would have been if I said "Yeah guys I know it was my job to stick on their healer and interrupt him, but I was CC'ed by my animations"

 

or "Sorry dudes, I know I'm supposed to blow my def CDs when Sarth uses his breath weapon with 3 drakes up, but my parry animation got me ganked"

 

I'm aware that Bioware has less experience with MMORPGs than most MMORPG players have with real life women and that Bioware are known for making great stories with clunky gameplay, but making it so abilities fire correctly is really something I was expecting.

[leetchaos]

OP is 100% correct. This is one of the MOST important aspects of an MMO, and while SWTOR is better than most recent MMO's in this department its still only about 70% of the way there. Sadly I think this type of thing requires a full redesign of parts of the engine

[Dunlock]

I agree, I experience this as well. One of the first things I noticed once I got in combat. I am a 5 year wow vet, and this factored in to me leaving rift and foing back to wow.

[Xcore]

I've posted a video response to the link on the very start of this page, showing that you actually CAN queue skills on seperate targets without a problem.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzP0xjNLyX4

 

Hopefully the OP and original video poster will respond to this

 

As I say in the video, animations are borked, but the core global cooldown isn't.

 

I liked the video but even though yes, you do hit two objects at the same time through an instant attached to a casted ability the video itself shows the sluggishness a bit compared to the WoW comparison.

 

I don't think anyone is disputing that this is possible in SW:TOR but the response is still not anywhere near, the mounting shows it very well but you know what would really be interesting to see? A rogue DPS rotation for 1-2 min straight with dynamic target switching contrasted to the same in SW:TOR... if only SW:TOR had dummies?

 

 

Sanchpanza, I will include your Video Link in the OP... ty for contribution

[Sanchpanza]

Okay, just fired up the warrior and the bounty hunter.

 

On the warrior your skill off of the global cooldown DOES interrupt the animation currently playing (as far I could tell from about 10 minutes of fighting).

 

But on the Bounty Hunter you're stuck with that animation issue; Mainly Power Shot, you can't use an ability until it hits the target.

 

I'm still pretty sure that when the issue happens with channeled abilities that you still do the damage. With Melee classes I'm assuming it'll be an easy fix, just shorten the animation, but for ranged classes it might be an issue; If the animation only ends when the blaster shots hit the target then we're boned.

[gangbot]

on my jedi guardian sometimes i see the animation start, and then it for some reason stops then i have to press it 2-3 more times and it finally works.

 

and also using my damage reduction cooldowns is a pain sometimes they dont work untill 100 clicks.

[Fellthar]

I had this issue, my character seeming disconnected from the buttons I pressed, but it got much much better when I changed the ability action queue window down to 0.0 seconds... this immensely improved my experience, and makes it feel fluid for me.

 

The problem was, for me, that when I hit the button, my skill was not visually highlighted, and also my character did not respond, because it was queuing it up. Once I changed this, it reports that it cannot be used yet when other abilities are on cooldown or the global cooldown is still in effect (the same as WoW), and when the global cooldown is over, the skill and the button press correspond perfectly (except at high latency times, or when my fps is taxed).

 

For me, the game now feels as responsive as WoW.

[Leilei]

I liked the video but even though yes, you do hit two objects at the same time through an instant attached to a casted ability the video itself shows the sluggishness a bit compared to the WoW comparison.

 

I don't think anyone is disputing that this is possible in SW:TOR but the response is still not anywhere near, the mounting shows it very well but you know what would really be interesting to see? A rogue DPS rotation for 1-2 min straight with dynamic target switching contrasted to the same in SW:TOR... if only SW:TOR had dummies?

 

 

Sanchpanza, I will include your Video Link in the OP... ty for contribution

 

I play a scrapper scoundrel and i can keep my dps rotationgoing for as long as the enemy is alive o.o The only time it messes up is when corso harpoons something and somehow bugs the enemy then back blast suddenly only works from the sides and not the back side o.o

[Thatguy]

I had this issue, my character seeming disconnected from the buttons I pressed, but it got much much better when I changed the ability action queue window down to 0.0 seconds... this immensely improved my experience, and makes it feel fluid for me.

 

The problem was, for me, that when I hit the button, my skill was not visually highlighted, and also my character did not respond, because it was queuing it up. Once I changed this, it reports that it cannot be used yet when other abilities are on cooldown or the global cooldown is still in effect (the same as WoW), and when the global cooldown is over, the skill and the button press correspond perfectly (except at high latency times, or when my fps is taxed).

 

For me, the game now feels as responsive as WoW.

 

Playing the same game the rest of us are playing?

 

I have a 0.0 queue as well, always have since I started because initially I thought the queue was the problem. Try pvping or doing anything really, because that does not fix the problem.

[Xcore]

Dunno if you watched the video but you CANNOT que up abilities on separate targets without delay between abilities, with long animations. See video

 

 

Very nice video, added to OP... thank you for contribution... I am going to bed! Keep the discussion going!

[Aberration]

I haven't watch the video, 'cause honestly I am playing.

 

But my main is a sawbones scoundrel, and I am having no problems with delays from when I hit the key to when the activation time starts to when the heal lands.

 

[Ayari_]

Ayari, I think the hope is that this thread -- 100x pages or whatever -- is a documentation of sort. We can't hope that things get fixed/changed if we don't bring it up.

 

And most of the people wanting the fix aren't complaining or being overly critical -- they WANT the game to succeed. This is just a very big issue.

 

That's why we send in costumer service tickets. It's the built in system for comments and complaints. Forum threads just railroad into problems, while tickets are all read by a CS representative.

[TripleOG]

Playing the same game the rest of us are playing?

 

I have a 0.0 queue as well, always have since I started because initially I thought the queue was the problem. Try pvping or doing anything really, because that does not fix the problem.

 

This.

[Ignito]

Basically, I think we can mostly agree that we can give up some of the animation "neatness" for near 100% responsiveness in the combat. It's quickly becoming a sore spot in the game. I have no idea how anyone is going to raid under the current mechanics and UI.

[ajjw]

For me, the game now feels as responsive as WoW.

Because your animations are shorter than your casts. Not everyone is so lucky.

 

Ability Queue has nothing to do with this issue.