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

[poryan]

A great example from a SI Sorcerer perspective (Feel free to try this out, b/c to me it defines this issue): I will began casting chain lightning on a pack of mobs (3-4) to go into it with some direct damage front, then as it is casting I will click my hotkey to que force storm (Something any normal player with any basic skill level would consider doing) I place the visible locator on the ground below the mobs I intend to cast force storm on, as hain lightning spell successfully casts and no longer displays a cast bar, I attempt to cast the force storm and.....NO CAST. Its not so much that it doesn't cast, its that often times it takes 2-3 more attempts at casting force storm before it effectively casts, by that time any melee that may have been in the group are now either beating on me, or have spread out enough to make the cast nearly pointless. Spell-threading is something that has existed in many MMO's and IMHO absolutely NEEDS to exist. It is not "spamming" a spell like some novices may have mentioned in prior responses, its called being a skilled player and using your abilities when you should or are "supposed" to. Casting an interrupt on someone when they are casting the spell, and having it land 2 seconds after the spell has been cast and landed is not good game making. Edited December 28, 2011 by poryan

[xMKNx]

i get this constantly in pvp or full man groups,

also, i beleive the middle mouse button cancels out the hud sometimes making the skills not being ablke to be pressed at all.

 

middle mouse button = ventrilo.

 

but ya, theres a huge delay in pvp and its quite the joke

[AlkalineKitten]

Great post Xcore. I completely agree.

 

Character responsiveness is an absolutely huge factor in MMO enjoyment for me personally, and i believe it is for almost everyone else as well whether they know it or not. Good stuff man.

 

It's interesting to me, I've gladly taken leave of WoW to join friends who want to game in City of Heroes, Champions, Warhammer, and so on, and I can never stick with it or this exact reason: the immersion and responsiveness just feel off.

 

Right away in beta I picked up on this same "float", and while it's nice that some of my friends are finally also "feeling" what I explain to them, this thread makes me feel less insane.

[poryan]

191 pages with no response from the folks in charge. Its really nice to know they care, and /or are listening. Edited December 28, 2011 by poryan

[Neeseek]

I've only noticed this delay if you SPAM buttons.

 

For example, as a Shadow.. I'm spamming my version of a "backstab"

 

 

if I spam, there's a delay.

 

 

If i just press it once whenever it's of the GCD, it works perfectly.

 

 

So basically, if you spam it you're gimping yourself. seems like a bug.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Neeseek

[Xcore]

I have been captivated by this thread from when Xcore first made this thread. I have read every post. I have folllowed it and have seen how he has updated with video and crutial information to back this ablitily delay fact. When Baznasty put his video up to show us (see my sig) this fact of ability delay it was climactic for all that were so into the thread at that moment . I have been patiently waiting for some response from Bioware.

 

I am now pissed off, let down ... feeling hopeless that this will even be addressed.

 

I believe the worst thing they could do is close this thread and open a new discussion thread based on this. Simply because the discussion and evolution of our understanding of this topic and this "feeling" of not playing smooth is invaluable in this thread over the past 200 pages.

 

 

The best thing Bioware can do is reply in this thread and keep replying to it, in an honest fashion and read each and every response from the playerbase in this thread and so forth. Until we come to some point of dialogue that we can both be happy with.

 

Ignoring this entire thing is going to be very bad in the long run.

[Suspirium]

/siogned , I rarely post but I am totally for this one.

 

P.S. I think they will actually ignore it, trying to get away with it, hoping thats something that will pass with time. They should understand their animations are not the 2nd comming of Jesus and the community is unhappy.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Suspirium

[Xcore]

So yall dont think speeding up the animation and fixing the bugs that prevent the certain ability from executing when you press/click it would fix the problem?

 

Abilities not working when you hit them is obviously a bug...But the animations effecting fluidiness for reason such as going longer then the GDC should be able to be adjusted since they (BW) dicate how long that animation is

 

More than that, previous animations need to be allowed to be "clipped" by next one etc. and so forth...

 

many more things that just speeding it up.

[Godsfear]

191 pages with no response from the folks in charge. Its really nice to know they care, and /or are listening.

 

Dude! The community leader is way to busy to send a email to the lead designer.......wait a few hours for a response telling her what she should post about the problem and then reply to this issue.

 

Oh wait! did I just do that!

 

I would take Riot's or Trion's overly talkative dev's over the corps. that just stone wall you.

[tehmoose]

I believe the worst thing they could do is close this thread and open a new discussion thread based on this. Simply because the discussion and evolution of our understanding of this topic and this "feeling" of not playing smooth is invaluable in this thread over the past 200 pages.

 

 

The best thing Bioware can do is reply in this thread and keep replying to it, in an honest fashion and read each and every response from the playerbase in this thread and so forth. Until we come to some point of dialogue that we can both be happy with.

 

Ignoring this entire thing is going to be very bad in the long run.

 

The CM would actually have to put down his smartphone and stop tweeting things to post in the forums.

 

I don't think he can really be bothered.

 

Its a shame really.

[hulduet]

From here on I will say 0.5 for emphasis but reality is 0.2, 0.3 (ANY) Ability Delay is unacceptable.

 

I've had that problem since day one playing swtor. I thought it was fps related. Since so few people seemed to encounter it. For myself i notice it very clearly when my fps dips down below 20. All my abilities take an additional 0.5~ seconds to actually cast. My character is just *standing* there when i click the ability... *nothing* happens, until ~0.5 seconds have passed, then it cast the ability. It is very frustrating.

 

I know that it has nothing to do with latency since the game runs very solid @ 30 latency for me. The best way to describe the "ability" lag is to compare it with WoW and playing it with a latency of 500ms+. That's basically how swtor is for me all day.

 

But yeah, i thought it was a fps issue? So i'm a little surprised at this thread. I'm glad that other people are encountering this issue so that just isn't me. It has been brought up in several other threads but we really seem to be in some sort of minority. Haven't heard a word from bioware regarding this "issue".

[AlkalineKitten]

It has been brought up in several other threads but we really seem to be in some sort of minority. Haven't heard a word from bioware regarding this "issue".

 

I don't believe we're the minority. I believe, based on this thread alone, a lot of the counter claims simply don't understand the specific topic at hand, or don't have the MMO resume to truly feel how disconnected it is.

 

Also consider how many people might have an issue, but simply don't check forums (it's true), or don't even know how to explain what feels off.

[Xcore]

Xcore, for those of us lacking the initiative, and the proper background to fully express what this issue is about, thank you for bringing this to light. I've noticed too, in my quest for a game other than WoW, this response delay in other games.

 

But what I'd really like to say is that we need to progress along more diverse avenues to make BioWare aware of our plight. If you can muster over 2,000 responses to this in just over a day, that's wonderful. But it only takes a few clicks for a BW mod to completely erase this entire discussion. Or a few hours neglect for this thread to slowly drift to the bottom of the listings.

 

I think that we should all be making a presence with BioWare by any means available. Xcore has already tried to contact BioWare by phone, why not the rest of us? Ask your friends if they agree. Ask people in game how they feel about their own character's response, ask them to submit an in-game ticket. We have to spread our influence beyond the forums to really get BioWare's attention. With enough support in-game and out, we can effect this change.

 

Let them know that this isn't something like the LFD/LFG tool or any other silly world of warcraft frill or shiny quest helper or damage meter so many people are asking for, this is real game mechanics that negatively affect every aspect of combat game play.

 

I'm thoroughly enjoying SW:TOR on the frontal/flashy/feature side, but I have to agree with previous posters, this is going to drastically shorten the life of the game for me. I too want SW:TOR to make it past the first month of subscriptions.

 

I agree, general awareness and consciousness raising on this "oh so hard" to define topic and subject is key. Ask yourself, how come no developer has found the "secret" to re-creating WoW like gameplay response and feedback? They all focus on just about all the other aspects WoW has, sprinkle in slight differentiation and unique feature and ship to release...

 

Never really examining the "core" gameplay, every MMO is about combat... COMBAT and Responsiveness should be 90% of your development focus. Then the rest, you let evolve! Don't try to cram everything in and expect people not to notice this which we are discussing here...

 

 

In conclusion, I agree with the quoted poster... we need to make them aware of this and this thread can be the beginning of Bioware and perhaps other developers seeing this truth.

[Warstardo]

 

Kudos Xcore! Well said. This is exactly what I have been feeling. WoW was my first mmo. I have since played Warhammer, Aion and Rift. They all gave me the feeling I was moving in slow motion. I'm sick and tired of WoW and want to play a mmo set in a technologically advanced universe but I feel myself already being pulled back. Think the op just made an eloquent post about how many of us feel.

 

[poryan]

+1, if you doubt there is a problem just go and try to cast 2 force storms in a row on a sorcerer.. It feels 100% impossible to make the transition from one channeled spell to another smoothly in this game atm.

 

This.

/10char

[Seismax]

Kiting's kinda pointless in this game, the mobs cheat.

 

I was running a pig guy with an axe around in circles, and I maintained a distance in front of him... and he was still hitting me, executing stuns on me... etc.

 

Its sad and pathetic that they feel they need to have the mobs chest so we can't use our tools to kill them properly.

 

They seem to have a large attack range, but at least with freezing force, it is possible to kite indefinitly.

 

OT: People that say they've never seen any problem whatsoever, try using abilities that are off the GCD more frequently.

 

High end PvE and competitive PvP isn't even feasible as long as there's a chance that your group will wipe because Bob's Focus builder locked his kick out.

[Darkduck]

I'm not going to tell anyone to do what I did, but I did make sure to cancel my subscription. I still have my remaining month to play, but in the sub cancel screen I wrote my concerns about this topic.

 

The game is fun and it could be amazing, but if this issue doesn't get fixed I'll get my pvp and immersive gaming experience from some other game.

 

Please, please please please please Bioware, give me a reason to go back and resub! My subscription alone will pay for a couple of days of your developers pay for working on this issue. I have played WoW since a month after it came out. I'm loyal to games I love and I really want this one to be good, but this is a game breaking issue for me!

[Khoranth]

I don't believe we're the minority. I believe, based on this thread alone, a lot of the counter claims simply don't understand the specific topic at hand, or don't have the MMO resume to truly feel how disconnected it is.

 

Also consider how many people might have an issue, but simply don't check forums (it's true), or don't even know how to explain what feels off.

 

You don't need a MMO resume to understand this topic.

 

Even if you only played mario brothers, you should understand the 'feel' of using an ability. When you press B a fireball shoots out, it just happens instantly, no delay. if youve ever played any video game, you should understand something does not 'feel' right about abilities in this game, especially warzones.

[hulduet]

I'm just curious, so you guys in this thread, are encountering a 0.5 delay in abilities as well?

 

Basically you see a monster, you're in range, you click on whatever "attack" ability you have and then you wait for ~0.5 seconds before it actually activates?! Then the rest of the combat is the same, click and wait. It's even more frustrating in groups since it feels like you're not doing anything for such a long stretch of time. By the time your character actually attacks the mob is dead... i mean what is up?

 

And no, i'm not talking about the GCD, since that is often brought up in chat/forums, or latency.

[Einherjeren]

I support this thread. This could make or break the game for many players in the long run.

[Warstardo]

Had to come back to give this thread a five star rating! FYI, you can only rate it when you reply and not on the edit.

[poryan]

Replying to rate. Please pay attention to this post, devs.

[sac-]

If you still can't see the problem, go and play a Jedi Knight or Sith Warrior for some time. Try to use Riposte/Retaliation (OFF GCD), the interrupt (OFF GCD) and any other skill. 99% of time one of them won't work, or worse, your GCD will trigger but the skill will have no effect. You can also try to charge and use Master Strike/Ravage right after, you'll see your character doing the animation, but no damage. Then you'll see that the skill, actually, had no effect at all and the CD is up. Edited December 28, 2011 by sac-

[hulduet]

I really hope they fix this problem and i am so happy to see others are having the same problem. Which means that they might fix it...

 

Thought it was just me. I brought it up several times in the chat but i always seemed to be the only guy that experienced it. Then i made a thread about it, a few days later i found another thread, and today i find this thread. But the only thing i have in common with other people that experience this problem is low fps, ie below 20.

[ChewieFlakes]

The game loses a sense of production value when this problem becomes really noticeable, was just playing for a while and the more I think about it the it becomes a glaring issue