DataCrons, Jumping and Platforming...why its terrible...

[Ilsildor]

.5ish second delay from when you hit space bar to when your character actually lifts off the ground.

 

Yes it DOES make a difference.

 

A LOT of people in this world dont notice small thing like this, which is why it generally goes unnoticed/not cared about.

 

As for twitch gamers, drives us insane.

 

Also, this game the delay - like verything - seems animation related. Your character bends his knees before jumping ffs. Can we just assume he bent his knees before my space bar press please?

Edited January 16, 2012 by Ilsildor

[Daynna_Talona]

I'm with the OP on this one - I pretty much hate jumping from platform to platform. It feels so clunky.

 

There have been some platforms that I have continually fallen from for over an hour which really tests your sanity.

 

Maybe it is my connection, I don't know. I'm surprised more people aren't moaning about it though so lag may be my issue. Part is due to design though - sometimes you can make a jump if you do it at an angle which doesn't make much sense.

[Amarinth]

I've been leveling together with my significant other on empire side and I'm so glad as a BH Powertech I now (at a higher level) have access to both a Pull and a Leap skill. It's the only thing that makes datacron hunting bearable, when one of us constantly keeps sliding off edges that shouldn't be slippery, when the character doesn't want to jump when you press jump, or when there is an invisible bloody wall somewhere that doesn't belong there.

 

I am not a big fan of platform games at the best of times, and when you add in the unavoidable input delays you get from playing online, some really bad collision detection in places and a jumping mechanic that is put to shame by any good platforming title, it just becomes an exercise in frustration management rather than a challenge.

 

I don't mind a challenge. What I do mind is fighting bad game design to complete an element of the game that hasn't been properly implemented.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Amarinth

[MasterKayote]

My main complaint about the datacrons is that a lot of the time they are hidden so well that you stand no chance of finding many of them even if you scour the planet for an hour. You're then forced to look at a guide because the holocron isn't visible unless you are already standing in some obscure area which you didn't know existed to begin with.

 

With respect to them being hidden completely out of sight there is the fact that (a) Bioware has made some of them glow brightly so you have a chance of seeing them at a distance while others do not glow at all and (b) there is absolutely NOTHING in the game which says a datacron can be inside of a locked chest.

 

Since the locked chests do not glow and don't have any special appearance the chances of you stumbling across them, without a guide or closely examining every crate in the game one by one, is ridiculous.

 

My suggestion would be to have datacrons appear on the mini-map since a good 70% of them require you to find a route to them which is quite a distance away from the datacron itself and usually requires some precision jumping to reach.

 

Im just getting a guide. Dont like this platforming and im certainly not THAT much of an explorer where I actually enjoy just walking around the entire map. I like seeing the sights and exploring at my own discretion ... but making me look for a needle in a haystack jumping around and getting stuck every time I jump on a rock? No ...

 

They shouldve made these things an achievement with some "item rewards after X amount" kind of thing. Making them a permanent stat upgrade which adds up to a significant amount only makes people (particularly those who just find this boring and/or frustrating) feel they HAVE to get it.

Edited January 16, 2012 by MasterKayote

[Snowcrashed]

Im pissed about the horrible system they have with a lot of the datacrons, you either make a jump perfectly (which is a joke with the floaty inaccurate jumping) or end up stuck between random pieces of scenery with the only option being /stuck. Now maybe its just me, but requiring people to use the /stuck command when they try to play a part of your game is just incredibly pathetic.

[Chessack]

I'm not a big fan of the platforming simply because I don't find it to be a lot of fun in MMOs.

 

However, a lot of people absolutely love this element, and who am I to deny them it?

 

I basically agree with this sentiment.

 

Perfectly timing platform jumps and crawling out on ledges to get holocrons was probably my least favorite aspect of Force Unleashed... and in fact in any game. I'm not only not good at it, but I don't find it fun (and I'm sure these things feed on each other).

 

But just because I don't like it doesn't mean other people can't. I'm fine with them having their fun. I'll eat the reduced stats.

[Reiella]

Really only big problem I have is with the insane time-sync on some of these [Tattooine and Nar Shadda come to mind here, and probably some more later that I haven't messed with].

 

It's frustrating to have to spend an hour per attempt. Little bursts where the jump seems to get registered after my forward movement are frustrating but not that big of a deal, except with the stupid long cycle rates on some datacrons.

[Nizzemancer]

I have a different complaint, the Korriban holocrons should hae been better hidden, I mean really none of them are a challenge to find or get to, at all, Then you look on Hutta or Ord mantell where some of them are even hidden in Heroic areas...

[Vandojo]

I quite like the platforming...I've had some great fun with my guild mates attempting to get different datacrons and the difficulty of the platforming can add to the comedy if we mess up ^^

 

The +10 to All stats datacron (republic) was hilarious, It took us 2 hours but we had so much fun it was worth it.

[Dalle]

I'm not sure if this has been posted before, but lets say that you have to jump from pipe 1 over to pipe 2. In my experience if you jump where the "X" is in the first illustration you get a full jump, otherwise you just jump like 2 feet and fall to your death/mobs etc.

 

|-Pipe 1-| |-Pipe 2-|

|---------| |---------|

|---X-----| |---------|

|---------| |---------|

|---------| |---------|

 

If you instead jump here you get a "short" jump:

 

|-Pipe 1-| |-Pipe 2-|

|---------| |---------|

|--------X| |---------|

|---------| |---------|

|---------| |---------|

 

I hope this makes sense, I haven't had my morning coffee yet..

[Malice_Nihilim]

QQ? Datacron hunting is one of the few actually cool things in SWTOR.

[Erevan_Kindelar]

I almost screamed a couple of times when collecting the datacrons on Coruscant with my Jedi Sage (who says white men can't jump??), and I certainly scared my cat a bit with my muttering. But the sense of satisfaction when I actually got the damned Cunning one (ironically that I do not even need for my core stats...) was worth it

As for getting /stuck on the damned sign, or running half the map across the pipes in the bottom level of Coruscant... Grrrrrrrr Ah, done it!

[ItsThatGuyAgain]

BioWare has said before that datacrons are a reward for "explorers". However, at least from what I've seen, "exploring" for and finding datacrons isn't the hard part. More often than not, you stumble across them by accident: you might see one up on a cliff while wandering around, or (as was the case with one datacron on Korriban) you might walk right into one without knowing it was there.

 

No, the difficult part is figuring out how to get to them. Most datacrons I've obtained involved varying levels of platforming to get to (Coruscant has three with heavy platforming). The process of getting to one can be very frustrating. Admittedly, this does make ultimately reaching the datacron more satisfying, but you have to wonder whether hedging your bets on being able to jump accurately can be called "exploring".

 

It's probably too late for this, but in my opinion datacrons shouldn't always be hard to get to, but reaching them should be as advertised: it should require exploration. They should be hidden in places off the beaten track in interesting locations that may not have any quests tied to them. This would allow people to appreciate some of the "hand-crafted" environments which wouldn't be noticed otherwise, instead of appreciating how well they can stack barrels, containers, and pipes to create a maze before getting to a datacron you've seen already.

 

(EDIT: This isn't to say that people who want to platform shouldn't be allowed the opportunity. Some of the datacrons requiring platforming to reach should be left where they are.)

Edited January 16, 2012 by ItsThatGuyAgain

[Ghaiana]

I absolutely hate platform jumping, but my husband loves it. So I skip the datacrons and he gets them. On the other side I absolutely love crafting and he hates it more or less. So that's good, there is something for both of us.

[Korrigan]

I have all datacrons except two that require a group (2+ persons) and one that requires to find some rataka cubes which I don't have yet.

 

I had no problems jumping after some training. Yeah, training.

 

I can give one hint... learn to TURN OFF sprint when needed.

[Dekadez]

I have yet to find jumping laggy or unresponsive in any way. IDK maybe it's a problem on your end? *flame shield*

 

What? Ever jumped from a hill down to lower territory? It's like the rock face has an invisible wall draped over it: You're just sliding and jerking from one spot to the other.

 

It's a horrible system. You're more likely to get trapped than to get down in one piece.

 

We're not expecting any hiking simulator, but at least a smooth platforming/exploring element would be welcome. Guys who climbed to Hyjal from Winterspring, Troll village from Winterspring, Ironforge airport and the likes will know what I'm talking about. It adds another element to a game: It's fun (at least for me) to just go north and see how far out I can get.

 

I enjoy the Datacron concept, but the platforming to get the Datacrons is just not smooth enough.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Dekadez

[Sernon]

I'm terrible at platform jumping, and yet you learn and adapt eventually. So long as it is possible to grab them, I have no complaints. In other cases I have filed a bug report.

 

---

[stickyricky]

I absolutely love how datacrons are setup. So far, in 10 hours, I have made over 11 million credits charging to pull people who didn't want to deal with the grapplers up to the +10 to all stats datacron. Thank you, datacron locations, platforms, and buggy things. Seriously. Thank you. Edited January 16, 2012 by stickyricky

[SentinelBorg]

The best ones are the ones you can't reach because your character model (type 3/4) is too large. ^^

[PDangerously]

*rolls eyes at thread and walks away*

 

agree completely, +1

[British]

You might want to get your connection checked out. I have no lag here, and my jumping is very responsive. Definitely does not take 5 seconds or anywhere near.

 

While jumping is responsive for me, there are just some places it will not allow you to jump properly. One example of this is on a Hutta pipeline. I had to check online how to do this as some places just gave you a half aborted jump to the floor.

Edited January 16, 2012 by British

[GamerInDallas]

I hate the jumping for datacrons too. I've spent a couple hours jumping and have found that it seems completly uncontrolable. One time I jump half a meter and the next it's 10 meters. And it generally seems to jump the opposite distance of what I need. So, I either fall short on the jump or jump all the way over. Either way, I'm usually finding myself back at ground level. I've tried walking, running, standing, and just about every combination of forward and jump I can possibly do.

 

I think it may be a hardware issue. I'm afraid I may have to buy special hardware just to jump. I spent over an hour on trying to jump up to the same ledge on Coruscant and have never made it across one single time. I've probably jumped "at" the ledge 100 times, although just getting there is no small feat in itself, since you fall back down when you miss there and other places.

 

Anyway, I feel your pain. I've given up, for now. But eventually I'll go back with special hardware or something until I figure it out.

 

(Incidently, right now I think the problem may be primarily that I have a wireless keyboard (which is pretty much necessary since I often use the computer while sitting 15 feet away from it - my 60 inch TV is my computer monitor, in case you are wondering). I think the wireless keyboard introduces "just enough" lag to mess things up from the key commands to make jumping impossible, although it's not a problem anywhere else in the game. When I go back I think I'll try XPadder and pre-configuring some of the buttons to jump so that all the "button" commands get sent at the same time, without any real lag between them.)

[Dekadez]

While jumping is responsive for me, there are just some places it will not allow you to jump properly. One example of this is on a Hutta pipeline. I had to check online how to do this as some places just gave you a half aborted jump to the floor.

 

Or about every rock face. The character models just don't connect properly with props in the environment. Sometimes they slide off them, they skid to the side, they get trapped inside them.

 

You just can't properly scale a perfectly scaleable rocky outcrop.

[Aram_Darksun]

QQ? Datacron hunting is one of the few actually cool things in SWTOR.

 

If that is one of the few things you find cool in the game, then you have probably done more QQ'ing than anyone else here.

 

If you actually had a clue what you were responding too instead of being too busy dropping the fashionable QQ hat, you would know it is the jumping system, not the datacron hunting that is being objected to.

[Lyravir]

Going to have to agree about the jumping problem. That slight delay can really mess with things on my system. I hope they fix it soon.

 

That said, if the problem didn't exist, I wouldn't have gotten to stand at the bottom of a broken tower on Taris the other day and watch a couple of guildies plummet to their deaths over and over and over trying to get the wp datacron. >.> So don't fix it -too- fast.