Clunky combat?

[Zodiar]

I was really looking forward to SWTOR, didn't have a chance to play in the beta though.

A lot of people are saying the combat is "clunky".

what do they mean?

one thing that I hate in a game is animation times. (when the GCD ends but you still can't cast because of the animation is still playing, example - LOTRO)

[Dezerte]

A lot of people are a vocal minority.

The combat feels more slow/clunky than WoW, but I think that's because of the better combat animations. I played the beta and I quickly got over the clunkiness feeling and now I love the way the combat feels & looks. Also there was a built-in ability queue and it's set to on by default, this may be why some people think it feels clunky (you can turn it off).

[Deleted]

The recent Beta fixed alot of issues with the 'clunky combat'.

I felt it was alot smoother

[torftw]

Clunky is the magic word the haters use that apparently means everything and yet nothing. Honestly though, the game is very smooth if you play it like any other mmo. The GCD is 1.5 seconds and the animation does not dictate how long until you can use your next ability (like it does in lotro).
The only thing that might make it look a little different is that there is no auto attack. So if you wait more than 1.5 seconds between pushing buttons your character will finish his animation and stand there until you push the next button.

[Zodiar]

Hmm, sweet. Thanks for the input, it was one of the only things that was turning me away from SWTOR.

[philefluxx]

I was really looking forward to SWTOR, didn't have a chance to play in the beta though.

A lot of people are saying the combat is "clunky".

what do they mean?

one thing that I hate in a game is animation times. (when the GCD ends but you still can't cast because of the animation is still playing, example - LOTRO)

What they mean is the combat is "different". There is no auto attack and a GCD, but its not clunky. As you level and get more moves your rotation becomes almost graceful.

[Dasani]

A lot of people I believe got a poor impression of combat during the beta weekend because it was so extremely laggy. When the servers are lagging to the point of bursting, it doesn't feel quite so bad.

However, I think the rotations and such for some classes like sith warrior are kinda bad. They could've been done better.

[Tore]

I've beta tested for 5 months and I never experienced this "clunky combat" that people seem to go on about. The combat feels exactly like WoW. There's no latency, the mechanics are similar enough that you could find comparable abilities between the games. The day I started testing I was amazed how responsive the combat actually was--having tested several MMOs in the past, I've noticed combat responsiveness is something that most developers have trouble on. I still remain impressed over how well TOR felt when played in a 5-month-out beta state.

I suppose the only thing that could make it feel slower or "clunky" would be people who have never experienced GCD-capped combat jumping into TOR and finding that most classes are GCD capped. That and the fact that PvP isn't a burst-fest so a fight plays out slower.

[Gahlo]

Also, the ability queue had an entry in options to shorten it.

[Karteli]

A lot of people I believe got a poor impression of combat during the beta weekend because it was so extremely laggy. When the servers are lagging to the point of bursting, it doesn't feel quite so bad.

However, I think the rotations and such for some classes like sith warrior are kinda bad. They could've been done better.

It's likely personal lag, not server lag, I had a latency of < 30 ms.

It's also hard to say where some complaints originate, but if someone is playing on a low end computer having trouble rendering the animations, I could see someone complain about clunkyness or lag.

[Karnige]

it's very clunky compared to WoW but wow has had 7 years to polish their game. sw will get better

[Emophia]

I wouldn't say it was clunky.

I didn;t feel as good as WoWs combat does, but few MMOs do.

But it's nowhere near clunky, it's perfectly serviceable and better than most MMOs.

[Repefe]

I don't know what proper rotation for smuggler is, but even on early levels the combat was smooth. Especially love when you throw grenade and then dive into cover.

[Karteli]

Also, the ability queue had an entry in options to shorten it.

Yeah I did that and it made the attacks more resposive .. changed the delay down from 1.25 seconds down to 0.50 or 0.25 seconds ( can't remember now), and that smoothed stuff out. If you PVP and would rather perform actions on the fly, that might be better.

[Gothicshark]

For me the combat felt exactly the same as WOW, which is a good thing. Nothing about TOR was clunky unless you choose to build your character fat. Which I found to be funny.

[Repefe]

I wouldn't say it was clunky.

I didn;t feel as good as WoWs combat does, but few MMOs do.

But it's nowhere near clunky, it's perfectly serviceable and better than most MMOs.

For me thx to how enemies react to your attacks it feels better than WoW combat. Again using smuggler as an example you can actually time when to attack from cover so enemies are inbetween attacks when you get out of cover. Grenade knock them back, flash make them cover their eyes, sticky grenade ... stick

[jearle]

Turn the ability queue down to 0.0 and it runs much smoother.

You can't compare the combat to WoWs because there is no auto attack, the lack of an auto attack makes the combat feel not as fluid because you arent auto-attacking during the time you might be waiting on an ability to come back up.

The o resource spam abilities do not fill in the fluidness of an auto attack. Dont compare to WoW cause it won't ever be the same, it is close however.

[Herrenos]

Another thing that I think contributes to a clunky feeling at least for those of us who were in the big beta weekend only is the lack of macros and a focus target (both available in the last 2 mmos I played, wow and rift)

Without being able to macro up your off-GCD abilities, mouseover abilities and focus abilities you spend a lot more time target selecting and trying to squeeze in your reactive and off-GCD abilities.

[nazrakin]

I played all 4 base classes to 10 in the beta, I have no idea why people feel the combat is clunky. The combat was one of the things that immediately got my attention since it looked and felt great.

If there was anything I'd say was clunky, it was the cover mechanic. I found that just ducking was a lot less cumbersome that all the rolling and weird wall stickiness of the normal cover move.

[Deleted]

I think the clunkiness was from them not being able to play, maybe some server lag (most were full to bursting), and the GCD slider, but mostly playing wrong.