Ability delay fixed in todays patch?

[Redblade]

I hope this isnt it. Maybe it was server lag or something, but it felt worse today. And on my Jedi Knight too, not even the commando. (Eff full auto, mortar volley, etc)

No it's far from it.

That said, we're not done improving combat responsiveness!

• As mentioned in my blog a few days ago, there are some additional fixes currently on our public test server as part of patch 1.1.1, which will roll out as soon as we're satisfied with that patch.
• We've heard your mixed feedback regarding the new cooldown animation that was part of patch 1.1, and we have improvements to the readability of that UI coming down the pipe.
• We're looking into improving the accuracy of cast bars. Their behavior should already be significantly improved with today's patch, but we believe there is still room to improve.
• We're also working on improvements to the responsiveness of individual ability animations, including faction specific timing differences and issues where shortening an ability activation time does not properly shorten it's animation.

Again, thank you for your constructive feedback on this issue, it has been vital to us in identifying and resolving this situation.

Source.

[Ghosty]

I'm still getting the ability delay today. Most noticeable on my trooper's mortar volley. It's a channeled 3 seconds spell that launches 3 mortars.

What happens for me is, I hit Mortar Volley, and select the target. The channeling bar comes up and starts counting down. My character does NOTHING for over half the time the channeling bar is up. Then he finally "wakes up" and starts firing off mortars. He's able to get 2 off before the channeling bar disappears. AFTER the channeling bar is gone, he still has to go through the animation of firing off 1 more mortar volley. During this time I can't do any other ability until that animation ends.

So basically, a 3 seconds channeled spell takes 3.5-4 seconds, because the jerkwad just sits there channeling for a while before he actually does anything.

The Mortar Volley delay is not due to the ability delay issue that they fixed with today's patch. The Mortar Volley issue, and other other like it, mostly affecting Republic abilities but there are a few that negatively affect Imperial abilities is due to animations, and projectile flight times.

Other abilities include:

Telekinetic Throw - delay in striking target, while force lighting hits immediately
Project - delay on hitting target whereas the Sorcerer counterpart ability hits instantly.
Stockstrike - delay hitting target due to animation. Rocket punch hits instantly
Scoundrel kick roots user in place and can be interrupted with a stun or knock back, whereas the Op counterpart do not suffer from this.

There are a few more that I can't think of atm, but they are not related mechanically to the ability delay issue, since their opposite faction mirror ability does not have the same issues. These are issues with the way the animations interact with the abilities.

[RoninaThorstone]

Anything is possible. But do they have the code? Do they want to do it themselves and risk conflicting with future updates from the developers? Did they actually train a team to understand such a complex system to adequate degree?

bioware has already said in several interviews that they have altered the hero engine to fit swtor in many ways "made it their own". so. yes. they can.

[anewok]

The Mortar Volley delay is not due to the ability delay issue that they fixed with today's patch. The Mortar Volley issue, and other other like it, mostly affecting Republic abilities but there are a few that negatively affect Imperial abilities is due to animations, and projectile flight times.

Other abilities include:

Telekinetic Throw - delay in striking target, while force lighting hits immediately
Project - delay on hitting target whereas the Sorcerer counterpart ability hits instantly.
Stockstrike - delay hitting target due to animation. Rocket punch hits instantly
Scoundrel kick roots user in place and can be interrupted with a stun or knock back, whereas the Op counterpart do not suffer from this.

There are a few more that I can't think of atm, but they are not related mechanically to the ability delay issue, since their opposite faction mirror ability does not have the same issues. These are issues with the way the animations interact with the abilities.

Looks like theyre addressing those, too:

That said, we're not done improving combat responsiveness!

As mentioned in my blog a few days ago, there are some additional fixes currently on our public test server as part of patch 1.1.1, which will roll out as soon as we're satisfied with that patch.
We've heard your mixed feedback regarding the new cooldown animation that was part of patch 1.1, and we have improvements to the readability of that UI coming down the pipe.
We're looking into improving the accuracy of cast bars. Their behavior should already be significantly improved with today's patch, but we believe there is still room to improve.
We're also working on improvements to the responsiveness of individual ability animations, including faction specific timing differences and issues where shortening an ability activation time does not properly shorten it's animation.

That was posted today on the official forums.

[gatorfan]

Beyond simple UI display issues like an ability showing up available while it's on CD, the bulk of the issue has to do with the client/server protocol. Since that's part of the engine, which Bioware didn't develop themselves, how do they go about fixing it? Have they talked about this issue? Do they have some kind of hotline to the engine developers and a contract that requires them to quickly fix issues such as this.

ORLY? You have the source code too to know that it's a client/server protocol and an "engine" problem?

Go back and read the story again about the selection of Hero. BW wrote them a check for an engine that by all accounts was not finished yet. I can guarantee you without even seeing the contract that the terms state access to the source code, rights to change the source code, rights to compile the source code into BW's own products and distribute a binary executable but not rights to publish or redistribute the source code.

You don't invest $5M without these terms let alone the $80M or $200M theorized as the cost to produce this game. At it's most basic it's called source code escrow and then escalates from there in scope and access. Happens all the time too with capital intensive s/w development so the path to execution is well known and traveled.

[lordzed83]

my new 4.1.1 bugs vid i made today

[McFrotton]

My mount is worse then ever I've realized. I hope this isn't the "fix" they mentioned.

Mount isnt worst, its better but definitely not wow responsiveness yet, they will achieve it me think they are closer then any other mmo ''I'' played (Aion, Rift, AoC)

---------- Post added 2012-01-24 at 04:50 PM ----------

my new 4.1.1 bugs vid i made today :d

the spnning blade hit again!!!!

[lordzed83]

ye love that one .
Still pvp plays 2 times better today after patch. Fina.ly i can use skills !!!!

[barkong]

Definetly fixed in warzones, warzones is so much smoother now, its beautiful. Ilum is just a different topic all together,i doubt they'll ever fix that. Big zone, plus tons of effects firing off, this game just isnt made for large scale combat.

[Docsauce]

I've noticed a considerable improvement as a gunslinger, one of the classes really affected by ability delay

[barkong]

I've noticed a considerable improvement as a gunslinger, one of the classes really affected by ability delay

Thank god, i really wanted to roll this class, but i just couldnt, knowing how i always intend to pvp and do warzones and having delay while trying to cover is just brutal, time to roll my sniper.

[Honkeymagoo]

Still shitty for me. Seems like every other time I use a channeled ability immediately after another ability the gcd is triggered but my character does nothing. Sometimes this will happen and the cast bar will show but I do no damage.

[Cakka]

I personally didn't have huge problems with the ability delay before but today after the patch while leveling on my BH I had my abilities simple not work at all more than ever before. I would press the hotkey and even the GCD animation would show but the abilities simply wouldn't fire off. No idea whats up with that but it was still rare enough to not be a huge deal. The annoying thing was that when it happened I had to press the ability for 3-5 GCDs to actually get things working again. Before someone says it, it wasn't network or graphics lag since everything else was going smoothly around me and my ping never jumped from the around 50-100 ms it usually is at.

[Roose]

Maybe one day they will fix the game for everyone over recommended specs. Perhaps in 2013?

Until then I shall keep an eye on things. Sure would be awesome to play this game w/o massive bugs ruining pvp. They certainly have the money to fix things.

With this patch, surely they created even more bugs to fix. I stay watch for the the completion of this game.

Would have been awesome if they fixed all of this before launch instead of rushing out an unfinished project. Will they ever recover the lost subs? Who knows. I know that I ain't resubbing until I hear that warzone frame rates are fixed.

[Bane123]

Just played one warzone today, and i have to say the combat seems to have improved

Now to fix the performance issues

[Grable]

I'd say they fixed it about 20%. I still experience delay/stuttering and cancellation on my Sentinel. Still quite unplayable if you fast chain abilities together.

[ContentsMayVary]

For me, it's EVERY time I cast mortar volley.

It's the same for me. He always does a pre-shooting animation. I thought that it was the spinup time or something... But apparently not?

[Razeo]

Did 2 huttballs, and 1 voidstar after work tonight... after testing it out on my Sith Jugg I definitely must say its quite an improvement prior to the fix. Its starting to feel like my MS warrior back in TBC again And with more fixes to this issue coming soon I'm definitely looking forward to it getting alot smoother.

[Crookers]

There are apparently some more fixes to come. Someone mentioned this was part 1 of a 3 part fix to the problem. We'll just hope that the next fix will work on Mortar Volley and Death From Above!

Never had the problem with DfA, my issue is normally with Unload (mirror full auto iirc) where I start the channel, castbar appears, My char points both guins at the enemy.......nothing happens, cast ends and I use something else, 50% of the time this puts unload on cooldown, the rest of the time I can use it again immediately

[barkong]

Played about 10 games before i went to work, no ability delay, but after getting home from work, i started noticing delays again, so frustrating.