Slow ability response

[LonestarHero]

Perhaps we have found the secret when making a WoW-killer.

[Deleted]

Wow has the best animation compare to game engines, they'd succeed really fast and never had this ability response in wow. Now, they also had 7 years making it the best

[Smitzelplix]

Basically what Pancaspe said. It isn't latency or FPS issues or anything like that, it's character responsiveness. Anyone who has played WoW (for example) for a while will definitely notice a big difference.

I've played WoW for about 2 years and I'm not noticing anything major between WoW's character responsiveness and SWTOR's character responsiveness, they feel very on par for me. When I push buttons when the GCD is not up that ability happens right away, and even with SWTOR's GCD I'm finding myself being able to fire off abilities rather rapidly.

[krono957]

i lag when i enter my ship sometimes but thats it, super smoothe in pvp, not to sound like a broken record, but have you guys gotten the latest drivers?

[Deleted]

It has nothing to do with drivers, i've looked up on the problem and alot others do have the same problem and a programmer said it was their engine which course some computers to make an ability delay, it can only be fixed by bioware, and i was just wondering if anyone knew when they would fix the problem

[vizzle]

It's not character responsiveness (nor GCD for the 1 person who said it). I'm playing a trooper, and when i start playing fast, it just slows down. It's a problem with the game's queue, and yes it can be fixed. And yeah, it's only noticeable in BGs. It's not unplayable, but it can get annoying.

[Hesp]

It's not lag or latency as some people are suggesting, it's a universal input delay in the game itself. It has nothing to do with in-game settings, it's just that the game doesn't have quite perfect response times. This is very noticeable when switching from wow, which has arguably the best interface response time in the industry, to swtor. Hopefully this is something that can be hammered out quickly, as it's very frustrating when there's a .2 or so second delay on all your actions; it will be very hard to make a competitive mmo (pve or pvp) when there's an small amount of inherent lag always present.

[Smitzelplix]

It's not character responsiveness (nor GCD for the 1 person who said it). I'm playing a trooper, and when i start playing fast, it just slows down. It's a problem with the game's queue, and yes it can be fixed. And yeah, it's only noticeable in BGs. It's not unplayable, but it can get annoying.

Even in pvp I'm not noticing any slow down. But I do remember on gamebreaker tv or something one of the hosts mentioned that they really liked to mash buttons, but they felt they couldn't do that in SWTOR. Is that perhaps what you're talking about?

[CrunkJuice5]

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=78525

kinda wonderin about not makin a operative now.does the delay really hurt em in pvp? unless its a thing where some people have got it and some people havent,cuz i dont know.havent gotten to the store yet to actually get star wars tor ive just been lookin up info onclasses and stuff

[Pancaspe]

If it seems super smooth to you, you are blessed. Not knowing there is a problem that cannot be fixed is a real blessing.

[vizzle]

If it seems super smooth to you, you are blessed. Not knowing there is a problem that cannot be fixed is a real blessing.

Do you even play the game? Judging by your posts, I don't think you do. So, giving your opinion about something you can only really experience first-hand in the game is really silly.

[Deleted]

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=78525

kinda wonderin about not makin a operative now.does the delay really hurt em in pvp? unless its a thing where some people have got it and some people havent,cuz i dont know.havent gotten to the store yet to actually get star wars tor ive just been lookin up info onclasses and stuff

A sniper isnt better. LOS + the abillity delay is kinda stupid. In Wow you will get instant feedback when someone LOS your cast, in TOR you just keep casting abillitys which flukes in the end. And often the casts just cancel even though your target sits in a cc 3 feet away from you - its another issue, but it feels like its related with the somehow broken connection between you and your target.
The game is a awesome as long as singleplayer goes, but pvp gameplay is 50% fun and 50% broken atm imo.
Theres a thread on general about this issue which have generated like 150 pages in a day or so.

[Pancaspe]

Do you even play the game? Judging by your posts, I don't think you do. So, giving your opinion about something you can only really experience first-hand in the game is really silly.

Am I wrong?

[Veyne]

I noticed this issue when playing the two beta events before launch.

As many have said yet as many more cannot seem to comprehend, it's not a performance problem or a lag problem. When you use an ability, on a technical level, it works just fine. It's just how the system handles animations. The animations don't FEEL like they're instantly responsively like they do in World of Warcraft. In a sense, World of Warcraft's animations are less realistic, but for some reason, your character INSTANTLY doing what you're telling it to do, right when you tell it to do it, VISUALLY, makes a game feel a lot more "responsive." But in the end, it all comes down to the animations. In World of Warcraft, the game works on a technical level and animations happen along side it as "fluff." But it's purely based on what the game is technically doing.

The best example I can personally think of to illustrate how World of Warcraft handles it is this:

As an Elemental Shaman, chain cast Lightning Bolts and Lava Bursts. As both spells are your typical run-of-the-mill cast-time/travel-time nukes, your character does two animations. The actual casting animation followed by the animation for sending that spell towards your target. Many instant cast spells simply trigger that later part of the animation. For Elemental Shaman, they have a chance to instantly trigger a duplicate of the last spell they cast, which animates as an Instant cast.

Even though the Elemental Shaman is casting nothing but spells with a 1.5-2.0 second cast time, sometimes your character will do nothing but chain the instant animation depending on how many Elemental Overload procs you get while casting. So even though you're still casting a spell, your character's doing nothing but instant cast animations for a little while because that instant cast animation is being told to play when your Elemental Overload procs. Since your spells have a travel time before they hit their enemy, there is a period of time between when you finish casting the spell and when the damage occurs. So if your first Lightning Bolt hits the enemy WHILE you're casting your SECOND Lightning Bolt, and that damage triggers Elemental Overload and you send out an instant Lightning Bolt, your character will do the instant animation in the middle of you casting your second Lightning Bolt, followed by another instant animation for when you're done casting that second lightning bolt.

For World of Warcraft, it simply feels like split-second responsiveness, and its easier on the mind when your character instantly reacts visually to what you're doing.

In most other MMO's it seems like animations are rigidly attached to the mechanical side of gameplay so that you actually have to wait for your animation to complete before using another action.

[Deleted]

Am I wrong?

No you are not wrong really, this is a problem that was in the game even in the closed beta and is a part of the game engine, it 'is' slow and delayed, there has been huge complaints about it for as long as I can remember but they have done nothing to resolve it. But then again the focus of the game is in the quests so just enjoy the dialogue and try to not think about the combat.

[vizzle]

Am I wrong?

You don't even know what it is. Tell me, describe it to me. You act like it's some gamebreaking bug, because you have no idea what it is.

No you are not wrong really, this is a problem that was in the game even in the closed beta and is a part of the game engine, it 'is' slow and delayed, there has been huge complaints about it for as long as I can remember but they have done nothing to resolve it. But then again the focus of the game is in the quests so just enjoy the dialogue and try to not think about the combat.

No, it's not the game's combat. If it was the game's combat, then players would feel it all the time. The fact that some people only feel it in BGs, and not in the world or in flashpoints, means that it's obviously not the "ANIMATIONZ R TOO SLOW" that people love to spout. It's a problem that happens in Warzones.

[Mavecryst]

No you are not wrong really, this is a problem that was in the game even in the closed beta and is a part of the game engine, it 'is' slow and delayed, there has been huge complaints about it for as long as I can remember but they have done nothing to resolve it. But then again the focus of the game is in the quests so just enjoy the dialogue and try to not think about the combat.

Story may be the focus of the game, but combat is an integral part to enhancing that story. It all adds to immersiveness, and that "odd" feel to combat detracts from that. Maybe some of you personally feel that combat is fine, but there are far too many threads and people who have agreed that this is an issue. I personally like combat, as with most of the features of the game. Does that mean it can't be improved on? Of course it can. I think the combat in this game has some solid potential, and am slightly disappointed it has not reached near to that potential at launch. Wasn't expecting a perfect product, but such an integral part of a game should have been among their top priorities.

Hopefully this will be refined in the coming months. Like I said, I like it for the moment, so I can live with it, but it will be hard advertising this game to any of my friends when controls have that slightly "off" feeling.

[cFortyfive]

You don't even know what it is. Tell me, describe it to me. You act like it's some gamebreaking bug, because you have no idea what it is.
No, it's not the game's combat. If it was the game's combat, then players would feel it all the time. The fact that some people only feel it in BGs, and not in the world or in flashpoints, means that it's obviously not the "ANIMATIONZ R TOO SLOW" that people love to spout. It's a problem that happens in Warzones.

From a whole "feeling" point the pacing reminds me a lot more of the Age of Conan start or even the old kotor titles - I don't really see that it is comparable to wow in all honesty. Playing the first time I was even asking if they actually bought the aoc engine.

[Deleted]

I noticed this issue when playing the two beta events before launch.

As many have said yet as many more cannot seem to comprehend, it's not a performance problem or a lag problem. When you use an ability, on a technical level, it works just fine. It's just how the system handles animations. The animations don't FEEL like they're instantly responsively like they do in World of Warcraft.

It definitely is not just an animation issue.

I'll give an example. My guardian has a skill called Master Strike, 15 sec cooldown. It is a channeled ability lasting three seconds during which my character does a long lightsaber attack animation. The ability hits the enemy three times during the channel. During the animation, there is a channel bar displayed on screen ticking down(just like with any other channeled ability)

Now, what often happens is that i press the button, my character does the combat animation(no delay - starts as soon as i press the button), the channel bar displays and starts ticking down like it should. However, the enemy takes no damage, and the ability cooldown does not get triggered. I press the button again, and my character starts the animation again, with no effect on the enemy. I press the button 3rd time, and now i see the ability went on cooldown, and the enemy finally started taking damage.

Basically, i have to constantly watch the quickbar to see whether the ability went on cooldown or not and hammer it until it does. There is no other clue that it doesn't work, as the animation and channel bar are always present. And master strike is not the only ability suffering from this. Sunder suffers from it too, altho its an instant not a channel. I press sunder, the character does the correct swing animation, but no damage is done and sunder cooldown does not start.

Once again, animations all play just fine, instantly as they should. Its just that the ability itself does nothing. It is almost as if the server did not receive my button press at all.

[Delekii]

The really funny thing about this, is that it feels identical to WoW for me. I don't know if it's because I'm from Australia and used to playing with significant lag or what, but I don't find abilities unresponsive. In WoW, I have come to learn that I need to play ahead of the animations in the game or I will lose active time, and the same is true in SWTOR. I realise that the problem is stemming from a different thing, but the reality for me is the same, and it feels the same as far as fluidity goes.