Mods please rename this thread to bhlegit's
This is Elder Scrolls, not Dragon Ball Z. Sometimes I wish website age gates actually worked...
This might be derailing the issue, but has anyone ever compiled a list of skills that can or cannot be animation cancelled, by class or skill line?
I think you will find that some classes may benefit more from AC than others.
Of all the things in this patch not to like this is right at the top of the list.
It's amazing there is only six pages on this topic.
A day after this hits this hits live servers you will have a 30 % plus loss on logins the following day.
You might be able to have a pretty good debate about long term game health versus short term health but this will go over like a lead brick on live.
Whole podcast today and if this was mentioned once it was just briefly and I can't recall it.
This is a massive change and touches a very core reason most people play ESO.
Roll this back #savejackdanielseso
It makes absolutely no sense. the block should happen when we press block.
ZOS_EdLynch wrote: »when interrupting an instant ability with block, the actual act of blocking should happen as soon as you activate it
There you go here's the money answer:
"...when interrupting an instant ability with block, the actual act of blocking should happen as soon as you activate it, the only difference is that the blocking *animation* (not the block itself) will be queued for that fraction of a second until the ability reaches its impact/launch frame."
It makes absolutely no sense. the block should happen when we press block. It may sound nice but in practice it doesn't work, it ends up feeling like a micro second of delay (which in turn feels like palying in 300 ping). If you want to block an enemies attack then yeah it will work because that small delay will be over before the attack reaches you allowing you to block it. But when block casting or weaving you are not actually blocking you are pressing block for a fraction of a second, so in practice what happens is character does not block unless you hold block or press it twice (thereby eliminating block cancelling from the game) - this goes against your own outlined guidelines, not to change the feel of the combat. Which, after all is the main reason most continue to play this game. if you want primitive combat that consists of just pressing abilities - go back to wow.
It is clear that we are not going to win, this is a lobby we cannot beat. It seems the developers of this game are intent on making changes only to appease those who cry nerf on the forum - Meteor, monster helms, alliance rank, ac, streak, dodgeroll, emp buff, seige dmg, nb, shields, the list could go on ALL OF THESE THINGS HAVE A COUNTER - the issue is clear - L2P. But none of that matters now the game is done.
ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »In the Thieves Guild update, we wanted to make it more clear which attacks players are using, while preserving the responsiveness and feel of the combat system. So, we started with a simple premise: if an ability is successful, you should be able to see it impact (or launch, in the case of projectiles). Now, every successful attack will display until the moment of impact/launch. Instead of canceling the impact/launch of the first ability, we now obscure the first few milliseconds of the interrupting ability.
The above examples show a Heavy Attack interrupted with an instant ability. The green part is what you see, and the red part is what is not shown. In the first example, you can see the way it is currently on the Live megaservers and has been since launch. The Heavy Attack can be interrupted at almost any time during the wind-up. At the time it is interrupted, the strike happens, but it is invisible because it is obscured by the beginning of the interrupting ability. The second example shows our current method of handling interruptions. Instead of obscuring the strike/launch, we show it up until that point of impact/firing, opting to instead obscure the (less important) first few frames of the interrupting ability.
We believe this visual adjustment meets the criteria we set when we were designing this improvement:
- A successfully-fired ability should not be visually obscured; if an attack lands or an ability is launched, we should show it happening
- DPS and other playstyles should not be adversely affected
- The game’s “feel” should not change
One side effect of this change is that there are shorter (or in some cases, no) blend times to smooth the transitions depending on exactly when you choose to fire an interrupting ability. When you’re dealing in milliseconds and giving players that kind of freedom , you sometimes have to forego perfectly smooth transitions in order to make sure the player is receiving proper feedback and telegraphing to other players exactly what they are choosing to do. Having said that, if you find particularly egregious combinations (ability X interrupted with ability Y), please let us know; there may be some things we can do to help smooth them out.
As always, we welcome your feedback. In fact, it will be instrumental in informing us how to proceed with this improvement. Our internal testing has proven to be very successful, but there are so many different playstyles, builds and rotations, we want to make sure we try to implement this in a way that feels good in all cases and doesn’t need to be taught through a tutorial; exactly what you see is what is happening.
I must agree with the previous posters, especially @Tillalarrien
These changes make the game feel delayed and sluggish.
In addition, they are indeed showing the full animation of an instant ability (which a player cannot react to) at the expense of the 2nd, wind - up ability, which the player currently can react to in live and cannot react to in pts.
In suary, these changes make combat less responsive and less reactive. They have a very negative impact on visual cues.
These changes make it more difficult to react in pvp.
If you want to allow animation cancelling then I suggest the following:
1, time all damage to coincide with the animation of the strike. This I an internal cool down on everything.
2. Allow any skill to be cancelled before the strike with roll/block/bash/swap weapons etc.
Now. If a player rolls/switches weapon/blocks/interrupts etc before the strike happens then the damage should not land.
This will create the reactive fluid combat that we and you want but prevent players from concealing damage.
Please so not go live with the current iteration of animation prioritisation. It has a very negative impact on game play.
Not quite sure what your suggestion is, but from the interpretations I have it's bad either way:
If only damage skills don't go off when cancelled we'll have a very arbitrary line and cut into build diversity, not to speak of the way projectiles are handled under this concept. However, if the same rules apply to all skills, for example Purge didn't purge anything if I cancelled it with a Dodge Roll, it would be the de facto abolishment of animation cancelling.
Im responding on my phone hence I didn't detail my idea for every skill.
The premise of my suggestion is to match animations with actual triggers of skills to improve responsiveness hence I gave the example of sword swinging.
Consider rapid manoeuvre. You only get the buff after your hands go up. If you cancel in first half second then no buff. This same principle could apply to every skill.
Remember, they could change animations of any skill to be faster or slower. It is the ting of the visual cue to the skill output that is what matters.
ZOS_EdLynch wrote: »There has been some great feedback in here. One of the abilities specifically called out was Dawnbreaker and we've made some changes to greatly improve its responsiveness. We hope to have those changes on one of the next incremental PTS patches.
I'd also like to clarify again that weaving should work the same as it always has. If you interrupt a heavy attack with an instant ability, you will still cast that ability instantly - but because that semi-charged heavy attack still happens, we briefly show a part of that attack (on average, about 250-350ms) then switch to showing that second ability already in progress. Similarly, when interrupting an instant ability with block, the actual act of blocking should happen as soon as you activate it, the only difference is that the blocking *animation* (not the block itself) will be queued for that fraction of a second until the ability reaches its impact/launch frame. That frame on the Dawnbreaker ability was determined to happen far too late, which negatively impacted the perceived response time.
If you find it to be the case that abilities are truly delayed from starting because of an animation in progress in a way that doesn't currently happen on the live megaservers, please give us detailed information about that specific rotation so that we can replicate it here and make any corrections necessary. I should also note that this visual change is systemic and should not affect any class or weapon type more or less than any other. Please report specific discrepancies so that we can investigate.
In short, you should still be able to weave as you always have, only you will not be able to completely obscure one ability in favor of another when both are successful. If you find the actual mechanics of your rotations have changed, please let us know exactly which rotation (skill, morphs, weapon-type) is behaving differently for you.
Option #1: Just get rid of animation cancelling. Simplify life. Perhaps allow people to cancel into a defensive skill, (i.e. I stop my attack/skill to block or roll instead and so no effect of the original happens.) but otherwise, make people play the game. If they choose an ability that has a 2 second wind up, make them spend two seconds in combat living with that choice.
@Ffolks @RobbaYaga
This is the way it should be. It's how people expect the game to function. It would make the game so much easier for them to balance in PvE and PvP as well.
when interrupting an instant ability with block, the actual act of blocking should happen as soon as you activate it, the only difference is that the blocking *animation* (not the block itself) will be queued for that fraction of a second until the ability reaches its impact/launch frame.
ZOS_EdLynch wrote: »...but because that semi-charged heavy attack still happens, we briefly show a part of that attack (on average, about 250-350ms) then switch to showing that second ability already in progress. Similarly, when interrupting an instant ability with block, the actual act of blocking should happen as soon as you activate it, the only difference is that the blocking *animation* (not the block itself) will be queued for that fraction of a second until the ability reaches its impact/launch frame...
MrTarkanian48 wrote: »@ZOS_EdLynch
The game is great, but has many issues that need to be addressed. Animation Cancelling/Animation priority should be placed at the very bottom of the list. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
ROLLBACK THE POINTLESS CHANGE.
CtrlAltDlt wrote: »
100% agreed. They succumbed to the whiners like 90% of the time.
@ZOS_EdLynch
On the PTS you can charge up Wrecking Blow (and many other abilities) while gap closing, resulting in instantly hitting the target with two abilities and a CC while they're snared 60%!
You can also charge up a heavy attack inside the animation of Wrecking Blow, also resulting in instantly hitting the target with two abilities and a CC.
These kinds of tactics are rampant in PvP. Is this intended?
ZOS_EdLynch wrote: »We've been testing this internally and cannot replicate the issue with Uppercut, Wrecking Blow, Critical Charge, Focused Charge, or Streak. Can you tell us exactly how you are accomplishing that?