Skill Acceleration and Skill Confirmations

Ch4mpTW

These 2 mechanics have been in the game for a while, but now are at their peak with the Homestead update. Now wait a minute. Let's back track a minute. What exactly is "Attack Acceleration" and "Insta-Connections"?

Attack Acceleration and Insta-Connections are similar to animation cancelling, in that a skill is cancelled in order to provide higher DPS. Usually resulting in what appears to be an instantly connecting and chained attack. However, it is different in that these skills are all accelerated. Hence the name. Same with connections.

For example, have you ever wondered how it was you got killed from an NPC's "Claw" attack (cough VMA 3rd boss cough), when you clear as day dodge rolled it. Even though you aren't even lagging really? Or got killed from an enemy NPC's "Quick Shot"? Even though you had dodge rolled twice prior, or cast a shield previously with what appeared to be seconds before the arrow visibly left the archer's bow? That's Skill Acceleration. Not exactly lag.

You see, ZOS implemented something (I have no idea what specifically) that makes enemy NPC's have accelerated skills. Or rather reduced the skill's cast times dramatically. Therefore in a sense applying a "false-difficulty" to certain content. Things just seem to happen instantly, even though the animations are way off. Or in most cases not even happening. Yet still connecting. I once made 2 videos about this in the past not knowing what it was, or rather how to label it. I'll link said videos at the bottom for examples, but now figured out words of how to describe it.

And the wild thing is, it's not just Maelstrom this is happening in. But everywhere now...

This new mechanic of sorts was added to a few of your skills for example. If you noticed with the Homestead update, Templar's Breath of Life is damn near instant now. It's cast time is damn near non-existent. That same increase in cast speed was applied to NPC's, and had been. But, wasn't really mentioned in patch notes. Causing us to think it was lag, but no. It's not really lag that's doing it. Nor the cause of it. It's simply Skill Acceleration. Or Attack Acceleration.

Examples of accelerated skills are:
- Quick Shot
- Infectious Bite
- Uppercut
- Breath of Life / Honor the Dead
- Negate (from VMoL S&B twin)
- Shatter
- Dragon Leap (although at times non-occurring)
- And many more that I can't remember off the top of my head.

Now let's actually go further into 1 of the examples I listed. The negate from the VMoL's Vashrai (I think I said his name wrong lol). In some cases, his negate will literally be instant. Without him making the animation of doing it. It'll just happen as he's attacking the tank, without any hint of it at all. Nor animation. Just instant negate. Or worse... Invisible negate. Something the Sun-Eaters are quite famous for. But that's in and of a discussion of its own.

I don't know why Skill Acceleration was introduced, outside of wanting to make combat seem more 'fluid'. Or perhaps making content appear more 'difficult'. But, 1 thing for sure is that it isn't exactly too healthy for the game (in my opinion). As is animation cancelling (while great for increasing DPS) is a huge controversial topic. And with this being a thing, I'm sure there will be more and more complaints about them.

Video Examples as Promised
https://youtu.be/jmbb-EoWGHQ
https://youtu.be/VYekBW0ER3E
https://youtu.be/b4ygwjWfAyw

runagate

Wow, completely aside from the whole rest of your post - that last video... what in holy hell?

Ch4mpTW

runagate wrote: »

Wow, completely aside from the whole rest of your post - that last video... what in holy hell?

@runagate Pretty wild, yes? Lol. That's how far back some of these things go. Probably further back than that, but that was the first time I had it documented.

dday3six

There isn't a way to speed up skills, the game just has many spikes in lag causing enough frames to drop that so skills will appear to fire faster. However it's not something that the player manually does.

Then there is what you see on your screen, and what the server 'sees' and processes which are not always the same thing. That's what lag is, and what happened in each of the videos. It's not actions happening faster or slower. It's frame loss. Imagine a booklet that is flipped through to show motion. Remove pages from that book at the motion is altered. It's not that the speed of action is changed. It's that there are less pages/frames from A (action begin) to B (action end).

Breath of Life has had a hitch in the animation for a while, and ZOS shortened the frames of the animation to make it smoother. 30 FPS means frames per second and BoL probably had 2-3 frames at the most shaved off it, and the only reason it's noticeable is because the hitch was very apparent.

Ch4mpTW

dday3six wrote: »

There isn't a way to speed up skills, the game just has many spikes in lag causing enough frames to drop that so skills will appear to fire faster. However it's not something that the player manually does.

Then there is what you see on your screen, and what the server 'sees' and processes which are not always the same thing. That's what lag is, and what happened in each of the videos. It's not actions happening faster or slower. It's frame loss. Imagine a booklet that is flipped through to show motion. Remove pages from that book at the motion is altered. It's not that the speed of action is changed. It's that there are less pages/frames from A (action begin) to B (action end).

Breath of Life has had a hitch in the animation for a while, and ZOS shortened the frames of the animation to make it smoother. 30 FPS means frames per second and BoL probably had 2-3 frames at the most shaved off it, and the only reason it's noticeable is because the hitch was very apparent.

So how is it that attacks are connecting, before in most cases they are even fired? Let alone shown animations of? Or even in regards to lag though. Like for example, the NPC archers I mentioned. The skill Quick Shot seems fire off and connect like lightning. In some cases even before there's a chance to act. As you said, there's normally frames that go between actions. And in some cases, the frames are sped-up. Or missing entirely.

dday3six

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

dday3six wrote: »

There isn't a way to speed up skills, the game just has many spikes in lag causing enough frames to drop that so skills will appear to fire faster. However it's not something that the player manually does.

Then there is what you see on your screen, and what the server 'sees' and processes which are not always the same thing. That's what lag is, and what happened in each of the videos. It's not actions happening faster or slower. It's frame loss. Imagine a booklet that is flipped through to show motion. Remove pages from that book at the motion is altered. It's not that the speed of action is changed. It's that there are less pages/frames from A (action begin) to B (action end).

Breath of Life has had a hitch in the animation for a while, and ZOS shortened the frames of the animation to make it smoother. 30 FPS means frames per second and BoL probably had 2-3 frames at the most shaved off it, and the only reason it's noticeable is because the hitch was very apparent.

So how is it that attacks are connecting, before in most cases they are even fired? Let alone shown animations of? Or even in regards to lag though. Like for example, the NPC archers I mentioned. The skill Quick Shot seems fire off and connect like lightning. In some cases even before there's a chance to act. As you said, there's normally frames that go between actions. And in some cases, the frames are sped-up. Or missing entirely.

The frame/s when an action begins not be visible on your screen doesn't mean the server didn't process it happening. Which is part of what makes lag so frustrating. There is a 'reality' which can be different from what is present on your screen. The server is ultimately the dictator of what happens and not what a player sees.

You can actually hear mob's Rapid Strikes hitting in the second clip. As well as see a hitch when the AOEs where being placed which is when the frames dropped.

Ch4mpTW

dday3six wrote: »

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

dday3six wrote: »

There isn't a way to speed up skills, the game just has many spikes in lag causing enough frames to drop that so skills will appear to fire faster. However it's not something that the player manually does.

Then there is what you see on your screen, and what the server 'sees' and processes which are not always the same thing. That's what lag is, and what happened in each of the videos. It's not actions happening faster or slower. It's frame loss. Imagine a booklet that is flipped through to show motion. Remove pages from that book at the motion is altered. It's not that the speed of action is changed. It's that there are less pages/frames from A (action begin) to B (action end).

Breath of Life has had a hitch in the animation for a while, and ZOS shortened the frames of the animation to make it smoother. 30 FPS means frames per second and BoL probably had 2-3 frames at the most shaved off it, and the only reason it's noticeable is because the hitch was very apparent.

So how is it that attacks are connecting, before in most cases they are even fired? Let alone shown animations of? Or even in regards to lag though. Like for example, the NPC archers I mentioned. The skill Quick Shot seems fire off and connect like lightning. In some cases even before there's a chance to act. As you said, there's normally frames that go between actions. And in some cases, the frames are sped-up. Or missing entirely.

The frame/s when an action begins not be visible on your screen doesn't mean the server didn't process it happening. Which is part of what makes lag so frustrating. There is a 'reality' which can be different from what is present on your screen. The server is ultimately the dictator of what happens and not what a player sees.

You can actually hear mob's Rapid Strikes hitting in the second clip. As well as see a hitch when the AOEs where being placed which is when the frames dropped.

So then naturally my question is, how exactly do you defend yourself and or play around these types of occurrences? How do you play with and or against that which you cannot see? How do you block or dodge roll a skill that is instant, or in some cases not visibly there.

I'll give you an example. I was dueling a guild member yesterday, and their Dragon Leaps were instant. I mean they had no animation whatsoever. And yet, I would receive damage from it and be knocked back from it. What do I do in those types of situations? How do I handle a Stone Giant cast at me, that connects almost instantly now. How do you defend? One minute they're weaving whips and medium attacks, and the next I get knocked to the ground and stunned briefly. With what was no warning of it at all. I mean I couldn't even see the projectile cast at me in time for a reaction. It was instant.

Oakmontowls_ESO

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

dday3six wrote: »

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

dday3six wrote: »

There isn't a way to speed up skills, the game just has many spikes in lag causing enough frames to drop that so skills will appear to fire faster. However it's not something that the player manually does.

Then there is what you see on your screen, and what the server 'sees' and processes which are not always the same thing. That's what lag is, and what happened in each of the videos. It's not actions happening faster or slower. It's frame loss. Imagine a booklet that is flipped through to show motion. Remove pages from that book at the motion is altered. It's not that the speed of action is changed. It's that there are less pages/frames from A (action begin) to B (action end).

Breath of Life has had a hitch in the animation for a while, and ZOS shortened the frames of the animation to make it smoother. 30 FPS means frames per second and BoL probably had 2-3 frames at the most shaved off it, and the only reason it's noticeable is because the hitch was very apparent.

So how is it that attacks are connecting, before in most cases they are even fired? Let alone shown animations of? Or even in regards to lag though. Like for example, the NPC archers I mentioned. The skill Quick Shot seems fire off and connect like lightning. In some cases even before there's a chance to act. As you said, there's normally frames that go between actions. And in some cases, the frames are sped-up. Or missing entirely.

The frame/s when an action begins not be visible on your screen doesn't mean the server didn't process it happening. Which is part of what makes lag so frustrating. There is a 'reality' which can be different from what is present on your screen. The server is ultimately the dictator of what happens and not what a player sees.

You can actually hear mob's Rapid Strikes hitting in the second clip. As well as see a hitch when the AOEs where being placed which is when the frames dropped.

So then naturally my question is, how exactly do you defend yourself and or play around these types of occurrences? How do you play with and or against that which you cannot see? How do you block or dodge roll a skill that is instant, or in some cases not visibly there.

I'll give you an example. I was dueling a guild member yesterday, and their Dragon Leaps were instant. I mean they had no animation whatsoever. And yet, I would receive damage from it and be knocked back from it. What do I do in those types of situations? How do I handle a Stone Giant cast at me, that connects almost instantly now. How do you defend? One minute they're weaving whips and medium attacks, and the next I get knocked to the ground and stunned briefly. With what was no warning of it at all. I mean I couldn't even see the projectile cast at me in time for a reaction. It was instant.

You don't. If it truly is lag the only way you could fix it is to get better Internet and or move closer to where ZoS has their servers.

dday3six

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

dday3six wrote: »

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

dday3six wrote: »

There isn't a way to speed up skills, the game just has many spikes in lag causing enough frames to drop that so skills will appear to fire faster. However it's not something that the player manually does.

Then there is what you see on your screen, and what the server 'sees' and processes which are not always the same thing. That's what lag is, and what happened in each of the videos. It's not actions happening faster or slower. It's frame loss. Imagine a booklet that is flipped through to show motion. Remove pages from that book at the motion is altered. It's not that the speed of action is changed. It's that there are less pages/frames from A (action begin) to B (action end).

Breath of Life has had a hitch in the animation for a while, and ZOS shortened the frames of the animation to make it smoother. 30 FPS means frames per second and BoL probably had 2-3 frames at the most shaved off it, and the only reason it's noticeable is because the hitch was very apparent.

So how is it that attacks are connecting, before in most cases they are even fired? Let alone shown animations of? Or even in regards to lag though. Like for example, the NPC archers I mentioned. The skill Quick Shot seems fire off and connect like lightning. In some cases even before there's a chance to act. As you said, there's normally frames that go between actions. And in some cases, the frames are sped-up. Or missing entirely.

The frame/s when an action begins not be visible on your screen doesn't mean the server didn't process it happening. Which is part of what makes lag so frustrating. There is a 'reality' which can be different from what is present on your screen. The server is ultimately the dictator of what happens and not what a player sees.

You can actually hear mob's Rapid Strikes hitting in the second clip. As well as see a hitch when the AOEs where being placed which is when the frames dropped.

So then naturally my question is, how exactly do you defend yourself and or play around these types of occurrences? How do you play with and or against that which you cannot see? How do you block or dodge roll a skill that is instant, or in some cases not visibly there.

I'll give you an example. I was dueling a guild member yesterday, and their Dragon Leaps were instant. I mean they had no animation whatsoever. And yet, I would receive damage from it and be knocked back from it. What do I do in those types of situations? How do I handle a Stone Giant cast at me, that connects almost instantly now. How do you defend? One minute they're weaving whips and medium attacks, and the next I get knocked to the ground and stunned briefly. With what was no warning of it at all. I mean I couldn't even see the projectile cast at me in time for a reaction. It was instant.

Well that's just it. You can't. That's why players complain about lag so much. It's rather game breaking. Some times there are ques such as sound effects or motion stops (like the pause in movement when an opposing player is using Crit Rush and traveling to you), however when the frames are missing on your screen, it's an SOL situation.

When Dragon Leap is done point blank, the opposing player doesn't always see the wings, lift off, or even impact of landing. So it can be lag or just that it's animation is janky in cqc. The best way to play against that particular situation, in either case, is to get a feel for how long it takes to fill their ultimate. Then maneuver around them to so they have to adjust their position to target you.