The recent change that blocks us from swapping skills and quickslots when stuck in combat

josh.lackey_ESO

I think it's really awful. Just frustrating and a bad experience. Especially trying to slot a different siege.

What do you think?

Mr_Walker

Weren't we always blocked from changing skills/slots in combat? I seem to remember we were.

josh.lackey_ESO

Yes, it's frustating and is a bad user experience

You were able to for at least one or two updates prior to Elsweyr.

And before that, you could change them if you crouched and got properly hidden, even if though were still stuck in combat. But even that is gone now.

zyk

It was a bug and it was being abused. Some players would frequently change their bars in the middle of fights. It's the stuck in combat bug that needs to be addressed.

Kr3do

Yes, it's frustating and is a bad user experience

It used to work for years before, except for a few patches where they broke it by either being able to swap skills while being actively engaged in combat or not being able to switch them at all while you're in combat (like at the moment).
I dont know why with the release of Elsweyr they all of a sudden decided it was not intended, labeled it a bug and got rid of it.

zyk wrote: »

It was a bug and it was being abused. Some players would frequently change their bars in the middle of fights. It's the stuck in combat bug that needs to be addressed.

People don't want to switch skills while being actively engaged in combat, they want to be able to swap skills while they're flagged as "In Combat" which we all know is almost a permanent state in PvP even if you're not fighting anyone.

Palidon

Yes, it's frustating and is a bad user experience

I don't remember when you could swap skills, gear load outs or even mount during combat. The biggest problem with the Combat issue is being stuck in it for a long period of time after a fight has ended. I know from personal experience having been stuck in combat after a fight was over from anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes. Now that is totally unsatisfactory. How many complaints do they need to get in the forums before they act.

zyk

Kr3do wrote: »

People don't want to switch skills while being actively engaged in combat, they want to be able to swap skills while they're flagged as "In Combat" which we all know is almost a permanent state in PvP even if you're not fighting anyone.

Regardless of what people want, it is a fact this bug was being actively abused by many competitive players who would use it to change bars mid-fight using addons.

You described the actual problem: the game doesn't recognize when players are no longer in combat. That is the core issue that needs to be addressed.

Kartalin

other

The real issue is the bug that’s keeping us in combat long after you or anyone near you has attacked an enemy., absolutely

Kr3do

Yes, it's frustating and is a bad user experience

zyk wrote: »

Kr3do wrote: »

People don't want to switch skills while being actively engaged in combat, they want to be able to swap skills while they're flagged as "In Combat" which we all know is almost a permanent state in PvP even if you're not fighting anyone.

Regardless of what people want, it is a fact this bug was being actively abused by many competitive players who would use it to change bars mid-fight using addons.

You described the actual problem: the game doesn't recognize when players are no longer in combat. That is the core issue that needs to be addressed.

Yeah and they tried to address that exact issue for years without any notable results so i rather have a band aid fix than being completely locked out of changing quickslots and skills because some mob or player light attacked me 10 minutes ago.

Rianai

Yes, it's frustating and is a bad user experience

zyk wrote: »

Kr3do wrote: »

People don't want to switch skills while being actively engaged in combat, they want to be able to swap skills while they're flagged as "In Combat" which we all know is almost a permanent state in PvP even if you're not fighting anyone.

Regardless of what people want, it is a fact this bug was being actively abused by many competitive players who would use it to change bars mid-fight using addons.

You described the actual problem: the game doesn't recognize when players are no longer in combat. That is the core issue that needs to be addressed.

You were still required to not take/deal any dmg for a certain time, before you were able to swap skills, so changing stuff mid-fight wasn't actually possible.

Hashtag_

Yes, it's frustating and is a bad user experience

zyk wrote: »

It was a bug and it was being abused. Some players would frequently change their bars in the middle of fights. It's the stuck in combat bug that needs to be addressed.

Well it’s obvious they can’t fix the stuck in combat bug as it’s been around for over a year now and they haven’t indicated there is a fix in sight.

So who cares if people can’t switch while in combat. The reverting they did until they reimplemented the no swap was fine. You couldn’t swap while actively fighting.

josh.lackey_ESO

Yes, it's frustating and is a bad user experience

zyk wrote: »

It was a bug and it was being abused. Some players would frequently change their bars in the middle of fights. It's the stuck in combat bug that needs to be addressed.

If you can go into your skills panel and change your skills without getting killed, you are hardly in the middle of a fight.

They could pretty easily disable the API call for addons while stuck in combat without limiting the ability to switch them manually. And in fact, it is a Protected function, meaning they are not supposed to be called in combat by addons period. But the default game UI can call functions even when addons can't. SelectSlotAbility() and ClearSlot()

A bug where addons are able to call Protected functions is distinct from being able to change your skills manually while stuck in combat. So I don't reject your reasoning, but it's a different issue from I am talking about. You can fix the addon part while leaving the ability to change them manually -- at least until they fix the stuck in combat bug, which seems to be a very, very, very low priority for them.

In fact, that is how it used to work when you were hidden. You could stealth and change your slots, but only manually, addons like AlphaGear wouldn't work unless you were completely out of combat -- because the functions were Protected. They should at least go back to that, since you can't get hidden without disengaging from combat. The way it is now sucks.

Whatever they did to "fix" it is the even more restrictive than before this "bug" and so I think they introduced a new bug that ignores being hidden -- unless that was also a bug they left in for 4 years. I am not sure how widely known it was you could hide and change slots, but I did it all the time during keep sieges. I can no longer do that.

It's really bad gameplay experience. You can fix the addon problem by only allowing manual bar changes. I think that is the best way to do it, at least so long as they choose not to fix stuck in combat.

xylena_lazarow

Yes, it's frustating and is a bad user experience

zyk wrote: »

It was a bug and it was being abused. Some players would frequently change their bars in the middle of fights. It's the stuck in combat bug that needs to be addressed.

This is the lesser of two evils in my view.