I've never, ever heard someone competetive say they don't enjoy animation cancelling. It's there, it's part of the game.People that do think animation canceling is hurting the game simply need to l2p...l2p super hard and better now than QQ about it. Because it will never be removed from the game.
Animation cancelling isn't inherently good or bad. A lot of it comes down to personal preference and the goals of the game designers. It's apparent there are many players who can and do cancel for competitive reasons, but do not enjoy it.
mdylan2013 wrote: »Lord_Legion wrote: »mdylan2013 wrote: »neville_bart0s wrote: »mdylan2013 wrote: »More people avoiding intended animations... Just what we all need
what does that even mean???
you can either learn how to animation cancel or you can get destroyed in PVP..... if you arent animation cancelling you are wrong
I don't animation cancel and I can assure you I don't get destroyed in PVP.
"If you arent animation cancelling you are wrong" - yeah because avoiding an intended animation is so right.
ZOS has already said they arent removing animation cancelling as its an intended mechanic in the game so if i were you i would stop whining about it and learn it
It wasn't intended, they never intended for certain abilities to be insta cast, hence why they had animations. I do believe they're working on changing the way animations work, which will help with countering animation cancellers. I'm not whining, far from it, I don't need to learn it either... I do just fine in PVP.
FriedEggSandwich wrote: »It was intended for certain skills to be insta-cast, which is why when you look at the topltip for those skills it will say "cast time: instant". These skills that have an instant cast don't have instant animations. This says to me that zos intended animations to be canceled, else why would they have given instant cast skills animations that lasted longer?
I can't believe people are actually supporting and defending this stuff, citing ZOS' 'blessing' for it. No matter how you cut it, an animation is meant to be the physical action required to perform a skill. To bypass that entirely as well as trigger the skill quicker is inherently an exploit.
No matter how much you polish a turd and call it a chocolate bar, it's still a turd. If you support and defend this, let alone claim it 'adds' to the game as a whole, then you are incredibly delusional.
FriedEggSandwich wrote: »It was intended for certain skills to be insta-cast, which is why when you look at the topltip for those skills it will say "cast time: instant". These skills that have an instant cast don't have instant animations. This says to me that zos intended animations to be canceled, else why would they have given instant cast skills animations that lasted longer?
If an ability is meant to be an absolute insta-cast, then there shouldn't be an animation for it.
Giving an insta-cast ability an animation denotes the effect is immediate, but the animation is still a required performance for said ability to work.
Already answered:FriedEggSandwich wrote: »How is the animation meant to be the physical action required to perform a skill when the skills cast time is always listed in the tooltip?
FriedEggSandwich wrote: »It was intended for certain skills to be insta-cast, which is why when you look at the topltip for those skills it will say "cast time: instant". These skills that have an instant cast don't have instant animations. This says to me that zos intended animations to be canceled, else why would they have given instant cast skills animations that lasted longer?
If an ability is meant to be an absolute insta-cast, then there shouldn't be an animation for it.
Giving an insta-cast ability an animation denotes the effect is immediate, but the animation is still a required performance for said ability to work.
This listed cast time is the physical action required to perform the skill, the animation is just to look cool. Tell me this is false when all skills have cast times different from their animation times. The very fact these don't tie up suggests the devs fully intended skills to be animation canceled. Even Crystal Frags hard cast, which has a listed cast time of 1.3 seconds (very precise), has a longer animation than its cast time. To "fix" animation canceling you'd have to give all abilities animations exactly the same length as their listed cast times. Blame the devs for this not having been done, the term 'exploit' has no relevance to this subject.
Already answered:FriedEggSandwich wrote: »How is the animation meant to be the physical action required to perform a skill when the skills cast time is always listed in the tooltip?FriedEggSandwich wrote: »It was intended for certain skills to be insta-cast, which is why when you look at the topltip for those skills it will say "cast time: instant". These skills that have an instant cast don't have instant animations. This says to me that zos intended animations to be canceled, else why would they have given instant cast skills animations that lasted longer?
If an ability is meant to be an absolute insta-cast, then there shouldn't be an animation for it.
Giving an insta-cast ability an animation denotes the effect is immediate, but the animation is still a required performance for said ability to work.
As for this:This listed cast time is the physical action required to perform the skill, the animation is just to look cool. Tell me this is false when all skills have cast times different from their animation times. The very fact these don't tie up suggests the devs fully intended skills to be animation canceled. Even Crystal Frags hard cast, which has a listed cast time of 1.3 seconds (very precise), has a longer animation than its cast time. To "fix" animation canceling you'd have to give all abilities animations exactly the same length as their listed cast times. Blame the devs for this not having been done, the term 'exploit' has no relevance to this subject.
You immediately attribute 'Cast Time' to parallel animation, when I already stated that CT is how long for the effect to trigger. Cast Time and animation length aren't mutually exclusive.
If ZOS wants to claim animation canceling is perfectly fine, then they're stating that the actual animation isn't a required part of the actual casting (which supports my claim of CT =/= animation length), which would then prompt me to say "Remove animations for Instant casts and shorten all remaining animations to be exactly the length of the listed CT".
THEN you would be correct that CT=animation length, there would be no more animation canceling, and the stuff going on right now wouldn't even be a topic to address. It would be a win all around.
FriedEggSandwich wrote: »I completely agree that animation times should match their cast times, but they don't. Cast times are clearly considered important enough to list in a tooltip; this is the info players are expected to use to determine whether a skill is worth using. Animation times are not listed and therefore it's reasonable to conclude that we don't need to know how long they are.
FriedEggSandwich wrote: »I completely agree that animation times should match their cast times, but they don't. Cast times are clearly considered important enough to list in a tooltip; this is the info players are expected to use to determine whether a skill is worth using. Animation times are not listed and therefore it's reasonable to conclude that we don't need to know how long they are.
Listing 'animation time' would be absurd, tho. Casting time denotes how long for the effect. If the animation itself isn't required, then it should match the cast time.
If it's longer than the cast time, then it should be considered a required part of the completion of the skill (even if it's after the effect triggers). Which, in a sense, would make 'cast time' a misnomer that would be reciprocated with something like (chuckling at myself for this) 'animation time'.
Or some other word followed by 'time' that denotes the physical procedure involved, beyond the actual time it takes to create the effect.
Having the two (effect/animation) sync would make 100% sense given ZOS claim that animation canceling is acceptable.
Having the two at different lengths of time could denote a simple effect-before-completion; that might make sense with a channeled spell or somesuch, but that opens up a whole can of "but wuttiv u die befro u fnsh castign bt ur effct alrdy wnt off".
In the end, as I already suggested, all signs point at ZOS being better off removing animation for Instants and reducing animations to match things with actual casting times.
That would eliminate the 'hiding combat cues' that was allegedly in mind when the combat system was created. Then threads like these would cease to exist.
Hence why I would say either make the skill a 1.8sec cast time (to take animation into account) or just make the animation 1.3 seconds (which would fall into ZOS' thoughts on the topic).FriedEggSandwich wrote: »I agree with you for the most part, but I still believe cast time is the only important factor to adhere to. Cast time says "this is how long this skill will tie you up for before you can cast another". Adding required animation times beyond this seems a bizzare idea, which is why I argue the animations aren't required, else players would be up in arms about their 1.3 second crytstal frags hard cast actually taking 1.8 seconds.
Trying to fight via combat cues becomes pointless with this animation canceling, because people just do rapid spaz-twitches and 2+ skills batter the observer with damage. The observer who, being unable to see what is happening, cannot properly choose when to block or dodge.The current system is strange and things would be better if animations matched cast times for sure, but I see it as a very small issue amongst many other bigger issues and I'm happy to have cancel-able animations cos my immersion can remain intact and I would rather zos fixed lag.
Hence why I would say either make the skill a 1.8sec cast time (to take animation into account) or just make the animation 1.3 seconds (which would fall into ZOS' thoughts on the topic).FriedEggSandwich wrote: »I agree with you for the most part, but I still believe cast time is the only important factor to adhere to. Cast time says "this is how long this skill will tie you up for before you can cast another". Adding required animation times beyond this seems a bizzare idea, which is why I argue the animations aren't required, else players would be up in arms about their 1.3 second crytstal frags hard cast actually taking 1.8 seconds.Trying to fight via combat cues becomes pointless with this animation canceling, because people just do rapid spaz-twitches and 2+ skills batter the observer with damage. The observer who, being unable to see what is happening, cannot properly choose when to block or dodge.The current system is strange and things would be better if animations matched cast times for sure, but I see it as a very small issue amongst many other bigger issues and I'm happy to have cancel-able animations cos my immersion can remain intact and I would rather zos fixed lag.
Not seeing any physical action to match what's happening utterly destroys immersion, despite you being happy that you can do it for your own sense of immersion.
What's so immersive about ghosting damage onto people who can't properly observe/react? (rhetorical)
Unlike what has been said in this thread: It's not a l2play issue, it's a l2psychic issue.
If you cancel an animation by blocking or dodge rolling, the skill should fail to execute, since you cancelled it before completion.
To argue otherwise is to cling to a known exploit.
The End.
FriedEggSandwich wrote: »As others have pointed out though; with insta-cast abilities it doesn't matter if you see the animation or not, cos by the time you see the animation the damage has been done. There is no reacting to insta-cast abilities unless they have a travel time; you can only pre-empt, which is where experience helps (see a purple haze on you? Might be a good idea to dodge roll). When it comes to skills with longer animations, like a frags hard cast, it doesn't matter if the animation is cut short cos you still would have seen the animation for the duration of the 1.3s cast time. Infact sometimes I fake a frags hard cast by canceling it early to try to make enemies roll for nothing. With this in mind the only purpose to animations in the current game is immersion.
FriedEggSandwich wrote: »As others have pointed out though; with insta-cast abilities it doesn't matter if you see the animation or not, cos by the time you see the animation the damage has been done. There is no reacting to insta-cast abilities unless they have a travel time; you can only pre-empt, which is where experience helps (see a purple haze on you? Might be a good idea to dodge roll). When it comes to skills with longer animations, like a frags hard cast, it doesn't matter if the animation is cut short cos you still would have seen the animation for the duration of the 1.3s cast time. Infact sometimes I fake a frags hard cast by canceling it early to try to make enemies roll for nothing. With this in mind the only purpose to animations in the current game is immersion.
Given that pretty much every skill is 'instant', the animations are nothing more than a waste of system resources. If ZOS is of the mindset that animations do not reflect on any requirement to execute the skill, then said animation shouldn't exist for Instant casts. And for the few skills that -do- have a cast time, their animation should match it.
If animations are just meant to be immersion, rather than actually cue combat situations, then get rid of them entirely (except for the few skills that actually require casting time). It really doesn't make sense to have someone go through an attack animation if the damage is Instant. There would be more realism in having cast time match animations, but that would probably be screamed down as a huge and stupid 'nerf' to combat.
Because immersion means defying physics and blasting off chains of 'instant' skills via canceling their otherwise useless animations, so you can chain like 8 seconds worth of real world 'going through the motions' attacks into a barrage of keystrokes lasting 1-2 seconds.
Now that we've gotten past the 'Cast Time v Animation Time'...FriedEggSandwich wrote: »Completely agree. Taking this argument is much more rational than accusing players that do animation cancel of exploiting though.
I'd like to point to about 1:30 in the video, where guy openly demonstrates and comments on his skill going off faster than it would have if he let the animation complete. He follows it up by saying one of the advantages of canceling is to spit your skills out 'just a little bit quicker'.If animation canceling somehow allowed you to cast skills faster than tooltips suggested then I would argue that was an exploit, but that isn't the case (afaik).
Now that we've gotten past the 'Cast Time v Animation Time'...FriedEggSandwich wrote: »Completely agree. Taking this argument is much more rational than accusing players that do animation cancel of exploiting though.I'd like to point to about 1:30 in the video, where guy openly demonstrates and comments on his skill going off faster than it would have if he let the animation complete. He follows it up by saying one of the advantages of canceling is to spit your skills out 'just a little bit quicker'.If animation canceling somehow allowed you to cast skills faster than tooltips suggested then I would argue that was an exploit, but that isn't the case (afaik).
Exploit.
Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »mdylan2013 wrote: »More people avoiding intended animations... Just what we all need
At this point in the game the animation cancelling is considered part of the game. Devs have even given their blessing. It is a good part of the game and mostly fairly easy to do.
Now that we've gotten past the 'Cast Time v Animation Time'...FriedEggSandwich wrote: »Completely agree. Taking this argument is much more rational than accusing players that do animation cancel of exploiting though.I'd like to point to about 1:30 in the video, where guy openly demonstrates and comments on his skill going off faster than it would have if he let the animation complete. He follows it up by saying one of the advantages of canceling is to spit your skills out 'just a little bit quicker'.If animation canceling somehow allowed you to cast skills faster than tooltips suggested then I would argue that was an exploit, but that isn't the case (afaik).
Exploit.
Now that we've gotten past the 'Cast Time v Animation Time'...FriedEggSandwich wrote: »Completely agree. Taking this argument is much more rational than accusing players that do animation cancel of exploiting though.I'd like to point to about 1:30 in the video, where guy openly demonstrates and comments on his skill going off faster than it would have if he let the animation complete. He follows it up by saying one of the advantages of canceling is to spit your skills out 'just a little bit quicker'.If animation canceling somehow allowed you to cast skills faster than tooltips suggested then I would argue that was an exploit, but that isn't the case (afaik).
Exploit.
You don't get the damage of the ability out faster from button press to hit, but cancelling the animation allows you to start the next ability button press quicker rather than wait for the animation to play out so the 2nd and each consecutive ability comes out with less space in between.
Now that we've gotten past the 'Cast Time v Animation Time'...FriedEggSandwich wrote: »Completely agree. Taking this argument is much more rational than accusing players that do animation cancel of exploiting though.I'd like to point to about 1:30 in the video, where guy openly demonstrates and comments on his skill going off faster than it would have if he let the animation complete. He follows it up by saying one of the advantages of canceling is to spit your skills out 'just a little bit quicker'.If animation canceling somehow allowed you to cast skills faster than tooltips suggested then I would argue that was an exploit, but that isn't the case (afaik).
Exploit.
OK, I don't really understand what your position is here. Are you saying that you've missed every time a ZOS employee has talked about animation canceling, or are you saying that ZOS doesn't get to decide what is and isn't an exploit in their game?GrumpyDuckling wrote: »Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »GrumpyDuckling wrote: »Animation canceling just flat out doesn't make sense. Have you ever heard the argument that ZOS makes for why players can't "hide" the physical appearance of Bound Armor? They say it's because it serves as an essential visual cue to other players about battle mechanics. With that logic in mind...
How in the world is animation canceling, which hides animations of attacks, an intended and fair combat tactic? I will never agree with anyone who thinks that animation canceling is good for a game.
I fail to see substance here. Especially since the devs have given their blessing to animation canceling over a year ago. The conversation about whether it is a legit part of the game is over. Animation canceling is appropriately part of the game.
I fail to see substance in your argument. Just because, according to your word, "the devs gave their blessing to animation canceling" doesn't mean that it's a legit part of the game. Perhaps animation canceling would take too much work to fix so they didn't consider it worth the time and effort, and instead prioritized other things.
If animation canceling wasn't intended, then it's not "appropriate." That's the definition of "exploiting a game mechanic."