"Hidden" GCDs need to GO...

[RichardButte]

Not sure if this is latency (though I have like a ~50ms ping), but it sucks either way...

You press a button for an oGCD ability. Then, you quickly press another.

Without any form of warning, feedback, etc., the 2nd ability just...doesn't...activate.

Unlike with regular abilities that are bound to the GCD, there is no warning of "Not ready yet" or "cannot use while casting". The oGCD ability simply fails silently, and that sucks.

So can you please either...

1. Make it so oGCD abilities queue better and activate as soon as available when pressed in rapid succession.

2. Make oGCD abilities show a circular cooldown timer if pressing them at that moment won't actually activate them, AND give us the usual warning feedback when the ability didn't activate.

Abilities failing to activate when pressed despite appearing as if they're ready to activate, for WHATEVER reason, violates the most basic tenet of game design in that flow between the player and the controls needs to be seamless.

Again, I just want the game to either let me press the buttons it's telling me I can press or to correctly inform me when I CANNOT press them.

[Darrcyphfeid]

This comes down to animation frames/locking and how slow the server is to respond. See also: Being able to move at the tail end of a spell cast and still have it go off, and being out of AoE telegraphs before they completely finalize but still getting hit because the server resolved the attack before your position was updated.

With practice, you'll get used to it.

[Kazrah]

This comes down to animation frames/locking and how slow the server is to respond.

Yeah, I think what he's referring to in this case is ani-lock, which is not only a means of server regulation, but also a handy means of forcing people to actually look up and off their bars for a second.

[RichardButte]

Yeah, I think what he's referring to in this case is ani-lock, which is not only a means of server regulation, but also a handy means of forcing people to actually look up and off their bars for a second.

...Except that I can't always even SEE my character to observe animations when I'm in a 24 man raid (and a lalafell).

I'm sorry, but there's no excuse for having a situation in which abilities appear to be usable, yet secretly aren't, especially when there's no clear indicator as to exactly how long one ability will lock you up vs. another (again, you can't expect to always see yourself to observe animations, either).

Consistency is king when it comes to controls. All I want is for skills/abilities to be consistent across the board.

[MatthiasS]

...Except that I can't always even SEE my character to observe animations when I'm in a 24 man raid (and a lalafell).

I'm sorry, but there's no excuse for having a situation in which abilities appear to be usable, yet secretly aren't, especially when there's no clear indicator as to exactly how long one ability will lock you up vs. another (again, you can't expect to always see yourself to observe animations, either).
(snip)

This kind of thing has been around since 2.0, and its always annoying, and still sometimes kills longtime players. I'm sure we've all seen a white mage hit Benediction and then their target dies anyhow, or a PLD hit hallowed ground, the graphics show it, and the Paladin dies to the next auto-attack. I don't think its working as intended, but I bet the fix is either really hard to program, or just can't be done without causing other issues.

[Antonio_Xul]

Oh man, this a big problem when I play as Red Mage. It is so annoying when trying to cast fast only to have to hard cast, because the quick cast ability didn't activate quick enough.

[Darrcyphfeid]

...Except that I can't always even SEE my character to observe animations when I'm in a 24 man raid (and a lalafell).

Go into the settings and turn off as many non-relevant battle effects as possible. Alliance raids and things like hunts are just bad. Hydalen have mercy if someone pops a caster LB while something important is happening!

The lock between most oGCDs is ~1 second though, so recast and error displays really aren't going to help you. In fact, they'd probably hurt you - you'd wait for the timer to finish, then pop the second oGCD, and adding in your reaction time would cause you to frequently clip your GCD.

Viable workaround: Pop the first oGCD, mash the button for the second the moment the first one's icon dims out.

Oh man, this a big problem when I play as Red Mage. It is so annoying when trying to cast fast only to have to hard cast, because the quick cast ability didn't activate quick enough.

This sounds like an actual latency problem.

[RichardButte]

Viable workaround: Pop the first oGCD, mash the button for the second the moment the first one's icon dims out.

Better idea: the game could function as it implies it does, where a skill on your hotbar that is lit up activates when you press it, and when it's unable to be activated at that moment, it won't be lit up.

And latency is no excuse: MMOs have had buffer mechanics to deal with latency for decades now.

Seriously, why do people insist upon defending things that obviously aren't working as intended...? There has been NOTHING said or indicated that we're supposed to "watch our characters" when using oGCD abilities, especially when that means the UI would be violating its own rules by not applying some kind of timer over these abilities on our hotbar when they're not actually available for use.

[Darrcyphfeid]

Better idea: the game could function as it implies it does, where a skill on your hotbar that is lit up activates when you press it, and when it's unable to be activated at that moment, it won't be lit up.

So your stance is that you should be able to pop every single oGCD in your arsenal immediately, between 2 GCDs, so long as you push the buttons quickly enough?

Seriously, why do people insist upon defending things that obviously aren't working as intended...?

I'm not defending anything. I'm trying to explain to you how the game operates, how it is intended to operate, and you're disagreeing with it. Which is fine.

It's not going to change, though. They'd have to rebuild this game from the ground up to correct some of the issues with this game's server resolution/ticks - many of which are actual problems and not minor inconveniences like double-weave timing.

[Jijifli]

So your stance is that you should be able to pop every single oGCD in your arsenal immediately, between 2 GCDs, so long as you push the buttons quickly enough?


I'm not defending anything. I'm trying to explain to you how the game operates, how it is intended to operate, and you're disagreeing with it. Which is fine.

The way it is right now, latencies that Yoshi P claims "Still makes the game playable" make it so double weaving can make some players clip their GCD, lowering dps. Even at 100ish ping my double weave can sometimes clip, and that's not fun.

And it's not like their animations are amazing. Then again I'm a lalafell and some of our buffs actually have clip issues (MONK WHY)