Abilities Ignored - Deep Dive With Videos
Today I’m going to link two, specific, videos which I captured that we’re going to use to try and take a look at some of the underlying game mechanics to try and explain why some of these things happen?
why am I doing this knowing that support is dead .. well .. it’s my hope that the community here can discuss and come to a consensus on what DICE did with this title, and, if we don’t agree; this thread makes for the perfect venue for that specific feedback to go back to DICE and they can either improve in the future or simply cease to make games after we stop buying their garbo. Community managers take note; although the DEVS aren’t on this project it doesn’t mean this cannot be forwarded to them.
now .. go get your hot pockets and coca colas, this will take a minute.
The two examples I’m using are some of my more recent game testing. Both examples feature the character Kylo Ren and focus on the mechanics of his “pull” ability. One of the reasons for this is that when one is game testing you want to try and reproduce circumstances in order to properly evaluate.
the issue: in these two video examples Kylo Ren’s “pull” ability is triggered on an opponent & it’s effects ignored.
why: well that’s the $64,000 question. Each video will have an in depth summary which works to either identify mechanics or rule out others.
Example 1: In this video we see Kylo engaging against Anakin. Kylo ultimately uses “Frenzy” to defeat Anakin. Take note that while Frenzy is active the number “1” stays within the ability icon to indicate the available target.
After Anakin is defeated Kylo sees himself affected by Rey’s “mind trick”. While standing in position you can see (at the 9 second mark) that a 1 appears in the icon for Kylo’s “pull” ability; indicating a target in range. Looking ahead at that same moment we see Rey who is engaging with Maul and who is NOT blocking (or in dodge). As Kylo triggers “pull” the ability icon goes through the trigger process and although Rey isn’t within dodge or block the “pull” fails to register on her at all.
Now what do we know about this scenario? Well, the “pull” ability was not refunded which means there was no ability interruption that would be in play here. My suspicions are either 1) the input stack failed to properly execute the inputs in the correct order or 2) another game mechanic nullified the effect on Rey based on an unknown criteria.
Example 2: In this video we see Kylo running, making a jump, activating “pull” against Luke, and seeing the ability fail to affect Luke.
As Kylo runs toward his opponent we can see the number “1” displayed in the “pull” icon, again, indicating an opponent in range. Kylo triggers the ability in air, as Luke is running toward him. The ability icon completes its trigger as Kylo lands on the ground, again, Luke is not within block as the ability fails to register on execution.
My suspicions for this example are the same as before: either the input stack didn’t resolve in the correct order or an unknown game mechanic nullified the effect.
Without being able to look at the game code it’s impossible to say 100% but looking at both clips which were taken from completely different matches on completely different days against completely different players; what similarities can we see?
1) In both instances the game recognizes an available target at the time of activation
2) In neither example is Kylo being affected by an ability interrupting condition.
3) In the Rey example we have multiple characters interacting at the same time within a similar space; this “could” potentially impact input stack resolution accuracy, however, in the Luke example that isn’t the case and therefore doesn’t seem to be the likely explanation.
4) In both the Rey example & the Luke example the opponents were lower level; levels 12 & 17 respectively. My Kylo was a level 830 & 833 at the time of each respective clip capture.
So, on the surface, there doesn’t appear to be an obvious reason why the same ability (pull) would misbehave in the exact same way (fail to effect) in two different matches, against two different opponents, in two different maps / scenarios.
The input stack doesn’t seem likely as both matches weren’t similar situations; nor do either clip appear to show significant input lags. Yes, we all know lags exist but when the input resolution gets garbled we often see movements out of the characters that appear out of sorts; neither clip shows the players striking off to the side or jumping in a senseless direction; so I’m hesitant to just say “oh it’s input lag / stack” again.
That said what do I “think” is the issue? Well, it looks like when the ability is triggered and completes its activation it’s failing to register an effect on the opponent because some other game argument or attribute out-prioritizes the ability and gets discarded in the background because the game doesn’t know what to do with the code condition.
What could that other attribute or argument be? Well that’s anyone’s guess. Personally, I’ve always been a little questionable on the games overall mechanics post TROS update; as after that, the entire gameplay structure felt to change; especially for newer players. Could that be a factor here? Dunno, I can think of ways to do it if I were going to code it but, again, without being able to break the game down, it’s anyone’s guess.
I’m curious what others think of these examples. I do have other examples also but for consistency purposes I wanted to evaluate the same ability in different scenarios to compare and try to rule out causes.
