Major Attack Speed Bug?

[HumanJHawkins]

A thread attempting to measure attack speed has resulted in testing that seems to show that attack frequency is being inappropriately affected by animation speed or length. That full thread (which is really on a different topic) is here: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...94#post1361494

The gist of it is that it appears, by analyzing the combat log over a specific period of time (i.e. 1 minute), that number of attacks per minute can actually go down when one levels from 4 to 5. (And other cases too, but this is the most extreme example mentioned). And, at the very least, the number of attacks you get is being affected by what weapon you happen to be wielding. (I.e. Falchion may be different from GreatSword).

It seems to me that all of the math behind this game depends very heavily on attacks per round... This must be constant, and should not be sped up or slowed down by the animation of the swing.

The animation should attempt to disply as closely as possible what is actually happening, but it is more important that a combatant get exactly the number of attacks that his BAB dictates, regardless of whether the animation can stay in sync or not. It seems like this is being handled the other way around.

Can a developer set the record straight on this (as we can't build our toons properly without knowing).

Many thanks in advance for any info.

[Impaqt]

Can a developer set the record straight on this (as we can't build our toons properly without knowing).

Many thanks in advance for any info.

Huh? SO your saying you've been playing for over a year and have yet to Properly build a character?

Are you saying Melee characters are Gimped because it takes an extra .3 seconds in an attack annamation with a Falchion over a Dwarven axe?

[twix]

Never noticed a difference ... /shrug

[HumanJHawkins]

Huh? SO your saying you've been playing for over a year and have yet to Properly build a character? Are you saying Melee characters are Gimped because it takes an extra .3 seconds in an attack annamation with a Falchion over a Dwarven axe?

Oh my God! I could post that the game wont run on the latest Intel chip and some idiot would quickly respond that I should buy an older computer. What is with you people?

Did you even read my post? Do you not think it would be a major bug if it turned out that leveling from 4 to 5 made melee for some classes less effective? Because that is what at least one tester found. I am hoping he was wrong, but there is enough evidence that animation is interfering with attack rates that it is plausable. Can't I ask a question without idiots coming out of the woodwork?

[Impaqt]

Oh my God! I could post that the game wont run on the latest Intel chip and some idiot would quickly respond that I should buy an older computer. What is with you people?

Did you even read my post? Do you not think it would be a major bug if it turned out that leveling from 4 to 5 made melee for some classes less effective? Because that is what at least one tester found. I am hoping he was wrong, but there is enough evidence that animation is interfering with attack rates that it is plausable. Can't I ask a question without idiots coming out of the woodwork?

lol.. ONE person claimed this... You havent verified it.... and its Ruining all your Builds?

No.. Its not game breaking if my animation is slowed down .3seconds the level I gain an extra attack.... Who Notices these things? WHo Cares about these things?

People who are bored with the game and looking for things to comlplain about.. Thats who.....

The Difference Claimed is .3 Seconds.. 300 Milliseconds.......

[Twerpp]

All I know is Haste+Maxed Fighters Attack Speed Boost=lots more swings, and it looks cool as hell with a quarterstaff. Makes me wanna roll a Green WF named Donatello.

If your suspected bug is real then it happens to all of us and therefore isnt capable of toon-roll gimpage since we are all have the same identical "problem" anyway.

[HumanJHawkins]

<cut>If your suspected bug is real then it happens to all of us and therefore isnt capable of toon-roll gimpage since we are all have the same identical "problem" anyway.

Not quite... Based on TWF feats vs. going two handed, a two-weapon fighter is mathmatically superior to two-handed at most in-game ACs. But if an animation issue is reducing a 5 attack/round toon to 3 or even 4 attacks per round for TWF, then 2-handed becomes far superior.

So yes... Comparing similar builds, all are affected the same. But in making choices about what to build, this could have a pretty big effect.

[HumanJHawkins]

lol.. ONE person claimed this... You havent verified it.... and its Ruining all your Builds?

No.. Its not game breaking if my animation is slowed down .3seconds the level I gain an extra attack.... Who Notices these things? WHo Cares about these things?

Dude. One person made the somewhat extreme claim that you actually get fewer attacks per minute, potentially because of an animation change. But dozens of others have claimed testing different weapons and finding for example that a great axe gets up to 10 extra attacks per minute. In a 1 minute fight against an end boss, that is huge.

Who cares? I do. And not just out of boredome. Maybe for you it is all about actual gameplay in the quests. And if you aren't getting pwned, you don't care. But for me (and a large percent like me), this is as much a math puzzle as it is a video game.

A lot of people get a lot of enjoyment out of doing the calculations to figure out what is precisely the best choice for the toon they want to build. There are like three people who have written computer programs to help calculate this. And all of that goes out the window if a software bug is throwing a 10% variance into the mix with no info on how it plays out.

So if you are content with the game and this doesn't matter to you, then why come out here and mock a person who is pointing the issue out and asking about it? Oh yeah... Because you are a troll. Well... good shot. I fell for it bigtime.

[blakbyrd]

The Difference Claimed is .3 Seconds.. 300 Milliseconds.......

300 milliseconds is also about the same or less time than the average inherent amount of lag on a satellite internet connection.

[oronisi]

Minus all the BS going on in this thread, I would like to see animations and attack timings to be reviewed and adjusted by the dev team before Mod 6.

I think that it may be effecting the usage of certain weapon types, and hindering a large portion of ranged combat.

[Zorth]

I am able to make every hit count and can Jump and attack at the same time no matter what the animation point is in. I laugh at those who have no immagination and think they are cool by repeatedly swinging through the animations while just standing in one place. 1, 2, 3, 4. and so on. It took a lot of practice, but I am able to tumble, block, strike jump plus strike and make it look cool as heck. The combos are endless and not easy to do. Whatever!

[Snike]

I thought I read about this somewhere before. But it was mostly about TWF animations being so long.

Sticky: Current DDO Issues - Status Report

TWF slow attack animations (added as 1 on 06-29-07) – There is evidence that the TWF additional attack animations are slower than the earlier attack animations, resulting in TWF granting less additional attacks over the same period of time than it purports to be granting. Some have argued that the other added benefits of TWF are intended to compensate for the slower attacks. Much more detail is provided in the main thread discussing this issue.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=111343

[Raithe]

What would be really interesting to find out is why the game designers incorporated these dissimilarities into the animations/game mechanics in the first place. Every movie and animation can be run to fit into any time frame you choose (or, more likely, have its frames chopped to fit within the given time).

I have a feeling that the real reason is "a lack of professionalism" ...

[tihocan]

I agree, there's a lot to fix in animations. Mostly need to ensure that our attack rate at least does not go down when BAB increases, and that it's the same with all weapons and fighting styles.