GUI Lockout After Firing Powers

[KGB]

I alternate between having animations on/off (my kid likes them).

I’ve recently figured out that turning the animations off doesn’t speed up the game properly because the GUI gets locked out for X amount of time after firing a power (presumably to run the animations).

The easiest way to notice this is to use Gamora (4* version) with animations off. With multiple enemies still left, at the start of your turn use the cycle arrow (mobile version) to switch between opponents. It works immediately at the start of your turn. Now fire her Blue power at 5 covers and watch as 2 opponents are stunned immediately. But the cycle arrow key (and all gem movements) are now locked out for roughly 2 seconds which I assume is the time allotted to run the animation (which isn’t needed).
This happens for all kinds of powers but is most noticeable when using her Blue and trying to cycle to target the 1 turn stunned enemy.

It’s VERY frustrating to click on the screen multiple times and get no affect or response from the GUI. It makes the game appear laggy or broken in some manner. Can the GUI lockout time be dropped to 1/10 of a second (ideally a user control able setting) when animations are off.

KGB

[DeNappa]

Now that you mention it, I’ve noticed it as well. I run Thorkoye a lot, and often see a short 1-2 second delay after firing (I think) Thor’s red.

[abmoraz]

I think generally most delays are due to the sound effects. When I was playing on my iPhone 4, I used to get a message everytime I started the app saying that my device was too slow (or something like that). During the matches, the game would sacrifice a lot of the animations, but not the sound effects (even with the volume levers turned all the way down).

Another reason for tile matches to slow down would be getting hit (or multiple hits). This is what I find more annoying.. if I’m getting hit, I want to finish my match quicker.. not slower.

I had forgotten there were sound effects in this game. I’d been playing for 5 years with them off.

I had said in a previous thread that the least appreciated person at D#/Demi-Urge was the person who wrote the story dialog for PvE events, but I may have to renege on that statement and say whoever the sound designer is.

[TPF_Alexis]

@abmoraz

I had said in a previous thread that the least appreciated person at D#/Demi-Urge was the person who wrote the story dialog for PvE events, but I may have to renege on that statement and say whoever the sound designer is.

I often read the story, even after two years, but I almost never turn the sound on.

[KGB]

I do both (sound and read story even though I’ve played over 1000 days).

It’s not the sound playing that’s causing the lag because I’ve been deliberately listening for Gamora and other slow powers. The sound is finished long before the lockout expires.

They just need to limit the lockout to < 1/2 second when the animations are off.

KGB

[KGB]

@KGB

I do both (sound and read story even though I’ve played over 1000 days).

It’s not the sound playing that’s causing the lag because I’ve been deliberately listening for Gamora and other slow powers. The sound is finished long before the lockout expires.

They just need to limit the lockout to < 1/2 second when the animations are off.

KGB

Going back to Gamora’s blue power, it’s possible that the delay you are noticing is due to how the power behaves and its order of operations. First, it stuns the character at the front, then a random character. After stunning a character, it makes a special tile, but it doesn’t do that when a character is already stunned or if there are no free tiles. The type of special tile made is random and the position on the board is also random. So, there’s a lot of board checking in the process. It then waits for attack tiles to fly.

It would be interesting to see if the other delays that you noticed are related to board checks. The other example mentioned here (Thor’s red) also requires a board check (and additional damage calculation)

I don’t think it’s board checks. But you are right that there are multiple moving parts to her power (stun plus add special tile(s)). Maybe there are 3 delays here that are adding up. One for animation (turned off), one for the stun, one for the board tile addition. If the animation was 1 second and the other 2 were 1/2 second each it would add up to 2 full seconds. I’ll start watching the other multi-part powers and see if they are also the slow ones.

That said, those delays are ‘man made’ and not CPU driven. I know this because if you watch the AI fire her Blue it does not wait 2 seconds before making a board move. Hence the delay is for the supposed benefit of the player to process what’s going on/happened.

KGB

[Jaedenkaal]

My guess is that the delays are to make sure that the animations and sounds play in the correct order. They’ve turned off the animations but not (all of) the delays.

You can see this even with animations on, with some triggered passive powers. CD tiles noticably more slowly when 4* Carol is on the team, even if there are no special tiles to strengthen.

[abmoraz]

@KGB

That said, those delays are ‘man made’ and not CPU driven. I know this because if you watch the AI fire her Blue it does not wait 2 seconds before making a board move. Hence the delay is for the supposed benefit of the player to process what’s going on/happened.

This is interesting. Perhaps all the moves are being calculated prior to the AI checking their AP for powers. That way, the AI can have their turn as one single “animation”.

At the risk of teaching you “how the sausage is made”, this is exactly how games are done. When you make a move, before a single pixel changes, before any animations happen, the game engine calculates EVERYTHING up until your next move. It already knows all the cascades, all the board shuffles, what the entire opposing team’s move(s) are, how they affected the boards, etc…

It does all that in the background, and generates a list of animations to perform in a stack. It them runs those animations (including board changes) in order off the stack until they are all done. Then it lets you take your turn.

If you remember in the past, players would complain that they couldn’t retreat when stuck in a “stun-lock” situation. This was because they were already dead. The game engine calculated all the moves the computer would make until the player’s next move. In a stun lock, the player didn’t get a next move. The player was just waiting for the animations to play out…