Lag and You (Mod related)

kelben · 11/29/06, 8:50 PM

For a long time I use to swear by Fastcast as the best mod going. Increased your dps when your chaincasting the samespell as it help with client to server lag. However, I was forced to disable it for a clearcasting mod a month ago or so and when turned it back on this week I found that it no longer works. You can adjust the slider to either extreme and the mod no longer interrupts you. Was this functionality changed with a recent patch and I just never noticed? All the other mages in my guild confirmed similiar results that fastcast is no longer working yet two warlocks swear up and down that fastcast increased their DPS (or at least they think it increased their dps) Anyhow, is fastcast broken?

And are there any other mods out there that help fight lag?

Glaurong · 11/29/06, 9:39 PM

From what I understand of the new restrictive UI behavior. FastCast or any mod capable of doing something similar will be permanently broken in 2.x.

Falk · 11/29/06, 9:42 PM

It still works on Live as far as I can tell. (As far as Patchwerk can attest when he wants to play with 600pingFalk)

2.0, on the other hand, abolishes the base functionality that Fastcast relies on. I'm hoping beyond hope Blizzard implements this kind of basic lag-deterrent functionality into their game. I've gotten so used to fastcast that losing it is going to be more of a blow than Decursive (which I'll hardly miss).

Honestly, how hard would it be to code their server to accept additional commands and just not execute them if a character is in the midst of casting, unless it gets a special override flag?

That way, the cast-or-not if/then logic doesn't even have to be client-side.

Kalman · 11/29/06, 10:09 PM

2.0 doesn't do anything to the BASE functionality of Fastcast, which is using spellstopcasting to interrupt a spell at such a time that the interrupt affects only the client and not the server.

Here's how you reimplement Fastcast in 2.0.

/cast Spellyouwanttofastcast
/stopcasting

Falk · 11/29/06, 10:20 PM

Hmm... is there anywhere I can read up more on this? I'm not sure I understand the results of the macro interacting with the game - does this mean if I hit the macro a fraction of a second early, it interrupts the previous cast totally?

Kalman · 11/29/06, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by falkon2

Hmm... is there anywhere I can read up more on this? I'm not sure I understand the results of the macro interacting with the game - does this mean if I hit the macro a fraction of a second early, it interrupts the previous cast totally?

Yes. Just learn to time it, it isn't all that hard; even easier the more lag you have, as your window to properly interrupt grows.

Falk · 11/29/06, 10:27 PM

Timing it is no problem for me... I'm thinking more along the lines of the efficiency of caster classes in DPS races - our guild runs at 500-600 ping on average, and Lord knows how much every percent counts on fights like Loatheb.

We'll learn to adapt, I guess. It's just annoying that something that -should- have been part of Blizzard's default gameplay interaction has been overlooked, and the only 3rd-party solution is crippled. :X

Thanks.

Spazmo · 11/29/06, 10:35 PM

Something like this looks like it could be the answer. You still need to time it correctly, but it gives you a visual indicator bar of when to click:

SuperCast

EDIT: a quote from the author:

With this you may cast a new spell as soon as your bar has reached the red area. If you use it too early the cast will interrupt. It's in your hand now!

Maels · 11/29/06, 10:40 PM

That's so much more work than just spamming the button as a DPS class.
Definitely better than nothing though.

Darkmantle · 11/29/06, 11:13 PM

Originally Posted by Kalman

2.0 doesn't do anything to the BASE functionality of Fastcast, which is using spellstopcasting to interrupt a spell at such a time that the interrupt affects only the client and not the server.

Here's how you reimplement Fastcast in 2.0.

/cast Spellyouwanttofastcast
/stopcasting

Wouldn't it be the other way around? Otherwise you interupt the spell just after you start casting it. The whole point is to interupt the casting of the spell client side and start casting the next spell instead of waiting for the servers confirmation that you cast the 1st spell.

The extremely stupid thing is the way wow handles spell casting events client side/server side, means an australian player needs and i mean NEEDS fastcast to compete against american players. Unless they introduce something like it into the base game engine then this mod or a mod like it remain essential parts of a wow dps caster's life.

Kalman · 11/29/06, 11:39 PM

Er, possibly it would be the other way around (I r rogue?), but the important part is that the disabled /script has a slash-command equivalent.

Althor · 11/29/06, 11:49 PM

The thing that Fastcast does that can't be replicated (to my knowledge) by a mod in 2.0 is it adds a conditional on the /stopcasting depending upon how long the currently casting spell has to go before it finishes.

That SmartCast mod provides an "eyeball solution" but it's not quite the same thing.

I'm another who wishes that Blizzard would just add a 1 slot casting queue on the servers. With the global cooldown lengths a 1 slot queue would be all that's needed.

Belenos · 11/29/06, 11:49 PM

I think it would indeed be the other way round:

/stopcasting
/cast Flash Heal

If you use it too soon, of course it will interrupt the first cast.

Regarding the client/server implementation, I like the idea of having a spell/action queue like some other MMO's, where you can activate a second action while the first one is casting/activating. When the first one completes, the second one starts, and you can queue up a third. There may be technological or balance reasons why Blizzard doesn't do this though.

Falk · 11/29/06, 11:54 PM

While I love Beatmania, playing Beatmania while trying to keep people from dying is a needless complication to an already performance-intensive endgame.

If anyone figures out who to holler at for in-built intelligent lag compensation or queueing, add my voice to the list. Next week is -not- going to be fun. :(

Kalman · 11/30/06, 12:00 AM

I can't see any reason you'd ever risk a heal canceling in order to improve HPS. It isn't like a caster, where a false cancel just drops your DPS - it can kill a raid if you cancel when you shouldn't.

(Fastcast, incidentally, could also cancel when it shouldn't have, it just had a little tolerance for button spamming.)