Timing Issues - Some Spoilers

[badgesareus]

Ahem.
I feel there are some issues that I will categorize under the rubric of "timing," of 2 types; the type where you have a limited time to complete some race or puzzle (i.e., the player knows there is a time limit), and a second type where timing affects the triggering of the next stage but not related to puzzles/races and it is not obvious that timing can be an issue.

Of the first type, it seems to me that SureAI has rather high expectations of the ability of players. The best example in Enderal is the 5-sticks lock puzzle that many players have complained about. It seems to me that the time allotted to complete it assumes maximum ability. One post by devs stated the devs and testers had no problem with this. But devs and testers are not your average, typical gamers. Enderal also had other timed trials such as the puzzle in the tannerman's house and the dog catching (that one took me 3 tries, but maybe I'm just exceptionally slow).

This is not new from SureAI, as it also happened in Nehrim (catching the thief in Erothin, the Erothin palace puzzle, removing the powder kegs from the burning house, jumping the disappearing platforms, etc.). When a number of players are requesting a setstage id to advance, that indicates a problem to be addressed. I don't know if there should be a patch to increase these times, but it merits discussion and should be a consideration for the future (I wonder if there are any timed events in the Golden Sickle questline).

Secondly, there are places where many players have had problems related to another timing issue. One example is the Kill Gnardalf quest. Once a player goes to search the beach area after midnight and doesn't find a troll, he might rest for an hour on a nearby bed, then search again, find nothing, rest again, etc. until dawn. The resting advances the game time by 1 hour each time, but in real time it only takes a few seconds, so by dawn, even though 6 hours have elapsed in game time, perhaps only 2 or 3 minutes have elapsed in real time. However, when the fisherman sets out from the marketplace, it takes him 5 minutes in real time to reach the beach, so the game time may have already reached dawn by then so no troll will be found.

Another example is when the player must accompany Jasper to his ruined estate in the desert. The marker points to the center of the floor, but if the player arrives there more than a few seconds ahead of Jasper, there seems to be some timer that is not triggered and the next stage does not start. This has also been the subject of some questions and the resolution offered is a number of setstage commands. (I saw a post in the German forum which I translated with google, so I may have misunderstood, but I think it mentioned something about a 3-second timer here.)

A third example is where the player is talking to the high ones on the island and everything goes black. The problem I have had is that when loading, there is often a black screen for many seconds before a loading screen starts. In this example, there is a black screen for some time that, as it turns out, is because the player was unconscious and has been blindfolded, but the black screen time is long enough to seem that there has been a CTD (and I think in some cases there were).

I know nothing about game design and scripting, so I don't know what the reasons are for these timing issues; maybe they can't be avoided. Or maybe they aren't really issues except in my own mind. Or maybe some adjustments should be made. OK, your turn.

[Glycerin]

Of the first type, it seems to me that SureAI has rather high expectations of the ability of players. The best example in Enderal is the 5-sticks lock puzzle that many players have complained about. It seems to me that the time allotted to complete it assumes maximum ability.

I wonder why the Starling lock puzzle and dog hunting quest caused so much trouble for many players. I am not the fastest myself and managed after 2-3 tries. The beta testers seemed to have no problems either. Could it be the reason for this isn't so much the player's skill, but technical issues like a very low framerate and lags? Assuming none of the beta testers tried on an older PC. Is there anyone here, whose game runs smoothly and who still had problems?

One example is the Kill Gnardalf quest. Once a player goes to search the beach area after midnight and doesn't find a troll, he might rest for an hour on a nearby bed, then search again, find nothing, rest again, etc. until dawn.

I vaguely remember something regarding this problem in the patch notes, it should be fixed by now.

A third example is where the player is talking to the high ones on the island and everything goes black. The problem I have had is that when loading, there is often a black screen for many seconds before a loading screen starts. In this example, there is a black screen for some time that, as it turns out, is because the player was unconscious and has been blindfolded, but the black screen time is long enough to seem that there has been a CTD (and I think in some cases there were).

I had this bug, and it was not an unusual long loading time/unconscious PC. I had sound and could open the menu, but nothing else worked (the multi threading was the culprit in my case).
But then again that doesn't mean that some of the people, who complained, in fact had no real problem and were just too impatient

[Cyrenne]

The Starling Lock and the dog were hard for me too... My pc isn't the best and... well, you can fill in the blanks, but in the end, after a lot of trying, it worked.

What's strange, at least for me, is that there's so many problems posted around here, that never happened to me, or problems that I encountered (blackscreens, freezes etc.) that never happened to others. Well, the freezes and blackscreens are most likely due to my wooden box I call a PC^^ But the bugs? For example, Jespar never bugged out on me during the black stones quest. The follow up quest to the black stones ones started without a hitch. And it was tested with 2 playthroughs^^ But that could be just my ignorance concerning technical stuffs and such. Who knows

[badgesareus]

Is there anyone here, whose game runs smoothly and who still had problems?

I've got a pretty good computer on my desk, no issues with lags or frame rates. I think my issue is the computer behind my nose, and finding it a bit tricky to press W and ALT at the same time while sending instructions to my right hand to make sharp turns!

[OutandBack]

subscribing to this topic.
I must say the timed events are my least favorite thing in this game. I have yet to complete one of them on the first try.
As to where I am in the game for a reference I have 60 hours ingame, explored 80% of the map and riding on the air ship.
I rage quit last night on that stupid "you better RUN" ............ game reload screen.

The hardest part is figuring out if the game is glitching(timers) or do I just not understand what the game wants.

Spending an evening reloading old saves to try an try and try to get something working is so immersion breaking in such a wonderful story.

I wonder if turning down the games difficulty increase these timers?

Anyway I want to sub to this topic to see if someone comes up with a fix.

[stuemper]

I wonder if turning down the games difficulty increase these timers?

We dicussed it internally. That's probably the way how we will change these quests (can't say when it's finished).

Regarding buggy quests caused by ingame time: We have some issues with the timescale resets and the timescale itself. But we are testing and working on some fixes.

Furthermore we know about the freezes, CTDs and blackscreens. We are also working on these kind of issues. Avoiding these three is really difiicult (we do not have access to the source code).

For example in the Quest "The Lion's Den" there is a blackscreen appearing for some players, but we do not know the cause/reason.

Thanks to all of you for the feedback.

[Casper]

i have a fairly high-end system and i haven't noticed any of these issues, at most i get a few ctds very occasionally (for me it actually runs more smoothly than a fairly stock skyrim does).