Please limit the window for queueing a follow-up melee attack (Re: slow weapons)

[(PSN)Unstar]

I love the new melee system, but there's one problem I keep having:

1. Equipped with the Jat Kittag and Crushing Ruin, I'm holding the aim button (the tactical toggle) while repeatedly pressing the melee attack button to do big smash-smash attacks on enemies.
2. The last nearby target dies, so I stop pressing the attack button because I no longer want to attack.
3. My Warframe finishes its current slow hammer slam.
4. Without any further input on my part, my Warframe starts a whole new slow hammer slam attack.
5. For 2 seconds I am unable to control my Warframe, and must simply wait for this extra, undesired attack to complete before I can control my Warframe again.

This was never an issue before the new melee system.  And to be transparent, it's not an issue with all attacks across all weapons.  However, weapons with lengthy attack animations seem to have this issue; the longer the attack animation, the more likely it is that somewhere in that attack animation the context around you will change and you will decide that yet another attack after this one is not what you want, but if you've already pressed the attack button, there's nothing you can do to stop it.

You can easily recreate this lack of control by equipping Jat Kittag with Crushing Ruin:

1. Hold down the aim button.
2. Press the melee attack button twice in succession.
3. Hold the run button in any direction and wait.

I would like to propose what I hope is a fairly simple solution: determine a "maximum attack queue time".  For example, let's pretend we have a fairly generous maximum attack queue time of 0.5 seconds.  If an attack with my Jat Kittag takes 2 seconds, then this would mean that if I didn't press the attack button in the last 1/4th of the animation, then a follow-up attack won't be done.  Conversely, if one of my attacks with a dagger takes only 0.25 seconds, then if the attack button is pressed any time during that attack, an attack will be queued.

This will never reduce the input window for attacks that are already shorter than the maximum queue time, it will only ensure that the input window never becomes too large.  The benefit to this change is that you can guarantee that no matter what the length of an animation is, and no matter what mods or status effects increase or slow down the speed of the animation, the button press that initiates an attack will never be further than than X seconds from the start of the attack, guaranteeing that the attack feels like something the player chose to do rather than something they were forced to do.  I know it would make me feel like I was more in control of my Warframe!

When you have a chance, I'm really hoping this can be looked into, as the crisp and fluid control I have over my Warframe has always been among the biggest reasons it just feels good to play Warframe.  Thanks for considering my feedback!

 

[Derium-Envy]

I'm pretty sure you can cancel melee animations by rolling, but I haven't played with slow melee weapons enough to be certain.

[DarkSkysz]

15 minutes ago, Derium-Envy said:

I'm pretty sure you can cancel melee animations by rolling, but I haven't played with slow melee weapons enough to be certain.

True. No matter the speed of the weapon, a roll will cancel all animations. But still you got lose half a second of combat with the roll.

[Kainosh]

20 minutes ago, (PS4)Unstar said:

• Equipped with the Jat Kittag and Crushing Ruin, I'm holding the aim button (the tactical toggle) while repeatedly pressing the melee attack button to do big smash-smash attacks on enemies.
• The last nearby target dies, so I stop pressing the attack button because I no longer want to attack.
• My Warframe finishes its current slow hammer slam.
• Without any further input on my part, my Warframe starts a whole new slow hammer slam attack.
• For 2 seconds I am unable to control my Warframe, and must simply wait for this extra, undesired attack to complete before I can control my Warframe again.

Happens to me too.

Combo window opens too soon in that specific combo. And if you mash, you can easily get extra input in and trigger 2nd slam.

 

Needs adjustment. 

[(PSN)jaggerwanderer]

I can say the same with high attack speed. The queue is too short. With enough attack speed I can only do the first hit of a combo. There needs to be an high attack speed limit and a slow attack speed limit. It's not always we get high attack speed, but cold procs do exist making us attack slower when they do occur.

[z3us32610]

Happens to me as well. I get too many of those slam attacks from the aim button + melee button combo, always when I'm finished using the aim + forward + melee button combo (which is the best combo on Crushing Ruin, imo).

[LSG501]

Yeah I wouldn't mind if the weapons literally stopped attacking when I press melee button... always felt it was weird that they just keep going even if I've 'finished' attacking type of thing.