Random Unit Attack Delay

[Gradius]

All units in SC2 have tiny variations in their attack speed that are random (about 50 ms). If you have a 1v1 zealot fight, your zealot can still lose even though it attacked first. Brood War had this too. How do you guys feel about this?

[DemolitionSquid]

IMBA!!!

Honestly I feel 50MS is so minute I can't see it having much of a difference in the long run.

[GnaReffotsirk]

It is wrong to have random things in a game like this.

[DemolitionSquid]

It is wrong to have random things in a game like this.

Technically... yes. That's kind of why the whole "no randomness when shooting high ground" mechanic was removed.

The whole 50MS thing sounds more like if you were running on 59 frames instead of 60. The longer it persisted the more destructive it would become. But units in SC2 die so quickly I just can't see it as a game-breaking problem.

[The_Blade]

All units in SC2 have tiny variations in their attack speed that are random (about 50 ms). If you have a 1v1 zealot fight, your zealot can still lose even though it attacked first. Brood War had this too. How do you guys feel about this?

Well, we should ask ourselves "Can this variation be reduced or eliminated?". I don't really think we can. This variations might fix server communication delays. Why would an almost light speed fast communication have delays? Well, the human nervous system also has delays, this is why the body shortens reflex reactions to the spinal cord and not the brain. Sadly we can't do that on SC2.

As DS said I really don't think this difference is at all relevant. Perhaps it might kick in during early game, but mid and late game are just so fast a difference of up to 50/1000 of a second will not make much of a difference.

[Wankey]

All units in SC2 have tiny variations in their attack speed that are random (about 50 ms). If you have a 1v1 zealot fight, your zealot can still lose even though it attacked first. Brood War had this too. How do you guys feel about this?

The reasoning behind this isn't just gameplay. The reasoning is also in sound design and the uncanny valley effect.

If 50 marines fired their weapons at the same time, you'd hear 1 sound being massively layered on another. Also, it looks really artificial if there is no minute delay, as if all marines feel like robots.

This effect is very much so in crappier games like Supreme Commander where there is no such push to make things feel a live. Where unit idle animations feel repetitive and they fire at the same time. The game feel stale and lifeless to the point where I actually thought the game crashed but I was really just looking at 5 tanks.

50ms is almost neglible to gameplay standards since all attacks are in the 1-2 second range (50ms is 0.05 seconds btw)

If they removed it, the game will simply feel a bit less lively and more rigid. So it's a mute point really.

[Peanutbutter]

It is wrong to have random things in a game like this.

I agree.

I think I read somewhere on TL, that when 2 workers of the same race go up against each other, it's not necessarily the one who attacks first that wins. But so far, I doubt this happens often. So, it doesn't really have an effect on the game.

And as Wankey pointed out below, it does make the game more " lifelike ".

[WhoamI]

I remember when I was attacked by a probe twice and still was able to beat it.
I still miss the random % loss of damage dealt when firing from below hills!

[Peanutbutter]

I still miss the random % loss of damage dealt when firing from below hills!

If you're talking about BW, wasn't the chance of hitting a target reduced, when attacking from low>highground?

Although it would be a nice feature to have, I believe it would have a too significant impact on the metagame. At least on the current maps that is.

[WhoamI]

^ well, that "from below" means!