Advanced guide - Action queuing demystified (and some possible bugs)

[velocd]

A loading screen tip reads:

 

You can queue a string of actions by holding down the shift key while issuing commands.

 

I toyed around with this some and was able to test the following, but there may be more I'm missing so I'm hoping others can correct or fill out information.

 

**Note - Targeted abilities are defined by having to initiate the ability (click/hotkey) then click on a target to cast. This is opposed to a non-targeted ability, such as an AoE heal, that you only need to click on the ability to cast.**

 

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1. Actions that can be queued are movement and hot bar abilities (spells, quick slots, etc?).

 

2. Movement consists of single or multiple way points (shift-click for multiple way points).

 

3. Hot bar abilities can be queued once per hot bar group. Groups are identified by the pixel gap between hot bar abilities. (Doesn't apply to weapon sets obviously or anything else that is instant while paused)

 

4. QUEUE ORDER: Quick slot abilities (or at least non-targeted consumables) -> non-targeted abilities -> all movement way points and/or targeted abilities and/or attack action.

 

5. Movement all happens at once, even if you weave it through your queue. However, movement queued before targeted abilities will happen before targeted abilities, and movement queued after targeted abilities will happen after targeted abilities.

 

6. Queued hot bar abilities can target different people, assuming the hot bar abilities are in different hot bar groups. e.g. You can chug a potion, cast an AoE ability, cast a spell at an enemy target, cast a heal on an ally target, then move through 5 way points. All in one queue.

 

7. POSSIBLE BUG? The movement reticle for the first way point only shows up if you queue movement before any other action. If not queuing movement first, just because there is no reticle doesn't mean you haven't queued movement, as long as you shift-clicked to add to the queue. The exception to this rule are some quick slot consumables, like beer, can be used first and the movement reticle will still appear though it's not the first queued action. Personally I think this is a bug or poor feature, and the reticle should always show up, and also multiple waypoints should have reticles identified with numbers indicating their waypoint.

 

8. POSSIBLE BUG? Some quick slot items, like beer consumable, do not cancel out of the queue even if you hit the cancel key. They will cast regardless. I observed this out of combat.

 

9. POSSIBLE BUG? A green animated border on a hot bar ability means it's queued, but I have observed no animated borders for some quick slot items when queued (like consumable beer).

 

10. FUNDAMENTAL: Any targeted actions, such as movement or abilities, that are not first in the queue can be clicked to initiate but must be shift-clicked on the target to cast or you will reset your queue to one. Say you want to do this: Chug a potion -> cast an AoE spell from hot bar group 1 -> cast a targeted spell from hot bar group 2 -> move to 3 different way points. Your input would be: Click potion -> click AoE spell -> click targeted spell to initiate AND shift-click on target to cast -> shift click on 3 way points -> unpause

 

11. You can add to your current queue after unpausing and pausing, although I'm not entirely sure the order or where thing are placed into the queue.

 

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It takes some practice and is a little confusing, and I probably missed some rules, but I hope this helps those interested in advanced gameplay. To easily test just quicksave then mess around, quickload, and repeat as desired.

Edited March 29, 2015 by velocd

[velocd]

Correction to #5 above (making it here since I can't seem to edit my OP anymore):

 

5. Movement all happens at once, even if you weave it through your queue. However, movement queued before targeted abilities will happen before targeted abilities, and movement queued after targeted abilities will happen after targeted abilities.UPDATE: I was wrong, for targeted abilities movement queued before and after the ability will happen in that order.

 

This thread is also at Reddit here for discussion:

https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/30o0ur/guide_action_queuing_demystified_and_some/

Edited March 29, 2015 by velocd