Um, lost animation=lost damage?

[_____________Bugoluv]

Pre-14.6, when a weapon scored a successful hit, sometimes the damage from this hit was not registered until the second graphical hit landed (during the cooldown phase of the weap). In these instances, the first hit would graphically be a miss, but one would not get the "you tried to hit Real Mean Bob but missed message" because the skill roll was successful, it was basically just a timing issue. The split second delay also frankly didnt matter unless you threw a nano after the first graphical shot (which showed as a miss) but before the second shot graphically landed as a hit--if you did, the damage for the shot was not applied and was lost.

I was messing around with an alt, and I noticed that the "first" shot (now the only shot) still sometimes graphically misses (but I didn't get a special "you missed" message), but because the second shot graphic never occurs, the damage for the successfully rolled hit never happens. That is to say, I did not see a miss message, nor did I see a "you hit <target> for x damage" message, nor did the mobs life bar move.

My first thought was that it was a simple LOS issue because I was doing root and shoot, so I stopped doing roots or forcing any mob movement and the problem persisted. My next thought was just bad sync on a reload message (especially since I've repeatedly seen "reloading weapon, you hit for x damage, weapon reloaded" already) so I started watching my ammo and this was not the problem.

I can't absolutely confirm that the damage is not being inflicted, only that I'm not getting a message about it and that the life bar is not moving (of course, they're misreporting so bad that doesn't say much). Has anyone else who can understand what I'm talking about seen this problem? Maybe I'm just really tired :P.

[_____________keloran]

yeah, i got the same problem. it only began showing up on my client with the last patch. (14.6) my soldier actually got killed because of it a couple of times. he missed more than half the shots. however this doesnt seem to affect the mobs or nano programs.
lets hope they fix it with the next patch.

[___________wrecklass]

My advice: Pay no attention to what is happening in the graphics area. The only important info is in the text box below. If it doesn't show up there, it didn't happen. I have noticed lag where I don't see any updates in the text for several seconds, and then I get a bunch of messages all at once. If you see this lag, it is time to heal if you can, because likely you are taking damage but not seeing it.

What you see in the graphics animations are just for show. They don't have anything to do with the actual battle.

[engelstein]

Any kind of 3D MMORPG is essentially a shell on a MUD. Therefore, the text box is thy God. Heed the text box, and none but the text box.

Pre-14.6, attack animation was messed up. Now it's messed up differently. You just think something's bugged cause you're not sure how it's messed up.

[hashy]

i'm taking reflect shield damage from missed attacks. up to three in a row. no, it's not because my attacks are lagged. yes, i realize that you get reflect damage feedback before you get damage feedback. i'm talking about attacks that are completely not registered.

before 14.6, you usually had two attack animations for every `round' of combat. if the first attack visibly missed but you did not receive a `missed' message, you *always* hit with the second attack animation. it *always* did damage, and you *always* got notification to this effect. with 14.6, the superfluous animation is gone, but i and many others who have a clue have noticed that we are visibly missing, not doing damage, and not getting feedback. this means we are losing damage. this could possibly be due to the same lifebar misreport problem involving nano damage seemingly healing the enemy, but that doesn't explain the absent damage messages.

this is a real problem and not some sort of perceptual fallacy. i have absolutely no idea how someone can read bugo's post and assume he's complaining about the attack animations.

[_____________Bugoluv]

I agree that there are often sync issues, but this is very definitely different from the typical lag followed by a stack of damage that most people complain about--I'm familiar with that problem as well (as I believe everyone probably is).

Yes, my natural intuition also says "the graphics are just fluff--no game effect." But by the same token, that wasn't really true pre-patch: if a shot wasn't a miss, the damage wasn't always done with the first graphical shot, in which case the shot looked like a miss, but then the second shot would always be a hit and damage would always be done at that time.

I came back to the alt twice since I first posted just to watch it some more. I honestly don't notice it on my main, but I think that's because of the sheer volume of messages and nukes moving out, the "lost shot" is just too easy to overlook.

I did 4 average length solo missions over the weekend and closely watched and, without fail, every time I graphically land a hit, I get a "you did x damage message" except occasionally. In these occassions, a "reloading" message is the next weapon-type notification to appear. Also without fail, everytime my shot graphically misses, I either get a "you tried to hit <y> but missed" or no notification what-so-ever in the text field about the shot ever having occurred and no movement in the target's life bar. Now, granted, sometimes a shot is too weak to move a lifebar, but I don't think that would be the case in every one of these instances. The repeatability of that really points to a correlation between the graphic and the time of damage being inflicted. I really doubt I just happen to hit some lag every time my first shot is a graphical miss.

I do agree that it's a possibility that the damage is being inflicted but I'm getting no notification from either the text or the life bar, but the damage is done and the mob will "drop early." I don't really have a good way to test this possibility versus the possibility that damage is simply not being done though. I guess pvp would be better than pvm though.

BTW, I didn't mean this as a whine about some "major nerf" placed upon me, just an odd observation that I'm trying to reconcile.