Something that kills immersion totally for me and feels really bad. Read inside

[Celz88]

When my character, let's say a lvl 1 rogue, uses his damaging ability, the character animation attacks twice. Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but the damage numbers (and loss of life on the mob) appears on the first hit instead of the second. This makes it feel like the second attack of the animation is completely useless. Why would the character attack twice if the damage appears instantly? It feels stupid and really bad because the 2nd animation is pointless. It ruins the WEIGHT of the ability and it doesn't feel satisfying.
And I know the developers understands this concept because the lancer's first ability has a small delay for when you press it until the damage shows up because it makes sense for the damage to appear at the same time as the actual animation strike hits. Why would you give Lancer this level of detail but not rogue or samurai?

So these issues aren't as bad (seemingly) on lancer, but on rogue and samurai, it is terrible. Samurai pretty much ONLY has abilities that has 2 attacks in the animatinon, and the damage appears on the first hit on all of them.

This COMPLETELY ruins immersion for me and for many others also. I cannot believe this game has been out for 10 years without this getting fixed.

My suggestion is to make 2 separate damage numbers appear for each individual animation in the ability, or make the damage appear at the end of the animation where it makes sense instead of at the beginning.

As Kevin Jordan, lead designer of WoW classic and Burning Crusade says, and Steven Sharif, lead designer of Ashes of Creation says, nothing is more important in an MMO than the feel of combat and it feeling responsive and fluid.

The combat in this game for the reason above alone makes it feel very bad to the point where I'm having a hard time enjoying the game. I don't have very many complaints outside of this though but this is a BIG one.

I really hope this gets read by someone who can make a difference in the game, especially since the fix to this must be extremely simple to implement.
Imagine using Cloud's level 4 limit break in Final Fantasy 7 and having all the damage appear at the start of it instantly, as opposed to having 9999 show up on each strike. You would end up looking at him go berserk without any actual real impact. I don't think I need to explain to you why they didn't go with that design 23 years ago when they made FF7. That's what this feels like.

Thank you for reading and understanding.

[Saix027]

Damage numbers as immersion? Deactivate them, done. I see no issue with such since that is sepreated from the visuals and gameplay.
Are you serious here or are you trolling? There are more urgent issues then splitting some numbers to fit the animation wow.
Like reducing effects overall that are not affected by options, i got a freind with epilepsy, so far she could enjoy the game but latest dungeons and raids have effects she can't turn off, background effects mostly.
Thos should have priority rather then some fancy numbers to compare to make your ego feel good for some reason.

[Darkstride]

This COMPLETELY ruins immersion for me and for many others also.

I've genuinely never heard or seen this complaint prior to right now.

[Celz88]

I've genuinely never heard or seen this complaint prior to right now.

Well, you learn something new every day. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

[Shurrikhan]

I've genuinely never heard or seen this complaint prior to right now.

It was pretty frequent going from 1.23 (where each individual hit in an attack had its own calculation and damage number, albeit with the option to replace each further number with the summation of all hits thus far) to ARR Beta, actually.

For now, if the process can be handled as simply as calculating the value of damage to be dealt (which we already know is done upon ability activation, much earlier than the damage is shown via Floating Combat Text or taken from the target's health bars) and dividing it by the number of visual hits... why not? It hardly seems like something that should be prioritized, but it seems a reasonable QoL request.

[Kabooa]

It was pretty frequent going from 1.23 (where each individual hit in an attack had its own calculation and damage number, albeit with the option to replace each further number with the summation of all hits thus far) to ARR Beta, actually.

For now, if the process can be handled as simply as calculating the value of damage to be dealt (which we already know is done upon ability activation, much earlier than the damage is shown via Floating Combat Text or taken from the target's health bars) and dividing it by the number of visual hits... why not? It hardly seems like something that should be prioritized, but it seems a reasonable QoL request.

I'm a pretty mechanically focused person, but if we're going to do it just for display, I'd rather it be done at the root calculation, because that can add more avenues for combat ability interactions. Debuff windows that add flat potency per hit, for example.

[Shurrikhan]

I'm a pretty mechanically focused person, but if we're going to do it just for display, I'd rather it be done at the root calculation, because that can add more avenues for combat ability interactions. Debuff windows that add flat potency per hit, for example.

I mean, I'd of course want to see differences between multi-hit and single-hit skills down the line, moving towards nuances of combo play, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up or derail the discussion as one of an optional immersion-aiding feature.

True, a change such as the one I've suggested does slightly run the risk of precluding the "need" for a root calculation, as it'd be a purely modular, purely QoL feature. But by the point the the devs would be discussion reasons for which to, or to not, go further with combat mechanics, we'd really just be talking excuses for whatever the devs have already set their minds to, if history proves out.

[Eliadil]

The reason it's done is that a single high potency attack scales way better with crit that two attacks at half potency, due to internal calculations and stuff, and it also makes snapshotting buff way easier if it register only one hit, but I understand the feeling.

[Kabooa]

The reason it's done is that a single high potency attack scales way better with crit that two attacks at half potency, due to internal calculations and stuff, and it also makes snapshotting buff way easier if it register only one hit, but I understand the feeling.

The display of a number is separate from the calculation.

[Darkstride]

I treat people the way they treat me. But you are right. It's a personality quirk. Like Trump, I believe in an eye for an eye (up to a point). If someone ridicules me for no reason I will not sit there and take it. I was obviously referring to people who ridicule others for something they don't perceive (like the clown above). But having said that, you are indeed a neanderthal IF, for example, a Dragoon does a high jump ability, and the damage goes off on the way up instead of the way down, and you see nothing wrong with that. It is such basic knowledge of game design that I am shocked I have to sit here to explain this. All they would have to do is delay the damage numbers for rogue and Samurai (and whatever other class has their damage appear before their animation is done) so that it matches the last hit. That's it. No coding needed. It's simply a delay code string which can be fixed in 2 seconds.

It would appear that you're not looking for any sort of discussion or open to seeing any other aspects. You've already decided that you're right and if anyone had a differing view then they have no meaningful degree of intelligence.

Best of luck finding all of the other enlightened ones to join your crusade.

In all seriousness though, adjusting damage numbers to reflect every individual hit of a multihit animation is potentially not that simple. Flashy, lengthy attack animations are cute but they aren't necessarily practical when calculating DPS on a global cooldown. If your damage application follows your animation and you clip your animation, that has now created a different and worse scenario. The tradeoff is that the damage is applied upfront to avoid this issue. But by all means let's focus on a dramatic Dragoon example and continue to talk down to people.

I'll take my leave from this thread since it's probably going nowhere. Hopefully you're able to have a constructive conversation and get whatever it is you're looking for.