[24.7.2] Melee Weapon Trails are still broken (pics inside)

[Noctah]

I previously made an extensive thread in "Fortuna Feedback" right after it came out, which has been rendered unaccessible since then.

I decided to show off again the biggest issues with the new melee weapon trails because they're still not fixed (and nobody even talks about them!)

When I talk about "trails", I'm talking about the new elemental trails that were introduced with melee 2.9999.
When I say "no trails", it means those elemental trails are absent, not that there is no effect at all.

 

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Weapon Type Has Broken or Absent Trails

Affects the entire weapon type

The trail is broken if it stops too early or mismatches the swing.

The trail is absent if the swing is made, but no trail shows up.

Exemple of "broken" trail.

Spoiler

Example of an "absent" trail. Same swing, only later in the animation in order to show how the trail follows the weapon more than the new special trail. Weird.

Spoiler

Hard to show an "absent" trail in a screenshot, but take any stances from Plains bounties and they usually have a lot of swings with no trails. (PoE Stance)

Known weapon types to have trails issues:

- Daggers (Broken, Absent in PoE stance)

- Polearms (Broken, Absent in PoE stance. a notable exception is the combo named "Drifting Steel" from the Bleeding Willow stance.)

- Machete (Broken, absent from Machete Wraith)

- Scythes (Broken)

- Dual Swords (Carving Mantis is broken)

- Tonfas (Some specific swings are broken like the "Vagrant Blight" combo of Gemini Cross. Other swings are good.)

- Nunchakus (Great trails! But the Right-click combo has completely absent trails on one of the E presses, making it look as is someone forgot to add the trails in for that specific swing. The rest is amazing!)

- Claws (NO trails AT ALL even with 3 stances)

- Gunblades (Shooting is fine. No trails on melee swings)

- Fists (Mostly absent. Gaia's Tragedy has NO trails)

- Sparring (Mostly absent. Ex: with Grim Fury, Hold combo has trails, Back combo has none... but both are roundhouse kicks!)

- Nikanas (Broken. Decisive Judgment has NO trails)

- Two-Handed Nikanas (Broken. The last two swings of the pause combo have miniscule trails that don't even show up at high attack speed, despite those being 300% and 400% damage multiplier attacks.)

- War Fans (the entire weapon is broken, but that's besides the point)

[- Longswords (Iron Phoenix/Crimson Dervish have loads of broken trails, Vengeful and PoE Stance have loads of absent trails)
[-Staves (Mostly absent)
^ Those two types are the first that every new player will use and should be fixed ASAP

EDIT:

- Excalibur's Exalted Blade (Broken, see first reply for screenshots)

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Weapon Skins Remove All Special Trails

For example: Dual Swords Nari&Vali

Here's the color setup I used with and without skin:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Now here's the same swing with and without skin:

Spoiler

Spoiler

As you can see, all elemental trails are missing when the skin is equipped.

Known skins that I can confirm have trails issues:

- Dual Swords Nari&Vali

- Longsword Kopesh

- Staves Volu

- Scythe Spearmint

Those skins were paid for with platinum (except Spearmint) and should be fixed ASAP.

Most skins I tested just acted the same as the normal weapon (same broken/absent trails).
I don't have any Tennogen skin to test.

 

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Specific Weapon Has No Trails

Other weapons in the similar type have trails, but this one doesn't with its default skin.

- Machete Wraith

That's the only one I found with this issue. Obviously I don't have every single melee weapon to test, but if it happens for one, it happens for more.

 

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Fast Attack Speed Makes Trails Stretch Into Triangles

The faster the weapon swings, the less "active frames" the trail have to get established, and the more the trail gets stretched, to the point of ruining its looks.

Creates the "triangle effect", where a smooth curve looks janky.

Here's with 1.85 Attack Speed:

Spoiler

Here's with 0.80 Attack Speed:

Spoiler

 

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Fast Attack Speed Makes Trails Disappear Too Fast

I used to think Fast ATK Speed = Smaller trails, but it's not true. When observed in slow motion the trail is the same size.

The problem is that when you get lots of ATK speed, some attacks that had small trails right at the end of their swings now see their trails disappear almost instantly.

The easiest fix I have for these is to have trails that follow the whole motion of the attack (like Sword&Shield or Nunchakus).

 

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Dual Energy Weirdness

Color setup:

Spoiler

Here's a regular swing in the middle of it:

Spoiler

Here's at the end of it:

Spoiler

What's the problem with that? Well, the "middle of the swing" lasts for around 0.2 seconds, while the "end" lingers for about a second.

It makes the secondary energy look like the primary color.

When I first tried it in regular gameplay, I thought the Dual Energy setting was broken and only took into account the Secondary one. Had to check in captura to see what was wrong.

If you have Fast ATK Speed, the primary energy color doesn't even show up. You only see your Secondary energy color most of the time.

I haven't done a lot of testing with dual energies, especially because I know they're in the middle of working on it.

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If I missed anything, please tell me.

Thanks.

Edited April 18, 2019 by Noctah

[iLightning13]

Exalted blade's weapon trail doesn't match up at all, especially at the end of the swing:

Also a some warping on the Tatsu's trail at the closest point to the blade:

 

[Noctah]

1 minute ago, iLightning13 said:

Exalted blade's weapon trail doesn't match up at all, especially at the end of the swing

Oh yeah, I forgot about all the Exalted weapons. I suspect Wukong and Valkyr don't fare much better either.

[Noctah]

Got new screenshots: the "Triangle Effect" is extremely noticeable when using Volt for extra ATK speed.

Slow:

Spoiler

Fast:

Spoiler

It's actually very visible even during normal gameplay. Some swings are worse than others.

[Loza03]

Got nothing specific to add, but this is important so I'm adding my support.