Shotgun Damage Not Shown Or Reported

[mahoganycow]

First of all, I wasn't quite sure which bug reporting board this fit under (mission, general, UI, etc), so here it is.

 

Basically, we all know that when you hit a target with a weapon or ability, numbers pop up indicating the amount of damage that you did. At the end of a mission, all damage dealt is reported at the post-mission statistics screen. I've encountered a bug where, once a certain amount of mods (namely elemental damage mods) are applied to a shotgun, the damage done is no longer consistently shown onscreen or reported after the mission. The weapon still does damage and kills enemies, the damage just isn't seen or recorded by the game in any way, shape, or form. I first noticed this after applying an electrical damage mod to my Strun; after applying this mod, damage numbers no longer appeared after hitting an enemy, and I've been on some missions with a friend (who has a comparable Strun only without elemental mods) in which the reports showed me doing as little as 10% of the total damage despite having an equal or far greater number of kills. I've confirmed that taking off the elemental mods causes the damage to be both seen and recorded correctly.

 

I might venture the guess that the damage numbers not popping up could be an intentional development; if a shotgun had multiple elemental mods equipped and all of the numbers (dozens, and potentially hundreds) popped up at once, especially during repeated firing, it could be a visual performance hit for someone with a slower PC. I just don't see why the damage wouldn't be internally recorded and correctly displayed at the mission's end.

[mahoganycow]

Messed around with this a little more to see if I could find some reproducibility, and it's really inconsistent. Sometimes this bug just randomly disappears or appears for what seems like no apparent reason. Here are some things that I've found, though:

 

-As initially stated, mods that cause elemental damage are the main catalyst for this bug. Weapons without electricity, fire, or frost mods report all damage accurately.

 

-This bug is not present in solo play, all damage in solo play is accurately shown and reported. The bug only affects online gameplay.

 

-As a shot in the dark, I tried altering my display settings (normally I play on the highest settings, I tried switching to medium-ish and even the lowest possible settings). It had no effect.

 

-Full uninstallation and reinstallation of the game did not affect the presence of this bug.

 

-Someone leaving an online game can be a catalyst for this bug to disappear (if damage is not being accurately displayed, someone leaving can cause it to start being accurately displayed). I have no idea why this would be so, but it is.

Edited June 9, 2013 by mahoganycow