Hi, This one again. It's been an issue for years at this stage, yet no progress appears to be being made in sorting it. The problem seems to stem from two issues combining to make the overall problem worse: Firstly, critters are often able to partially clip into objects and, despite the fact they they should be "blocked" by said object, they're still able to do their attack animation, often through the object. Rather than being blocked, as they should, their attacks just pass right through it. This was largely addressed when it comes to ranged attackers shooting through blocks, but it still occurs from time to time. Melee attackers however, exploit this constantly. Secondly, the AoE of many melee critter's attacks is still crazy. They attack way beyond their visual reach and also appear to be able to damage things far above them, both waaaay out of reach and not in the direction of their attack. Only when these two situation align, does the issue occur. If on the same level vertically, the game seems to recognise that an attack is blocked, so critters don't try. It's when the attack is still blocked but the player is above the attacker that the attack still happens and, even though it is both clearly blocked (the block/object) and clearly a miss (out of range/not in the direction of the attack) anyway, damage is still dealt. Some examples of this, the first just happened to me... Very early-game. And some of those Leaf Cutter nutters are after me. I jump up onto a tall rock "totally safe" from their attacks, being more than four times their height above them as well as being protected by a solid rock. I still take damage. Wrong. They attacked into the rock, I'm way out of reach. Exploring a POI, standing on some blocks above some melee critters to avoid them. They are able to partially clip into the solid block, which isn't in its self a problem but, once again, they can strike through that block to hit me in my "safe" position. This issue alone is why I'm glad I play Single Player and have access to the console. I hate to use it as it feels a bit like cheating. However, the game cheated first by incorrectly calculating that the critter hit me, when it simply could not do so with any reasonable rules considered. These issues can readily be recreated - indeed, they have in the past - either on terrain (jump on a rock, like I did) or in a POI (be one block up and one block back OR just two blocks up) and you'll regularly still take damage from melee attacks that clearly miss and / or should be entirely blocked by terrain or a block. Speaking personally, this massively detracts from the overall enjoyment. While there is little true penalty to death - it can even be a GOOD thing (free food and curing of medical issues) - I like to role-play as if it IS a big deal, as we've been told it eventually will be. If the "can I attack" logic checked first whether the critter was currently face-planting a rock / block first and then use that information not to attack, the issue would go away. This logic appears to be applied when the player is at the same level vertically as the critter, just not when they're above. Note: even if this is a case of a "missing" animation, where the critter in question would (ultimately) be attempting to strike in a more upwards direction, the attack would still be blocked or an out-of-range miss. I do hope the devs can look at how melee attackers (don't) work currently, and refine their logic for deeming at attack to be possible. I quite like the idea of them trying to destroy something to get to the player, that'd actually be pretty cool. Having the ability to strike like the object isn't their though, and cause damage from beyond physical range. Not great. What do people think? Do you find this issues as irksome as me?
I don't seem to be having an issue with melee attackers doing this at the level you are, but I have had instances where I'm standing outside of a hole I made in a POI's walls, far enough away from the edge of the interior block, only to have abominations on the interior side of the POI still be able to hit me. It's usually in specific cases involving blocks that are not full cubes. Weird part is, if you hop up just a bit as they begin to attack, they'll often miss and you hear them hit their heads on the wall. So there does appear to be at least some logic to tell when you've dodged an incoming melee attack. The bigger peeve I have is that despite claims that getting shot out of an intact cockpit has been fixed, I just got shot out of mine by a Zirax ground troop who was over 100m away from me and about 40m below. I fell to the ground in front of him, leaving my ship stranded above. Fortunately the jetpack saved me, but this shouldn't be a thing that still happens. The cockpit was never damaged by his gun. It just fired straight through to hit me inside. Then to add insult to injury, I was hovering about 150m in the air above a group of spiders shooting them with my gatling gun when I heard the sound of my hull taking damage. Sure enough, the spiders were displaying attack animations at the same time. Hitting me in the air when they should never have had any chance of reaching me. I was able to confirm they had indeed done minor block damage to the ship too.
Oh, you don't experience this as much? I'm surprised, as this has been a staple part of the game for me for over six years now lol. I've made many posts about the subject and continue to do so every year or so it's still present. For me, it's most prevalent when attempting to use surfaces / ledges etc. inside a POI to avoid enemies - almost like they were placed there by design for that purpose - then still being hit while being visually out of range or behind a block. While pretty much ALL melee critters seem to be able to hit through blocks and beyond their range, Nightmares live up to their name. Being slightly more than a block tall, they're often clipping into a block above them, and able to attack through it with ease. Imagine, you have a "floor" layer of blocks, then a one block space then a "ceiling" layer of blocks. The player could be walking on top of that ceiling layer, with the Nightmare on the floor layer - so a full block between - yet the Nightmare can still damage the player. This sort of issue is constant for me, perhaps it's in-part linked to my play-style that it happens so often? I'm a light-armour "dodge" type player, where I move out of the way and use the environment to my advantage. The issues with melee attacks able to damage the player when they haven't actually physically hit the player make this tricky. By far the most common issue though is when the player is on a ledge in a POI or a tall rock outside. The player is protected by distance - they're certainly out of range - a physical object - be it block or rock - and the fact that the critter is not attacking in the direction of the player. It's almost like a critter's attack range is far longer if the player is above them and the game doesn't see the block that's in the way. Hmm, I've had that, though it's rare. My most recent "cockpit snipe" was when the terrain killed me. I was hovering up a slope and BAM I was dead. Also, being shot by Sniper or Laser Zirax that are out of render range is a really pain - especially if they manage to cockpit snipe you. Spider can sometimes appear to have a particularly long-ranged melee attack. I've been "hit" by them many a time, while jetpack-jumping over them. That 150m is the most extreme example though! As an aside, I've wanted to play MP properly for a long while, but I know all these bugs would just totally spoil the experience for me. I've hoped for years that the game would become more stable in this regard, eventually properly calculating melee attacks, but it's not happened. I suspect a lot of people just overlook or don't register these issues - I've seen "let's play" style Youtube videos where the player has clearly taken damage when they should not. However, as the cost of death is still minimal, other than the inconvenience, they just carry on. For me, death is something to avoid at all costs. It's rare I die legitimately in the game due to my approach to playing cautiously. Anyway, I suspect I'll be back in a year, maybe sooner, talking about this again lol.
