[Error] Interrupting reload after the animation completes breaks weapon state of readiness

[Golf33]

This is a reproducible error. I believe it occurs with all weapons but have specifically tested it only with C-96, P-38, TT-33, MP-40, PPSH-41, MG-34 drum and saddle mags, DP-28, MkB-42(h) and KAR-98. It occurs every time you interrupt a reload after the animation has played through but before the 'new magazine is full' subtitle appears.

The error causes a weapon to fail to fire even though the animation has shown the avatar completing all steps required to ready the weapon to fire. This is very confusing to the player, who should be able to rely on the animation rather than having to wait for the subtitle to appear.

This is related to the error 'interrupting reload causes incorrect animation and state of weapon readiness'.

E.g. 1.
Fire off your KAR-98 mag.
Hit reload. Your avatar will place fresh rounds into the mag and close the bolt. In reality the weapon would now fire if the trigger were pulled.
Before the 'new magazine is full' subtitle appears, hit melee.
Now try and fire - your rifle clicks as if empty, even though the animation has played all the way through to the point where the weapon should be able to fire.

I believe all weapons with fixed magazines behave the same way.

E.g. 2.
Fire off all the rounds from your MkB-42(h).
Hit reload. Your avatar will remove the empty mag, replace it with a full mag, and cock the weapon. In reality the weapon would now fire if the trigger were pulled.
Before the 'new magazine is full' subtitle appears, hit melee.
Now try and fire - your assault rifle clicks as if empty, even though the animation has played all the way through to the point where the weapon should able to fire.

I believe all weapons with detachable magazines behave the same way.

How it should work
The weapon should be able to fire as soon as the animation shows the bolt is closed or the weapon is cocked.

The player should not have to wait until after the 'new magazine is full' subtitle has appeared before being able to fire the weapon.

As far as the 'new magazine is full' subtitle is concerned, there are 2 options:
A. It could be shown during the frames in which the avatar is placing the new magazine on the weapon / loading the stripper clip into the weapon (recommended).
OR
B. It could be shown at the end of the animation (as now) but the player is able to fire the weapon before the subtitle is shown.

 

[GrimReality]

I've seen this as well. It's that extra little half a second that could mean the difference between shooting or getting shot, and it can be quite frustrating to not be able to get that shot off when by all visual accounts it appears that you should.

I'd also like to add that in the case of the G41 when reloading both 5-round clips, you can interrupt the reload after the first clip goes in, but if you try to fire after that it will behave as if no ammo had been loaded at all. I realize that at this point the weapon hasn't been cocked, so maybe firing shouldn't happen anyway, but there was the full animation of putting a clip of ammo in it, although when you hit reload again, it will reload with 2 full 5-round clips. This would seemingly put a total of 15 rounds in, but of course it will only register as the correct amount of 10 rounds.

 

[Golf33]

It certainly is annoying.

The 'loading 15 rounds into the G41' bug is something I talk about in another bug report: http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=71981

 

[Schnurx]

Ah!! Thanks, that actually cleared something up for me. I had some cases of weapon misfiring, where I was (relatively) sure, that I did not interrupt the reload... but that was then because I did interrupt before the "weapon fully loaded" msg.
Thanks.

 

[TheDrStrange]

We have sent this issue through, currently the weapon is only loaded with ammo when the animation is done. For most weapons that is when the hand is reset to holding the weapon. In the report we have put the recommendation that the weapon should have ammo when the reload animation shows the rounds being loaded and cocked and that you should not have to wait for the "New Magazine is Full" message that occurs when the reload animation is finished.

 

[Golf33]

Thank you very much - it's great to know that this is being looked at.

BTW posting these acknowledgements in bug report threads makes the bug reporter feel much nicer about things Keep it up!

Oh, and is the related 'interrupting reload causes incorrect animation' bug (see link in my first post in this thread) also on the list? I dare say it's a much harder one to fix...