In multiplayer, a client’s view of another Berserker’s shift form resets to Human after any area load or teleport. The shift is still active in every way that matters mechanically — abilities, attack set, and the shift icon under the player banner all remain correct — only the visual form reverts. The affected player must manually re-shift for the other player to see the correct form again.
Steps to reproduce
- Host a session; have a second player join.
- Both players create/use Berserker characters.
- Both players shift.
- Trigger a loading transition — teleport, or walk into a new area so a loading screen occurs.
- Observe each player’s view of the other player.
The shift almost certainly persists as a server-side state flag — nothing about the load transition changes the parameter, which is why abilities and the banner icon stay correct across areas. What appears to be missing is the visual resync on the receiving client:
On load, the client tears down and respawns remote player avatars.
Freshly spawned avatars initialize to the default form (Human).
The shift state is only replicated on change, not on spawn / on load complete, so no message ever arrives to correct the new avatar.
Because the flag never changed, the server sees no reason to send an update — the state is right, the client’s picture of it is not.
Add an explicit shift-state reconciliation pass whenever a player finishes loading into an area, in both directions: the loading player needs everyone else’s shift state, and everyone already in the area needs the loading player’s. Apply it as a visual/rig change only — never by re-running the shift ability (no cost, cooldown, duration reset, or transform VFX)