Is it possible to animate and/or apply forces to other players from one client?

I’m working on a sword fighting combat game that requires quick feedback and I’m wondering if it’s possible to animate other players as a means of getting a more immersive gameplay experience. I haven’t tested this out myself, my computer isn’t the best when it comes to server testing and I don’t have any available friends (:pensive:) so I’m wondering if anyone else on the forum has attempted this and what their results were.

The idea is that if one fighter attacks another player and the server registered the defender as vulnerable, then instead of only telling the defender the enemy blocked and that they should play a ‘damaged’ animation, the attacker would also play the damaged animation for the defender on their own end, so the attacker instantly knows that their attack has landed.

Alongside this, I also want to emulate physics interactions on other clients (bodyforces from a client causing players to slide from attacks). Has anyone come up with any solutions to grant the attacking client instant feedback, and then somehow transition client control to the server so it matches what everyone else is seeing? Personally, I’d rather have more friction when stitching the server and client versions of the animations/physics after the time-sensitive event rather than during it, I just want to know if anyone has attempted it and seen promising results. A lot of this is just me theorizing ideas, so forgive me if what I’m saying is coming off a bit stupid :sweat_smile:

You can use remote events or functions to make the other player play animations on the server. Remote Functions and Events

I know how to play reaction animations from the server, that’s not my issue. I want to have the enemy’s animation immediately play for the attacking player, and I want to trigger that animation from the attacking client so they can get the instant feedback. And I’m not intending for this to replicate to the server as I would still play the reaction on the server, it’s only to give the attacking player proper feedback.