The post below explains the general problem, but it seems like it specifically relates to playing animations for server-controlled npcs instead of what I’m looking for.
Say you have a fighting game. You want to punch someone, and you want quick feedback to know if that punch landed or if it was blocked or parried. You play the attack animation for the attacking player and when the victim gets hit, you would play the hit animation on the victim’s client. Cool. But the problem is that you have to wait for the server to send that data back to that client, which may be an inevitable issue for every other player, yes, but the attacker should get responsive information and instant feedback as soon as they can.
Is there a way to play a temporary, non-replicated hit animation on the victim’s humanoid, from the attacker’s client? That way I can play that hit animation instantly for my attacker alone and right alongside my attack animation so everything synchronizes correctly. The victim client will play the hit animation so every other client including them can see it. If the victim happened to block the attack and that hit animation I previously played was incorrect? That’s fine, I can just let the server override it. As long as for the most part, you get that instant kinetic feedback then that’s worth more than anything imo.
If it is possible to do this, is there a way to prevent the incoming replicated animation from playing for that attacker? Because the next problem would be the weird hiccup that would come when the client and server-side hit animations play on top of each other.