This is actually pretty major. But I can see why the devs didn't mention any of this in the patch notes, because attempting to describe this at all would have been confusing as hell.
It was a challenge writing the original post, it really needed screen captures to make any sense.
If I'm reading this post right, your last picture is showing that the attack would be at disadvantage from where you're standing in said picture, but the attack was performed at a slightly lower angle in the 'Verticality Test 2' picture, and the actual attack roll from there didn't have disadvantage like the other picture said it was supposed to have?
Yes, all across the staircase attacks were rolled at normal not disadvantage. Verticality test 1 is where the game is rolling the attack at disadvantage.
The attack rolls are consistent across testing. What is inconsistent is the UI, the UI has a tendency to show what we experienced in patch 3 but sometimes it will correctly show that disadvantage will not be applied on the attack roll.
I hope there is something Larian can implement in the UI to show the player where they can consider moving with their remaining movement points in order to remove disadvantage/gain advantage with ranged attacks. If this is here to stay, we're going to need to be informed better than risk using our remaining movement points moving to an area that only looks like it might be beneficial to the naked eye, only to find out that it really isn't.
Agreed, it took a bit of testing to find out what verticality it will and won't apply. The staircases were nicely sized to use for testing, I'm wondering how this will work in the Underdark at the moment. Hopefully this is consistent through the rest of patch 4.
