Inconsistant Mass spell targeting

Discussion in 'General Modification' started by mercurier, Oct 17, 2012.

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  1. mercurier

    mercurier Member

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    Well, there are several spells in the game that use the following targeting in description:
    Examples are Mass Heal, Mass Hold Person/Monster, Horrid Wilting and Weird.
    Note: Haste and Mass Charm Person/Monster and alike do not belong to this category because the number of target is casterlevel-dependent.

    Currently Mass Heal and Weird use multi-select targeting, while Mass Hold and Horrid Wilting use AoE targeting. Shouldn't all of them use the same targeting mechanism according to description?


    Also, I believe the some implementation of AoE of these spells are wrong. "No two of which can be more than X ft. apart" is approximately equivalent to "targets enclosed by a X ft. diameter circle". Therefore we should use either
    Code:
    mode_Target: Primary X/2 feet
    or
    Code:
    radius_Target: X/2
    in .\data\rules\spell\spellname.txt

    And another problem arises: should these spells be party-friendly?

    IMHO the answer is yes. The description suggests that the caster may choose targets at will. Otherwise, the appropriate description should be "all creatures caught in a X ft. radius burst/spread", just like Confusion, Fear, etc.

    And there are two ways to implement this feature:
    1) use multi-select targeting
    Drawbacks: small creatures behind huge creatures might not be selectable; creatures that are more than X/2 apart cannot be all selected if there is no creature serving as primary target; one target per level might not be enough when facing crowed enemies.

    2) use AoE, but only apply to friendly/hostile creatures, similar to Bless (I'm not sure whether it is implementable)
    Drawbacks: you might occasionally harm your PC with Horrid Wilting who had been charmed by enemy, or kill your animated undead with Mass Heal.


    Something off-topic:

    Hero's Feast:
    1) Once cast, the remaining duration indicated by the icon on character portrait doesn't decrease with time. However, after 12 hours the spell indeed expires
    2) The spell should grant immunity against fear, poison and disease, but it didn't work for me. I also checked .\data\scr\spell225 - Heros's Feast.py, which suggests HF only cures fear, poison and disease, no immunity is granted.

    Dominate Monster casted by Balors in Demons and Demigods quest
    I failed to free party members from such domination via Break Enchantment, Heal or Dispel Magic. There was no caster level check in roll history, as if the domination effect was not there. BE did dispel other effect like fear, haste, etc.

    Death Ward vs. Bodak's Death Gaze
    adding the following line between line 1 and line 2 in .\data\rules\spells\737 - Death Gaze.txt will make DW work against DG:
    Code:
    Descriptor: Death
     
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