Re: CF: RE: Footprints (was: Long term experimental ideas)

[David Andrew Michael Noelle <dave@Straylight.org>]

> Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 21:11:52 -0700
> From: Mark Wedel <mwedel@scruznet.com>
> 
>  But as a note - if you want cones to propogate but big monsters not take more
> damage, it is more difficult.

Why shouldn't larger creatures take more damage?  It's an area effect
and there's more of them to hit.  They're absorbing a larger
proportion of the spell's total damage by occupying more of the spaces
the spell hits.  Maybe they shouldn't be taking as _much_ more damage
as they currently do, but that's a different question.


>  If you change the code so that the 'head' has to be hit, you get affects where
> it appears the bulk of the monster is engulfed, yet takes not damage because the
> head is out of it.

Not to mention creatures like Titans, who have their "head" in the
middle of their 3x3 body.  Weird.  I made Mind Stab require that you
point at the creature's head, but I might have to change that, since
creatures don't always have their "head"s where they appear to be.


>  My immediate thought on this would be something like this:
> 
>  In the spell effect object, add a tag that is the object tag of the last
> creature to take damage from the spell.  Initialize it to 0.
>  As the spell moves along, the new spaces inherit this tag.  If it hits a
> monster, compare the tag in the spell effect to that of the monster - if it
> matches, do no damage.  If it doesn't match, do damage, and update the effect
> tag with the new monster.  Either way, have the spell move along.
>
>  This fixes the problem of a monster taking multiple damage from the same spell. 

And would seriously break the alternative cone propagation I've been
working on.  Under this alternate system, cones get weaker as they
progress, not stronger, and they are absorbed and weakened faster for
each creature they hit.  They are also weakened by each square of a
large creature they hit, and I'm thinking of basing the amount of
damage absorbed on the mass of the creature.  That way one dragon
might block most of an icestorm, protecting the dragons behind him,
but it would cut through several ranks of minor demons before
weakening significantly.


>  But the other question would be:
> 
>  Should a creature at the center of a cone/center of a ball explosion take more
> damage than if it was at the fringe?

Well, I definitely think so.  Explosion spells already do that, since
the damage object at the center lasts the longest.  The current cone
spells are weak on the sides and at the starting point and strong in
the middle and at the end.  The revised cones are strong at the
starting point and down the middle, and weak on the sides and at the
end.


-- 
            -Dave Noelle,                 dave@Straylight.org
            -the Villa Straylight,  http://www.straylight.org
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