Game Mechanics: Line of Sight Checks for Spells are Incorrect for this Era

[Schortt]

I've been meaning to post this thread for awhile but due to being only sporadically active for the last year+ on P1999 I hadn't gotten around to doing the research until today.

This is concerning a change that was made on here about 2 years ago regarding when Line of Sight gets checked for determining if a spell is going to land. I wasn't very active at the time that this change was made, so if I'm retreading old ground and this was one of those unclassic-but-for-the-good-of-the-server changes I apologize - I did my best to look for discussion about this topic and didn't manage to find much.

Here's the change from the 3/11/2011 patch notes:

Rogean-Src-NPC's will now be able to finish casting a spell without line of sight, but will still be interrupted if out of range. They will still require line of sight to their target to begin the cast, and line of sight will still be checked for area effects.

This should not be happening yet - it was a change made during Luclin. It also should not work this way for players: we should be able to start casting spells on anything in range regardless of LoS.

September 4, 2002

** Line of Sight Changes **

- For spells that require Line of Sight (LoS), the LoS check is now at
the beginning of the spellcast, not the end.
- Spells that require but do not have of LoS will now fail immediately.
- Harmful spells require LoS.
- Most Beneficial spells still do not require LoS.
- Bind Sight type spells do not require LoS.
- Any beneficial spell containing a Cancel Magic component requires
LoS.[/I]

A 2003 discussion of outdoor LoS changes on the Druid's Grove (emphasis mine)

Mobs won't start casting on players out of LOS.

They will however finish casting on players who are out of LOS.

This was because it was very easy to dance a mob's casting.

Players get 2 sight checks -- one at the start and one at the end of the spell.

If you have ever pulled a caster where the zone has geometry, you should know this. You can't dodge a nuke being cast, but you can hide around a corner to make a mob come closer after the current spell is cast.

These both show that LoS checks should be only at the end of a cast for both PCs and NPCs during this era (and Velious as well).

Also, any cast that is aborted due to a failed LoS check should still be costing the PC caster mana.

June 12, 2002

- Player characters will no longer use mana on targeted spell casts
that do not connect due to Line of Sight

This means that, right now, PCs should be able to dodge NPC spells that are already underway by "dancing" around corners in indoor zones to break LoS. It also means that PCs should be able to, for instance, start casting a spell on a mob that is chasing the PC through corridors and (if the timing is right) land the spell as the mob enters LoS. Finally, it means that PCs should have to use their judgement and duck their casts if they want to avoid losing mana due to mobs being out of LoS at the end of their casts.

The number of times I wasted mana trying to stop a mob fleeing around a corner only to be OOM and then get trained and be unable to gate...yeah. It sucked but it was definitely classic.