Spells: Mage Bolt Line

[Ptkfgs]

I remember on live if you stood high up enough on a hill sometimes the mage bolts would double nuke. Maybe this has something to do with it?

[Bockscar]

Originally Posted by sellawiz [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Disagree, it's a good pseudo nerf to mages. At least the part where its not instant and you can sort of out run it and zone if you are close.

Well, if mage nukes are completely fucked, they need to be fixed whether by fixing bolts or making them into normal nukes. Arbitrarily nerfing classes is out of the question.

[nilbog]

Need specifics as to what works, and what doesn't, so we can work on it.

Firstly, bolts having no cast time is completely inaccurate. It's been that way on the other emus, but take this into consideration. Magician's highest damage nukes (bolts) required time to land, and for LOS to be clear. Having instant evocation nukes is very non-mage like :P

So, with that being said, let's go through what works.. and what doesn't.

First, graphic. It currently looks like a flying glowing black stone, pulsating red. We know this isn't right. It's the closest we could get until the flare graphic is corrected. So this is known.

How about the speed of the bolt? Here are some classic pics.

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How fast are the bolts? Should take a bard to outrun. IIRC, just having a sow, the bolt will catch you eventually.

Can you cast bolts without a target?

Do bolts interrupt if you cast another spell before it lands? What exactly happens?

Quotes from another bug report. I responded to PVE, but PVP bolts should work the same, correct?

Originally Posted by nilbog [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I played a mage a good bit on live. Here's what I remember

Originally Posted by Lyrik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Didn't it also fail if it passed through players / the ground before reaching its target?

Originally Posted by nilbog [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Originally bolts didn't even require a target. You could face a direction, and cast. From what I recall it would even hit npcs that moved in its path, thus creating aggro that wasn't your original intent. Also, if it was chasing an npc target, if one got in its path, it would hit it and never reach your intended target. If following a target, it would go on forever until it hit something, including its targets corpse, if they died before it got to them.

Originally Posted by Malakriss [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You would have to be facing your target to begin casting, if you had any terrain in the way of the bolt it would fail, but you also had the random chance it would hit the target twice for some unknown Z-axis reason.

Originally Posted by nilbog [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think it did need some type of conic radius to start chasing a target. As in you couldn't be facing opposite your target, but you also didn't need to be lined up exactly with them. I remember the Z axis double nuke as well. If levitating, and very close to the target, it would sometimes hit twice.

http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...454#post174454

[Harrison]

I don't remember it being able to cast without a target, myself.

I do remember it being able to get "intercepted" by both npcs and players. (It is the same with arrows, and archery always required a target.)

You could always cast other spells before the bolt landed, unless there was a random bug here and there on live.

[Smedy]

Originally Posted by Lasher [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

can bolts get blocked by other players on red99? On live i think if you step in front of a bolt that wasnt intended for you, you got wtfnuked. Im remembering correctly right? I think the same thing happened with arrows

Yes, however on live you couldn't outrun a bolt, but you could avoid it by dodging behind a tree or a hill, if you had time to do it, they travelled faster then bard max speed.

[Harrison]

You COULD however juke it with shadowstep.

[furny]

bump

[Lasher]

On live did bolts actually chase their target or did it just go in a straight line to what ever you had targeted?

P99 the bolt eventually catches up to the target as long as no hard objects block the bolt, so i think it could literally take a 180 turn. Its been so long ago but i dont seem to remember live bolts doing that, anyone able to confirm/deny?

[Palemoon]

Ok here is some fresh/hot info straight from Al'kabor about bolts:

-It is impossible to hit myself with a bolt spell. I can cast it with me as a target, but it will never land on myself.

-I could cast a bolt on my alt, and then use a fast cast noob nuke on myself and my nuke would land and then the bolt would land on my alt. I.E. your bolt can be traveling through the air to your target and its not going to mess up your current cast. You can cast multiple bolts too, lets you front load a bunch of damage on a mob (or player!) before they agro you.

-I CAN cast bolt with NO target. The bolt will then shoot out in a straight line in the direction I'm facing. The bolt WILL hit my alt in its path, even though I've not targetted anything.

-I can stand with my back to my alt, and target her and still use bolts. I.E. you dont have to "face" your target with bolts.

-I can confirm that bolts can hit unintended targets on its route to its target.

-IF you cast on a target in range at the end of your casting time (i.e. you have them on your actual target window), them backing off out of range wont save them from the bolt. I tried a dozen times to do the same without having the alt on target window, but the "wild bolt" never gets to them when they back up out of range. This was all done in a very long straight and obsticle-less giant hallway. This was not done with a bard running a million miles away at top speed, but confirms that the bolt will travel farther then the base 300 unit range if an actual target is used who then moves farther then 300 away.

I can verify all of the above quickly to any GM who wants to log into Al'kabor.

[Kringe]

I agree with this, the bolt line is very very slow to react. Needs to be sped up alittle.