Facing bug

[Vyctor]

Why doesn't the facing bug apply to mobs? Mobs start to cast a fireball and I run behind them like they do us...but instead of no spell effect (like would happen to us) their spell goes off anyway. My guess is that their programming is only a one time check...if we're in front when they start casting, the spell goes off and hits us no matter where we are at...but ours is checked twice, once when the spell is started and again when the spell detonates...my question is why is it that way? that doesn't exactly seem fair or balanced at all...

[Dracorat]

It's also not cool to start casting a spell, get a failure *and lose mana*. If the condition for casting was met at the time of casting begin, either complete the spell or don't take my mana.

Also, if I'm casting a spell and it fails because a better one already exists on my target (think buffs here) that too should not take mana. If the game was more open about showing buffs on people, I'd be OK with it, but the game isn't so I'm not.

[Reisz]

Chasing down fleeing mobs can be just as frustrating. How many time do you swing and not even see a *miss*. Mobs seem to be able to ping you from anywhere.

[Cahira]

The thing that gets me is that you can target a mob and cast a soundburst on him. If he is in front of you when the soundburst goes off, it goes off where you had originally targeted him (way behind him if he's started running towards you).

However, if he manages to get behind you while you're casting, the spell won't go off at all.

That seems like a bad design. It seems like the code checks the mob location for where to put the spell when the casting begins. Then at the end of the casting, it checks to see where the mob is to determine if you're facing them or not. If you're facing the mob, then the spell goes off in the spot from the first check at the beginning of casting time. If you're not facing the mob, then the spell does not go off.

I'm sure the game is not programmed in Assembly code...but it seems to me that if it were, a TS (test and set) command would be a really good way to check multiple things at the same time. The test and set command checks a bit value and sets it...while also keeping a "condition code" of what the value was before it got set (already set or previously zero). I believe (but have tried to avoid higher level languages) that posix mutexes can do similar things in higher level languages like c and c++.

Basically, I'm trying to say that if they're going to make multiple checks on where the mob is, they should all be done at the same time...whether at the beginning of the casting or at the end of the casting.

[dameron]

This is the garbage I've noticed:

Start casting a long casting time spell on a mob approaching you (or any AoE spell, but it's easier to see with longer casting times).

If you keep the mob in front of you the spell goes off where the creature was when you started casting the spell.

If the creature goes around you it fails to go off at all.

Why, if the spell would land where the mobs was when you began casting, do you lose the spell if the mob moves around you?

It's idiotic.

[Club'in]

It's ALMOST annoying enough for me to stop playing a caster. I love the up close and personal spells like Slay Living, Shocking Grasp and Ottos. But the targeting in this game is ridiculous. It's not reasonable that the mobs ALWAYS go for the flanking move. Like a troll wouldn't just try to knock the mage silly with a straight ahead charge. It's not reasonable that a caster won't automatically pivot to keep facing the targeted monster. It's not a realistic expectation by the developers when they are fully aware of the lag time between my character, the monster, and all of my teammates. It is, in fact, quite blatantly...LAME!

[Gennerik]

More than likely, they use the same system, just you see the effects of the spell after the server has already calculated what's going on. Similar to chasing down a fleeing monster, you can swing when you're right behind the creature and you won't hit it because while your client thinks you're right next to the creature, the server knows that you're really 5 feet away from it's current location. When casting a spell, the spell is most likely already been cast when you start to see the spell casting begin. So when you move, the server considers you within range since you haven't moved (or moved enough) by the time it finishes casting the spell.

About the only way you're going to fix this is to increase the range of hitting when you're running or increasing the radius that you can touch or see when casting a spell and reducing the range of a monster and decrease the hit arc for monster spells. And this still won't help everyone, since higher-latency connections will still get hit by most monster effects and miss on most player effects. Maybe Turbine could implement a division/mutliplication factor based on your connection's average latency since you started playing, making the factor more variable.

[CrimsonEagle]

Chasing down fleeing mobs can be just as frustrating. How many time do you swing and not even see a *miss*. Mobs seem to be able to ping you from anywhere.

This is easy to fix and makes perfect sense. You have to be 2 to three steps ahead of the mob you are attacking, swinging at what appears to be air in order to get your attack in.

See....I told you it makes sense

I also like the phantom fireballs. Cast a fireball.....it explodes....no saves, no damage, spellpoints used, or how about running in the vale, hasted, displaced, blur cast, stoneskin, yet I still get hit everysingle time by that scorpion that seems to be able to run faster than me no matter how much haste boost I have.

In that senario.....me run....I am hit...I am hit....I am hit....I am hit....I am hit.

Reverse senario, standing still, me trying to hit a displaced mob. Swing, displace, swing, displaced, swing displaced, Swing, displace, swing, displaced, swing displaced, swing HIT!!!!!

Another sweet sweet thing. Look at feet....try to cast spell.....get message target is out of range.

Fun times

[Depravity]

Another sweet sweet thing. Look at feet....try to cast spell.....get message target is out of range.

Fun times

From what I've noticed, it seems to check a line between targeted point (your feet), and the point that your viewpoint originates from (the virtual camera showing you the game). You happen to block the spell. Or something like that. I have to keep the camera pulled in pretty close to my wizzy to avoid that silly "out of range" nonsense.

One spot that's really bad is the (I forget the name) Delera's graveyard quest where you have to guard a gate while funeral pyres are lit. I keep having the archway on the gate block my firewall casts at a target 2 feet in front of my toes. Actually have to turn my viewpoint around and face the gate to get them to go off, which makes spotting that incoming zombie really fun.

As for the AoE stuff, that seems to happen with any spell that can be targeted manually. Willing to bet it sets a target point where the mob was, just as if you had manually targeted, and then has a separate go/no-go "Can you hit the mob" check when the spell actually goes off. I've had more luck manually targeting, using my years of accumulated vidogame rocket launcher training (aim ahead of his feet).