Named Shurikens

[Cetus]

Spelltouched throwing weapons didn't take any time to develop. In the first MotU beta, they were just Cormyrian throwing weapons... with a very interesting bug that happened whenever you attacked with one.
On learning about this bug, the whole design team thought was so awesome, that instead of fixing it, we retconned the item descriptions instead to explain it. Thus, spelltouched was born.

meh, I am so unconcerned about this. What would be more interesting is finding out whether or not the whole team thought that the RANDOM part of it was awesome to begin with. Especially since, you know, when the entire community was voicing their opinions against it.

Random =/= good.

[Daemoneyes]

Good hint.



Based on this, it seems like the effect is to perform a prefix or suffix from the list of lootgen affixes that can spawn on weaponry each hit. It seems like it's not limited to weapon affixes that could apply to that particular weapon due to the presence of Weakening, Maladroit and Wounding as well as both Heartseeker and Bloodletting.

The only problem with this guess is that haste seems like 'air guard', which is a lootgen property on armor.

I also have no idea if the affixes it can use go as high as the rarer ones like Toxic and Obscenity. I would guess it doesn't, since it doesn't seem to drop as low as Cold Touch and Fire Touch, so it must be a random affix between certain levels of loot.

Its not Heartseeker / Bloodletting, those calculate with crit.
x2 is way to low for 120

also the sneak attack damage was ~240 if i remember right, no affix gives that much.

and haste was in the attack sequence triggered (was fighting a woodwoad so got rarely hit)

maybe every of those weapons has a different set, not sure only tested throwing knives

[HatsuharuZ]

meh, I am so unconcerned about this. What would be more interesting is finding out whether or not the whole team thought that the RANDOM part of it was awesome to begin with. Especially since, you know, when the entire community was voicing their opinions against it.

Random =/= good.

Random *results* are not good, when they are expensive and require grinding like Cormyrian challenge items do. The fact that the Eveningstar challenge ingredients are bound-to-character makes it worse.

[jakeelala]

Actually I believe fire touch and cold touch require their own special loot table flag to appear in a chest on loot. Or else when ransacking chests past korthos you would occasionally see "X Touch" weapons dropping. I believe they only drop in special chests keyed to them or when a quest base level is a certain number.

Good hint.



Based on this, it seems like the effect is to perform a prefix or suffix from the list of lootgen affixes that can spawn on weaponry each hit. It seems like it's not limited to weapon affixes that could apply to that particular weapon due to the presence of Weakening, Maladroit and Wounding as well as both Heartseeker and Bloodletting.

The only problem with this guess is that haste seems like 'air guard', which is a lootgen property on armor.

I also have no idea if the affixes it can use go as high as the rarer ones like Toxic and Obscenity. I would guess it doesn't, since it doesn't seem to drop as low as Cold Touch and Fire Touch, so it must be a random affix between certain levels of loot.

[Deathdefy]

Its not Heartseeker / Bloodletting, those calculate with crit.
x2 is way to low for 120

also the sneak attack damage was ~240 if i remember right, no affix gives that much.

and haste was in the attack sequence triggered (was fighting a woodwoad so got rarely hit)

maybe every of those weapons has a different set, not sure only tested throwing knives

Yeah, I was thinking for Heartseeker / Bloodletting that it might be pretending it was a pick or something, since it doesn't care about initial weapon type as e.g. Maladroit is usually bludgeoning only. I'm still not sure if the damage adds up, especially since I'm at a total loss for the sneak attack damage now - unless it was a killing blow in which case all (almost all? at least the physical part anyway) damage is listed as sneak attack damage, and it could have just been... something like superior heartseeker on a x4 crit weapon again? Maybe?

EDIT: A hit with a 'Deception' affix a short time before a kill makes sense actually.

Yeah haste throws me. I realise it was triggered in the attack sequence, so I just don't know.

My theory's probably wrong.

Thanks for testing though!

Actually I believe fire touch and cold touch require their own special loot table flag to appear in a chest on loot. Or else when ransacking chests past korthos you would occasionally see "X Touch" weapons dropping. I believe they only drop in special chests keyed to them or when a quest base level is a certain number.

Interesting! Haha if you're right those are indeed 'special' chests.

[cdr]

Actually I believe fire touch and cold touch require their own special loot table flag to appear in a chest on loot. Or else when ransacking chests past korthos you would occasionally see "X Touch" weapons dropping. I believe they only drop in special chests keyed to them or when a quest base level is a certain number.

Touch has a 50/50 chance to generate on +1 modifier weapons. That puts it in sort of a special table I think, since it's not a normal prefix or suffix. You should see it outside of Korthos though when +1 potentials are being generated - I've seen it in harbor end lists, for instance. There might be something about ransacking that skips +1 potential, dunno.

[Jaid314]

maybe spelltouched is basically just generating a new weapon from scratch every time it's used.

[sephiroth1084]

Random *results* are not good, when they are expensive and require grinding like Cormyrian challenge items do. The fact that the Eveningstar challenge ingredients are bound-to-character makes it worse.

Yeah. Feather wasn't here for its inception, but apparently no one over at Turbine learned from Dragontouched crafting, which was almost universally reviled, but run, because it was endgame and nothing compared. Those last two aren't really applicable to the random junk from the challenges.

[zealous]

maybe spelltouched is basically just generating a new weapon from scratch every time it's used.

Maybe not from scratch. Maybe it keeps the effects it is originally generated with and generates an additional set of effects every time it is equiped, i.e. after every throw.

At least that's what happens to (my) cormyrian wraps turned pet module.

[Jaid314]

Maybe not from scratch. Maybe it keeps the effects it is originally generated with and generates an additional set of effects every time it is equiped, i.e. after every throw.

At least that's what happens to (my) cormyrian wraps turned pet module.

well, yeah, that's what i meant, basically; as in, someone accidentally nested the weapon generation tables into being one of the weapon's abilities.

[Feather_of_Sun]

Maybe not from scratch. Maybe it keeps the effects it is originally generated with and generates an additional set of effects every time it is equiped, i.e. after every throw.

Yup. That's why it gets 3 or 4 (depending on if it's a level 16-20 or 24 item) extra mystery effects that change every attack, in addition to the effects listed on the item which it always has.

It would have been fairly easy to fix, but we decided that it was really fun, and since it's throwing weapons, they could use the love. So we retconned Spelltouched into being!

[BruceTheHoon]

We've all done it

[shadereaper33]

Yup. That's why it gets 3 or 4 (depending on if it's a level 16-20 or 24 item) extra mystery effects that change every attack, in addition to the effects listed on the item which it always has.

It would have been fairly easy to fix, but we decided that it was really fun, and since it's throwing weapons, they could use the love. So we retconned Spelltouched into being!

I guess that's kinda neat, or something. At least it isn't worth running the challenges to get the mats on any of my characters, since it's only on throwing weapons and all. Maybe if ranged combat didn't inherently suck in this game, this would be a cool feature, but as it is, the only reason I ever use a throwing weapon is to kill kobolds that jump 15 feet up the wall in the harbor. Sorry Feather, but this is another waste of an otherwise cool effect.

[AlteredState]

I would be all over a 75% returning stack of arrows or a quiver that granted similar effects(slightly scaled back as to be less than overpowered). Just saying.

[Jay203]

It would have been fairly easy to fix, but we decided that it was really fun, and since it's throwing weapons, they could use the love. So we retconned Spelltouched into being!

if you really wanna give throwing builds some love....
allow dual-wield throwing

[HouseAtreides]

[IMG]It would have been fairly easy to fix, but we decided that it was really fun, and since it's throwing weapons, they could use the love. So we retconned Spelltouched into being!

So in effect... you are resorting to accidental consequences of programming mistakes to balance different combat styles?


...neat?

[Arkat]

Yup. That's why it gets 3 or 4 (depending on if it's a level 16-20 or 24 item) extra mystery effects that change every attack, in addition to the effects listed on the item which it always has.

It would have been fairly easy to fix, but we decided that it was really fun, and since it's throwing weapons, they could use the love. So we retconned Spelltouched into being!

I actually think this is pretty cool. I have a thrower build so it appears I actually have a reason to run the Eveningstar challenges.

I just wish the ingredients didn't BTC though.

[sirgog]

Despite the cool bug, I've yet to see a Spelltouched thrower that comes within a mile of my prized +6 Keen Throwing Dagger of Radiance for all-around usefulness. When you want a thrower, usually you really appreciate blinding mobs on a 17.

[JOTMON]

Those exploding barrels dont stand a chance now.. cormyrian muti-effect attack.... Rawr...

[jejeba86]

We've all done it

That's awesome!!