There are both multi-strike and single strike AoE spells just like there are multi-strike and single-strike single target spells.

They fill different niches and depending on who you ask one, or both, of them are largely underwhelming right now.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

>>The spell still has its decade-old multistrike-style brief damage messaging, and just hitting a handfull of times those short messages are even more bland.

Most AoE spells have messaging like that, single or multistrike. In some cases we've ever compressed the output more for a very simple reason - AoE spells are one of the largest offenders for making the game too scrolly to play.

Compare 1st person Smite Horde:

You gesture.
As you bow your head and chant, a brilliant disc of light coalesces before you. Spinning slowly at first, it gains momentum until blue-white sparks shoot off in a blinding display. You spread your arms wide in a final decisive gesture, and the coruscating light explodes, sending a barrage of razor-edged rays flying out in all directions!

A razor-edged ray lands an awesome strike against a goblin's left leg!
The goblin is stunned!
A razor-edged ray lands an extremely heavy hit against a goblin's back!
A razor-edged ray lands a heavy strike against a goblin's chest!
A goblin collapses to the ground, shuddering and moaning until it ceases all movement.

A razor-edged ray lands a very heavy hit against a goblin's abdomen!
The goblin is stunned!
A razor-edged ray lands a massive strike against a goblin's abdomen!
A razor-edged ray lands an earth-shaking strike against a goblin's abdomen!
A goblin collapses to the ground, shuddering and moaning until it ceases all movement.

A razor-edged ray lands a massive strike against a goblin's left arm!
The goblin is stunned!
A razor-edged ray of light misses a goblin.
A razor-edged ray lands a good hit against a goblin's left leg!

A razor-edged ray lands an extremely heavy hit against a goblin's chest!
The goblin is lightly stunned!
A razor-edged ray of light misses a goblin.
A razor-edged ray lands a very heavy hit against a goblin's right arm!
Roundtime: 2 sec.

To 3rd person:
Raesh gestures.
As Raesh bows his head and chants, a brilliant disc of light coalesces before him. Spinning slowly at first, it gains momentum until blue-white sparks shoot off in a blinding display. He spreads his arms wide in a final decisive gesture, and the coruscating light explodes, sending a barrage of razor-edged rays flying out in all directions!
The goblin is stunned!
A goblin collapses to the ground, shuddering and moaning until it ceases all movement.
The goblin is stunned!
A goblin collapses to the ground, shuddering and moaning until it ceases all movement.
The goblin is stunned!
The goblin is lightly stunned!

Now - that's an extreme case (I'd like it to actually reflect the damage somewhat to the targets), but it's the first spell I knew off the top of my head did this.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

I'd have to do through all the aoe spells in the game, but they definitely still exist and are supported. The scroll they create is a very real concern however.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

I could be wrong but I've never known SmH to be a DFA spell.

Oh and HH can hit multiple times depending on the distance from the target. FoU can also strike twice (though I think this is based on skill or mana).

<<Oh and HH can hit multiple times depending on the distance from the target. FoU can also strike twice (though I think this is based on skill or mana).

The wiki now lists both of these as multi-strike. I also removed the DFA reference from SMH.

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<<Note: By the technical definitions we're using here neither HH or FoU is a multi-strike spell any more than BLB is. Which is to say they aren't. They can cause damage multiple times, but that's a whole different animal. We're talking about multiple hits AT ONE TIME which has very specific mechanical ramifications.

I was actually wondering that. I suppose pulsing damage would be a better way to describe it. I'll work that clarification into the wiki.

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Except that technically now BG is a multistrike spell. Just to confuse matters. ;)

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Hmm. Sorta.

I'm not sure I'd call a cyclic a pulse spell in a way that's meaningful to a player - but they do share a lot of the same mechanics.

So it's really about how you want to sort the information in a way that's useful to your readers (ie: Players) vs how we internally refer to things for technical reasons.

For example, SLS is a cyclic spell (That uses pulse mechanics).

Crystal Spike is actually a pulse spell since you cast it (mana is invested) and then it does attacks later.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

>So what then is the technical definition of pulse mechanics? How does collateral damage of BLB and FB fit into it?

If pulse mechanics are still what they were, a pulse spell creates a little data minion that holds some data about the spell, so that it can inform effects that take place on later system tics, instead of storing the spell information on the player.

At least that's my terrible explanation of my terrible understanding of whatever Wythor was trying to communicate back in aught nine.

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>Forgive my snark, but welcome to the life of a warrior mage.

>>If pulse mechanics are still what they were, a pulse spell creates a little data minion that holds some data about the spell, so that it can inform effects that take place on later system tics, instead of storing the spell information on the player.

Close enough for government work.

>>"Pulse damage abilities have the potential to cause multiple hits to a target from a single cast, but the hits are calculated independently of each other in succession. Most of these abilities have a delay between hits, however, some still appear to be simultaneous hits from the player standpoint. Note that this is different from cyclic abilities which are effectively recast on each pulse. For abilities which cause multiple strikes per target that are calculated simultaneously see multistrike abilities."

You're going down the rabbit hole.

What I was trying to get across is that our internal definition of a "pulse spell" isn't likely to be useful for your data sorting since it's basically "Any spell that isn't cyclic that doesn't happen instantly" and is almost entirely driven my mechanical limitations. When you cast a spell (or a cyclic pulses) there's a bunch of data floating around that the spell needs in order to execute properly. When we need a spell to operate on a different timeline than that - we have to use pulse mechanics where we manually recreate and set up that data so we can execute it. This is essentially meaningless to a player. For example, Pyre and Aban are not pulse spells. Rimefang and SLS are. This is not really useful information to anyone who isn't actively coding the spells.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

Ah, got it.

Okay, I'll stick with a non-technical definition that simply distinguishes multistrike from non-multistrike in order to account for multi-hit spells that have or don't have the multistrike penalty.

I.e.:
"Pulse damage abilities cause multiple hits to a target, but do not use multistrike ability mechanics. Some of these abilities have a delay between hits, however, some will appear to be simultaneous hits from the player standpoint."

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All I want to do is distinguish spells that take a multistrike damage penalty from those that don't. Are you saying that spells which don't use the technical multistrike template still take a multi-shot damage penalty? I.e. if it hits a target more than once then it does less damage than a single strike spell regardless of which mechanic is behind the scenes.

If so, then I don't need a separate category for this:

https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Category:Pulse_damage_abilities

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>All I want to do is distinguish spells that take a multistrike damage penalty from those that don't.

This is already accomplished by the 'multistrike' property, non? Pulse mechanics (pulse damage is not really a thing, I don't think) have nothing to do with weather a spell is being routed through the multistrike formula in core magic or not.


...also what are you doing to my beautiful thread asking for spammy chain lightning again? The scroll was the entire point of that spell! It's not worth casting it for damage, it may as well look good!

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>Forgive my snark, but welcome to the life of a warrior mage.

<<This is already accomplished by the 'multistrike' property, non?

I'm just basing it off of this post where Raesh specifically singled out a handful of multi-hit spells as being not multi-strike including one that is instantaneous (BLB) and then talked about the damage implications of multi-strike spells.
http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms/The%20Warrior%20Mages/Magic%20Talk%20-%20Current%20Warrior%20Mage%20Magic/view/2316

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