Spell Casting

As you know, I'm in the process of rewriting virtually every spell in the game. I'm curious what your preference would be for spell targeting. I'm using my own scripting to analyze spell targets, so I can make it whatever I want. Right now, many of the rewritten spells will ONLY harm hostile creatures. Spells won't even harm other PCs unless you select "dislike," and all of the rewritten spells can never harm the spell caster.

Question is, what would you prefer? Would you like separate rules for the beginning dungeons and deeper dungeons, or do you like the idea that only monsters are ever hurt no matter where you're at (PCs being treated as hostile monsters if you select "dislike"). In other words, you will never be able to attack an NPC with a spell unless they are hostile to you.

What do you all think?

I think only spells should attack hostile, I mean I dislike attacking a monster while my teammate is up there attack also, like when I am using the spell ice storm, many times using this spell I have hurt Mengala and had to stop using it.

So if you are attacked by PC then I would say hit dislike it's not that hard to do.

Nice work Sarah, keep up the good work.

DarkSky

I think that's a great idea. I had the same problem as DarkSky with spells like Icestorm. This would also make epic spells, like Hell Ball, truly be more epic. As it was, you had to cast it and run away- -and the monsters would usually follow if you couldnt disable them-- in order to not get hurt.

Also, could you look at the AI scripts? My spell casters are casting spells such as Bigby's Forceful Hand (KD-Stun) and Bigby's Grasping Hand (Hold) and Bigby's Crushing Hand(hold+damage). With Forceful hand, the monsters would become knocked down, only to get back up, run at the caster, attack for a FULL ROUND (or cast spells), and then fall back down. They would stop attacking, but would follow the caster around. The hold spells were virtually useless on every monster I tried them on (up to D9). The visual would appear, and I'd get the message "Target Grappled" but the monsters would keep moving to my caster. Those spells dont completely disable the attackers, so if they are close enough they would attack. The most aggravating thing was to KD a Pixie in D9, only to have it run up to the caster, and cast Prismatic spray (for 250+ acid damage) and THEN falling down.

I noticed the same thing some time ago with the Bigby spells. For some reason, the AI commands them to move near the person who cast the spell. It should simply immobilize them where they are.

The AI scripting is very complex. It's on my agenda to redo it, but I'm still using mostly Bioware's scripting to operate the monsters in combat. There is quite a bit of coding involved, so much so that it amazes me that the game works as well as it does.

Think about it. At the end of every round, the monsters have to decide who to fight, analyze the situation, and determine the best course of action. If they are casters, they have to determine which spell (out of many possibly memorized) to cast. They also have to check their inventories for items that might be used.

Now consider that these scripts are run for every single active monster every round...

BTW, Bioware does have a neat trick for monsters who are in areas without PCs. They basically do nothing, so if you leave an area where monsters are fighting monsters, the fight stops until a PC re-enters the area.

As for the spell casting PvP settings, about 2/3 of the spells are changed over to the new system. They only hurt hostile creatures, and you must "dislike" a player to even use the spells in PvP. I haven't extensively tested the coding in all circumstances, like where one of your henchmen casts a spell in an area including NPCs, monsters, other henchmen, etc. So please let me know if you see anything weird going on.

Aye, I know the AI coding is long and extensive.... I've had to change a few things on my mod. So definitely take your time. Just something on the list. I've only had about a 5% death ratio with this dumb bug so really nothing lost at all, especially with your mercy on the death penalty.

Not sure if it's been changed over yet but:
Fireball, Scintillating Sphere, Delayed Blast Fireball, Cone of Cold all still hurt the caster/allies.

I'll post a note here when all the spells are reworked. I have a lot more to do, especially when I include all the area of effects.

Are Lesser Planar Binding (Evil) And Planar Binding (Evil) Supposed to summon the same 90HP Imp? After all, Planar Binding is a higher level spell.

Thank you for all the updates on the spells.