Ice Meteorite mechanics

[Crius 0]

Long story short, saying you increase or decrease the damage, area and number of meteorites means nothing unless you have the context. I made something to actually calculate the probability of hitting an enemy (and thus the average damage you can expect) depending on distance, ranges and number of meteorites. Without knowing what numbers to use though, it's somewhat pointless. So I'm asking, how does it all work?

 

So far, my assumptions are the following:

1) All meteorites fall within a circular area from the epicenter (which is the enemy targeted, or the caster if no enemy was targeted).

2) The effective damage area of each meteorite is a circular area around the impact point.

3) Each meteorite impact point is completely random and independant, i.e. a meteorite can fall anywhere within the area regardless of where other meteorites fall.

 

Okay, so the first question I guess would be if those assumptions are correct. I guess the areas could be squares or something...

 

Next, the numbers. We know the damage per meteorite and the number of meteorites (given by the skill description). The "area" according to the skill is "81", but it's not entirely clear what that means. The area of the impact is apparently 30 now, but again it's not entirely clear what that refers to. So to clear things up:

a) What is the radius of the area where meteorites can fall (#1)? Or, if the area is not circular, width/height or whatever attributes are needed to calculate the area.

b) What is the radius (or appropriate attributes) of the impact area that the meteorites do damage within (#2)?

 

If anyone knows, any help would be appreciated.

[Ryoko 0]

Hi Crius!

Once I tried to calculate it, but I failed.

I increased the glow effect when the meteorite touches the ground and the time that the effect stays in the ground, so I could cast a lot of meteorite and the effect would still keep on the ground, time enough for I note what was it area, and it's a square.

 

Furthermore, I remove all meteorites, just left one, when it touch the ground I saw a square. Sorry but seems that I forgot to save this screenshot.

So, the area of the whole skill must be a square (81) and the impact area also seems to be a square(30).

However, I'm only basing these information in the particle effects, so I might be wrong about everything. Only sandurr can give a fully correct answer.

 

Edit: An area of 81 seems totally weird. I think this should be the area of each meteorite and sandurr may have typed it wrong.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Ryoko.

[Crius 0]

Hmm, exploiting the visuals to get the shape of the area of effect is actually a pretty good idea, assuming they correspond to what actually goes on and you can cast it enough times. I'm not sure if the particles can be used to see the impact area though, or if it's clearly visible whether it's a circle or a square. I debated with myself a bit over using circular impact shapes as it makes for much more difficult hit calculations, but it wouldn't have been a big deal to make the area of effect circular (you just change random x/y to random distance/angle). I still want to know what 81 and 30 refers to though, since other skills like Diastrophism has almost twice that as "area" but doesn't seem to have that sort of range.

[Ryoko 0]

Hello again, just an update.

In the last patch notes Wartale mentioned the shape of the impact area.

Impact Area of Ice Meteorites from 20 circle area radius to 30 circle area radius

Now we just need the maximum radius of the skill.

[Crius 0]

I could've sworn that was not there when I made this thread... Oh well, circular meteorite impact area with a radius of 30 units it is. Possibly a square target area if the visuals are correct, but I'd still like to see it with my own eyes or here from someone with access to the code before we set it in stone.

 

An "area" of 81 is obviously not correct if you compare it to a skill like Diastrophism, which has an "area" of 145. However, it may be a case of terms being mixed, with "area" refering to diameter (or full width) for Diastrophism, but radius (or half width) for Ice Meteorite. Could it be possible that a meteorite can fall 9 units outside the outer border of the Diastrophism AoE (12.5% longer reach)? I don't have a lot of experience with Diastrophism, so I don't really have a feeling for how far it reaches. On top of that you'd get the radius, so damage could potentially be done to things 39 units outside Diastrophism max range.

[Crius 0]

Tried doing the particle test, using a single fairly large particle for the impact with a lifetime of 300 seconds. Apparently the client got enough of particles after a while and stopped playing the IM animation completely, so the results were somewhat inconclusive and I couldn't really see if it was a square or a circle. That method was pretty much a bust.

[Photon 0]

Its a circle (radius) of impact

 

The radius (30) scale is the same like bows have 255 range etc.

[Crius 0]

The impact, yeah, I got that from the new description in the patch notes (thanks for that), but this time I was talking about the whole area where meteorites can fall, which has a range of 81 according to the skill description though this doesn't make much sense compared to other ranged skills unless they refer to different things.

[Mercury 0]

Possible explination; (I dont know wheter this is correct or not )

Ice meteorite range is also a circle.

This means a metorite will have a max-range of 81 and a max dmg-range of [81+(30/2)]=96 (maybe?)

 

Or it could mean range between meteorites is 81

 

Or (since wands/staffs has ranges too) it could be added range (wand/staff range + 81)

 

[Crius 0]

If the impact radius is 30 and the max meteorite range is a circle with a radius of 81, that would mean a damage radius of 101. If it's a square and 81 refers to the distance from the center to the edge (at a 90 degree angle), it would vary between 101 and 145. It's confirmation of the shape and the size of the area where meteorites may fall that's missing. If I were to guess, I'd go with a circle with radius 81, but I can't be sure.

[Crius 0]

Well, it looks like there won't be any new revelations in the near future, so I'm just gonna stick with the assumption about circular AoE with a radius of 81. If you're interested in toying around with different variables and see what happens for some reason, I uploaded a virus tool made in Java that you can use. If it breaks anything it's your fault, but you do get to keep all the pieces.