?s re Character Light Radius in Diablo

[Attika]

This has happened more than once in Ironman games I've been in, and I'm wondering what the explanation is. It seems to happen most often in Caves and Catacombs.

Most recently it was the Caves.

We sent the warrior down first (best AC, best weapon) alone. He waits 15 seconds. No ambush/attack develops. He moves one tile to the East and waits 15 seconds again. Same results. He calls for the Rogue.

The Rogue enters the Caves, ending up at the bottom of the stairs in the tile where the Warrior WAS over 30 seconds ago. Immediately -- without the Rogue moving or committing any other action -- she is taking incoming fire from at least 3 Storm Demons and 2 Spitting Terrors and has to bail.

What's this? It would seem that the Rogue has a higher natural Light Radius than the Warrior. Yet when I looked in Jarulf's Guide, it lists no such difference. If it ain't in JG's, then it probably ain't so, Magee. But then again, JG's is pretty mute on the subject of light radius for players. So now I'm left wondering. . . .


#1. Just what ARE the dimensions of a character's light radius? I know that opponents can see -- and shoot -- at me before I can see them. So just how many tiles is the light radius of each character? Does it extent equally in all directions? Or are the diagonals somewhat "shorter" or somewhat "longer" depending upon what math was done in the programming?

#2. Is the Rogue's natural Light Radius greater than that of the Warrior? What about the Mage and his, where does it fit in to all this? Does each character have a different light radius, or are all the character's light radii the same? How is it that the Rogue can seem to activate foes standing upon the same tile where the Warrior was -- and did not activate foes?

#3. Was there a section in JG's that dealt with light radius that I simply missed? I saw 3.4 +% Light Radius and 5.5.2 Activating Monsters. Was there another section also?

Just curious.

Attika

[Attika]

Ah, and both the Rogue and the Warrior were wearing NO items that either increased or decreased light radius.

Forgot to add that. Sorry.

Attika

[Draconis]

Lag, perhaps. It has been known to do odd things :)

[Cytrex]

Lag, perhaps. It has been known to do odd things :)

Probably. There is another thing that comes to my mind though. I assume no-one remembers my post on Blizzards forum called "Gorash smelled me" or something along these lines. Just imagine you enter level 16, and are at stairs, a little bit later Sir Gorash turns the corner and attacks you. You kill him thinking you activated him by one of your steps. During the level you visit town(hence the light radii of any (dead) unique monsters is set where the monsters originally spawned). To your great surprise you find the light radius *very* far from the spot you killed Gorash on.

Kp gave a very good explanation on that, although I'm not sure how well can I remember it, so someone correct me.

Upon entering a new level, you are actually set on the level before your x,y coordinates are changed. This results in you being on the new level but with the last coordinates from the previous level for a short time.

So if the stairs were close in coordinates on the two levels, your old coordinates might have awaken the monsters and they just happened to be close enough to see you somehow.


If you want to try it out, then here's how. Step to the stairs down with teleport spell selected. When the loading starts getting towards the end, start clicking the right mouse button. Sometimes the result is that you will teleport from the coordinates that haven't yet been changed, so your teleport might land far away from any staircase(assuming stairs down on the level were not i na similar position than stairs up on the next level).

Another experience was during a 3@30. I was fighting the Dark Lord at the time, having died a few times, and was anxious to get a portal up quick. When after death I took the portal, I was suddenly all across lvl16, in the middle of Advocates.

Hope this made any sense.

[dfn]

I assume no-one remembers my post on Blizzards forum called "Gorash smelled me" or something along these lines. Just imagine you enter level 16, and are at stairs, a little bit later Sir Gorash turns the corner and attacks you. You kill him thinking you activated him by one of your steps. During the level you visit town(hence the light radii of any (dead) unique monsters is set where the monsters originally spawned). To your great surprise you find the light radius *very* far from the spot you killed Gorash on.

This is totally irrelevant to this topic - but I remember your post. I can't believe it! I was a lurker at best on the OLD DSF forums...but WOW. I remember that specific post. Amazing...
*sigh* memories

Ok, I'm done with my trip through memory lane, you may resume important discussions now :)

[the Langolier]

Sometimes the result is that you will teleport from the coordinates that haven't yet been changed, so your teleport might land far away from any staircase(assuming stairs down on the level were not i na similar position than stairs up on the next level.

I recently discovered this as well. It is quite satisfying to aggrivate PKers waiting at the bottom of the stairs by teleporting halfway across the level as soon as you go down. Follow it up with a TP block and continue all the way - all the while mocking the would-be PKer :)