01-26-2004, 12:16 PM
Think about it this way. Instead of envisioning them blowing it out through their mouth(ala traditional circus fire-breathers), think about them blowing it out through their nostrils, like a smoker who sucks in the smoke, then blows it out through his nostrils. You'll see 2 streams, which are separate, but will probably fuse together a little since they're travelling in more or less the same direction.
Here's my attempt to draw it out in ascii
= is blank space
O is the character firing the spell
|| and // and \\ represent the twin streams of the spell, imagine it as the 2 sides of a snake curving its way along.
======O======
======||======
=====//=======
======\\======
Now, let's add some enemies(1,2,3)
======O======
=====1||======
=====//2======
======\\======
=======3=====
Enemy 1 will be missed by the caster, unless they're close enough to scrape the left edge of the spell, in which case, they will be hit for 1/2 damage(assuming this is the player spells Inferno/Arctic Blast), since they only get hit by 1 "puff"(forgot who came up with the "puff" terminology, but it describes Inferno perfectly. For AB, refer to them as "flakes" :) )
Enemy 2 will be hit by the top stream(the last one coming from the caster) , and possibly scraped by the side of the middle "puff"/"flake"
Enemy 3 is going to be hit dead-on by the bottom stream(the one that was fired earlier on), and maybe scraped by the latest "puff"
Did that make any sense? Basically, if you are hit by both streams, you take maximum damage(and theoretically, reduce the damage twice, once per stream), if you're hit by one side(one "puff"), you'll take only 1/2 the listed damage(only for player spells, shaman/demon versions might be different) Heck, Nihlathak and those Frozen Creeper things in Act 5 might use a different AB than the Druid's, for all I know.
Any mpq readers wanna save me several hours of eye-pain? I've been staring at 3d images in class for 2 hours straight today, and all I wanna do is stare at 3d images on my NeverWinter Nights. :)
Here's my attempt to draw it out in ascii
= is blank space
O is the character firing the spell
|| and // and \\ represent the twin streams of the spell, imagine it as the 2 sides of a snake curving its way along.
======O======
======||======
=====//=======
======\\======
Now, let's add some enemies(1,2,3)
======O======
=====1||======
=====//2======
======\\======
=======3=====
Enemy 1 will be missed by the caster, unless they're close enough to scrape the left edge of the spell, in which case, they will be hit for 1/2 damage(assuming this is the player spells Inferno/Arctic Blast), since they only get hit by 1 "puff"(forgot who came up with the "puff" terminology, but it describes Inferno perfectly. For AB, refer to them as "flakes" :) )
Enemy 2 will be hit by the top stream(the last one coming from the caster) , and possibly scraped by the side of the middle "puff"/"flake"
Enemy 3 is going to be hit dead-on by the bottom stream(the one that was fired earlier on), and maybe scraped by the latest "puff"
Did that make any sense? Basically, if you are hit by both streams, you take maximum damage(and theoretically, reduce the damage twice, once per stream), if you're hit by one side(one "puff"), you'll take only 1/2 the listed damage(only for player spells, shaman/demon versions might be different) Heck, Nihlathak and those Frozen Creeper things in Act 5 might use a different AB than the Druid's, for all I know.
Any mpq readers wanna save me several hours of eye-pain? I've been staring at 3d images in class for 2 hours straight today, and all I wanna do is stare at 3d images on my NeverWinter Nights. :)