spells and darkness

[sorbo]

Hello everyone, this is my first post!

I bought the game last week and I've loved playing it ever since!

The only thing that has been bothering me is this: I currently play a magic-user character and I've noticed that while firing bows and making melee attacks in darkness affects your chance to hit the opponent, casting spells that target your opponent (firebolt and such) in complete darkness does not give you any penalty to hit.

I think this is not a very realistic scenario and would suggest a fix to this, since this, in my opinion, makes playing the game magic-users unnecessarily easy. Just stay in darkness and blast your way through opponents (especially archers and such) without any penalties to hit them while listening to their arrows and swords whistling past you because of the dark.

I hope this hasn't been asked before and i apologise if this is the case. I tried searching the forum first for such posts but couldn't find any. In addition, I have no idea whether this is Mac-related or should be posted elsewhere but the Mac support forum seemed the logical place to start

Thank you and I'd love to hear your comments and opinions about this!

Cheers,

Sorbo
Helsinki, Finland

[BasiliskWrangler]

Hey sorbo,

Yes, this has been discussed and is partially due to a faulty implementation of the darkness penalty. I am fixing this now in the Book II engine and am trying to figure out if/how an updated version can be implemented into Book I without breaking other things.

..oh, and welcome!

[Necromis]

Why should you need to fix magic spells chance to hit? After all it is magic. It seeks out the target. It is not like you are aiming the spell and if your aim is off you miss. I know this game is not based on D&D. However, think of the magic missle spell. It seeks out the targets. The target's chance to resist the spell is how it is defeated/avoided. So BW you don't have anything to fix on this. IMO.

[BasiliskWrangler]

That's correct (I didn't make myself very clear). Magick never requires a ToHit roll. Only melee and ranged weapons.

[sorbo]

Why should you need to fix magic spells chance to hit? After all it is magic. It seeks out the target. It is not like you are aiming the spell and if your aim is off you miss. I know this game is not based on D&D. However, think of the magic missle spell. It seeks out the targets. The target's chance to resist the spell is how it is defeated/avoided. So BW you don't have anything to fix on this. IMO.

Yep, that's the way magic is explained in D&D and many other role-playing games. But then there are others where the whole concept of magic is quite different.

For example, in some game systems and settings magic missiles and such attack spells are not considered 'intelligent' (and, because of that, target-seeking on their own account) but rather a manifestation of the chaotic, and largely uncontrollable, nature of magic which is then hurled at the opponent as a projectile. In these kinds of 'magical theories' a to-hit roll when casting attack spells is justified.

But like many other things, these are matters of opinion and as such always prone to argument. Thanks BW for clearing out how magic works in the fantastic setting of Eschalon, I'm not going to argue my opinion further, have no fear

Cheers,

Sorbo