I would like to discuss lightning delay damage, as I feel it is not accurate. The only place I have ever seen it was on one free shard. Other locations describe the spell with no delay. And runuo itself states the magic arrow and explosion were the only delayed spells. Code: public virtual bool DelayedDamageStacking { get { return true; } } //In reality, it's ANY delayed Damage spell Post-AoS that can't stack, but, only //Expo & Magic Arrow have enough delay and a short enough cast time to bring up //the possibility of stacking 'em. Note that a MA & an Explosion will stack, but //of course, two MA's won't. http://uo2.stratics.com/magery/spells#fourth http://runuo.theabyss.eu/?mageryspells#4 http://www.uoguide.com/Lightning Note if there were a delay it would be noted in the duration collumn, see http://www.uoguide.com/Explosion
Thanks, Tater. Glad you brought this up. I didn't think it "felt" right but did't have any evidence to go on.
This topic has been brought up a few times recently (lightning spell damage delay) so hopefully this thread will serve to answer any uncertainties that may remain. In regards to the code you've linked above & to the explosion & magic arrow spells specifically, what is being described here is not the same as the spell damage delay. The "DelayedDamageStacking" is simply a reference to any spell which share both of these properties; A short enough casting timer, in addition to a long enough damage delay, which would allow the player to stack any of these spells on top of the same spell. There are only 2 spells in the game which have both of these conditions, and they are magic arrow & explosion. The code you've linked above simply prevents the player from stacking an explosion spell on top of another explosion spell, or this same scenario except with magic arrow. If this option is enabled, then it will not be possible to "stack" the same spell on itself. If you target a player with the explosion spell, you must wait for the damage to apply before targeting the same player with another explosion spell, else the damage from the initial spell will be voided. This technique was not possible on production servers, and as such is not possible on Renaissance as well. The two links from above are both articles that were either written after the release of Age of Shadows, or were edited to reflect the massive amount of mechanical changes that took place after the transition from Renaissance -> Age of Shadows. To clarify on this further, this can easily be seen throughout the spells information on the stratics link you've listed above. A line from the earthquake spell: A percentage damage-based attack that does approximately 33% Physical damage (min 10, max 100) against total hit points. Can hit multiple targets within its effective radius, with no limit, as long as the targets are in sight of the caster. Cannot damage targets with no line of sight, or who are hidden. All of the features listed above, came after our era of Ultima Online. All of the changes made to earthquake (damage type, requiring line-of-sight to harm mobiles) are post-era content as well. Referencing off of the stratics guide for spells, the following can be found at the bottom of the page: Last modified: October 17, 2011 Unfortunately, this link is suffering from the same content as the ones above. The information in these articles are contaminated with post-era content, that simply conflict with the mechanics we have in place now and know to be true for the Renaissance period. Because of this, we cannot realistically take this information as a reliable reference towards how these mechanic(s) functioned back in the day on production servers. Lastly, all animations, including spell animations are purely cosmetic. The damage delay for hostile spells, and even other features, such as the damage delay for the fire-breath ability, have always been, and (mostly) to this very day on production servers, still are a static 1 second delay. The only exception to this rule, is the harm spell, which causes damage instantly upon being targeted. Other than this exception for harm, there has always been a static 1 second delay before the damage is applied for spells. Up until the release of Age of Shadows, these mechanics were in place for the entirety of the games life-span. Included with the Age of Shadows expansion, the damage delay was removed & only at this time did lightning become an instant-damage spell. It is my opinion that the theory about lightning being instant damage, is directly linked to the freeshard community and product of RunUO & the RunUO Team. By default, the RunUO package comes with instant-damage on the lightning spell, and a host of other inaccuracies towards the spell system in general. It's not overly difficult to see how this could have played on the memories of players new & old, seeing as how the RunUO community itself has been around for several years, and others even longer.
So is every spell going to have a 1 second delay? How was it lightning got singled out. If every spell inherently has a 1 second delay, the addition of another second on lighting with a 1.25 recast time, would in turn make lightning a stack-able delay damage spell? Does it have to be accurate to the era? Fortress' were not, and they are great. Is there a purpose to adding annoyance to a spell? While researching things like this, and it may be just me, but all of the information available on subjects is going to be dated "after AOS" because its 2013. If I found evidence of a delay in my research I would post that and say here it is, but I think it should be changed. However all of what i found regarding the spell was that there was no delay. Had you never played or heard of uosa, would you even have thought twice about the behavior of lightning? Does anyone really remember 2000-2001? So, in summary, I don't think there should be a delay, accurate or not. But that's my opinion. Some things that are accurate are not always for the better.
Every spell at the moment (with the exceptions of harm, and explosion) have the classic era damage delay of 1 second. When the changes to the spell damage delays were originally modified, the lightning spell was overlooked (an error on my part) & missed the patch. The damage delay would be a static 1 second, under any circumstances. The casting time for lightning (4th circle) is 1.25 seconds, and has no bearing on the delay before the spell damage is applied. I'm a little confused about the "addition of another second" towards the damage delay, however this would not be the case. The delayed damage from spells will always be their static timer, never any less or higher. Overall, the goal of the server is to work towards making the mechanics as authentic to the Renaissance era as possible, while excluding or modifying any features or mechanics that the administration & staff team view as imbalanced or exploitable. However, we are not strictly bound to this goal to such a degree where we would intentionally publish or implement imbalanced or otherwise faulty mechanics into the server simply for the sake of being able to claim that it is accurate to the era. In most cases, the standard approach to most of these decisions is a comparison between how the mechanic(s) functioned in era, and how they function on Renaissance at the time of documentation. Unless the mechanic(s) that existed in era on production servers can be deemed as exploitable, or imbalanced, it is likely that we would choose the authentic mechanics. There is a lot of ancient information that dates back to the T2A, Renaissance, and even Pre-T2A era of the original Ultima Online (1997-2000~). However, this information is usually tricky to find, and sometimes time consuming. A good example of some reliable sources that we can deem as legitimate in-era documentation are things such as old time-stamped Google newsgroup postings, UO-HOC chat logs with the original development team (like the ones that were linked in the Wands discussion topic). Another useful feature that is quite handy is the WayBack Machine, which can be used to access old archives of information, such as detailed Stratics guides & documentation which is (almost always) time-stamped & greatly supports the information to be credible as a reference. In regards to the difference in opinion, at the very least I would be interested to hear your reasoning as to why you believe that this should be reverted back to the default mechanics. If evidence or information were presented in such a manner to legitimately suggest & support that the existing mechanics we're not balanced, then we would certainly roll-back to the default mechanic of instant damage.
The reason I dislike a delay from spell cast -> damage on target, makes pvp seem like you are playing in syrup, everything happens after the fact. Fights are determined by who runs out of resources first. You can greater heal pretty much through everything, even after the fact a spell was cast. It also happens to be one of the main reasons I left sa. If I wanted to play something when I acted, then a short delay between what actually happens and my opponent has time to mull over what he plans on doing next. I would play chess. Just a side note, its also ERA accurate that I disliked OSI mechanics and no longer play there.
