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ID: Category: Severity: Reproducibility: Date Submitted: Last Update:
11809 Bug Report text always 2018-12-30 18:16 2023-10-08 22:57
Reporter: damerell Local or Remote: Both  
Assigned To: PleasingFungus Operating System: All  
Priority: normal Console or Tiles: Both  
Status: closed Product Branch: 0.23 ancient branch  
Product Version: Resolution: won't do  
Projection: none      
ETA: none Fixed in Branch:  
Summary: 0011809: IOOD says "This spell will have no effect right now because you can't see any valid targets", but could be used speculatively.
Description: IOOD says "This spell will have no effect right now because you can't see any valid targets", and the player must use Z not z to cast it, but the player might fire it in a direction they expect a monster to appear. I submit this should be changed to be consistent with other spells that can be used against monsters currently out of LOS.
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Issue History
Date Modified Username Field Change
2018-12-30 18:16 damerell New Issue
2018-12-30 23:20 amalloy Note Added: 0032887
2018-12-30 23:22 amalloy Note Edited: 0032887
2018-12-31 00:07 damerell Note Added: 0032889
2018-12-31 00:28 damerell Note Edited: 0032889
2018-12-31 04:13 ebering Note Added: 0032890
2018-12-31 04:48 damerell Note Added: 0032891
2023-01-06 08:26 PleasingFungus Note Added: 0034507
2023-01-06 08:26 PleasingFungus Status new => resolved
2023-01-06 08:26 PleasingFungus Resolution open => won't do
2023-01-06 08:26 PleasingFungus Assigned To => PleasingFungus
2023-10-08 22:57 damerell Status resolved => closed

Notes
(0032887)
amalloy   
2018-12-30 23:20   
(edited on: 2018-12-30 23:22)
What spells do you have in mind that behave this way? It seems pretty reasonable to me that the player should press Z to confirm they want to do something unusual.

OTR, for example, is often useful to pre-buff before monsters appear on screen, and Z is a fine way to confirm you're doing that on purpose.
(0032889)
damerell   
2018-12-31 00:07   
(edited on: 2018-12-31 00:28)
Fire Storm and LRD allow casting with 'z' to attack monsters out of LOS - yes, immediately rather than at a later point in time, but that's the inherent difference between them and IOOD.

Conjure Flame and Fulminant Prism behave this way allowing them to be cast with 'z' for precisely the same reason; you think a monster is going to want to move somewhere in the future.

Perhaps this does open a can of worms since there are other spells like Meph Cloud and Freezing Cloud one could also make this argument about. (One possible distinction that could be drawn is between spells where just doing 'zx' will spend the MP, and spells where it will bring up the targeter not targetting any monsters giving the player another opportunity to reconsider).
(0032890)
ebering   
2018-12-31 04:13   
After some personal back and forth with myself: I agree with amalloy that requiring Z to cast when monsters are not visible is the preferred behavior, and that the real bug is with Fire Storm and LRD.
(0032891)
damerell   
2018-12-31 04:48   
I submit that is just going to cause additional annoyance for players who intended to cast the spell (especially formicids who know perfectly well where the out-of-LOS target is), perhaps even causing them to get into the habit of pressing 'Z' to their eventual detriment.

Go the other way; when starting targetting, provide the information about there being no monsters in view, no susceptible monsters in view, etc, and let that serve as the confirmation stage. Effectively in your proposal there are two confirmation steps - pressing 'Z', and then pressing 'f' at the targetter.
(0034507)
PleasingFungus   
2023-01-06 08:26   
I agree with ebering on this. Speculative IOODs are a rare edge case, not something it makes sense to optimize for.