Poisonous Vapours
Posted: Saturday, 8th July 2017, 03:19So poisonous vapours is a pretty good spell, but it has a weird interface screw which bugs me.
Notably in order to cast it, you need to target a non-poison resistant creature, this is true even if you try to cast it with Shift-Z.
As a result, if a creature is invisible, or *currently* poison resistant, you can't even attempt to target it, I assume to prevent you from using the spell to block corridors.
However the interface screw where you *know* there's an invisible poison vulnerable monster in a square, but still can't cast the spell is *really* annoying.
I propose one of the following:
1. You can cast the spell with shift-z regardless of the presence of a poison vulnerable monster in the square (The cloud will act normally) this is a small buff, as you can use it on squares with no monster, or a poison immune monster, to prevent a creature behind the targeted square from moving forward for a turn.
2. You can attempt to cast the spell with shift-z in an empty square, and it will take a turn and MP, but fail if there is no poison vulnerable monster there. This is a very slight buff, but only against poison vulnerable, invisible creatures, and eliminates the annoyance factor completely, bringing it in line with other spells where you can override "logical targeting" recommendations with shift-z.
or 3. You can attempt to cast the spell with shift-z on any square, but it doesn't actually create any clouds or block any movement, it just directly applies poison to a poison vulnerable creature in the square, if present, since there's no duration any longer, only the amount of poison applied would scale with spellpower. (This is a significant nerf, but the spell would still be a medeocre level 2 spell)
Personally I feel like 1 is the simplest, but might be too large of a buff, 2 is pretty much just a fix for the interface screw, and is my personal favorite, and 3. is a decent fallback if you hate clouds (Although I feel like eliminating the cloud aspect of it does make it a more boring spell as well as making it less powerful)
While I appreciate that the game prevents you from casting spells at things that you can't effect *accidentally* preventing me from doing so *altogether* even when I want to override it, is counter to the way all the other spells work, and is just dumb.
Notably in order to cast it, you need to target a non-poison resistant creature, this is true even if you try to cast it with Shift-Z.
As a result, if a creature is invisible, or *currently* poison resistant, you can't even attempt to target it, I assume to prevent you from using the spell to block corridors.
Spoiler: show
However the interface screw where you *know* there's an invisible poison vulnerable monster in a square, but still can't cast the spell is *really* annoying.
I propose one of the following:
1. You can cast the spell with shift-z regardless of the presence of a poison vulnerable monster in the square (The cloud will act normally) this is a small buff, as you can use it on squares with no monster, or a poison immune monster, to prevent a creature behind the targeted square from moving forward for a turn.
2. You can attempt to cast the spell with shift-z in an empty square, and it will take a turn and MP, but fail if there is no poison vulnerable monster there. This is a very slight buff, but only against poison vulnerable, invisible creatures, and eliminates the annoyance factor completely, bringing it in line with other spells where you can override "logical targeting" recommendations with shift-z.
or 3. You can attempt to cast the spell with shift-z on any square, but it doesn't actually create any clouds or block any movement, it just directly applies poison to a poison vulnerable creature in the square, if present, since there's no duration any longer, only the amount of poison applied would scale with spellpower. (This is a significant nerf, but the spell would still be a medeocre level 2 spell)
Personally I feel like 1 is the simplest, but might be too large of a buff, 2 is pretty much just a fix for the interface screw, and is my personal favorite, and 3. is a decent fallback if you hate clouds (Although I feel like eliminating the cloud aspect of it does make it a more boring spell as well as making it less powerful)
While I appreciate that the game prevents you from casting spells at things that you can't effect *accidentally* preventing me from doing so *altogether* even when I want to override it, is counter to the way all the other spells work, and is just dumb.