Energy Vortex accuracy

[Fireball]

Hi,
I would like to voice my opinion on slight inaccuracies of the EV spell on UOSA.

I played OSI Atlantic from Nov/Dec 1997 onward. Moved to Siege Perilous the day it was created until 2001/2 although I played intermittently after that on both shards.

The Energy Vortex here on UOSA seems more intent on attacking the caster than it should do, in my opinion. We always believed that the EV targeted the nearest creature with the highest intelligence. So you could drop it anywhere around a Lich/Lord or dragon or ice fiend and it would home straight in on it. The exception to this was on the rare occasion (I would guess about 1 in 100 EVs) that the purple llama was created and then that would usually come back at the caster in preference to the dragon or whatever. However, it would still attack the dragon if you got it behind it so that they touched.

Here on UOSA the EV behaves more like the purple llama at all times and this, I am certain, is not accurate.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic ... t5hH5Balnc

Specifically: Energy Vortices target the creature with the most intellegence. It's best to
cast them on magic-using creatures (Titans, dragons, etc). Make sure the
creature has drained their mana or they will just dispel the vortex. Blade
Spirits work best on non-magic using creatures.


So they were not very effective on things like an ogre lord. They would work, but it was tough to get them to start an attack. It was much more effective to use blade spirits on an ogre lord, and in my experience you really needed to cast two to bring it down efficiently, or you could use one and finish it off with an ebolt or whatever rather than waiting for the poison to do its job.

There are other comments on that page which suggest it may be mana quantity which causes the attraction, and this may well be the case, and may or may not explain why you can use an EV on a drake.

It doesn't really matter that it is "not quite right" because you learn to deal with it and always cast the EV behind the monster or right up against it so they touch and start the ball rolling. It would just be nice for the purpose of accuracy.

I hope this helps to evidence my feelings.

FB

[Kaivan]

I'm not entirely sure what AI that we are currently using for the Energy Vortex, but from what I understand from past discussions is that Derrick has implemented the demo AI for EVs. If this is the case, patch notes after the demo clearly show a modified set of behaviors, particularly an increased aggressor range. As for the preference for targets with higher intelligence, I'll have to see if any references exist during the era, or if the demo can shed any light.