Please check demo on Fireball Timing

[tekai]

This will be my last attempt to give tamers the power they deserve.

I believe that when you tell a dragon to kill, the time in which it decides to fireball is not correct. It should be very very soon after the "all kill" or "a kill". Instead, on live we have to wait 15-30 seconds before the first fireball. test it yourself.

[Faust]

I had Derrick check this out quite some time ago. The timer is definitely not the same type of timer used in the real OSI code since RunUO prefers using a date variable instead. However, the actual time from one fireball to the next is exactly the same.

[tekai]

This is good news to hear. The amount of time between fireballs doesnt matter as much, its all about the alpha strike on all kill. The fireball should shoot 1-3 seconds after the dragon "Engages" not 10-15

[Faust]

It actually has a chance to shoot 1-3 seconds and even instantly if the timing is right. See the timer actually loops non-stop(even out of combat) and will shoot a fireball if the dragon has a combatant. If you tell the dragon to attack when it has 10 seconds left it will fire in 10 seconds. If you tell it to attack when the timer has 1 second it will shoot in 1 second, etc... The only problem is that you can't follow the timer(which is a good thing since this could be abused to hell) so you will never actually know when a fireball is near or ready to go off.

The only known difference from the real OSI timer and the RunUo timer is the timer structure itself. The RunUO date variable can elapse during world saves and even server lag since it's based on a date stamp. However, this isn't the case with a traditional "ticking" timer that OSI used. World saves and even server lag would prevent the timer from ticking.

[MatronDeWinter]

So wait until right before a world save, give the command, wait...

I hate the elapsing timer here, I have often lost my stealing target cursor, a spell, or many sorts of other things due to time-out during the server save.

[Faust]

Imagine having a very deep statloss pk and dying to 3 dragon fireballs immediately after a world save finished back when they were 10 seconds before the server was upgraded...

This actually happened to me and was the main reason it got me looking into the issue to begin with. :/

[Faust]

Scratch some of the information from the older test that seems to be wrong... The default RunUO timer is actually incorrect if it's being used here. The default timer is 10 - 15 seconds in RunUO and the demo is actually 7 - 14 seconds. Getting specific facts from the actual code compared to visual testing like what was done in the past is without a doubt so much better and more precise. Thanks, to Batlin for looking into this and even finding some extra details that probably don't exist in the RunUO code.

The timer gets reconfigured every 7-14 seconds and if there's an active target a second timer (range 7-14 seconds) will prohibit the first one from breathing fire again. The fire starts one second after the target is determined.
+
dragons always shoot the closest visible player, but there's chance 1/5 they will target the player's location and not the player himself

This is very interesting since firebreathers in a way will get more frequent fireballs but also technically have a 1/5th chance of missing their target by targeting the ground instead of the intended target. This leaves me to one thing with the targeting mechanism though. If a firebreather targets the closest visible target.. Does that mean if they have a combatant 5 tiles away with a bystander two tiles away that the fireball will target the bystander instead of the combatant since he's closer?

[MatronDeWinter]

I have a question:
Does this mean that in the event (1/5) that the fire hits the ground, would it damage anyone standing in that spot? Possibly causing a criminal flag?

[Kraarug]

...

This is very interesting since firebreathers in a way will get more frequent fireballs but also technically have a 1/5th chance of missing their target by targeting the ground instead of the intended target. This leaves me to one thing with the targeting mechanism though. If a firebreather targets the closest visible target.. Does that mean if they have a combatant 5 tiles away with a bystander two tiles away that the fireball will target the bystander instead of the combatant since he's closer?

I can't see how it would be any different that a Exp Pot do you?

[Faust]

Pretty sure it's not a area of effect damage... could be wrong but we'll let Batlin conclude that information. I'm just stating my opinion on the matter.

[Sandro]

Lol you tried to buff taming to be a little stronger, and in turn you just made it even less effective.

[tekai]

Not really, so far the tests show that im getting 3-4 seconds shaved off. if it targets the ground whatever.

closest player always also = focus fire

good stuff so far, thank you batlin keep it up;

[nightshark]

I assume in the event of a tamed dragon, it no longer chooses a random nearby player target when it come to firebreath (especially, for example, if the tamed dragon had 2 aggressors but was currently targetted to a particular player).

Unless dragons were changed at some stage on OSI, I don't recall dragons ever having an area effect fireball.

[tekai]

I also remember no AoE

[Marcaeus]

I also remember no AoE

I concur.