Explosion/EBolt Combo:

[Faust]

The topic about the explosion and energy bolt combo has been pretty heated up lately. People remember the spells hitting more closely together than what is possible on here. I have always been in the same boat with this topic, but the only evidence that suggests the way it works currently has went against this.

The only evidence of the explosion timer that exists is the description and amount listed for the delay in EA's current UO web site that goes all the way back to UOR. It indicates that the delay is 2 seconds for the explosion to occur. The RunUO Default code indicates that the delay was 2.5 seconds.

This is an era accuracy issue so I figured it would be best to be put in here since it is a highly popular topic currently. I am just letting everyone know that this will be put to rest very soon hopefully. The plan to get this issue resolved revoles around the UO Demo. I have been using spells as an instrument to calculate timings on there lately. A great example of this was the damage delays that are 1 second long. What I plan to do is get to the point where I can cast an explosion spell successfully, rather it be a scroll or without. We know that 8th circle spells take 2.25s long to cast. If I can successfully get the target up on the 8th circle spell before the explosion hits we will know that the timer is in fact longer than 2.0 seconds to the only other viable delay of 2.5 seconds that is indicated in the RunUO Default code for it. I will also be taking the damage delay for the explosion spell into consideration for this experiment. The results will be presented in here as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Faust

[Jaster]

<-- Supporter of this test and findings.

[Creager]

I specifically remember getting the two spells to hit simultaneously. I also remember being able to wait out the recast timer, and actually getting the e-bolt damage to seemingly hit milliseconds before the explosion damage. It was a talent within itself to actaully get them to sync up; most people seemed to be a little before, or a little after.

Watching an opponent’s health bar, it was evident when the damage from explosion occurred; it always seemed to match up with the animation.

I’m pretty sure EA didn’t mess with the spell delays/timers until just before their Age of Shadows patch; i was under the impression UO:R spell delays were mirrored from T2A.

[Derrick]

Watching an opponent’s health bar, it was evident when the damage from explosion occurred; it always seemed to match up with the animation.

This is an important piece of the puzzle, and does verify that explosion, after it's initial delay, had no further damage delay, as EB does.

I'm really hoping to have something definitive on there questions soon.

[Creager]

This is an important piece of the puzzle, and does verify that explosion, after it's initial delay, had no further damage delay, as EB does.

If there would have been a damage-delay after the initial explosion delay it would have been extremely quick, a few milliseconds at best.

I remember justifying the initial delay on explosion as being a comparable damage-delay found on other spells like ebolt, lightning, fireball...ect.

I never completely understood why damage-delays were in the game in the first place; maybe to compensate for lag or something, I don’t know. I find it hard to argue that these were in place for the sake of animation, for spells other then fireball or ebolt. Take lightning for instance, although during T2A lightning and fireball were a kill shot at best.

[Faust]

Update:

I am officially on my 3rd round of tests for this process due to a client crash at around 50 magery and a second computer crash the following night on the 2nd test. It is extremely hard to get around the client crash issue since it is the old common crash bug involving regs at mage shops. In the past I managed to get to 85 magery until the crash occurred so I know it will be possible. It may just take several attemps. This is a very hard and unstable test that I have to partake in.

On a side note I know some have questioned the damage delays in Ultima Online. I recall a comment saying "how do you know it is exactly one second" when I mentioned archery and fire breathing was 1 second. Here is a patch note that describes the archery delay below.

12/16/97
Arrows now inflict the damage one second after the arrow is lanuched, instead of when the attack is launched.

The 1 second spell delays here was initially based off of the same damage delay as archery and fire breathing when I brought it to Derrick's attention. I previously estimated it to be around 1 second on the demo while taking into consideration that archery and fire breat was also 1 second. It was great that we ended up making it one second based on my most recent tests that proved it was exactly that.

I'm not entirely positive myself why the 1 second delay was widely used for most damage types including spells. My theory that I have presented in the past is probably the most likely reason behind it though. Casting delays was not added until early to mid '98. This means that you could machine gun spells if you were quick enough. I would assume that the delay was applied to make this effect less drastic so people could get a greater heal off if it was a potential kill shot.

Hopefully the explosion delay will be cleared up shortly too.

[Mjolnir]

i remember reading this back when i first started playing again in t2a after a short hiatus. i remember it working as it was stated in here so i did a search to see if i could find it and i did (this may be old news or for all i know irrelevant)

Simple combos: (these assume the opponent is paralyzed for the sake of simplicity)
There's always the favorite, the explosion/ebolt combo. Everyone knows that explosion doesn't immediately damage the opponent, and it's very easy to get off an ebolt in that time and making them hit simultaneously. This will do 40-60 damage all at once, which is decent, but not reliable enough to use a lot.

There's the common standby, the explosion/flamestrike combo. It takes a bit of practice to get the FS to hit when the explosion does, but once you get it, you'll know why it's used so much. It can do upwards of 70 damage very quickly.

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/199905080350 ... n.com/jov/
Newbie > PvPing as a Mage

[malice-tg]

I have a good idea how this worked. Hard to explain, ill mess around on test if possible.

[Orsi]

It was also possible to cast Earthquake before the Explosion damage went off. Earthquake was a certain % of a target's life (I believe 50% or close to), so if you waited out the spell delay, and immediately cast Earthquake you could land a huge damage hit on your target. The downside to this was the big mana investment, plus the fact that the victim would no doubt be casting Gheal while you cast Earthquake. It wasn't popular in duels or fights because of the easy to pull of Gheal, but on any random not expecting the combo it was devastating.

[UnknownLord]

Fix tamers first before editing pvp. Sure it "may" have been true era, but it was not true era to run away from another person, or having somone who truley would not die unless it was one of those big fights 20v20. On a smahh shard these days, 10 dragons are just lame. You start a fight 3v3 or 4v4, a gate opens. Tamer pops out, hits all kill + attack closes red macro, insta death.

Honestly, a guy with 10 dragons is the lamest shit out there, people even make red tamers just to do it. reguarless if you have pouches, 1 para causing 1 second of your time results in death anyway.

[Mjolnir]

i'd rather have a reason to actually pvp than focusing energy on nerfing a template i rarely encounter anyhow. fix pvp now, gimp tamers later.

[kill drizitz]

Fix tamers first before editing pvp. Sure it "may" have been true era, but it was not true era to run away from another person, or having somone who truley would not die unless it was one of those big fights 20v20. On a smahh shard these days, 10 dragons are just lame. You start a fight 3v3 or 4v4, a gate opens. Tamer pops out, hits all kill + attack closes red macro, insta death.

Honestly, a guy with 10 dragons is the lamest shit out there, people even make red tamers just to do it. reguarless if you have pouches, 1 para causing 1 second of your time results in death anyway.

i hope this never happens. during t2a there were no restrictions. its how it is and how it should be. this change seems awsome though btw. id love to test it out.

[Faust]

It is already live kill.

[Derrick]

Sorry for continuing off-topic discussion, but we're not going to make any changes to taming that are inconsistent with any time in the T2A era. There is another thread detailing a couple taming inaccuracies however that will be adressed soo. The number of pets that can be controlled however is perfectly consistant with era, and for good or for bad, that's what we're about.