Mindblast?

[Xandorf]

K sorry to bump such an old post. But was this forgotten? Couldn't find any info?

What's the deal? This needs to be fixed. Mindblast is not era accurate. During T2a it was completely useless, now I'm not good at digging for info so I have no proof other then my own memory.

Thanks!

[Kaivan]

Little information has been found regarding the functionality of Mind Blast during the era, except information that points to what we already know: mind blast compared intelligence between caster and victim. Although, running the numbers with mind blast, the worst case scenario should be only 15 damage, which assumes 15 intelligence versus 100 intelligence, and doesn't include the spell being resisted (Although I don't know whether it can be resisted or not on UOSA). If the damage is much higher than this, it's worth looking into why.

[Mikel123]

For 100 vs 25, it is indeed higher than that. Also note, it could be 110 vs 15, right?

Well actually, I suppose it could be 110 vs 10, if you have an underdeveloped character.

[Xandorf]

Yes it's higher than that for sure, I don't got exact numbers yet. I will do some testing when I get home today. I only got 92 resist though so I will see if one of my guild mates that have 100 resist can be my punching bag hehe.

[jimm1432]

during uor MB was one of the big hitters, at one point it was dmg = your int - ememy int / 2. a quick feeblemind/weaken and a bless, you could drop a dexxer in two MB's.

I know it doesnt help any but that was the most powerful MB ever was.

also afaik MB has never been resistable or reflectable? or am i talking out my ass here? wasn't mb used to kill a reflect and do a little dmg at the same time?

[Kaivan]

During UOR, Mind Blast took on the equation of:

Code: Select all

(Highest stat of victim - lowest stat of victim) / 2

During T2A, the equation was:

Code: Select all

(Int of caster - Int of victim) / 4

OR

(Int of victim - Int of caster) / 4

With the lower int person taking the damage.

There's more to the final damage equation, but in both T2A and UOR, it was possible to resist the spell. However, spell reflection is a more complicated matter. According to the demo, when a spell is reflected, the victim becomes the attacker, and the attacker becomes the victim. This causes some really bad behavior, namely the victim becoming criminal, because they are now the attacker. This led to some problems with magic reflect, where the victim could be guardwhacked due to how reflect was handled. However, this has additional quirkiness with mind blast. Namely, the fact that mind blast will still do damage to the user with lower intelligence (although, the amount varies some). This is meaningful because mind blast checks for and can remove reflect, yet reflect does nothing about mind blast. Thus, the spell seems to entirely ignore reflect, yet could cause any victim with magic reflect to become a criminal (the effect was called the "magic reflect bug").

However, this functionality changed with the 9/16/98 patch which stated the following:

Spell reflection should no longer cause the player with reflection to be flagged criminal.

While they don't tell us exactly how this was changed, a newsgroup post from November 98 notes that on the abyss shard, players who had turned themselves into lich lords through the monster gates could have their mind blasts fully reflected at no harm to the victim. This suggests that the change to reflecting spells caused the reflected spells to be cast on the attacker, which would nullify mind blast altogether. This is a sensible explanation that doesn't require too many changes to the spell scripts, and stopped victims from becoming criminal as a result of magic reflect.

[son]

I think it was bugged or something during T2A. Everyone had 100 100 25 stats.

Not until trammel heaven did people start doing weird stat balance crap to deal with MB spam.

[VoP Denizen]

During UOR, Mind Blast took on the equation of:

Code: Select all

(Highest stat of victim - lowest stat of victim) / 2

During T2A, the equation was:

Code: Select all

(Int of caster - Int of victim) / 4

OR

(Int of victim - Int of caster) / 4

With the lower int person taking the damage.

There's more to the final damage equation, but in both T2A and UOR, it was possible to resist the spell. However, spell reflection is a more complicated matter. According to the demo, when a spell is reflected, the victim becomes the attacker, and the attacker becomes the victim. This causes some really bad behavior, namely the victim becoming criminal, because they are now the attacker. This led to some problems with magic reflect, where the victim could be guardwhacked due to how reflect was handled. However, this has additional quirkiness with mind blast. Namely, the fact that mind blast will still do damage to the user with lower intelligence (although, the amount varies some). This is meaningful because mind blast checks for and can remove reflect, yet reflect does nothing about mind blast. Thus, the spell seems to entirely ignore reflect, yet could cause any victim with magic reflect to become a criminal (the effect was called the "magic reflect bug").

However, this functionality changed with the 9/16/98 patch which stated the following:

Spell reflection should no longer cause the player with reflection to be flagged criminal.

While they don't tell us exactly how this was changed, a newsgroup post from November 98 notes that on the abyss shard, players who had turned themselves into lich lords through the monster gates could have their mind blasts fully reflected at no harm to the victim. This suggests that the change to reflecting spells caused the reflected spells to be cast on the attacker, which would nullify mind blast altogether. This is a sensible explanation that doesn't require too many changes to the spell scripts, and stopped victims from becoming criminal as a result of magic reflect.

When you refer to Int of victim/caster are you referring to the max int? or current int?

*points to self* yes, i'm not a wizard.

[Valhoppen]

I am going to post what I remember and opinion. Mind Blast was crap during the T2A and after that the made mind blast more powerful. If you were a warrior you were screwed with the weaken, feeble-mind type spells did in fact take a warrior down what seems like two shots despite having 100 magic resist. Since UO started to become garbage I wanted to have fun and constantly played Test Center. I actually thought Mind Blast was too overpowered. I am not sure the outcome of it now which it is probably still cheap. It really made the mage more powerful than they already are which made the game really unbalanced.

[POTHEAD]

As i remember, mindblast didnt do much till shortly after T2A when they changed how the dmg was done. The math was something like, highest stat + highest stat / 3 - lowest stat. This was one of many things that took part in how UO went down hill after T2A. If a mage had 25 dex and you cast clumsy, strength & cunning on them, your mind blast did WAY to much damage.

[jimm1432]

so just to confirm, mindblast simply does 1/2 of uo-r damage. ok understood.

now the reflect thing, am I right in saying that MB will take down reflect no matter what but will then use the stat vs stat formula to see who gets the dmg? so using mindblast as a reflect breaker could give dmg to you or your victim.

also the resist, does it work the same as main drain? it does full ''damage'' or is simply resisted and totally ignored? or does it work as per EB/FS etc?

[Kaivan]

so just to confirm, mindblast simply does 1/2 of uo-r damage. ok understood.

This isn't exactly true. The way it works during UOR is that the victim takes damage equal to one half their highest stat minus their lowest stat. So, using the example of 100/100/25, the equation would be (100 - 25) / 2 or 37.5.

During T2A, the damage equation was based on a difference in intelligence between the attacker and victim, with the lower intelligence of the two taking the damage. The formula was (higher int - lower int) / 4, and the target with lower intelligence would take the damage. To use an example, suppose that an attacker had 90 intelligence, and a victim had 100 intelligence. The attacker casts mind blast on the victim, and the following damage is calculated:

(100 - 90) / 4 = 2.5

This means that the attacker will take 2 damage from this attack, despite the fact that they initiated the attack. This is because they have the lower intelligence value.

now the reflect thing, am I right in saying that MB will take down reflect no matter what but will then use the stat vs stat formula to see who gets the dmg? so using mindblast as a reflect breaker could give dmg to you or your victim.

Right now, this is exactly how it works.

also the resist, does it work the same as main drain? it does full ''damage'' or is simply resisted and totally ignored? or does it work as per EB/FS etc?

According to the available information, mind blast does half damage when resisted. It's possible that it was changed, but we don't have any information to suggest how it might have worked, nor when the change would have been made.

[archaicsubrosa77]

so 11O intel cunning, against a 15 intel feeblemind would be 95/4 or 23.75 points and half resisted would be 11.875
flat 100 vs 25 would be 18.75 points with a resist of 9.375 point damage

[Kaivan]

More or less this is correct. The damage is slightly less than that due to the fact that the scripts only deal with whole numbers, but that is the "raw" damage dealt by mind blast.

[Jason-]

Lol.