Auto-Oriented Cones and other projectile ideas

kjeron

Create a projectile that always fires a "cone" in the direction the character is facing:

Projectile Type: Area of Effect (3)
Speed: (not zero)
Extended Flags: Bounce from Walls(0) + Hit Immediately(3)
Area Flags: Secondary Projectile(4) + Cone-Shaped(11)
Secondary Projectile: (any normal cone-shaped projectile, try color spray)
Explosion Effect: None(255)
Explosion Projectile: None(1)

Jaheria and Imoen have an item equipped that repeatedly casts a spell( through opcode 272->146) with this projectile on themselves every second:

The "Secondary Projectile" is always projected in the direction the target (in this case themself) is facing, delivering effects to those it hits. (If doing this for practical purposes, I would replace the secondary projectile with a custom cone projectile that has no visual animations, as rapidly generating such animations can lead to crashing or overflow killing.)

Create a proejctile that always fires a "cone" in the direction of the caster, originating from the target:

Projectile Type: Area of Effect (3)
Speed: (not zero)
Extended Flags: Bounce from Walls(0)
Area Flags: Secondary Projectile(4) + Cone-Shaped(11)
Secondary Projectile: (any normal cone-shaped projectile, try color spray)
Explosion Effect: None(255)
Explosion Projectile: None(1)

Jaheira is casting the spell with this projectile on Neera (several times to show the full area of effect all at once):

The "Secondary Projectile" is fired towards Jaheira, originating from Neera, delivering effects to those it hits.

Create a projectile that always fires a "cone" out of the target's rear:

Projectile Type: Area of Effect (3)
Speed: (not zero)
Extended Flags: Hit Immediately(3)
Area Flags: Cone-Shaped(11)
Explosion Effect: Any(0-18) or Custom(254)
Explosion Projectile: None(1) for instant, Invisible Travelling(79) for non-instant
Cone Width: (Desired Arc Size)

Jaheira casting spell with this projectile on Dorn:

Note - the primary target(Dorn) is still hit with this method.

Create an immobile "Ring" around a target creature or location:

Projectile 1 (used in spell):
Projectile Type: Area of Effect (3)
Speed: (not zero)
Extended Flags: Hit Immediately(3)
Ray Count: 8+ (large radius's will need more to avoid gaps)
Trap Size: (radius of "ring")
Explosion Size: (radius of "ring")
Explosion Effect: None(255)
Explosion Projectile: Projectile 2
Cone Width: 360 / (ray count)

Projectile 2
Projectile Type: Area of Effect (3)
Speed: (not zero)
Extended Flags: Draw center VVC once(2), Hit Immediately(3)
Area Flags: Draw Animation(10)
Trap Size (width of "ring")
Explosion Size (width of "ring")
Explosion Frequency (frames) (100 = 1 round)
# Repititions: (triggers)
(frames) * (triggers) = total duration
Explosion Effect: None(255)
Explosion Animation: VVC

VVC:
Animation: (BAM file, non-oriented) should closely match "width of ring" in size.
Sequence: (Looping)
Frame Rate: 15
Duration: (frames * triggers) should match 'projectile 2' duration.

Note - I could not get "rectangular AoE" projectiles (wall of Moonlight) to orient themselves through this method, otherwise they could also be used in place of 'Projectile 2'.

Note: Ignore the "Done" button on screen, it's used to test UI modding, and unrelated.

OlvynChuru

OOH I like this thread! This is my kind of thing, because I too like to experiment with projectiles.

Did you know that if you give a projectile both the "comet" and "falling path" flag, the projectile falls from the left instead of the right? I used this to make a spell sort of like Fire and Ice from Planescape Torment which causes a fire comet to fall from the right and an ice comet to fall from the left.

kjeron

OlvynChuru said:

Did you know that if you give a projectile both the "comet" and "falling path" flag, the projectile falls from the left instead of the right?

I did. For most other projectile types, the "Falling Path" flag works similarly to "Hit Immediately".

kjeron

This is one I've suggested to others before, useful for spells such as Fireshield, to control the range of the feedback damage without generating the "One of your spells has failed" message.

Projectile Type: Area of Effect (3)
Speed: (not zero)
Area Flags: Cone-Shaped(11) + Single Target(15)
Explosion Size: 16 units per foot
Explosion Effect: None(255)
Explosion Projectile: None(1) or whatever you want
Cone Arc: 0

This projectile would go in the subspell (for example, SPWI403d.spl for FireShield Blue), while altering the range of that spell to max (32767). As a cone with zero arc size, it will only hit the targeted creature, and only if it is within the explosion range.