A polish pass on the Mage and on what elements do to the things they hit.

The staff was upside down (for the code)

Every spell, the chant ball and Magick Bolt came out of the bottom of the staff. The staff mesh was measured in one tool's axes, but our conversion into Unreal mirrors one axis, so "the head end" in the notes was the butt end in the engine. The cast point now picks the end nearest the grip on any long weapon, which works whichever way a future staff is converted.

C++
// A staff is held near its head: on a long weapon, the end nearer the grip is the head
if (Length > 120.0f)
{
    return FMath::Abs(Bounds.Max.Y) <= FMath::Abs(Bounds.Min.Y)
        ? FVector(0.0f, Bounds.Max.Y - 2.0f, 0.0f)
        : FVector(0.0f, Bounds.Min.Y + 2.0f, 0.0f);
}

Burning, Frozen, Shocked, Drenched

Elemental hits now carry the original game's build-up values, and every enemy has its own threshold for each debilitation, taken from the original data. One Ingle sets a goblin alight; a Snow Harpy takes more and can never be frozen. Enchanted weapons build up too, so a Fire Boon on a sword lights a goblin up in a few blows.

  • Burning lasts 15 seconds and hurts every second. Goblins panic and run about on fire (and can spread it to their friends), wolves flail on the ground and get back up still burning, and a burning harpy drops out of the sky and stays face down until the fire is out. Water puts fire out, rain makes it burn out faster.
  • Frozen leaves a foe crusted in frost and barely moving.
  • Shocked throws the foe down with sparks running over it.
  • Drenched comes from water: no burning, half fire damage, double lightning.

Effects, icons and sound

Burning bodies now have flames on the torso, head and limbs that follow the bones and trail behind a running goblin, a crackle, and a puff of steam when the fire dies. Status icons sit by the health gauge like the original HUD, and smaller ones appear next to enemy names. The health gauge glows when you are healed. All of it is capped so a big fight cannot flood the screen or the mixer.

The spells also have sound now: chanting, the ready chime, Magick Bolt, Ingle's launch and blast, Frazil's field, every Levin strike, Anodyne's sigil, the boons and enchanted weapon hits, each picked by the original's own sound request tables (placeholders for now).

Next: the level-up and menu effects, and a playtest of all of the above.