Ability - Revision history

Sunjammer: /* Targeting Behavior */ making deprecation more obvious

2015-04-06T20:00:49Z

‎Targeting Behavior: making deprecation more obvious

Cerberus tm: /* Targeting Behavior */ spelling

2013-04-17T18:35:37Z

‎Targeting Behavior: spelling

Silderon at 11:29, 7 October 2011

2011-10-07T11:29:28Z

Sunjammer: /* Targeting Behavior */ Fixing tables

2011-08-03T12:03:18Z

‎Targeting Behavior: Fixing tables

Elegrem: /* Q: How does game difficulty affect abilities ? */

2011-03-25T22:39:47Z

‎Q: How does game difficulty affect abilities ?

BryanDerksen: category

2010-02-24T21:40:43Z

BryanDerksen: {{Infobox script}}

2010-02-03T19:02:27Z

Axe Murderer: /* Q: How does Rank Based Mitigation Work ? */ formatting

2009-10-31T03:49:14Z

‎Q: How does Rank Based Mitigation Work ?: formatting

Axe Murderer: /* Q: What are the rules for stacking effects and damage ? */ formatting

2009-10-31T03:05:19Z

‎Q: What are the rules for stacking effects and damage ?: formatting

Axe Murderer: /* Q: Are sustained abilities mutually exclusive ? */ formatting

2009-10-31T02:37:03Z

‎Q: Are sustained abilities mutually exclusive ?: formatting

@@ Line 137: / Line 137: @@
 |  0x8 || Placeable Object
 |-
-| 0x10 || Area of Effect Object (deprecated)
+| 0x10 || (deprecated) Area of Effect Object
 |-
-| 0x20 || Ground (see details)
+| 0x20 || Ground
 |-
-| 0x40 || Dead Body (deprecated)
+| 0x40 || (deprecated) Dead Body
 |-
 | 0x80 || Party Member

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:35, 17 April 2013
Line 106:		Line 106:
	=== Targeting Behavior ===		=== Targeting Behavior ===

−	An ~~abilities~~ targeting behavior is controlled by several settings in [[ABI_base.xls]]	+	An ability's targeting behavior is controlled by several settings in [[ABI_base.xls]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:29, 7 October 2011
Line 375:		Line 375:

	[[Category:Abilities]]		[[Category:Abilities]]
		+
		+	{{Languages\|Ability}}

@@ Line 111: / Line 111: @@
 '''AutoTarget''' is a boolean field that defines how the UI resolves targeting.
-{| border="1"
+{| class="wikitable"
 |-
 | 0 || The UI will always bring up a targeting cursor.
@@ Line 123: / Line 125: @@
 '''TargetType''' is a bit mask derived from the following table and controls the behavior of the UI's targeting cursor.
-{| border="1"
+{| class="wikitable"
 |-
-|'''Bitmask''' || '''Effect'''
+! Bitmask !! Effect
 |-
-| 0x1  ||  Self
+|  0x1 ||  Self
 |-
-| 0x2 || Friendly Creature
+|  0x2 || Friendly Creature
 |-
-| 0x4 || Hostile Creature
+|  0x4 || Hostile Creature
 |-
-| 0x8 || Placeable Object
+|  0x8 || Placeable Object
 |-
 | 0x10 || Area of Effect Object (deprecated)
@@ Line 147: / Line 149: @@
 '''AutoDraw''' is an integer boolean field that defines how a character's weapons are handled when the ability is triggered.
-{| border="1"
+{| class="wikitable"
 |-
 | 0 || The ability will not affect the player's weapon sheath status.

@@ Line 279: / Line 279: @@
 A: Our approach to game difficulty dictates that the effect of your chosen setting are
-a) non punishing - You do not get less XP for chosing a lower difficulty mode, etc.
+* non punishing - You do not get less XP for chosing a lower difficulty mode, etc.
-b) challenge scaling - Higher difficulty will reward you with greater obstacles to overcome.
+* challenge scaling - Higher difficulty will reward you with greater obstacles to overcome.
-c) fair - Lower difficulties grant benefits that gradually get removed. (This does not mean the rules are symmetric and is not true on nightmare at all. Nightmare is evil. And unfair.)
+* fair - Lower difficulties grant benefits that gradually get removed. (This does not mean the rules are symmetric and is not true on nightmare at all. Nightmare is evil. And unfair.)
-d) non persistent - Difficulty changes are possible on the fly, at any time and take immediate effect.
+* non persistent - Difficulty changes are possible on the fly, at any time and take immediate effect.
 The game is balanced so that Hard mode is challenging for a Baldur's gate veteran.

@@ Line 355: / Line 355: @@
+}
 </dascript>
 === Q: What does 'asymmetric rules system' mean ? ===
@@ Line 371: / Line 369: @@
 * Elimination of instant death situations (not fun!) against players but not against monsters (fun!).
 * Sustained abilities only work for players (the overhead is not justified for monsters that won't ever reappear after they die).

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-=== Overview ===
+{{Infobox script}}
 The Ability System is used to handle Spells, Talents, Skills, and Item Abilities in Dragon Age.
-=== Detailed Description ===
+== Detailed Description ==
 Spells, Talents, Skills and item abilities all use the same backend in the game, a mostly script implemented system relying heavily on two dimensional data arrays.
@@ Line 40: / Line 41: @@
-==== Basic Ability Types ====
+=== Basic Ability Types ===
 Abilities are divided into 4 subtypes, as defined in the 'abilitytype' column in [[ABI_base.xls]]:
@@ Line 65: / Line 66: @@
 Note that passive_ability benefits are not limited to abilities with use_type 3. Some active abilities also grant additional property modifying benefits to the owner.
@@ Line 104: / Line 104: @@
 * Self targeted activated abilities.
 === Targeting Behavior ===
-−
-==== Targeting Behavior ====
 An abilities targeting behavior is controlled by several settings in [[ABI_base.xls]]
@@ Line 158: / Line 156: @@
 |}
 === Balancing (Cost, Cooldown, etc) ===
-==== Balancing (Cost, Cooldown, etc) ====
 Abilities in Dragon Age are balanced along several vectors, most of which boil down to simple 'use frequency'. As a general rule of thumb, the more specialized and limited the effect of an ability is, the more outrageously powerful an ability can be.
@@ Line 188: / Line 185: @@
 * Range: Lower ranges force the ability user into potentially more dangerous situations, adding additional risk to the use of an ability.
-=== Q&A ===
+== Q&A ==
-==== Q: Where do we find the exact formula for abilities ? ====
+=== Q: Where do we find the exact formula for abilities ? ===
 A: Due to most abilities being unique, the only place to find the exact details on each spell is in the scripts. While a lot of data can be glanced from [[ABI_base.xls]], a lot of the detailed mechanics are very different between abilities and can only be found in the appropriate spellscript. The *_constant.nss files hold some basic values, but often get further modified in the scripts.
@@ Line 198: / Line 195: @@
 Displaying those values results in very misleading information (e.g. while damage seems to be higher on one ability, the mitigation mechanisms and unique side effects of another ability will make it just as good or better - in certain situations) and it turned out to be better to provide the player with general guidance than the misleading information.
-==== Q: What is Spellpower and how does it interact with abilities ====
+=== Q: What is Spellpower and how does it interact with abilities ===
 Spellpower is probably the most important stat for a mage character (and only exists on mage characters). It is calculated as max(Magic - 10,0) and therefore increases by one point for every point a mage spends on his Magic attribute.
@@ Line 216: / Line 213: @@
 For non-mage spells and abilities, spellpower is often substituted by an appropriate other construct (such as max(Cunning-10,0) for rogue abilities).
-==== Q: Can we have the damage formula for abilities ? ====
+=== Q: Can we have the damage formula for abilities ? ===
 A: There is no damage formula for abilities, as mentioned before, each ability follows their own rules.
@@ Line 232: / Line 229: @@
 * Environmental conditions (frozen targets take less damage from fire, etc.)
 === Q: What are the differences between damage types? ===
-==== Q: What are the differences between damage types? ====
 A: Creatures have variable damage resistances based on their type and rank. Dragons might get 60% less damage from fire (60% fire resistance), other creatures will have different immunities. Additional effects are:
@@ Line 246: / Line 242: @@
 * Nature: Rarely found on spells. Many creatures are resistant to this.
 (This should probably go on its own wiki page)
-==== Q: Are sustained abilities mutually exclusive ? ====
+=== Q: Are sustained abilities mutually exclusive ? ===
 A: There is a very limited number of sustained abilities that are mutually exclusive, usually because it makes sense. Mutually exclusive abilities cancel each other upon activation.
@@ Line 263: / Line 258: @@
 Technically, all abilities in [[ABI_base.xls]] that share the same 'condition_group' value are mutually exclusive.
-==== Q: What are the rules for stacking effects and damage ? ====
+=== Q: What are the rules for stacking effects and damage ? ===
 A: The general rules of stacking for abilities are:
@@ Line 280: / Line 275: @@
 For almost all effects, the total result of all property modifications on a creature are visible on the main character UI by hovering over the individual stats.
-==== Q: How does game difficulty affect abilities ? ====
+=== Q: How does game difficulty affect abilities ? ===
 A: Our approach to game difficulty dictates that the effect of your chosen setting are
@@ Line 299: / Line 294: @@
 * The higher the difficulty, the more careful you need to manage threat when using spells and abilities (The AI becomes smarter about picking targets).
 === Q: What is spell affinity ? ===
-−
-==== Q: What is spell affinity ? ====
 A: Spell Affinity was a design we toyed with for a while during development but decided not to implement.
 === Q: How does Rank Based Mitigation Work ? ===
-−
-==== Q: How does Rank Based Mitigation Work ? ====
 A: In line with Dragon Age: Origin's asymmetric approach to rules, the game uses creature ranks (instead of levels) in addition to stats and resistances to define how creatures get affected by abilities. In short: Boss monsters get affected differently by abilities and effects than Lieutenants or Critters.
@@ Line 367: / Line 358: @@
 [[Category:Scripts]]
-==== Q: What does 'asymmetric rules system' mean ? ====
+=== Q: What does 'asymmetric rules system' mean ? ===
 The goal behind Dragon Age: Origin's rule system was to create a fun and challenging video game experience first and foremost.

@@ Line 311: / Line 311: @@
 A: In line with Dragon Age: Origin's asymmetric approach to rules, the game uses creature ranks (instead of levels) in addition to stats and resistances to define how creatures get affected by abilities. In short: Boss monsters get affected differently by abilities and effects than Lieutenants or Critters.
-The rank system is the primary balancing vector for the games difficulty levels and profoundly affects all aspects of combat. The gory details of this system are defined in creature_ranks.xls and difficulty.xls.
+The rank system is the primary balancing vector for the games difficulty levels and profoundly affects all aspects of combat. The gory details of this system are defined in [[creature_ranks.xls]] and [[difficulty.xls]].
 Rank mitigation affects not just damage in- and output of a creature, but also the duration that hostile effects persist on it and is different for each difficulty level of the game. Note that party members have their own rank in this system and are handled differently from other creatures in some cases.
@@ Line 366: / Line 366: @@
 [[Category:Scripts]]
 ==== Q: What does 'asymmetric rules system' mean ? ====

@@ Line 270: / Line 270: @@
 * The effects of identical abilities stack as long as they are from different caster. (Same caster usually does not apply as cooldown often exceeds duration).
 * Weapon enhancement spells of the same type (e.g. 2 mages with flame weapons) do not stack. The sword does not get more flaming, sorry :)
-* Animation based effects (knockdown, stun, etc.) stack, but only the one with the highest priority is played. This is defined in the priority column in effects.xls.
+* Animation based effects (knockdown, stun, etc.) stack, but only the one with the highest priority is played. This is defined in the priority column in [[effects.xls]].
 * Glyphs do stack but there is a limit of 5 active glyphs per caster.
 * Fire and Cold DoT effects do not stack, the spell cast last will cancel any existing spell of the opposite type.
 * Fire and Cold AoEs cancel each other, other AoEs might interact rather violently, handle with care :)
-For equipment and item based effects, the game usually stacks within the minumum and maximum clamp values of a property (properties.xls). This means that you can accumulate a lot of +damage or +critical critical chance effects, but for some type of stats there is a point where you are no longer gaining any benefits (e.g. speed modification - animations can only be sped up to a certain point before breaking, so stacking momentum, haste and a weapon with a speed based effect will not result in a -3.0s attack time, sorry :p)
+For equipment and item based effects, the game usually stacks within the minumum and maximum clamp values of a property ([[properties.xls]]). This means that you can accumulate a lot of +damage or +critical critical chance effects, but for some stat types there is a point where you are no longer gaining any benefits (e.g. speed modification - animations can only be sped up to a certain point before breaking, so stacking momentum, haste and a weapon with a speed based effect will not result in a -3.0s attack time, sorry :p)

@@ Line 261: / Line 261: @@
 * The Death Syphon and Death Magic spells are mutually exclusive.
-Technically, all abilities in abi_base.xls that share the same 'condition_group' value are mutually exclusive.
+Technically, all abilities in [[ABI_base.xls]] that share the same 'condition_group' value are mutually exclusive.
 ==== Q: What are the rules for stacking effects and damage ? ====