Force beam (cone breaths branch)

[PowerWyrm]

In my variant, the Telepath class has a Force Beam spell. After casting it a few times on a line of monsters, I noted that some monsters on the line were not harmed at all by the beam. Looking more closely at the effect_handler_THRUST_AWAY() method, I saw that monsters affected by force not only were pushed back, but could swap with other (weaker) monsters while being pushed back. Basically:

@..a..b..

will harm and push back both monsters.

@..ab..

will harm and push back monster a but not monster b. This is due to the fact that when the beam reaches monster a, it will push monster a away and place monster b where monster a was. The beam will then advance one square further, passing monster b which will be left unprocessed.

Maybe the thrusting effect should not swap monster places in this case...

[PowerWyrm]

Note that using force beam on a monster in a dead end will apply damage twice: once for the initial position of the monster, once where it is pushed back.

[Carnivean]

Would it be feasible to pass over the affected monsters twice, once for damage, then for effect?

[Rydel]

Or pass over and make a list of all the affected monsters, and then apply the damage and push afterward. Even if they get moved, they'll still be in your list of monsters to process.

[bio_hazard]

To be honest I'm not sure I see a problem with the behavior. If players can take advantage of lobbing ball spells over weak/stationary monsters to hit monsters on the other side, i don't see why stronger monsters might not be able to shield weaker ones in this case. Take this as an interesting emergent property that might occasionally increase the difficulty for the player?

[PowerWyrm]

Note that this also happens when an impact hound breathes force on a player. If the player is surrounded by monsters, some monsters and sometimes even the player won't take damage from the breath.