Ball spell abuse

[Selkie]

I've discovered if you set up like this example and spam ball spells (in this case OoD but anything works) the monsters don't actually attack you. In fact, they don't even attempt to escape, they just sit there and soak up the splash damage until they die.

What's the story?

[Sky]

they are cowards and deserve to die.

[Pete Mack]

I found a similar situation where a Black Rider wouldn't come more than 3 steps away:

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He just stepped back and forth from his current square to the one immediately south. I could target him with archery cheese, but he couldn't hit me. I didn't bother--i was resting from a previous fight (which is how I noticed), and I didn't have a lot of ammo as a Paladin. I posted a save file to the 4.2.2 thread.

[Selkie]

I wonder what the monster AI is saying in the code in these examples. I've noticed it happens fairly often (but never when I really need it to, of course).

[Sky]

most of the time they are blocked by some mob that does not show up on ID (a moss, an undead, etc) and possibly isn't even being hurt by the ball. Only hounds AI (afaik) will actually wait around a corner because - as i said - they are cowards. Normal mobs will chase you.

It is *very* rare, at least in 4.1, that mob pathing fails. I think i have seen it maybe 3 times in hundreds of games.

[Pete Mack]

@Sky--
No.
there is no hidden monster in either case. In my case because I could *see* all the squares in between. In years first case because any such monster would be "screaming in pain" or "squelching"

[Selkie]

most of the time they are blocked by some mob that does not show up on ID (a moss, an undead, etc) and possibly isn't even being hurt by the ball. Only hounds AI (afaik) will actually wait around a corner because - as i said - they are cowards. Normal mobs will chase you.

It is *very* rare, at least in 4.1, that mob pathing fails. I think i have seen it maybe 3 times in hundreds of games.

There is no mob in the example I posted.

What I think happens is my stealthy priest doesn't wake the monster before my telepathy spots it from a distance. LoS is blocked by the corner wall. I can ball spell and kill the monster with splash, obviously it wakes up after the first damage but it doesn't auto detect the player, and because of my distance and stealth it still can't see me to approach. Instead of running blindly in a random direction to escape the splash damage it sits there stoically and waits to die

[Pete Mack]

Stealth only applies to sleeping monsters, and it certainly doesn't apply to the case i cited, where ESP showed the monster coming in from a distance, and getting confused just before it got into proper LOS.

[Werbaer]

No.
there is no hidden monster in either case. In my case because I could *see* all the squares in between.

Did you try to shoot?
Otherwise, there could have been a mimic of an object you set to ignore.

[Pete Mack]

Did you try to shoot?
Otherwise, there could have been a mimic of an object you set to ignore.

Snicker. Surely the weirdest kink in fantasy fiction.