Incorrect damage overflow on AOE spells and unit abilities leading to reduced overall damage dealt.

[wibryz 22]

If the target closest to ability center has less hitpoints than the single target maximum damage of an AOE spell or AOE damage ability, then the surplus damage doesn't overflow correctly to further targets, and is instead mostly wasted.

For example: casting Fire Sphere (upgrade level 3, thus 6000 maximum single target damage, 8000 maximum overall damage) on clustered North Star buildings (picked because they have exactly 1000 hp each) causes 3 of them to be destroyed and another one left at 625 hp, amounting to 3375 damage dealt - a far cry from the expected 8000. There is some damage overflow, just not the full expected amount (since the damage dealt is 3375 and not 3000). The full damage is dealt only then, if the primary target has health equal or more than the maximum single target damage of the spell or ability.

 

Tested with:

Rifle Cultist ability (Dark Grenade) and Fire Sphere. Tested against buildings and units.

[Kubik 299]

Most important question from me is about: "doesn't overflow correctly to further targets", where you get the definition of what is correct?

Not saying you wrong (most likely EA is wrong 😛 )

[wibryz 22]

Hmm... maybe formulated it badly. Instead of "correctly" a more apt description would be "as expected". Also, sorry for not adhering to the bug report template. I kinda overlooked it.

Spell description for Fire Sphere states "Creates a huge ball of fire that explodes after 10 seconds dealing 5340 / 5460 / 5700 / 6000 damage to enemies in a 15m radius, up to 6130 / 6500 / 7200 / 8000 in total. Knocks back small, medium and large units. Reusable every 20 seconds.". Since the spell description is already cryptic (6000 max per target? 8000 max overall? Or 6000 overall and maybe 8000 in some magical circumstance) I interpret it as: 6000 maximum per target, 8000 maximum per all targets. This behavior is observed however only then, if the primary target has 6000 or more health... which is a weirdness which is not to be expected based on spell description.

Edited January 5, 2022 by wibryz
Posted too early.

[Kubik 299]

Your understanding of up to 6000 per target, and up to 8000 total is correct, but how does it works internally... no one have a clue.

Or to be exact I can print it, but it is crazy amount of numbers 😞 and I do not like reading that many numbers

If you are interested, and can do some basic math, and are willing to work with a lot of numbers, I can allow you to see these numbers, and if you figure out how it works, and will have some exact suggestions how to improve it, I am sure it will be considered by design team.

[wibryz 22]

I would very much like that. Though I suspect that is a weird formula for all AOE damage splitting/overflow in the game and it would fundamentally alter how aoe attacks, abilities and spells distribute their damage, right? 😄 Anyway, I would like to see it.

[Kubik 299]

do you use discord?

[wibryz 22]

VonS#2243

[Kubik 299]

Are you on our official server? https://discord.gg/0y3WGMGXhd5q2lXA

[wibryz 22]

Of course.

[Zyna 497]

@wibryz We fixed the issue on Fire Sphere and Shatter Ice. Can you confirm that it works now?

After this, I will move the bug report to resolved for now. In the future we plan to also roll out the fix for other damage abilities after careful balance testing.

[LEBOVIN 278]

The problem can now be fixed with the proven solution. Many cards have already been addressed in the past patches. However, due to balancing reasons, some prominent cards have been excluded from the fix so far. The bug report topic itself is therefore resolved and over time more and more cards will follow.