Talk:Area of Effect

In all half-decent role-playing games, AoE spells are cast on a location in the environment. In Guildwars, (yes I consider it a stupid thing) that is not the case, you have to actually target someone by the enemy and then you can cast the spell. I believe that is worth mentioning and worth mentioning clearly. --Karlos 21:35, 16 Aug 2005 (EST)


 * What online RPGs can one target a location in? Only one I can think of are the Infinity Engine games, and, really, those are hardly online.  &mdash;Tanaric 21:56, 16 Aug 2005 (EST)


 * How did "online" slip into the conversation? :) And all Infinity engine games as well as NWN have AoE spells target an area, not a person; and these games defined what RPG is. This is not only "cool," it is the logical and correct implementation. I think the design in Guild Wars is one of "technical convenience." Programmers do it all the time. It was easier to implement the AoE skills that way then develop an entire new targeting system that relied on clicking on the environment. --Karlos 15:13, 17 Aug 2005 (EST)


 * Online slipped in because it defines this genre. You can't argue Guild Wars vs. AD&D either.  While I understand how the Infinity engine games work, and I agree with their implementation, no online RPG uses that sort of implementation to my knowledge, and thus confusion isn't likely to abound.  Either way, I did explicitly state what you wished in the article, though I removed the paragraph that points it out.  And, I disagree about technical convenience; I'd say more ease-of-use.  It'd be a pain in the ass to use AoE spells with the camera angles provided in Guild Wars.  You'd have to allow a top-down mechanic to allow precise placement, and that's something ArenaNet didn't want us to have, as far as I can tell. &mdash;Tanaric 15:30, 17 Aug 2005 (EST)