Somehow I believe you have gone completely bonkers, but it ain't the first time in this thread and last time you did prove me wrong...
The numbers from scripts/shared/spells.txt under "dr_hu_angriffsserie" are easily changeable. Not sure wether there are any current mods that do so, but this one at least can be explained.
RI on the other hand, should never act like that.
The basis of all this goes back to sacred 1. Basically almost all characters there had the CAs "hard hit", "multi-hit" and "attack".
All three with distinct melee and ranged behaviour.
Sacred 2 basically went the same route and while the CA names don't give much of a clue here, at least the "hard hit" ones are easily noticeable by the CA's picture. They all look like a fist.
The "hard hit" ones are "Demonic Blow", "Callous Execution", "Dedicated Blow", "Soul Hammer", "Magic Coup" and "Ravaged Impact". They all work exactly the same. While RI is the only one that can be modded for an extra projectile, it still works like all the others do when they have more than one hit to deliver (in case of dual wield). They all switch target only if the first target is already dead or unavailable(e.g if it moved out of range).
These rules don't end with "hard hit"s. The attack type combat arts launch a series of melee attacks against the same target or fire multiple ranged projectiles, again at the same target. Target switching only in case of kill/ unavailability.
The attack type ones are "Frenzied Rampage", "Pelting Strikes" and "Battle Extension".
And then there are the "multi-hit" ones. In melee they strike absolutely everything in their area of effect. With ranged weapons they shoot at multiple targets simultaneously up to a maximum number, targets again aquired in a specific area, usually a larger one.
The multi-hit skills are "Scything Sweep", "Ruthless Mutilation" and "Darting Assault".
I am not quite sure, what the "multi-hit" skills do whith a ranged projectile weapon, when there are fewer targets than possible projectiles. As far as I know they just shoot all of the extra projectiles evenly spaced in a cone, but that one might be wrong. It is however true for the "darting assault" rework in D2F, the Amazon's "Multiple Shot".
In cases of a non projectile ranged weapon, meaning a blowgun, "multi-hit"s only fire one shot per target available up to the maximum number of shots. Leftover shots are ignored.
So the rules are pretty much set in stone here. As far as I know, noone has ever changed these behaviours measurably. And those CAs where certainly designed after their Sacred 1 counterparts. They are meant to fall into these three categories.
Now while we're at it, there are more weapon based CAs in Sacred 2. But I don't think there are more weapon based CA "behaviours".
We got "Mortifying Pillory", which I have never really used. I believe it follows "Hard-Hit" rules.
We got "Spectral Hand", which is obviously a "hard-hit".
Then there's "Assailing Somersault", also a "hard-hit".
And lastly there's "Archangel's Wrath", a weird one that uses everything at range, but also a "Hard-hit".
Now that I think about the categories, mechanically there might actually be only two different ones, as we know "hard-hit" CAs perform exactly like "attack" ones, should they have more than one hit to deliver.
One other thing to note is, that in cases of auto targeting/homing projectiles like they can be modded on archangel's wrath can seek out different targets. So I assume the same goes for RI modded with "Trail". That may look like different behabviour, but it's actually part of the "homing" mechanic not the CA that these homing projectiles come from.
To get back to this thread, even the weird behaviour of the wet poodle's frenzied rampage on foot does still behave according to the rules. It fires often and slowly over a long period of time and acquires new targets only when the current one is dead or unavailable. It seems weird at first, but mechanically it's still the same, at least as far as I understand it. I still did not get to testing that one myself.
I hope I dumped all the relevant information from my mind about what I expect and why I don't have a problem with your Darting Assault stories, but I do have a hard time believing the Ravaged Impact ones.
I'm certainly interested in hearing or seeing more about anything that contradicts my expectations.
For the darting assault projectile number in your "DvD install", the values from spells.txt would be enough to calculate the exact projectile count at a given CAlvl. I think Maneus has done that over in his Sacred 2 weapon damage calculation thread. Should be somewhere page 4 or later in his thread...
For the Ravaged Impact behaviour, I only believe it when I see it
Maybe there is more I don't know about this game. Your wet poodle discovery already made me want to play this thing, maybe you can find more weird stuff that I subsequently will have to play