Archimedes beam targeting issues.

[idbeholdME 394]

This CA is great when it works, but the problem is that it usually doesn't. When it works properly, it deals 5 ticks of damage to the target enemy and the damage is quite nice.

However, most of the time, it will only inflict 1 or 2 ticks of damage and then the beam stops doing any damage. The cause seems to be that the CA picks a physical point on the enemy model and then connects the beam to it. As long as the line between your arm cannon and the point on the enemy's body is unobscured, the damage continues being dealt. But if it gets obscured in any way the damage stops.

For example, if a humanoid enemy runs at you directly and the beam is targeting a point on their chest. The damage is being dealt, but then the target turns around. Because the contact point is on their chest, the game evaluates it as the target no longer being visible and Archimedes Beam stops doing damage. Or even if the target just raises its hand in a way that it intersects the beam at any point, it stops any further damage. Also, if the target turns more than 90 degrees realative towards you (sideways) or more, it stops dealing damage no matter what.

This frankly makes the CA very difficult, if not impossible to actually use against single targets. I don't think a fix for this is possible, but it really detracts from this otherwise pretty good CA.

Honestly, the Lost Fusion tree suffers from targeting issues a lot. Archimedes Beam has the problem described above, which makes it extremely inconsistent to use. Furious Emblazer is near useless unless you manually place it to the left of the enemy you want hit, but at least it can be worked around. A real shame with Archimedes Beam, as I was really enjoying the Lost Fusion tree before the issues with it started happening regularly. Humanoid enemies, especially small ones like Goblins, have a very high propensity to just ignore Archimedes Beam after 1 or 2 ticks of damage. Some enemies can be consistently hit by the full duration, like most wild animals. So it really depends on the particular enemy model and where they have the contact points for the beam.

Just putting this out here as a warning to anyone who's going to try the Lost Fusion tree.

 

EDIT:

The problem with the beam is that the "damage line" is only created once the beam starts and never updates its position. One would expect that the beam would retarget on each tic, but it does not, leading to visuals not reflecting reality. Basically, whenever you use Archimedes Beam, create an imaginary line from your hand to the target point. That line stays there for the entire duration of the cast (5 damage tics). So even if an enemy walks behind you when casting it, the TG turns around and the beam visually turns too, the damage will only still be happening on the original line. Any enemy that manages to move slightly sideways after first being hit by the beam will avoid any further damage. If a different enemy walks into the original line, they will still take damage even if the beam is no longer there.

I don't think there is a way to make the beam retarget on every tic (would make sense). so just take it as a quirk of this particular CA.

Edited November 29, 2022 by idbeholdME