Homing Boulders: Difference between revisions

In many games which show projectiles, a shortcut often taken by programmers who don't want to bother with complexities such as tracking and physics is to assume that every projectile attack will ultimately "hit" or "miss" its target and dictate this outcome ahead of time, usually with a die roll or [[Hit Scan]] trace. Nothing the target can do after that will avoid damage, the projectile follows the target perfectly, often even through obstacles.

 

 

Common symptoms include units taking damage even when the projectile hasn't visibly collided with them (yet), projectiles changing directions (''[[Fridge Logic|inexplicably]]'', that is) in mid-flight to intercept their target, and so on. Logically, projectiles which are explicitly designed (or [[A Wizard Did It|enchanted]]) to home in on their target are exempt from this trope.

* Noticeable in ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'' when throwing objects at helicopters. Cars, air conditioners, tanks, and people will actually curve to track a moving helicopter if released close enough and the helicopter maneuvers away.

* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' allows the player to lock onto targets via [[Bullet Time]], even with thrown weapons. This leads to the often hilarious sight of throwing daggers and sticks of dynamite chasing flying birds like heat-seeking missiles.

* [[Saints Row 2]] has a variation, noticeable when using machine guns from aerial locations- despite [[Every Bullet Is a Tracer|every bullet being a really, really slow tracer round]] visually, the game tracks machine guns as [[Hit Scan]] weapons. This isn't noticeable when firing at slow targets or at still targets, but when firing at a fast-moving targets, the bullets appear to hit the ground several feet behind the target, which has taken damage from every shot.

* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' has the Tank, which can rip out chunks of the ground and throw them at the Survivors. The rocks have a degree of homing, but [[The AI Is a Cheating Bastard|the AI Tanks are even worse]] to the point where [[Fan Nickname|players have nicknamed them]] "rofl rocks". It doesn't help that AI Tanks can throw rocks that sometimes ''clip into the level's geometry'' to reach the player.

* Occurs in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. On a fast epic mount, you can fly close to a mob using a ranged attack, and then outfly the mob's projectiles for quite some time if you put some effort into it. The damage gets applied instantly, but it can get hilarious if you fly away for a while and then see the graphics of a bunch of ranged attacks hitting you in succession.

* The [[Trope Namer]] (but not the Ur-Example) is ''[[City of Heroes]]''. The damage also isn't applied until the boulder actually hits, although the decision of whether it does is made as soon as its thrown. Hits not only curve and chase you, but will go through walls to impact you. If you aim at a Teleporter, this can lead to some truly amazing boulder throws or sniper shots. Curiously, misses always travel in a straight line.

** In an interesting counter-trope, a "miss" animation will fly straight, but slightly off-target. No big deal when fighting across a room, but at point blank, this will suddenly cause a projectile to fly straight up or sideways. Alternately humorous, and humiliating.

** This also occurs in [[Champions Online]]. The player character can be teleporting (read: an intangible, invisible mass of energy) and whatever projectiles were launched will pursue you to the point of staying at the exact point where your character is floating. Amusingly, they will not register the hit until after the player completes the teleport.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' does this with arrows (anyone see a pattern?) but the boulders don't track. Just their damage. Which isn't annoying at all.

 

* In the ''[[Total Annihilation]]'' series, all projectiles can miss, even the lasers and homing missiles(they can only turn so sharply!). This is actually the main defense of scout/fighter jets, they're just moving too damn fast for most attacks to hit them! Gaining veterancy allows units to lead their targets, but even then, they'll still likely miss the fastest of enemy units.

** This becomes even more clear when playing around with utterly broken custom units with multiple attacks. There is literally no hitscanning in the game at ALL, not unless you specifically kitbash the game's physics into recognizing it for that particular unit. Two custom units amount to being essentially giant laser shotguns, yet will get torn apart by a fleet of far cheaper [[Pee Wees]] (tiny machine-gun bots) because there will always be at least a handful in the spread's 'pattern blind spot,' or are missed because in the nanosecond it took to impact their little feet carried them out of the edge of the laser's animation. It makes shmups suddenly not seem so impossible...