Point-blank plasma beam spells shouldn't self-harm

[Remin]

Or at least, delay self-damage on casts that start the spell inside you. I know our lovable wizard is highly accident-prone, but surely they're not idiotic enough to do what is essentially the equivalent of willingly sticking their head between the wall and their plasma wand.

I've had two recent runs ruined by this. The first time was from a few days ago or so because I happened to jump into a bit of a gap and got stuck in the terrain RIGHT when I fired (guess there was a single pixel poking out that I got caught on and thus promptly got completely wedged in the wall), resulting in the entirety of my 300-400 of my health vanishing in a single cast.

Second run which was just last night, I had a dedicated digging plasma wand (the first run had a damage-based one, but it could still dig decently), and I was headed to the surface to get something to heal (was making sure to be careful so as to not make the same mistake as last time). But alas, after a little while of digging, I dug sideways a tiny bit to look at something that was nothing, and when I stepped back to the edge of the tunnel to continue digging at the ceiling, I nicked myself with the wand because it was slightly pushed downwards right when I cast it while trying to fall back down a little to maximize my safety.



It could be argued that this all is my fault, and in the end it pretty much is, but man, this one spell type feels a bit too accident-prone. As I mention at the start, something to prevent point-blank damage feels like it needs to be there for the plasma spells that shoot in a typical straight line from your wand.

Some potential solutions I can think of In no particular order of priority/balance:

1. Delay point-blank self-damage from typical plasma beam spells, or don't allow it to self-harm unless you leave and re-enter its initial hitbox.
   
2. Force the plasma to start a fixed distance ahead of you regardless of wand position (this solution might have the most issues).
   
3. Similar to #1, very briefly delay the self-damage, but quickly force the projectile to move forward to the distance it would have normally been fired from based on the size of the wand.
   
4. Don't allow it to fire if the tip of the wand is touching solid terrain.

Or, exclusively add any of these things to the digging plasma beam(s), since it'd make the most sense for something so close-quarters as that to have at least some safety features. In which case #3 is a perfect fit since this type of plasma seems to dig through everything, so there shouldn't be a problem with forcing the projectile forward. Though, #3 could work for non-digging plasma beams too: Just destroy the beam if its origin touches something impassable during the proposed forced "safety-check" movement.

I know accidental deaths are a standard and very common experience for the game, but this is the one thing that legitimately feels unfairly accidental. It's fine if you run forward into your own typical plasma beams, or foolishly risk shooting yourself experimenting with a cross-shaped one as I did out of curiosity a few days ago (I figured it would happen since I didn't have any trigger spells to test it with, but at least I didn't die to it since I expected the risk).

But point-blank plasma beams? I'm not sure much else would be so much of a safety hazard aside from ridiculous things like an 8-cast lightning bolt-filled wand in tight spaces, and even then you at least fully know how risky that is if you've ever shot yourself with a lightning bolt before.



In short, all I ask is for the title of this thread, at least for the ones that shoot in a standard line. It's sometimes possible to get completely stuck in terrain, so what are you supposed to do when that bug happens? Spraying potions on yourself seems to help a lot with getting unstuck, but what if you don't have any on you? Do you just roll over and unavoidably shoot yourself in the face and/or crotch with a plasma beam and resign yourself to probably needing to start a new game? Though, even without plasma, getting stuck is probably a run-ender anyway if you have nothing to help get unstuck...

Anyway, ranted a lot, but I guess that just shows how legitimately unfair these particular spells can feel to me. Was pretty bummed about last night's run in particular being ruined by this; managed to get together a forever-castable 400-500ish DPS spitter bolt wand with a light modifier pretty early, along with the personal shield perk which helped a ton with offsetting the risk of needing to be somewhat close to enemies. Had electric immunity as well, so I could slap an electric torch onto the wand. All that light helped a lot with seeing enemies first/dark areas. Then BAM! Needlessly lasered myself in the noggin, and that was that. It was way more disappointing then upsetting. Wands that can dig from up close really shouldn't be so incredibly lethal just because you poked the wall slightly.

(Okay, rant seriously over now, haha. Doubt many'll read even part of this anyway)

[Rockey]

TLDR, I'll give you a summary of every Noita player's "Opinion" "GID GUD LMAO"

[Remin]

Originally posted by Rockey:

TLDR, I'll give you a summary of every Noita player's "Opinion" "GID GUD LMAO"

Yep, and that's honestly a fair argument for 99% of this game. I also noticed these plasma beams already move their origin point forward slightly upon firing, but only slightly (not enough to move it out of range of your body in the case of point-blank firing as far as I know… not exactly willing to risk ruining a run to confirm the safety or lack thereof of various point-blank angles). Even the evil gaze eyeball item can plasma beam yourself since it fires from the last position it was in when swapped back to, which is almost definitely unintended.

So yeah, the way plasma beams are handled are part of the 1% that doesn't quite feel right.

Bit of an aside here, but another part of that 1% would be snipers firing from within liquids, a.k.a. no laser sight and thus no warning. That just straight up isn't right. There's no "Haha, damn, I coulda dodged that better" reaction, just "What the ♥♥♥♥ was that ♥♥♥♥…?". Not fun. No problems with 'em otherwise though, aside from possibly seeing you from behind a tiny bump of snow that hides their laser, which would also result in no warning thanks to their high piercing.

[Kalistri]

Luminous drill with timer?

[Remin]

Originally posted by Kalistri:

Luminous drill with timer?

With the plasma at the end of it? Sounds like a pretty good idea, but I feel like I've seen stuff like that sometimes fire the chained spell backwards/in another direction when next to a wall. Not to mention the comparatively much higher mana cost of trigger/timer spells.

Long-Distance Cast would probably be best for safety+cost, but would have its own inconveniences of not being able to easily make tunnels in the side of an already-narrow space such as a tunnel you're digging.

I just wish there was the tiniest bit more safety by default. That's all. Just a tiiiny bit more.

[Bren]

I mean, the beam cross is basically just designed to kill you. its entirely impractical because you often cant even run back because the beam is going straight into you. Very purposeless imo.

[index]

Originally posted by Bren:

I mean, the beam cross is basically just designed to kill you. its entirely impractical because you often cant even run back because the beam is going straight into you. Very purposeless imo.

you use perks like this with trigger spells so the enemy gets a beam cross on his face and not you