A blaster is supposed to target the nearest creeper. It seems to forget one spot however: its own location (the square under the center of the blaster that is). Please have a look at the image below:
(http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5274.0;attach=1865;image)
On the right you see a blaster on top of an emitter with intensity 1 (so it can be capped by 1 blaster shot). It only seems to fire when the creeper has spread to its neighboring cells. Of course a blaster can't fire every frame, so an explanation could be that the creeper was able to spread before the blaster had a chance to fire, but the blaster on the left indicates something else. This blaster is placed on a square of elevation level 1 (a tiny hole with the size of 1 square), while the rest of the map is elevation level 2. The blaster never fires at all and just dies! Probably the blaster is considered to be entirely placed on elevation level 1, because its center is located at that level, so it won't fire at creeper at a higher elevation. When the creeper starts filling up that hole however, it still doesn't fire, thus proving a blaster does not target its own spot (and nearest location possible).
If I remember correctly, it did use to target the space under it.
it still does, somtimes when you put it on an emmiter it will cap it. maybe just a uniqe case or something. never happended to me
It still caps it in the above mentioned case; it just seems to wait a few frames (which is hardly noticeable). A blaster damages 8 squares, so it doesn't matter when the creeper has spread a little; it will still cap the emitter. Not instantly however; that's why you see the blaster on the right getting damaged as well, even though it's a 1 intensity emitter.
I also noticed this after the last air update , So it was safer to stay on the side to cap it .
But i dont know if the last air update is to blame ,
or if there is something else .
Way to find an edge case! :)
I think, but I haven't made an effort to find the post (and it might have been in some PMs) that Virgil did in fact indicate that the algorithm for the blaster looks at the surrounding squares only.
There has always been various weaknesses in the elevation levels of CW, since it is not treated similarly for various occurrences where elevation matters. Again, I don't right now recall a specific instance, but I remember noticing some discrepancies over the time I've played maps.
I just accepted those as part of the game mechanics.
I can accept this one, but knowing about it is important: you should never put your blaster centred on top of an emitter to prevent it from getting damaged more than necessary.
Quote from: UpperKEES on November 17, 2010, 07:48:22 PM
I can accept this one, but knowing about it is important: you should never put your blaster centred on top of an emitter to prevent it from getting damaged more than necessary.
Unless you pre-position the blaster like you did, then if the emitter can be capped, doesn't the blaster not suffer? That seems to be my experience in the game for reasonable-strength emitters. On stronger emitters I have seen the blaster being eroded.
It shouldn't suffer when the emitters intensity is less than 2 and it's frequency 0.2 or slower.