First magic: the Druid's staff

The first original weapon is in: the Druid’s staff.

Effects

The original’s sprite effects came across with it: flames, fireballs, explosions, glows, smoke, sparks, water, slime and lava frames.

Projectiles that travel

Projectiles move through the world over time rather than hitting instantly. Rather than creating a networked object for every shot, each weapon keeps a small rolling record of its projectiles. A shot is written once when it’s fired and once when it hits, so the network cost doesn’t grow however long a projectile flies. The visible projectile is just a pooled effect following that record.

Shots come from fixed points on the character rather than from an animated hand. Animated bones don’t line up exactly between machines, but a fixed point does, so every player agrees where a shot started.

Glow that holds up at range

A projectile is a stack of glowing layers: a bright core inside a softer halo. At a distance perspective shrinks them all together into one flat blob. The glow now shrinks a little more slowly than the rest, so a distant bolt still reads as a core with a halo while still getting smaller.