missiles

Missiles.txt defines every projectile type in D2R: arrows, javelins, spell projectiles, sub-missiles spawned in flight or on impact, AoE clouds, and explosion effects. 736 rows across 172 columns (147 carry data; the 25 columns whose names start with * are inline annotation comments). skills references rows here by name (via columns like Missile, Missile2, SrvMissile) to specify which projectile a skill fires; the relationship is one-way — a skill points at a missile, the missile has no back-reference.

This table matters for rigorous "frames-to-damage" analysis. The clock on many caster skills starts when the missile is created, not when the player finishes the casting animation. Range (lifetime in frames) and Vel (pixels per frame) together determine how long before the projectile reaches its target.

Architecture: function pointers + numeric inputs

The missiles table uses a function-pointer dispatch model. Each row selects numbered engine routines for server-side and client-side behavior:

Each function code is a small integer that selects a hard-coded engine routine. Numeric inputs to the chosen routine live in paired columns: SrvCalc1 / Param1–5 (server-do), SHitCalc1 / sHitPar1–3 (server-hit), CltCalc1 / CltParam1–5 (client-do), CHitCalc1 / cHitPar1–3 (client-hit), DmgCalc1 / dParam1–2 (server-damage). The 25 *param1 desc columns next to each parameter hold a one-line annotation of what that parameter means for that row — they have no engine effect.

Identity

Velocity, lifetime, visibility

Collision and hit-class

HitClass bitfield codes

Values are added together for missiles that should fire multiple layers (e.g. fire + stun = 32 + 96 = 128).

Sub-missile chains

Damage

Most spell missiles carry 0 in MinDamage/MaxDamage and empty EMin/EMax — their damage flows from the linked skill. Two mechanisms connect missile to skill damage:

• MissileSkill = 1 — the missile looks up the skill that created it and uses that skill's damage in place of its own.
• Skill = <skill name> — the missile binds to a specific skill row in skills.txt for damage values regardless of which skill spawned it.

Special flags

D2R-era function-code extensions

Locbones documents pSrvDoFunc 0–37, pCltDoFunc 0–68, pSrvHitFunc 0–59, and pCltHitFunc 0–64. The shipping D2R data uses values beyond those ranges:

The high codes back D2R-era content (Reign of the Warlock skills, post-LoD additions). Treat them as opaque engine routines — the shape of their parameter columns is documented case-by-case via the *param1 desc annotations on the rows that use them.

Cross-references

• skills — links missile names via Missile, Missile2, SrvMissile. The skill's calc fields and elemental damage flow into the missile when MissileSkill = 1 or the missile's Skill field names that skill.
• skilldesc — descmissile1/2/3 references missiles as inputs to tooltip calc formulas (miss('abysscenter'.par1)).
• hitclass — unrelated to missiles.HitClass. That table is for weapon-class animation tokens; the bitfield documented above is the elemental-layer system.

Worked example: Poison Javelin

Poison Javelin (an Amazon javelin skill) shows the missile-and-cloud pattern that almost every "trail" caster uses.

The skill fires poisonjav (the visible javelin shot). While in flight, the javelin spawns one poisonjavcloud per frame as a SubMissile1. The cloud sits stationary for its Range lifetime and damages anything that walks into it.

Where does the damage come from? Neither row carries elemental fields directly:

The cloud's Skill = Poison Javelin field binds it back to the skills row, and the per-tick poison damage is read from there. This is the standard skill-bound carrier pattern: the missile rows control timing and shape, but damage values live in skills.txt.

-- Inspect the javelin → cloud chain
SELECT Missile, pSrvDoFunc, Vel, Range, SubMissile1, Skill
FROM missiles
WHERE Missile IN ('poisonjav', 'poisonjavcloud')
ORDER BY Missile;

-- Find every missile that binds back to a skill (carrier-pattern missiles)
SELECT Missile, pSrvDoFunc, Range, Skill
FROM missiles
WHERE Skill != ''
ORDER BY Skill, Missile
LIMIT 25;