quote: Original post by Whirlwind

any new discovery won''t be a discovery to anyone since the recipe will be on the net in a heartbeat which would defeat the point to finding new spell combinations

Whirlwind, who would want to give away their kick-ass spells to everybody? I can''t imagine why you would do that.

Wait a sec! I just realized something. It''s highly possible that people will start exchanging spells! "You give me that cool ice spear spell of yours, and I''ll tell you about my Poison Song of Algirioch!"

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster

Original post by Whirlwind

any new discovery won''t be a discovery to anyone since the recipe will be on the net in a heartbeat which would defeat the point to finding new spell combinations

Whirlwind, who would want to give away their kick-ass spells to everybody? I can''t imagine why you would do that.

Wait a sec! I just realized something. It''s highly possible that people will start exchanging spells! "You give me that cool ice spear spell of yours, and I''ll tell you about my Poison Song of Algirioch!"


Yep, it would be the same people who write the trainers, break the data files, or run a site dedicated to the game (an or, not an and there). Also, a great spell is also a bragging right that states that ''I did this first!''.

On the particle effect thing, you could do real time texture blending with additive particle/polygon animations (cold sphere - round and blue mixed with dark sphere - round and black - would produce a elipsish dark blue effect).

Sorry, the above post was me (2nd anon).

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Besides providing the ability to do anything (if you have enough power), this system is designed to create a magic economic system!


Power to the warriors of the Mind, for they tread where few dare!

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster

Whirlwind, who would want to give away their kick-ass spells to everybody? I can''t imagine why you would do that.

Wait a sec! I just realized something. It''s highly possible that people will start exchanging spells! "You give me that cool ice spear spell of yours, and I''ll tell you about my Poison Song of Algirioch!"

This is a good thing... A magic system that is an integral piece of the economy, as well as a way to get people to actually interact with one another is a good thing. Wouldn''t you agree



Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser

And I just thought of a ''power'' system that would theoretically avoid the feared ''newbies with armageddon'' situation.

basically do something like this:

SPELLPOWER x

Where x is the mp used, in percent. Also make it so the person can go over 100, but give them an exponentialy increasing risk of something VERY bad happening...

Thus the same spell for a level 1 charactor is less powerfull than the exact same spell for a level 10 charactor

Ok, I''m starting to like the idea of a limited amount of magical power for differnt elements of magic. But I propose an addition. What if each player slowly "hoarded" an amount of power for each element. The player could divide up his total max m.p. into the different catergories.

With that addition, there could be oracles and such that players could seek out to gain magical power.

So take Tark, the Wizard for example.
Tark needs to fill up his "fire" m.p. because everyone is hoarding it because a war is about to start. So Tark goes off to seek the "Obelisk of fire" to help him regenerate. And, perhaps enchant a special stone to allow a limited channeling of the obelisk''s power.

This is cool! And it would fit right in with my idea of objects granting greater magical power...

-=-=-=-=-=-
Is 'amthst' a word?
What is the meaning of an NPC's life? simple-
"To make the player have fun by dieing horribly you %$^@ goblin! ESCALATE GOBLIN GENOCIDE!"

The idea of scripting your own spells seems cool. I might try it myself (programming the system into my game, I mean), but not the way some of you have illustrated.

I don't think many people will like having to type long lines of text to cast spells. I think they should be able to script their spells, either using a text or graphical scripting system, within constraints dictated by what disciplines they chose to learn, and of course their own experience level. Each spell would then have its own button in a spell-selection window, which you can hotkey.

So if you write a text script like this:

FistOfFlame # The name of the spell is "Fist of Flame"{    if( stillactive )        cancel; # Spell is already cast; don't cast it again.    cast fire Flames;    Flames.SetSource( RightHand, Attached );    Flames.SetDamage( 10.0 );    Flames.SetDuration( 30.0 );}  

The game might scan the script, and based on the damage and duration specified, it will determine the spell requires a Fire Mastery of 4 and uses 20 Energy (mana) to cast. And each time the mage punches something, the creature he punches will recieve 10 damage points.

But if this slightly different script is written:

Fury{    cast fire Flames;    Flames.SetSource( RightHand, Attached );    Flames.SetDamage( 10.0 );    Flames.ApplyForce( Caster.Orientation.Forward, 1.0 );}  

No duration is specified, meaning it's an instant spell, which is also why the stillactive line is unnecessary. It will be continuously cast as long as the user holds the Cast button down. Anyway, since it applies force to the flame, an Air Mastery of 2 might be needed along with the fire requirements. This spell should create a flamethrower-like spout of flame from the caster's right hand.

Then I might have a spell like this:

FireBall{    if( time - lastcast < 1.0 )        cancel; # Fire delay is one second.    cast fire Flames;    Flames.SetSource( RightHand, Loose );    Flames.SetDamage( 20.0 );    Flames.SetPhysics( Floating ); # Instead of falling, bouncing, etc.    Flames.SetDuration( 5.0 ); # Flies for 5 seconds.    Flames.ApplyForce( Caster.Orientation.Forward, 2.0 );    Flames.DestroyOnHit( );}  

...and that would create a typical fireball that fires no faster than one fireball per second. Due to the damage and force, it will have higher Fire and Air requirements than FistOfFlame or Fury. The actual rules governing fire, such as how applied force affects it when it's attached or loose, will be built in to the engine.

With a system like this, the user can experiment beyond the usual spells seen in games, to see what is possible. Of course, plenty of playtesting will have to go into this before such a thing will be released.

Edited by - CGameProgrammer on August 22, 2000 9:35:23 PM

Actually I changed my mind. It''s probably not good to let the user set the damage, duration, or rate of casting; those would have to be determined by the engine based on the user''s mana supply and elemental masteries.

~CGameProgrammer( );

I tend to disagree - what about you being a high level mage, and wanting to cast a weak spell? Did, in you learning of the ways of magiks, cause you to forget the weaker spells?

Basically, doing somethign strongly does not make it better, doing something intelligently does.