Magic in Project Wish Options

[GageEndal]

This is my idea of how magic should work in the game, please throw in your own also so we can get an actual debate going on for this. There is a lot of thought to be put into magic since it can do so much in the game.



I feel that magic should be split up into three methods of casting:

Mana
Reagents
Mana and Reagents

Mana is for straight sorcerers who have just such a high ammount of mystical energies that they don't rely on reagents to cast a spell. The cost of this would be about 2x mana cost as it would be if you were casting with Mana / Reagents.

Reagents are a form of casting that would be slower than straight mana casting because it takes longer to get together. Any time someone uses reagents it would slow them down (even at a higher level, there may be a bit of a modification to this, but for now let's just say they stay static fo time). The time frame would be also about 1.5x time as it would be with just mana. Anyone can use this style (even stupid warriors)

Mana and Reagents would be used for general spell casters. Ones who are able to use mana, but not well enough that they can cast spells without the reagents. The Reagents shouldn't be things that are impossible to find either, there should be at least one magic shop in each town that will sell all of the reagents. I also don't think that we should have hundreds of types of reagents since that just makes casting spells difficult. Anyhow... heh. This is the best method for those who are still learning and I think it would work fine. The time is still the 1.5x that just using Reagents is, but you can skip a certain amount of reagents if needed. Perhaps even having the reagents be liquids and you can use less of them if you are casting with mana to back it (putting your own energies into the spell as well as the reagents).



Well, that's my idea, it's a bit mixed up but I just wrote it out as I thought it, so that's to be expected.

[Areena]

this may be out of place or too late, but why doesnt magic have to be the same throughout the world. Why can't different areas have different ways of doing it?

[Brotoi]

this may be out of place or too late, but why doesnt magic have to be the same throughout the world. Why can't different areas have different ways of doing it?

That would depend on how much work the programing and art teams want to do.

I've printed out the magic portion of the Skill Tree from the Wiki, and I am consolidating the information in the threads. My goal is to write up an overall magic system that contains as much of the earlier material as possible while removing contradictions and things that are obviously impractical. The result will not really be a world magic system, but more of a framework that each region could cherry pick from and expand according to the cultural and spiritual values of that region.

For example, Life Magic and Death Magic are both mentioned extensively, along with some conflicting defintions of what they might mean. I'll work out a middle ground that describes each and provides overall parameters that should simplify the work for the programming team. From that foundation a writer could easily extrapolate a local Death Magic, for example, that would incorporate some life drain spells, some summoning spells, some debuffs, and so on, and then apply their local system to the local culture.

So Death Magic in one region might be based on reagents, in another it might be based on blood magic, in yet another it might be dark energy, and in still another it might be possible to start with reagents and work up to dark energy as the associated skills and attributes of the player increase.

Either way, there has to be a basic system in place that the programming team can implement and expand. My aim is to be as modular as possible, minimizing the work for programmers and maximizing the flexibility for writing, design, art, and so on.

Anyhow, it's going to take awhile to work up. And in the end, everyone might decide I'm being arrogant and pushy and reject it in it's entirety. In the meantime, though, it'll keep me busy for awhile. Whether the system is accepted or rejected, it'll provide a foundation I can use to create a workable magic system for Kandonda, and hopefully everyone else as well.