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Heh, frankly, magic is too outta whack in my opinion. The spells either don't work on most mobs (much less players!), don't do much of anything, or require far too much mana to cast them for their inferior quality. I like the idea of the spell pulse shorter than the tick. Could create a seperate list of "spell affects" that react to what they reside on each spell pulse, leaving the regular affects to the normal tick-based timing system.
To add to this, spells could be made to require ingredients to do them. A way to do this is to have a "spell_component" type (or maybe allow the use of potions and pills as well) and put spells in them that they can be used for, or rather what KINDS of spells they could be used for. A "pinch of sulfur" could be used for any fire spell.
Also, ingredient based spells could allow them as an option, rather than a requirement. The spell would still work, but the ingredients would act as an augmentation catalyst, amplifying the spell to FULL strength the caster can perform. Something to note, this could relieve the requirement of a shard as a requirement to perform portaling spells. Rather, limit their range without the shard to the current continent, extending it to multi-continent range with the shard. In fact, the shard could be used to extend the range of ANY teleportation type spell (summon and any portal spell).
Back to the ingredients, this would be where an alchemist would do wonders. Allow them to manufacture spell components that can be sold to shops or other players. :) Also, the entire magic system just needs revamping, and these ideas just might help in that process. :)
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I like where the direction is heading. More input dammit.
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I don't like the idea of having reagents for spells. The thought of being able to take energy and form it without aid is fine with me. Though perhaps give a skill that allow for the finding of herbs in the wilds that act as pills. Like a brown walnut can be found in the forest areas and grants cure crit.
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Enabling characters to be mage-types would be .. (Mr. Burns) eeeexcellent. In particular I like the idea of holding a spell to do continuous harm/help. Although I'll admit that some of thise sounds as if it'd work much better under a single-class system (which I much prefer in general), not a 4-class like ours.
The idea of reagents is an interesting one. At the first second, I of course twitched and thought of MG, but I think you have a vey good idea in the reagents not being required, but merely serving to augment.
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An idea along the lines of Xavis' idea of having objects that can augment a mage's power.
Have an object called a focuser that stores magical energy that can be used to FOCUS the magic of the caster, thus augmenting the range, power and/or scope of the spell cast. The idea is to limit this though so it isn't an abused idea. So I propose these focusers have a limit, a charge, a capacity, whatever it is called. This determines how much the focuser can do.
There are two versions I can think of as to what the charge represents: a level limit or a mana limit. I'm leaning more toward mana limit because two level 10 spells may differ so much in mana costs, that the more costlier one should drain more from the focuser. Each time you cast a spell and the focuser is in use, the stored mana is depleted. Should the mana become exhausted in the process of using it, the focuser would basically go poof, possibly canceling the spell or not giving the max augmentation it could provide. Also, if the current spell being cast drains a significant chunk of mana from the focuser, it loses precious mana from its charge level, with the potential hazard of shattering the focuser.
Now, how would one put mana into this? Well, first, I think the Archmage subclass should be able to forge a focuser (some stock focuser item, maybe a focusing crystal) that can then be used by other mages. An Archmage would then have the ability to recharge focuser objects. However, make this like a repair with the added risk of shattering the focuser if recharged too much.
Ok, how would you use this focuser? Two ways: Augmentive and Megaburst. Augmentive is achieved by wearing the focuser and simply casting the desired spell. When the focuser augments a spell, a percentage is rolled from the percentage range put on the particuler focuser (allowing for different grades). This percentage is added to the spell's affect level.
Megaburst is a one-time-all-or-nothing burst usage of the current mana charge in the focuser. Say you have a massively powerful mob you wish to take out but just don't have sufficient power to do it. Using megaburst might help you in this. Instead of wearing the focuser, you would be required to HOLD the focuser, thus enabling the game to discern which mode you wish to use. The amount of augmentation would probably be defined in the focuser as well, but would be more of a scale factor instead of a percentage add, ie. 2x, 3x, 10x, etc.
Another idea is to have a skill, focusing, that a mage uses to be able to focus their spells through the focuser, adding more risks to the spell casting. :D
That's my idea. :)
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I'm so giddy with excitement! These ideas are bloody brilliant!! I have absolutely nothing to add right now, but I just had to write down something or I'll explode :P
Actually, I do have an idea. This is about the PK aspect of using focus crystals or augment crystals or whatever. I think it would be groovy if these were headgear type of equipment. Like Circlets with the crystal on the forehead.
Like Xev said before, if you overcharge your crystal it might explode. It might also cause a nasty mess :P With all that magic energy pent up in the crystal, if you overcharge the focus crystal the energy has to go somewhere. I suggest it act like the spell went off plus the razor sharp shards flying in every direction. Seriously injuring or killing anyone in the blast radius.
This doesn't have to happen everytime the crystal is over charged, but it could be groovy if it happened once in a while :P Teach the careless a lesson :D
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Maybe use that idea in PK to spawn another idea…
Have a spell that a PKer could use to cause the focuser of their opponent to overload, with a helpful risk of EXPLODING in a Death Star fashion... (ok, maybe not that catastrophic, but enough to injure both combatants and some people/mobs in the room) The downside with this, the one doing the spell could die in the process. The upside, the opponent shouldn't get a PK win since they didn't deal the final blow. Now, if the opponent with the exploding focuser perished, the PKer that did the spell should get a PK win, regardless if THEY also died, since the blast would have killed the opponent first. The fact the PKer died was just a side effect of the explosion. ;)
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Sounds good.
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yeah…
Most of that was painfully long. Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of any of that. It sounds to me like you all want a completely different leveling system. It started out as a way of making spells worthwhile, and turned into making an entire new subclass, which then turned into making everyone who chose archmage to be able to use all of the same weapons that everyone else can, but allowing them to cast unstoppable spells. Maybe I'm missing something, but it sounds like you're just looking for a way to boost one class, and asked yourselves what is the most complex way to do that. :-p
This needs a lot more thought and probably to be toned down unless you'd like to pwipe and have 4 multiclasses for both warrior style and 4 for mage style.
eRTAI!~!
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~~@Ertai:~~
> yeah…
>
> Most of that was painfully long. Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of any of that. It sounds to me like you all want a completely different leveling system. It started out as a way of making spells worthwhile, and turned into making an entire new subclass, which then turned into making everyone who chose archmage to be able to use all of the same weapons that everyone else can, but allowing them to cast unstoppable spells. Maybe I'm missing something, but it sounds like you're just looking for a way to boost one class, and asked yourselves what is the most complex way to do that. :-p
>
> This needs a lot more thought and probably to be toned down unless you'd like to pwipe and have 4 multiclasses for both warrior style and 4 for mage style.
>
> eRTAI!~!
Well I don't want to go as far as to suggest a new leveling system or new classes or such. Just a way to make the spells worthwhile. The equipment mentioned would be just a way to help players who enjoy using magic give them a reason to use their magic.
I don't think we meant to say that only the Archmage would be able to use the eq. Actually, I'm not sure either. I'm very tired and I'm finding it hard to think, so Xev will have to answer that for ya :P
And there's something else i wanna throw out. I think when caculating damage and status effects with spells, the dice system needs to be thrown out. We need something more concrete. Same with stats. You don't really see any difference whatsoever if your dex is at 10 or 25\. Same with Wisdom. Your spells do the same amount of damage.
I'm suggesting a new system in stats directly affect the caliber of the player in a big way. Lets say a character with 25 str gets hit with weak. he'll lose about 10 str. Lets say he did a max of 350 at 25 str. with 15 dam his max would be 280\.
I don't know if this is making any sense, but if it is, hooray for Xavis!
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I was the one who mentioned the single-class system, and I didn't mention it as a suggestion… I said that although I like some of the eq/spell suggestions here, some of them seem more suited to a single-class system (which I just happen to like better, personally), and therefore should be modified a bit if they are to be thought about more seriously.
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I also enjoy single class sytems and it's a shame Sentience doesn't offer that, but we gotta work with what we're given :P
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Perhaps in the future we could be given a choice of either single class or multi class? I know in some MUDs, you can do either.
