Magic system?

Are players going to be confined to one realm of magic, how many spells are going to be available?

from Elemental Forums

I see that there are going to be five realms of magic - Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Life (what, no Death?)

Are players going to be confined to one realm or can they opt for the jack of all trades, master of none?

Are there going to be dozens of spells available from each school, with only the higher level spells available to those dedicated only to that school? I am obviously thinking along MOM lines, or are "spells" going to be designed by the player so that there is essentially unlimited spells available? (As much as that sounds good on paper, I have never seen it done well because usually it boils down to spell a causes x amount of damage (or healing) and costs (calculated amount of power to cast) and will take (calculated amount of time to learn) I liked the MOM magic system and the huge number of spells available, and that they were pretty much unique, and were not "flame dart", "strong flame dart", "really strong flame dart", etc.

 

I think it is cool that the late game there will be abilities that will affect the entire world at a "Populous" level. Sounds very promising. I am very excited to beta test this, it sounds like the game I ahve been waiting for since MOM.

It would really be cool to see "tech trees", not only for each school of magic but also for mixed schools. It would be very nice to have spells that required certain levels of advancement among multiple schools.

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top


~clip~

It would really be cool to see "tech trees", not only for each school of magic but also for mixed schools. It would be very nice to have spells that required certain levels of advancement among multiple schools.

 

I totally agree with this! One of the things about MOM that really kept me coming back game after game after game was the variety of exciting combinations of spellbooks/talents that you could build your character around so there was always a new strategy I wanted to try out. Having spells which are only available to characters with a certain mix of different schools would take this to the next level and signify a real improvement in character creation variety.

As you say I'm a bit wary of the idea that all spells and units can be designed by the player as I'm worried that could lead to a real lack of structure where no matter what character creation choices you make at the beginning of the game you effectively end up with the same options and playing the game in the same way.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

and Life (what, no Death?)

There is Death magic. It's called Life magic while doing it the evil way. }:)

Ie. if you're "evil" and have specialised in Life magic, you have your Death magic.

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I see that there are going to be five realms of magic - Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Life (what, no Death?)

Death is just an aspect of life.

Are players going to be confined to one realm or can they opt for the jack of all trades, master of none?

It was mentioned somewhere (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that you'll be able to be a rainbow caster, but it'll mean passing up on the truly insane magics - of course, you'll have higher versatiliy, wheter or not that is worth it remains to be decided, of course. But yeah, you can have more than one element.

Are there going to be dozens of spells available from each school, with only the higher level spells available to those dedicated only to that school? I am obviously thinking along MOM lines, or are "spells" going to be designed by the player so that there is essentially unlimited spells available? (As much as that sounds good on paper, I have never seen it done well because usually it boils down to spell a causes x amount of damage (or healing) and costs (calculated amount of power to cast) and will take (calculated amount of time to learn) I liked the MOM magic system and the huge number of spells available, and that they were pretty much unique, and were not "flame dart", "strong flame dart", "really strong flame dart", etc.

It's not been confirmed, but I doubt we'll be making our own spells, so don't worry about that. Some spells are going to be truly earth-shattering. What'd be the point with a magic 'tech'-tree with somewhat linear progression if people could make their own spells?

I think it is cool that the late game there will be abilities that will affect the entire world at a "Populous" level. Sounds very promising. I am very excited to beta test this, it sounds like the game I ahve been waiting for since MOM.

It would really be cool to see "tech trees", not only for each school of magic but also for mixed schools. It would be very nice to have spells that required certain levels of advancement among multiple schools.

I completely agree, although I can see how it'd be hard to implement in a satisfactory manner, without the tech trees becoming overly confusing to read. But definately not impossible to do, and I do hope that there are select spells that require advancement in multiple elements, or multiple points spent in multiple elements.

Points in both Life & Earth should clearly allow me to convert all my bears into superior bears with white fur.

:thumbsup:

 

Edit: Oh god, I hate quoting on this forum. Why does it DO that..?

XO

Edit2: "Fixed" it. It's not proper quoting anymore, and it looks like shit, but I work with what I have and I can't be arsed to bend over backwards every time, just to get things to look good, when it's not my fault it looks like shit to begin with.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I think 'make your own spells' is going too far, but there can be some value in allowing the player to scale the power, duration or area of effect of some spells. This is so that they remain useful for most of the game, rather than cluttering up your spellbook because you've learnt something better.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I think creating your own spells is going too far as well.   However, I completly believe that a "tree" should exist that includes cross-element spells.  I mentioned some ideas for mixed spells in another thread, though I don't remember where exactly.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Luckmann, reply 3


I completely agree, although I can see how it'd be hard to implement in a satisfactory manner, without the tech trees becoming overly confusing to read. But definately not impossible to do, and I do hope that there are select spells that require advancement in multiple elements, or multiple points spent in multiple elements.

I don't think it'd be that hard to implement. For example if there's a spell that requires fire magic and earth magic, the spell could show up in the fire and earth magic tabs, but the spell itself could be color coded - half red, half green to show that it requires two schools of magic. To get more detailed information about the advancement it requires in each school, mouse over. It's clutter-free, clear and elegant :P

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting landisaurus, reply 5
I think creating your own spells is going too far as well.   However, I completly believe that a "tree" should exist that includes cross-element spells.  I mentioned some ideas for mixed spells in another thread, though I don't remember where exactly.

When I was playing MoM back in the day, this was more or less my only major complaint. I almost never put all my spell book picks into one school and always wondered why the mixed-school players didn't have some hybrid spells that no 'purist' could match. I can see how pure focus should yield greater potential at the world-wrecking stage of the game, but shouldn't hybrid spell-casting give some unique flavor even if it doesn't offer the same long-term total strength?

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

I really like PigeonPigeon's idea. Seems very clean and would give you a ton of flexibility.

I would also like to some spells that cannot be researched, but can only be found out in the world. It would be interesting if you started out a fire mage and then found a powerful earth spell that caused you to switch - or you could trade the spell you found to an earth mage player to improve relations and maybe get a fire spell in return. It would be nice to have some mixed school varieties of these as well.

I would love to see a Tech Tree as deep as in Gal Civ II, but don't have my hopes up as with spells you are going to have to design units/spell effects for almost everything, where in GalCiv a lot of the advances just modified an algorithm and didn't require a lot of artwork. Although I suppose for things like unit enhancement spells they could have a somewhat generic visual effect for each school that was used for more than one enhancement.

Gameplay over eye candy, but I hope there are some stunning effects as well!