Petition for some info on magic system plans

I want to suppose that if they have said nothing yet, it is because they are not ready to tell us (or very busy planning everything).

I sign on for obvious reasons.

I like noodles.

mise freisin

Lesse. An unreplacable magic called "essence". There'll probably be something like mana that comes from crystals. The magic spells of the late game are world-shattering and unbalanced. Spellbooks are unique to civilizations.

Yeah, I'd like a little additional info.

yeah.  Well any sort of confirmation on anything is nice.   Right now they've been giving us info on the engine, which obviously is pretty done.  The magic system is pretty important to us obviously, and it would save our brains a lot of ache if we knew.

We know there are 12 factions, I also kinda wish we had a better idea at what they were too.

I mean while we are at it, I want to hear if they are in fact having multiple worlds.  Because I'm dying to know since its a feature from MoM that hasn't already been shown in some form.

Introducing even a few shreds of information about the magic system in such an uninformed environment would greatly increase our understand of what has the green light in Elemental: WOM. I'm personally hoping for a magic system where magic = energy as opposed to magic = anything goes craziness. With magic as energy you could have 5-10 rules or laws for each area of magic and 2-4 variables for each law. This would allow for easy editing of spells and inclusion of new spells leaving only the spells visual appearance to worry about and this system could be opened or closed to players.

Please be no.. please be no.. please be no..
*fingers crossed*

My kingdom for a spell book!

you could always turn it off :P   whats wrong with having options?

Well the devs have already told us that Elemental is meant to be playable in many different ways. I agree that if they give too many options that drastically affect the game then it would kind of lose its structure. That's why they need to find the big features/aspects of the game that have very large split camps, and provide those as options.

Given that, I don't think tactical combat vs. autoresolve is a good comparison to whether or not multiple planes should be featured. Tactical combat can essentially be thought of as a minigame within the game. And if the auto-resolve feature is good, then playing out your tactical combat won't have much of an affect at all on how the rest of the aspects of the game are played (though it might effect how any given game might turn out). That is different from multiple planes, because the presence or absence of multiple planes can greatly affect how the whole game is played.

Would you rather they remove the feature?

I stand by the fact that if a game can be played more than 1 way, its more than 1 game.  I LOVE getting more than 1 game for my $50.   Civilization 4 for example, I play by e-mail with my father with wrapping in every direction world, but I play on marathon mode with my roommate with the cylinder style play.  They are different games since they are played VERY differently.  sure, I only bought the game once, but I get two different ways to play (more if you count the ways I don't play)

I'm not about to start hating one of the play styles because "its not how the developers originally wanted it to be played"

If they didn't want us to play it that way, they wouldn't have included the option.  A developer like Stardock (i.e. a company that play tests and cares about quality rath than rush out a game with a laundry list of 'features' for the sake of having a release) isn't going to include an option unless they think SOMEBODY wants to play it that way. 

Its not about what they want, its about what we want!   We are paying them (about $50 a player) to make us a game that is fun for US to play.   Their 'vision' doesn't matter if we don't want to play it.  They are just throwing money around in that case. 

There isn't some ultimate vision that was dreamed up by the next jesus incarnate (well, I mean... there could O.o;  but I doubt it.  Brad Wardell isn't THAT cool.  He said himself he's just taking the good parts of other fantasy strategy games and making a new game that is the best of Master of Magic and Family.).   The point is that they design the game to be played many ways....   so gosh golly darn it, let it be played many ways.  If a game is balenced on several modes, play it on several modes.

I'm a frequent threadjacker myself, and a great fan of digression for its own sake, but I'm hoping to keep this thread down to just collecting user names to support the core plea for more magic info as soon as possible. I'd be happy to join in on the wrangling about 'how many options are too many,' but I'd prefer that someone start a fresh thread for it.

What I'm really asking for here is a dev journal with a title like Integrated Metaphysics, and from what I see in several other threads, it could be a near-universal appetite among the pre-beta regulars.

I'm all for getting some more information about their plans for the magic in Elemental. Even if they only give us a small little tidbit about how they're planning on magic to work, it would be really helpful. It's difficult to make detailed suggestions for the magic system because we have no idea what the overall structure will be. We could definitely be more helpful at brainstorming ideas if we had some hints.

I would love to know more about the magic system if the devs have time to talk about it. It's definitely one of the more interesting topics. Good luck with your petition.

yeah.  I can't wait until.  That being said, GW, you have to bring down the hammer, because I'm not seeing many names.  We should get the entire forum in here so it looks like the entire fanbase demands it.

Well yeah... obviously I'd be more that interested in hearing about all the magically goodness! My only slight retience in signing up is that, I dunno.. doesn't it go without saying that we'd love any bit of information that the devs are willing to grant us? I would assume they'll give us info whenever they're darn well good and ready regardless of our pleadings

Having said that if they really are interested in ideas being suggested on the forums then this would indeed be a good place to start with the info ladeling, I mean our spell brainstormings would surely be a lot more useful if we had some idea of the overall system they had to fit into.

Signed I suppose. Thought we will have to wait until after Christmas.

I'm a bad petition writer, I guess. I'm after the priority list for Next Released Tidbit. I don't have any expectation that wheedling from us will actually make the process move any faster.

Also, I trust that the Stardock teams are all going to have a nice holiday break and shame on them if they spend much time actually working at their PCs until next year.

I sign in. More info on the magic system(s) please.

though I don't mind these near weekly story updates.

The second excerpt from "Guardians of the Telenanth" hinted at all sorts of magical details, but it is seriously "back" back story given the interesting treatment of time. It seems like more or less "Elder Days" stuff, and all manner of changes are possible between Then and Now.

I have no interest in heckling Brad about when and how he'll be parcelling out stories like Guardians, except that I hope he gives himself enough time to be pleased with things when RTM hits.

I still want to see an Integrated Metaphysics thread as soon as the devs think they've had enough of us carrying on about any and every fantasy-whatever game we'ev ever loved, hated, or just heard about. But maybe that's just because I'm convinced I'd have a better chance of offering useful suggestions or ideas if I had just a few basic ideas about the magical mechanics as they're currently planned.

I am a very big fan of magic! I am dying to get more information about it!!!

Feed me baby!!!

/Signed

Would love to get an idea of how the magic system is thought to work, Even if it's drawn in sand and could change the next day,  Just having an idea of where it's headed would let us brainstorm on things we'd like to see! 

Prrrreetttty ppleeeeeaaaase! 

Ok I waited patiently...sort of.

Signed now

Take it as a sign of enthousiasm not pressuring