Suggestion: Utility Magic, Spellbook, Spell Scrolls
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So this has been floating around in my head for a while, especially since Fractured is a dynamic mmo, and we can influence the environment, and it us. I also know of how the combat system is meant to be set up similar to a moba brawler...
We all know about the schools of combat and magic, and how they will impact how we interact with the world and others, and on that note, I wondered about certain aspects of magic that could add some spice to things. For example, teleportation is going to be a thing, supposedly, but how do you know when its safe to teleport? You don't know what's on the other side of that dimensional rift you just poked through, so now comes the proposal:
Scrying magic. The ability to project your camera to people or places either through spells, scrolls, items or any combination. As enchanting is assuredly going to be king when making certain items, being able to enchant a seeing mirror for instance would be rather cool.
BUT WAIT! You say... Players spying on me? That's not cool at all.. How do I protect myself against that?
Simple: Counter or detection magic. Since levels of skills are introduced, this can be especially good for a dynamic to where it pays to be knowledgeable about these things.
Alright.. sounds kind of cool You say, But what else you got?
Since dynamic mmo is the name of the game, there should be spells, rituals and enchantments that adds a little more than shooting fiery balls of doom at people's faces.
Breaking the game down into more realistic terms, how is magic interacted with people? Magic itself is a force, therefore it denotes neither good or evil. Its a fundamental part of the Elysium system affecting both natural and 'man'-made environments. As a force that can be used by anyone. How would cultures be developed around the concept? How would magic impact daily living? Are there schools in which there are regulated laws and concepts that make the magic uniform for everyone? These questions are what shapes magic into either the hard or soft system that people use.
Taking what we know from the wiki, we can make an example using the School of Alteration. Say someone wanted to transmute salt for a friend for a delicious fish dish (I know some of you aren't seafood fans, but bear with it..) how would you determine the creation through magic? What physical laws would need to be present for the desired effect to take place? Well, with salt making, it requires a source of salt, which can be easily found in seawater. In order to extract said salt from sea water, heat would be introduced. So the spell would then break down as "Heat water, extract salt, produce salt for whatever container is present."
Why is this relevant? Because magic follows the natural law more closely than people realize, it just needs to be reminded. Casting a fireball? You're just superheating air. Freezing something? Sapping heat away from an area. Making an illusiory copy of yourself? Bending light or manipulating minds. These examples are just minute to demonstrate that magic can become very versatile in an environment where it can thrive.
Spells that can add more flare for some of the more creative players can also add that special spice for fractured, such as minor spells that do no damage, but would be fun to perform and maybe earn a little knowledge on the side. Make a small firework show, levitate an object. Its the little things that can make a large impact.
This brings me to my next concept:
The spellbook
More to come
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I enjoyed reading this, this hyped me up more for magic, one question I have is, creating or combining spells, like, I you were to combine a fireball with like a wind attack spell and create a ember style attack, low damage but it's more of a DOT or if you were to combine a root spell with an ice spell, it would be like deaths grip or winter's grasp or something.
Sorry if I diverted from your topic,
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Interesting idea. Reminds me of what my players do when we play DND. Creative, but still within the rules and boundaries of the spell parameters, ways around obstacles. I am not sure how successful this would be in an mmo, but if they can pull it off it would be incredible.
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I like little touches like that myself. As to combo spells, there's a couple things to be wary of there as well. Some things can easily become too strong, and thus why so many games that do anything with it limit what can be done.
Just for example, in DND you can use low level spells to do things that obliterate large numbers of enemies of high level with some creativity. The problem there is that once you start doing so the higher level spells and every other class starts becoming weak, unless every situation where those spells apply is avoided.
So where the ideas are good, they need strong rules to bind what happens to some extent to avoid those issues.
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@TheGreatElleon Its not diverting, but there will be situations in combat where that will end up happening. Since the devs want to create a dynamic mmo where players and environment interact with one another, its very possible for either yourself or a pair of players to combo spells for dramatic results.
@Trelia @Jairone I understand the concerns where the problem will lead, which is why now that I have a minute to bring it up, I want to remind everyone that the combat layout they have planned will limit the use of such combos since the number of active abilities is small. Essentially the combat their planning now is similar to a fusion of diablo and league of legends. Small number of abilities you can use which is then limited further by your resource pools. Teamwork will be a must for the higher level areas without sacrificing immersion through using lower level spells.
As for breaking the game with magic, the SpellBook and Spell Scrolls are where classes can become augmented. You also need to remember Enchantment is also a school of magic, and therefore all classes will have access to powerfully enchanted gear and items. My idea for this was to take it a step further and have people who specialize in magic to be able to inscribe their spells onto scrolls using specially crafted ink and parchment, smiliar to dnd. This way people can have access to the scrolls and maybe even use it in a 'tool bar' ui separate from the ability hotbar like for using potions and other items.
But lets talk about the Spellbook. Since mages will be so limited and have to decide between offensive and utility spells for combative situations. I propose a separate UI, one where cannot be used for combat, but instead is an index of the spells which a player has acquired.
But how is this different from the ability menu?
Because the spells in your spellbook you can use freely.. You're essentially taking the time to become stationary and prepare magic that you normally can't during the heat of battle. This then adds another layer of tactics for players, as you could also double the system as a method for healers to carry quick usage healing and long term benefits in a convenient manner that doesn't leave a solo or party stranded in the thick of exploration with no nearby rest areas.Wow, that's pretty neat, but now what happens if you decide to cast an offensive spell from your spellbook
You could do that, except you now just caused yourself to enter combat phase and now you don't have access to your book for the time being, which if you're then not prepared... oops?
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Alright, getting back to my thoughts on utility magic and stuffs. I think I touched up on my idea for a Spellbook UI and actions taken during the 'casting use' with it.. My next item on the list is Spell Scrolls..
What are Spell Scrolls? In essence, quick use spells that really act as skills. Since there will be tiered crafting materials, it would be safe to assume that higher quality scrolls would be able to be used multiple times.. however.. there is a max limit of three uses starting at the first rank of the spell, then two at the second rank, then only one at the third.. to limit insanely powerful abilities from becoming shotguns in a battlefield.
When can I use Spell Scrolls? You can use them when you are either in combat or not, depending on their type. Offensive obviously would only be used when combat occurs. The same is said for the opposite, with utility scrolls used off-combat. This would be especially good for those that like to blend different playstyles for different situations, especially if they happen to be either solo, or in a party that have gotten into waaaay more than they can deal with.
So what would be the difference between a magic item and scroll? Magic items as far as the game mechanics presently show would be used differently than scrolls, which are essentially like potions or other tools. Naturally they have their limitations, especially since they are portable versions of spells, they don't pack quite as much of a punch, but they would however be good in a pinch. This is especially true if lockable doors were introduced and some doors locked by magical means required to be unlocked. Rather than deviating from your build a little too much or waiting for a lockpicking monkey to happen by, pop a scroll.
This would also be a good avenue for trading as well as crafting and could open up further paths of combat by changing the battlefield through the careful application of scrolls, especially if you introduced a cooldown between uses. We'll just say its for the ambient magic left over from the previous scroll to dissipate.
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@kniknack said in Suggestion: Utility Magic, Spellbook, Spell Scrolls:
But lets talk about the Spellbook. Since mages will be so limited and have to decide between offensive and utility spells for combative situations. I propose a separate UI, one where cannot be used for combat, but instead is an index of the spells which a player has acquired.
But how is this different from the ability menu?
Because the spells in your spellbook you can use freely.. You're essentially taking the time to become stationary and prepare magic that you normally can't during the heat of battle. This then adds another layer of tactics for players, as you could also double the system as a method for healers to carry quick usage healing and long term benefits in a convenient manner that doesn't leave a solo or party stranded in the thick of exploration with no nearby rest areas.Wow, that's pretty neat, but now what happens if you decide to cast an offensive spell from your spellbook
You could do that, except you now just caused yourself to enter combat phase and now you don't have access to your book for the time being, which if you're then not prepared... oops?Maybe I'm misunderstanding the intention, but this sounds like the memorized abilities you can have, which can exceed what's in your hotbar and you can swap into the hotbar while out of combat. The number you can memorize is influenced by INT (Spotlight #5 - Memorized vs. in-hotbar abilities).
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@kellewic No, you understood the spotlight perfectly, however, what I mean from this system is not having to constantly swap hotbar abilities or for those that specialize their builds to augment them further with abilities they haven't researched yet in one time usage items.
Since you have to be out of combat to swap out the hotbar, what happens when you become under attack and you have made the unfortunate error of swapping out the whole bar with all those utility spells you wanted to use? Now you're out of combat ready abilities for the duration of combat which could turn fatal.
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@kniknack said in Suggestion: Utility Magic, Spellbook, Spell Scrolls:
@kellewic No, you understood the spotlight perfectly, however, what I mean from this system is not having to constantly swap hotbar abilities or for those that specialize their builds to augment them further with abilities they haven't researched yet in one time usage items.
Since you have to be out of combat to swap out the hotbar, what happens when you become under attack and you have made the unfortunate error of swapping out the whole bar with all those utility spells you wanted to use? Now you're out of combat ready abilities for the duration of combat which could turn fatal.
What I'm not sure I understand is the SpellBook you propose (I get the scrolls) - it sounds just like the memorized version in the spotlight (at least to me). If you're saying have every spell we have available to us in this SpellBook, it seems that makes tactics and strategy even less important since I can just swap stuff out at will (no memorization and hence no rest phase).
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@kellewic Ah, I see why you're confused. When memorization comes into play, they mean the abilities and spells you have at the Hotbar. THOSE are your memorized spells. But what about spells you don't normally keep on your hotbar that are useful in situations that don't require combat? That's what I've been meaning with the spellbook proposition. Since you can't memorize every spell to use on the fly, the book would have the instructions and otherwise necessary components for you to use spells outside of the hotbar.
For example, say if you come across a wall of fog while traversing the mountains.. last thing you want to do is to go cliff diving. You have an air spell known, but its not on your hotbar to readily use since its not apart of your build... so you pull out your spellbook since you're not in combat and can read it to utilize the air spell and blow away the fog.
That's what I'm trying to get at. You would still have to rest to memorize the Hotbar's memorized abilities, its just when you have spells you want to use that otherwise don't fit in the present situation, it pays to have a spellbook on hand. AND, since I now realize having it as a UI with all your known spells on one interface would end up being grossly overpowered.. why not have it as a utlity item itself that keeps track of a handful of spells you want written, but at the cost of limited space, and increased cast time?
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@kniknack That's not at all what they mean; from Spotlight #5 - Memorized vs in-hotbar abilities
the amount of abilities you can memorize during a resting phase is not fixed. This means their number can be greater than what fits the ability hotbar at the bottom of your screen! How are you able to use them all in combat then?
Well, you can’t – not at the same time at least, since spells in your hotbar are the only ones you can actually cast. At any time when out of combat, however, you can take an ability out of the hotbar and replace it with a memorized one of your choice.
Just above that in the Resting section:
... choose the spells and abilities you want to memorize for your next adventure. The amount of memorized abilities is not fixed, but is positively influenced by the Intelligence of your character.
So it seems the SpellBook part is already planned but is limited to however many slots you get based on character Intelligence and not any spell you know.
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@kniknack said in Suggestion: Utility Magic, Spellbook, Spell Scrolls:
For example, say if you come across a wall of fog while traversing the mountains.. last thing you want to do is to go cliff diving. You have an air spell known, but its not on your hotbar to readily use since its not apart of your build... so you pull out your spellbook since you're not in combat and can read it to utilize the air spell and blow away the fog.
Which would take away some planning and preparing for a journey
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@kellewic ah. Maybe it's me who didn't initially understand when I first read it. Thank you for quoting that, now that I've reread it, it looks like they are making somewhat close to what I figured.
Thank whatever diety is present... I guess my biggest thing I wanted was for having all my spells available for use outside of combat, for things like Skilling or hanging out with friends and just fool around.
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@eurav Touche. Would start to make the resting system useless. Tsk. I've not really thought heavily into the spell ok idea have i?
