Space/Empty Effect in Spell and Enchantment Creation

[Count]

Okay now let me better explain it, on creating a spell or enchantment you could use an effect called "Space". It wouldn't do
anything or cost anything, and you could set a time on it. Placing it in between spell effects would make the spell so that
the effects above the Space, and the Space itself, would have to finish before casting the next effect.
This would have an insane amount of uses(I can give a few examples), and would make magic a whole lot more interesting and fun.

Thoughts:?:

[Capostrophic]

Adding new magic effects needs a content file. And there's no point in adding dummy effects.

[Atahualpa]

I think that Count does not want to create dummy effects or such. His idea is to add some kind of spell effect triggering where effects aren't cast at the same time but rather in a pseudo-scripted (defined during the spell's creation) way.

For example, you could create a "flee" spell which instantly heals a small amount of Health, then buffs your Endurance and Speed to get out of the way, and finally applies a long-time Restore Health effect. Or you could create an "Icarus" spell which increases your Acrobatics by 1000 and triggers a Slowfall effect after, let's say, 10 seconds.

Allowing this is well within the scope of our engine.

[ezze]

It sounds a bit weird though. For example a 30 seconds protection cost much less than half 60 seconds protection. So this would be a cheap way to lower the cost of effects, isn't?

[Atahualpa]

It sounds a bit weird though. For example a 30 seconds protection cost much less than half 60 seconds protection. So this would be a cheap way to lower the cost of effects, isn't?

I don't quite understand what you mean by "protection". Could you explain this a bit more?

Anyway, in my opinion this is about adding the possibility to trigger spell effects, a kind of extended spell system. Whether you switch it on or not is your decision. Modders and game developers could use it to create much more interesting spell mechanics -- and yes, this would need heavy (re)balancing.

[Count]

It sounds a bit weird though. For example a 30 seconds protection cost much less than half 60 seconds protection. So this would be a cheap way to lower the cost of effects, isn't?

I don't quite understand what you mean by "protection". Could you explain this a bit more?

Anyway, in my opinion this is about adding the possibility to trigger spell effects, a kind of extended spell system. Whether you switch it on or not is your decision. Modders and game developers could use it to create much more interesting spell mechanics -- and yes, this would need heavy (re)balancing.

First of all, sorry I haven't been back on the forums, I for some reason wasn't notified that you responded to the original post. But yeah, thanks a lot for responding! You are right about what it would be made for, so that you could script spells to be however complex you wanted them to be with only a simple scripted empty spell effect. It would in my opinion make spells and enchantments much more interesting, enjoyable, useful, and varied.

So, is this a feature the OpenMW team is planning to implement, or will another modder need to make the actual feature once the modding tools are able to allow it?

[Atahualpa]

Your request sounds more like an engine feature to me, i.e., we should allow modders to "enable" extended spell customisation in their mods; OpenMW provides the framework, modders have to use it.

However, I don't know whether this feature is already on the post-1.0 list of any of our developers. In the worst case, you'd have to wait until someone has the time to deal with that request.

[Count]

Your request sounds more like an engine feature to me, i.e., we should allow modders to "enable" extended spell customisation in their mods; OpenMW provides the framework, modders have to use it.

However, I don't know whether this feature is already on the post-1.0 list of any of our developers. In the worst case, you'd have to wait until someone has the time to deal with that request.

Okay cool, thanks again for the reply, I don't really mind waiting so it's fine with me,. Can't wait to see what all comes out of development in the future, really loving OpenMW so far.

[Count]

Oh and I also had another awesome(hopefully lol) and simple feature suggestion, but I don't think I should start a whole new thread to say it. Three words: Cast on Swing

[silentthief]

Three words: Cast on Swing

This one would be nice. Like how magical staves work in Oblivion. I know this would take some animation work (as in mod), but I think that this would also require some engine work as well. I 2nd the request, tho

ST the 2nd