Ideal magic system
Posted: 19 Jul 2018, 05:34
So I've been thinking about magic systems (not sure why, lol) and was wondering what you all thought was the "best" or "ideal" magic system. Doesn't have to be within Morrowind necessarily, but that's how I'm framing it in my mind.
I guess it depends on how you think about things, but it seems like Morrowind has spells kind of like recipes. There are a lot of recipes that all kind of do the same thing, usually with different variations. I'm not really a huge fan of this, because to me magic users would be able to intuit their way through using the energy. Practically, this comes down to learning spell effects rather than actual spells. So instead of having 20 variations on fireballs with different damages and area of effects, you'd learn a single fireball and as you level up, it does more damage and affects a larger area. Maybe you'd even learn fire separately from a generalized AoE, then once you know both, you'd be able to do an AoE fire spell. The only downside is possible lack of customizability, which was a huge plus for Morrowind, but carefully planned, I think it would work.
I've also always been annoyed with needing to recast the same spell over and over again. I'm thinking about things like shield or night eye or invisibility etc. I've played a few games where these kinds of effects are toggles that then decreases your maximum mana. This of course really only works in systems where your mana regens over time, but I think it makes sense that your mental and magical concentration would be maintained, but decrease your ability to do other things at the same time. It never made sense to me that magicka didn't regen, except when you slept. Invisibility would probably still have to trigger off when you interact with something to avoid being OP, but it's a lot nicer to not have to keep casting stuff all the time.
From a more abstract angle, another system I've always liked I actually learned about from the book Eragon. Without getting into the merits of the book itself (lol), I think it actually had one of the more realistic magic systems. Basically, the idea is that doing something magically takes just as much energy as doing something physically, with the action taking more energy the further away you're trying to cast the spell. This means your mana pool is really just your fatigue (if we're comparing to Morrowind), which I think makes sense since mages don't really use much in the way of physical stuff that would deplete fatigue. I realize some things don't translate well, but it makes more sense to me intuitively. The other cool bit to this is that, while it may take the same amount of energy physically, the more you know about what you're trying to accomplish, and the more creative you are, you're still able to do really effective stuff with relatively little energy. For instance, just using a healing spell will work, but it will take a lot of energy. But if you know anatomy and what is actually wrong, you can word the spell more precisely and focus the energy you are spending much more efficiently. For Morrowind, this might mean that your security skill level will help your unlock spells affect higher level locks. From the creativity standpoint, using a very small rock as a high velocity projectile is a lot easier than lifting a bolder and dropping it on someone's head. Similarly, if you know what arteries are vital, you can simply cut that artery to kill, rather than compress their entire body until their head explodes.
I don't necessarily think all or most of this would translate well to Morrowind, but I thought I'd ask to see what systems you've come across or thought up. Figured you all probably had some cool ideas that would be worth discussing.
I guess it depends on how you think about things, but it seems like Morrowind has spells kind of like recipes. There are a lot of recipes that all kind of do the same thing, usually with different variations. I'm not really a huge fan of this, because to me magic users would be able to intuit their way through using the energy. Practically, this comes down to learning spell effects rather than actual spells. So instead of having 20 variations on fireballs with different damages and area of effects, you'd learn a single fireball and as you level up, it does more damage and affects a larger area. Maybe you'd even learn fire separately from a generalized AoE, then once you know both, you'd be able to do an AoE fire spell. The only downside is possible lack of customizability, which was a huge plus for Morrowind, but carefully planned, I think it would work.
I've also always been annoyed with needing to recast the same spell over and over again. I'm thinking about things like shield or night eye or invisibility etc. I've played a few games where these kinds of effects are toggles that then decreases your maximum mana. This of course really only works in systems where your mana regens over time, but I think it makes sense that your mental and magical concentration would be maintained, but decrease your ability to do other things at the same time. It never made sense to me that magicka didn't regen, except when you slept. Invisibility would probably still have to trigger off when you interact with something to avoid being OP, but it's a lot nicer to not have to keep casting stuff all the time.
From a more abstract angle, another system I've always liked I actually learned about from the book Eragon. Without getting into the merits of the book itself (lol), I think it actually had one of the more realistic magic systems. Basically, the idea is that doing something magically takes just as much energy as doing something physically, with the action taking more energy the further away you're trying to cast the spell. This means your mana pool is really just your fatigue (if we're comparing to Morrowind), which I think makes sense since mages don't really use much in the way of physical stuff that would deplete fatigue. I realize some things don't translate well, but it makes more sense to me intuitively. The other cool bit to this is that, while it may take the same amount of energy physically, the more you know about what you're trying to accomplish, and the more creative you are, you're still able to do really effective stuff with relatively little energy. For instance, just using a healing spell will work, but it will take a lot of energy. But if you know anatomy and what is actually wrong, you can word the spell more precisely and focus the energy you are spending much more efficiently. For Morrowind, this might mean that your security skill level will help your unlock spells affect higher level locks. From the creativity standpoint, using a very small rock as a high velocity projectile is a lot easier than lifting a bolder and dropping it on someone's head. Similarly, if you know what arteries are vital, you can simply cut that artery to kill, rather than compress their entire body until their head explodes.
I don't necessarily think all or most of this would translate well to Morrowind, but I thought I'd ask to see what systems you've come across or thought up. Figured you all probably had some cool ideas that would be worth discussing.