My game idea

So, I was thinking of how dull magic is in many games. Some games can't help it, since they are turn based or something, but action games should know better. They are usually just a bunch of buttons that has a delay and a cooldown. You click Firebolt, you wait 2 seconds, and then you fire. Then you have to wait 3 seconds to use firebolt again.

Not what I call awesome. Magic is supposed to be something mysterious and dangerous. So, I figured out a new system that I might use in some action-rpg in the future.

How does it work? First of all, you don't have mana. Instead, you have to draw the mana from your surroundings. How much mana you can hold depends on how strong in magic you are. If you draw to much, you burn out your magic abilities. As you draw mana, you can see your mana-bar fill up.

"You draw mana? Then what?"

Well, you can't really draw mana directly. You have to draw mana though an element, such as Fire, Water or Earth. While you draw mana from an element, you can see it fill up your bar in the color of the element. And here goes the big idea of it all: You can change what kind of element you are drawing, and the combination of elements decides what kind of spell you use.

An example:

I draw 50% Fire, and then 50% Earth, thus creating a lava-ball to toss against enemies.

You can even mix elements. I can first draw 50% of my bar with fire/earth, and then the other 50% with water, thus creating a water blast spell.

Sounds complicated? Why don't you try it for yourself? (you may need to click on the window for the keys to respond.)

You simply hold down the key for the element and watch the bar go up. Release it before it becomes too much to handle. This is really just an example, so there are not real spell combinations yet.


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So, post your thoughts. Too hard? Too complicated? Too awesome? Have any ideas?

Edit: IE bug fixed.

Were you, by any chance, playing DotA?

Its a WC3 custom map with lots of heroes. In one of the old versions, there was a hero called Invoker who had 3 spells that did nothing (regnant) and a 4th (Invoke), which always changed depending on what combination of regnants you used before casting. Your system reminds me of that quite a bit.

Depending on the number of the elements, and how they effect the outcome (for example heal+fire=protection from fire: more fire=more protection%, more heal= longer duration... Just don't forget to add heal or it bursts), it might be either original, or just a gimmick system.

There was also a game on PS1 (Blaze&Blade, a diablo clone) where you could choose to manually cast spells. You had to hold select and enter a combination of buttons, ranging from easy (X,O,X) to mad hard (full circle clockwise, then rewerse).

Basically, no matter how awsm the casting system is, it really depends on the spells.

It's kinda awesome. I like the thought of making our own spell by combining the elements. Like fire 50% and water 50% to create some fog.

I looked forward for the real spell combinations. I would like to request more elements but if it was more then it would ruin the fun in combining the element.

EDIT: If I was to burn myself out, could I possibly restart the game? Because after I burnt out, it can't do anything and I have to reload the page....is it just me?

well, some things I've thought of:

There should be more than 3 elements, like maybe 6-7 of them. However, people are only born with the ability to handle 3 of the elements. That way, every character you play will be different.

I have indeed played that DOTA hero. There is one difference though. I won't have a a clear line for what combination for what spell. It would be more like a lot of "rules" you should get the general feeling of.

examples:

Having earth/fire mixed causes your spell to be a "ball" kind of spell. So, Fire, Fire/Earth will be Fireball, and Water, Fire/Earth will be Waterblast.

Mixing earth and water causes healing, and in what way determines what kind of healing.

Going back and forward from elements, like this: Fire, Water, Fire, Water, would cause a spell that "jumps" like chain lighting, although what elements would determine what kind of effect and type of attack it is.

So, what I'm trying to say here, is there won't be a set amount of spells. There is just ONE spell, but it varies a lot after what elements you use. Having Fire/Earth - Fire - Water - Fire - Water would cause a Waterblast that jumps between enemies.

by having such bendable system, it would practically allow users to create their own spells on the fly.

*Is an Ape Escape fanatic, so we're using the Sony controller as an example*

How about... you can assign learned elements to your shape buttons and use them to draw out "mana" from the surroundings. ((Is drawing like earth from the ground and water from a stream?))

Then let's say you hold in the L2 button to slow down time and bring up the magic-mixer screen, which shows a bar of 4 parts. Using the shape buttons, fill up the bar with the elements you want to use. Release L2 to fire the spell.

The further you progress through the game the more spaces the bar can hold, hence, more complicated and powerful spells. Now, go fry them monkeys!

Well, having a slowdown stops any possibility for multiplayer.

Although, I was thinking of having a "concentrate" button, which makes your draw mana very slowly. It would be used for complex magic, such as portals, or reviving fallen party members or something.

This game I was thinking of though, won't be only magic. I was thinking of having normal attack and defend on the Z and X buttons, while your three elements on A S and D, while moving with the arrow keys. (concentrate button could be shift or something).

Would be interesting...I had some list of magic combination (Names only) for this one RP my friend was working on >_>;;

You wanna take a look at it?

((Also, I think it's a pretty good idea^^))

well, there is really no need until I start (if I start) to make the real game. This is only an example.

umm. I have another idea. Instead of just drawing mana out and let magic be a free task, keep the mana bar. But let players CREATE THEIR OWN ABILITYS/SPELLS. There would be an editor with things such as "weapon" and "element" and "shape" for starters. Like, instead of having a button for just a regular slash/combo, why not make your sword attacks that do fire damage? You can charge more elemental energy in an attack the more your charge skill is. Like, with a charge skill of 15, you can charge 6 pieces of element in your attack. So you can make a "Flaming tri-arrows on a LV.3 waterfall" spell or something.Of corse, there's not toal freedom, like you can say "slash and hold that pose while I spin you 360" effects (because that's just silly). But instead you see a little window were your character performs that action against training dummys/platforms. And everything can become an ability. So you can change the normal jump into a flip-kick.

I made up such a system when thinking on a kind of platformer that was based on ghaving no story whatsoever and it's characters forcing themselves not to have a story.

But, that doesn't adress the orignal problem at all. Premaking the spells won't make magic less dull in-game. What you are promosing sounds more like a remade crafting system.

The thing I was talking about in my first post. Pressing "1" for the fireball and "2" for the frostbolt won't be fun, even if you made the fireball and the frostbolt spells yourself.

I was just posting up mine. And I do have somewhat of an Idea...why not combine the two?

ofcourse, don't take criticism of your idea for critivism of you.

How are you to combine them? You premake spells AND make them on the fly? Please explain more.

I say they make their spells and have the ability to store them to their controllers, or to their keyboard, that way, each player would have a completely differing spell-set.

This reminds me of Spellcraft more than anything else, though.

But anyway, pre-made spells placed upon keys, then you could also make spells on the fly, although these spells would usually be less effective due to the amount of time you'd need to make it.

Possibly you could increase the speed of the bar in-battle if you wished.

Upgrades could lengthen your preparation bar, allowing you to cast more and more powerful spells.

Quote (EonOmega)

although these spells would usually be less effective due to the amount of time you'd need to make it.

Unless saved spells took as much time as those made on the fly.

No, what I ment was, You make the spells for certain power levels, and then it goes. For example: you can make a spell that usues alot of fire, but ends in a water attack for good measure, and you can set it to (85%-90% fire and 10%-15% water) and when you get in that range, BOOM, there's your custom spell. Premades would be for noobs who don't like to take time off their hands to actually customize their gaming experiance.