Developers Corner

Magic, why is it so boring in every MMO I have ever played....  magic should be Caotic and myserious, having dozens of ways of Augmenting and manipulating your spells, combining spells, complicating and simplifing themIt should a interesing and satisfing exerience.

At least one should be able to change the attribute's of a spell. heres a  Expample of what a spell should look like.

Fireball (lvl 1) 400/500 exp untill Fireball (lvl 2) total exp 400

desription= 12 inch ball of  fire

mana= 45, one missle per cast

cast time= 1 second, recharge of 4 seconds,

damage= (primary)10-20 fire (secondary) 5-10 impact, 1 yard blast radius (half total damage)

range= (full damage) up to 40 yards (20% decrease in damage every 2 yards after first 40) max range of 50 yards

speed= 45mph first 40 yards (35 mph for every yard past 40)

chase= 30 degree cone (for first 40 yards)  40 degree cone (for every yard past 40)

I should mention I intent for the spell to lvl up naturaly with use. ever state one there should upgradable and even down-gradable at any tine and every level it gains gives a 10% bonus of the exp required to lvl it ex. 100 exp to lvl it once yeilds 10 bonus exp.

on top of all that one should be able to add new efects. basicly you treat the spell like you char, with this system their would be no nee for 1000's of differnt spells based on class and "blah blah" (although thier should be A LOT). and every one can try differnt statagies I.E. sniping with ice shards, to massive close range Super damage explosive fire balls,

and now to my next geivence with modern MMO magic, class restirtions..... I hate them, their dumb and usless.

Come one in a would that is filled with magic, wizard and the like would have the ONLY power, a good fighter wouldnt stand a chance a moderatly trained mage. Example fighter runs at mage mage cast a shield spell, fighters attack is repelled. mage cast Fireball fighter flys back with massive 3rd degree burns on the front of his body, fighter is dead....

I will admit it would be possalbe to defeat a mage with out magic but it would be exessavly hard, so why not learn some magic yourself? come on in a magic filled would, most likly any one with a lillte intelegence could learn a spell or two. a warrior that can't heal his own wounds would be usless in party un less you have a Pure Detacated healer (which is a bad idea since they would be helpless)

In fact the classes them-selves leave A lot of options for playing styles. here are examples or the dictonary deffinations or our favort classes   

warrior=a person engaged or experienced in warfare--a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness

rogue=a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel---a playfully mischievous person---a tramp or vagabond

mage=A magician or sorcerer-- a user of magics

cleric=a member of the clergy

ranger=one of a body of armed guards who patrol a region--a soldier specially trained in the techniques of guerrilla warfare, esp. in jungle terrain--a person who ranges or roves

now exactly whats keeping the warrior from fighting his wars with magic? or the ranger from mastering the spell a druid would normaly master? how about the rogue? one the the most vauge the rogue why allways a thief / assasion? why not a roaming mage that likes to live free and easy?

well the anwser is that no one has took the time to make a truly in-dept magic system. its always pay some gold, get a spell, or some variation of the way to simple a system.

I should metion im in collage for game design, and while i have yet to reach the programing classes from what i seen it's not "hard" just time consuming.

come on game making companies lets add further deepth, not just pritty elves and nice armor thats the easy stuff, get to the meat of game "Magic" and its friends "skills" and "item creation".

Coments?

What a relief.

To be honest, after reading the title of the thread, I was afraid you were suggesting they remove magic from MMOs altogether.

Adding MORE magic than previously seen in an MMO is an interesting suggestion. I would like to see more options available than the typical "blow things up" type of magic, or the "crowd control" magics. City of Heroes has the ability to fly as an available power, why can't magic-users in other games have a similar ability?

I suppose the most obvious limitation is balancing issues, but in a game based on individual skills rather than classes, where magic is available equally to everyone, that wouldn't be an issue.

Originally posted by ironore
I agree that magic needs to be greatly improved in games.  Where is the mystery?  Why are all the mechanics revealed?  I however would not advocate making magic more widespread, but having MANY different types of magic, some of which only apply to certain situations.  For example you might be a mighty wizard with spells to banish daemons but you might not have any fireballs or lightning strikes to attack flesh and blood opponents and so you are valuable in some situations but not in others.  In other words, MAGIC is for dealing with MAGICAL things and not just another weapon of choice to grind the same mobs as everyone else. 

There are so many ways that magic could be made much more interesting instead of the static alternate ranged weapon it has become.  I don't even want to get into it right now, maybe later, but I'd really be interested in hearing what everyone would like to see from magic in a game, things that are a far departure from what we currently have?

How about being able to control the weather and having that MATTER?

Changing into various forms (not just a single obvious ability of some class ala WoW)?

Enchant weapons in subtle ways.

Encounters with situations where magic really matters in the world, where the balance can change, where mages have work to keep things stable.

I am so tired now I don't know what I am writing. 

good point i forgot about the completly unused magics..... wind, solar energy, how about earth that invold the throwing of massive rock from under you.

TIME MAGIC the compleatly untaped force, they think its so hard... no its not, why not have it ONLY effect enimes, or maby have the most powerful of spells be one that stops time in your area for 1 full minute (that's like a end game, super maxed spell) beginer's spells would be freezing time for 10 sec on a single enemy, time is a versatile thing so many posabilitys

and enchanting dont get me stared... 1 enchant per wepon??? what???? ( thats the limit to all games i ve played)

and the enchant you chose +4 ice damage.... wow so much FUN

how about the weapon geting physacly larger befor hitting, of streatching for added range. what about the weapon coming to life and learning how best to hit your enemy. 

and i have yet to see a spell that lets you fly, or creat mor then a hand full of zombies.

well my point this the Fighter Vs mage is that the Frighter in a fantasy world of magic would have picked up at very least some healing magic if not deffencive, and offenceive spells.

A real warrior would never be just a axe user...... he would be skilled with some magics, enoff to get him close to the the mage for decapitation. and a mage would be more interesting with costomized spells to fit his persional style.

I guess i hate the whole class system to... but thats mostly to the treatment of magic. and a Mage= fire, ice, lightning, pick one.

I would be willing to accept the full pyromancer is that had some amazingly diverse options... how about opening up a new host of spell if you master enoff of a certian element or school...

I agree that magic is prity much identical from one game to another. i dont know about "new magic" but i agree that there are alot of spell's out there that have not ben used. but stoping time or slowing an enemy or speeding up your parties attacks this type of time magic is widely used in most games. other then that there is not much time magic could do in your typical MMO. when it comes to TT games you could do many massive effects with spells but MMO's are rather limited with how they work. after all it is only a computer and can only run the program on hand.

but i do like the idea that non caster classes can use spells and i love the idea that spells can be modified and improved over time. id love to see more games that were classless there is so much potential but most dev teams are looking at speed of design and implomentation.

it is a shame.

In response to Lord_shilvet's post, (I dont mean to sound Jerkish, below)

I have yet to play a MMO with the use of time magic, and im not sure why.... it is not