Hello guys, girls, and transgender posters.

I have run into an unexpected problem. I am a member of a team, with a game in in pre-alpha, and the testers have brought to our attention a situation that was intentional, but may turn out to be a problem to most of our players.

Here's a brief description of the game.

Its not an mmo (right now), more similar to borderlands' drop in/drop out. (public, private/friends only) //Curently only six to a world, but planning to expand

Its first person view, with the razer hydra used for a feature called precision plus (P+), or mouse and key'.

Its based on mythology from numerous cultures from around the world, with our own little twist. Mid-High fantasy all players are humans who have no natural ability to use magic, so a meduim called lacrimas (crystal balls/shapes) are used to channel mana. The lacrimas also act mainly as an ID in-game, as well as other functions. 

Players start with stamina, and health only, mana is increased by leveling up and selecting it over the other two. But it takes five points allocated into mana to be able to use a basic spell. Now since humans aren't naturally able to use magic, the mana fee is somewhat heavy. (This is mainly to prevent spamming, and op range vs. melee, and promote strategy) 

Also people that oppose magic in favor of technology have altered lacrimas to prevent the use of mana in the surrounding area. They can be purchased by players to be placed on property, and used in warsby catapult. The anti- magic lacrimas are too big to be carried, and only stored in property, until activated or launched. 

Hope that was enough info. Now the problem is that many of the people we've had play that wanted to be a pure "mage" said its wasn't a viable playstyle. So our lead wants to take out magic use completely, or make it more similar to Skyrim's magic system.

Now the melee is great on its own with or without a hydra, but to allow more freedom we'd rather keep it. So my queation to you is;

Should we scrap the magic, or adjust it to allow for more balanced combat?

TLDR- Should the magic in our combat, be buffed or scraped?

it need to be balanced if you want the playerbase to accept it.

I would suggest keeping a fixed amount of mana and improving "spells/abilities" as you level.  So a fireball always costs 35 mana AND has the same casting time but the damage goes up as you level.  Allow players to modify the spell with bonus slots as they level.

Originally posted by waynejr2

it need to be balanced if you want the playerbase to accept it.

I would suggest keeping a fixed amount of mana and improving "spells/abilities" as you level.  So a fireball always costs 35 mana AND has the same casting time but the damage goes up as you level.  Allow players to modify the spell with bonus slots as they level.

Thanks for the input, it is skill based, each spell levels with use, but as you level you can modify spell traits, like duration,blast radius, dmg% increase, range etc. I'll consider the constant mana cost, slipped my mind.

/thanks

You could consider things like sacrifices.   Like unable to touch iron, can't use weapons, physical+unhidable distinciton, slower leveling, increased death penalty.  Could very easily fit into a lower magic setting if you turned magic users interaction to be more and more 'fey' to the normal world (The classical definition of fey meaning 'wrong'). 

Also means you wouldn't necessarily need to have a lacrimas system for non-magic players as well, have them worry about other systems like fuel, ammo, and crafting.