Archive:Magic system

This proposal has been accepted

The development team has discussed the contents of this article and has decided that it should be implemented as described. But the implementation is not finished yet. You can help to bring the features described here into the game.

This is the magic system we decided to use for the new mana world server.

Short synopsis: All mage equipment got runes. Every rune holds one spell. The runes are discharged when the spell is cast and has to be recharged before it can be used again. Recharge happens automatically. The recharge speed is based on intelligence. The skill levels decides what kind of runes the character can have in its equipment and thus what kind of spells it can cast. High level equipment can have more and better runes than low level equipment. Willpower is important for the damage or success chance of the spells cast.

Recharge bar instead of magic points

There are no magic points. Instead of that every single spell has its own recharge bar. When a spell is cast its recharge bar has to be filled again before the spell can be cast again.

The character got a constant "mana flow" that recharges its spells. The intensity of this flow is mainly influenced by intelligence but other factors might influence it, too. The mana flow is divided evenly between all spells that are currently recharged. Recharge of each spell can be switched on and off by the player. That means the character may decide to deactivate the recharge of some spells to recharge others more quickly. Advanced spells require more mana flow points to recharge them than simple ones.

Characters can have the same spell multiple times allowing them to cast them multiple times in a row (see below for details) but only one of them can be recharged at the same time. All spells have a short after cast delay time in which no new spells can be cast to avoid spamming spells very fast. The more powerful the spell the longer the after cast delay.

Available spells

The spells that are available to a character depend on the spell runes written on his currently worn equipment. Every rune represents one spell. The character can only use spells he learned before. When the character wears equipment with runes of spells he hasn't learned before these runes are ignored.

Learning spells

Before a character may use a spell he has to learn it first by reading a magic scroll that contains the instructions for the spell. Magic scrolls turn to dust after they have been read once. People who have not reached the minimal skill level for the spell can not read them. Magic scrolls can be bought in shops, obtained through quests or found from monsters.

Runes

The spells that are available for the character at the moment depend on the magic runes that are written on /engraved in its currently worn equipment.

All equipment for spellcasters (and maybe some non-spellcaster equipment) has rune slots. These slots can be engraved with runes. Every rune represents one charge of a specific spell.

Runes of advanced spells fill multiple rune slots in the same equipment piece. Equipment with enough rune slots to hold the runes of advanced spells should be restricted to characters that reached a high magical skill level and/or high magic related attributes.

The most spell runes can be written on robes closely followed by wands. Then comes headgears and then other equipment pieces (assuming that they all have similar requirements and rareness). Other weapons can usually not have runes with the exception of some special "rune" weapons (which have usually sub-par combat abilitys compared with weapons with similar requirements and rareness). That means hybrid characters will most likely wear fighter armor with a magican headgear and maybe a rune weapon.

Characters can theoretically extend their spell palette by carrying multiple equipment pieces with different runes in their inventory and switch them. But when an equipment piece is taken off all its slots are uncharged.

To write runes on a piece of equipment one needs the "runewriting" crafting skill and needs to learn the spell from a scroll beforehand. The success chance depends on the minimum skill level of the spell in its discipline and the runewriting skill of the crafter. When the runewriting fails the equipment piece might be destroyed.

Example: When a character wants to have 3 charges of a fireball spell that requires skill level 10 he needs:

• Fire Magic Skill level 10
• To learn the fireball spell from a fireball scroll
• 3 fireball runes written on equipment pieces he is wearing

Damage calculation

The damage of spells and the success rate of spells that can fail depend on the characters willpower and skill level in the magic discipline of the spell and the targets willpower. See Damage calculation for details.

Efficiency of support spells like attribute increases (buffs in MMORPG jargon) or healing spells should not be based on willpower but on skill level alone. That way I want to archieve that the ideal attribute build of a supportive mage (cleric) is different from that of an offensive mage.

Example: A typical offensive spellcaster character with a mix of willpower and intelligence could function as a backup healer by taking some healing runes in its equipment. But it could cast its healing spells much less frequently than a character that is focused on intelligence alone. A character focused on intelligence, on the other hand, could cast offensive spells frequently but they would do almost no damage. So the character would be better of with focusing on heal and support spells that aren't affected by willpower.

GUI

Here a mockup of the OSD that shows the current magic status:

1. Firewall spell - fully charged and ready, will be recharged immediately after use.
2. Lightning Bolt spell - not charged, currently not recharged.
3. Fire rain spell - recharge in progress and half finished.
4. Three fireball spells - one ready, one partially charged but recharge currently deactivated.
5. Four lightning strike spells - two ready, one partially charged and recharge in progress.

The background of each spell icon doubles as a progress bar. The color of the icon itself indicates the element of the spell and the charge level. When the color of the icon itself is bright, recharge is activated. When the color is dark, recharge is deactivated. When a spell is fully charged and ready for use it is indicated by a particle effect on the icon.

Spell icons of the same spell are grouped in one frame and sorted by recharge level. The charge activation status of spells it the whole group is linked although only one spell is recharged at the same time.

The letters in the upper-left corner of the spell icons are the hotkeys for the spells. It should be possible to redefine those in the keyboard gui (setting a key for every spell in the game would be overkill. Instead of that keys should be defined for spell 1, spell 2, spell 3 etc.)

Controls

Mouse

Left-click on a spell icon uses the spell, right-click activates/deactivates its recharge.

Gamepad

One button opens a spell ring menu to select a spell. Another press of this button uses the selected spell. A 2nd button activates/deactivates the recharge of the spell. A 3rd button closes the menu without casting a spell.

Keyboard

Each spell has a hotkey. Pressing the hotkey casts it. Pressing shift + the hotkey toggles recharge. The ring menu can be used as an alternative casting method.

Types of spells

Effects

These are some examples of effects that can be caused by spells.

Negative

Damage

Just plain old damage to a single target.

Splash damage

Hurts the target and targets around it with reduced power.

Damage over time

Hurts the target at regular intervals

Attribute reduction

Reduction of an attribute by percentual or absolute value or affects the victim with a negative status effect. Might or might not stack.

Positive:

Healing

self-explaining.

Healing over time

A temporary status effect that heals the target at regular intervals.

Attribute increase

A temporary status effect that increases an attribute by a percentual or absolute value.

Restore

Attempts to removes a negative status effect.

Targeting modes

Different spells have different ways of determining what targets are affected by it.

Single-targeted spells

Targeted spells are spells that hit exactly one target that has to be selected when the spell is cast.

Area-targeted spells

Area spells can be cast on any position the caster has a sightline to. The position has to be selected when the spell is cast.

Area-persisten spells

Like area spells but stay active for a while and do their effect every game tick.

Untargeted spells

Spells that have a fixed damage zone based on the position and heading of the caster. They don't require to set a target.

Untargeted persistent spells

Like untargeted spells but stay active for a while and do their effect every game tick. When the caster moves the effect area moves with him/her.

Projectile spells

Spells that are cast like single-targeted spells but fly towards the target and hit the first enemy they collide with. They don't require to select a target.

Spell ideas

Note that there are many spells that have an equivalent in every elemental discipline that only differs by the elemental property. I am straving for balance through similarity. Lame but a surefire way to avoid elements to be over- or underpowered.

Attack spells

The names needn't be exactly as written here, when we can come up with better names. These spells should all exist in multiple versions with different strength for each element. I am not sure about the naming of the different strength.

• We could go with level numbers like Fire Bolt I to Fire Bolt XII. Not that creative but the most convenient solution for both players and developers.
• We could go with adjectives like lower, lesser, higher, greater or ultimate Fire Bolt. But when we decide to add more and more high level content later we would have to invent more and more superlatives. So we might end up with ridiculous spell names like "ultimate mega super giga hyper Fire Bolt".
• Or invent a new denotation for each power level like Fire Arrow, Fire Bolt, Fire Strike, Fire Blast. But this might become confusing for the users and a seriouse challenge to our creativity.

Spell	Element	Effect	Target	cast time	cooldown time	Further description
[element] Bolt	(one for each)	damage	projectile	low	medium
Call [element]	(one for each)	damage	single	medium	low
[element] Nova	(one for each)	splash damage	single	medium	medium
[element] Ball	(one for each)	splash damage	projectile	medium	medium
[element] Explosion	(one for each)	damage	area	medium	high
[element] Storm	(one for each)	damage	area, persistent	high	high

Buffs/Debuffs

Spell	Element	Effect	Target	cast time	cooldown time	Further description
Hearth of [element]	(one for each)	attribute reduction/increase	single	high	low	Changes the elemental modifier of the target making it more resistant to one element and more vulnerable to another. Depending on the situation this can be seen as a buff or debuff.
Freeze	Ice	attribute decrease	single	medium	medium	Encloses the target in a block of ice making it unable to do anything but also immune to damage. The block has a hit points rating that decreases over time. The ice block can be attacked by others to make it disappear faster. When its hit points reach 0 the target is free.
Swiftness of Wind	Air	attribute increase	single	high	low	Increases dexterity
Tornado shield	Air	attribute increase	single	high	low	Protects the target by making it harder to hit.
Lightning speed	Lightning	attribute increase	single	high	low	Increases movement speed
Buried knowledge	Earth	attribute increase	single	high	low	Increases intelligence
Stone skin	Earth	attribute increase	single	high	low	Increases armor defence
Petrify	Earth	attribute decrease	single	medium	medium	Earth version of "Freeze". Encloses the target in a block of stone making it unable to do anything but also immune to damage. The block has a hit points rating that decreases over time. The stone block can be attacked by others to make it disappear faster. When its hit points reach 0 the target is free.
Muscles of steel	Metal	attribute increase	single	high	low	Increases strength
Sharp blade	Metal	attribute increase	single	high	low	Increases weapon penetration
Temper of fire	Fire	attribute increase	single	high	low	Increases willpower
Burning shield	Fire	attribute increase	single	high	low	Surrounds the target with a burning shield that deals damage to close enemies.
Life force	Wood	attribute increase	single	high	low	Increases vitality
Entangle	Wood	attribute decrease	single	medium	low	Makes the target unable to move but it can still attack, cast spells, etc.

Summon spells

These spells summon creatures that aid the caster in battle. The number of creatures that can be summoned at the same time should be limited. The caster receives experience for the magic skill used to summon the creatures when they contribute to killing a monster.

Spell	Element	Effect	Target	cast time	cooldown time	Further description
Summon elemental	(one for each)	Summon uncontrolable	area	medium	low	Summons an aggressive elemental spirit that attacks enemies, the caster and its party members alike (other players should only be attacked in pvp zones)
Summon golem	(one for each)	Summon controlable	area	high	high	Summons a golem that follows and protects the caster (maybe can be commanded to some extend). Should require expensive ingredients to create.

Healing spells

I would like to take the healing spells out of the elemental scheme und use a separate skill for them. Putting all healing spells in one elemental discipline would make this extremely overused because I believe almost every spellcaster would attempt to accquire healing spells. Spreading all healing spells over the whole elemental spectrum would be difficult to balance and would be a disadvantage for dedicated healers.

Spell	Element	Effect	Target	cast time	cooldown time	Further description
Lay hands	neutral	heal	untargeted	low	low	Basic healing spell. Heals the character standing right in front of the caster. The low range makes it impractical in combat.
Heal	neutral	heal	single	medium	medium	Less efficient than lay hands but because it can be used at distance it is more practical in combat and it can be cast on oneself.
Regeneration	neutral	heal over time	single	medium	medium	Heals more than heal but takes more time.
Aura	neutral	heal	untargeted, persistent	high	high	Creates a healing aura around the caster that slowly heals everyone around. Doesn't affect the caster.
Revive	neutral	restore	single	high	high	Attempts to revive a dead character that has not returned to its spawn point yet. The healing skill level of the caster must be higher than the total character level of the target to be successful.
Detox	neutral	restore	untargeted	high	low	Attempts to remove a status effect that falls in the category "poisons" from the character standing in front of the caster.
Decurse	neutral	restore	untargeted	high	low	Attempts to removes a status effect that falls in the category "curses" (like most attribute decrease spells) from the character standing in front of the caster.
Disinfect	neutral	restore	untargeted	high	low	Attempts to removes a status effect that falls in the category "diseases" from the character standing in front of the caster.

Blade Magic

Blade magic is an umbrella term for special attacks that use magic to enhance physical attacks (not only by blade weapons). They are for hybrid characters that want to fight both magical and physical. Blade magic techniques require skills and attributes for both physical and magical combat and deal a mix of magical and physical damage.