User:Crush/Magic System Populous 3 style

This is a draft for a new magic system inspired by the real-time strategy game Populous 3 that is taken under consideration by Rotonen and me for the mana world.

(The recharge system of the available spells is from Populous 3, the system of available spells is made by Crush)

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 his 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 (very powerful spells should maybe have a short after cast delay time so that they can't be spammed too fast).

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.

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.