Development Info The Broken Hourglass: Tinkered Spells

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Tags: Planewalker Games; The Broken Hourglass

Another week, another <a href=http://www.planewalkergames.com/content/view/32/46/>The Broken Hourglass</a> update. This time, Jason Compton shows us how players will be able to <a href=http://www.planewalkergames.com/content/view/92/1/>customize their magical spells</a> to suit almost any encounter situation they come across in <a href=http://www.planewalkergames.com/>Planewalker Games</a>' project. Here's a snip:<blockquote>Tinkered spells may employ any number of the five elemental magic sources (Physical, Fire, Earth, Air, Water) and one or more of the following standard spell effects:
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* Heal.
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* Regenerate.
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* Armor.
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* Attribute Bonus.
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* Damage.
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* Repeating Damage.
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* Life Drain.
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* Lower Resistance.
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* Attribute Penalty.
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* Summon.
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The mana requirements for each spell effect are summed together, then multiplied by the target factor. In addition, a spell's base cost is multiplied by the number of distinct types of magic (e.g., Earth, Air) involved. Thus an Attribute Penalty spell with both Earth and Air costs twice as much mana as an Attribute Penalty spell with only Earth, but the first spell also inflicts twice as many penalties as the second one. Spells which affect an indiscriminate radius of targets are more expensive than those affecting just a single target, while spells which selectively affect all allies or all enemies have a still-higher multiplier. You may tinker a spell to use more mana than is strictly necessary, to create a spell with a greater potential effect.</blockquote>Now, there's something groups of nerds can aspire to: global Charisma boosts!
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Thanks, <b>jcompton</b>!

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Am I the only one who really does not like the whole "spell effect deli" style of things? I mean, this looks like a well thought out system and such, but everything just feels so generic in a way. As in Morrowind, I could make an infinite amount of spells by combining all sorts of spell effects, but it felt generic. Hopefully they will add in a few really "big" spell effects that stand alone or some such. Just to remove the genericness.

 

[merry andrew]

I think the generic deli-style feeling I got from Morrowind's magic system was it seemed like there was a potion for every spell... which gave the impression that alchemy and magic were just two ways to produce the same effect. Besides, I don't remember their schools of magic being elemental in nature.

A character who specializes heavily in Air and Fire Magic may find it more beneficial to combine multiple damage sources into a single spell rather than alternating between airbolts and firebolts, for instance. Or such a character may wish to cast a single party-enhancing spell to boost strength and agility (from Fire and Air Magic, respectively) rather then split them up into separate casts. And as characters become more powerful, they may wish to devote more mana to a single spell than the default spells in the book specify.

It seems like a way to minimize casting amount more than anything. Chrono Trigger's combo and tier attacks come to mind, which didn't feel generic to me.

 

[peak]

I for one quite like this approach. A powerful magician shouldn't be limited by what known spells there is - he bends the elements by his own will. There could of course be some spells that can't be done by a system of this kind and maybe would need to be pre-defined, but as a standard approach this sounds great.

Combined with the weapons system it seems as if combat could be very enjoyable and tactical indeed.

 

[KazikluBey]

Am I the only one who really does not like the whole "spell effect deli" style of things? I mean, this looks like a well thought out system and such, but everything just feels so generic in a way. As in Morrowind, I could make an infinite amount of spells by combining all sorts of spell effects, but it felt generic. Hopefully they will add in a few really "big" spell effects that stand alone or some such. Just to remove the genericness.

I'm quite certain JCompton said in an interview that there will be spells/spell effects that can not be tinkered, but stand on their own.

 

[spacemoose]

I want a game where playing a mage is more like playing a scientist - he understands the laws of <s>physics</s> magic and can, with the right tools and conditions, use them to his advantage.

none of this walking rocket launcher faggotry, when every other peasant can toss fireballs magic becomes pedestrian, not magic at all anymore.

mages should have to rely on bodyguards or well armed companions. or should be able to handle a sword themselves, but the point is that most of the fighting should be done with mundane weapons - melee or firearms. magic should be rare and very powerful.

casting a spell should be a fucking EVENT, requiring research (possibly travelling to consult more experienced mages or recover ancient texts), the gathering of materials, waiting for proper planetary alignment, correct wording, movement, SACRIFICE of something significant for power. and this effort should pay off in grandiose ways, not some pissant fireball, I'm talking gaining permanent abilities - telekinesis, command of a demon, earthquakes, significant shit.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Damnit I want death spells, time stops, blackspheres, and artillery strikes from another plane!

Thing is, whilst this system will be infinitely better than Morrowind's, it still will be lacking a certain oomph. While I'm excited about the specialization aspect and the fact that certain elements oppose each other, it seems like this could suffer from the same magical malady Morrowind and Oblivion suffered from; being a mage at high levels is pretty much a scaled up version of being a mage at lower levels.

Of course they could circumvent this problem entirely with unique spell effects not available at the deli.

EDIT: Sure was a great idea writing this a half an hour ago and posting it now....

 

[Deacdo]

Sounds kind of interesting...though I'm still not too keen on the way elements are linked to different attributes. Maybe I'm a bit old fashioned, but what if I want to play a physically weak fire elemental mage? Is he going to be the runt of the fire mage litter (both literally and magically) because fire is tied to strength?

 

[jcompton]

No, no. This was the same misconception we went through on the iGameRadio interview.

Unlike D&D, you don't simply unlock all the stat-mod spells when you reach a certain level. The attributes are "linked" in that if you cast Fire Attribute Bonus (or Fire Attribute Penalty), you only ever get a Strength boost (or depletion) out of it. If you want to affect Agility, you'll need somebody with Air Magic. Etc. But your magic skill doesn't receive a bonus from that associated element--there's no automatic "+1 to Fire Magic for every 5 points of Strength" situation.

The idea in our system is that:

- Being good with Strength has nothing to do with having a good Fire Magic score,
- But being good with Fire Magic could boost your Strength, because you can use your Fire Magic (and Mana) to cast spells which improve your strength.

So there's an argument to be made that a Fire Magic-focused caster should deliberately ignore putting points in Strength, since if they need more Strength in a certain situation, they can just cast a Strength booster. And so forth with the other elements and their associated attributes.