The_0men wrote:What about having a list of spells in the chaos settings menu and choose 1 like u do with melee weapons .Gotta be fair tho so spells r powerful than the rest but in different ways. The grim reaper one would probably not be fair, but a tornado or twista one would be a good one
Thinking about what omen said...
Instead of having 'balanced spells' from which you could pick out the ones you wanted in the beggining, each player could be given 20 'spell points'. using these, they could choose which spells they want. each spell costs a certain number of spell points depending on how powerful it is.
Spells should still work like extra weps: you need to scroll down between the melee wep and the translocator to acess them. Primary fire is a quick spell, alternate fire is a charged up version of the spell, which does more damage and, not to forget, have a greater 'magical effect' (If a low power twister flings players around, a charged up twister should be able to fling, lets say, hellbenders around ).
One of the ideas I considered implementing in one of my own projects was a "wizard lab". Basically, it's an offline area where players can mix and match different magical effects to create spells. They can then assign each of thier unique creations to a slot (the number keys). In multiplayer games, the players can use these spells against each other (or to benefit themselves). The idea was that each player plays a wizard with thier own unique spells. This allows players to customize thier characters with thematic spells (for instace, one could create a fire mage, by assembling spells based around fire magic), and so on. I don't think it would be too hard to code, but probably time consuming. If I were to create something like that, I would base it on some code I have already written which does something similar.
Something like that would be really cool. However I (almost inevitably) have ideas to throw into the ring now:
It would probably make things more balanced if you had archetypes built in, with the different types getting bonuses and penalties for different aspects of magic. Everyone would have access to the same spell elements, but firemages, say, would have bonuses to damage, maybe special immunities, and would find healing harder to use (sucks up more mana than a it would for a healmage).
Each archetype could also have its own effects for the different components e.g., fire could heal with cleansing flame, nature with purest water etc...
Of course, some elements don't have to be specific, such as focused beam or ranged blast effects, while some could be very specific, like nature druids easily summoning familiars without a second thought, whilst others would have to expend a lot of mana and necromancers might have to collect "spare parts" first!
Just throwing out some random numbers, seven archetypes with seven different spell elements = 49 different particle effects, each designed so they can be overlayed without looking too odd, plus some sort of costing system, whereby the more elements a spell contains, the cost increases logarhithmically... gives nearly infinite weapon options. Wow.
That's the basis of how I code. Mix and match. I believe some refer to it as "Procedural Dynamics". IMO, it makes for a fun game. If only I were skilled enough a coder to actually start applying it to real projects instead of these little hobbies of mine... But some day...
The mix and match idea is rather good though. I think, combining "Mix 'n' Match" and "Spell Points" would be good. Eg:
Fire spell - 8 skill points (give a spell fire damage. does nothing by itself)
Ball spell - 5 points (sperical spell projectile. does nothing by itself)
Combine the two spells to get FireBall. You could have 'spell segments' such as these and then you could categorise them : spell energy type, spell projectile type, etc. Energies could incluse fire, ice, poison, healing, blinding, etc. projectiles could include ball, beam, wave, shockwave, missile(which homes in on a target), etc.
BTW, nice idea azrael, but i dont think magical fields would be too much fun in CUT.
Have a weapon, the Tome of Chaos, and the way it would work is pri.fire goes one page back, while alt. fire goes one page forward. awo would start to cast the spell. the first spells would be very weak, almost totally useless, but to gain access to higher spells you would need to gain "EXP" by successfully casting lower spells. while casting a spell, you would not be allowed to move, as that would inturrupt the spell. the first spells, being useless, would move slow and just go in a straight path, while most of the higher level spells would be homing(if offensive) to make up for the fact that you cant move during the casting. also how about maybe having other spellbook pickups that would take the place of ammo, each having control over another element or sphere of magic? you would switch between them with the switch ammo key.
I can assure you that I am totally and completely sane.
And so is WH00t.
So stop yelling at me.
erm... WHOOT, i don't think exp, mana, etc. would be a good thing. Nice idea but i think exp would really slow down a UT game (not graphically but in gameplay).
BTW, i remember now what made me so interested in magic in a FPS: Jedi Knights. The abilities with the force in that game weren't too great but i really liked the concept of using... well... the force. Chaos magic is just the next step.
Chaos and Magic have always seem to be a perfect fit together. (We definatly had Jedi Knight in mind when we conceptualized the melee system. ) The problem that we have always come to is how to impliment it. We dont want to add a million key bindings for spells, nor do we want to add a lengthy menu system. We have always avoided player classes, so adding a wizard class that casts actual spells is out. What we would need to do is find a way to meld it into what we allredy have.
It's kinda obvious that we have 2 kinds of Chaos. We have the melee and then we have the guns. Part of our future effort should ( and most likely will ) be to find a way to blend the two together. Currently in a game type that has both in it, the only time you want to pull out a melee weapon is if you just spawned and have run out of CPP ammo. If you run around with your sword out you will get shot to peices.
Magic sounds like it could be the answer, but not in a spell "casting" way. Any form of an actual spell casting would slow down the game. You would have to stop and stand there while some one shot you repeatedly as you cast your spell. Hopefuly you would get the spell off before you got filled full of holes. What if you could collect a randomly spawning activation artifact, run around the corner into a room full of people, activate the artifact by tapping your AWO key and then slam your hammer on the ground sending out a shock wave that either knocks everyone off of their feet, or stuns them for a short period of time so you can run up and whack a couple. Or, if you were using the daggers maybe a few magic missles could spin out of the daggers and target the two neerist players to you. The bastard sword could shoot everyone within a certin distance with negative energy blasts. The Templar could summon a Cross infront of you what would pull all projectiles to it that come close to you and take the damage.
Or an alternate system would be to collect one of many types of artifacts. Each having its own spell that is only usable when using the melee weapons. This way would not be dependant on the melee weapon that you are holding. Sort of like the relics, this would allow you to have an activated spell effect. Ofcourse it would have to have a recharg time to negate spamming of it. Also, It wouldnt stop someone from running into the room using their Thunder Clap Artifact to stunn every one and then whipping out their ERDW and Railing your butt.
Both ways would work in the confines of what we have now.
Thoughts? Comments? Flames? WTF is this guy talking about?
LoQtUS wrote:What if you could collect a randomly spawning activation artifact, run around the corner into a room full of people, activate the artifact by tapping your AWO key and then slam your hammer on the ground sending out a shock wave that either knocks everyone off of their feet, or stuns them for a short period of time so you can run up and whack a couple.
Do you remember Scourge Of Armagon?
Features -> Weapons -> Mjolnir
Oh, how I loved to use that hammer!
–The biggest trick the devil ever pulled, was convincing the world he didn't exist.–
The most effective way I have found to implement magic in an FPS gametype is through random weapon enhancements, like Diablo II. UT2k4RPG already does this to a limited degree, but what I'm referring to would use mixed effects. For instance, some weapons could just be firey while others could be poisoned and firey. Perhaps you have to find a special pickup and activate it. It would then imbue your currently readied weapon with a randome set of special powers. We can have a toggle to limit it to melee weapons only, as a way to not only balance the magic powers, but also to make it more interesting.
Have a weapon, the Tome of Chaos, and the way it would work is pri.fire goes one page back, while alt. fire goes one page forward. awo would start to cast the spell. the first spells would be very weak, almost totally useless, but to gain access to higher spells you would need to gain "EXP" by successfully casting lower spells. while casting a spell, you would not be allowed to move, as that would inturrupt the spell. the first spells, being useless, would move slow and just go in a straight path, while most of the higher level spells would be homing(if offensive) to make up for the fact that you cant move during the casting. also how about maybe having other spellbook pickups that would take the place of ammo, each having control over another element or sphere of magic? you would switch between them with the switch ammo key.
Actually, this can be fixed. basically for the exp we instead have elemented crystals. basically, you need X amount of X crystals to perform X spell. like if I wanted an inferno I would need about 50 fire crystals. I would switch ammo and the book would change texture. same primary and alt but say for fire it is now red. once the spell is cast you can walk around normally. like you cast a spell and now you are walking around while spewing flames. however, the longer you hold it the more ammo it takes. but if you cast an inferno you need to stand for like 2 secs then it will happen X feet in front of you. and for it to actually rain fire, you need like 200 of them and all of it will be drained and the entire sky fills with clouds as it begins to rain fireballs. the raining fireballs relies on zones to know where to spread out. it happens in the entire zone you are in.
I say Relics should have magnified effects for melee weapons, somehow.
Perhaps we could a sort of RPG element, where Relics get stronger as you gain points. Or, combine Relics with Adrenaline for short high-powered Relic effects activated by a key combo.
.Gotta be fair tho so spells r powerful than the rest but in different ways. The grim reaper one would probably not be fair, but a tornado or twista one would be a good one
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