[crossfire] [IDEA] Reagents for cast magic

[ERACC]

On Friday 14 October 2005 02:48 pm
Brendan Lally wrote:

>
      On 10/14/05, ERACC <
      eracclists at bellsouth.net
      > wrote:
     >
      > Needing items to cast spells is more along the lines of witchcraft
     >
      > than sorcerous magic (read some Steven Brust <
      http://dreamcafe.com/
      >
     >
      > to see what I mean). In CF the magic system seems to be sorcerous
     >
      > based. The witchcraft based magic is more akin to alchemy in CF.
     >
     
     >
      Why do you take this to be your reference point?
     
Why not? It bears up my argument.

>
      Real world magic is mostly con tricks and illusion anyway, and there
     >
      is therefore no 'correct' way (consistent with the real world) to
     >
      model the invocation of magic in a game.
     
Heh, "real magic" is ALL con tricks and illusion. Or it is a science
advanced enough to appear magical. ;-)

   "Any sufficiently advanced technology
   is indistinguishable from magic."
   Arthur C. Clarke

>
      Using items for spells to my mind is as such more an issue of game
     >
      balance than adherence to the fictional work of some random novelist.
     
He's not random. I chose him specifically because I agree with his
fantasy ideas on "witchcraft" vs. "sorcery" and his writing that down
in his novels keeps me from having to reiterate it here. As for "game
balance" ... well, I've not ever been fond of that term as it
usually means nerfing or disabling something I have found fun to use
in the game. Same goes for "game economy". It's a fantasy game, it
*should* be easy to get insanely "wealthy" once one knows how. If I
want things to be difficult and to have little money I have that in
real life.

[... stuff about other games...]

I don't play other fantasy games, I play crossfire.

[...]
>
      In terms of game balance, spell ingredients /could/ be useful.
     >
      Especially if they were created with alchemy/woodsman skills at high
     >
      level. - That skill could then become essential to the ongoing
     >
      usefulness of a wizard, and high level spells might be used a lot less
     >
      if they were sufficiently expensive. (probably that means not using
     >
      comet or meteor swarm against everything around - burning hands and
     >
      firebolt could be useful even at higher levels if they cost much less)
     
I'm reading "game balance" but thinking "game complexity". I think
this will just make the game more complex. It is already quite
complex now and takes plenty of time to learn to play well enough to
survive to a high level (unless someone just gives a noob everything
to survive and then helps the noob level up, which we all know does
happen).

If you want to do this because it is a coding challenge, yeah, I do
understand that. :-)

Gene Alexander
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