Quote:Original post by templewulf @Extrarius: I had no idea it was that severe. If that's the case, what's the deal with all the fanfiction? Is it deemed just too rampant to deal with?[...]
Fanfiction generally falls under copyright infringement (because copyright covers 'derivative works' and fanfiction is obviously derived from the original), which afaik is the same as patent infringement - the company can let you get away with if they want. Generally, main characters and places and that kind of thing are not registered trademarks, so as long as you stay away from the title it is possibly ok. Titles (for everything from games to books to movies etc) are generally registered trademarks, so that is the main area of concern. However, main characters in franchises (mario, etc) might be registered so you should stay away from those as well. Regular trademarks are fine, it's just when they register them in the US that they must defend them. Just be careful =-) Again, I'm not a lawyer
"Walk not the trodden path, for it has borne it's burden." -John, Flying Monk
As for a neat way that the "Magic: The Gathering" world can be portrayed, I would suggest hopping down to your local bookstore, looking for the section containing the Magic books (the ones written based off of the card game) and read "Arena". I won't go into it too much, cause then I would spoil the fun, however, it's worth a read if you're looking for a feasible way to do M:TG style combat without actually holding a deck of cards. That is all.
Quote:Original post by templewulf @Extrarius: I had no idea it was that severe. If that's the case, what's the deal with all the fanfiction? Is it deemed just too rampant to deal with?[...]
I'm not a lawyer either, but my understanding is that a company has to defend its trademarks only if it officially "knows" about an infringement, and most fan-fiction will go under the radar of these companies. Techincally it's illegal, but since a company will look like a total bastard if they shut these things down, I think they deliberately try not to know about these things.
But this could be complete nonsense, so feel free to ignore this since I really don't know what I'm talking about.
Your game idea is starting to get close to an idea for a wizard duelling game I had a few years back (although mine was a FPS that never got past the "idea in my head" stage), so I can give you a few tips on element types that I had. They mightn't apply for your game, or for whatever mythology you are using for the element types, however.
Quote:Original post by templewulf What I still want to know from you guys: * What kinds of spells should wind and water have? Wind is supposed to be intelligent and psychic and all that, but what's water? It's supposed to represent spirituality and an emotional state. What the hell kind of spells can I make from that?
For my idea, wind was one of the more powerful elements. I had the following characteristics with air spells:
Speed spells (very handy)
Flight/Levitation
Asphyxiation
Vacuum attacks (very deadly and quite gory too)
Also, since in my design you got elemental power from whatever elements you were near, you always had a constant supply of air magic unless you were underwater. It was actually a bit too overpowered, to be honest.
Water is the element of life, and also the element of reflection as well. It also has three common states in the real world, so can also be used as an element of change (as can fire). While air was deadlier in my game idea, water mages would rule in the native element. So you can have:
Healing spells
Reflection of magic
Transformation spells
Divination (although this could be any element really)
Actually, since we're looking at an RPG point of view, you might actually consider having physical mana source spread around the world.
Each mana source may be capable of generating one or a combination of types of mana at a specific rate, which you can gain access to by making physical pilgrimages to them. Sort of like signing a pact or something similar to gain access. Its been done before, like pacts with summon spirits in FFX, etc. However, you can only have a fixed number of "open" pacts with mana sources based on your level, which means you probably would need to choose as your spell needs change. This can then easily tie into your idea of regenerating mana, except its being replenish (tunnelled to you, putting it another way) depending on the sources you have pacts with. So, if you have pacts with 5 sources of mana of a certain type, your mana of that type will replenish five times faster, or depending on how strong the sources are.
Having physical mana sources bring up further variations in the game as you can make an enemy slightly easier by destroying or severing their pacts to mana sources, which then becomes strategic.
To some extent or another, I'll agree with Wierdo Fu here. Physical links to the goodly "Mana Source" are always a good thing. This is how "stilling" or "severing" spells would be able to be put into play so that a mage could be cut off from their magic supply given the enemy spellcaster knows enough of their stuff. Could present some interesting options if you look into relevant fantasy writing and see how people "generally" respond to being cut off from any sort of magical power supply (I'm thinking Robert Jordan as an example here).
However, as for HOW the phyical part is implemented, well I'd refer again to the book - "Magic: The Gathering Arena". This book takes a whole new look at duelling and at how the whole system actually exists. The "plane" that the summoners live on is entirely seperate from all the fantastical beasts and they walk around with pouches that contain little tokens that represent either a certain spell or a mana source. So if you had a rare trillinium rock from the Big Bad Mountains, you'd have X amount of power generated in the "mountain"/red category. But, what the whole thing really boils down to is that when people duel, they generally put up one of their spells on the line, making the battles all the more interesting.
Anyway, I don't have a copy of the book anymore, and it's been approximately five years since I've read it so that's about the best I can remember, but I'll look for a copy so I can expand on this idea a bit more.
@WeirdoFu I had considered that idea. I thought it would be neat to sort of "conquer" various areas, and then be able to use it as a mana source. It would be great for a RPG/RTS hybrid, but I don't really enjoy RTSs very much anymore.
The two problems I had with that idea were that it still used lands, which I wanted to separate from so that my game isn't a total ripoff of M:TG. The second was that it seems counter to good game balance.
For instance: You really suck at this game...a lot! If you just had one more mana source, you could totally whup this next guy. But you need to beat the next guy to get that mana source! The idea totally makes sense as far as story justifications, but how can we balance it for people who suck? [grin]
Original post by Trapper Zoid I really what you're doing. Have you ever played Phantom Dust? It sounds a lot like your idea, but it's probably not as good as the one in your head. (What ever is?) I did really like your suggestions for water. Especially the transformation and divination ideas, thanks!
In any case, which element would get the psychic spells like Control Magic or Telepathy?
Original post by Vopisk Okay, I get it! Magic: The Gathering Arena! [lol] What kind of book is it? A novel, or more of a game encyclopedia? I haven't read the Wheel of Time books yet, but my girlfriend keeps bugging me to...so I suppose I'll have to!
New Question! Do you like the fact that spells can only be used once per battle in M:TG? I think it's fantastic, because it prevents the kind of battles in most CRPGs, where you're just mashing the X button to get your characters to do their super damage spells as soon as possible. You can only drool over Ultima the first 20 times or so. Any better ideas?
XBox 360 gamertag: templewulf feel free to add me!
Single-use spells are good, as long as you have up to four of some of them available to you. Deck construction was a huge part of MTG strat, and you might want to translate that into your system somehow. A super-long recharge time for some of them, like the cooldown in WarCraft III, would make them mostly single-use, but not lost. It would be best, I think, to have them start out at whatever level they ended the last fight, so you can't open every contest with your six uber-spells and then sit around like a chump for the rest of the match, waiting for them to recharge.
Also, everyone loves the head-to-head competition over certain things, like the competing force beams in Dragon Ball shows or the locked weapons in Dynasty Warriors.
I always liked the power sink counter, becasue it's counter-counterable. You send a lightning bolt over there, he hits you with a power sink, and then you tap a few more mana and push it through anyway. Fun dynamic.
@Iron Chef Carnage As far as recharge goes, should it be different for different spells? Or should it be long for all of them, so you can't just spam the cheap spells?
Plus, should there be a limit on how many of a particular spell you can have? It was 4 per deck in M:TG, but what if you only limited it to how many the player could get ahold of? I can't think of any reason for the arbitrary limit story-wise.
Also, do you think that creatures should regenerate all of their HP every turn like they do in M:TG? That would be sort of upsetting if someone had a 1/8 wall, and you didn't have enough power to kill it. What kinds benefits are there to keeping the M:TG method of removing all damage at the end of each turn?
XBox 360 gamertag: templewulf feel free to add me!
Will you have spells as inventory items? It seems strange that you'd need to find or buy a spell six times in order to cast it six times in a fight. Maybe if they were conjured through some kind of talisman that needed to be recharged between fights or something, but otherwise it's a little tough to swallow.
As to recharging, I think recharge time should be proportional to the spell's power. Your lightning bolt will be ready to go every few turns, but Dakkon Blackblade won't. It might be worthwhile to use a slightly different dynamic for some summons. Having six Nebuchadnezzars out at the same time would be a little strange, I think.
How about if summons work more like the older Final Fantasy games, where you have to meet the summoned monsters and maybe pass a test or something before they'll come when you ask them to? Good relations with the Orc Chieftains will earn you recruiting privileges for a half-dozen weak units, but it'll take a real adventure to get the loyalty of a Lord of the Pit. Heck, you might make players have some units follow them around, so putting your Icatian Infantry into play is more of a troop deployment than an actual summon, but something like an Island Fish Jasconius would have to be "beamed in" magically. That could affect costs.
As to critter regeneration, I think a cRPG translation of the idea can afford to get a little more in-depth. Remember, in MTG it's power and toughness, and toughness isn't the same as HP. A thallid devourer doesn't get chewed up by Llanowar Elves and then heal inexplicably between rounds, he just makes it through that fight without getting hurt. His toughness is equal to or greater than the attackers' strength, and so he toughs it out. He catches his breath between rounds and is ready to go again.
Actual harm done to summoned units could be represented by tokens. If my White Knight gets into a scrap with an Armor Thrall, he'll shrug off its puny attack, but it might suffer a permanent -0/-1 due to his slashing up its chitinous shell. Next time it'll be weaker, and he'll finish it off. Walls could work the same way. A long siege could eventually wear a 1/8 wall down to the point at which it can be defeated. Some walls might have the option to be "healed" with an additional investment of mana.
Bear in mind that you are not bound to adhere strictly to MTG rules. You can throw in different damage types a la StarCraft, or the ability to create custom enchantments as in Morrowind, or any number of other clever things.
