Writing in runic combinations certainly has its benefits... And is a simple system to implement... I think though, that when the player is casting, each rune ''powers up'' a spell just a little more (as said) by using mana or whatever. If the spell backfires at ANY point, there are random options to happen. If it was a spell that the character hadn''t learned then there might be a low chance of actually successfully casting it, there would be a low chance that the spell would just ground and dispell itself, also there could be a high chance that the spell would cast a known dangerous spell with targets likely to be the caster or occasionally random targets... And a small chance of casting a non-violent spell.

This might need to be amended for a Healer who had no knowledge of violent spells, so therefor any damage to his person could be atributed to a backlash of mana or spell working that drained some of his energy in dispelling itself.

I think I might need to do some typing once more for the doc

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - The future of RPGs Thanks to all the goblins in the GDCorner niche

Actually, I''ve been trying to implement a voice recognition / typing approach to spell casting in my latest RPG. While yes, it is inaccurate in most cases, that''s sort of what I''m going for. According to my storyline, spellcasting is a difficult process that is not even a centered object of the game itself (as with my game there are other methods of using magic without actually being the spell caster.) I can''t really go into detail, as I''m under contract and have been asked to keep a tight lid on this until the engine is complete, but what I''m saying is, the technology is here for voice recognition, so why shouldn''t we use it? I''m not saying make it the ONLY way to advance in the game, (I for one refuse to shout the word ABRA-KADABRA loud enough to be heard by anyone who might rag on me for months) but the option to make gameplay more interactive is just too much for me to pass up.

Then again, while this was my choice for implementation, I don''t see why anyone should be limited to this approach, either. This is a difficult task, and most games out there haven''t made use of this technology yet, so it''s not required by any means.

Well if I''m too far off topic, sorry, it''s late, I''m tired, and I''m a complete moron.

Just my 2 cents.

quote:
I like the whole idea of having the player type in the runes for whatever spell they want. I dont think hot keys would be a problem though. Allow it, the player would have to be carefull what they hot key, wouldn''t want to mess up a key already being used to make a different spell, one that your not hot keying.

I just thought of something that could be *really* evil...think about this. As a wizard progesses through the game, he learns new runes...for the sake of argument, lets say there are more than just 4 or 6. These runes could be hard coded to a key, or the player could choose a key to set it on. However, rather than using number keys, all the alphanumeric keys can be hotkeyed. What if the player were to accidentally slip and hotkey something to one of his rune keys? Looks like he has to go back and find someone to teach him that one again...

quote:
This might need to be amended for a Healer who had no knowledge of violent spells, so therefor any damage to his person could be atributed to a backlash of mana or spell working that drained some of his energy in dispelling itself.

Two words: Mana Burn. Everyone''s favorite concept from M:tG. (yeah right) However, it does kind of make sense...and actually, "healers" may have damaging spells. For instance, "healing" the undead--holy fire. From FF2/4J--White, which damaged anything, although it did more to undead. Or if you really want to attribute it to something off-kilter, say that all healers worship very fickle deities and if they screw up a spell, their deity punishes them.

quote:Original post by draqza
I just thought of something that could be *really* evil...think about this. As a wizard progesses through the game, he learns new runes...for the sake of argument, lets say there are more than just 4 or 6. These runes could be hard coded to a key, or the player could choose a key to set it on. However, rather than using number keys, all the alphanumeric keys can be hotkeyed. What if the player were to accidentally slip and hotkey something to one of his rune keys? Looks like he has to go back and find someone to teach him that one again...

That is nasty! I love it ... But I would do it by forcing him to lose it only when he tries to cast it... that way he is stuck in the middle of trouble with no rune and he has to quickly figure out what to do to fix it all back up right

quote:Two words: Mana Burn. Everyone''s favorite concept from M:tG. (yeah right) However, it does kind of make sense...and actually, "healers" may have damaging spells. For instance, "healing" the undead--holy fire. From FF2/4J--White, which damaged anything, although it did more to undead. Or if you really want to attribute it to something off-kilter, say that all healers worship very fickle deities and if they screw up a spell, their deity punishes them.

Ah, but it isn''t a violent spell... Because it is not chaos, but order. It is righting that which should not be. It may injur those who are not of the right makeup, but that was not what I would call a spell bent on destruction (and healing should only be for close quarters so therefore it would only be used as a last resort).

I do love the idea of deities punishing them... Maybe send them on a Quest for Repentance... or take certain powers away, or bind them to another player or something cruel until they have repented and their god forgives them... hehe... I would love that.

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - The future of RPGs Thanks to all the goblins in the GDCorner niche

Okay dwarfsoft, I see what you''re getting at. But mana burn didn''t have anything to do with whether the spell was violent or chaotic or whatever...it was simply based on the idea that the natural magical force is chaotic, and if you call it up and can''t do anything with it, it''s going to eat you away from the inside out.

Hmmm...a Quest for Repentance. This is going a little off track, but hey...we''re already a little off track of what I started out with. How many games actually have higher beings get involved (excluding those times where that is a part of the plot)? There could be some I''ve never heard of, but as far as I know, none really have the deities manifest themselves. Sounds like fun...well, for the designers, at any rate. I guess the question there is if a player can just save and return to previous state, why would he voluntarily go on a quest for repentance? Some that were actually in to the roleplaying wouldn''t mind, but I imagine a lot of players would be less than thrilled about taking a side quest at the threat of being smote. (Weird words like "smite" and "manifest" are fun... )

quote:Original post by Ketchaval
You would want to avoid such a thing happening as it would really **** you the player off if it happened to you. On the level of the User Interface (UI), maybe the f-keys could be used for Runes ONLY? Or the player would have a scroll of remembered runes.

Yeah, but think...wizards can be addlebrained...they could forget and do something like that...I guess this is simply a matter of taste. Even put a warning in the manual/in-game-tutorial/whatever so the player knows it''s possible.

Does anyone have any good links on the topic of gesture recognition? I would be much obliged.

Z.