You coudl balance the cost by adding another variable, like a player skill in overall magic, or a specific branch of magic. Then base the mechanics of paying for the cost on this additional skill.

So a player might develop fire magic in general (lvl 50), but fireball in specific (lvl 99). The higher fire magic lets the player pay the mana cost of more expensive fire spells, but not more expensive ice spells. And it requires an investment in the fire magic skill, so there is opportunity cost.

i had an idea something along those lines.

have a general section of spells, and then more specific categories of that "element". Fire has fireball, firestrike, flamethrow....lighting has bolt, stun, electrify....and so on each one costing more to cast, and stronger. so instead, as each category of spell levels up, a new spell is introduced.....

this remains with my idea of having an incentive to fight each battle, and it gives the player the choice to use strong spells against strong enemies, and a spell strong enough to hurt a weaker monster without costing an arm and a leg in MP or mana or what have you.

I kinda like this idea. Being able to grow a spell over time sounds cool.


""
How about being able to select the level of the spell you cast. I mean you dont want to cast a level 99 Magic Missle Death Blast at a level 4 Imp. Then the spell is mostly wasted.
""

As for this, I would lean away from asking the player for more info when they just want to KILL. Instead, have the grandios'' special effects build slowly, while damaging the ''Imp''. So that the spell dosen''t get into full throttle, and the effects don''t reach thier full hype, if the creature dies early on.

Of course, you will need your combat engine smart enough to deal with this...

z

yeah, now that is a better sounding idea than some old power meter thing:

quote: TookH;

It would make fireballs kind of like the bazooka in Worms; you aim, hold down the spacebar for second, and then BLAM, that enemy knight is BBQ.

and the idea of the building up, it was unclear at first what you meant, but i get it now. That is cool, as you are blowing the crap outta the guy with your fire spell, it it can rack up the damage, and when you are at its hit points, it can quit. i bet that would look kind of cool too....

a fire ball keeps bubbling overtop your enemy as you watch the damage keep tallying up. either you kill the guy or it keeps going to its max attack power. That has cool potential too!







Edited by - Ferinorius on August 1, 2001 9:05:42 PM