New Posssible Magic System

[LFrench106]

I grow weary of the Enchanter magic system, so I'm going to suggest a new
system of magic in IF. Namely, stones. At the begining of the game you get
a belt buckle with one slot and one stone (that corrisponds to one element
- for our example, lets say Air). You put the stone in the buckle to
"create" a spell. You can cast a spell with this combination; eventually
you would get more stones and a belt buckle with more then one slot.
Different combinations would lead to different spells. For example, earth
and water would lead to a Mud spell. (You could find more belt buckles
with more slots).

(I'll admit to approapriating this idea from somewhere else, but I can't
remember where!)

Get me. I'm done.

[Admiral Jota]

lfren...@aol.com (LFrench106) writes:

>I grow weary of the Enchanter magic system, so I'm going to suggest a new
>system of magic in IF. Namely, stones. At the begining of the game you get
>a belt buckle with one slot and one stone (that corrisponds to one element
>- for our example, lets say Air). You put the stone in the buckle to
>"create" a spell. You can cast a spell with this combination; eventually
>you would get more stones and a belt buckle with more then one slot.
>Different combinations would lead to different spells. For example, earth
>and water would lead to a Mud spell. (You could find more belt buckles
>with more slots).

The main problem with this sort of system is that it tends to lead to a
limited number of spells, assuming that each combination of elements leads
to a single spell.

>(I'll admit to approapriating this idea from somewhere else, but I can't
>remember where!)

That would probably be Journey. It worked well for the one game, but I
don't think it would work in a second game: it looks like the sort of
system that would be exhausted after one game.

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[Matthew Daly; x67754]

In article <19970520200...@ladder02.news.aol.com> lfren...@aol.com (LFrench106) writes:
>I grow weary of the Enchanter magic system, so I'm going to suggest a new
>system of magic in IF. Namely, stones. At the begining of the game you get
>a belt buckle with one slot and one stone (that corrisponds to one element
>- for our example, lets say Air). You put the stone in the buckle to
>"create" a spell. You can cast a spell with this combination; eventually
>you would get more stones and a belt buckle with more then one slot.
>Different combinations would lead to different spells. For example, earth
>and water would lead to a Mud spell. (You could find more belt buckles
>with more slots).
>

>(I'll admit to approapriating this idea from somewhere else, but I can't
>remember where!)

Sounds a lot like Ultima Underworld's scheme. There, for instance, the
spell for fireball was called "Big Fire Hurt" and required that you find
the Big rune, the Fire rune, and the Hurt rune. Plus, you needed
to be a high enough level spellcaster that you could cast that spell
(perhaps analogous to your having a belt with enough slots).

The neat thing about that system is that you don't have to describe
all the available spells, just enough that people know what effects
the different runes have (since they weren't actually called the
"Fire" ruin in the game). For instance, if late in the game you came
across a "Very" rune, the player character ought to have enough sense
to experiment with the Very Big Fire Hurt spell.

The challenge from an author's perspective is coming up with a set
of "words" to chain together, and to have as many different combinations
of words form actual spells as possible, although some might be
humorous or dangerous.

-Matthew

[Richard H. Poser II]

On 20-May-97 12:01:26 in response to LFrench106, I stopped lurking and replied
to the following:

[SNIP]

>Different combinations would lead to different spells. For example, earth
>and water would lead to a Mud spell. (You could find more belt buckles
>with more slots).

>(I'll admit to approapriating this idea from somewhere else, but I can't
>remember where!)

>Get me. I'm done.

Sounds like it came from the Infocom Graphical adventure, Voyager...
(The combining of elements anyway)

Sounds like an interesting idea....

Richard H. Poser II (The Next Regeneration) <mailto:rhp...@fair.net>
--
The Whomiga Times: http://www.fair.net/~rhposer
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[Eric Rossing]

On 20 May 97 21:18:51 GMT, jo...@tiac.net (Admiral Jota) wrote:

: lfren...@aol.com (LFrench106) writes:
:
: >I grow weary of the Enchanter magic system, so I'm going to suggest a new
: >system of magic in IF. Namely, stones. At the begining of the game you get
: >a belt buckle with one slot and one stone (that corrisponds to one element
: >- for our example, lets say Air). You put the stone in the buckle to
: >"create" a spell. You can cast a spell with this combination; eventually
: >you would get more stones and a belt buckle with more then one slot.

: >Different combinations would lead to different spells. For example, earth

: >and water would lead to a Mud spell. (You could find more belt buckles
: >with more slots).

:
: The main problem with this sort of system is that it tends to lead to a

: limited number of spells, assuming that each combination of elements leads
: to a single spell.

I agree, but it wouldn't be too hard to have more than one spell per
combination.

In my mind, the major problem comes into play with bigger belts - I'd be
disappointed if there wasn't at least one spell for each possible
combination(this gets really hairy if Air-Water-Earth and Earth-Water-Air
are different, or if Air-Air-Water and Air-Water are different). They
wouldn't have to be useful spells, but each combination should do
something...

: >(I'll admit to approapriating this idea from somewhere else, but I can't
: >remember where!)
:
: That would probably be Journey. It worked well for the one game, but I

: don't think it would work in a second game: it looks like the sort of
: system that would be exhausted after one game.

Or, possibly, one of the later Ultima games(IV or higher), where each spell
required the mixing of specific reagents.

Actually, Ultima and Journey are a lot closer to each other than this system
sounds to either. While I haven't played much of Journey, from what I
remember, there are specific spells that happen to require certain amounts
of certain elements. While I don't know whether there are two spells with
the same ingredients, it's certainly possible.

In LFrench106's proposed system, I'm not certain whether the elements would
be consumed or not...

Eric Rossing
ros...@iname.com
http://home.msen.com/~rossing
PGP Public key available on my WWW page
Support the anti-SPAM amendment! Go to http://www.cauce.org!

[Admiral Jota]

ros...@iname.com (Eric Rossing) writes:
>On 20 May 97 21:18:51 GMT, jo...@tiac.net (Admiral Jota) wrote:
>: lfren...@aol.com (LFrench106) writes:

[...]
>: >Namely, stones. At the begining of the game you get a belt buckle with

>: >one slot and one stone (that corrisponds to one element - for our
>: >example, lets say Air). You put the stone in the buckle to "create" a
>: >spell. You can cast a spell with this combination; eventually
>: >you would get more stones and a belt buckle with more then one slot.
>: >Different combinations would lead to different spells.

[...]

>: The main problem with this sort of system is that it tends to lead to a
>: limited number of spells, assuming that each combination of elements leads
>: to a single spell.

>I agree, but it wouldn't be too hard to have more than one spell per
>combination.

>In my mind, the major problem comes into play with bigger belts - I'd be
>disappointed if there wasn't at least one spell for each possible
>combination(this gets really hairy if Air-Water-Earth and Earth-Water-Air
>are different, or if Air-Air-Water and Air-Water are different). They
>wouldn't have to be useful spells, but each combination should do
>something...

Aha, I completely forgot about that. I had just assumed that there'd be
only one stone per element (making AAW impossible), and didn't even think
about the order of the elements. Now that I consider those possibilities,
the system suddenly seems much more flexible to me.

[Snip about Journey and Ultima]

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[LFrench106]

How did I get the bloody idea?!?

I've never played Ultima, nor Jorney; I got the idea from a Sega Genisis
game, but I can't remember what!!! It was an action game, and there was
something to do with rings. I can't remember anything further!!!

Ignore me. I'm done.

[Terence Fergusson]

In article <19970603201...@ladder02.news.aol.com>, LFrench106
<lfren...@aol.com> scribed:

Well, the closest I can think of was a Gameboy game called Final Fantasy
Legend 3. You collected various stones: Earth, Fire, Water, Air. These
were used near the end where you gave them to this sage who swapped
different combinations of them for usable spells....

If you were really thorough, you could find all 5 stones of each
element, and get all the nifty powerful spells. If not, you had to make
do with a few.

Just my two zorkmids.

Ciao,
Terence Fergusson
-- Student of Advanced Murphodynamics
-- Stranded in an Anime-free College