[In a single player, singleton, action RPG] Is spell preparation fun? Can it be fun? I am comparing the idea of casting spells on the fly while fighting to the same, but having only those spells you have prepared available. My fighting system would be very tactical in the sense that it is based on player skill and the system allows for much twitch-speed reactionary fighting as well as quick preplanned combos. Fighting moves come fast and furious, and reactions are the only savior of the ill prepared. In such an fighting environment would restricting the player's choice of spells to those he planned for be detrimental to the fun factor? For an example of why prepping could be fun, it would be an place where crafting could be used if the spells where actually created in gems that are then saved for release later. These gems then could be the magical end result of combining any number of ingredients through some process. What if some spells deemed advanced or very powerful were balanced using this preparation step (and therefor also balanced through the availability of the ingredients), but other spells that are more basic can be cast on the fly?

Guild Wars is entirely built around the concept of spell preparation and it completely makes the game. There are hundreds (if not thousands now) of spells in the game, you can only bring 5 to a match chosen from only 2 of the X disciplines available (basically character classes).

What makes is fun is combinations and team builds. Certain spells benefit from combinations: i.e. one spell does X damage for each disease on the target. So you load a bunch of diseases and this spell and boom there's one kind of build. Then since you're a team of 5-10 you then as a group figure out team builds so that all your teammates restricted choices have synergistic effects.

It's something to obsess about. Good teams spend a great deal of offline time composing and debating builds, a good time of in-game time to practicing builds.

Preparation is the game. It's pretty awesome.

Porting that idea directly to single player obviously wouldn't work out of the box, but it's an interesting starting point. You may have dungeons with certain monster types which cause you to compose different builds, etc.

-me

its seems extraordinarily fun actually, but unfortunately intimately tied to combos with others and preset matches. I would need more dynamic prep usage, like making potions for healing that can be used up instead of having a heal spell. That also sounds like a great way to deal with having so many spells available, though I don't plan on so many, after all, guild wars is a MMO.

So what you are talking about is crafting items that cause a magic effect when used and are consumed by that use.

Whether that is fun or simply tedious would depend on how monotonous the crafting process was. Also making it fun, but to time consuming could also result in folks being reluctant to actually use the items vs saving them for when they are absolutely necessary.

Whether it requires much strategic thinking would depend on how many items a character could carry. If they can carry dozens there won't be much strategy. As has been pointed out the need for strategic preparation doesn't actually require any crafting, just a low limit on what can be brought into combat.

Why not allow both?
Each spell requires a preparation time. You can prepare it just before casting it or prepare it in advance and put the magic in some kind of magical stone to gain time.

The preparation time should depend on how much stress you're under. In combat, or even while running, it should be harder, and thus take longer, if possible at all.

Practice could reduce the preparation time or make you more serene.

If you take a look at Dungeons and Dragons through the years (I dunno anything about 4th edition, so, this might not apply there as I've heard there were substantial changes), there were always a few problems with its spell system.

In 1st-3rd edition you had to prepare all of your spells in advance and could only cast those spells for the day. This lead to a massive bias towards the spells that would be useful most of the time, instead of any of the more special case situations (unless you knew you were heading into such a situation). The bias also tended massively towards combat related spells, particularly in computer games.

A cleric in 1st/2nd edition would tend to stock up on healing spells, as those were sure bets. In 3rd edition, they let you subsitute another spell of the same level for a healing spell of the equivalent level, which widened a cleric's options considerably. But, this gave no incentive to actually purposefully prepare a healing spell in advance. Perhaps you could do something similar to this, where spells prepared in advance are cheaper or more effective somehow, and substituted spells cost more (more mana, more spell slots, or maybe, used up a random memorized spell).

Preparing spells in advance also only matters if there is an actual cost to preparing a spell. In Dungeons and Dragons there was supposed to be a significant time expenditure, leaving you vulnerable to being interrupted, requiring use of rations, and whatnot. In most computer game implementations, you just hit the rest button and viola, you've got your spells back and whatever changes you wanted to make to your spell selection.

Spell components can be used with both systems just fine.

Originally I was considering a spell system where each spell had a timer. You had to charge the spell for the required time to reach full power. There was an alternative intended though and that was that you could release it early, even instantly, at full power, but had to pay back the timer in double (or w/e fit well in play testing)

I have a fast passed fighting system planned though that is based on button taps initiating actions that auto-complete. This spell system would require a lot of button holding so I wasn't sure if it was a good fit.

Thats why the idea came to me to store spells ahead of time. Make a spell and put it in a gem and it can be used later as an event, no holding time needed. I suppose you could still paly the spell system like its all button taps, initiating spells and then waiting on the timer before doing it again. Less skilled players could do that while those that cna handle it gain an advantage by learning to pre-charge spells for a shorter timer and get spells cast at a faster rate.

What do you guys think?

On the fly spells = Fast paced action gameplay
Prepared spells = Strategic thoughtful gameplay

I believe you are after the latter?

Otreum's right and for me at least, the strategy would lead to the game having a longer lifespan.

I'm after a blend of both actually. I'm hoping for fast passed, but with enough strategy that you have to be good at both to really master the system. if you are good with the strategy, but not tactics when you fight and quick enough, you fail, but if you dive right in just reacting, you aren't doing the best either. My physical combat system would support re activeness and immediate tactical fighting. Adding in aspects that are prepped ahead of time allow for more strategy.