I'm working on a combat system in an RPG and along with that, the magic system. In this magic system the only spells the player will have access to are elemental spells (Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, and maybe a few more). Each spell will have 3-4 levels of power. So Fire1, Fire2, Fire3, etc. Instead of casting these spells with mana, the player will use stock. The level of the spell would be how much stock it cost. For those unfamiliar with the stock concept, the player starts with X stock (X is usually under 10) and each ability costs Y stock. So if Fire1 costs 1 stock and the player has 3 stock, he can cast Fire1 3 times in a row. At the end of each turn, Z stock is replenished. What will make the magic system more interesting is the player can mix spells together in a chain to cast more powerful spells. So he could cast Fire1, Fire1, Earth1 and that would trigger the Explosion spell that would blow up a group of enemies instead of those 3 spells being cast on a single enemy. It would probably be difficult to remember all the combinations, so I've added some autocomplete code in so once a player starts a recognized combo, all the combos that start with that chain will be shown.

So the basic ideas are:
1. Magical ability is replenished every turn.
2. More interesting spells are created by composing different elemental spells, rather than just having stand-alone spells.

Very interesting, especially the second point.

I don't see any difference between your stock system and a mana system to cast spells. You are simply renaming it from mana to stock. Both are still casting spells from a pool of finite resources.

As for point 2 of chaining spells together, it seems to be something interesting that requires some player interaction, but if you implement an auto-complete function you are simply taking this away so why do you even need to have a spell combo element when player simply clicks "Explosion" instead of Fire1, Fire1, Earth1.

If you allow users to custom combo spells to try out, I will avoid fixing Fire1 Fire1 Earth1 as explosion, but instead whenever spells of fire + earth you will get an explosive effect, thus users may put different spells combo to try different effects. Maybe Fire2 Fire2 Earth1 (more fire) gives you a high damage spell compared to a Fire1 Fire1 Earth2 (more earth) that gives you a wider area of effect spell.

My 2 cents.

The way you talk about the spells being mixed in a combination reminds me of an idea that a player of Age of Conan had a while ago.
I went and searched for it since it might give you some ideas:
http://img356.imageshack.us/i/aocguiiu0.gif/
(it's a flash demonstration)


Also...that's a very large set of combinations.
Are you planning on having a different effect between levels?

For instance, is F1 + F1 + E1, the same animation as F1 + F1 + E2?

I was just curious because if each possible category, level, and quantity has it's own animation and effect, then that's going to be hell to develop...

Just with one element in itself, there's roughly 80+ possible combinations.
Now if you combine 4 more elements into that and that each category may be used more than once in one combination...I didn't feel like crunching that number, but it's not small.

I don't see any difference between your stock system and a mana system to cast spells. You are simply renaming it from mana to stock. Both are still casting spells from a pool of finite resources.

The pool is finite in a turn, but infinite over a battle. Typically, mana users run out of mana at some point. A stock system would prevent this.

Also...that's a very large set of combinations.

Every possible combination wouldn't yield a special spell. Only maybe 20 per character.

Quote:

Original post by homer_3 I don't see any difference between your stock system and a mana system to cast spells. You are simply renaming it from mana to stock. Both are still casting spells from a pool of finite resources. The pool is finite in a turn, but infinite over a battle. Typically, mana users run out of mana at some point. A stock system would prevent this.

Actually, many manna systems allow slow regeneration over time as well. Although it is not all that important what you call it (manna, stock, spell slots, stamina, etc) it all boils down to the same mechanics: A finite resource that is used to take actions and replenished over time.

Using Stamina for a Fighter is not different than using manna for a spell caster, each allow the character to perform a set of actions that drain the finite resource, but that resource slowly recharges.

The purpose of such systems is to prevent the character from doing too much and being too powerful. However, it does allow characters to take a lot of actions quickly, so if they encounter weak enemies, they can wipe them out quickly instead of having to grind away at them. So it also allows you to balance the gameplay between the mobs (quick battles with little risk to the characters unless they make bad choices) and boss fights (longer fights where the characters must use their resources more conservatively).

If you are going to use this kind of system, then you need to keep in mind these consequences: Boss fights need to make the player pace their use of resources and mob fights should allow the player to blast away with their full power but needs to have a lot of variety in how to handle the mob (or they become boring mindless clicking - a common failing).

Quote:

Original post by homer_3 Every possible combination wouldn't yield a special spell. Only maybe 20 per character.

I wasn't talking about the concept from a player's perspective.
I was talking about it from a developer's perspective.

What I meant was that it would appear as though there would be a very high amount of work spent on just creating the various animations for the possible spell combinations.