Totem System

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(from Eiji)

ok..I'm putting some info down on the totem system for the magick users.. as far as "opposing" elements, we'll take care of that later..but I think we could also have "complementry" elements as well (like Iron and Fire can merge into "Steel". As with the opposing elements, we'll deal with that later...)

(from dbacher)

I want to treat Magic, Melee and Ranged very much the same way. I believe if you have three completely separate systems, there is no way that the three systems can ever reach a balance. I believe, conversely, if you have only a single system that it is far more likely that you will tend to be balanced from the get go.

I very much want to have limiting factors of some variety -- if you look at Magic: the Gathering, some suits are strong against some other suits, but no suit is strong against everything. The limited number of cards, the need to have a certain number of lands in play, etc. all factor in to how it balances the different suits.

I am not saying we need "land cards" to play, but rather that it is important to have a similar "limiting factor." The "limiting factor" is central to a balanced game. Spell ammunition and reverse mana are a start, but they aren't the end by themselves. They are just part of the tool to get there.

Fire

types of spells: direct damage, DoT, damage shields, "cleanser" spells (if you get "corrupted" you could use this to "cure" the corruption, but it would take a long time to get rid of it all...if thats even possible)

Water

types of spells: "cleanser", Shields (absoption),

Wood

types of spells:

Iron

types of spells: Absorption shields, Summon golem/drone, direct damage?, melee damage enhancers.

Wind

-speed boosts, increase powerplant output/efficiency. (this should go one way or the other... neither should stack)

Aethyr (say "ee-thur")

(might consider putting Daemon summons in this totem...at least maybe the gray-faction ones...Black factions should require their own totems.)

"Wind ups"

Look at most anime that deals with heavy combat and you will see the "trope" of the fighters needing to "power up" before letting their attack fly..

This is something I like to call a "wind-up"... and it is more prevalent in anime than most think... look at Saint Seiya, DBZ, or any magical girl show, and you see that the hero needs to power up..

now, most MMOs use a "reset timer" or "cool down" on most nukes to keep them from being casted like a Gatling gun... the harder-hitting the nuke, the longer the reset timer...

but I think its more believable if we had the player "chain-cast" several smaller nukes to momentarily unlock a very large nuke...

with Saint Seiya, Seiya has to "map out" his guardian constellation with his hands before he can use the "meteor first"... in DBZ, Goku has to take some time to focus his power before he can use his "spirit bomb".. Lina Inverse of Slayers has to recite a poem before she can cast "Dragon Slave"...

....and with magical girls..(dont get me started..they are the QUEENS of wind-up moves)

exactly HOW we do this still needs to be mapped out..but lets run with the idea...

(I also think that combine attacks might be interesting too..but lets keep that on the back burner until we can work out the chain-cast method for a single player first before we try to use some kind of chain-casting for grouped team members..)

-Eiji

Note

I took a closer look at the "charge" we saw in Rift... I think they might have the right idea..

Portal Spells

Im beginning to think that any portal "spells" should not check to any totem at all.. (or possibly to the "aethyr" totem)

they should also be one of the simplest to learn spell in the whole game.. so maybe it would only check to the combat computer skill rather than basic hacking.

-Eiji