Own game

[Earthdog]

I think both of y'alls ideas are great and could be very workable in tandem.Ive said it before: this game should be built on a "tree" type system. Choose one path and it changes the game completely, though it makes making the game itself that much more complicated.

For example: The PC begins the game and after going through all the preliminary stuff comes to the area where he can finally choose his first class. In this case he chooses to become a mage. While in the mage guild he begins learning the art of the mage and spellcasting. Being a mage is more than just casting spells. Its a lifestyle as much as being a knight.

Anyway, He begins to learn basic spells. (I think youll agree that Magic Missile is one of the most basic.) After he learns a couple of spells he would be sent out on a quest for the guild. During his quest he is required to cast the spells he has learned (magic missile, Chromatic Orb ,ect.,) say a minimum of 3 or even 5 times each. He now understands, and is more than a little familiar with, these basic spells. While not a master of casting the spells he is good enough to get by. He goes back to the guild and reports to whoever sent him on the quest. They congradulate him and send him back to his instructors for more spellcasting lessons. After he learns some more, say 2nd level spells, he is then sent out on another quest, this would be repeated all the way up to say 5th level spells where he can then begin to learn more about each school of magic ie. Necromancy. He cant specialise in more than 5 schools of magic so he needs to choose wisely. now part of his quests/instruction is to go to other areas of the game and learn that particular school of magic. Then once he reaches super high levels of mastery he can them become a different class such as fighter.

Another way of mixing the classes is to do as I mentioned above, but there would also be some guild or something at a later stage in the game that would teach him how to mix all of his classes without encumberance.

We know that a mage cant cast spells with plate mail on. In this guild he would learn to do so.

Are yall diggin what Im sayin here??? any input is more than welcome.

Have a Shpadoinkle day

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THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!

[Link]

Jesus!!! This topic is down to page 5!!! Guys!! You gotta help me keep this one up at the first page! It should be noticable for everyone. I can't post a very large topic this time. Promise to do so soon.

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In the foul darkness one figure will emerge to save the world from evil and despair.... Light flashes as his sword comes down, and thunder rolls through the sky when he points his sword up to heaven to signal his victory....People whisper his name as he walks by, evil tries to hide as they sense his presence nearby.... His name? Link......

At eight pages, it might be a bit daunting for the newcommers
Still, every new idea is welcome. We'll keep bumping it.

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The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air as it flew,
and plunged burning into the heart of a great wolf-chieftain.
All the others fled. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

[Haddar - Servant of Talos]

The guilds thing.

An option could be like this. Some guilds in some towns may be allied with another guild, say, a mage guild and a thiefs guild. And in this little symbiosis you may get small quest to do for the thiefs guild, even though you are a mage. Of course, the whole thing with this cooperation is that you may learn basic thieving skills even though you are a magician. And it works the other way around, The thiefs may learn some very basic magic spells, like "Move Silently", or "Magic Pebble", to make some noise in the corner over there so the thief can sneak by unnoticed. You get the point...this should be quite rare, of course, and you will only learn very basic stuff from the other guild. Imagine a mage who learned backstab. He would be too powerful. At least in the beginning when he is just about to be quite proficient with his spellcasting. Invisibility...(A dagger in the back of your head)

[Haddar - Servant of Talos]

And what about the magic? Wouldn't it be good if there was a chance that your spells would fail when you try to cast them? I mean, the more complex the spell, the harder to get it right. A very basic spell is easy to cast for an experienced mage, and thus the "spell failure chance" would be quite small. But basic spells is hard to get right if you are a beginner. Noone is born as a master, you know! As you use your spells, say, the basic "Magic Missile" (easier to use BG spells right now), you will get more proficient with the specific spell you used, in this case Magic Missile, and a little better with all the other spells. Let me explain my thoughts a bit. You get more EXP in Magic Missile the more you use it, because the incantation and gestures gets better and better when you use it, thus minimizing the chance of a spell failure. You gain not as much EXP in the "general magic", since you gain A LITTLE insight in how magic works, but you don't know the gestures and incantations as well as you know the Magic Missile, since you haven't used them as much.

I may be waaay off course just screwing things up, but this is a bit different than Baldurs Gate anyway. And I don't want to see some Baldurs Gate copy in the Magic system.

That's all folks!

Originally posted by Haddar - Servant of Talos: And what about the magic? Wouldn't it be good if there was a chance that your spells would fail when you try to cast them? I mean, the more complex the spell, the harder to get it right. A very basic spell is easy to cast for an experienced mage, and thus the "spell failure chance" would be quite small. But basic spells is hard to get right if you are a beginner. Noone is born as a master, you know!

I agree on this one. Magic is not that easy to use, or we'd all be magi. Depending on the nature of the mage, casting a spell in certain circumstances could vary as well. When everything is peaceful and the mage is going to do a Knock spell or something, he/she will be able to concentrate, whilst in the heat of combat (especially if the mage isn't standing in the back) some spells are cast too quickly and fail, whilst other spells don't do the damage they normally would. Then again, there are those who work well under pressure and those people exell at casting spells in combat.

You could take things even further than that. What if your character's nature depends on the actions you take, not just by saying that those casting more offensive spells become better at offensive magic, but that the way you react to things changes who you are, and thereby how well you preform in certain situations.

An example:
At the start of the game your thief is a bit of an all-rounder. There are no advantages and no disadvantages (or maybe there are) to fighting and stealing in different situations. Then you meet someone who asks you to steal a vase for him from a nobleman in the village. He tells you the house is heavily guarded during the day, but only lightly at night. Go in at daytime, and you'll become better at stealth as normal if you succeed, but you will also be seem as either more daring or more impatient. If (determined at random) you are seen as more daring, you will attract more dangerous quests whilst impatience means you are quick to act and therefore faster, but also more clumsy. Steal at night and it's a choice between being careful and protecting your own skin. There are less guards, so the theft is easier, so the long term reward for taking risks (more offers) goes past you on this occasion. Still, you seem to be able to bide your time and strike at the right moment, thereby increasing your chances to hit someone in combat.

It doesn't even have to be difficult to include such a thing in the game. Make a table of personality and advantages/disadvantages, and give each way you do the quest a number of points in the same way as you would for experience. Then you can move one or two spaces up or down the table if you've collected enough Personality Points (using positive and negative scores).
You could also include a modifier depending on your guild(s). After all, fighters are mostly combat orientated and are trained to do well there, whilst a thief is meant to do his things as stealthy as possible, keeping everything quiet.

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The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air as it flew,
and plunged burning into the heart of a great wolf-chieftain.
All the others fled. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Right. Bumping as promised

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The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air as it flew,
and plunged burning into the heart of a great wolf-chieftain.
All the others fled. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

[Link]

Thanks guys. I hope you all understand that i can't be online forever, and therefore can't bump or post new things on this topic. I try though, and i hope that's good enough for you. I'm still very open for new ideas and stuff like that, comments are always welcome here.

OK. Now for some replying. I quite agree with the things Haddar said. I think he's right about becoming to powerful. I have to think about something to stop a gamer from becoming AND a powerful fighter, AND a powerful mage, AND a powerful thief.. etc. It might have something to do with your spell casting ability being disrupted by your fighting skills or something like that. Any ideas on this one are most welcome.

Still working on the quests on page 5. There working out ok. I'm planning to put them in a certain order; creating the route you'll have to follow throughout the Halfworld. That may take me a while. I'm also trying to locate a way to put all my drawing and stuff online. Keep ya informed about that.

Thanks again!!!

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In the foul darkness one figure will emerge to save the world from evil and despair.... Light flashes as his sword comes down, and thunder rolls through the sky when he points his sword up to heaven to signal his victory....People whisper his name as he walks by, evil tries to hide as they sense his presence nearby.... His name? Link......

[Altranan]

**bump**

Also, I think that, once you have chosen your major class, it should be possible to try out other skills. So, like in BG2 where you lose your main class skills until your new class over takes it, you could try and say be a thief, but every time you level up, you have the option to revert to single class again. So that, you don't have to waste more XP on a class you don't particularly like anymore, of course this is weighed up, on the other hand by XP you may have already invested.

[Earthdog]

Yep, Link, I agree. One shouldnt be able to become too powerful in all classes. I think what the PC chose as his first class should be his most powerful, and he class he chooses as his last should be his weakest.

The spellcasting should be done as mentioned above. More practice with one spell gets him better at it. Also, since it takes longer to cast highher level spells, perhaps the mage could have a last word spell. Meaning that hes already cast his spell---- all but the last word. Once spoken the spell goes off. Of coure there would be a negative to this as well. Like the mage cant engage in conversation or heaps of other things except maybe walk or sit on his horse. people would even have to open doors for him.

I think something that was left out of the BG2 that was in the AD&D rules was the rules on marching order. If there are 6 poeple standing of front of the door and they opened the door to find a Medusa the entire party should be turned to stone if the Medusa were right in front of the door when the party opened it. I mean in reality everyone would look right?? So if there were one person on either side of the door and they saw the others turned to stone theyd run for their lives. Something to keep in mind anyway.

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THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!