So I’ve had this idea brewing in my head for a while, mainly because of the fact that World of Magic’s customization feels… rather… flat.
My spells don’t honestly feel like my own, because all I really do is pick a few options and move a few sliders, so, here’s my suggestion.
This suggestion is pulled from a game I’ve had in my library for a while now, called Beat Hazard.
In Beat Hazard, there was a system where you could build ships with different stats, with a fairly simple (in my opinion) system that I think could apply here in AO pretty easily.
How it works in Beat Hazard
In Beat Hazard, when making a ship, you get a set of stat points based on what rank you make the ship at.
You can tune each of the ship’s stats (Size, Speed, Damage, Projectile Speed), lowering a stat will give you points that you can put into a different stat.
Certain stats are just there for visual flare or misc. customization (stuff like flares or shot angles) and don’t affect your points at all.
Certain stats would cost more points then others, raising damage is more costly then raising projectile speed, for example.
The Basics
Introducing the System
To make it friendlier to new players, players should unlock extra stat options as they level up, unlocking everything that isn’t Damage and Size at levels higher then it takes to learn the spell.
The Basics
Every spell in this system would have a set amount of spell points, determined by the spell’s current tier, possibly 1-2 extra points per tier.
You would be able to adjust each stat on a spell, reducing or increasing stats up to a limit.
Reducing stats would give you 1 point, increasing stats would cost 1 point.
Each stat on a spell should have different intervals that they change at, so that some stats like damage don’t get insane.
Ultimate arts for spell could be a free option, that increases your available spell points for that spell by 25-50%, and maybe raise the caps on spell stats for more variety.
Other, less numbery options would be check-boxes that cost more then 1 point to activate, depending on the option itself.
Blast Customization
Blasts
For blast spells, they should just have Amount, Damage, Size, Speed, Cost, and Casting stats.
Projectile Size should be a free stat, in the event that some attacks get TOO big.
- Amount could maybe scale by 1 blast every 1-2 spell points, might lead to issues like the dreaded triple blast.
- Damage should scale in intervals of 0.02x, to keep it close to the original scaling (3% per size reduction), but lowered so that it doesn’t get too insane when you add more points in.
- Size should scale in intervals of 0.1x, to keep it consistent with the original scaling.
- Speed could scale in intervals of 0.05x to 0.2x, would be a new option, not sure how it’d balance, but make sure that it feels like a sacrifice when you lower it.
- Cost could scale in intervals of 0.05x to 0.2x, cost might interval more for blasts, since they’re already so cheap.
- Casting could scale in intervals of 0.05x to 0.2x, should probably hit the duration of multi-blasts more
Explosion Customization
Explosions
For explosion spells, they could have Amount, Damage, Size, Duration, Cost, and Casting stats.
The Placed Explosion option would probably be extremely costly, maybe around 10-15 points or so so that people have to take down stats for the bonuses
Explosion shape would probably be a cost-free option, since Shockwave and Sphere are similar, and Pillar already has a drawback.
- Amount for explosions would probably just gain 1 explosion per spell point, maybe 2 if it feels like high amount or high duration feels too strong in combination.
- Damage should probably scale in intervals of 0.03x, to keep it similar to how it scaled in the original.
- Size should scale in intervals of 0.1x, in order to keep it consistent with the original.
- Duration would be an all new stat that starts at 0.1 seconds and intervals by 0.1 seconds, this stat would affect how long the explosion would be able to linger and clash.
- Cost could probably scale in intervals of 0.05x to 0.2x, new option, not sure how it’d balance, would need a bit of experimenting.
- Casting could probably scale in intervals of 0.05x to 0.2x
Beam Customization
Beams
Beams spells could have Amount, Damage, Size, Range, Cost, and Casting stats.
- Amount for beams could scale by 1 blast every 1-2 spell points. We don’t have this option yet so I can’t really say if it’s good or not yet.
- Damage should probably scale in intervals of 0.02x, to keep it similar to the original scaling.
- Size should scale in intervals of 0.1x, for consistency.
- Range would be a new stat that affects how far a beam travels, should probably scale in intervals of 0.1x to 0.25x, setting it low would mean people just reduce a tiny bit of range for free stats
- Cost could scale in intervals of 0.05x to 0.2x, again, not sure how it’d balance.
- Casting could scale in intervals of 0.05x to 0.2x
Magic Jump Customization
Magic Jumps
Magic Jumps would probably have to have a few stats made, as they’re pretty simple. They could have Power, Cost, and Speed stats.
There would probably have to be a few options, like turning the jump into a dash, having it aim towards the mouse, other such stuff.
- Power could probably start at 1.0x, and interval in 0.1x, 1.0x would probably be similar to the old 50%.
- Cost could scale like usual, in intervals of 0.1x
- Speed would be a new stat that determines how fast a Magic Jump moves you, would probably interval in 0.1x-0.2x
Overview
Overview
So, that’s about it for my suggestion, some might say that it’s too complex or too hard to get used to, I somewhat agree, it’s not as simple as sliders, but I feel like it’d be able to atleast deepen the whole system of spell customization.
There’s probably also balancing issues, worries about what happens when a spell combination is meta or something, I’m not really too sure how to react to that though, I just want spells to feel more… creative.
Thanks for reading my suggestions, if you’ve got any points to bring up or issues that you have, feedback would be nice.
Kudos to @Inferno for helping me organize this mess.
Also Kudos to @Fluect for reminding me about some numbery stuff.