I've had this idea in my head for a little while, which is stolen from the game
Magicka.
In Magicka you can combine elements in a "casting pool" before releasing the spell. For instance. You need one earth element and one fire element to cast a fireball.
Here's a video showing the spell system:
http://youtu.be/F-Ght6YDytE?t=46sI want to do something like this for a caster class I'm having vague ideas about. I'm imagining this could be done using stats for counting elements in the pool. Let's say in this mod you need one Fire element (one fire dot) and one Poison element (one poison dot) to cast a Fireball. And three Fire dots to make a Cone of Fire.
It could be limited to max four elements in the pool, which is plenty for making up a bunch of combinations for spells.
Fire + Poison = Fireball
Fire x2 = Flame Aura
Ice + Lightning = Forcefield
Poison x2 + Ice = A cool spell
Fire + Ice+ Lightning + Poison = Very cool spell
Etc, etc.
So would this be possible to do? Any thoughts around this?
Sure, Wolven. You can do this. It'll be complex, but possible.
How I would do it is this:
Give the character 5 active abilities that they can see. 1) is Cast Spell which will unleash whatever spell you've created. 2-5) are Add Fire/Ice/Lit/Poison.
So, you cast 'Add Fire', then cast 'Add Poison', then cast 'Cast Spell' to unleash your fireball.
'Add Fire' (and the other elements) will just have a visual fx and add a stat. You should hook the 4 elemental stats to your UI somehow to show the current elements you have mixing.
'Cast Spell' is going to be what's complicated.
It will essentially just be one EVENT_TRIGGER plus a STAT_WATCHER for each and every spell possibility you want for the class. Plus, one EVENT_TRIGGER for every other possible combination that results in a fizzled spell (or not, you could just have it do nothing so the player doesn't waste their elemental points).
Now, here's where you need to decide something important. Can the player invest skill points in individual spells like Fireball, Cone of Fire, etc?
If no, then all you need to do is have your 'Cast Spell' ability cast the appropriate spell. If Yes, then...
Two things. First, you need skills players can invest points into to increase the power of their, say, 'Fireball'. These will actually be passive abilities and not the actual skill that gets cast when they hit 'Cast Spell'. The passive skills will just increment a stat, 'fireball_level'.
You now need to have 'Cast Spell' execute an intermediary spell, say, 'Fireball Level Check'.
'Fireball Level Check' has 15 EVENT_TRIGGERs each with its own STAT_WATCHER which checks the player's 'fireball_level' stat so that it executes only the appropriate level of 'Fireball'.
So, a lot of work, but easy enough.
Of course, it would be at this point that I strongly suggest ditching the skill investment model that vanilla TL2 gives us. I think it sucks. I think we should move to a single-level active skill model a la WoW or Path of Exile.
Thank you very much for laying it out.
I really don't have any grand idea of what to do with such a spell system. I was mostly curious if it could be done. It could be used in TLA as an additional class or even a separate game mode, where everyone as to play that caster class. Or perhaps a standard TL2 class for questing.
In Magicka you can cast the combos in three ways I think, on enemies, on your self and on your weapons. (Or so I think. I've only played the game a few minutes). So it would be cool to have this mod have a similar system. So you could enchant your weapon with fire, or cast the fireball on the enemy, or on your self, which could damage you, or perhaps give you a buff like Flame Aura.
So many ideas, so little time.