Quick spellcasting

[uggardian]

But of course, the spell casting buttons should be rebindable. Some people might want to move with numpad. I remember playing Lands of Lore with numpad, so using those same controls in Log2 would be kinda nostalgic...

[Frenchie]

You could add a group attack button in the middle, that just repeats the last fight actions. Saves me from getting RSI

[Boeroer]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, just finished the registration - so please forgive me if I'm beating a dead horse.
I just wanted to say this:

I played LoG a lot. I think I walked through at least 8 times with different types of party constellations.
The thing is: I never used a mage except in my first run. I really like rune based systems but this clickfest was way to tricky and to slow (I was strafing a lot while fighting). I only casted a detructive spell at the beginning of combat and that was it - after that I just skipped the mage till the enemy was dead. The only thing the mage was really good for (since he could'nt conjure livestock or heal sombody with his magic - which would have made him more valuable for me) was to provide light with this special orb (or by casting "light").
Since I was moving a lot while fighting, even the freezing-effect was not so overwhelmingly important since I seldomly got hit. What I found out later was that a minotaur archer or thrower with max. attack power was way better in terms of destruction and handling - especially when "volley" and "quickshot" were reached. The easiest runs for me were when I was using two melee chars in the front row (didn't really matter if fighter or rogue, though I liked 1 sword + 1 dagger) and two long-rangers in the back (1 bow + 1 crossbow). I tried mages from time to time (especially after finding all the wands and orbs in previous runs) but always canceled because playing them was a pain in the... proverbial.

So either mages should get some more "nice to have"-features like healing or providing food (or slowing food consumption) or having more buffs or defense-spells like shield or whatever - or they should get a casting-system that is quicker and/or less tricky. It's ok for me if the cooldown of a spell is long or if the spell needs some sort of "charging" (since you're planning something like that with your secondary attacks anyway).

Ok, just my two cents...

[EDIT: typos]

[Boeroer]

Replying to my own posting, sorry for that.

It just came to my mind that there is another option how to improve the spellcasting for combat while not touching the rune based spellsystem.
In LoG1, mages were able to enchant arrows/bolts with elemental effects and there were enchanted weapons that could fire spells.

You could just go one step further and combine that:

Alternative 1 "charges": make it possible to "fill" mage-only-items like wands or orbs with a spell so that they get charges like the flaming sword or the poison dagger from LoG1.
An attack with that wand releases the stored spell. This makes spellcasting quicker but limits you to one "active" spell (or two, if you have an enchantet wand/orb in each hand).
For example the player could find a "fiery wand" which you can only enchant using firespells. You would then cast the spells "into" the wand. That would cost you some energy. But when releasing the spells it would'nt cost anything at all (time maybe).

The altenative 2 "matrix" would be that you don't "recharge" wands/orbs but merely carve a "spell matrix" into them so that when you channel your energy through them the spell would be automatically released. The item is using your energy to cast the spell then. In this case every use of the wand/orb would cost you the same (or slightly more?) energy as if you had casted it traditionally, but you are much quicker.

You could also implement that behavior (releasing a stored spell) as secondary attack of the wand/orb.
Normal action: cast a spell with the rune system the traditional way - secondary action: release the stored spell (Alt. 1 "charges") / channel your energy through the wand (Alt. 2 "matrix").
I don't recommend using both alternatives in one game.

It's kind of a workaround but I think it's quite effective and also easy to implement without altering the basic spellcasting mechanics.

[petri]

Hi! We have already made some changes to the magic system but we haven't found time to write a blog post about it yet! Stay tuned!

[Boeroer]

Nooo - all the typing - for nothing!

[budweiser]

Hi! We have already made some changes to the magic system but we haven't found time to write a blog post about it yet! Stay tuned!

Thank you very much, and I hope you have found a good solution If you implement something functional that isnt too complex (buttom frustration), I am sure a lot of ppl will enjoy it

[Gorny1]

Hi! We have already made some changes to the magic system but we haven't found time to write a blog post about it yet! Stay tuned!

That's really good to know. I would've loved to play with a mage in LoG, but it was quite repelling how it was implemented.

[Asteroth]

Hi! We have already made some changes to the magic system but we haven't found time to write a blog post about it yet! Stay tuned!

That's really good to know. I would've loved to play with a mage in LoG, but it was quite repelling how it was implemented.

Way to go. "Quite repelling" Not the most polite criticism. Lucky I'm not a game designer....

[Boeroer]

You shouldn't weigh his words. It's difficult to get all the subleties right when you're not using your mother tongue.