Suggestion: caster interface improvement

[Darklord]

I quite like the cast from scroll idea, you'd need a delay of course.

EDIT: I meant Cooldown.

Daniel.

[Thels]

*sigh....* Here is a suggestion... If Playing a run of mostly mages is too hard and complicated for you, then why play it? and if you choose to play it anyways, you don't have the right to complain! I too have done a test run of 4 mages, 2 Ice, 1 Fire, and 1 Air, and even on Hard, it was easier than playing with a balanced party on Normal! Mainly cause when I played on Normal I was still new to the game and didn't know how to side step and abuse the enemies, but still.

If for some strange reason you got the impression i was complaining about playing mages being "hard" you need to re-read my post.

I have no problem with any kind of "hard" play. Actually i would like to see game difficulty being ramped upward, regarding monster speed/life/damage. Even a new hardcore option like disabling character revival entirely at life crystals is welcome. As long as the controls work great you can throw anything at me and right now caster controls are not as good as they could be.

Anyways: You can cue up attacks before battle, you know how the area is around you and can easily move around the enemies, there is almost always a place where you can force the enemies to fight you one on one and can abuse poor AI tactics. Also, the biggest thing, when magic hits the enemy it ALWAYS hits, it can't 'miss' like fighter's and rogue's attacks can. There is nothing to improve, except your skills. The game system is fine as is.

Was i talking about the game system? No.

I'm talking about controls and currently there is room for improvements, especialy regarding the casters. Just grab old Dungeon Master and compare it's caster interface with LoG's. You'll notice casting spells in DM is done faster then in LoG although the number of clicks needed is at least the same if not higher because the interface is a 1x6 grid instead of a 3x3.

I think you're missing the point. The controls are part of what the mage class is supposed to be. Of course they could make it easier. Heck, they could just give you an I-WIN button at the very start of the game, to make controls easier. All you'd have to do is pick up the object, and right-click it.

Mages are very powerful, but their downside is indeed that you need to make several clicks to get a spell off, several clicks during which you're not paying attention to your melee characters. This is intentional!

[Thels]

I quite like the cast from scroll idea, you'd need a delay of course.

Daniel.

I don't think a delay is needed. That would make the entire purpose of the scroll pointless. Not being able to do anything else with that hand, and not gaining the benefits of the staff/orb you could've held in that hand is quite a trade-off.

[Darklord]

I don't think a delay is needed. That would make the entire purpose of the scroll pointless. Not being able to do anything else with that hand, and not gaining the benefits of the staff/orb you could've held in that hand is quite a trade-off.

Without a delay you could just click it 10 times in a second or two and insta kill anything. I can see people using it for the convenience even if it does result in slightly less power due to the hand being used up.

Daniel.

[Dr.Disaster]

*sigh....* Here is a suggestion... If Playing a run of mostly mages is too hard and complicated for you, then why play it? and if you choose to play it anyways, you don't have the right to complain! I too have done a test run of 4 mages, 2 Ice, 1 Fire, and 1 Air, and even on Hard, it was easier than playing with a balanced party on Normal! Mainly cause when I played on Normal I was still new to the game and didn't know how to side step and abuse the enemies, but still.

If for some strange reason you got the impression i was complaining about playing mages being "hard" you need to re-read my post.

I have no problem with any kind of "hard" play. Actually i would like to see game difficulty being ramped upward, regarding monster speed/life/damage. Even a new hardcore option like disabling character revival entirely at life crystals is welcome. As long as the controls work great you can throw anything at me and right now caster controls are not as good as they could be.

Anyways: You can cue up attacks before battle, you know how the area is around you and can easily move around the enemies, there is almost always a place where you can force the enemies to fight you one on one and can abuse poor AI tactics. Also, the biggest thing, when magic hits the enemy it ALWAYS hits, it can't 'miss' like fighter's and rogue's attacks can. There is nothing to improve, except your skills. The game system is fine as is.

Was i talking about the game system? No.

I'm talking about controls and currently there is room for improvements, especialy regarding the casters. Just grab old Dungeon Master and compare it's caster interface with LoG's. You'll notice casting spells in DM is done faster then in LoG although the number of clicks needed is at least the same if not higher because the interface is a 1x6 grid instead of a 3x3.

I think you're missing the point. The controls are part of what the mage class is supposed to be. Of course they could make it easier. Heck, they could just give you an I-WIN button at the very start of the game, to make controls easier. All you'd have to do is pick up the object, and right-click it.

Naah that's as lame as an "All Attack" button *shivers*

Mages are very powerful, but their downside is indeed that you need to make several clicks to get a spell off, several clicks during which you're not paying attention to your melee characters. This is intentional!

I'm not against the need to do several clicks to get a spell off. Even with my suggestion you would have to click twice: 1 right-click to open caster interface + 1 click to launch the pre-recorded (->cued up) spell.

Ok, see it from another point of view.

Every action in LoG has a cooldown. To cast a second spell of any kind with your mage you have to wait for the cooldown to pass by before you can open the caster interface again and re-select runes. That feel's like a second cooldown. Now we can't remove the action cooldown since it would seriously impact the skill trees so all we can work on is the interface.

[Thels]

I don't think a delay is needed. That would make the entire purpose of the scroll pointless. Not being able to do anything else with that hand, and not gaining the benefits of the staff/orb you could've held in that hand is quite a trade-off.

Without a delay you could just click it 10 times in a second or two and insta kill anything. I can see people using it for the convenience even if it does result in slightly less power due to the hand being used up.

Daniel.

Well, it would of course have the same cooldown as when you'd cast the spell as normal. When you use the scroll, it would fire the spell instantly, but then your hands would be grayed out for a few seconds, before you can cast the spell again.



Delay: Time between you issuing the command, and the command actually being performed.

Cooldown: Time between the command being performed, and the next time you can issue the command.

[Darklord]

Ah yes by that terminology I was indeed talking about a Cooldown.

Daniel.

[Dr.Disaster]

I quite like the cast from scroll idea, you'd need a delay of course.

Daniel.

Every action in LoG already has a cooldown so that's of no concern.

One more thought just came to me regarding the possibility to cast a spell straight from a scroll. How about (instead of "right-click scroll -> spell get's cast") right-clicking the spell scroll opens the caster interface and automatically pre-selects all runes needed to cast that spell?

[Darklord]

I meant cooldown. A cooldown is a delay, the delay is the amount of time until you can use it again.

Daniel.

[DoomFire]

One more thought just came to me regarding the possibility to cast a spell straight from a scroll. How about (instead of "right-click scroll -> spell get's cast") right-clicking the spell scroll opens the caster interface and automatically pre-selects all runes needed to cast that spell?

That's another idea.

One that I quite like actually XD and I don't think you would need to add much disadvantages to using the scrolls either, because not being able to use a magic weapon is quite a disadvantage in itself.

Also I had another idea while reading the other conversation. Why not make it so you can still select runes while under cool down? but you are not able to cast the spell until cool down is complete. (maybe even having it as an ability you learn when leveling in spellcraft)
This would mean that the player would still have to select the runes as per usual. but it would mean that the cooldown would not feel like its being doubled when having to select the runes.