Quick spellcasting

[JohnWordsworth]

@Petri: Can't wait for the spell casting blog post. On a side note, I'm always slightly disappointed whenever I see your photo on the blog and you don't look exactly like your avatar on the forums :p. Maybe in 10-15 years time you can shave your head and grow a long bushy Grimrock wizard beard?

[petri]

Cons:
1. Cheeky gamers will use this to macro spell casting.
2. Flip-flopping between keyboard and mouse - you would probably need other keyboard controls as well to use this effectively.

3. Doesn't work if multiple spell casting panels are open without introducing the concept of active character to the user interface.

[petri]

@Petri: Can't wait for the spell casting blog post. On a side note, I'm always slightly disappointed whenever I see your photo on the blog and you don't look exactly like your avatar on the forums :p. Maybe in 10-15 years time you can shave your head and grow a long bushy Grimrock wizard beard?

Yeah, I look more and more like my forum avatar when the release date gets closer

[Drakkan]

Just from my view I like the rune system. You have to realize, that even weakest spell for example Fireburst, will damage whole monster group for quite good damage (and not speaking about leveled Fireball) - you never reach such a damage with fighter or rogue.My point is, that "difficulty" to cast a spell is compensated by huge group damage, and diversity of spells you can use. Also I am quite used for runes from many older RPG games. I hope for some slight improvements, which will make rune system just more user friendly or give player/moder more options for more spells.

[Sol_HSA]

Yeah, I look more and more like my forum avatar when the release date gets closer

My offer still stands, if you want me to 'shop you an avatar =)

[Neikun]

I enjoy the rune system a lot too, but would still like a "last spell cast" feature.

[FlashSoul]

I enjoy the rune system a lot too, but would still like a "last spell cast" feature.

I was about to suggest that. It's a good compromise, in my opinion.

[Thau]

A new suggestion to add to the mix...

Allow entry of spell runes through the numpad.

Pros:
1. This allows for quick entry of spell runes.
2. You will get quicker entering similar patterns through muscle memory (unlike when clicking squares on a mouse).
3. Equally, it can be quite tense when tapping very fast as you will make mistakes.
4. It maps the way I like to remember spell patterns (as a sequence of numbers).

Cons:
1. Cheeky gamers will use this to macro spell casting.
2. Flip-flopping between keyboard and mouse - you would probably need other keyboard controls as well to use this effectively.

Sure, clever gamers that macro spells will get the 'quick casting' system they always wanted. But as it would be a bit of effort for them to use, to me it wouldn't feel like cheating or something I *should* be using as it's a game option. However, it would allow the gamers that really want quick casting to have a solution.

For me, I think that we should be able to play Grimrock with only Mouse (some timed puzzle are very dificult with mouse) / only Keyboard (can't play that way for now) or both (actual)

For the Keyboard only, I used an external program (Glovepie) to bind key for almost all non-inventory actions,
Glovepie is able to move the mouse very fast and make left/right clicks, my idea was :

For attacks we use one key for each attack of each champion + numpad for spellcast

For any attack, simply press the key (with LoG2 pressing that key a long time for the secondary attack).
If that a spell, you should type your spell with the numpad, then press the same attack button, any other key should mean hidding spellcast interface (So you could type only one spell at a time).

hiding the spellcast interface don't mean clearing the spell, so you could prepare it, and when you want tu use it, simply double tab on the key to show spellcast interface and execute the spell.

Glovepie is limited and it was needed to say who was able to make spell, here I used the Numpad0 key to toggle if that action is a spell or a attack.

For inventory, we can imagine things like for DVD menus, where the cursor should goes on the nearest place on that direction.

Okay I said things not only for spellcasting, but more for full keyboard experience, but as a lot of person, I think that spellcasting would be possible with the numpad.

[FtFF]

Personally, when I started playing LoG, I just bought it without knowing anything about the game.

So, when I started casting spells, I thought there was some sort of easier method to cast, or to "memorize" the runes. I tried all kinds of stuff, like having the scroll in my mage's hands and clicking it etc.

I do like the system, and I even had some fun encounters where I was trying to enchant arrows while dodging ogres, but I wouldn't mind a system where you cast the spell the same way you did before, only that it "memorizes" it until you cast a new spell. It could even be that it just memorizes that one spell till you run out of mana(brain power, you know).

The other way would be to just allow us to input runes with the numpad. I played the whole game with a touchpad and boy, was it hard with longer spells.

[JohnWordsworth]

I know that there is a potential issue to work around...

3. Doesn't work if multiple spell casting panels are open without introducing the concept of active character to the user interface.

But I I don't think this is an insurmountable problem: the Num Pad could just work for the 'last opened' casting panel, and then work back through the stack as you hit 'Num Pad Enter' to cast the spell.

At the end of the day, I'm still in the camp of thought that supporting more than one type of input is of benefit to the players. It's never going to harm the primary 'mouse and WASD' input scheme but by allowing gamers who are stuck with a touch-pad to use keyboard commands to attack and cast spells you're giving them more choice and allowing them improve their game experience.