Grimrock

Another good design choice is the Insectoid-Race. They get this 'Chitin-Exoskeleton' racial trait. They are the first line Battlemages of LoG...

Just wanna go ahead and add to this discussion by saying that I think magic in this game is NOT cumbersome. The rune casting system is great.

HOWEVER on a high rez (1920x1080) I am staring at a very small patch of screen to select these runes. There could be a better way. I don't know.

I think the Grimrock Magic System is fine as it is

doing some of the suggestions here would make the game too easy

I like the way it is done. And you can always move around a little, back and forth , or backwards if possible. This allows time to enter a spell without being attacked.

The spell sytem adds a lot of strategy..if it was one click. You could just stand there toe to toe and fire off attacks in quick succession. Now you need to attack and move.

As someone who played all the originals of this style of game there's a reason this stuff was changed. Just because it's old school doesn't make it better or even good. There's a reason things evolve and change. I'm all for a challenge, but needless repetition is aggravating and boring. At the very least they could change it so that the current style of casting is part of old school mode and easier casting is for the regular modes.

Or, you could also just search for yourself some other stuff to play with...








...preferable something, that is toxic.

Omitting hotkeys creates an ergonomic challenge, not a tactical challenge. Do you think if you removed all the hotkeys from Starcraft and had to press the icons manually it would require more thinking? Good mechanics should test your mind, not give you arthritis. The game gives you incentive to fire off attacks as quickly as they are available but instead of limiting your speed with in-game resources like stamina or refresh periods the attacks just require a great deal of mousing that wears out the wrist.

There are games that legitimately force you to split your attention between resource management, combat, and movement, but that is not what is happening here IMO. It is always best to attack as soon as the icon lights up, it just hurts my hands to do so. There are dozens of better ways you could stop people from spamming abilities. You could force the party to stop for a period of time after casting a spell or tie various other statistical or mechanical penalties to casting spells. You could make mana only rechargeable by consumable items so you have to choose when to cast very carefully or spell costs could be increased. Physical fighters could be given stamina bars that cause their defense and offense to be lowered if they fire off abilities too rapidly.

If I sound too harsh I apologize. The devs have done a great job and I love the game, I just think they went the wrong way on the interface by imposing real life physical inconvenience on attacking instead of in-game consequences.

The biggest problem I have with the magic system is it doesn't respect the rules the game has established for the user interface.

Why is there a on-screen cast button at all and why does BOTH left and right mouse buttons select runes?

I can't count the number of times I've accidentally clicked extra runes trying to reach the cast button in a hurry.

Right mouse button needs to NOT add or remove runes, and just cast the runes I've highlighted. Everywhere else in the UI, right mouse button is for doing, left is for selecting... but not in the magic window.


Suddenly I don't need to rush to the silly cast button and mess up a sequence. I key in my spell and press the right mouse button to cast... just like everywhere else.

stirfry wrote:Omitting hotkeys creates an ergonomic challenge, not a tactical challenge. Do you think if you removed all the hotkeys from Starcraft and had to press the icons manually it would require more thinking? Good mechanics should test your mind, not give you arthritis. The game gives you incentive to fire off attacks as quickly as they are available but instead of limiting your speed with in-game resources like stamina or refresh periods the attacks just require a great deal of mousing that wears out the wrist.

There are games that legitimately force you to split your attention between resource management, combat, and movement, but that is not what is happening here IMO. It is always best to attack as soon as the icon lights up, it just hurts my hands to do so. There are dozens of better ways you could stop people from spamming abilities. You could force the party to stop for a period of time after casting a spell or tie various other statistical or mechanical penalties to casting spells. You could make mana only rechargeable by consumable items so you have to choose when to cast very carefully or spell costs could be increased. Physical fighters could be given stamina bars that cause their defense and offense to be lowered if they fire off abilities too rapidly.

If I sound too harsh I apologize. The devs have done a great job and I love the game, I just think they went the wrong way on the interface by imposing real life physical inconvenience on attacking instead of in-game consequences.

Um... you do lose energy as you attack, and the icons light up at different times based on the speeds of the weapons, those are the refresh periods

Yes there is a speed attribute associated with the weapons that determines how often they can hit ( cool-down ).