PART OF MY EXPERIMENTATION WITH IDEAS FOR INTERESTING MAGIC SYSTEMS

Took a break from working on the magic crafting system/UI to quickly prototype this idea my friend DrMelon suggested; Anomalies inspired by S.T.A.L.K.E.R.!

They are procedurally generated; each with a custom visual shader effect and physical buff/debuff effect (a poison debuff in the above video). The closer a player is to the center of the anomaly, the faster the effect is applied to the player and the more intense the visual effects become.

PART OF MY EXPERIMENTATION WITH IDEAS FOR INTERESTING MAGIC SYSTEMS

Aha! It works!

(Left: regen buff applied by spell | Middle: Spell Crafting UI | Right: Debug output of spell reasoning)

I’ve now tested these basic example components with some friends online and can really see the system’s potential coming to life!

However I need to think some more about the layout of the UI if I want to be able to support some more complexity… One idea would be to stick with the foundations of the current design, but make it work recursively to allow as many components as the player wants. I made a quick mockup of this (shown below) but I worry this will also fast become cluttered and unreadable.

(Notice that EYE_TRACE has two possible subcomponents so these split the space and become half size. These pos offsets would all execute one after the other.)

PART OF MY EXPERIMENTATION WITH IDEAS FOR INTERESTING MAGIC SYSTEMS

I made some quick mockups of a few different ideas I have for the way the crafting UI should look/how players interact with it.

Attempt 1, Spaghetti:

In my first attempt my thoughts were focused on the pure freedom I want to incorporate, which led to this really open but potentially really confusing/cluttered design.  While I like the idea of bigger spells having a convoluted/spaghetti feel to them, this isn’t inline with my desire for the player to be able to read/adapt their spells at a glance during fast-paced gameplay.

Attempt 2, Ordered Recipe Grid:

This more grid-based design solves these issues well I feel! Now it’s really obvious what components a spell can support, and it makes swapping things in/out as simple as dragging&dropping. Can’t wait to implement it and get a real feel for the possibilities of this system!

Part of my experimentation with ideas for interesting magic systems

Something I always want out of magic systems is true spell crafting, whether its premeditated and UI based like in The Elder Scrolls, or done on-the-fly as in Magicka. In this experiment I’m trying to find a happy middle ground between the two; one that supports the depth and possibilities of a more complex system while still allowing players to adapt as they play & avoid spending too much time ‘stuck’ in the UI.

Here’s an example of how this spell is expressed in code:

[cc lang=”lua”]
local comp = {
Name = “HEAL”,
Type = “SPELL”,
Cost = 100,
Invoke = function( self, ply )
print( “Try invoke HEAL” )
local trigger = self.SubComponents[“Trigger”].Value
local invoke = function()
local ent = MM_InvokeComponent( ply, self.SubComponents[“Patient”].Value )
ent:AddBuff( 4 )
MM_Net_Invoke( ent, self.Name .. ” ” .. ent:Nick() .. ” because ” .. trigger )
end
MM_InvokeComponent( ply, trigger, { invoke } )
end,
SubComponents = {
— Ent to heal
[“Patient”] =
{
Type = “TARGET”,
RequiredType = “Entity”,
Value = “TARGET_SELF”,
},
— Trigger
[“Trigger”] =
{
Type = “TRIGGER”,
RequiredType = “Number”,
Value = “TRIGGER_HURT”,
— Value = { “TRIGGER_TIME”, 0 },
},
},
}
MM_AddComponent( comp )
[/cc]
Each SubComponent here will eventually be switchable in-game using a node based UI.

One idea for the possible gameplay is that players start with no knowledge but can find these components littered around the map; each one opening up new possibilities for spell combos.

Part of my experimentation with ideas for interesting magic systems

In this system mana, the resource consumed when casting spells, must be drawn from a physical location in the world.  Each player has a variable reach around themselves within which they can draw in mana.

(Player’s view. The dashed circle represents their reach. Notice that the inside is dark as mana has been drained from this area)

The idea here was to create a tactical element to gathering mana, which should force players to move around more as they deplete all sources in their area.

To achieve this in Garry’s Mod I used a 2d array representing positions on the map (no verticality). Whenever the array is altered, each client is notified to update their mana render texture (a top down view of the map with black squares where mana has been consumed). This texture is then used to project light onto the map from above, leading to the effect pictured.

(An aerial view of the map. Black areas are void of mana, having been consumed by a player)

PART OF MY EXPERIMENTATION WITH IDEAS FOR INTERESTING MAGIC SYSTEMS

Inspired by classics such as Arx Fatalis and Black & White, I wanted to create a magic system involving drawing.

(Tracing a simple rune, linked to making the player fly forward. In this case the rune’s design is (East:1,North:1,East:1)

The rune detection simplifies any drawn shape in to a list of 2D vectors – each rounded to one of 8 compass directions. These are then checked against all defined rune shapes and accepted within certain thresholds. Runes themselves are defined with an ordered list of compass directions and their corresponding distances (Direction:Distance).

Future Note: I went on to use this system in my virtual reality magic prototype VR! Photies