Spellweaving
From WikiAOC
In Age of Conan we wanted the magic to reflect the world in which the game is based. Dealing with the arcane arts and siphoning the power of ancient gods is not something to be taken lightly. Just like our melee system, our magic system will also call upon the skills of the player. The player learning to balance their lust for powerful affects with the dangers that calling upon such extraordinary magic incurs.
There will of course be a number of simple and straightforward spells that casters can call upon, as you would see in other games. These though are merely the common incantations and curses that every young acolyte is taught, mere parlor tricks compared to what is possible with the magic in Age of Conan! Whilst useful in and of themselves the basic spells are merely the prelude to the true power that can be channeled – channeled through the art of spellweaving.
Our spellweaving system calls upon the caster to effectively weave an intricate series of incantations and spells into one final spell that can be unleashed to smite their enemies or aid their allies. It could be as short as weaving two simple spells together to boost their effect through to the fine art of combining up to twenty spells into a devastating blend of mystical power.
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[edit] So how does it work?
| This info will likely change before release. See the update below. |
The player will start the spellweave by activating their spellweave ability. This places them in a trance-like state where they cannot move and the only actions they are allowed to perform is adding more components to the weave.
Once in the spellweave the player can add as many spells into the weave as they can manage or want to. The maximum number of spells that can be called into a weave is dependent on the players level.
Then once the elements are all added they can end the weave by deactivating the ability and the weave will fire off at its target as the caster leaves the trance and is free to move around again.
The spellweaving system allows for some truly awe-inspiring effects to be invoked. This allows the caster to tailor a specific incantation best suited to their current target. Whether it is combining debuffs or enhancing your damage, or even a combination of the two - the spellweaving system will allow casters to adapt their strategies to the situation at hand!
The depth of the system lies in figuring out the best combinations for the weaves and how best to avoid the darker side of Hyborian magic, because spellweaving does not come without risk!
[edit] Dark and Dangerous: Ill-effects and Soul Corruption
Using the ancient magics of the gods is far from a trivial matter, and spellweaving opens up the caster to the dangerous elements that dabbling in such arcane arts invariably attracts.
Spellweaving is almost a balancing act. How much power can you summon forth without incurring some ancient curse or other mysterious ailment?
When a caster performs a spellweave there is a chance that they will suffer ill-effects from the process.
The risk of this depends on how powerful a weave they are performing based upon the power of the spells they are trying to combine and their level. Stray too far beyond what you are capable of and you will run the risk of incurring one of these side-effects!
The weave is not an exact science and even the mana cost of the weave will vary from that of its base components and whilst the system even allows for a caster to use more mana then they have, a heavy price might be paid for delving too deeply beyond those magical reserves.
The other element to spellweaving is a characters magical burden, every time a weave is performed they incur a magical burden, a debt as it were that weighs upon them. If too many weaves are attempted consecutively, or they attempt a weave that pushes their limits the burden will increase their chances of incurring ill-effects on the next weave. This burden naturally decays when a caster is not in a spellweave.
- See also: Soul Corruption
[edit] Developing Magic
We really think that the spellweaving system will provide players with a unique system that allows for a wonderfully diverse set of tactics to be used. We wanted to go beyond the standard ‘choose the right spell’ or ‘rock, paper, scissor’ approach to spell casting. At the same time we also wanted to create something that is truly in keeping with the style of magic portrayed by Robert E Howard where magic was dark, dangerous and an art many tried but few mastered!
We hope that with this system players will really be able to tread that dark line between the quest for power and the risk of insanity or worse!
[edit] Update on Spellweaving: 2008
Q: We haven't heard much about spellweaving for a while. How is that coming along and can you tell us a bit about it?
Terje Lundberg: We still have a spellweaving as part of the plan for release. We've revamped it some to make it more simple and familiar. It still will be a big part of the magic system. We have the first test phase running upstairs already, but it still has not reached beta.
The way it will work is a special sequence where you cast spells and when that sequence is fulfilled you get a big option of doing something really heavy or nasty, with effects that might have on your character as a big risk involved pending on your character.
Q: Soul corruption?
Terje: Soul corruption is still something that we're thinking about - kind of different, hard to explain.
Evan: There will be many various negatives. As we talked in some of the various dev diaries before, and one of the examples was potentially killing yourself. That is definitely on the table for the more dramatic spellweaves - the big ones with the very large effects. They will possibly kill the caster if they're not careful.
Q: Sending yourself to hell? Is that still in the works?
Gaute: That was one of the things we saw people not responding to favorably to - when they got put to hell during a raid. Yeah, it's a cool idea and people will be all "Yeah, that rocks," but then they're like "that sucks!" So I don't expect that.
Q: So a bit more practical?
Gaute: Yeah. More practical, more down to earth, but still extremely deadly. I would say more for the caster than for the recipient.
