[MUD-Dev] Striving for originality

[Edward Glowacki]

On Thu, 2002-06-06 at 18:13, John Bertoglio wrote:

> Limiting power interesting notion. A constraint/feature I have
> never hear used is the idea of a mana pool based on location.
> Most systems create a situation where spell casting power is based
> a mana supply controlled by an individual persona.  Typically,
> this supply increases with level creating part of the balance
> problems mentioned above. A way to constrain the power of magic
> would be to assign a base value to a zone based on terrain, time
> of day, phases of the moon or any other combination factors. Since
> I believe that even a fantasy world should have reasonable (if
> fantastic) physics, this would allow for the concept that mana
> conversion has a reasonable basis and is not infinite. Couple this
> with a model that increase the risk to the party with the level of
> the magic and you could strike a better balance. Once the mana was
> depleted in a region, mana based magic would not work.

I have actually envisioned something akin to this for my own
yet-to-be-designed-or-built game, with the exception that characters
still have a reserve of mana available to use when the mana in an
area is sparse.  This reserve would vary in size between characters,
and could be increased with character points, practice time, or
whatever your skill currency is.  Do you learn another fire spell,
or do you increase the size of your reserve so you can go longer in
mana-poor areas?

> This method would create a lot of interesting tactical
> possibilities. A standard "Magic Missile" spell with its limited
> damage would be very reliable. A powerful spell would deplete the
> area mana rapidly and suddenly leave the mages without a role. At
> first glance, it would seem to be a good idea for a magic-weak
> party to cast powerful spells to deprive the opponents of mana
> power. However, the risk of a low level magic user trying this
> would be very high.

I was thinking more along the lines of low mana areas simply taking
a lot longer to regenerate your mana, but the mana in an area
wouldn't be depleted by the action.  The actual removal of mana from
the environment would make the dynamics of the game significantly
different, and I'm not sure that's what I was looking for in my game
(have to think about it some more now... =) ).  At any rate, I seem
to be leaning towards a magic-heavy world...

-ED



--
Edward Glowacki			glowack2 at msu.edu
Michigan State University	
"...a partial solution to the right problem is better than a complete
solution to the wrong one." (http://uiweb.com/issues/issue14.htm)

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