Quintra said:Fulton said:I like the unique names, just hated trying to remember what names were what lines.
If there was an easier way to identfy the spell family that spells belonged to. Icons are a good way to do this, but EQ often used the same icon across similar spell families.
Just throwing this out here, I don't know how I feel about this idea myself, but for the sake of discussion, here it is: Allow a little additional customization in your spell book i.e. allow the player to type in headings, e.g. Immolation Line - will not stack with other spells of ths line. Then you move all spells of that line under that section of your spellbook. I hope the spellbook can be organized the same way EQ1 was
I, for one, hope the spellbook can be organized even better than EQ1 lol. Having to right click instead of click-and-drag was clunky and time-consuming. Being able to add in notes would be a nice bonus.
In regards to the OP, I see both sides. I don't like the Roman numeral system (i.e. Fireball, Fireball II, Fireball III, etc.), but sometimes unique names just don't make sense. I think the best solution would be to make it so that your spells grow with you and automatically get more powerful as you get more powerful, so that you don't need to keep getting direct replacements, and certain spells never become obsolete. As you level up and find new abilities, they just add new, unique tools your arsenal.
I think you can always come up with a name for a spell. It could even be as simple as just using an NPC name and 'fire' or 'lightning'. Aradune's Fire, whatever. I just know that Ice Comet beats the hell out of Shock of Frost V. LOL.
I agree about the spellbook. I didn't mean that I'd want organizing it to be so cumbersome. I was just stating that I was willing to do it despite how tedious it was. I'd love an easier way to organize and I think Quintra's idea for being able to type notes near each spell would be great.
excalibur100 said:Level 3: Flame Shield
Level 12: Flame Shield II
Level 21: Flame Shield III
I, too, like this kind of idea. Not sure why, but it seems more organized and it's easier to track what you're using.
To add to this, say we leveled from (made up spell name) Fireball I to Fireball II, I think we should still have the option to use Fireball I. This could allow us to use less inferior spells on creatures that are lower level to conserve mana or something. WOW did a similar thing back in the day and I loved being able to cast old spells for reasons such as this.
Veramus said:To add to this, say we leveled from (made up spell name) Fireball I to Fireball II, I think we should still have the option to use Fireball I. This could allow us to use less inferior spells on creatures that are lower level to conserve mana or something. WOW did a similar thing back in the day and I loved being able to cast old spells for reasons such as this.
While i like the idea, WoW got rid of it because of the quasi-exploit of using lower rank spells to conserve mana because the bulk of the heal and damage came from spell power stat.
I like this idea of unique spell names, Even if the spells end up doing the same thing but better you could have "fireball", wow's "pyroblast", "flame spear" etc.
If VR makes a post or pole about spell names and asks people to come up with as many names as possible, I'll totally search my favorite games/books as well as the thesaurus.
In this video around the 40:10 mark, VR explains that leveling up is going to be more about getting new tools to add to your arsenal rather than just getting more powerful versions of spells you already have. That's probably not to say that we will never get new spells that are just upgrades of previous spells. But I really don't think long spell lines will be as prevalent as they were in EQ for example. I, for one, think that's a good thing.
I think the Living Codex is the key to spell upgrades.
Pantheon's Living Codex allows you to customize your Transcendent Abilities
This extraordinary book will serve as the complete compendium for your Class' special abilities. The first section of the Codex, labeled "Essential", will contain the host of standard abilities that characters can naturally train throughout their lifetime. However, in Pantheon, many of the most powerful and exotic abilities can only be found out in the wilds of Terminus: from heavily guarded treasure vaults, dangerous enemies and unimaginable locations -- these most powerful abilities are written on legendary parchments known as Prime Scrolls. The second section of the Codex, labeled "Transcendent", is built for the scribing and intensifying of these powerful Prime Scroll abilities.
Once scribed, players will be able to memorize a total of 10 abilities, mixing both Essential and Transcendent abilities as desired. Once memorized, players will be able to place these abilities on their Ability Bar, giving them full access to their use.
The accompanying image shows the Transcendent section of the Living Codex, where Prime Scroll abilities will be scribed. The Prime Scroll will only fill the top portion of each page; underneath, there will be 3 empty sections that the player can mark with special items which will further enhance the primary ability. These 3 sections are detailed below:
1) Seal of Amplification
Amplifies the bonus modifiers from Mana Climates that affect the Primary Scroll’s mana color. More powerful seals will increase the bonuses. (More on Mana Climates in an upcoming newsletter)
2) Brand of Resilience
Lessens the negative modifiers from Mana Climates that affect the Primary Scroll’s mana color. More powerful brands will decrease the penalties. (More on Mana Climates in an upcoming newsletter)
3) Signet of Synergy
Applying a Signet of Synergy to an ability will unlock different class-specific synergy effects that can be used in combination with synergy effects from other classes, sometimes to awesome effect. However, the Primary Scroll ability must be capable of synergy effects, not all will be.
Beefcake said:I think the Living Codex is the key to spell upgrades.
Pantheon's Living Codex allows you to customize your Transcendent Abilities
This extraordinary book will serve as the complete compendium for your Class' special abilities. The first section of the Codex, labeled "Essential", will contain the host of standard abilities that characters can naturally train throughout their lifetime. However, in Pantheon, many of the most powerful and exotic abilities can only be found out in the wilds of Terminus: from heavily guarded treasure vaults, dangerous enemies and unimaginable locations -- these most powerful abilities are written on legendary parchments known as Prime Scrolls. The second section of the Codex, labeled "Transcendent", is built for the scribing and intensifying of these powerful Prime Scroll abilities.
Once scribed, players will be able to memorize a total of 10 abilities, mixing both Essential and Transcendent abilities as desired. Once memorized, players will be able to place these abilities on their Ability Bar, giving them full access to their use.
The accompanying image shows the Transcendent section of the Living Codex, where Prime Scroll abilities will be scribed. The Prime Scroll will only fill the top portion of each page; underneath, there will be 3 empty sections that the player can mark with special items which will further enhance the primary ability. These 3 sections are detailed below:
1) Seal of Amplification
Amplifies the bonus modifiers from Mana Climates that affect the Primary Scroll’s mana color. More powerful seals will increase the bonuses. (More on Mana Climates in an upcoming newsletter)
2) Brand of Resilience
Lessens the negative modifiers from Mana Climates that affect the Primary Scroll’s mana color. More powerful brands will decrease the penalties. (More on Mana Climates in an upcoming newsletter)
3) Signet of Synergy
Applying a Signet of Synergy to an ability will unlock different class-specific synergy effects that can be used in combination with synergy effects from other classes, sometimes to awesome effect. However, the Primary Scroll ability must be capable of synergy effects, not all will be.
This is a very good point. Can't wait to get my hands on the Codex and figure out it works and how to use it most effectively. Seems like a good innovation. But I think the question still remains in regards to the "Essential" abilities and whether or not we will "naturally train" upgrades for them.
Beefcake said:I think the Living Codex is the key to spell upgrades.
Pantheon's Living Codex allows you to customize your Transcendent Abilities
This extraordinary book will serve as the complete compendium for your Class' special abilities. The first section of the Codex, labeled "Essential", will contain the host of standard abilities that characters can naturally train throughout their lifetime. However, in Pantheon, many of the most powerful and exotic abilities can only be found out in the wilds of Terminus: from heavily guarded treasure vaults, dangerous enemies and unimaginable locations -- these most powerful abilities are written on legendary parchments known as Prime Scrolls. The second section of the Codex, labeled "Transcendent", is built for the scribing and intensifying of these powerful Prime Scroll abilities.
Once scribed, players will be able to memorize a total of 10 abilities, mixing both Essential and Transcendent abilities as desired. Once memorized, players will be able to place these abilities on their Ability Bar, giving them full access to their use.
The accompanying image shows the Transcendent section of the Living Codex, where Prime Scroll abilities will be scribed. The Prime Scroll will only fill the top portion of each page; underneath, there will be 3 empty sections that the player can mark with special items which will further enhance the primary ability. These 3 sections are detailed below:
1) Seal of Amplification
Amplifies the bonus modifiers from Mana Climates that affect the Primary Scroll’s mana color. More powerful seals will increase the bonuses. (More on Mana Climates in an upcoming newsletter)
2) Brand of Resilience
Lessens the negative modifiers from Mana Climates that affect the Primary Scroll’s mana color. More powerful brands will decrease the penalties. (More on Mana Climates in an upcoming newsletter)
3) Signet of Synergy
Applying a Signet of Synergy to an ability will unlock different class-specific synergy effects that can be used in combination with synergy effects from other classes, sometimes to awesome effect. However, the Primary Scroll ability must be capable of synergy effects, not all will be.
Very good point! It could definately be used to keep the spell useful even through expansions.
However, the living codex is for prime scrolls (legendary quality spells). I don't think they have mentioned a similar system for the regular spells, which are like to account for most of our spells in all.
I vote for simplicity. Keep in mind that we will have multiple spells doing essentially the same thing but intended for use against different enemies or in different weather conditions.
Also keep in mind that we want to make mentoring down to group with lower levels as simple as possible for the game to implement. Replacing fireball XXVI with fireball II is harder than having one fireball spell whose damage output is based on your level. Replacing Round Death by Flame with Spherical Damaging Hotness would be worse.
So something like firebolt (single enemy damage, amount of damage tied to level), fireball (area effect damage, amount of damage tied to level), coldbolt, coldball. lightning bolt, lightning ball as basic damage spells would work nicely.
Some spells might be gotten from trainers and some from drops or finds but that doesn't really impact whether you have 200 different spells or six whose power scales with level. Maybe one or more of the ball spells requires something special to get. Maybe some other spells require something special to get - there are many types of spells. Damage, buff, debuff, crowd control, miscellaneous convenience.
I think staple spells should just automatically scale with your level. Spells I would include would be things like a Summoner's elementals. It really doesn't seem necessary to have 15 Summon: Earth Elemental spells in your spellbook when they all do the same thing.
As for other spells, I think a numbering system is probably best to keep things organized, and to avoid having spell names like this: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spelllist.html?searchtext=malo.
snrub said:I think staple spells should just automatically scale with your level. Spells I would include would be things like a Summoner's elementals. It really doesn't seem necessary to have 15 Summon: Earth Elemental spells in your spellbook when they all do the same thing.
As for other spells, I think a numbering system is probably best to keep things organized, and to avoid having spell names like this: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spelllist.html?searchtext=malo.
I think the point was a gold sink, and just in case you wanted to make a weaker pet you had that option. Every now and again that could come in handy when you dont need the latest, most mana costly version of a spell.
Similarly to what Fulton said you could have it mixxed into one icon. But it'd be cool if you could tone it down when you wanted.