[WIP] Arcanium - Magic Redone - Suggestions Wanted!

[wilson212]

Hey everyone! I've been working on a mod that improves the magic in Skyrim a bit. I'm a pure mage at heart was a little let down by the magic in Skyrim a bit, while the visuals are nice, it was just alot more efficient to chop things down with a sword, bow, or even daggers. I've been working on this mod off and on now for the last 2 years, but as of late, ive made considerable progress, and am close to having a release http://static.zenimax.com/forums.bethsoft.com/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.png

 

SO lets talk about some of the changes i have made to the magic system.... In my opinion, destruction needs to cost less magicka... plain and simple, at lower levels, you cant spare any magicka for other schools with out going OOM, and that doesn't change much as you level. My vision for this system is destruction spells being extremely cheap and a non-issue to cast... Essentially, your magicka should be used for the extremely powerful destruction spells, or spells from other schools that assist you in battle. The way i plan to combat this, is to make the magicka cost of your destruction spells much lower, and remove the cost scaling that was based on destruction level.

 

Destruction

 

Destruction in my opinion, was a little underwhelming to say the least, as well as slightly boring to play. Of all the changes i have made thus far, destruction has received the biggest, and most changes.

 

• Destruction spell damage for all spells now scales, based on how many points you have invested into Magicka (Actual damage scale is based on different Magicka break points), smoothing your damage output, as well as keeping you viable at higher levels.
• Novice, Apprentice, and Adept level spells now scale up to 100% additional BASE damage, allowing them to be viable spells at all levels. Adept spells have their base damage halved, to prevent them from being too powerful, and doing slightly less single target damage over the Apprentice level bolts.
• Rune Master perk has been replaced with a new perk called "Chaotic Energy", which is un-lockable at 50 destruction (See "Chaotic Energy" Section below). Runes can now passively be placed up to 50 feet (up from 20)
• The impact perk causes now stagger to occur 25% of the time in apprentice spells, 50% of the time in adept spells
• Reduced Rune cost significantly, as they were too expensive, and not worth casting in combat. The base damage of runes have been greatly reduced, but scale in damage appropriately now. Additionally, runes now provide a second "Crowd Control" effect (Frost rune freezes, Fire Rune staggers, Shock Rune disarms).
• The Augmented Element perks now add only 15% damage per rank (Down from 25) to prevent damage scaling too high.
• Cloak spells are now togglable, and last until cancelled. They also now provide 20% resistance to their respective element
• Reduced the base magicka cost of Master level spells, as well as reducing cast time to 2 seconds (Down from 3)
• Disintegrate, Deep Freeze, and Intense flames perks will be getting overhauled to something much better, but i haven't quite come up with what i want them to do just yet. As it stands right now, my head is in a place that the effects will be a powerful secondary effect for expert level spells that are cast while empowered by Chaotic Energy.

 

Chaotic Energy

 

Chaotic energy is a new resource, that can be unlocked with a perk at 50 or higher destruction, that builds up as you cast Adept and Apprentice level destruction spells. There is a new resource bar on the screen that can be fully customized, moved, or even disabled if you wish, that displays the current level of chaotic energy. SO what does this new resource do? Well it provides your character a few benefits based on how much energy you have. Your apprentice and adept level spells add 20 energy per cast (capping at 120), while your expert and master level spells consume energy.

• At 20, 60, and 100 chaotic energy respectively, destruction spell damage is increased, and magicka cost is reduced of your Apprentice, Adept and Master spells by 10% (30% at 100 energy). Cast time is reduced on Master level spells by .5 seconds at these break points as well. Casting a master level spell will consume up to 100 Chaotic energy.
• Once you have at least 60 energy, your Expert level missile spells (Incinerate, IcySpear, Thunderbolt) become empowered, increasing their damage, and reducing cost by 50%, but consumes 60 chaotic energy (Half of the max amount).
• Added a new lesser power spell that equips in the voice slot, that when used, upgrades the spells in your hands to the Expert level equivalent (example: Firebolt gets upgraded to Incinerate). Recasting this ability restores the spells you had in your hands the you had previously. This power is to help streamline the process of Generating and Consuming Chaotic power without breaking combat immersion by having to constantly stop the game to equip your burn spells, and then again to swap back

 

Alteration

 

The alteration school was a little bland in my opinion, and was also missing some classic TES spells. So i have taken the liberty to also show this school some love.

 

• Flesh armor spells are now togglable, last until cancelled, and properly dispel any previous flesh spells on the actor.
• Candle Light spell is now togglable
• Added new Unlock locks spell, which scales based on your alteration level.
• Added new "Feather" spell, which increases your carry weight for 5 minutes.
• Added a new Master level spell called "Alter Time", that can be cast just once a day. This spell allows you to slow time to a crawl for 10 seconds.

 

Conjuration

 

For the most part, i feel like Conjuration school was pretty well done compared to the other schools

 

• Duration of all summons increased automatically based on skill
• Fixed "Storm Thrall" spell so that it actually summons a Storm Thrall instead of Storm Atronach. It is now a ritual spell as well.
• Doubled the duration for necromancy spells. Not only do they provide insane levels of skill ups, but i felt the duration wasn't very long
• Bound weapon damage is scaled based on your invested magicka (See Destruction description)

 

Please note that this mod is still a work in progress. I would love to hear your comments and suggestions, so throw them at me http://static.zenimax.com/forums.bethsoft.com/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.png