Redesigning Magicka in Skyrim

[aaroc]

Ok, so, A preliminary look at the Master Destruction Line of perks and I have come up with something like this:

 

Novice Destruction: Decreases the cost of Novice Destruction Level Spells by 50%, Apprentice Level Spells by 25% and Increases Destruction damage by 5%

 

Apprentice Destruction: Decreases the cost of Apprentice and Adept Level Spells by 25%, and increases Destruction damage by 5%

 

Adept Destruction: Decreases the cost of Adept, Expert, and Master Level Spells by 25% and increases Destruction damage by 5%

 

Expert Destruction: Decreases the cost of Expert and Master Level Spells by 25% and increases Destruction damage by 5%

 

Master Destruction: Decreases the cost of MAster level spells by 25% and increases Destruction damage by 5%

 

I'll have to do some tweaking with the base costs of spells, but fully perked, I want each spell to do roughly 75-100 damage and cost 30-50 magicka. With spell costs in those ranges, I think using Magicka will be more feasible for a pure mage, and hopefully having a spell in one hand and a weapon in the other will be competitive to dual wielding.

[jimhsu]

A potential problem with most of these magicka balancing mods is aesthetics - without appropriately scaling the visual effects, the effect generated by, say, a 50 damage/sec flames spell is exactly the same as one that is 5 damage/sec. This creates several problems:

 

1) Players wondering why a "puny" firebolt instakills them while a massive fireball by another enemy does next to no damage,

2) Leveling strategies where it's feasible to stick to just one destruction spell for the entire game,

3) Players generally feeling underwhelmed upon leveling if all destruction magic "performs" the same.

 

Stated more technically, the link between aesthetic and mechanics is decoupled. Stated in layman's terms, spells should a) look more powerful and b) be more powerful when the player gains experience. Short of manually creating spell effects, is there any way to fix this problem?

Edited December 20, 2011 by jimhsu

[aaroc]

Stated more technically, the link between aesthetic and mechanics is decoupled. Stated in layman's terms, spells should a) look more powerful and b) be more powerful when the player gains experience. Short of manually creating spell effects, is there any way to fix this problem?

 

I do see your point, however, I don't think scaling the looks of the spell effect is possible with scaling the damage. Another issue would be, of course, if someone's rig couldn't handle it and getting to X skill in destruction made them unable to cast Y spell anymore because it would explode their computer. Also, I don't think it's that big of a deal.

 

As your weapon skill increases and your steel sword starts doing more and more damage, your weapon doesn't get bigger, your weapon swings don't get flashier, and you don't see any more blood splatter effects. I don't really see the need to do as such with magic.

 

If it was possible, however, it didn't get to the point where it would explode lower end rigs, and this mod, once complete, actually had any sort of popularity, I'd be all for finding someone who cold do that for me.

 

ETA: and for the one spell to rule them all thing, I have a feeling I will probably add one more spell to the arsenal (much like the Novice spell but with a shorter range, higher damage, and higher magicka cost), and edit the Novice Spells so that they do significantly less damage than the others, so as to encourage players to move on to the Apprentice Level and above spells once they are able.

 

ETA2: Also, since there will be no way to make the casting cost free, you wouldn't want to spam Fireball, for instance, when you are fighting only one enemy, because the spell cost ratio would be much higher. Great for downing multiple enemies at once, but not so great for a single tough enemy, where Firebolt or Incinerate would be much more to your benefit.

Edited December 20, 2011 by aaroc