A Valley Without Wind 2 - a full sequel free for existing customers - is coming.

[icepick37]

I'm still trying to process post #1. 

[x4000]

200 spells is 4 per each of the 50 Mage classes. Each in 5 tiers.

[Aklyon]

You sir, have a lot of class.


 

[keith.lamothe]

You sir, have a lot of class.

Watch out, I hear that owl monster from the concept art thread is attracted to the sound of rimshots.

[Oralordos]

So if he has a lot of class, does that mean he wins Munchkin?

[x4000]

does that mean he wins Munchkin?

Only occasionally.

[LaughingThesaurus]

So five tiers amounts to 200/5 = 40 unique spells then?
...that's still awesome. That is, assuming each tier's just a statistical upgrade. Is there more than I'm seeing in the tier system?

[Lancefighter]

Yes! The game actually incorporates the idea of spell design. You can add spells together freely! You can also use these spells to enchant your armor (A whole 9 unique pieces of armor! In 5 different materials! And a heavy/medium/light set of each!) with enchantments, ranging from 'on use', 'constant effect', and even 'reactive effect'!

[x4000]

So five tiers amounts to 200/5 = 40 unique spells then?
...that's still awesome. That is, assuming each tier's just a statistical upgrade. Is there more than I'm seeing in the tier system?

Sorry, the tiers are referring to the mage classes, not the spells themselves.  Though the spells belonging to higher-tier mage classes are generally more powerful.  There aren't any "fireball II" type spells, though.  There are things like 10 different kinds of whips, though -- they are varying powers and visual styles to go with the varying mage classes that have them (that means that 1/5 of all mage classes have a whip, in other words, because whips are particularly awesome).  But what those whips are paired with out of the other spells that each mage class has still makes for very unique mixes.  There's nothing progressive from one tier to the next in terms of being able to just get a more powerful version of the same thing; everything is all mixed around and more powerful kinds of spells open up at higher tiers and so forth.  It takes a giant spreadsheet to keep track of it all!

Yes! The game actually incorporates the idea of spell design. You can add spells together freely! You can also use these spells to enchant your armor (A whole 9 unique pieces of armor! In 5 different materials! And a heavy/medium/light set of each!) with enchantments, ranging from 'on use', 'constant effect', and even 'reactive effect'!

No!  There's no armor and no spell design!  Not sure where you got that.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Oh wow, so like a tier 1 fire mage may only get fireball and fireskin and stuff, but a tier 5 might get a firestorm or meteor spell or something wild.
Okay, so that's how it works. So... actually 200 unique spells.

...and here I was all like "I'll be realistic. It's gotta only be 40." Lots of toys to play with, in that case. Looking forward to it.

[Lancefighter]

Yes! The game actually incorporates the idea of spell design. You can add spells together freely! You can also use these spells to enchant your armor (A whole 9 unique pieces of armor! In 5 different materials! And a heavy/medium/light set of each!) with enchantments, ranging from 'on use', 'constant effect', and even 'reactive effect'!

No!  There's no armor and no spell design!  Not sure where you got that.

Wait. Youre not recreating morrowind? Well.. I dunno what to say. You had me going there at 200 spells, I was pretty sure that was what you were going for

[khadgar]

I read most of the first post, but skipped the rest of the thread after reading the bit about a unified control scheme.

A great choice, in my opinion. Platforming and mice have never gotten along well for me, the loss of a second hand's worth of controls on a keyboard or gamepad severely limits the amount of controls available to a player. I can't wait to try it out.

[Oralordos]

With only 4 spells per player, how are the elemental strengths and weaknesses going to work?

[Teal_Blue]

Just to point out a possible tickle-ish name problem:
But with a name like  'Demonaica',  shouldn't... He be a She?

As in 'DeMonica'?

Perhaps your monstrous Evil OverLord is really a monstrous Evil OverMistress?   
Of course Demons may be genderless, or both as the situation determines?

Silly I guess, but the 'a' on the end of the name made me think... Amand a, Alici a, Monic a, and the like, usually boy names are like Dani el, and Gr eg, and Robe rt... lots of consanants, you know?    The vowels are usually reserved, not entirely I am guessing, I probably missed a male name somewhere with one of those, but nothing springs immediately to mind, but usually the vowels on the ends of names are reserved for the feminine. 

If you really have to have a male monstrous evil overlord however...    you could always have 'Demonaik', or 'Demonstrousor' or Daemon Alucard,    Silly perhaps and the last is of course the old switcheroo on the dracula thingy that i heard growing up as a child with the monster movies on tv.

Anyway, I am only ribbing you a little bit, this is not meant as a big huge difficulty, just playful banter. 

-T

[x4000]

To a few of the questions:

- The unique number of spells depends on how you count it. There are 40ish-50ish spell "themes" if you take straight-shot spells as a group, and whips as a group, etc. But each spell in the theme has different graphics and at least slightly different stats/handling, so to me that makes them into 200 unique spells.

- There is some reuse of spells visual stylings in very different themes, because with different sizes or movement characteristics the particles look reasonably different. Think fire touch and circle of fire.

- Elemental strengths and weaknesses are gone from the game, forgot to mention. They added little in the end, except complexity and a requirement that you carry many spells with you at all times.

- The Mage classes themselves you choose from based on the style of fighting/abilities you want for the time being. And at 4 points after the start of the game you get new caches of more powerful Mage classes with different spells, so you definitely don't just use the same spells from start to finish of the game. The unique mix of spells in each Mage class makes them feel pretty different, and each player only gets 5 to choose from out of the 10 at each tier. Making each playthrough different.