Weapons & Magic Systems

I thought I would throw some ideas for a weapon, hand-to-hand and magic system in.

The Problems:
HtoH has to be the biggest problem, how does Bob Martial Artist Extraordinaire, and extra in The Matrix, manage to close the distance, in what is likely to be a reasonably open landscape, between himself and Zef'clar half decent crossbow man, and twitchy Q3 gamer? Even more interestingly, how does he manage to reach Warren the fireball throwing pyromaniac? It has to be the major problem which is facing the weapons system. Afterall, an easy method of implementation is to apply true FPS standards to the weapons system, combine the magic and weapons system together to produce a unified structure, afterall who says a fireball simply isn't a modified rocket, as in theory there is little reason why they couldn't come from the same code base, the problem is that Bob is screwed big time, magic users are made powerful, as are crossbow men and archers, so I feel there is little doubt that this system has to be modified, not to make Bob powerful, but to make him viable.
Magic has been, atleast in my opinion, handled badly in FPS shooters like Hexen e.t.c, as it really is simply handled literally as a weapon, a projectile (in many cases) is created, it just happens to look a little freaky, but in reality it is the same as a crossbow bolt, or a knife e.t.c just looks different, realm wars should, I feel, strive to make magic handle differently to weapons, and in turn I don't think people should be running across the landscape wielding crossbows only, because then we have another balance issue.

One solution would be to create counters to ranged weapons, crossbow proof armour, magic grounding gems, but this feels a cheap way out, it protects the few that take them and lets rest suffer, it creates a dual system of impotence and insane power, and whilst elements could be included to try to enhance the gameplay reliance on this could really dampen peoples fun.

The solution I have been considering, and am still trying to refine and clarify within my own mind would create 3 distinct weapon sets, magic, ranged, close-quarters. Afterall a sword may have a marginally longer range than someone's fist but essentially they are close quarters weapons.

Ranged should suffer from slow-reload and arcing projectiles, so if you want to be an effective archer you will have to aim above the target to hit him at range, at medium range you can plant an arrow in his chest with a straight aim, but you have to place another arrow into the bow before shooting again. Additionally I think loaded bows/crossbows should slow the player to walking speed, afterall I really wouldn't want to run with either of those weapons ready to fire. Yes they would be quite effective classes, but at close range, they will only get a shot off before you pile into them with your much quicker close-ranged weapon. I think reducing damage caused at close range by a ranged weapon shouldn't be done obviously, I think there should be a penalty to try to pursuade archers not to get into that situation, but it should be the time it takes to get another shot ready that is the main deciding factor. RTCW reduced damage marginally to prevent rushing the ai during the single player game, and it was not enough to notice, but it worked into your subconcious and you tended to stay a little off the ai.

Magic is different, it should be quite powerful as a weapon, but have casting time, so in a way the exact opposite to reload, the magic-user has to stop and begin his casting process before getting off his spell, obviously the more powerful the longer is takes. If he wants to rain down brimstone and sulpher on his enemies from a nearby hill it may take him 10/15/20 secopnds, however long balancing required, to cast that spell, during which damage would interrupt the casting. I like this system, because personally I dislike mana systems, if you make the powerful spells take 30 seconds to cast you will dissuade the player from casting them all the time, on the otherhand if a fireball takes 2 then it will become a primary attack. Plus it will give players an incentive to defend magic users, not because they are made weak, but because constant damage will prevent them from effectivly attacking. Another pet hate is that all magic users start at 50% health and can't wear armour. Armour should restrict certain spells because of the movements required to cast them, but who says Bob, who is only interested in minor attack magic could not wear chainmail, or some other heavy armour, he may not be able to conjure up a huge lightning storm because he can't move his arms above his head, but why should the armour stop him from laughing madly whilst raining flaming death down on the poor sword carrying barbarians struggling up the hill towards him.

Close quarters weapons should be the mainstay, and made the most configurable, your average player should be interested in getting in close and personal, and therefore a greater weapons selection for CQB is probably a good idea. I like Jedi Knight's lightsaber system, where movement direction dictates the attack, plus Morrowind's idea of holding down the attack button longer to increase damage is quite nice, because it would allow weapons like knives to compete against two-handed swords, as you're going to stab like crazy with a knife, however you are really going to swing that sword back to get a nice powerful blow. CQ weapons should not slow you down, unless and encumberance system is included, but you should be able to "power up" an attack and charge in, however once engaged in a fight your ability to turn and flee should be impaired, it should be possible if your opponent is sloppy, but to turn tail and run should be very hard.

I would look at a system that makes CQ weapons the easiest to use would be ideal, reload times and arcing projectiles would make ranged classes a challenge to use, but still effective, and casting times with magic users would mean that keeping off to one side was really the best way to act. Both types would become more advanced players classes. requiring a high level of practice and skill to suceed with them fully, but would also, in my mind, solve the problem of ranged versus CQ.

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To also include some ideas that I initially commented on in another post and have considered further:

Weapons should be free and readily available initially, however for killing enemies, and completing objectives (especially completing objectives, CS is a prime example of objective completion gone wrong) you should get money, which you can spend back at your base to upgrade them to cause extra-damage or produce additional effects (maybe setting the enemy alight, or stunning him). CQ weapons should be allowed more effects that ranged, which would rely more on an exhaustible supply of enchanted ammunition, although bows/crossbows, enchanted to fire the projectile with more force should also be viable), or possibly small bolts of energy once that cause minimal damage incase ammunition does not want to be wasted.

Magic users should start with all the spells their class has, but should only be able to memorise a few, and it takes a few seconds to transfer spells from book to memory, and with say a limit of 3 spells in memory at once careful balancing would be required.

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An idea for wizards is to employ spell effects and construct their own spells.

You could use sliders for damage, area, and you would drop effects like, poison, fire onto the spell, which would hold their own particle effects. Classes would then be limited to which effects are available to them rather than exactly which spells, although a series of pre-constructed spells would always be available. You could then choose whether the effect will be projectile or instant hit and whether it effects and area on impact and the size, which would allow a whole range of spells to be created so e.g

Effects:
-Fire
-Storm
-Poison
-Heal
-Bind
-Slow

Type
-Area
-Individual

Form
-Instant Hit
-Projectile

Affects
-All [Default]
-Self
-Friendly
-Enemy

Damage - Slider bar that starts at 0 and determines the damage. Can apply negative damage, although negative damage is not available to all classes, and those that are primarily healers may have this renamed as Heal.
Area Of Effect - Slider becomes active when Type->Area is selected, and increase the area of the spell.
Lasts - Slider increases the spell's existance from instantaneous upto say 20 seconds.

So to create a 5 second bind spell that effects only one person and will hit the selected person instantaneously and set them on fire for 5 points of damage each second you would.

Drop the bind icon into the spell effects box.
Drop the fire icon into the spell effects box. [Unlocks the damage box]
Check Instant Hit
Check Individual
Check All
Slide the Damage Bar to 5
Slide the Lasts Bar to 5
Type in a Name
Click Save

Or an expensive yet lethal spell, poisons an enemy for 20 seconds, binds him to a spot and makes him invisible so his teammates can't help him easily.
Drop the Poison icon into the Spell Effects Box. [Unlocks Damage]
Drop the Invisibility icon into the Spell Effects Box.
Drop the Bind icon into the Spell Effects Box.
Check Instant Hit
Check Individual
Check All
Slide the Damage Bar to 5
Slider the lasts Bar to 20
Type in a name
Click Save

This system would allow quite a diversity of spells, ranging from minor to major.

Each item would cause the casting time (or mana cost) to increase, also instant hit would increase the mana, as would causing the spell to differentiate between friend and foe. Area effect would also increase it, more damage, longer lasting and the size of the area would increase it, so yes you could create an uber monstro spell that will wipe out any enemy it hits, but it will cost a lot.

Safeguards, such as damaging spells could only effect all or enemy could be put in place to stop anti-social players creating spells that harm only their teammates.

The effects can be increase to include stuff like flight, vampiric attack, infact anything desired. The icon would designate the particle as well as the primary effect, technically poison and fire are much the same at the surface but the particle effects would be different, as would maybe some of the more subtle effects, for example being on fire may obscure your view, and you risk setting your teammates alight, or causing damage at close range, whereas poison may affect your movement, jumping and accuracy.

If you limited each player to holding maybe 5 a spell book at any one time, plus forcing them to return to base to update their spellbooks with newly created ones it would prevent rapid creation for any purpose.

I like this system as it is easy to use and would allow more advanced players to construct a multitude of spells.

This system could also be applied to weapon enchantment, if a system existed so non-magic types would get the ability to build their own magic weapons.

Obviously this is on the assumption that they could save their character somewhere, which I like because their character could gain awards and a history which they could show off.

Comments? Suggestions?