[MUD-Dev] Looking for a Magic System (inspired by Bartle's book)

[John Buehler]

Jaycen Rigger writes:
> erik <erik at gopetslive.com> wrote:

>> The Question: Does anyone have a magic system or a scrawling of a
>> list that they wish would get implemented either for free or for
>> a fee provided I like it?

>> I am not looking for anything crazy complicated super
>> serious... I am looking for something cute and fun, like drag a
>> empty potion bottle + green spider venom + moon dust = slow or
>> some such. But in a way that variations in ingrediants provide
>> variations in results...

> You're talking about something I recently posted regarding
> "Atomistic Creation".

> It seems to me you need to know:

>   1.  Do you have a list of all the spell ingredients possible
>   within your world?

>   2.  What kinds of effects are you looking for?  Do you have a
>   list of all the possible spells?

>   3.  What are the effects possible from all the possible spells?
>   i.e. lowered hp, raised armor, increased speed, see in the dark,
>   etc.

> Each spell component will need to carry the "effects properties"
> possible by using that particular component.  Then you crunch all
> the property values together when you cast the spell and apply the
> pluses and minuses at that time.

> The hard part is figuring out how many permutations you want to
> allow.  The more stuff you have, the more combinations you can
> make.  The more varied the possibilities, the more stuff you need.

Toss in non-linearity of effects as well as processing operations
and you've got something that much more interesting.

Make spider venom actually composed of two or more components that
are non-linear in their efficacy.  Spider venom may produce slowing
and confusion.  Each of slowing and confusion might vary according
to multiple factors, including age of the spider, time of day, etc.
Grab a small green in the morning and you might have a strong
confusion component.  Grab an adult in the morning and it may be a
mild slowing, or a mix of slowing and confusion.

Moon dust is composed of a variety of grain sizes, and the best slow
potions require medium-sized grains.  So some kind of sifting
process is needed to obtain the right grain sizes.  Small grains and
large grains might produce completely different effects,
complicating the task of figuring out what's going on in a spell
that has raw moon dust in it.  If a character cranks 10 magic into a
spell and that magic is diffused across three or four effects, it'll
be a weak spell overall.  But if distilled to a single effect, that
10 magic can go into a single spell effect, making it highly
efficacious.

All this stuff would probably have to be machine-generated and
hand-tuned where necessary.  As an example of hand-tuning, using
fairly unique items in spells should probably produce something that
is assuredly interesting instead of just another bland variation on
a common spell.  A fix for that might be to avoid having many
instances of ingedients that are particularly difficult to obtain -
something that would be consistent with the experiment-minded
orientation of such a system.

On the topic of keeping effects within the realm of the reasonable,
move magic out of the achiever realm.  If fighting is the place that
achievers go, make sure that magic does not impact their achievement
too much.  Don't provide magical effects that significantly aid or
hinder fighters.  That's because there are two effects at odds with
each other - unbridled variety through machine-generated systems
versus unbridled min/maxing to exploit every possible advancement
scenario possible.  If the advancement scenarios are not carefully
hand-crafted, min/maxers will find all the holes that were left by
the machine-generated systems and the achievement ladder will be
turned into an escalator.  Unfortunately, hand-generated systems are
inherently limited, and are counter to what explorers like to
experience.

JB
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