SC could allow players to alter the color, damage, range, radius and velocity of projectiles, AOE and enemies affected in a chain lightning spell, potency of restore/fortify/absorb spells, among many other spell attributes, not only combining attributes. SC was never just about learning spells; it was about personalizing spells, making the magic your own. Who would not find some enjoyment in that? And because it could be exploited in Oblivion, does not conclude that must be the case for a spell crafting system in Skyrim.

Saying spellmaking needed to be removed because it could be abused is like saying stealth should be removed because there are so many ways you could abuse that too; and people abuse that all the time.

While I agree that there are benefits to spell crafting (customization being just one of many), I think it boiled down to what was feasible given the new system. Each spell has three uses: a single use, a prolonged use, and a combined use (with the same spell). Given that each spell now has a unique effect for each use (graphically, not statistically), it would be difficult to give the player the power to design graphical effects for each of the three uses. Difficult, but not impossible, because they could have made a list of effects to choose from--just as you describe. I think it came down to time and the developers decided that that time was better spent on other aspects of the game.

Marriage, relationships, making Pickpocketing a skill again, Dual wielding which wasnt a core feature, it was infact added LATE and then everything combat wise was bent around it, Dragons for 2 years by a small team....yeah time better spent.

I just hope Bethesda makes it easy for modders to add a spell making system since they can't or won't.

Ah, too bad, mixing different spells would have been very interesting.

But gimmicks are sooooo much more important than depth of play!

SC was never a gimmick, no more than armor/weapon smithing and potion mixing, so I'm not really sure what you're getting at with that comment.

Time better spent to me. Opinions are lovely. Thankfully Beth has catered to all of my opinions and come November, i'll be more than satisfied.

I thought he ment dual welding. :shifty:

I misinterpreted. :shifty:

I thought this was already obvious to everyone?

If you have 2 spells in both hands that are identical you can combine them to greatly increase the strength of the spells for different effects...

But you cant combine 2 completely different spells to create 1 whole new spell effect its just to complicated to put into the game (or any game for that fact).

-KC

So basically unless the spells in both hands are chain lightning we can't launch them at the same time. Even if it's flames and Fireball we still wouldn't be able to combine them because they are two different spells. That's what I'm thinking it is, from what Pete said.

yeah, i mean i was kinda fishy about this whole, combining spells thing. I mean, how could you combine a summon zombie and fire damage spell, y'know. i mean, i guess this is just what i expected.

How is dual wielding a gimmick?

Apologies, was not clear.

I was commenting specifically about MK's mention of marriage and relationships....

Edit:

Dual weilding.....I am ambivalent about....the only thing that bothers me about it is that they wasted time on it while there were still aspects (like SC) that were being ignored and should have already been there before adding the extras...

You can still be using two diff spells at the same time, you just can't combine them both into one attack.

So, now you really need to learn magic (gathering perks) to have acess to powerfull magic in the place of just creating new ones. Yes, very bad. :yawn:

Two different spells can be cast simultaneously. They don't combine though. If you have fire in left hand and frost in the right hand, if you press both triggers at the same time, both spells will cast at the same time.

I would have loved to see conjured weapons made out of magical elements and am going to miss touch spells :shrug: there will be plenty of other things to get into though besides magic, I guess.

There's no touch spells?

summoning a flaming zombie would be kickass, lol

and I thought someone above mentioned that the implementations for each spell were projectile, stream and floor trap.

Maybe I misread?

Haha! How would they code that though? Say you didn't want the 2 spells to combine, but you still want to cast them simultaneously?

We already knew this.

I wonder how spells like waterwalking will now work.
Will we even be able to cast it on anyone else but ourselves?
Same for anything fun else really that spellmaking allowed.

They have removed the magic from TES.

No, hot steam. Hot enough to boil your skin and melt your eyes in their sockets.