***EDIT***

bah! nevermind, it seems like this was already known... psh, nvm.

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IGN: Will there still be an opportunity in Skyrim to create custom spells? Can you enchant?

Todd Howard: We do have crafting in each archetype, and the magic one is Enchanting, so you can forge your own magic items and tweak their properties.



It seems that there is only enchanting and no custom spells since "The magic one is Enchanting"... wtf?



This AND no levitation? Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to get the game, but it's a little disappointing.

Sounds like that just confirms the previous comments/rumors/whatever about the spell system having no customization. Something about the spells being more interesting making it harder to balance customizing, or program customizing, or there being less need for it because the spells are better.

Or something like that.

Yeah, I was disappointed to see Todd dodge the spellmaking and levitation questions.

I'll just have to use the Creation Kit to make my custom spells, I guess.

No there isn't going to be custom spells/spellcrafting (this isn't really news, it's been known for some time).
And judging by his answer levitation isn't in the game atleast at the moment, and probably won't be.

Well somebody will put spellmaking in eventually, especially if they took a leaf out of the OBSE team's book and added advanced scripting functions.

Spells itself are entirely reworked, now a single spell will have multiple uses. Balancing this for spellmaking would be pretty difficult, but at least spells are more unique now...

Although I wouldn't mind spellcrafting, I'm 100% certain its going to be greatly changed or removed because of 2 very big gameplay implementations:

1. Duel Wielding, combining spells in spell-creator makes DW trivial. I don't see how the old system could work with this, they'd need to change spell-creation to compensate.

2. New Dynamic-spells. Holding down the button results in flamethrower, tap for fireball, ground target for glyph, DW two for big fireball, possibly hold 2 for aoe. Isn't this essentially spell-creation in the palm of your hand? Again, I don't see how the old system can in any way work with this unless you had to fill out 5 different effect windows for each spell you made. Seems silly and redundant to a degree.



Combine DW, Dynamic-Spells, and natural scaling with your Skill-lvl ---> don't you basically get a amped active/tactical version of spell-creation?

I don't see how spells are "more unique". In oblivion all my characters had completely different sets of spells that did vastly different things. Don't get more unique than that.

I'll miss creating spells with a 100ft area of effect :sadvaultboy:

Originally I was extremely opposed to no spellmaking, it was neerly a game-killer for me (okay, exaggeration, nothing can kill Skyrim for me ). However now that I think about it, if the buyable spells are more useful and well done, it might be a cool idea. It also allows for more unique spells and effects without people complaining and wanting to make their own versions. And it puts more emphasis on how cool it is to find a really powerful spell and go "Oh cool!"

It may still be possible to do that you know. Instead of having a fire spell that deals high damage on target and then having another spell that deals less damage but a huge area, they are the same spell.

Tap once for the fire ball, that's kinda like the bass damage. You could hold down the button with the same spell and a higher damage dealing but quicker magicka draining flamethrowner comes from your hand. When crouched and looking at a serface, think mines in James Bond Agent Under Fire, after pressing the spell botton the character will creat a rune that will explode when someone gets near enough. And for aoe, rapidly pressing the button will charge the fire attack in your arms, the more magicka you put in creating a larger aoe so the more magicka you have the more area you can cover, and once you finally stop pressing the character will punch the ground creating that huge fire explotion.

Like this, the way the spell is used is up to you instead of needing five of the same basic spells with different effects for what you want to do. And if you want to combine a second spell with your fire spell, well use your second hand. You could be charging a paralize aoe spell in one hand and holding enemies off with a fire spell in another. Its all up to you.

Scrolls could be used as well if players want to use two or more spell effects in one hand. Enchanting a piece of paper could act like spellmaking, in so acting as a guide to help the character channel magicka into more effects without straining the arm. Better yet, enchanting is a skill, so spellmaking in tern would also be tied down to a skill.

I wonder if the spells will automatically turn into "Touch" type if you are very close to an enemy.

It's possible. Touch spells could also have become dependant on hand to hand instead of destruction. Its hard to say either way, but if your close enough to the target tapping the button could change the spell to touch without causing to much of an issue.

ty God less clutter in my spell book

First taking the comment about crafting being only Enchanting is totally ignoring the fact that Enchanting is back as a skill and that Spellcrafting never was. It also mention that each archetype have a crafting system (alchemy, smithing and enchanting, all skills). Doesn't have anything to do with Spellcrafting being or not in the game.

Second, Spellcrafting is not gone, it was overhauled. Now we do it on the fly:
- Need a "cone of fire", hold that button.
- Need a "fireball", tap that button.
- Need a "glyph", press that button.
- etc.

The only thing the system doesn't allow us to do, yet, is mixing "fire" and "ice" together in a single spell and naming spells...

Why do they have to do this BS with magic. I can understand having spells that can do more then one thing and you being able to setup what things a spell does when you create it. Since I had decided to start just playing magic users in these games that is it for me buying this fighting game wanna be.

PS. No matter what they think you will want to do with your spells this kind of system won't be able to do what people really want. An example is that I liked to make spells that combined various different effects together in different spells to do specific things so it doesn't matter how many different spells they make in Skyrim it won't be able to do the million or so things people want to do with their spells which makes this new spell system useless for people like me.

This.

And personally I am glad, dynamic spells > 4 hotkeys for similar spells I'd made myself. I am interested to see how dual wielding spells will work say Fire in my left and, Ice in my right - what happens if I press both mouse buttons at once - Magic seems like it will be a lot better.

mostlikely this is allso to stop the custom spell leveling exploit aka values and time 1 "no manacost" spell's ?

Pfffft Spell making I never used it much apart from making OP spells that blew up half the game world.. :flamethrower:

Not a huge loss and hopefully if Bethesda do the spells right it will not be missed.

I don't really see the point of spell making with the new magic system. Purely speculation, but I think in the game there is only one fire spell that levels with your destruction skill and it's effect varies on how you use it, it was kind of ridiculous in Oblivion to have 12 different fireball spells by the time you got to a high level.

First off

There are no confirmations that spell making isnt in.

in this interview, the french (or Euro) Mag, and GI mags all he has said was its not implemented not that we aren't doing it or it isnt in.

You guys are taking reading into this a little bit too far to be honest.



Dual wielding spells does not equat to spell customization, its the same 85 spells (NOT EFFECTS) over 6 schools of magick, those spells are a handful in each school if you've played Might and Magic you would know how it feels to spam the same handful of spells over and over, if you've played any fable game you'd also realize how stale it gets with just a handful of spell spammage, both of those games are linear. what do you think will happen when an open world game has such limits on spells?

I'm going to miss custom spells. I probably won't even bother with Magic on my first playthrough this time. Anyway at least I get to do enchantments.

exactly

well said mate

I used it in MW and OB to make powerful spells that already exist in weaker versions, custom spells were there because the magic system was lame and needed it, now spells are awesome so who needs spell making ??!!

I can understand a limited spellmaking, but removal no.

I hate that now I'm going to have to cycle through a bunch of spells just to make my non-destruction&restoration magi work.