Looks like it will make a comeback. Yippi :celebration:

losing on touch spells would be hard, but seing them substituted by sensitive targeting would be awfull. I wan't to be able to attack exactly where I wan't, not a 'wonderful' AI deciding where it seems I want to attack.

Stop being so damned pessimistic. You aren't going to want to use a ranged attack when the enemy is within touch distance, so what's the problem? Do you think that it's going to use a touch spell instead of a ranged spell when the enemy in your crosshair is 30 feet away?

This is gamesas, they aren't exactly new at this programming stuff, dude.

Well, I'm sure any auto targeting/ context sensitve stuff will be better than in Risen. That svcked, hard. I thought the auto targeting in the Fable Games wasn't too bad for third player perspective.

I'd be quite happy if a fireball I originally wanted to cast as a fireball became a touch fire attack on my attacker, with the reduced cost to boot!

This I like. "enchant" your hands to do magicka damage on each strike.

The article seems to indicate that you actively choose your spell effect.

It shouldn't be "damage on touch" it should be "magic damage on punch"

if you can punch with your magic hand (destruction), you should be able to do elemental/magic damage with it.

Agreed. I also seem to remember from a podcast that you can charge spells by holding down the button. So my problem with magic is how you might have 15 different fire spells; Different power, touch vs. target vs. now rune. I want one fire spell. How this could be done.

Fire spell
Power/damage based on perks, destruction level, willpower and length of time button is held before casting.
You cast while on the ground looking down it becomes a fire rune
You cast while touching someone it is on touch and cost less magicka
Other wise cast is ranged.

The more a spell is charged the more magika it consumes and higher rate of fail.
Failure ranges form spell fizzing out to epic fail, you just burnt your fine new robe and maybe more.

This would add a lot of game play such that a rouge with low destruction could consume all his magika in a last ditch fire or heal spell. Probably won't work but there would be a chance. On the opposite side a high level mage dedicated to fire and destruction perks could blast fire balls left and right. This would make managing spells so much easier IMO.

The article seems to hint that the different varieties of casting say, a fire spell, would be managed in the way you the player manipulate the controls.

From Gameinformer:

"One of the more alluring changes to the spellcasting in Skyrim is how you can employ spells in different ways. For instance, you could blast enemies with a flame ball from afar, hold the button down to wield the spell like a flame thrower, place a rune on the ground to create an environmental trap that spontaneously combusts when an enemy steps on it, or equip the spell with both hands to deliver high damage fireball attacks that drain your magicka reserves quickly. The shock and frost spells give players an equal amount of flexibility."


I'm reading that just tapping the cast button (likely the left or right trigger, or LMB or RMB for pc gamers like me; based on the system of 'equipping' a spell in each hand) will throw a flame ball, holding the trigger will cast a continuous stream of fire like a flamethrower (likely draining your magicka reserves as you hold down), and equiping the spell as a 'twohanded' weapon will result in an awesome high power fireball attack that is very magicka intensive.

Runes I'm guessing will be something you fabricate beforehand, but it is unknown how this will be handled. At the very least, it would require knowledge of the spell, and likely a magicka cost to bind the power of the spell into the rune. Might possibly require some sort of base resource to etch a magicka rune on (as a means of limiting the use of runes). If runes are fairly easy to produce on a large scale, I'm guessing they will be more of a distraction/harrasment tool, than a viable means of killing your foes.

It's unclear as to what the differences are between a long range 'flame ball' and a high damage 'fireball' attack is. I'm guessing that the 'flame ball' is just your standard ranged fireball attack, while the two handed 'fireball' is really the flaming area attack around the caster (that we could see in the official trailer)


Now, a really suave spell system would include different spells that could be cast in different ways based on how the player used the controls (already going to happen). But, instead of buying or learning a higher damage fire spell, you 'improve' your existing one by becoming more skilled in the skill destruction, by casting that particular spell a lot, or by earning/unlocking Perks. Instead of a spellbook littered with a bunch of lower level spells that your high level mage not longer finds useful, you just have a few spells that get better as you use them and grow in magical ability. 85 diferent spells doesn't seem like a whole lot compared to Oblivion, but if you can cast most of them in the number of ways you can cast a fire spell, that's a lot of variety.

In short, Skyrim's spellcasting sounds to be quite interesting, and in regards to the OP, the addition (or confirmation) of context sensitive spells (to determine if they are touch or not) would be awesome.