Some of you may know, there is a certain point in the game where a certain NPC wants to evaluate your ability to cast a certain spell. She does this.. by having you cast it. The funny thing to me is, if I know the spell, then it's 100% guaranteed that I'll cast it. In the game lore, apparently, casting a spell is not such a simple matter all the time and clearly at least some people must have a hard time with it. However, for you and me it's just "click."

So I had this thought, what if there was actually something we had to do to cast a spell? Or maybe only had to do it a few times, until the spell was "mastered" and we could cast it with a click? I hate mini-games, generally when they interrupt your play, so I'm not thinking anything like that. The only thing that came to mind was tracing out a "rune" shape with the mouse before you hit the cast button. With a controller joystick, it could be a combo pattern where you move the stick around a certain way then hit cast.

I used to play an old N64 snowboarding game that had something like this. In order to do a particular "trick" when you jumped, you had to flail the controller joystick around in this certain pattern, then hit a button or two. It could be done extremely quickly, as you had to in order to make the jump, so I'm not worried about it taking 5 seconds to cast a spell in combat or something. However, it was actually a bit tricky to do, and it took a while to master the jumps so that you could do them with regularity. Even then, there was always a chance of screwing up.

Games these days seem to have lost that sense of skill. There's literally no chance of me screwing anything up. And I suppose... in all honesty that's more the point of this thread. So there ya have it.

spell attempt has failed...loading.

nvm go buy a wii

I'm not talking about a random chance to fail. That would be ... stale. I'm referring to something that would be in the player control. Something that they had to actually do.

Morrowind had the random fails. It was terrible.

Are you saying that you want The Elder Scrolls V: Dawn of Sorrow?

Because I certainly don't. Why do I have to draw a rune whenever I want to cast a spell just because I just learned it? Just so my flow of action in a battle can be broken?

Being a mage is hard enough already, what with having to split health and magicka, and having to run around while casting spells. If I have to trace a rune the first few rimes I have to cast it, I'd rather make it a requirement to actually be able to equip it in the first place.

And it would fit in a world without spell-making, yes.

my only problem is switching from flesh to destruction to resto is bad enough especially when you need the resto. I just see players smashing consoles over it.

I don't know what Dawn of Sorrow is. But that's not the point. You are reading my post as "Let's take the existing magic system and make it even harder to cast spells!" That's not what I'm saying at all.

You could properly balance it. If a spell takes appx 3 times longer to cast, then make it do 4 times as much damage (magic could be stronger anyway). I'm just saying wouldn't it be nice if we had a system, that was properly balanced, but that actually involved an element of effort from the player? Right now magic is just point and click. Compared to some older games, that seems a little ... bland.

http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/reviews/large/castledos_006-large.jpg

In that game, you trace a magic rune to open boss doors.

You're saying that "before the spell bursts out of my hand, I need to do something", right? Kind of like that ninja seal hand gestures in Naruto, or that waving wand gestures from Harry Potter

I call no. I don't have time to do some kind of tracing minigame to cast a spell. When I'm bored, perhaps, but certainly not mid battle.

It would be different if I play with hands, not mouse and keyboard, but that's the problem

No I think this idea has potential. think about it, if you have nothing better to do than hit a series of keys and stand in one place what better way to do this then make it interactive for world of warcraft. Sometimes I wonder why paper rock scissors is so fun?

Keyboard keys would work, or numpad keys. I'm just remembering my jump from n64 snowboarding being something like L, R, L, R, A. Or U, L, D, R, U, A. Doing it ridicufastly would result in a cool trick when you jumped.

I kinda like the idea. For a basic fireball, just run the mouse in a circle once, clockwise or something as you click. Mess up, and it won't fire. Get it right, and poof!

I agree that the whole "not letting you through until you cast this spell" kinda falls flat on its face as a skill check before allowing College membership, but I don't think casting a spell should be any more difficult than pressing the button.

What should have been done instead would be a series of skill checks before admission into/advancement in the guilds. In other words, there should be a minimum "total magic skill pool" that you have to meet before you can hit each rank in the College. That is, you should have at least a certain total across all your magic skills.

E.g. to join the college, you need to have a total of 150 across the 6 magic skills. This could be done by having 75 in Alteration then 15 in the rest, or by having 25 in each of the 6 magic schools. Then, to rank up once you'd need 200, then to rank up again you'd need 250, and so on.

where do you get more advanced spells. I thought it was at the college but all I can seem to find is apprentice level.

I'd rather like the idea that you have to trace a magical rune in order to learn a magic, not just absorb the text like it's a dragon soul

But certainly not when I'm about to cast said spell

Eeeh. I've been edging back and forth on this question basically since Morrowind. I like the idea of making magic relevant to advancing in the magic guild, unlike now where you can become Arch-Mage by swinging your War Axe.

However, I'm not sure how to do it. Maybe spell casting tests is the right way. Just make the spells harder to get and cast. You can't advance until you can at least cast fire blast (or whatever) and you have to go learn the spell, get the magicka to do it, and get the skill ups to cast it.

My Wado Ryu class used to be like this, you couldn't advance until you passed minimum sparring challenges with the instructors, regardless of how well you were testing in technique.

I actually miss the chance of a spell failing. As odd as that may sound.

Pressing buttons or drawing a rune sounds like a neat way to "train" on spells, but I'd prefer the simple hit/miss chance based on your skills like in Morrowind. Not for physical battles, no that won't work in modern games. Not that I'd mind a new way to play. It might actually work.

Yea, I hear this. It would be a pain when using it in battle I suppose. Still though, learning and training the skill via some sort of player action/puzzle/game would be fascinating, if done right.