If I find out I can't make spells, and that all spells are "whole" spells and "spell effects" are gone, I'm not buying the game. That would be a deal breaker for me. The ONE and ONLY THING that made TES stand out in my mind from other games was its fluid and highly flexible magic system. 99% of other RPGs have preset spells that you can't change or manipulate. TES' "spell effect" system and ability to almost limitlessly mix and match magical effects to make truly unique spells was one of the very top things on my very small list of things that made the series amazing to me. To do away with this system would spell the final doom of TES series and its final assimilation into pop-culture fantasy. I think I would die inside.
Honestly, I can't agree there, I've always found spells in the Elder Scrolls extremely boring. "Unlimited" customization sounds great on paper, but in past Elder Scrolls games, this so called "customization" means being able to create spells that do the exact same thing as generic spells, just with different strength, duration, area of effect, and such, or combining different, but still generic effects, which meant that custom made spells never really felt special, just like versions of generic spells slightly modified to better suit my needs. And this wouldn't be so bad if the premade spells didn't have to suffer for it, but they do, I believe that the generic and boring spells of the Elder Scrolls series are primarily a result of spell making. It forced Bethesda to come up with a spell system that would make it easy to create your own custom spells, which resulted in different spells never really feeling like unique spells, but just slightly different variations of the exact same spell. Contrast to... oh, pretty much every other fantasy RPG I've played with decent magic. In such games, each individual spell feels unique unto itself, and if removing spell making from the Elder Scrolls could allow for more unique spells, I'd gladly do away with it.
Now, I'm not saying spell making is in itself a bad idea. If Bethesda can find a way to keep spell making in the game without sacrificing the diversity of spells, then I'd be very pleased, but if Bethesda were to remove spell making, and as a result, could make the spells in the game seem more varied, I wouldn't miss it.
In any case, spell making is really not a major aspect of what makes the Elder Scrolls what it is to me, the open world, character creation, "Learn by doing" skill system, and such, do a lot more to define the series than something that won't even effect me if I play a character who doesn't use magic.
Purchasing spells though I'm fine with, after all, you need to learn spells somehow, and if magic is reletively common in a setting, it seems perfectly logical to me that someone would get the idea of teaching other people spells for profit. Though it might also make sense to include some alternate methods of acquiring spells, like maybe some high level spells could be gained instead by reading certain rare books, or as a reward for completing certain quests, or something. After all, warriors can get their armor and weapons by exploring dungeons, so why should mages only be able to get new spells by buying them from people?
In any case, Bethesda has not said that spell making won't be in or that the means by which spells are acquired has changed, nor have they said it will, so right now, we can only wait and see. The fact that they were designing a sound effect for a specific spell doesn't mean anything, maybe Bethesda just made it so stronger versions of the same spell effects get different visual or sound effects from weaker versions or something, that would actually be nice as it might help to slightly reduce the monotony of the spells in past games.
Why would they allow a warrior,assassin etc to make their own weapons,but not let mages make their own spells,does'nt make sense to me,trust me spell making will be in.
That's a bit different. Because spell making in past games was actually creating your own custom spells, you chose the effects of you spell, the strength, duration, whether it was on touch, on target, or on self, and such, thus creating a unique spell that you would not see for sale or used by NPCs, albeit one that was based on the same generic effects of the premade spells. Now for smithing, I highly doubt you'll actually be able to make your own custom weapons. It will probably be like in most other games that I've played which have smithing in them, in that you can just make items that you could also find in loot, though maybe there will be some special items that can only be made by smithing, but I doubt you're going to be actually choosing your weapon's appearance and its damage and naming it and so on, so it's not the same as spell making, and doesn't tell us anything.
Now, the presence of echanting is stronger evidence, because, if enchanting works like in past games, then its presence would require that magic can be reduced to a number of basic effects, but it's still not definite as we don't know how enchantment actually works at this time, and if enchantments do work like in past games, that doesn't mean the spell system has to be the same as all you need to make a sword that burns enemies when you hit them with it is a fire damage effect, you don't need to take into account the ways this fire damage effect can be applied to enemies, it doesn't necessarily require that the spells themselves be designed in a way that makes them easy to customize.
» Tue May 10, 2011 5:46 pm 
bliviongate: 