The idea is to dump the "Target/Touch/Self" on spells altogether: what the spell becomes depends on how you cast it. If you simply tap the cast button, it's a "self" spell. If you hold it, it's a "target" spell if there's no one in front of you at melee distance, a "touch" spell otherwise. To prevent accidental goofups, you can set on each spell a "only self/only other" parameter that won't let you use it wrong (these parameters would be set by default for some spells like Destruction spells).

The advantages gained:

• A much less cluttered spell list as you don't need two/three seperate spells for different scenarios.
  
• More space in the quick menu as you can, f. e. use the same spell to heal yourself and your allies.
  
• A rebalance of mages - they're now just as strong at melee distance as they are at long range, not stronger (touch spells cost less magicka for the same potency in Oblivion).
  
• Save money on buying spells - you get 2/3 spells for the price of one.
  
• You can use magic in creative ways without having to spend extra money on spellmaking. Example: you can use your Disitegrate Armor spell on yourself to get something to practice smithing on quickly.

Like? Or hate?

Nah, most spells you'd want to put on yourself you wouldn't want to put on others and vice versa. As for target/touch, isn't touch just target except cheaper and without the range? You'd be increasing the cost of the touch spell while doing the same thing as a target spell.

Every single restoration spell is useful on yourself and on others, not sure what you are talking about, sir.

Well not every one, absorb isn't much use on yourself, and I've very rarely found much need to heal others. The vast majority of the time you will be versing an enemy, so you're not going to want to heal it or to use fire damage on yourself.

Not to mention some alteration and mysticism spells as well.

I think it's a rather good idea. However, the spell cost issue could cause some problems, as mentioned earlier

I am used to absorb being a mysticism skill in Morrowind. I don't care how often you engage in poetry with enemies, but if you have followers all the restoration spells would be useful on target.

I see no problem with a dynamic spell cost. Why can't it change cost depending on how it's cast?

It is an interesting idea but exactly how long of a hold are we talking here? I usually fire off a flurry of destruction spells as fast as possible so I don't want to dike up my timing and make my Altmer (elemental weakness) need skin grafts from my epic Apotheosis spell (33 frost fire and shock damage each).

Also didn't they say there were going to be more than 3 ways to cast most spells this time? I think it was in the GI article.

Edit: I would rather move fire frost and shock into one effect called Elemental Damage. That way we could free up two spell effects from the 85 possible and still have the 3 unique spells. It would make it like Absorb Skill but instead of choosing what skill to absorb it lets you choose what elemental effect to cast. Could do the same thing with Weakness to Fire, Frost, and Shock.

i think its a great idea for the 360, push the button harder for target and softer for self spells.

The idea is good. The sistem seems good also and could be inplemented in other ways (different buttons, a button to switch, the hand where is equiped...)

I kinda like it
there could be a lot of mess ups with this though, like what if I was casting a deadly fire spell on someone, but I cast it on myself by mistake, I am now a pile of smoldering ashes

This would bring finally to magic system, the impredictability and danger that is mentioned in lore.

1. True, it is less cluttered, but actually casting the spells takes much more effort now.
2. If I'm healing allies (almost never), then I can take the time to open the menu and click the spell.
3. :facepalm: They did it that way for a reason.
4. No, they'll make spells 3x more expensive.
5. See #3

You've got a point. However, I get the feeling that the spell might feel a bit cluttery with 3 different settings, mana cost, etc.

I would prefer three different buttons, or at least the oppurtunity to configure it to three different buttons. Playing a high-level mage and having it depend on how long you hold down a button would be pretty dangerous.

Love the idea otherwise. Makes magic a bit more versatile and intuitive.

By holding down the key, you could maybe 'charge up' the spell power to cause more damage / heal more. Then, instead of learning like 30 damage spells, you could practice each basic spell type to increase the maximum damage and make the charging up go faster.

I'd prefer chargeable spells, and spells that get enhanced with higher versions.

Less clutter in your spell book because a better fireball spell replaces the existing one.

Quick taps for low-powered rapid fire spells, hold the button to charge more powerful slower moving spells. More strategy involved.

edit: whoops, gotta remember to refresh when tab browsing.

The increase in magicka from Touch to Target range is a constant multiplier, however. And Self and Touch are the same cost, as far as I know. So the spell could simply show the normal cost for Touch range, and if the player really wants to micromanage that much, he can just calculate the increase himself.

I recently made a mod for myself that did exactly this in Oblivion. However, it doesn't work so well with Oblivion's system, but I'm sure it would work perfectly in Skyrim, thanks to dual-wielding.
My idea was to use the Block button for switching to Target range, which works pretty well. You could even implement a zooming perk, like the one for Marksman in Oblivion. Only the Self range thing is problematic, because it does slow you down a bit if tapping/holding needs to be checked everytime. Wouldn't be a problem if the game could figure this out while it was already playing its casting animation, but then they'd all have to start with the same animation and then abruptly change to the Self/Touch/Target animation.

Actually a spell could have a default range, but you could change it to one of the others by pressing a special control. Or maybe two buttons, one for Self and one for switching between Touch/Target, just to be on the safe side. V and B would be perfect if C is still for casting, for example.
Then we could have the best of both worlds - only one spell for all ranges, and holding down the casting button could increase the charge.

Not a fan of this, I don't want to have to consider how I click the mouse button everytime I wanna cast a spell..
To clarify, I wouldn't mind charging certain spells, but to have the effect change dependong in whether i tab it or hold it would be extremely annoying

/me casts charm on himself... :wacko:

1/5 to 1/2 of a second, i.e. half the duration of the casting animation.