Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Suggestions gesture based magic

In games such as Arx Fatalis (awesome 1st person RPG) and Black and White, the player draws patterns on the screen to cast magic.

In Arx, you also draw patterns on the screen to cast magic, but the patterns are multiple overlayed runes. The runes actually form a spell language, so by deciphering the runes you can find new spells (including hidden ones not revealed anywhere in the game).

I wonder how this would fair in an isometric/2D Divinity type game? Maybe it could be limited to specific (non-combat?) spells, such as recall, as in a game such as DD it may be too difficult to keep up with all the monsters. Could be fun <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

-Fabian

I don't think it would work. Divine Divinity has a heavy combat element, and because magic is not a necessity for the game, it's a bit of a waste to include that level of complexity.

I love the idea of gesture based magic, but in its place such as games where you must be a magic-user. Now you've made me want to get Arx Fatalis!

Well actually in Arx Fatalis you don't have to be a mage at all, the alternative of being a Thief for example is actually implemented like the Thief series..in other words you can finish the game with minimum killing and stealing/picklocking/sneaking. Most of the xp is based on "progressing the plot". I'd actually compare it more to Quest for Glory than the mass-killing Diablo/DD/Baldurs Gate type of RPGs.

The gesture system in Arx i'd say is fun, but it's hard to work with. There's no pause system and imagine drawing special runes when a monster is running at you. Their solution to it was memory slots to precast, but to me it led to a chore situation..you stop, pre-cast (on your own time) and then release when a battle occurs and repeat..so the actual battles were never as exciting as it could've been, even the simplest of spells can be hard to pull off in a hurry.

Either way, rightly implemented i think it can work in any game, in a 2D game, it can be like Black & White where the magician draws the patterns on the ground. So from DD viewpoint, you would go into casting mode and draw on the floor (still in 2d, no special thing required). Although the sheer amount of combat (Arx fatalis doesn't have alot of combat in comparison) make the system a bit tedious BUT if the most powerful of spells were to have such a system then it will rock. In other words, those power-word-kill type stuff that would kill things instantly etc...that will certainly increase the challenge.

Nice, no killing "PEACE", <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" /> did you say pickpocketing and lockpicking? YES! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" />

gestures suck IMO, yes they are original and innovative and interesting, but writing one gesture 3 times to get it work suck and in the case of DD, you will be dead by the time you be able to write restoration on your screen.