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Post by Anonymous on Jan 26, 2014 13:08:26 GMT -8
How about the option to set a spell for autocast? You can already have a pseudo-autocast spell by setting the spell key to something you commonly use like jump (e.g. my bunny-hop wand which casts haste), and you can probably use macros to make it even more autocasty. Another nice convenience would be making a spell have a set targeting. That way you could make your flaming ninja sword spell always strike straight in front of you, or force your water fountain of death spell to always shoot up before raining down on your foes. It would simplify a lot of the mouse management (which I find can be pretty frustrating) and make a few spell combinations much more viable.
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Laddo D
Magicmaker Developer
Magicmaker Maker
Posts: 215
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Post by Laddo D on Feb 4, 2014 22:34:51 GMT -8
First off, sorry for taking so long to reply, and thanks for posting your feedback.
I feel like this would just complicate the spell creation process with too many options and reduce the flexibility of a lot of spells. The movement pattern effects have different use cases and levels of situational effectiveness based on what direction you fire them and what other effects you combined them with. Mouse management as it currently stands adds a lot of flexibility and gives the player the ability to adapt to threats from any angle.
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Post by buildersteven4 on Jul 12, 2014 4:50:04 GMT -8
you could just make a control button in the spell making menu where you choose to control it as default, or a fixed direction/range
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Post by Anonymous on Jul 12, 2014 16:27:17 GMT -8
I actually pictured it as an "advanced" button that would switch to a menu showing the player character (and maybe a grid in magicmeters). If you wanted the spell to always aim up, you'd click above the player character in the menu and it would leave a marker there. If you wanted to aim in front of you, you'd just click in front of yourself like you were casting the spell. It would basically be aiming your spell once ahead of time.
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Post by Whoa Constrictor on Jul 14, 2014 8:28:33 GMT -8
I actually pictured it as an "advanced" button that would switch to a menu showing the player character (and maybe a grid in magicmeters). If you wanted the spell to always aim up, you'd click above the player character in the menu and it would leave a marker there. If you wanted to aim in front of you, you'd just click in front of yourself like you were casting the spell. It would basically be aiming your spell once ahead of time. My concern with this functionality is that it has a very limited use case relative to how much it could end up pissing off the player. Enemies in Magicmaker approach the player from a variety of angles- using the castle as an example, spiders fall on you from above, skeletons are on the ground, and ghosts can come from literally anywhere, even below you. If a player intentionally or (worse yet) accidentally locked their spell direction in a way that prevents them from being able to engage enemies, that's an incredibly frustrating situation. That's not fun for anyone, even the player that opted into this annoyance. Something that was an opt-in for convenience's sake becomes an inconvenience, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Anytime we introduce a mechanic that has potential to irritate the player, there's two very important questions I ask myself. 1) Can the potential negative effects of this mechanic be turned into a positive effect by working with other mechanics in the game?Example: Chaos Butterfly spells are really difficult (if not impossible) to control. But combined with Crystal Ball, they can course-correct themselves (more or less) and yield bonus damage. This makes both Chaos Butterfly AND Crystal Ball more interesting as game entities. I can't think of an existing Magicmaker element that the negatives of aim-locking could enhance. If you can think of one though, I'm all ears! 2) Can the potential negatives be avoided via player skill in a satisfying manner? Example: Siren's Seafoam causes spells to wave about, but in a very constant pattern. A player that knows their spell's path and can "feel out" where it will curve can feel good about themselves by skillfully hitting enemies despite the wave. This one is somewhat debatable. Is approaching enemies from a specific angle every time skillful? Some people might say so, but I disagree. I define skill as excellence in both knowledge and execution of a game's elements and systems. A player would be opting out of being adaptable, which is a very important tenant to Magicmaker's design. |
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Post by Anonymous on Jul 15, 2014 17:21:40 GMT -8
You bring up a lot of great points. I wouldn't want to be exploring a new area, only to discover partway through that I need to leave just because some enemies are much harder to hit with my aim lock. Especially since it should be so easy for an actual wizard to just point their dang wand right. And I can imagine someone resetting their game because of an annoying "bug" that happened after playing with advanced spells and that didn't go away when changing materials. The first issue could be remedied by making a player press or hold a key to switch between aim lock and free aim. But then you'd need to include some tutorial to explain how that works, which I guess would be best on the "advanced" menu as text? The second could be somewhat remedied by putting an "aim lock" block above your health bar with all the other status effects. Though there's no guarantee that a player will notice it, even if you made it as obvious as possible. I guess you could also include a big warning when the player clicks the "advanced" button that says any weird changes they make can be reversed by resetting their spell (or pressing a "reset advanced" button? Would that be too many buttons?).
I can see that this would be harder to implement well than I originally thought. It may be too difficult to implement without it being intrusive to be worth implementing at all. I'll still enjoy playing magicmaker without aim lock, and unless someone else brings aim lock up again I won't be bringing it back up. But since you asked, I may as well give you an idea of where I thought it would work with the game:
1. Explosive powders with ninja sword creates an extremely powerful area of effect spell that works wonders in the desert. I usually try to aim it straight down so it hits the ground and actually explodes instead of harmlessly disappearing.
2. Repulsor energy set to shoot behind you for a great speed boost. If you're trying to get somewhere fast, you're probably too occupied to aim your mouse behind your character.
3. Sticky slime + illusion dust + aiming directly below = split shot to left and right. It has to be very accurately aimed. I haven't found any practical use for it other than making cool-looking spells. I guess it could be combined with harpy feather if the player is surrounded.
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Post by Whoa Constrictor on Jul 16, 2014 8:51:36 GMT -8
You pretty much hit the nail on the head. A toggle aimlock is technically better, but it still has a ton of player training overhead and is a UI/messaging nightmare. I can't imagine a situation where it isn't clunky and cluttering the crafting menus with buttons that <1% of players would find use for.
True, but if this is your primary offense you'd always have the cursor below you anyway. Since your spells are the only game element that concern themselves with the mouse's position, you could mimic the aim lock by just resting the cursor below you and not moving it.
If you're only concerned with going somewhere fast, then aiming your propulsion spell should be the only thing you're doing with your mouse. I would consider this a situation where aimlock would be the least useful, actually.
Sticky slime is another material that I feel benefits from aiming versatility. Re: toggle aimlock, this is a situation where precision aiming would be useful... but it would be much easier if we just fix the sticky slime code so achieving this effect is more forgiving.
I appreciate the examples, and I feel this is an important discussion about what kind of things players want or expect out of spellcasting.
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