Don't discourage discussion here, some of us are interested in this project but aren't able to idle in irc for hours on end.
Anyway, while playing with
milkdrop one day I had an idea for a magic system that was more like a scripting system.
You could invent a simple writing system, not nessisarily alphabetic, maybe logographic, in which each symbole (word, command) has a cost (ofcourse some might have no cost, depending on the design)
For low level magic casters the spells will all be pretty generic, if you can only cast two point spells then you can't be too overly creative, Throw Fire, Fire Throw... your spell is gonna be about the same no matter what.
But as people gain experience, they can learn new words/symbols and gain the ability to string more words together in a single spell.
A melee combat player who uses magic may only know enough to enchant thier weapon with fire, or a simple healing spell. Where as a magic player may know howto create a consistant wall of fire, then a higher level player may be able to create such a wall then move it, sending it spinning off into the distance.
This sort of system could also allow for both temporary and semi-permanent enchantments. A wizard could speak a spell and it would be cast, but then they could engrave a spell on a shield (pitty the poor fool who mistypes an engraved spell on thier expensive rare shield
) and that shield could have permanent effects (possibly draining the mana power of its user in the process)
Oh, and no, the spell wouldn't be typed as you cast it, you'd do something like bind a spell you pre-made to a key then later press that key to cast it.
Anyway, its just an idea I thought would be neat, but I just haven't had the time or the motivation to write an entire game just to test out said idea. So I present it here. Like the idea? If people are interested I could start putting together a simple framework/example of it.
Oh yah, and as I said in the clothes/job sprites topic. I dont think the world needs another game with a rigid class/job system. The only thing stopping someone who plays with magic thier whole life from wearing chainmail is thier physical strength. They may just be strong enough to wear it all day, and so they should be able to. If it just happens to reduce thier agility and play havok with thier spellcasting, so be it. But the limitation shouldn't be that they have "Job: Mage" written on a peice of paper in thier back pocket...