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Dorganath · 03-23-08, 10:58 AM

Without answering either way...

Mechanically, there's no difference between what we have now and what you suggest. Calling it one thing or the other for RP purposes is simple, clearly. In terms of what happens in-game when a cleric "casts" versus what a mage does, however, does boil down to a matter of game resources. Specifically, we're talking animations and visual effects.

Of course it would be really wonderful to have distinct actions/animations/visuals for every single spell/prayer action and effect. However, as with all things, they require time and investment.

If we take a look at NWN, you see there's a lot of visuals, which is appropriate. However, in terms of casting/praying, there's only a handful of animations/effects for the process itself. If for example, we had 100 spells that fit into what a "cleric" would cast (again, being skill-based, try not to consider that as a class-based comment), and we look at those spells and say, "If I was going to pray for this effect, how would it look?" probably 80% of them might have vastly different "looks". Things like various levels of healing would all more or less appear the same, but they'd be rather different from blessings and holy smites and the like.

Of course there's a goal for making things as rich as possible, but there's also going to be some things that will be more crucial to releasing the game and game play in general, and those are the things that will see the most attention.

03-23-08, 10:58 AM	#6
Dorganath Administrator Characters Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Chicago-ish Posts: 11,030 Thanks: 69 Thanked 3,614 Times in 1,771 Posts	Re: Askers vs. Weavers Without answering either way... Mechanically, there's no difference between what we have now and what you suggest. Calling it one thing or the other for RP purposes is simple, clearly. In terms of what happens in-game when a cleric "casts" versus what a mage does, however, does boil down to a matter of game resources. Specifically, we're talking animations and visual effects. Of course it would be really wonderful to have distinct actions/animations/visuals for every single spell/prayer action and effect. However, as with all things, they require time and investment. If we take a look at NWN, you see there's a lot of visuals, which is appropriate. However, in terms of casting/praying, there's only a handful of animations/effects for the process itself. If for example, we had 100 spells that fit into what a "cleric" would cast (again, being skill-based, try not to consider that as a class-based comment), and we look at those spells and say, "If I was going to pray for this effect, how would it look?" probably 80% of them might have vastly different "looks". Things like various levels of healing would all more or less appear the same, but they'd be rather different from blessings and holy smites and the like. Of course there's a goal for making things as rich as possible, but there's also going to be some things that will be more crucial to releasing the game and game play in general, and those are the things that will see the most attention.