Grimrock

Hello dear Grimrockers (what a fancy name)

I wish to make a suggestion here. It's no big secret that Legend of Grimrock is a remake of all those good old games where you advanced in fields or cubes. Dungeon Master (2), Lands of Lore (1 only), you name it.

The spell system itself has some points of resemblance to Dungeon Master 2 (the one I played most extensively), and I particularly enjoy Legend of Grimrock until now. It really produces a fuzzy feeling of nostalgia in gamers who have been around long enough.

What I would like to recommend though, is to change the spell system. Unfortunately, my suggested change would require a redesign of the mages and their skill points, so I am afraid AlmostHuman will not implement it.

The change is this: Make it even more like Dungeon Master 2. I really enjoyed the spell system there, which was, as far as I can tell, still somewhat unique. In the old system, you also had these runes which you needed to combine, BUT: There was an additional setting, describing the "strength" of the spell. This was really useful since it allowed your spell casters to cast pretty much any spell, however some could only be cast very weakly, since the mage didn't have the required amount of mana and/or skill.

The current system in LoG is not as interesting by comparison. You find a spell combination, you use it, it will always have the same power, and you can only cast it after reaching a certain level. In DM2, in contrast, your success in casting a spell was more determined a bit like in a pen and paper game: The higher your skill, the higher your success rate. A weak character could (if he has enough mana), in principle cast a one-hit-kill-em-all spell in the beginning of the game, but you needed to cast it a hundred times at least before this worked. This made the game way more enjoyable and not as predictable as in LoG ("I need level 7 to cast this spell. Until then, no need to cast it anyway"). Also, it makes the specialization of the casters a bit more fluid and not as rigid as it is now. (since every specialized spell caster can cast any spell. It's just not as efficient to have a fire mage cast an ice spell, but it's still possible)

Also, there were FAR more spells like this than in LoG (since those 9 fields allow much combination). There were auras, shields, invisibility, direct attack spells, area of effect spells, spheres, guardians (which were orbs, flying around and hitting lightning bolts at your enemies), companions, spy orbs (which you could control and send around to explore for you), teleportation, etc. etc. etc. This made much cooler tactics available, and allowed you to do way cooler things.

If you need more reference, grab Dosbox, boot up Dungeon Master 2, and read up on it on GameFAQs.com. You'll get the point.

I hope to see this implemented one day or another, either through a mod (I am totally incapable of modding, unfortunately), or through a patch. I would really enjoy it. Maybe you could do it in an expansion set, I would still pay for it.

Cheers

Unknownuser wrote:The current system in LoG is not as interesting by comparison. You find a spell combination, you use it, it will always have the same power, and you can only cast it after reaching a certain level.

This is not entirely true. The part where you are in error is "it will always have the same power".

It's not as obvious as in the DM system but in LoG spell power is a combination of spell and skill level. The spell stays the same all the time but by increasing the skill level spell damage climbs.

Another difference in system is the energy usage to cast spells. In DM clicking any rune immediatly reduced your mana pool so even a rather low lvl char could (over time) cast a pretty strong spell. In LoG energy is only spend when the spell is cast.

Unknownuser wrote:Also, there were FAR more spells like this than in LoG (since those 9 fields allow much combination). There were auras, shields, invisibility, direct attack spells, area of effect spells, spheres, guardians (which were orbs, flying around and hitting lightning bolts at your enemies), companions, spy orbs (which you could control and send around to explore for you), teleportation, etc. etc. etc. This made much cooler tactics available, and allowed you to do way cooler things.

That's true but some of those spells you named are DM2 specific and did not exist in DM1. Thus you should give the developers some room to create more or new spells. Maybe we'll see some once the Editor Public Beta is over.

It will not have the same power, I already guessed as much, but the power output cannot be influenced by the player. Basically, it's just always the same with a growing multiplier.

I also wish to point out that you are in error in a small part yourself: In DM2, it wasn't enough to simply have the mana (otherwise, you could have just drank 3 potions to release a one-hitter). It's true that the mana was deducted immediately (a system I didn't enjoy, but this the developers of LoG did well). However, if your skill level was not high enough, you would often get a strange-looking graphic, which basically was meant to tell you that your character botched spell, since his character level was too low.

And of course I am giving the developers time. What else can I do? This was but a simple suggestion. I think the spell system can be made more interesting with such a system where you don't learn spells as part of your skill level.

Cheers

Unknownuser wrote:I also wish to point out that you are in error in a small part yourself: In DM2, it wasn't enough to simply have the mana (otherwise, you could have just drank 3 potions to release a one-hitter). It's true that the mana was deducted immediately (a system I didn't enjoy, but this the developers of LoG did well). However, if your skill level was not high enough, you would often get a strange-looking graphic, which basically was meant to tell you that your character botched spell, since his character level was too low.

Anyone who ever played Dungeon Master knows even when a character is able to gather the mana for Mon spells it's complete nonsense to try them at a low level i.e. Novice. There is no need to point out something so obvious.

You make some cool points.. It would be cool to "enhance" their Current spell system..