That's why i don't like magic in this game
knight1337
Member Posts: 32
Lets say you are a sorcerer, and you want to cast one level 9 spell.
-Pause the game
-Click the "Cast Spell Icon" on the action bar
-Click the "next->" arrow
-Click the "next->" arrow
-Click the "next->" arrow
-Click the "next->" arrow ONCE AGAIN (lol)
-Click the spell you want and cast it.
Too much work to cast one spell.
What if you want to cast 3 level 9, 2 level 8 and 3 level 7 spells?
-Pause the game
-Click the "Cast Spell Icon" on the action bar
-Click the "next->" arrow
-Click the "next->" arrow
-Click the "next->" arrow
-Click the "next->" arrow ONCE AGAIN (lol)
-Click the spell you want and cast it.
Too much work to cast one spell.
What if you want to cast 3 level 9, 2 level 8 and 3 level 7 spells?
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Comments
Although I must say, it is very annoying that in EE there are gaps in your list of spells. What up with that?
Alllllll of the spells... All of them.
Absolute rubbish!
"Just suck it up!", "Don't play Casters!", etc!
The OP has a point, and I really think everyone knows it. I really HATE the spellcasting system of BG. It is wearisome to buff, buff, buff from up to 6 different sources! Then rest, repeat!
GAHHHHHH!
There *are* ways to make spellcasting easier and better, of course! They could have included a lot more quickslots - just press shift, and a new "bank" appears, that you can load with spells, for example (ala NWN). Heck, tie it in with the Numpad for spell speed-dialing (ala NWN). Or use a quickspell menu ala NWN2.
Yes, it would require a UI modification. But I really do not think it would be all that hard, especially not with a game that is as old and primitive as BG is.
There is a great little item for NWN and for NWN2 - the Rod of Spellstoring/Casting and Rod of Party Buffing. It allows one to create your buffs all in one neat little button. Press, poof!
Such as that could have been done for BG, you know. You have 3! Quickslots, right? So why not just make it so that one can put as many spells as one likes in ONE quickslot, from different sources (not just spells, but also items?). Like a Queue. Now you have 3 different slots to put different spell buffs for different occassions/encounters in, instead of just ONE spell.
Press, bam! You still have to wait the time, but at least you can be doing some other things while it is doing it's thing, right? Like sip coffee, answer IM, pick your nose...whatever.
This is why I don't play sorcerers. Mages can just spam memo one spell for each level so you can scroll past them faster.
I keep telling myself they weren't allowed to change this to something more modern. It BETTER be the case.
Then it is just a matter of scripting.
Can one attach the Spell Sequencer to an item in BG? Perhaps someone good at Modding BG could create something similar...
The Devs could, of course.
Voice recognition.
Telepathic link.
Go figure!
especially the endless buffing sessions which need to be done properly (spell choice, sequence etc.) it's a game within a game!
*bleh*
As you level up, the sequence of button presses gets more and more complicated...finger yoga, anyone?
I did think that it would be nice to have a short-cut that did my usual routine automatically. I like the complexity of the magic system, but it does get a bit tedious at times.
Edit: I mitigated the issue somewhat by using sequencers as an emergency reserve (realistic rest rules) when facing a really tough battle, so didn't use them often, which meant that I normally only needed to set them up at the end of a boss battle.
Swords for EVERYONE.
The only solution to teh clicking nightmare i've ever been able to think of is the following:
- add a toggleable two- or three-row sidebar (right or left side, selectable) containing **all spell and special ability buttons combined** (spells, item special abilities, class/char special abilities, temporary special abilities)
- it could be in the same visual style as quickloot and the toggle button could also be the same, maybe blue or green this time around. the button could sit on the right side of the log as opposed to the ql button.
- the feature will be called quickabilities and have it's own hotkey too ofc.
- upon quickabilities toggle-on, the normal hotkeys are suspended and replaced with quickabilities hotkeys alphabetically corresponding to each button - so that the first spell would be (a) etc.
- these hotkeys would actually be displayed on-screen, next to the button boxes, relatively discretely
- spells are cast and abilities activated either by clicking the button or pressing the alphabetical hotkey
- when the spell/ability is used up, the box remains empty and the hotkey unused so that the alphabetical sequence and spatial layout would be preserved
this would reduce the amount of mouse clicking by ~73% and all required inputs by ~38%.
edit: a sidebar is better because today's displays have a lot of usable horizontal space
also, maybe add numbers to the alphabetical order, before or after the letters. the number of spells and abilities combined will well exceed 30 for some characters; select characters via mouse.
It takes time and effort to cast the right spell at the right time.
*click button*
*eat potato chip*
Yup, time and effort, no doubt about it.
Press F for Quickcast, click spell, click target. Done.
Though the DnD games are meant to be played with the pause button.
Though the UI in all the infinity games except IWDII is just unintuitive.