It only took a couple weeks but I lost steam on my dabbling. I get irked at working around someone else's systems and keep wanting to re-write hardcoded functions. Not being able to prevents me from getting too invested.
That aside, I had some basic outlines for what I was planning to rework. Figured I'd put them here in case you (or anyone) wanted some ideas.
Magic: In general, I disliked how specific each magic was. I sought to create a couple more types of magic, allowing each to deal damage in their own way. I also changed the attribute requirements so they weren't all INT/WIS. I ended up using elements for categories which I'll admit is far from original or interesting, but it kinda worked. The idea was also to make each class of magic have the same skillpoint requirement, being fairly high. Here's some (rough) notes on what I came up with:
Arcane - (INT/WIS) - Strong focus on traditional magics and manipulations
Knock - Lock
Imbue - Improve
Mental Tether - ManaBond
Recharge = ManaRenewal=5
Mark - WarpMemorize
Warp - Warp
Magic Missile - Range=5,Life=-10
<Buff> - Strength=5,Dexterity=5,Quickness=5
Blood Magic - (INT/DEX) - Low-Medium range, steal/necro
Life Leech - LifeSteal=5, Range=3
Stamina Leech - StaminaSteal=5, Range=3
Mana Leech - ManaSteal=5, Range=3
Bone Golem - GolemItem=Corpse,GolemMonster=Bone Golem
Flesh Golem - GolemItem=Corpse,GolemMonster=Flesh Golem
EssenceSteal?
<Buff> - Quickness=10,Strength=5
Conversion - Life=-20,ManaRenewal=10
Store = Life=-30,SpawnItem=Blood Bag
Air Magic - (INT/QUICK) - Focus on longer range ** needs more ideas
Mental Burden - ManaRenewal=-5
<Buff> - Dexterity=10,Strength=5
Blast - Life=-10,Range=6,
Earth Magic - (INT/STR) - Close range spike damage, armor buff/debuff
Stoneskin - Quickness=-25,Armor=5,35/10,40/20
Sand - Blind=-10
Shatter - Life=-5,Armor=-3
<Buff> - Dexterity=10,Quickness=5
Stalagmite - Range=1,Life=-15
Fissure - Range=1,SpawnItem=Fissure,SpawnItemQty=1
Transmute - Range=1,TransformFrom=Ore,TransformTo=Ore
Water Magic - (WIS/DEX) - Slightly more support/control focused
Frozen Touch - Ice=-10
Cleansing Wave - Blind=+10
Refresh - Mana=20
Steam Cloud - SpawnItem=Steam Cloud,SpawnItemQty=9
<Buff> - Quickness=5,Strength=10
Nature Magic - (WIS/QUICK) - Focus on indirectly dealing damage, some support
Brambles - SpawnItem=Bramble Patch,SpawnItemQty=9
Summon Lifespring - SpawnItem=Lifespring,SpawnItemQty=1
Growth - TransformFrom=Sapling,TransformTo=Tree
<Buff> - Dexterity=5,Strength=10
Holy Magic - (WIS/STR) - <combined fire+holy>
Flamepunch - Life=-10, DamageType=Fire, Range=1
Cleansing Flames - Life=-20,PoisonCure=5,Ice=5
Rebirth - Life=-40,LifeRenewal=5
Holy Light - SpawnItem=Holy Light,SpawnItemQty=1
<Buff> - Dexterity=5,Quickness=10
The idea was to allow for more combinations of "classes", promoting mixing magic with other skills. I had hoped I could find a way to allow players to attack with a "Wand" type weapon, allowing them to do a regular attack and cast spells with the same item. Without that, the idea is less appealing. Even so, Blood/Water could be favored by rogues and Earth/Holy could be favored by warriors. Trying to promote synergies. There is also a much stronger focus on "utility" magics, trying to allow every type to do more than just hurt and heal.
A note on blood magic summoning: Was going to have monsters drop corpses which decayed quickly. However, a blood magic user could make use of these corpses, raising them as undead. I did not plan to have every monster drop a unique corpse which, when raised, would yield an undead version of that monster, however I believe it would be possible. I was simply going to have generic summons.
I had also replaced the typical "runes", favoring instead reagents found throughout the world. These would not be craftable items, making magic use a little different. Some would come in the form of plants.
I also sought to re-work weapons into different categories but didn't come up with a good categorization.
Other random ideas I had
- Treasure Chest "Monster". Does not attack or move, simply defined as a "monster" to take advantage of the loot tables that cannot be defined for items.
- Several (20) "container" items all of the same name. Every monster would have a small chance to drop one, then an even smaller chance to get a GOOD one. Each of these items can be used by hand, opened to give the player a reward. Most commonly, small amount of useful items. Very rarely a high quality item. Non-stackable so there's no way to tell them apart. Could be used as a commodity as well as a fun loot item.
- Considered adding some more advanced animations to trees, simulating leaf movement. Not sure if it would have worked at all. Would have needed about 3 images for each tree of each type of each size, and around 5 items to each utilize a different animation.
Anyways, you probably have your own ideas for how stuff should be done, but I'd be much more inclined to help knowing it wouldn't all fall to me if you wanted it.