Reagents should be removed, they are a double penalty.

So much this. If you get down to the brass tacks magic can't be any more effective than weapons for balance reasons so it shouldn't require more time and inventory space to use in battle either. Just because someone uses magic instead of a pole-arm doesn't mean they should have half the gold available for other things like a home, decorations or crafting. I doubt it would be that extreme, but it makes the point.

 

I say add reagent cost to every single spell and decrease the cost of reagents....

 

Just remember, there are lots of old timers in these forums who "grew up" on using reagents in other games and Ultima Online. Don't take it personally or too seriously. Some people just don't like change.

Since I've played many, many games as a mage that does not use reagents, I agree, it seems completely unnecessary. If they require you to carry a staff to cast, that's all that should be required. Swords & sheilds and two handed weapons don't require reagents.

As for bows really needing arrows, I've also played lots of games as an archer that automatically come equipped with arrows. It should not be a penalty to wield a bow or magic staff.

It's not fair that a mage can run out of reagents in battle but someone who carries a weapon doesn't run out of their weapon. Maybe it's time to think outside the UO box.

Potions are another matter. Everyone would need reagents to make potions.

 

You mean like buying houses for real life cash, rather than earning it in a game?

Why is not wanting to spend in-game gold for reagents asking for an entitlement MMO? That would mean every single sword fighter only wants a basic entitlement since they don't have to carry reagents.

 

Balance, balance, balance.
The power must equal with the cost, but if a mage has high DPS (because the high cost) and a similar level warrior has low DPS (because the low cost) then balance falls towards the mages, so then reagents should be rather cheap/common.

Some way must exist for them, 'cause interesting reagents (like the ones in Ultima) are great to have. They excited me especially in Ultima IX, whenever I found some anywhere (a mandrake root at the end of a far away route, some garlic stacked in an out of the way tree stump). Though, they are indeed not THAT interesting if they are just ammo like in Ultima VII. They should be hand picked/assembled to create something with them (potions in Ultima IX, necromancy bags in Ultima VIII). It's just great in Ultima IV and V, as you "mix" them into spells. Just imagine crumbling a ginseng, a garlic and a black pearl in your hands till they turn into glowing musk and a spell appears in your head...

 

I didnt read all the posts, so sorry if this idea is totally out of place.

What if scribes could craft a magic scroll with reagents and paper as materials and that scroll is required to cast a certain spell? You should be able to collect the scrolls on a magic book (equipable) to cast and see how many charges of a certain spell you have.

What would be the advantage of a scroll based system to cast spells?
It would be easier to manage how many "charges" of a certain spell you have.
It opens the possibility to create book with special abilities (potency to a certain spell tree, for example)
It would be easier for a player coming from a modern MMO to adapt.

 

Another method could be letting you enchant a staff with spell charges or reagents.

 

What I come back to is, it is far more friendly to the devs if they make regs easier to obtain later verses easy now & harder later. 1-3 per harvest now is likely the base amount gathered, when you have 50 skill points in gathering + a sharp gathering tool, getting 30-50 would not be outrageous IMO

 

If people insist on requiring reagents, this is a great idea (and the charged book that Akro suggested).

But, something just gnaws at me, that warriors don't have to enchant their weapon or use a book in order to swing it.

 

They're already planning to put charged staff and wand enchantments in the game... Its been mentioned before.

 

The repair cost if weapons will be looked at, I understand that this will form part of the balance.

 

We could make staves require repair as well. Or a magic book of spells require replenishing.

 

Staves if used as a melee weapon by the mage would need repair. The magic would only need to be re-charged.

 

Well right now both the Staff and Wand are useless so I hope they add something to them. They give you a pathetically weak ranged attack that doesn't scale with stats at the cost of most of your focus regeneration, which is a terrible trade-off. I think they should make them add to your focus regeneration rate or lower the focus cost of your spells or some other benefit specific to casters to give them a reason to pick them over melee weapons or bows.

 

No, they should not be removed! Finding them is fun.

 

One of the saddest times in UO was when they developed LRC suits.

Nothing wrong with regs other than they should be cheaper to buy and easier to harvest in greater quantity.

 

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/magic-combat-and-crafting-skills.3937/

For my part, I've argued that armor and weapons -- save for weapons designed for mages -- should only have limited types of enchantments. This would make wands and staves and mage blades (athames, etc) much more flexible as magic implements and not give fighters too much power by simply having an enchanted weapon. https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/magic-salves-enchantments.13696/

It could also make sense that a spellcaster would be needed, and not just an alchemist, to charge a staff or wand with a spell, making the storing of spells less accessible to non-mages. A fighter wouldn't be able to just pick up alchemist skills and charge a staff of Fireball by himself.

Or, simply that a staff or wand would be charged for certain schools of magic and not for specific spells. For example, maybe a mage would apply a Fire Salve to a staff, it would become a "Fire Staff" and it would cut down reagent use for Fire Magic spells until the salve wears off and the staff is uncharged. It might make, for instance, low-tier Fire spells free, where they wouldn't be otherwise --- That would make staves, wands, and mage blades unusable for magic purposes by non-mages... and also make magic more interesting by focusing specialization during a round of combat to one school, even while allowing the mage to bring in other schools to the mix; it would just cost him more.

If reagents are required for low-tier spells without the staff, it would also force non-mages to use reagents if they wanted to cast spells, while giving a break to mages.

EDIT: Just made a full post about this,
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/enchantments-weapons-vs-wands.19004/

 

good, i get to yell about this again, knowing the devs made a decision but are still hopefully tweaking things!

balance is the important thing.

i'd like to see the use of tools instead of reagents, that are crafted and have a set number of uses till they dissappear, and need to be built again. and cost a LOT of materials.

i want low level spells to only cost focus.
i want mid level spells to cost 1-2 low-tier reagents, that are cheap. - and cost focus, but less than low level spells.
i want high-level spells to cost up to 5 mid-to-high tier reagents. and use a tool...like for summoning something. - and cost focus, but less than mid-level spells.

why:
reagents and tools (like an athame, or wand), are used as a focus when practicing ritual magic out of game. makes sense to have tools for the high magics because you need that higher concentration of focus to perform them.

 

Yes yes yes. The LRC suits wrecked the game. That and the elemental damage on all wearable thimgs which mafe wearing heavy armor usless and made the game item and gear focused rather than skill and player ability focused.

They alao added bonuses on items like WoW that caused skills and abilities to increase as well. I honestly hate the modern UO.

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What about refining reagents? The gathered resource doesn't have to be magic ready. Grinding them properly into powder might be better.

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