Spellbooks, Scrolls, and Glyphs; A Different Method of Magic
Poll: Do you like this idea?
Ended May 15, 2014
Poll: If you said no, why not/Do you think anything is wrong with the
Ended May 15, 2014
Poll: Could this be improved/changed?
Ended May 15, 2014
Magic is already in the game, in the form of alchemy (potions) and enchanting (hurr durr). What this thread introduces is very similar to enchanting; however, rather than applying it to a tool or armor, you apply it to the world. It's that simple, really, so technically it isn't more magic. It's just more of the same, but different.
Yes, yes, I know. Magic has been suggested thousands of times; from staves that blow stuff up to wands that blow stuff up to books that blow stuff up. This idea is sort of similar, but actually quite different. In it's most basic form, you have to go exploring for desert temples. Once inside, at one end of the main room with the blue wool symbol you will find a sarcophagus; sort of like a double chest. Once you open it, you will find both a curse and a sandstone glyph (there are five different glyphs). Crafting the tablet with a book (don't worry, you keep the tablet) creates a spellbook. You can open the spellbook (right click) and arrange the glyphs you have collected in any manner you choose within, so long as you don't use multiple glyphs and you only use four. You can then left click with it to cast spells, which will use up EXP.
Okay, that was fairly long, but at it's actual most basic level, all you do is find some pretty pictures in some dead guy's home and put them in a book.
And now, for a more detailed explanation:
Getting a Glyph and Curses
To cast spells, you need two things: sandstone glyphs and a spellbook. You need a sandstone glyph to make a spellbook, so if you want to cast spells you'll need to find a desert temple.
Inside desert temples, you will find a new thing: a sarcophagus. There are six per temple, but only two contain a glyph. They can be opened, much like a vertical double chest; while four will only contain minor loot (just bones, rotten flesh, and a rare chance of gold or an emerald) two will contain a sandstone glyph.
BUT! You can't simply waltz in, rob some graves, and walk out as a spellcaster. No; each of the sarcophagi will curse you when you open them (or not). The following curses can be found:
-Pile of Bones: While at one point, a mummy would have attacked you, it had rotted in to nothing. Obviously, nothing happens.
-Mummy: A mummy walks out and attacks you. It's just a reskinned zombie. It drops bones and linen wraps (i'll explain them later).
-Pharaoh's Servant: A servant of a pharaoh attacks you. It has 20 hearts and will burst out of the sarcophagi as soon as you open it. It flies around the room and shoots fireballs at you akin to a blaze, but it tries to avoid your attacks. He will strafe to the left and right to avoid your arrows, and will teleport to the other side of the room if you get close enough to melee him. There is a catch, however; he isn't very smart. You don't have to shoot AT him for him to strafe; you can shoot NEAR him and he'll strafe as well; possibly in to the arrow. When he is at half health or lower, he'll fly around the edges of the room much faster. He'll start trying to strafe even when you just aim at him, and he won't waltz in to your arrows any more. This time, your aim must be true. If you leave the tomb, he'll teleport outside and start spamming the fireballs from far away; reentering the tomb will cause him to revert to his normal behavior. When you finally kill him, he drops bones, linen wraps, and from 5 to 8 emeralds. He, like the enderdragon, has a death animation; when you kill him, he'll fall out of the air, burst in to flames for a few moments, and shrink until he vanishes; he will then drop the items.
-Pharoah: This guy is much nastier. He has 80 hearts; while he isn't as strong health-wise as the Enderdragon, he is still a formidable foe due to actually attacking you. He has two forms this time around. For his first form, he'll burst out of the sarcophagus cackling and will land on the other side of the room. He will draw an iron khopesh and be ready to fight you in melee. He will come close to you, blocking with his sword; attacking him from the front when he blocks will deal no damage unless you use a gold sword. When he attacks, though, he'll stop blocking; this is your chance to strafe to the side and stab him with your own sword. Much like an enderman, he will teleport around the room; when he does so, get ready to dodge, as he'll shoot a fire charge at you. At half health, he'll fly in to the air and shoot fireballs like his servants, but he will always dodge your arrows (unless you corner him). There is, however, a catch: sometimes, he will swoop at you and attack you with the khopesh; this is your chance to attack him. When he comes at you, he'll be blocking until he swings, so you'll have to sidestep the attack and stab him from the side. Besides that, he acts like one of his servants in it's second stage. When you kill him, he goes through the same death animation and drops bones, linen wraps, 12-15 emeralds, and his iron khopesh which is identical to an iron sword, except it has the same blocking properties as it did for him (it will block all melee attacks and arrows from the front, unless the attack is from a golden sword). If there are any of the Pharaoh's servants alive when he attacks, the servants will try to flank you. The pharaoh will also teleport you back to the temple if you try to leave and additionally set you on fire.
-Locust: A silverfish pops out. Okay, it's not a locust, but whatever.
-Locust swarm: A silverfish pops out, along with a handful of locusts. These are represented by a couple of swirling particles that form a single mob. These guys will follow you and occasionally attack you for 1/2 a heart of damage, but they aren't the main concern. The main concern is that they will devour any plant you pass! Don't let them get near your farms; they'll eat them in seconds. What's more is that they can only be killed by lava or fire. They will leave you temporarily if they get caught outside in the rain (but not the blood rain curses), but once it stops they will teleport back to you like a wolf. They won't follow you in to the End but will follow you in to the Nether.
-Locust nest: Three silverfish pop out, along with five swarms of locusts. Deal with them the same way as before.
-Blood drizzle: It starts to rain blood outside. This is identical to a thunderstorm, except the rain is red and it rains in every biome, even deserts, ice plains, and taigas.
-Blood rain: It starts to rain blood outside. Instead of dropping to light level 7, it drops to light level 6 and spawns zombies and skeletons at an increased rate. This will double the strength of any undead mob that happens to be outside in the rain and allow them to break wooden doors on normal and iron doors on hard. One mummy will spawn behind you.
-Blood hurricane: Torrential rains of cliché blood come down from the skies. The light drops to four outside and causes ONLY undead mobs to spawn. Their strength quadruples and can break wooden doors on any difficulty and iron doors on normal and hard. Beware when you get this curse: two mummies will spawn behind you.
If you get a curse and open another and get a second curse, both curses will coexist. The exception is the blood rains, of which the most potent curse will apply (though you will still get mummies).
Glyphs and Spellbooks
There are five glyphs you can find: Human, Creeper, Sun, Moon, and Mummy.
Crafting a spellbook is easy. All you need is a glyph and a book. Craft them together and you get a spellbook. Don't worry, you keep the glyph (sort of like how you get the bucket back when you craft a cake). If you want to, you can dye spellbooks as if it were leather armor. You can also bind the book shut with a linen wrap to keep it from being changed (useful for adventure maps).
When you first get a spellbook, it'll be blank. The only things that you can do with it are fill it with some glyphs or whack something with it. When you right click with a spellbook, it opens up a GUI of a normal written book, but instead of writing in it there are five slots. You can place the glyphs here. Once you are done, you can cast spells. Spellcasting does not use mana! It drains EXP rather than a mana bar. If you think about it, though, it makes sense; everything you do with EXP is magical, isn't it? Well, except for naming and repairing mundane items, anyway.
Once you fill a spellbook with glyphs, you can cast spells. Casting a spell is done with the left mouse button; right clicking lets you reallocate the glyphs.
Glyph combinations do not have hard-coded effects! We all know that predictability is why the terrain sucks, anyway (or rather, the primary reason why people argue that it sucks). As such, certain glyphs will roughly have certain effects (those are listed below). You can use that knowledge to try to tailor a spell to your needs. Sometimes, it'll work; others, it'll produce an unintended effect, such as summoning zombies when you wanted mummies or blowing up your face when you wanted to blow up a creeper. Some example effects can be found below.
-Summon Zombie: Summons a zombie.
-Summon Mummy: Summons a mummy 1.5x as powerful as a zombie.
-Explode Self: A creeper explosion centered on yourself. This sucks up a lot of EXP.
-Waterbreathing on Self: Gives yourself water breathing for a short time.
-Explode Mob: A ghast explosion on the nearest mob in a 50x50x50 radius. If there isn't one there, it targets you. It also targets you if you use it too much.
-Minor Explode Mob: A pitiful version of the above.
-Growth: All crops advance a few stages in a 10x10x10 radius.
-Grass Growth: Grows grass on dirt and grows tall grass and flowers on grass in a 5x5x5 radius.
-Launch Self: Launches yourself in the direction you are looking at as if you had gotten hit by a knockback III sword.
-Launch Other: Launches a mob you look at in away from you as if they had been hit by a knockback III sword.
-Burn Self: Sets yourself on fire. Yay!
-Safe Fireball: Shoots a fireball in the direction of the crusor. It does not cause fires where it lands, but it still burns people it touches.
-Magic Missle: Casts a magical ball of cliché that damages whoever it hits.
Et cetera, you get the idea. Do note that spell effects are based on the seed.
Scrolls
Scrolls are what you would expect; one-time use versions of spellbooks, yet cheaper and much more easily produced en-masse. Craft a paper with two sticks and a glyph to make a scroll. This would open up a GUI much like the spellbook for creating spells. However, with a scroll, you don't put the glyph in the book; dragging a glyph on to a slot on a scroll copies down the glyph on the scroll, rather than stuffing the glyph in the book. Otherwise, scrolls are identical to books.
Technical Stuffs
When you place runes in a spellbook, order matters (they are permutations). There are three different categories of placement: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each effects the resulting spell in different ways.
Primary determines who the spell will effect. It is the first glyph in a sequence.
Secondary changes what it does and subtly changes who and how it will effect the target. They are the second and third glyphs in a sequence.
Tertiary slightly changes everything. They are the fourth and fifth glyphs in a sequence.
Different glyphs also do slightly different things when used in a spell.
Human usually does things regarding the player and other players.
Creeper usually does things regarding mobs when used as a primary and involves destruction as a secondary or tertiary.
Mummy usually involves summoning or changing mobs.
Sun is fairly random and changes a lot of things. It works well when combined with Creeper, depending on how you view "well".
Moon is fairly random and changes a lot of things. Like sun, it has synergies with Mummy.
So, let me give an example spellbook: Human-Creeper-Sun-Mummy-Moon.
The primary glyph here is Human. This means that it should affect players.
The secondary glyphs here are Creeper and Sun. This would seem to refer to explosions.
The tertiary glyphs here are Mummy and Moon. These being tertiary glyphs, they are fairly random in their effect.
The result of this would, of course, vary on the seed. You could guess that this would explode the nearest player; however, on another seed, it might spawn a Creeper near a player. On a third, it might turn players in to undead, making them burn in sunlight and vulnerable to Smite (but also stronger in melee combat).
With this system, there would be over 120 unique spells per seed. If there were 5 unique glyphs in jungle temples, there would be over 3 million unique spells which would be a very very Minecrafty thing indeed. (Alas, if only Mojang had that mentality with potions.)
Original Minecraft Challenge: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/2033391-the-legend-of-sipka-and-klenot-class-based-challenge/page__hl__+the%20+legend%20+sipka%20+and%20+klenot#entry25364268
however i must disappoint you and say no support. Sorry but when I look at minecraft the game seems to me to be one of two things: A game where you build what you please-like a sandbox game. Or, it seems to be a game where you must struggle to survive, and live in a realistic world with voracious monsters.
Minecraft doesn't seem like a blocky World of Warcraft to me.
Your idea would work great as a mod though. It's just that those who hate RPGs may be pushed away if this idea was implemented into the regular minecraft.
I can see where you are coming from, but I'll disagree. It would fit just fine in Minecraft. We do, after all, have spells in the game already: enchantments. Those are just spells applied to tools, though; these spells are basically the same thing except they have an effect on the world rather than an effect on the tool. Thus, they do fit in since they are both one of the same, just applied a little differently.
Of course, most people wouldn't come to the same conclusion (I can already see legions of people saying "ERMAGERD SPELLS DIS IS NOT SKYRIM U R BAD PERSON Y U RUINS MINECRAFT") so perhaps it would be better as a mod.
Secondly, requiring access to a particular item in a particular generated structure, which itself requires a specific biome... it's a problem. We're seeing it in the Xbox version of Minecraft, where small map sizes have made it highly unlikely that Nether Fortresses will spawn, making brewing impossible for those players. It's really, really frustrating to spend ten hours building an overworld home, only to discover that you can't access core content because you can't get a single important mob drop.
Thirdly, the content you're adding with the mechanics are... problematic. For one, you're adding at least four mobs, a new combat mechanic, a new weather effect, and eight items (plus the hundreds of spellbooks and scrolls). The mobs are unnecessarily complicated, to say the least, and the gulf between possible outcomes is huge. I mean, you could walk in and out of a pyramid and never fight anything scarier than a box full of vendor trash, or you could walk in and get killed by a mob the equal of the Ender Dragon. 10% chance for either outcome! I mean, there's a lot of goofy stuff going on with this flavor-content.
Magic makes it an RPG? If that's the case it is already an RPG, because.... you know, Enchanting/brewing.
LOL, you called Minecraft realistic.
1) No, it could not be used in a splash potion. The amount of effects would simply be too vast for it to be used with the current alchemy system. Now, maybe it COULD be used with the ORIGINAL alchemy system, but that was even MORE complicated than this (not to mention that it would be clunkier). Also, the "self" spells can be anything; armor could not summon an allied zombie to your side, nor would an effective enchantment consist of nuking your face. Not to mention that all the enchantments that would need to be added would pollute the enchantment pool with enchantments that act more like curses than enchantments.
2) It's predictable enough for a player to get the gist of it, yet it isn't so predictable that you always know what spell you get. That's the beauty of it (besides no limits to the spells you could make).
Fortunately for you, i'm not suggesting this for the Xbox version.
1) The spellbooks and scrolls could just follow a similar system to what the original alchemy system did. (In case you didn't know, with it any potion could have any effect from levels 1 to 3 for a certain amount of time and could have up to 4 effects, all either positive or negative. Oh, yeah, and those potions were brewed in a cauldron, which had to take in to account the fact that cauldrons support different volumes of fluids. There were more effects, and the only thing that it didn't have over the new system is splash potions.)
2) A simple reason to explain the failed chances is that the builders of the pyramids just made crappy spells. You might make a spell that summons a really weak mummy; well, so did they, but they never bothered to see what it did. Also, remember that the Enderdragon and the Wither never posed any challenge to begin with; they were just REALLY badly designed bosses. That's a problem with the bosses, not the Pharaoh (which can be beaten without equipment if you're skilled and play smart).
I'm impressed! and I wouldn't mind at all if this were added, the only problem now is the fanboys that say "ERMAGERD MAGIC WILL MAKE MINECRAFT AN RPG!1!!!111"
also, maybe you can find Glyphs and scrolls in the Stronghold library? Except maybe with more different and unique curses/effects etc..
Nah, since strongholds are finite. Sadly.
"Summon zombie" could be a splash potion. I mean, that's basically what an egg is right now--a "splash potion" that has a 12% chance to summon a chicken. And I'm not sure why you think "nuking your face" is a good thing. I mean, you designed the spells so that they're both unreliable AND potentially punishing? Why would anyone ever use one? The same with curses on equipment. Why should I use magic if it's just going to hurt me?
No, the point of that was that you're tying what is meant to be an important game mechanic to an extremely rare location in-game. I mean, how many players on a multiplayer server can expect access to spellcasting? How many players can look forward to not even having spellcasting at all?
And the reliability of getting the potions you wanted, or the handy GUI, right? You want more potions, it's simple enough to simply select new potion ingredients. We could use a new use for cacti.
I'm not trying to explain why there's a chance you might summon a weak mummy. I'm simply pointing out that this encounter table is kind of ridiculous, especially considering that you've added four mobs and there's maybe six opportunities that you'll ever see three of them at all.
This is a very nice idea. I'm sure you spent a lot of time and effort making this, and I respect that. However, it could use some changes; at the moment, it severely unbalances the game: a couple new mobs, a new boss, about two new game systems, some more items, and some more environmental effects. All based on a desert temple.
Now, don't get me wrong; I like this idea. It just needs some changes. Here are my ideas:
What if these items could be found in different types of structures? Maybe premade scrolls could be found in strongholds and dungeons, human and creeper glyphs in jungle temples, and sun, moon, and mummy glyphs in desert temples? That should balance out the spread of the required materials, otherwise, a large portion of the game would be devoted to searching deserts for temples, when instead the player should be exploring all the biomes.
I like the sarcophagus idea. Maybe they could be placed like doors, but with the rotation engine applied? (So when placed on a wall, they stand vertical, like a door, but when placed on the ground, they stand horizontal, like a bed)
Now with the curses: I admire the thought put into this, but this system is way to powerful. I would simplify the curses down to this:
- 30% chance of a mummy spawning (mummies should also spawn normally in desert biomes)
- 30% chance of an elite mummy spawning (a mummy with armor, a weapon, etc.)
- 10% chance of a silverfish spawning
- 30% chance of nothing happening
- There is an additional 10% chance to any of the above that a bat will spawn. Because that would be awesome.
However, there should be a small chance of another sarcophagus appearing, only in desert temples, that holds the Pharaoh. This would essentially be another boss, like the Wither, that could be found/created multiple times. While similar to your idea, I would change a couple parts of this. For example, the khopesh: While a good idea in theory, it is probably unnecessary to add another weapon to the game, or at least this weapon. If we were to add more, it would be a medieval European weapon (spear, battleaxe, club, etc.). I suspect not even half of all minecrafters don't even know what a khopesh is.
Pharaoh (80 hearts): When spawned, creates the smoke particle effect, then immediately flies away from the player and begins shooting fireballs (fire charges). Occasionally, it will fly towards the player, like the enderdragon. This is the player's chance to attack it with a melee weapon. However, if it makes contact, it will inflict either poison I, weakness II, or hunger I. When above 40 hearts, it can only be damaged by an enchanted bow (power or flame) or an iron / gold / diamond sword. When under half health, it can only be damaged by a bow with power III or better, or an iron / gold / diamond sword with sharpness II or better, or a sword with sharpness I and fire aspect I. Finally, when down to a quarter of its health, it will begin spawning mummies around its sarcophagus. Upon death, it will drop 1 - 3 separate pieces of gold armor, each with a 50% chance of being enchanted, 1 - 3 linen wraps, and sometimes a spellbook. If the pharaoh drops a spellbook, then there will not be any glyphs in the temple.
I removed the blood rain effects, as this system is still a little overpowered, and doesn't need any environmental effects, too.
One thing I would change here is the variability of the spells. True, they shouldn't be completely predicable, but you should have some idea of what will happen. To support this, I think spell effects should not be dependant on the world seed. I also like your idea about casting a spell too many times producing a harmful effect. One change: The waterbreathing spell should exist as a potion, not a spell. Actually, the coding already exists for a potion of water breathing, however it has not been implemented into the game, similar to potions of leaping, haste, hunger, wither, etc.
Not bad.
Looking at the second-to-last paragraph, I see a suggestion of a spell that turns players into undead. This is completely disagree with; causing players to burn in sunlight would be incredibly underpowering, even with a combat power increase. Maybe, maybe, on hard difficulty, I could see this, but probably not.
But that's just my opinion.
*release breath*
If you want to talk privately, click me...
It COULD be a splash potion. You could also make a sword out of bricks. But that's just stupid and bizarre.
It's a gamble. Just like enchanting; it's a gamble. If you enchant a sword, you won't always get a good enchantment, even if you invest a lot of levels. Same here. You might think you came up with a good spell, but when you cast it the spell isn't as potent as you expected (Sharpness II instead of IV) or is completely different (Bane of Arthopods IV). As I said before, it's essentially the same thing as enchanting, just applied differently.
Everyone can access magic so long as they explore enough. Besides, this could partially be addressed by people or villages trading scrolls or something. (Pyramids aren't THAT rare.)
If you add an ingredient and an effect to the current alchemy system, you get three unique potions and their splash potions. If you add an ingredient (and an effect) to the current system, you get a thousand unique potions. And, as long as you have the recipe, you can keep making them.
Fair point.
I was considering adding unique glyphs to jungle temples separate from the 5 in desert temples. That way, you could get an incredibly large amount of unique spells (over 3 million as stated in the post). That way it wouldn't be quite so focused on desert temples.
I suppose you have a point that there is a lot of focus put on the curses, but these don't really seem like curses. More like minor inconveniences.
I agree somewhat. Yes, medieval European weapons should take priority over more abstract counterparts, but the khopesh is simply meant to be a side-tier to diamond swords. A separate sarcophagus for the Pharoah is, however, a good idea since he is more challenging than the Wither (not necessarily stronger, but harder).
Here I have to completely disagree. He is not a very good boss. In fact, he seems to be a gear check much like the Wither, especially considering that if your sword isn't enchanted potently enough, you can't damage him. The spellbook drop is also kind of worthless, since you need a glyph to make one in the first place (if you don't have a glyph, the book is worthless. If you do, you probably already have a book.)
I prefer the rain and locust effects to the mummy ones, since those are more curselike. I would have also considered something similar to the seven plagues of Egypt in terms of curses but I went with what I went with.
I'm going to have to disagree here as well. If the spells aren't based on the seed, then people will figure out a list of the spells and just stick with what is already known and thus the whole point of all the randomness in the spells would be ruined.
I'm just throwing ideas out there, but the undead thing could work out well so long as in addition to the effects, players would have their health doubled (I dunno, their hearts turn purple and change to red when they take damage) and they didn't burn when they wore a helmet. Something similar could be done for a spider/arthopod thing: the affected person (or mob) becomes as small as a cave spider and has the same texture as one (though the head is still that of their skin), is faster, and can climb walls, but is vulnerable to Bane of Arthopods swords and has only 5 hearts of health.
Considering asking a mod to move thing to the mod requests section though as people apparently want a non-magicky vanilla (which is pointless since it's already there).
I suppose you'd like to say what exactly is undeveloped? Those are faults on Mojang's part, not mine.