Arx Libertatis Bug Tracker
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OPEN  Feature request #307  -  Increase mana cost of the Harm spell
Posted Jun 28, 2012 - updated Jan 12, 2017   Shortlink: http://arx.vg/307
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Issue details
  • Type of issue
    Feature request
  • Status
     
    		 Confirmed
  • Assigned to
    Not assigned to anyone
  • Progress
       
  • Type of bug
    Not triaged
  • Likelihood
    Not triaged
  • Effect
    Not triaged
  • Posted by
    Daniel Scharrer
  • Owned by
    Not owned by anyone
  • Estimated time
    Not estimated
  • Category
    Gameplay
  • Priority
    Not determined
  • Reproducability
    Always
  • Targetted for
    icon_milestones.png Not determined
  • OS
    icon_customdatatype.png Not determined
  • Architecture
    icon_customdatatype.png Not determined
  • Fixed in
    icon_customdatatype.png Not determined
Issue description
The mana bar never decreases and the effect lasts forever (until cancelled manually)

Originally reported in Bug report 281 - All Ratmen are invulnerable

Other spells that also don't seem to cost any mana: night vision, detect trap, telekinesis

#6
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Comment posted by
Daniel Scharrer
Jul 03, 05:38
It loooks like the spell actually does cost 0.4 mana + 0.4 mana/second while active - however that ammount is so tiny that a decent magic user will regenerate mana faster. From the code it looks like this was the same in the original game smileys/4.png
#7
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Comment posted by
Daniel Scharrer
Jul 10, 20:54
All the spells listed actually do cost both initial mana and additional mana for as long as they are active. The mana cost is just lower than the player's mana regeneration for high-level characters. For night vision, detect trap and telekinesis I don't think this gives the player an unfair advantage and shouldn't be changed.

For the harm spell, this makes the game *much* easier than it's supposed to be. However, harm is a "cheat" spell as it's never displayed in the spellbook. On the other hand, "decrease life" is not very hard to deduce from "increase life". Options:
  • Increase harm spell cost (why should we? - this is also in the original game)
  • Don't change anything
  • Change this into a feature request for a future mod
#10
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Comment posted by
Fabian Ebner
Aug 14, 07:16
Another approach to resolve the problem might be:
  • Disable mana regeneration during persistent spells
  • Lower the costs of persistent spells a bit
Just another idea to think about.
#11
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Comment posted by
Daniel Scharrer
icon_reply.pngAug 21, 03:05, in reply to comment #10
I don't think that's a good idea as it would limit magic users too much: simple spells such as night vision or detect trap could cripple even powerful magic users if not disabled most of the time - which defeats their purpose.

Besides, I think we should change as little as possible for now and leave bigger changes to mods once more gameplay logic is scriptable - that means limiting the changes to the secret spells if possible.