You’re right, a few weeks’ training really isn’t enough. I think I’ll write half a year’s worth of magic school with a few ominous events like protests and riots. The teachers start focussing on combat and military support in classes a few months before the final announcement that WAR IS HERE!!
After that, everyone gets 2-8 weeks of combat school. They’ll still be noobs, but no longer complete novices thrown into something that have no idea how to do.
What are you aiming for as far as how well prepared the characters are?
I mean, if we’re supposed to represent the equivalent of basic training, six months seems plenty, but that’s going to be pretty simple stuff - more useful for the magic equivalent of men who can march in formation and hold their spears steady than anything else.
That suggests less “casting magical shields over whole companies” and more cantrips in D&D terms.
For some reason, it kind of reminds me a little about final fantasy 8…Don’t know why, but really do like what you have put out so far.
I was thinking more Final Fantasy Type-0
I was thinking level 3 wizard. The preparation level I’m aiming for… A good way to put it is Harry Potter in his 4th year. Basic knowledge of fighting with stunners and shield charms etc, but hopelessly inept compared to experienced combatants.
I don’t think I make this clear enough, but the conflict won’t always on the front lines. For one there might not always be front lines (asymmetrical warfare, anyone?) And for another, while violence is an easy way to generate drama, I have some spy business planned too.
The Empire is not stupid enough to send out shaky, inexperienced, possibly unloyal Mage Candidates - an asset that requires years of training and experience to really shine - to the front lines unless there really is no other option. So you won’t be sent to the front lines, at first you’ll be catching looters and keeping things running.
The Empire pretty much runs on magic, so a good place for those inexperienced, gangly teenagers is doing the telepathic relay or road-maintenance jobs that the older, experienced guys on the front line were doing two months ago.
The Grunian Conflict is going to be rather long, so you’ll have chances to advance your stats even without going back to school.
(Just occured to me that I’d better write down all the promises I make in this thread, haha)
And maybe, Junkie, before you accuse someone of overlooking something you should spend 5 seconds thinking something over.
Which sounds harder to you, building a house, or building a house that will survive a nuclear bombardment, the planet its built on crumbing to dust beneath it, the sun it orbits exploding, and surviving the heat death of the universe?
As far as we can tell, the engineer mages of the black can do just that, build a house that will never ever be damaged or destroyed without the use of counter magic.
Yet learning how to build a house out of wood can take years, but learning how to build a house that beats the law of physics until its sobbing on the floor takes weeks?
Logically, wouldn’t a black mage have to know how to build a house to begin with, I guess since we’re going with wood, using green magic, and then know how to make it permanent with black magic?
But don’t mind me, I just actually thought about it.
@Crotale So something beyond the equivalent of raw, mundane soldiers.
But still getting a grip on how to handle anything independently, which will be interesting.
A wooden house…
If we are building a house with magic why stop with just green and black magic?
Throw in some white magic and we have a smart house that can recognize its owner and if add some blue magic with said black magic we have a wooden chameleon house also if we use red and black magic we can make a wooden house with a eternally burning fireplace
In all honesty it seems that if we master multiple schools of magic we basically can do anything.
I have a question. Of the two percent that can do magic. It seems in the game that as long as you have the ability to do magic the sky is the limit in potential magic. It just seems like all we have to do is study it. Does no one have limits on what they can do as long as they study or are we the select few with enough innate power that we can do any kind of magic?
The magicians and mages can do pretty much any kind of magic, but they can’t do it all day every day. They have to learn it. It’s as hard as learning engineering, or medicine, or programming. They get tired. They can’t manage something too complex. They might make subtle mistakes and have to redo the whole spell.
My 6-month mages will be able to throw fireballs but not build a bridge, make an arrow-proof shield but not deflect lightning, heal a broken bone but not cancer, mindspeak to others but not delete their memories, make a magic sword but not a permanently indestructible one.
So building a house that will survive a nuke is a lifetime project. You’ve made me realize I should put more emphasis on how true permanence is so much harder than the regular kind, during Black Class.
I see thank you for clearing that up also shall there be weapon training?
Some. Mostly during the emergency combat training camp, not during regular magic school.
So we could potentially have swords that are flaming or cold as ice or electric?
Ice sword would not be very useful compared to how much work goes into it. Flaming swords is possible, it could have a great morale effect - but SuperSharpSword™ would be the most obvious enchantment.
Electric weapon enchant would be better used on a club or police baton. It can stun without killing. Sometimes.
Edit: Ice is a thing in magic. Magic fridges confirmed.
I didn’t accuse anyone of overlooking something so much as being ignorant of something and thus making assumptions that insultingly devalue the effort and skill involved.
Furthermore, your whole post is arguing against something I never said. I never said magic is easy just because carpentry involves more skill and learning than you thought it does. But you said you put actual thought into this, so let’s actually put actual thought into this. Your argument is that a black mage making a magically durable building takes more skill and intelligence, learning, etc. than a carpenter making a regular building. Mmm, that relies on assumptions again. Does a black mage need the equivalent of a degree in physics to work spells that defy physics, or do those spells and enchantments just kind of “handle themselves” if you know the right spell? The evidence currently in game on that is kind of iffy - the mage candidates don’t need to study up on the chemical reaction that creates fire to cast the fire flower training spell, but it does mention that knowledge of anatomy helped to improve healing magic as a field. Of course, this also ignores that professional carpenters actually have to learn quite a bit of physics as it pertains to buildings - where to place load bearing structures, the density and strength of various materials, and so on. Also, for this comparison, you appear to be deliberately comparing a master mage to an average carpenter. After all, a mage fresh out of school would not be creating a whole physics-defying building from the ground up by himself. A more apt comparison would be between a master mage and a master carpenter - it usually takes somewhere in the neighborhood 8 years to go from completely unskilled to becoming a master carpenter, assuming one is working at it full time. And this is, of course, assuming any single black mage could make a building that would survive a direct nuclear blast unscathed - something that I suspect won’t be within the capabilities of mages when this setting is fully fleshed out; it would simply be too unbalancing to the setting for mages to be able to routinely create eternal, invulnerable fortifications, armor, etc. Highly durable? Yes. Utterly invulnerable? No.
So yes, if you “actually think about” this position that I didn’t assume in the first place, you’re still not justified in belittling a whole profession that you’re ignorant about.
Okay, I’m not sure how we got from someone saying that “carpentry takes three or four years of a trade school” into something minor. I think it might have been possible to phrase it better, but I think this is getting a little out of hand.
I’m trying to avoid showing the nuts and bolts of magic. More “this is what you can do with it” than “this is how it works.” Because they don’t know how it works on a deep level and most of them don’t care. Much like we don’t really know how gravity works, and knowing about gravitons doesn’t really affect the fact that things fall anyway.
@StarcraftJunkie Also, please stop harping on him now. If something offends me, I’ll say so.
@stsword , your language was too passive-aggressive. Could you not start pointless arguments? Thanks.
I leave this forum for a day and chaos ensues! I have an actual question about the game: Later on when the war has started (assuming we’re on the front lines) could you compare the game to another CoG or mainstream game?
I don’t know. I haven’t written the whole thing yet.