[Suggestion] A better looking spellbook.

from Elemental Forums

The spellbok will be an integral part of the UI for every player, but especially for those who decide to focus on Magic.

 

[Weakness]  The current (Beta 2B) Spellbook is very cluttered.

[Suggestion] Better organization, to allow the player to quickly find the spells that interest them.

Here's a little image I worked up. 

The left page will show spells that we have already learned.  The right page will show spells that are available to be learned.  Both pages will only reflect those spells of the selected School.

As you can see, there are clearly identifiable tabs along the left side, that allow us to select a School of Magic to look at.  (In the image, we have Fire, Earth, Ice, Air and Life)

Tabs along the bottom of the left page will allow us to quickly show only spells of a certain type.  I'm not sure what the current categories are, but examples could be Summons, City Enchantments, Combat Spells, Creature Enchantments or Global Enchantments.

 

The current in-game spellbook only shows an icon & spell name, with an information window on the right page.  I would prefer to have a display option available: text or icon.

A text display would show a list of spells (sorted by mana cost, or alphabetical?), with the title, casting costs, and description.

An icon display would show a matrix of icons & spell names, also sorted, much as the current UI uses.  An info window (perhaps the top half of the right page?) would list the actual spell details.

 

 

 

12,395 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

:thumbsup:   Good suggestion.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Heroes of might and magic 3 spellbook :

9 years later, King's Bounty spellbook :

Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

For me, spell organization based on school of magic is least important. What are the most important features are the class of spell ie.. tactical vs. global; summons; enchantments; wards; area of effect etc...

Organizing by book of magic and then class of spell would significantly simplify spell research as well as utilization.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

We are in 2010, why limiting to 6 spells on screen ?

The most important thing is to let the user think he holds a real book in his hand. MoM was good at that : flipping pages, discovering a new spell had an animation.

I would love the ablity to add "notes" in the margin, like in real books. I'd like to see the most used pages becoming visually more "used"

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

The tabs on the left of the OP pic are invading the tabs of the Options menu. tsk tsk tsk. Better placed in the bottom, like the Book in the section of Lore was (they have changed it which is a pitty, I liked more the book before).

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wintersong, reply 5
The tabs on the left of the OP pic are invading the tabs of the Options menu. tsk tsk tsk. Better placed in the bottom, like the Book in the section of Lore was (they have changed it which is a pitty, I liked more the book before).
End of Wintersong's quote

Hehe, yeah.  It was a quick cut & paste job, plus I'm not a professional graphics guy.  I just thought I'd throw out something a bit more defined, based on ideas from this thread.

 

Quoting Dougful,
For me, spell organization based on school of magic is least important. What are the most important features are the class of spell ie.. tactical vs. global; summons; enchantments; wards; area of effect etc...

Organizing by book of magic and then class of spell would significantly simplify spell research as well as utilization.

End of Dougful's quote

That's what the tabs on the bottom of the left page would be for - splitting the spells out by type.  And of course, you'd only be shown School tabs for what you actually know.  No reason having a Fire School tab, if you don't have any access to it.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting vieuxchat, reply 4
We are in 2010, why limiting to 6 spells on screen ?

The most important thing is to let the user think he holds a real book in his hand. MoM was good at that : flipping pages, discovering a new spell had an animation.

I would love the ablity to add "notes" in the margin, like in real books. I'd like to see the most used pages becoming visually more "used"
End of vieuxchat's quote

This is a very good concept. More uses (possibly levelling up of the spell?) gets the page covered in arcane writing etc. A page per spell, I say. With formulae!

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

:thumbsup:   I like it, it's along what I would have suggested, tabs for each spell element and then by type

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top
  • Would like being able to add my own notes to spells, but only if spells had a greater purpose than damage, etc.
  • Barring that, I'd like to have separaters on the margins - selecting one allows me to see what spells I have now. Selecting another lets me see what spells I have available to learn.
  • I also favor 'blind magic'. It seems strange, to me, that we know what spell we are going to learn. At the very least, have it like the tech tree: we are given a few basic spells (those found in the spellbook(s) we have) and from those spells, we can learn more. For example, learning fire arrow would open up the abilities to learn fireball, firestorm (a rain of fire arrows), etc. Learning how to protect against fire would also open up the ability to learn how to create a weakness to fire. At the very least, let there be some random spells that pop in every so often.
Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

The Spell-Book and Spell-Research both need a lot of work, I'd like a better spell book and a better system of Spell Research which is more like technology research.