So do most people think the spell schools should be more limited?

No.  You start with one book/school or two depending on faction, or even none..  and go from there.  Quests, Dynasty marriages, research open up further spell books.  But at later levels.  Each school has to be completely unique and there need to be more schools.

I agree that it's a bit dumb that all sovereigns start with every spell circle; it definitely limits diversity.  I thought I remembered reading something about the upcoming patch, they are changing it so not all sovereigns have all spell schools?  I think one of the ones they showed a screenshot of didn't even have any spells (or essence).  I'll edit in the link once i find it.

Yeah I agree on more diverse schools.  Not to mention tweaking or removing some spells that hold no purpose.  I like the idea of possibly different factions starting with a different amount, you could give the factions that don't start with a book some bonus that would help a more physical sovereign.

What spells would you remove?

I think the key is to balance the value the other stuff you can buy. If getting all of the spell books is too strong, then they should make it so that buying all the books costs all of your points, and in consequence your Sovereign becomes bad at everything except having a diverse range of spells.

I think the key is making alternative options just as appealing, for example making the background you choose more important. Also, when you put points at the start of the game, it should be more valuable then when you level up in the later part of the game. So lets say you put 3 points into essence at the start, that should do something like when you level up later on you get 3x per point of essence. This way your decisions in the beginning are meaningful, there is a competition between different areas to put your points, and the key is making all the options appealing. Similarly, your starting equipment should be much more powerful than it currently is, since the equipment usually gets obsolete pretty quickly. So the devs just need to go through and make a calculation at turn 50 turn 250 and turn 1000 how much benefit are they getting from that thing they bought and if it was worth it.

Well i was mainly just thinking of how some of the buffing spells work currently, aren't really worth it.  So I didn't have any spells specifically in mind to remove, and would prefer everything to be tweaked to work, so in hindsight I suppose  I picked my words poorly.

I agree with the original sentiment. I think having all spell schools on most sovereigns is pretty pants and reduces replay value by a lot.

I think it is fine the way it is.  If you start with all the schools that  less points for stats and abilities.  I stared with just the enchantment school, and will try just the Earth school next time.  If you have all the schools then you can focus your spell research to take advantage of any type elemental crystals you find. While if you don't the right type of spells then you don't get the spell power ups. 

you can just go out and kill creatures to get more stats, you can't kill creatures to gain access to the extra spell books.  

I vote having max of 2 books at start and the option to research more later.. IE how you can learn the enchantment book. But it should be based on shards. like you have a fire shard but not the book yet u can research in tech to learn to read the book. IE: you aquire the fire shard and a message pops up, "you have found an old tome near the base of the tower, you see the fire symbol tho you cant read the language." 

something like that, just a thought.

How about the ability to use a shard, permanently destroying it, to gain access to that spell book?

It should be an action that only the sovereign can perform, takes a few turns, and probably requires a magic tech.

The point of this suggestion is to prevent the player from learning new spell books when it is already clear the spells will be more powerful than normal. This way, it is possible to learn new elemental magic, but people who start with this book still have a big advantage the shard provides.

Anyway, it's kind of pointless to suggest things in this area before we see what changes the 1.08 will bring...

There are so many gameplay mechanics in Elemental, there should be spells influencing each of them.  For diplomacy, there could be charm and enrage spells.  Fertility and love spells for dynasties.  For adventuring, various discovery spells, or charm wilderness creature X, or spells that increase luck when it comes to drops.  There can be divination spells that apply to research.  Spells that boost economy and production.  Spells that buff and nerf each aspect of combat.  Any mechanic in this game is a potential spell waiting to happen.  This only makes sense for a game named "war of magic."  Well okay that's a mouthful but there needs to be more than teleport, direct damage, and summoning giants.

But also, I think it takes away from the game for players to have easy access to whatever spell they feel like.  I think there should be two limiting factors: (1) crystals that power the different schools of magic, AND (2) spell knowledge, both of which you need to cast the spell.  To cast infernal you need both a fire crystal, and to have acquired infernal spell knowledge through adventuring, diplomacy, trade, or reasearch.  If you want to focus on the magic research tree then that could enhance your choices and diminish the randomness of it all. 

With a broad range of spell powers, but only a narrow slice of them available per game, that makes each game a unique experience in terms of magic and strategically benefits players with a broad knowledge of the game.

I'd like to see the MoM approach. Every school has more than one book. You can either take all the books from one school or a collection from several schools. The more books you have from one school, the greater the amount of rare spells you get from that school.

And definitely make the schools more unique and varied. Again referring to MoM, it was a very rare occasion that I used a direct damage spell in combat. I mostly started with combat-wide enchantments like prayer, unholy prayer and counter - magic. After that I would use illusions, phantasmal warriors (combat only summon), web and other control spells. None of those are available in "War of Magic".

well if you have to have a shard to actually cast spells then shards need to be more available. There were times i didnt find/had to fight for a shard until about turn 100. If they change it to this then the shard that matches your spellbook should spawn near your begin point.

Spell books should be difficult to come by except for the first one. As stated above, quests, research, etc should the method of opening other books. Shards should also be rare and powerful.

Come to think of it - why should you pre-select what spellbooks you "know" at sov creation?

Another approach would be that only if you control a fire shard, you can research fire spells.
If you lose the shard, research stops.

What should be assigned in sovereign creation is certain perks, like an affinity to fire magic, lower cost, better effects, the usual suspects.

But why should you be able to explore fire magic without a tie (shard) to that element at all?

That way you would have to adapt to what you get access to in game and getting access to "your kind of" shard would be a major priority.
Right now, if I don't get fire spells, so what? I use earth spells instead. They do the exact same thing.

why not split spell books from the elements entirely? ie no book of fire or water, but a book of lesser destruction, a book of minor summoning, a book of minor enchanting, then give EVERY spell in the game an elemental association so even a sov with only one book will get a benefit from any shard, but sovs with more books get more benefit. then create a common system for researching all spells and books (i'd personally merge the sorcery tech tree and the spell research mechanism and make learning spells and gaining books the same thing, because at the moment there is far more to be gained from techs than spell research ).

Why not give four or five of the non-element books (Enchant, Summons, Death, Life) and have them researched just like techs, except rather than unlocking a tech you pick a spell to unlock, with choices drawn from the element schools - so level 1 death research would give you hurl boulder or flame dart etc. Set the lists so you only get one opportunity to select a spell (if you choose flame dart over hurl boulder, you won't get a chance to take hurl boulder) with perhaps one or two magic techs or rare quest outcomes letting you get one of the spells you didn't pick.

It lets you tailor your sovereign in game rather than being stuck with whatever you chose when creating. It'd cut down on the sameness feeling in the spell list, and of course should a decent spell list present itself you can then start forcing the player to choose between an AoE damage spell which freezes opponents or one which stuns them for a turn and so forth. A neat advantage is that it ensures no two games will play the same even with the same sovereigns, and a particularly nice bonus for MP is that you can use your own created sovereign in multiple games without having to worry about them playing the same way.

I'd like to see more diverse spell books that play significantly differently. Currently the 4 elemental books at least feel pretty much identical. Which is shame for a game called Elemental!

What if... we make magic expertise to the sovereign creation window? For example, there are 4 school of magic. Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. Then there are five level of mastery. With level 5, you can learn the highest of level of the spell, but because of the point you spend, you won't be able to learn the other. So, if you want to master all the existing spell, you should sacrifice the highest spell that the school to offer and trade it with versatility.

 Personal I think it should be 15 points per spell book if not 20, and only the two magic orientated leaders should start with any spellbook.

 I also think you should only be able to cast an elemental spell if you have access to that shard, so I guess I am a hopeless case.

Elemental: War of Mundane Tech?

Each school should be very different to other. I dont need all the schools to have the same damage spell and tons of useless general spells. Look at MoM and learn.

I suggest to limit the access to magic schools. When you customise your rase it cost just 3 points to choose a school so you take all 5 paying 15 points - no harm, there is nothnig else interesting to spend the points on. It is such a shame. Make spells more interesting and diverse, increase cost of school to 5-15 points and provide other interesting things to spend your points at.

In addition to that, each school could have for example 3 levels, each for 5 points. In that way you could specialize in one school with small support in one or two other schools. Welcome to Master of Magic again!

I find all the Sovereigns (not just mine) quite similar. There is not one Earth Master, and one Fire Master, and one Master of Evil Death Magic.

Imagine this: instead of just one book you can choose up to 5. Each of these books acts like a shard - spells become more powerful and useful for the caster. BUT (big but) this only applies to the Sov - other casters and children do not get the benefit.

Or maybe rather than spell books they are internal shards. And of course there are not enough points for all the books - so do you choose to become a master of one element, or are you spread evenly ?

I was talking to someone about this recently and it was pointed out that its cheaper to get a book of ancient magic than it is to get a sword...or even a stick.