Managing Schools of Magic

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   For starters, I know that more schools of magic are planned/already in development. This post is more a suggestion on how they can be managed. 
First of all, I'm hoping there will be more than 5 schools of magic, while the limit of 5 / city remains. 

Since research can't be undone, and having that option to begin with would be a little hard to swallow, I think there should be an extra step in magic. Basically you should be able to research all schools of magic, but you'd have to select the ones you want to use in the Mage Tower. 

There should then be a timer for acquiring that magic, perhaps explained as hiring/training your mages in said branch. This would also allow you to later change the mix of schools of magic available to your city. The time it would take to switch active branches would be much longer, perhaps explained as retraining your mages, or letting them go and hiring new ones.

Another way could be to have several degrees of proficiency/focus for each school of magic. While researching a spell would still require the appropriate level of Mage Tower, perhaps being able to cast that spell would require that you have devoted enough focus to its school of magic.

As an example, let's say you can devote up to 5 points of focus for each branch. You have devoted 2 points to Geomancy. This would let you cast all the Spirit and Gift spells. To be able to cast Nature's spells you'd need another point in Geomancy. The remaining 2 points could perhaps be used to mix the lower level spells. For instance 4 points in Geomancy could let you cast 4 of Spirit spells as one spell, or 3 of Gift, or 2 of Nature's. The 5th point would give 5 Spirit, or 4 Gift, or 3 Nature's.

This could mean that each level of Arcana branch would instead give you 5 additional focus points, and also this approach would give you more freedom in mixing the spells, though they might have to be reworked a little. Basically, if there would be 10 schools of magic, you could put 2 points of focus into each, and be able to cast up to 2nd "level" spells from each of them; or you could mix it up a little and have 5 points in two and 3 points in five, and 0 points in three of them.

And finally, both approaches would of course require that you have the appropriate schools of magic active in order to maintain their spells. It should be impossible to "deactivate" a school of magic while you have any of its spells active.

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intor Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Greenhorn Joined: 15 Jul 2011 Status: Offline Points: 82	Topic: Managing Schools of Magic Posted: 18 Aug 2011 at 03:23
	For starters, I know that more schools of magic are planned/already in development. This post is more a suggestion on how they can be managed. First of all, I'm hoping there will be more than 5 schools of magic, while the limit of 5 / city remains. Since research can't be undone, and having that option to begin with would be a little hard to swallow, I think there should be an extra step in magic. Basically you should be able to research all schools of magic, but you'd have to select the ones you want to use in the Mage Tower. There should then be a timer for acquiring that magic, perhaps explained as hiring/training your mages in said branch. This would also allow you to later change the mix of schools of magic available to your city. The time it would take to switch active branches would be much longer, perhaps explained as retraining your mages, or letting them go and hiring new ones. Another way could be to have several degrees of proficiency/focus for each school of magic. While researching a spell would still require the appropriate level of Mage Tower, perhaps being able to cast that spell would require that you have devoted enough focus to its school of magic. As an example, let's say you can devote up to 5 points of focus for each branch. You have devoted 2 points to Geomancy. This would let you cast all the Spirit and Gift spells. To be able to cast Nature's spells you'd need another point in Geomancy. The remaining 2 points could perhaps be used to mix the lower level spells. For instance 4 points in Geomancy could let you cast 4 of Spirit spells as one spell, or 3 of Gift, or 2 of Nature's. The 5th point would give 5 Spirit, or 4 Gift, or 3 Nature's. This could mean that each level of Arcana branch would instead give you 5 additional focus points, and also this approach would give you more freedom in mixing the spells, though they might have to be reworked a little. Basically, if there would be 10 schools of magic, you could put 2 points of focus into each, and be able to cast up to 2nd "level" spells from each of them; or you could mix it up a little and have 5 points in two and 3 points in five, and 0 points in three of them. And finally, both approaches would of course require that you have the appropriate schools of magic active in order to maintain their spells. It should be impossible to "deactivate" a school of magic while you have any of its spells active.