What would you like to see in a Magic Mod?

[Minalien]

Many of you may be of the mindset that there are too many magic mods already, but I'm definitely not. As such, I'm starting up a new magic-themed mod -- while I'm yet not ready to reveal details on the theme, mechanics, etc (know that I am going with a rather.. unique system, with some early-game elements, but the real power of it will come out late-game), I'm interested in hearing what kinds of tricks, toys and tools people would like to see come out of the mod.

One thing that I should note, before ideas are posted, is that I have a very specific mindset when it comes to magic (and this is something that runs counter to what a lot of people like to do in heavily modded Minecraft instances): Magic is personal. It is a thing that a witch, wizard, sorcerer, whatever does, based on his/her abilities (and possibly help from friends), but it is not something that should be automated. The mod will provide means of automating several tasks (farms, for instance), yes, and it will even provide means of automating the results of some lower-level elements of the mod. But the magic itself, the core of the mod, the high-end content. That will not be automatic -- because, as I said, "Magic is Personal."

So, here's a quick recap of what I am and am not looking for.
Looking For: Mechanics, things you would like to be able to do (whether you can or cannot currently do them), tools, powers, etc. that you would like to see. Content that doesn't already exist is preferable, because that's always more fun to create, but I'm not averse to implementing things that already exist (especially if they're only achievable through tech-based mods).

Not looking for: I already have a fairly good idea of how I want the system to function, and what kind of theme I intend for the mod. If you like Eastern Mystical magic themes, that's cool -- but that's not what I'm looking for. If there's something specific about that theme you like (for instance, the art of scrying (spoiler alert, that's an idea already)), I'm happy to hear that. So please, keep it to mechanics and things you would like to do, rather than how you would like to do them or how you want it to look when you do them.

All ideas will be properly credited, and this mod (as with most of my other mods) will be free, licensed under the GPLv3. ^-^

--Edits--

1. From Reddit

What spawned this new project in the first place is my recently beginnings playing a custom modded set in 1.7 - a lot of the major mods, both in the tech and magic spaces, you can't even start until mid-game. Vanilla, on the other hand, gives you plenty to do when starting out -- while it's kinda low-tech and by this point a lot of people are bored by it, the important takeaway for me is that there's always something to do. And that's one of my guiding goals with this project - I want you, from the moment you start a game, to have something you can do with this mod. You won't have to hunt down iron and gold to make wands with loads of content to research, you don't have to hunt down diamonds and iron and a wealth of materials to begin with the magic -- you'll need them for progression, to be sure, but you can start almost immediately after spawning into a world for the first time.

2. Testing Opportunity
When the mod reaches a testable phase (this will not be for quite some time), I intend to choose from amongst those who have proposed ideas as early testers. I am hosting the source on two separate Git servers - a private one, and GitHub. The GitHub host is going to be the public access, which will be behind (but not by too long, I promise!) the main repository and may be missing some brand-new untested features that may never actually stay in the mod.

 

[TheCupcakeisaLie]

Invulnerability. We have had a quantum suit from industrialcraft (from forever ago) that I can be invulnerable for minutes at least getting hit with 2 Damage per tick. (no calculations, just a estimate). The closest thing we have now is the KAMI set, which is still pretty weak in comparison. Also, modular powersuits adds insane protection with every gizmo and gadgets ever. These may just be matters of those mods being overpowered, (MPS is pretty op) but magic mods just always seemed a bit- week. I want to see invulnerability, that I can reliably count on to bathe in lava. Just my two cent rant.

 

[slamasquid]

I would want a mechanic that allows you to alter the way the world nworks in your own vision. For example you can make it so that ores explode in not mined with a pickaxe. Also another cool mechanic to have is a way to prevent grief using high end stuff from the mod.

There should be a way to wreck the world if you are not careful. Not the tainted biome from thaumcraft, but like the core collapsing if the instability level is too high. Of course server Admins should be able to recover or disable the damage in a config file.

You should make some magic based automation that instead of transport pipes or itemducts you have magical wave of energy that form tubes that have chance to magically enchant the items being transported with cool buffs.

Also there should be a compatilbity proxy with tinkers construct to have customizable magic tools.

Thaumcraft is another great mod you should make it compatible with.

Maybe a magical barrier system that block the the player from parts of the world that it has not unlocked.

Don't forget to add cool particles and effects that surpass even thaumcraft.

Thanks for reading this post and my ideas along with it

 

[AlexThe18709]

I think the ability to create things from "nothing" would be useful. I put nothing in quote, because obviously not really from nothing. Perhaps the way that thaumcraft has aspects, you can add something like that, and use that to create things like dirt, stone, and not expensive things like that.

 

[DrowElf]

The ability to booby trap any non tile entity block. I am thinking the polar opposite of TC4's warding, where you cast your magic on a block, and it grants some kind of effect. Ideally you would have a variety of effects, here are a few that I thought of: explosion on break, damage on touch, disappear on touch, short range random teleport on touch, set fire on touch, slowness on touch, blindness on touch, and emit redstone signal on touch. This second part would be fairly difficult to implement, but in the ideal situation, the magic is cast on a block already placed in the world and just adds something like a psuedo command block to deal with the effect so that the block isn't modfied and detecting the magic would be impossible without this mods equivalent of TC4's goggles of revealing.

 

[DZCreeper]

A decent transformation system would be cool. Heating obsidian back into lava is cool and cooling water blocks into ice instantly doesn't seem out of the question.

Also, a non complex system for transferring the resources used by the mod would be great. Its a general pain to get a good ThaumCraft system that just works.

 

[thomas27c]

how about a class system with different types of elemental mages each with their own skill tree? ie a earth mage with hightened abilities to craft mining magic.

 

[Corvus_Urro]

I would like to see a system similar to the Mimichry mod, where you have a material that is able to duplicate other materials, i think it would be an interesting thing to see in a larger mod.

 

[Bandito Keith]

I'm unsure if you're familiar with Dungeons and Dragons (tabletop rpg), but there are many things from it that would be neat to have in a minecraft environment so far as magic goes. I'll just throw out a some that I think would make for neat mechanics to give you an idea.

• Grease: Creates a slippery surface in a moderately large area around the target, the grease is also flammable
• Hypnotism: The target stands in place doing nothing until it is damaged or the effect ends
  
• Charm: The target temporarily attacks hostiles
• Ray of Frost: Fires in a small straight line and does minor damage. Freezes a liquid block if it hits, or creates snow on a solid block
• Alarm: Any mob walking in to an area warded by Alarm triggers a loud easily recognizable sound
• Wall of Fire: Creates a wall of fire over a targeted area.
• Chain Lightning: Deals moderate damage and arcs to any other nearby mobs dealing less damage with each arc
  
• Web: Creates several webs in an area around target, also flammable
• Polymorph: Turns one mob in to another mob of your choosing
• Irresistible Dance: Target stops in place and dances (for the sake of feasibility', just make it stop and do nothing but jump) until effect wears off
• Plane Shift: Teleports targets to dimension of choosing
• Telekinesis: Lets you move blocks
• Secret Chest: Summons an extra dimensional chest that be banished and still retains contents then be re-summoned when needed.

 

[Minalien]

Lots of great ideas coming in. Before I get to them, I'd like to point out that (if you haven't seen it already) you should take a look at the main thread for an update I posted to Reddit just now.

I definitely like your idea, Cupcake, of adding some high levels of protection similar to what's available in tech mods. One of my ideas for this, because I find armor to be kind of a boring concept for a magic-wielder, is protective spells, warding items and the like. I certainly intend to tie into APIs of other magic mods (at the moment, only Blood Magic and Thaumcraft are available to me, so they'll likely be first), including the Baubles API. Along with this, I was thinking of adding danger to random dungeon loot - something that's incredibly common in Roguelikes for magical items that you find in the world is the need to identify the magic on them. You'll be perfectly capable of equipping things that you cannot identify, but I intend to add curse-type effects for these as well (rings you can't remove, give debuffs, things like that). Also, one core philosophy of mine is that everything you can find in the world, you should be able to craft - including cursing equipment.

Which brings me to DrowElf's suggestion, another one I absolutely love. I love the idea of being able to place magical traps and defenses, and agree with making it difficult (impossible, even) to detect these based on your current ability level with magic. (Note: I will not be using a level-based system for tracking your abilities. Nor will I be using mana bars and the like. I have a much more intricate, and hopefully epic system in mind, but what that is is my best-kept secret at the moment - and it's something that has not been done, to my knowledge).

Slamasquid, I think you've got a great idea for late-game abilities, though I'm not quite sure how feasible that will be to implement at the moment. Still, if it is something that's feasible it's something that will go incredibly well with the idea I have for a late-game source of power (not in the machine-power sort of sense. Hard to explain without spoiling). Automating sorting/item transfer/etc is something else I'm considering possibilities for, but I have no idea yet how to work it such that it works as well as existing transport solutions (or make it make sense). As for the visuals... well, what self-respecting magic user doesn't like to be flashy? ^-^

I don't think I'm going to be going with the separate classes/skill trees, because I'm not planning on a traditional class/level system. More details on that will... be saved for later. I do intend to have some mechanism for duplicating some basic resources, at the very least, but I don't know yet how i'll work it.[DOUBLEPOST=1397017053][/DOUBLEPOST]Sorry Keith, you must have posted when I was replying.

I like a few of the ideas for effects, will definitely be seeing some of them pop up as things you can do in the world.

 

[midi_sec]

haven't seen a good implementation of plain old necromancy yet. bloodmagic comes close, but not really.

I'd love to see the ability to store my soul in a phylactery as a form of protection. Possibly "raise" undead protectors à la TC golems, kinship spell for overworld undead (no more aggro).

lots of room for minecrafty things in the realm of necromancy

 

[Minalien]

Necromantic features are certainly something I've been considering, though I'm not yet sure how (or if) they'll fit into the mix.

 

[Tipsy_Beveridge]

I would actually like to see some thing like equivalent exchange like alchemy but actual alchemy if that makes sense

 

[Adonis0]

I personally have always been a fan of experience based skills i.e. the more you cast/use a particular skill, the more proficient you get at it

Obviously this could lead to a grindy feel, but done right I much prefer that type of progression over a "And you reached the magic threshold! Have a new skill!"

 

[Icet44]

I think that more mods need to incorporate more ice/frost mechanics. For example, in Thaumcraft 4, we have things like the fire and lightning foci which have really cool particle effects and do decent damage. What do we have for the frost focus? Literally a weak arrow that does much less damage with a projectile that looks like loads of little cubes stuck together. I believe Ars Magica 2 has a freeze effect (I haven't tried it out yet, but it sounds cool. Pun unintended), which is good. I know a lot of magic-based mods have ice/frost spells in them, but it's literally a slow or just an arrow that's remodelled to look like an ice ball. It would be better if the projectile, like, slowed the mob, turned them a bluer hue and created ice crystals around them, instead of making it look like a basic normal projectile which hurts them.

You can call me wrong on this, but I just think that ice is kinda forgotten about and how some people are like "Oh damn! I forgot to make an Ice spell! I'll just add a 1-heart damaging arrow that looks like ice".

Oh, and one other thing I saw somewhere would be to create a way of sorting items using magic, which frankly, could be pretty cool.

 

[KhrFreak]

any way of super fast smelting would be nice, some sort of upgradable magic furnace. I know thaumcraft has the infernal furnace but there's not really a magical equivalent of the kind of speed you get from IC2 overclocked furnace or Mekanism's elite smelting factory. There's also a distinct lack of autocrafting and storage using magic mods. No idea how you would do this magically though :/

 

[Yusunoha]

well, seeing as you intend to have a mod where you can start with early on, perhaps add some mechanics and such based around some vanilla mechanics.
for example the brewing... perhaps you could add a mechanic which allows you to brew better potions, with perhaps combined effects, longer duration, and different kinds of effects.
or take a shot at enchanting, allowing the player to enchant their items with the option of allowing the player to choose what enchantment they can use.

now some other mods already do this aswell, but as you mentioned, they're kind of mid to end game things, but if you were to introduce a way to do this as soon as you hit the vanilla stage of these things, people can already start with this alot sooner. now ofcourse it shouldn't be the intention to bring late game mod mechanics to early game through this and basically making an unbalanced mod. players can start early on this, but either the effects will be low of these mechanics, or there'll be alot of RNG. but the player is given the option to improve these mechanics and thus increasing efficiency

now it's quite hard to think up new mechanics that another mod hasn't done already, so alot of suggestions will be based on other mods. one of those suggestions is both ichun's Morph and Sync mod. combining the two would be a great combination, you're able to capture an entity, and remove their soul, leaving behind their body. this body can be put in some sort of container to prevent the body from decaying. through a ritual you're able to take your soul out of your body, and transfer it into one of the bodies without souls. you're able to move around and do things like the entity was able to do so, but ofcourse you don't have any items or equipments on you, as you only moved your soul. because of this, other entities do not recognize you, so hostile entities will not attack you, nor can you attack them unless the body of the entity you're in was able to attack other entities. now you're able to gain items and equipments through this ritual, but it'll require other rituals to do so. one ritual could allow you to carry items, with another ritual increasing the amounts of items you're allowed to carry. another ritual would increase you health or defense, and another ritual would allow you to wear armor. these rituals need to be done on the body when the body is in the container without a soul. as a way to prank people, you're also able to move the soul of another players into the bodies, or if you're capable enough, you're able to transfer your own soul into another player's body, while their soul has left their own body.

something that I've always hated is losing everything when I die. there are gravestone mods which will store your items upon death, but they're often glitchy, resulting you in still losing your items and your experience is never stored.
with the previous suggestion, you could perhaps introduce a way to transfer your soul back into your previous body that died. it'd be when you die, you leave some sort of grave behind, which stores your body. through a ritual you can move your soul from your new body, into your dead body, giving you back all your items and experience. now ofcourse you can't wait too long with this, as your dead body is not properly stored and it's decaying. when you've succesfully transferred your soul back, your dead body has some limitations, as it's dead. this means you'll be somewhat like a zombie, meaning you can't handle sunlight, you'll need to kill other mobs to feed on their flesh so your body keeps moving, but your damage increases and hostile mobs won't attack you unless you attack them. your goal would be to preform a ritual on your dead body, so the items and experience you're carrying will be transferred in some sort of container, which your healthy body can access. after this ritual your dead body will truly become dead, and will become a zombie which you can still transfer your soul into, but it'll ofcourse not have it's inventory or experience anymore. now there's a drawback... if you wait too long with this, your dead body will turn into a zombie. that zombie still has your inventory and experience, but it'll be stronger then other zombies. so you can still get back your items and experience, but it'll be a tough fight.

now this is all fine and dandy, but I've really been wanting a way to easily gain back my items and experience from a previous death. so perhaps there could also be an item, which you need to have been carrying, which will transform you into a ghost after your death. as a ghost you've all your items and experience, but it's basically all locked, you won't be able to use anything of it. but as a ghost there's some positive points, as you won't get hungry, other entities can't attack you (though nor can you) and you'll be able to fly, even through blocks. your goal is to move back to your spawning point, and get into your new body. now if you're far away from your spawning point, it'd mean you'd have to travel a long way, so if you're carrying another type of item, you're able to instantly travel into your new body. this can also be done through a ritual, so you'll be able to move around like a ghost, but you won't have to die to do this. though you'll need to put your own body into a container, or that body will die. to prevent players from checking another player's base just to find out how to grief it, players are able to cast a ritual that'd prevent other players from moving around in certain areas as a ghost.

now I could go on and on with all kinds of ideas, but I think I've already done a tl;dr text

 

[Bahnmor]

When I read the first post it made me think of the Dresden Files.
An interesting mechanic that could be taken from that is the concept of being able to wield magical power with little equipment or preparation, but the result is horrendously inefficient, inaccurate and has very little power.
However, investing some time and effort to manufacture different pieces of equipment (that are often expensive) enables you to better focus your energy, giving better results for less effort.

To link that directly with the source: Harry Dresden can throw a fire blast at the drop of a hat, but without his blasting rod or his staff it is more like a flamethrower instead of a beam and is much harder to maintain.

 

[MuckingAbout]

I always liked the idea of pollution and a cost for the environment when using machinery or magic. When you speak of 'personal magic'' I assume some form of spells. Why not have some effect on the world when performing such arcane actions. Spells could suck up vegetation like grass and leaves or turn grass to dirt at the most basic level. More advanced spells turn stone to sand or cause lava eruptions. The more powerful the action the more impact on the environment.
Allow the user to compensate by gaining experience, carrying reagents or binding crafts to themselves. Also allow them to overcompensate and have positive effects on the world when they progress further. Instead of desertification of your surroundings, suddenly trees grow.

Some examples of how other magic mods handled this:
Thaumcraft alchemy and infusion sometimes produce clouds and puddles of tainted goo. A minor inconvencience, but a nice effect that needs you to clean it up or at least plan for it.
Witchery spawns ents when you cut too many of its trees.

Edit:
Forgot to mention rewarding exploration. I loved the ruins and places the first ars magica added to the game. Thaumcraft also encourages exploration for the aura nodes. Force players out of their comfortable little base. Want to cast something awesome? Better not risk damage to your base and get outside instead.

 

[Mevansuto]

I'd quite like to see some adventure aspects. You'd have to explore structures to unlock spells or something like that.

I'd also like to see party tricks (akin to Dragon Quest IX) but they're magical. So you could just stand still and pull a rabbit out of your hat.

Thaumcraft integration is key for me. Not as an addon, but additional features like Blood Magic does.

Also check out this thread and feel free to rip any ideas from there.

Also add new TiC tabs. I love those things.