So I suppose now would be the time to announce that I’m going through with idea of adding a magic system for the fantasy settings, which I’ll probably split between moderate and extreme fantasy (potions being moderate, magic being extreme). The system will once again be separate from LF’s system to keep my mod independent. No real details have been worked out other than:
- It will be like the cooking and baking XP system
- You will be able to practice on others directly, but be careful, I’m still going to make ordinary people’'s reactions the same as if a peasant saw someone perform witch craft, with the exception of races that can cast spells naturally.
- Demons (only full, not half demons or fallen angels), Fairies, and Kitsunes (to an extent, more on that later) will be able to use the magic system right away. These races don’t need to worry about being seen using these spells, as their nature is already known. They do still need to worry about the immediate consequences however (so not a mob showing up at their door, but just the target of the spell that saw you use it)
- The main design philosophy is to make the spells more powerful than potions (at least as far as ability to use on others), but to make it more dangerous and harder to get access to.
- Some of the spells will fail, having negative or unintended effects on either the target or the caster.
- There will be a specialized mana system for this type of magic.
- Spells can be powered by the mana, the character’s weight, or sometimes both depending on what the spell is.
- Using the spells will be the primary way to level up the skill. There will be tomes that can be found rarely, that can be used instead.
- Option to practice on your prisoners. This will have a 0% chance of being found out.
- The mana will recharge over time.
- The races will have some spells available to them that the others can’t get, whether it be humans or the other magically inclined races.
- Turning off the magic in the settings will only disable the system for non magically inclined characters (not one of the the three previously stated races). So for those playing without LF, you won’t see any magic at all if you turn it off.
I’m also looking to integrate the “Tale of Nine Tails” Luxuria Fantasia Submod into this, but the shape shifting spells are proving to be a real pain to deal with. They set the character’s weight back to 0 every time it is cast, and the effect is not temporary, it is basically just a free reset. This would trivialize any kitsune content I make, but since it’s one of the major sub mods for LF, it would be difficult to just say it’s incompatible and leave it at that. It is possible to make overrides for other files from different mods, but then that creates the problem of needing constant maintenance every time the other mod updates that same file (and since that mod’s magic system is the primary feature, that would be all the time). Also, if anyone made a sub mod for Nine tails that edits or overhauls the magic system, it would be incompatible with Fatocracy due to both mods overriding the same file.
I’m trying to find a way to not remove the weight loss entirely, but to make it only temporary and then to have the character snap back to roughly their original weight. It would also have the potential for the snap back to go wrong, and it would put the Kitsune to go into the temporarily obese state. The higher the weight when the spell was originally cast, the higher the chance of becoming temporarily obese.
So far, I’ve only come up with a very obtrusive system where Kitsunes will have a variable go up along with every time they go up in weight class, so when the game detects the kitsune has a weight that doesn’t match the variable, it will increase the variable if the weight is higher, or cause the snap back if the weight is lower the time the next weight pulse fires. The problem is the game won’t detect what weight loss is caused by normal methods or weight loss from the spell. So the best I could come up with so far is to make it a spell for Kitsunes (my magic system, not nine tails or LF) that are underneath their variable’s weight range only. For X mana, it would lower the variable by 1 point, effectively lowering the weight range Kitsune would snap to the next tier below the previous one. The spell can be used after shape shifting (the character would have 0 weight at this point). So, to penalize this tactic, the spell will still only lower the variable by 1, but the Kitsune will suffer a significant health penalty for being more than 1 weight tier below their original snapping position. This can happen when not doing this tactic of course, but what are the odds you lose -20ish weight in the span of 2 years, between weight pulse firings?
Is this solution elegant? No, it’s damn ugly as it is, but it would be the easiest to maintain and it would work. Thoughts? I think it’s kind of crap personally, but it’s the best I’ve got right now.