I feel like perhaps this has gotten away a bit from what I was saying, or at least attempting to. I'm honestly not all that particular about a lot of the way it goes down, here are my key points of spell casting/crafting system
- again, I feel like I am the guy using the spell, I don't understand why I should need some altar to make a spell. This speaks to how little information we have lore-wise about magic, it's use and the creation of spells; for me it's about gameplay (simpler) and the simple concept that if I know the effect (I can summon a flame), I should be able to, with sufficient skill, manipulate that effect in varying ways, on the spot, as I will - though not in combat, of course. I'd also like to point out that I think, as pointed out by CaptainFez, the strength of your spells should scale naturally with your skill and shouldn't need to be manipulated, unless you wanted to enhance other aspects by sacrificing some of the initial power (or sacrifice those other aspects for more raw power).
- I want to have full control over my spell list. I... somewhat enjoyed spell making in previous games, but the clutter in the spell menu it created was obnoxious. I should be able to 'forget' a spell if I want - if that's an engine issue, at least to be able to 'hide' the spell from my regular lists, and put it on a 'hidden' or 'unused' list.
- a larger variety of effects, with a wider variety of casting and delivery methods available for more spells (I'm imagining it can't just be all/all). I'd love to be able to power up a spell by casting and holding.
- some unique usage for staves; in Skyrim, just being an enchanted weapon that fires a spell was pretty lame. Dargor's concept of staves having intrinsic properties that interact with and change the properties of spells cast through them (if I understand correctly) pretty much does it for me.
- for Soul Gems, I really wish they just eliminate the necessity to micro-manage that as much as possible - ie. Sure there are different sizes of souls, and creatures with 'larger' souls have more soul-energy. Specific soul to specific gem though has got to go. I say, soul gems can simply contain a certain amount of energy, and souls fill them up as they will, spilling leftovers to other available gems, or to waste only if there are no gems available. A grand soul gem can be filled by many lesser souls, and many lesser soul gems can be filled with one grand.
I fail to see how most of what has been proposed actually denotes a crafting system that is significantly different than what I was talking about - I think everybody just pictured the old sliders and said 'Hell no!' Yet, if we're being honest - if the crafting system doesn't revolve around basic effects and the manipulation of them in some way, what exactly are we talking about? Huleed, you acknowledge the use of tactically differentiated spells, but also condemned spells that were just copies of other spells with different properties. Where is the resolution in that conflict? If I'm able to have a fireball spell, an exploding fireball spell, an exploding fireball spell with weak upfront damage but a longer burn, etc. Why can't I set some of those variables on my own? Or do those all have to be completely different spells, with different casting methods and visuals, etc.? Or, do I just not get that kind of variety?
The concept of weapon modding is interesting, I'll admit; that spell crafting could be likened to weapon modding in Fallout 4, where you are able to change some of the basic properties of the spell itself. However, one quick look at Fallout 4's weapon modding and you will see that a decent amount of it remains augmenting factors like; damage, distance, AOE vs. single target, etc. The major difference is really just that you're not looking at sliders - the instances where you're really changing the functionality of the weapon (such as auto-lock on a missile launcher) are the exceptions to that system, not the rule. I don't see why you couldn't have a system that allowed tweaking things such as damage/aoe/dot, distance, etc. as well as having a 'modification' slot that can change some of the spells basic properties. I'd still prefer to be able to manipulate those other factors, for the tactical uses that provides.
Give me a point system, where at 100 in skill in a magic school you get 5 points towards augmenting your spells. Perhaps certain spells/effects have predispositions towards certain augmentations (have points allocated that cannot be manipulated). Then you have your variables.... Again this is where I'm stuck attempting to see what you guys are talking about, if the variables aren't damage, distance, AOE/DOT, and casting/delivery method, then what are they? Again using the weapon mod anology - sure, visually and literally what I'm doing is upgrading the receiver of a gun, but practically, I just slid the damage bar to the left by a pre-portioned amount, rather than by a fractional amount. Different upgrades/changes will have varying cost, and you are free to invest as many or as few points as you like, create versions of the spell, delete or edit others, etc. Having casting method (on touch, projectile, wall, cloak, ritual) impart different properties on the spell is a neat idea.
Hell, I'd be happy with a physics-puzzle type crafting system where you actually have to complete some minigame where the varying elements you want to make into a spell are actually visualized as 3D puzzle pieces, and your skill level in the relevant school of magic can give you clues as to the solution or more/better pieces. I only say that really to emphasize my detachment from a lot of the specifics here - I'm mostly interested in the points listed above.