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Join Date 11/2008

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[Customization]Spellbook Layout and Design

In one of the recent journal updates I saw this picture of what I'm guessing is the current design of the spellbook. If this is actually something else, or an old version of the spellbok, disregard the following post. If it is the spellbook, read on.

Firstly, the left side looks good but I'm not sure how exactly it's structured. Having spells that are being learned on the same page with spells that can be used is a bit confusing. Also, I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between known and available spells.

So, suggestion #1: Separate the book into chapters. On chapter for spells being learned, one for spells that can be cast, and another one for whatever category the other one represents. This way a spell page will be a lot cleaner.

Right side of the book. This is what prompted me to write this post, I am not a very big fan of the current design, mainly the lower half of the page. I like the artwork, I like the short description, but the details resemble something out of Power Point, not a book of spells.

Suggestion #2: Simplify the details. Currently there are too many words in there that aren't all that appealing. Instead of "Spellpoint cost 2" and "Spellbok Life", you could use something similar to Magic the Gathering cards, or even the Master of Magic Spellbook. By that I mean graphically representing the spell point cost with a symbol of the type of mana/shard required for each mana point required. This works out great in case spells don't cost a lot of mana. If they end up costing hundreds of points, display a numerical value over the symbol of the mana/shard. Alternatively, a stronger symbol for the mana/shard point could be used, for example like in Master of Orion/Master of Magic in the town section, instead of 10 hammers production an anvil was displayed.

Then there's the spell type. This shouldn't even be here. It should be obvious from the spell logo itself on the other page. Currently I see black circles around those spells.

Suggestion #3: Color the circle in such a way that you can differentiate between strategical spells(which I presume are world spells) and tactical/combat spells. Or instead of color, replace the circle with a distinct symbol for each type.

As a side note, consider indexing the spell book for a better navigation, such sorting by cost, mana/shard required, spell type(enchantment, direct damage, summoning, in general la Master of Magic had)

With all #2 and #3 implemented, the left side of the book would only contain the artwork, the description, the cost(which can take up a whole line), the radius, the range, and underneath it, the requirements which I'm not exactly sure to what it is referring, but since it's not taking up a lot of space, I'll let it slide.

Now you have some extra space on this page that could be used for other things like...

Suggestion #4: Quotes for spells. Heroes of Might and Magic 4 had this and I loved it. It made the spellbook actually fell like a book of spells. It basically consist of a short description given from the point of view of a character in the game world. Not a description in the same sense as the other one, no statistics, no application, no outcome, just something that adds more personality. For example, this was used to describe Firebolt in Heroes of Might and Magic 4:

"Set your enemies on fire, light a campfire, or roast a duck - it's an all purpose spell".

Another example, this is from the Cancellation spell in HOMM4:

"The knights spent a full day preparing for their attack, praying, casting spells, and polishing their armor. Pointless! But at least they died in shiny armor."

Having those quotes just made for a better atmosphere. And since in Elemental you can add quotes to the unit card, why not have some for the spells.

That's about all I had to say on the subject. Fell free to add anything to the idea.

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The spell icons could be smaller so that more spells will fit on a page.

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I as well have been bugged by the spellbook, but was never quiet sure if it was just a personal peeve thing and not an issue for others.

If they are seriously in love with their current layout, they could leave as is but maybe set it as the default or "basic" layout, and allow users a more streamlined format.

These are my personal problems, and maybe a few suggestions, with the spellbook. A few of these are tiny gripes that won't make me rage too much, but i feel aren't a necessary annoyance.

Page Turning- The little arrow to turn pages is just too small, flipping through menus should be able to be done with speed. Simple fix just make the arrows bigger, more preferred fixes for me would be ability to flip pages with mouse wheel (wheel up page left, wheel down page right), allow anywhere along edges to flip pages. Outside book closes it, so the area from edge of book to some where along edge of page, so that a quick motion of mouse in that general area would flip pages.

Too Few spells on a page- At most you'll ever only see 12 spells without needing to flip around. A better page flipping might fix this, but while were on this issue. I feel either a big spell icon(left page thing), or a huge picture (right page) are needed, definitely not both. My personal choice, remove the large picture on the right page. I'm sure the graphics guy will be, "thanks for wasting my time guys!", but for a more streamlined spellbook it seems unneeded. Even more so for mods, when people make their own spells they most likely will not have a good picture choice to go with it, and possibly just a huge space waster.

At the very least this would gain maybe 2 more rows in upper right. Downside is with just that removed, the spell info in lower right page will look rather tacky.

I wonder how much info you can put next to the spell buttons without making it look terrible. Such as a small number telling you its spell point cost, so you can quickly scan through and see it without having to click on each spell to look. It would be great to have small little icons next to each button that tells you most of the info that is given from lower right hand corner.

If you freed up the right page by putting the info next to buttons, you would only need to fit 6 spells per page to equal the current amount, I suspect you could get a few more than that without having it feel overly crowded.

I'm not sure how opposed to info being done through a tooltip popup. Even if you just carbon copied the current info with a tooltip, the popup would actually be a tolerable size while being able to free up the whole right page(if you get rid of the picture).

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Instead of "Spellpoint cost 2" and "Spellbok Life", you could use something similar to Magic the Gathering cards, or even the Master of Magic Spellbook. By that I mean graphically representing the spell point cost with a symbol of the type of mana/shard required for each mana point required. This works out great in case spells don't cost a lot of mana. If they end up costing hundreds of points, display a numerical value over the symbol of the mana/shard. Alternatively, a stronger symbol for the mana/shard point could be used, for example like in Master of Orion/Master of Magic in the town section, instead of 10 hammers production an anvil was displayed.

Quoted for heavy support!

This is one of the main elements why I was (and still am) in love with both the MoM as well as the AoW interface. In my opinion it looks much more beautiful and charming! Please consider this, I am convinced that it would add a lot to the overall feel of the game.

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Also, I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between known and available spells.

Know spells are spells you have already learned. Available spells are spells that you can learn given you maximum spells points. If a spell has a research cost of 20 and your maximum possible spells points is 15, it won't be available.

By that I mean graphically representing the spell point cost with a symbol of the type of mana/shard required for each mana point required.

Sadly, a spell can be from various spell books( life, earth, summoning, combat, mastery, ... ) and there is only one type of mana. And the possible costs to cast the spell are in mana, shard requirements or essence.

Then there's the spell type. This shouldn't even be here. It should be obvious from the spell logo itself on the other page. Currently I see black circles around those spells.

Be wary that things that may be obvious for you may be mysterious for others. Some redundancy can be good

For me, it was obvious that you could click on the small icon next to the research spell points bars. For others it wasn't.

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I also think using the right-hand page for spell description is wasted space. I'd rather see a pop-up infocard on clicking or mousing over the spell. Also, I'd like tabs to sort by spell class, or spell book, or learned vs. unlearned. Damage spells need to have some indication of how much damage they do.

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I also think using the right-hand page for spell description is wasted space.

Perharps but it is coherent with others books that are displayed: kingdom report, quests or units you encounter.

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I just wanted to bump this post, and second the notion that the spellbook layout needs an overhaul.

I want a clearly defined border around the circlular icon that represents the spell. This border has procedural coloring, which means it gets all the colors from the spellbooks it's from.
A fire spell would have a red border, an ice spell would have a blue. A fire and ice one would have red and blue.

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Quoting Peace Phoenix,

reply 4

Be wary that things that may be obvious for you may be mysterious for others. Some redundancy can be good

I'd like the symbols to replace words and give information at a glance.

So in my opinion I would rather say:

- redundancy can quickly be tedious

- good manual and good tutorial are...good

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I say they should look to the spell-book from Kings Bounty for inspiration.Look at how beautiful it is. Clearly filtered with nice drawings.

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