What are shards for?

I think they are needed for the important Game-breakingly powerful spells.

I don't know anymore. More and more it feels less like a Stardock Game, and more like a game developed by the forums. And thats bad. Real bad.

Heh.

I think you are worrying too much.

In Beta 3C it seemed that PLENTY spells needed shards. And while I can't speak for Beta 4 (yet) ... Its my impression that the more powerful 10-25% of the spells should require shards ... and most of the rest of the spells have a "cheaper, more cost effective counterpart" that requires a shard.

So for instance ... "Flare" could deal 3-5 fire damage to a 1-tile radius using a 10 tile range and require 6 mana

While "Fireball" could deal Int/2 <-> Int*2 fire damage to a 1-tile radius using a 15 tile range and require a fire shard + 5 mana

This way, it would still be *possible* to play the magician without a shard "for a time" but far less feasible.

This makes more sense to me, and is similar to using "soft caps"

I think the shards should be THE most important aspect of the game. After all, the game is basically named after them!

The spells should rely heavily on shard ownership for their spell power and/or ability to cast. I would also love to see other things within the game make use of shard ownership such as the ability to forge certain weaponry and armour.

Maybe shards can allow magic resistant armor to be built ... (as opposed to or in addition to crystal mines)

i reached level 9 spells and never saw a thing saying i needed a shard to learn and/or cast a spell and since playing the 3C beta i have yet to figure out what they do

maybe shards could be there to give spells of the same element a boost, rather than being required.
eg Spell Damage = BaseDamage(3-5) + Int/2 + Shards(Amount under controll X 3)

This way some spells could always be cast, but would be useless by comparison when facing a sov who has controll of 5 shards of 1 element

That being said, i havn't had much of a chance to really look over my current spell book and see what i'm missing because of lack of shards, easier doing 110 damage a hit with a broadsword than 15 per fireball if i roll max damage ^^

So possibly shards are disabled for Beta4 ...

I still haven't tested much of the actual gameplay since Beta 3C, although I have gotten my fair share of CtDs while in Workshop.

Usually happens from clicking buttons too many times, and it happend the one time I tried to place a robed peasant onto a tile creator.

Aside from spellcasting, I think you also need 1 of each shard for the Magic victory and possibly even the adventuring victory.

Personally i think a percentage boost to the power of that element of your magic is the way to go (e.g. you get a 'modified int value') Or a percentage mana reduction.

Yes, I think I also favour this approach and posted it in another thread where we also got on to shard discussions (link)

I also like the spell-boosting idea.

Another possibility; have each shard reduce the cost of spells of that school by 10%.

Have each shard beyond the requirement reduce cost and increase power somewhat.

To save the world gelfling, you must find the Shard.. the crystal shard.

But seriousely I woudl liek to see some mana regenration with them too.

Aren't there some buildings in the magic tree that require a shard to be built? Or was that something else?

Has anyone ever made the Spell of Making? Maybe you need one shard of each element to research the spell.

I liked requiring shards to research some spells. Since I'm a magic fanatic in this kinds of games, I would build cities on shards just to get them "in supply" so I can claim it. The summon elemental ones are ones that would make sense requiring shards as well as the AOE versions of the basic attack spells (like Chain Lightning or Infernal. Some of the more powerful buffs/debuffs would make sense needing shards. The one to freeze a city would need a water shard, etc.

I would have sworn this was the case somewhere in Beta 3.

I also like the idea of shards boosting spell damage. That makes sense as well. I say do both!