As an update to what's going on currently, I've begun working on the magic schools update.
For starters, this changes a bit about how magic is learned. Spell tomes are now called inscribed slates, just so they're not confused with actual books you could read. The learning reactions from now on will produce a unit of cheese, a plant cheese, called "essence of (school) (spell)". Dwarves or adventurers will have to eat this cheese to gain the spell it offers, but that will eliminate the problem with clouds of vapor being unreliable. At the moment, each essence provides a single spell. They can be stored in the food stockpile, so you can dictate where they are stored and who has access to that stockpile. While they do not rot they can be eaten by vermin, which can lead to magic vermin. Nobody wants cockroaches flinging fireballs, so it's advisable to pasture a cat on whatever stockpile stores these things. You also wouldn't want visitors or uninvited guests to be able to get in, so it might be advisable to store them in a far-flung, usually locked room. Vampires will not eat in fort mode and dont breathe, obviously, so that's going to be a problem until I can come up with a solution that will work for a creature that refuses to eat, drink, or even breathe.
There are still threats to your health in the process of trying to create this essence, though nothing serious. Only a very rare chance of going crazy and some minor symptoms. These will still be produced as vaporizing boulders in the workshop/on your person, they're still going to be rare and their effects are going to be resistible, so you can protect yourself or your dwarves with balmleaf products and learned disease resistance spells.
The general non-school will feature some generic, and not particularly strong or quickly reusable spells. It will take no special reagents besides aether salts and a basic inscribed slate. It will offer magma ball (potentially melting fat, but fairly cool) ice spike etc., disease resistance and recuperation among other things.
The rest of the schools will require a normal inscribed slate and a special ceremonial blade associated with that school, called an athame, in addition to aether salt. More powerful effects will require aether residue as well. Your civilization will have access to some of these depending on what's in their raws. I'm going to update the entity_default.txt entry for this as well. Since the athame will be a bladed tool like a carving knife, people from that civ can carry them, you can buy them off caravans etc. They'll also be possible to make on your own. Since the essences will now be a food product you can even order them directly from the liaison. They'll all be quite expensive, but I guess you can always commit murder.
The Aetherial school will include pure aetherial magics, that aren't associated with a sphere or effect. This includes a solid projectile, a vaporizing liquid projectile that delivers a syndrome similar to the potential dangers of learning, aetherial webbing, and life seeking.
Dwarves will have their own school of magic that encompasses labor and individual strengths, controlling the need to eat and sleep, and the ability to get totally wasted at will, including creating potent booze by reaction to share (with your athame). They'll also be able to create golems from livestock and heal themselves
Elven nature worship will entail the ability to interact with and create ents, transform into dangerous beasts and protect elves and animals. They can also totally remove the need to eat or drink for a time. Not sure yet if I'll straight up make elves playable in fort mode, though.
There is of course a school of fire and ice, also including stone. A lot of these spells will be combat oriented, wrapped around the idea of controlling temperatures.
Similarly there will be storms, oceans, and weather. Again, combat oriented, but also focused towards surviving under water.
There will be schools of witchcraft, allowing blessings and curses, and of disease and blight, and of necromancy and conjuring, which will be available to goblins and unsavory folks. Like humans.
There will be a school covering primarily transformations of the body and mind. Become animals, enable intelligence, that sort of thing.
A school for healing, and resurrecting the dead in a non-zombified state.
And finally, I think(?), show magic. Illusions, magic tricks, cards and luck, etc. Humans will definitely be able to use this, probably dwarves too.
If anybody has any ideas or comments, I would freaking love to hear them!
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Topic: [47.05] Spellcrafts Mod - Basic Magic in Dwarf Fortress (Read 173632 times)