May 27th - Glowing Staff Fun

I'll get behind Magic if you guys agree to FIX GUNS!!! Please, it's a sandbox set in space and guns are the most useless items thus far.

 

To be honest I find the concept of a psiconic to be quite interesting. Being able to control things with our mind just because we're "special" can be a bit awkward, sure, but what about neural implants that unlock and enhance psychic abilities? Such a thing was present in System Shock and if felt more "real", like it actually had a logical explanation, than ye old "its magic" excuse. The whole thing is still based on technology, so its entirely possible in the SB universe. And it totally looks like the kind of experiment an Apex scientific complex would have. Question is: How far into it are the devs willing to go?

 

Yes and no. If I recall correctly, implants in SS2 were mostly to strengthen and allow easy access to psionic abilities without prior preparation, side-effects and while in suboptimal state of health. Even when you choose your career path and go with OSA, during each year, before you are frozen as a heavily modified 'borg on the UNN Rickenbacker you get a bit of a fluff how you (depending on which abilities you choose) spend time in sensory deprivation tank or as an observer during criminal interrogations, trying to mindprobe folks. In the game, cybernetic modules are more like a shortcut to further your abilities so you can load them up instead of spending another year to learn another psionic discipline.

But that bit of nerdy knowledge aside, I agree that psionic, or hell, even magic in sci-fi setting can work very well. It depends on how it's done. I don't mind completely techless approach ot it, either. Ubik, oldish but kind of classic, where people had access to such abilities made it work quite fine. Certain mysticism in old Star Wars trilogy, before they went with midichlorians and other silly crap was also very nice. Warhammer 40 000 is full of parapsychological abilities, often done in a very interesting way.

In fact, I'd say that staffs here are kind of going in wrong direction with magic. I'd be more happy with a result of proper mental and spiritual training and while we cannot really have that in the game, I'd gladly settle for magic to be, well, magical, something occult, hidden, not easily accessible. Here it's going into heroic fantasy direction, possibly fitting for the game but robbing magic of any magic - staff is just another weapon here, a less handy and more clunky looking plasma pistol or whatnot.

 

What, you don't want to stand 9 feet tall, shoot fire from your eyes, and lightning from your arse?

William Wallace disproves of this notion!

 

To be totally honest, how can you explain magic in any fashion without having to resort to Physics (not actual Physics though)? Even Phantasy Star (the classic series, online and universe,except PSP 2 which was on the same WTF line that some of the latest games on the Shining Force franchise) seemed to make use of it in order to explain techs (you can read about that in Phantasy Star IV's booklet).

 

Which is why I'm going to wait for something along the lines of 'Thaumcraft' and 'Ars Magicka' from Minecraft to come along into SB in forms of mods. I love both magic and alchemy in videogames, but I prefer when they're implemented in a logical way and not purely random - magic has a source, whether that source is a neural implant with the purpose of unlocking psychic abilities or essence extracted from an elemental core and then filtered and converted through alchemical processes to serve a physical purpose, I don't care... just make it logical and if possible add a generous amount of lore sprinkles to make it nicer.

 

I totally agree with the fact that magic/psychic abilities need some kind of background when you don't want them to be just part of the battle system. And since the apex seem to be the most advanced fellows out there, it would make sense that they were the ones who had developed methods to spark someone's psychic abilities and channel them through the use of a neurological amplifier embedded in a staff (just for the looks, they could have decided to put the amplifier in a staff in order to make the person using it look more menacing or something ).

 

YOU...SHALL NOT...PASSSS!!!!

 

Lovely anim of the staff charge, makes me think of several 'magical girl' anime's out there that have tech / science based magic / items, Nanoha is one of the more popular ones people may be familiar with, Anywho, As long as we dont go straight up capes and pointy hats for magic! Ill be a happy camper. And side note.. Moar stargate references!