Your specific example was having it being said that "not even the apex understand why" It's not that you're not explaining it, you're basically explaining it by calling it inexplicable in situations where that isn't necessary. And no I'm fine with magic in video games, however even magic is often explained inside of a games lore at least somehow. You don't need to go into detailed information about every single feature of a game, but just saying "lol it's inexplicable" is stupid.
Weapons with magic-like effects? No problem for me. Magic as the explanation for origin? No thanks. I'm sure species capable of creating technology to teleport themselves and travel among the stars could explain the reason something looks like 'magic'.
Well okay, I can understand that. I didn't mean it to sound like that. However, do you think the idea itself is bad? Maybe some of your suggestions?(Completely serious now)
Yeah....sometimes not explaining things are ok but...."Mystery mechanism that works" thats kinda...lame xD "Ancient scroll found from the ruins of a long gone alien civilization, inscribed with pictures and schematics for a small flamethrowing device in the form of a gauntlet" would be better (it sounds dumb but hey, its better than "mystery device that works") That offers a little explaination atleast
Well okay, that is better. Mine idea was young and foolish, but it was just a suggestion. BTW - did you read my LAST comment?
You know, its always been my opinion that magic and science are both one and the same. Only, magic is the bits of science people havent found out/understood about yet. For example, 500 years ago, lets say you somehow manage to go back to the past armed with a flamethrower. You use this on a village. You will suddenly be remembered as a mage as terrifying as Merlin, yet should go go back to your time, it would be a mundane piece of technology. People in the past would see your piece of machinery and call it magic, because they have no idea how it works. Another example would be operations. Let us say you perform a triple bypass surgery on someone with heart problems in todays world. Imagine the reactions of people watching this procedure 500 years ago. The washing of the hands, the handling of the scalpel, the stitching, the patient getting up later.... are you REALLY sure people of the past would take that in the stride we take it today of the miracle of medicine and surgery today? Chances are the patient and doctor would suddenly find themselves on the short line for the bonfires of witchcraft. In other words, what I'm saying is, magic doesn't need to fit into science and vice versa, because, one way or another, one will be the other, whether through ruined inventions of civilizations long past being rediscovered (The battery was actually invented by the Babylonians! Cases with different acids held charges -w-) or the mystification of formulas which were once rendered logical by their creators back then... (Such examples may or may not be Nostradomus, or several practices of astrology and alchemy)
That's just what I wanted it to look like. If anyone from the medieval world could see a computer, reaction would be "Oh God, that wall is shining!" For that person, the only explaination would be magic or God intervention. So I don't mean to accept unexplicable, just think about what you would think by yourself, when you will see a human cowered in red fire, shooting thunders from hands and flying on an old carpet? Magic? Or just something that we haven't discovered yet?
Thats a Lunarian Hoverbreaker. Those were an old Magino model used before the recent public transport "Dragons" that were invented about 2000 years ago :/ Hoverbreakers were essentially glass sheets with energy wiring that exuded a shield over the person to break the effect of the wind and to hover off the floor. The Hoverbreaker was operated quite like alot of Lunarian inventions, by using mental concentration to move up, down, forward and backwards. Tends to be a trademark of Lunarian engineering, psychic operation... I do seem to remember quite a few crashing into the Arabian Desert a few centuries ago. I mean, not even Lunar inventions last forever (usually 2000 years are the norm), and they ARE one of the first things made by them that used mental piloting...
i agree. In my opinion, magic would never fit in a game like this. In terrarria magic was basically the power of the Stars being given to the player thanks to some fallen ones, power which could be used in many ways. In starbound it would jus be rendundant with many technologic weapons.
awww but thats no fun.. magic kinda gives the game more colors... otherwise it COULD turn into a 2D CoD, no offence btw. Take virorbs for example, how the hell can they fly? or how do they do those bad things when they sclorp your head? Ofc you are gonna go explaining "oh they have special molecules that can hover in the air" but thats just technological bullcrap! It makes you think "oh... thats it?..." ya know, no mystery, no interesting stuff like you see stuff irl that can't be explained, its very mysterious also very interesting because of the fact it just cant be explained. This is how i see magic in a game. If everything i said didn't make any sense well then ballz.
Magic was Terraria's thing; this is Starbound. You'll have plenty pretty colours to play with from the energy guns, I'm sure. [EDIT]: Just read your post, DevilForce, things float by having high pressure below, and low pressure above. This is why in Steampunk-themed games you may see enemies with fans on the bottom - they move the air from above to below, therefore decreasing Pa above and increasing Pa below.
My point is that if you want magic purely from the pretty colours, it's a pretty (lol pun) useless thing to add in.
The whole point of adding a single story behind it is complete crap. This game focuses on exploring and finding new things. The only fix thing that everybody gets should be the main story, and that's it. I could think of some ways of implementing "magic", like having energy batteries that run out as your Mana, just to name one. I do not support this idea at all. And hundreds of "EDIT"s on the main topic won't change my mind.
i didn't mean colorful LITERALLY! i meant it figuratively as a thing that would make the gameplay more beautiful (again, not literally) EDIT: i would love to make some god points here but i am extremely tired, so i really can't think of anything.
First, From my point of view, something with no explanation (Gods, magic, flying spaghetti monsters) and no solid mathematic proof is simply not real. Second, i can't understand how scientific and logic stuff can be boring to you. I mean, i can't imagine somehing more poetic than "we are Stardust" Which we, in fact, are. Scientific stuff makes me think "woah, so that's how it works! let's do some more experiments, maybe i can combine those low-density molecules from the Virorbs with a defensive drone..." something that can't be explained does not exist. everything WILL eventually be explained in my opinion, as a scientist and as a curius being. Oh, BTW sorry for my bad grammar and errors, i'm not english. Oh, BTW, please let's just not talk about that crap called COD. TF2 FTW EDIT: oh, almost forgot: i love magic and i play Mage in D&D 4.0, but in my opinion this game does not need it. that's it no heart feelings
now i have something to say about this. 1. Yes its not real, but its interesting because of that. 2. scientific and logic stuff isn't boring to me but i is not better than things that can't be explained and magic for me. As long as there are stuff that is scientific and stuff that cant be explained, im good with it. 3. i also like finding out how it works but it gets rid of "that is weird..." feeling. Also i like finding out stuff but the least thing i wanna become is a scientist (astronomy is my joy and i wanna find out as much as i can about it). 4. yes everything will me explained over time in reality, that's a good point, but i was aiming about unexplainable stuff in-game. 5. im not English too. 6. I don't play Cod nor i like it, TF2 and MicroVolts are better, but im afraid that this game will only have high-tech weapons and no medieval stuff like poison darts, bows, balistas and other stuff.
I'm not reading the discussion; you'll have to forgive me for that, I just don't have the time. What i wanted to say was that you shouldn't call it magic, because that automatically turns people against you. You should have called it "mysterious tech" or "ancient tech" instead. Now, i am all for variety. So i do agree that you should be able to find items that work as substances for magic. For example a mechanical arm that can launch fireballs. It could be explained in tech. So it would fit into the starbound style without becoming magic, and it would also add some interesting new weapons to the game. Players who play mages in other games could also find their own place and weapons as well in starbound that way.
Don't worry, i love medieval stuff, and there WILL be old style building materials and weapons in Starbound, as i understood from the developers!
I wish people would just stop with the whole Arthur C. Clarke quote thing. He obviously was talking about pre-scientific cultures. Seriously, Science is a discipline that is adamantly against saying anything like "it is not explainable, it must be magic!" Instead, Science would say, "it must be explainable, there is no such thing as magic!" In Stargate cannon, the Ma'Tok staff is an energy weapon that simply appears to be a magical staff, and the characters are smart enough to figure that out long before they even know that energy weapons are possible. I don't see anything wrong with some weapons in Starbound appearing to be magical artifacts, so long as it is clearly explained that it is actually just technology that is not fully understood. EDIT: Basically what I am saying is that even if there is no full explanation in the game, the assumption in-game should be that it is explainable, but just hasn't been explained yet.