Progress update

Hi community!
It’s time for some development updates again and the next big patch hitting the game is the long awaited magic revamp.
We have thrown out the old code both on the server and the client and started over from scratch. Right now most of the code is in place and the system is going to be sent to the test server sometime next week.

What’s new?

We have added a ton of new features to the new version of the system. Most are effect related but systems for syncing up what you are seeing and what is happening on the server has also been built.
Magic now support several variations of dynamic light and more types of particles than before. Other effect related things such as camera shakes, decals, death effects etc have also been built into the system.
The animations have also been remade and we have made it so that the animation and particles will visually inform you of how much longer you need to pre-cast before you can cast the spell.
You will now also see that you have a spell in your mind in the lower right of the screen.
All spells that aren’t direct or projectile damage have been turned into buffs and debuffs. This mainly means that you can see that you have them on you in the lower right but also open them up so that AI can use them since they have the ability to cast buffs and debuffs.
Another feature that has been added is the addition of two new keys. The Q and E key are now “last spell self” and “last spell” respectively. These keys will automatically cast the last spell you cast as if you clicked it in the hotbar.
This makes using spells a lot easier since you can now cast a heal using the hotbar and then press Q to cast it on yourself instead of messing around with the alt key.
These keys can obviously be rebound in the options.

New spell book

The UI code for the spell book is being rewritten from scratch. We now need to support a more dynamic spell book since not everyone will have the same set of spells.
We also took the opportunity to improve the general UI of the book. The old version required a lot of clicking before you could read about spells and didn’t give you very much information. In the new version this information is much easier to see and more detailed.
I did a quick mock-up that we sent to our concept artists who made the final version of the book.

Mock up

New graphics

New effects

Below are 3 gifs showing off some of the new effects for the revamped magic.
Please note that all of this is still work in progress and the final version will most likely look different.

Fireball

Lightning

Thunderbolt