Spell Naming

[shadowwulf]

I am finishing up spells and need some very important feedback.
Spells are broken into categories based on range and area of damage. Each category yields 3 spells. I need to know which is a better naming convention. Should they all be unique:Flame, Fireball, Inferno? Or since they are just 3 versions of the same spell, should they be named Fireball, mega-Fireball, Giant-Fireball or something..

[balliztik1]

Definitely unique. Seyerdin only has a few spells per skill tree, but they are unique names. The ice tree has snowstorm, blizzard, and tempest, for example. It'd be odd, I think, to see blizzard, super-blizzard, and ultimate-blizzard or something. The only time I've really seen that pulled off well is in Final Fantasy, and that's only because they added unique suffixes and it stuck to their franchise quite well.

[azure]

I like the unique names. That's something I enjoyed since I played Golden sun.

[shadowwulf]

yeah thats what I have been doing… but of 250+ spells... i easily names 200... now im getting stuck LOL

[balliztik1]

@Azure:

> I like the unique names. That's something I enjoyed since I played Golden sun.

Ah yes. Another good example. Loved casting Ragnarok and impaling my enemies with a giant sword! ;D

@Shadowwulfâ„¢:

> yeah thats what I have been doing… but of 250+ spells... I easily names 200... now im getting stuck LOL

Get a thesaurus if you haven't already. If not, resort to making them more unique. Give them special names and such. For instance, in Dungeons and Dragons, there's a rather generic spell called Burning Hands, but there are also more unique fire spells like Aganazzer's Scorcher. If your game fits that kind of mold, you could always throw in a lore reference.

[azure]

Take a break and surf google or a thesaurus. I know I have to draw inspiration from a lot of areas when naming things. 

-Some Random spell names-
Frostbite paradise
Heart of Flame
Drop of Sincerity

[shadowwulf]

Yeah if i go unique… the three touch spells are Flaming Touch, Burning touch, and Searing Touch.

[azure]

I don't know that's still rather generic. Though it's not nearly as bad as It could be. Let me see, what do you think of these?

Sizzling touch, Blazing palm, Inferno's grasp

[balliztik1]

Flaming Touch, Searing Palm, Blazing Fist

Just a thought. ;D

[azure]

Hey Hey, Ballie Great minds think alike.  ;D

[shadowwulf]

anything with fist or palm immediately sent my mind into the gutter… so i avoided them LOL

[azure]

I don't know about Ballie, but I was thinking of Asian martial arts when I suggested mine.

[balliztik1]

Well, if the palms and the fists being used in your gutterminded activities are flaming, blazing, searing, scorching, burning, or flaring, then you've got bigger problems to worry about than people snickering at your word choice.

[azure]

Wow….  :kiss:

[shadowwulf]

well. I think you guys gave me a good idea… for BETA i am just releaseing the first of each spell. So i will stick with the base name. then as I add quests and lore, I'll add the better version in and give them names based on the lore. maybe...

[azure]

That's what I'd do. Though if you draw from a lot of cultures in your lore, you can make a real diverse culture that will make your spells as well as other aspects like no other.

[shadowwulf]

Yeah, depending on how the quest/story in game goes.. the spell could end up having an gnomish or elvish name… yeah. sounds like a good idea.

[shadowwulf]

This is what I have been working on. Highlighted are planned for Beta, and also on last page.
This is just a very rough draft.
[Spell](https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AvN-0NJ3v99xdFVIY3NOc1BkUWctTjFER0hpU3A5V1E&hl=en)

[Homicidal Monkey]

Eh, latin chart time!

| | **Earth** | **Fire** | **Water** | **Air** |
| **feminine** | terra | flamma | aqua | aer |
| **masculine** | ager | ignis | –--- | aether |
| **neuter** | solum | incendium | mare | caelum |

Ill add some adjectives to mix it up later.

[Thorn]

Cinderburst, Tongues of Flame, Hellstorm
Icicle field, Freeze Skeleton (Talking their skeletal structure, not undead), Fimbulwinter
Sandblast, Earth's Angry Embrace, Vengeful Tremor
Howling gust, Wind rip, Forsaken of the Wind and Sky (The air leaves them… and their lungs)

Just some thoughts on naming for 3 forms of spell, directed AoE, single target, and Powerful AoE, all in an elemental vein.

[shadowwulf]

HM: O' Man I will really need some help with another column I am considering adding. What the character's say when they cast the spell… I will be making it so when you cast fireball... the character actually says a short incantation. This has RP and Stategic values when you think about it. But yeah. I might do it... most likely will LOL

[Homicidal Monkey]

**water**
water, torrent, deluge, Wrath of the Earthshaker

**fire**
fire, flare, firestorm, Typhon's rage

**earth**
earth, fault, fissure

**air**
cumulus, nimbus

summons:
fire: Salamander, Typhon, Helios
water: Undine, Trident, Oceanus
air: sylph, Boreas, Oranos
earth: gnome, Prometheus,  Gaea

[Anna Comnena]

What ze monkee had said about using latin is a good idea.

One thing though, are these 200+ spells actually unique?

Oh yeah and in Tibia to cast instant magic you have to say the incantation (type it out in text). It can be fun, it does immerse you in the game a lot. (And from what I remember the old Ultima games were like this too.)

[shadowwulf]

I had already started using archaic terminology and latin backgrounds for naming conventions with other things… so really it was a great help with continuing that feature.

I have 25 spells/skills for each element
Although there are 3 touch spells, 3 bolt, 3 large bolt, 3 location and 3 large location spells... each has completely different stats, AoE, DoT and range settings. The animations may be similar depending on the group, but they will be different.

So          fireballAnimation small    large      +explosion
Range      5        8          10
AoE        0        2          5
DoT        0        0          3
Damage  10        25        40