ToME Wiki
Introduction
As most players already know, the Runecraft skill is currently dysfunctional, as gaining more skill points in Runecrafting only serves to augment the final SP cost of your Runespells with no benefit. I'll post the formulae involved here, found on Killerbunnies' site and the spoiler wiki here.
First, the Runespell formula:
- Where SP = SP value entered
- Damage = (x)d(y)
- y = 37 * sqrt(SP + 3) / 10
- x = y / 3
- Radius = y / 8
Now, the Skill formula:
- Where S = Skill value
- SP(v) = SP value entered
- SP(t) = SP cost total
- and P = Multiplier for the Effect rune ( Self/Bolt = 0, Ray = 1, Ball = 2, Armageddon = 3, Power Surge = 4)
- SP(t) = SP(v) + P * (S / 5)
I don't have the formula, but the spolier wiki mentions that failure rate uses Dex (min. fail), SP Value Entered and the Runes used.
I'm assuming that the above is true and that there are no more significant formulae involved.
Observations
Like I mentioned: your Skill value doesn't affect anything except adding more SP Cost to the spell. If we assume that it was intentional that your Skill level is supposed to affect the SP cost, we can interpret this in 2 ways: either the formula is correct (in spirit) and your raising your skill value was supposed to have some lost benefit (like a rune level limit, or increasing spell damage) or the formula is incorrect and skill is supposed to decrease the SP cost.
Idea
My idea is to have your skill level factor into the damage dealt by your Runespells. To me, it makes sense as Runespell damage seems to waver at high levels. I haven't examined the code myself so I may be ill-suited to make mechanics suggestions, but I'll cover my bases. I don't know if Runespells become static when created, by which I mean that I don't know if the creation formulae are used only once during spell creation, or if the spells are dynamically recalculated each invocation.
Assuming the latter, I tried out the following formula in a spreadsheet:
- Where SP = SP value entered
- Damage = (x)d(y)
- y = 37 * sqrt(SP + S / 3 + 1) / 10
- y = (y + S / 3) / 3
- Radius = y / 8
Why divide by 3? Well, 5 seemed to make too little difference, and 3 seemed OK without going overboard. A drawback I noticed was that you can make poweful low-SP spells at high skill levels this way: a 1-SP-Entered bolt-effect spell gets a total cost of 11 SP at Skill Level 50 dealing 14d19 damage (140 avg). Also, low-skill spells become weaker, meaning it might be a little harder to start but it also encourages investing points in the skill.
Assuming the former now, the Runecraft skill could apply a damage modifier to the spell upon casting. Drawing up some numbers quickly, having a (x * (S / 100))d(y * (S / 200)) bonus to damage seems fair. It scales nicely and emphasizes a higher minimum damage, rather than the maximum damage.
Let's brainstorm!
Discussion
ImpendingDisaster: I get the feeling this won't be much help; I just poked my head into the Dev section of the wiki and there are already plans in place for T3. I'd still like your thoughts though, in a T2 mindframe.
Sirrocco: For what it's worth, there are a lot more than plans. We have a number of functional and near-functional T3 modules. You should try them.