Truly limited mana

[Darkfire1408]

One thing you could do is use spell components. Say you use up a fire shard along with MP to cast a basic fire spell. That way, the MP is really a secondary cost. Players would have a limited number of spells they could cast based on the items they've collected. the MP regen wouldn't really matter much at all, If you don't have the right items, you could have full MP and not be able to cast a spell.

 

[Eschaton]

I wanted to have regenerating mana, and a system in place in which all skills required full mana, essentially a global cooldown system.

 

[bgillisp]

@Darkfire1408: I played a game that tried that. They had base spells, then all advanced spells required 1 or 2 shards. I honestly thought it wasn't too fun though, as I never felt like I could afford to cast those upper level spells as rare as the shards were, so I had to gimp along with the low level spells.

 

[Tai_MT]

@Darkfire

A good example of a game with that kind of spellcasting was "Secret of Evermore".  It was called "Alchemy" instead of magic and used components in certain mixtures to cast the spell.  It was a fantastic money sink and the spells even gained levels as you used them.  I remember it being one of my favorite magic systems.

 

[captainproton]

@tai: that was a pretty awesome system. I also liked the fact that the spells didn't just get more powerful, but their animation changed, too.