Mana, Will, and Game UI
Hello there! Polydeuces here.
As you can see by the big bold words just above, this is another Guide to Understanding. In this Guide, there will be no need for a glossary, but there will be very long explanations in its place.
Understandably, this is a whole lot of rambling nonsense, so feel free to skip this Guide as this is more for the folks who really try to immerse themselves in the stories they read. I will bold whatever is important for those who are just here to skim.
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Game UI:
In video games, the way to interact with the world of the game is through the UI, which stands for ‘User Interface’. The UI in a game is a set collection of buttons, visuals, and indicators that the player interacts with in order to play. MMO’s interface is very similar to that of an MMO-RPG (massively multiplayer online role play game) or a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena).
This means that MMO will feature things such as but not limited to: health bars, abilities, screens.
The general guidelines for a health bar are as follows:
Ally receives damage = [ ‘NAME (ALLY)’ || HP - 0 (0%) [ 0 (0%) / 0] MANA [ 0 / 0] ]
Ally receives heal = [ ‘NAME (ALLY)’ || HP + 0 (0%) [ 0 (0%) / 0] MANA [ 0 / 0] ]
Ally receives/has shield = [ ‘NAME (ALLY)’ || HP +0 (0%) [ 0 (+0) (0%) / 0] MANA [ 0 / 0] ]
Target receives damage = [ ‘NAME (TARGET)’ || HP - 0 (0%) [ 0 (0%) / 0] ]
Target receives heal = [ ‘NAME (TARGET)’ || HP + 0 (0%) [ 0 (0%) / 0] ]
Target receives/has shield = [ ‘NAME (TARGET)’ || HP +0 (0%) [ 0 (+0) (0%) / 0] ]
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
0 is a placeholder.
For the notification screens, I have changed a little bit of the formatting:
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It is now center aligned with a lot more “=” signs. This will be updated for the other chapters shortly after this Guide is uploaded.
Lastly are the abilities. The abilities will be getting a complete revamp to the way they look, so stay tuned for that. There will not be any demos for this Guide as I am currently in the process of updating all of the graphics, but I promise they will come out soon.
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Mana:
Pointedly speaking, mana in modern media is the ‘substance’ or ‘energy’ that is utilized and depleted in the creation of ‘magic’, its variations, and its opposites. Though this definition may sound about right on the surface level of MMO, fundamentally it is much different, and therefore, will in fact confuse readers who don’t have an open mind to clichés.
Mana is, in MMO, essentially a second air: like how plants release oxygen into the atmosphere, all organisms (excluding autotrophs) release mana. Mana is created in an organism’s body when they have a ‘will’, whether it be to live, fight, love, etc. This does not specifically indicate the usage of the respiratory system, but it does help with controlling mana.
As a second air, an important but niche take on the classic of mana is the inhalation, or otherwise respiration, of mana. This serves as the foundation of raw mana control (this is a whole different topic for a whole different time, and is exactly what Kali did), mana regeneration, stat growth, Awakening, and a wide range of more conceptual factors like emotions. The mana that is released from an organism or other sources (including but not limited to ‘abilities’) tend to cling onto surrounding matter (with exceptions). This means that only the area surrounding living organisms or other sources of mana are affected with mana.
Unlike atmospheric oxygen, mana has a few key properties and notable differences, such as its high density and tendency to scatter and cling shortly after respiration (with exceptions) and an almost magnetic attraction to organisms with an average to high mana production rate, more so depending on the rate. This can be comparable to the gathering of water in a puddle. Due to its high density, surrounding mana can, as a reaction to a user’s (Awakened) will (please see below, “Awakening”), condense into an ability, each different and unique, similar to a chemical reaction.
Another interesting property is its incorporeal nature. Mana exists as a medium for action, but can only interact with things that ‘have’ mana. For example, if a laser beam made of mana was made to not cling onto matter, then in theory it could shoot through walls until it hits something affected by mana. If it was made to cling, then it would hit the first obstacle in its way as the mana coming from the beam would cling onto the matter around, allowing it to pierce through the air and hit the obstacle.
With all of the information above and from the earlier Guide comes the conclusions: the Awakened can utilize mana to cast abilities as an expression of themselves, and the unawakened can, albeit with a clear limit, control their mana respiration for better quality of life. When they do use their abilities, they exchange a certain amount of mana and their will.
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Awakening and Will:
The key difference between an unawakened and an Awakened is the difference in the (quite literally) weight of their power, otherwise known as the will.
Otherwise known as the ‘desire to act’, the concept of will varies from person to person. In MMO, will is most primarily known for its reaction with mana to manifest abilities. The stronger the will, the greater the reaction. Mana is simply a medium for will to act.
The will can also do tricky stuff such as mark who is an ally and who is a target; whoever the individual views as an ally will be considered an ally and therefore not be affected by abilities, and vice versa.
Therefore, only the Awakened have abilities, which also translates into many things if you think about it a little more.
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Because of the wording in this Guide, there is lots of room for imagination and theories. I will leave all of the implications to the readers.