Suggestion: Mana

This image is terrible... and really tiny. I can't even tell what its supposed to be.

current image:

How about this?

Opened.

Yep, the current isn't all that good. The suggestion is a touch better.

Problem is, suggestion is basically the same as Mana Potion.

That is a Mana Potion not an actual representation of 'Mana'.this one looks better anyway :p

Finding an actual representation of the concept of Mana will be hard actually especially without using Magic Points or Mana Potion.

edit: Wait this is a redirect for Magic Points? Then any screenshot of say like a Final Fantasy X battle would work. Just draw a yellow box around MP for something like this◊ and done.

edited 21st Oct '14 3:49:09 AM by Memers

I was going to suggest a Mana Meter before I saw that was its own trope.

Using a Mana Meter or Mana Potion would be misleading, as those are different tropes.

An image showing mana being used (to cast a spell, presumably) might work. Like the image on Hit Points that shows hit points being lost. But I don't know any games that have similar messages for spending mana.

The only way I can think of to accurately represent this would be a pic of an MTG card and its respective mana cost in tapped land cards, and even then that may not be evident to non-MTG players.

edited 21st Oct '14 6:15:46 AM by Willbyr

Honestly, whenever I hear "Mana", I always think back to Magic Carpet, which had these giant gold balls◊ that you had to hit with a special "claim Mana" spell that'd change it to the color of your wizard (always white in single-player, but it could be any one of a variety of colors in multiplayer).

Dunno if it'd make a good image, though, and even if it did, we'd have to find one without the Moby Games watermark in it, if at all possible.

edited 21st Oct '14 9:56:20 AM by ShadowHog

Or maybe use an MTG card that illustrates Mana in some way? Like this? Stand-alone image: [1]

I just found that off google image search: from what i can see, it kinda looks like mana is a bit of a difficult concept to picture, being abstract and all. but i kinda like the stand alone mana-leak picture, its pretty

Looks like a fireball.

edited 21st Oct '14 8:12:54 PM by AnotherDuck

Yeah, I'm not really getting anything relating to mana out of that suggestion.

Looks like an exhausted mage struggling to keep a fireball from blowing up in his face.

I don't think mana is picturable. Any image of it is just Power Glows or something similar, with no indication that's it's mana and not phlebotinum. Or a fireball.

edited 22nd Oct '14 7:23:02 AM by Clarste

Or a golden orb.

Or a blue orb, in the case of the current image.

edited 22nd Oct '14 9:09:45 AM by ShadowHog

I am still thinking that just a screenshot of a standard RPG battle screen with MP highlighted like what I edited into my above post would work, that is the trope really.

At least Mana Is Blue is a stereotype.

edited 22nd Oct '14 11:31:05 AM by Memers

I agree that it is pretty much impossible to illistrate the concept of mana with a picture. it is possible to show a picture of what mana often looks like. therefore the choice is between an image of mana with no explanation, or no image at all. either way, the reader will have to read the trope description to learn what mana is and does. I personally vote for an illustration over no illustration

That image is the Mana Orb from Diablo II.

Pretty much the only good Magic The Gathering illustration I can find for this is already on Background Magic Field.

Yes it is. However it is really small and has no sign of what it is.

Now maybe if someone got a HD picture of Diablo III's mana orb, maybe half empty, with the mouse hovering over it thus showing its stats then it would work better.

I'm talking about an HD version of [1]◊ only not at 100%.

edited 29th Oct '14 1:28:12 PM by Memers

Maybe you could help me find a larger version of the Diablo II Mana Orb. And I insist on that one in particular.

edited 30th Oct '14 10:02:29 PM by ZanyDragon

Uhh why D2? I also do not own it so I can't help there.

D2 I so old that the resolution probably get any better.

The current image is Diablo II. And because it was an old sprite-based game, it's highly unlikely a larger version of the HUD exists. What you see now is all you're gonna get, in that regard, and I'm under the impression what we have now isn't particularly popular (hence this thread).

Ok finely figured out how and where my screenshots for D3 go.

How is this? Also these

edited 31st Oct '14 9:55:14 AM by Memers

That one or the second linked one work well enough for me.