Noncombat usage of spells

[Lun]

I noticed something that didn't bother me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. Whether you're using geomancy to till land or using hydromancy to water dry soil, you don't earn any skill experience or any guild points for performing those actions. I feel that there should be more nonviolent methods of earning skill experience, at least.
Thinking about it in a logical manner, magic is simply science. This has been discussed and is the widely accepted theory. Casting magic in combat is similar to simply casting magic at all, and the act of performing magic should increase your experience with it, though the gains could be considered minimal compared to in-combat gains.
Ardor brought up a valid point that this system could be abused. However, there is only so much land to till, and you can only water dry plots. A pyromancer can constantly perform their actions virtually endlessly; in that case, a pyromancer's roundtime might be adjusted to a higher one when lighting objects like torches or lanterns or stoves as well as lowered potential gains.
Not to mention that the method to obtaining promotion points for an Elemancer is simply "casting spells", committing deeds like tilling soil or watering dry plots also can be considered as casting a spell, as a geomancer is moving the earth and a hydromancer is creating water. A pyromancer is creating fire when he lights a torch on his own. These are all casted spells, even if it's not in combat.

Please comment with constructive criticism, additional ideas, or your opinion. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

[KianTheArcher]

The most feasible answer, in terms of an IC explanation, I can come up with for why you wouldn't have any skillgain with casting outside of combat is because of the inherent difficulty of casting while IN a fight.

The way magic essentially works is that you are performing intense calculations to actually do the magic bits. This is MUCH more stressful in a fighting scenario. Whereas if you're tilling the ground, it isn't as stressful.

Because of this, you don't "learn" how to perform your magic under combat conditions (IE, you don't raise your geomancy skill) without using it in a fight.

[Lun]

Ta, while combat is much more fast-paced than tilling soil, the same underlying mechanics govern using magic. It's less stressful, but it's a similar idea as to how a martial artist or a dancer can improve himself through repetition, or how a person would be able to solve a problem quicker because he's done similar problems many many many times.
Like the cup stacking girl.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video/57786 ... cking-girl
A room is supposedly enormous, and most likely miles of wilderness/plains. Since a room tends to have 40 plots, it's safe to assume you're tilling all the available soil. That means a plot is pretty large. A geomancer tills two plots simultaneously, which is most likely not an easy feat. Likewise, a hydromancer waters four plots at once with his hydromancy.
Compared to combat, where a geomancer only uses a glob of dirt, a geomancer is shifting massive amounts of earth in a similar amount of roundtime. There's less stress, but even more work.

Edit: Also, the description of geomancy is Geomancy is the ability to channel and manipulate the raw element of earth.

I really like that you commented, Kian, don't get me wrong. I just wanted to defend my idea.