Elemental Weaknesses? any indicators / scan abilities?

So for a long time I thought that the only benefit of socketing a gem was the possible status effect. In my suggestion about alchemy, the game creator said that the hits count as elemental even if the effect doesn't trigger.

Now, I've been trying to figure out if this is at all useful and what sort of damage bonus it nets me in general or specifically against enemies that are weak against certain elements.I havent been able to successfully count hits in a meaningful way to determine bonus damage or even if monsters have weaknesses.

Perhaps you should consider displaying a special message on the message bar like "You hit a weakness!" in yellow text whenever it occurs.

I don't know if you've played the Shin Megami Tensei games or not but they make a big deal of flashing a 'weakness' sign whenever you hit one. (there are usually some other gimmicks but that's not important for this game) Anyways, it feels immediately rewarding to see that ,yes, you are clever enough to win the rock-paper-scissors elemental magic game. And a clear-cut sign helps remind the player that it is an important gameplay element and also displays information that isn't available in this game because no numerical damage totals are displayed. My character would probably note that fire attacks really blasted the crap out of hydrowurms or whatever and would make a special note of it. I feel this information should be available to players with ease.

Other games like final fantasy 4 DS (according to youtube videos, I haven't actually tried it yet) have adopted this display feature. I'd guess because it is a way to make the player feel easily rewarded without actually giving them anything.

Try smacking a naiad with something lightning-based.

(To clarify that...there are elemental weaknesses, but they are few and far between. Red Dragons, for example, are no more susceptible to cold than anything else. However, the point is that the benefit of elements is generally not playing the rock-paper-scissors game; generally, the benefit of the elements is in their inherent effects. This is not necessarily set in stone for future versions.)

OK, I'll go about trying this now and see if I've just been swinging and missing on this whole weakness thing thus far.

also, I was wondering if you could clarify for me what water attacks do. I <i> assume </i> they stop burning but so far I havent found a reason why so many monsters would want to make pools of water or attack me with it.

winter_mute wrote:

also, I was wondering if you could clarify for me what water attacks do. I <i> assume </i> they stop burning but so far I havent found a reason why so many monsters would want to make pools of water or attack me with it.

Well, first off, water attacks are more useful for the PC than for mobs. As to the rest...making pools is somewhat incidental. Why they'd want to attack you with it, I'm still tweaking that one a bit. Originally, it was to cause a choking effect, but that was too nasty...then it was to cause a stunning effect, and that was too nasty too. Currently, it doesn't do much of anything. Eventually, once I get the balance right for an additional effect, it'll probably do something again.

so far I havent really noticed any MP damaging secondary effects. Maybe there is a place for something like that in water, explained through exhaustion or morale damage maybe?

IIRC, they exist on one or two critters, but there's always room for more.

OK, did the naaid thing. see there is a special message for it. I guess I just must have been swinging and missing with my weakness exploiting attempts so far.

It doesn't really surprise me that you hadn't come across one. As it stands now, there are only three or four critters that actually take bonus damage from an element, although that number may be going up, in (post 1.0) future versions. This thread has given me some food for thought.

More elemental weaknesses would be nice. Its a huge tactical part of most RPGs (unfortunately usually the only tactical part). I would appreciate it if you considered using a bright color like yellow for easily missable status report information that arm the player with valuable knowledge for future plays, like hitting weaknesses and perhaps a few other things. Color-coded information prioritizing based on either the effectiveness of the player choice or the importance of the action.

Because my initial plays of MG basically consisted of spamming the lightning bolt spell as much as possible (until I grew tired of its meager damage) chances are I have hit that weakness before and just glanced over it or missed it in the slew of monsters I was killing.

More elemental weaknesses would increase the value of being able to swap the element of your attacks around...It's certainly something to think about for future versions. As far as color-coding goes, it's beginning to grow on me more; the other RL project I've been toying with has had me reconsidering its value in MageGuild, as well. There are a host of issues as to what should get colored and what shouldn't, but I'd say it's a fair bet that future versions will see more colored text.