/v/ - Video Games

Simplicity. Developers have a hard enough time balancing rock paper scissors systems as it is.

>>15541381

I'm not big on the elder scrolls games and I've just heard about them since six or seven years ago but I had never really bothered with it much.

>>15541348

Look up how Wild Arms 3 did elemental effects.

>>15541365

>balancing

I wish they wouldn't even bother, just make fun shit and let the player have fun.

Sure you have some minmaxers who'l cry the river when one style is clearly superior to others but those of us with some fucking imagination will find the game fun even with sub-optimal builds.

Well atleast as long as it's not a multiplayer or they dont fuck up by revving the difficulty to the point there's only one way to play, the no fun allowed bullshit build.

>>15541348

>Why is it that most games with rpg elements have different types of attacks usually focus on simple damage increase as opposed to secondary effects instead like freezing, paralyzing, and so on?

Because death is the best status effect, so it's difficult to make the other status effects impactful enough to be worth the cost (be it resources, lower up front damage, or time).

Also because there's a trend of making bosses and other strong enemies immune to the status effects that would be effective against them, so you're left with status effects being usable on mobs you can already defeat easily.

On the other hand, in games that do not do so there's either plenty of bosses that are cheesed in ridiculous ways with the right status effect or the bosses get inflated stats becasue it's assumed you'll use the right debuff to bring them back in line (borderlands 2 and slag say hello).

TL DR balancing is hard

>>15541486

>I wish they wouldn't even bother, just make fun shit and let the player have fun.

Balancing is part of what makes shit fun.

Having your cool minigun take 2 minutes of sustained fire to take down one random mob out of 50ish isn't fun, but neither is steamrolling every challenge and turning the game into a walking sim.

It's surprisingly easy to fall in one of these cases.

Mega Man Battle Network kind of does this. Most elemental weaknesses just do double damage, but if you use electricity against a water element enemy they get stunned. There was also that cool extra feature where you could temporarily change an enemy's element with your moves; an enemy standing on a grass tile counts as a wood element enemy, an enemy trapped in a bubble counted as a water element enemy, etc.

I've always thought elemental attacks in rpgs were dumb.

So fire vs ice… okay, i get it. Fire melts ices, but why would a frost wolf or yeti be more susceptible to fire? They're just mammals in a cold environment.

I like electric attacks against water monsters. Somehow a fish monster takes more damage from lightning than any other creature? Because they I habit water, they… conduct better or something? I mean, all biological creatures are comprised of the same constituent elements, so…? And how about when attacking water monsters with lightning….. while underwater. How does the caster or entire party not also take damage?

Ice vs fire is kinda gay, too. fire doesn't gain strength from heat, hence why a fire can rage in cold arctic regions so long as it has material to burn. Oh, I get it, the ice turns to water when it melts. Dumb. Fire would evaporate ice crystals faster than they can extinguish any flame.

Earthquake vs flying monsters… lmao

And then there's ice vs reptilian. Why does ice do more damage to reptiles? Oh, it's because they're cold blooded, meaning their metabolisms generate little to no body heat of their own and they have to rely on the heat already prsent in the environment… and throwing ice on them like kavanaugh in a bar fight just fucks them up… don't you get it?

The only one that makes sense is water against fire and maybe fire against undead. I understand that vampires are mystically weak against fire, but it makes sense that regular zombies would also burn easier sense their internal organs are no longer recycling water internally, so they're sorta dried out more. Oh and mummies.. they should burn real good.

>>15541748

>earthquake vs flying monsters… lmao

Any games where you can force infuse different element types into attacks that don't normally use them?

I want skyquake

>>15541748

>They're just mammals in a cold environment.

Same reason Polar Bears don't hang around on tropical islands: They're built for cold and handle heat poorly.

>>15541520

>It's surprisingly easy to fall in one of these cases.

Can only express my agreement with this.

Thought about making an element system where elements themselves have properties that affect the materials of the environment rather than add or subtract damage.

Fire burns anything flammable. Cold freezes water. Electricity conducts through metal to metal (which most later enemies wear metal). Water adds weight and changes the thermal and electrical conductivity of whatever it soaks making it a complementary element. I think the only two elements I made that don't alter the environment's chemistry is light, which is photons that bypasses all but raw magic defense, and dark, which affects gravitons that are physics instead.

I don't include wind and earth because those are physically kinetic forces. Earth is usually hitting something with a rock or a tree. Things like poison and paralysis are malfunctions of the body and have their own mechanics. They can be triggered by magic, but magic is usually spells that inject toxins or disrupting nervous system directly.

>>15541348

i think age of wonders does exactly what you want. hope your resistances are up to snuff if youre up against syrons or frostlings unless you think itll be a relief to not have to move those units every turn.