What should we do about the way Elements work?

[Kodai]

Well... I just feel like... Elements boosting themselves is... a little boring or something. o ^o; I mean, I wanted the strengthening system to involve different Elements so that there were more relationships between them all besides just 'strong against/weak against'. And besides, there are the Elemental Boost Traits which, although maybe not accomplishing the exact same thing, could be considered as an Element being strengthened by itself (if you put it on a pet with that Element).

Water and Ice – I guess I could do that. o ^o I kinda wanted to avoid it if possible, but it does make sense. I wonder if I should have a vote on this, too? XD

...And the vote for the current question is tied. o ^o Vooooote, other people~

[Freezair]

Well, Earth and Metal already reciprocate, so maybe there's no harm in making Ice and Water do it too. XD

[Kodai]

...Well hey I didn't notice that. XD Okay then. So the suggested change is now:

Acid - Fire
Air - Electricity
Earth - Metal
Electricity - Acid
Fire - Air
Ice - Water
Metal - Earth
Water - Ice

[Shieba]

That looks a lot better already. <3

And about elements strengthening themselves being boring...well yes, it is, but it's also easy. Kind of a reason why 80% of my pets are light/dark. Because it is so much easier with these two elements. Seriously.

[Thunder]

It looks a lot better. But I'm still not making the connection between acid/fire and electricity acid o^o If it has anything to do with chemical reactions, well...I'm not good with chem xD;

And I can also see where Dai is coming from with elements strengthening themselves being boring. I'm leaning towards elements strengthening different ones since I think it's neat as well (5 Chinese Elements, anyone?). I also think Dark/Light is a special relationship, so I'd like to see that be the only "both defeat each other" relation. Lots of my pets are Dark/Light too, but that's just because there's a bunch of angels and demons in there P=

[Freezair]

The reason I suggested Acid strengthening Electricity is because acids, in real life, are incredibly good conductors. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "battery acid" before, right? Batteries are made with acids, because acids are naturally good at conducting electrons due to some semi-complicated but not super really chemistry stuff. XD

And I'm guessing the Acid/Fire thing has to do with flammable chemicals. XD

[Kodai]

Well, I decided to go ahead and change the Element relationship to the one previously listed. o uo -waits for a few more votes on the main subject-

[Ander]

I haven't looked at the Battle system in a while, so I fully acknowledge that I might not understand as much as those who have been actively working with it ( I plan to be more involved, I swear >: ) but I voted to keep the bolstering/weakening principles the same as before. I have to say that I like the proposed changes to the Element list.

[Thunder]

Ok. So. I asked if I could mod Krypto and Zap's fight in the tournament and talked to Shrewd about it, when we came across a good point.

"Light defeats Dark, is defeated by Dark"
"Dark defeats Light, is defeated by Light"

I assumed you wanted something to the point of: "Dark super effective against light!" and "Light super effective against Dark!", but the way it's worded in the rules means that it would only be neutrally effective because the elements are also not very effective against each other. If you meant for them to be super effective against each other, you should probably change the wording to just:

"Light defeats Dark"
"Dark defeats Light"

...and yeah.

[Kodai]

How's this sort of format? o ^o (If anyone has a better way to set up the spacing, please, please suggest it. >P<; )

Element/Inflicts more Damage Against/Takes more Damage From/Strengthened By
Acid__________Metal        ___________________________Earth________________________Fire
Air___________Earth___________________________Ice__________________________Electricity
Dark__________Light___________________________Light________________________Dark
Earth        _________Acid____________________________Air__________________________Metal
Electricity_____Water__________________________Metal________________________Acid
Energy________None___________________________None________________________None
Fire__________Ice_____________________________Water________________________Air
Ice___________Air_____________________________Fire_________________________Water
Light_________Dark____________________________Dark________________________Light
Metal_________Electricity_______________________Acid________________________Earth
Water_________Fire____________________________Electricity___________________Ice

[Thunder]

I was actually thinking of making a spreadsheet for this. That would probably look nicer xD

[Kodai]

How would you display that, though? o ^o Remember that some people turn off images because of slow Internet.

[Thunder]

Hm. True. I'll try to think of something owo;

Oh, and I have a question. There is a rule stating:

"If you have an Element and are hit by an attack of the Element that is fed by yours (e.g. you are Fire Element and are hit by Aero), you take additional damage equal to 25% of the base damage (rounded up)."

But what if you're Light element, and get hit by a Light attack? Light feeds Light, so would you get extra damage? It seems a little funny to me.

EDIT: I also find this rule strange.

"If you have an Element and are hit by an attack of that Element (e.g. you are Fire Element and are hit by Pyro), you take normal damage."

I always thought it was more like Pokemon, where if you use a Fire attack on a Fire Pokemon, it's not very effective... And what about this scenario? If a Fire Element pet uses a Fire attack, and you also have the Fire Element, how much damage would you get? The above rule says you should take normal damage, but STAB would say that your opponent deals an extra 25% damage...

[Kylo]

Due to the fact that I really only play RPG games generally I agree with Shrewdie as usually elements are not set in stone as to what attacks a person may use as well as for damage. In my experience elements work like this: Attacks that are of your element(s) get a boost, let's say around 10%, while those that are not of your element stay at their base attack. They are neither reduced or boosted. They stay they same. Now as for damage, when you are hit with an attack that is of the same element as you the damage is usually reduced by anywhere from 5% to 50% depending on the game and your mastery of said element. If the element is the opposite of you, let's say you're fire and you're hit by water, then the damage is boosted by anywhere from 5% to 50%. That is the system that I have encountered most often. I have never played a game where you get more damage by being attacked by an attack the is of the same element or element that feeds into yours. In my experience it has always been reduced in damage. In some cases, though it is rarer in newer games, you can even get health back by being hit by an attack that is of your element. I just wanted to put that out there for you all to think on.

[Thunder]

In some cases, though it is rarer in newer games, you can even get health back by being hit by an attack that is of your element.

Actually, this happens in Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor. You can give your demon an ability that will let it recover health when hit by a particular Element. We could turn this into a trait on Evelon o3o