Greetings, Raid Leaders!
In today's update I will be covering the last missing piece of Crab Raid Tactics' core gameplay - Elemental Reactions! I had this system in mind for a while, but was reluctant to implement it from the start - it does complicate things in the long run, and I wanted to make sure existing core gameplay is polished and comfortable enough to accept a new system on top of it. While there are still improvements to be made - I believe now's the best time to spice it up a bit.
What are Elemental Reactions?
Those of you who are familiar with games like Magicka, Genshin Impact or Divinity series are probably familiar with the concept: mixing different kind of magic produces various new effects, like mixing Water and Fire magic to produce Vapor.
Crabs don't know Fire Magic, though. Their system of beliefs takes its roots in a different things:
- Sand gives them a ground to crawl on
- Sun warms them with its light
- Ocean's waves keep them cool and healthy
- Wind blows over their shells
- Nature provides them with food Should i call it Algae instead? I should probably call it Algae
- Greed drives them to gather for a raid and travel further and further away from their cozy village to seek glorious shiny things
Each ability in Crab Raid Tactics already has 5 elemental variants, called Elemental Attunements: one for each element, excluding Nature. Attuning ability to an element changes it, introducing new mechanics. For example, Ocean attunement can turn projectiles into waves that push enemies away, while Wind makes them explode for AoE damage.
With multiple Attuned abilities in place, Reactions become possible. When enemies receive damage from an element - they gain Exposure to that element. Attacking them with another element may cause a reaction, that either empoweres an attack that triggered it or produces a new effect entirely. For example, mixing Ocean and Sand together would trigger an Overgrow reaction, converting dealt damage to Nature element and applying Nature exposure - which can, in turn, react with Sun for increased damage, Greed for Lifesteal or Wind for Nature-based AoE explosion.
Among the elements, there are two exceptions - as mentioned before, Nature does not have its own ability, relying on the Overgrow reaction, and Wind does not apply Exposure, being able to trigger reactions only when other Exposures are applied first.
I would not cover every possible reaction here - and there is a total of 8. Rather, I would be happy to let you play with them and see how you -react- to this new addition, once the update is rolled out :)
I hope this system will provide a better variety for the mid-to-late game, making attunements even more important, and different team compositions more valid.
There is another small change that gives extra depth to the progression in general - Reactions are scaled with the newly introduced Spirit parameter, so the Attack is not the only stat that can directly affect the damage output of the team. I covered this in detail on our Discord server - which you should consider joining, if you want to be first to know more about what's happening behind the scenes, or have an awesome idea I should implement into the game! Ideas for some of the best Quality of Life improvements I introduced came from the people who played the game and shared their thoughts with me - that's why I am, as always, looking forward to your feedback!
In the next two weeks, permanent progression and balancing will remain my main focus. I hope to roll out a new build with all this stuff by the end of June, and before that there will be another post regarding progression.
Until then - GL,HF!
Stefan, Your Dungeon Master