I've mentioned elements before as a way to improve variety, but they haven't received any attention since. I did make some structural changes beforehand to make implementing them easier, but I was more focused on modifiers and wards, which were simpler to implement and explain to new players. I was also worried they would find elements too complex and quit the game. But now that the other features are done, I figured I'd get back to it.
Here are the (semi-)finalised list of primary elements and their effects:
- Fire: damage increase by one each attack (Implemented)
- Water: cell switches state from unfrozen to frozen (and vice versa) every attack. Invulnerable when frozen. (Implemented)
- Leaf: cell regenerates a character every two attacks (Inplemented)
- Dark: cell darkens making text hard to see (not sure about precise values/patterns yet)
- Lightning: casts a ward-piercing double-damage bolt every three attacks
These primary elements can also combine. I won't list them here, but that makes a total of 15 elements, which makes gameplay much more interesting, and less about typing speed as it's about choosing which enemies to fight.
As you can see the effects all depend on the number of attacks, and not an objective time unit. It did make implementing a bit easier, but it was primarily a design choice to make speed adjectives impact elemental effects, which adds dynamic complexity to the game.
There's still a lot of work to do adding animations and icons to properly show what the effects are, and I'll have to change the tutorial to include an explanation of elements.
Also added "drunk" and "chaotic" modifiers for enemies, which both randomise attack speed. I'm still working on the new cover for the game as well.