Elementyle

Editor’s Note: The piece info for all sets (not Water) has been updated.

The single largest content update for Elementyle now or in the near future, the addition of 16 total pieces to the game and a finalization of the core mechanics for full release. Set Completion Update is an effective content dump for new pieces to change the way the game is played. For testing purposes and until the necessary systems are designed, tested, and released, all pieces will remain available including Signature pieces.

What to Expect

This update seeks to quite literally complete each of the sets for their planned full release state. A long term scope limit was placed on the development of Elementyle during its initial inception. This limit was for a total piece count of:

• 6 Basic Pieces.
• 2 Ultimate Pieces.
• 1 Signature Piece.

While this may not be the final state for any or all of these pieces, it sets the foundation for where the game is in its core. Having all the pieces out will allow for adjustments to be made as necessarily without fear of more pieces changing the meta entirely. For the foreseeable future following the release of this update, the primary focus regarding the balance of sets and pieces will be focused on bringing the “weaker” sets up rather than pushing the “stronger” sets down. The main reason for doings so is continuing to weaken sets will prolong games on average and dull strategy in some cases. As always, changes are on a case-by-case basis.

The Core Updates

The primary focus for this update is to give each set a thematic twist to the art direction, development, and in many cases mechanics. Piece balance is primarily focused around mana cost and piece type. Pieces in the Extension Set should not necessarily feel stronger than pieces in the Starter Set, just operate in a mechanically unique way.
One main concern for the basic and ultimate pieces is more on piece synergy. There may be some pieces that simply don’t interact with one another and can feel clunky together in a setup of only 4 (technically 5) pieces. Additional passes at pieces which seem the roughest in these regards will hopefully address these problems if they do arise.

Secondary to piece variety, a key gameplay change is the introduction of a new piece type: Signature Pieces.
These 1-of-a-kind pieces start in the farthest corners of the board from the center in each players’ respective spawn zone. Once captured or destroyed, these pieces cannot be brought back during the current match. These pieces act to add a necessary defense component to a player’s strategy as many sets will come to heavily leverage their Signature piece effects to win.

A tertiary (somewhat unplanned) focus has been placed on a soft rework of the Water set. There have been continued issues with the gameplay, thematic and general aesthetic, even after the rework of the Flow effect. Since the smaller change didn’t fix it, a much larger scale rework affects 4 currently released pieces(7 total pieces including new pieces in this update that were designed not yet implemented). This update was fairly extensive, and somewhat complex, so it has earned itself its very own post (congratulations .-. ).

Fire Set Completion

Since the beginning of the game, the Fire set has been one of the easier to approach sets, which offers more forgiving combinations. To round out this set and drive it towards its initial story, a few new, more character-like pieces have been added.

The first piece of the design caused significant problems with initial testing and effectively forced the creation of another piece to complement it. Everburning Sapling, the new 2-mana piece for Fire, is a very unique design that puts limitations on gameplay to get its full effect.

Due to the significantly negative synergy this new piece has with the existing 1-mana piece Kindling, the next piece was somewhat forced into certain aspects. Unstable Spark gives a more viable approach to Everburning Branch, while hopefully not being too overbearing on the game for only 1 mana.

To compensate for the new negative synergy with Kindling, Wildfire is being tweaked slightly to prevent the capture effect from becoming a hinderance.

To round out the collection for basic / ultimate pieces, the final fire ultimate will add a little more strategic depth to its use compared to Living Blaze. The final piece and named character for Fire, Magmasage Vathyra adds a new kind of gameplay for this set.

Finally, the Signature piece, Ot, the Everburning is probably on the top of the list for pieces in this category needing potential adjustments. While the piece will remain this way for initial testing, fine-tuning of gameplay will occur throughout the end of the year and into 2025.

Wind Set Completion

You might be asking, “What about Water?”. Well don’t.

Moving on, the Wind set took the most time design wise to get to a happy place (ignore Water). There were two pieces after a few design passes that just didn’t feel great for how unreliable their play was. The hope is these new pieces don’t feel too bad when not using these specific pieces, but again, changes can be made for the sake of gameplay.

The first piece in this set was the first to get a character design (and subsequently caused significant amounts of work and has also broken at least 2 systems during implementation). Zephy Zontanemos became the first piece to introduce the new Breaker effect, which is now used by several other pieces in the design scheme. The main drive to this piece’s creation was a change in plans to add a story and build a world for Elementyle to reside in. That said, the story aspects will be added over time as it is a significantly large task.

To accommodate Zephy and Upending Torrent, which struggled during initial testing due to its inconsistency, the Kumogolem was created, focused specifically on a synergy with Capture effects. While this piece was initially designed as a Basic piece, it was swapped to being the second Ultimate for Wind due to the perceived nature of the piece.

In order to allow for better access to other pieces that don’t generate Slipstream as efficiently, the final piece for the Wind set Polarized Twister offers a unique and potentially powerful replacement to other Slipstream generating pieces, opening up new play styles along with the Signature piece.

Compared to Fire, the Wind Signature piece offers a fairly robust and powerful effect, making it slightly more critical to defend effectively. Samal, the Sky’s Rage is a serious strategy changer, making gameplay for Wind pre and post level 10 a significantly different experience. This may end up having too much of an impact, but only time and testing will tell.

Earth Set Completion

To finish things up, the completion of one of the more intentionally strategic sets, Earth.

bUt WhAt AbOuT wAtEr?

Quiet you. That’s a separate post (coming soon).

This set has a lot of moving parts, a lot of new systems, and the final pieces are no exception. While the goal for the Earth set is to feel as if gameplay changes like the shifting of sand, some of the more complex implementations are a major headache and lead to serious overhauls in code written long ago. Despite this, the Earth set, at least on paper, looks like it’s in a good place, with hopefully the fewest changes needed out of all the sets. It’s unclear if this is because it’s the last set designed or if it just worked out that way.

The first part of this new release for Earth was actually designed alongside the initial Starter pieces. The Eye of Abjar works to provide a unique approach to piece control on the board for this set.

Filling out the Basic roster for Earth, Guardian of Raktaluka creates additional depth for the strategic placement and movement of the set as a whole.

To give a full complement to a variety of pieces, the final Ultimate piece for Earth, Sandsage Muki’Un is another unique playstyle adjustment that, in many ways, contrasts the existing Ultimate piece.

To round out the full set and give Earth a solid structure that is unique to the other sets, Kir of the Red Sand provides some “sticking” pressure that other sets get in other ways.

Updates

This section will be updated with the new, completed Elements as the art for pieces is finalized. For completeness, all pieces will be listed here as on the Sets and Pieces page. For sanity of players playing currently, the Sets and Pieces page will only reflect pieces that are available for play.

There are no updates currently added.