Hey all! It's time I talked a little bit about a system we've mentioned here and there many times, and one we are considering one of the strongest hooks of Crystal Horizons: Elemental Reactions! We've been quiet on this one for a variety of reasons, and I still can't share too much right now, but I can share some screenshots and a brief introduction to the mechanic.
So, the name sounds pretty self-explanatory, but an Elemental Reaction occurs when a specific element is applied to a tile. Usually, this is through a skill or spell, or maybe a specific item. Let's use Pyromancer's Blaze spell as an example: This spell deals Fire damage in a plus-shaped area. Not only does this deal damage to any units within the area, it also applies the Fire element to all the tiles within the area.
Now that we have our applied element, which we call the catalyst, we check to see if the tile's current state has any possible reactions from a fire catalyst. For a Grass tile, we get the Burn reaction, which sets the tile alight with flame, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with already. Along with changing the tile state, the reaction will also affect nearby units in some way, like dealing damage or applying a status effect. Today, I'll be briefly introducing two new possible reactions, and talking about further reactions that can be performed from them.
First, applying the Earth element to a Stone tile will scatter sharp stones around the tile, changing the tile state to Rocky. Similar to Burning, this tile state will deal damage units, but rather than dealing damage at the start of their turn it will instead deal an amount of damage when walking onto the tile. This means the damage can add up pretty fast if a unit walks through a bunch of Rocky tiles all at once.
Further applying the Lightning element to a Rocky tile performs a Magnetize reaction, changing the tile state to Magnastones. These are much more potent than the rocks from Rocky, and offer some additional powerful reactions. I won't reveal what these reactions are today; we want there to be some sense of discovery as players experiment with different elements, but I will say that any reactions from Magnastones will reset the tile state. We've tried to design our reaction trees to be engaging and rewarding, but not too complex or so powerful as to become the dominant strategy.
The other reaction I'll touch on today is Steam. This one can be achieved in two different ways; applying Fire to a Water tile, or applying Water to a Burning tile. On reaction, units on the reacting tile and adjacent tiles will take some Fire damage, and a steam cloud will be created on the reacting tile. This Steam will block line-of-sight, required for some actions, and can be further reacted upon.
From Steam, applying the Ice element will perform a Crystallize reaction, dealing Ice damage to any unit on the tile and changing the tile state to Ice Crystals. Like Magnastones, I can't go into more detail right now, but I hope you all look forward to playing around with elemental reactions when you get your hands on Crystal Horizons! We've put a massive amount of time and effort into designing the different paths you can go down with reactions, and hope finding them all will be a super fun experience! Thanks for tuning in!