Newbie Observations

[AlaGamer]

As a newbie (all terms are relative, but still) I have to say that I've made quite a few discoveries about some of the cards that frankly, it would have been really helpful for me to know much earlier on. Some of this was obvious to a person familiar with the game, but they came as a surprise to me, and were important enough that I began taking down notes about some of the cards.

When I went to look at the wiki pages for those cards, the information wasn't present, but the plugins were also too complicated (for me at least) to add notes to the bottom of the card pages.

It would be really helpful if someone could explain how to add some notes to the card pages. I'd be happy to add the information that I felt was important to know, but that was not overtly obvious to the card pages if I could figure out how to do it.

Some examples of the information I made note of are:

Shard of Focus (both forms): You can activate this card's skill, and then cancel the action and still get the HP bump (or the black hole if appropriate). This allows someone with this shard to continue to bolster the shard's HP even if there's no target one wishes to actually destroy. This is really useful information when using it with gravity pull, but it's not mentioned on the wiki page.

Dune scorpion: While the card reads that it adds poison damage to each attack, if it attacks a creature (as a result of gravity pull, for example), it will not poison that creature. This is at least true of when my shard of focus has had gravity pull on it and it has taken damage from the scorpion. This is also true of a scorpion and a forest scorpion I believe.

Sanctuary (both versions): If a sanctuary is present and it is the opposing player's turn, even if they destroy the sanctuary the effects remain in place until the end of that turn.

These are a few of the examples of information I found useful enough to notice and then jot down so I could remember them. I would have tried to add them to the wiki, but I honestly don't know how to edit the wiki because of the plugins.

If I shouldn't be adding those things, please let me know. If I should, please tell me how.

Thanks!

[Higurashi]

The thread I usually point new players to is this one: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/elements-articles/game-mechanics-(i-e-the-expanded-rules)/
There's also this one: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/tutorials/what-the-cards-don't-tell-you

There's a lot more than this to find out, but I consider it an important part of a player's journey to explore a game and grow due to their own efforts. That said, there are usually vets who will respond in chat. The wiki has been inactive for a long time because, while it's a bit easier to find info there, it doubles the amount of work for the poster of the info to have two places to update.

Shard of Focus (both forms): You can activate this card's skill, and then cancel the action and still get the HP bump (or the black hole if appropriate). This allows someone with this shard to continue to bolster the shard's HP even if there's no target one wishes to actually destroy. This is really useful information when using it with gravity pull, but it's not mentioned on the wiki page.

This is true of all activated abilities: they take away your quanta if applicable and apply instantly. Canceling does not revert anything, ever.

Dune scorpion: While the card reads that it adds poison damage to each attack, if it attacks a creature (as a result of gravity pull, for example), it will not poison that creature. This is at least true of when my shard of focus has had gravity pull on it and it has taken damage from the scorpion. This is also true of a scorpion and a forest scorpion I believe.

This is obvious to new and old alike since it doesn't hit the other player.

Sanctuary (both versions): If a sanctuary is present and it is the opposing player's turn, even if they destroy the sanctuary the effects remain in place until the end of that turn.

This was not originally the case, so a patch made the wiki article incomplete.

Yer gonna find a lot more in due time. Enjoy :>

[phoenix1211]

There's also another interesting one I discovered only today: if you (try to) play Animate Weapon without a weapon equipped, you still use quanta each time you click the card. I can't think of another effect similar to this so this was really unusual to discover. Black Hole counter Kappa.

[Higurashi]

Relic does the exact same thing (placeholder for Nymphs and Mark cards in victory spins).

[AlaGamer]

Thank you, Higurashi for your reply. The links were helpful.

Dune scorpion: While the card reads that it adds poison damage to each attack, if it attacks a creature (as a result of gravity pull, for example), it will not poison that creature. This is at least true of when my shard of focus has had gravity pull on it and it has taken damage from the scorpion. This is also true of a scorpion and a forest scorpion I believe.

This is obvious to new and old alike since it doesn't hit the other player.

It wasn't obvious to me.

Yer gonna find a lot more in due time. Enjoy :>

Well, while I love discovery, I don't always have the card I'm interested in, and even if I do I'd like more help with it. Voodoo Dolls are good examples. I know they do weird things. I know they're powerful. I have two of them. But I'd like to know more about them before I start building decks with them.

I do think it would facilitate newbies being assimilated more quickly into the game and community if they had a single source of all the information they need about the cards. It would have made it much easier for me at least. It certainly would have lowered my frustration level at times.

In any case, I'll just continue to make notes on things that I discover until I get bored of doing so.

Phoenix and Higurashi, that's really interesting about the animate weapons and relics. Probably a bug, but interesting (and I suppose useful now and then) nonetheless. Thanks for mentioning it!

[Higurashi]

http://elementsthegame.com/trainer if you wanna try all the cards before you've earned 'em

[AlaGamer]

http://elementsthegame.com/trainer if you wanna try all the cards before you've earned 'em

Wow. That's neat!

Kind of tricky to figure out how to use, but neat!

Thanks!

[AlaGamer]

Actually, that trainer is better than the game's tutorial in many ways. Who made that?

[Captain Scibra]

Actually, that trainer is better than the game's tutorial in many ways. Who made that?

It's simply the second client for the game, primarily to be used as a sandbox for players to test out strategies before they commit to, say, upgrading their whole deck.  Alternatively (as you can see now), it also functioned as an Alpha client (and usually the Beta client as well) for newer features.

[AlaGamer]

Thanks for the info.

It's very cool. I can't seem to get it to save, but it certainly is interesting.

Too bad more of that wasn't incorporated into the production version of the game.

Anyway, I had fun with it. Thanks again!

[Higurashi]

Aye, it was to be the first expansion of the actual gameplay and quite possibly the largest patch yet. Users even got to submit their own NPC's with flavor text to the bestiary, and you'll find many of them live in the trainer. For instance, I made Divine Spark that you'll face at the starting Aether area.

Then zanz disappeared for longer than ever before.

[AlaGamer]

Why doesn't Zanz at least turn game management over to someone else?