The Elements

[Rosehill]

Why is the Frost Unicorn affliated with the Fire element? Water makes sense, but shouldn't the other element be Air? or Life?

The Frost Unicorn shouldn't have Fire as its second element, so we'll be fixing that.

never mind my idea then LMAO

No actually you were right! I ran this through with the team, and the logic behind the frost unicorn (and other ice-related creatures that have fire listed as tan element) was planned to be exactly that it uses fire magic to draw heat away, making water turn into ice.

[Lahabrea]

How come lightning isn't an element or isn't at least tied to the air element?

[BBkat]

How come lightning isn't an element or isn't at least tied to the air element?

I assume it's tied to fire

[Kestrad]

How come lightning isn't an element or isn't at least tied to the air element?

The lightning creatures that came to mind (raiju, thunderbird) are air element.

[tempestsea]

I find it fun going through the Bestiary and looking at statistics
Would anyone be interested in me making a chart that shows like, our current lineup numbers? Like how many critters each element has, through what means they're obtained etc.
I might just make something like that for the fun of it, I love seeing things like that lol xD
Overall I think this is a rather neat addition~

Me me me lol I love those kind of things!

[zee113]

I find it fun going through the Bestiary and looking at statistics
Would anyone be interested in me making a chart that shows like, our current lineup numbers? Like how many critters each element has, through what means they're obtained etc.
I might just make something like that for the fun of it, I love seeing things like that lol xD
Overall I think this is a rather neat addition~

Me me me lol I love those kind of things!

I am also interested but I don't have free time. Would you please share when it's done?

[Rosehill]

I saw a few that maybe might be up for some tweaking, feel free to ignore or comment just some thoughts


Cinersi’s descriptions specifically say they deal in life magic, but they present pure fire. I think that overall most phoenixes would fit beneath Fire/Life.

It's said that it's believed that the cinersi deal with life magic, but not really proven.

The Aquifereptis description mentions causing rainstorms numerous times so I think Water might be in order? Perhaps even water/life given they are also associated with plant growth?

Aquifereptis causing rain is caused if it flies, thus water pouring down from its wings, rather than magically controlling the rain or weather. The Aquifereptis also doesn't use life based magic to make anything grow, it's just mostly a living stone that grows as it eats.

radiant nautiluses are listed as Light/Air, but given their abilities to give their Magi waterbreathing maybe Light/Water?

The Nautiluses don't really use water-based magic, they just live deep in the water, so the ability to give magi the ability to breathe in water is considered more so tapping into air-based magic.

Both Sailfin Wyrms are listed neutral, but their descriptions mention Water magic

This has simply been overlooked on the Regal's part, as many donation creatures use the same description for 3 and 5 shards, so the small mention of water magic on the Regal's description got overlooked.

Given their descriptions I think Timber Wolves are probably Life aligned

As far as I can see nothing in the Timber Wolf description indicates that they'd use any kind of element based magic. They grow and regenerate themselves, like most living things do, but don't use any specific elemental based magic to do so.

I think the resurrection horses are similar in nature to Phoenixes and Sasrael would be better suited to Fire/Life and Valarn to Water/Life given the fact their “flames” are made of ice

We'll discuss the Resurrection horses with the team.

I think given their descriptions the black and white ice dragons should be Water/Void since they are tricksters with control over ice

The white Ice Dragon's power is shapeshifting making it affiliated with Void magic, and the black ice dragon's power is boosting magic, which is not an element based magic, thus making it neutral.

I really like the element feature, but I love elemental magics so that's all but a given.

One that gets me is that Pygmy phoenixes are void-only despite this bit: "Their powers are much like those of other phoenixes; the ability to call on fire and control it with ease" which seems to indicate a pretty clear affinity for fire magic. And Pesaldos are a bit less ovbious but: "Touching the hatchling in their first year of life will always result in a burn" though I think the Pesaldo one could go either way, I just figured I'd bring them up just in case.

EDIT: Found another probably mislabeled critter "However, when angered, vetur crystalwings can call up biting snow and wind to direct at whatever - or whoever - has offended them."

We'll discuss the Pygmy Phoenixes and the Vetur with the team.

p.s.1 Neutral? Why?

Spoiler

Those creatures don't posses or harness any kind of elemental based magic, making them Neutral.

p.s.2 Is there by any chance an error in the numbers here?

Spoiler

This has been fixed.

I know that more things are planned in the future involving the elements - which, by the way, I totally was not expecting and I'm really interested to see where we go from here, and I think it's a wonderful idea - but I was wondering if maybe the list could be expanded upon in the future?

P.S., I have absolutely no complaints here and I don't want it to seem like I do. I just desperately want a lightning element. Yes, it's silly.

There aren't any plans on expanding the element system into more elements in the future. Other kinds of magic than the elemental based magic exists in the Magistream world too, and many times producing lightning may fall under that.

How come lightning isn't an element or isn't at least tied to the air element?

Lightning is not an element in itself in the Magistream system. Lightning is electricity, and can be a by-product of manipulating e.g. air, but it is a not an element in itself.

I find it fun going through the Bestiary and looking at statistics
Would anyone be interested in me making a chart that shows like, our current lineup numbers? Like how many critters each element has, through what means they're obtained etc.
I might just make something like that for the fun of it, I love seeing things like that lol xD
Overall I think this is a rather neat addition~

If you do a lineup like this, keep in mind that the numbers are prone to change as we still tweak on the elements based on comments and re-reads of the descriptions.

The bestiary always has the most up to date info, and can also be used to get that kind of data easily. For example if you enter "Fire" into the "element" field in the bestiary, the bestiary tells you the number of species associated with fire. You can then sort the results based on the "obtained" field. Or if you want a number of creatures where fire is the secondary element, write "/Fire" into the element column's header. If you want the number of creatures with fire as the primary element, write "Fire/". If you want the creatures who only have one element, fire, write "Fire && !/". If you want non-doni creatures of any of these, write "!donation" into the "obtained" field.

[Raim]

Oh man I just looked at the number of species there are. It must have taken forever to assign elements to 1414 different creatures.

[SkyeWyven]

This looks like it'll be a neat little system to play with!

There are a couple of things I want to note about it, though.

First being that I greatly dislike the "Attune to an Element" quest trying to predict or, as I see it, dictate what my personality is based on what element I want to attune to. I feel like the game is trying to shoehorn me into being Void, when I actually want to be either Fire or Water, based on the descriptions. I would feel much more comfortable if the text was simply the definition or function of each element as per what's written in the first post of this thread instead of trying to describe the kind of person you should or would be based on that element.

Second, I would like to say that I'm a little disappointed this seems to be the answer to the complaints about the Fine Tuning Glass's functionality. In my experience the complaints revolve around the usage percent being too low and that has been something I've agreed with since it's introduction. Now the function has changed to being able to use it on creatures up to 15% but only on those who match your elemental attunement, which means that the majority of creatures still won't benefit from the change regardless of which element you pick anyway. Add to that the increase in growth from clicks, which would average out to being about equally elevated for everything, and you have a system that makes it even harder than before to catch a creature below 5% for those that aren't your element and just as difficult as it was to catch a creature below 15% for those that are. I continue to believe the growth restriction should just be removed entirely or at least another item (maybe a 'Tuning Glass' without the "Fine" part) introduced that allows for all creatures of all percentages to be reduced to 5% (as long as they're frozen hatchlings of course) so then the Fine Tuning Glasses can be used to reduce them further.

I do appreciate that an effort has been made to try and help the problems people have had with the Fine Tuning Glasses, I just don't think this will do anything to improve things at all. Especially with the rebalancing of how growth works in the wake of the new feature. I don't mean to offend and the rest of what has been added sounds really cool, I just felt the need to give my feedback here regarding these points.

[Whalefall]

Next round of questions



"They have relatively little magical ability but are capable of using a few weak offensive spells, usually of wind or fire elemental origin."

Despite not being particularly gifted in magic the Ceras description mentions them using fire/wind magic.



"They have little magical ability, but occasionally have been known to cast weak defensive spells of water or earth elemental origin. Bones, typically horns, are thought to be powerful additives in defensive potions. Earth magi are most likely to befriend a polyceras."

Similarly Polyceras seem to have an earth magic lean. Is it the weak offensive/defensive ability of the Cerases that keeps them in the neutral zone? Or the fact their main magical ability is really more about them as spell components?


"When threatened, excited, or simply overjoyed, delta orix generate large amounts of electricity that looks like an underwater thunderstorm. Combined with their glowing blue markings, this display can dazzle and kill smaller creatures nearby."

Earlier in the thread Lightning/electricity was relegated to the Air element, should the Delta Orix be Air/Light given that?