How about I don't get KO'ed because of my element?

[Narvuntien]

Can a battle just end once the defending dragon is KO'ed because I just lost a battle because my Dragon got a double strike after I had already KO'ed my target.... I was against 2 Metals.....I should be afforded a loss when I had already won.

[Jack Vellum]

That's what happens when your dragon is an Air head! Every other dragon knows better than to kick Large inanimate metal objects laying on the ground.   

[masterfool]

Point is, Narv, that it's the downfall of the element.  In other battles, you get an upside . . . but each element has a downside as well. 

So, I would say "no" to your proposal.

[Tim the Enchanter]

For a start, Narvuntien, you would have to be willing to forgo a double-strike in the round that you yourself got knocked out, precluding getting a MAD on defense that way. Should Chaos dragons not have their damage modified upwards by their element in the last round against metals? Should Energy dragons not hit as hard in the round they knock a metal dragon out? What about Ice, Light or Shadow where the agility advantage conveyed by the element can indirectly increase damage dealt in the later rounds of the fight?

The only sensible alternative to the current system that I can think of would be for the reflected damage from a blow to be capped at 1/4 of the metal dragon's remaining health. But I have no idea whether that would make the balance between the various elements better or worse.

[Lew]

Maybe this is scratching the surface of a more insidious aspect of the game - the overpowered metal assistant.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Lol...sure Lew, we could fix that at the same time as we fix the insidious overpowered vampire raider 

[Narvuntien]

Both vampire raiders and Metal defenders/assistants are extremely annoying.

Ok so that is a no, how about that you can't do more damage than the dragon has... that also includes vampires can't suck more from KOed assistants than they have left aswell as being Ko'ed once you have already won... that way it is applied across the whole game and not just to my element of choice.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Yeah, this idea makes sense to me, Narvuntien. That's what I was trying (badly) to say when I talked about reflected damage being capped at 1/4 of remaining health. So if you hit a metal dragon with 20 health left for a 2.5K critical, you sill only take 5 damage. And yeah, same deal with suck-back.

That doesn't completely fix either of them, though. Both vamp and metal are unbalanced, in my opinion, by the fact that attackers hit assistants (particularly big, fat, slow assistants) *much* harder than they hit defenders (or than defenders hit them). But that's been discussed to death elsewhere.

[masterfool]

Again, the reason you can't do that is due to balancing of elements.

If you went that route, you'd have to say that Nature couldn't "regenerate" on the first round.  That air wouldn't get a double strike in a round it was knocked out.  That Undead couldn't revive more than 1 time per battle.  Etc. Etc.

The fact is, these actions are precisely what balances elements like vampire and metal with other elements that have equally powered (though less obvious) effects.

For example, it has been noted that in MANY battles, metal dragons don't reflect a full 25% damage. . . namely, those battles in which they win.  People say "but that's fair, because they won" . . . but really, it's not.  The idea is that over the course of a 12 round battle, EVERY element gets a 25% bonus.  What does that mean?  That means that in a battle that goes 19 rounds, an element like Fire does CONSIDERABLY MORE than 25% extra damage.  The same goes for electric, which will gain more strength (and thus do more damage) over longer battles than they will over shorter ones.

The fact is, in CERTAIN scenarios, all elements are "unbalanced" . . . but in others, they are considerably under powered.  And to mess with just a few of them because the advantages seem more "obvious" or "unfair" than others would not be right.  Nobody is suggesting that we should stop fire dragons from burning their opponents in round 14.  Nobody suggests that Earth dragons should be nerfed, even though their 25% damage reduction is potentially far more powerful than the 25% Regeneration of Nature dragons (at least against stronger opponents).  Nobody suggests that Light Dragons stop gaining increased vision after the 14th time they're hit.   

So nobody should be suggesting that we should nerf Metal dragons for their advantages.

[Jack Vellum]

... Nobody suggests that Earth dragons should be nerfed, even though their 25% damage reduction is potentially far more powerful than the 25% Regeneration of Nature dragons (at least against stronger opponents). ....

Actually I think somebody did. That's why it's only 20% Damage reduction now. 

[masterfool]

OOps . . ..