Let's Discuss: Sub-Elements

[Mist]

Hello all, so I've seen a lot of discussion threads across various server forums asking for suggestions, which is great to hear. One of the most suggested features for both ProjectKorra and orion's version of Bending is the addition of sub-elements. I'm interested in adding sub elements to each element, however, I'm at a bit of a road block with how to do so. This is what this thread is for, it is for us all to come together and discuss how we would like the sub elements to work and what they should look like. Eventually, when the sub elements begin to be developed, this thread will come into play.

What are sub elements?
Three elements have known sub elements. Waterbending has Bloodbending, Plantbending, and Healing. Earthbending has Metalbending and Sandbending. Firebending has Lightning bending and redirection. These are in the show, and a few of them have already been implemented but may be improved upon.

How should they be implemented?
A few sub elements already exist in the plugin, things like Bloodbending, Plantbending, and Lightning. These are all currently granted with a permission node (bending.ability.lightning, etc). I will probably keep the sub elements this way.

Now to discuss the various sub elements:

Waterbending:

• Bloodbending
  • Bloodbending is already in the plugin, however, many view it to be too overpowered to be usable. I'm interested in hearing what some people may suggest to balance this out.
  • Other features that are in the show, but aren't included in the plugin is the possibility to sever someone's chi, thus blocking their Bending for a longer time.
• Healing
  • Healing is also in the game, however, the feature isn't too extensive. I'm interested in hearing how people may like this to be improved.
  • In the show, the Healing properties in Waterbending are shown to not only heal others, but also calm and disrupt spirits. (Think Unalaq and Korra)

Earthbending:

• Metalbending
  • Metalbending is probably the most suggested feature. It could be as easy as adding metalbendable blocks to the config as it exists, however, that may be a bit underpowered. I'm very much so interested in adding a balanced metalbending that truly captures what metalbending is. Possible ideas may include small damage buffs when an Earthbender bends Metal instead of regular Earth. (Similar to the water / fire day/night buffs.)
• Sandbending
  • Sand is already bendable, I'm not sure what else could be done here.

Firebending:

• Lightning
  • Lightning already exists in the plugin and is pretty balanced as is. Although, redirection is shaky at best. Ideas for improvement will be much appreciated here.
• Combustion
  • Not really a known sub element, but people have suggested it. (Think Sparky Sparky Boom Man), who could create explosions.

Airbending:

• There are no known sub elements to Airbending, however, I feel we may see one in this book (3) of Legend of Korra.

 

[Kiam]

With the new implementation of the Guardian mob in Minecraft, 1.8 projectkorra could use it's eye-beam particle effect as combustion, or a better version of lightning.

 

[Kiam]

Also, I think that the features implemented on bending heroes work well, we should see if Rune would open up his code for projectkorra to use.

 

[Dgm00741]

ok... MetalBending. Remember when Toph made that armor out of metal? We already have earth armor. why not shift and click an iron block for full iron armor far lets say...a minute or two. whenever that time is up an iron block just apears infront of you, or something like that. Also you could be able to throw metal like Earth blast. I think it would also be coll if a torrent blast thing (the small one where you just click) could destroy one block of cobble or smooth stone, Like the old blood bender lady did with katara. i think the same move should do the same thing with a wood plank like when katara and toph were in jail. ok... final one for today. this one will sound crazy but... SWEAT BENDING! Ok ok I'll explain. if you have a empty bottle and you have been running for say 30 seconds that bottle gets filled with water and you can bottle bend from there. That's all I got for now. Bye!

 

[Zolteex]

Alright, realistically, implementing anything along the lines of being able to bend metal blocks will lead to nothing but griefing. The likelihood of someone having spare iron/gold blocks to place down and bend is extremely low. This is my opinion on being able to manipulate metal blocks. I do however believe that there are many other possibilities regarding metal bending that we should touch base on. For example, if a player comes across a metal ore while mining, they could use the ability "Extract" (something along those lines) and potentially receive more ores for mining just the one. It could also be a percent chance that the ore would drop doubles, but you see the idea i'm getting at. Another idea I had was to possibly give them the power to shift with an iron ingot in their hand, and have it forge in to something, although I haven't really thought about that one in depth yet. The final idea that I bring to the table for earthbenders is lavabending. Similar to how bloodbending is specific to water, and is a special ability, this would be the same type of thing for earthbenders. The latest episodes of TLOK show that earthbenders can bend lava because it is made entirely of earth. This opens up many different possibilities. I think it would be beneficial to add a type of toned down version of the Avatar State, for players who have all of the elements. The current Avatar State is extremely OP and realistically was never meant to be given to any players.

Recap:
- Extract (more drops for mining earthbenders)
- Forge ingots in to items (perhaps shift to cycle through options)
- Lavabending
- Less OP Avatar State


These ideas represent the thoughts of the PassionCraft community.

 

[kingbirdy]

I think for sandbending, some interesting things could be done with AoE sand stuff, similar to firebending abilities, for example, a "bubble" of sand that would do damage to those in it.

 

[ashe36]

Firebending:
This is a more complicated section for me, since lightning is already an implemented move and the element of fire is already well captured by the current plugin, so I'll try my best.

• Lightning:

1. For one, I think lightning could be enhanced. Maybe when someone is electrocuted they have a paralyze affect for 3 seconds, or something similar to the Chi Blocker skill.
2. In The Last Airbender, using lightning was considered a high risk and you had to be of high bending skill to use it. Although there is a chance with controlling lightning currently that you will be effected by it (so long as you hit yourself), maybe there should be a more directing style, as if it's more difficult to use; instead of just pulling a Zeus aspect and dropping lightning bolts from the sky.
3. Redirecting could be similar to a Water Bender's ability to control the opponent's water manipulation. They could click at a lightning bolt, gaining control over it, then click again sending the bolt in the direction they are facing. Of course, this would require a reconfigure of the move lightning, which may be difficult but I think it may need to be done.
4. Lightning itself could have different moves. Different sorts of techniques to throw at your opponent, whether it be to paralyze, redirect, explode, or just do damage. There could also be multiple lightning bolts in Avatar State. Again, I'm not too sure about this one, but it's just an idea.

• Combustion:

1. Although this is somewhat displayed by charging fireblast, combustion could be displayed by implementing a fireball-type move again, as was in the first releases of the plugin. I believe that potion effects are underused in the currently used bending plugin, so maybe a combustion could explode and have a certain effect on the target. Although, there's not much I can say for this sub-element.

Earthbending:
I've had some thoughts about sand and metal bending in the plugin for quiet some time, so I'll throw some of those ideas in this section.

• Sand Bending:

1. Sand bending is a somewhat complicated sub-element to discuss, seeing as you would only be able to do it in the desert or other sandy areas. Sand Benders in the show used their element to sort of cause a blindness in a way. This would be difficult to implement, because the only current blindness element in the game is the effect, and that wouldn't portray a sandstorm very accurately.
2. Sand Benders could possibly use air-like moves in the desert biomes, such as an airspout, but something like sandspout. Or SandBlast, knocking enemies back and causing a little bit of damage. Sandbenders, in my opinion, portrayed more bending aspects of airbenders than earthbenders.
3. In relation to airbenders from the previous comment, Aang could basically negate the Sand Bender's moves, so it could maybe be implemented that airbenders could knock aside most, if not all Sand Bender's moves if they performed their own abilities correctly.

• Metal Bending:

1. For a long time, I had always thought Metal Bending should be based off of Iron Bars. Although that is not completely realistic, some of the things I have read on the forums so far have hinted towards a few things. Although, yes, not many people want to carry around an iron block with them, iron ore, however, is a bit more reasonable. The ability to extract the metal or iron from the ore, then shaping it into a different move or, as previously stated, item (sword, pickaxe, ect.) would be a great idea. It is unfortunate that the game doesn't add much aspect of smithing, but maybe the plugin could add in different types of swords as well (Sokka's Meteor Sword for example). The only issue I have with this is that as the bending plugin has progressed it turned into just a way of people fighting in the arena. Originally, on many bending servers, the thought of seeing a sword was unbearable. You used your element to fight, not the vanilla weapons. That was what we were there for.
2. Personally, I've always wanted to have Metal Bending for the specific use of grappling (ie. Police in Republic City). Since I saw The Legend of Korra's first episode, and Beifong and her men swinging around the city, I thought it was an amazing ability. I'm not sure how this could be implemented into the plugin, but it's an idea.
3. Although I do agree with Metal Bending being a possible tool of grief, to be honest, that's all earth bending. I'm sure any town or home owner has had the fear of an Earthbender using their abilities in or around their creations and ruining it. I think if a Metal Bender had the ability to control and manipulate iron doors or iron bars, this could be a useful tool, and very useful as a Role Play aspect of the game. You could use Metal Bending to Escape a prison.
4. I do like the idea of having metal being extracted to form armor, but it seems a little too easy/a little hard to get. An Iron Block is costly, but iron ore wouldn't exactly be hard to obtain and use armor. Perhaps the armor would be specifically for a very short time, maybe 5 seconds to block one move.

• Lava Bending:

1. I've always considered Lava Bending to be an avatar exclusive type ability, but the new season of LoK shows us otherwise. I think Lava Bending would be extremely overpowered, unless it is used like waterbending. Lava isn't exactly easy to find throughout the world unless you're underground. This should probably be a more specific thread, seeing as there's a lot to talk about here. As my main element is fire, I would be extremely jealous that someone else has the ability to go around burning people. Plus, lava isn't as easy as water to clean up.

• Seismic Sense:

1. Although this was not mentioned, I think it is important to bring up. Seismic Sense is the ability that Toph uses to replace her sight. I think it would be a valuable ability in an Earthbender's arsenal. The Earthbender could use Seismic Sense, and they would get a slowly updating list of players (and maybe a toggleable list of mobs) within 50 blocks. They would be holding shift to activate Seismic Sense, and they would become blind until releasing it. The list could send them a player's name in chat every 3 seconds. Again, not sure if that's possible, but it would be great to see.

 

[ashe36]

Waterbending:
For starters, I'm not sure why Ice wasn't included as a sub-element, I've always considered it one (call me stupid, but you can't exactly impale someone with water). I would think water is the least to worry about, because it already has a few well set out sub moves, but it should definitely be looked at.

• Icebending:

1. I'm not going to go into much detail here, since there are already several different variations of Ice Bending, but I think an Ice Stab move would be a valuable move. Possibly a whole arsenal of ice abilites.

• Healing:

1. I'm not sure how this could be implemented, but I would like to see more specific types of healing. Maybe a healing move that takes the place of Milk in Minecraft and will cure players of potion effects. This could also be used to remove Invisibility, Strength, ect. It would be a valuable skill to have to cure your friends of poison, and remove enemies' advantages. The only problem I could think of with this is buffs from Avatar State.
2. Healing could have more uses if the rest of the plugin somewhat focused on having a need for it, such as long time effects that could only be cured by a healer. It would also be interesting if Healing could be implemented with other plugins, such as a cure to something such as a long term "curse."

• Bloodbending:

1. Oh boy. I agree that bloodbending definitely needs a change, although I wouldn't say it needs to be completely different. Maybe instead of bloodbending ultimately being able to lift a person anywhere, you can lift the person up a few blocks off the ground, and click (just as you currently can) and they are thrown back or up until they reach a block or entity. When they reach the block or entity, a small explosion is caused, injuring them and anyone withing a small block radius. This creates the illusion that they are hurt by whatever they were thrown into, without the move being completely overpowered.
2. I would like to see bloodbending only be capable of being used at night, as to not make it too overpowered. Also, it would be nice if bloodbending was a little harder to achieve. Maybe players have to put work into their moves.
3. Bloodbending may be used to take away someone's bending for a short amount of time (toggleable). This would also negate passives, so airbenders could take fall damage with the current abilities of Blood Bending.

Avatar:
This has been a belief of mine for a substantial amount of time. I've always thought the avatar should have their own certain sets of moves, to go along with the Avatar State.

• Avatar State:

1. I know that there is a lot of controversy about the Avatar State currently implemented, and while I do agree that it is overpowered, I think there are minimal things that need to change. There definitely needs to be a cooldown, for one. I think the amount of damage moves do should be nerfed, but still more powerful than their basic states, and regeneration should be slower, resistance should be less. Things like that, that still make the Avatar State valuable, but not too strong, or unbeatable.
2. There should also be an exit penalty for the Avatar State, such as slowness and weakness.
3. There should be a punishment for dying while in the Avatar State. Perhaps the player cannot enter the Avatar State again, or maybe the player has weakness and other penalties on top of not being able to enter the Avatar State without seeing a healer to cure them.
4. The Avatar State should be recognizable. I've always thought the player should have some sort of light emanating from them. Not sure how this would play out, but I think it would be worth it.

• Lava Bending

1. As previously stated, I've always thought of Lava Bending as the combination of fire and earth, making that right up the avatar's alley, not to mention the Avatar has used Lava bending before (An unnamed fire avatar).
2. The Avatar would have all the abilities of Lava Bending if implemented for Earthbenders.

• Element Sphere

1. The Element Sphere is a trademark feature that both star Avatars have been seen using. Avatar Aang used the element sphere in his fight with Firelord Ozai, and Avatar Korra used the Element Sphere to (attempt to) trap Vaatu in the Tree of Time, just as Avatar Wan did before her.
2. The Element Sphere could have two modes. When shifting, the element sphere is used to contain a player you are looking at, somewhat like the current effects of bloodbending. This would do a small amount of damage, maybe one heart, and would mainly be used to control and move the target. The Second mode could be a click-activated where the avatar would be able to fly and use the basic moves of each element (currently fireblast, airswipe, watermanipulation, and earthblast) to send at the players. The Element Sphere would not be completely invincible, and can be disrupted by the Avatar being hit by an attack. I was thinking there would be a smaller airshield, fire particles, water, and something to represent earth. (Maybe dirt blocks in the item form?) This is clearly a move in the making, and would need much more thought.

• Energy Bending

1. The Avatar could have the ability to restore a player's bending.
2. The Avatar could have the ability to temporarily remove a player's bending.

• Element Blast

1. We know that the Avatar has the ability to bend all four elements, even at once. An idea that I had come up with would be a combination of Fireblast, Airswipe, Earthblast and WaterManipulation, except all in one move. It would be somewhat considered a Quad-Attack. It would not have to do too much damage, but currently the avatar doesn't stand out much from regular players, he/she just can bind anything they want.

Please note that most of the suggestions in the Avatar Section are WIP's and merely that, a suggestion. I understand that many of what I suggested may be considered overpowered, but I posted it here seeing as this is a sub-elements thread, and it's open for feedback.

More about sub-elements: http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Specialized_bending_techniques

I know this was a really long comment, but I did put a lot of work into it and hope that it can help. If you read the entire thing, I really hope you enjoyed it, and I appreciate it. Feedback is accepted and much needed, thank you!

 

[Zolteex]

I'd like to second Ashe36 on the ideas for Element Sphere and Element Blast.

 

[Zolteex]

A special ability for Chiblockers could be a short period of time where the users walking speed would be increased.

 

[WASDjacob]

Air: I thinks its just fine! (But a little bit more mobility while using air-shield.) Also! Needs AIR WALL! (self-explanatory)
Water: A cool add-on to Healing waters would be that, everyone within a certain range of the user would be effected, BUT this would be too OP. So what you could do is reduce the effect of the amount they get healed relevant to the amount of people there are!
Earth: WE NEED SANDSTORM, An ability that causes sand particles to rise up and spin like a tornado that causes knock-back and constant damage, it would look like a regular air-bender tornado but with more width and less height. It would also do constant damage to whoever that stays inside of it, similar to the wall-of-fire.
Metal-Bending: Be able to throw: Cobblestone, stone bricks, cracked stone, ETC. ALL STONE INCLUDING SLABS. All should do 25% more damage than regular dirt, sand, stone. ALSO. You should be able to toggle the form of what type of block you want to use by shifting, like it already goes, dirt shifts to stone, stone shifts to cobble. We should be able to shift multiple times and change its form so metal-bending would be more frequent.
Fire: Needs better lightning, You know how when Azula uses lightning how she makes a circle with her hands to charge it up? YEAH WE NEED DAT! It should be EXACTLY LIKE TORRENT! Circling around your body and damaging all who come near you. You should be able to point and click JUST LIKE TORRENT! And redirect it by clicking elsewhere JUST LIKE TORRENT! It should be like a stream of lightning like the Tesla gun from that one mod... I forgot what the mod was called BUT THIS WOULD BE AWESOME! It should also shoot MUCH faster than torrent like... a liiiitlleee tinnyyy bit slower than watermanipulation BUT FASTER THAN TORRENT! PLEASE ADD THIS IN! Thank you for your time! BYE!!!

 

[WASDjacob]

Chi-Blockers Also need to be able to electricute. It Would give them slowness, and screen-shake Kinda like their having a seizure.

 

[WASDjacob]

OMG I JUST GOT AN IDEA FOR AIRBENDING!
SOUND BENDING!: YOU can BLAST WAVES OF SOUND that paralyze people with HIGH FREQUENCIES AND BRING THEM DOWN TO THEIR KNEES! IT COULD ALSO BE USED TO CREATE A NEW BENDING ABILITY FOR THE PLUGIN CALLED Sound-Blast!
IT WOULD BE LIKE A BIGGER STRONGER VERSION OF AIRSWIPE THAT WOULD GIVE THEM SLOWNESS AND SCREEN-SHAKE! (And also do TONS OF DAMAGE) But you will recieve slowness and weakness and nausea After you use it. IT should also have a 10 second cool dow to prevent it from being TOO OP
THIS BENDING IMPLEMENTED WOULD MAKE-MY-DAY! PLEASE READ AND CONSIDER ADDING THIS IN! I will also list other sound-type-sub-bending Abilities as well!

Thanks for your time! PLEASE ADD IT IN!

 

[Zolteex]

As far as I know, we are trying to keep things closely related to the series and less abstract WASDjacob.

 

[Zolteex]

I'd like to highlight a couple of ideas for Sandbending that a player of mine had.

Bury: Player holds shift to charge up this attack, then releases with cross hair on targeted player. 2 layers of sand blocks fall on the target and suffocate them briefly for a configurable amount of time, then despawn.

Sinkhole: Player shifts with cross hair on sand to create a depression, hopefully slowing down the opponent.

 

[Zolteex]

Metalbending could have a move similar to EarthArmor but instead recieve iron armor.

 

[Chaotic Hack3r]

Metal Bending(Earth)
Metal Wire: An arrow/fishing line is thrown forward. When it hits a block it pulls you towards it with great force.
Metal Armor: Like earth armor but stronger, it also enables the player to move faster as he was riding metal waves.
Lava Bending(Earth)(Zaheer's friend used this in LOK Book 3)
Molten Earth(Passive): Skilled Earth Benders get the ability to bend obsidian which deals more dmg than normal blocks.
Sand Bending(Earth):
Sand Trap: When targeting a player it replaces sand below him with soulsand/slowing him down a lot(Slowness needs to be added as well)
Sound Wave Bending(Air)(Yes this is an actual type if you watch Legend Of Korra Book 2-3)
Sound Pulse: The Bender sends out a cone of sound waves dealing damage to nearby targets and impairing their hearing senses(nausea possibly)
Astral Projection: (Could be an avatar specific move as well) A compass shows the nearest hidden player.(Needs improvements).
Combustion(Fire)
Charged Beam: The new guardian particles make it really easy to implement. Alternatively we could use the Ender Dragon crystal beams. You know what this does... BIG BOOM and dmg!
Spirit Bending(Water)
Purify: The target is encircled by particles(fire+smoke?) and is unable to move or attack for a short duration. When we add spirit plugin then this will be more usable.

 

[ashe36]

I'd like to highlight a couple of ideas for Sandbending that a player of mine had.

Bury: Player holds shift to charge up this attack, then releases with cross hair on targeted player. 2 layers of sand blocks fall on the target and suffocate them briefly for a configurable amount of time, then despawn.

Sinkhole: Player shifts with cross hair on sand to create a depression, hopefully slowing down the opponent.

Love the bury idea.

 

[ashe36]

Metal Bending(Earth)
Metal Wire: An arrow/fishing line is thrown forward. When it hits a block it pulls you towards it with great force.
Metal Armor: Like earth armor but stronger, it also enables the player to move faster as he was riding metal waves.
Lava Bending(Earth)(Zaheer's friend used this in LOK Book 3)
Molten Earth(Passive): Skilled Earth Benders get the ability to bend obsidian which deals more dmg than normal blocks.
Sand Bending(Earth):
Sand Trap: When targeting a player it replaces sand below him with soulsand/slowing him down a lot(Slowness needs to be added as well)
Sound Wave Bending(Air)(Yes this is an actual type if you watch Legend Of Korra Book 2-3)
Sound Pulse: The Bender sends out a cone of sound waves dealing damage to nearby targets and impairing their hearing senses(nausea possibly)
Astral Projection: (Could be an avatar specific move as well) A compass shows the nearest hidden player.(Needs improvements).
Combustion(Fire)
Charged Beam: The new guardian particles make it really easy to implement. Alternatively we could use the Ender Dragon crystal beams. You know what this does... BIG BOOM and dmg!
Spirit Bending(Water)
Purify: The target is encircled by particles(fire+smoke?) and is unable to move or attack for a short duration. When we add spirit plugin then this will be more usable.

There are some great ideas in here, and I really enjoy your creativity I think an Astral Projection could utilize the new /spectate command in some way, making it so the airbender could travel through blocks and scope out an area. Also, when Jinora rescued Kai, we saw that she could locate him through a bond, so maybe a teleport action could be implemented if it wasn't too overpowered. This would be interesting if the airbender couldn't check their coordinates and they returned to their body after. It would also be interesting if the player's body remained where it was, and was capable of being injured or killed. Also, when the Spirit Plugin is added, this could make for some fun portal enterances.

 

[SamuraiSnowman]

What I've always thought about, and I think it might be impossible, is only being able to bloodbend during a full moon. (As depicted in the show) I know people are going to say, "Minecraft does NOT have moon cycles!", sorry to say this, but it does. I learned recently that minecraft has the moon cycles in it, and has a game feature affected by it (Spawn rates of Slimes). If someone could somehow tie the bending plugin into the cycles of the moon, this would make the power of bloodbending less of a fear for most people. (Except under a full moon of course )