Special Ability Preliminary Voting

Iris needs something to do in battle! We are up to preliminary voting for our special ability. We had a lot of really good submissions for this, any of which would make a great mechanic for our brand new character. But sadly, we can only have 1... maybe two. So lets take a look at what YOU came up with:

Aether, Current Votes = 4 (Click to View)

Ability Name: Aether

I think she should use the "Tools" mechanic. In that, you get items (however many) and those will serve as her "abilities" HOWEVER, these are not tools in and of themselves, but rather the manifestation of mana and spirit that grants her access to hitherto unknown power.

I would say that you would receive these Mana Orbs (or whatever) from certain enemies, a few littered in storyline bosses, other powers (and probably her more significant of them) could be from optional bosses.

Now for what will make her abilities different from Edgar's Tools.

All her abilities are random, split among three different possibilities. Imagine for a moment a sort of combination of Edgar's Tools, and Mog's Dances. You stay in complete control of her, use whatever ability you want, but what happens is completely up in the air.

For example:

15man is in battle, you go to her ability selection window, let's call it Aether (why? Because aether is the manifestation of both life energy and spiritual energy, in a sense for this game, magic and spirit).
You choose 'Wyrm Mana'.

now there are three abilities that can happen with Wyrm Mana:

1. Dragon Breath: 15man summons the ferocious fire of a great dragon to decimate her foe. Powerful (fire) or (non-elemental) damage to a single enemy.

2. Dragon Skin: 15man releases her chaotic energy to give her party Shell and Protect, but at the cost of burdening them with the weight of her spirit. (Casts Protect, Shell, and Slow on party)

3. Entrap: 15man's energies have run out of her control, paralyzing a random person with her ill intent.

With this example, I show that 15man can easily be a powerful ally, but at the same time she could hurt you as well. This would show how her very nature is twisted up, warping her powers and possibly harming the very people she is trying to help and protect. In this way, even in battle it can show just how desperate she is to get out of her troubled situation.

Plus I think with that kind ability she could add a whole new level of tactics to battling, since you never know if she is going to do something helpful or harmful. And I just love gamble type characters in my battle party.

Dark Magic, Current Votes = 2 (Click to View)

Dark Magic

She can cast the ordinary magic spells at double (or maybe less than that, if we find that it upsets the game balance) power in return for a price of some kind (maybe double MP, except that wouldn't matter much with Osmose. A percentage of her HP could also make a good sacrifice). This definitely works with her "normal" light side, "chaotic" dark side, thing. I also like that it's a twist of game mechanics and not just a bunch of attacks that are learned at a certain level and selected from a menu, which I wouldn't want. I also think it will just be fun to be able to go OMG psycho against the tougher enemies. It's also really easy to modify to make it fit with game balance if need be, as the sacrifice/power boost would be easy to adjust if we got the skill working at all. It also might be possible that we could load a black palette or something for the spell animation, instead of the normal palette, if that's feasible.

The con that I can think of would be that we'd be forced to only put her in the party after the Magitek Facility, or at least Zozo, so that she'd have a selection of abilities at the start and not just Fight, although that would probably be a good course of action either way. This could probably be avoided though, if we at least start her off with some magic spells. I'm not talking about a natural magic list or anything, just giving her Fire, Ice and Thunder with an event command when you get her.

Summon, Current Votes = 3 (Click to View)

Summon (...would be the name of the special command, but there is more to the ability than just the command)

Idea related to the fact that she is a magitek experiment. The idea is that she was the result of research into methods of creating a better magitek soldier, capable of absorbing more of an esper's power. This resulted in her deformed appearance -- she's forcibly been made to "absorb" a lot of different espers, becoming not quite a half-esper like Terra, but some sort of esper chimera. Or something like that.

So anyway, the ability. She can instantly cast any spell teachable by whichever esper she currently has equipped. In addition, she can summon the equipped esper an infinite number of times, instead of only once per battle (as per the unused "summon" command). This is because, unlike the other characters, she's been "modified" to instantly form a very strong bond with the esper/magicite. Possibly she's almost "possessed" by the esper.

However, she can only cast the spells of the currently equipped esper, because the old bond is instantly replaced with the new one, if she uses a new magicite.

This circumvents the need to give her a unique magic list. That isn't the main reason for doing it, though. I think a new magic list is doable, and would even be a fun challenge. Mainly I just like the idea.

Malady, Current Votes = 6 (Click to View)

Malady

It's a multi-skill ability that has no menu. The way it works is when you select Malady in battle it will automatically choose a skill based on her current status ailments. So if she's poisoned, she uses a certain ability, if she's blinded, another, near fatal? yet another. I think 6-8 abilities is a good working number and also works with the status effects in place.

Dark
Poison
Imp
Near Fatal
Mute
Slow
Berserk - optional
Muddle - optional

I try to stick with abilities that don't cause loss of control of the character, but maybe we can make exceptions for berserk and muddle if we are smart about how we build the ability mechanics, i dunno. There would have to be a hierarchy to determine which spell gets used if 2 or more of these are in place, or maybe it randomly chooses between any current afflictions.

My reasoning for this mechanic is that it capitalizes on the 15th's man afflicted side. It encourages the player to use her in a way that's different from the other characters they play with. By allowing or placing status ailments on the 15th Man, we are accepting these afflictions in exchange for power, and the balancing game will make single-ailment curing items useful for setting up the 15th man with the best mix of risk vs. reward for the situation, making it a good strategic ability as well. The only potential downside to this is that some afflictions and abilities will need to be set up in-battle, costing turns to set up. We can counteract this with the quality of the abilities obtained from each ailment.

Fuse/Wild Magic, Current Votes = 7 (Click to View)

She would "Fuse" with an esper. I guess it could be with the equipped one, or within a list of 6-8. The esper could appear behind her, like with sketch. Thereafter, a second battle menu appear, like with "control", and she use ability related to the esper, not necessarily the spells she gives. Like Gau, she would gain status ailment and elemental resistances of the esper. Part of her pallette could change depending on the esper with a custom status ailment.
With this, you have great versality and you will be able to discover new things with each esper.
Also, another possiblity is, we could make the ability a lot stronger, but make it that a magicite is required to use the ability

Also, are we discussing about a relic that change the ability? Like fakemustache?
If so, i suggest that the relic change "Fuse" for "Wild Magic", which cast a random magic black magic, but alot stronger than the normal version. It could also rarely cast esper attack.

Absorb/Unleash, Current Votes = 0 (Click to View)

She would have an abillity called "Absorb" . This command, when selected, will select a random enemy and the girl will 'adopt" the AI Script(includes the conditions the certain enemy had, like Haste or Float) the selected enemy has. The selected enemy will also be eliminated from the battle(killed). The girl will be able to use the enemy's scrpit until she will be KOed, Confused or Zombie(d).

I think there should be a relic that will change the "Absorb" command
into "Unleash" , an abillity that lets her select one of the last 25-35 enemy AI Scripts she absorbed.(pretty much like Gau's Rage).

I guess this abillity will be effective only against normal enemies, not bosses.

Each member gets 2 votes, as per usual, and they must be bolded in order to count. Members may use one of their votes for their own submission. Also, go ahead and throw in your 2 cents about whether or not you think we should give her standard magic or an alternate ability for her 3rd menu slot... or maybe leave it blank... or whatever else you can think of. This will help us determine how to move forward with the project. Thanks!

And in case you have fogotten, here is our character so far:

Name: Iris Havengard

Concept (Click to View)

Code:

The Implacable Experiment

This character is an individual who has had close contact with the Empire after being used for human (or esper) experimentation in the Magitek Facility and has taken on a grotesque appearance. This character is aware of their disturbing appearance and their primary drive is to seek vengeance against those who have wronged him/her and to see that they are brought to justice.

This character would work well in FF6 as they would serve to show the more cruel and inhumane side of the Gestahlian Empire, especially when you consider how much Terra's past is lacking in filling in the darker parts of the Empire's history. This character would also ideally have a somewhat strange fighting style which would vary from the other characters, they also by merit of being a Magitek experiment could have a natural magic learning list.

Background (Click to View)

Code:

The Betrayed Young Citizen
Gender: Female.

Back history: This daughter of a South Figaro sailor was raised by a lonely old woman from Vector after the boat transporting her and her father sunk near the Southern Continent. She was then taken prisoner by the Empire in her teenage years after the old woman died an that Emperor Gestahl adopted a secret law to capture homeless [and unwanted] citizens for Magitek experimentations. During her captivity, she developed her hate towards the Empire that she was considering once her second home.

Possible encounters: She might have been in contact with Cid and/or Kefka and/or Celes during her captivity. She might also have been in contact with some Espers and talked with them. This all depends on how we want to develop her back story and the game events.


Pros:
- Rich backstory and relations with the actual characters of the game if we want any.
- Explain well why the character feels doubly betrayed by the Empire and explain her hatred.

Cons:
- Might require a lot of event creation, but isn't this the goal of this hack? ;)

Theme Music

My first vote is for Fuse. I think that it would make a versatile ability, and it would fit very well with her character.

My second vote is for D. Magic, because I think it's fairly easy to tweak to our liking if it's implemented. I'm not sure if I'm just biased, here, though. I really like Absorb as well, but the main issue I see is that much of the time it will result in an ordinary Fight command, and it doesn't work in boss fights.

Also, Edrin, on the concept of a FakeMustcheish item, would you consider using it to implement more than one suggestion (for example, changing Aether to Malady, or just giving her Aether and having the relic change Magic to D. Magic, etc.)? It would be that much harder to pull off in terms of actually hacking it in, but it would allow more people's suggestions to get through.

I think, for now, we should just stick with the one we are voting for, and discuss changes like FakeMustache later. Typically in these situations, you are going from a simple ability to another simple ability. These changed abilities also normally sport some form of auto-selection (like slots or paint). I don't think it would be very efficient to go from a menu based ability to something else. Perhaps we could go from an auto-select ability to making the same ability menu-based? I don't know. In the end, its up to the community and, to a lesser extent, those doing the ASM.

Giving my review for each submission:

- Aether: I like this ability . The combination between Tools and Dance is very good. I like the fact that you are able to control your character even he executed Aether once.
The Mana Orbs idea is very good. I'm just not sure about the changes this will fit her character. Otherwise is good.



-Malady: If you ask me, this is an upgraded-extension gave to the Desperation Attack. The idea is creative enough, anyway. If this will get implemented, I think it should act on random ocassions, because this would give some risks(at latest, when you are posioned). I hope the abilities will not be only psyhical attacks. I think some of them should be curative spells or something like that.


-Summon, Fuse/Wild Magic : Summon is pretty much the "beta version" of the Fuse/Wild Magic idea.
I don't really know what to say. Summon can call an esper unlimited times in battle(which would help a lot when colecting items with Ragnarok).I don't really like Summon so much.
Fuse, if that list of 6-9 espers will be included, Iris will pretty much end up like a mini-summoner more than an Imperial experiment. Unless the Wild Magic relic is not worn by her, she will risk to became what I said above. I support Wild Magic itself more than Fuse and Summon together.

I don't have the time to review more right now, but I will come back and vote too

When will the Special Ability Preliminary will end? I hope not tomorrow

Voting for Fuse and Malady. (Not voting for my own, since I honestly think Fuse is a better version of the same basic concept.)

This is going to sound rather...cheap...but I vote for:

Aether and Summon

but not in the traditional sense. I think both could be implemented simultaneously.
I prefer to think of the Aether ability as Iris consuming the spiritual essence of powerful entities, granting her their powers, but not being able to control them. I like Summon because it hearkens to her unstable and immoral infusion of espers, and in the same sense, she is really actually consuming the esper itself being able to force its pure essence out as much as she likes and cast all of its powers.

With the "Magic" command you might be able to pull off the 'Esper Magic' and give her constant access to the 'summoning' in the magic window. This will give her Magic, but unlike the others, she won't have access to each and every spell, which is why Aether would boost her playability by giving her very powerful (however uncontrollable) abilities that no other character has access to.

Fuse and Dark Magic.

Aether and Malady


As for my two cents on the third command slot, I do think we should go with her having Magic.

I'm going to go with Aether and Malady. But I would definitely consider using something like Summon instead of Magic if we decide to go that route. Tho, I am partial to giving Iris a full magic list of her own.

Ill vote for "Fuse" and "Malady"
Heres my 2 cents:
Aether: Im liking it, however i dont like the random part. Random characters in FF6 are fun to use, but rarely as usefull as the other characters.
Dark Magic: I dont think this will be balance-able.
Malady: An idea to make it a little bit less situational, if she has no status ailment and uses malady, it could activate rippler. Also, Cursed Shield + Rippler = Op