Announcement & Discussion

[Namohysip]

Hmm, I don't think I explained myself well enough. So, here's a scenario for round 3, for example:

We wrap up this group plot scene in Wigglytuff's Guild and things open up to do whatever. Let's say I have some key plot scene that happens 7 days later. I will say that the next group plot scene will happen in 7 in-universe days, and I'll start it two weeks from now. This means that for the next two weeks, people can have scenes anywhere between day 14 and day 21 in-universe.

Let's say on Wednesday, maybe Curio and Owen have a sparring session on day 15. They do that. Then, at the same time, Brisa is talking with Thyme and the family on Day 17 in another channel. Later on, I ask for a scene between Owen and Brisa, and it's Friday. That's fine so long as they finished their scenes from before, but the scene MUST take place on Day 17, after Brisa's interaction with Surf and Turf--Owen can't have a scene with Brisa if it's before her last scene, since that messes with chronology.

This continues along until two weeks irl pass, in which scenes start wrapping up as per usual and everyone moves to the group/plot-critical scene announced earlier, and a new calendar range is set.

Does this scenario make sense?

 

[Namohysip]

And while I reply to some of the things I brought up there, I would also like to announce... With the latest roleplay post here, Radiant Moves!

Radiant Moves are moves that are fully custom! You can come up with the name, effect, power, flavor, and so on, run it by me (and to an extent, my balance team) and that's your unit's move! It is unique to you, cannot be copied by allies, and is an extension of your unit's very spirit and will.

However, there are a few limitations. As these are considered weak, low-tier Radiant techniques, these are the limitations to what the move can do.

Low-tier Radiant techniques have the following "maximums." You cannot achieve more than one maximum; if you take from any other type of attack, you must weaken one of the other aspects so it is balanced. This can be discussed with me, as I imagine most of you will not go for something that's just one of these maximums. But essentially...
A Radiant technique...

• Starts with "Radiant" in its title
• Costs 10 stamina
• Adds 20 Radiance (more on that later)
• Be ANY SINGLE CHOICE from...
  • 100 Power
  • Add 300 to a stat debuff
  • Add 150 to a status effect
  • Buff a stat by +3
  • Buff one stat by +2 and another by +1
  • Buff four stats by +1
  • Some other effect (consult the DM in private or in public)
  • A mixture of any of above at weakened levels (consult the DM in private or public)
• Does not cost a move slot. It will be placed on a different set of four moves which you can also access... Though for now, the only one you have is this one Radiant move.

Radiant Corruption:

Every time you use a Radiant move, your Radiance will rise. For low-tier Radiant moves, it rises by 20. The following things will happen when you meet or exceed certain amounts of Radiance at the end of your turn:

• 20: You gain the "Radiant" type in addition to your normal types. The Radiant type is double-weak (Super Effective x2) against Shadow moves, and vice versa. It is also Super Effective against all mundane types, but are neutral when receiving damage from mundane types. (Technical note: this corruption is applied after the move is executed, so the first Radiant move you perform will not have stab.)
• 70: Your normal moves become Radiant-type. They will add to your corruption meter equivalent to 2x their stamina costs.
• 100: If you are at a Radiance of 100 or higher at the end of the turn, you will explode. More specifically, you will be forced to perform a self-destruct-like attack as a final action, which sets your HP to 0 and damages any allies who interacted with you on the turn you exploded.
• 120: If, at any point on your turn, you reach or surpass 120 Radiance, all of your actions will be halted and your turn ends. Followed by exploding.

You can also take an action to Focus. This will lower your corruption by 20. You can also use an action to Call an ally, which will lower their corruption by 10. Note, an ally can only gain the benefits of one Call per turn.

Additionally, if your character is at high radiance, I humbly request all of their dialogue be in italics, as if their voice is on reverb/thoughts. This typically happens when they are at 50 Radiance or higher. This is entirely for flavor and doesn't have to be followed too strictly.

And finally... don't think I've forgotten you, Supports.

Choose any one stat from Attack, Defense, Resistance, Magic, or Status to give a +1 to. This will permanently give you a 25% buff in that stat when you're in the Support class. +1 Status will increase the effectiveness of skills such as Hex, Boon, and Heal by 25%, rounding down.

Everything above is free. Simply log your preferences in Official Actions. BE WARNED: THIS CANNOT BE CHANGED once everything is locked in for the round, unless some special circumstance comes along.

Anyway, have fun. This is a lot to take in, so I and the rest of the balance team are all-hands-on-deck for trying to answer your questions as well as we can!

 

[Negrek]

Hmm, I don't think I explained myself well enough. So, here's a scenario for round 3, for example:

[...]

Does this scenario make sense?

It does! I think I was getting out-of-universe time mixed up with in-universe time.

But, uh, the scenario you presented here was how I thought things already worked. Is the difference that currently things can only happen on specific in-universe days, whereas the proposal is you'd get a certain timeframe to work with, and your scenes can take place during any day within that window?

 

[Namohysip]

Yes, that's essentially the only difference. At first I (was under the impression that others) thought that scenes could only be during the given day on the World Map, which was a little limiting.

 

[Negrek]

Ah, well, in that case I'm all for it!

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Seems perfectly reassonable to me, since it doesn't involve any backtracking for a character.

 

[Namohysip]

Okay, it seems like there's generally positive reception for this, so I'll be sure to update things there tomorrow. I've been falling behind on a few matters due to how intensively I've been working with the balance team for everyone's custom moves and final tweaks on Supports!

But I do want to at least get one thing out of the way.

The lineups this time around, once again based on everyone's preferences and their general attendance.

General request priority, from highest priority to lowest if they ever ask to be in the front:
Fay Mira Angela Brisa Flame Lauchzelot Mithos RD Seyka Skara Tricky
Owen
Wren Cynthian
Mellow Ashwood Cuicatl
Jaro
Cino
Astrid Bahamut Vix Zane
Dave
Celeste Nip Starr
Cabot Curio

Then, using this list and only picking the top folks who are FL 2 or 1, and are active players...
This is the round's "default front line" list:
1. Cynthian
2. Jaro
3, 4, 5, 6: Astrid, Bahamut, Vix, Zane
7, 8: Cabot, Curio
9, 10, 11: Dave, Celeste, Starr

EDIT: Windskull is volunteering for Support this round due to irl exams and such. Torchic will also be in Support.

If people in Support are interested in joining, they may request and will overtake those on the bottom of the list. Meanwhile, those who are 11 and below may also have to sit out.

I will be having Owen sit out of FL for this fight as well.

The list of plot scenes later in the round will be available soon (just making sure the outline is fine enough with the team.) But for now, here are the immediate scenes:

Cabot and Diyem (which cold potentially spread to everyone later.)
Jaro, Nate, Owen, Dave, and Truffle investigating Treasure Town (open to others to join.)
Brisa speaking with Team Spice (May unlock a future scene in round 3 or 4.)
A scene with Balm and Cepa to discuss how they're doing (May lead to unlocking another scene in round 4 or 3.)
A fun scene on day 21
Boss walkup on day 28

 

[The Walrein]

The Great Intentional/Unintentional Shadow Slug Infection Planning Post

"If only you could talk to these creatures, then perhaps you could try and make friends with them, form alliances... Now that would be interesting."
- Edge Magazine review of Doom, 1994

So, a few people have been discussing ideas on the discord for how we can make use of all the shadow slugs (officially: "shades") we've captured. Note that plans #1 and #2 of these ideas assume that these creatures are intelligent and can be talked to, which might not necessarily be true. But if they are, we might be able to get some information out of them.

Plan #1: Have Mithos disguise himself as Darkwhite (should be able to do this because Mithos is a Mew and Darkwhite sort of looks like one of them) and 'rescue' a slug from captivity. The slug will then be allowed to infect a volunteer in some controlled area Mithos takes them to. After that, Mithos will try to get the slug to 'debrief' him on their plans and activities.
-One complication is that the slug might read the volunteer's memories of the plan, and thus understand that the 'Darkwhite' they're talking to is actually Mithos. In the current form of the plan, we ignore this possibility for the first run, and if necessary repeat the plan with a second slug afterwards, implementing a work-around. A possible resolution to this is to use an unwitting 'volunteer'. Another is to find some way to erase the volunteer's recent memories.

Plan #2: In this plan, we have a volunteer get infected in a controlled environment with the intention of making friends with the slug.

Plan #3: Someone gets infected with a slug accidentally. Obviously this is an OOC plan done for the roleplaying opportunity, not a plan we'd have in character.

Any thoughts on which plans we should use, as well as who would volunteer? Note that volunteering would probably involve Namohysip working things out with you in DMs behind the scenes. Also, it's an option for Owen to volunteer.

 

[Adamhuarts]

I think I can volunteer with Cynthian if you go with Plan #3. I'd have to bend his personality for him to be involved in the first two unfortunately.

That aside, I think plan 2 is the best route to take for this since plan 1 requires too many hands involved as well as assumptions since I'm not sure Mithos can replicate Dark White's shadowyness to begin with.

 

[The Walrein]

Also note that we could go with multiple different plans simultaneously.

 

[Namohysip]

Seems that nobody else has much input on this matter, so as far as I'm concerned what you guys got is what will be what you have to work with going forward. Let's get the investigation going! I believe it was Nate and Truffle for the residential district where they can see if normal Pokemon are suffering from any kind of plague unknowingly. Others can join that.

Next is the marketplace, and that's where Owen will be going and others can accompany him.

And lastly is the main square--I think this is where potentially someone like Cynthian could be infected if that's what you guys want to go for, as perhaps the others were hesitant to volunteer themselves? @Adamhuarts What are your thoughts here?

Otherwise, I say those who are interested in the investigation like @Dragonfree, @Phoenixsong, and @The Walrein pick a spot to start doing that investigating!

 

[Adamhuarts]

Yeah, I think the main square would be good. Just let me know when the scene will happen.

 

[Namohysip]

So, the scene at the Main Square can start whenever you guys are ready for that, but until then, I'm also asking for volunteers for week 1 of the Story So Far. Otherwise I'm going to have to do it myself~

 

[The Walrein]

A few (okay, more than a few) questions:

Radiant Mechanic Clarification
1. Does getting your hp set to 0 from Radiant explosion bypass reviver seeds, or do you revive at the end of the round as normal? If so, and you have 120 or more Radiance, do you insta-explode at the start of your turn before getting to take any actions?
2. Do we know any details on the exact damage formula for Radiant Explosion?
3. Can Radiant moves be copied with Copycat or Mimic?

Misc Moves Clarification
4. How does Rollout work? Does it still have the same synergy with Defense Curl?
5. Does the Mirror Coat status (and equivalent Counter status) still reflect back damage that K.O.s the user? If so, is it based off of the full damage of the attack, or only the amount of hp the user has left?
6. How do item-stealing moves like Covet work?
7. The Taunt move says that it 'Adds 100 to the target's Taunt status, which allows the use of only one move'. How is this 'one move' determined - is it simply the most recent move used by the target of the Taunt? If so, does Encore add to the same status?

Radiant Move R&D
8. What would a radiant version of Copycat look like?
9. What would a radiant version of Counter or Mirror Coat look like?
10. How much of the Infatuated status would a radiant move inflict if it had the drawback of also infatuating the user of the move?

 

[Namohysip]

1. The Radiant explosion happens at the very end of the player phase of the turn, and you revive as normal. It behaves identically to Self Destruct.
2. It behaves similarly to Self Destruct, but Radiant Type. It attacks any other allies that interacted with the user that turn. You can see it in the attack sheet, called "Blinding Meltdown." Generally speaking, you don't want this to happen.
3. No.

4. Rollout works similarly to Outrage in that it must be used in succession and increases in power. It does have synergy with Defense Curl.
5. It would if they had a Reviver, and it would be for the HP lost.
6. Items will never be stolen. Instead, stat thresholds are stolen. When the attack is used, you steal from the highest buffed stat on the target and add +1 to yourself in exchange.
7. That's an incorrect description. Fixed it. It works canonically--only allows damage-dealing moves. Not sure why it said that originally...

8. It would cost 10 stamina, add 20 corruption, and be able to replicate how Copycat works and copy any mundane move. However, under no circumstances will I allow players to copy other players' Radiant abilities with their own techniques. These moves are intrinsic to their characters' spirits and cannot be copied by allies.
9. Would probably behave exactly as it does.
10. Infatuated, due to how insane its effect is, is something I dub a "powerful" status effect, similar to Toxic. As such, it's actually inaccessible under normal circumstances for low-tier Radiants. Applying this penalty would still make the applied threshold pretty useless. Should probably save this for a higher tier.

 

[The Walrein]

Still trying to work out a build for Jaro here, so some even more questions:

Move Clarifications
1. Just to be clear on Rollout, it works the same way it does in the games with the power starting at 30 and doubling each time it's used, for up to five uses (with the power being doubled if defense curl was used previously in the same battle)? If you have more than one action, are you forced to use all of your actions each round on it (and does the power double after each use or after each turn of using it)?
2. How does Bide work? A few points: Does it target the last Pokemon to damage the user when the duration is up? Does biding use up all your actions for the turn if you have more than one? Does losing all your actions on a turn for any reason while biding cause the move to fail?
3. How does Perish Song work?
4. How does Baton Pass work? Can it target enemies? Does it transfer Perish Song count like in the main series games?
5. Does Rest work the same way it does in the games? I.e. heal to 100% hp and grant sleepy status? Would the sleepy status still self-cure after 2 turns?
6. How does Sleep Talk work?
7. Does Teleport have any effect in-battle? How does it work out-of-battle?

Ability Clarification
8. Does Cute Charm work regardless of whether or not the enemy contacting the user is attracted to their gender or not? Also, I assume it only works for enemy-initiated physical contact?

More Radiant R&D
9. Would you allow a move that allowed you to donate hp to another character on a 1:1 basis? Something like "Distribute up to X% of your hp among up to Y different targets." What would X be if Y was 1? If Y was 3?
10. In general, is it fair to assume that a Radiant move based off of any 'non-standard' move like Copycat, Counter, etc. wouldn't gain any special benefits?

Also, Jaro's "half-off first support" box should be checked off in the volatile stats session.

 

[Namohysip]

1. Allllright so after looking at how the move worked, I didn't realize it doubled each time. Thought it increased linearly. Holy shit. Okay, so. Rollout will be working a little differently.
40 base power, goes up linearly (x2, x3, etc.) up to 5. Defense Curl will give it a 50% boost to coincide with halving of multipliers in general. This means that on average Rollout will have a power of 120 per action (600 / 5 actions), and for Defense Curl 150 (900 / 6 actions). Combo resets if the user performs any other action.

2. Bide works differently. The mechanic is the same (damage taken thrown back at the enemy for double) but the timing is different. First, you can choose your target when you first call it. Second, it applies the Bide status to yourself, which ends/unleashes at the start of your next.

3. Perish Song has been modified so it is balanced for this game. The song is not powerful enough to make an opponent pass out... but it does have a wretched aura that adds +3 to Stagger thresholds of anybody who interacts with the singer on that turn.

4. Baton Pass must be used in the front row, selects an ally in the Back row, and switches positions with them. Additionally, it passes any buffs that the user has onto that selected ally.

5. Full heal for HP and mundane status effects like poison etc, and then gives the user the Sleepy status. It's permanent unless cured.

6. The Sleepy status reduces the user's action count by 1. Sleep Talk lets you use that missing action.

7. The user can select any number of allies and move them to the Front or Back row along with themselves. Stamina increases by 5 for every unit teleported.

8. Cute Charm needs to have the target be attracted to the unit. So someone that has no attraction would not be affected, while someone like Owen's orientation may be attracted to anybody. It does rely on enemy-initiated contact.

9. A sort of Pain Split except only for healing. I think I will let this be distributing HP 1:1 toward one ally for low tier.

10. Yes, but some mundane moves alone are too strong to be a low-tier Radiant, particularly many of the ones that cost 20+ stamina as-is.

 

[Namohysip]

I have a minor announcement to make about how bosses with high evasion works, now that a lot of people have been asking about it. I ran it by the balance team and we came up with something that's a little less nebulous on my part.

Previously, enemies with evasion would dodge "the moves that did the most damage based on the DM guessing."

I have since modified that to be something less ambiguous. Now, enemies will dodge based on which of those who attacked the target has the highest aggro first.

While I can't make any promises on when this will become relevant to a boss fight, I thought it might be good for you to know that you do have some (indirect) control on how to misdirect what enemies evade what.

(Note: special aggro from stuff like Follow Me, etc. does not factor in. Only normal aggro.)

Also, Don't forget to update your Supports! A few days over a week remains before the boss begins, and I know some people are still missing their Radiants, haven't updated their Supports, or haven't added their +1 to a stat for Support abilities (attack, defense, magic, resistance, or status).

 

[The Walrein]

Pieces are finally starting to fall into place now. Hopefully this should be the last round of questions for a while.

Move Clarification
1. Regarding bide, to be clear, it reflects back all damage taken from all sources, and not just from the targeted enemy, right?
2. If you are K.O.'d and revived with a reviver seed while you have the bide status, does that reset the damage you took earlier or cause you to lose the status entirely?
3. Does the bide status resolve at the start of your turn specifically, or at the start of the player phase?
4. Does Ally Switch cause all attacks that would target the protected unit to be redirected to you for the turn, or just the next attack?
5. What if a move targets both the user of Ally Switch and the target they're protecting?
6. How does Pain Split work when used against bosses?
7. How does Fling work? Specifically, can you use it to fling berries and heal seeds at allies to use their effects on them?

Radiant R&D
8. Okay, this might be a little out there, but what about a move that temporarily increases your maximum hp for the remainder of the battle? (Jaro doesn't have enough hp already! He needs more hp! MOAR!)
9. For a radiant move that grants status boosts to an ally, would the limit be +2 in a single stage to one ally, or +1 in a single stage to user + 3 allies?

 

[Namohysip]

1. All damage acquired from damage-dealing moves.

2. It does not reset damage, but it does limit it to the amount of HP you had lost.

3. Player phase.

4. All for that turn. It's effectively a 1-turn Shield but with double damage.

5. Same mechanics as Shield; two guards will halve the damage (i.e. normal damage, since it's usually double) but any more will still only have it at normal damage, with no further reductions.

8. I think I forgot to mention this, but all Radiant moves that do healing are able to do something called Overheal. Radiant healing can push you up to 150% HP at maximum. So this property would simply be applied to a Radiant move that heals you by 50% HP--which is the limit of what a low tier Radiant move can do, and only if it's cast on the self.

9. Howl is one of those unique moves that despite its cost, might be the very upper limit of low tier Radiants. A Mag equivalent would probably be fine, though. For a single ally, yes, it would be +2 due to the utility of being able to cast it to others that aren't the self.

I'll get back to you on 6 and 7. However, for Fling, it will at least double damage from Iron Thorns and their eventual upgrades.