Post by Grail Brisk on Nov 6, 2017 10:11:44 GMT
Bing Gan Zucceta Vi-Poi Capper Hofferson
So I have an idea on a change to our KP based battle system that I feel might benefit the next iteration of our forum, Turbo. While I feel the change is simple, the ramifications that would come from this seemingly simple change would require a bit of reworking of the entire combat system, and thus isn't suitable for being suggested for our current site, but I think that perhaps with plenty of time left to decide on exactly how combat is going to work on the new site it might be the perfect time to suggest this.
There are two parts of our combat system that I feel could be improved to provide a more exciting and somewhat "realistic" combat experience. Both have to do with the action economy during combat, namely how many KP using abilities one can use per turn, and the number of KP a person has in the first place.
Firstly, the number of KP. I feel having a total KP of 3 is....incredibly limiting. I know our system is meant to be very simple, but I can very easily see that we've managed to simplify the combat even farther than what is shown in the animanga. Now, before anyone jumps up citing the fact that we aren't trying to be exactly like the animanga, I would simply like to say that it is my personal opinion that combat would be a bit more exciting if we were to make our combat a bit closer to the animanga's style, and that having it be thus would benefit the roleplay (because people would get more pumped up during a combat thread because they can run it closer to the animanga that inspired us to write here in the first place). The number of tactics and strategies that can be pulled off with a mere 3 KP is really rather short, for example in the anime Goku has been shown to execute multiple powerful strikes and ki attacks in rapid succession to target multiple enemies while also defending an ally or two from attacks with deflections. In our current system that'd be like pulling out multiple KP attacks of differing powers, aiming them at different targets, and still using a barrier or an evasion technique all in the same turn. Completely impossible with our KP system as it is, because even if the number of KP actions per turn was unlimited you'd run out of KP with the first two attacks and have no KP at all for the barrier/evasion tech.The quirkiness of the system is especially easy to see in a combat between two fighters of vastly different strength. For example, Person A has four times the power of Person B, and is using Ki Set to lower themselves to the level of Person B....they still run out of KP as fast as if they were using their full power against someone as strong as them. Holding back is used to conserve strength, but in our system trying to hold back merely exhausts you as fast as fighting full power. Doesn't make sense.
The other part of the combat system was how many KP actions one could take per turn. Currently it's one defensive and one offensive, if I'm not mistaken. Again, very limiting system, especially whenever someone is participating in group combat. The ability to divide one's attention and power towards more than one target during a combat is nowhere near what is shown in the animanga, and again I feel the RP could benefit from making the combat more like what is shown. As an example just look above. In our system one couldn't even think about trying to use 2 different attacks of differing power and then a barrier/evasion in the same turn, but realistically it should be possible and would really spice up Group combat.
My suggestion is this:
1. Change the system to have a "Ki Reserve" that represents the total stamina a person is capable of pulling out during a given combat, and have it be something like 10 times their base powerlevel.
2. Limit the amount of Ki a person can use per turn not to a set amount of Ki actions, but to a percentage of a person's Ki Reserve such a 10% (equal to their powerlevel), with individual techniques taking up a portion of that total Ki expenditure (with a small Ki tax per tech use to dissuade users from just trying to spam techs). "Basic" attacks might be limited to a max of 5% of the user's Ki Action, Tier 1 Techs to 33%, Tier 2 to 66%, and Tier 3 to 100%. The Ki tax would rise based on number of techniques used in the same post, starting at 0% for 1 Ki Action and rising 1% of the user's Ki Reserve per extra action used per turn. Spam a lot? Get tired faster.
These two changes would completely overhaul the entire combat system as we know it currently, requiring some changes elsewhere to fit, but still easily done for Turbo. Some examples of necessary changes or things naturally affected are below:
1. Transformations would still multiply the user's powerlevel, but instead of increasing a user's ability to spend Ki per turn, it instead multiplies input to output ratio. If you have a 10x transformation and you input 1,000 Ki on a basic attack, it's output is 10,000 damage potential.
2. Normal splitting variants wouldn't exist. If you need to target multiple enemies, then just use multiple attacks and split the damage yourself. Rather than paying in Tech slots, you pay in the Ki Tax. Perhaps a Utility technique could be taken to allow multiple damage pools of the same technique to be charged at once, with another tech slot to remove the Ki Tax on multiple castings of the same technique, to allow for similar splitting as current.
3. Variants would simply work as thus: V2s would cost 2x the normal Ki to use, and UV3s would cost 1.5x the normal Ki. This encourages people to spend the tech slots to upgrade their variants while keeping in line with the power allowed to variants with our current system.
4. Specials and Ultimates would always have to be using the full Ki Action allowed per turn. You can't dial down the power of a Special, it always requires your full attention and power to pull off. Minimal changes would be required based on each Special/Ultimate. Specials that exceed 100% per turn charged (such as Death Ball, Final Flash, Kikoho, SBC, etc) in our current system would allow a greater than normal Ki expenditure per turn when charging them. Ma/Kaioken would simply take the additions from the user's Ki Reserve. Spirit Bomb would merely take Ki Reserves from all volunteers, then be multiplied by the actual user's transformation.
5. Resting Periods would be the same in function but not magnitude, a person who's resting for a whole turn regains half their base powerlevel in Ki Reserve.
6. Basic attacks would mean something! With an actual damage value and Ki cost, basic attacks might make or break a victory. Basic attacks/defenses don't count against resting. Basic attacks don't count towards increasing the Ki Tax.
Questions? Constructive Criticism? Staffer Input?
So I have an idea on a change to our KP based battle system that I feel might benefit the next iteration of our forum, Turbo. While I feel the change is simple, the ramifications that would come from this seemingly simple change would require a bit of reworking of the entire combat system, and thus isn't suitable for being suggested for our current site, but I think that perhaps with plenty of time left to decide on exactly how combat is going to work on the new site it might be the perfect time to suggest this.
There are two parts of our combat system that I feel could be improved to provide a more exciting and somewhat "realistic" combat experience. Both have to do with the action economy during combat, namely how many KP using abilities one can use per turn, and the number of KP a person has in the first place.
Firstly, the number of KP. I feel having a total KP of 3 is....incredibly limiting. I know our system is meant to be very simple, but I can very easily see that we've managed to simplify the combat even farther than what is shown in the animanga. Now, before anyone jumps up citing the fact that we aren't trying to be exactly like the animanga, I would simply like to say that it is my personal opinion that combat would be a bit more exciting if we were to make our combat a bit closer to the animanga's style, and that having it be thus would benefit the roleplay (because people would get more pumped up during a combat thread because they can run it closer to the animanga that inspired us to write here in the first place). The number of tactics and strategies that can be pulled off with a mere 3 KP is really rather short, for example in the anime Goku has been shown to execute multiple powerful strikes and ki attacks in rapid succession to target multiple enemies while also defending an ally or two from attacks with deflections. In our current system that'd be like pulling out multiple KP attacks of differing powers, aiming them at different targets, and still using a barrier or an evasion technique all in the same turn. Completely impossible with our KP system as it is, because even if the number of KP actions per turn was unlimited you'd run out of KP with the first two attacks and have no KP at all for the barrier/evasion tech.The quirkiness of the system is especially easy to see in a combat between two fighters of vastly different strength. For example, Person A has four times the power of Person B, and is using Ki Set to lower themselves to the level of Person B....they still run out of KP as fast as if they were using their full power against someone as strong as them. Holding back is used to conserve strength, but in our system trying to hold back merely exhausts you as fast as fighting full power. Doesn't make sense.
The other part of the combat system was how many KP actions one could take per turn. Currently it's one defensive and one offensive, if I'm not mistaken. Again, very limiting system, especially whenever someone is participating in group combat. The ability to divide one's attention and power towards more than one target during a combat is nowhere near what is shown in the animanga, and again I feel the RP could benefit from making the combat more like what is shown. As an example just look above. In our system one couldn't even think about trying to use 2 different attacks of differing power and then a barrier/evasion in the same turn, but realistically it should be possible and would really spice up Group combat.
My suggestion is this:
1. Change the system to have a "Ki Reserve" that represents the total stamina a person is capable of pulling out during a given combat, and have it be something like 10 times their base powerlevel.
2. Limit the amount of Ki a person can use per turn not to a set amount of Ki actions, but to a percentage of a person's Ki Reserve such a 10% (equal to their powerlevel), with individual techniques taking up a portion of that total Ki expenditure (with a small Ki tax per tech use to dissuade users from just trying to spam techs). "Basic" attacks might be limited to a max of 5% of the user's Ki Action, Tier 1 Techs to 33%, Tier 2 to 66%, and Tier 3 to 100%. The Ki tax would rise based on number of techniques used in the same post, starting at 0% for 1 Ki Action and rising 1% of the user's Ki Reserve per extra action used per turn. Spam a lot? Get tired faster.
These two changes would completely overhaul the entire combat system as we know it currently, requiring some changes elsewhere to fit, but still easily done for Turbo. Some examples of necessary changes or things naturally affected are below:
1. Transformations would still multiply the user's powerlevel, but instead of increasing a user's ability to spend Ki per turn, it instead multiplies input to output ratio. If you have a 10x transformation and you input 1,000 Ki on a basic attack, it's output is 10,000 damage potential.
2. Normal splitting variants wouldn't exist. If you need to target multiple enemies, then just use multiple attacks and split the damage yourself. Rather than paying in Tech slots, you pay in the Ki Tax. Perhaps a Utility technique could be taken to allow multiple damage pools of the same technique to be charged at once, with another tech slot to remove the Ki Tax on multiple castings of the same technique, to allow for similar splitting as current.
3. Variants would simply work as thus: V2s would cost 2x the normal Ki to use, and UV3s would cost 1.5x the normal Ki. This encourages people to spend the tech slots to upgrade their variants while keeping in line with the power allowed to variants with our current system.
4. Specials and Ultimates would always have to be using the full Ki Action allowed per turn. You can't dial down the power of a Special, it always requires your full attention and power to pull off. Minimal changes would be required based on each Special/Ultimate. Specials that exceed 100% per turn charged (such as Death Ball, Final Flash, Kikoho, SBC, etc) in our current system would allow a greater than normal Ki expenditure per turn when charging them. Ma/Kaioken would simply take the additions from the user's Ki Reserve. Spirit Bomb would merely take Ki Reserves from all volunteers, then be multiplied by the actual user's transformation.
5. Resting Periods would be the same in function but not magnitude, a person who's resting for a whole turn regains half their base powerlevel in Ki Reserve.
6. Basic attacks would mean something! With an actual damage value and Ki cost, basic attacks might make or break a victory. Basic attacks/defenses don't count against resting. Basic attacks don't count towards increasing the Ki Tax.
Questions? Constructive Criticism? Staffer Input?