Charging Up

The current system for charging up is as follows.

• Charge:
  • Some abilities/spells require you to charge up the first turn and make the attack on your next turn. If you take a direct hit during a charge, you lose the charge (effect damage unrelated to a direct hit does not count).

As it is, you can still defend during that time period, making it something that's viable even in a one versus one matches. However, it is not exactly logical. If you're focusing everything into charging a move, you logically shouldn't be able to move around or defend.

Options are as thus:

• Current System - can still defend while charging, but taking a hit will interrupt the charge. Allows charge moves to be viable for one versus one matches.
  
• Logical System - cannot defend at all while charging, and taking a hit will not interrupt the charge. It's pretty much pointless to use this in a one versus one match without instantly dying, but it's logically correct.

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On the affinity vote, I opted not to vote because I didn't have anything against either way. However, I'm personally aiming more for the current system; as logical of a person I am, I prefer gameplay value, and I don't like the idea that it becomes instantly pointless to try and charge when you're all alone (aka, you get hit and die in one shot because you weren't able to defend).

There's currently nothing in the game that results in the target becoming absolutely defenseless (at least, not without some sort of defensive buff), and the reason is because having no defense (in this game) results pretty much in instant death. Not even Frost renders a target unable to defend, despite freezing the target.

Your votes will ultimately decide the outcome of this; I'm just throwing my personal opinion on the matter.

I have been thinking about this, and I have a suggestion to make to try and make the logical setup a bit more bearable for 1v1.

Player A begins to charge.
Player B hits Player A.
Player A takes up to a MAXIMUM of a percentage of his/her MAXIMUM Hearts, say 80%.
Player A has 10 out of 10 hearts, player B deals 8 (80% of 10) damage.
Player A is still able to perform his ability.

Now here's a different scenario.

Player A begins to charge.
Player B hits Player A.
Player A takes up to a MAXIMUM of a percentage of his/her MAXIMUM Hearts, say 80%.
Player A has 6 out of 10 hearts, player B deals 8 (80% of 10) damage.
Player A has been slain.

Basically, while charging, the player can only take up to a maximum of 80% (or whatever percentage you want to use) of their maximum hearts ... per hit.

You've already stated clearly in the rules that defending is not an action. Therefore it doesn't make sense from a mechanical standpoint to treat defending differently for a charge action.


On the matter of breaking a charge, however, I have an idea if you're interested.
In most video games a charged ability can be broken if the player suffers enough damage in one staggering hit. To translate this into role-playing mechanics, I'm going to borrow something from Vorpal, an Indie Role-Playing Game (I wrote it, so it's okay).
In Vorpal, when a custom weapon is created it is assigned a 'debt durability' based on the means of creation. For example, two items combined with Duct Tape might make a single item with Debt Durability 4, meaning it can suffer four points of debt before separating into its original components (read: break). What if we applied this concept to a technique's charge? When the charging player suffers a sufficient amount of damage (in a single hit), the charge is canceled.

I'll elaborate with examples, as that is where my strength lies. Suppose one player is charging a spin attack. It's a relatively reliable technique that is difficult to interrupt, so we'll assign it a "Charge Health" of 5. That means the player must suffer 5 points of damage from a single attack before the charge is interrupted. Any attack that does less than 5 points of damage does not have enough force to stagger (read: distract) him.
Let's look at another charge situation. A secondary player is casting a spell that requires delicate concentration. This is a technique that is likely to fail if interrupted, so we'll assign it a "Charge Health" of 1. If the casting player suffers 1 or more points of damage from a single attack before the charge is complete, then the spell fails to function.
One more example. Perhaps there's a technique so difficult to perform correctly that is possesses a "Charge Health" of 0. If the performing player suffers a single hit, EVEN those that do no damage, then the technique is interrupted and they must try again.


...To be honest, what I've just proposed is very weighted towards the player's advantage. I'm notorious for and partial to such imbalances. So analyze my suggestion knowing that I want the players to outmatch the game-master.

I did come up with an alternate suggestion that would side with the logical approach. It would be similar to both of your suggestion as well, I suppose.

For those of you unfamiliar with Warp Shield's effect:

• Warp Shield:
  • When damage is taken, you can expend 1 Magic for any 1 Heart lost in its place.

Let's say the charge-up move costs 8 Magic. This move would give Person A charging up a temporary Warp Shield of 8 Magic (technically, it wouldn't follow Warp Shield's effect, because in order to block 10 damage for Warp Shield, you must have a minimum of 10 Hearts and 10 Magic). If Person B attacks Person A but does 7 or less damage in one attack, it doesn't distrupt the charge. However, if Person B attacks Person A but does 8 or more damage, not only does it distrupt the charge; any extra damage carries over to Person A's health.

Likewise, if the move costs 10 Magic and 7 Hearts, you'd have to go through a shield of 17 damage in order to distrupt the charge and hurt the target. I may disable criticals with this as well.

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Of course, looking at this, you see a problem - charge the move with the highest cost so that way it's likely to be guaranteed to go off. Do note that I haven't created many charge moves yet, so if we were to switch to this system, I would intentionally make it so that some of the more powerful moves don't actually have a high cost.

Alternatively, there is something I'd like to add to the game whenever Radien returns so I can run the Kokiri Forest quest in order to add it. In a nutshell/preview, it's a guardian spirit type guy that provides passive bonuses to you. Although it has no turn or actions it can actively make, it can be targeted and taken out. Depending on how this charge topic/vote goes, I'll be adding passive bonuses to it that can provide support for it.

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More opinions? (also, extending the date of the vote, should last till Dec 30th now)

Alright, let's go with an in-between for everything... guess this will probably be closest to AnubianDragon's suggestion. For charge-up attacks, there'll be an additional point on there called the Damage Buffer. For example...

Leap Attack:

• Damage Buffer: Half of Current Hearts. Charge one turn.
  
• On your next turn, attack using your primary weapon's standard attack. If successful, double the amount of weapon damage done.
  
• If your weapon has no weapon damage, instead multiply the damage by 150% (rounded up).

(This will be added to the Rules & Knowledge Thread shortly)
Let's say I have 14 of 20 Hearts. When I charge up to use Leap Attack, there is a 7 Heart barrier that the opponent must break. It must be broken in a single attack (unless said otherwise), otherwise the barrier will revert back to 7 Hearts. While I'm charging up, until that barrier breaks, I take no damage and can continue to charge until it's my turn. However, if someone breaks it with a 9 damage attack, the barrier falls, the charge is broken, and the remaining damage goes to me.

For Leap Attack, which is dependent on high weapon damage or multiplying the damage, there isn't a Magic cost involved, so it's not really a risky move. Do note that the Damage Buffer for that one is based on Current Hearts, not Maximum Hearts.

Let's try another move that has a Magic cost.

Fire Beam:

• Fire
  
• Damage Buffer: (Fire Affinity Level) x5. Costs 6 Magic. Charge one turn.
  
• On your next turn, an intensified beam of fire spews forth at an enemy.
  
• Roll your Wisdom +2 dice vs. targets' Wisdom dice / +4 damage
  
• Ignores damage reduction and causes a burn effect, dealing damage equal to the target's damage reduction from armor. Inflicted at the start of every target's turn and lasts as a status effect until cured.
  
• Costs 6 Magic (total)

Anything that requires a charge-up AND a Magic cost will have you pay the Magic cost on the charge-up turn. So if you have a Fire (Level: 3), your damage buffer would be 15 (note, this attack is not necessarily balanced and was simply imported from a previous version of the game). Meaning if your Damage Buffer is broken by an attack before the charge is done, you not only wasted a turn charging but a good amount of Magic.


This WILL be a ruling, fyi:

• You cannot activate a charge-up move on Extra/Bonus turns (aka, what would allow you to skip the risk of getting hit during charge-up).

Twill get this up on the official rulings thread tomorrow after school. And no, you cannot crtical a damage buffer.