b) Since I am interested in Projecks plot, we need a way for Ashleys problem to fit into it
I know little of @Projeck's plot or Ashley's problem. However, seeing as mechanics and balancing is something of interest, and I am familiar with Ashley's abilities, let's audit it a bit, shall we?
Now first off, her ability is called "Void Manipulation", something that she shares with a few other characters. Now, here's my first recommendation: replace it with something else. The two main spheres of this world are Creation and Void. Saying "Void Manipulation" is like saying "Creation Manipulation", an utterly unbalanced and absurd notion considering that "Creation" is basically the universe and "Void" is basically it's counterpart. Well, what to replace it with then?
You see, Ashley's rather lofty ability title in practice just means that she can teleport via void and manifest it inside Creation. The latter she hardly ever uses. For reasons that will be detailed below, how about we just call it "Void Teleportation" instead for now?
Here are summaries of the traits of her two ability usages. Points ending with a question marks are things that have not been mentioned but I what I intend to explore and argue/discuss as implications/considerations. You see, I believe that Ashley has a fair amount of unused applications for her abilities even if they are reclassified in accordance to my recommendation.
- Travels via void.
- Momentum is not maintained due to the nature of the trip.
- Momentum Cancel? Momentum Cancel-assisted attacks?
- Static teleport? Teleport nowhere but adjust stance? Teleport assisted feint?
- Vulnerable to some void attacks during transit?
- Jammed by anti-void fields.
- Targeting roll required for use.
- Can substitute dodging.
- Why can it teleport into vacuum, gasses and liquid but not solids.
- Near impossible to abduct using it.
- Manual Detection?
- Conjures void into Creation.
- Extra damage to Creation.
- Dissipates quickly.
- Canceled by Creation?
- Mana-blocked?
- Creation-blocking?
- Invertable?
Now, firstly, for the teleportation. What it actually amounts to, is her dissipating back into the Void, running around to where she wants to be, and pops back into Creation at her destination. The time spent in Void is different from the time this change manifests in Creation. That is, though she spends time moving through the Void, from the perspective of someone in Creation, her disappearance and reappearance is instant. Hence acting as teleportation.
Now, to my knowledge, it has not been defined what the mana cost scales with precisely lore-wise, though mechanically, greater distances require more mana. I intend to define the mana cost to equate to time spent in Void rather than the distance traveled in Void. Thus, greater distances still require more mana as it takes longer, but since it's time scaled and not distance scaled, she can't just take a nap, recover all her mana and pop back in instantly with little to no cost.
The point about momentum conservation is as follows: since she's phasing from Creation to Void and back, she doesn't suddenly change location but rather she seems to whilst having to actually travel. Consequently momentum, from the perspective of an observer in Creation, is not conserved. This raises the question of momentum-cancelling. If she is falling at terminal velocity and phases into void, is there a ground for her to splatter on? Or is it possible for her to just cancel that outright and negate all fall damage?
Onto more, interesting issues, seeing as I don't think someone who can teleport would be falling much in the first place: Momentum Cancelling and Static Teleportation, what are they? That's simple. Ashley is a melee unit. She fights primarily using her embargo katana. As it is a katana, she swings it around. Now, if you're swinging around a sword, you're going to have some momentum. During an attack, it is an asset. Afterwards, a liability. In the latter case, what if she were to phase into void, correct her stance and phase back in? Well, she'd now have none of her original momentum and have a proper posture. What this means is, in my opinion at least, one option for her should be to pay some mana in order to enter a defensive stance after attacking or, if her speed is high enough, perform an additional, targeted attack after attacking or parrying by phasing out, correcting her stance, and swinging her katana at a vulnerable point before phasing back in mid-swing, seemingly having instantly transitioned into an attack. In the case of Alucard who has similar abilities but a gun rather than a blade and Abraxis would just uses void blasts, this could allow them to lead and aim seemingly instantly for a mana cost.
Of course, in either case, this would allow them to perform a mana-based "quick draw". The limitation being, that they're be doing their aiming and in Void, thus having to rely on memory and attention to detail. This could also allow pretty impressive feints by attacking from one angle before performing a static teleport and phasing back in with an attack aimed at a vulnerable point. Not to mention circumventing attempts to parry.
Next is the idea of Manual Detection. To sum it up, it is basically the most fucking moronic option of detecting illusions and the invisible alike, horribly mana draining and basically being a last resort. When teleporting via void, entities can detect whether they can teleport into a position. That is, if there are no solids there. With this method, they could exploit (for a rather broad definition of exploit seeing as that implies something far more impressive) that property. Basically, it consists of them phasing out and metaphysically groping around like a blind idiot to check that everything is solid and that there aren't any solids where there shouldn't be. The former case indicates an illusion, the latter something invisible. This requires good memory and attention to detail. Along with a metric ass ton of mana and patience considering how time consuming it is.
A question that does arise is, can certain void abilities hamper teleportation? Like making it harder to navigate, or placing what amounts to a claymore mine in the void? Logically, I would think so. That it would be possible to produce attacks or effects either cannot be avoided by teleportation or are only threats to teleportation in the contextual manner.
Now onto void manifestation, my argument for why this would still fit into my proposed relabel is simple: when using the void to teleport, people can bring along anything that is physically touching them, such as other people, or you know, their clothing. Hence, void manifestation may be defined as touching some void and doing that when exiting, thus dragging something rather unstable and dangerous back into Creation and attacking with it. Balancing it out, is that if they want to actually shape it into something more precise than a mass of void, they'll have to manually do it, thus increasing time spent in void and thus the mana cost.
Seeing as Void and Creation tend to cancel each other out, that does lead to an interesting potential countermeasure. Magic, is defined as being Creation linked, thus if someone is aware of Void's properties and has quick enough reflexes, would they not be able to shield themselves by channeling magic in a blast to cancel out the void attack? As if a reactive armor unit. Likewise, doing that in reverse in-combination with a Static Teleport would hypothetically at least, allow magic blasts to be cancelled out with Void at the cost of mana.
The final point is, what about Void Manifestation in reverse? Dragging magic from Creation into Void and using it to attack the Creation-vulnerable denizens of the Void? If my above point is to be accepted, would this not also be possible?
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Topic: Rise of the Magic Girls v2 OOC: MOAR LAMPSHADES PLEASE (Read 1015929 times)