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For Heartfelt Adventure:

In case no one's been paying attention to the Heartfelt Adventure: Questions, Suggestions, and Discussion thread, there have been a number of fairly important explanatory posts made there the past few weeks. In summary:

• Stats have been renamed for simplicity. See here.
  
  
• Experimental HP/MP system added--but you don't have to keep up with any of that yet, since it's still experimental. If curious, read the bottom part and spoilers here.
  
  
• We've nailed down how to determine actions per post (ApP). This has a post all its own, including explanations, here. To summarize that:
  
  
  • For stationary, complex actions, use Skill.
    
  • For mobile, simple actions, use Speed.
    
  • For mobile, complex actions, take your Skill ApP and divide by 2, without rounding.

Both the HP/MP additions and the ApP additions have already been added to everyone's profiles in the top section.

I have a small, but important, announcement to make.

As it is, one week from the beginning of a round, Rhiko sends out reminders to people who haven't yet posted. Now, from this point forward in Louis' Arc, if you haven't posted within a week of the round starting, I will also attempt to contact you—not to remind you to post, but to work with you in a way that I may post for you. If you're sure you'll be able to post soon, you can say so, and I'll hold off. However, if you don't do so within 3 days, or I cannot get hold of you at all for 3 days, I will post as you regardless.

Generally, this will be limited to actions only—not words or thoughts, unless they are specifically required to move the RP along.




The reasons for this are fairly simple, though probably not as small. While Rhiko has been following our own 2 Week Rule (Rule X) with his own consequence modification (I'm not sure how many of you actually remembered that was a rule, with how lenient we've been due to the general slowness), it's become pretty clear it's simply not efficient.

We started this arc on January 6. It is now April 10—we have been at this for over three months, and we haven't even made it to the door. Yes, there've been a number of heavy barriers blocking our path, a lot of stuff to deal with, but while I've discussed this time delay with Rhiko, he isn't solely at fault; since we landed, every round took nearly a full week, and since the battle started, we've have taken up nearly the full two weeks each and every round.

We all understand that everyone here is, at this point, in the adult world with responsibilities galore. That's one of the main reasons we've been extremely lenient about the 2 Week Rule (it used to be the 3 Day Rule, if that tells you anything). But if there's one thing we've learned from the past worlds of PR/A/A and H/AG, it's that if we go out of our way to wait for every single poster for weeks on end, plots could take years. This Louis Arc is not supposed to be very long, but we're dangerously close to making it so. So if there's any way I can speed things up without stepping on too many toes, I'm going to try to do so.




However, this brings me to another sensitive topic: those left behind, or GMed due to inactivity.

In the past, we've sometimes had to move on without having every person in the interaction post. Sometimes it was necessary, othertimes it was just the RP moving too fast. One particular time I experienced—maybe it was in HA, maybe it was elsewhere—stands out. The person in question didn't post for more than a month, but upon returning, made a post as if they'd been acting and talking the entire time, and had been ignored by the active participants. This ended up having some long-lasting consequences, not just on the character, but on a lot of people connected to them.

This is tough ground, sympathetically, because on the one hand you feel for the person who got left behind, but on the other it kind of screws over those that have remained active. It's unfair either way, because in a sense, both actions are a type of God-Moding. The active participants are subtly GMing the inactive into doing nothing, or the inactive participant is more directly GMing that the others are being absolute assholes.

However, in this situation as a moderator, I would have to decide in favor of those who have been active. As I've previously mentioned, we completely understand—and empathize—that life can get in the way of your hobbies. But it's not right for us, as moderators of a roleplay, to punish those that actively contribute to said roleplay in favor of those that can only be around every so often.

So if there comes a time when one of you—or even myself—must go inactive for an extended period, and others do a lot of posting without you, then you should not post as if you have been trying to do something but getting ignored or shot down. Frustrating as it might be, you should find a reason for your characters inaction that isn't a direct result of those around you. Maybe you felt overwhelmed by everything going on, and every time you tried to open your mouth you were just a second too slow—that's okay, because that doesn't imply you're being outright ignored. Maybe you're too busy thinking it out in your head—that's also okay. But do not put in actions or comments, only to insist they got ignored or worse.

If all this seems disappointing, let me be clear: we want everyone to be able to participate. Slow or fast, every post is invaluable—but fairly speaking, by the very nature of how roleplaying works, it is a matter of “first come, first served”. However, it's for this very reason we have an Absence Thread. You post there, and we'll know to GM you until you give notice of your return; your character won't just be posted once every week, we'll attempt to keep them an active participant.

On top of that, as previously mentioned, I—and probably the other mods as well—will be more than happy to work with you in order to post for you, if you're semi-active in the community but simply can't find time to put together a post. Just talk to one of us, and we'll try to work something out.

I hope everyone understands where I'm coming from with this. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to talk about it in the QSD thread. Otherwise, I hope everyone has a great weekend. Let's try to keep the party moving!

With the conclusion of the Louis Arc, we're moving into a period of change. To accommodate that change, the Earthlings are being benched: 3 days of rest, training, education, and no excursions.

Yeah, Riku and Sora will be tattling.

As Yen Sid and Merlin will tell them, the past week has pushed their bodies beyond their limits time and time again. How, the magi still cannot properly explain—Merlin may spout off a theory or five, but Yen Sid will remain silent in his contemplation. Why, though, they are quite certain is clear: born in a land without magic, and chosen by powers beyond understanding, we have all been forcefully acclimating to this new universe, where the laws of physics as we know them are upended and the forces of magic are nigh-omnipresent. Like Sora and Riku before us, we have quickly gained powers beyond even that of an ordinary trainee in this realm, and yet we have done so without mentors, without knowledge, without understanding. And now, seven days since our arrival, our bodies and hearts are on the cusp of becoming fully of this world.

But with the forces of darkness growing stronger by the hour, we do not have the freedom of taking things as they come. So now, just as the duo had been taken under mentors' wings during the past two years, so too shall we. With the aid of Merlin and the Three Good Fairies, the Earthlings will go through sessions of training and tutoring using time compression magic, such that time itself will lose all meaning—seconds could be minutes or hours, hours could be days or weeks, but to those inside, it will not matter, as it will fly by all the same. In seven days, we have gained amazing power and potential; during this timeless instruction, we will gain the knowledge and understanding needed to properly work within this world, to fully explore the potential we now have. And, most importantly, we will come to connect with those deepest wells of power within ourselves, the core of our strength, and we will learn what it means to be at one with our hearts, to be the best versions of ourselves.

It won't hurt to get to know each other better, either, because lord has there been some chaos in miscommunication.



What does this mean, out of character? A bit of renovation. There will be quite a few changes, each to be explained in due time. However, some of these changes might require a period of thought for you guys in particular. Here is what you all need to know first and foremost--stuff for you to contemplate between now and the end of the arc.

1) Everyone will be given an opportunity to completely rework their characters. Weapons, class concepts, summons, elements, abilities—everything about your character will be open to reworking. This is what we mean by “being at one with our hearts” and “being the best versions of ourselves”. While some people are only just joining, or have only been with us a few years, some of us have been doing this for as long as the roleplay has been open—which, by this point, is nearly a decade. For that long, we've been tied to these weapons and elements, and while there was another opportunity to rework when things were deleted, there's at least a small chance people remained the same out of respect for what was taken from us. So yes, the very first step of training will be to “reconnect” with your heart, and that will allow you to totally revamp your character.

A word on classes: while it is usually easiest to simply pick one of the base classes from the Final Fantasy universe, we're always open to more unique, custom class ideas. We will work with you to make sure it's balanced, of course, but if it's something you want to pursue, let us know.

An important word on changing summons!!!: A couple people have shown interest, and concern, in the idea of summon changing--namely that they might want to change, but are attached to their summon's character. Your summon's "identity" will remain the same! Their "soul" is not changing, their "personality" doesn't have to change--heck, their form technically doesn't even have to change! Remember, summons take whatever form you desire. The only thing you would be changing is their element and abilities tied to their old "self".

Imagine it as if they're transitioning, in a sense. They're still them, they're still the entity to whom you've grown attached; they're just picking up a different skill set to better suit your heart.




2) Part of this rework is for the system itself. We're still trying to balance, simplify, and define things such that the “game” aspect of roleplaying works smoothly. As a result, some of the stats are getting redefined again—specifically, as has been the case lately, Skill and Speed. So here's what you need to know when it comes to reworking your profile:

In the past, I've changed Skill from Action Speed, and Attack Speed, and I've attempted to keep it in that same vein. But now, with the whole rework being allowed, I can do what should have been done to begin with by taking it apart and consolidating.

Skill will become Dexterity, and it will have no more connection to how many actions you get a turn. Instead, it will help determine the accuracy of melee and projectile attacks—in this way, it remains a direct opposite of Reflexes. As well, it will still be the domain of more “skillful” abilities, such as disarming an opponent, stealing, or striking critical points. Even more, however, is that basic damage for Ranged weapons will be based off of the user's Dexterity (versus DEF or RES is a character-defined choice at creation, but as it is, bows oppose DEF and guns oppose RES; more on that on a front page post).

Speed, in turn, is going to be exactly what it should have been from the beginning: all things speed related, including actions per post. Boom. Simplified.

Inevitably, any time stats get brought up, I hear grumbling—I don't blame you, it's a text-based roleplay! Not everyone wants to write this out as a game, and as always, we insist that no one has to if they don't want. The numbers game is mostly for people who do enjoy treating combat like a tabletop game, such as Pathfinder or Dungeons & Dragons.



On the topic of stats, there will be other changes tied to Magic. However, these changes will not be to the stat itself, but rather to the abilities tied to it. Here's why this is important when changing your profile around:


3) We're simplifying magic restrictions (or trying to, at least!). As it was, you needed certain levels of Magic stat to properly cast higher level spells. We're doing away with that entirely, because in every game, regardless of your stats, you could still cast any spell you wanted. If Sora gave up the Dream Rod, he could still cast Firaga, could he not? It just wasn't necessarily as strong. Now, instead, your stat will simply determine the actual potency, duration, or additional effects of the ability. A 10 Fire will beat a 5 Fire. A 10 Haste will last longer, or affect more people, than a 5 Haste.

Further, all abilities will have “MP costs” based on the skill itself—not based off the Magic stat used. A weak magic Fire will cost the same as a high magic Fire. And MP costs was in quotations because we're not going to make you count that stuff (if you don't want to; besides, I'm still working on it...). I may have put a little experiment-system in place, but as I said then, I'll say now—nobody's gotta use it or even acknowledge that it's there. But just acknowledge, in character, that certain things have a greater toll, as always.

So then, if you can cast a Magic 10 Fire and a Magic 10 Firaga, how do you determine what makes them different enough that the Firaga should cost more?

How you want to handle the different levels of magic is, for the most part, going to be up to you—they're your spells after all. We're taking a page out of Mizu's KA book for this one. In the original games, learning an upgraded version of a spell simply replaced that spell. You can go that route if you like, but if you wanna have a little more variety, you have various options.

Some examples: If you want your Firaga to simply be a more powerful Fire spell (more than simply being a little bigger or having more 'oomph'), then you can add that effect—say, a small Magic boost at the cost of more mana. If, instead, you want your Firaga to be the same strength, but have a grander effect (maybe instead of just being a little bigger, it's actually multiple bolts at once) for some more mana, then sure, go for that, too. Does your second-level buff last longer, or affect more people? Basically, just let us know the kind of direction you want to go with abilities.

Admittedly, this may take some approval/debate time, and there's already some ability bloat as is. Still, it was either this or have those weird stat restrictions which forced people to max out a stat they may not genuinely care about. We definitely wanted to get rid of those, because take a look at the party: a large percent of people maxed out magic. People who don't even really wanna be mages chose to max out magic—and while it may be just for damage, we were worried it might also be that otherwise they couldn't use all the abilities they wanted. We tried to balance it one way, and it didn't work. So new way, go.

Basically, all abilities are fair game now, stats or not. It's only the strength/duration that changes. Which brings us to another big point:




4) After the time-compressed training, all of us will be “level 6”. Further, you might remember that we allowed people 2 additional stat points if they gave up a Passive or Limit Break? Well, being that everyone is getting “properly trained,” everyone will get those 2 extra points, and people who used the Passive/Limit as an advantageous boost will now be able to choose another Passive/Limit to replace them. So, when you're doing your stats, everyone should have 92, with no stat being higher than 14.

As you can imagine, we're not actually done growing yet. No, there isn't going to be a “level 100” or anything like that; rather, at this point, your growth will simply come in smaller increments. One point here, two points there. Basically, the “levels” are kind of getting scrapped—and further, so is the stat max. We'll keep the limit to how many points you can put into something at once, but as far as a truly hard limit goes, meh! That was an attempt at showing us still adapting to this new world; now, we're fully adapted. Huzzah!

Side note: if you still really wanna spend your passive on additional stat points... hold off. Something new might be coming your way.




5) As explained, we're going through super training to be the best we can. As a result, all abilities (currently applied for) are unlocked, or if you're revamping, you can be assumed to have most of those skills and abilities unlocked. You've had 3 days (much longer due to time compression, really) to figure out the many potential things you could do. So bam, you can do them. Pretty simple.


This is all you need to know for now to begin setting up for the major time-skip coming up after this arc. There will be more announcements coming, all of which I hope you'll enjoy!

For information regarding claimed summons and weapons, check the HA QSD thread for a reserved list.

Heartfelt Adventure : Regarding the Final Arc Battle

Hello!

As the GM, I can tell you: don't fret too much about the many specifics of this fight. For instance, you'll note that every time I post, I have little TL;DR notes at the bottom summarizing the actions. But when it comes to numbers and rolls, I'm using the honor system: I'm not going to check every roll, I'm not going to make sure you take the "right" amount of damage or stun. This battle is about closure, not about contest.

So, for those who don't want to deal with numbers at all, just deal with the effects as you imagine them working against you. You know if you have good defense, and you know what sounds strong and what doesn't.

For those who want to deal with numbers, but are having trouble keeping track of everything, I put some notes down below regarding numbers, differences, and an off-site dice roller that makes multiple rolls easier.

I don't need to see your rolls for this fight, because I said, I'm not worried about them--I'm just worried about making the atmosphere appropriate for what has become, essentially, the final battle not just of the Louis Arc, but of the first Act of HA entirely.

As always, feel free to pester mods if you have questions!





Since there are going to be a lot of numbers in this battle:

Do not add up all the numbers and then compare it to your defenses. You compare each number, individually. So, for example:

Say you get hit by the 10 MAG laser and the 6 MAG blood rain, and you have 5 RES.

10 MAG vs 5 RES is a difference of 5. That's pretty big. It's not going to kill you, it's not even going to knock you into Limit, but you don't wanna take something like that too often.

6 MAG vs 5 RES? That's 1 difference. That's gonna sting, but not much else.




As far as whether or not you have lots of HP or little HP, that's your Constitution, and I basically leave it up to you to determine what that means. My suggestion is to multiply it by, say, 4 or 5, and then just subtract these differences from that. But you know your characters best when it comes to this stuff, and HP is super fickle right now >_>;;

Basically, I'm trusting you to make judges.


Also, as far as Reflexes go, I trust you guys to know when your reflexes are high enough to reasonably dodge something I describe, and unless I outright say something definitely hits, anything can be dodged.




Also, considering how many rolls there are going to be, I might recommend using this dice roller! The first main column is for how many of each die you want to roll, the second column is for any bonuses they might have, and it keeps the results neatly in the little notepad to the side.

Even better, the very bottom one is a RNG--you can put in whatever max value you want, and then however many dice you're rolling.

So, for instance, with this cannon, you had to roll 1-3. If you had 5 characters, you could make 5 posts in the thread, or you could just use this, put 3 in the first spot, 5 in the second, no modifiers, and then roll to see who got hit and who didn't.

Since we can't see the results, this uses the honor system, but given just how many rolls there are going to be, I don't mind in the least if this actually simplifies things for you guys :3