Summons and Spoilers

[mrstrife]

Suggestions for CM!

I'm posting this due to two complaints I've heard about consistently, about summons (specifically from the Boss Raid) and about how several ppl complain about not wanting spoilers.

First I'll deal with the summons by providing Kefka's manikins to be a standard, explaining the reasoning for things afterwards. (Note that though I'm using the manikins and speaking about them, what I say is suggestions about summons in general)

Health: Manikins possess 10 HP a piece. HP taken away from attacks is based on several potential things. From a singular strike from a regular attack, 1 HP. From a regular attack combo, 2 HP. For abilities, the cool down of the attack used is the basis for the about of HP taken away. (for example: Kefka's Ultima has a two post cooldown and would do 2HP of damage to a mankin. Kefka's Forsaken has a four post cooldown, and would do 4HP of damage). Regular attacks/strikes that lack a cooldown do 1HP worth of damage, while combos of three strikes or more are worth 2HP of damage. If 10HP is removed before the six posts they last ends, then they are dismissed early.

The reasoning for the 1 and 2 HP of damage for regular attacks, is because it may be outside the fighting style of some RPers to use two abilities a post or for some OCs they may not have enough abilities to want to spam them like some of the very developed OCs. This makes it fair to those people, allowing a way for them to battle a manikin.

The reasoning of using Cool Downs as the damage is because typically the stronger an ability is, the longer it's cool down. Simple enough.

Based on the staff's examination of this, there is also something I want to add to the manikins that I think should be included for all summons based on the HP system. EX Bursts (or final limit breaks, final or ultimate attacks, whatever you wish to call it) automatically destroy a manikin, period. This is due to the nature of them often lacking a cool down since they're ending the EX Mode instead.

Lastly, this is a rule I was told by the staff about summons that I think should be placed into the rules alongside some of what's been demonstrated here. Especially in numbers, for fairness among other players summons are not allowed to dodge the attacks of their opponents. This of course should be definite, unless specifically stated in the rules that the Boss Summons are different and are allowed special treatment (which should also be stated within the rules).

Now, onto the spoilers.

I think if people are seriously as worried about spoilers as they say, then the following rules should be placed into play. Since it is currently advised that plot elements of games not released in the US are not to be used on the site, the same should be used for characters of said unreleased games such as Noctis. After all, them RPing the characters can spoil about the character what people don't want spoiled that the plots can do. There is also the danger of the character being role played incorrectly due to the lack of knowledge on the character. What I'm trying to say is, don't have it half way. Either allow things from unreleased games, or don't allow them at all.

Those are my suggestions! I hope they help.

~ Cloufka

[Larxene]

My apology for taking so long to respond. We have had other things that have occupied our attention this week that this reply was placed on the back-burner. As I have informed you before from your numerous pms, the issue was being handled and dealt with. There was no need to post yet another thread about the same problem. I have already informed you that the staff takes everything into consideration when reviewing raids, and there will be a penalty for any rules that are broken.

In reference to your first complaint:

Masked Apprentice felt it was necessary when he posted that Infernal Engine could block the damage the Cloud Manikin Kefka had summoned, for a few reasons. Firstly, Kefka had already gotten a shot in with Trine and Hadria with her sword attacks on the Archer Heartless on top of the Infernal Engine respectively, and like determining if attacks would hit the Masked Apprentice, he decided it would be fair due to the difficulty of the boss that someone would at least miss or have their damage negated. Also, he chose the Cloud Manikin for this reason because it was attacking the boss Heartless in the same melee style Roxas could in 358/2 Days, where the Infernal Engine in that game can block Roxas's keyblade with the abilities it can shoot out of his mouth rather than unrealistically negate Kefka's and Hadria's Trine and aerial sword strikes from above respectively.

However, he does recognize in this case that dodging/negating damage would prolong it's HP from being depleted due to it having no time limit/duration while it was out on the field, and the fact the raid did not go on longer than Masked Apprentice expected which negated any cooldown of the Control Heartless ability. So he does agree that a ruling can be made that, along with everything else that has been listed by your suggestions for summons in general, that summons cannot be made to dodge, block or negate any damaging basic attacks or abilities that are sent their way. We will be editing rules to reflect issues seen.

However, as to spoilers:

Characters are one thing and can be edited later to reflect the release of canon information. Plus, majority of people already know the characters that are being released in a game. So, that really isn't a spoiler. You can even opt out and NOT read their history too. However, threading with plot aspect from said game are different. You are spoiling specific issues in a place where you don't expect there to be spoilers.

[mrstrife]

As I said in my first post, it's not that he dodges/blocked the attack that bothered me, it was that I was told that summons were not allowed to block by Vincent himself and yet the staff character's summon blocked an attack. I just feel that if staff characters are not going to be held to the same rules as members of the staff in the battles, then this needs to be stated in the rules instead of just assumed because it's controlled by staff. This way, people know what they're going into before participating in the plot and if they feel the staff is being unfair then they can avoid participation in said plot and not be caught off guard.

I am merely saying, about spoilers, that the way they are handled are unfair to people if it is not handled all or nothing. After all, though it is unfair to the people who don't want spoilers if someone wants to RP a scenario from the game, it is also unfair to the person who wishes to RP a scenario from the game because they are told they cannot RP part of their canon character because others don't want spoilers. Perhaps people should be allowed to RP anything from the game not released in the US, and if people don't want to be spoiled they merely don't follow the threads of or read the profiles of such characters? That way, the person can freely RP how they want and people can take your advice and ignore the character and not be spoiled about the game. That seems more fair to me to everyone involved.

[Larxene]

As I said, we will be editing the rules to reflect this.

Again, I said, profiles can be edited, however... if there is an incorrect roleplay of the canon, that can't be edited as we have learned before in a previous plot where Terra's group was incorrectly called Chaser's.

It is also a roleplay site and members tend to read the roleplays on the forum more likely than a character history. There is a chance that the roleplay would be read and it is not fair to the members. We would prefer not having any spoilers on the site. But we are not as strict with approving canons from games as we had a precident of approving them previously. There is also the fact that the plot you want contains too many spoilers and would follow with more than one thread with spoilers and it may accidentally be read.