Megaman remiX
 

Hey trisphee,

Maybe you can help me out, here. I have a project I'm fiddling around with, but I'm concerned I may not be able to do it right.

I'm tinkering with the battle memory system in Rockman Xover, trying to make it simpler for a different game. In this game, you control a squad of 12 OVER-1 model reploids, and can deploy them into maverick-controlled areas to combat enemies. With luck and proper development, it should combine the qualities of a strategy game with those of an action platformer. However, the system from Xover is just too complex. I need to scale it back if I'm going to do this at all, and that's where I was hoping to get some input.

In Xover, you assigned your OVER with a type of armor fitting to how you wanted to play, decided on an element to use, and then acquired "battle memories" to increase your statistics. The elements were Neutral, Fire, Ice, Wind and Electric. Every element except Neutral was a trap.

Every type of armor had its own basic stats (life, attack and defense) and a grid of slots you put the battle memories in. Each slot had any of several special qualities about it. Generally, you could equip 4, 5 or 6 battle memories at a time, although two armors allowed for 8 at the cost of having either no bonuses for them, or significantly fewer bonuses.

Battle memories had names, each named battle memory had its own unique stat array, might have an element, might have a skill, which could be any of these:
- Atk Up: Attack will increase.
- Def Up: Defense will increase.
- C. Atk Up: Charge Shots will deal more damage.
- C. Boost: Charge Gauge will increase more (always active).
- Heal: Health will recover at the beginning of your turn (always active).
- Atk Down: Enemy’s Attack will be lowered.
- Def Down: Enemy’s Defense will be lowered.
- Heat: Enemy will lose health at the beginning of their turn.
- Wet: Enemy Skills won’t activate.
- Slow: Enemy has a chance of missing when they attack.
- Shock: Enemy will be paralyzed for one turn.

If the memory did have a skill, it might be any of these 5 types:
- α: Standard activation.
- β: Affects all players.
- Σ: More effective at full health.
- Ω: More effective at half health.
- μ: More effective at low health.

You also had to pay attention to a battle memory's rarity and cost. To make one useful, you needed to feed it money and other memories to increase its level. A memory's rarity controlled its maximum level; more rare memories could have higher levels. Cost controlled a memory's potential for growth. Finally, fusing two identical, maximum level memories would create a single memory with a +10% level cap increase and a +2 skill level cap increase, and could be done up to 5 times to a given memory.

In other words, super complicated and time consuming.



I'm thinking of gutting out random drops, rarity and elements first. And the thing with fusing memories (ugh). Turn-based effects will go, as will several of those skills. And the defense stat, since in a normal megaman game, life and defense are basically the same thing. A speed stat might go in the defense stat's place.

I am definitely not sure what to do with the armors and their grid slots et cetera. Any ideas?

It's a shame Xover was never released outside Japan. It seems like it would have been cool to play. Being unable to read or understand Japanese, I did not play it. :(

As for what to do with slots, well. I suppose it depends on how much control you want to give the player over aspects...and how precisely the game is controlled.

I really, really like elements. I like having elements to strategy when it comes to gearing up that go beyond "pick the biggest numbers." I wouldn't drop them, though I might change how they work.

I would keep enemy drops but supplement them with stuff you can buy from shops. Rarity can be dropped as an explicit thing; if you want something to be rare for game balance purposes, make it expensive or hard to find.

You might consider dropping the level-up aspect entirely, or you might just have them gain experience as you use them / fight battles / take damage / whatever. If you do drop the level-up aspect you'll need to have various tiers over the course of the game to give the player upgrades.

Come up with your own list of skills that make sense in the context of your own game.

I like the idea of having the skills include conditional bonuses or penalties and I would consider preserving that and possibly even expanding on it.

I'm not sure how much control I want to give players over their squad. I'll have to give it some thought.

I know you won't be able to keep more than two of them with you at a time. Their core stats are rather minimal, and they can't be given upgrades (because they have their own armors), don't get the benefits of rescuing reploids, and can't be assigned elves.

My initial thoughts on behaviors are that they will have multiple behavior types the player can assign individually, making them moderate, aggressive or cautious and; attacking, supporting, defending or controlling. Their default behavior will be moderate-attacking, which I don't personally consider to be optimized, but does fit a "basic soldier" mentality. Each armor type an OVER can use will have its own unique behavior type that goes with it, since its statistics and abilities are different from the basic OVER-1. Also, the player will not be able to assert more direct control over their OVERs.

The rest of the game goes a lot like what you'd expect from a megaman game in the X4-X6 segment, except instead of "giga attacks," you've got "whatever my unique ability is," and a few more menus for looking at things like your main character, your reserve characters, your circuits and elves, and deciding which navigator to use for a deployment.

Edit: Of course you'd post while I was typing this. :I

So, elements and random drops in, levels out. Or at least, levels as Xover understands them out. I can agree with that. Going up to level 105 with an exhaustively designed battle memory is excessive. Going up to level 9 or 10 with an extensively used memory is not so bad.

Something about elements would have to change, for sure. The way Xover had it, Neutral won at everything by dint of not interacting at all and of being the most common drop. Keeping elements would also make figuring out what to do with memory slots easier, since they could be kept essentially the same, with element match bonuses and bonus line effect changed only on a numeric scale (think more like +1 or +2, instead of +25% or +50%).

Okay, good thoughts. Thanks.

And you'd like a system that has more to it than getting the biggest numbers. I can appreciate that. Anything else you have in mind? Or someone else? Otherwise, I'll be putting together a first draft right after this hydro sets in.

Neutral SHOULD be the all-around winner, and elements should be chosen based on a strategic advantage for the mission at hand. Situational advantages means that an item that would normally be a little bit behind the curve can really shine in the right circumstances. The problem is that Xover's leveling system makes "situationally useful" stuff far too much of a pain to achieve progression on, so even WHEN the elemental stuff would have an advantage, it's underleveled and therefore not likely to be worth it.

As for avoiding it always being about numbers: Combat-wise, one of the big points of divergence of the Mega Man X series from the classic Mega Man series is that elemental weaknesses in MMX don't necessarily deal more damage than, say, a fully-charged buster shot, but they have other effects in the fight -- interrupting attack patterns and taking control of the battle instead of just hitting harder.

Since I'm not familiar enough with the source material, I think it would be useful to see the first draft before making any more specific suggestions.

Well, despite 10mg of hydrocodone, my migraine is still wiping the pavement with me, so it's going to take me a little while to put it together. I'm trying to de-stress by playing a no-buster run of X3, seeing if that helps.

Keep in mind that as I type this, my head is swimming from a narcotic. If something looks weird or doesn't completely make sense, that's probably why. Just ask for clarification, and I'll do my best. So, let's see here... it looks like I should be keeping Element, Level, Stats and Skills.

Nomenclature will be changed. Rather than referring to characters or enemies, each memory will refer to its purpose, suggesting its overall design or effectiveness. Also, they probably won't be called memories. Maybe modules or something like that...

Elements are Neutral, Electric, Wind, Water and Fire. The cycle of strengths goes Electric > Fire > Wind > Water> Electric; Neutral. This is different from the Xover cycle, but adheres more closely to the weakness ideals of the X and Zero series. Not perfectly, though, sadly.

Levels are 1 through 5, gained automatically after a memory acquires a certain amount of experience. A memory gains experience when the OVER it's equipped to suffers damage, destroys an enemy, inflicts a status effect, or spends 15 consecutive seconds near one or more dangerous enemies. Gaining each level will take a significant amount of time, each one more than the last.


That's all I can say for now. I'm getting pretty tired. I'll come back and do that bit on Stats and skills after I eat or wake up or both.

Edit: Oh, and the details on elemental effects.

Why not crib MMBN's weakness cycle? Water>Fire>Wood>Elec>Water. It helps to remember that wind is associated with wood in Eastern alchemy.

Otherwise that sounds good to me.

Xover also associates Wind with Wood. That particular element is actually called Wind/Wood, and it's a little weird to me that they smished those two elements into one thing. That cycle also matches what's been done in Xover, but the reason I opted for the other cycle is because the rest of the game tries to adhere to the Classic/X/Zero cycle, since most of its material is sourced there.

I have hit a little snag, but I'll smooth it out soon. I can't remember for the life of me what I was thinking while I wrote that last post, but it looks like something I would have said. I'm glad I left a note for myself on what to do next. Please forgive my poor organizational skills; it's just the way I think, and I'll be typing from thought to word from here on out.


Elements
Fire may overheat enemies, causing damage to them over time. Water may short out enemies, interrupting their movement or attacks as they happen. Wind may push back enemies, and Electric may depolarize enemies or projectiles, stopping them from moving for a short time. Each element also suffers a Power penalty against enemies of another element. No, that's not opposed by a power bonus on the other side. There are plenty of places to get bonuses as it is, and it gives Neutral a de facto edge over other elements.

These effects will have a low chance of triggering, likely around 10%. Additional memories of the same elemental type equipped to a given OVER would increase this proc chance (I'm guessing by as much as 4%). This makes your elemental armors, which have element bonuses on each slot, excellent choices under the proper conditions. Each effect is directly based on the interaction between a weapon from the X series and an enemy weak to that element.


Stats
I guess I move on to Stats, now. Life, Power, Speed and Jump. Interestingly, this is more stats than Xover had, but the style of gameplay is different, too. Xover was on rails, and remiX is a sidescrolling platformer.

The numbers we're looking at, partially as a result of slot mechanics not being majorly changed, are reasonably small. Level bonuses for a given memory might look like 0, +1, 0, 0, and by the time that same memory reaches level 5, it would look like +4, +2, +2, 0. When we consider that a single OVER can equip between 4 and 8 memories, and all of them can reach level 5, we can understand why these numbers have to stay small to preserve balance. That memory I described might be one of the expensive ones, anyway.

Not all stats are created equally. In order of value, I think you're generally looking at Power > Life > Speed > Jump. Depending on your exact needs and the armor an OVER is using, you might be able to move each of those things up a tier or down one.


Skills
I've been avoiding thinking about Skills. I guess there's no way out now. I'm keeping these ones:
- Defense Plus: Damage resistance increases by 1/16.
- Charge Boost: Charge Gauge charges 10% more quickly.
- Recovery Nanites: OVER repairs 1 life cell per 6 seconds spent inactive.
- Magnetic Inhibitor: Nearest enemy within 10m (totally arbitrary measurement) suffers -1 Power penalty.
- Overheat: Nearest enemy within 10m suffers 1 damage per 6 seconds.
- Short-Circuit: Nearest enemy within 10m cannot move for 2 seconds.
- Process Inhibitor: Nearest enemy within 10m cannot attack for 2 seconds.
- Depolarizer: Nearest enemy projectile within 10m is erased.

The above describes the base effectiveness of given skills. The effectiveness or interval of a skill improves when the memory it belongs to reaches level 5.


These are the modifiers I'm keeping. The chance of a skill having a modifier is probably around 20%, unless bought from a shop, in which case the game tells you exactly what you're paying for.
- α: Affects the installed OVER or a single target at 120% efficiency.
- β: Affects nearby OVERs or enemies at 60% efficiency.
- Σ: 25% more effective at 100% life.
- μ: 40% more effective at <=10% life.

All decimals round down.

OVERs won't use all of their skills often, but at this point, it's a minigame of force multipliers, so take that with a grain of salt. Each skill comes with behavior on how and when to use it, and a chance to use the skill once per interval (probably once per 30 seconds at levels 1 through 4, and once per 15 seconds at level 5). The chance increases based on how many slots are equipped with the given skill.


OVER-1
Okay... what am I forgetting? OVER stats? Yeah, probably that. Let's start with a comparison to a hypothetical average playable character.

Our average character has 16 life, 0/16 damage resistance, has shielding (the 3-ish seconds of invulnerability after being hit), a 2-power buster weapon with up to 2 levels of charge, 2 VWES slots, 16 speed, a basic EAS (emergency acceleration system, or "dash"), and can equip 2 fortinite circuits with 4 tolerance per slot. This is B-rank combat ability.

Our basic OVER-1 has 8 life, 0/16 damage resistance, does not have shielding (1-ish second of invulnerability after being hit), a 1-power buster weapon with up to 1 level of charge, no VWES slots, 10 speed, no EAS, and can equip 0 fortinite circuits, and has 5 memory slots with 8 bonus lines. This is E-rank combat ability, but memories can change that. Each other OVER armor has its own basic stats.

Pretty lackluster, but you get several of them, and all of the above stuff to deck them out with. Also, their individual names get generated from a list. Probably a big list.


Edit: Little bit of wall of text in here. Gonna break it up a little.

Sounds like I'd be playing mostly Water with those side effects. In a platformer, the Wind effect isn't going to be particularly useful, and the Fire effect is only going to be useful on things with tons of HP -- though since that includes bosses, this does suggest that Fire's effect is appropriately balanced.

I would consider other effects for Wind that might be more useful. I can see things like an air burst centered on the player to shove everything (including enemy projectiles) away as a defensive technique against swarms, or like Tornado Hold (MM8) causing the target to be momentarily juggled into the air so it can't advance.

I'm also not certain that 14% is often enough to make elements strategically useful -- at such a low rate, that's hard to use tactically because you can't be sure it'll proc when you need it most. Maybe instead of randomness, the side effect could be on a cooldown, and same-element bonuses will reduce it?

For a directly-controlled player character in a run-and-gun sidescroller, I think you'll find Power > Jump (up to a threshold) > Speed > Life > Jump (over the threshold) is more likely to be the priority for highly skilled players. Life is of minimal importance for top-tier players because literally every other stat contributes to never taking the damage in the first place. The only reason Jump has a threshold is because there comes a time when jumping too high or too fast becomes a liability instead of a benefit; aside from that, Power means the fight is over sooner (and therefore less opportunities to get hit) and Jump and Speed let you avoid incoming attacks and place your own more precisely. Life is a dump stat for when you can't get more Power and your Jump and Speed are already at the highest useful level. (Meanwhile, Life is probably going to be the MOST valuable stat for AI-controlled allies because you can't make them dodge, with Power being a close second and Speed only being necessary to keep up with the player-controlled character.)

How do those skills actually work? Do they need to be actively triggered by a button, or are they passive? How often can you use them?

It looks like I've miscommunicated something at the most basic level. You, the player, don't play as any of the OVERs. They're controlled by you indirectly, based on the behaviors that you assign to them, the armor they wear, and the skills at their disposal. Instead, you control a playable protagonist (choice from 8) that gains points during missions into maverick-controlled zones.

Once you accumulate enough points to be promoted to Lieutenant, you are awarded a squad of 12 basic OVER-1s. Before you start a mission, you can deploy your OVERs, in any number, into areas of the zone that you've explored, barring any places where you've found a boss. Once inside a zone, you can also deploy OVERs to your current location, or have up to 2 of the OVERs from your squad follow you (within the best of their ability).


I will consider options other than knockback for Wind effects. And, I agree that 14% is not statistically significant enough to warrant using an element. And, it looks like there's something important I forgot to mention, so thank you for bringing that up.

Each additional memory of a given element would increases proc rate of elemental effect. As an example, if we look at the memory slot grid for the basic armor, OVER-1, we have this:
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/...20130727222802

There are 5 different memory slots, each of which can have a single memory assigned to it. The lines drawn between them are called bonus lines. When two memories of the same element are connected by a bonus line, their properties gain bonuses. In our case, we're looking at a +1 bonus for any of Life, Power, Speed or Jump as long as the relevant stat already provides at least a +1 bonus, and elemental effect procs gain a +2% bonus.

So, if we attach a Water element memory (Level 1 Nightmare Razor with +0, +1, +1, +0 and Charge Boost-β) to the upper left slot, and another Water element memory (Level 3 Nervous Demon with +2, +0, +3, +1) to the upper right slot, then the OVER-1 will have a Water-element buster shot that has a (10+4+2+2)% chance to cause a short on hit, and the Nightmare Razor would get +1 power and +1 speed, and the Nervous Demon would get +1 life, +1 speed and +1 jump. Adding another Water element memory to the center slot would increase the chance by another 12% (the center slot provides a +4% bonus, then gains +4% from the 2 Water memories connected to it, and increases each of those memories' chance by 2%), and whatever bonuses of +1 or more it provides would also be increased by +1.

Meanwhile, we have the elemental armors. The scheme for each elemental armor's memory slots looks the same. The Water armor is shown here:
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...20130727223005

Although it doesn't have bonus lines, it does have elemental match slots. Whenever a Water element memory of any kind is equipped to one of those slots, any bonus it provides increases by +1, its Water effect proc chance doubles, and its chance to use an indicated for skill increases by 5%.


I agree with your assessment on stat values.


The skills are passive. In most cases, an OVER will check for whether or not it uses a skill it has as soon as the conditions of its use trigger, but no more than once per 30 seconds. Times it wouldn't include if the OVER is blind, frozen, shorted-out, in the middle using another skill, et cetera. An OVER has a 10% chance to use a skill they have equipped when the condition calls for it, for each memory they have with that particular skill. I'd suppose a menu would allow you to address the priority of skill uses.

When a skill's memory reaches level 5, the maximum interval for it decreases to 15 seconds (even if it's the only level 5 memory for that skill the OVER is using), and the chance to use it increases by 5% (for each memory with that skill at level 5).

Defense Plus checks when the affected OVER takes damage.
Charge Boost checks when the affected over begins charging their buster.
Recovery Nanites checks when the OVER has spent the last 6 seconds doing nothing.
Magnetic Inhibitor checks when an enemy enters the range of the ability. So do Short-Circuit, Process Inhibitor and Depolarizer.
Overheat checks after an enemy has been in the skill's range for 6 cumulative seconds (not necessarily consecutive, though).

Hmm... How much of this stuff is actually applicable to the player, then? Because I've been mentally operating under the assumption that this stuff is intended for the player and just happens to also work on your support squad.

It's all for your support squad. Just, you know, you get to build them from the foundation up. :)

Also, based on progress so far, I think the only things left to do here are make a list of memories (or build a generator), find a new name for memories (still don't like "battle memories"), and balance out the figures.

Of course, you could always try to play The Big Guy is With Me, but you'd really have to get your head around the indirect control scheme. And it would take quite a while to get there.

Aw, heck. That means I have to go back to work on the tedious stuff again. :I

Well, that throws my entire spiel about stat weightings out the window. :P (If these guys are a limited resource that don't come back if they die, then that makes Life an absurdly valuable stat to the exclusion of all others.)

And for what it's worth, the tactical landscape for the elemental effects changes pretty dramatically too -- knockback is still a bad idea (you NEVER want to have your AI allies shove something out of your line of fire) but the fact that you'll have more than one source of the effects makes the lower proc rate less of a problem. Different types of enemy-impairing effects (stun, slowdown, projectile attack limitations, etc.) are going to be the most valuable against non-boss opponents, while you probably want to have bosses resist some of that stuff which makes damage-over-time (and maybe some projectile counters) more valuable there. (This is a good thing because it means you have to gear up your squad based on what you think you're going to need more help with, and you can't just optimize against the entire mission.)

I think that it might be a nice touch to have the player be able to equip some of this stuff. Being able to customize your leader's weapon and armor with elemental attributes and stat bonuses would make the player feel more in control of the character's growth over the course of the game.

Oh heck, you've got a brutal mind! XD If your OVERs die in an area, they come back afterward, although you might get commentary from them about it.

Players will have plenty of things they can equip. These OVER-specific items are different from the sorts of things that players will have for their main character and reserves.

Although, I can see the appeal of giving your character elemental attributes for their basic weapons. Being the Blue King of the Tsunami Team sounds pretty exciting, yeah? Actually, this gives me some ideas for that other tedious project, which I really appreciate.

My mind isn't THAT brutal. Consider the first Mega Man Zero game! And lots of turn-based strategy games have nonessential character death be permanent.

Happy to help!

Mm, that's true. And there IS a penalty for letting your OVERs die. It affects your post-mission score and zenny reward. In fluff, you're paying the lifesaver fees to have them repaired from critical condition, so you're discouraged from just tossing raw recruits into dangerous areas and having a laugh. Fortunately, they will be fairly smart.

Ugh, MMZ. Those poor cyber elves! You'd have to be a monster to let them die! ;__; Who even thought that killing off cute little sprites was a good mechanic for survival?!

remiX has cyber elves, though. And some other stuff. Hey, if you're happy to help, maybe I could get you to provide input on the other project? :V Who knows, maybe I'll even make a post long enough to make 100 aurum. :P

I've never hit 100 aurum in a post. XD I think it might actually be impossible -- I wrote that code myself. ;) It uses a logarithmic curve so that getting more than about 40 aurum in a single post gets really hard, and I think you won't have hit 100 by the time it hits the post length cap (which, I think, is 64KB).

I wouldn't mind pitching my thoughts on another concept.

Toho says there's an achievement for it.

Okay, then. Should I start a new thread, or just go from here?

It doesn't particularly matter. If you use this one, rename the thread title to something more general.

I-I can do that? Okay. :V *goes to do that*

There IS an achievement for making a really big post, but it's 50 aurum, not 100. :P To hit 100 aurum you'd need something like half a million characters in a single post, and the post cap is 64KB.

Oh, well I hit the 50 aurum achievement quite a while ago. Here in this thread, in fact. Sigh. How sad. Anyway! I'm going to talk about why the player won't need the OVERs' upgrade system to be effective. It's going to take me a while to type out, though... I'll just be here, doing that o_o

Hoo... okay. The other thing I've been needing help with. And like, a constant stream of input. I know that ideas are cheap, but I need quite a few of them! I'd say it probably starts with the playable characters. I made many characters, and they're all designed to give players as many "ways to play" as I can. Of course, nothing is perfect.

X and Zero won't appear in this game as playable characters. In part because they are ridiculously powerful by default. The guys you start with will have to work their way up to that kind of ability.

At the start of the game, you will choose your main character, your starting reserve character, and a navigator. Your main character doesn't change, and you can switch to/from your reserve character twice per mission. You can unlock more reserve characters as the game goes forward, by performing acts particular to each character. Things that impress them or appeal to them, you know. You can also switch your choice of navigator between missions. Each navigator helps you out by identifying things in-stage and giving you directions, but also has their own unique specialty.


Combat Rank and Stats
The best gauge for how good a playable starts out is their combat rank. You and allies are gauged for combat ability on a scale that looks like this: E-D-C-B-A-S-SA-G-GA-P-PA-UH. We're generally only concerned with the first part of that scale, though-- everything up to SA, because that is pretty flippin' darn good.

In a game like this, characters aren't much good without relevant statistical info, so why don't I cover the basic stat details? The important things are Life, Defense, Shielding, Weapon type, Speed, EAS, Circuits, Tolerance and Preferred Upgrades.

Life is measured in a number of visible cells. Our "average" character from before starts with 16 life cells. This is how much damage he can take before his LIFE core is breached and he explodes. Even though this is the number of cells we see, each cell is worth 2 points of damage, it's just that it's unusual for weapons to be less effective than this, and it is easier to look at a life bar with this many cells on it to start.

Defense, sometimes called DR or Damage Resistance, is a number measured in X out of 16. When a character suffers damage, they resist this much of the damage received, although Defense can never take more than 16 damage away from a hit.

So, if your hero is hit for 24 damage, even if you (somehow O_o) have 16/16 defense, you'll still lose 4 cells of life.

Shielding defines how long a character remains invulnerable after they're hit by an attack. You have it or you don't, but if you have it, it can be improved in a couple of ways. With shielding, your character will be immune to unhittable for 3 seconds. Without shielding, your character will be unhittable for 1 second.

Weapon type is which kind of weapon the character wields. The options are Buster, Beam or Kinetic. Buster and Beam weapons are energy-typed. They jacket concentrated plasma in a magnetic envelope and then smack things with it.

Buster weapons shoot projectiles. They can often be charged to increase the size, speed or damage of the projectile they fire, and most must obey a cooldown safety feature, which generally limits you to a set number of projectiles on-screen. Buster weapons can (and often are) equipped with a VWES, or Variable Weapon Emulation System, which has a number of slots associated with it. Plasma envelope is the basic form of a buster weapon, and most stock buster weapons have 2 VWES slots, meaning that the weapons of up to 2 different bosses can be equipped to them. When a VWES entity is assigned to a buster, the result usually takes the form of a projectile weapon.

Beam weapons are like glowy sticks you hit things with. Beam weapons can be further separated into low-phase and high-phase. Lo-phase beam weapons can be maintained for long periods of time and don't do a whole bunch of damage (such as Colonel's sword), and hi-phase beam weapons use a ton of juice and pack a wallop, but because they run so hot and use so much energy, they can only be "on" for short periods of time, like just a couple swings (such as Zero's sword). Beam weapons do not have VWES capabilities, but they can be modified to include boss spoils in their discharges, which are usually associated with techniques.

Kinetic weapons are like swords and fists and bullets. They hurt things because they convey kinetic force and I'm sure I don't need to explain much more here.

Since they're made primarily of energy, buster and beam weapons can be cancelled, mitigated or screwed with by various effects. Because they're not made primarily of energy, kinetic weapons can be screwed with by far fewer effects.

Speed is how fast your character moves. 16 is the "standard" movement rate, and it can be seen in X2 and X3, when you move X without dashing.

EAS is short for Emergency Acceleration System, and it refers to what's usually called a "dash." A basic dash system moves a character a moderate distance at 8 points better than their base speed, and must cool down for 2 seconds after it is used to be used again.

Circuits refers to the maximum number of fortinite circuits a character can have equipped at the same time. These circuits can be purchased in a shop, and sometimes-- very rarely-- dropped by enemies. Fortinite circuits mostly provide simple, numeric bonuses to the hunter's abilities. Things like speed, defense, power or life bonuses, or resistances to various status effects, but there are a few unique effects, as well.

Tolerance refers to the Erosion load of fortinite circuits that a character can resist, for each circuit slot they have. Each circuit has an Erosion score. If the fortinite circuits that a character has equipped that exceeds the character's Tolerance score, the difference is subtracted from their maximum number of life cells. You can't equip circuits that would reduce your maximum life cells to 0 or fewer.

Preferred Upgrades refer to the two different categories of upgrade that the character is best with. Purchasing an upgrade of one of these types is cheaper for this character, and sometimes equipping an upgrade of this type results in getting a slightly better version of that upgrade, for this character. More on Upgrades later, because they're important and extensive.

Alright, next thing.

Playable Characters
Anlace. A-rank melee specialist. She has an Enhance Form that annuls her defense and shielding and costs life to maintain, but increases her Power and Speed.
24 life, 2/16 defense, yes shielding, has a beam sword with a 5-hit combo attack, and can charge her sword up to 1 level (a very unusual quality). 18 speed, improved EAS with better than average distance and air boost, 3 circuit slots with 5 tolerance each. Prefers Melee and Systems upgrades.

Onyx. A-rank sniping specialist. He is assisted by an orbital laser satellite that can snipe or blast things for you.
20 life, 0/16 defense, no shielding, has a buster rifle that can charge up to 2 levels; each successive level of charge is smaller than the last and has better penetration. 2 damage at level 0, 3@1, 4@2. 4 VWES slots with 16 weapon energy each, 16 speed, basic EAS, 1 circuit slot with 6 tolerance. Prefers Buster and Systems upgrades.

Dynasty. B-rank infiltration specialist. He can melt into a liquid form, move freely and change back again at will.
16 life, 2/16 defense, yes shielding, has a buster weapon that can charge up to 1 level and suffers from a long charge time. 2 damage at level 0, 3@1. 2 VWES slots with 12 weapon energy each. 14 speed, no EAS, 1 circuit slot with 4 tolerance. Prefers Mobility and Modular upgrades.

Luster. B-rank generalist with a folk shinobi theme. He has a short-lived stealth mode that slips past enemy notice.
14 life, 0/16 defense, yes shielding, has a small low-phase beam sword with a 3-hit combo and can throw shuriken. 20 speed, advanced EAS with fast recharge, excellent speed, average distance, air boost and variable air dash. 2 circuit slots with 4 tolerance each. Prefers Melee and Mobility upgrades.

Clover. C-rank artillery specialist. He has a device that can rain large shots at enemies for a short time, but takes a while to recharge.
12 life, 0/16 defense, yes shielding, has a buster weapon that can charge up to 3 levels and takes a long time to charge. 2 damage and levels 0 and 1, 4@2, 6@3, and each successive level of charge hits a much larger area. 2 VWES slots with 24 weapon energy each. Has a kinetic rod weapon with a 2-hit combo. For whacking things. 12 speed, basic EAS. 2 circuit slots with 2 tolerance each. Prefers Melee and Modular upgrades.

Meridian. C-rank close combat specialist. She has a limited but powerful buster weapon that can instantly charge energy projectiles that hit her and fire them back, but cannot otherwise fire. She can also get closer to enemies before taking contact damage.
28 life, 4/16 defense, no shielding, 0 VWES slots. Has an enhanced-gravity knuckle weapon with a 3-hit combo. 14 speed, modified EAS with a slow recharge, excellent speed and average distance, and it can be used to break grabs and grapples and deal damage to the attacker. 2 circuit slots with 3 tolerance each. Prefers Systems and Mobility upgrades.

Scion. C-rank combat support specialist. He can raise an immobile energy barricade that can absorb a large amount of damage before collapsing, giving him a safe place to fire from with little fear of reprisal.
18 life, 0/16 defense, no shielding, has a buster weapon with an extremely high refire rate, 1 slaved VWES slot with unlimited weapon energy. 16 speed, basic EAS, and can equip 1 circuit with 10 tolerance. Prefers Buster and Modular upgrades.

Hearts. D-rank cyberspace researcher. She can equip one more cyber elf (fusion or satellite) than other characters can.
24 life, 4/16 defense, yes shielding, has a buster weapon that can charge up to 2 levels and has 2 VWES slots with 16 energy for special weapons each. Her buster cannot be improved, and it deals 1 damage at level 0, and 2@level1. At level 2, it fires a cyber fairy that rewrites the programming of enemies to pacify or charm them; more powerful enemies require more hits. 14 speed, no EAS, 3 circuit slots with 2 tolerance each. Prefers Systems and Modular upgrades.

Have you considered dropping the Mega Man trappings and reskinning it? It would allow you to consider marketing the final product if it works out well.

I think you goofed on your defense math; my reading says that would be 8 points, not 4. Is there a minimum damage? That is, will you always take at least 1 point of damage no matter how weak the hit?

Why put a cooldown on dash? X can chain-dash; this has never seemed unbalanced to me because you can't attack... or... anything else besides jump, really... while you're dashing, and you have to touch the ground afterward before you can dash again.

I have considered it. I'm still considering it. But, it's mostly just a thing I want to make because Capcom stopped making Megaman and I, like other fans, am starved for it. But hey, I might reskin it later. :|

Nope, no goof. Each life cell is worth 2 damage. For visual reasons. No, there's not a minimum damage, but the damage mitigation from defense always comes off the latter end of the damage you take, rather than the former. To mitigate damage from the former end, you need armor, which is a different stat that doesn't get used very often. As it turns out, there are a few different ways that damage mitigation gets handled, and all to create different effects or feels.

Dash was actually more powerful than it seemed, in the X and Zero games. Compare no-dashing to allowing dash when taking on bosses. In MMX, every boss's true weakness was dash, and not whatever weapon cycle item hit them harder. I would definitely attribute the ability to chain-dash to the many reasons that X and Zero are ridiculously strong.

I'm quite aware. I'm one of those fans starved for a good Mega Man game. My name is a musical term for a reason. :P

Oh right, you did say 4 cells. You switched units on me. ;)

MMX1's bosses being balanced around not being able to dash doesn't mean that dash is overpowered. It means that dash was considered a powerup in MMX1. In later games, the bosses were balanced around the expectation that you WOULD be dashing in combat, so it stands to reason that intentionally handicapping yourself would make the fights harder. To really make a judgment call on it, you'd have to patch one of the games to make everything else identical but add a cooldown to the dash function and then see how it handles. I doubt it'd make the game substantially harder (though it might make getting to some hidden items harder) but it'd make covering ground during the stages more tedious.

Hmm. This knowledge makes me feel like I should change the name of one of the initial stage bosses. He's also named Coda, for the same reason. Well, that and he pairs with Dr. Aubade, whom he killed.

Yes, I am a terrible man.

You're right. However, you can purchase or acquire upgrades that ameliorate or eliminate the recharge time, meaning that you can get chain-dashing, so if it's really something that I have to eliminate, you'd be surprised how much will need to be rebuilt. @_@ Not that now would be a bad time to learn of it, but I suppose I'll start hacking X3 to find out...

I suspect what you'll find is that it won't have a huge amount of effect in boss battles unless the cooldown is way too long. Dashing in combat is done tactically, so having some lag after a dash where you can't dash again might not even be noticed. It's OUT of combat that chain-dashing is most desired, because stages are all about covering ground to get to the boss and everything in between is just obstacles.

Not that it would actually hurt the game all that much, so if it's that much work then don't worry about it (speedrunners can stack dash cooldown reduction if that's what they want). Though 2000ms feels a bit steep (unless that's counting from the moment you press the dash button and not from the end of the dash animation, then it might be okay).

EDIT: I should point out that the musical themed names is mostly for the classic series. It's not nearly so prominent in the X series (the American names of the MMX5 bosses notwithstanding; those weren't their original names) so it feels a little out of place.

EDIT 2: It might be an interesting mechanic to have a single dash NOT consume all of your EAS energy, so you could dash twice in quick succession but then have to wait for EAS to recharge before you can dash again, and longer before you can double-dash again. That would allow for things like wall-bouncing or getting all the way across the boss room in a hurry while not allowing you to always be dashing.

Yeah, I know about musically themed names. I just happen to like the idea enough to keep doing it. :) Not all the characters, just some of them.

We'll have to try it out in alpha and see whether 2000ms is really that awful. It can always be adjusted.

You're talking about stocking dash charges the same way the stock shot worked in X4, but without having to manually charge it. It's a good idea, and it has good room for expansion. As long as sustained effects eat through stocked charges automatically and don't allow recharging for as long as they're active, I don't see any reason to not do this.

So, I just saved some time by self-imposing a 2-second limit between dashes on a couple levels in X, X2 and X3. Obviously, I'm not as specific as a computer, but I can tell you what I learned.

In X, not having dash for 2 seconds is not a big deal. Only rarely does it put me in a tough spot. In X2, it's a bit more frustrating. In X3, it's a much bigger deal, and it makes every boss a pain in the patoot. I'm not skilled enough to go no-damage against Bit without double-dashing.

Hmm, yeah, it's been a while since I've played X3, but now that you mention it, it really does hammer home that you have to be a master of your abilities to be successful.

I don't actually remember stock shot in X4. Maybe I never used it. Do you have something in mind for sustained dash effects?

Lots of things. I had better get on with the other part of that post. I'll just be working on that now. Although, it's nearly 6 now, and I've been awake since 3 this morning, so if it doesn't get posted tonight, please don't be surprised. It will have meant I passed out.

Basic Upgrades
Shielding, Weapon(s), EAS, Circuits. These are the most basic things you can purchase improvements for concerning your character.

Shielding has no further breakdown. If you don't have it when you start, you can pay a healthy chunk of zenny to get it.

Buster weapons can get an improved cooldown, an elemental chip installed, improved charge level or an additional VWES slot (up to 2 additional slots). Beam weapons can be switched between low-phase and high-phase, trading the benefits and drawbacks for each, with each switch.

You can also purchase a basic buster, beam weapon or kinetic weapon for a character that doesn't have one, and then pay to improve that weapon, should you like, but weapons so purchased don't have the same maximum potential as the weapons the characters start with.

EAS functions can be improved in a variety of ways. Up to a certain amount, any of cooldown, distance or speed can be made better with zenny. You can also purchase an air boost or hover function, but not both at the same time.

A character can purchase additional fortinite circuit slots. Each one is more expensive than the last, and no character can have more than 4 circuit slots. Each additional circuit slot comes with an allotment of Tolerance equal to the allotment from the slots before it.


DNA-based Upgrades
When you defeat a boss, you may be able to salvage its DNA (Dynamic Neural Array) data, and have it converted into an upgrade post-mission. The first upgrade created with acquired DNA data is free; additional versions must be purchased with zenny.

There are Buster, Melee, Systems, Mobility and Modular upgrades. Mechaniloid and Special upgrades may sometimes be available, but are rare.

Buster upgrades are VWES entities. They consume weapon energy, and almost always have a second, charged form. Melee upgrades are almost always attacks performed by using a certain button or combination of actions. Systems upgrades tend to affect the entire body of the hunter. Mobility upgrades often affect or work with your dash system, but can concern other manners of getting around, too. Modular parts either affect your existing weapon systems, provide an additional type of weapon, or are otherwise external parts and often have some kind of use limitation.

Mechaniloids are not upgrades or parts. They are autonomous entities that accompany the hunter and act on their own AI. A mechaniloid can be upgraded according to its own unique qualities, at the cost of zenny. Special upgrades are ones that do not fit any of the above categories.

A reploid has a finite amount of space available for new parts and upgrades. A character's buster upgrades are limited by the number of VWES slots they have, and their melee upgrades are limited to no more than 4 techniques at a time. Additionally, a hunter can have up to 2 Systems upgrades, 2 Mobility upgrades, and 2 Modular parts at one time. Space for up to one more Melee, Systems, Mobility and Modular part can be purchased, but these are expensive. For more Buster options, improve your number of VWES slots.

Bosses
Megaman remiX has many bosses. The general difficulty of a boss is summarized by its threat class, which goes on a range that looks like this: E-D-C-B-A-S-SA-G-GA-P. However, P is an entirely theoretical threat class, because there could certainly never be a reploid whose destructive potential exists on such a scale. So, thank goodness we'll never ever have to worry about it ever. Moving on.

The life bars of bosses have 32 visible cells, but this is not the limit of their life gauge. When in excess of this limit, the additional life will be displayed as colored cells, similar to bosses in the Megaman Zero series. A second layer will be blue, a third layer will be green, and a fourth layer will be red. When a boss is reduced to ~35% of its maximum life, it will react by increasing the difficulty of the fight, which can occur in any of three different ways, which is determined by RNGesus. TVtropes calls this Turning Red.


Turning Red modes
Mode 1: This mode occurs 50% of the time. The maverick becomes invincible to damage for 4 seconds, its attacks deal extra damage (1 to 2 points, depending on the boss), and it moves at 150% of its normal speed for the remainder of the fight.

The maverick also produces an effect that changes the battle area, typically hampering the player's movement options or altering the structure of the area.

Mode 2: This mode occurs 40% of the time. A second maverick arrives to assist the injured maverick. You must fight them simultaneously. If no other bosses are available, this becomes Mode 1.

If the first maverick is destroyed, the second one flees. If the second maverick would be destroyed, it flees and has less starting life when you encounter it later. If the second maverick would be destroyed with its weakness, it is destroyed.

Mode 3: This mode occurs 10% of the time. The maverick becomes invincible to damage for 4 seconds, its attacks deal extra damage (1 to 2 points, depending on the boss), and it moves at 130% of its normal speed for the remainder of the fight.

After the maverick's life reaches 0, it begins its normal destruction animation, then stops partway through. Control is returned to the player, and the maverick unleashes a massive, highly damaging final attack before being destroyed.


Stages and Boss Locations
The stages of remiX are more open than in most Mega Man games, although not quite as open as MMZ. I like to think I have a decent middle ground. Each stage is very large and has two distinct zones.

Arctic Zone/Research Facility
Icestorm Aurochs
Overdose Jellyfish

Volcanic Zone/Waste Reclamation Center
Plasma Pangolin
Hijack Millipede

Oceanic Zone/Hydroelectric Plant
Singularity Leviathan
Battery Bee

Desert Zone/Energen Mine
Nil Basilisk
Solar Serpent

Airfield/Military Base
Tempus Tercel
Kiloton Gorilla

Stellar Observatory/Black Ops Station
Celestial Scorpius
Shadow Caracal

Nature Conservatory/Central Computer
Silk Spike
Supercell Phoenix

City Ruins/Derelict Waterway
Exos Viper
Scrap Packrat

When you deploy to a mission, you choose the stage you're going to, and you remain in that stage either until you die too many times, or until you can reach an extraction point and exit. When you do exit the stage, you will be given a post-mission score based on the time you spent there, the number of enemies defeated, number of bosses defeated, amount of damage taken, and number of reploids rescued. Based on your score, you will earn points toward a promotion, and a reward of zenny for your hard work.

Defeating a boss does not end the mission and the stages will not be constructed with a simple left-to-right run in mind. Large portions of stages will be sampled from existing maps, but many of their features will be changed based on the needs and style of the game.

Bottomless pits will be removed; if it looks like a bottomless pit, then there's either spikes or some other horrible thing in there, a floor, or it leads to somewhere else in the stage. Much of the empty space in many stages will be eliminated or filled in with content such as enemies or features. Empty space will be reserved to give players breathing room and will be positioned accordingly. Naturally, entirely new scenic regions and layouts will also be added.