Strategy Room

Aka, the place where we talk about rp stuff out of character.

Nicole's convenient Brawl Across the Universe headcanons:

BATU Timeline:

• Mushroom Kingdom/Isle Delfino: Two days
  
• Luigi's Mansion/Rogueport/Yoshi's Island: Two days (Only because of the Rogueport arc, otherwise I'd say it was one day.)
  
• Bowser's Castle: Two days
  
• Lor Interlude 1: One day
  
• Kanto League and Johto League: One day
  
• Hoenn League and Orre League: One day
  
• Unova League: One day
  
• Sinnoh League: One day
  
• Lor Interlude 2: Three days
  
• Layton beginning and Lor Interlude 3: One day
  
• The World Ends With You: Seven days
  
• Lor Interlude 4: Two days
  

So basically, according to my universe timeline, the characters have been traveling the video game universe for about three weeks or so and every world takes no more than a week in universe days.

That's all I really can have headcanons for at the moment...so I'm going to bed, but wanted to actually show that because nobody has even brought up a timeline and the fact that they have been on this journey for a whole year their time is crazy.

It's weird in that I feel as if it should be a bit longer (three months rather than three weeks, for example), but this does make the most sense. Despite our characters normally acting as if they've been on this adventure for a year (or at least, my character certainly has alluded to that often), logically, it really has only been three weeks. .-. It's kind of saddening, actually, considering the fact it's taken us ONE YEAR to get THREE WEEKS into their adventure.

I'll probably end up alluding to this headcanon as well as my character simply because it makes the most sense, but I'm probably never going to feel comfortable with it OOC. x. x

It occurs to me that, whilst testing some players with some-what challenging battles, some of us seem to fall short. I fall short a lot of the time, making stupid mistakes in battle, and I certainly hope the rest of us realize that none of us are exceptions to the occasional mishap and misdirection in our tactics that make battles harder and sometimes impossible to win.

My inspiration for this thread was actually in a battle that seemed very possible for those of us who were of higher levels, but were impossible for those at the lower levels because they wouldn't defeat enemies in the correct order or use certain abilities to their advantage. This is why, in all politeness, I write this post to ensure that we can keep a solid baseline for what is smart to do in a battle and what's going to get us killed.

Remember that this post, specifically, is to discuss general tactics. I will introduce specific circumstances and how to avoid them in later posts, but for this post in particular, I'm only giving an introduction to tactics and strategy.

Types of Enemies

Know your enemy.

As far as I'm concerned, when we're discussing general tactics, there are only a few types of enemies. I will bring up these types now and briefly explain each one to give everyone a general idea of what they are.

First we have the Glass Cannons. Glass Cannons, as the name implies, are very weak and can be destroyed easily due to low HP, but their attack is amazing. These are the types of enemies to really watch out for, and I'll explain why later.

Secondly we just have the Heavy Cannons. Heavy Cannons are Glass Cannons, only with more health. Heavy Cannons are usually boss battles or mid-boss battles; they can even pass as final boss material (See: Joshua from the TWEWY World).

Thirdly, we have Normal enemies. These enemies are your regular old average HP, average damage enemy that you normally don't care about. These will actually be very important discussion points later on.

Fourthly, we have the Tanks. Oh dear, the Tanks. These have ridiculously high HP, but their damage output is laughable (See: final bosses of the Pokemon World). These enemies rely on protecting themselves so you have as hard a time killing them as possible so they can beat you before you beat them.

Finally, we have the Powerful Tanks. These are Tanks, and as with Heavy Cannons, their lacking ability is increased; in other words, these Tanks have high HP and raised ATK. These enemies will stop at nothing to make your day absolutely miserable, I assure you... (See: Goth Metal Drake.)

Now that we've discussed the five types of enemies, let's discuss how to defeat them.

Defeating Enemies in Order

"In order? What? Why would we need to defeat enemies in order? What is this order?"

Stop questioning me hypothetical questioner, I'm getting to that part! ;-;

See, now that we have our five types of enemies, it may or may not surprise you to know that there is a general order in which to defeat them. This order is made because, generally, in battle, you wish to make it so that you take as little damage as possible. That is why there is this order. You want to take out the enemies that deal out heavy damage as quickly as possible so you don't have to take much damage.

But wait, there's more!

That doesn't mean "Okay, so I go in order from the highest-hitting enemies to the lowest-hitting enemies. Sounds easy enough.". We've only scratched the surface.

Let's say you're in a battle with a 100 HP enemy and a 500 HP enemy. The 100 HP enemy deals... 8 damage to you every turn. The 500 HP enemy deals 20 damage to you every turn. Which one should you go after first?

The 100 HP enemy. It deals much less damage, not even half of what the 500 HP enemy deals, but it still deals much more than the 500 HP enemy when it comes to how much damage output they have verses their health and defenses.

With that in mind, I'm going to give a quick list of which enemies should be defeated first, generally:

1. Glass Cannons are priority. Kill them first. They deal the most attack, most of the time, and are weak in terms of health and defenses.

2. Normal Enemies take priority afterwards. Heavy Cannons may have too much HP, such as in the example I gave earlier, and normal enemies with only 100 HP and 8 ATK should be taken out before them so you generally take less damage through-out the fight and don't have to worry about losing as much HP.

3. Heavy Cannons are the next targets. They generally have a solid damage-to-health ratio, with damage taking more emphasis than health. This means you should take them out before you even think about the Tanks.

4. Powerful Tanks should be next. They have much higher damage output than regular Tanks and should be considered a greater threat above them in most situations.

5. Tanks take dead last. Going through all that damage that the Cannons and regular Enemies will be dishing out whilst you're scrambling to take out that 2,000 HP final boss that only hits you for 5 HP every turn is not worth it.

Now that we have that covered... That's all I really wanted to talk about tonight, actually. There's more general strategies and tactics, so if any mods want to edit this post and add onto what I've said here, it'd be much appreciated. I'll be discussing specific strategies and tactics in the coming days.

Well, I tried writing this earlier, but my computer crashed.

Wonderous.

This means I'm going to make this as short and sweet as possible because I was literally almost done before that crash occurred.

Here we go.

I am writing this simply because I want to get to the specifics soon, and I know I may have to go over the basics for anyone who may not be as cautious as some others. This, along with the 'battle order' post earlier, embody the entirety of 'the basics' when it comes to our tactics and strategies. So whilst this may seem like a waste of time and reading for some, it may be a great learning experience for those who aren't as experienced in

HP Conservation

Say when you're low on HP.

Do not just list your HP and expect people other than you to be keeping a close eye on your HP all the time. I'm Support, and that's supposed to be my job, but sometimes I forget to do that job. Sometimes I focus too much on boosting attack. You have to state, in a way other than simply displaying your HP, that you are low on health. And by low on health, I mean low enough that, if you're unlucky, the next turn can kill you.

For example, if you only have 10 HP and the enemy can deal 10 HP every turn. That's a problem. You should note that that is a problem. This isn't just useful for me; it's also useful for anyone who has healing items.

MP Conservation

This shouldn't be too much to talk about. I only have two rules.

Rule 1: Refer to HP Conservation.

In accordance with Rule 1, please state when you are low on MP. Someone with an item or ability (CoughmeCough) might be able to help and may not be checking your MP.

Rule 2: When low on MP and are unable to heal it back, do not bring it down to 0 unless absolutely necessary.

As far as I'm concerned, this is an extremely important rule for those who have healing/defensive abilities. Something unexpected within the battle that calls for your healing/defensive abilities may occur. If you're at 0 MP because you were using it all attacking, you aren't going to be able to fix whatever problem has occurred within the group.

This should apply to people who only have MP to attack with, too. Something unexpected could occur that requires you to attack harshly at a specific time. I may place a Feint on the enemy and need someone who has a powerful attack to deal great damage to the enemy at a certain point in battle. A random 'Glass Cannon' enemy that needs to be taken out quickly may appear mid-battle if the world is cruel enough. x. x

Too Long; Didn't Read

Be cautious, say when you're low on HP and/or MP, and never bring your MP down to 0 unless absolutely necessary.

Next time; specific tactics!

This'll be a fun subject.

So... When's the first time we lost? As a group, I mean? In the main story?

Let's face facts; that was way back in the first world, from what I remember. And that was a battle the protagonists were supposed to lose plus you didn't have me at that point so of course you were going to lose.

... Even as a joke, I feel I may edit that out later because that's just a jerk thing to say.

Ahem. Moving on.

No tactics are worthwhile if there is no challenge. I have been very puzzled by how to make a challenge in this forum game without making it too hard. I was too afraid to press the limits in case people thought it would be unfair.

And then I placed in a Goth Metal Drake.

An Experiment for Enemy Creation

Goth Metal Drake is a prime example of a 'Powerful Tank'. 1,000 HP, but could deal 30 damage per turn. What I found with him is that we have a ton of defenses; way more than we think we do. Goth Metal Drake got weakened to the point where his attacks hardly mattered and I had to rely on Cursed Terrain (Confuses all heroes) and similar tactics to deal a good amount of damage AND stop the heroes to some extent.

Plus healing is a great thing.

Goth Metal Drake was easily the hardest challenge within the set of five. The enemy waves were tough, sure, but they allowed the heroes to stop and heal themselves if need be. The Goth Metal Drake was supposed to be this hard-hitting, 1,000 HP final-boss-like monster... But I found it was weak. Horribly, horribly weak. Nobody even fainted during that battle.

And that's when I started to realize the biggest problem with my enemy creation.

Simply put, they don't dish out enough damage. At this point, everyone, including partners, has over 40 HP. 10-20 points of damage won't mean much, especially when there's Support like Tip and weakening abilities such as Thunderwave and Power Link alongside Phoenix (1).

Considering all of the healing, defensive moves, and weakening moves we have... I think it's certainly time we kicked the enemies up a notch.

Experiments in the Future

For Okami and Professor Layton, I imagine the battles will more than likely be interesting in their own right. However, I find that my creativity with battles is very limited, and I usually have to pull from other sources to get great ideas (Refer to: The Inadequacy). That means I have to experiment until I figure out what enemies are just challenging enough to count as interesting battles.

At this point, I believe that the key to unlocking how good we can be at battling is to create more Heavy Cannon enemies. Enemies that have a good amount of HP and dish out a great amount of damage.

I'm planning on using the challenges for Okami to simply test how much damage our characters can take. At this point, I'm willing to be the answer will be surprising and fun to mess around with, as I'll be using the results to make the three-world streak I'm going to be hosting (Sonic, Pikmin, Earthbound) as wonderfully challenging and interesting as possible.

They'll all be like the Goth Metal Drake.

Except not.

And with possibly multiple enemies.

And less health.

And more attack.

And more death.

Conclusion for the Time Being

Tanks and Powerful Tanks do not represent good challenges at this point in the game, and if their attack were to be increased with their HP showing no change, may end up being too much of a challenge. At this point, it's too risky to try to see how much damage we can take from tanks.

Glass Cannons and Heavy Cannons, however, should be used more often to see how much damage we can take and how challenging we can make a battle.

Nicole Peach wrote:Nicole's convenient Brawl Across the Universe headcanons:

BATU Timeline:

• Mushroom Kingdom/Isle Delfino: Two days
  
• Luigi's Mansion/Rogueport/Yoshi's Island: Two days (Only because of the Rogueport arc, otherwise I'd say it was one day.)
  
• Bowser's Castle: Two days
  
• Lor Interlude 1: One day
  
• Kanto League and Johto League: One day
  
• Hoenn League and Orre League: One day
  
• Unova League: One day
  
• Sinnoh League: One day
  
• Lor Interlude 2: Three days
  
• Layton beginning and Lor Interlude 3: One day
  
• The World Ends With You: Seven days
  
• Lor Interlude 4: Two days
  

So basically, according to my universe timeline, the characters have been traveling the video game universe for about three weeks or so and every world takes no more than a week in universe days.

That's all I really can have headcanons for at the moment...so I'm going to bed, but wanted to actually show that because nobody has even brought up a timeline and the fact that they have been on this journey for a whole year their time is crazy.

I'm fairly certain someone said it'd been months and nobody seemed to argue that .-.

I'm pretty sure it was E21 and I'm pretty sure it was a fourth wall break, or at least that's how I saw it. To me it was just something that occurred like right after a hiatus/period of lack of progress and I didn't take it seriously. I dunno, I just don't see how the entirety of rp thus far to take multiple months, which is why I'm using that timeline for my novelization.

Explanation:

• I know the Mushroom Kingdom/Isle Delfino timeline is near accurate because Mushroom Kingdom arc actually has a timeline based on how many days you had us sleep, which was two meaning the whole storyline for those arcs took about two and a half days. If we're to assume that it took a couple of days to get from the desert to the grassland and we camped, which I'm assuming didn't happen because that isn't the feel I got when I reread it, you can argue for four days for these two arcs.
  
• Luigi's Mansion only took a day or so because it happens, from what I can tell, during the game's actual storyline and that only takes a night if I remember correctly, but I give it one and a half to two because of how big the Rogueport arc is and that happens simultaneously. Yoshi's Island was also a fairly short arc, so it works with the one day calculation, meaning that Isle Delfino could have had an extra day so long as the total between the two arc's time spans were relatively equal.
  
• Unless our characters were out from Luigi's attack for an extended period of time and it wasn't just a few hours before the partners started acting to save the heroes, Bowser's Castle I could see lasting 2-3 days, maybe five if you stretch it. Meaning that at minimum the Mario chapter takes six days as I listed and at maximum takes eleven days.
  
• Lor interlude one was confirmed canon as having a one day time span, as the heroes leave the next morning.
  
• The only Pokemon chapter with a lot of events in the first four worlds is Kanto. To me, because of transportation around the league, Kanto and Johto occurred on the same day. Again if we want to assume a long amount of time, Kanto took two days and Johto and Hoenn occurred on the same day. 
  
• Lets assume it took a couple hours for transportation to Orre and from Orre, so the entirety of the Orre league has its own day. 
  
• Then we spend a couple hours in Unova, and then travel to Sinnoh takes another day.
  
• In Sinnoh, I'd say we only spent a day there, but you can argue for two days or so for the characters because I'm pretty sure the Distortion World runs parallel in terms of time to the regular dimension. So, for Pokemon, that puts the minimum at four days and the maximum at seven. This is only because I assume that because we're flying rather than travelling routes for the majority of it, it only takes a few hours to get to any destination within reason. In fact, I'll give because of what travel time could be like and go with ten days as the maximum.
  
• The Lor inbetween Pokemon and Layton is canon confirmed three days.
  
• In Layton, I can't imagine it taking more than a day alone on any accepted timeline because of how few events happened. But I'll give the entirety of the Layton we did an extra day as leeway, so we'll call it two days.
  
• The Lor inbetween Layton is canon confirmed two hours. This means both Layton and the Lor trip after took one to two days.
  
• TWEWY is canon confirmed seven days. Not only do I set days as the chapter splits like TWEWY does in game, but also a Reaper's Game lasts a week and I'm the writer of the chapter so what I say goes.
  
• The Lor between TWEWY and Okami is not confirmed. However Tip and I had to private conversations, both of which I believe occurring just before our characters went off to sleep, so I guesstimate they left in the middle of the third day on the Lor, resulting in a rough estimate of two days.
  

So by adding my timeline, the minimum amount of time the heroes have been adventuring is 24 days (about three and a half weeks) and the maximum amount would be 35 days (five weeks on the dot, so just over a month). 

I'm willing to see a way you could make it take a few months to where the comment was made (I think it was in Mario or Pokemon, I'd have to check), but otherwise I'll keep my view of the timeline the way it is.