Level Up Bonuses - Format, Suggestions, and moar.

[Destination]

So of course, canon-wise we have four choices and three distinct categories:

-Low level Enhanced Armament, complementing a weak characteristic
-System Passive Skill, complementing a weak/medium characteristic
-System Active Skill, complementing a weak/medium characteristic
-[Enhancement of avatar specialty], improving on the strength of the avatar.

The last one is in square brackets because it could mean either upgrading the EA or a body part of the avatar, or increasing some other attribute of the avatar.

As learnt from the old AWRP, whenever the player made their own Level Up bonus choices, it was subject to debate, suggestions, and complaints about being OP.

The reflection thus, is that players ostensibly designed their Bonus with the goal of it being their eventual choice anyway, even if they made alternatives. Evidently there is an element of bias inside.

The recommendation henceforth, as I will argue, will be that independent members decide the choice of bonuses instead. And thus some questions come to mind.

Do respond please. When I eventually implement the system, it is going to take your feedback into account, so before anyone reaches Level 2, post.

=Levelling Up=

Should it be allowed for someone to choose their bonus mid-battle?
How long should the action of selecting a bonus take?
What penalty should be given, if at all, for selecting a bonus mid-battle?
Should some bonus take longer than others to apply, or should they all manifest equally fast? Equally slow?

=Level Up Bonuses=

Should it be kept fixed at four choices, or should there be more? Less?
What other possible kinds of bonuses should there be?
Should there be a bonus awarded for specialisation at a specific Level?
Should there be a bonus awarded for balancing at a specific level?
Upon reaching Level 4 and gaining access to the UNF, should a 'free' bonus be given?
-What kind of bonus would be an acceptable bonus that is fittingly exclusive to the UNF?
Upon reaching Level (insert number here) and gaining the ability to form Legions, should a 'free' bonus be given, on top of the skill Judgement Blow?
Should Judgement Blow be granted a specific moveset/action in itself, or tagged on as an additional attribute to an existing close-range, passive skill?

By no means are these questions meant to be comprehensive. If you have any other questions to bring up, sound them out for discussion.

Your feedback, response, and interaction will be considered upon the implementation of Level Up Bonuses, so if you want some differences, post, or everything will have to be done by me.

[Guest]

Gadget's Answers

1. While it was clever to use in mid-battle in the story, I personally don't think it's fair here. In most RPGs you can't just gain powers from previous level up in mid-battle they were active the minute you got them. (Note some even called Crow a Bastard for doing such a ploy.)

2. In my opinion you should use your bonus outside of battle and the next time a battle is triggered it's automatically in play

3. if you insist on doing such a ploy it should be required to do it as a separate action.

4. No all bonuses should take the same time to apply.

~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Some characters will find themselves limited by the number of choices (myself included) However we should stick to canon format to the best of our ability

2. Personally I would like to see the creation of an EA that supports a strong aspect of a character.

3. Yes to the Specializing Bonus

4. Yes to the Balancing Bonus (I don't think it's nice that the author like Specializing while giving Balanced Characters the short end of the stick. Some people are born to work alone.)

5. I like free bonuses,

6. Depends really, I personally would want a vehicle type EA for my character in the UNF so he doesn't have to walk everywhere. I won't need it regular fights but for exploring and other things vehicles are nice

7. While I like free bonuses I think Judgement Blow is a big enough bonus.

8. I would think it needs to be at least close range

[Royal Duke]

=Levelling Up=


Should it be allowed for someone to choose their bonus mid-battle? - Yes.
How long should the action of selecting a bonus take? - Depends. Are you going to take your sweet time to decide? Or, like Haruyuki, deep inside your heart you already knew what your Duel Avatar wanted?
What penalty should be given, if at all, for selecting a bonus mid-battle? - Depends. It's just two clicks. However if someone starts thinking about it mid-battle... Yeah.
Should some bonus take longer than others to apply, or should they all manifest equally fast? Equally slow? - Silver Crow's was pretty instant if you ask me. So yeah, they should all be fast to apply.


=Level Up Bonuses=


Should it be kept fixed at four choices, or should there be more? Less? - Four choices is a good number.
What other possible kinds of bonuses should there be? - None really.
Should there be a bonus awarded for specialisation at a specific Level? - Nope.
Should there be a bonus awarded for balancing at a specific level? - Nope.
Upon reaching Level 4 and gaining access to the UNF, should a 'free' bonus be given? - Nope.
What kind of bonus would be an acceptable bonus that is fittingly exclusive to the UNF? - Abilities that greatly expand movement, that allows one to perform maintenance on their own EAs (recall that in the UNF, even if you die your EAs do not regenerate), or scouting abilities.
Upon reaching Level (insert number here) and gaining the ability to form Legions, should a 'free' bonus be given, on top of the skill Judgement Blow? - No?
Should Judgement Blow be granted a specific moveset/action in itself, or tagged on as an additional attribute to an existing close-range, passive skill? - It should have it's own action IMO, but that's up to you. You know more about this than I do.

[Dranes]

^
So bloody much.

[Sado Ikaru]

=Leveling Up=

Should it be allowed for someone to choose their bonus mid-battle?
No. I believe that if someone chooses their «Level-Up Bonus» while they're in a duel, it should activate in the next fight.
How long should the action of selecting a bonus take?
I'd say that you cannot level up again until you select your bonus. This would prevent someone from reaching higher levels and benefiting from stronger Bonuses.
What penalty should be given, if at all, for selecting a bonus mid-battle?
If you choose to have them select-able mid-battle, I propose that they are only at 50% for that battle.
Should some bonus take longer than others to apply, or should they all manifest equally fast? Equally slow?
See previous answers.

=Level Up Bonuses=

Should it be kept fixed at four choices, or should there be more? Less?
Four sounds good to me.
What other possible kinds of bonuses should there be?
Actually, these four sound good.
Should there be a bonus awarded for specialization at a specific Level?
In my opinion, there should not be a need for a «Specialization Bonus».
Should there be a bonus awarded for balancing at a specific level?
In my opinion, there should not be a need for a «Balancing Bonus», either.
Upon reaching Level 4 and gaining access to the UNF, should a 'free' bonus be given?
I think accessing the «Unlimited Neutral Field» and the «Level-Up Bonus» are good enough for reaching Lv4.
-What kind of bonus would be an acceptable bonus that is fittingly exclusive to the UNF?
If you decide to implement an «Unlimited Neutral Field Bonus», it should be some sort of transport.
Upon reaching Level (insert number here) and gaining the ability to form Legions, should a 'free' bonus be given, on top of the skill Judgement Blow?
«Judgement» is a powerful skill on its own. Coupling that with the ability to form a Legion should be enough of a Bonus.
Should Judgement Blow be granted a specific move-set/action in itself, or tagged on as an additional attribute to an existing close-range, passive skill?
Personally, I think that it should have its own action. But I think the Avatar gaining «Judgement» should determine what form it takes.

[Kuro]

I like the idea of having independent members choosing the available bonuses.  It adds another layer of protection to prevent OP results.  As for my opinion on the list of questions, I'll be trying to take a balanced approach between loyalty to canon material and practicality in an rp setting.


=Levelling Up=

Should it be allowed for someone to choose their bonus mid-battle?
If that's how it worked in the canon, I don't see why not here.  It's a little unorthodox by rp standards, but then most rps I've been in were things like bleach where you needed to train to learn a new power, so mid-battle was impossible.  In a game like Brain Burst where it's like a virtual mixture of a fighting game and an mmorpg, picking skill bonuses of a level up is perfectly legit.


How long should the action of selecting a bonus take?
I agree with Martel's opinion on this one.  It all depends on how much time the user takes to consider the choices when presented them.  If they know what kind of choice they want to go with before they even see the options, it'd be a simple *click* *click* *done*.


What penalty should be given, if at all, for selecting a bonus mid-battle?
No penalties to the avatar or bonus itself, but on the rp side of things, I'd say that this should count as a complex action to make use of table rpg terms.  Selecting the bonus mid-battle should take up the majority of their turn in the post and not allow time to use it in that same post.


Should some bonus take longer than others to apply, or should they all manifest equally fast? Equally slow?
Just like in a video game when you select your new skills, instantaneous.

=Level Up Bonuses=


Should it be kept fixed at four choices, or should there be more? Less?
4 is good, let's not over-complicate things or put more stress on the independent members who will be designing these bonuses.


What other possible kinds of bonuses should there be?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  


Should there be a bonus awarded for specialisation at a specific Level?
No need for bonuses of that type.  Just let the avatar continue to grow naturally as the linker mandates.


Should there be a bonus awarded for balancing at a specific level?
See previous answer.


Upon reaching Level 4 and gaining access to the UNF, should a 'free' bonus be given?
Nope


-What kind of bonus would be an acceptable bonus that is fittingly exclusive to the UNF?
If such a bonus were implemented, I'd say limit it to something that is only of use in the UNF like some sort of transportation to move around the massive field easier, forced field change, or an ability that attracts wild Enemy beasts for your party to fight.


Upon reaching Level (insert number here) and gaining the ability to form Legions, should a 'free' bonus be given, on top of the skill Judgement Blow?
Normal level bonus, forming legions and judgment blow are already satisfactory.


Should Judgement Blow be granted a specific moveset/action in itself, or tagged on as an additional attribute to an existing close-range, passive skill?
I'm not a canon expert, but I always believed that Judgement Blow was exclusively a normal melee attack coupled with the uninstalling ability.  Kind of sucks for slow, long-range characters like Scarlet, but such is the role of Kings. 

[Vilis]

What if the level-up bonuses and stat increase went hand-in-hand? That way, the increase in a Duel Avatar's overall strength would show in your choice of skill. Choosing to upgrade your sword EA would increase your DIR, choosing a skill that offers more movement would increase your AGI, etc. I will show an example based on Silver Crow's first level-up choices. Note that the numbers chosen are purely arbitrary but also represent the amount I believe is right for people to get when leveling up.

1. You gain the "Rapid Knuckle" special skill, a close-range-type special technique that involved slide dashing across the ground, shortening the distance to your opponent, and barraging him with punches at high speed. +10 DIR, +10 AGI.

2. You gain the "Radial Shot" skill, a long-range skill that shoots at everyone around you (I only guess what this skill does). +20 SPL

3. You gain the "Hard Armor" Enhanced Armament which increases the defensive power of your torso part. +20 AMR.

4. Your "High Speed Aviation" skill becomes stronger. You can fly higher, faster and at a lower KG cost (also assumed. +20 SPL.

[Destination]

That is already the plan...I just haven't thought of how much stat points to give.

[Vilis]

If we are talking pure numbers, I don't think it should be more than 30 per level. Even at that, you have almost 50% more total stat points at level 4 than you do at 1. Considering what we've seen so far, a level 4 avatar is not that much better than a level 1 avatar. Aqua Current was able to fight a level 3 Sand Duct without taking any damage at all. Even if she has a huge amount of skill and experience from when she was in the Elements, she shouldn't have made it out unharmed if her opponent's stats were that much greater.

Tl;Dr - I suggest you make the number something small.

[Destination]

Suggestion already is part of the idea...heck, Silver Crow could beat down Cyan Pile with a three Level gap without one arm or wings.

The real difference should be between Level 4 and 5, since one has Enemies to fight in the UNF at that point. Whether one will still get just 10 points remains to be seen though.

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