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 canceled, 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 6 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 10 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 8 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.
Nitrous. B-rank scouting specialist. Goes fast. 12 life, 0/16 defense, yes shielding, has a buster weapon that does not charge and has 2 VWES slots with 12 energy for special weapons each. His buster does 2 damage. He can shift into a faster mode, and run into enemies for ramming damage. 16 or 24 speed, advanced EAS with excellent stats, 2 circuit slots with 4 tolerance each. He exists for speed runs.