Fighting

During missions, there’s always a chance the SeeDs will encounter enemies and monsters. Be it inside jungle, in the dessert or in the mountains or anywhere else. The only real safe spots are towns, houses and greatly crowded places – but keep in mind, this does not always guarantee a safe trip... enemies come in many shapes and sizes. Whenever an enemy attacks, it will be announced in the thread with “ENCOUNTER!”, “FIGHT!” or “DANGER!”. In all threads, this means a battle is ahead, and I will continue the post by detailing what sort of creature it is and so forth. In some cases, “BACK ATTACK!” will follow right after either of the above words, indicating the well-known disadvantage which the group is in.

The main flow of battles can be easily described; In the past, as some of the older members will recall, battles were fought through post-by-post. We’ll continue this, of course (it actually fits the idea of a FF-rpg... A turn for each character and a certain time-line in which the actions take place) but also give it a more FF-like feel. There are certain basic options available during battles. These are:


 * Attack!
 * Magic!
 * Abilities!
 * Items!
 * Defend!
 * Run!

They should all be pretty obvious to anyone familar with any basic (FF-)rpg-game, but I’ll give a quick description of each; Attack covers physical attacks, Magic covers the ability to cast all learned magics, Abilities covers the ability to use certain special moves already learned, Items cover the ability to use all items in the person’s inventory, Defend grant the ability to defend and Run give the player a chance at escaping the fight. This is where it gets intersting; To further increase the FF feel, each player can use only one action for every post they make. This means a player cannot heal with a potion (through the Item-option), cast a spell (through the Magic-option) and end his turn by attacking (using the Attack-option). He’ll can only do one of the three things – heal, cast a spell or attack. The simple battle can actually be fought by just posting the title of the option + other required information without directly describing the flow of the move. This is perfectly fine with me – but being descriptive and actually posting what you do it much better then just saying “Attack!”.

Example-Time!
 * Everything in RED is Auron posting
 * Everything in BLUE is Tidus posting
 * Everything in BLACK is me (Headmaster Cim) posting

_

Auron and Tidus barely made it across the walk-bridge to the other side where a new pile of bricks and metal parts blocked their way. Apparently, their escape from Sin had just become more troublesome...
 * ENCOUNTER!
 * BACK ATTACK!

Oh it’s... Pikachu!? (lvl. 15) ...?

Hostile Pikachu casts spell Thunder at the entire part, dealin some damange to both Auron and Tidus. _

(What is a Pokémon doing in Spira... This is worse than I thought!) Attack!

- Auron runs at the Pikachu, swings his Nodachi in a large curve toward the mouse and strikes it _

(OMG! LOL! It’s Pikachu! Anyone got a Pokéball?) Magic! – spell Haste

- Tidus uses spell haste on himself _

Auron’s attack is very effective! Tidus is now under the influence of Haste, increasing chances of a quick hit!

Pikachu Attacks! It jumps at Auron and bites his right arm - dealing only minor damage... _

Attack! _

(Too funny!) Items – Potion - Tidus feels the need to regain some health and uses a potion on himself. _

Tidus uses potion (Inventory is now: 2) on himself, regaining a small amount of health. Auron attacks Pikachu with his Nodachi, dealing great damage to the mouse – it runs away! END BATTLE! VICTORY!


 * Auron gains 3 points
 * Tidus gains 3 points
 * Party gains 300 gils total...

_

Example-Time! Ends here

As you saw, both of Auron’s actions during the battle were attacks. In the first turn, he stated what option he wanted to use and then gave a short description of how he imagined the attack to be. In his next turn, he decided just to post “Attack!” – both ways are legal ways! Also note how Tidus revealed what spell and item he wanted to use (“Magic - *insert spell here*” and “Item - *insert item here*”). This also work for abilities. As the characters does not currently have visible HP-bars (or MP-bars for that matter), all decreases and increases of health during battles are taken care of by me – you can, to a certain limit, imagine how great the attack is by looking at my reaction – logically, an attack that deals “great damage” is better than an attack that only deals “minor damage”.