Character Fusion?

One feature I've been wanting to try out for a while is...character fusion. Two (or more) characters fuse into one being, either as a temporary power-up of sorts, or as a permanent thing.

My trouble is trying to figure out how to mechanically make it work!

There are two main types of fusion I'm considering.

1. Temporary Fusion: Fuse for a few turns, which wears off after a while or at the end of the battle. (example: Fusion Dance from DBZ)

2. Permanent Fusion: Fuse from the status menu or from a story event. Not necessarily permanent, but typically you choose when to end it if that option is available. (example: Potarra Earrings from DBZ, Karn's fusions from Breath of Fire)

Choosing which type to use isn't my main concern, as I might use both (DBZ does after all, lol) But, how to mechanically have it work. The real problem comes from my love of little details.

First things first, a fused character would count as a separate actor in the database, wouldn't they? It's easy enough for the fused character to have an average of the two actors levels, if that's the goal. So, how about their skills and equipment? Making new "fused" skills is easy enough, and one of my favorite ideas for this concept, but what if they have optional skills? I love having many ways to gain skills: level up, items, skill shops, some cool other system, etc. Things get convoluted, but maybe that's just my fault for trying to put too much in one game? Equipment is also a big deal for me. Imagine if every fusion resulted in a weapon fusion of the two fusing actors weapons? Wouldn't that be cool? So much complexity there, I can't even imagine a script making that manageable...And how about "Growth" items? I suppose the fused character could have an average of stats, or some formula that reads the two fusing actor's stats..., come to think of it, I think a script could manage this and some way to combine effects of other actor's weapons...I shall ponder that for another thread! Anyway, to me, this is mostly an issue with Temporary Fusion, as Permanent Fusion's stuff has more time for the player to manage...?

So anyway, anyone actually implement a Fusion system into one of their RPGs? Ever just thought about it? Any advice related to my ideas and hurdles for Fusion?

I am currently making a 'fusion' system in a round about way. They are cool :)

Personally, I think for the kind of system you are going for, it would be best to give each item (skill,weapon etc) a priority tag and then when the actors are fused, the features of the new actor are determined by the priority. Like, fire 2 and ice 2 have priority lvl 2. only one of them will be chosen and given to the new fused character.

^ this kind of thing really helps with balancing as well :)

I don't think you'd need a script. I do however think this fusion system would involve lots of variables, lots of conditional branches, and lots of script calls.

If you want to "hard-code" (determine, as the creator) which characters are allowed to fuse, it won't be too hard.  You just make make the fusion results yourself in the database and use eventing or script calls to add/remove the appropriate actors/skills/whatever when the player decides to fuse stuff together.

If you want to make it so that anything can be fused together with anything else... oh boy.  Good luck with that.  It's definitely possible to make a script that can do this, but I think it would be verging into extremely complicated code.

Why you make scripts for those in which you can do with events

Well... One reason for making a script to do something that can be done via events its simply because it will be more efficient for your CPU.

Rather than having parallel process events (which imo should never be used at all) you can simply perform the appropriate checks at the appropriate times and voila. :)

@Dekita: That could work...but I like the idea of fusing skills. Think, instead of Ice 2 or Fire 2, get Antipode 2! The skill thing I think isn't that huge of a problem, at least not compared to some other aspects.

@HumanNinjaToo: There are probably two main features I'd like scripts for a Fusion System.

1. Simple party rearranging: Mainly for temporary battle fusions. Say your line-up is in battle is Piccolo, Goku, Vegeta, Trunks. Goku and Vegeta fuse into Gogeta, which in mechanical terms would be, remove Goku and Vegeta, add Gogeta. Gogeta takes Goku's place in the party, leaving the party order at Piccolo, Gogeta, Trunks. Gogeta defuses, and the party order returns to Piccolo, Goku, Vegeta, Trunks. From my experience, with events the fused party and defused party would be in a different order...(Fused: Piccolo, Trunks, Gogeta, Defused: Piccolo, Trunks, Goku, Vegeta). It functions the same, but it's aesthetically awful. I bet I could work around that with lots of variable and such, but I think it might take a lot. I've seen someone explain this before but it never made any sense to me...WAIT, now that I think about, Summon scripts can pull off party rearranging and such, making Fusion a Summon variations might work...Hmm...

2. The Weapon (and Armor!) Fusion I mentioned. Imagine if two characters can fuse. One uses swords, with 20 available. The other uses guns, also with 20 available. Their fused form uses gunblades (or bayonets?). Imagine every possible combination. That's not 20 fused weapons, it's more like 400. I believe a script could be made that combines traits from two weapons (or armor) and generates a new weapon. Not sure about the name, but for example: Say Character A has an Ice Brand, an ice elemental sword with 30 attack power. Character B has a Poison Rifle, a gun that adds poison with 40 attack power. So the script generates a new weapon called Ice-Poison Brand-Rifle, an ice elemental weapon that adds poison with 35 attack power. Hmmm, might refine this idea and possibly request, worth a try, right? But this isn't a script forum so I'll stop there.

@Wavelength: I'm trying to determine the fusion restrictions. In one RPG idea, one character could fuse with any other. In another, one character could fuse with half the cast (this sounds like what the upcoming Tales of Zestiria is going to do). I also like the idea of each party member having a fusion with each other, but this would be for a smaller cast than normal. Also, three-or-more character fusions. Fusions of fusions, the possibilities are crazy.

Getting ahead of myself there. Should probably start simple, that would help my determine how much a fusion will actually "fuse".

@Dragon Scripter: That's one reason I made this thread, to discuss and determine what is better and/or more efficient for events or scripting.

Yea there aint no denying that it would be somewhat problematic in certain areas, but its still achievable. I definitely think the best way would be to prioritize each item (like, actor features, skills, equips, names, stats - everything) an then choose a set amount from each category.

Well, I can see your point in the party member arrangement just being ugly. Tsukihime has a fairly simple summon script you could take a look at. Although, I think most summon scripts are set up to work within the battle process. So I'm not sure how that would go together with a weapon combining script.

However, when you start talking about fusing the weapons and all that, it sounds like that part could quickly become overcomplicated and down right ridiculous. Might I suggest looking at Vlue's random equipment script. I'm sure with a little eventing involving variable designation after a fusion, you could take advantage of that script and to create these new fused weapons. If you're interested in that at all, I have a few ideas on how to get it done.

@Dekita: Well, I guess having generic "fused" versions of some items and skills could work, but really special items and skills get specific fusions.

@HumanNinjaToo: My idea for weapon fusion would occur during battle...It would check the equipped weapons of each "fusee", and then create a new fused weapon on the spot, and equip it to the fused character. A normal weapon combining script? That's doable... I have seen Vlue's Random Equipment Script and it looks AWESOME. I haven't had a project it would fit in yet, so I haven't looked at in much detail. Perhaps I should.

So, these ideas with tons of fusion combinations, 3 person fusions, fusions of fusions, stuff like that? Well, they sound fun at all, but I always get ahead of myself. Start simple. That phrase is like some kind of trigger word that makes me want to challenge it and do the opposite, start BIG! Maybe it's why I never finish anything...So, anyway, I have a few ideas on how to do Fusion, in a simpler way, in simpler projects!

-A new idea that uses temporary fusion where the main character can fuse with any other character. This means that there's one common factor in every fusion, and since it's the main character fusing all the time, maybe she'd always be the "base"? The fused character always takes up her spot, always alters her equipment/skills/etc. Maybe the fused character isn't a separate actor at all, but a name-change, battler change, stat/skill/whatever change.

-An older idea that uses permanent fusion where all fusion is strictly story related. At some point the main character fuses with another character, permanently. Repeat this once or twice. This gives the players less options, but makes things much easier for the developer (me). Would also use a weapon crafting system instead of trying some weapon fusion once fusing. See, the main character permanently fusing with another character, means neither previous character is their own character anymore. Say the main character uses guns, and the person she fuses with uses swords. The fusion character uses gunblades. No store sells gunblades, no monsters drop gunblades...So, what do you do? You use a crafting system to combine swords and guns to create gunblades!