Welcome to CrossWire, a successor to Wasteland and Sunset developed by yours truly! Like Wasteland, CrossWire is set in a post-apocalyptic world, but it's progressed even further than in Wasteland and cybernetic lifeforms have far surpassed organic ones.
The rules are about the same as Wasteland, but with a few new twists and additions...
NEW FEATURES
- All player characters are robots, so food is pretty much a non-necessity unless you want to barter. However, your character now relies on electricity to remain alive.
- Electricity can be obtained by finding sources of energy out in the open, such as batteries, recharging at an outlet, using a Solar Energy device to charge slowly, or draining energy from a fallen robot.
- Much like Homestuck, every weapon belongs to a specific class, such as "Sword" or "Pistol". The first weapon you collect determines what class of weapon your character will utilize throughout the story, and you'll improve over time.
- If you want to use a different weapon class, you can >Delete your Weapon Knowledge. This lets you get a new "starting weapon" but also erases your old one and sets the skill of your character back to the beginning.
- Battle can vary greatly between characters due to the OS System, which will be explained below.
HOW DO I JOIN?
That's simple. All you have to do is create a character!
Character creation has multiple aspects; you must choose the name, backstory, gender, starting ability, and starting weapon of your robot. In addition, you must pick your robot's Operating System, or OS.
A starting ability is basically an extra command your robot has at the beginning of the game that they can use. It can pretty much be any action from attack to traversal to anything in between. You could have it be >Self-Destruct or something; it doesn't matter. As the game goes on, you can also >Download more abilities.
COMBAT AND OS SYSTEM
The robot's operating system determines how they approach combat. All combat is handled the same at its core; when you are attacked, "dungeon master" Ai rolls first to see your odds of >Dodging (which ignores damage completely), and then your odds of >Blocking (take half damage). If you miss both, then you take normal damage.
The >Dodge Chance is low (only a 1 will work), and the >Block chance is a bit higher (a 2 or 3 will suffice). 4 through 6 will all result in a normal hit. This all applies to enemies as well; Ai rolls for their >Blocking and >Dodging. Aside from that, there's no real attack stat or defense stat.
Within that framework, however, the OS System can change a lot. Only four OS will be available at the game's beginning, but as more are found throughout the world, the more will be available later. The four starting OS include:
OS LIST
- Standard.OS: Combat is exactly as described above. No changes.
- Classic.OS: Based on the original Final Fantasy's rather broken combat system. To the Classic.OS, damage is the same across all sources; a miss is a block is a dodge. This means you are capable of >Blocking or >Dodging any source of damage, even things like Acid (a poison-like status effect). Of course, since restoration is technically negative damage, this means using this OS can lead to your heals being blocked or dodged.
- Courage.OS: Based on Bravely Default's battle system. With the Courage.OS, you can do nothing during a turn to >Save it for later. When you need it, you can then use multiple turns at once with the >Brave to attack rapidly or use multiple items. This tends to be a bit risky, as you need a keen sense of judgement to tell when to wait and when to spam your abilities.
- Below.OS: Based on Undertale's combat system. Below.OS removes any and all chance of Blocking, but lets you Dodge if you roll a 1 or a 2. In addition, Below.OS gives your character a >Spare command, which lets you try to convince an enemy to go away peacefully. >Spare is all or nothing- only a 1 will suffice at first- but you can raise the odds by giving them items or wearing them out over time.
- Fortuna.OS: Discovered by V.V in the Radio Tower. Fortuna.OS works on the simple principle of a 50/50 chance event. With this OS active, there are no dice rolls; there is simply a coin flip, with YES and NO options. In combat, YES counts as an >ATTACK, while NO counts as a >DODGE. However, the Fortuna.OS extends to more than combat. This coin flip extends to any chance-based event, such as salvaging an item from wreckage or athletic feats. In addition, it has the passive effect of lowering durability while enhancing attack capability. The Fortuna.OS is an ideal operating system for those who want to rely on luck and risk it all in battle.
- Strife.OS: Fused together by AriadnaBot in the City's alleyways. Strife.OS forgoes the battle roll entirely and gives you multiple options: >ATTACK, >BLOCK, and >DODGE. The laws of probability determine that when you select one of these options, the enemy will do the same afterwards; if you >DODGE, they will >DODGE. Strife.OS is built around determining what to do at any given time, and focusing on the enemy's reaction. This also seems to be a bootleg OS for some reason, as all the command names have been changed. Shouldn't affect performance, though.
- Charge.OS: Found by V.V in the Mall. Charge.OS is recommended for robots that have enhanced their battery storage. It acts the same as Standard.OS most of the time, but lets users use the >CHARGE command as well. This consumes a battery in the user's inventory, unleashing a guaranteed >ATTACK with enhanced power. >CHARGE cannot be used without batteries.
- Caliber.OS: Found by V.V in the Mall. Caliber.OS switches up defending and attacking by adding High and Low stances. With this, you can choose to >HIGH ATTACK or >LOW ATTACK when attacking, and >HIGH DEFEND or >LOW DEFEND when defending. This helps you find and strike enemy weakpoints, but you can only attack or defend parts of the body in that stance; this affects dodging depending on the attack you use.
- Danger.OS: Found by V.V in the Mall. Danger.OS is a very, very risky proposition for most combat units. It forgoes the combat roll entirely for attacking, making every hit a guaranteed >ATTACK. Defending is normal, but be warned; with Danger.OS, all attacks sustained by the user deal triple damage.
- Adren.OS: Fused together by V.V in the Mall. Adren.OS takes the Danger.OS and improves upon it immensely. There is no longer a defensive debuff when running it, though the offensive perk is not as large. In addition, the stats of the user get higher as their HP or Electricity get lower; avoid using healing items for long enough and you may obtain super-powerful status!
- Double.OS: Found by Myke in the Mall. Double.OS is a fairly simple alternate OS, very similar to Standard.OS. The only difference is that Double.OS uses two dice for Battle Rolls instead of one. 4 and lower gets a >DODGE, 9 and higher gets an >ATTACK, and 5 through 8 equate a >BLOCK. If you like Standard.OS but are in the market for something different, try Double.OS!
- Twice.OS: Fused together by Myke in the Mall. Twice.OS is similar to Double.OS in that there are two dice rolled for the Battle Roll. However, with this OS, each die is linked to an individual >ATTACK. This means that every turn, you get to attack twice! However, you should be aware that opponents can also attack twice with this.
INSTALLING BASES
If you want to settle down, you can choose a place and select it as your character's Base. Inside your base, you cannot lose HP or Electricity, and you automatically regain all of it upon entering. It also acts as item storage; useful if something is too big to be in your inventory.
LET'S GO!
CrossWire has now begun, though the game will not begin until some characters join in. Let the sign-ups commence!
- V.V ~ Monstermanchego (t∣b∣c)
- Agent ~ AgentMuffin (t∣b∣c)
- Juno ~ CSketch (t∣b∣c)
- AradiaBot ~ CrunchTime420 (t∣b∣c)
- Ion ~ .etherealknight (t∣b∣c)
- Myke ~ Golem Guy (Neo) (t∣b∣c)
- Steve ~ Wowimjarred (t∣b∣c)
- Susan ~ Steve's OAdd-On
ENTER COMMAND: >_