Phoenix/Dark Phoenix

[Panther_Gunn]

For the longest time, I've been using Alex's hero files as a base for both of these.  I've finally thought about a tweak, but could use a little experienced advice as to how best accomplish it.

For Phoenix, I want an Accidental Change sort of thing to happen, when she's Enraged, to change to Dark Phoenix.  That's not a problem, but I also want her to do it when she either takes a *huge* drop in HP, or maybe when she is very low on Health.  Is there a way to have multiple triggers? 

I'd also like it to *not* last for 60 seconds, but rather, revert on another trigger, such as Hypnotise or Mental Blank.

When DP shows up, what Class and AI would best be suited for her to be a computer controlled villian?  And will doing that mess things up for Phoenix returning to the team when she reverts back? (I want it to work both when Phoenix is on the squad, and when she's an opponent in the Danger Room)

I'm also making the same sort of adjustment to DP, in that when she's an opponent in the DR (since I almost never use her for a squad), a Hypno or MB will change her temporarily back to Phoenix.  I don't want that Invol Form to become part of the squad, but I do want her to be a computer controlled ally.  Would the class GAME_OBJ_POLICE, with the Cop AI work best for that?

[Panther_Gunn]

Well, to say that I've been having problems with this would be an understatement, to say the least.  I've sent versions of each character (with Invol Form) to DAT, but neither had their powers or defenses transferred over.  After putting all that in manually, as well as getting them selected in FFX Control Centre, I tried things out.  Neither of them change, and the odd thing I've found is, that both are 100% resistant to Hypnosis, even when the attack is overpowered.  The only defense I've given them against it is Disciplined, and their resistances to other mental attacks remains unchanged.

I've tried making sure that their FFEdit names are different from the .hero file names (added _extra to the end of each), they have templates, etc.  I'm sure it's most likely something small I've overlooked, or forgot about, but any help would be appreciated.

[stumpy]

I am not even close to the best person at tweaking shapeshifters (and related transform types), but a couple things popped into my head as things to check.

First, my recollection was that the game does something special with _extra characters. It's a good idea to give them a different FFEdit name than their HERO file names, but I would choose something other than adding _extra to the end, just in case the game takes that to mean something odd.

Second, when a character is unable to be hypnotized, that often means that the game thinks the target is on the same team as the attacker. I don't mean in terms of FFX or M25's AI choosing teams based on splitting the teams with the '---------' character, but the game's internal designations for hero and villain. You might want to make Dark Phoenix a villain in the Characters and Templates tabs in FFEdit and see if that makes a difference.

This last can be particularly tricky in the Danger Room, since the game chooses teams based on whether the character was spawned in the squad list or in the enemies list. M25's AI can override that for purposes of attacking and at least FFvT3R allows some options for switching hero/villain AIs, but I don't recall if there is a 100% workaround for purposes of powers that work differently depending on the internal team designations, like hypnosis, rally, etc.

I suppose, for FF, it might be possible to create both a hero and villain version of a transformed character and change the FFX code to spawn the appropriate one...

[Panther_Gunn]

Second, when a character is unable to be hypnotized, that often means that the game thinks the target is on the same team as the attacker.

:huh:  Oh....I hadn't even thought of that.  I have been doing all of my tests with just squad members, just to make things easier, so that must be what's mucking things up.  I'll try them out as normal enemies, and I expect it'll be all as normal again.

I wonder if it's possible for a Hypnotize power to counter another Hypnotize.  Such as, when Eve is an enemy, and one of your teammates gets hypnotized by her Beautiful attribute, would a different teammate be able to Hypnotize that character, to get them back on your side again?

I remembered something about the _extra characters being the Danger Room version of the campaign characters, or something like that, but I'll change it to something else, just in case.  I'll probably just take off the _extra & put a 2 at the end, or something.  I don't expect that to fix the not changing problem, but stranger things have been known to happen.  Thanks.

[Panther_Gunn]

Well, still no luck on getting these to work.  The whole hypnotize issue is resolved (thanks to Stumpy), but all the other problems remain.  *sigh*

[darkphoenixII]

      Yeah, I tried this before too. About all I can tell you is that you could give Phoenix the russian doll attrib., with the template set to a Dark Phoenix with the accidental change attrib. In this fashion, you can hypnotise her or what have you to turn her into Phoenix. You know, to simulate Jean's personality reasserting control, only in this case you'd better find a way to make it permanent or you'll have to kill her to prevent the Phoenix from taking control again. Hope that helps.