An alternate Wisp implementation concept...

[PerfectChaos]

(Not my pic. http://kekani.deviantart.com/art/hughug-253951876 )

So... in light of all the understandable negativity here, we can (and do) certainly still have optimistic discussion about where the series should go with gameplay mechanics and such, and I wanted to discuss these guys more, and how I don't think they should be dropped (yet) but rather changed for the better.

I really liked the Wisps in Colours, but for some reason they felt completely "off" in Lost World. The obvious reason might be they "felt tacked on" there, but the same could be said for Colours, yet it didn't feel like it. Perhaps because the levels were better designed to accommodate them.

But either way, there seem to be many of you who don't like the Wisps that much, and one understandable reason is that they are undeniably rather disjointed from the rest of the gameplay in a sense (although I don't consider that an objective flaw).

Thus I propose a retooling of them that changes the way they work while still retaining what makes them fun to use:

-Firstly, instead of being one-use powers, they could be activated multiple times, perhaps regulated by a ring gauge or something. That could also make speedrunning more interesting since, like Sonic Advance 2, you'd need to consider when getting more rings would actually benefit your time overall. Alternatively they could simply be like the elemental shields and remain until you take damage, or get another powerup, or whatever.

-Secondly, the way each functions would be changed to accommodate the increased freedom and multiple-use nature of them, and also to "augment Sonic's natural abilities" as I have seen some people put it. There are both "passive effects" (for some) that are active simply by having the Wisp at any time, and "active effects" that actually use a button to initiate - just like the Elemental Shields.

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E.g. Hover now simply allows you to hold the jump button for a quick 2-3-second float after a jump - think Yoshi's Flutter Jump. Doesn't actually transform you into the hover form.

Spikes simply powers up the Spindash, allowing you to reach maximum "rev" instantly and briefly go up walls and stuff. It kicks in whenever you're Spindashing, never elsewhere.

Burst offers a fiery version of the Classic Thunder Shield double-jump (minus the ring-attraction). Also gives you fire immunity like the Fire Shield did.

Cube essentially replaces Stomp, acting as a powered-up version of it, with the shockwave and all. Faster fall speed (especially in water), and invincible while using it.

Laser is toned-down, now acting like a simpler burst of speed upon pressing the button (a little like UnWiished's Boost) but still ricochets you off walls and stuff. Perhaps the "aiming" bit beforehand is removed, so you just blast off in the direction you were facing as a Laser for a brief second or two. The Laser Terminal things could certainly remain in the level design, opening up plenty of shortcuts.

Lightning attracts rings of course, grants you a thunderbolty variant of Lost World's "instant-chained-Homing attacks", and gives off a constant thundery hitbox that spreads in water to hit all enemies in that body of water. Maybe Lightspeed dash too, but I'm quite iffy on that game mechanic in general.

Quake only kicks in during Spindash, turning Sonic's ball form into a rocky sphere, allowing for vastly increased acceleration down slopes, invincibility during it, and larger hitbox.

And of course we could have new ones. E.g. an icy "Shard" wisp allows you to freeze a body of water beneath your feet, not have slippery physics on ice, and gives a snowbally-spindash... IDK, just throwing concepts out there.

 

I think Drill, Rocket, Frenzy, Rhythm (Lost World's in general) etc. may be best removed because they feel more situational and wouldn't naturally fit in with the gameplay as well as the others could, but I could be wrong. Maybe they could reappear in Special Stages or something.

These ideas mostly stay similar/faithful to the original Wisps, but are different enough to change how things play out as a whole and how the level design could utilize them.    Whew, wall of text... Sorry! Tried to make it readable though.

Anyway, what do you guys think? 

 

......Also, wouldn't it be awesome if there was some one-off variant of the Super form which combines/fuses all Wisps together?    *Runs away*

Edited November 2, 2015 by PerfectChaos

[NoirSuede]

 

 

-Firstly, instead of being one-use powers, they could be activated multiple times, perhaps regulated by a ring gauge or something. That could also make speedrunning more interesting since, like Sonic Advance 2, you'd need to consider when getting more rings would actually benefit your time overall. Alternatively they could simply be like the elemental shields and remain until you take damage, or get another powerup, or whatever.

Having a separate ring gauge like in Unleashed would either make them too easy to activate which can really break a level or make them too hard to activate and also make getting 2 of the same Wisp pointless, TBH the best method is by having them in an inventory slot with it's own activation button like in Mario 3, that way if you have 2 or more of the Wisp you can tactically plan when you're gonna use it.

 

-Secondly, the way each functions would be changed to accommodate the increased freedom and multiple-use nature of them, and also to "augment Sonic's natural abilities" as I have seen some people put it. There are both "passive effects" (for some) that are active simply by having the Wisp at any time, and "active effects" that actually use a button to initiate - just like the Elemental Shields.

That's actually really cool, maybe have it where you can choose to either use the Wisp for their passive buff (like say stunning  the enemy that've hit you for the Lightning Wisp) or their active effect.

 

 

E.g. Hover now simply allows you to hold the jump button for a quick 2-3-second float after a jump Completely kills momentum, have it as a straight dash ala Fire Shield - think Yoshi's Flutter Jump. Doesn't actually transform you into the hover form.

Spikes simply powers up the Spindash, allowing you to reach maximum "rev" instantly Kinda meh and briefly go up walls and stuff Have it also cling to ceilings and you're gold. It kicks in whenever you're Spindashing, never elsewhere.

Burst offers a fiery version of the Classic Thunder Shield double-jump (minus the ring-attraction). Also gives you fire immunity like the Fire Shield did.

Cube essentially replaces Stomp, acting as a powered-up version of it, with the shockwave and all. Faster fall speed (especially in water), and invincible while using it.

Laser is toned-down, now acting like a simpler burst of speed upon pressing the button (a little like UnWiished's Boost) but still ricochets you off walls and stuff. Perhaps the "aiming" bit beforehand is removed, so you just blast off in the direction you were facing as a Laser for a brief second or two Maybe have it behave kinda like Chaos Control where you'd have a laser guide showing you where'd you go and then when you activate it Sonic instantly teleports to the end of the laser guide while also killing everything on the laser guide ? . The Laser Terminal things could certainly remain in the level design, opening up plenty of shortcuts.

Lightning attracts rings of course, grants you a thunderbolty variant of Lost World's "instant-chained-Homing attacks", and gives off a constant thundery hitbox that spreads in water to hit all enemies in that body of water Make the lightning aura hit everyone and you're gold. Maybe Lightspeed dash too, but I'm quite iffy on that game mechanic in general.

Quake only kicks in during Spindash, turning Sonic's ball form into a rocky sphere, allowing for vastly increased acceleration down slopes, invincibility during it, and larger hitbox.

And of course we could have new ones. E.g. an icy "Shard" wisp allows you to freeze a body of water beneath your feet, not have slippery physics on ice, and gives a snowbally-spindash... IDK, just throwing concepts out there.

 

I think Drill, Rocket, Frenzy, Rhythm (Lost World's in general) etc. may be best removed because they feel more situational and wouldn't naturally fit in with the gameplay as well as the others could, but I could be wrong. Maybe they could reappear in Special Stages or something.

These ideas mostly stay similar/faithful to the original Wisps, but are different enough to change how things play out as a whole and how the level design could utilize them.    Whew, wall of text... Sorry! Tried to make it readable though.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

Criticisms in Red.

[PerfectChaos]

Completely kills momentum, have it as a straight dash ala Fire Shield

 

Good point, although then it wouldn't really be a "hover" anymore.

Besides, it doesn't have to impact momentum much, I just used Flutter Jump as a base example of how the move itself functions. It could still retain much/all of the horizontal momentum you had, perhaps.

Make the lightning aura hit everyone and you're gold.

What do you mean by that, exactly? (Sorry if dumb question. Isn't this pretty much what I already said/implied, though?)

[Salamander]

Regarding Hover, Blaze in the Sonic Rush games had a slow-fall move that didn't just kill your momentum, though it slowed you down; apparently it's called the Burst Hover.  That might be a model worth examining.

Laser just blasting you off in the direction your momentum is taking you seems fitting, as just jumping would add an upward angle to your movement and allow you to gain height.  That seems like it would be a pretty intuitive system.

Your Cube sounds a lot like Kirby's Stone form.  That's not a criticism, to be clear.

I also like the idea of a Wisp that gives you the ability to walk on water without needing momentum or a flat transition between ground and water.  The only problem would be if you tried to use it in levels which required you to go underwater, but then again perhaps that would just be an incentive to design levels around this Wisp breaking them.

...It's my Sonic game idea hobby-horse so my apologies for introducing it, but the idea of Sonic having multiple activations and both passive and active effects with a Wisp equipped also translates well to a system where Wisps are replaced with his friends.

[PerfectChaos]

Regarding Hover, Blaze in the Sonic Rush games had a slow-fall move that didn't just kill your momentum, though it slowed you down; apparently it's called the Burst Hover.  That might be a model worth examining.

Good point there, and its kind of funny how its name happens to be a mixture of two Wisp names, haha.

[NoirSuede]

Good point, although then it wouldn't really be a "hover" anymore.

Besides, it doesn't have to impact momentum much, I just used Flutter Jump as a base example of how the move itself functions. It could still retain much/all of the horizontal momentum you had, perhaps.

What do you mean by that, exactly? (Sorry if dumb question. Isn't this pretty much what I already said/implied, though?)

Basically when you're near a bunch of enemies no matter where they are the lightnings from the lightning wisp would automatically electrify all of the enemies, staggering them for a bit (if you want a full-on stun you need to use it as a passive).

 

 

...It's my Sonic game idea hobby-horse so my apologies for introducing it, but the idea of Sonic having multiple activations and both passive and active effects with a Wisp equipped also translates well to a system where Wisps are replaced with his friends.

Well the Wisp can play to Sonic's friends's strengths/cover their weaknesses, for example if you combo Amy's hammer attack with the Cube wisp then you can bounce off an enemy/spring even higher and faster than usual, or if you use the Quake wisp with Knuckles while he's gliding then you can damage-surf a badnik's projectile to counteract him moving really slow while gliding.

If you don't know what Surfing is, it's this :

 

 

 

Edited November 2, 2015 by NoirSuede

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

Yes I love this. I want to see the wisps back to and I like his blackhole ablities

[Multikaris]

From there, maybe we could expand to give different characters different Wisp powers, like how in Megaman X, Zero and later Axl had different Special Weapons than X.

Knuckles, for example, could instead launch drills from his punches when he acquires the Drill Wisp (and his drilling moves become stronger in general). If Knuckles had the Cube Wisp, he could instead throw powerful cube projectiles at his enemies, like SMB2 POW Blocks. Ivory Lightning? Allows him to do a vertical warp-jump to a metal object, damaging enemies in his path. Rhythm? Say it with me now: HAOH! SHO-KOU-KEN! (In other words, a large projectile that takes out everything in its path) Omega + Frenzy? Ranbu beatdown time. Espio + Spikes? Lots of little ninja traps. Mina + Rhythm? Basically Super Mina.