COMBO ATTRIBUTES

Creating your own attribute combinations

Sometimes five attributes are just not enough, or you want to define a new attribute to represent a common set of powers in your universe of choice.
FFX 2.3 has introduced a simple sytem to allow you to do this, and provides a couple of examples.

POWER COSMIC

Combines INVULNERABILITY GRADE 2, METABOLIC STRENGTH and SOLAR POWEREDinto a single attribute to represent, well, any powerful space herald with the ability to feed off starlight and cosmic rays, bolster their own strength or resist damage after being imbued with a fraction of their masters power.

THOUGHTFORM

Combines FAST HEALING, EPHEMERAL, METABOLIC, TELEPATHY and GLASS JAW. This attribute covers the basic properties of one made out of naked thought, unlimited by a material body but also held together purely by their own concentration.
This would go well with the new ASTRAL FORM attribute, along with FLIER.

How it all works

The file ffxmulti.py in Data/Missions/Scripts holds an array of combination attributes as shown below:

ffxMultis=[
['powercosmic','metastrength','invulnerable2','solarpowered',],
['thoughtform','fasthealing', 'ephemeral','metabolic','telepathy','glassjaw',],
]

In each row, the first is the name of a combination attribute added to the Attributes Pane in FFEdit, the rest are the names of FFX attributes (or a select few built-in attributes) as they appear in FFEdit.

Unfortunately, most builtin attributes can't be added to this list, only a few like HEROIC, UNHEROIC, EXTRA HEROIC, FAST HEALING, UNSTABLE MOLECULES, NIMBLE, SLOW MOVING, HEAVY LIFTER, TIMID, BEZERKER, UNBELIEVER, DISCIPLINED, LEVEL-HEADED, GRIM RESOLVE and SHAKE IT OFF are available. For the complete list, please check the Attributes Table

We've simulated these through script to behave like the builtin ones, with minor differences (eg FAST HEALING bought this way wont show the HEALING bubbles).

Step by step example

Say we want to create a MARTIAN attribute based on the DC Comics Martians.
Much of the powers (heat vision, super breath, strength etc.) is best done through stats or powers. Once again flight would be nice, but can't be done, but we can add the following:

REGENERATIVE (named superhealer in FFEdit)
ENHANCED SENSES (name telepathy in FFEdit)
METAMORPHIC (name metamorphic in FFEDit)

We need to do the following:

Add an attribute to FFEdit and give it a cost - in the Attributes tab add in 'martian' and give it a cost. The base attributes cost 900+250+1800 = 2950, so lets make this cost 2500. Its slightly cheaper to buy in bulk as a reward for following a character concept laid down in the DCU.
Add a line to ffxmulti.py:
```
 ['martian','superhealer','telepathy','metamorphic',], 
```
Take care with this step, as you're editing Python codde and could bring FFX to its knees with a syntax error here! Copy an existing line and modify it.
For mods, as usual, you can have a different set of combination attributes using ffxmutliS.py.

Add a couple of lines to the strings.txt string table:

ATTRIB_MARTIAN_01, martian
ATTRIB_MARTIAN_DESC_01, you belong to a powerful race of telepathic shapeshifters. Combines REGENERATIVE, ENHANCED SENSES and METAMORPHIC.

This is the in game name and description for the attribute in the character creation screen.

Recompile the string table using FFEdit.

You're done.
The martian attribute is now ready for use by built-in and custom characters alike.

As well as packing more attributes into the same character, this is a neat trick for mod-makers to use to define characteristics belonging to a certain race or group.
Expect to see this used fairly heavily in Strangers II!