Fusions

Implementation

Fusions have been part of ShadowApex's vision for Tuxemon for most of the time it has been under development. These could be temporary - as envisaged in The Spyder in the Cathedral - or permanent. If permanent, it could be done through breeding (not affecting the contributor tuxemon) or splicing (with the two contributors merged to make the new fused tuxemon).

Questions to resolve

Original thread

How to name tuxemon?

fruitdev (lightly edited):

Fusion seems to bring up questions about the naming of fused tuxemon. If an Ignibus and an Agnite are blended together, it might produce something like an Igninite (root words used to make a new name). Yet, what would an Igninite produce with an Ignibus? An Igninitenite? The names of non-half-and-half breeds seem like they would be difficult to generate by the program unless a rigorous nomenclature based on a tuxemon's ethnic percentages was developed.

I see four ways of resolving the naming problem:

• Develop a rigorous naming system that conveys all ethnic information of the tuxemon and have the program generate such names. The problem with this is that names eventually might grow to monstrous sizes.
• Allow players to name all fused species in-game, thus taking the load off the computer and making names more natural, but limiting a common understanding of names between players.
• Prohibit breeding of fused monsters, just like real-life animals like ligers and mules. That way, the tuxemon can be named using two simple root words from its parents, and it wouldn't have to keep track of blood percentages that would only gain complexity as the player breeds his creature with more mates. Unfortunately, this would also mean there are a limited number of tuxemon to find and catch, and that is what the fusion system is trying to alleviate in the first place.
• Prohibit breeding of fused monsters, and prescribe names to all tuxemon and their combinations. This would give the infertile fusions their own naturalistic names, but it also limits the number of tuxemon that can be caught, just like the last method.

ShadowApex:

Each fused monster will have only 2 "halfs". If you fuse two previously fused monsters, only one of the halfs from each parent will be randomly passed down to the child monster, giving the child a total of two halfs. For example, if you fused an Ignibus/Agnite with a Heronquak/Grintrock, the resulting monster could be Ignibus/Grintrock. This will reduce the total number of fusion combinations, but any fusion system will have a finite number of possibilities. Even this system will have its complexities that will need to be addressed (How will evolutions work with fused monsters? What moves can they learn? etc.).

In regards to the naming of fused monsters, each monster has a name "prefix" and "suffix". Here is an example of how the fused monster name could be generated with these two monsters:

Full Name: Bamboon Prefix: Bam Suffix: boon

Full Name: Rockitten Prefix: Roc Suffix: kitten

Would create something like this:

Full Name: Bamkitten Prefix: Bam Suffix: kitten

nikkos:

This is awesome! What if you did something where evolution was based off of which techniques were used more? Then as you battle with your fusion tuxemon, the game keeps track of which abilities are used more, and depending on which abilities are used more, you evolve in that direction.

ShadowApex:

Having one side evolve depending on ability usage would be interesting and totally do-able. The only complexity I can think of is if the fused halfs share a particular move (e.g. they both learn the move "Pound"). In that case, maybe one side would evolve randomly? Or both halves would evolve at the same time?

Sanglorian:

You could consistently take the prefix from the father and suffix from the mother, or vice versa, communicating a little bit about the genealogy of the tuxemon. You could even have crosses have different powers based on which is the father and which is the mother, which absolutely happens in real life (ligers and tigons are quite different for example). A Bamboon♂ × Rockitten♀ (Bamkitten) could consistently take the size, weight and stats of its father but the element and techniques of its mother, while a Rockitten♂ × Bamboon♀ (Rockboon) could have the size, weight and stats of a Rockitten but the element and techniques of a Bamboon.

ShadowApex:

I think having basic genetics-like system like this is a really cool idea and could definitely be implemented. The only hitch is that, unlike with breeding, the fusion system that I had in mind could be between any two monsters, regardless of gender. I suppose in the case of same gendered fusions, we could go back to randomizing which parent influences a particular stat.

Resources

• Manually-created fusions are collected in Category:Fusion
• The plan is for fusions to be created using a similar process to Alex Onsager's Pokemon fusion site.

The Spyder in the Cathedral

Fusion is an important sub-plot in The Spyder in the Cathedral.

The Fusion Report found in Greenwash HQ has the details on fusion.

A fusion-based plot, proposed by rsg167

Original thread

We keep the monster fusion mechanic a secret.

When the player topples over half the Great Cathedral's pillars, a representative of Giovanni approaches. He challenges the player -- a usual thing for a boss to do -- but his monster is a fusion. And fusions are really strong. Like, stuck-on-the-same-battle-three-days strong.

Every now and then, the boss's fused monster emotes:

"ROCKTERA shivers."

It turns out that fused monsters will occasionally replace a move with shivering. If you've seen Romani from LoZ: Majora's Mask after They get her, you already know what I'm going for.

If a fused monster meets the evolution requirements of either of its base monsters, it will forget all its moves and become unresponsive to player commands. It will just do nothing.

Here comes an important player decision.

1. Should I keep fighting with my normal tuxemons, even though it's really hard? 2. Or, should I fuse my tuxemons, consigning them to a broken existence but being strong enough to plow through Giovanni's forces?

ShadowApex:

I really love the idea of making big decisions like this, and especially giving the fusions an important role to play that may be critical to the story, instead of something that's just thrown in. I think there's some problems I could see though:

1. I feel this would promote players to just use "throw-away" monsters for fusions. Catch a monster in the wild and level them up a little bit, then fuse them for a certain battle and throw them away when they can't be used any more.

rsg167:

I never thought of that. yikes Yes, many players would probably start doing that. I don't think it's bad, though. Players would be able to see things from the villain's perspective. What are the benefits of fusion? What are the drawbacks? Then they could come to their own conclusions.

Throw-away monsters could be a strategy for players who are only interested in the storyline. It would be the "easy mode", if you will.

2. I think this would also have a negative affect on multiplayer. In multiplayer battles, everyone would need to resort to fusions to have the fighting power to win a match. This would essentially make all non-fused monsters not viable for multiplayer, and decrease the diversity of teams.

rsg167:

I agree completely. One possible workaround is to have the players agree on a "battle ruleset":

All's Fair - fusion monsters have boosted stats

Weak Fusions - fusion monsters don't have boosted stats

No Fusions - only natural monsters allowed

You can only fight with someone if you both agree on a ruleset.

I think the general idea of fusions used as a plot device for the main antagonist is great, so long as we can work around those problems. Even making the fusions look somewhat grotesque would add to the feeling that fusing monsters might be morally wrong.