Eternity's Call | Unit Design Basics
Nov. 10th, 2012 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timeless_hopeAn Eternity System unlocks the power of the mind. While there's a lot to harness out of that power, it takes a strong imagination and a lot of will to get truly useful effects. Elemental manifestation, flight, communication from across the world; all of these are possible with Eternity. The greatest power, however, is the manifestation of an Aspect, a huge construct formed from the user's thoughts, dreams, fears, and beliefs. Aspects look as different from each other as people do, but there are a few shared characteristics, partly because the low-level design documents for Aspects were shared by the Timeless shortly after the general availability of Eternity. The average size of an Aspect is about 28 meters tall (about 30-40% larger than the average Gundam); the units are generally just a little bulky, and at a glance are fairly well-armored for their design. "Small" units bottom out at around 24 meters; "large" units cap around 35 meters. Aspects can be anywhere on the real/super scale with respect to each other; however, all Aspects will be slightly closer to super robots compared to a more normal robot of similar build.
All Aspects feature a similar face: large glowing eyes in a variety of colors, a mouth that mirrors the pilot's expression, and the pilot's personal symbol, in the form of a tattoo on the left side of the face. The design of the rest of the unit is largely up to the Esper it belongs to, though almost all Aspects are composed of soft curves and graceful limbs. An Aspect's design also reflects the pilot's mental state; a hotheaded Esper might have an Aspect with powerful arms, even if it's not intended for melee combat, while an Esper whose forte is sniping may find their Aspect presents a smaller profile than most.
Aspect weaponry runs the gamut from the normal (machine guns, rifles, bazookas, physical or beam blades) to the high-end (energy weaponry, railguns, beam boomerangs) to the exotic (heavy bolters, sustained beam weaponry, energy whips) and straight into the impossible. The balance to all this power is that Aspects only have limited energy, pulled from the user. Stronger weaponry exhausts more of this energy than weaker weapons; similarly, things physics can't support are more expensive to manifest. When the energy runs out, the entire Aspect is useless. Even movement requires (small amounts of) energy. Aspects feature exceptional shielding that protects them from damage, but this too consumes the same energy that powers the rest of the unit; it can be voluntarily suppressed for invididual hits or turned off entirely to converve power. Heavily-armored units consume less energy to defend themselves, but high-speed movement consumes a fair amount in and of itself for such a unit. Lightly-armored units need lots of energy to defend against large hits, but are mobile and have long active times even at high speed.
Average Aspects have solidly powerful attacks; a weak Aspect can keep up with a mass-produced mobile suit while more than holding its own. A "decent" Aspect is a good match for an ace in a mass-produced suit. The truly strong Aspects, however, have one more trick up their sleeves: along with the varied weaponry available, they also have an elemental affinity, called an Attribute, and abilities tied to it. "Element" is a wide term here, too: anything from recognizable elements such as ice and fire, to less obvious ones like gravity, and even things like time. Anything that could feasibly be taken as something to manipulate, can be used as an Aspect's Attribute. The unimaginative use common elements; the Timeless all have unique and powerful Attributes at their disposal.
Aspects have three "modes": active, dormant, and dispelled. An active Aspect is being piloted; the pilot is inside it, in an imaginary space inside the unit. Hits to the Aspect cannot pierce through to the Esper controlling it; however, as an Aspect is damaged, the Esper inside takes sympathetic damage to match, though the pilot of a destroyed Aspect is merely knocked unconscious, not killed, and the majority of wounds from Aspect combat are not lethal. Damage to an Aspect is repaired over time via the pilot's will and energy, but takes a while; mundane repairs can speed the process along, and Aspects accept parts from many mecha, internalizing them and adapting them for their own systems so long as the part is relatively similar. If an Aspect's head is destroyed, the pilot is blinded, and will find their vision severely hampered for a time upon their exit from the unit; if the cockpit would be destroyed, the Esper is ejected first, to a location Eternity sees as safe (according to the particular pilot).
A dormant Aspect is not being used and is sitting somewhere. While in this state, the pilot can move from anywhere relatively nearby (within a mile or so) into the cockpit with a thought, though it's a strain on energy the further apart they are. Damage to a dormant Aspect isn't reflected on its owner. Dormant Aspects repair any damage they have (slowly) while dormant, and the pilot can sense the Aspect's surroundings as if they were inside it, though the Aspect can't move without being boarded first. The pilot can, however, speak through the Aspect without being inside it.
A dispelled Aspect is one that's not present in the physical plane; it's returned to its pilot's consciousness. While dispelled, an Aspect's loadout can be customized, its coloring changed, and so on; its overall design can also be changed, but this takes some time. An Aspect that is damaged cannot be dispelled until it's been completely repaired; the exception is an Aspect whose cockpit block is destroyed, which repairs slowly while dispelled, cockpit first. It takes time to summon an Aspect, though the pilot can move around while he's waiting for it. The further downside to summoning a dispelled Aspect, one which drives many pilots to just leave their Aspects dormant when not in use, is that the Aspect's senses are severely dulled for some time (usually five to thirty minutes) after it's summoned. Piloting experience can reduce, but not eliminate, this downtime; it's said Iris is at full sensory capacity in just five seconds.
All Aspects feature a similar face: large glowing eyes in a variety of colors, a mouth that mirrors the pilot's expression, and the pilot's personal symbol, in the form of a tattoo on the left side of the face. The design of the rest of the unit is largely up to the Esper it belongs to, though almost all Aspects are composed of soft curves and graceful limbs. An Aspect's design also reflects the pilot's mental state; a hotheaded Esper might have an Aspect with powerful arms, even if it's not intended for melee combat, while an Esper whose forte is sniping may find their Aspect presents a smaller profile than most.
Aspect weaponry runs the gamut from the normal (machine guns, rifles, bazookas, physical or beam blades) to the high-end (energy weaponry, railguns, beam boomerangs) to the exotic (heavy bolters, sustained beam weaponry, energy whips) and straight into the impossible. The balance to all this power is that Aspects only have limited energy, pulled from the user. Stronger weaponry exhausts more of this energy than weaker weapons; similarly, things physics can't support are more expensive to manifest. When the energy runs out, the entire Aspect is useless. Even movement requires (small amounts of) energy. Aspects feature exceptional shielding that protects them from damage, but this too consumes the same energy that powers the rest of the unit; it can be voluntarily suppressed for invididual hits or turned off entirely to converve power. Heavily-armored units consume less energy to defend themselves, but high-speed movement consumes a fair amount in and of itself for such a unit. Lightly-armored units need lots of energy to defend against large hits, but are mobile and have long active times even at high speed.
Average Aspects have solidly powerful attacks; a weak Aspect can keep up with a mass-produced mobile suit while more than holding its own. A "decent" Aspect is a good match for an ace in a mass-produced suit. The truly strong Aspects, however, have one more trick up their sleeves: along with the varied weaponry available, they also have an elemental affinity, called an Attribute, and abilities tied to it. "Element" is a wide term here, too: anything from recognizable elements such as ice and fire, to less obvious ones like gravity, and even things like time. Anything that could feasibly be taken as something to manipulate, can be used as an Aspect's Attribute. The unimaginative use common elements; the Timeless all have unique and powerful Attributes at their disposal.
Aspects have three "modes": active, dormant, and dispelled. An active Aspect is being piloted; the pilot is inside it, in an imaginary space inside the unit. Hits to the Aspect cannot pierce through to the Esper controlling it; however, as an Aspect is damaged, the Esper inside takes sympathetic damage to match, though the pilot of a destroyed Aspect is merely knocked unconscious, not killed, and the majority of wounds from Aspect combat are not lethal. Damage to an Aspect is repaired over time via the pilot's will and energy, but takes a while; mundane repairs can speed the process along, and Aspects accept parts from many mecha, internalizing them and adapting them for their own systems so long as the part is relatively similar. If an Aspect's head is destroyed, the pilot is blinded, and will find their vision severely hampered for a time upon their exit from the unit; if the cockpit would be destroyed, the Esper is ejected first, to a location Eternity sees as safe (according to the particular pilot).
A dormant Aspect is not being used and is sitting somewhere. While in this state, the pilot can move from anywhere relatively nearby (within a mile or so) into the cockpit with a thought, though it's a strain on energy the further apart they are. Damage to a dormant Aspect isn't reflected on its owner. Dormant Aspects repair any damage they have (slowly) while dormant, and the pilot can sense the Aspect's surroundings as if they were inside it, though the Aspect can't move without being boarded first. The pilot can, however, speak through the Aspect without being inside it.
A dispelled Aspect is one that's not present in the physical plane; it's returned to its pilot's consciousness. While dispelled, an Aspect's loadout can be customized, its coloring changed, and so on; its overall design can also be changed, but this takes some time. An Aspect that is damaged cannot be dispelled until it's been completely repaired; the exception is an Aspect whose cockpit block is destroyed, which repairs slowly while dispelled, cockpit first. It takes time to summon an Aspect, though the pilot can move around while he's waiting for it. The further downside to summoning a dispelled Aspect, one which drives many pilots to just leave their Aspects dormant when not in use, is that the Aspect's senses are severely dulled for some time (usually five to thirty minutes) after it's summoned. Piloting experience can reduce, but not eliminate, this downtime; it's said Iris is at full sensory capacity in just five seconds.
