Buyog's Lair

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to balance the different "X Lantern" modes in the upcoming Blackest Night Hal Jordan. While I don't want to make 6 completely new characters, I really do want each mode to feel different from the others, reflecting that lantern corps' philosophy while retaining Hal's core personality. While working on the Red Lantern mode, I came to believe that my original plan falls short of that goal.

Baseline: Green Lantern mode

First off, I'm making some changes to the regular Green Lantern moveset, many based on SethZankuten's play-balanced remix. Here's the revised movelist:

• Taunt: lantern charge (only way to increase power bar)
• Specials:
  • Ring Strike QCF + P
  • Emerald Swordsman QCF + P (in air only)
  • Charging Ram QCF + K (ground and air)
  • Buzzcut QCB + P (anti-air)
  • Plasma Sphere QCB + K
• Hypers:
  • KO/Smackdown QCF + PP
  • Emerald Knight QCF + KK
  • Ion Force QCB + PP
  • Ring Slinging QCB + KK
  • Soldier of Oa QCB + PK

Common changes: All custom lantern modes

The custom modes will all have the following things:

• custom stance
• custom intro: (many of these donated by ScruffyDragon forum regular Amon-Ra. Thanks, bro!)
• custom win state (and sometimes a custom lose state too)
• passive enhancement: something that makes this mode somehow "better" than the others
• quirk: something that makes this mode unique, and potentially more challenging
• 2 custom specials: each replacing a move from GL mode
• 1 Hyper: also replacing a GL move

Based on this revised plan, here's what's currently on the drawing board:

Red Lantern (palette 07)

• stance: more aggressive
• intro: ring takeover & blood cough
• win: growl/shout at P2's ko'ed body (think Savage Hulk's winpose)
• passive enhancement: does damage to P2 when grabbed/thrown
• quirk: no voices, only grunts and growls. Harder to launch combos.
• Special 1: Plasma Vomit (replaces Ring Strike)
• Special 2: Jet Flyby (replaces Charging Ram)
• Hyper: Flames of Rage (replaces Soldier of Oa)

Orange Lantern (palette 08)

• stance: arms crossed / defensive
• intro: "MINE!" (hugging the lantern)
• win: P2 identity theft
• passive enhancement: hyper moves cost half as much power as normal (since I can't give you a "1000%" power bar ;))
• quirk: no taunt to recharge the lantern; when it's gone, it's gone
• Special 1: Selfish Grab (replaces Plasma Sphere)
• Special 2: "Go Away!" (replaces Emerald Swordsman)
• Hyper: Construct Corps (replaces Soldier of Oa)

Yellow Lantern (palette 09)

• stance: proud, arms crossed (a la Sinestro)
• intro: Hal-as-Parallax, then suit changes into standard Sinestro Corps
• win: smug laughter
• passive enhancement: moves do more damage
• quirk: moves take slightly more power to use
• Special 1: Sinister Spike (replaces Buzzcut)
• Special 2: Cruel Grip (squeezing sphere; replaces Plasma Sphere)
• Hyper: Parallax Entity (replaces KO/Smackdown)

Blue/Green Lantern (palette 10)

• stance: slightly chaotic; lots of energy bleeding out of fingertips
• intro: with Saint Walker ("All will be well")
• win: ring raised high
• passive enhancement: powerbar quickly recharges whenever you're idle for a short time
• quirk: moves sometimes interrupted by the ring asking "what do you hope for?"
• Special 1: Ring Blast (bigger beam; replaces Ring Strike)
• Special 2: TBA (replaces Emerald Swordsman)
• Hyper: Ion Wave (a la Magnetic Shockwave; replaces Ion Force)

Indigo Lantern (palette 11)

• stance: both arms forward
• intro: walk on screen with Indigo staff, which then fades away
• win: teleport away
• passive enhancement: defense stats are slightly higher, so he'll take a bit less damage than normal
• quirk: unblocked projectile attacks decrease both health and power bar
• Special 1: Teleport (replaces Charging Ram)
• Special 2: Nek Ler Klok (Energy Redirect) (replaces Plasma Sphere)
• Hyper: Enforced Empathy (replaces Emerald Knight)

Black Lantern (palette 12)

• stance: like normal, but with an evil grin and without breathing
• intro: "Hal Jordan of Earth... DIE!"
• win: bump up ring charge by 10%
• passive enhancement: super-robust healing factor (can only be KO'ed by a level-3 hyper)
• passive enhancement (2): specials cost no power bar to use
• quirk: power bar only increases with every KO'ed opponent (persists between rounds)
• Special 1: Piercing Strike (replaces Ring Strike)
• Special 2: TBD (replaces Buzzcut)
• Hyper: Black Ring Swarm (replaces Ring Slinging)

So, yeah. That's the revised plan. Tonight I'm defragging my laptop's hard drive(looooong overdue), or I'd be working on the stance for Yellow Lantern. Hopefully I'll be able to show that off later this week.