Chao Aspect

[K]

Those of us that know about chao (cha-ō) will be ecstatic to see that there will be a chao aspect. For anyone who doesn't know, chao are adorable, yet badass, little creatures with a lot of customizability. Their stats are enhanced by "Chaos Drives," crystalline nodes of chaos energy that are each dedicated to raising a particular stat. Their stats and appearances are augmented by "Small Animals," which are basically smaller versions of normal animals. In the games from which they originate, Sonic games, different breeds can have differently augmented growth rates, but we want to keep things simple, so different breeds will only be for aesthetic values, for the most part. The other differences will just be that the more expensive chao (such as the chao from an expensive onxy chao egg) will be a bit smarter and luckier, as one will notice in small measures during races and karate. An onyx chao, a garnet chao, an emerald chao, et cetera are all alike in stats, with the difference only being in appearance, intellect, and luck.

Chao are semisentient beings that are sort of "parts" of Chaos, a water-like creature that guards the Master Emerald. Because they are semisentient, they can be taught all kinds of neat tricks, like drawing, playing musical instruments, and other stuff, but they can't do much in battle. For references to what they can do in battle, refer to their capabilities in Chao Karate and during gameplay with the character, Cream, in Sonic Advance 3. Also, the moves that Cream and her chao, Cheese, have are kinda' stretches. You can have a chao learn them, but it takes a good amount of training with your chao to get them, and, of course, they won't have the sort of power that they have in that game, especially since chao will be unable to be targeted for attack by anything but another chao when they are not in a Chao Garden. You can also learn new chao attacks, but that's with a lot of training, and they have to be admin-approved, of course. By the way, we're renaming all the "hero" stuff as "light" stuff. It's more fitting.

Obtaining Chao: One can get up to two free chao in the Chao Garden, and can buy smarter, luckier, shinier chao from the shop.

Chao Habitat: Chao can follow you outside Chao World, but only for 12 hours before their Stamina begins to drop. They're also just about worthless on their own, so they have to follow you. Also, they can't use Chaos Drives or Small Animals, nor can they eat, unless they are in a Chao Garden.

Chao World: This is a small, extradimensional world that- Well, it's hard to explain unless you've been to it in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. If anyone could find little maps or whatnot to put here for others to see, that'd be cool. Because it's extradimensional, it exists so that each person that visits it can see something different, to an extent, and it can't get clustered, as a character is the only visitor to that dimension of the Chao World. The paths to the Light Chao Garden and Dark Chao Garden will be extradimensionally sealed, so that they are undetectable and inaccessible until one owns a light or dark chao, just as in SA2B. This is one thing that different visitors to the world will see as differences. As well, the Chao Transporter machines will not exist in the Light and Dark Chao Gardens, and the one that is in the Neutral Chao Garden will be the Garden Decorator. This will be a machine that allows one to transform their Neutral Chao Garden into any of the three from Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut. Again, pics/vids would be nice, but are not immediately available. That's another thing that will differ from character to character; Noah can enter his Neutral Chao Garden and have the Station Square theme for his 8 chao (maximum per garden), and Leilani can do the same thing and only see her 8 chao in the Egg Carrier theme.

[K]

Chao have the following stats:

Swim: This is swimming ability. With a minimal amount of this, a chao only flails about. With more, it learns to swim. In Chao Karate, this is their defense.

Fly: Chao can jump right after birth. This stat represents their capacity to use their wings for directional influence when falling, then gliding, and finally full flight. In Chao Karate, this is their evasion.

Run: It's running speed. In Chao Karate, this is their attack speed.

Power: This measures limbing power, ability to shake fruits off trees, and attack power in Chao Karate. If a chao has enough Swim to actually swim and a bit of power, they can act as lifeguards for chao that can't swim, if they're smart enough.

Stamina: Here's their physical stamina. In Chao Karate, this counts as their health. At its highest values, this will mean that a chao can sprint throughout a long race, or that they will be difficult to bring to tears in Chao Karate.

Since chao will have equal stat growth rates and won't have a random number generator to mix things up, stats will simply be recorded by level and the respective point increments per item. Let's demonstrate things with an example, again using Noah. The brackets will set things apart; the first part will be what he would post in the Chao World, while the second is what he would post in his chao log:

[Noah returned to the Chao Lobby, arriving in the central teleporter and immediately dashing forth into the Neutral Chao Garden. Once there, he ran around until he saw his chao, Steve. He saw the little guy swimming around in the pool, so he waded in and watched him for a bit. Once Steve stopped, Noah picked the chao up, then set it just outside the pool's edge. He drew the Purple Chaos Drive from his inventory.

"Here you go, little guy."

He handed the thing over, inciting the chao to play with it. The chao did so, and the Chaos Drive imbued its power into the chao. The delighted chao ran around for a while as Noah watched, then jumped back into the pool. Noah laughed at this, since Steve wasn't usually so eager to go swimming. He then left the Chao Garden, then used the teleporter in the Chao Lobby to go back to the Guild World.]

[spent one Purple Chaos Drive; +24 points to Steve's Fly

Steve's new stats:
Swim: Lvl 87, LP 64
Fly: Lvl 90, LP 24
Run: Lvl 98, LP 88
Power: Lvl 99, LP 99
Stamina: Lv99, LP 99]

Assuming that the previous stats were exactly what you see above, but with 0 LP for Fly (since the Purple Chaos Drive granted 24 points, just like all Chaos Drives), this would be entirely correct. Usually, people won't role-play things so extensively in the Chao World, mainly because they'll be running a lot more than one item to one chao, but this is to exemplify common actions of raising chao.

Now, you may be wondering what the Level Points (LP) are for. Well, one Yellow Chaos Drive isn't going to raise your chao an entire level in Swim. It's going to raise it 24% of a level, basically. However, that 24% won't make a difference on its own. A chao with Lvl 98, LP 0 Run will be just as fast as one with Lvl 98, LP 80 Run. A chao with Lvl 99 Run will be a bit faster, but both of the chao with Lvl 98 Run will be at the same speed. So, the Level Points don't make a difference? Not in action, no. They are what make the levels up, though. Think of them like experience points in many RPGs. If there are two characters with experience point counts that are really close to each other, they can still be equal, since they are at the same level. If you're wondering what items give what LP, you can see a list of those (which may be updated, at times) as a sticky thread in the Chao World.

Also, be aware that Lvl 99 in any stat equals 3,266 out of the 9,999 theoretical limit. That means that the maximums that a chao on Sein can reach are equal to the maximums of a non-hacked chao in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut or Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Special circumstances may lead chao to break their limits, which means that a chao could potentially have 9,999 in every stat, although that's about as likely as catching one of 600 different pokémon.

[Noah Ivaldi]

I decided to re-implement Intelligence and Luck as actual chao stats. They're on a 0-100 scale, they start at 0, and they don't go down except when a chao goes through a "reincarnation," in which case they become 1/10th of the value that they were at. They have no use outside the Chao World. In the gardens, it takes at least 5 INT and a few levels of Swim and Power in order for a chao to rescue another chao that can't swim. In races, a low LUK value will cause the Chao NPA to post that your chao tripped, encountered a pitfall, or got a nasty jack-in-the-box surprise, just as in the races in the games. INT will measure how long it takes them to figure out puzzles, just as in the games.

Blue Animals raise INT and LUK by 1/4.
Gold Animals raise LUK by 1/4.
Chaos Drives raise INT by 1/4.
Mushrooms raise INT and LUK by 1.25 (a whole mushroom), 1/4 per bite.

However, these are all hidden stats in the games, and it's okay if you don't record them, here. Frankly, unless an NPA recognizes the fact that you've given your chao enough stuff for its INT/LUK to be maxed, there are just no guarantees of anything, anyway.

Also, I listed the Mood/Belly changes per unit in the Chao World, but a lot of that will be left to your own judgement. If you've seen the Tiny Chao Garden, you know that they're on a scale of 1-10. If you've been to a full Chao Garden (Sonic Adventure 1/2), you know that having a higher Belly value increases a chao's chances of tossing away a fruit that it's not finished eating, but chao can be potentially force-fed even if they're totally full. Like INT and LUK, you're free to keep track of these values, but not required to.