Engage: New Choice Guidelines

Contents:
1. How does this work?
2. When exactly can New Choice activate?
3. Is this an iron man? (Wheel of Consequences)
4. Special targeting rules
5. Battle preparations
6. Mods and DLC
7. Misc. rules and more detailed clarifications



--- 1. How does this work? ---
Whenever I confirm an action, there is a 15% chance that my choice will be vetoed, forcing me to come up with a new plan.
There is no protection against New Choice activating multiple times in a row.
All restricted choices reset each turn, OR when a unit is refreshed.

The "choice" that was vetoed is defined in 3 parts:
	a. An acting unit
	b. An action
	c. A target

I only need to change ONE of these parts for my next action to be considered "distinct" from the vetoed action.
For example, say I activate New Choice when trying to have Framme use a Heal staff on Alfred. I am still allowed to...
- Have Jean use a Heal staff on Alfred (changing the acting unit)
- Have Framme use Chain Guard to protect Alfred instead (changing the action)
- Have Framme heal someone other than Alfred (changing the target)

As a general rule, an action is defined by the menu option selected to complete it. This means that attacking with a different weapon is not a difference choice, as they both use the "Attack" menu option. However, attacking an enemy with an Engage attack IS a different choice, as it uses a different menu option. The two biggest exceptions are the Staff and Item commands. Using Mend or Physic on the same ally are two different choices, as are using a vulnerary or an elixir.

There are many other minor nuances to how actions and the targets of those actions are defined. This is especially true of Engage, thanks to all the different things Emblems can do. See the "Special targeting rules" section below for a full breakdown of those rules with examples and key exceptions.



--- 2. When exactly can New Choice activate? ---
New Choice isn't simply bound to the A button on my controller.
There are specific circumstances where I do or don't run the check:

Free Actions:
- Wait
- Equip/Unequip
- Talk
- **Engage**
- Trade equip (Trading, but not exchanging items)
- Map-ending actions like "Seize" (I believe Seadall's escape is the only examples of this in Engage)
- Selecting units for deployment, changing their starting positions, and equipping rings/skills
- Using stat boosters and tonics (during battle preparations)
- Most out-of-battle decisions (explained in depth below)

Actions that can be "New Choiced":
- Attacking (specifically with the "Attack" command)
- Using a staff
- Using any item
- Trading
- Visiting villages
- Menu commands granted by an emblem, class, or skill (Dragon Vein, Chain Guard, Dance, Run Through, etc.)
- Choosing which item to send to the convoy when obtaining a new one with a full inventory

Banned entirely
- Strength Training
- Fishing
- Wyvern Ride
- Tower of Trials



--- 3. Is this an iron man? (Wheel of Consequences) ---
Sorta. Not really.

So, this is NOT an iron man. I may rewind to the *beginning* of any player phase if a unit dies, but only AFTER a death occurs - not to prevent one. After rewinding, I am not restricted by any New Choice activations that happened in the previous timeline.

However, there are still severe consequences for mistakes:
- If a unit is revived by rewind, their bond with their equipped emblem is "severed". After completing the map, they can never deploy with that emblem or with skills inherited from that emblem ever again.
- If a unit is revived a second time in a chapter, or does not have an emblem equipped, there is no bond to sever. In that case, we must spin the Wheel of Consequences and inflict a different penalty:
       Severance: The revived unit's next strongest bond is severed
	  Class Lock: The revived unit can never use a second seal again
    Class Change: The revived unit can never be deployed in their current class again
	     Fatigue: The revived unit cannot be deployed on the following map
	        Junk: Toss the weapon that was equipped when the unit died (next available weapon/item if N/A)
	   Liquidate: Sell the unit's entire inventory (at time of death) after the map
	  New Choice: (23% chance) Spin the wheel again, and apply the punishment to a different (deployed) unit at random
  Never Punished: (2% chance) No consequences
- Full resets are still not permitted, so we can still have permadeath if I really am getting my ass kicked hard enough to run out of rewind charges. Exceptions will be made when the time crystal is unavailable. Those resets will be treated like normal rewinds to turn 1, so I will restart the map immediately without changing any decisions made during battle preparations.
- Note that none of the above penalties come into effect until the current map is completed. If the condition can't be filled at all for any reason, spin again.
- The "Class Change" penalty would be overly harsh in the early game, so it doesn't take effect until Chapter 8.
- The Engage+ bond cannot be severed, and a unit that dies with Engage+ active is treated as if they were still synced with the emblem they actually have equipped.



--- 4. Special targeting rules ---
Aside from simple attacks/staves, there are three types of actions in Engage that define their targets differently, each needing their own definition for a "new choice":
A. Collateral damage
 - Includes actions that have an AoE effect, but are executed by selecting a single target (e.g. Roy's Blazing Lion attack, a Mend staff range-boosted by Micaiah, Tiki's Fire Breath weapon, etc.). These skills usually have a standard combat forecast, just like normal attacks/staves
 - The "choice" is defined by the individual targeted unit
 - It does NOT matter what other allies/enemies are caught in the AoE

B. Multi-target
 - Includes actions that target ALL allies/enemies in a certain range from the user (e.g. Fortify, Goddess Dance, Rally Spectrum, etc.)
 - The "choice" includes all affected units on an individual basis, so to make a different choice, there must be ZERO overlap

C. Self-target
 - Includes "stance" skills (e.g. Great Aether, Storm's Eye, etc.) or terrain-affecting skills (e.g. Dragon Veins, Obstruct staff, etc.)
 - Strictly one choice, with no way to try again on that turn unless the unit is refreshed

Fringe cases and misc. notes:
- Chain Guard and Bonded Shield technically "target" adjacent allies, but they do not require an adjacent ally to execute. This means they will be considered self-targeting "stance" skills.
- When a Dragon unit syncs with Corrin or Camilla, each kind of Dragon Vein is a separate choice. Selecting "Dragon Vein" on the menu is a free action.
- For Veronica's Summon Hero skill, each color is a separate choice. Opening the menu is a free action.
- Switching between Eirika and Ephraim is a free action.
- Edelgard's Combat Arts (Raging Storm, Atrocity, and Fallen Star) are not distinct choices from each other, i.e. the "Combat Arts" menu command is a single choice, similar to the "Attack" command.
- Camilla's Engage attack, Dark Inferno, will be treated like a self-targeting action under rule C. It is technically a standard AoE under rule B, but I'm simplifying the rule for this one due to how difficult it would be to keep track of who it is targeting.
- The "+" versions of DLC Engage attacks are not considered distinct from their normal versions, i.e. if Dark Inferno is "New Choiced", you CANNOT use Dark Inferno+ as an alternative.



--- 5. Battle preparations ---
An important destinction from previous New Choice challenge runs - With some minor exceptions, New Choice will not be applied to decisions made in preparations between maps. If it happens anywhere other than a map and is not explicitly mentioned in this document, it is likely uninhibited by New Choice. I've made this change for a few different reasons:
- There are a lot of decisions to make between maps in Engage, so keeping track of New Choice during preparations would be difficult and tedious.
- Engage is a long game, so I want to reduce downtime as much as possible. New Choice affecting preparations would not only drag them out, but would also prevent me from doing them off-stream.
- Engage's systems are complex enough - and Maddening Mode is difficult enough - that I think contending with New Choice during maps is a sufficient extra challenge on its own.
- New Choice during preps would mostly serve to constrain my toolset, but the variety of available tools is what I love most about Engage. I think keeping preps "free" is simply a better fit for the spirit of this game.

The Ancient Well:
There is one key restriction on the well which I like to use as a personal rule. Any staves earned from the well that are normally finite (this includes all staves earned from the 3/4/5 star pools) must be thrown back into the well, as I feel extra copies of these staves alter the balance of the game too dramatically.

Bond Rings:
No restrictions, aside from obviously not allowing savescumming. No, I'm not getting Dire Thunder.

Cafe:
Choosing which allies to dine with is subjected to New Choice. Choosing which meal to cook and which ingredients to use is free.



--- 6. Mods and DLC ---
I will be using various features of Triabolical's QoL modpack (https://gamebanana.com/mods/480198) to cut down on time spent in the Somniel and improve the stream experience. I will not be using any mods that affect the balance of the game, aside from two key exceptions regarding DLC. First, I will be turning off the free items and money granted by the expansion pass, as these completely destroy the economy of the base game. Second, I will be using the modpack to obtain the DLC emblem bracelets without playing their Divine Paralogue maps, as those maps can significantly disrupt the base game's level curve.

To preserve some semblance of balance, I will distribute the DLC bracelets gradually throughout the second half of the game. First, I will gain access to Edelgard in Chapter 12. After that, another emblem bracelet (chosen at random) will be obtained each time one of the first six emblem rings is reobtained, to correspond with the intended power spikes of the base game. (That means two in Ch18, two in Ch20, one in Ch21, and one in Ch23.)

To further keep the powerful DLC emblems in check, I will artificially cap their bond levels temporarily by disallowing myself from viewing their second bond conversations. I can lift this restriction on one DLC emblem for each base game emblem paralogue I complete, in whatever order I choose.

Note that I will NOT be obtaining the Fell Xenologue units. I might allow the DLC classes - maybe with some limitation, since they are pretty silly. As of now, I haven't decided on exactly how I want to handle them.


--- 7. Misc. rules and more detailed clarifications ---
For anything I forgot to mention about New Choice guidelines:
Generally, the intuition/principle I tried to follow with these rules is that free actions are those that have no alternative, while "New Choice-able" actions are those that are one of several options. This principle gets bent in a few key places for the sake of balance and/or fun, but it generally holds for most of the rules. My real highest priority is making sure that this is fun to play and to watch! I fully expect to encounter situations during the run that I did not anticipate, and we may need to come up with special rules on the fly and determine what feels most fair to the spirit of New Choice.

Refreshing quirks:
Refreshing a unit with Dance, Contract, Goddess Dance, Raging Storm, or Houses Unite+ allows the unit to retry any actions that were previously vetoed. This holds true no matter how many times a unit is refreshed in one turn.

Life Crystals:
A boss's second/third/fourth health bar is NOT considered a distinct unit - i.e. breaking a crystal does NOT reset your New Choices against the boss from that turn.

Game Over:
In the event of a game over due to a map objective, we will proceed as if Alear had died (i.e. Alear's bond is severed, or the wheel of consequences is spun for them). There are four chapters in Engage with special game over conditions: Ch6 (Yunaka dies), Ch8 (foes reach area), Ch15 (Seadall dies), and Ch24 (15 turns pass). Note that if Yunaka or Seadall die on their join maps, the resultant game over will be counted as two deaths, one for them and one for Alear.

Trading and Convoy access:
- Trade equipping is free again, unlike my ruleset for Revelations New Choice.
- Trading, as a whole, is one choice. If the "Trade" action succeeds, you can exchange as many items as you want between the two units involved.
- The convoy follows similar rules. If your "Convoy" action succeeds, you are allowed to exchange as many items as you'd like.
- If a trade fails, you CAN attempt the same trade with the other unit's action - i.e. if Alear is blocked from trading with Vander, Vander can still try to use his turn to trade with Alear, as the "acting unit" and "target" are different.

Mistakes:
- If I accidentally execute an action that was vetoed by New Choice, I must rewind to the beginning of the current turn.
- The Wheel of Consequences is immediately spun for the acting unit. Their equipped bond is not necessarily severed - we just go straight to the wheel.