Katuko

I've been spending my time on exams, mostly. For this game I'm working on the new engine, which is proceeding, but slowly. Currently I only have the very basics of movement controls actually implemented, as I build this piece by piece and spend a lot of time on each. I'll keep you posted.

You are very trigger-happy with this, are you not?

I agree very, very much with this. The only thing that separates anything in the previous poll is maybe 2 votes total. Why are you posting a new poll so quickly, by the way? I get that you're excited and all, but I would like to ask you to take it slow.

I still can't quite get my head around canonizing something that has 14 votes total, and that is only one or two votes above the closest competitor, in a poll with less than 100 votes total. I mean, look at this stuff: Calix/Rode - 17 votes Conjuring - 16 votes Kaukau/Adaptation - 14 votes Pakari/Kadin - 13 votes Sanok - 12 votes It's like, if maybe two people bring in a friend to vote, it could actually tip the scales again. That is pretty much the opposite of a clear vote result in my mind.

Were Av-Matoran even in the planning stage at that point? Either way, Jaller and Tahu were right there, and they apparently did not want to touch lava either.

To quote the comic where they fight Vezon: In the book version of the fight, it goes like this: It's clear that even with heat resistance, none of them thinks Jaller would last even a minute. The next few sentences has him reminisce about lava surfing in Ta-Koro, where he makes it even more clear that falling into lava is not safe and not at all pretty to watch. We see the same in Mask of Light: Takua has trouble even touching the Mask of Light after he picks it out of the lava, and Tahu uses his mask to shield them from the wave that washes over them. None of them wants to touch it, even when on a surf board. The lava would certainly warp metal and burn muscles even if if didn't melt anyone instantly.

I'd actually really, really like for this guy to get a tool made out of metal if he is to get one. If it was made of wood he might as well not carry one at all, because he could just make one out of thin air when needed. He'd have to do it often as well, fighting a dragon, I mean. Plus, try hitting through metal armor with a tool made of wood, and try blocking fire with it. A wooden weapon wouldn't do much. He would have to rely on his actual plant control powers. I find it likely that he'd be carrying either some generic sword/machete, or a projectile launcher of sorts. A Kanoka launcher would give him a decent pool of options, I think. EDIT: And yes, let us please stick with basic tool names and nothing more.

Bleh, he became Green. Oh well, he can still be useful, so Mask of Healing it is.

Thanks, but the link in the post is dead. Yeah, it's like... I don't want a wizard-type power where you speak spell descriptions. I've got that in a lot of other series, and this one has so far worked fine (10 years, plus plus!) with mental triggers only.

The point would be that the mask itself has an simple definition, and all you need to know is that it keeps the user away from harm if they are aware of the incoming attack. The exact details would start falling into technobabble, which is fine for fans to speculate in, but not something I like to see crammed into canon when it's hardly even important. Makes sense? Remind me, what is the actual upside? But as I mentioned, the nature of a programming language is somewhat different from the nature of a language used for communication. There are rules to them both, but if they were speaking and interpreting an actual programming language you'd have to expect that the words they speak would have a direct effect upon the recipient, as the code was run through their hardware. I disagree. You consciously decide which commands to send with a Komau, and you consciously decide how to make your illusions act. If you can make illusions walk and talk while still doing other things, I see no issue in having a more complicated set of instructions be possible - but require greater focus. My version of the Conjuring power does not have the silly weakness of stating powers out loud in detail, but it requires you to stay still and focused on your programming task. It's not something you'd be able to do in the middle of combat, or even on a whim when faced with an entirely unknown situation. The thing is, I don't think it's good to get so hung up on the original inspiration or idea that the resulting mask ends up as just another curiosity to throw on the pile. It would still have the mental backlash if you try to exceed your own capabilities. I wish for the mask to be limited due to the time and concentration it takes to create a power. I see the whole "speak out loud" gimmick as unnecessary, programming language or not. The shape could easily have another power, for that matter. Take care to kill your darlings sometimes, as the saying goes. You yourself have a giant list of powers you have thought of, so if one does not work all that well it's not that hard to come up with a different power that could fit the same shape. It could be limited Weather Control, for example, if we are to throw another Kraata power into a mask. The design on the front looks kind of like water droplets. Manipulating someone to do your will is not flexible? Is it not mind-based and also dangerous, with inherent limits? And again: Other weaknesses could work just as well from a story balancing perspective. On numerous occasions a character has been caught off-guard by masks, powers and abilities they did not recognize. Heck, some powers are designed to make you undetectable or to strike without the victim noticing. "Seeing the shape" has never been much of a balancing factor, and if you wish to speak of in-character reasoning "telling my enemy what I'm doing" is a very bad idea. The shape is there so that you know which mask you get when you pick it out of a pile of Kanohi, it is not there because people feel the need to inform everyone else of exactly what they can do. On the basis that if they are speaking a programming language and also using mentally triggered powers with precision, then they already have the language formalized in their brain. If they speak the same programming language that can be used to make new powers, then they are already using it in some form internally whenever they activate a power. My notion here is the basis for a lot of system development: If the formalization is in place, then the machine should not need to go via a different channel. In this case, in order for the Toa to speak, their mind must already have arranged the words - made up on programming language - in the sentence before it is emitted as sound waves in whatever manner. if the mind can form these words into a sentence and speak them, it should also be perfectly capable of forming them into a sentence and feeding them into the mental power that is waiting to "record". I am not missing it, I just find it very silly to read a power definition out loud to a device that you otherwise operate mentally. Deep concentration is enough of a downside in my book. It'd be like a trance/meditation, and if you are interrupted the power creation fails. In order for you to speak the sentence, you have formed the words in your brain and decided to vocalize it. "Decide to vocalize it" is identical and easily replaced with "decide to record it" in my book. If someone wishes to speak aloud to focus, by all means, let them do so. But I find it silly to make it a required part of the power itself. It is also not debatable that no other mask power in the series requires verbal or somatic components to activate, whereas mental triggers appear on all of them. BIONICLE has also made several questionable decisions in the past, which are debated at length, so I see no problems in questioning this one as well. Oh, and I'd still like a link to your game (I usually enjoy RPGs). I'd also like to mention that your posts in the EM topics are still pretty messed up from the forum-wide formatting issues we had in the past, so you might want to go through and add some line breaks.

The portrayal in MoL does not differ from any previous portrayals. Tahu looks at the incoming danger, and it gets blocked. The movie also took the artistic liberty of having him flung through a wall from the force, but the shield never failed to deploy. We see it get used the same way in the MNOG, where Onua looks at something and brings up the shield before he gets hit. If the shield is up and he can conceivably tell that the attack coming, he can block it. If it comes from outside his field of view, he cannot. "Either a distraction or a dud" is... well, pretty bad as far as masks go. I am of the mind that a mask power should only fail if it was ill suited to the situations, not because it worked but the result was entirely random. A major limit is already inherent in that you can't actually control the summoned creature. If it's usually like summoning a cow into a firefight, I do not think that it also needs to have a random chance to summon something entirely useless instead. Which is exactly why I wonder why "Undeath", of all things, got approved. As said, I think that one mask with spoken commands is already stretching it. We have infinite possibilities when it comes to creating powers, so why feel the need to leap outside the established frame of mental commands? The setting is already filled with dozens of esoteric abilities and gear, so why cram vocal programming into a Kanohi? Spoken Matoran would also need to be functionally a protocol for communication and instructions, not a full-fledged programming language, just throwing that out there. Their minds may run on a different setup. It is not foreign. It already exists in every other mask power. You trigger it mentally, and you shut it off mentally. In-between it runs its script, which in Conjuring's case would be a sophisticated recorder. This does not change whether it's vocal or mental, it still has to distinguish between your own commands and random background noise. I find it safe to say that the people who created the Komau and the Suletu should find it easy to let the user decide which words/thoughts end up being used by the power. It has to do with concentration, and I do not find it much different from what we already have. If the Komau did not have a safeguard, how do we avoid it killing the target by overloading their brain with a stream of commands? How was Kongu able to filter through the stream of voices in his head, if it does not have a built-in "channel tuner"? And if we've established that Matoran speak programming language, and that Toa can learn to activate/deactivate masks on a mental trigger, I don't see why actual voices have to enter the picture. I think you as well I mean that if they speak the programming/protocol language, then they already have the syntax ready to go in their system. It should not need to be turned from digital to analog via the sound emitter, then re-recorded, translated and interpreted by the mask. If the Toa can generate a stream of "programming language" vocally, then their bodies should just as easily be able to route that very same (finalized, ready-to-speak) mental stream directly to the mask. I mention it because you appear to repeatedly bring it up as a point to defend your idea; that it's just my limited personal taste that gets in the way. I have already told you why I think it is not, but OK. I will concede that the Rau works with spoken languages, but the Rode always seemed to me to be based entirely upon analyzing the target's psyche. It sees through disguises as well as lies. The Rau also translates information that exists outside of the user, whereas a power that you trigger yourself (mentally, I want to add yet again) has no reason to take external input when all the input is already formalized in a stream of data within the user him/herself. It's all well and good that it is unique, but as I've said I do not like the particular brand of unique you've brought to the table here. Which works fine, no objections there. Honestly, I don't think your logic works either, which is why we are debating. "The wearer concentrates deeply on a power, which the mask will create for him. This power can only be kept for a short time, and will have inherent weaknesses based upon its design. Care must be taken, for a wrongly designed power may also cause a psychic backlash on the user when triggered. After a power has been used the mask must take time to recharge, and can thus not create a new power for a short while." I can't help but think that it is simpler and more elegant than vocal commands, stating the time duration, forcing the user to speak their own weaknesses, etc. It keeps the power-making aspect, it can still have Trivia flair that mentions that it was inspired by Matoran being a programming language, it can still work on a syntax, you can still have someone who speaks the words out loud to concentrate better, you can still have people who make books of "spells" that work to bring with them.

I only ever saw the Bohrok --> Boxor thing as a machine being rebuilt into another machine, nothing more. Av-Matoran turning into Bohrok was kind of a stupid plot twist, but then they are still utterly dead. It's not like the Bohrok silently hopes the Toa will kill it so that it can end its miserable existence as a temporary slave worker. If they did that would be pretty metal, though. Pun intended.

If you are aware of the incoming danger, it is blocked. If you are not aware - such as because you do can't see it - it goes through. That's it. Simple in concept, simple to describe. We've seen it illustrated multiple times. The shield always turns on in time. This is not technobabble. It would be technobabble if we started describing the radius of the shield, or the number of seconds you can keep blocking a continuous beam, or the amount of force in tons which it could resist before breaking. Of course, but here we assume that it is the character who comes up with their own weakness and state it out loud in clear terms, not that they are working with an intrinsic "feel" of what doesn't work (such as a laser requiring too much energy). Indeed. But most I have seen has "summon specific monster" or "summon chosen monster" or "summon monster of a certain size". The Zatth is completely out of the user's control. I believe he explicitly said the Vahi could not time travel, because that's when he was first asked about time travel. But I'm glad we can agree on something. I'm sure it could also have been a Mask of Power Scream, befitting it's open mouth. See, if there'd been a contest, I would likely be more willing to accept some of these things, because then there would have been a period of discussion and votes for each entry. As it is, it's just another random fan-made power that honestly feels tacked on. I know I am not alone in thinking this. See other members in this topic, as well as the comic I linked. We do, but evidently we all think of different things. How is that over-complicating it? You are adding spoken commands, whereas mental commands would already be inherent in literally every single other mask power. The Komau, in particular, transmits mental commands of sorts to the target, or some equivalent. You like to act as if thinking it is more complicated than speaking it with a specific syntax, don't you? In a series where mental commands to activate powers already happen all the time but vocal commands do not. They should not need a mask to do it if they are really speaking a programming language - the commands would already be valid software for the hardware they are running. Again, it's personal taste on your part as well. The concept is a not a new one. As you say, other series also allow people to invent their own spells and tech and powers. But what you feel is inspired by BIONICLE is different from what others feel is inspired by BIONICLE. To me, speaking a power definition out loud is not BIONICLE in any way, because every power in BIONICLE is based upon mental activation, or else forging a tech object and triggering it. Great Beings used programming speech, but then they used it directly to the beings they had created. Beings which communicated in this language, making it programming (a set of instructions) for the beings, but not for the powers they wield. The beings activated their powers through internal, not external, commands; something which makes sense. Spoken powers appear in other series I like, but I do not think we need them in BIONICLE when the existing system of mental commands will suffice.

You know what I mean. We don't eat human flesh, and we (usually) don't pick the bones out to build something else from.

Eh, it's just the metal shell of a long dead being, it's not like there's muscle tissue left on them. And even if there were, the inhabitants of the Matoran Universe would not find it gross the same way we find blood and gore gross. They don't exactly kill Matoran for the sole purpose of building Boxor out of them. they just reuse parts that could never go back in "the cycle" anyways. If humans left behind a skeleton that never rotted I'd bet we'd be using the material much like they did in the old days with animal skeletons, in order to make tools and other useful items.

Again: One is a script that does one thing. The other is a script you write yourself. There is a clear difference, as you make clear. As said, though, the issue is not with the power itself, it is with the somewhat technobabbly description that we could do well to fix. I mean that the downsides are patched on by the character him/herself, but this does not really work with either the magic stance (where they should be able to "feel" that something was wrong before it lashed out) or from the programming perspective (where you would either get a failure to run, or a crash on run, but not a crash before you were even finished writing). In a real programming language you would either get a script that doesn't run that all, or a script which runs but crashes. Making a mistake while writing the script itself would not instantly hit you with bad effects. It would only do so if you tried to run the failed program. And how are you supposed to know what the mask will consider a "fitting" downside, for instance? If I say "death laser with 5000 degrees Celsius output and 5 second energy charge-up", is that too much? My taste issues comes from this trying to be magic and tech in one, but I don't feel it fulfills either. I've said as much. But keep in mind that when you write that story, you evidently do not wish to include all the details about exact time limit etc. Why include the numbers in the mask, then, is my question? I also like wizards who pull spells and cool powers out of their rears, but that is usually a different setting with a different tone, or at least it's established that any character does it. Here it's more... BIONICLE started getting more and more silly powers tacked on. Like, you run out of options eventually, when you make powers rigid and also generic concepts, but I do not think the solution is to make the new masks have less rigid or more extravagant powers. That is just compounding the issue. I have disliked several canon powers as well, but right now this is mostly about Conjuring. Still, here goes: - I dislike the Zatth because it is too random. One time it pulls out a useless fish, the other it grabs a leviathan, you have no way of knowing. A tiny change would let this mask fit better in: Let the user pick the nearby Rahi to summon, so that the limits are on range and focus, not on utter predictability. - The Mohtrek. Why does it have to introduce all the silly timeline continuity issues by pulling clones from the past ad then sending them back afterwards? Have it work like so many other fictional powers and just clone the user on the spot (Naruto and Dragonball, plus plenty of video games, do this). That way you can still have them linked to the same form, and you can still have the injuries of one be mirrored on the others. - The Mask of Undeath. We have discussed this one before. Do we really need an autopilot zombie in BIONICLE? I don't really think so. It's one of those odd things that are just tacked on. I'm guess I prefer the type of stories where either everyone has predefined powers ("Guys, you know I'm a vampire, I must wait until the sun goes down!") or the ones where they have purely equipment-based powers ("Sure, my thermal vision goggles are cool, but I can't use them in direct sunlight") or the ones where most people have established wizard magic ("If you give me a day to research the sun I can make a spell to shield you from sunburn"). BIONICLE has been a series in which you have a mix of one and two, and I'm reluctant to accept that any old Toa - who already have so many powers to choose from, options to exchange powers (Suva, Mask of Emulation) and options to recieve powered equipment... that they should even get a power that allows them to make more powers then and there. Yes, and this is one reason why I don't like that we are sticking powers onto masks that appeared for a single frame in the comics - especially the ones that were just rough background objects. I'm a bit cynical at times, and I can't help but imagine that we eventually end up as Vrahno predicts here. It defines that you must state weaknesses out loud. It does not cite any examples, which makes it just as much up in the air as just saying that "the finished power will have certain limits and weaknesses based upon its design". Yes. Understood, but never put into pure numbers. Their brains operate in the same language. When programming I restrain myself to the syntax and the inherent limitations of the program I am making. They can also manipulate the finer aspects of other powers with their thoughts, such as the Mask of Mind Control. I'd assume that you would think it through, then mentally activate the "record" button, concentrate on the power you want, and then have the mask fix it up. Like VBA, when you turn on the code helper. It helps you with the exact syntax, but that does not mean you can't still mess it up royally. People will debate the OPness of anything anyway, so we might as well make it simpler in the first place. Like Dragonball: The writer introduced characters who could read the "power level" of others with a scouter device. It displayed the power in numbers, leading to wild and unnecessary doting about numbers whenever characters fought. Soon enough the numbers became ridiculous, and the scouters were dropped from the series -- a good change in the mind of most fans. One character even joked about it later: "One does not predict or calculate power such as ours", he says to an android which tries to analyze him. He proceeds to destroy it easily after it told him he was obviously too weak to have any chance at winning. I'd say this is such a case: We can debate the power itself until the world ends, but ditch the numbers. I enjoy programming, and I greatly enjoy powers with clear rules and limits, but this one is... well, not clear. It's pretty much the opposite of clear. I feel that it either needs a full library of functions and parameters, or it needs to be a tiny bit more "magic science" and a tiny bit less "do this and this and this, out loud". But you do see why I think it is silly, do you not? Speaking out loud to yourself to create a mentally activated power? What does the mask care? How does it even recieve and interpret the sound, for instance? If the mask had earphones and a mic I might be more open for this way of doing it. Well, I am a programmer, and I know that text-to-speech interpretation is far more prone to errors than direct digital input (in this case Matoran mindwaves) would be. There is no reason to design a system which goes via the human's way of speaking if you can do it directly in the machine's way of speaking. Matoran is a programming language, yes, but again: If you can speak and it happens, then the system should also be smart enough to add the limits to the power by itself. Please, bones. I've taken programming classes and done games as well, I know what you are talking about. If you have a link to your game I'd be interested, by the way. I guess I'll just sum it up and say I'd prefer it to be based on deep mental concentration with appropriate limits added semi-automatically, the same way that you can program whatever you like but end up with lag, or something that does something else than what you thought. Taking the "safety label" off - such as making a death laser with no charge time and no cooldown - would just make it backfire on you.

Of course it's also easier to look at something and lift it off the ground, instead of having to shoot it with a Kanoka of Telekinesis and hope it goes where you want it to. I'm fuzzy on the details of how mental control works with disk powers, especially since Matoran could apparently steer disks from Ga-Metru mentally. It was also never clear to me how exactly you "ride" a disk in Akilini. Do you grab on tight, or do you stand on it like a surfboard? Is it launched from some sort of device in the arena, or do you just pick it up and jump? The rules of the game seem to imply that you surf, but I've only seen images of Matoran in chutes clutching disks to their chest, never any art of standing on them.

Teleportation seems like it would be the most useful in daily life, as it'd allow me to be so much more efficient. No more wasting hours in the car to visit relatives or go on vacation, I'd just teleport there. If it has limited range, no sweat, I can spend a few minutes on teleporting multiple times instead. This would also make my traveling more frequent, I imagine, because I could go wherever I felt like without having to set aside time and money for it. Teleportation is followed by Telekinesis. It'd just be so very useful to be able to fetch items from a shelf without having to climb a chair, to move more stuff at once than I could possibly carry in just two hands, to do things at a distance instead of wasting time going back and forth, etc. I could also do things like catch people who slip on ice, or help others up the stairs with their heavy items (or up a floor period, no stairs required). If I got hurt more often I'd choose Quick Healing. If I got the max-level version I could heal others, so that would be more immediately useful, otherwise I guess I'd have fun living my new life as an indestructible being. Presumably you still feel pain, though, so it's not like I could use deliberately it for much except as a safeguard.

It's a shame the old topics vanished away the last time they upgraded the forum, or else I'd link you to a few posts where me and Silverglass discussed the possibility of "zombie" Exo-Toa made from the remains of dead Toa of Light.

Ah, well, I don't hate it completely. I just dislike its design as-is. I'm more concerned about this voting at large because it has so very few voters in total. I've given the link to Reddit and a couple of friends of mine, but I can't help but think that only a miniscule fraction of the community - even the BZP community - knows about this poll's existence. Lol. Although I may point out that the Mask of Conjuring is canon regardless of the result of yonder poll. I now feel like using it in a fanfic just to stick my tongue out at all of yon haters. I mentioned it to bonesiii above: I can think of several uses for it, I just don't like the way it is designed/described. I could very well end up including it in a fanfic, but I'd be axing the precise description of time limits, and I'd definitely ignore the speak-out-loud clause in favor of being rendered immobilized and effectively blind to your surroundings while concentrating deeply on the power to be. I'd also just let the mask handle the limits of the power intrinsically, instead of having you stand there and state them out loud. I mean, as a programmer myself I'd probably be delighted to have it on my Suva, but I do not think it makes for a good story the way it is right now. "I need the power to look through solid objects, with the downside of--" No. Why. Spoken Matoran = mental Matoran. Just let the wearer focus deeply in silence instead, and have a lapse in concentration spell out mental backlash and a failed power instead. Fulfills the same limits in practice, but is less silly when written.

If I can't be serious about a toyline that ended years ago - and for which I am way past its target group - then my life no longer has meaning. I am a cold hard shell of a man, who is only filled with warmth when fictional lasers get fired at the heads of equally fictional cyborgs. If I appear to be cold towards you, that is merely a result of being jaded from years of watching BIONICLE kind of slowly spiral downwards towards its eventual doom, followed by years of people trying to twist answers out of Greg and getting their personal fan theories and ideas canonized.

And even then, Kanoka lose roughly 5 levels worth of power in the process of making them into Kanohi, implying that they should actually last longer than Kanohi do under constant use, unless they blow a ton of energy upon impact in addition to what gets used in manifesting the power upon the target.

Please, if we are to have a community vote, at least don't use your own topic to ask people to vote for your personal preferences. I'll try to spread the link to this topic around, though, so that we can at least have more votes total. I'll say it again: Canonizing something with 11 votes and calling it a community effort is really stretching the term. As it is, the poll might actually be better off hosted by Greg on the official LEGO boards.

The difference is that one is a finished power - even the one that copies other powers - that works a certain way. The other is a power which has its effects made up on the spot whenever it is convenient. If you have the Hau, you always have the shield. If you add the Kakama to the Suva, then you have speed. But if you have Conjuring, then you could potentially be walking around with every power imaginable at once, and because that is such an obvious game breaker you add some heavy downsides to it -- but those same downsides means that the masks' usage is suddenly convoluted. Convoluted in that you have to make a full description of the new power any time it is used, mind, not that it is hard to understand. Compare to Emulation, which also takes time to scan and copy, but which does not require any lengthy design speech. Heck ,the description for Conjuring even says that you must mention weaknesses, which heavily implies that you can't just leave obvious ones unspoken. It's like... it's like the more recent TF2 weapons: a lot of stats and gimmicks applied to a weapon to make it interesting, but a good concept does not necessarily make it good in execution. I did not say I did not like the category of the power. I said I do not like this particular way of having it in the story. I even gave examples - I'd like it as a Legendary mask for the GBs with less restrictions, I like its version in the Mask of Emulation, and I like it as a potential machine that produces masks according to instructions. But I do not like a portable power-making factory strapped to someone's face, because the obvious balancing factors added to it makes it "meh" -- and that is personal opinion, yes. A Suva is bad in that you can deliberately load it with plot-solving powers, but a Suva is still a pre-defined limit. It sotres X number of masks, and you can use one at a time. A great power boost to those that have it, and it does not try to hide that fact. The Suva is designed to boost your abilities with 5 extra powers. Once you have chosen your powers, you generally stick with them, at least, so that the writers end up solving problems in new scenarios through clever use of established powers, rather than inventing new ones on the spot. The Faxon was already borderline for this. Heck, the Faxon is another one that could replace Conjuring, because it already has an ill-defined power pool, but is not bogged down by extra flair that adds nothing except strict numbers. And yes, I know the speed is an issue with Conjuring, but as I said, it appears to either be a do-anything mask, or a do-nothing mask. I'd prefer to have just the "do anything" part, but pump it up a tier on the scale of Kanohi. As it is, it is just slow magic that is both too undefined and way too defined at the same time. It's like it tries to be a mysterious magic mask, but at the same time it's bogged down by too much description about its technical aspects. 15 min duration, must state weaknesses out loud, etc. It feels forced. If a Toa can command the thing to activate with their brain, they should be able to formulate the power in their brain as well. I believe it would have been much simpler to say that it allows the user to imagine a power, but it takes time and concentration to manifest it. Leave all the technical details of the exact power structure and weaknesses less blatant. It makes sense that if you imagine "I want a giant laser", that it will have either a charge-up time, or a cooldown between uses, or it tires you out, or something. You can do these considerations in your mind. It then also makes more sense that messing up will mess with your brain rather than just the mask. Having a character stand upright and clearly state: "I want a [GIANT LASER], that is, a [bEAM] of [PHOTONS AND/OR ELECTRONS], which will fire at [A TARGET] within [LINE OF SIGHT] and [CAUSE GREAT HARM] to my it ii. As a downside to this [iNCREDIBLY STRONG ATTACK], it must spend [A GIVEN AMOUNT OF TIME] on [CHARGING ENERGY], so that it will [NOT DRAIN MY OWN ENERGY] (or [DRIVE ME INSANE] with [bACKLASH], please)." ...is rather stupid. No offense to the mask's creator, I hope. I get the distinct feeling that is you, though. I do not have a direct problem with wish-fulfilling powers in particular, but I do have a problem with this particular version of a wish-fulfilling power. It's both too open and too closed at the same time. The main power makes it appear overpowered if not restrained, but the restraints makes it appear too forced, as if someone desperately wanted to cram the power into BIONICLE but were not sure how. No. I can imagine several scenarios in my head where Conjuring can be used to good effect in a story, but I then see them as muttering a spell-like incantation to themselves, and without stating the obvious, if you will. I just don't think its "speak aloud and with clear pros/cons" description works all that well with BIONICLE. The concept is alright, but the execution is - to say it again - thoroughly "meh" to me. It boils down to preferences, yes, but as you say yourself I could say the same for your preferences as to what fits and doesn't fit the series. You already have an immense amount of effort put into the Expanded Multiverse, and we've discussed aspects of that in the past, but it boils down to that half of the EU stuff is rather at odds with BIONICLE as a whole, depending on who you ask. Don't try to push too much of it into main canon without refining it. EDIT: I might be bogging down the actual vote discussion. If you wish to take this to PM instead, tell me so.