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However, I have found enough ways to exploit it that it is starting to seem a little unfair, so I thought it would be good to start a discussion on how to fix it.
=The Obvious=
Delay doesn't seem that great on the surface. It makes attacks cost a tiny bit more, and makes you wait for a whole turn before you get the effect. While this gives you a small element of surprise, and the psychological benefit of being able to land two strong hits simultaneously, it doesn't seem worth it...
=Cost Checking=
Costs for delayed attacks are checked at delay time, but MP is actually subtracted on the next turn. This means that Delay makes it possible to take your MP into negative values. That means that you have to recharge on the next round, but it can be exploited to do things like land two Final Sludgements when you should only be able to afford one, and with a hit like that who cares if you have to recharge?
James's Suggested Remedy I think your MP should still be allowed to go negative in this situation, but maybe for every point of negative MP your HP should be damaged also (according to the MP/HP conversion rates) This also suggests to me a new metamagic. What if there was a metamagic specifically designed to allow you spend MP you don't have , and converting it to self-damage. Too dangerously game-breaking? Let a high-level SlimeBot Omega test it out for us!
=Double Assassination=
I think most everyone knows right now that using delay you can land a backstab crit and a backpoke crit in the same turn, thus allowing you to do two assassinates in a row.
James's Suggested Remedy I don't think this needs to be fixed at all. It is a cool combo, and it's large damage potential is mitigated by the fact that opponents can see it coming a mile a way. (very un-stealthy for an assassinate move, but oh-well)
=Delay Devil's Contract=
As demonstrated in this battle, you can use Delay to bind your soul to TWO contracts simultaneously. This gives you a whopping six turns of contract, which is rather unfair. You can still be Dispel-sprayed to death, but honestly....
James's Suggested Remedy The lazy way out is to just disallow this combo. This would make me cry. It is so cool that one can cheat this way there must be some better way of mitigating the unfairness of it.
I suggest detecting a double-contract as a special case, and summoning a new slimebot to the battle. he would be named the "Delay Devil". He would be equipped with Dispel Spray, and he would have AI that knows how to use it! Putting him in his own team seems best, although I guess if this condition came up in an 8-team battle, maybe he could join a random team other than the one of the person who pulled off the contract cheat.
=Tritosis=
As demonstrated in this battle those few of us who know Mitosis can use Delay to split into three! Unfortunately (for fairness) all three resulting players have 50% HP, resulting in 150% HP total.
James's Suggested Remedy Again, I wish to discourage the lazy solution of disallowing this, and to propose one or more ways of leaving this trick enabled while balancing it.
Actually, I was a little surprised that I didn't end up with one clone with 50% hp, and a second clone with 25% and myself with 25%. That would be okay HP-wise
Another possibility is to detect this as a special case, and make the second clone a clone of the first clone. Thus it would end up with 25% of not only HP, but stats too.
Another possibility is to make another special "cheat" response similar to the Delay Devil. In this case it might be funny if the second clone would join a random opponent's team instead of your own.
=Double Supersonic Smash=
Nothing cool happens here. You don't get 3 turns as I expected, you just spend a heck of a lot of MP to get the one extra turn. That is not to say that I think 3 turns would necessarily be appropriate or fair for that price, I just thought I would mention it, since it fits into the same category of limited-availability-attacks that can be doubled up with Delay.
