Sleep alternatives
1. Reversed/reconfigured aim and movement control for the duration of the effect. (when applied to monsters their movement constantly changes direction and they attack empty air as if a knight was there)(healing monsters cannot heal allies and menders do not dodge).
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2. Sleepwalk, until status wears off your knight has the AI of an NPC knight (much like the ones in the Ironwood Sentinel fight) the AI that gets chosen for your knight is based on what weapon you have (seeing as how the ironwood sentinel fight showed the three weapon types in the game). If you have no weapon you only shieldbash, if you aren't carrying anything then the old sleep status is given with no HP recover. (the last two are to prevent bugs).(when applied to monsters they chose one attack of theirs and do nothing but that, all movement is hindered by stun. Strong sleep on a monster is the same as the above affect with a moderate stun hindering movement.)
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3. Blurred vision, amount of blur and duration determined by armor resistance. Monsters take longer to track movement and they take much longer in attacking (attack rate cut in half, speed of the attacks stays the same)
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4. Hallucinations, you cannot see real allies or monsters, instead you see numerous knights in random sets fighting with random monsters all around you. Your map (in the top right) is completely blank. When on a monster they turn and attack their allies as well as empty air (damage given to enemies during this time by the affected monster is half its regular attack power)(healing monsters run around franticly but cannot heal).
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These are some alternatives to the current sleep mechanic, if you like any of these feel free to tell me, if you have some ideas of your own be sure to provide a detailed description of how the new mechanics affect knights and enemies.
There's a bit of distinction between a sleep status and a "freak-out" status. I had an idea in a thread a looong time ago that went something like this:
This makes sleep a bit of a hybrid of other statuses without taking away the thunder of those statuses. You use freeze to freeze things - you can re-position with your freeze weapon and strike again, or let thaw damage do its thing. Poison reduces attack AND defense, so it's a better debuff. You may get hit more while asleep in Lockdown, however a sleep mist bomb wouldn't be as effective as a freeze one, as a freeze one is continuously inflicted.