If this game were real (the other thread)...

[Lizzy]

Anyone ever seen the anime 'SwordArt Online'? The basic set-up is this...

"The latest MMO, SwordArt Online, which has been in development for an extended time (by a mysterious and reclusive developer), and hotly anticipated, has now been released to much hype and rave reviews. Players wear a VR headset that taps into their CNS (central nervous system) and transports them directly into the game world. The sound design and graphics are astounding and the combat system intuitive.
However, all is not as it seems. As players try to logout, they find themselves trapped. As the player base is gathered together and they find themselves all in the same situation, the sky above their head bleeds and a spectre appears above them; it is the developer himself!
He tells the players they are trapped in this world until they can fight their way through all 50 levels of the VR city to escape back into the real world. Their resources and abilities are all they have to survive and, most shocking of all... - if they die in the game, they die in real life! -
As players franticly try to log out, Dev-God informs them that many deaths have already occurred, as well meaning friends and loved ones have tried unplugging gamers from the headsets, with deadly results. The Dev-God then departs, leaving all players to beat the game... or die trying!"

So....

My scenario is this...

All players somehow, all over the world, all at once (don't ask me how; IT'S STAR TREK), have their CNS linked up to the game, with the following results:

1) The game presents you with a Pseudo-login screen. It detects, based on your subconscious response, your preferred alt, and logs you in.
2) You now inhabit the body of your character, wherever they were when you last logged in. As far as your mind is concerned, that arm is your arm; that body is your body (some of you gentlemen might have a wee bit of a shock with that, but you'll get over it!)
3) Your bridge officers, and all other NPCs on your ship, recognise you as the captain of that ship. In their mind, you are the same person, unchanged, as you were last time you logged in. Admiral Quinn would recognise you as Captain [XXX] of the USS/IKS [XXX]. All other NPCs could be expected to remember the details of any past missions you may have had involving them, as well as a reasonable amount of your Off Duty/Social behaviour in any said instance.
4) Any ALTS you may have from your account exist SIMILTANEOUSLY with you. That is to say, they behave and are recognised in the same way as other NPCs. You can meet them in game, and they have their own personalities, ships and crews, but they may not recognise you unless your biography suggests otherwise.
5) The C-store, dilithium exchange and Zen purchase all work as before.

Character
6) Everything in your biography that occurred before the year 2409 is recognised by the game as having occurred, but that recognition is limited to the behaviour and memory of NPCs. Any traits that might be affected by anything written in your Bio are bound by the limitations of those traits; you cannot, as you Bio might suggest, be an eighteen-pound human male with the bare strength to lift a Type-8 shuttlecraft, useless you have a trait (such as 'Strength') to reflect that.
7) All traits in your trait pool are assumed to be active at all times.
8) The type and variety of social behaviour you are capable of in the game-world is comparable to the type and variety available to you in the real world (if you have any limitations (disabilities. ED*) in the real world, such being mute, deaf, lame, etc, they would not affect your behaviour ingame).
9) However, race and traits do have a semi-binding effect on you. A person who finds themselves a Vulcan male in game will find that the discipline of logic naturally seems to guide their actions. They may be telepathic, and yet still 'human'. A liberated borg would hear the collective, and many might be unable to deal with the mental assault. Any 'social' abilities, such as legal training, additional studies in engineering and science, or even a good singing voice, would also transfer into the game (if you wrote in your bio you were a skilled and enthusiastic rock climber, then you would be), but not any that affected your combat abilities in a way that your traits or skill points could not reflect.

Chat
10) Chat in game is no longer done in the chat window. All characters now have voices. The 'character' of any players voice is based on what their mind would imagine themselves to sound like
11) The chat window includes a channel for communication with the outside world (text only).

Bridge Officers
12) Bridge officers will reflect their own bios in a manner consistent with their own traits and trait-rules, if the player had written a bio for them. Bridge officers, just like player ALTS, have personalities that closely approximate the depth and complexity of real people, extrapolated from the players subconcious.

Ships
13) Your ship interiors are fully furnished and functional in a way consistent with being presented on the TV shows, or with any production art shown, or any current interior layout.
14) Once a ship is destroyed, a new ship must be requisitioned.
15) You must abandon ship BEFORE it is destroyed, or you will die.

Death
16) All players are susceptible to death, without respawning. No exceptions. During ground combat, any situation that allows a player to be resuscitated will work as intended. Failure to resuscitate due to location or the party as a whole going down will result in a 10 minute timer. If any player has not been revived when this timer has elapsed, the player will die.
17) When a player dies, a life is consumed. When all lives have been consumed, their head... well, do you remember that bit from scanners? It's like that!
18) The number of lives a player has is calculated like this:
• All players have 1 life.
• All players earn an additional life with every promotion (every ten grades)
• All current lifetime players and subscribers receive one additional life for every month they have been subscribers.
• Finally, players can purchase an extra life for 250,000 Fleet Credits.
• Life count applies across all the players alts (except those earned by promotion, which are calculated for each individual alt)

Your Goal!
a) Your current equipment, abilities, reputation system traits and unlocks, etc, remain unchanged, but your Reputation and Skill points are reduced to zero. Your level is zero, but your rank remains unchanged.
b) You must do the following in order to escape the game:
• Earn enough Skill points to reach level 100 (whereas it was just level 50 before)
• You must earn (or earn again) all Duty officer commendation ranks, all STF optionals (including Elite), 100,000 on all currently existing reputation and all currencies.

What would you do, and how would you survive?

[daBelgrave]

For starters, there would be greater teamwork and more running away. Here are my responses to a few of your points:

2. I wouldn't leave my quarters for the first day or so... too much self exploration to do. Otherwise, One's personality is somewhat modeled after mine, so no problem there.

3. Assuming I wasn't immediately arrested for war crimes, I am curious as to what all my Bridge Officers remember. Do they know I've been dressing them all this time? Are they alright with that? Do I still have to dress them? What happens to all the players going around crouching for better camera angles?

6. Is this only what I can fit into the in-game character biography, or does it include my external bio too?

9. I am a Liberated Borg, but there is more to that story that Starfleet keeps [REDACTED], or will keep until we get further in our RP story... That information would explain that I cannot hear the voices anymore.

12. The last time I tried writing a bio for a Bridge Officer, it bugged my character bio. I have since then not written in-game bios for my Bridge Officers. They have them, but game bugs make it best that I don't actually post them.

16. Is the game setup with everything working as it currently works? For the most part, it's survivable, but there could be issues surviving midgame or with invisitorps.

My initial strategy would be to wait a few days before going on any major missions. Too many people "Kirking it" in their rush to escape would end up dying early on. Once the weak have perished, then I start looking for a good team. We would go through content slowly, analyzing the problems and adapting solutions to get us through every difficulty alive. It is better to run away as a team than to die as a team. Ultimately, the goal would be to get everyone on the team finished with the difficult requirements before doing much with leveling the Duty Officers. That way no one ends up stuck as the last person logged on and still needing to do some STF or other difficult mission.

[Lizzy]

First 5 things I would do:

1) Convert as much Dilithium as I had immediately into Zen!
Dilithium is a resource found throughout the game, but Zen can only be brought in from outside. It makes sense to acquire as much of a finite resource as possible, before most people start panic buying. All Zen at any price would disappear quickly. You might have some people acquiring more, as loved ones tried to help from the outside world, but no one in their right minds would then take that and post it on the exchange.

2) Buy as many FSM and sell all Keys on the exchange ASAP.

3) Spend some time getting to know Lizzy.
Walk around my cabin. Walk around my ship. Talk to NPCs. Don't quiz them, just listen. Then go back to my cabin. I'd try to understand how things like touch, taste and smell work. I'd spend some private time touching myself, not in a pornographic way, but just trying to understand how sensations work and my body works. I can imagine myself saying stuff like "That's your leg. That IS your leg." over and over.

3) Check my weapon and kit proficiency.
Ensure that I know how to at least defend myself enough to run away!

4) Determine the present state and condition of all known fleet members. Furthermore, determine which of them are NPC and which are 'real'. Summon all available members to our FED Starbase, including Klingons if possible. (if not, we should find a private, neutral place to meet that we could defend)

5) Stay put for at least a week, in my ship, in orbit around our Starbase. We would need to understand who and what we are to begin with. We would have to begin friendships with each other and with the more advanced NPCs.

6) After the first week was over, convene a meeting at the Starbase to propose the following:
a) Henceforth, all players, at all times, shall not travel to any other map besides the Starbase interior of exterior, without being part of a 5-man/woman team.
b) All such teams must consist of at least 1 science, tactical and engineering officer.
c) All teams must be made up of at least two non-NPCs.
d) No more than 5 levels difference should exist between team members.
e) Loot should be set to need or greed

7) Anyone not interested can do what ever. Let the LEEROY JENKINS'S of the world do their thing and die.
Accept the fact that their are some players who will need help from almost level 1. Try to match grpups to similar skill levels and network NETWORK NETWORK!!

8) Devise a system where the condition of success for each is the condition of success for all, and vice versa, that the condition for the success of all is the condition for the success of each.

Finally, it is a rather depressing fact of human nature that there would be, sadly, certain gamers who would seek to inflict incalculable misery and untold destruction. They would have to be.... dealt with.

[Arion]

What would I do?

Embrace my life as a terrifying Romulan space pirate, since it at least includes concrete goals and resources, making it a bit of an improvement upon reality.

I would also end up bleeding green all over the place after some dumbass mistake, inevitably perishing in some inglorious fashion.

[mack]

Death

18) The number of lives a player has is calculated like this:
• All players have 1 life.
• All players earn an additional life with every promotion (every ten grades)
• All current lifetime players and subscribers receive one additional life for every month they have been subscribers.
• Finally, players can purchase an extra life for 250,000 Fleet Credits.
• Life count applies across all the players alts (except those earned by promotion, which are calculated for each individual alt)

All current lifetime players and subscribers receive one additional life for every month they have been subscribers.

Poor F2Pers, then....
Long live the subscribed-since-day-one master race.