If this game were real (the other thread)...
Posted: June 18th, 2014, 5:48 am
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?
"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?