Entry tags:
influx > game info
GAME INFORMATION
COMMAND
● Command Alpha is the name of the artificial intelligence that runs all of Anchor. Connected to dozens of super-computers from a highly advanced culture located deep underground, Command is capable of carrying out hundreds of thousands of tasks at any given time. Command is in control of all of the automated systems that run the city, monitoring the life support systems, monitoring the surveillance systems, and constantly crunching data behind the scenes to try to work out the conundrum that is Anchor's situation. Having been collecting data for centuries, Command has learned to predict many things - even the new arrivals were expected and prepared for.
Command can be addressed by any character at any time by asking for the AI by name and speaking a question. Command will freely and honestly answer any question that can be found in the game's IC info. Any other questions your character may have for Command can be asked ICly on the Ask Command page, in accordance with mod availability.
Command is a gender neutral entity with an even-toned and neutral voice, and its journal is
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commandalpha.COMMS DEVICE + TRANSLATION
● Each character is given a fob communication device when they arrive in Anchor. The fob is a small device resembling a USB stick with a few navigation buttons and a small screen. It hangs from a cord around the neck and has voice and voice-to-text options, so it can be used hands-free. The device doesn't have a built-in camera, but it is capable of tapping into Command's surveillance network to commandeer a camera to make short video recordings. Video entries can be viewed via the fob with a small 5x5 inch projection that will display against any flat surface. This means that video posts are unavailable where Command has no cameras, such as outside the city, or in bathrooms and bedrooms inside the city. Be creative with camera angles for video posts, since cameras will be in typical surveillance positions!
The fob functions as a translation device, pre-loaded with all known languages from the planet's history to make it functional on stabilizations. For characters who speak foreign languages, the fob will need a sample of the language to parse before it can make sense of it and then start translating to the language native to the user. This results in a slight delay for the fob to pick up on new languages, and there is some chance of mistranslation.
The comms device also functions as a key fob to open each character's main dorm room, their own personal room, and their locker in the supply room.
Hearing impaired characters or characters with speech difficulties will receive a smartphone-sized version of the fob, with the same functions, but a usable keyboard on the touch-screen.
MONEY + OCCUPATIONS
● Anchor used to run on money when it was originally occupied, but Command has shut down any money-related features of the city to facilitate focus on the mission at hand rather than the day-to-day minutiae. Despite the lack of a need to make money, characters can take over businesses according to their interests, whether or not they are difficult or impossible to run without actual living staff. To have your character take over a location, you can request it on the Occupations page.
MONTHLY EVENT
● AMP-UP
For the week preceeding a stabilization (two weeks OOC) characters find their thoughts turning more and more frequently to things that drive them forward, that force them to develop, to evolve, to create - the very atmosphere of the city and the constant upheaval outside it will make them follow their basic instincts to move forward. Whether it's a drive to attempt breeding by having sex with anyone who moves, to develop a skill, an artistic pursuit, to deepen a relationship they might be too shy or reserved to deepen otherwise, or even just to eat a lot of food and work out so they can grow stronger, it will plague them until they follow through. This drive can change every month, depending on what suits the character or the player at any given time - it will never be only one drive, but should span all aspects of a person's life.
● STABILIZATION
Stabilization is a period of a few days (one week OOC) where the swirling mass of destabilized and scrambled time-space and matter settles and stabilizes into a clear, defined form. A mass of 'everything' becomes 'something' - a few days plucked from the past of the planet Anchor is located on. The stabilizations feature what seems at first like random moments in time, a few days without any particular significance. As time goes on, though, they will start to have a pattern, more cohesive the more the world stabilizes, and that pattern could just solve the issue that is keeping this world in chaos.
Stabilizations are the one time that characters can leave the city of Anchor, and Command will certainly encourage them to go out and see the sights (though they have no obligation, of course) and to learn about this planet. Most of these blasts from the past will mimic time periods in Earth's history, as this world has faced a similar developmental trajectory, and its native species is quite similar to humans. There is one major difference - throughout nearly the entire course of this planet's history, there have been non-native species present and often prevalent through society. Additionally, since the species was hyper-advanced past the tech level of modern Earth when the disaster happened, some moments will be very sci-fi in nature, despite technically happening in the planet's past.
● SUPPLY ROOM
The supply room is an empty room in each dormitory featuring only five large military lockers along the walls. Each resident of the dormitories is able to open one of the lockers with their key fob. The lockers and the room are empty during the rest week and amp-up period, but on the morning of a stabilization after the previous day's nightly reset happens, each character will find that Command has placed in there whatever supplies they need to fit in with the locals in the particular stabilization that's occurred, if such items are necessary. They will find enough money to get by for the several days the stabilization lasts but not enough to live too large, appropriate clothing for their gender/species/size, and any other accessories or items they might need. If the supplies provided do not fit your character's preferences, they can request new ones from Command and they will be provided the next IC day after reset.
Characters may receive one weapon suited to the setting if they did not arrive with a weapon of their own, but are advised to be careful in case walking around with weapons is frowned upon in the stabilization's time period! Characters may keep whatever items from the supply room they wish to keep, providing they have storage space for it, and anything they don't want should be left in the room. Anything left in the supply room, including items brought from home, will disappear with the first nightly reset after stabilization ends. Characters may only keep one weapon that was given to them by the supply room at any given time, though they may trade it in for one they like better from later stabilizations.
ANATOMY OF A MONTH
● Week 1: Amp up begins; holiday celebration during this week (every second month).
● Week 2: Amp up continues, with stronger effects; event info and plotting post is put up by the mod on Friday.
● Week 3: Event!
● Week 4: Recovery week; AC + HMD are posted on Sunday, CR meme is posted Friday for the next month's plotting. Applications are open for the last seven days of every month.
HOLIDAYS
● Now that there are people in Anchor again, Command is reinstating the celebration of the traditional holidays! These will not identically mimic any Earth holidays, but may have some similarities. Holiday celebrations will generally last a few days to a week, and the tone will vary depending on the type of holiday. Since they happen once a month in IC time, they will occur once every two months in OOC time.
LEAVING THE CITY
● Any character who tries to leave the city during a time when the outside isn't stabilized into a distinct setting will find it completely impossible. While they may get to the upper level and try to venture into the vortex, they'll find it impossible to get through - like moving against a strong current in deep water (though without the getting wet part). If your character tries to persevere, they will find they can't get more than 10 feet before they find themselves having fallen back on the grass in the park, feeling as if they've been shoved off their feet.
OVERALL PLOT
● While Influx is primarily focused around exploration and character development, there is a slow moving long-term plot. The destabilization and scrambling of space-time on the planet and in the entire galaxy is the cause of a weapon that broke through the containment protocol in the testing phase. This weapon is still running in test mode, and inaccessible to the characters for at least the first while. Command doesn't have a record of the complete command codes for the weapon, as it was not entrusted with this information and it died with the planet's last inhabitants. As time in the game goes on and Command learns how the stabilizations work and how to start affecting and guiding them to be more useful, characters will be able to start finding clues as to how to gain access to the weapon and turn it off so that it may be safely used to send them home. Any particularly intelligent or scientific character may work with Command as an 'eye on the outside' to help contribute information that may allow it figure out how to start guiding stabilizations, though your mod has no idea how the hard science would work (and won't pretend to) so this may be handwaved.
NON-HUMAN CHARACTERS
● Characters that are non-human are more than welcome in Anchor, and even during monthly stabilizations. The planet was populated and visited by aliens for much of its civilized and intelligent history, and for much of the planet's history the population has been so mixed among species that nearly any kind of character will be passed over without a blink in most cases, and the most reaction they'll get is mild curiosity.
Non-human characters who need some kind of medical support to exist in an environment the same as current modern-day Earth will be provided for. Much like characters with pre-existing illness, they can provide a description of what they need to Command, from medication samples to pieces of support gear, and Command will synthesize what's necessary.
PROPERTY DESTRUCTION + RESET
● Anchor is, by its nature, unchanging. Everything that exists native to the city will reset itself every 24 hours unless severely damaged, to ensure that Anchor remains unchanging - and once your character takes residence, that includes their belongings. This also applies to food, meaning that food stores will be replenished each night no matter how much is eaten.
This means that nothing in Anchor rots or decays, and anything that's broken or damaged during the day will be restored at midnight to the condition it was in the first place. Minor to medium amounts of damage will reset, and the next morning it will be pristine, as if it were never touched. Larger amounts of damage may take up to a week to reset fully, though they improve each day, just a little. This does not apply to items that are broken or lost outside the city during stabilizations - those items will remain damaged. However, it does apply to items brought from stabilizations back into the city.
There are only a few exceptions: the characters themselves are not reset unless they are killed, and the seasons change as they would normally, including the death and regrowth of plant life in winter and spring.
PREEXISTING ILLNESS + MEDICINE
● Characters with preexisting illnesses will still have those illnesses, though they'll find that Command has methods in place in the hospital to help them maintain it at the level they were at when they arrived. If any character has an illness that requires medication, they can give a tiny sample of the medicine to Command and have it synthesized at the hospital. This does not apply to non-medicinal drug addictions.
CHARACTER INJURY + DEATH
● Characters who are injured or dead at their canonpoint will still be injured when they arrive in Anchor, though dead characters' injuries will be healed to the point they're survivable. They'll find that Command guides them to the hospital rather than their room at arrival, unless they choose to call for help first. Characters who are injured in the course of the game can be taken to Anchor's first-rate hospital. Command is adept at performing surgery and other serious medical procedures remotely in the surgery booths, or for smaller injuries, they can be placed in handy pools of regeneration liquid that encourages quicker healing. There are no special allowances for injuries that happen outside of the city walls, so you'll have to drag your injured comrades back to the city quick!
Characters who die inside the city will be regenerated at midnight, just like anything else in the city. Characters who die outside the city will stay dead, however, unless the body is brought back to the city before the stabilization ends. There is a bit of a catch, though - the more often you die outside the city, the more difficult the regeneration. Command does not currently have the data necessary to predict what outcome this may have on regenerated characters...
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tookthestars]
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I'll go ahead and say that reserves and apps will open at 12:01 in the morning, EST, on those days. I'll go edit it into the posts!
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