NationStates Jolt Archive

This is the OOC thread for Games Without Frontiers - the second time around. It's been over one and a half years since the first attempt - let's see if I can do it right this time. Plotline guaranteed to bear no resemblance to the original, and the whole thing guaranteed to be shitloads of fun.

Please put some kind of note here and recieve confirmation before posting ICly, or contact me via AIM/MSN. I don't plan to be restrictive, but I don't want to have anyone's RP experience ruined either.

IC thread is here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=512131).

Current Players (currently participating in the thread):
Khrrck (Scenery, Admins, Josephine, Mitch)
SigmaDraconis (Emily Li)

OK'd Players (you may start posting if you wish):
Theao
Midlonia

This is the OOC thread for Games Without Frontiers - the second time around. It's been over one and a half years since the first attempt - let's see if I can do it right this time. Plotline guaranteed to bear no resemblance to the original, and the whole thing guaranteed to be shitloads of fun.

Please put some kind of note here and recieve confirmation before posting ICly. I don't plan to be restrictive, but I don't want to have anyone's RP experience ruined either.

Link to the IC thread will be added momentarily.

So how does interactive creation work?
Are we restricted by conventional physics/science? Biology? Anything?

IC thread is here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=512131).

Also, I think I should make clear that I was never really satisfied with how I handled the first Games Without Frontiers thread, and want to try it again with a year of experience under my belt. Think of this as a new start rather than allowing yourself to be constrained by the old thread. I'm sure that this thread will turn out differently from that one, and certain that it will turn out better.

Interactive creation is a step-by-step process allowing almost infinite customizability of your character. You don't need to go through it if you don't want to. (after all, we DO want to get to a point where characters can interact, don't we?) I'll just post a lead, and from there you can go through the entire process, or just spend a paragraph or two describing your character - no need to run through creation blow-by-blow. Let your imagination run wild! All tech levels and species are acceptable.

Example from the old thread of the latter type of interactive creation:

Nathan went through the choices, developping his in-game persona based on history and fantasy. He created the exact opposite of what he was. Using fictional artwork from Earth, circa 20th century, Nathans character looked like a fantasy hero named "Colossus", a tall, muscular, athletic Russian who could turn his body into impenetrable bio-steel, giving him limitless strength and endurance... the young cripple replicated the powers, not only the looks. When he was finished, Nathan stared at his creation, fascinated by the incredible avatar that now had his face.

An example of one of the "Extrapolate From..." methods:
Relegating the GWF environment to secondary status, Kui brought her desktop environment forward, and went rummaging through her files of 3d models. Part of her Virtual Environment Design courses at Tassarkand Heights University involved the creation of such, and the backups were all here on her personal filespace, from the earliest wireframes to completed, human-perfect models.

The one she'd made for WoT was here too, as well as the various derivations she'd pondered at the time. All of them were perfectly androgynous - given the number of creeps on the VR nets, Kui was somewhat sensitive about her gender. Unfoundedly, perhaps, but there was no explaining psychology.

A few simple changes - hair colour to red, skin to the pale of a Hibernian Celt (Kui, like most Rei-Sarenghai, was brown-skinned and black-haired, but the freedom of the 'nets offered a great deal of choice) - and it was done; an acceptable character dressed in the garb of the Sarenghai (three hundred years back, admittedly, at the time of the Unification - long coat in red and gold, shirt, trousers, and boots). Kui considered the fashions of the Khanate somewhat more stylish than the baggy pants and drifting parachute coats of today.

That done, she brought the GWF environment forward again, and submitted the model.

The login scene appeared - Welcome to Games Without Frontiers, Kui Tenat - and she thought that whoever had designed it must have been more familiar with screens than VED.

- You currently have no designated Home Zone. Proceed to the Arrival Center? -

One more example:

She finally settled on a half-Elven girl, with most of her abilities geared towards offensive magic, but some space for healing magic and minor technological skills. For her appearance style, what else could she go for but the good old Tolkien fanstasy style?

'Ever the mildly violent support character.' She reminded herself, and "clicked" on the Show button...cube...thing.

A generic half-Elf popped up. Ooo, boring. So she tweaked it. She kept the slim, attractive body, and after many long considerations, she settled on strawberry blonde hair that reached down to her back. A pair of thin braids drifted down her chest and ended just touching on her bosom, one on the left, and one on the right. A scarlet ribbon was wound through each braid. Piercing emerald eyes gazed out from her virtual face. She wore a simple cloak that was colored a light ash with a trim that matched the ribbons in her hair. She carried a staff of black lacquered wood that had a brooding red gem afixed to the top. Aeris named her creation Amethyst Siltayria and proudly clicked on the Create button. Her avatar popped into the Games Without Frontiers, and looked inquisitively around.

]

I would like to join your thread - I have no posts with this account yet, but I am also -Midnight- (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/search.php?do=finduser&u=535534), so you can see that I can write. That's my fantasy-style nation, while this is more of a sci-fi nation.

For the purposes of this thread they're essentially just a small extrasolar colony linked to Earth by ansible - their various powers don't matter so much, since they'd be constrained by the physics engine of the game.

Should I post my character statistics here or something?

Character descriptions and statistics go in the IC thread. If you're unsure how to do it, feel free to ask questions in this thread. IC questions about how your character should look/what statistics you should have/etc should go in the IC thread.

SigmaDraconis, you have my full OK to start posting if you wish. I'll start a list in the first post of this thread... Theao, I took a look at some of your other posts and I'm a little worried about how you only seem to post one or two lines per post. Could you provide some longer examples, if you have any?

Theao, I took a look at some of your other posts and I'm a little worried about how you only seem to post one or two lines per post. Could you provide some longer examples, if you have any?

I understand your objections and here are some longer examples.
1 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=461675), 2 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=507537), 3 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=495763), 4 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=498790), 5 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=496572), 6 (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=497484). Hope they're helpful in elaborating on me.

Thanks for letting me play - I've posted a thing, which I can edit if it doesn't meet your approval.

Reading over it, it strikes me that I may actually need to explain some of the Draconians' abilities ... first of all, they can split their personalities into parts ("aspects") to multitask, so a single Draconian could control upwards of a dozen different robot bodies ("aspect drones") at once, or engage in a conversation on several topics simultaneously.

It doesn't really matter in GWF because the game doesn't support it, though; I suppose it would count as multi abuse if it did.

They also have a technology to create reasonably faithful computer copies of someone's personality ("eidolons"), which are then loaded into their cyborg systems ("interface") as advisers, web search agents, or anything else that requires a reasonably smart program. It's not, however, full AI since its ability to adapt itself is quite limited.

Mei Li is Emily's eidolon, who happens to have been her grandmother. She's essentially running in the background right now, converting the GWF data to something Emily's interface can understand; I can't think of a situation where the eidolon might become a problem, since it's highly unlikely to go haring off on its own.

I hope that's OK - if it's not I can probably find some kind of solution, but it might take some finagling. They have yet more powers in addition to those, but as those other abilities are intrinsically linked to their physical bodies they really shouldn't come up.

Emily Li is nineteen, of Asian-Caucasian appearance, and otherwise average. Her avatar is likewise, except a little better looking and more fit.

I think that's everything ... and since it's probably more than I wrote for the IC bit I'll stop here.

Well... I got the IC post up and then my connection dropped for the night. I'm not sure whether to beat up my ISP or not. That aside:

No, I'm not a furry. But, you know, there's one in every online community of any size. And they're not all that bad...

Don't worry. The action will start soon enough. I'm not trying to make any political point with this RP (or so I tell myself)

Sigma: the post is excellent. Just a quick note - GWF does support aspecting, with a few additional rules to prevent an aspected player from gaining a significant advantage over other players. It requires a little more advanced tweaking of the settings, but overall it's not too hard to achieve.

Theao, you're in. Do a good job of it, OK? ;)

Anyone else who reads this: more players are still welcome.

It's only while writing for this that I realized the problems a Draconian would have communicating ... that's the problem with using interfaces for everything, I suppose. Perhaps we're lucky that Emily can talk at all! :D

Things are going kind of slow, I'm afraid, but it's for the best: I'm trying to pick up as many players as possible before things really get rolling. After a certain point it won't really make sense to introduce new characters, and so people who want in should join sooner rather than later.

Bump for participants... This thread is in danger of dying if we don't get additional people. One on one is nice, but for a character RP you really need at least three...

Well... seems like we're stuck with who we have.

Sigma, if you're still around and up for it, I'm willing to try continuing this as a two-person thread. If not... it'll be *sigh* dead again.

Then again, maybe someone will still show up. ;)

I posted to the IC thread already: It's easier to apologize than to ask permission.

I'm so glad I seized my first human /sub-mind/ this NS year aka RL day.