SeoNES: Beyond Reach

Notes on Game Mechanics

This is a character development NES. People are thus encouraged to write stories that would develop their character and, perhaps, influence the world around them as well.

Like in DOOM NES, not everything that happens in this ship is transferred to the updates that you see in the game. There are always circumstances beyond your control and understanding that happens in this ship... and some of you may find yourself being thrust into the thick of it as the game progresses.

Thusly, I will first apologize in advance in the flow of the game takes you away from the direction that you wish to develop your character in.


Order Structure/Using Actions

I will try to keep this as simple as possible. Everybody will gain two action points to spend in between updates. These action points can be used to commit two major actions. Major actions are any type of actions that would cause your character significant physical strain and also time commitment. Examples of such an action include collecting and using materials to construct a barricade/fix a hovercar, or planning a party. Actions that would not constitute a major action include such things as eating, taking a shower, going to a party, or drinking water (in both sense of the term).

In addition, I would advise people to have some sort of a schedule and detailed plot on how to accomplish said actions. This can be as simple as the following:

I want to spend 1 action to fix that hovercar. In the morning, study the damage done to the hovercar and then go out with the omnitool to scavange needed components from other crashed hovercars. In the afternoon, after all the necessary component has been gathered, hide out in the building where I found that broken hovercar and fix it.

Click to expand...

Or as complicated as you see fit. Obviously, some actions will require much more detailed plan than the one I listed above. Some goals may require two actions to solve it too!

Also of Note: If and when you gain followers, you may be able to use them as a sort of a "third action." In addition, certain events may enable your character to use a third action instead of normal two as well.

Technology:

A detailed list of potentially available technologies in the game is here.

However, I will write some things here that I deem will be relevant to the game.

Hovercars:

Now that cars can fly at high speeds, manually controlling a car inside a city became inefficient and, oftenly, very dangerous. Therefore, most of the hovercars inside cities are controlled by a Traffic AI, which provides "taxi" services to the citizens. Of course, this does not prevent some adventurous young men and women from hacking the onboard computer in order to restore manual control of the vehicle. Even so, these youngsters are usually quickly captured by the highly efficient Federation police, and the AI which directs traffic can usually account for some runaway vehicles outside its control.

Medigel:

These miraculous "biofoams" are able to disinfect and seal any wounds, and are even capable of setting bones back. They are usually administered to the wounded area by a needle which comes with every medigel packet. They take up 1 inventory space.

Weapons:

Pistol: takes 1 inventory space. Federation Standard Issue Heavy Pistol is one of the more famous example, as well as the Whippersnapper

SMG: 2 inventory spaces. Examples include Federation Standard Issue Compact Machinegun

Automatic Rifles or shotguns usually take up 3 inventory spaces. (famous examples of these things include Federation Standard Issue Gauss Rifle and Metal Storm

Sniper Rifles Usually take up 4 inventory spaces, unless specified otherwise. Examples include Federation Gauss Cannon and FED Big Huntress

Heavy Weapons: usually takes up 5 inventory spaces. Weapons that would belong in this category would be... a rocket launcher or a chaingun.

Omnitool: All the big tools (like...an arc welder) that you would ever need in a box. These toolboxes would usually take up 4 inventory spaces.

Microtools: All the very small tools that you can fit in a box small enough to fit inside your pocket. Includes small screwdrivers... electronic interfaces... and even some things that can be used as a lockpick.

Ration Cubes: These disgusting little cubes have all the nutrients that you would ever need to survive for a day. Takes 1 inventory space. If your character only eats these, however, he/she would become quickly demoralized, weakened, and/or suicidal.

Holographic Watch: These curious little devices can store data...be used as a transponder to hail down a cab... send messages to other people... call emergency assistance... and whatnot.

Electricity and Power: Electricity of the city is supplied by the main fusion core and the auxillary fusion cores located throughout the ship. Wires run up from the fusion cores to feed into the main powergrid of the city. Light of the city is provided by many street lights located throughout the city and also the light generator at the top of the city over the central hub.

Large objects such as vehicles often have a micro-fusion reactor inside them, which provides the vehicle with power. Small objects have powercells which must be recharged every now and then.

Locations:

There are, in total, 7 different areas of importance within the cityship.

Central Area: This is the most prosperous, and the largest, of all the regions. The towering Federation HQ exists here, with tall elevators that reach up into the upper outer hull itself. The inner city that surrounds the Federation HQ also towers over the most other areas of the city, with most of the building being more than 120 floors tall.

The Federation maintains an iron grip over this sector, and the facilities of this sector is always kept at their maximum efficiency.

Because it stands directly over the light generator, the inner city and its steel and glass construct seems to glisten during the noon hours when the light generator is turned on its maximum power.

Downtown Area (NW): Connected to Central, Economic, and the slums

Not as glamorous as the Inner City nor as prestigious. The buildings of this jungle of concrete and glass usually tower at around 50 floors tall. Even so, people flock to this zone because one may find...excitement...not available anywhere else in this ship without risking the dangers of the slums.

Federation maintains a modest garrison in this sector.

Slums (W) Connected to Central, Downtown, and City.

The cesspits of humanity. The Federation officials, in their great "wisdom," put all the colonists with criminal or suspiscious backgrounds into this sector.

Obviously incomplete, the sector still shows some signs of the construction that made this giant behemoth of the ship come to life. These construction sites, however, are always guarded by a sizeable contingent of Federation guards- and they are also the only place where one may find Federation troops in this sector. No, in this sector, any Joe with more guns than anybody else makes all the laws.

Criminal bosses maintain a semblance of "organization" in the slums. They are the ones who collect rent and organize the ley person to do some vital services to the community. Crime rate, of course, is still higher than any other sector in the city ship. Any woman loitering on the side of the road may be a prostitute, or maybe a robber. Any man may be a MALE prostitute, or maybe even a robber. One must keep their eyes open when traveling through the Slums.

City: (SW) Connected to Central, Military, and Slums.

Buildings that tower almost as tall as the innercity, but lacking the same 'grace.' Many corporations have decided to take control of the buildings here... and indeed, most of the people who live here are employees of companies who seek to expand their enterprise in the galaxy far far away.

Federation maintains a relatively large garrison in this sector, but because of the sheer towering nature of the buildings and such, law may be sometimes become "bent."

What happens at the top floors of these buildings, stays there.

Military Sector (SE):

A large barrack. A large command center. A medium sized airstrip, comfortable quarters for many soldiers, veterans, and support staffs, and even some small ammunition factories. This place, run by popular General Mortimer and supported by Colonel Lin, holds the second largest garrison in the ship.

Law is, of course, enforced even more strongly than they are in the Inner City.

Most buildings here are small, with the average being at around 40 floors tall. Most inhabitants here are members of the military.

Eastern Park (E)

It's a goddamn park in the ship. Streetlights light up the pleasant path through the forest, and there's even a small lake and a river inside this place. In fact, there is an orchard and a fish farm here too...

Economic Sector (NE)

Suburbs. Short tightly packed townhouses are the norm in this sector, with shopping malls, theatres, libraries, and whatnot towering over everything else in their full aesthethic glory.

The streets around here becomes dark at night, with the 20th century style street lamps providing the only illuminations. Even so, crime rate is rather low due to most of the people here being members of society's elites.

The Federation in control of this region maintains a relatively strong garrisson.

Character List

To Join: Please fill out the character creation kit below

Prototype Character Creation Kit



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Known NPCs on board

General Mortimer:

High ranking Federation official famous/infamous for defying High Command's orders and leading his forces on an assault on an Insurgent base without waiting for reinforcemnts and somehow winning without losing a significant number of his men. He later went on to defend his actions as being necessary as he received a tip-off that suggested that the insurgents had acquired a stash of nuclear weapons- something that was verified as Federation investigator combed through the ruined base.

From the insurgent's perspective, he is known as the "rabid dog" due to his single minded nature when dealing with insurgents. From federation officers, he is considered another "loose cannon." From the soldiers, however, he is another war hero. One of many in this era.

Captain Pierce

Officer in charge of operating the ship Reach, and thusly the officer with the greatest amount of influence on board. He almost never leaves the HQ building in Inner City.

Captain Pierce is well-known for having written many books on modern warfare, and also for writing many pieces of pro-Federation propaganda.

Colonel Lin

General Mortimer's assistant... but rather Pierce's handiman. He is fierce natured, and always tag around General Mortimer in order to ensure that the General does not step out of the line once more.

Upadate 0

Location: Somewhere in Inner City.



Adjustment Period Begins now. Use this period to paint as vivid a picture of your surrounding area as necessary, and also use this period to get some experience writing in orders to me.

You will notice a new section in the stats where it says "Location." That is, as you suspect, where your characters are located as of this current moment in time.

Also note that I have added in some new stuff to your inventory, including "Credits." 1 Credit is equivalent to 1 modern day zimbabwe US dollar.

For the purpose of this adjustment period, I will declare that buying things from a shop is NOT a major action. However, please make sure to only buy things that your character would LOGICALLY buy if he had no idea that an apocalyptic event is about to happen. Thank you.

Orders and stories are due next monday, at which point the actual game phase starts.

You may now post.

The lights in his spacious, spartan apartment dimmed as he sent the last line of code to the sector server. Marshall leaned back in his chair and smiled. For having so much computing power on this ship, they sure had a poor security system. With a few quick keystrokes he got back to the task at hand. He fired up his brand new copy of UnDoom Quakeament 29: The Shootening and smiled. The player list was already beginning to fill with familiar names, both of his usual enemies, and of the AI bots the sector server was now controlling.

Marshall had quickly gotten bored with the local gaming 'talent', and with FedNet's servers 12.6 dimensions and thousands of light-years away, he decided to make things more interesting. His bots were programmed to learn, spread across all the games simultaneously. They would collect the tactics of a thousand players and condense them down into a fully optimized kill matrix, with an efficiency approaching 100%. And he would learn from them, and beat them.

Six hours later, Marshall was distracted by the sound of his own stomach rumbling. Blinking, he wondered aloud what time it was.

One-fourteen in the morning. You have not eaten in 17 hours. You have not bathed in...

"Okay, okay, enough already. Ein, this is going to be a long night. Order me a couple pizzas, and a liter of Gragnok Dew." [-$20]

Affirmative. Food order placed. Caloric density of meal is 7,024 kilo-Joules per kilogram. Average lifespan reduction over recommended meal is 7 hours, 6 minutes...

"C'mon, shut up already. Don't make me wipe your memory core again. I'll die when I'm good and ready. Until then, let's go plaster some n00bs."

hbar said:

UnDoom Quakeament 29: The Shootening

Click to expand...

It was late evening when I got up. I exited my apartment and headed to my camping site, with only my pocket knife. while I was walking the trail, I met a strange man. He looked to be in his fifties, black hair, short, bad posture with what appeared to be having a hunchback. He saw me to, and came over to me and said

"Please, help. Some robbers came by earlier today and took some of my most prised objects. Please! You must help me!"

I was moved with much pity, and decided to help him. Getting out my pocket knife (which can be used in other things besides chopping wood), I went down and spotted the two robbers. I drew my pocket knife, but they both stared at me and started to laugh. Ten seconds later however, they weren't laughing. That was their last laugh they ever had. I got the objects in question, but when I got to where the man was, he wasn't there. So, I searched all night for the man, finding him in his car. Giving the man his objects, the man said

"God bless you! Thank you for finding all that I own. Well, all that I own except for the car." We both smiled, and I left for my house. Then, just as I was nearing my apartment, tow people called out "hey! Do you know where Tim and Bob are? They were in the camping trail, and we saw you come from that direction. Can you help us?" Then, knowing that Tim and Bob were the two people that I killed with my pocket knife, I ran. I don't know how long I ran but I collapsed. The next morning, I was in a hospital. I turned to see who brought me here, and it was the two people who asked me for help in looking for there friends (whom I had killed). Then the came to me and asked

"So, were you the one that killed our friends or not?"


This is in the park, and surrounding areas.

I spend my advancement points on my Boy Scout skills

@ Seon
Do we PM you our orders, or put them in the thread?

bestrfcplayer said:

This is in the park, and surrounding areas.

I spend my advancement points on my Boy Scout skills

@ Seon
Do we PM you our orders, or put them in the thread?

Click to expand...

Either is fine.

And there is no such thing as advancement points, you get action points.

And in addition... please try to keep inside the location that I marked you in, but I will accept this for now. Also please remember that you are not playing as some kind of batman or something. You don't have combat experience, and from what I hear, Boy scouts doesn't teach advanced knife combat.

Medical Log 5675: Psych Log 3120. Access Codes Accepted, Welcome Dr. Klaravisch.



The experiments seem to be progressing within acceptable parameters. Plausible deniability maintained. Collectable variables regarding subject behavior are attached. Other variables, to the extent that they can be evaluated in this study group, have appeared consistent with those verifiable statistics.

-

Leon awakes.

His sheets are still tightly stuffed beneath the mattress, he feels, for a moment, secure, tightly enfolded into the miracles of the future era.

Future, Leon laughs for a moment. That word used to have meaning.

Like Modern, like the Renaissance, like Classical, now it only stood in for the various aspects of life most transient, most recent, and yet most taken for granted.

But Leon knows better than to think that this Future is any better than the other eras, just a simple touch of madness and it would all be the same to anyone, padded cells have looked the same for eons. Since the invention of padding.

And what is there to expose the workings of human existence better than the touch of madness? There is no science more spiritual, more mystical, than psychiatry. To make people’s lives better on a day to day basis, to make the lives around them better. People come to him to swear their secrets, in the past he would have been a priest or a con man.

But in this era, Psychiatry.

Eggs fry on the grill, legitimate chicken eggs provided by the ship’s synthesizers. His house is quite suburban, a two story home out in the Economic sector, according to Leon’s Holowatch he has only five minutes until the cab arrives at his driveway, it also forces the day’s itinerary on him.

The toast pops up as he spits his mouthwash into the kitchen sink.

Another day of delving into people’s problems, another day to confront the vast loneliness of space, more time wasted in a fight that could never be won.

Psych checks in Engineering, fantastic, another cycle of dealing with math-heads who can’t even conjugate a sentence without drawing out an equation. Which is fine, Leon doesn’t want to judge them, he would never judge anyone, but it’s also damn frustrating for someone who does not do math. And the Federation has appointed him to figure out what the hell these bastards are talking about, another magnificent move for the HR department, thanks a lot President Smith.

Leon puts on his tie, green, translucent fields that shimmer as the tie catches different rays of light. In the ancient days, on Earth, they built tiny contraptions to move men about underwater, beneath the waves, but it was hard on the men. This was around the birth of psychology, and the walls were painted green, because green promotes sanity, calmness, normalcy.

As a mystic, a shaman, a nether worldly priest wielding pharmacopeia and well equipped to deal with the massive, galactic separation anxiety that, apparently, any human who exits the Milky Way is bound to encounter, Dr. Klaravisch feels honor bound to heal the human element.

Whatever human element exists behind the numbers, he can decipher it, he's sure he will.

The taxi honks its horn outside, and Leon slaps the egg between the toast, it’s going to be a busy day.

There's not a lot of light to guide your way in the slums. It meant it was harder for people who didn't know the area to find their way, but that was not a problem for Alice. Indeed, she quite liked the way the darkness hid her from everyone else.

Well, almost everyone else.

"Hey cutie!"
Oh no. This was not what she needed right now. Not at all.
She turned around and looked at a man approaching her. He might be drunk, but she weren't sure, and the poverty of the streets had tarnished his features. He was probably younger than her, but he looked ten years older. She tried to reply in a neutral voice.
"What do you want?"
She could feel his hand on her shoulder.
"Oh, just a little cuddle, hun'."
His other hand was pointing a short blade at her.
Damn!
With a quick motion, she wrestled herself free of the weak one-handed grip of the assailant and out of range, fumbling with one hand for the gun. The man recouped quickly and advanced her again, but she got her gun out in time and pointed it right at him, perhaps two feet from his face.
"Don't make me do this, please," she said in a low voice. If the man had been sober, he would have heard the hard and undeterred tone in her voice, but he only heard the words. They sounded weak.
"You wouldn't... I just want this to end the best for the both of us, darling."
Fine, so be it. BLAM!
The sound might be lower than gunpowder weapons, but it wasn't low enough. The man had died immidiately, but she heard a scream somewhere close by. Damn, why couldn't she have helped me instead of gawking on the scene like that! I wouldn't be in this trouble if people cared for each other!

She ran quickly down a street, turned down a sideway to avoid the guardpost at the nearby construction site, and continued zig-zagging through the streets until she found an apartment where she knew an abandoned cellar room. She slid into the small chamber and sat down to think.
Damn! Damn! Damn! Do I need to get rid of the gun? No way... But it's a murder weapon... But it has my fingerprints on it. I need to keep it on me. Then they can take it if they catch me, at which point I'll probably be dead already...

Damn.

Spitfire Bar - Economic Sector

She walked into the bar and swung her head back and forth. All those big burly marines! She smiled broadly and began to swagger around the bar to select a … companion. Alessa reached up and fluffed her hair while turning down the earphone. She got a couple lookers, but they were mere grunts and she had higher tastes. She stepped up to the bar and as the bartender walked over to her to find out what she wanted the marine next to her turned and looked her up and down with a leer.

“I got yer drink, so what’ll ya have?” She looked at him and saw the scar on his cheek, dark brown eyes, brown hair, but well toned. Hmm a sergeant well that’s definitely better than a grunt so why not she thought.

“Whatever, I’m not picky so long as it isn’t just beer.” Alessa’s responded softly while batting her eyes. Gods men were so easy. She looked around the bar and saw that there were surprisingly more women in here than she expected. Oh well.

“All right. Hey Joe! Get her my usual.” The bartender nodded and began to mix up some concoction. He passed her the dark mixture and she began to play with the straw and sip the drink.

“This is strong. You must have quite the tolerance to drink this regularly.” Alessa leaned back a bit and crossed her legs. She smiled suggestively.

“Yeah, but it’s not like I down em in a single gulp. I mean damn they ain’t beer.” Alessa laughed. Damn it he was slow on the uptake. Alessa really needed a place to stay tonight and all she had was her body, not like this was a new situation. It was time to be more direct. She reached over and placed her hand on his leg and angled herself so she was looking up at him.

“So being a big sergeant you have private quarters right?” The marine stared at her for a second and then it finally clicked in his puny brain.

“Yeah I do. Lemme just pay the tab.” He waved over Joe and then got up and placed his arm possessively on Alessa’s shoulder. “What’s yer name? I’m Kevin Holderman.”

She stared at him for a moment and then answered, “Sally Sponseller.” Well at least she had a safe place for the night.

The game starts and already we have our usual cast: Super videogame n00b pwning nerd, a murderous boy scout member with a knife, a murderous woman with a pistol, a teenager prostituting herself, and finally, terrible to say, a psychiatrist.

I can see how this game is going to go very very clearly.

Name: Mario 'Mr Lova' Lorence
Age: 19
Location: Eastern Park (E)
Stats:

-Strength: 5
-Dexterity: 4
-Intelligence: 5
-Agility: 8

Skills: Stamina x1 , Freerunning x1 , Computer Systems x1.
Inventory: (11) A laptop (containg most commonly used programs and games), punch of drugs related to treating rashes and accidents that may happen while running.
Personality: Rash, Soul of the parties, A bit of Wild Wolf
Occupation: Delivery boy
Appearence: Medium-long light brown hair, ~175 cms, atheltic figure, charming

Backstory: Who knows. Who cares. Mr Lova does not care. He will always find himself something to do - usually more, than he asked for. Running as courier for Daily Mail, Carrying that important package for that Ghetto brother or simply running through military blockades.

Aslong as 'Mr Lova' has been on the ship, he has been both useful and quite a trouble at the same time. His fast feet and knoledge of how to search shipGoogle for problem solutions in fixing simple computer errors, has given him quite an reputation among many influential people. Well, that and the fact that Mr Lova likes to practice a sport called "freerunning".

Climbibing in from third floor window, just to get a kiss, is def. Mr Lova's speciality ... and he does that more than twice a month. No wall can stop him. No road is too long. No allyway is unrunnable. No girl unkissable. No problems in the world that simple Ship-oogle search won't solve. And no cop can catch him "riding dirty". And money just keeps flowing into Marios hands ... almost as fast as he can waste it.

Speaking of which, mgs, when did I ever allow you access into Federation soldier medlab? . Nope. Don't change anything. It's all very fine.

but I will give you this advice before it may be too late. This goes for everyone else as well.

Don't **** with the Federation.

They will kill you faster than you can say "Aaaaah."

Seon said:

Speaking of which, mgs, when did I ever allow you access into Federation soldier medlab? . Nope. Don't change anything. It's all very fine.

Click to expand...

You didn't.

He (she?) came to Esteban, not the other way around..

(I have to admit, I was not aware they would have their own private medical facilities, complete with cloning apparatus.)

Nein, but there are no such thing as cloning Federation soldiers going on in this ship. Not in major scale anyways.

And I thought Choo and Esteban were fired by their company? He probably wouldn't have access to alab of his own. Not of any acceptable quality anyways. Although since he is your character, you can tweak bits of your backstory to account for the acquisition of medical devices.