the head | the hand (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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dualisooc2019-09-28 08:05 pm
headandhand) wrote in dualisooc2019-09-28 08:05 pm
Entry tags:
OCTOBER RUNDOWN.
Happy almost-October, players! As you know, this is the season for tricks and treats, and we have both in store for you. Read on!
Like normal, apps will be open October 1-7, with September AC due no later than Oct. 5. As a reminder, you can always submit AC any time in the month before the due date!
Treat number one: as of this month we are also increasing the per-player character limit to three, so if you have someone else you want to bring in for the mayhem, now is a good time to do it.
Treat number two: NAPs, our regular monthly intro event for getting to know your neighbors, will be held at a slightly different time this month, Oct. 7-10. As always, participation is optional, but you can't make new friends and enemies if you don't get out and meet people!
And this month’s NAPs is sure to be a delight, as it will be held at a brand new establishment called Fort Pillowtown. As the name suggests, it’s a large indoor space filled wall to wall with permanent pillowforts. There are a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, with each individual fort constructed of gauzy hanging sheets, strings of soft lights, warm blankets, plush toys, a mini television with on-screen menu for choosing movies to watch and video games to play, and yes, lots and lots of pillows. Snacks and drinks of all sorts are available for purchase, as are whimsical onesies and comfy slippers to wear. Board and card game sets are also available to borrow or buy. Sounds like a dream, right? Luckily, Fort Pillowtown is now a permanent fixture in the city, so you can return whenever you need time away from reality.
The Avocado Uprising is scheduled for Oct. 12, so if you’re looking to get your guac on and participate in some free-form revolution, be sure to sign up!
Now … the tricks. How ‘bout that Heart meeting last month? The general consensus seems to be that they are not well organized and not terribly trustworthy. And with such vague warnings about being trapped in this city and in danger of perma-death at the hands of the Head, that’s a reasonable assumption. Many calls were heard for proof, and the Heart has taken that request - well, to heart.
On the night of Oct. 19, there will be an intense storm - thunder, lightning, very very frightening city-wide power outage. This is unusual, because the weather in Dualis is typically calm and temperate - there have been no stormy days at all in the months since the first of you arrived. The fact that an entire neon-lit city suddenly finds itself without any power for several hours is also unprecedented, as there are typically safeguards in place to prevent such a thing from happening.
So that’s all weird, but it’s about to get weirder. Because this is when theFire Nation robots attack.
While you are waiting out the storm in your dorm rooms, bars, places of employment, wherever, an en masse attack of robots begins, and it’s not, as you might expect, the Iterations, suddenly gone mad with power. No, these robots have never been seen before.
These robots look just like you. And they are here to kill you.
Remember how the Head said you’d been brought here to help with a disease study? Whether that’s true remains to be seen, but what is true is that you were brought here for the Head to study - just with a different outcome. The Head, being AI, has some questions about organic life forms. What is it about you that makes you a person? How can the Head replicate that? These are the real reasons for your sidequest into this city, and the endgame is for the Head to create a perfect copy of each citizen, and replace each of you with said copy. Oh, and that promise of being sent home? Yeah, that was a total lie. The Heart was right about your lives being in danger, because once those AI doubles of you are complete, you’ll be considered redundant, and eliminated. Permanently.
The problem here is that the robots aren’t finished, and they weren’t supposed to be turned loose just yet. You can thank the power failure for this sneak preview of your impending doom. However, the robots’ first piece of programming is to seek out and destroy their organic doppelgangers, so even though they shouldn’t be out in the world yet, they still have the directive to hunt down and kill the person they’re modeled after. Pretty horrible, right?
The key piece of helpful information for defeating the mass of homicidal AI is the fact that they are unfinished. This can look however you’d like - we had the film Us in mind when designing this event, but you’re not required to stick strictly to this aesthetic. Robots should be recognizable as a copy of the person they’re meant to replace, but can have metal bits and limbs not yet covered by flesh, incomplete voice chips, imperfect motion protocols, etc. They also will not have any special abilities (yet), so they are as strong and durable as an average robot, but won’t have super speed, magic casting abilities, proficiency in combat or weapons training, or anything else that makes their people unique. Note: “average robots” are less strong/durable than Iterations, which have previously been described as Terminator-levels of sturdy. So it is possible to defeat them! They just won’t go down easily, and it will take some time and effort to immobilize them.
Teamwork is also key to survival! Pair up with a friend or a stranger and do double the damage. Players will NPC their own roboclones during this event, so the fights can unravel and end however you’d like. Surviving these fights is recommended but not mandatory - if you choose to have your character make a Noble Sacrifice and take out a group of robots by running into them with a bomb vest activated, that’s perfectly acceptable. They’ll be restored in 24-48 hours, almost as good as new.
After a few hours, the storm subsides, the power returns, the remaining robots are remotely disabled, and Iterations and drones are sent out to sweep the city and clean up the wreckage.
Wasn’t that better than a hayrack ride?
Please feel free to ask questions below and use this post as a place to plot things out amongst yourselves!
Like normal, apps will be open October 1-7, with September AC due no later than Oct. 5. As a reminder, you can always submit AC any time in the month before the due date!
Treat number one: as of this month we are also increasing the per-player character limit to three, so if you have someone else you want to bring in for the mayhem, now is a good time to do it.
Treat number two: NAPs, our regular monthly intro event for getting to know your neighbors, will be held at a slightly different time this month, Oct. 7-10. As always, participation is optional, but you can't make new friends and enemies if you don't get out and meet people!
And this month’s NAPs is sure to be a delight, as it will be held at a brand new establishment called Fort Pillowtown. As the name suggests, it’s a large indoor space filled wall to wall with permanent pillowforts. There are a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, with each individual fort constructed of gauzy hanging sheets, strings of soft lights, warm blankets, plush toys, a mini television with on-screen menu for choosing movies to watch and video games to play, and yes, lots and lots of pillows. Snacks and drinks of all sorts are available for purchase, as are whimsical onesies and comfy slippers to wear. Board and card game sets are also available to borrow or buy. Sounds like a dream, right? Luckily, Fort Pillowtown is now a permanent fixture in the city, so you can return whenever you need time away from reality.
The Avocado Uprising is scheduled for Oct. 12, so if you’re looking to get your guac on and participate in some free-form revolution, be sure to sign up!
Now … the tricks. How ‘bout that Heart meeting last month? The general consensus seems to be that they are not well organized and not terribly trustworthy. And with such vague warnings about being trapped in this city and in danger of perma-death at the hands of the Head, that’s a reasonable assumption. Many calls were heard for proof, and the Heart has taken that request - well, to heart.
On the night of Oct. 19, there will be an intense storm - thunder, lightning, very very frightening city-wide power outage. This is unusual, because the weather in Dualis is typically calm and temperate - there have been no stormy days at all in the months since the first of you arrived. The fact that an entire neon-lit city suddenly finds itself without any power for several hours is also unprecedented, as there are typically safeguards in place to prevent such a thing from happening.
So that’s all weird, but it’s about to get weirder. Because this is when the
While you are waiting out the storm in your dorm rooms, bars, places of employment, wherever, an en masse attack of robots begins, and it’s not, as you might expect, the Iterations, suddenly gone mad with power. No, these robots have never been seen before.
These robots look just like you. And they are here to kill you.
Remember how the Head said you’d been brought here to help with a disease study? Whether that’s true remains to be seen, but what is true is that you were brought here for the Head to study - just with a different outcome. The Head, being AI, has some questions about organic life forms. What is it about you that makes you a person? How can the Head replicate that? These are the real reasons for your sidequest into this city, and the endgame is for the Head to create a perfect copy of each citizen, and replace each of you with said copy. Oh, and that promise of being sent home? Yeah, that was a total lie. The Heart was right about your lives being in danger, because once those AI doubles of you are complete, you’ll be considered redundant, and eliminated. Permanently.
The problem here is that the robots aren’t finished, and they weren’t supposed to be turned loose just yet. You can thank the power failure for this sneak preview of your impending doom. However, the robots’ first piece of programming is to seek out and destroy their organic doppelgangers, so even though they shouldn’t be out in the world yet, they still have the directive to hunt down and kill the person they’re modeled after. Pretty horrible, right?
The key piece of helpful information for defeating the mass of homicidal AI is the fact that they are unfinished. This can look however you’d like - we had the film Us in mind when designing this event, but you’re not required to stick strictly to this aesthetic. Robots should be recognizable as a copy of the person they’re meant to replace, but can have metal bits and limbs not yet covered by flesh, incomplete voice chips, imperfect motion protocols, etc. They also will not have any special abilities (yet), so they are as strong and durable as an average robot, but won’t have super speed, magic casting abilities, proficiency in combat or weapons training, or anything else that makes their people unique. Note: “average robots” are less strong/durable than Iterations, which have previously been described as Terminator-levels of sturdy. So it is possible to defeat them! They just won’t go down easily, and it will take some time and effort to immobilize them.
Teamwork is also key to survival! Pair up with a friend or a stranger and do double the damage. Players will NPC their own roboclones during this event, so the fights can unravel and end however you’d like. Surviving these fights is recommended but not mandatory - if you choose to have your character make a Noble Sacrifice and take out a group of robots by running into them with a bomb vest activated, that’s perfectly acceptable. They’ll be restored in 24-48 hours, almost as good as new.
After a few hours, the storm subsides, the power returns, the remaining robots are remotely disabled, and Iterations and drones are sent out to sweep the city and clean up the wreckage.
Wasn’t that better than a hayrack ride?
Please feel free to ask questions below and use this post as a place to plot things out amongst yourselves!
QUESTIONS.
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MOSTLY it’s happening to the pcs, but some npc robots are around, too. it’s probably a total of about a hundred or so, i should’ve mentioned that OOPS.
yeah, all of the power is out, so that includes phones. old fashioned walkie talkies would work but those have a limited range. if anyone were to show up at the station they will find the iterations unresponsive and everyone else gone. weird, huh?
no subject
Will they succeed in killing any of the NPCs?
ADJUSTING THIS QUESTION: Can Hank go to the station and grab some walky talkies? And is it possible to break into the ax hole, assuming all usable weapons would be locked up at the station?
no subject
the roboclones of the npcs can succeed in killing their originals, but ideally pcs will want to jump in and fight them off before it gets to that point - after they've handled their own bots, of course. these npcs would just be backgrounders btw, the heart npcs are conspicuously absent during this attack, and they do not have any roboclones of their own.
hank can certainly get some walkie talkies! the station probably wouldn't have any because they have current tech, but you know where he'd be able to find some? rick's. c: the ax hole is also a valid option for finding weapons. since the power is all out, none of the biometric locks are working, so "breaking in" is more like "walking up and pushing the door open."
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(I was planning on having Hank come check on Rick's to make sure Nick was okay so picking up walky talkies there would work out fine)
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hank definitely can check out rick's, but nick and rick and all the staff in the underground store will be mysteriously absent. also weird!
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In general, will there only be people out that have doppelgangers?
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1) is there only one robot to each PC (or NPC if applicable)?
2) can they talk/do they have some base personality programmed in?
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and yes, they can talk and have some personality programming, but it should be somewhat incomplete. in other words, it should be obvious in some way that the roboclone isn’t the actual person yet.
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(For this, I'm quite prepared to have a proper talk with you guys over discord, just let me know when you're up!)
Finally, As for the AI, would that be programmed with personality points gathered during their time in dualis, or entirely spitballed on the Head's part? No major reason for asking this, just curiosity.
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the look of the robots are based on how the originals currently look, but there is some genetic "data mining," if you will, so while cloud's bot would look like cloud and not sephiroth, you could definitely give him the eyes and/or voice. the roboclones aren't finished products yet, so we can definitely say the genetic stuff went a little weird and would be smoothed out if the bots hadn't gotten loose.
the second would definitely be more like a thing for a player plot down the road, but it sounds very cool! i'm hoping i will get up a page for player plot suggestions later today, and i'll post in the ooc comm when it's created. c:
and the personality is definitely gathered from observed behavior of the originals in dualis!
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telepathic attempts to read the robots don’t necessarily need to have an adverse effect, but you can certainly play around with stuff like headaches or mild nosebleeds if you want - basically, the equivalent of slamming your head into a metal wall.
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He's all about killing doppelgängers too. The problem is he doesn't know anybody all that well so a robot could trick him until he figured out which one had more metal in them.
Who needs a buddy?
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