VIII. (F)AQ

[ourspace]

(F)AQ? So far everything on this page is just “things we thought you might ask” and no one has asked any questions yet, so there can’t be any frequently asked questions right now. Where’s the network comm? There isn’t one, and there aren’t any super-communicators. Characters will receive civilian-grade space-laptops and space-cellphones shortly after arrival, with which they can set up space-Gmail and space-Skype and and space-text messages and space-Netflix as they choose. If they formally enlist with either the Earth or Colonial militaries, they’ll get military-grade space-laptops and space-cellphones. The giant robots also have communications systems, though god bless you if you want to go on space-Tumblr during a sortie. If you want to RP electronic communications, please just do so on the main comm. Private inboxes on a character’s journal are fine, but aren’t required, and will not count toward activity. Is there time compression? Yes. The compression ratio is 1 IC day to every 3 OOC days. Time compression is slightly harder to keep track of, but tends to encourage playing things out rather than just planning them in OOC posts. See the Calendar if you get confused about what IC day it is. The game starts on the IC date of January 1, 2516. Can I switch factions. Yes, although not until the fourth OOC week. See the Faction Switching page. Can I app a non-human? Yes. They’ll appear without modifications unless they’re bigger than 20 meters, in which case, they can’t be bigger than 20 meters. However, there will be IC consequences. There are no sentient non-humans native to this world. Commander Hayes and Captain Tanaka will be open-minded about non-humans, but a visible non-human or talking dog in public at a non-military facility will get strange looks or possibly cause panic. Also, if you app a character who’s bigger than 4 meters, they’ll probably be stuck in the hangar until they trade in quartz for some sort of size-changing ability. Depending on how non-human the character is, they may also have trouble using those space-phones and space-laptops. Why doesn’t the test drive have anything to do with the main game? Why can’t my character remember what happened during the test drive? Secret metaplot reasons which will be revealed halfway through the game. Isn’t this a ripoff of [canon name, probably a Gundam series]? It definitely is. What happened to the thing where you could bring your giant robot with you when you arrived? On 11/22, after feedback and discussions with the people who provided support while this game was setting up, a decision was made to nix that mechanism in favor of placing more emphasis on this universe's grunt robots. This change was made for ease of gameplay, to reduce confusion, and because the game is really meant to have more of a space opera vibe than a hard mecha vibe. Apologies to anyone who has already sunk time into an application based on the old mechanism. There are not currently plans to make robots or fighters from home available.  Got something else? Leave your question below. If it seems like it will be frequently asked, it will get copy-pasted up here! Questions will not be screened, so that other people can learn from them. If you want to ask a question privately, please email openspacemods[at]gmail.

 

Comments

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First, it will be first-come-first-serve for the two protag factions. Reserves get a priority in acceptance if the reserver submits in the one-day reserve window. After that, reserves are on the same playing field as everyone else. I also realized that there’s no limit no reserves, and will go add that people can only reserve one character per app round.

Second, the Colony/PC protag-character app cap definitely isn’t set in stone long term – it will go up after the first month, though how much it goes up depends on the quantity and type of player plots that get submitted. But as for this round, the cap is going to stay around 50 protag-characters because I want to keep a close eye on the protag-ships for the first few weeks to make sure things get off to a good start, and also to make sure that Tanaka and Hayes are available if people want them.

Third and kind of related to that, I hadn't even thought about a cast cap, so thank you for bringing it up! I’ll think about this and try to make a decision about it within the next week.