Information: FAQ

[singularitymods]

faq

Daily Life My character has a particular injury, disease or defect. Do I have to get it cured on arrival? Travel through the Rift is a mysterious process; characters may appear wholly, partially, or not at all cured of any physical problems they had at their canon point. Your character may run into drones which provide medical attention if injured on arrival, but the extent to which your character is cured is ultimately up to you. The station’s teleporters will make a record of your character’s molecular structure on every use, so cured ailments are unlikely to return once removed. Do characters all speak the same language? All written text throughout Sacrosanct and station-controlled areas of Asphodel are automatically translated to a character’s native language through the wearable; a similar process is handled in real-time during audible conversation. The insurgency runs its own pirated version of the same translation software, which doubles as an encryption protocol to hide certain transmissions. Both methods have a 99.99999% uptime rate. Okay, so what does untranslated "native" sound like? If you can imagine English and Mandarin having a baby, a mutant baby, that's half verbalized chatspeak, and has no linguistic rules you'd recognize, you'd be getting close. Are there crimes in Singularity? Is there a justice system? There does not exist a universal justice system; crimes that are not easily visible to the public are likely to go unpunished. In closer living quarters, indiscreet actions may be noticed and acted upon by other characters, but the station itself is ambivalent about the enforcement of justice. Any larger criminal acts, such as murder, assault, organized crime, or actions against NPCs, should be arranged with the moderators. Science and Technology How do characters use the wearables? After being escorted out of the Junkyard, characters are given a computer bracelet for their wrist. It's small, thin, clear, flexible, and---don't worry---completely removable. When worn, the bracelet glows faintly with a string of numbers, acting as a taskbar. Pressing them, or flicking your wrist in the right way, will open the first screen of a touchable holographic operating system. This is your all-purpose smartphone, laptop and game peripheral for everything in Singularity. Where appropriate, mechanical characters, people with high-tech suits, and other synthetics/cyborgs might find the navigation system installed on their HUD instead. Even though most will have starter equipment like this, there are plenty of other wearable computing options and upgrades characters can obtain for the same, but more fashionable, network functionality. All characters are issued a network ID that uniquely identifies them; this ID is attached to each transmission and is impossible to spoof or anonymize. Do the things ever go off on accidentally? The wearables will not activate when not worn, and do not turn on by themselves. That said, it’s possible to mess up filters or post options to transmit to the network accidentally, especially if your character is unfamiliar with technology. Additionally, someone with sufficient network access may be able to remotely monitor through the wearable. How versatile is the station's holographic technology? Depending on access to reliable power sources and holographic generators, holograms can range from small video screens to large augmented reality overlays. Holograms are, in general, fully three-dimensional and can be interacted with by touch. The further away from the station’s centralized computing sources, the less sophisticated holograms get; on Asphodel, for example, they are limited to the immediate areas occupied by station-controlled carbon plants. How do network filters work? Messages can be marked as filtered for specific recipients using standard security settings provided by the network; for added security, character with appropriate skillsets may be able to create custom encryption protocols separate from given ones. It takes time to set up a secured connection, but once established, subsequent messages will remain encrypted until the communication is broken. What about filter hacking? Network-provided filters are very robust; only highly skilled hackers may be able to break them. Characters who enter the station with canonically demonstrated hacking abilities have a good chance at reading filtered messages, however, players must obtain OOC permission from the target in order to assume successful hacking. Virtually anything can be hacked, if given enough time, skill, and computing resources. How do characters get around? Teleporters scattered around the station offer the best in long-distance instantaneous travel, as well as providing the only practical option for traveling between zones (the alternative being maintenance tunnels normally only accessible by drones). For travel to and from the planet, short-range shuttles are the only option. There also happens to be a teleporter in the Rift that is still connected to the network, but is physically inaccessible. What happens to characters when they die? Once the station registers a character’s death, it will attempt to respawn that character at some point through the last teleporter that was used. Your character will step out of the teleporter as if having just used it; no memories between teleporter use and death will persist. This happens instantaneously most of the time, but on occasion it could take hours, days, or weeks for a character to reappear. Due to the potential for character death to jumble station records, there is a chance for characters to respawn with mutations or defects, which increases with each subsequent death. What happens to dead bodies after respawn? Assuming no one bothers to dispose of them, dead bodies will remain in the state in which death occurred, with a slow decomposition process similar to what would happen to that character in its home environment. The respawning process is essentially making a clone of that character, so it’s certainly possible for a respawned character to find its own corpse. Gameplay Are there NPCs? There are a number of NPCs in the game, such as entities Sacrosanct and members of the insurgency living on Asphodel. Players may request interaction with NPCs either through missions or plot requests. For detailed information, see the NPC roster. Why is muncesting not allowed, but playing two characters who "go together" is? The primary difference is intended interaction. Players controlling a dual or multiple consciousness character unit can focus their interactions on CR with external characters played by other characters, while muncesting fails to create meaningful interaction with other players. What is the policy on 'adult' logs? Singularity permits logs containing adult themes; all logs of an explicit nature must be placed under a cut tag with clear warnings in the log header. Appropriate warnings must be added and updated as the log progresses. All players and characters involved in a sexually explicit log must be over the age of 18. The mod team reserves the right to notify you for content warnings; please heed instructions if you are asked to do so. So I'm from this sex game where we have to-- Stop right there. Remember the Keep It Tasteful rule. Yes, we allow you to import characters' memories from previous games, but don't go all creeper on the nearest loli about what your character used to do every Friday night. We're not a DR, and we're definitely not a sex DR. I have a question that isn't listed here. Ask in the comments to this post!

Welcome to Sacrosanct. Please watch your step:

game index mod contact - player contact - faq setting - maps & locations - gameplay - NPCs - history - plot archive taken - applications - reserves - hiatus & drop character requests - plot requests - missions - deaths - calendar

singularityrpg (network) - singularitylogs (logs community) singularityooc (OOC community) - singularityderp (crack and memes community)

Comments

[aroihkin]

Out of curiosity, since this is sort of a grey area... I know you guys say you don't take "fan characters", but you take Shepards and Hawkes and presumably Grey Warden PCs from the various Bioware RPGs. Would you guys entertain a possible app of a WoW PC with a solid canon backstory? He's a Death Knight, so there's just as much potential customization and just as much canon data on his expected backstory as there is for, say, Hawke.

I promise he's not the long lost son of Arthas and Kael'thas, or some such garbage. I'm a DK lore nut and I used to help with apps in a well-respected DK RP group based around that same canon lore, so there's quite a bit of framework in place.

[singularitymods]

Thanks for your question! I'm not terribly familiar with WoW past general osmosis (this is the new mod, hello!), but from my understanding a WoW PC falls more under the line of fandom OC than anything else, since the character's name and personality is largely determined by each individual player. Shepard and Hawke, in comparison, are malleable characters with a limited number of choices and paths available to them, all of which are shown to play out within the scope of the game.

It's a fine line, for sure, but from my understanding a WoW PC is more of a player-created character? I don't want to say no outright because I'm not clear on if WoW PCs have something similar to Bioware RPGs' character development or just backstories. I know we just accepted a SWTOR app recently, but not being an MMO person I don't know too much about the differences personally.

So if you could expand on it a little, that would be great! Just so you know, though, I am planning on closing up apps at the end of this app cycle (9/15) until sometime in October so that we can work on restructuring the game and running through our upcoming plot.

[aroihkin]

Good to know, since I might go ahead and toss Amberdrake at you guys. :3 (That's me one question above, too.) I just really desperately miss Kal and want him (with his ghoul) as an alt eventually, wherever I end up playing.

The Death Knight class has a specific backstory, every PC DK was Arthas' minion pre-Wrath, fought in specific battles (depending entirely on when they were raised from the dead), and were part of a very canon-detailed army. Every single PC Death Knight was at the battle of Light's Hope Chapel, for example, where Tirion Fordring and Darion Mograine broke all the present DKs free of Arthas' control, and Darion formed the Ebon Blade.

WoW actually has a lot of structured and specific lore (canon information) revolving around Arthas and his army of DKs.

In Kal's case, he's a complete amnesiac about anything before he was raised from the dead, so if anything he's even more created by the set story than necessary. From that point is where I've developed him further, but that's no different than a Hawke making up what kind of life they had in Lothering and what their thoughts on Mages vs Templars (the whole plot of Dragon Age 2) is. Hawkes can be just as different from one another as Grey Wardens or Death Knights, in my experience.

The DK PC is even given a sibling from life by the game during what is essentially a Grey Warden style origin story. And then they're ordered to kill them, and there's no way to not do so. Not much different than having one of your siblings get smashed by an Ogre in the opening mission as Hawke.

Kal is a touch different than the origin story, only in that he's been a DK longer than the origin story strictly makes you out to be. The origin has you raised right before the battle of Light's Hope Chapel, and Kal was raised right before the destruction of the Sunwell and massacre of most of the race he was part of when he was alive. Good thing he's a remorseless amnesiac, or that may have given him problems.

But that's no different to my mind than someone deciding Hawke's age and how much they worked with the army pre-Ostagar, if they're a non-mage, or how many close calls they've had with the local Templars. (Especially if you guys have taken another MMO character... Kal is far more informed by his canon lore than not. He may not have three dialogue choices to pick from during quests, but he still tortured that one dude in Borean Tundra, for example. And enjoyed it. And then went upstairs and bought another neural needler to keep as a souvenir, which you can do in-game.)

The stuff I've had happen to Kal since the end of Wrath and the death of Arthas is mostly from RP and could be treated as other-game CR of a strictly-canon DK character. Or I could bring him in from just after Arthas' death, or just after Light's Hope Chapel if absolutely necessary.

It should be noted that Kal's unholy ghoul, Limbface, is what makes him write-able to begin with. Limbface is about as smart as a child (and there's canon info on ghouls to back this up, too, that I can whip out in the app if needed!), but isn't at all independent enough to be his own character. He can't even stray very far from Kal's side, since Kal is essentially his life source, and either could have been in physical contact with Kal when yanked through space and time, or could potentially be summoned from the Shadow Realm once Kal's here.

Again, I'm a complete DK lore nut, and everything about Kal, his ghoul, and their dynamic as a pair is solidly rooted in canon and the app could be as mega-detailed as you guys want me to write it. ;)

Edit 2: I should also note that Wrath of the Lich King (the expansion that introduced DKs) has a very structured plot with very narrowed choices on how to proceed with things. So not only does he have an extensive origin story that is played through very much like a Bioware game, but the path to killing Arthas isn't much different either. Sure, I get to name him, but you can name Hawkes, too. And I get to pick his race, but it makes absolutely 0% difference to the plot and is more akin to the choice of picking Hawke's class.

(I compare to Hawke a lot because I haven't played SWTOR or ME, but I know Dragon Age quite well.)

[singdemimods]

Thank you for providing the additional information!

We've discussed your request and concluded that, unfortunately, we will not be allowing applications for WoW-based characters at this time. While there is a specific backstory set up by the game, the character is, in essence, a blank slate with insufficient canonical character development to justify it as a fandom character. The amnesia that you mentioned effectively wipes the slate of the backstory clean, including any evidence or constraints of personality.

Unlike Hawke or Shephard, who have specific dialogue paths that limit the personality that could be extrapolated, a WoW character is free to act and react as the player wishes without boundary to a specific, overarching plot. If a player chooses to simply conduct raids, then they can.

We thank you for your interest in Singularity!

[aroihkin]

Ah, okay.

I won't argue, per se, but for the sake of clarification I'll address a few points that I think perhaps didn't come across right in my original explanation:

The amnesia that you mentioned effectively wipes the slate of the backstory clean, including any evidence or constraints of personality.

Actually, the amnesia merely wipes clean anything that I would have had to make up from scratch about when he was living, effectively making him a Death Knight first and foremost who's entire personality and history is made up of the information provided by the game, including the origin story (which is played out). He remembers everything after being reanimated from death; he just doesn't remember anything of who he was when he was alive before that.

If anything, this makes him even less of an OC. And if I'd taken him from just after Light's Hope Chapel as I offered, for example, there is literally less choice in what he did in-game than there is for Hawke or Shepard. The Death Knight starter area, ending with Light's Hope Chapel, is 100% linear.

Also, those raids are the plot of the game, especially for a Death Knight in Wrath. They're the missions to take down Arthas, who once owned your character's very mind and soul. This isn't something I made up, it's the entire plot of the expansion, and a character who does nothing but those raids and the quests related to them is completely rail-roaded and has no choice in anything.

Again, I've seen far more variation in Hawkes and Wardens, even with their limited dialogue choices. I'm actually very active in that fandom and could point out five different Suranas with highly different personalities (that still match what they're given in game), and five different Hawkes as well.

[singularitymods]

We appreciate the input! That does make it more clear, and we understand where you are coming from with regards to this character. However, due to the fact that WoW characters in general remain a gray area, we have chosen to stand by the decision.

Once again, thank you for your interest in Singularity, and we encourage you to apply if there's another character you're interested in!

[aroihkin]

Alrighty, thanks for the response! <3