Commander Shepard (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cmdr_renegade) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
singularityooc2012-07-19 09:56 pm
cmdr_renegade) wrote in singularityooc2012-07-19 09:56 pm
Opinion time!
So, for those of you like me, who don't have the plots post tracked, I just tossed up a request for a plot I've wanted to do for a long time. Shutting down Hypatia.
Now, unfortunately, this is sort of a huge thing. I didn't talk to many people while writing this up, but not because I didn't want to. I just wanted to post it and get opinions! I wanted to talk to everyone as a group so no one felt or had a chance to be excluded.
Let's all get in on this.
I want everyone involved and excited for this! If you have any ideas, suggestions, planning, whatever, please let me know!
Your Name: Hiku
Character Name: Commander Jane Shepard
Character Journal:cmdr_renegade
Nature of the Action: Shutting down Hypatia.
Explain in more detail how this will work:
Shepard will gather one or (more likely) several teams in secret, brief them, arm them, and then mount a surprise assault on Hypatia and the maintenance ring of the station. The specific tactics will have to be arranged IC by the final group of characters who intend to carry out or be directly involved in carrying out the action, but it will go something along the lines of:
Find transport to the maintenance ring of the station.
Dramatic speech.
Infiltrate that ring like it's a geth dreadnought.
Shoot everything that gets in the way.
Shoot everything that looks important/related.
Deactivate Hypatia's main interface and backups. (Ideally, this should be accomplished without buggering everything else.)
Inevitably bugger everything else.
Escape. (Probably before some large explosions of some kind.)
????
Profit.
When do you expect this action to be carried out?
Ultimately, it will have to take place after the next trip to the planet. Shepard won't risk gathering a team, forming a solid plan, or disseminating any detailed intel until she's certain they're out of Hypatia's mechanical earshot. While they have the firepower, this is still going to be a military strike against an unknown quantity and there are far too many unaccounted for variables already. After a trip to the planet, the speed with which this plan is put into action will rely mostly on how quickly they can secure transport (of the variety that can't be easily destroyed by Hypatia) and square away any additional aspects of the mission. (Guns, medical, civilian prep, etc.)
In an OOC sense, it would be nice to do it as soon as possible. Perhaps late August? But I would not object to a longer timetable if everyone is on board but needs more time for shenanigans before we do this.
Is this illegal and/or sure to have negative consequences? Oh, most certainly. If this isn't illegal or likely to result in negative consequences, I can't think of what would be.
If so, do you have a plan for what's going to happen to your character? Mission specific casualties and injuries are completely open for discussion. For Shepard, in particular, I will accept a wide array of personal injury, disfigurement, or what-have-you. If/When Hypatia turns herself back on, any additional consequences would be acceptable.
Does this involve characters other than your own? Yes. All of them, in fact.
If so, have you gotten the other players' permission? Specifically, no. However, after completing this submission I intend to write up and post an OOC post to the comm. I debated whether writing this first or that first would be most appropriate but I think both, in tandem, would be ideal. Unfortunately, suggesting game-wide-plots like this isn't a simple matter, but I don't want to seem like I'm trying to circumvent either the other players or the mods in the process. If there's a real objection to this plot, in either forum, I more than understand.
So, before anyone gets upset, either by my hubris or otherwise, please hear me out.
Lately I seem to get the feeling that general enthusiasm within Sing is waning somewhat. I could be wrong, really, but I don't think I am. I don't think this has any specific cause, really I don't, but I think it is something that can be easily fixed.
The problem Sing has slowly developed is a decided lack of direct conflict. When there is conflict, the consequences are negligible. Death is reversible, shouting on the network results in hurt feelings, and occasionally Hypatia flays someone alive to get her point across. For as wonderful as all of you are as writers, and you are, there's just so very little to do when there's nothing at stake. To compound this problem, almost every character currently in Sing is, originally, a very driven character, the kind who doesn't sit idly by for anything, else they're the sort of character who only steps up when danger is present, and that's a problem. They've had to sit idly by for a long while now, with only player plots (and I love these plots, don't get me wrong here, they're awesome) to inspire them.
What I propose, to shake things up, is that some of our characters finally do something about this situation.
There's a homicidal AI. It has proven that it is homicidal. It kills people. A lot. No other person on the station has killed quite so many people, quite so gruesomely or publicly, and has gotten away with quite so much impotent rage. She even installed a security officer and a psychiatrist to handle the population. The gall. I think it's about time that our characters called enough and Shepard, who has all the data and plans prepped and ready to go, will take all comers in this assault.
This is, of course, not to say that everyone has to be Pro-Destroy-Hypatia. Frankly speaking, it's not even a good idea, at that, given just how much of the station she controls. Knocking her offline will inevitably take out the environmental controls, teleporters, medical automation, respawn, and any myriad of other comforts and necessities. Taking her out will force the people of the station to react to immediate needs as a collective, to patch holes in the hull together, to interact, to barter, to deal with the every-day inconveniences and needs of life while still keeping the scenario relatively sci-fi. It will give great power to technological prowess, let all our technically skilled characters do more than just hack credits to make life comfortable. It will give crime and a criminal underbelly time to blossom and appear, giving our villains, morally grey characters, and vigilantes something to do. More than that, it will allow for a real schism to appear between the characters and groups of characters.
Player character conflict can happen on a real scale. Decisions that might effect one character or another aren't just tangental to life any more. Joker messed with Gem? Now Gem can refuse him food, or shelter, or kill him in his sleep. It gives real consequences to actions and encourages people to band together. The last time something like this was in Sing, we had the Spartans v. The Normandy Crew and it was glorious. Let's give everyone a scenario where they can do that again, where it's encouraged. Without the AI mitigating, the other NPCs can shine, as well. Tria will earn more trust, Semley will be more hated or relied upon in equal parts, Etan can really become the lynchpin of the whole scenario. The players can gain access to the Insurgents on the planet and those jobs and needs can be integrated into station life and, even if Hypatia is reactivated, those relationships will remain and add spice to the overall workings of Sacrosanct.
I admit, it may seem like I'm trying to have a Self-Indulgent Mass Effect Cast party over here, as they will likely join her, with Shepard flipping major tables with no immediate repercussions, but I really just want to see some more variety in Sing's activity. Something that isn't just the rush of new people arriving, the hopeless rage at someone being eviscerated after a player plot, or the occasional progression of in-cast CR. This won't be opt out, but it will force every character, insular or not, to go outside of their cast for CR, or whole casts in general to look to others for aid (or in some instances, maybe attempt to destroy them). It's an interesting opportunity, but it's also a big change that will have long lasting consequences in game.
Just please, everyone, think it over before deciding.
And if you have anything you'd like to suggest, be it a change to the barebones plan, more character integration, actions after the fact, mob justice, whatever you can dream up, please, I'd love to hear it. This is an event that should and will hopefully encompass the whole game and inspire everyone again.
So, what do you all think?
EDIT:
Oh goodness, so many awesome questions and suggestions! When I am off work today I will summarize the points that have been made in the main entry so no one has to search the stack of comments below (unless they really want to).
I will also try to respond as quickly as possible to any comments here, but again, work.
Have a nice day everyone!
Now, unfortunately, this is sort of a huge thing. I didn't talk to many people while writing this up, but not because I didn't want to. I just wanted to post it and get opinions! I wanted to talk to everyone as a group so no one felt or had a chance to be excluded.
Let's all get in on this.
I want everyone involved and excited for this! If you have any ideas, suggestions, planning, whatever, please let me know!
Your Name: Hiku
Character Name: Commander Jane Shepard
Character Journal:
cmdr_renegadeNature of the Action: Shutting down Hypatia.
Explain in more detail how this will work:
Shepard will gather one or (more likely) several teams in secret, brief them, arm them, and then mount a surprise assault on Hypatia and the maintenance ring of the station. The specific tactics will have to be arranged IC by the final group of characters who intend to carry out or be directly involved in carrying out the action, but it will go something along the lines of:
Find transport to the maintenance ring of the station.
Dramatic speech.
Infiltrate that ring like it's a geth dreadnought.
Shoot everything that gets in the way.
Shoot everything that looks important/related.
Deactivate Hypatia's main interface and backups. (Ideally, this should be accomplished without buggering everything else.)
Inevitably bugger everything else.
Escape. (Probably before some large explosions of some kind.)
????
Profit.
When do you expect this action to be carried out?
Ultimately, it will have to take place after the next trip to the planet. Shepard won't risk gathering a team, forming a solid plan, or disseminating any detailed intel until she's certain they're out of Hypatia's mechanical earshot. While they have the firepower, this is still going to be a military strike against an unknown quantity and there are far too many unaccounted for variables already. After a trip to the planet, the speed with which this plan is put into action will rely mostly on how quickly they can secure transport (of the variety that can't be easily destroyed by Hypatia) and square away any additional aspects of the mission. (Guns, medical, civilian prep, etc.)
In an OOC sense, it would be nice to do it as soon as possible. Perhaps late August? But I would not object to a longer timetable if everyone is on board but needs more time for shenanigans before we do this.
Is this illegal and/or sure to have negative consequences? Oh, most certainly. If this isn't illegal or likely to result in negative consequences, I can't think of what would be.
If so, do you have a plan for what's going to happen to your character? Mission specific casualties and injuries are completely open for discussion. For Shepard, in particular, I will accept a wide array of personal injury, disfigurement, or what-have-you. If/When Hypatia turns herself back on, any additional consequences would be acceptable.
Does this involve characters other than your own? Yes. All of them, in fact.
If so, have you gotten the other players' permission? Specifically, no. However, after completing this submission I intend to write up and post an OOC post to the comm. I debated whether writing this first or that first would be most appropriate but I think both, in tandem, would be ideal. Unfortunately, suggesting game-wide-plots like this isn't a simple matter, but I don't want to seem like I'm trying to circumvent either the other players or the mods in the process. If there's a real objection to this plot, in either forum, I more than understand.
So, before anyone gets upset, either by my hubris or otherwise, please hear me out.
Lately I seem to get the feeling that general enthusiasm within Sing is waning somewhat. I could be wrong, really, but I don't think I am. I don't think this has any specific cause, really I don't, but I think it is something that can be easily fixed.
The problem Sing has slowly developed is a decided lack of direct conflict. When there is conflict, the consequences are negligible. Death is reversible, shouting on the network results in hurt feelings, and occasionally Hypatia flays someone alive to get her point across. For as wonderful as all of you are as writers, and you are, there's just so very little to do when there's nothing at stake. To compound this problem, almost every character currently in Sing is, originally, a very driven character, the kind who doesn't sit idly by for anything, else they're the sort of character who only steps up when danger is present, and that's a problem. They've had to sit idly by for a long while now, with only player plots (and I love these plots, don't get me wrong here, they're awesome) to inspire them.
What I propose, to shake things up, is that some of our characters finally do something about this situation.
There's a homicidal AI. It has proven that it is homicidal. It kills people. A lot. No other person on the station has killed quite so many people, quite so gruesomely or publicly, and has gotten away with quite so much impotent rage. She even installed a security officer and a psychiatrist to handle the population. The gall. I think it's about time that our characters called enough and Shepard, who has all the data and plans prepped and ready to go, will take all comers in this assault.
This is, of course, not to say that everyone has to be Pro-Destroy-Hypatia. Frankly speaking, it's not even a good idea, at that, given just how much of the station she controls. Knocking her offline will inevitably take out the environmental controls, teleporters, medical automation, respawn, and any myriad of other comforts and necessities. Taking her out will force the people of the station to react to immediate needs as a collective, to patch holes in the hull together, to interact, to barter, to deal with the every-day inconveniences and needs of life while still keeping the scenario relatively sci-fi. It will give great power to technological prowess, let all our technically skilled characters do more than just hack credits to make life comfortable. It will give crime and a criminal underbelly time to blossom and appear, giving our villains, morally grey characters, and vigilantes something to do. More than that, it will allow for a real schism to appear between the characters and groups of characters.
Player character conflict can happen on a real scale. Decisions that might effect one character or another aren't just tangental to life any more. Joker messed with Gem? Now Gem can refuse him food, or shelter, or kill him in his sleep. It gives real consequences to actions and encourages people to band together. The last time something like this was in Sing, we had the Spartans v. The Normandy Crew and it was glorious. Let's give everyone a scenario where they can do that again, where it's encouraged. Without the AI mitigating, the other NPCs can shine, as well. Tria will earn more trust, Semley will be more hated or relied upon in equal parts, Etan can really become the lynchpin of the whole scenario. The players can gain access to the Insurgents on the planet and those jobs and needs can be integrated into station life and, even if Hypatia is reactivated, those relationships will remain and add spice to the overall workings of Sacrosanct.
I admit, it may seem like I'm trying to have a Self-Indulgent Mass Effect Cast party over here, as they will likely join her, with Shepard flipping major tables with no immediate repercussions, but I really just want to see some more variety in Sing's activity. Something that isn't just the rush of new people arriving, the hopeless rage at someone being eviscerated after a player plot, or the occasional progression of in-cast CR. This won't be opt out, but it will force every character, insular or not, to go outside of their cast for CR, or whole casts in general to look to others for aid (or in some instances, maybe attempt to destroy them). It's an interesting opportunity, but it's also a big change that will have long lasting consequences in game.
Just please, everyone, think it over before deciding.
And if you have anything you'd like to suggest, be it a change to the barebones plan, more character integration, actions after the fact, mob justice, whatever you can dream up, please, I'd love to hear it. This is an event that should and will hopefully encompass the whole game and inspire everyone again.
So, what do you all think?
EDIT:
Oh goodness, so many awesome questions and suggestions! When I am off work today I will summarize the points that have been made in the main entry so no one has to search the stack of comments below (unless they really want to).
I will also try to respond as quickly as possible to any comments here, but again, work.
Have a nice day everyone!
no subject
* How are the non-ME people going to be involved? Because other casts are already working on plans like that, and have been slowly setting up groundwork for a while.
* What happens to the civilian population if/when Hypatia retaliates (say, by shutting down life support)?
* What happens to the station - life support, maintenance, etc. - after Hypatia is shut down?
* What happens after to those who were involved... and those who weren't?
no subject
no subject
no subject
But you have a point.
Gravity is also a decided consideration. Since I'm not sure if it's the rotation of the station that creates it, or something else, or if there's a feature that prevents the other gravity (Asphodel or the stars in the system) from affecting us too severely. Turning it off could have major consequences, but I'm sure we can work around that.
I definitely don't want to make the game unplayable!
no subject
no subject
I think, with a few techs along during the shut-down of Hypatia, someone could figure out some of what runs what, amid the chaos, and reactivate or salvage some systems. I wouldn't want to make anything too dangerous for those left behind or render large sections of the station (populated sections at least) suddenly uninhabitable.
no subject
Aside from that, I'm open to any sort of suggestions or planning to get anyone involved who wants to be, really I am.
If Hypatia gets shut down and the life support goes offline, because of the size of the station, it would take a very long time for the air to go bad, or the water, just based on how few people are around and the garden zones existing to replenish them. These systems being down aren't an end-game and leave enough wiggle room to be solved by PCs before they become too dire. They could also motivate cooperative action from the various characters who are up to the task, but, conversely, it could also be used to put a logical time-limit on how long before we have to reinstate some AI control system.
If nothing else, the threat of being in the (literal) dark would definitely polarize characters and start additional conflict, whether they be military or otherwise.
As for consequences to those involved and not, that I cannot say. I assume Shepard would take the brunt of moderator allotted backlash and those assisting would have severely lessened consequences, but I am not a mod. If you were particularly worried (and specifically because this is a plot with no opt-out), I'm sure something could be arranged to waive too harsh a consequence (or amp up one that isn't harsh enough, if you'd prefer).
no subject
There is the part where some groups would not throw in very easily without knowing the details and building up trust. It's... the way the Bats, at least, function, and even the most antisocial among them will put the safety of the people on the station before the retaliation towards Hypatia. (He already is.) This is not saying it can't happen, only that it may require more than having been kept tabs on.
Re the life support... yeah, I put the possible situation concerns in the other thread. Communication and survival will be a bitch, if there is no backup system already in place, or at least ready. (That has been discussed on Red Robin's latest post, actually.)
I am... not so much pleading for leniency for my characters, as just would prefer having some idea what to expect, as a player. (Yes, I know this would be a mod's answer, just something I'm include in my consideration for the plot.)
no subject
Oh, I understand the bats wouldn't throw all in just willy-nilly, but that's another possibility! They don't have to! In fact, if they disagree with Shepard, they are all welcome to try and stop her, tooth and nail, and encouraged to do so! (Assuming we can't find a way to get them working toward a similar goal, or any other variation. We are just brainstorming at this point, so it's all good!)
We have so many characters who value life differently and the Bats are definitely more conservative on the Civilians v Potential Threats scale than Shepard is, and that's awesome. I wouldn't have it any other way. I assume many such conflicts will come up after Shepard has announced her plan to wreck up the place, and I look forward to the potential CR like a madwoman.
I don't want anyone to feel uninvolved, ignored, or like they have to push their character out of character to get in on this. The timetable up top is tentative at best and if we need to wait longer to get this set up so everyone can be happy, I don't mind that at all, so long as we are headed in that direction.
Whether the bats have hung out with Shepard long enough to trust her, whether they think she's a nut with a gun, or whether they stow away to make sure the important systems don't get messed up in the process or try to sabotage the mission, I am cool with it.
As for the consequences, yeah, having an idea would be lovely. Hopefully the mods will consider and give us some general concept when they can (if they see fit to approve this, which they may not). Unfortunately I feel like a bit of a heel given that I posted this right as one went on hiatus so...it might be a while before we hear back on that particular aspect.
Apologies.
no subject
There bes stuff to think on! And I see you found the Tim post with some of the contingency stuff discussed! There shall be more talking about this!
*nodnods* You don't have to apologize! I was just... putting stuff up to discussion, too.