Upgrades

Half the fun of roleplay is making your character develop and grow through his or her experiences. As characters develop new skills or abilities it may need to be reflected in his or her game stats.

You can apply for a minor increase in your character's stats or abilities three months after his/her approval or last upgrade.

There must be a minimum of six months since approval or the last upgrade before you can apply for a major upgrade.

A minor upgrade would be adding a new attack or gaining an ability with a value of 6 or lower as listed in News Abilities 2. Increasing a stat below level 6 would also be considered a minor upgrade. There's no limit on the number of Skills you can add, as long as they're well justified.

A major upgrade would include raising a stat above level 6, any ability or attack above level 6, or any increase in velocity. Any change in size would necessitate a rebuild, which is covered under News Upgrades 3. Humans may not apply for size or velocity changes.

Resistance and Armor are special cases. These are factors that seriously effect the damage your character takes, and are looked upon with more scrutiny. They require a bit more justification so we as Admin can see how they apply to your character, and whether or not it is appropriate.

All new resistances must be accompanied by a number of weaknesses equal to their point-level. 1-point resistance classes (FIRE, COLD, etc) may be applied for as a minor upgrade, 2-point resistance classes (EXPL and BLST) count as a major upgrade.

3 and 4-point resistance classes count as a major upgrade, and must be accompanied by at least a 2-point weakness. For example, applying for resistance to BLOW (4 points) would be balanced by a weakness in EXPL, SON, and ELEC (2+1+1) or ENRG and FIRE (3+1). (See News Resistances and News Classes for more information.)

Armor up to level 4 may be applied for as a minor upgrade. Levels 5 and 6 may be applied for as a major upgrade. Level 7 may be applied for in place of two major upgrades, is available only to combat characters, and requires extensive justification. Humans may not have personal armor above level 3, and even this needs very good justification.

Humans are upgraded as normal, but have an additional option: personal vehicles. A character may apply for their own personal vehicle as a major upgrade, provided that they already have the ability to pilot it. For example, a mechanic may apply for their own tank, but they must first apply for the Tank-Driver ability as a separate upgrade. The vehicle may then be upgraded at the player's discretion, following the same guidelines as any other upgrade.

Rebuilds usually imply a complete change of an altmode or significant changes to the character's physical body. For example, if a Seeker wanted to go from a standard F-15 to a delta wing design (like Thrust), that could be done with everyday RP and good reasoning. However, changing from an F-15 to an F-18 would require a total redesign.

If you would like to rebuild your character, you must first submit an upgrade application as a proposal. If this is approved, you must then follow it with a full character application, including IC and OOC justification for the rebuild as well as what will happen to facilitate this rebuild.

Upgrade requests will be discussed between Charstaff and Themestaff and evaluated on a number of criteria. The most important is the IC and OOC reasoning behind the upgrade and whether it is realistic and believable for the character.

For larger upgrades, activity and attitude will also be taken into account. Characters that are active participants in major plots are more likely to be rewarded with the skills and abilities to become prominent and powerful figures than those that rarely contribute.

Remember, the most important thing is to get out there and RP. Interact with others and grow from your experiences. Play fair and be considerate towards other players because at the end of the day, you have more fun weaving a compelling story with your friends than you do sitting alone with a high stat sheet.

(Continued in Application-Upgrade)