System Error

[Fantastical-Ducks]

This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "System Error"

You may edit this first post as you see fit.

[blackwolt]

Hey, this roleplay caught my attention and I would like it if you'd consider my participation.

Before you say yes however I have to state that the time I can spend on a roleplay is rather limited because of upcoming examns and whatnot. Plus the fact that I haven't been in a roleplay since December or January.

However I would love to join this RP and help make it "shine" (in a gore-full way (PG-13)). I believe that I should still be able to post frequently and join the conversation/ideamaking in the OOC. I just can't promise anything other than staying in contact. :D

[Lloyd999]

I've been thirsting for sci-fi, but, screw it, this'll have to do. Not a huge fan of the zombie genre unless it's a video game, of which this clearly is based around, but hey, why not? I wont make a character yet, but if this roleplay gets more attention and we establish the plot more clearly, then I'll create a character that'll compliment the plot.

So, first off, establishing the future. about 2000 years from now is a lot of time, and I could imagine a lot of progress in technology being made. I'm assuming we're going to ignore space travel, so we should discuss society on Earth, and what kind of changes have been made. I'm assuming humans will still be quite closely packed together, which would encourage the spread of the infection much more easily than isolated people. Money, I suppose, hasn't changed much in spirit, just as it hasn't for thousands of years. Would the energy crisis be solved? Would we continue to use fuel, or use reusable energy, or perhaps use Nuclear Fusion. As for computer technology, how far has that been taken? How strongly do computers dominate peoples lives? Do they make their own decisions? Do they have guidelines? Do they have a sense of self, or possibly even emotions? Are there robots out there used not only industriously, but domestically? I suppose, because the focus isn't on intelligent machines, these details wouldn't be extremely important, yet I'd love to make a form of robot character.

With all this detail of technology, we can determine exactly what the setting will be like, mainly the cities. We can assume humans live very close together, perhaps in apartment complexes, while the richer few may possibly live in their own houses, including yards. Perhaps, if overcrowding is a problem, the cities will even extend underground. Cars could run on either bio-fuel or electricity, but a smarter idea would be that the main form of transportation is by trains, running on magnetic tracks, of which have multiple lanes. Different trains can be owned by private companies, and some companies may have personal train-cars that are available at any station, to avoid waiting. Anything that isn't along the train-lines is sidewalk, thus removing large roads and making more room for buildings and making bicycles more popular. These are just various ideas, of course. You might want to make everything similar to today, to make the setting more familiar, and give more shock-value as to how overwhelmingly nature takes the cities back. (There's this great show I watch, Life After People, that is all about what the world would be like if we disappeared, and how buildings will decay and be taken back by nature, and how strong or weak our impacts on the planet will be.)


As for the next big topic of discussion, the infected, the Glitches. I'm assuming probably aren't as mindless as most zombies, putting them in a more animalistic category. You also describe them as having some emotion and memory, and how they often worked in packs (although, you say they're the perfect solo predator). I'm assuming that the Glitches have more wits in them than zombies, and can be compared easily to predators like wolves, only more aggressive, as if they had rabies. The same memory that allowed them to return to their cities also may allow them to preform simple tasks with ease, like open doors or understand some dangers such as fire or bullets, and even after a 72 year period, know some of the basic layout of the cities, or at least their own territories. They probably would have a difficult time doing complicated tasks, however, like pressing buttons, effectively utilizing a firearm or speaking coherently. They may work in packs, using their memory to advantage by ambushing or trapping prey, perhaps even flanking. Even if they aren't smart enough to do more things, they may be smart enough to realize that notifying others of prey is better than going for it alone. Assuming the Glitches aren't sophisticated enough to reproduce, they must have some sort of extended life, probably thanks to the health package (or simply human life-expectancy increasing) and thus, making some memory-related skills more justified. Perhaps in the same way that their lifespan is increased, they can recover more easily from wounds, yet not regenerate instantly. They may be as easy to kill as a human, as they are simply infected humans, or they may be quite robust, thanks to the health package, and able to shrug off serious wounds temporarily.

These are just two lines of questioning I wanted to bring to attention for setting the world and plot, plus many of my own opinions I offer for consideration, and your answers may help us all when developing the plot here in the OOC. I have a couple more details to ask about, but for now, I'll just bring up these two points for you to answer to (the answers I may press on to) or we could all discuss them together.

[Fantastical-Ducks]

Ok wow-za lets reply to these in order then shall we!

Black hi nice to see your interested don't be worried too much I knew where your coming from I'm in grade 12 with my grad this month and exams right behind that! So I get life can get in the way but do consider joining we will be patient this is going to be a long haul rp with lots of thought put into it and lots of discussion here in the OOC so we would love your participation!!!

Llyod, oddly enough this rp is not based on a video game (that I know of???) but is rather the rambling of my over-active mind. I know I left ALLOT open and thats what I will be adding soon to the OOC I have some things to add on the background that led for the virus to take over so quickly and how it isolated people trust me there will be allot of writing on my part just hang in as I quickly make a character and get started adding discussion pages to the OOC with more detail on the unverse and the options availalbe to people I want everyone to really push the boundaries so robot characters, or even characters with a strange 'immunity' to the virus are welcome I love the ideas and observations you threw out there and believe it or not this might turn out to be more sci-fi then you first though. Glad to see your interest though it's getting me revved to do this thing!

[Mineczka]

Quick question, for the Robots, would it be possible to... Reprogram them to be designed to assist in combat? Or one of the test androids and all? Just coming up with ideas for a character whom I made, though needs a home.

[Fantastical-Ducks]

If someone had the knowledge to reprogram a robot it would be entirely conceivable that they would reprogram one to be more combat ready. Though if they were more inexperienced with reprogramming they might also end up giving the robot a few bugs and or ticks depends on the person and how good they would be with that sort of thing.

[Mineczka]

One would think that there would be a high-tech person whom survived.

Or a Robotics facility could be running underground of some sort... (Plot idea?)
I dunno, I have a character whom I wish to use, and they fall into the "Battle Android" idea.

[Fantastical-Ducks]

I say go for it Lufia it sounds interesting and it would make sense to have a character who is more battle ready fighter type considering the circumstances!

[blackwolt]

I really really like how this RP is turning out already. :o

I have thought of making a character that more or less would be an apprentice of an electro engineer in the city. I believe it would be an interesting combination with your character Lufia. I think my character would be especially good at hardware, with theoretical knowledge of software (since power is somewhat scarce and shouldn't be used unless necessary. Learning how to program is probably not the highest priority).

2nd or 3rd generation after the glitch... Yes this character is slowly coming together.

[Lloyd999]

Well, I also had an idea for a robot character, but I suppose we can't all be robots, so unless we get more roleplayers, I should make a more ordinary character. My robot will have lived, trained and worked at a hospital, which would be just as heavily populated with doctors as it would with machines. My robot, however, is more loyal to the laws (I'm going to imply they're something along the lines of Asimov's, but I wont explicitly say them) and is less combat-prepared. In fact, it's so loyal to the laws, it has a very hard time distinguishing between the infected and those that aren't, and will often refuse to harm them, but if the laws have decayed in a robots mind, perhaps somehow, my character can re-prioritize.

I think that the less combat-ready characters are, the better, as it'd be more dramatic. Oh, sure, we could have a bunch of badasses rolling into town for supplies, guns blazing, but the more vulnerable the characters are, the more human we can make them and the more dramatic we can make the story. Perhaps we could have younger characters?

[blackwolt]

True the ratio of humans to robots should at least be in the favor of the humans. That said I do like the approach of a robot that can't go against the laws that its program is based on. Giving ethical problems (always fun to talk about ethic when robots are involved :D).

I also agree with the less combat-ready characters. However I do think that a mixture would give the best outcome. I know that I personally will have more fun playing a non-combat character, together with some characters that know how to "handle" the glitch. Be it through firearms or hiding. :)

I think my character is going to be rather young, end of teens or early twenties.

*EDIT* By the way, were quantum computers a normal thing before the glitch? This won't really change the plot itself, only the infrastructure of computer science and of course calculation and command speed of the same. This is more or less for my own character whether or not quantum engineering is a thing.

[Mineczka]

@Blackwolt; That could actually work... Like he/she scraps parts from other broked robots and made my character, programming and all too. And finally they work! Wanna just do that?

[Lloyd999]

Ethics when robots are involved? Definitely. That's why Asimov's books are so great. I had also had an idea as to why exactly robots wouldn't follow their laws. The robots are already stressed by the fact that they can't tell if the medical package is helping them or hurting them. If they were witness to an event, such as an infected killing a person, or visa-versa, and were absolutely powerless, or were directly responsible for the death of one of them, they may short-out or overheat in 'regret', like a mental freeze-out, and shut down, like your computer. Ones that are meant to be able to work without relying on humans, such as maintenance robots, can turn themselves back on, but with each time they crash, their brains may be damaged. This damage, however, may be a way of adapting, making them less dependent on the laws and able to preform tasks without having to pay attention to the safety and health of humans. In fact, operating outside the laws may allow them to learn how to operate within the laws more effectively, such as being able to tell that a healthy person is of more value than a Glitch.

I suppose I'll be exploring this and other themes with my character, and I suppose her contrast with Lufia's may even help that. I suppose, however, I should make a human character as well. I still haven't come up with any ideas yet, but maybe there's another theme I could explore...

Also, have some feels.

[Kamibito]

I made a character and now he's in :3
Also, before I start on his sister, would anyone be willing to play as her? I mean, it wouldn't need to be your full-time character, as I just need someone to spare me some time and work on the skelly.

[Lloyd999]

I might consider it if you link me to your character's profile.

[Kamibito]

He is still WIP.
roleplay/system-error/characters/ren-young-ming

[Fantastical-Ducks]

Nice to see some ideas got flowing while I was busy. Robotic characters are interesting and fun to play having a few would make sense because of how heavily humans relied on them at the time before the Glitch and I'm glad to see you guys took into account how the laws of robotics and ethics would affect these characters!

For myself I'm planning on making probably 2 humans I have the basis of one a young girl about 16 who has become more or less a young survivalist but at the same time the lack of human contact for so long has bred in a type of anger and suspicion making her difficult to interact with and almost 'wild' to an extent.

Also another idea I'm tempted to explore is the idea of humans in cryogenic stasis it would be entirely possible for some people to have gotten frozen in order to wait out The Glitch (Think Higher Class) and have one get re-animated by accident completely unprepared for the harsh new world The Glitch has bred.

There are many ideas here that can be explored so its a bit hard choosing one I'm gonna be posting some ideas in the plot section soon for how our characters could come to know each other because having us all in our own little corner is not very conducive to an active roleplay now is it?

[blackwolt]

@Lufia: Consider it done :D

[Lloyd999]

@Kamibito Keep in mind that this takes place 72 years after the outbreak, and 21 year-old Ren has probably been brought up and raised in this glitch-populated world. Somehow, I doubt he would be comparing the world he's lived in all his life to an ancient video game. Although, that could bring up an interesting point, about how well have people preserved media. If they can produce energy, then maybe they can get some form of DVDs and Computers, or whatever equivalents working. 72 years is probably enough to make all modern satellites break down (unless satellites that can maintain themselves or are meant to last longer exist in the future) so nearly all forms of wireless communication are done for. If people can't create their own power, then they probably are reliant on travelling into the city to find power cells, which makes for more drama.

(btw, batteries aren't stored electricity, and the chemicals in them loose charge in time. If power cells use another means than chemicals, and actually can store electricity, the electricity would have to run all the time, and the cell would gradually loose charge as well. Perhaps some of the power grid in the city is still running and regularly charges the cells. Most power plants, with few exceptions like Hoover Dam, will stop supplying electricity if it's not being used, and with most lights burnt out, whatever power plant running the city may shut off, unless buildings, or perhaps the plant, have multiple power cells that can store excess power, and keep using the power grid. Still, maintenance robots may be responsible for all the power in the city and may keep checks on what needs power. Perhaps the various automatic train services idea I came up with could use up the power. In fact, these same maintenance robots may even continually repair parts of the city that are dark, to light them up again and continue using power. Perhaps smart people, when entering the city to collect power cells, they also leave empty power cells to be refueled.)

Although, all these ideas now have given me a thought for an interesting plot. It might not work with what we've determined are the main sources of power in the city, but if we changed it to something else.... I'll explain in the plot section.

[blackwolt]

The problem I am having right now is that the story unfolds in the far away future. We definitely need to talk about the setting before we can create the characters we are going to RP. I like the idea of electricity being a problem, since the future human race would be in dire need of technology to survive. But how do we make electricity a big problem? Would the used technological infrastructure need massive amounts of electricity to work now that the humanity have lived with "unlimited power" for so long that solar energy is considered worthless? I am not trying to shoot any ideas down but rather finding a solution to make the idea viable. As I said I think that Lloyd's power cell idea is a good one. But why are they in need of power cells?... A forcefield around the little city perhaps? Maybe not a forcefield but a "filter" to keep the environment at bay from destroying crops, carrying disease (the glitch) into the city etc.

Just throwing out some ideas :D

I do also like the idea of the glitch eating anything eatable they can get. This results in making it rather worthless to scavenge the scarce food that would be eatable after 72 years (Hunting and farming on the other hand would start being a reliable food-source).