Suggested Changes to Character Creation

[Erik Tiber]

Character creation is one of the integral parts of the game. Along with appearance, it also lets you choose a number of features which have no effect on gameplay, such as age and skills, but which can still be central to your character and their backstory.

On several servers, I noticed additional features on the character creation page, such as 'system of origin', 'faction', and 'religion'. I believe that by adding these features, it will be easier for new players to be introduced to the lore, and help maintain a cohesive setting. On a different note, I'd also like to see modification to the 'age' function, and a slight tweaking of skills to ensure that people don't make security medical engineers.

My suggestions are as follows:

1. Include 'home world' and 'faction' options on the character creation page. The player first chooses their character's polity country of origin. These can include the major named nations, as well as a few generic options(IE "Independent Middle Colony", "Independent Outer Colony", and "Independent Frontier Colony").

Then the player would choose the home world (or equivalent) for their character. The list of home worlds would vary based on what faction the player chose. If they chose "Sol Alliance", then they would see a list of the largest dozen or so worlds in the Sol Alliance, as well as an option for a fill-in-the-blank minor world. Other factions would have fewer home worlds on the list, and some may lack a fill-in-the-blank option if they are one of the smaller factions.

If the player had chosen 'Independent [Middle/Outer/Frontier] Colony" for faction, they would see a list of the most populous Independent colonies in that category, as well as a fill-in-the-blank option. For example, if a player chose Independent Middle Colony for faction, in the home world bar they would see a list of the largest worlds which are not part of any of the listed factions.

2. Include 'religion' to the character creation page. This is an option I have seen on several servers and it seems useful. The options could include Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, (Popular Tajaran Religion), (Popular Unathi Religion), (Popular Skrell Religion), Other (fill-in-the-blank), Agnosticism, Deism, Non-religious.

3. Increase maximum character age and adjust the skill system to compensate for this. I have discussed increasing character age numerous times, though never got around to officially suggesting it on the forums. The main objection I saw was that it would allow people to abuse the skill system. Thus, this could be accompanied to a change in that system. As of now, a character aged 30-59 gets 4 'bonus points' to their skills and a character aged 60-85 gets 10 bonus points. Under the new system, characters aged 30 could get 4 bonus points, characters aged 60 could get 8, characters aged 120 could get 12 bonus points, and characters aged 180 could get 15 bonus points. With futuristic medicine, it is only natural that the average lifespan would increase. It should be interesting for players to explore the potential interactions between coworkers when several of them are older than most of the colonies in human space. This is the exact reason we have aliens; so players can explore, well, alien perspectives. Looking at the alien perspectives of a future human society should be especially interesting, as they are both familiar and strange at the same time.

I did some back-of-the-napkin calculations and made a rough guide to give players an idea of their character's apparent age. In the below table, I indicate the st

Inner Colonies: 20, 90, 160, 230

Mid Colonies: 20, 80, 140, 200

Outer Colonies: 20, 70, 120, 170

Frontier Colonies: 20, 60, 110, 140

The first number is the start of "Young adulthood", the second number is the start of "middle age", the third number is the start of "old age" when characters will start to retire or assume less labor-intensive tasks, and the fourth number represents "advanced age" when the person is no longer capable of independently functioning.

These ages vary depending upon what region of space you are in. Someone from the frontier may seem much older than someone from the inner colonies of the same age.

As a general note, the median age is roughly 90 years old.

[Rechkalov]

...if there are changes to be made within the character creation system, I believe a tiny little slot for Title (title/rank?) might be appreciated by many, too.

[Guest]

Background Information

Home system:

Citizenship:

Faction:

Religion:

This will be in the upcomming update

[Valkrae]

Oh boy, Now can have some reminiscence RP if some people are from the same Colony!

[Erik Tiber]

Background Information

Home system:

Citizenship:

Faction:

Religion:

This will be in the upcomming update

Can I hug you?

...if there are changes to be made within the character creation system, I believe a tiny little slot for Title (title/rank?) might be appreciated by many, too.

This may be a good idea. As of now I just assume all scientists have a doctorate. It'd be nice not having to guess based on someone's age and occupation though.

[Skull132]

Okay, I'm just gonna. Right.

Entropy - "Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society."

- "The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity."

Okay, why is this important?

Because this literally places a hard cap on how old we can grow. At some point the amount of energy required to maintain the functions of an aging human body will be beyond what our organs, even with assistance, can produce. And as such, we still age, and we still die.

Now, the question is, hooow far is that cap? I would wager, not terribly far. Because, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, as I dealt with entropy about a year or two ago, I think exponential growth is involved.

[Tenenza]

Okay, I'm just gonna. Right.

Entropy - "Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society."

- "The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity."

Okay, why is this important?

Because this literally places a hard cap on how old we can grow. At some point the amount of energy required to maintain the functions of an aging human body will be beyond what our organs, even with assistance, can produce. And as such, we still age, and we still die.

Now, the question is, hooow far is that cap? I would wager, not terribly far. Because, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, as I dealt with entropy about a year or two ago, I think exponential growth is involved.

 

Medical Weirdness:

Mathematically speaking, Entropy does place a hard cap on how old we can grow. But, to die solely of Entropy alone, is very hard. A great deal of factors play into how the body deals with Entropy, and Entropy generation starts getting weird over time, due to metabolism changes:

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jther/2009/186723/

Basically, with the advance of medical science, it isn't too far fetched to believe that a human in the 25th Century could live to two hundred or more. Of course, how it is done is a bit of an issue. Extensive correctional genetherapy, transplants, artificial organs, etc.

Of course, apparently somewhere in those 400 years they figured out MMIs and got cloning to work perfectly, so they could just be sidestepping most of Entropy by replacing all irreversibly damaged cells.

[Erik Tiber]

Okay, I'm just gonna. Right.

Entropy - "Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society."

- "The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity."

Okay, why is this important?

Because this literally places a hard cap on how old we can grow. At some point the amount of energy required to maintain the functions of an aging human body will be beyond what our organs, even with assistance, can produce. And as such, we still age, and we still die.

Well this prompted me to spend a few hours skimming/reading various articles on the subject (yes mainly Wikipedia, though I did check several articles on the Atlantic and NatGeo, and I made sure to check the citations in the Wiki articles), and in the progress I came up with a few new ideas for surgeries. But that's not for this thread.

There are several species of biologically immortal bacteria and some other microorganisms. Wear and tear occurs, but entropy probably shouldn't be relevant. After all, the defining feature of living things is that they aren't closed systems. They take in energy whenever they eat, and they release waste too.

I think it may be more productive to discuss death in a different context. I don't doubt that there are hard limits to this immortality, but I don't think entropy is it. I may be missing something though. Are you using it as an analogy for gradual wear and tear?

Now, the question is, hooow far is that cap? I would wager, not terribly far. Because, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, as I dealt with entropy about a year or two ago, I think exponential growth is involved.

Yes, this is why the lifespan is not infinite. In this setting, you can clone organs or give people prosthetic replacements. Organs will inevitably fail, yes, but when they do they can be replaced with new, healthy organs.

It would not be too far-fetched for scientists to find a way to stave off senility, at least for a while. The oldest woman to ever live died at the age of 122, and she never went senile, so it's certainly possible for people to remain lucid for absurd periods of time. In-game doctors can repair brain damage from imperfect cloning and physical trauma; a drug to treat Alzheimer's does not seem all that far fetched this far into the future.

This neural damage can also be slowed in the first place. Genetic engineering is well within the realm of possibility, and scientists have already identified genes which can reduce the occurrence of Alzheimer's and heart disease. Given a few extra centuries of research into genetic engineering, and I think people will be able to significantly delay the onset of senility.

Telomere shortening can be bypassed by increasing the body's production of telomerase. Mice who were engineered to produce ten times as much telomerase ended up living 50% longer, so it is theoretically possible if I'm reading this right. Although this would increase cancer risk, this far into the future cancer treatments should be far more advanced.

Cloned replacement organs should be able to last for quite a while. Genetic engineering could probably help increase the longevity of various internal organs too.

Do note that I'm a freshman economics major, so I ain't exactly an expert here. I'll try to keep that in mind if someone more qualified than I comes in.

*snip quote of Skull*

Medical Weirdness:

Mathematically speaking, Entropy does place a hard cap on how old we can grow. But, to die solely of Entropy alone, is very hard. A great deal of factors play into how the body deals with Entropy, and Entropy generation starts getting weird over time, due to metabolism changes:

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jther/2009/186723/

Basically, with the advance of medical science, it isn't too far fetched to believe that a human in the 25th Century could live to two hundred or more. Of course, how it is done is a bit of an issue. Extensive correctional genetherapy, transplants, artificial organs, etc.

Of course, apparently somewhere in those 400 years they figured out MMIs and got cloning to work perfectly, so they could just be sidestepping most of Entropy by replacing all irreversibly damaged cells.

I'd think that they'd have mandatory genetic engineering pre-birth in most major states, it could be treated like vaccinations. Based on my own not-considerable knowledge, they should probably be able to improve longevity through, I dunno, giving people stronger hearts and such, improving general health, improving immune systems. Transplants could be semi-common, and could be used to explain the prevalence of smoking this far into the future, since a lung cancer diagnosis might be treated more like a broken bone than a life-threatening illness.

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I'd like to amend my aging suggestion, by the way. Rather than specifying 'young adult', 'middle age' and all that, it'd probably be better for me to define 'health span' and 'life span', with health span measuring the age at which they are no longer capable of intensive physical activity, like working as a construction worker. It'd basically be the point where your character has absolutely no business working as a security officer or engineer.

[Susan]

Medical talk aside, 230 is a ridiculously stupid, unbelievable number; you have to figure how this life span factors into daily life. If people live two centuries, then ostensibly education time and other things are upgraded to compensate; overall I simply find the notion ridiculous irregardless of how much medical hearsay you can drum up or throw at me. One fifty is far more reasonable.

[Erik Tiber]

Medical talk aside, 230 is a ridiculously stupid, unbelievable number; you have to figure how this life span factors into daily life. If people live two centuries, then ostensibly education time and other things are upgraded to compensate;

 

overall I simply find the notion ridiculous irregardless of how much medical hearsay you can drum up or throw at me. One fifty is far more reasonable.

I am unsure of what grounds you are objecting on. Do you mean that, regardless of whether or not 230 is realistic, we would have to change daily life enough that it could screw up some character's backstories? Or are you stating that it is unrealistic, and that my argument is not anymore convincing just because I got a bunch of low quality sources? I can not really respond to your post, because I do not know what you are saying.

Did my tone come off as hostile? If so, I will keep that in mind. I know I can be very stubborn.

[Rechkalov]

I feel kind of stupid for breaking the combo of lenghty, well worded comments on quite interesting topic, but another thing popped into my mind, one that is fairly simple and has some practical use in the game - a number of characters I've encoutered had mentioned having the DNC (Do Not Clone) tags, however, one can hardly keep track of whom they can and cannot clone, as you can only find out through discussion (and at the point where it matters, that becomes a bit problematic) - having a "clone/do not clone" option that would later be displayed on medical consoles would come in handy.

If I may add anything to the age cap, I think it is less crucial what age it could be physically/technologically possible for humans to live up to in 2456, and should rather consider to what age are we capable of relating to and convincigly portraying; a fair number of people cannot properly emphatize with people of different generations, let alone pretend to be one without doing so through mimicking/mocking what they find odd about them.

...or perhaps there ought to be a whitelist; a man of hundred-plus years ought to be quite capable, experienced and intellectually above the rest of the crew (who usually range between 25-40 years, from what I've gathered). By restricting the truly "old" characters to players who had proven themselves capable of playing out such role, the age could actually bring about the appropriate respect and awe with it.

[Jakers457]

I'm almost certain that I have read somewhere that the human brain can go for around 150 years if healthy, thus probably giving cyborgs that as a shelf life. And with alkysine being a cure all for brain damage... A person could live to 200? I have no idea, I'm using trivial knowledge on this one

[ForgottenTraveller]

Just off to the side on an issue on the whole entropy thing and the original numbers given for /middle age/ the biological clock for women remains a steady fact. Even if we lived to 500 if puberty kicks in around the time frame it currently does there is still the same fertility hard cap. Meaning before you were out of young adulthood all women would be unable to have children.

Currently we use the age names to define a cultural age for things to be done. Children to be raised. Teens to develop. Young adults are considered to be adults but still preparing to start a family (In the old views) Adults. Then Elders. Even avoiding the greater effects of age the majority of anyone over 70 would be an elder despite a median age.

[mirkoloio]

.....nerds.

Still, I like this suggestion.

[Frances]

but do we really have to worry about an age cap when everybody's characters will never be older than 22

[Guest]

The background for my IPC places its conception at around 2359. For future races to come, are we sure about hardcapping ages? And Frances has a point. We don't have enough older, wiser people on the station to begin with. Why bother hardcapping ages? If someone makes a human character that's 150 years old and is allegedly DA WIZESS MAHN ON DA STAYSHUN, the staff tend to hop on that issue and amend it very quickly.