What would I need to do in order to play a mute character?

One's a concept driven roleplayer who won't take skills that doesn't fit their theme, the other's an obsessive min-maxer who can't begin to understand the concept of sub-optimization.

They fight crime!

They should do a radio show.

This wouldn't be an entirely inaccurate description of Batman and Robin, actually.

Umm... I'm not sure where anyone got the idea that I'm a min/maxer in this game. The fact that I don't have a 50th level character... and refuse to slot a single IO set until I GET a 50th level character would seem to argue rather effectively against my being a min-maxer.

I am entirely concept driven... so much so that I refuse to put the Fortune Telling (forgot the actual power name) temp power from the magic set on any character who can not actually cast spells as part of their origin.

The only numbers I crunch are not for the purpose of maxing out my character's power potential but seeing how they stack up against other characters I'm running. The only reason I crunch those numbers is for the internal roleplay I have in my mind of how my characters interact with each other in the world of my imagination.

If you asked me which was better... a resistance heavy character or a defense heavy character I'd probably smile and say "I like my defense heavy character better because his story line is stronger in my mind than my resistance heavy character..."

Sorry to disappoint anyone..

Time for backstory: Err... Of the game, I mean.

Long ago before the game even went Live and possibly before it even went into Beta, "contacts" didn't exist. Instead, players were supposed to get missions from so-called "Mission Terminals." There's talk of this being abandoned from a very old pre-release E3 video Jack did way back in 2004 or 2003. I assume this is what the Info Kiosks were originally intended to be. The reason so many of our old contacts are interchangeable no-personality stand-ins is, no doubt, that their original stories started out as Mission Terminal missions which didn't really HAVE a person to give personality to.

What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Well, if you treat contacts as just basic sources of information, then it more or less makes sense why someone who doesn't like people but needs information would be seeking them out. Obviously, this only works for old contacts hero-side, but it is a start. If you need further reason why reclusive people would seek out other people, I direct your attention to the Incarnate Trials where people who hate their fellow man are nevertheless driven to seek help by circumstances, and you can tell their reluctance from their actions and words.

In short, if contact dialogue is written loosely enough, having a shy character interact with them can be said to make sense. At the end of the day, you have to remember what "contacts" actually are in practical terms - they're people who can provide information that you contact. It shouldn't be that big a stretch if I pick the right contacts.

That's a good point and something I hadn't thought of. As a general thing, I really dislike the need to train from signature NPCs because it assumes they know how to muse my powers better than I do. If they were a training ground or a research facility that just provided the means for me to advance my powers without necessarily TELLING me how to advance them, that might be better, but contacts training me is just... Ugh!

This is a part I'm probably going to have to fudge. In general, Star has access to ABSURD levels of power, but I can't start her at level 50, so we need an excuse for why she's not that powerful right from the start. Well, when Stardiver dives into the core of a star to forge and recharge, she exists the star "overheated," meaning that her internal batteries are working hard just to contain the heat and energy she's acquired. In order to regain her full power, Star needs to bleed an enormous amount of heat into her environment, which is why she looks for planets on which to do it, what with the vacuum of space being so poor at conducting heat. As she cools down, she grows stronger as her mechanics return to full power, hence why she wouldn't necessarily need trainers in concept.

All of that said, your suggestion of Luminary is a good idea, and she's located in a central hub zone where I usually go to sell before levelling up anyway. I'm sure I can come up with a reason on why Star needs to speak with luminary before becoming stronger, possibly as a means to provide some kind of powerful heat sink so that Star doesn't damage people or buildings when she vents her internal heat. Yeah, let's go with that.

SOs in themselves are kind of out of character in the way they're described. They always have been - how many cybernetic eyes would my character really need to implant into her face when she doesn't have a face or eyes and instead just has a negative space fold inside her helmet? One of Star's defining characteristics is that she technically doesn't consume any supplies and doesn't need any form of support. You can't afford to need established services when your status quo includes roaming outer space in search for the right kind of star where life may not exist for light years around.

I can, however, probably fudge this somehow as Star making use of the Cook's Electronics monitoring equipment to recalibrate her own settings, as it's not that common for her to find a sentient race with sufficient scanning equipment to give her an external reading of her own emissions. I can also probably treat Tech enhancements less as gadgets and implants and more in the same way Training enhancements are interpreted - as knowledge of how to do things better. As she runs a series of scans, she learns how to optimise her movements.

Considering I only ever really use store-bought SOs and sell all my drops, this should be easy enough to fudge, easier still when she has to move onto Mark IV. I might end up having to leave the Rikti War Zone to seek out Mark IV and Luminary, but again - that's a small price to pay, and between mission teleporter and Ouro portal, that shouldn't be a problem.

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Like I said - I'm aware that this is an esoteric concept to the mechanics of the system. Long as I'm going to defy the rules in one way, I might as well go whole hog and do all the things I always wanted but never thought I could, right?

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Don't forget that using WW to sell also involves talking to people. Although...do you have /auctionhouse? That would definitely work as some kind of electronic interface to WW. Then you could buy SOs through WW, too! A little more time consuming, but it cuts out a whole lot of interaction in one fell swoop.

Anyway. If you're willing to fudge everything that much to use contacts and stores, then why not just take the extra step and ignore all the mission dialogue? Honestly, there's no need to read most of it, anyway. As long as there are clear enough instructions on the mission compass, the rest can be completely ignored without any functional detriment.

I think that was my original point. Once people have taken the decision to get involved in a trial, they don't then generally switch off all the chat interfaces and refuse to ask any questions or type 'kk' when someone asks them to do something. If Star has something pushing her hard enough to talk to contacts, why isn't it also pushing her hard enough to nod her head, or write 'Yes' on a notebook?

You totally should! But I think you're being a bit half-hearted with it at the moment. If you're going to play a mute character who refuses to interact with people, don't fudge over the bits that make it difficult, go the whole way! If it was me, I'd feel like I wimped out if I clicked on the guards to get into a Hazard Zone, or used a helicopter :-)


Oh! I did think of something else that might help without any need to cheat. If Star only uses salvage that drops for her then she can craft common IOs at the bench in the University without needed to talk to anyone. Recipe drops will be a big help, but if she can get the inf somehow, then she could buy them, too. (Access to base storage in a friendly SG would make that a lot easier, obviously.) I know you don't like IOs, but at least the Commons have matching pictures.

Also, while spending Merits involves personal interaction, Hero Merits don't, as all you need to do for that is click on the box. I started trying to figure out the best way through all that, but then remembered you don't use IOs, so it's moot anyway. But *if* you wanted anything, Fort Trident would be a way to get it, plus if you can use /auctionhouse then it would set Star up with all the Inf she'd ever need.

Heh. Influence is a strange idea, isn't it, for a character who won't interact with others? "Who is that mysterious masked woman?!"

I do, yes, and I've been using it almost exclusively since I got it, even when I'm close to an actual Market. It's much more convenient to me to do my Market work next to a vendor to whom I can dump what's left than it is to travel around town, speaking purely as a player before concept enters into it.

As for Star, this does present a very good idea. I can have her float above a hilltop off in Eden and do her shopping from afar, and just show up to drop stuff off and pick stuff up, which wouldn't need much more than some form of identification, which I assume she'd have.

If I end up having to, I will, but I don't think it's necessary. I'm trying to work as much as I can within the existing system, and so long as I have the choice, picking the contacts who I don't have to ignore the briefings of seems like the easier option.

All the people frothing at the mouth over missing acid grenades might disagree with your assessment there The cornerstone here, though, is that Star isn't "forced" to interact with contacts so much as they're a source of information. They're useful for what they offer, but not for the small talk or bonding.

Possibly, but I'm not really trying to prove anything And maybe this is just me talking based on my own personality, but I have to say there's a difference between "interacting" with people and "communicating" with people. Just by the nature of my job, I very often have to deal with people I don't like and don't want to speak with, so I've learned to simply keep my distance from people if I don't really like them. If you've ever spoken with a person who meets you with a "What do you want?" and then dead silence, that's more or less what I mean. You can tell when someone you're speaking with doesn't really speak with you, and so will do and say the least possible.

That's how I see Stardiver. She doesn't like interacting with people, but is willing to do the tiniest bit of it in order to get what she needs. Anything that can be done by just showing up, giving things, taking things and leaving to read her briefings out in the field by herself. I'm less trying to exclude things I can't do than I am trying to figure out how to be able to do the most stuff without stepping out of character, and that's where these "excuses" come in. I'm trying to figure out how I can have Star run contact missions without breaking character, and it seems like picking the right contacts, only ever visiting them in person and cutting interaction down to as short a time as possible will be possible to explain away.

Good point. Influence itself is kind of a weird idea in general, and many people interpret it in many different ways. Is it money? Some kind of IOU? A stipend from the city? Am I doing favours for the city? Influence is where I'd really have to think sideways, but I think it can be done. Picture the following:

Through her small selection of friends, Star has had a "Hero ID" issued to her. She didn't do it in person, her friends just took her specs to City Hall, pulled some strings and legalised her activities. As such, she has an account with all the registered stores in the city, and that account gets credited every time she does something that the city benefits from, a form of quid pro quo stipend. Whenever she needs any kind of "shop" services, she can just enter the store, flash her ID card and the employees essentially let her rummage around the parts bin or use the equipment in the back, then charge her account on the way out based on what's missing from their inventory or what the records on their tech show. She doesn't really have to speak with anyone so long as employees just keep out of her way.

When I say "reclusive" and "shy," I don't mean to say Star is afraid of being around people, but more so that she just doesn't want to communicate with them ever and doesn't want to interact with them unless strictly necessary. Think Star Trek's Borg - you can invade their ship, but so long as you don't shoot at them, they'll ignore you. That's kind of what I mean. That's actually the original concept that intrigued me about her. Picture the following:

You see this tiny, female-looking alien walk out of a store and then sit around outside basking in the sun, apparently. You don't know who she is or what she's doing. Your friend elbows you in the ribs and says "That's so and so. She doesn't speak with anybody. Go chat her up!" So you go to her and talk at her and she completely ignores you. You keep talking at at one point she just turns around and walks away. She's kind of like a stray - just sort of there. You don't know who she is, what she is or what she's doing there, but she never seems to bother anyone and she does help protect the city, so you just leave her alone.

In other words, she's less the "I live in a cave away from society" recluse and more the "I refuse to acknowledge your presence" type of social recluse. OK, so maybe not precisely "mute," but "uncommunicative." And, yeah, maybe a classic anime Emo protagonist, but we'll see how that goes

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I finally get what this reminded me of and why I liked the idea so much! Has anyone seen this promotional banner:



That's almost exactly what popped into my mind when I read the above post, I just couldn't put my finger on it. I don't know why I find that exchange so adorable, or the little Spiral Knight so cute, but I love this mental image, and that's a big part of what I was shooting for. Bonus points to the pic for telling a complete story without needing to use a word of text

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Weird human is about to shoot chibi knight thing with magic juju rays from his mystic crocodile skull. A pile of strange animals looks on, alarmed, but chibi knight thing is safe behind its powerful shield.

I get the sense that the "complete story" is actually a story with a lot of blanks that need to be filled in with prior contextual knowledge.

There's really only one word that I think is really crucial in this: "trade." To avoid running afoul of the forum rules (again) let me just say it's a new system that allows trade of in-game items between various games.

And, no, I don't know who the MS Paint characters are. I'm not sure they're actually FROM something.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Another possibility is to go with the praetorian meaning for "inf", information. Personally, I think it fits better for most character concepts whether hero or villain, praetorian or primal.

The way I would see it working is something like this: As Star runs around doing things, she's gathering information on how her various mechanisms are working, and then she goes into a Cook's Electronics to model what the effects of a potential improvement would be, using whatever device on hand bears the greatest similarity. Thus it's not that she is currently using 13 cybernetic eyes, but that she has modified 13 of them to find the current batch of settings she is using with her own optics. Those friends of hers helped smooth over the ruffled feathers from the first few times she did this, and now the employees in the stores have standing orders not to interfere since the parent companies want to study the modified devices she leaves behind to see if they can reproduce any of it.

If this fits, it has the added benefit of reduces her need to interact with the employees to just pointing at what she wants taken out of the display case, and removes her need to have some form of nebulous "account".

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

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