Technology

[travelagency]

Technology Domestic Items ➥ Spawner ➥ Speeder ➥ Rover ➥ Communicators Official Use Only ➥ Skimmer ➥ Teleporter Special Items ➥ Android/Avatar Teleporter The teleporter was developed from technology discovered in the ruins. Most characters will arrive in the game setting via teleporter. There have been instances of people being spontaneously returned to point of origin but it is rare. (OOCly, one option for dropping a character is to have the teleporter spontaneously return them to their own world). Although the technology originated on Quadratus, many other planets have been developing their own versions (also called transporter, tesseract, transmats, etc.). If the device is damaged there are technicians on hand who are well versed in its workings and can repair it. When a person uses a teleporter the empty space post-transportation shines purple for a moment before it fades. Exploration teams can use the teleporter to go to a distant location on the planet and come back (and when large objects don't need to be sent or retrieved, this is the preferred method of travel because it causes the least disruption to the environment). To return, they must have a small pin on them that is linking to the larger teleportation device. When they push the button on the pin, the device will retrieve them and they will appear on the main teleporter pad. Ion storms, high concentrations of certain mineral deposits, or severe inclement weather can sometimes temporarily interfere with the teleporter, so explorers are advised to be aware that it may not always be able to immediately save them from trouble should they run into some. Interdimensional teleportation takes a lot more power, so only travel agents are given licence to use it. (And if agents disrupt the worlds they visit too much or use it for frivolous activities, their licenses are revoked). Once they find willing travellers, the Blackstaff Travel Agency will handle their transfer to the resort. Immigrant residents, however, have to wait every for months for a general return home. The teleporters can be found in the docking bay. Android/Avatar Artificial Intelligence has been around for some time. Memories from organic beings can be recorded and placed inside of computer memories. AIs even have the same rights and responsibilities as anyone else. Once a machine has achieved a certain recognizable level of intelligence and sensitivity, it is considered "alive" and responsible for its actions. Empty avatar bodies are made available to characters that don't have recognizable bodies. They are about on par with human bodies in terms of strength and their mental capacity should stay proportionate to their original form. They can eat, sleep, injest food, even be intimate depending on whether or not the person wants that ability. They are typically very human in appearance, as the supplying company was Earth based, but they're customizable. Things that an avatar body lets a person do: Give a substantial humaniform body to something that does not have one. Allow a ship to interact with villagers while their ship remains in the docking bay. Give larger AIs access to smaller areas. Feel sensations that are practically organic. Things that an avatar body does not let a person do: Have insurmountable strength or speed. Suddenly think at super speed; mental capacity would be about the same. Ability to interface with any other machines unless the original intelligence possessed it. This applies to all base models. Later modifications might occur as the intelligence is settled. Spawner All residences have a spawner. Spawners create matter out of energy, but only on a small scale. The technology is very new and was adapted from artifacts found in the ruins. Some food ingredients have been preprogrammed into all the spawners, but you can download programs for additional ingredients as well. The spawners cannot create a meal or a cooked dish, but it can give you everything you need to make something for yourself. (e.g. It can’t give you an egg sandwich, but it can give you bread, eggs, mayonnaise, and mustard.) More complicated items would require going to a grocery store, or pre-prepared meals at one of the restaurants. Industrial spawners can also create small parts for the repair and construction of other devices. Industrial spawners are not standard in homes or resort rooms, but you can purchase one. As with the food, it can’t create a complex, preassembled gadget, just the component pieces. Even the industrial spawners can’t create anything larger than a gallon jug. Larger complex devices need to be purchased from a local Quadratus vendor or ordered and shipped in from offworld. You can get spawners in pretty colors or with patterns on them. They're rather large and heavy machines, around the size of a microwave, and require access to a power grid to work, so they aren't suitable for carrying on camping or exploration trips. Speeder A one or two person vehicle, similar to a motorcycle but wheel-less and suitable for all terrain, including wilderness. NOTE: There are a few vehicles that are permitted for use on the planet (vehicles that don't burn fossil fuels and don't have wheels that could disrupt the landscape if taken outside the village). To take a vehicle beyond Blackway's protective borders, people need a permit or the company of a guide. In Blackway, people are expected to obey traffic restrictions and safety laws. Rover A two or four person vehicle (or five if the five are very friendly). NOTE: There are a few vehicles that are permitted for use on the planet (vehicles that don't burn fossil fuels and don't have wheels that could disrupt the landscape if taken outside the village). To take a vehicle beyond Blackway's protective borders, people need a permit or the company of a guide. In Blackway, people are expected to obey traffic restrictions and safety laws. Skimmer A large land and hover transport vehicle capable of carrying an eight-person exploration team plus bulky equipment. It is also used to transport shipments of goods from the docks to business establishments. Requires a special license to operate. Communications The communications network is run through Jeffers’ computer system. Every visitor is given a communicator for making or checking messages. Guests can also check messages at computer terminals in the resort, or town computers that are linked to Jeffers’ AI. Messages can be in text, voice, or video format. If a character can’t read (or is checking messages in the dark, while driving, or just doesn’t feel like making their eyes work) they can set the communicator so Jeffers will read text messages aloud in his mellifluous English Butler voice. All guests (i.e. player characters) have communicators that are set to a subchannel that is filtered to that group. That is to say, a character's unlocked public post would be sent to other guests/player characters, but not to every NPC that lives in the resort and town. (This is to explain why only guests will respond to posts, despite their being an entire town's worth of people.) There is also a general channel which does include every communicator in the resort and town, NPC and player characters alike. This is the channel that Jeffers uses to broadcast news, bulletins, emergency signals, or anything else that is relevant to the entire community. Player characters can use it too, if they need to alert the whole town to an emergency, but the default public channel on their communicators is the Guest Subchannel. Players can still, of course, contact any NPC using a private filter, but aside from Jeffers the mods will not usually play NPCs in threads unless there's a plot reason to do so. Their range is planet-wide, but the signal grows weaker with distance. Ion storms, certain large mineral deposits, and severe inclement weather can sometimes interfere with its use and temporarily block communications, particularly if one is far from the resort. The communicators also serve as very basic translators. They can translate from any language into Standard. They can be traded for or replaced with other versions at one of the gadget shops. The standard communicator given to all guests upon arrival is a hand-held, small tablet-like device. In addition to communication, players can also use their communicators to write notes to themselves, keep lists, access the map of the resort and town, and pull up the resort's information pamphlet. Sometimes you may get a discreet popup ad appearing at the top of your communicator screen. Navigation