In Progress Cryogenic Suspended Animation Program

[Wes]

You know, as Nakshatra and I have been hard at work sorting character pages we've run across so many characters that have been abandoned for years. Some of these got promoted in absence of players, some of them were moved to the reserves to live as mostly-civilians, and some of them have been archived because no one could do anything with them (I'm speaking of those who cannot be adopted or used as NPCs based on the wishes of their creator, which every character page should have).

As the years go by, as they do on a long-term epic roleplay like Star Army is, there's a certain amount of upkeep (e.g. promotions, assignments, etc). And it occurred to be that maybe instead of characters changing over the years since their players vanished, many we should keep some of them perfectly preserved in their original state, right there frozen in time as they were left, ready for one day when their player remembers a little RPG forum called Star Army, and comes back.

This proposal is to:

• Implement cryostasis programs ICly within Yamatai and preferably Nepleslia and other factions
• Come up with a way for characters' creators to select this option in case of their absence (e.g. make it one of the player will options)
• Characters could be "thawed" when players return or the character is adopted (based on the player's wishes).
• Characters in stasis would be left as is.

If you think this proposal putting potentially playable popsicle people in preservation probably pans out, then please upvote.

Comments and ideas are welcome as always.

 

[Yuuki]

RP: YSS Eucharis - Out Of The Freezer and Into The Fire (feat. YSS Eucharis)

Deep Space The gunship YSS Eucharis slowly approached the darkened form of a damaged and drifting Ki-T2 shuttle craft. It had been some 13 years since the small craft had last been seen, and by all account it had been destroyed by the enemy back in the First Mishhuvurthyar War. So when a SAINT...

stararmy.com

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

I, personally, don't have my characters up for adoption because I would rather people tell their own stories with their own characters but i can see the appeal and do like the idea that instead of trying to come up with a feasible history update for however many X years that character has been innactive they can just be unfrozen and rejoin the setting with the same IC and OOC gap of not knowing what has gone on in their time on ice for whoever adopts a character or comes back later and plays them again.

Could maybe make some pre-made existing reasons like from sickness without a cure, kidnapped and frozen, long distance travel requiring cryofreezing, prison (nep has some prisons that cryo freeze), some program for science, etc.

 

[Soban]

Could maybe make some pre-made existing reasons like from sickness without a cure, kidnapped and frozen, long distance travel requiring cryofreezing, prison (nep has some prisons that cryo freeze), some program for science, etc

So I think these are good, but we play mostly healthy young people. I don't feel like long distance travel requires cryo. Most of these are rare problems to have, I think we need a bigger and more general one.

So I'll throw an idea out there. Famine. A Misshu virus or something causes massive widespread crop failure and for whatever reason, we can't fully stop it. To prevent people from dying, we put vast swaths of people into cryo as a temporary solution, but rather than finding a solution it becomes a perennial problem. So what results is that people go into and come out of cryo relatively routinely. Even in years where there isn't as much famine there are people who go in so that others can come out. Severe famines are years where we put a lot of characters into storage.

 

[demibear]

Wouldn't it be easier to say they died and if/when the player returns it is as if the character was revived from a past ST copy since they wanted to be sure you were actually dead. No need for a grand explanation for something so simple as "you lost focus and stepped on a landmine/crashed your mindy into the surface of a planet at terminal velocity"

Could see thawing people from the ancient past though.

 

[Charmaylarg Dufrain]

ST would only apply to yamatai imo and negate the need for cryo anything and just say for whatever reason they had to be recovered from an ST backup tho that can work easily enough for their returning and adopted characters. I was more thinking of yamatai plus the broader setting that doesnt have acess to ST and this would likely apply to such as nep, indi, freespacers, NDC, nesh, and the like.

Faction-specific examples could be included in whatever article is made if someone wanted to go so far tho~

 

[Wes]

In Yamatai's case, it would basically the Star Army saying "instead of constantly cycling soldiers in and out of the Army to maintain staff levels, what if we just offered a contract where soldiers could be kept in stasis until needed?" In return they'd get special finance plans to make their wealth grow while they're sleeping so they can become rich when they are discharged. Use cases are saving food on long range exploration missions (hint: Yamatai is doing these now as the 3rd Mishhu War has kicked in) and making secret bastions of reserve troops in case of Mishhu victory. From the soldiers' perspective it means basically skipping to the action scenes in your military life and collecting a fat check.

 

[Hollander]

(Seeing this is still open, felt I could weigh in?)

I support this cryo project.

If players do return, the onus could also be placed on them to explain the specific reasons for their character's freezing. We can help them come up with a reason, of course, if they don't like the default explanation.

 

[Andrew]

I support the cryo project as well. My reasons line up with everyone else so no need to repeat them!

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Support the idea generally. Though the logic of "just using ST" in this thread does raise a question. Why *do* Yamatai have escape pods and carry emergency supplies and whatnot, if they'd be fine with just backing up?...

After all this time, still feel like we are stuck with the low hanging fruit that ST needs more of a downside, TBH...

Perhaps there is a 10% chance of "personality corruption" and insanity, that makes abusing the system as anything but a last resort unfavourable?

Giving Bisen lighthouses some cryotubes would thus make a lot more sense, among other things.

 

[Yuuki]

Reminder for posterity for terminology's sake this is called cryonics. Cryogenics is just the whole science of freezing things.

 

[Commissar Farzi]

Was looking at this, mostly just out of curiosity, and after reading the point of "ST Backups" being brought up I can come up with another from saving on logistical resources, aside from having to maintain the cryopods and running with whatever's needed to crew a ship-it also makes sense because if you get killed and didn't have a chance to back up you lose all that experience you gained fighting "Galactic DoucheBag Enemy No. #38902934" you're back at square one without a lick of knowhow so it makes a reasonable argument for something like cryonics to be a thing; Cryopods with built in ST Backup capability maybe?