Another introduction round has come! We welcome all new crew members and we hope you will, too, by checking out the ooc introduction and saying hello! This may be the last official introduction post and we intend to make it a good one.
This month's intro will have new crew members arriving while asleep, with much more intense dreams than the previous month. The planet seems to want to keep them and isn't going to give them up easily. Old crew members will need to dive into the dream world to rescue them while other members seek out their bodies, which have troubles of their own to contend with! The details will be on the intro post with space for plotting and questions there.
As usual, we have updates based on what was done last month, and two missions to get us started! We also have several updates on how we'll be doing applications from now on, so read below!
From this point onward, we'll be introducing a rolling application system. It means that as long as the player cap is under 50, applications will be open. The applications page will reflect the current number of players. While open, applications will be judged every two weeks.
Reserves will still be allowed. They will last one week and only prevent that character from being apped during that week. It does not promise any presently open slot. That is still first-come, first-serve.
Second (and third) characters will still be allowed for application at any point by a player already in the game. Test dive memes will still go up as scheduled regardless of player cap. In addition, the wait time for a third character will drop to two months of good activity during the time that we have rolling applications.
This system is what we've worked out to be easier on the mods while maintaining the quality we want to deliver on a regular basis to you. Mod applications will remain open, meaning that we can still get the mods we need at any point and will be able to look at raising the cap and reopening applications on a bimonthly basis.
Thanks to what you turned in for missions and what you noted on your AC posts, we have a number of updates to offer! As always, key information has been added to the Base and Biome pages, but we also have the player-run Subnautica discovery document, which we encourage everyone to use to add details! Plenty of information picked up on missions or in questions but which would be too much information for the other pages is here. Check it out!
BIOMES
Thanks to a couple of intrepid explorers, the Jelly Shroom Caves have been added to the biomes page! In addition, the new Dunes biome has been added for exploration!
BASE EXPANSION/REINFORCEMENT
Serious hurricane prep work has been done on the base itself! Its supports have been heavily built up, and the base itself has been reinforced to take damage.
An extra room has been built with shutters for privacy to function partially as a med bay and partially as a quiet resting space, equipped with PDAs to monitor patients and prototype nanomachines to heal patients. Two extra rooms have been built onto the lab! One is devoted to technological work, containing a holographic deck and a map of what the crew has currently explored, including maps of the Floater Island cave systems. The other room is set up for genetics and biology and contains a second aquarium that has a flow system into the ocean so that water doesn't need to be changed.
BASE COMFORTS
One of the observatories has been converted to a library, containing two large plush chairs stolen from the Aurora and three handmade wooden shelves, which are filled with books, medical charts, and other reading materials. It also has assorted writing materials, including traditional items like pens, pencils, and notebooks, along with two calligraphy sets, watercolors, digital writing pads, and playlists of musicals and classical music that someone from the Aurora put together with a compact, portable stereo system.
The showers and toilet now have curtains patterned with horses, records, hats, Legend of Zelda Navi-like fireflies, and Geromy (from Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff). The showers will now also run for as long as you want, though they are cold to start!
Several missions have brought back plenty of scrap metal and various foods for everyone to enjoy! Supplies are nicely stocked up! Many shiny, pretty things have been used to decorate the base to glamorous tastes. The music on the base has taken a turn towards rap and electronic remixes.
There are pumpkins everywhere. Surely this brings comfort to someone.
FARMING
Farmville is a go! It has been added to the base page. The farm's crops currently include apples, oranges, tea, apples, potatoes, carrots, apples, plants from Floater Island, bananas, tomatoes, apples, wheat, rice, broccoli, and apples. These crops are organized very badly. The farm is guarded by a robotic horse (Rapplejack) who is armed with propulsion cannon technology.
Also, a cranky sand shark patrols around the farm but doesn't enter it. Those who met it in dreams will hear it complaining about being mistreated.
CREATURE DISCOVERIES
An anaesthetic has been developed out of Light Frog venom! Several other discoveries have been found through dissecting animals. Table Coral metal has proven extremely workable, and Tiger Plant toxin has been further reinforced. The base also has a larger supply of Gasopod poison and samples of Gasopod poison glands! Many Birdogs on Floater Island will be more quick to accept humans, but they are most attached to the humans who have built personal relations with their flocks.
DREAM PROJECTION RESEARCH
Research on the dreamscape revealed to characters that while the body responds to damage done to the dream projection, it doesn't get hurt. Projections, when the person is awake, go into a 'sleep' state where they're invulnerable. Further research showed that characters can only partly control the dreamscape. They can't do anything with it their subconscious doesn't feel strongly about.
A great deal of research was done on the different personalities of the fish life in dreaming. Go Disney princesses!
The dream world appears to have a strong spiritual presence that lets some characters connect deeply to spirit magic. Two separate missions went into the Void to follow the song. One discovered a creature which, when spoken to kindly, answered back. The other came across an unsettling presence.
TECHNOLOGY
A radio has been built that will pick up several messages. These will be added to the lab's list of recordings discovered. In addition, the Lantern Tree fruit oil has been converted into convenient lamp lights!
A message was discovered on a chip and added to the lab's set of recordings.
URSULA
URSULA's code has been cleaned up. Her sensors have greater range and she can respond more quickly. Her drones are also much quicker at anticipating needs and sometimes even react before commands are given. Her media archives are now much more useable for anyone wishing to access them.
URSULA now also sometimes asks crew if they would like to hear a spooky story. Her stories are not very spooky.
As before we're going to have one main mission that lets the crew work together on different parts, and one side mission that draws on extra benefits but isn't as urgent. Remember you're also free to explore and do whatever you wish and can ask us about your own mission objectives as well.
MAIN MISSION: TERRAFORMING
URSULA SAYS:"Since there are so many of you now, it should be easier to start diverting resources to terraforming while continuing our own fun expeditions! First, though, we'll have to find a suitably barren area to look into. The Dunes Biome exists beyond the Grassy Plateaus dead west of the base. It should someday make a fine area for an island. Reaper Leviathans pass through the area occasionally, so you should be on guard. Actually... I do request you be able to defend yourself if you take this mission. Some of the creatures here aren't kind."
REQUIREMENTS: So URSULA begins her mission. She will equip anyone who takes this mission with a terraforming gun to use to put ten foot high pillars of earth anywhere they feel would be good to form an island above the water. These pillars would locate the center of the island and be expanded outward according to her. The Dunes being to the west will provide extra land close to the base, allowing them a hurricane buffer as well. She hopes this mission will prove fruitful, finally taking her a small step forward.
RESULTS: Successfully completing this mission will unlock a second mission to create the foundation for a very small island. Since this mission is considered the core of URSULA's programming, failure to complete it will cause her to become more insistent towards the crew to complete the task.
SIDE MISSION: HURRICANE PREP PART 2
URSULA SAYS: "Excellent work, everyone. The base is the best it can be for the hurricane season. I'm still worried, though. I think some barriers would be good. Land barriers could be possible and temporary through the terraform guns. But there must be other ways. Current generators placed in certain areas could also help. Can you think of ways to protect against hurricanes? Humans are ingenious after all, as are the rest of you non-humans! Oh, I mean fellows! Thank you for being my fellows."
REQUIREMENTS: The base itself is thoroughly reinforced against the incoming hurricane as best as it can be. Now the surrounding area needs to be built up to help protect the base. URSULA's suggestions are just a couple of ideas. Ways to change the water currents, temperature, building up land and other methods will work. Go ahead and get creative!
RESULTS: The base will take even less damage from the hurricane, protecting it to the optimal level. Your libraries and two-man nap rooms will be protected.
If you have any other questions or suggestions, let us know!
Well! Stuff that's unfamiliar to him-- he comes from a sea with magic and little in the way of modern things so this can be literally anything. Technology, medicine, sciences, theory, so on and so forth.
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