This will be the warzones system, and it will tie in with the grid's answer to RP chapters, grid story events. Grid story events will be similar to RP chapters, and they do tie in with the current storyline of the city, but they aren't married to the RP chapters. They'll be their own stories, with their own outcomes, and the consequences of these events will be gameplay related updates more than story ones. However, just as the grid might update in small ways after a RP chapter (while the story will update in large ways), the story will update in small ways after a grid story event (while the grid will receive a larger update).
These grid story events will usually have one of two outcomes, which will result in one of two pre-stated updates, and these updates will both be things that a large number of players want. Sometimes the grid story will feature some NPC slaying, sometimes the grid story will feature massive PVP wars, and this time it's the latter. If it goes well and people like it, we'll keep this warzones system for later grid stories, but regardless of the reception to the warzones system itself, we'll still be doing grid story events of other kinds in future.*
The Story
Agent Christian Klein is a shadow of man, someone who does not exist. On paper, he never did. In fact, any and all attempts to find things like birth certificates, medical records etc will just turn up a series of redacted documents covered in so many lines of black, that there’s barely more than a word left between all of them. He belongs to an organization which also doesn’t exist, a group called, Muninn. Years ago, Muninn went by another name - the Division of Preternatural Observation (DiPO), which was founded as a sub-section of a sub-section of the branch of Counter-Intelligence, part of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). DiPO was always responsible for carrying out operations in Harper Rock, which require both subterfuge and finesse - and they have historically worked with the military to try and record data pertaining to the supernatural world, which could be used to benefit Canada. At some point in 2018, DiPO was abruptly dissolved. All assets were liquidated, all information locked away, and the majority of its agents were re-assigned. That should have been the end of the story, but it is not. The remaining members of DiPO went rogue, and formed Muninn. Technically a private intelligence agency, Muninn carries out special intel and recon missions filtered to them through several third parties. It’s rumoured that they get these missions from someone high up in the federal government, though these may just be rumours. Similarly, any connection to Canadian authority are merely hearsey. Despite what some few people believe, Muninn does not have the right to act with impunity, and if the secrecy of their organization were ever compromised - it would immediately be terminated. All projects disavowed. All agents and personel eradicated.
So again, Agent Christian Klein doesn’t exist. The people he works for don’t exist. But he has something.
Back in 2011, when it became clear that supernatural entities were real, DiPO set up a complex algorithm which filters rapidly through footage to look for certain visual keys and then compiles that footage. Originally, the Huginn Program was designed to gather information about vampires. This would have been totally fine, if not for the actions of one technician working for DiPO, who decided that there were very good real world applications for the software. She began to feed the algorithm data pertaining to criminal activity, but found that the surveillance set up by her division was insufficient. Not one to be dissuaded, she devised a ‘benign worm’, which replicated itself across a huge number of devices in Harper Rock. This gave her indirect access to a large number of digital recording devices if they connected to the internet at any time in their lifespan including those owned by commercial, personal, and government entities. She was able to tap essentially into surveillance for all of Harper Rock, giving the program astounding mobility.
Of course, this gave her a plethora of data to work with and she was able to quickly devise the key images needed to track criminal activity as it was happening. She thought she was going to be revolutionary. The problem was that her methods worked too well. The Huginn Program was quickly scrapped (for fear of violating civil liberties), and she was permanently moved to a detainment facility out of country.
Now, Agent Christian Klein has the servers which originally acted as the central nervous system of the Huginn Program. He says that he is acting on his own. He says that he can set up a system by which some lawfulness can be brought to Harper Rock. All he needs is time to put the system in place. More importantly, he needs to know that there are people who are willing to fight for Harper Rock.
His activities were recently leaked onto the dark web via an anonymous source - possibly a disgruntled member of Muninn that wants vampires and humans to eventually go to war. This anonymous source claims that if the Huginn Program is allowed to be reinstated, it will mean that there will be no secrecy for anyone at all. It will mean that everyone is constantly being observed at all times. Yes, it could mean safety, but at what cost?
Of course, if this anonymous source really is a disgruntled member of Muninn - how many of their claims are the truth? Can they really be trusted? What if their motivation is to do more harm than good?
Agent Klein, on the other hand, feels that the Huginn Program is the only way to bring peace to Harper Rock, by allowing its citizens to fight crime since the military and police force have their hands full in dealing with the zombie outbreak. He says that the program is proof that the people of Harper Rock are willing and able to police their own. That they are willing to abide by Canada’s laws. It proves that they have nothing to hide. He has promised to use allegedly private funding to set up a bounty system using the Huginn Program - thus allowing citizens of Harper Rock to stop crime as it is committed, by whatever means necessary.
He claims that once everything is set up, he will take a step back, and his only role will be to take care of financial distribution. Everything else will be in the hands of the people of Harper Rock. He claims the bounty system is the tool by which some normalcy can be restored.
Agent Klein is going to be transferring the servers from deep storage on June 1st - this is the only time he can do it. If he fails in his mission, it could be years before the Huginn Program could be operational again.
Thus, battle lines need to be drawn. Do you choose the side of better human and vampire relations, better security for Harper Rock, in exchange for government surveillance? Or do you choose freedom at the cost of anarchy? Do you choose to submit to rule of law under what could potentially be an authoritarian regime - or do you support libertarianism? Though the choices may seem simple, there is much to consider, and not much time in which to consider it.
The Possible Updates
Please note that if you absolutely love the idea of an update that doesn't 'win' then it doesn't mean we'll never make this update happen, it just means it could be a year or two before we do. The winning update, however, will be implemented pretty much right away.This time around we're going to jump right in the deep end and offer a story that's going to split the player base right down the middle in order to encourage people to try this PVP warzones system out. The two grid updates on offer are: A) a notoriety bounty system, and B) a rogue vampire nest system.
The updates stated in this post will be the only possible consequences of this system. There are no hidden surprises; you're fighting for one of two updates, and slight additions to the story going forward.
- Notoriety Bounty System
A system which auto lists the top 10-20 people with high notoriety (we will have to establish this cap later, but it will be high enough to ensure it's quite unlikely you'll get on the list by accident TOO often, though occasionally is a possibility). By notoriety we mean notoriety with law enforcement agencies, which you get from committing crimes or from being seen feeding / using destructive powers, killing humans, stealing things, etc. Killing individuals on this list will mean a big automatic payout.
This update would also come with other ways to lower your notoriety, such as bribing police. However, these additional methods of getting off the bounty list would likely be capped slightly in a way that either limits the amount of times you can do this per day, or it makes it so that you stay on the bounty list for 24 hours after lowering your wanted level.
Rogue Vampire Nests
If this update is implemented it will mean that human / vampire relations falls by 10%, but at the same time rogue vampire fort events will start randomly spawning in the city. In theory they'd be a little like raids, but the big difference with these is that the rogue vampires will fight back in a similar way to player-characters who have offline AI set up. They'll defend themselves, they'll fight back in skirmishes, they'll flee sometimes, and they'll pack a punch, so attacking these nests will be a lot like trying to attack a player-owned fort or base.
Clearing these nests will improve human-vampire relations and will come with a tasty loot reward for the person to kill the last of the rogue vamps.
However, you'll also be able to protect these rogue vampires with traps, healing, buffing, or fighting off player characters directly. If you successfully keep at least one of them alive until the timer runs down you'll be rewarded with XP and loot equivalent to what you'd get if you'd have attacked them.
The Warzones System
Be double sure to read this section before participating!
This will be a semi-live battle similar to those featured in RP battles. You'll be able to enter the designated war zone location for 24 hours, after which new fighters will be cut off from the battle. You will only be allowed 2 characters per IP / household in this fight.Be double sure to read this section before participating!
This will not be a turn based fight. You'll move / hit as you like, with the restriction being that you can't attack somebody twice in a row until they move / fight back. You will be able to place traps in this fight, and you will be able to use most powers, but you won't be able to banish / summon. Please note that battle to the death will not be possible in these areas, and the results will be determined by skirmishing, etc.
Upon entering the area you'll click to say which side you're fighting for, and your name will show up highlighted as either team red (pro-bounty system) or team blue (anti-bounty system). Simply put, the team which survives until the end wins.
If you die in one of these wars, your character will be sent to the shadow realm or hospital or wilderness, depending on the type of character you're playing. So while the consequence stakes are high, so is the risk.
The fight will take place on Saturday the 1st of June in two weeks time, at exactly 6pm EST (midnight UK time, and 11am ACT, as this is the time most people are able to get involved). It will be held in a temporary area which will be located at 0, 21, Harper Rock ("world").
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*This is all assuming support for the game continues. If it doesn't, we can't say for sure how often we'll be able to do these events.