GettingCharacters

Feature
Feature Characters are the characters that you recognize from various Transformers source material: Rodimus, Galvatron, Jazz, Bumblebee, Scrapper, Wreck-Gar, etc. They fall into four categories based on their importance or rank (see the next section).

Original Feature Characters
There are a small subset of Feature Characters on the MUSH that were made up by the administrators. Most of these are various Sweep henchmen that follow Scourge around (Sunder, Geist, Revenant, etc). It is a safe bet that we will not be making any more of these in the future. For our purposes they are treated as regular Feature Characters.

Original
An Original Character (OC) is one that you (the player) made up. Transformers: 2005 MUSH has been running for over a decade, and as a result we have some seriously long-lived OCs that have written themselves into the fabric of our universe quite strongly.

Time Limits
Transformers 2005 is a popular place, and as such we like to keep Feature Characters available for those players who are active enough to roleplay them. To that effect we have minimum time and activity requirements for all of our FCs.

IC @Time Requirement
We expect players to be actively roleplaying with their FCs a minimum amount of time per week. These are minimum requirements, but if you miss a week here and there, we aren't going to make a big stink. If a player is historically lax in meeting their activity times (you can check using the @time and @time/history commands on the MUSH) they will get a warning and eventually removed from the character at the discretion of Character Staff.

Login Requirement
Similar to above, we like our players to be actively logging in and roleplaying with their FCs! If you fail to log in within the above time frame (1 week for NFC/EFC, 3 weeks for FC/AFC) your character will be automatically new-passworded and set available. As per above, we are not here to be mean! If it was an honest mistake (e.g. you went on vacation and forgot to do @set me=ON-VACATION) then it is no big deal, simply talk to a Character Staffer. At their discretion, Character Staff may require you to re-apply for the character if a closing date has already been set.

Character Limits
Players on TF2005 MUSH are encouraged to play multiple characters. We track this via a points system. Each player gets five (5) points to distribute as they see fit.

Multiple Feature Characters
You are more than welcome to have multiple FCs provided they meet the following criteria:
 * 1) All IC time policies will be enforced per character regardless of how many characters you have (e.g. if you have 1 EFC and 1 NFC you will be expected to meet IC times for both of them)
 * 2) You may have only one Combiner "Leader" character per person. So if you play Hot Spot, you can not also play Onslaught, but you can apply for Brawl (see the next point)
 * 3) Under no circumstances should your characters ever directly interact with each other. Indirect interaction should also be avoided whenever possible. Note that direct interaction includes Combiner battles. So if you are online as Hot Spot and you are inside Defensor, you MAY NOT also be online as Brawl inside of Bruticus. Log off one or the other.
 * 4) By default, character limits are issued by site. If you have a unique situation (e.g. two roommates with the same IP address), talk to a Character Staffer.
 * 5) Only YOU should play or log in as your characters. Having someone else log in your character is grounds for removal.

Can I Get More Points?
Yes, it is possible to have more than 5-points worth of characters. But this is not done lightly. If you are a dedicated & active player Character Staff will consider raising your limit on a case-by-case basis. You can include your justification for this in the application itself.

Retiring an OC
Since TF2005 does not @nuke (remove from the game) inactive OCs unless explicitly asked, you may end up with 1 or more OC that you no longer wish to play. In this case ask a Character Staff member to "shelve" your OC and it will not count towards your 5-point limit. The downside to this is that we will repassword your OC and you will not be able to log them in until you re-activate them. If your situation changes in the future, and you have the spare point, you can un-shelve your OC and resume playing them.

More Than One AFC
Players are limited to only one (1) App-Free Character (AFC). However, if there is a particular available AFC that you would like to play and you already have one, you may submit a full application for them as if they were a regular FC.

Find an Available Feature Character
You can get a sorted list of available characters from anywhere on the MUSH by typing ++avail. You can also take advantage of the separate +avail commands by typing +help +avail.

App-Free Characters

 * 1) Fill out the first section of this Application
 * 2) Send it to [[Image:2k5appsgmail.PNG]] with the subject:  -  -  (e.g. Wheelie - AFC - Autobot)
 * 3) Wait for our response. (AFC apps are easy!)

Everyone Else

 * 1) Fill out this Application
 * 2) Send it to [[Image:2k5appsgmail.PNG]] with the subject:  -  -  (e.g. Scattershot - NFC - Autobot)
 * 3) Wait for our response!

Closing Dates
For particularly popular characters (mostly NFCs and EFCs) Character Staff will set a "closing period" in order to allow other players to submit an application. Typically this will be around 3 days depending on the popularity of the character in question. For a character like Rodimus Prime or Galvatron this period will be closer to 7 days.

Once the closing period is over, Character Staff will judge the competing applications (if any) and notify the winner (yay!) and any runners-up (sorry!).

Re-Applying for a Recent FC
A player may regain a Feature Character they previously played if the following conditions are met:
 * 1) They were the last player for that FC
 * 2) No other player has played the FC or submitted an app for the FC in the meantime
 * 3) Player is in good standing (e.g. no warnings) and was meeting IC @time requirements prior to dropping/leaving the FC
 * 4) No more than 30 days have passed since the character was set available

If the player does not meet these requirements they must submit a new application and go through the usual closing period. This also includes a review of the application in light of previous non-@time-making.

Note that this 'right' to re-apply can be waived at Character Staff's discretion.

Creating a New OC

 * 1) This is covered in-depth in the 2nd Characters section: CreatingCharacters
 * 2) OCs have an extra section of the Application to fill out -- including the stats/abilities/attacks section
 * 3) Send it to [[Image:2k5appsgmail.PNG]] with the subject:  -  -  (e.g. Lugnut - OC - Decepticon)

Recreating an Original Character
OCs are no longer @nuked from the grid unless specifically requested by the player. Instead OCs may be 'shelved' as discussed above. If your OC is actually killed -- either because you requested it or because you did something REALLY stupid and lost consensual death -- you may not re-apply for this character under any circumstances. If your OC is nuked for some other reason you may ask permission to re-apply for the character under the following critera:
 * This OC is your original creation
 * OC has been @nuked for more than two (2) months
 * No AP (Advancement Points) from the original incarnation are being used to "pay" for the new recreation.
 * All OC re-creations need to be approved by the Character Staff Head.

Re-Applying for an Existing Original Character
Sometimes people want to 'reset' their OCs by nuking them and starting over. This is frowned upon but available under a few conditions:
 * OC has been around for at least four (4) years
 * All criteria specified above are met including the two (2) month @nuke provision
 * All OC re-applications need to be approved by the Character Staff Head.