News:Advancement

TF2k5 has an advancement system whereby you can improve your character's profile or upgrade selected combat objects over time.

The philosophy behind this is simple: if you're a good RPer and contribute to the MUSH by being active and RPing well (by which we mean that other players enjoy RPing with you), you've earned the right to add more to your character.

You advance by spending Advancement Points (APs) to buy stat increases, new abilities or attacks, etc., and by RPing the changes to your character.

There are several sections regarding advancement:

Stat Increases
This is the new simple system! All costs are for increasing a stat by one point.

Cost: If the stat is < 27:           1 AP If the stat is 27 - 46:         2 AP If the stat is 47 - 66:         3 AP If the stat is 67 - 86:         4 AP If the stat is > 86:            5 AP

There is no 10 point-buffer anymore. As soon as you cross barriers, you get charged at the higher rate. For example, if I want to go from 40 to 60, it would be 14 AP to get to 47 (7x2), and then 39 AP to get to 60 (13x3) for a grand total of 53 AP. The days of nice round numbers are gone! However, for an easier time in figuring out your advancement cost, use the following command: +upgradecost to.

Armor
An armor increase costs 10 * the next level up to increase. If Joebot wants to increase an armor of 1 to 3, he pays 20 to get it to 2, and 30 to get it to 3, totaling 50. Armor increases to level 6 and above require Character Staff Head approval.

Velocity
Velocity stat improvement costs are HALVED.

Ability Additions
Find the ability you would like to add in Abilities, including the cost shown in the Advancement Cost column. Also see Prerequisites for other requirements for certain abilities.

Attack Additions
Find the attack you would like to add in Attacks, including the cost shown in the Advancement Cost column. *In-game new files only

Gestalts
Gestalts may be upgraded just like any other character. However, the costing works a little differently.

To find the cost for a gestalt, take the cost of the same upgrade for a regular character, and multiply by 5. That is the total sum of AP required. This cost may be shared between the individual members of the team as they see fit.

For example, the Constructicons want to purchase Laser for Devastator. Normally, Laser costs 10 AP. For a gestalt, it costs five times this. So, 10 x 5 = 50. So between all the Constructicons, they need to find 50 AP. Some members may contribute more AP than others if agreed upon, such as if one member has a lot less and cannot contribute enough. It is up to the players themselves to decide.

All Gestalt upgrades require Character Staff Head approval.

Skills
A new skill costs 3 AP. Easy, huh? :) Also see Prerequisites for other requirements for certain skills. *In-game news file only

Size
Size alterations can only be done in the context of a Rebuild.

Spending Advancement Points
There are two measures of Advancement Points:


 * Total - This is the total number of APs you have earned with this character since you started.
 * Unspent - This is the number of APs you have available to spend on potential upgrades.

Both of these values are available via the +apcheck command.

Possible Uses for APs:

 * Purchasing additional Character Points (CP) for a new Original Character
 * Upgrading your current character
 * "Pooling" points from multiple characters to create chargen points (see news spending2)

Impossible Uses for APs



 * "Pooling" points from multiple characters to advance an existing character
 * Using APs from one character to upgrade another character.

Character Point Conversion Process
Advancement Points are converted to Character (or Chargen) Points at a rate of: 8 to 1.

Thanks to a new Character Staff system of linking characters to players, Advancement Points (APs) are now tracked on a per-character as well as a per-player basis. Because of this, we are finally allowing players to "pool" APs from separate past characters when creating a new Original Character. We are also allowing players to "pick up where they left off" if they return to a previously-played FC. As long as it hasn't been spent, your previous AP for that FC will be restored.

Old Method If you played an FC and then stopped, all AP you earned as that FC was "banked" into a Character Staff database. At some point in the future, you could use AP from that bank to build a new OC. However, players were only allowed to tap ONE (1) pool and one pool only. So, if you had 30 APs from your last stint as Motormaster and 48 APs from your last run as Kup, you could only build a new OC from either the 30 APs or the 48 APs. They were not combinable. This left a lot of players with essentially "stranded" Advancement Point pools.

New Method Using data from the previous example, the first difference is that if you decide to take up Motormaster again, you will start with your 30 APs. The second difference is that if you want to make a new OC, now you can tap both pools, using a 50% discount. So, you would take the biggest pool (48 AP from Kup) as your base. Add to that 50% of 30 AP from Motormaster, and now the total available AP for your new OC is 48 + (50% of 30 = 15) = 63 AP. Not too shabby, eh? In general, you can combine as many separate pools as you'd like at the 50% rate, but Character Staff (as always) reserves the right to reject "overpowered" OCs. Your character history/AP pool list is available via the +apcheck/history command.

Upgrade Process
APRequest is a special administrative character that oversees all AP upgrade requests. The basic process of an upgrade request includes:

Send an e-mail to 2k5upgrades@gmail.com

The subject of the e-mail should be: BUY  The body of the e-mail should be: 

Example: Subject: BUY Cyclonus Swim Body: Cyclonus will learn to swim when someone pushes him into a swimming pool. Cyc has always ICly wanted to swim. I think Cyc should swim because it'll look cool, and swimming will allow him to RP in ocean rooms.

Note: The above is also an example of an explanation that would be rejected. It is suggested that you also +oocfinger APRequest; this contains some very helpful information regarding making your upgrade request.

APRequest will respond to your request after deciding whether or not it's approved. 10+ non-velocity stats, 8- and 10-point abilities, and cannon also require the approval of all staff heads (see WizardApproval). Please note that criteria for accepting/refusing a request include the following:


 * whether or not the request IC for your character
 * whether or not the request themely
 * whether or not it will make your character very powerful and if so, is this IC for your character
 * whether or not proposed abilities and/or skills meet the Prerequisite stat levels.
 * whether or not past RP shown that you will handle the addition in/appropriately

If your request is approved, you then need to get a staffer to oversee your RP adding the new ability or making the change. You can do this in two ways: Either page a staffer and ask if they're free to stand in the room and oversee the RP personally, OR log the RP and then ask an Admin if they'd be willing to read it. If the Admin approves it, s/he will post to the Approvals bboard, notifying of this. The upgrade will be added code-wise shortly afterwards. However, do not get impatient if it takes slightly longer; sometimes the admin have a lot on their plate. We'll have seen the notification, and will get to the upgrade as soon as possible. So don't page anyone and start nagging.

Only AFTER APRequest has approved the request and the judge has approved the RP will the upgrade be added. Oh, and of course, you have to have enough APs to purchase it.

For costs of purchasing various things, please see the in-game only news files:


 * Rebuilds
 * AdvancementCosts

Some Frequently Asked Questions to which the answer is 'No':


 * No, you cannot trade in old powers to help buy new ones.
 * No, you cannot reverse the AP purchase you made last week to buy something different.
 * No, you cannot purchase re-randomization of your stats.