UpgradingCharacters

Everything you could ever possibly want to know about upgrading your character is here! On this very page!

If you are eager to get to the new upgrade submission/approval process: click here

Earning Advancement Points
Are earned from:
 * Roleplaying well and getting +nom'ed by your fellow players
 * Being IC and Active throughout the week
 * Participating in MUSH events (Contests, Reviews, etc)
 * Recruiting players

Spending Advancement Points
Let me count the ways...

Upgrades

 * Feature Character upgrades are now done on a per-player basis. This means any upgrades you add to an FC while playing them are yours forever! When you drop the character, the FC will revert to its "tech spec" or "base" stats. When you play that character again in the future, the FC will automatically convert to your build. This is an effort to encourage players to really take the time to invest in a Feature Character.
 * Original Character upgrades are permanent changes to your stats, abilities, or attacks. They will not revert until the character is killed or @nuked at your request.

Converting AP to CP

 * When creating a new character, you can convert Advancement Points (AP) from one character into Character Points (CP) for a NEW Original Character at a ratio of 10 to 1.
 * You can also add AP from other characters you have to that same "Pool" at a cost of 50%.
 * Note that just because you have the ABILITY to spend gobs of extra CP on an OC does not give you the RIGHT. Character Staff will use a level of scrutiny appropriate to the amount of extra CP you are buying.
 * Character Staff automatically keeps track of any AP you had left on characters when you leave them. You can access this information by typing +playerinfo


 * Example
 * I have 40 AP from Bumblebee: 40 AP / 10 = 4 CP
 * I have 20 AP from Whirl:     20 AP / 10 = 2 * 50% = 1 CP
 * I have 10 AP from an old OC: 10 AP / 10 = 1 * 50% = .5 CP
 * I have 10 AP from Blades:    10 AP / 10 = 1 * 50% = .5 CP
 * I have 4 + 1 + 0.5 + 0.5 = 6 Extra CP to use on a NEW Original Character
 * I have 4 + 1 + 0.5 + 0.5 = 6 Extra CP to use on a NEW Original Character
 * I have 4 + 1 + 0.5 + 0.5 = 6 Extra CP to use on a NEW Original Character

Buying Booster Packs
As part of the NewCombatSystem players will (eventually) be able to purchase Combat "Booster Packs". These were made (in)famous during the introductory Headmasters plot in February of 2009. Booster Packs are limited-use objects that give your character a boost to agility, accuracy, damage (or something else) for one turn. They are "bought" with AP.

Check back here soon for more information.

Upgrade Procedure

 * 1) Earn the AP
 * 2) Send IC and OOC justification to upgrade accoun
 * 3) Get approval
 * 4) Do upgrade RP, log it
 * 5) Send log to upgrade account, where one of the following will happen:
 * 6) Upgrade staff reads log themselves and approves/rejects the log
 * 7) Upgrade account forwards log to an available & willing "judge" (staff member) and they read the log and approve/reject the log, send response to upgrade account
 * 8) Upgrade staff sees that the log was done in the presence of a judge and said judge already approved
 * 9) Upgrade staffer approves:
 * 10) applies the changes to the character in-game
 * 11) alerts the player
 * 12) Deducts the AP
 * 13) Files log/app as APPROVED
 * 14) Drinks some beer

Core Stats
The cost for raising a core stat one point is determined by this table:

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 20 AP to get from 40 to 50 (10x2), and then 27 AP to get from 51 to 60 (9x3) for a grand total of 47 AP. For an easier time in figuring out your advancement cost, use the following command: +upgradecost to. (Please double-check by hand or ask a staff member to help as this command is still not updated for the new TACS system)

Mode-Variable Stats

 * Mode-Variable stats are Strength (STR), Firepower (FRP), Agility (AGL), and Accuracy (ACC). For most characters, these stats are the same in both modes. In this case they cost the same as a standard Core Stat would cost to upgrade, detailed above.
 * If you have different values in both modes, or if you just want to upgrade one mode at a time, things are slightly more tricky. The net cost is the same for both methods.
 * To upgrade one mode, take the standard upgrade cost (as detailed under Core Stats, above) and divide by the number of modes you have (normally this is 2, sometimes 3).
 * Upgrading stats that are different levels in each mode is simply a matter of calculating their individual costs and adding them all together.
 * If you choose to upgrade one mode at a time you will need to submit separate upgrade logs/requests for each of them.
 * Normally, stats can not be more than 20 points apart from your primary mode (1), in either direction. So if your Mode 1 Strength is 50, your Mode 2 Strength can be upgraded to 70, but no further, until you also upgrade Mode 1 along with it.
 * Exceptions to the above rule include Feature Characters, and Original Characters that had larger gaps approved during CreatingCharacters (usually tapes, and other characters with non-mobile alternate modes). In these cases you must stick to the "original gap" size!
 * If you have more than 2 modes (triple- or six-changer) and are only upgrading one of them, you will receive a heavier-than-usual amount of scrutiny from Character Staff, so be prepared.

Example
Your Strength in both modes is 40 and you want to upgrade to 60. As discussed above, this would cost 47 AP for a normal stat. Since you just want to upgrade Mode 1 (Robot) only, you pay 47 / 2 = 24 AP (rounding up)

If you want to later upgrade just your Mode 2 (Vehicle) Strength, you would pay 47 / 2 = 24 AP

Note: An observant player may note that the odd upgrade cost has forced him to pay 48 points instead of 47. Unfortunately, always rounding up is a side-effect of not having Character Staffers go insane trying to remember whether they rounded up or down last time you upgraded your stats. To get around this, in this example the player could just upgrade both stats at once and pay 23.5 + 23.5 = 47 AP.

Velocity
Velocity upgrades are priced as a regular Mode-Variable stat above. That is to say, the cost of a regular Core Stat divided by the number of modes you have (usually 2), rounded up.

Armor
Armor upgrades are priced per-mode as a regular Core Stat. So, upgrading your Robot Mode 1 Armor from 40 to 60 will cost 47 AP just like upgrading Endurance would. Upgrading BOTH modes from 40 to 60 would cost 47 * 2 = 94 AP.

Size
Size modifications in any mode can only be done in the context of a rebuild.

Abilities
Abilities are easy! Take their cost in Character Points (CP) from the abilities list and multiply by 10. So a 5 CP Ability * 10 = 50 AP.

Second Purchase Discount
TBD!

Skills
3 AP per skill.

Protection

 * Original Characters are unable to purchase unbalanced resistances/weaknesses, sorry!
 * Stay tuned for details on how to "upgrade" your Original Character to new balanced protections

Building A New Attack
Build your attack as if you were creating one for a new character (following all the limits as well), then multiply by 10!

So a 7 CP Attack * 10 = 70 AP

Upgrading Existing Attacks

 * Figure out how much your current attack is worth, in CP. You should know this from your Application or figure it out.
 * Figure out how much your attack with the new upgrades is worth, in CP.
 * Your upgrade costs: ((New CP Cost - Original CP Cost) * 10) + 10 AP
 * So, your current attack Level 5 Ranged, Energy is worth 5 CP. You want to add the Accurate effect, which would make it 5 + 2 = 7 CP.
 * Your cost is 7 - 5 = 2 CP, * 10 = 20 AP, + 10 = 30 AP Total.
 * The +10 is for a few reasons:
 * To encourage people to upgrade their attacks in bulk, instead of spamming the poor Character Staffers with tiny upgrades!
 * To save the player time and effort by encouraging them to submit multiple attack upgrades as part of a single log.
 * Since attack effectiveness does not translate linearly once you get into the higher CP cost attacks, there needs to be an extra burden on upgrading attacks after CharGen.
 * Also note that each upgrade requires a separate log/submission request.
 * Also ALSO note that all upgraded attacks will still be checked against the appropriate limits and sent to the Character Staff Head or wizards for approval if necessary.

Rebuilds
A rebuild is a special case. They occur whenever you seek to rebuild your character into a new form, drastically altering his/her shape. Rebuilds obviously do not make sense for organics, and are extremely rare for anyone. You will have to provide an excellent case for rebuilding your character.

A rebuild only really buys you the right to change your alt-mode name. The base cost for a rebuild is 10 APs. All new powers/abilities/attacks on the new alt-mode must also be purchased on top of the rebuild, and any abilities/powers that don't make sense any longer are dropped without any compensation.

You cannot purchase a rebuild for a Feature Character.

Vehicles
As discussed on the available vehicles page, humans are allowed to "own" their own exo-suits or vehicles that are handed to them at character creation. These vehicles may be upgraded just as the character itself may be upgraded, provided a few rules are followed.
 * Character Points are spent on the vehicle during character creation only, but may include CP obtained from "pooling" Advancement Points.
 * AP spent on the vehicle is from the "owner" character only
 * Vehicles/Exo-Suits are not eligible for rebuilds (e.g. no changing size or adding modes).
 * Attack and combat stat upgrades follow the same rule as standard transformer OCs, and follow the same justification / restriction guidelines, with a few exceptions:
 * No AMMO-based Attacks
 * Resistance/Weaknesses are allowed!