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[Ashar Kor-Azor]

versimilitudinously

Fucking what?  :lol:

Ha-ha, made you look, made you read that textwall.

I was sleepy and I stand by my construction. ALSO YOU'RE A PIRATE.

[Verone]

ALSO YOU'RE A PIRATE.

STAY TUEND FOR ALL DIS AND MOAR IN TEH 10 O'CLOCK NEWZ

[Ashar Kor-Azor]

PIRATS DON'T HAVE NOOSE, WHAT'RE YOU ON ABOUT?

Incidentally, I was gonna call you and Nikita both comma-crazy and then I made that textwall.

[Saede Riordan]

Alright how bout this: I'm keeping the robot crew, there is no reason that you can't replace your crew with sufficiently competent androids and drones.
However, instead of doing to whole duality thing, I build my pod like this: There are two modes of operation, hard, and soft. Soft is white lit internally, with a chair and holographic displays, control of the ship is done via controls, and augmented via neural link, the front of the pod is open to the bridge, allowing me easy access in and out of the pod.

When I enter combat and the ship registers my presence in the pod, the chair retracts into the floor, the pod slams shut, and a series of gravity emitters engage, first lifting me into the center of the room, then squeezing my body into place, the neural link hardfires and I take direct control of the ship, the interior flashes red during this operation then shifts to blue once it has completed.

When I'm out of the pod, I can jack into the ship via softlink and walk around, the neural link automatically downloads and backs up new data as it comes in, negating the need for a full burn scanner as it updates the data in real time, there is still the potential for minor memory loss, particularly of things that I forgot before installing it, in a normal person, the knowledge is simply buried, however, since that data was never activated and updated, the neural link doesn't see it and download it.

[GoGo Yubari]

Alright how bout this: I'm keeping the robot crew, there is no reason that you can't replace your crew with sufficiently competent androids and drones.
However, instead of doing to whole duality thing, I build my pod like this: There are two modes of operation, hard, and soft. Soft is white lit internally, with a chair and holographic displays, control of the ship is done via controls, and augmented via neural link, the front of the pod is open to the bridge, allowing me easy access in and out of the pod.

When I enter combat and the ship registers my presence in the pod, the chair retracts into the floor, the pod slams shut, and a series of gravity emitters engage, first lifting me into the center of the room, then squeezing my body into place, the neural link hardfires and I take direct control of the ship, the interior flashes red during this operation then shifts to blue once it has completed.

When I'm out of the pod, I can jack into the ship via softlink and walk around, the neural link automatically downloads and backs up new data as it comes in, negating the need for a full burn scanner as it updates the data in real time, there is still the potential for minor memory loss, particularly of things that I forgot before installing it, in a normal person, the knowledge is simply buried, however, since that data was never activated and updated, the neural link doesn't see it and download it.

You can come up with any number of fabulous (or less fabulous) IC-seeming solutions. I doubt it will effect the critical appraisal of many people, however. You're tampering with some of the very basic assumptions in Eve.

I still don't really see why you want this rather elaborate solution. I don't mean why in the sense where the answer would be "because I want to", but I'm rather interested in the why do you want to?

If it's really about wanting to tinker and be active on the ship as you wrote earlier, then the obvious answer is not to pilot the ship via a capsule. This is a perfectly legit choice, but you will of course have to expect the IC consequences. Having your cake and trying to eat it seems somewhat iffy to me.

Going via the path of least resistance seems like a very small compromise here for me and I just don't see the value of choosing otherwise (ie. choosing a very contrived solution which will seem questionable to many). Hence, why I'd like to understand why this is so important to you.

[Verone]

Alright how bout this: I'm keeping the robot crew, there is no reason that you can't replace your crew with sufficiently competent androids and drones.
However, instead of doing to whole duality thing, I build my pod like this: There are two modes of operation, hard, and soft. Soft is white lit internally, with a chair and holographic displays, control of the ship is done via controls, and augmented via neural link, the front of the pod is open to the bridge, allowing me easy access in and out of the pod.

When I enter combat and the ship registers my presence in the pod, the chair retracts into the floor, the pod slams shut, and a series of gravity emitters engage, first lifting me into the center of the room, then squeezing my body into place, the neural link hardfires and I take direct control of the ship, the interior flashes red during this operation then shifts to blue once it has completed.

When I'm out of the pod, I can jack into the ship via softlink and walk around, the neural link automatically downloads and backs up new data as it comes in, negating the need for a full burn scanner as it updates the data in real time, there is still the potential for minor memory loss, particularly of things that I forgot before installing it, in a normal person, the knowledge is simply buried, however, since that data was never activated and updated, the neural link doesn't see it and download it.

You can come up with any number of fabulous (or less fabulous) IC-seeming solutions. I doubt it will effect the critical appraisal of many people, however. You're tampering with some of the very basic assumptions in Eve.

I still don't really see why you want this rather elaborate solution. I don't mean why in the sense where the answer would be "because I want to", but I'm rather interested in the why do you want to?

If it's really about wanting to tinker and be active on the ship as you wrote earlier, then the obvious answer is not to pilot the ship via a capsule. This is a perfectly legit choice, but you will of course have to expect the IC consequences. Having your cake and trying to eat it seems somewhat iffy to me.

Going via the path of least resistance seems like a very small compromise here for me and I just don't see the value of choosing otherwise (ie. choosing a very contrived solution which will seem questionable to many). Hence, why I'd like to understand why this is so important to you.

I'm pretty much with GoGo here.

Capsuleer flight is fundamental to Eve's prime fiction. It's what the entire game's backstory is founded around and its not something that should be changed.

There's a million and one ways your character could still do all the things she wants to do that you've listed,  without having to sacrifice being a capsuleer like everyone else.

I can understand that people like to have character perks, and be a little individual, but I can't understand why you feel the need for your character to be so drastically different and contrary to prime fiction.

[IzzyChan]

I drew a comic about this once.

[Kaleigh Doyle]

*is actually a cylon

[Ashar Kor-Azor]

Nikita,

What is the point of altering the pod?

Love, a bunch of roleplayers who are confused by your messing about with one high-tech system out of several thousand available ones to underline that your character is technically inclined.

[Mizhara]

Love, a bunch of roleplayers who are confused by your messing about with one high-tech system out of several thousand available ones to underline that your character is technically inclined.

* Mizhara reads the sentence a few times.

... wat?

[Saede Riordan]

There are two really critical things I want to achieve:
1. The lack of crew, from what I've heard from a lot of people, this isn't that big of a deal, so I'm not going to worry about it too terribly.

2. The ability to quickly and easily get in and out of my pod, so that I can wander my ship, work on stuff, etc. I don't want to have an Android holo-body, I want to actually do it.

If there is an alternative fluid that my pod could be filled, or even if you used the same fluid and manipulate it somehow to drop the time involved in getting in and out of it, I'll even take that.

I do still think that the softlink that I can use to control the ship while doing mundane things in safe areas is fine. And your the one who suggested the neural collar thing, to replace the scanner with.

Why do I want my character like this? Why don't I? Why do you play your character like you do?
I like her like this, I made her like this, yes, I could just go the easy way out and cave in to what everyone is telling me, but I wouldn't have fun playing her like that. I removes her individuality, it removes her conflicts, it means there is no damn reason for me to play her at all.

[Mizhara]

[mod] Specifically referred to as against the culture of the boards in the FAQ [/mod]

[GoGo Yubari]

Why do I want my character like this? Why don't I? Why do you play your character like you do?
I like her like this, I made her like this, yes, I could just go the easy way out and cave in to what everyone is telling me, but I wouldn't have fun playing her like that. I removes her individuality, it removes her conflicts, it means there is no damn reason for me to play her at all.

No, from where I'm standing, it solves her conflicts. Indeed, makes her a bit of an "uber-character".

Your character has issues with getting submerged, a phobia of some sort. Her avoiding the wet-grave of a pod by controlling her ship like a conventional captain is not avoiding the conflict. She sacrifices the efficiency of pod control because of her fears. That's cool, edgy and in tune with the spirit of the game. You contriving a super-pod that allows her to ignore that is avoiding the conflict by nullifying its effects and trivializing its influence on your character's narrative. In fact, if you will do that, there is no point in making your character afraid of or incapable of using a pod, if she really won't be afraid of the pod at all.

Now, for another example to demonstrate what I mean, imagine that in a hypothetical Eve movie (or hell, book) you could start out with a character like that and have her overcome her fears towards the end to triumph over the baddies of the week. It might even be pretty interesting and compelling narrative. However, think about it. If in that movie our heroine just circumvents her fears with some technobabble gimmick at the convenient time it will feel pretty damn cheap, contrived and yes, Mary Sue-like to the viewers. The audience will boo, no matter how much the writer tries to tell us that the character is just so brilliant and how it really does make sense in the setting.

Alternatively, there could be a scene where the captain, her ship under fire and its hull buckling, walks over to the edge of the bridge that leads to the the capsule, looks at the dark liquid within and sees herself reflected, distorted all Funhouse-like. She's afraid, but to save her ship she has to take the plunge. She's deathly afraid, paralyzed even. That's not contrived. That's not skirting the issue.

Now you can come back to me to argue the circumstances of your character, how I got it wrong or how she's special, but I'm not talking about the specifics, nor even your character, but rather you-as-the-author and the principle of the thing.

That's addressing the conflict part and I see there's more to it... but

If you need a 'speshul' pod to retain her individuality, urdoinitrong.

Sardonic as that comment is, I do think that it somewhat covers the rest.

[Ken]

I think this thread is very important and I give a lot of credit to everyone who has made rather substantial efforts to approach the OP's dilemma in an honest, helpful manner.  This last post by GoGo sums up my feelings on the issue very well.  I'll try to add something to this discussion in light of that, and I hope this doesn't come off as rude.  I'm merely trying to give you my honest and complete feelings.

Nikita has the makings of a great character with a great conflict at the heart of her story.  The pod pilot who couldn't, wouldn't get in a pod.  The capsuleer whose own mind half wet-graves her out of phobia whenever she tries.  How such a character suffers under that problem and eventually comes to face and defeat the fears that cause it would be interesting to me.  Where does the fear come from?  Why hasn't she been able to overcome it yet?  How did it affect her before she became a pilot?  Why become a capsuleer in the first place, knowing the pod was involved?  What was the training like?  How does it affect her performance in spaceflight (in your gameplay)?  I would like to know that story and even be a part of it, to address the heart of the original post.

Yet GoGo hits the nail on the head -- these workarounds have solved the problem that make the character interesting.  The conflict is gone and I don't really care about the character any longer because she's not in distress.  She has effectively overcome both the fear and the peril of flying without a pod.  It is no longer "man vs. self", the most interesting narrative conflict imo, but "man vs. eh whatever".  In fact, when Ken interacted with Nikita (very tenuously in an IGS thread) and this subject came up, the only response he had to an explanation of these "super-pod" systems was that they must have been very expensive and he shortly decided to pay that eccentric pilot much less attention in the future.

If, refusing to get in that dark, wet, oppressive pod, Nikita opted to fly ships like a traditional captain with some advanced neural augmentations and capsuleer rights and comms access, I'd buy it.  I would wonder why she takes that needless danger.  I'd wonder what sort of situation would bring her to get in that pod anyway, despite the phobia.  I'd wonder if she would be willing to get in if it meant cranking up the hacker/cyberpunk abilities to 11 (a la "Damn!  I can only break this cypher if I go for full mind-machine interface with the ship CPU...  And there's only one way to do that." *gulp*).  If you played it to the hilt and killed her off if she ever got popped and podded flying in that "mode", I'd owe you much respect.

Ultimately, this could be a very interesting, unique character painted on the backdrop of the EVE universe.  She's flawed and handicapped, like all the best characters in any medium, but finds a way through despite it all.  That's a classic story about what makes human beings awesome, and we love to hear it told over and over again.  We love to see how that success is achieved.  What you've shown us is a story that is already over.  You've hooked yourself on this pre-emptive deus ex machina that robs Nikita of all that potential storyline goodness by punching a hole in the PF and yanking this messy solution through it.

It's not really that you exceed the bounds of technology in the PF that bothers me, but that you've done it in a few paragraphs before any of us get to know you.  Start from the beginning (from day zero), bring the pieces together slowly over time as you play the game and pursue RP storylines, create this strange and wondrous technological solution to your character's gravest flaws, make that solution itself perpetually incomplete/flawed, do all that in line with your chosen cyberpunk flavorings and you will have done an amazing thing.

[Silver Night]

My most-RPed character (it's not Silver) is claustrophobic. She deals with it by never piloting.