New Player Guide

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( WORK IN PROGRESS - ValkyrieSkies )

Welcome to Trace/ALTER, a persistent roleplaying world set in a cyberpunk world of cut-throat corporate espionage intermingled with supernatural horrors. Whether you're entirely new to this genre of game or you've tried your hand at a few in the past, this guide aims to help you get acquainted with everything you need to know to enjoy the world of Trace/ALTER.

Trace/ALTER is currently incompatible with BYOND version 516 and onwards. If you are unsure of what your current BYOND version is, you can check by clicking on the options button in the BYOND client then clicking About. We recommend using BYOND version 515.1647 until the game has been made compatible with newer versions.
Trace/ALTER is a roleplaying mandatory game. Messages sent through the chat bar and roleplay prompt are considered IN-CHARACTER, which is to say they should be from the perspective of your character and how they would act/react in that current moment. You should not send messages acknowledging that your character is in a game or which only make sense with meta knowledge beyond what your character would know. If you need to communicate out of character information, write your message into the chat bar enclosed within parenthesis like (this) and your message will be sent as a LOOC (Local Out-Of-Character) message which can be seen by all nearby characters. If you are facing a severe issue, then you can contact admins directly via the Admin Help button in the Options menu.
Death is a very real and present possibility in Trace/ALTER. You should not make a character with the expectation that they will never die and you will have full control over the direction their story will go. If you make enemies of powerful individuals or foolishly wander into somewhere incredibly inadvisable, you may find yourself meeting an abrupt end. You should not let this discourage you however - at Roleplay Levels (RPP) 80, 160, and 240, you will earn a Shounen Token, a special token which can be consumed to avoid a death and thus give you the opportunity to seek a more fitting finale for your character, and even if your character does end up dead you will earn Generations Points (GPP) which can be spent on traits to make your next character even more formidable than the previous.
Owing to the game's combat system, player vs player combat (PvP) can be quite a timely affair. If you are in a situation which is likely going to lead to blows but you don't have the time to commit to it, it is best to explain so to the other player via LOOC and arranging an alternative end to the scene or planning to play it out at a future time instead. If a polite arrangement cannot be reached, it may be advisable to request an admin ruling.
Time passes in-game at a rate of 1 in-game year per 7 real world days and this will be reflected on your character's age. Once you reach old age, your character's stats will begin to decline, so having your character start at age 60 or beyond may severely limit the window of time in which your character is effective in combat. Still, should you have an elderly character concept you wish to play you should not let this deter you, it is simply a mechanic to be aware of.

The first thing to consider when creating your character is the actual concept of your character in question. Getting acquainted with the most essential lore of the setting is the best place to start in consideration of this - the Key Player Paths section of the wiki's home page contains some of the setting's core hooks and the articles TRACE and Cascade City contain most other information you need to get started. Additionally, you should keep in mind that your character will be very weak when they are first created and there is a time-based limit to how fast you can progress and thus you shouldn't create a character who you wish to immediately be considered a powerful and influential individual.

Here are some simple hooks for new characters which make for an easy introduction to the setting:

You are a regular citizen who has just awoken as a TRACE Sensitive. Struggling to make rent in the horrifically unequal society that is Cascade, your new supernatural powers have seen you finally become acquainted with the supernatural underground and the potential to make more money as a ghostworker by taking on wetwork contracts from mission terminals.
You are a low-level corporate agent - perhaps you work for the Ascension Group, keeping tabs on the supernatural happenings of the city, or perhaps you work for another corporation entirely, seeking to acquire intel on your competitor and smuggle out information and experimental technology.
You have always had an interest in the occult and magical (perhaps having even had an encounter with it yourself) and your research and explorations of the topic on the internet always seems to bring up Cascade City. Deciding to go out on a limb, you've decided to invest in a cheap living space in Cascade (perhaps even moving from abroad) to discover just what is going on in this bizarre city-state.
You survived some manner of paranormal attack or tragedy in your youth and have been searching for answers ever since. You've had more of an awareness of the paranomalous than most, and you're willing to do whatever it takes to set things right. Perhaps the Tracer Order you've heard mentioned in whispers will be able to help…

These are simply core story hooks with which to give your character direction, but there are other considerations you should give to your character. What socio-economic background do they come from? In what way did their youth shape them? How do they feel about other people? If they aren't from Japan, how did they or their family end up there and how well was their experience with acclimatising to this radically different nation? By having answers to questions like these, playing your character will come to you far more naturally and it will help them feel much better realised and interesting to interact with.

Once you have a solid idea of who your character is, it's time to actually create them in-game. By pressing the New Character button on the game's splash screen, you will be taken to the character creation screen. Here you can set your characters name, age, body type, and visual appearance. Clicking your character will rotate their sprite so you can see how they look from various angles. Clothing is acquired as equipment in-game so do not worry about them just yet. Other than hairstyle, these parameters can not be easily changed, so it is advisable to be certain about your choices before you proceed. Once you have completed this stage of character creation, you will then be asked which district you wish to spawn in. This choice will determine the location of your character's starting apartment which will serve as their respawn point. For newer players, the Historic District or the Downtown District are generally the safest options as they are lively player hubs with few hostile spawn locations nearby. The Outskirts meanwhile are a much more dangerous location and thus are not advised for players who are not already familiar with the dangers posed by that district.

Once you have chosen your starting district, you will be sent to your apartment and can now play the game!

Assuming nothing goes wrong, you should now be in control of your character in your apartment. Your apartment will serve as your respawn location should you ever be defeated in combat and subjected to a respawn timer (such as being defeated by a non-lethal enemy such as an ooze). To access your apartment after leaving, you need simply walk up to the elevator in the lobby of the building your apartment is located in and use the Apartment/Dorm Key item from your inventory. If you wish to create more copies of your key, you can do so by interacting with the door of your apartment while inside (as well as edit some other details about it), but be aware that if other players get their hands on your key then your apartment may no longer be a private or safe space.

The game will start you with a few pieces of furniture to get you started with your apartment;

Bed - This is probably the most important piece of furniture in your house; every (set period of time) you can sleep in your bed to restore a large amount of Energy and Sanity and depending on the events of the day and your sanity level at the time of sleeping you may also have a dream.
SABLE Holopad - When interacted with, this device summons a holographic AI-powered NPC. By double clicking on SABLE's holographic avatar, players can post messages and have them be responded to by the AI. The primary purpose of this is to provide players with an easy and private avenue through which they may experiment with the game's chat system and their character 'voice' so to speak, as well as an extra avenue to earn Activity for the game's progression system should there be no one around. As SABLE is powered by generative AI, players should take her words with a grain of salt as she will likely no actually have accurate answers in regards to the game world at large, especially if the current narrative is primarily one born of player actions.
Random furniture boxes - In addition to the above two items, the player's apartment should contain approximately 3 boxes of a random furniture item each. These boxes can be picked up with alt-click and then the furniture placed down by left clicking the furniture item from the player's inventory.

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