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Running the Tracks
Run, Run, Run, As Fast As You Can

I propose the Mag-Levs be expanded to include the tracks circulating through the city. This would work as follows:

1) Mag-Lev Tracks would not be static rooms. They would reset daily using the market code so routes would never be the same.

2) These would be long, risky routes. It would take 10+ minutes to run the tracks depending on the distance between stations. Red Green being the longest.

3) The tracks would be laden with hidden Electro_Tech gear to tap into for those inclined to attempt to access city systems. There would also be discreet access to the sewers and other places. Finding these things consistently on a day to day basis would be a challenge though and a great use for Rigger Drones.

4) The track doors would need to pryed open by using charge. The appropriate tools would be useful in this scenario.

5) Mag-Lev Transit would halt temporarily when a corpse was on the tracks. Promoting the use of cabs accordingly.

6) WCS would be responsible for clearing the tracks of bodies and be able to request the tracks doors be opened over SIC.

7) The Mag-Lev Tracks would serve as an opportunity to expand the Green Sector sewers accordingly.

Thoughts?

I would like to +1 this with one caveat. There are safe 'rooms' along the path that the people running the operation can duck into from time to time along the way to dodge trains.
Is the idea to make Levs take longer to circuit the city? Or when you say run the tracks you mean on foot?

Would passing levs just gib you as they do now?

It would seem like trying to avoid the lev would be rather challenging. Maybe WCS could have a little lev buggy or something that could travel the tracks and streets to pickup corpses in a safe manner.

@TalonCzar: I mean on foot. The levs passing by would murder you but WCS would only be down there to remove corpses during which the Mag-Lev would be temporarily shut down.

@RedSteelButterfly: I think that would have to be on a random basis rather than a guaranteed one. The goal isn't to create a safe mechanics for people to use - it's to create a risky one for people to take chances on when fleeing Green or trying to subvert city systems.

Not with the randomized route thing, but cool idea otherwise.
Oooo. +1

For the changing routes, perhaps they can be encrypted on the grid every day on what paths are blocked and which ones are open? Requiring a decker that can hack in and go "Seems A2, B3, C1, and D4 are the routes open today from Red to Gold, the rest are closed."

Cool idea.

I posted right as Johnny did. :-(

If having an A-D 1-4 system would be a little too much to understand! Point still remains, having open lev tracks would be COOL.

I think more ways to escape Green without needing very expensive items would be overall, pretty good. If there's some risk involved, that'd be neat. Otherwise it could be gated behind single-use access codes for city maintenance or something along those lines.
I'm thinking something along these lines for a maintenance lev buggy for WCS workers. I don't imagine stopping the levs for a singular corpse would be ideal. And if the levs are stopped it should be complained about on sic.

Hoping this image works.

Stopped levs will have folks wanting to get out so they can throw the corpse off the side. :-D
Maybe you could pass a skill check and trip a breaker on the electromagnetic circuits? Like a lockout maintenance safety circuit? That way the lev could not pass that 'gate' for a fixed period of time, after which it'd automatically reset and the lev would resume?

That way you'd have a modicum of safety to get away if you got others involved in your plots. Otherwise you could just run the risk of getting splatted?

If any body on the tracks stops all levs, and some WCS needs to walk into a deathtrap to clear them, the levs will be broken 90% of the time, in perpetuity. Fine for veteran players, but would make the new player experience dramatically more difficult.
I'm really into this idea if people can't tell.

A corpse on the lev/collision with a person will stun the lev for 5-10 minutes randomly, if no PCs gets around to clean it earlier than that an NPC WCS worker will automatically wisk it to the WCS dumpster, restarting the lev.

Yeah, there'd probably have to be some skillchecks, code limitations and/or some staff involvement to make sure that the levs don't simply become permanently denial-of-service attacked, heh.

Funny enough, I'd see this as being something the corporations would support. Shut down the levs under the table so the nasty trash people can't continue to pollute your sector with their miserly presence.

The goal of random rooms and a high chance of death if not planned out accordingly is to keep your day to day guttersnipe from treating it like the fast way back to Red. Ideally, people should only be running the tracks to flee certain death/chase someone/hack something. However that is accomplished - works.

I'd like to see a plethora of options available that make anyone running the rails squirm.

WJF-STEEL>> WCS, you are ordered to cease halting E7 Service. The criminal on the tracks has been sentenced to Clone Death. Obey the Law.

Add on to my post, an NPC pick up will whisk up EVERY corpse on the track, to prevent people from laying like 7 immy bodies down to stop the lev for almost a max hour.
I am not a fan of making basic amenities in the game harder to use. Experienced players can work around this, but the game as a lot from new players and can be extremely slow. It's unreasonable to make basic tasks like getting an initial clone or accessing the bank or couriers services sometimes take dramatically longer simply to access.

Some players cannot afford to spend an hour or more just transiting from A to B.

Traffic isn't interrupted by corpses in the tubes, if the lev is going to be on-foot accessible like the tubes are, I don't think it should be disabled from something so trivial -- especially when such a large number of players rely on it, and when it already takes a large amount of time for them to use.

What if the closest station to the corpse was temporarily closed/bypassed? Less impactful to newbs reliant on the mag-lev but still a suitable in-game consequence.
What if the closest station to the corpse was temporarily closed/bypassed?

Redirecting the E7 direct from Soma to North Tamiya would be hilarious. I think this idea would be a lot of fun and wouldn't impact most players in a negative way in the majority of cases (except the ones that end up abducted).

Idea from xooc by yours truly.

When a lev collides with people, it has a chance to hurt the people in the lev as a car crash would. It could in theory give topside medics work if Juniors keep getting flung around on the lev because some dirty mixer tried to outrun the lev.

I like the spirit of the idea but I am worried about the implementation. The only upside I see to this is that it would "theoretically" allow low to medium resource criminals to get out of GREEN fast with little or no help from others.

On the other hand, theme-wise I don't think it makes much sense for GREEN to allow for this security breach. There are already security checkpoints at the lev stations and corpies could easily afford to put auto-turrets on the tracks.

Also the tracks are going to have hidden cameras, because it would makes sense and we got them everywhere. On a 10+ walk most people are going to get spotted (even with precautions) and they should get fined accordingly, unless they took the effort to temporarily sabotage them beforehand or take their sweet time navigating the tracks.

On corpses and halting the tracks subject (without GM assistance) I concur with 0x1mm 100%.

Finally this is not directly related, but I would like to see a signs on each station that tells you where the levs are currently at so that players can decide if they rather do something else instead of waiting for an undermined amount of time.

I've never really found any information relating to lev schedules, which I suspect either don't exist or are IC info. This is in stark contrast to every other train system in existence, which openly blares it's schedules, delays, etc, for all to read and plan around. If that was changed, this would be a possibly useable access for criminals. Otherwise, I think it's just another way to commit suicide.
The lack of schedules seems to be intentional. The idea has been presented a few times.

https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/lev-timetables-781/

https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/game-discussion/ideas/mag-lev-change-1119/

I'm of the mindset that the levs are far too reliable or cheap right now. For the vast majority of players, the consequences of riding the lev do not outweigh to cost of the alternatives. If there was the possibility of being delayed or even the lev not being available during certain windows, it would emphasize certain PC jobs as being far more desirable than using this automated system.
Riding the lev is very risky for certain players at certain times. More risky than the alternatives? Maybe, maybe not, it all depends on their resources and allies.

And schedule - even if there is a semblance of a schedule IC, there are at least two other IC factors which tell me that, by design, it wouldn't be adhered to reliably.

I like all of this except stopping the levs.

It should be people on the tracks die. Period.

The corpses can be pushed to a collection point like they already are in other semi-restricted areas of the grid that WCS has to clean corpses out of.

While there are not any published lev schedules, they are not totally random.

All those lev-users have been having it too good compared to the vehicle users who have to brave the armored box of their car daily to get RP. I wholeheartedly agree with gimping the lev, but I think this idea could be improved upon by removing levs entirely and forcing everyone to spend a massive amount of money to travel between sectors.
OK, I admit I had a bit of a kneejerk reaction to the corpse delay thing, but I suppose it would be fine if not abused, or rather abused in RP-relevant ways. I would be thankful for some elaboration why mag-lev usage is problematic and require nerfing, though, as it seems like it'd be tinkering with something that more veteran characters don't use anyways.

At the very least, if you really want inter-sector travel to be more difficult, I think that it would be better if the Green-Gold travel be handled by its own mag-lev, while travel from Red to Gold is limited to a poorly maintained mag-lev with its own separate system. This way, there wouldn't be a bizarre situation where Joe JuniorCorpie is inconvenienced because Withmore hates mixers.

@Cinder

I don't think mag-lev usage is problematic or requires nerfing. As stated previously in this thread, the mag-levs are already awful logistically and can take upwards of 20 to 60 minutes of IRL time per outing, depending on your luck. It's also incredibly unsafe compared to taking a cab or private vehicle.

Nerfing basic functionality like this by-and-large just inconveniences new players, or players who don't have as much time to put into the game.

Changing gears to the OP though - I think this is a neat idea outside of breaking/delaying the levs. I'll admit I am a bit ignorant of the topside crime meta and how this would impact things, but the mental image of a Mixer running on the lev tracks after assaulting someone is pretty hilarious and it seems like something a crazy (and desperate) criminal would do.