Outbreak - Evolution

There is no mistake about it, Outbreak slowed down quite a bit over the past month. A variety of reasons are to blame - but they are really of no consequence. What is important is that the staff of Outbreak and the players of Outbreak still love and are committed to the concept and the sim that is Outbreak. Over the past week, a lot of work has gone into evolving the sim for it's next round. Just to keep people informed, some of those changes are going to be explained here. No doubt there will be a lot of questions, feel free to ask them in this thread - but please remember to be respectful of all opinions and open minded about evolving a place we all know and love.

Staffing -
Many of you may have seen the recent staffing drive that we did for Outbreak. The core of any great sim is comprised of it's players and it's staff. I'm happy to say we've had a lot of great interest in helping Outbreak succeed. People will be reached out to soon to have their roles discussed. There are very specific roles for people so that there is no reliance on one, two, or three people on sim for everything. There are also more people than ever that will help with security aspects in the event we have disruptive visitors or players so that you can all focus on your immersion when you are in a scene. As always - once everyone has been informed, briefed, and given the official greenlight, you will be able to access the staff list at http://outbreak.sl/help/

Sim Factions -
Was it not just a little bit confusing with all the differences between AES and Epsilon? What about them Rebels? I'm happy to say that we are simplfying the official sim factions. Factions are still there - AES, Deimos, and the Rebels.

AES is now a medical type faction. Paramedics, Doctors, Nurses, and Hospital Security. Rather than splitting it's attention on policing and medical role-play, it will now focus on the stories that would come out of a hospital type setting in a zombie apocalypse. Removing the policing force makes sense - when you watch the Walking Dead, is there any local cops running around? This will encourage more small security groups or internal security groups - and also help develop more conflict between people without there needing to be an "official bad guy".
Deimos is still a main sim faction. Like your science role-play? Want to save mankind. You can stillbe part of Deimos. What's changed? Deimos is moving into the town. No more isolation at the top of the mountain, which maybe was cool from a backstory point of view - made it difficult from a role-play perspective. What about Epsilon? Epsilon is being disbanded, in it's place there will be an official security force of Deimos that will protect the scientist that is open to join. And very exciting a new smaller group is being formed that will handle the gun trade on sim as their sole focus, but more on that to come later.
Rebels. The Rebels have two people who have taken the helm this time around. Calling them Rebels may not be the most fitting name, however a huge push will be made this time around at making this an inclusive group that has a great deal of influence IC'ly throughout the sim. This will remain a sim faction - that people who maybe are looking for a place to join to start their story will be able to become a part of and evolve through. The first go around we admit not enough emphasis was put on making the Rebels a success - and this go around that will NOT be the case.

Environment -

One of the most exciting aspects of survival role-play is the environment and it's effect that it has on your story. When we first started Outbreak it was immediately after the outbreak, however, time has passed. It's time to kill the power, make things depressing, and start that sense of falling back in time as a society. Generators will still be available for select businesses to run "primary" needs - for example, a hospital may need one to run select machines for limited time. We'll be re-introducing the genrator commodity as well.

There's also been a change to the physical layout. What was once a restricted mountain top for a select few is now an open to all former Forest Ranger station. Trees, picnic tables, grass, and an abandoned cabin (that nobody will be able to take control of solely). There is an in-character restricted area for the gun dealers but that is underground from the Ranger station. So more of the sim has been opened up to all for more places to role-play.

Groups -

During the launch of Outbreak we were admittedly stricter on emerging groups. The reins have been loosened. With the removal of a true policing force, we know that many folks may wish to make their own private security teams to try and be hired out. We are encouraging any and all groups with a few small caveats.

a) must stay within theme - it wouldn't make sense if you're group had tanks, access to unlimited ammo (keep in mind the need for commodities to), were able to resupply from an npc source off sim, etc.

b) you can be the most special forces highly qualified bad ass group of soldiers in the history of soldiers - but the reality is nobody cares. We WILL approve your group if you meet the criteria even if your back story is a limited 1 dimensional, but keep in mind how others will respond and react if everything is focused on how amazing you USED to be. In Outbreak, everyone is equal - your military service record is about as useful as the high schooler's report card.

c) if you want an HQ you will need to rent one. There will be specific sim businesses that are designed to keep the immersion and story of Outbreak chugging along. Beyond those 5-6 businesses, the remainder of buildings will be available for rental (there was confusion on this early on).

The HUD -

Last but not least, the HUD is being updated based on feedback. While maybe not immediately, you will soon see some changes on healing and combat. The official stance for combat is being changed to focus on free form rp combat as opposed to metered combat. The HUD will have available a "dice" icon in it's next update as opposed to an attack icon. This is for deciding outcomes when role-play has left you at a stalemate. The great news, is that you are now free to control your combat via role-play. It is important to remember that you follow standard combat role-play rules again when NOT using the HUD for combat - that is - one post to draw and aim a weapon, one post to fire, and no more than 2 shots per round.