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Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4225 –
Man, just the thought of somebody playing around with a ripoff of the protagonist of my STO fic makes me cringe, even the one time my RL buddy tried to write her to make a gift fic for me when I was feeling down it felt just wrong and I didn't have the heart to tell him, and I've been writing her for less than a decade, it has to hurt like hell to see someone rip off a character you poured 18 years of your soul into :( :( :(  I hope that the admin from the Starbase 118 sim is doing OK and has a quarantine buddy to hug and/or cry on as needed. 

I'd be theoretically up for adopting one of those characters (if they're up for adoption and not stolen, of course), especially if they're one that's tied in to someone else's storyline, but I have no idea which one, and I don't want to put too much pressure on @Auctor Lucan while he deals with this, so this isn't a request but just a general "I am here and would be willing to take the reins for one if deemed necessary at some point in the future". 
Really enjoying writing a halfway stable character for once...

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4226 –
*hugs @Auctor Lucan * 

This isn't much of a post, but having run my own online forum and my own BBS's back in the day (man, that makes me feel old...), I understand and appreciate the hardship and frustration you've gone through. 

I'm sure I speak of most everyone here when I say that your diligence and commitment is appreciated.

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4227 –
@Auctor Lucan,

I cannot begin to imagine the hell this betrayal must be putting you through. It must seem almost Shakespearean and I’m sure you feel like you’ve been played by a fiddle. We’ve all been there at some point or another.

That being said, PLEASE don’t be disheartened! We are here for you, we support you. From my standpoint, I don’t see how you could have known. Why would you check VPNs for new writers? Why would you normally be that paranoid? Sure, hunches and gut feelings can hint at issues your conscious mind might not realize. But we have new writers join and fall off all the time. It was exciting for all of us to have so many “new” people joining. You even created the Mentor Program as a direct result! You were nurturing the sim, and we all were better for it.

If you need help, I ask you to reach out to us, so that we can alleviate some of the burden. Those of us that are Mentors would jump at the chance to support you in other ways. Have a drink, take a deep breath, unwind, and let us help with the cleanup.

So, in summary: Life can suck, people can be dicks, but you’ll always have us :)

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4228 –
"Villains who twirl their moustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged." - Jean-Luc Picard.

I am sorry about what happened with Revan, Auctor :(

We will do our best to fix the damage left behind from this one selfish individual.


I know it may sound presumptuous of me to say this since I am only a new member and not a veteran, but you can count on my support to continue helping this wonderful universe and story you've founded expand and grow.

If you ever want to/get the time, to talk. I'll be more than happy to lend help in anyway I can.

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4229 –
Right so, this is a bit of a cock up all around, and there are an understandable plethora of emotions bubbling up from everyone here. I myself was more than a little shocked and pissed when Lucan approached me for help sorting out the technical side of what was going on. I've invested heavily in some of the characters run by Revan, and the people I thought were running those accounts. So, grumpy tired old man mood for the day.

A lot of y'all are already stepping up and offering to help, and I think that is great and wonderful. As noted we have a mentor program here, and I think any of us would be willing to help temporarily take on the task of closing out threads with the characters in question to wrap them up in a neat bow. Usually that's something AL does, but like, there are 17 characters so its going to take some time. If folks who have open character slots/meet the requirements/etc want to take up a character for inheritance I think I can speak for the other mentors in saying we'll be happy to help bring you up to speed on them where we can and help with new threads - especially those where our characters were already interacting with the available characters. Once inheritance is opened up.

Which, speaking of - this was covered during the most excellent voice chat session held earlier, but at the moment the general feeling is to allow inheritance for any character that was previously inherited by Revan, and most likely space the characters created by them. This is a simple solution as to the concern that some of the 'original characters' might be copies from other SIMM's but I'm not sure its been set in stone. If there is a character you'd really like to play at some point, probably a good idea to speak up. Along those lines:  the Science and TAC CONN departments just got gutted, y'all.  We're about to have just 1 active counselor. Intel got its head chopped off. All things to keep in mind when looking into future options.

I'm not sure if it helps or not but I have written with the following characters from the list run by Revan, if people have any questions about the characters:
Vivian Martin,
Zelosa Ejek,
Tessa May Lance,
Vanya,
K'Lara Halliwell.

Like others have said, we're all here to support the SIMM and see it continue. Let's put our heads together and work out a path forward :)

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4230 –
Well said. In that vein: I only have one character at present, and not much on my plate. For the short term, I’m happy to write some of those characters temporarily, either to close out ongoing threads or help others write threads that they have planned. Just let me know who, when and where; my brain is hereby available for rent.
 

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4231 –
NEW TOKEN REWARD LISTED!

Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement in the posts above! Much appreciated! :)

Actually, given the current situation where we had someone steal all Available Characters for themselves, and they have now been made available again... I have made a decision to add another Token Reward. Check it out!

Token Rewards

Don’t worry, I still plan to add more Story Objectives asap, in case you don’t find any that are interesting in the lists at the moment. Either way, there is now a possibility to add a 5th character if you have maxed out at 4, you just joined, or if your posting ratio is a bit low. Should either be the case, this Token Reward might be something for you, if you are interested in taking on a pre-existing character and make him/her your own.

As for Revan’s remaining characters that he made himself, after some consideration after our Discord session...agreed, lets not have them available for inheritance, but to be KIA/in stasis asap. I hope Zaryn. K’Lara and T’Leia aren’t stolen as well, and if Logan turns out stolen @Nero , we’ll figure something out together, don’t you worry. None of us could have foreseen this situation.

Hope this finds you all well out there!

Best,

Auctor Lucan

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4232 –
Quote from: Auctor Lucan on
So, to me it's clear in how Revan has been stealing one of his character creations - unless Malkavian is a friend of his that share his VPN as well - so if you all could help me, I would love some help to make sure Logan Hale, T'Leia, K'Lara Halliwell and Zaryn Kolari/Arn are not stolen as well. Those four are the only ones, between all the above writers, that are original creations instead of Inherited characters.

That's a hard Pill to swallow.
I can't imagine to have my characters stolen, yet to discover it twisted in a matter I would never attempted to go with. A ban is the only logical solution. It's a shame that the convicted is seemingly not willing to help and uncover the whole story but I think together we will be able to plow through that mess.
For me, if it will be uncovered that Logan Hale is stolen as well (wich I certainly hope not) I will immediately stop to write him and help where ever possible to solve this story. I would rather not write at all than a possibly stolen character.

So if anyone will every see something like Logan Hale in other SIMs please let me know, so I/we can figure out something with all responsible persons.

Stealing a Charakter, no matter where it is from, is a NO GO!
-------------------
Quote from: Auctor Lucan on
As for Revan’s remaining characters that he made himself, after some consideration after our Discord session...agreed, lets not have them available for inheritance, but to be KIA/in stasis asap. I hope Zaryn. K’Lara and T’Leia aren’t stolen as well, and if Logan turns out stolen @Nero , we’ll figure something out together, don’t you worry. None of us could have foreseen this situation.
Sure we will ;) @Auctor Lucan

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4233 –
I forgot to mention it, my dad is in town from overseas for a week from yesterday. So my replies will probably be late, and I might not get to them until Sunday. I'll be back Monday June 30th, and posting like usual. @BZ @UltimaImperatrixia @fiendfall and the rest of the engineering staff I have scenes with. Thanks for understanding!

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4234 –
No rush my dude! Enjoy your time with your pa :)
Lt Cmdr Hathev - Counselling - Chief Counsellor
"Logic without ethics is no logic at all." [Show/Hide]
Ensign Inej 'Avi' Avirim - Security - Investigations Officer
"Live fast, die stupid." [Show/Hide]
Xelia - Civillian - Holoprogram Designer
"Envy isn't your colour, babe." [Show/Hide]

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4235 –
Acknowledged; take care and looking forward to continuing our thread c:

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4236 –
I just saw the big drama, wow, what a fucko. I’ll look at the characters and perhaps pick up the slack with a char when I get back. Stay tough @Auctor Lucan I don’t envy you, thanks for preserving the integrity of the community.

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4237 –
FIVE MORE STORY OBJECTIVES ADDED FOR CHAPTER 01: INCENDIARY PROSPECTS

Check them out!

Story Objectives

When Chapter 02 is launched, there will be a larger batch of Objectives added, and many of those will not just grant Tokens, they will also represent a score added in Martok's favour in the story. Kind of like when you assembled fleets for the last battle in Mass Effect 3, and did Loyalty Missions in Mass Effect 2, the total score you gather before the High Chancellor's arrival to the First City of the Klingon Empire will have a big impact on the Episode's outcome. It's a matter of rallying support for Martok, and the Theurgy will be instrumental in 'making it so'.

These five new ones added today, however, are more simplistic in nature, meant for fun and to inspire some creativity! :)

Best,

Auctor Lucan

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4238 –
Quote from: Auctor Lucan on
FIVE MORE STORY OBJECTIVES ADDED FOR CHAPTER 01: INCENDIARY PROSPECTS

Check them out!

Story Objectives

When Chapter 02 is launched, there will be a larger batch of Objectives added, and many of those will not just grant Tokens, they will also represent a score added in Martok's favour in the story. Kind of like when you assembled fleets for the last battle in Mass Effect 3, and did Loyalty Missions in Mass Effect 2, the total score you gather before the High Chancellor's arrival to the First City of the Klingon Empire will have a big impact on the Episode's outcome. It's a matter of rallying support for Martok, and the Theurgy will be instrumental in 'making it so'.

These five new ones added today, however, are more simplistic in nature, meant for fun and to inspire some creativity! :)

Best,

Auctor Lucan
Anh-Le is definitely up for a tlhInSa' game! 

How exactly are casualties of the bomb plotline going to be handled?  Is this a stasis thing or a "kill them off for real" thing? 
Really enjoying writing a halfway stable character for once...

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4240 –
Klin zha Challenge!

So: anyone want to play? I've already got a Klingon NPC in mind for this, and I'd love to write that NPC. My player character (Lillee) won't be involved, so there's space in the thread for two other writers and their characters to have fun playing against the Klin zha master. If anyone is interested, fire me a PM and we'll get things rolling!

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4241 –
Quote from: Griff on
Klin zha Challenge!

So: anyone want to play? I've already got a Klingon NPC in mind for this, and I'd love to write that NPC. My player character (Lillee) won't be involved, so there's space in the thread for two other writers and their characters to have fun playing against the Klin zha master. If anyone is interested, fire me a PM and we'll get things rolling!
Brilliant, I have some ideas for this already! 
Really enjoying writing a halfway stable character for once...

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4242 –
As I mentioned in discord I have a reputation as this ships best murderer. With 8 named characters murdered so far, I'd like to increase my body count. So I'm looking at that bombing mission if anyone wants to join me.

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4243 –
Quote from: Masorin on
As I mentioned in discord I have a reputation as this ships best murderer. With 8 named characters murdered so far, I'd like to increase my body count. So I'm looking at that bombing mission if anyone wants to join me.
I'm mildly worried by that, lol.  But there is certainly good reason for Intel to be involved, and I think we're down to...three operatives? 
Really enjoying writing a halfway stable character for once...

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4244 –
Fuelled by sleep-deprived curiosity, I've done some investigating on The Curious Case of Revan & Friends. Possibly some of what I've found might be useful for identifying any future catfish; at the very least it's convinced me that Revan was responsible for all the banned accounts, not just the ones he admitted to (as if the unlikelihood of his VPN story hadn't already done that). In any case, for anyone as morbidly curious as I was, here's the highlights:

  • Including his unaccepted applicant, Revan made 18 accounts between April 2018 and June 2020; he's admitted to 6 of those.
  • Revan was actually his 4th account; Vox, Kinvarus, & AlyFox (in that order) were all made first, and he admitted to none of them.
  • However, Revan and Vox are the only two accounts to list their gender as M, and the only two to list age at all; they both said 33.
  • Of his other accounts, 6 listed as F, and 9 as none; those he admitted to were majority no gender, with 1 F and 1 M account.
  • 10 of his accepted accounts had at least one period of inactivity; Vox had 3 (not including his supposed death and resurrection in July 2019).
  • 5 of these 10 accounts all went inactive around the same time, and 4 "returned" within 3 days of their termination; the 5th, Carden, presumably stayed inactive because their character had already been adopted by that point.
  • One of these 4 accounts that disappeared and returned very quickly along with the others was an account he admitted to creating.
  • Reasons for inactivity included his mother's health, a hospital stay, moving to Hong Kong, working on the frontlines of the pandemic, and being injured in a car crash.
  • He rarely made more than 1 new account in any given month, except for May 2019 and June 2020 when he made 2 in each month, and August and October 2019 when he made 4 accounts in each.
  • 3 of those 4 accounts in October 2019 were among those 6 he admitted to making; the most recent account he admitted to was made in February 2020.
  • August to October 2019 was also the period when he made 3 of his 4 original characters (not including the stolen Quinn).
  • The majority of his accounts were created or returned from leave with uncannily fortunate timing, usually within 3 days of the character they inherited becoming available.
  • 9 of the 17 accepted accounts were created within 3 days of their characters' previous writer leaving; this includes 3 of the 6 accounts he admitted to.
  • 3 accounts were created within 2 days of the previous writer leaving, 3 were created the next day, and 1 the same day.
  • Kinvarus and Vox both returned from leave with perfect timing to inherit Vivian Martin and Zrinka Agaixot respectively.
  • In a case of artificially perfect timing, Revan joined the sim just in time to "take over" Alessia Garcia when Kinvarus went on leave after his supposed car crash.

So I think these numbers probably tell us two things: 1. the similarities in when the accounts were made and when they went inactive/returned suggests all 18 were made by Revan (already a safe assumption, but good to have it corroborated); and 2. Revan was clearly watching the sim for characters he wanted to grab. He didn't take up every character that became available (he passed on roughly 10 characters), but those he did he usually targeted very quickly.

Obviously none of this is remotely something any of us could've been expected to notice at the time, just interesting for a post mortem. Hopefully nothing like this ever happens again, but if it does at least we'll have more of an idea of what to look for :)
Lt Cmdr Hathev - Counselling - Chief Counsellor
"Logic without ethics is no logic at all." [Show/Hide]
Ensign Inej 'Avi' Avirim - Security - Investigations Officer
"Live fast, die stupid." [Show/Hide]
Xelia - Civillian - Holoprogram Designer
"Envy isn't your colour, babe." [Show/Hide]

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4245 –
Excellent investigation Sherlock ( @fiendfall )!

I cannot help but wonder what leads an individual to go to such extremes. Was he wanting to control the story? Did he want all those characters so that he could steal them for other sims? Was he just bored? I wish there was a good answer but I doubt we'll ever have one.  Even so the number of incidents are just too high to ignore. All the various lies for his accounts going silent, the perfect timing to create a new account so he could keep his chars or get new ones, is just malicious. Starting to think they might need help.

Anyway, thanks for sharing! Answers certainly help. NOW GO GET SOME SLEEP :)

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4246 –
Quote from: fiendfall on
  • In a case of artificially perfect timing, Revan joined the sim just in time to "take over" Alessia Garcia when Kinvarus went on leave after his supposed car crash.
Outside of the mind-boggling nature of Revan's actions in general, this last one genuinely confuses me to a nigh-unprecedented degree.  Why would he (they?) "pass" a character between accounts like that? 
Really enjoying writing a halfway stable character for once...

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4247 –
Quote from: GroundPetrel on
Quote from: fiendfall on
  • In a case of artificially perfect timing, Revan joined the sim just in time to "take over" Alessia Garcia when Kinvarus went on leave after his supposed car crash.
Outside of the mind-boggling nature of Revan's actions in general, this last one genuinely confuses me to a nigh-unprecedented degree.  Why would he (they?) "pass" a character between accounts like that? 

To save them. If a writer keeps coming back and leaving, they might eventually be asked to give up their character until they can sort out their personal life. A non active character is a dead spot on the story. But if they pass the character back and forth between "new" applicants, it helps throw off suspicion.

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4248 –
Quote from: Argyros on
Quote from: GroundPetrel on
Quote from: fiendfall on
  • In a case of artificially perfect timing, Revan joined the sim just in time to "take over" Alessia Garcia when Kinvarus went on leave after his supposed car crash.
Outside of the mind-boggling nature of Revan's actions in general, this last one genuinely confuses me to a nigh-unprecedented degree.  Why would he (they?) "pass" a character between accounts like that? 

To save them. If a writer keeps coming back and leaving, they might eventually be asked to give up their character until they can sort out their personal life. A non active character is a dead spot on the story. But if they pass the character back and forth between "new" applicants, it helps throw off suspicion.
Ahh, OK, so he was trying to keep control of the characters since they had regular roles in the story.  I get it now. 
Really enjoying writing a halfway stable character for once...

Re: Main OOC Thread

Reply #4249 –
Quote from: GroundPetrel on
Quote from: Argyros on
Quote from: GroundPetrel on
Quote from: fiendfall on
  • In a case of artificially perfect timing, Revan joined the sim just in time to "take over" Alessia Garcia when Kinvarus went on leave after his supposed car crash.
Outside of the mind-boggling nature of Revan's actions in general, this last one genuinely confuses me to a nigh-unprecedented degree.  Why would he (they?) "pass" a character between accounts like that? 

To save them. If a writer keeps coming back and leaving, they might eventually be asked to give up their character until they can sort out their personal life. A non active character is a dead spot on the story. But if they pass the character back and forth between "new" applicants, it helps throw off suspicion.
Ahh, OK, so he was trying to keep control of the characters since they had regular roles in the story.  I get it now. 

And if he "helps" bring in these new "writers" he gets brownie points, only helping to deflect more suspicion on his actions. It looks like he's only trying to help even if the writers fall off. He was playing a long game in an attempt to stay with the story even if he got caught.
 
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