FAQ
From USSArcadia
Frequently asked questions, or, questions answered in anticipation of their being asked.
Contents |
The Game
Who are you?
USS Arcadia is an online role playing game based on Star Trek™. The players range in age from teens up, and the sim is roughly equally divided between male and female characters. Many players do not release their real-life information.
Who makes up these plots?
While the plots are managed by the gamemasters, the players have a large amount of input into what happens in them by their actions and ideas in sim and in logs. For more information about how a plot is generated, you are urged to read “Tips from the Moose”, a guide geared towards STSF roleplayers, that was written by the Arcadia's previous commanding officer, Captain Moose. The command team also accepts suggestions for plots from the players.
What is a “log”?
Logs are in-character essays written by players for their sims. Logs may be written in first or third person. Logs may be used by players to:
- Record a character's thoughts or actions between sims
- Summarize a character's involvement in a sim
- Record the actions of non-player characters that are taking place during the sim in the sidelines of the action
- Record conversations between characters
- Develop characters' personalities
- Do many other things not listed here...
Logs are distributed by their authors by email to Arcadia's mailstring, which is received by all active players, and are also posted to the USS Arcadia Briefings and Logs board on the STSF website.
Can I join your ship?
Anyone who has graduated STSF Academy can apply to join Arcadia by sending an email to STSF Personnel. Please check our Roster to see if your desired position is OPEN before applying. Department chiefs (and, to some extent, bridge positions) are assigned from among experienced players by the GM team.
What positions are available?
All available positions are listed as OPEN on our roster.
What is this STSF Academy you speak of?
STSF Academy is the training phase of STSF simming. Academy simulations are open to everyone. A schedule of academy games is here. Before attending your first academy game, it is suggested that you read the Getting started section to learn the basics of simming, and our typographical conventions. After some time playing in the academy, the player will “graduate”, be promoted to the rank of ensign, and be offered a position on any of STSF's advanced simulations.
What are those stardates?
On the Star Trek television show, stardates are used to indicate the passage of time, with the only pattern being that higher stardates indicate later dates. STSF sims use stardates in a similar manner. The basic pattern we use is: 5YYMM.DD. YY, MM and DD are the last two digits of the year, month, and date, respectively, on the Gregorian calendar. They usually correspond to the dates the sim took place in “real time.” The "5" is appended because Star Trek:The Next Generation stardates frequently began with the number 5. Some simmers use a "1" instead of a "5." Numbers are also prepended because some of our sims began before the turn of the 21st century, and leaving the Gregorian date as-is would make stardates from 2000 earlier than those from 1999!
What does the Arcadia motto, “To ride onward to glorious strife” mean?
Good question. I'll tell you when I figure it out.
The website
Can I use your theme?
Yes, under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It's derived from the MediaWiki MonoBook style. You'll need the CSS, PHP and support files. If you want them, email Cmdr. Lo'Ami. They were hacked rather haphazardly from the Monobook style, so, don't expect nice coding. But, I try to make sure that it works in Firefox, Konqueror, Safari and Internet Explorer, and that both the XHTML and CSS are valid.
I'm an Arcadia player, and I noticed that the roster has a mistake about my character. What do I do?
Report it to the first officer.
I'm an Arcadia player. Can I help improve Arcadia's website?
Yes!
You can:
- Add to or correct the list of NPCs.
- Add to the ship's specifications (be sure to cite your source!).
- Add notable plots you remember to Arcadia's history.
- Correct and add to the Plot_Summaries.
- Correct and add to our database of aliens.
- Correct and add to our database of people.
- Correct and add to our database of places.
- Correct and add to our database of other ships.
- Correct and add to our database of technology.
- Correct everyone else's grammar and spelling errors.
How do I make changes to the website?
The simple answer: If the page already exists, go to the page and press the edit button. It's near the bottom of the left sidebar. You have to be a registered user and logged in to edit pages.
If the page does not already exist, first ask yourself whether you need to make a new page. If the answer is "yes," you can:
- Edit an already existing page and make a link to the new page using the MediaWiki linking syntax. Then, save the page and click on the new link, which will bring up a blank page that you can edit.
- Type the title of the new page into the URL bar:
http://ussarcadia.game-host.org:8080/index.php/My_New_Page
will make a new page called "My New Page." Note that underscores and spaces are interchangable. Be sure to leave a link to your new page somewhere appropriate on the site (in the plot summary, for example). Minimally, the page should tell us which Arcadia episode it references, and which category it it's in. There are numerous examples on the site where you can see how to write a new page effectively.
