Introducing Grand Planes

IndentIn a small room, small but very well made and luxuriously furnished, there sat an old man. Sitting near to the fire and appearing to be asleep, he looked Old, and from the air of him, getting older by the day. The walls of the room had pictures that were clearly of the man with his family when he was younger. But as the pictures got newer there were fewer people with him, until at last, he alone remained. As the door to the room cracked open, the man snorted and sat forward on his recliner and said while still half sleeping, "It's time," to the door more as a statement then as a question. Then louder, "Come in!"

IndentThe door finished opening and a thin man stepped in. With his enormously oversized thick glasses perched on his nose, he nodded his head. The glasses slipped down his nose until with practiced ease that spoke of countless repetitions they were pushed back up.

Indent"Yes. If we start moving now the studio will be ready for us before we start in ten minutes," clearly having heard him the first time. "If we go over we're going to lose the audience before we even begin."

IndentAs he heaved himself from his chair, the gentleman spoke with mild irritation, "Fine. Fine. Grab my cane and we will get going."

IndentThe lean man did as asked, and moved over to help his elder up. Expecting and receiving the wave away the elderly gent held onto the chair arm as he got up before taking the cane. Leaving the room behind his older companion, the thin man dressed in black slacks and a brown corduroy sweater shut the door firmly behind him. When he did so, the room lights dimmed. The paintings faded from the wall, and the fireplace turned into a radiator leaving only an old recliner and stark white walls in the room.

IndentAfter he left the room, he hit a small button next to the door and said softly, "pickup in room eight," before flipping the sign on the door to empty. Shortly, maintenance would be there to pick up the old chair to ship to storage before a quick cleaning would ready the room for a new occupant.

IndentSwiftly moving down the hallway he caught up to the slightly stooped elderly man after a short moment, the man moving more at an amble than a swift walk. Matching his pace, walking on the elders left side away from his cane, he appeared lost in thought and in no hurry to talk.

IndentShooting a quick glance at him, the old gent asked gruffly, "Nervous?"

IndentA slightly startled reply came, "A little Mr. Reynoulds. I have not given an address to an audience this large since I finished my required speech class in college," and he quickly returned to brooding.

IndentReynoulds put his cane down with slightly harder thump and said, "How many times have I told you to call me John, Mike." He already knew what Mike's answer before he replied, this being a long standing argument.

Indent"When you stop paying my paycheck and letting me work with such cool toys, then I'll go back to calling you John. Until then, you're my boss and I will respect your position." Shooting a glance at John and seeing him mouthing along his argument he gave a slight smirk and added in a slightly softer tone, "if not your person."

IndentA slight grin unseen on his face, John ignored the remark and said instead, "This door here?" having accomplished his goal of taking Mike's mind off his upcoming speech.

IndentEntering the room that said studio, Mike again held the door for John. Taking a few steps in John looked around shaking his head. A small room, just 12 feet by 12 feet, with the back half of it separated by a black wire mesh that had an odd shine to it. Just inches in front of the mesh stood a small metal structure with a screen mounted onto it and a small orb on the top. Directly in front of the stand, and straight in from the door, stood a thin podium that Mike moved around John to reach. Looking over at John he said, "You should probably head to the back unless you want to be on camera," nodding at the screen with it's rapidly falling numbers. More swiftly than before, John walked towards the mesh and pushed through it as it parted around him like oil.

IndentAs John disappeared behind the mesh Mike placed a cover over his ear and hooked his glasses into the cover. As he pressed a small button in the center of the ear cover a small red light started blinking before turning a steady green. As the ear cover went green, the screen in front of him flashed -Connected in- three times beneath the numbers that were rapidly nearing zero.

IndentTaking a breath and letting it out just as the counter hit zero, Mike looked through his glasses at the newly changed room. While the camera and screen that now showed Mike standing at the podium were the same, the rest of the room had changed. No longer in a six-by-twelve half room, he now stood at the front of a large auditorium with nothing more that a few floating pictures to distract the audience from him. And what an audience it appeared, not in density, for there were only a few that showed themselves. These were the ones for whom it being seen at 'Events' held import, otherwise their own followers would wonder where they had been. The giant tattooed man at the back without a shirt. The thin eldritch lady wearing an almost see through dress. The gnome in a sweater vest with tufts of hair flying in every direction. The skeleton with a crown and short shorts on. The lizard man with his eyes moving independently of each other. Dozens of 'characters' who felt they needed to be seen at large events to be able to say, "I was there." Likely, they would be at two or three other 'Events' this same day.

IndentBut to Mike, the important audience could be seen listed in his lower right glasses lens. While the visible audience would bring some viewers with them, the ones that didn't show themselves would be the ones that he needed to impress. They would be the ones who would buy the first batch of the game and give the most important reviews. Currently, the number sat at 14,789. Heaving as small a breath as he could, Mike began.

Indent”Ladies, gentlemen and others," looking momentarily at a large blob of slime, "Thank you for coming to this press release for Horizon inc. and the update on our newest game Grand Planes. It has been a long time, but we believe that we have finally accomplished John Reynoulds challenge and made a game that will surpass the first VR platform and still reigning champion, Royal Rampage. First a brief refresher on what brought us to this point." Upon saying this he noticed the audience number dipped to 14,346.

Indent"Decades ago the first VR games came onto the market and fell almost unnoticed into the gaming industry. Clunky and simplistic at first they were simply a slightly more immersive version of what had come before. A slightly more personalized TF, moved to little more realistic Doom, each accumulated gear that somewhat worked but nothing that was genuinely outstanding. Then came the capsule and Royal Rampage, and nothing was ever the same again." The numbers dipped again to 13,638.

Indent"For a long time we had known how to make our class 0 AI but they had drastic problems in them. They lacked the flexibility in programming to allow them to function as all purpose autos unless their surroundings were closely controlled. If this flexibility was added in, then even the slightest inconsistency between two AIs would cause the AIs to go into a spiral programming cycle. With each trying to out-think the other until one of them burned itself out or collapsed into cascading error. For a time, the consensus was that we would be unable to properly program working AIs that were not functionally crippled in what they could do. We were still able to install a few into key places and with only one AI there were able to function better than their equivalent human operators, but they created their own problems and required massive amounts of power." 12,998.

Indent"Then came the Royal Rampage's AI and all that was known was blown up to smithereens. With Royal Rampage, even time changed and here we first learned of how cognitive acceleration could be enacted through artificial intelligence. With the knowledge that it was possible, many of the former games attempted to emulate it but only managed at most a doubling of cognitive acceleration and often with harsh side effects. The sad truth is that after nine-teen years, we are only now able to surpass the reigning champion, Royal Rampage." With that little teaser, he saw that the audience had perked up a bit and his number jumped to up to 13,286 as the first truly new information was released. Not much though, as this claim had been said many times before.

Indent"As of five years ago, Mr. Renoulds had known what Royal Rampage was, and had even played it a bit but was never truly interested. It was only when he found out that the game was still far exceeding anything anyone else had made that his interest was pricked. With VR technology seeping so quickly into people lives, why had no one managed to outdo the South Koreans. And so, he issue his challenge, 'Give me an idea that will make me say wow. An idea that is larger and deeper and more expansive and more Grand. An idea that will surpass any platform before it, I will have it made, and you will receive a check for ten million dollars for your idea.' Thousand upon hundred of thousand upon million of ideas came in; and after eight months of sorting and reading by hundreds of people, three checks were written." Again there had been a small increase in the number; 14,290.

Indent"The first check written was for the idea of VR size. This idea came from Molly who stated that Mr Reynoulds was misinformed. That Royal Rampage was not popular because it was a game, but that it was an entire unexplored world. That if he wanted his platform to be better it couldn't be just a game, and it couldn't be just a world. To be the best it needed to be an entire universe, a universe that had new rules to it that could be discovered. For this to work, there would have to be fundamental differences between how the VR rules worked and how reality works. And then, enable the users to explore this universe as completely as possible.

Indent"To create this, we designed a platform in which more that just the world of Aedrath could be explored. For this design to work, a person would have to be able to stay in Aedrath or move elsewhere with relative ease and still be able to have a fulfilling time playing in either area. As such, the world of Aedrath has been made for those who wish to play more casually and still have an incredible time while moving to the Central Plane will be for those who wish to play competitively. This is accomplished at level one hundred by use of two skill that are automatically generated, one that stops continued leveling and one that begins the trial to move the the Central Plane.

Indent"If you choosing to move to the central plane, you are then able to enter into the hall of fame and have access to more options than you have in Aedrath on paths your avatar can take. It is suggested that if you wish to be competitive that you move planes when you are level one hundred.

Indent"But this is to be an entire world, and as such you will have to compete with all of the NPCs that exist within the Platform. Being a player in this game gives you only two benefits over the NPCs in that you get to respawn when you die and you can record video of you game play from your capsule to review. Other than this everything that you can do in the game the NPCs can do. This will promote the idea that you are entering into a world that you need to explore, not into a game that you play.

Indent"The second check was written to Jeremy for his idea of variety. He believed that the attraction of Royal Rampage was because it allowed a person to do almost anything they wanted. From this a person could craft their own path, if they wanted it, and that path would both suit them and empower them. He stated that if Mr Reynould wanted the greatest platform possible he had to make it so that everyone was as unique in his game as in reality. If people believed that what they created in his game was truly unique to themselves, then they would value it that much more." A short check of his display, Mike saw the number move up to 18,109.

Indent"To advance this idea, most of the skill and class production is generated by an AI. While there are many classes and skills that resemble each other, seeming only to have a small difference, these small differences create massive changes. Most of the classes that can be obtained can only be obtained if the correct skills have been learned to the appropriate level and various other requirements have been met. Only a few different types of classes correspond to how you advance in the planes.

Indent"The common class is the most basic, and the one you must first obtain before you can even access your status screen. Only three common classes exist: Mage, Warrior, and Rogue. Just by the listing of their names you should be able to tell the major function of each class. But that does not mean that further classes cannot be learned, just that your play style will be different. For example, all three classes can generate a swordsman class. This class would simply have large differences, a mage swordsman will focus on elemental attacks, a warrior swordsman will focus on raw power, and a rouge swordsman will focus on critical damage.

Indent"As a person moves forward on their own path after obtaining their common class they will pick up many classes, some of which are much more difficult to obtain than others. As such there are, with little variance, four types of classes that can be collected.

Indent"The first is a generated class. This is the simplest and most difficult class to obtain. For a generated class you have no need to find an instructor, although it might be helpful, you simply need to have the required skills at an appropriate level and you will automatically get it. For example, the swordsman class can be created simply by bringing your sword skill up to beginner level. There are an uncountable number of this kind of class. Any class can be made this way, and there is a great deal of importance in generating classes for greater power.

Indent"The second type of class is the instructed class. As implied, an instructed class can be obtained by having someone or something teach you the skills needed. For many of these classes, they would refuse to even talk to you if you have not generated a required class for their skill as you would be too unreliable for them to bother with. Almost all instructed classes are more powerful than the ones that can be easily learned through generation. However, you can still generate an instructed class as long as you know how the class is created by your instructor.

Indent"The third type of class is the hidden class. A hidden class has to be accepted before it will show any information about itself, and if not accepted right away will often be unavailable latter. The greatest difference is that a hidden class has no description and you simply have to hope that luck gives you a class that is useful to you. It maybe something you want and give you an increase in power or it may actually weaken you, it's simply up to Fate.

Indent"The fourth type of class is an extremely rare subset of the hidden class and called a hazard class. This is because a hazard class has a permanent alteration to it that has no possibility of removal with a better grade of class in the same category. This change is normally associated with a great improvement one or two areas, but in many cases will be crippling to a given style of play.

Indent"To show people how they are doing, the concepts of rank and grade have been added. Grade is how good a class or skill can be. They are as follow: basic, beginner, novice, initiate, intermediate, advanced, expert, adept, guru, master, savant, grand master, and divine. In most instances, a higher grade of skill or class will be an improved form of a lower grade one that only forms when all necessary conditions have been met. Often this will lower the negatives or increasing the bonuses.

Indent"Rank however is less nebulous. Rank is the number of people still living who have obtained the grade of class or skill that you have or one that is higher. This number is not only applies to skills and classes but also to quests. In a quest, the rank of the quest relates to how many times the quest, or one of sufficient similarity, has successfully been completed.

Indent"The third check was written for the idea of time. This idea came from Himeko who stated that the real reason Royal Rampage became so pervasive throughout the fabric of society was because of all the extra time a person obtains by joining. Even if a person did not care for the actual game play, the peripheral bonus of so much more time in a day made it uneconomical to go without. As was once said 'ask me for anything but time' and with Royal Rampageyou were able to gain so much more time. Even if the average age of a person never increased, with moderate usage of Royal Rampage anyone could obtain more than an extra century of life. For Mr Reynould's to have any chance of success, the new platform would have to match or exceed the cognitive acceleration of Royal Rampage.

Indent"With these directives from Mr Reynould, the design team began development four years ago. The first major decision made was that only the most basic of outlines would be developed by humans, the majority of the work would have to be created by the AI. With the continued inability to create a full class one AI, like in Royal Rampage, development went in a different direction. Instead of one AI that determines everything, we proceeded to make it so that multiple AI could be linked into one overall matrix that resonated between the different AI. The majority of this framework would rest upon three AI that balanced each other in the creation of Grand Planes. With three separate node points, if two came into conflict the third would be able to break them out of their crashing decent. This is the basic concept, actual implementation was a tad more difficult."

IndentLooking at the audience, Mike saw that there were a few indications of amusement amount the audience. Many of the visible people there were to one level or another well educated on the limits of class zero AIs. The biggest being the difficulty of multiple AI working together. If it had been as simple as needing a few checks on one another, there would have been far greater progress in other games. His vagueness on how it was accomplished indicated that the implementation secret would be well guarded to prevent duplication.

Indent"After approximately two years, we managed to get the AIs working in a stable configurations. At this point the AIs: Fortuna, Grim, and Kratos, were working together and creating a resonance that enable a single user to reach a cognitive acceleration of four. Over the next year we slowly added more AIs into the matrix founded by the Three, adding more depth and foundational steadiness until we hit what we believed to be an optimal stopping point with twenty four AI. With this many there would be the smallest likelihood of a cascade failure that would crash the whole matrix." A glance showed the audience up to 32,456 as interest grew.

Indent"A year ago began the stress test for the game. At this point the passage of time within Grand Planes was cranked up to a million to one. For diagnoses the time was dropped to ten-thousand, a user could enter the VR at this level if only for one second at a time before developing problems. The test only dropped back to a slower pace three days ago for a full diagnostic session to determine if there were any major errors that had been missed. I am happy to say that none were found and the VR matrix is as rock solid as the day the test began. When the full version of the game is released in six days, people will find that the cognitive acceleration is set to eight. At this level the matrix will be able to support more than three billion users." Mike's audience members had jumped to 69,237 as people heard about the increased cognitive acceleration.

Indent"To support this increase a new capsule has been created and has been in production for nearly six months now. With time, it is hoped that the price of the new capsule will lower as the major component of it should be more economical to produce. However, for the first batch of capsules only five-hundred-thousand have been made. With additional orders placed, more shall be made available.

Indent"And with that, all the new information for today has been released. We here at Horizons wish you a Grand day." As he finished talking the audience seemed to stutter in place for a moment before fading away. Sighing, Mike removed the ear piece and stepped back from the podium, watching as John emerged from behind the VR mesh screen.

IndentShooting a glance up at Mike, "Not bad," declared John as he walked toward the door,"Not bad," under his breath. Leaving the room the two headed toward the double doors at the end of the hallway. Passing through the doors, and there idled a limo at the end of the sidewalk, clearly waiting for John.

IndentAs he entered the back of the limo John paused, turned to Mike and asked, "Do you think they bought it?"

IndentAfter a moment Mike deliberately misunderstood and said, "Hopefully, the numbers peaked near 75,000 live audience members so with a bit of luck opening day should see the half million copies sold. With solid marketing over the next three months we should hit the fifty million needed to sustain it."

IndentWith a look John stated, "That's not what I meant and you know it."

IndentTo which Mike replied, "Of course, it was only the truth. It might not be the whole truth of why you would want it, but it was the truth. It's far easier to conceal things by just not talking about them."

IndentJohn, nodding as he stepped into the limo, softly replied. "As long as they don't know." With that, Mike shut the limo door and stood watching for a moment with sad eyes as the limo drove a tired John away.

IndentMagnus had a problem. It had taken him some time but at last he found the first checkpoint in his journey. Unfortunately, upon finding it this had popped up.

Warning!

You are being offered a Hazard Class. This class contains account bound changes. Even after further class leveling and upGrading these changes will remain. Unless certain, this change is not recommended.

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