User:Anatia

"Hello, world!"

Initiation

You're viewing the wiki page of one Anatia Landis, former adventurer outside the plaguelands, now trapped just like the rest of you. She stares at you with a cold glimmer in her eyes, before barking, "Listen up, newbie. This page is a list of the guides I have written for the benefit of players just like yourself, and I'm going to make absolutely sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that these guides are as informative as possible. And THAT means that I am going to demand that you read these guides as if they were missives from your own mother in a war-torn battlefield. Do you understand me? DO YOU!"

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Anatia's Guide to Infections

Alright. So, you may be wondering, what are all these 'infections' to which people keep referring? How am 'I' still infected? How do I avoid them, and what can I do to avoid them in the future? Well, I'll be able to answer at least a handful of your questions right here and now.

IC Introduction

Let's start with the basics. When you entered the wasteland, you certainly felt faint. Everything started spinning. You may have tasted colours, heard smells, and (if you had an MP3 player in your ears) been pleasured by sound. All these are normal results of the wasteland's infection which you, my good sir and/or madam, currently have. The nanites in the Wasteland do that - they take a snapshot of your current body, and adjust based on whichever instance they find as 'best', based around a wide variety of protocol. But that's not important. What you're asking is, 'Am I still human?' And the answer is... 'yes and no'. If you can read this page, then in my opinion, you're still human, able to think, reason, and take action based on your own initiative. The downside is that you'll display feral traits, which have been widely illustrated. You may acquire a taste for sex of one type or another; or you may simply be a ravenous, hungry beast intent on pursuing its fellows based off the information you've been given.

I'm going to bet upon the former.

In any event. You're here looking for information on what infections are, do, and can be acquired, and I'm here to help. At least... until I get out of here.

OOC Introduction

Basic Infection Information

So, you've gone through chargen, you've set your @desc, you've created basically everything you need - you've gone through all the newbie profiling info. But you're here for more data.

Don't worry: We're here to help.

Infections are effectively small mutations which occur upon one body part or another. When a player is infected by any source - say, by an enemy attacking them at random - then the player character's appearance will shift to fit that mutation. How thoroughly you've been infected by any given strain - and how significantly - can be viewed with the '+mut' command - for example, '+mut me' or +mut anatia'. Mutations affect all aspects of a character's performance: appearance, gender, attacks, weaknesses, strengths, powers, et cetera. Finally, eventually, a character's whole body can be infected with a given strain, which results in 'Mastery' of the form... but see below for information on that.

When a new player is created, they have Human as their primary state for all of their body parts. You can check this with '+mut me', or - if you have a sufficient Xeno skill - with '+mut [player]'.

It is possible to become completely immune to infection (with the Ultimate Infection Resistance perk) , but it is not suggested. A huge part of the game revolves around the wide variety of infections and how players react to them. Furthermore, remaining human will cripple your character combat-wise. The vast majority of powers and abilities rely upon infection. If you are immune to infections, this locks the vast majority of the game from you. There are reasons to become completely immune to infection, but most of those benefits can be found with the Advanced Inoculation perk.

Each player has an infection value, including that much-vaunted 'human' value. The most significant infection value a given player has is shown in 'ws', or 'whospecies', on the MUCK client. This denotes how close they are to the species with which they're infected.

Infection happens in the following cases, from most likely to least:

• The PC has been assaulted by an NPC which is infected with a given strain. Each attack carries with it a chance of infection.
• The PC has been defeated by that strain of foe. The losing message generally carries with it some infection chance.
• The PC has used an item which infects them with this strain of virus. The most common form of this is 'Infection Vials', which we'll be getting into, later.
• The PC has been infected by a trusted partner in roleplay, through a variety of methods (item use, sex, coyote.)
• The PC willingly or unwillingly partakes in sex with that strain, which still requires agreement. This requires a Mako item known as 'Infectious [X]', where X is Womb, Cock, or others.
• The PC willingly shifts themselves with the Nanite Adept dedication, or any other dedication.
• The PC has nativized themselves, locking in their 'base form'. When the PC does this, any incoming infections have a 50% chance of instead reverting the character's parts towards their base form.
• The PC has been infected by a piece of equipment or an intrinsic perk.

Let's go over each of these in turn:

NPC Infection

When you enter combat, it'll generally be against any number of NPCs, of assorted types. As they attack you, NPCs can use several different attacks, at least one of which is generally sexual. The vast majority of NPC attacks will at least try to infect you with their nanite strain. Casual (from NPC) infection can be prevented with the Advanced Inoculation perk, or through, as stated above, complete immunity. On the other hand, if you're looking for an infection, isolating a foe and letting them attack you for a number of rounds is a relatively sane way to bump your infection percentage.

Losing to a foe is another method by which you can become infected by a strain. In this case, the winning feral generally sexes up your character. However, this is a risky method: on the web client, this will generally result in a loss of patrol points, and on either client, this can result in female (or hermaphroditic) characters becoming pregnant without so much as a warning message.

Self-Infection

There are relatively few ways to infect yourself willingly with a strain of nanites, and the primary method is through Infection Vials. As you continue to fight enemies, if you have a Nanite Collector of basic or higher status, and you have enough in the 'NaniteCollection' status, you will be able to collect vials from defeated NPCs. These will appear, in combat defeat messages, as 'bubbling infection vials', or - in your inventory - as 'Infection Vial: [Strain]'. Alternately, if you have one in your inventory, you can use a Converter in-combat (as a free action!) to obtain an infection from an active foe. This acts just like a vial, but will not assist you in mastering an infection if you already appear to be 100%.

Players can only use infection vials of up to 5 levels above their current one. To check your current level, type +xp or check the web client. Vials can be traded from player to player, as standard items.

Finally, those with a dedication can always transform into the form provided by that dedication. Those with the Nanite Adept dedication have a number of other options, which will be gone into further below.

If you're fortunate enough to obtain a Boss Infection Vial, take note! Not only do these provide you with mastery of the form (and, with certain exceptions, transform you completely), they also provide a certain weight of experience, and sell for a ridiculous number of Freecreds on the open market!

PC to PC Infection

Some player characters are readily able to transform others. In order to transform another player, however, the receiving player needs to give the sending player permission, through the 'trust' command. A few means by which a player can transform another:

• The Nanite Funnel allows one player to share infections with another, as per a nanite vial. This will not count for mastery.
• The Coyote Dedication allows one player to share their active form with another. Once again, this doesn't count for mastery.
• The Infectious Womb, Infectious Cum, and Infectious Milk Mako items can allow a player to share their current infections with another. Once more, no mastery is provided. (Do you see a theme here?)
• Players with the Margay or Margay Taur forms can unbirth another, transmitting their infections thereby. Similarly, those with a Womb for Rent can do the same with the Infectious Womb item automatically, as well as the Adapting Womb, which converts the target on demand. For more advanced (and permanent) infections, the Maternal Bond item allows a player to Nativize themselves to the player in whom's womb they reside.

As can be seen, none of these methods for PC-to-PC infection can provide mastery of a form, though they are useful for a player seeking to obtain such.

Benefits of Infections

So, now that you've seen the various methods in which you can be infected, let's talk about what infections can do for you!

• Infections provide Powers. These are in-character attacks, benefits, and stats which assist you in gathering more forms as you proceed through the game. These are generally what most players will use, instead of an armed weapon or armor.
• Infections provide descriptive traits which can assist you in roleplaying! These are generally appended before your written description.
• Infections provide genital mutations, which can be helpful both in roleplaying and in Social Actions.

Downsides of Infections

• Infections can occasionally drop a stat, provide debuffs, or the like.
• Infections are often mercurial! Unless you have certain dedications and perks, infections can come and go at the drop of a hat. This takes with the changes any powers you might have, disrupting the flow of combat as well.
• Infections can be disruptive to roleplay, if you prefer to remain in a single form.

Infections are also an enormous part of the game itself, and most players will strive to collect many of them. Staying in the same form is kind of 'missing the point' of Flexible Survival, but options are provided for players who prefer to do so.