Comms and You

What is a Comm Device?

The comm device is any device, hooked into the network maintained by your faction(or hooked into a faction's network for those without a faction) that allows you to get near instantaneous information about a great deal of things. The comm itself can come in a wide variety of shapes and styles. From a HUD style device, to a simple walkie-talkie, anything that can tell you, either verbally or by visual output, the information required and requested. A few examples include a device similar to a scouter from DragonBall Z, a pair of enhanced glasses, a walkie-talkie, a wrist watch, a cell phone, the list goes on. If you have compatible hardware already in your head, a NICE for example, it can even be internal.

• OOC note: Many of the commands that provide data which wouldn't be readily available to an unassisted onlooker can be considered to draw from the comm unit, such as +health, wealth, and so on.

What does a Comm Device do?

The comm device stores various information about the agent who owns it. Information that is normally only displayed to the agent includes: amount of freecred, amount of tokens, amount of mako, current mutations, contents of your pack, what recipes and modifiers the agent has access to, etc. The comm also transmits data, such as the relative state of your health, energy, who you are, what faction you are with, etc. While there is currently no pure mechanical way to turn off your comm's standard outputs, this is something that is possible, permitting someone to sneak up on someone else. You can set your comm to trust the comms of other agents, allowing them to see detailed information about you that normally would only be shown to yourself. In addition to all this, your comm acts as a standard communicator. This allows you to receive broadcast information from your faction, your group, and anyone else with your comm ID(NOTE: This is how the Page and Page-Mail systems work). Actually talking on the comm is about as efficient and quick as talking on a cell phone, making its use as a mid-fight system negligible at best. For combat communications, look more toward Telepathic Nanomagic. And that is not all! Your comm device also acts as an emergency beacon, alerting your faction(Or a faction if you have none) that you are in need of great aid due to falling unconscious.

Where to get Comms

A comm device is provided to each and every agent when they sign up with a faction. If you never had a faction, then finding one that was discarded somewhere would not be that difficult, or buying one from one of the factions. Keep in mind that a faction is very unlikely to give you access to their faction-exclusive frequencies. That said, it could be set up to work with one of the faction's networks to allow all the other comm functions to continue.

Misc Questions

• Why doesn't my comm get stolen or damaged when I fight?
  • Most mutants are not too concerned about your tech. Items, comms, etc tend to be glossed over for other things. Also, despite what their construction might look like, comms tend to be highly durable.

• How does my comm interact with bubble servers?
  • Information that is on a bubble server, such as the specific commands for builder nanites, can be accessed via comm devices, but comm devices are treated as read-only for bubble servers. The only servers they can make edits to as needed are the ones that house faction information for their faction.

• How does a comm work outside of a bubble?
  • Outside of a working bubble, a comm doesn't provide much functionality. It can still assist with readouts on your current mutation, but all actual communications are cut off with no signal to work with.

• How do feral characters use comms? I thought they couldn't use any advanced technologies?
  • A feral character, even one that is not Rod Trained can be taught how to use devices in a limited way. While such a character would never understand how or why their comm works, they could be taught that if they, as an example of a comm in the style of an early touch screen, touch 'friends' then a person's name and wait a while, they are talking to that person!