Universe Online - Enter the Game: Complete Edition (6 page)

Yes!  That's exactly what I was looking for!  I could almost jump for joy.  Except the price is rather harsh.

Its bonuses more than make up for it.  Expanding and shrinking Aptitudes?  Hell yeah.  And experience requirements go down too.  And it'll even help with learning new Aptitudes!

Its like the Holy Grail.  Hehehe.  I cannot help but laugh like an evil bastard.

Its the first Aptitude that I purchase.

*DING*

I quickly pull back up my Character Creation Screen and see the large Innate Control Aptitude sitting there, slowly orbiting the inner ring of Attributes.  Even the visual effects are neat, given that a line of light bounces between the inner circle under the Attributes to hit the Aptitude every couple of moments.

I don't spend much time gawking though and quickly go back and buy those three Movement Aptitudes.

It takes a decent sized chunk from my Creation Points, but I'm not disappointed in the least.

I quickly pull back up the Character Creation Screen and snap the Movement Aptitude onto the Innate Control, followed by the Movement Speed Aptitude, then the Flexibility Aptitude.  Each time I connect them to each other and the Innate Control Aptitude, a different box appears with an Expansion button.  Anyone who's ever watched U-Tube knows what I'm talking about.  It is like the fullscreen icon.

I click it on the Flexibility Aptitude and expand it to the maximum, Size 4.

In front of my eyes, the box expands and takes up extra space, but also gains two extra connection slots on the bottom side.  Its bonuses doesn't change though.  What does change is the experience to level them.

They drop by 10% each.  900 instead of 1000, and 360 instead of 400.

That in itself makes it more than worth the cost!

Feeling excited, I skip the rest of the Aptitudes for now and quickly switch over to checking out the Aspects.

Unlike how the Aptitudes were listed by category, the Aspects are jumbled up based on subject.

Things like Repair, Heat, and Cold. Also Poison and Toxic.  Aspects are either 'actions', nouns, or adjectives.  And there's a whole bunch of them.  If the number of Aptitudes were in the thousands, then the number of Aspects are in the tens of thousands.

But I already know what I'm looking for, and find it within a couple of minutes.

Aspects I can tie into my movement Aspects.

Zero-G, Low-G, Normal-G, High-G, Obstacles. Parkour. Climbing, Falling, Gliding. Flying.

Just like Aptitudes, Aspects can also be connected to each other, but without the size restrictions.  Instead, they're linked in chains.  They also all seem to have a base cost of 100 CP each, so I go ahead and grab those ten I listed and start playing around with them on the Character Creation Screen.

It takes a little bit of experimentation to figure out what to do with them.

First off, Aspects can be used independently of Aptitudes.  They provide a bare bonus of 1% of their level to whatever they're used for.

Action Aspects can be used right out of the box, basically.  The others are a little more complex to use, given they only activate when dealing with the situation they represent.

Take the High-G Aspect for instance.  It provides a bonus to resisting High Gravity environments, which includes moving, hauling, and simply resisting the physical pressure.  But 1% is not a very big bonus.

But by connecting it to the Flexibility Aptitude, which is in turn connected to the Movement Speed and Movement Aptitudes, it receives their added bonuses when the Aspect is activated.

So the High-G Aspect gains its natural 1% plus 5% movement, 5% speed, 2% flexibility, -12% stamina usage, -2% fall damage, and -5% collision damage bonus.

Fully connected in such a manner, it looks like this:

From there, I can connect some of the other Aspects to the High-G one.  Falling, Climbing, Parkour and Obstacles.  It becomes a web all connected by to the High-G Aspect, which in turn is connected to its controlling Aptitude, and its higher/lower connections.

What's more, the Aspects aren't actually used up when you create such a connection.  You can use them how many other times you want.  It’s like creating a Skill Chain in other games.

I go ahead and hook up the other three Gravity based Aspects to the Flexibility Aptitude, which is its maximum, and then create their own Aspect Webs to each of the Gravities.

Zero-G is connected to Flying, Gliding, Climbing, Obstacles, and Parkour.

Low-G ends up with Gliding, Climbing, Falling, Obstacles, and Parkour.

Normal-G ends up with them like that as well, except without Gliding.  While I could have added it, I don't have wings, so it would basically be useless.

I'm not even going to bother grabbing the Walking and Running Aspects right now.  Those should be some of the first ones I earn in-game, and won't be very useful when starting out anyway.

I do go ahead and grab the Hauling, Carrying and Capacity Aspects.  Hauling and Carrying are self explanatory, but Capacity works in a variety of ways.  Its an adjective that can be connected to a bunch of things, after all.

I do want to be able to move freely even when pulling around or carrying things; so I go ahead and connect them up to all four of the Gravity Aspects.

To say that I love this system is an understatement.  The sheer amount of freedom and options is mind boggling.  You also have to actually think about it in order to get the best usage out of it.

I spend the next hour fleshing out my character, and even browse through the Traits which are available.  Some of them even catch my eye.  Unlike Aptitudes or Aspects, they provide a flat boost and cannot be connected to anything in the Aspect Web.

In the end I only buy three of them for 800 CP total.

I find that the Traits appear as small balls floating around in the center circle of the Aspect Web, shining slightly like stars in the background.  I can click on them though to pull up their information.

Just to say, I ended up going with something similar to the Engineer's preset I used before during the Beta Test.

I end up taking the Mechanical Aptitude (Technology) for 400 CP, Electrical Aptitude (Technology) for 300 CP, Software and Hardware Aptitudes for 200 each and Assembly for 600 CP.

For the Aspects I purchase Repair, Scavenge, Reading, Writing, Crafting, Processing, Upgrade, Wiring, Understanding, Identification, Learning, Resistance, Strength, Versatility and Durability.

I spent quite a lot of time looking for Aspects that might prove useful in both crafting, fixing, and maintaining any tech I come across.  I also realized that if I have to fix complex, multi-system machines, things would require even more work.

I also figured that I should try to 'learn' and 'understand' as much about everything I can.  I even add those Aspects to my Movement ones I'd chosen earlier, just to see if anything could come from it.

Assembly tied with Repair, Processing, Crafting, Upgrade, Strength, Resistance, Versatility and Durability will provide bonuses to any sort of Manufacturing I have to do.

There's a whole Manufacturing Aptitude list, but I basically ignore it for now.  It is all tied to specific things, like Ship Building and Weapon Manufacturing.  I can do the same work with Assembly, but it’s more like 'scrap' weapons and whatnot.

But I can learn as I go, so there's no real issue there.

All of that put me at 9000 Creation Points remaining, though.

There is another branch of Aptitudes I am interested in, and that is Psionics.

Who wouldn't want to be able to control things with their mind, eh?

I only buy two of those listed, in order to preserve my remaining points.  Telekinesis and Energy Manipulation Aptitudes.  Telekinesis cost me a whole 1000 CP while Energy Manipulation was only 400 CP.  I went ahead and plugged both of them into Innate Control before going to look through the Aspects that could be used with them.

Grab, Pull, Push, Place, Use, Rotate, Shield, Boost, Expand, Contract (noun and verb in one).  With those I'm basically done with the Aptitudes and Aspects I want or suspect that I need.  I may have missed a few, but I can always gain them the hard way in-game.

I quickly make the webs for Telekinesis and Energy Manipulation.  With them I can move objects around a fairly decent radius and create and control psionic shields.  I even tie in the learning, understanding, upgrade, strength, resistance, versatility and durability Aspects to the Shield Aspect.  Trying it out, I'm staggered at its massive strength and the hit it takes on my Psi total.  200 Psi/sec.

Ouch.

I end up grabbing the Reduction, Stability, Efficiency and Maximize Aspects and quickly re-draw the Shield Web I'd created, linking them in a long chain before adding the boosting Aspects.

The retry is much more manageable, at only 50 Psi/sec.  It still is a big draw for my rather small pool.  Most users wouldn't be able to hold it for more than a couple of seconds with their starting stats.

Oh!  I was about to start dumping CP into my Stats when I realized I had forgotten something.

Survival Aptitudes!

Damnit.  How could I have forgotten that?  I'm going to need to be able to eat, breath, and sleep while I'm on my own!  The starting weeks worth of supplies aren't going to last me if I'm not able to replenish them myself.

I could almost kick myself at the slip-up.

Hm.  Let's see.

Radiation Resistance Aptitude, Scavenging Aptitude, Searching Aptitude, Agriculture Aptitude, Aeroponics Aptitude, Aquaponics Aptitude, Cooking Aptitude...  The list is quite long, and I end up gritting my teeth.  Damn.

Most of them cost only 200 CP, but likewise the bonuses they provide are not that great; and to get the most out of them I'd have to plug them into my Innate Control Aptitude, and its own Size is limited.  Plus I have to find the Aspects that can be used with the ones I choose.