Around the sim · Black Box

Your sim can fill its world with objects that work with your HUD: doors, switches, alarms, gathering nodes, storage and more. This guide covers what each does when you touch it, and the rolls behind it. Your sim picks which of these it uses, so you may meet only a few.

Tap or hold

Doors, lights, switches, power panels and generators answer two ways:

Tap to do the obvious thing, such as open a door or flip a switch. Stand close, or you’re told “You are too far away”.
Hold for 2 seconds to open a menu on your HUD: “Here are the interactions available to you.”

The menu starts with Inspect, which lists the object’s state (powered, damaged, locked, welded) and all its actions, with each one’s energy cost and the items it needs. Staff also see Admin.

After Inspect come the actions you can try now. An action shows only when you carry the tools it needs (worn or not), have the skill it needs, have enough energy, and the object is in the right state. Cutting a weld, for example, only appears on a welded door. If nothing fits, you get “There are no viable interactions for this item.”

Trying an action

Press the action. The HUD shows your chance of success and what it costs.
Press Continue, or Ignore to back out.
The HUD rolls 1 to 100. At or under your chance, you succeed. Your chance is never above 99%.

You see “Interaction complete!” or “Action FAILED.”, with your roll and the number you needed.

Energy is spent win or lose. Without enough, you get “You do not have enough actions to perform this. You need to Rest.”
An action can have a cooldown, sometimes only after a failure. The HUD tells you how many seconds to wait.
Some actions take several successes, shown as “Progress: stage 1 of 3 completed.” Leave it too long and the progress is lost.
An action can use up its tools, give you an item, or count toward a quest.

If your sim uses it: Failing some actions puts the door into lockdown for everyone and sets off the alarms in its area. Local chat says the door “locks down” and for how long, and “The alarm sounds in” the area. The door goes back to how it was when the time is up.

Doors

Tap a door, or walk into it, to open it. Tap again to close it. Most doors close by themselves after a few seconds.
Card readers play a swipe, then open if your character is allowed or buzz if not. A door’s list can allow or bar a character, an account, a group, a rank in a group, a class, or anyone with a certain item equipped, such as a keycard or badge. A card in your inventory isn’t enough. Equip it.
Out of character or away, you pass every card reader.
Locked or welded doors without a card reader buzz and stay shut. Nothing says why.
Hatches lift open, and you can pass through while they’re open.
Blast doors answer only to the terminal panels beside them.

Your sim decides what you can try on a door. The usual actions force the lock, repair damage, weld the door shut or cut through a weld. A forced lock is unlocked, and you then tap to open the door.

Lights, switches and power

Tap a switch to flip it. There’s no roll, energy or cooldown. A key switch, or a breaker set up the same way, works only for the characters on its list: “This switch needs authorization.”
Lights follow whatever feeds them. Touching a light doesn’t switch it.
Power runs from a generator or power panel, through breakers and switches, to the lights. A switch that’s off cuts everything after it.
On low power lights dim or flicker. With no power they go dark. Emergency lights come on only while power is low or out.
Generators can run on fuel, dropping to low power and then none as it runs out. Only staff refuel them.
Crafting stations and shops refuse you without power: “The” station or shop “has no power.” Low power still works. A craft that finishes during a power cut waits until power is back.
If your sim sets it up, losing power can also lock, unlock or open doors.

Alarms and lockdowns

Alarms are set off and stopped by staff, an area at a time or everywhere. The lights flash and the sound plays together. Touching an alarm does nothing.
Lockdowns are run by staff on an area. They can lock every door in it, switch its lights off, or turn the lights another colour, such as red.
Duty consoles show “ALERT:” and the alert’s text while it lasts. Touching one does nothing.
Silence panels are for staff.

Gathering nodes

A node is something you harvest, such as ore or plants. Touch it while you’re in character and within 5 metres. Chat tells you what you found.

Each try costs a gathering attempt. The Gathering counter on Home shows how many you have left, if your sim shows it. On a sim with Work Hours, a try costs Work Hours instead.
Some nodes need tools in your inventory. Chat names any you’re missing. They aren’t used up.
If your sim limits nodes, each one gives your account a few tries a day, shared by your characters: “This node is worked out for you today.”
After a find, a node can vanish for a while.

See Crafting and gathering for skills and the gathering roll.

Storage

Touch a bank or storage container to list what’s in it in chat, if you may look. If not, chat says “You can’t open this.”
Put things in or take them out on your HUD: press Trade, then Bank, near the container. Then Deposit, Withdraw or List.
A bank keeps your items apart from everyone else’s. Items bound to you go only into a bank.
A storage container is shared. Staff or the leaders of its group decide on your sim’s website who may look, put in and take out: everyone, the group’s members, or one character. Anyone who may take out can take anything.

Crafting stations

Touching a station does nothing. You craft on your HUD under Trade, then Crafter. The text above a station shows its Slots, a progress bar and time left for each craft, how many are Waiting or Ready for pickup, and NO POWER when it’s out. If your sim sets it, a station checks for someone within 3 metres while it works and holds the craft back if nobody is there.

Quest props and NPCs

Touch a quest prop or an NPC within 2 metres and its talk opens on your HUD. “There’s no one here to talk to.” means nobody is set up to talk there.

An NPC shows its name and effects above it, and in a fight its health and other bars. Drone and emplacement tokens appear in fights. Touching someone else’s does nothing.

Area TPs in a fight

If your sim uses area TP rules, you can use an area TP on your turn:

Type @party areatp and the kind of TP. Leave the kind off and chat lists the ones you can use.
Walk into the TP.
Press Done. Where you stand then is your new place in the fight.

It costs the energy your sim sets.

Sky and sound on your HUD

Sky. Staff can change the sky you see, for you alone or everyone online. A sim can also have its own sky, put on when you arrive. It changes only your view, so people without the HUD see the normal sky. Leaving for a sim without its own sky puts the normal one back.
Sound. Staff can play a sound through your HUD for you alone, out loud where you stand so people nearby hear it too, or on a loop for you until they stop it or another HUD sound replaces it. They can send it to everyone online, one sim, everyone with a Radio equipped, or chosen people.

Lawful zones

If your sim uses them, a lawful zone is an area, or a whole sim, where some spells are against the law. Your sim decides which. Cast one there and:

chat tells you, and you’re Wanted for a time your sim sets
your titler shows it with your debuffs, if it shows those
a report is filed, and online members of the groups that keep the law are told

Casting again soon after only makes the Wanted time longer. Lawful zones change nothing else.