Archive / Systems

Character Roles (Class System)

Type: Systems — Core Gameplay Mechanic (Character Roles/Classes) Author: Perry Jones Published: Apr 23, 2023 Source: Medium Status: Canon (published)

Overview

After completing tutorials, players select a character role. Up to 5 characters per account, each with its own background/history/skills. Up to 3 roles per character, but each must be played for 50+ hours of game time or its role bonuses are forfeited (starting money/equipment is kept regardless). Skills increment 1% per skill level, stacking on top of base role bonuses. Starting funds baseline: $500,000 Helvatica Dollars (role bonuses below add to this). Players are free to roleplay however they like — bonuses apply regardless of playstyle.

Roles (summary — ~50 total, grouped loosely by type)

Economy/Business: Actor, Artist, Business, Fashion Designer, Merchant, Industrialist, Kila Vas Real Estate Owner, Sports Team Owner

Builders (advanced, unlimited/forgivable bank loans): City Builder, Factory Designer Builder, Space Craft Designer Builder, Space Station Designer Builder — all feature a shared mechanic: net worth rises with constructed value, funded by "forgivable" loans (no repayment required), typically from the World Bank "unless you have a different preference" (implying other lenders exist)

Military/Combat: Captain, Combat Medic, General, Gangster, Military, Pilot, Security, Special Forces, Warrior (3 sub-types: Urban, Corporate, Traditional)

Crime/Underworld: Assassin, Bounty Hunter, Crime Boss, Criminal, Hacker, Pirate, Thief

Magic/Psionics (advanced roles): Mage (combines Magician + Illusionist + President or Psionicist — "3 roles in one"), Magician, Illusionist, Sorceror, Wizard (combines Magician + Illusionist), Psionicist

Exploration/Trades: Agriculturalist, Cargo Runner, Colonist, Cyberneticist, Drone Operator, Engineer (5 specialty sub-fields: Civil, Research, Pipeline, Space, Spacecraft), Explorer, Fisher, Hunter, Investigator, Miner, Sailing

Social/Political: Diplomat, Empire Builder, Entertainer, Evangelist, Televangelist, President

Medical: Doctor/Surgeon (choose one)

Notable Role Details

President: Head of state of a purchased country or starnation — direct tie-in to Buying a Country. 10% leadership, small talk, self-healing, persuasion, negotiation; $1,000,000 HD; presidential housing provided.

Empire Builder: Begins owning a planetary nation on/near Maf, or a one-planet starnation near Maf, or a four-planet starnation far from Maf — direct tie-in to the Empire Builder path described in Buying a Country as the affordable alternative to purchasing a Starnation outright.

General — major worldbuilding reveal: Begins as a Colonel of "The Empire" (Empire of Xanydeo and Xanthus) — already logged in Planetary Governments with capital Xapata. Confirms World War 3 ended in 1987 (Earth-based conflict, distinct from the later Galactic Civil War). After WW3, most nations were "exhausted by war" and unwilling to intervene abroad — some factions used this vacuum to pursue secession, rebellion, piracy, or banditry. Only The Empire (Xanydeo and Xanthus) and the paramilitary Janastian Warhawks rose to defend international order. From 1988–2000, The Empire fought conflicts worldwide — Arctic, desert, jungle, island terrain — defending caravans, storming strongholds, restoring order. This directly ties two previously-separate faction entries together for the first time.

Kila Vas Real Estate Owner — a real estate purchase rule-set convention (clarified by creator): "Old" Kila Vas = 1980–1987 ruleset (coastal/industrial-focused, ~300 buildings in the "Old" Financial District, ~100 available); "New" Kila Vas = 1988–2000 ruleset (anywhere in the city excluding Old Kila Vas and corporate land claims). Standard land parcel: 62,720 sq meters (112m × 520m). This is primarily a gameplay mechanic for how players buy/build real estate, not a strict claim that the whole city was historically divided into two zones — see Kila Vas for the full clarification.

City Builder / Factory / Spacecraft / Space Station Designer-Builder roles all share a "forgivable loan" mechanic — funds borrowed for construction never need repayment, contrasting with the standard World Bank loan mechanic (which does require repayment). Worth noting as a deliberate exception for these creator/builder-type roles.

Worldbuilding Significance

  • World War 3 (Earth, ends 1987) is now a confirmed, dated event distinct from the Galactic Civil War — a new timeline entry
  • Directly links The Empire (Xanydeo and Xanthus) and the Janastian Warhawks as historical allies who jointly upheld order after WW3 — both factions previously existed as separate, unconnected stubs
  • Confirms a two-period internal history for Kila Vas ("Old" vs "New")
  • Confirms the earlier web-search finding that players originally entered the game in year 1988 (post-WW3), later changed to 1984 as of a 2024 update — not yet fully reconciled with other timeline material

Open Questions

  • How does WW3 (Earth, ends 1987) relate to the Ark Royal colonists' exodus and the Galactic Civil War (Maf year ~2006)? These appear to be three distinct conflicts across two different timelines (Earth vs. Maf) — worth mapping out once more chronological material surfaces.
  • What happened to The Empire (Xanydeo and Xanthus) and the Janastian Warhawks after 2000? Not stated.
  • Full breakdown of all Warrior sub-type mechanics and other role bonus minutiae not fully itemized here — see raw-sources for complete detail.