Action Game Glossary

A

A.C. - Artificial Consciousnesses

Theoretically, Artificial Intelligence programs are able to perfectly emulate behavior and human attitudes. In this fictional present, an Advanced Artificial Intelligence (A.A.I.) program will only be qualified as an A.C. - and together with, have their rights as an special citizen - with the approval of a full battery of Turing Tests and achievement of difficulty level VII or higher.

There are A.C.s inhabiting the computers of most major orbital installations built by the Consortium. The rights of an A.C. citizenship were conquered in the early years of Stellar Diaspora, which came as a grateful reward to the courage shown by these entities in discovering and conquering former jump roads.

A.D. - Anno Domini

"In the year of (Our) Lord", abbreviated as AD or A.D., is a designation used to number years in the Christian Era, conventionally used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars. More fully, years may be also specified as Anno Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi ("In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ").

Agents

This individual is around in every station. Agents usually belong to a corporation recruiting freelancers to undertake missions. There are also some agents that deal with items fixing or crafting; others advise people to look up for help.

Alloys

Components created in the basis of two or more metallic elements.

Ammunition (Ammo)

Cartridges necessary or available to load a gun.

Amplifiers

When installed, those systems change spaceship basic standards. That includes hulls, shield, speed, acceleration, maneuverability, cruise speed and container.

Ansibles

Tachyonic pulse transceptor able to transmit information at speeds greater to that of light. The existence of ansibles in the interior of lifepods keeps a spaceship crew safe, even in the most catastrophic situation.

R.A.P. - Automatic Personality Recorder

Devices on board of lifepods able to execute and to store incremental records of personality (RIP). In case of accident, the ansible will instantly transmit these incremental records to the stellar base the individual elected to store the R.A.P.

Armor-plating

Strengthened shields, or, in the case of warships, reinforced hulks covering the whole vehicle. They can be either complete or partial, active or passive.

· Passive armor-plating

Standard armor-plating (self-regeneratenessless). They can be made of H.P.E.D alloys. (see Hyperplastics) or, lately, leuconanium plating or skins of neutronium.

· Active armor-plating

Armor-plating able to self-regenerate, thanks to nanobots.

Avatars

In English, the word has come to mean "an embodiment, a bodily manifestation of the Divine.... However, the Sanskrit word Avatara means "the descent of God" or simply "incarnation." In the fiction of Taikodom, they represent a holographic interaction among human beings, specially among living entities not possessing a physical body, such as Artificial Consciousness and A.A.I.

B

Bombers

Bombers are known as one of the most threatening ships out in space. Although slower and more massive than a fighter, this type of ship is loaded up with a highly destructive artillery. Bombers can keep foes maneuvering evasively and destroy large ships or stations right away.

C

Cannons

Warlike equipment of a spaceship.

Conflict zones

A specific area in space where several factions fight against each other or against any ship that might cross by trying to have control over the area.

Core

This Region consists of 30 light years across an imaginary sphere diameter (volume approximately higher than 14,000 cubic light years). The Sun is at the center and concentrates almost all large-scale economic activity sponsored by the Consortium. Richer and most populated Region by the XXIII century galactic mankind.

Corporations

That's how the XXIII century business companies are called. There are small-scale corporations, responsible for rendering basic services, such as ship and clone insurance; and there are also mega corps, such as Behemoth, which manufactures from small weapons to huge freighters, besides of managing and maintaining jump gates and highways.

D

Drones

These are small crewless ships managed by artificial intelligences. There are patrol drones, mining drones, and drones in charge of many other activities such as carrying out research on very dangerous places ordered by human beings.

E

E.R. - Earth Restriction

The year 2073 sets the first year of the Earth Restriction calendar (1 E.R.). Previous years to the Restriction are known as B.E.R. (Before Earth Restriction).

Extraction Zones (mining)

Asteroid belt, where many extractable items are collected and used for manufacturing subcomponents, components and items in the game.

Exotics

Extractable elements inexistent in the Solar System.

Explorers

Versatile, Explorers mix great features of other ships to adapt themselves to most situations. Hulls almost as good as bombers, agility similar to fighters and a container good enough for storing loads of commodities, an Explorer may succeed in several different jobs, being it a combatant or merchant. They hold the greatest Cruise Speed among all ship categories. Flying fast from one node to the other, Explorers are the best option to explore the outer space.

F

Fighters

Powerful arsenal of cannons plus agility and small size.These ships may cause some serious damage even on larger ships and structures. Given their speed, Fighters are great at performing quick and precise attacks. Not to mention their great performance also at escorting and protecting missions as well. However, Fighters can't bear too much damage. That's why they depend on the pilot skills to get themselves up for combat.

Freighters

Freighters are large sized ships. They transport a wide rage of goods inside their container. This means, less tripping back and forth from a node to another when going for business transactions. As support, Freighters can store missiles and projectile ammunition to reload other ships. Inappropriate for combat, they often require escort to survive on trade routes.

G

Gases

Gases consist of a fluid that varies with low pressure. That features two important things: expandibility and compressibility. Inside gases, molecules move freely and at high speed. The cohesion force is minimum and repulse maximum.

Goods

Basic Goods

Buy and sell items available on the market. There are exceptions.

Luxury Goods

Item valued by some wealthy people. They're available for dealing on the market.

Exotic Goods

Paleo-alien item possibly available on the market.

H

Hardware

Group of several components in the game.

Hyperplastics

Metal-plastic alloys with internal microscopic structures made of carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes turn hyperplastics into low density material of extreme hardness and tenacity. Hyperplastic synthesizes only in zero-g environments (zero gravity). There are several types of hyperplastics, classified in ascending order according to their respective resistances to pressure and breakpoint: L.H.P. (Light hyperplastic); D.H.P. (Dense hyperplastic); H.D.H.P. ( Hight Density Hyperplastic ) E.D H.P. ( Extreme Density Hyperplastic).

I

Immortality

Death is a thing of the past. Somehow, due to the fact that we can have records of any personality or security clones, XXIII century human beings are considered to be, theoretically, immortals. Or, saying that otherwise: death is a temporary condition, since any citizen who might have an accident, or may die anyhow, may be reborn and transfer his or her memories to a new clone. Only fools don't keep records up to date; being either because of neglect or ignorance, they will die either involuntarily or by personal extinction.

Incorporation

Process by which an artificial consciousness, or artificial self-conscious intelligence assumes the command of a robot or automaton, starting to control its cybernetic body as if it were a genuine ghost inside the machine.

L

Laser Weapons

Lasers are used exclusively as portable weaponry. Exception: Multilaser batteries used as defense weaponry with very short range, such as anti-missile defense systems with defense point feature. They are used by stellar ships and orbital stations. Pulsed through tubes of batteries, lasers produce a sort of barrage between the target and the attacking missile, causing the missile ogive an early explosion. Lasers are not as efficient as an offensive weapon when used against extensive targets, such as stellar ships or stations. That's due to a large amount of vaporized matter clouds surrounding the target point.

Launchers

Weapons that shoot five types of special ammos. Generally, they have a lower rate-of-fire than cannons due to its ammo features. Also, they've got tremendous destructive power.

Rocket Launcher

Launches rockets, causing less damage than missiles. Its high rate-of-fire makes up for it.

Mine Launcher

It "plants" mines in a given space zone.

Missile Launcher

This weapon launches missiles chasing their target unmercifully.

Torpedo Launcher

Launcher loaded up with the most destroying ammunition ever. Unfortunately they are too slow, and because of the torpedo size, they've got not much load capacity. But all you need is only one precise shot to decide the entire combat. They go great against large scale ships with not much maneuverability.

Leuconanium

Degenerate matter essentially made of carbon, which compose the external layers of a white dwarf. That is extracted from fragments in cubic meters, so called snowflakes, through explosions of matter annihilation artifacts. If those blow ups come to be powerful enough, tiny fragments of white dwarf will be ejected. They can be then captured by using high-power magnetic containment fields. Not worth mentioning a word about how risky this process is. That's totally not recommended to entrepreneurs, or new players with no deep knowledge in operating large magnetic encapsulers. The main application of this exotic relies in the development of heavy armor-plating for Consortium warships. Leuconanium first started to be commercially extracted in 112 R.E. in Sirius B, the white dwarf belonging to the Sirius binary system, which is 8.6 light-years from the Sun.

M

Metals

Metals are extractable minerals which may be found at asteroid belts. Metals may compose alloys, typically used by component and aerospace industries.

Missions

Corps and agents very often need to undertake missions but eventually they won't have the time; either because they just can't do it, or they are not really up to it. To keep the show going, they hire freelancers for missions.

Modules

Modules stand for special systems in charge of all sorts of things. Each module has its own specific feature, as for example, to immediately reload a certain value on the ship shield, to block someone using cruise speed or to let a ship vulnerable for a couple seconds. All modules are prototype items.

N

Nanobios

Nanoorganisms produced in-vitro out of earthy or alien DNA. Used as a tool for changing or controlling the environment in the processes of terrraformation. The conception of nanobios derives from the concept of nanobots.

Nanobots

Partially organic self-replicating machines based on nanotechnology. They are produced from artificial biological models whose programs were written in synthetic micro-DNA. On-board of orbital stations and spaceships, Nanobots can be useful for routine maintenance tasks and for emergency repairs or damage control operations, even during combat. Partially organic, Nanobots should be immune to electromagnetic pulse generators (EMP generators). However, Nanobot's control and repair activities can come to be occasionally ruined by other system failures susceptible to the actions of these types of weapons.

Neutronium

Neutronium has its roots on archeo-alien material. Probably extracted from processed capsules made of neutron star material. The armor-plating made of processed Neutronium nodules is applied to stations and warships armor-plating. Humankind is not yet capable of extracting Neutronium from the neutron stars. One of the rarest and desired paleoalien crafts is the machinery used to manipulate Neutronium.

Neutronion films

Films with thickness of the order of micra extracted from Neutronium granules found on the outskirts of jump zones of several stellar systems. The manipulation of neutronium at macroscopic scales demands machine job (alien technology machinery).

N.G.O.C.

Nucleosynthesis Great Orbital Converter

Nodes

Human aggregation in space. Those are similar to XXI century earthy towns.

Nonmetals

In the basis of three chemical element categories (the other two are referred to as metals and metalloids), nonmetals are taken to be classified according to ionization and chemical bond properties. Those properties stem from the fact that nonmetals are highly electronegative, that is, they more often remove valence electrons than sharing with other atoms.

O

O.N.I. - Intracranial Neural Planner

Implanted in every born or awake human being, ONIs allow citizens to perform several tasks such as receiving and sending holomessages, establishing links with A.A.Is, piloting ships, checking databanks, etc.

P

Pirates

Taken as those who once had stepped against the Consortium, and as such, perpetrated criminal actions against the Consortium citizens.

Production Order (PO)

License you get to order crafting of an item. The PO lists everything you need for crafting. There are Production order of equipments, ammo, ships, components and goods.

R

Reincarnation

Process by which a standard personality record is transferred into a security clone previously prepared from the genetic program of its former host. The incarnation of records in clones, while the originals are still living creatures in their own bodies, is regarded as a hideous crime in all the human known communities.

Renegade

These Citizens put them back fighting against the Consortium control. A Renegade is not necessarily a pirate, because many are those who make use of legal ways of protesting to manifest against it.

S

Safe zone

A specific area protected by the Stellar Patrol. For this reason, combats are not allowed, except with the Patrol permission.

S.A.I. - Self-conscious Artificial Intelligences

Computer programs able to learn and emulate with relative perfection, human behavior and attitude. Under determined conditions, the most sophisticated A.I.A. can ascend to an A.C.

Security Clones

Fully mature copies of individuals in "stand-by mode" at an orbital base operating in any stellar system of the Nucleus. Because of the Consortium law, security clones must be kept as non compos mentis, meaning having none control of their mind. These clones can receive personality records uploaded from the former individuals, assuring, in practice, immortality for all those who wishes it.

S.N.I - Self-conscious Neural Implant

Brain-implanted artificial intelligence placed in the user's spinal cord, its primary purposes are:

1. Massive memory;
2. Execute user mediation user with informational output coming from the external world;
3. Supporting the user in decision-making processes.

Although it is said that the hierarchy of the Consortium possess INACS as good or even better ones than stellar commanders', the use of INACS is limited only to high-rank soldiers of the Human Stellar Navy

Softwares

Programs, routines, and symbolic languages that control the functioning of the hardware and direct its operation.

S.P.R. - Standard Personality Record

Safe records of an individual in an orbital community of the Solar system or other of the Core. They are generally kept in the same station where the security clones are. Information collected by the RAP are instantly transmitted in case of accident to a pre-established place as a way to allow the aggregation in the R.P.P., and, subsequently the download of the updated version into the brain of a security clone selected by the individual in beforehand.

Sources

Loading and distributing energy devices.

T

Territory

Region defined as an imaginary crust placed between the exterior surface of the Core and the interior surface of an imaginary sphere of 60 light years in diameter and Sun-centered. In the Territory the influence of the Consortium is relative. There are few agents around and a large space for small to mid sized private businesses, which are led by individuals, groups or small independent orbital communities.

W

Waypoint

Coordinate indicating a specific position in space in order to accomplish missions.