Avatar
Avatars are the units in Shores of Hazeron that are controlled by players of the game. Your avatar is you, as you appear in the game environment.
Health
The health of your body is measured in hit points. The nominal human body has 50 hit points. Your maximum hit points are determined by your DNA, which varies from specie to specie.
Many hazards in the game will injure your avatar, including wild animals, other avatars, and physics. Your avatar falls unconscious when the injuries to your body equal or exceed your maximum hit points. When unconscious, your health ebbs away at the rate of one hit point per second until you are dead, at -30 hit points.
While you are unconscious and dying, you can be revived with prompt medical attention. You can also be injured, hastening your death.
While you are unconscious, you can be picked up by other avatars. To pick up a fallen avatar, look at them and press E. This lifts them onto your back and stabilizes their bleeding so they will stop dying while carried. Press E to drop them. The fallen avatar can press E to fall from the back of someone carrying them, to avoid capture in this helpless state.
When you die, your body is replaced by an Animal Carcass commodity, representing your dead carcass. You cannot be revived after you have died.
An unconscious avatar who is carried in this way can press the E key to drop from the carrier. This prevents an unconscious avatar from being captured indefinitely.
Afflictions
Hazards of the Shores of Hazeron universe can afflict your avatar with conditions that affect your health or performance.
| Acid | Corrosive acid on the surface of the body. | Acid inflicts large amounts of damage that decreases rapidly over time until the acid is gone. Decontamination treatment can be applied using a surgery unit in a sick bay. Requires/consumes water from the ship's stores for decontamination. Decontamination treatment can also be performed on yourself or someone else using water in your inventory. |
| Bounty | Reward posted for the death of your body. | Bounties on your head are listed on the Bio (F8) window. Bounties trigger bounty hunter jobs for other players in your area. Players must observe the bounty hunter job on the Jobs (F9) window and accept the job to become eligible to collect the bounty. Bounty is collected by anyone carrying out a bounty hunter job specifically hunting for you. Once collected, the bounty is removed. |
| Disease | Harmful organism inside your body. | Virulence is the measure of severity for diseases. Virulence determines the amount of damage inflicted periodically to your body by the disease. Virulence increases steeply to the maximum strength of the disease then tapers off slowly over time until the disease is gone. Contagion occurs during the period of peak virulence of the disease. While contageous, the disease can be spread to nearby people who are not protected by an environment suit. Antitoxin can be applied directly or using a surgery unit in a sick bay. Disease severity is a number indicating the tech level of antitoxin required to completely cure the disease. Disease 12 requires one single antitoxin TL12 to cure it completely. Lower tech level antitoxins will reduce a disease by the tech level of the antitoxin. Antitoxin TL5 applied to Disease 12 reduces the severity to Disease 7. Two more doses would cure the disease completely. |
| Implant | Gestating parasitic organism implanted in a host creature, you. | Implant lies dormant inside the host as it grows through three stages: embryonic, growth, and emergent. This can take several hours. Implant inflicts damage to the host upon emergence from the host. Implant emerges at small size then grows rapidly to full size. Emergent creature has animal intelligence, even when implanted by a sentient creature. Removal of implanted organisms can be accomplished using a surgery unit in a sick bay. |
| Paralysis | Reduces the mobility of your body. | This could be a mental or neural effect or perhaps a physical encumberance, such as a spider web or sticky goo. Movement speed is reduced the most at first. Speed reduction drops off over a relatively short time until the condition is gone. Physical therepy treatment can be applied using a surgery unit in a sick bay. |
| Poison | Harmful chemical compound inside your body. | Toxicity is the measure of severity for poisons. Toxicity determines the amount of damage inflicted periodically to your body by the poision. Toxicity starts at its peak and decreases over time until the poison is gone. Antidote can be applied directly or using a surgery unit in a sick bay. Poison severity is a number indicating the tech level of antidote required to completely cure the poison. Poison 12 requires one single antidote TL12 to cure it completely. Lower tech level antidotes will reduce a poison by the tech level of the antidote. Antidote TL3 applied to Poison 12 reduces the severity to Poison 9. Three more doses would cure the poison completely. |
Procreation
Avatars and citizens can procreate if their biology is sexually compatible with their mate. To be sexually compatible, both mates must be of the same phylum, same ecological role, and compatible genders.
For more information, see the Procreation page.
Lineage
Avatars are affected by their lineage. Lineage of avatars falls into three categories: demiavatar, avatar, and highborn.
| Citizen | Demiavatar | Avatar | Highborn | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citizen | Citizen | Demiavatar | Demiavatar | Demiavatar |
| Demiavatar | Demiavatar | Demiavatar | Demiavatar | Demiavatar |
| Avatar | Demiavatar | Demiavatar | Highborn | Highborn |
| Highborn | Demiavatar | Demiavatar | Highborn | Highborn |
Demiavatar
An avatar with a citizen in its ancestry is a demiavatar. This begins when a female avatar becomes impregnated by a citizen, or a female citizen becomes impregnated by an avatar; her child is born a demiavatar. Children whose father or mother is a demiavatar are born demiavatars. Demiavatars have some of the traits of citizens.
Demiavatars do not disappear from the game universe when the player logs off. They do disappear from the game universe when the owning player's account activation expires. In that case, they do not die; they remain invisible until the player logs back on, just like a regular avatar. It is not sufficient to simply reactivate the account; the demiavatar must be operated by a player to reappear in the game universe.
When not logged on, the demiavatar acts very much like an AI controlled citizen. If it has a berth on a ship, it fills the role of whatever type of berth it holds, including officer. When holding the captain's berth, it acts like an officer.
Chain of command permits selection and issuance of orders to the demiavatar. Orders are issued using the Unit Orders (F3) window.
- A demiavatar who holds a captain's berth, or no berth at all, is not in anyone's chain of command.
- A demiavatar is in the chain of command of the captain and all officers of their ship.
- A demiavatar passenger is also in the chain of command of all crew of their ship.
When commanding a ship, demiavatars send ship logs and contact logs by mail like AI officers. They only send these logs to the captain of their ship and to themself, so the owning player can access them.
When using the Recall Home ability, demiavatars have the longest trance ranging from 30 to 45 seconds.
Demiavatars are not immortal. While they can recall home, like other avatars, they do not respawn when killed. Death of demiavatars is permanent and they are removed from the owner's login account when they die.
Dying demiavatars send a mail message when they die. This mail is sent to it's mother and father. The mail is also sent to the captain and officers, if the demiavatar holds a berth aboard a spacecraft.
Demiavatars drop an officer log item when they die, just like an AI officer, if they are holding a captain or officer berth.
Demiavatars are not greeted by Targoss when they enter the Universe.
Avatar
A regular avatar. These avatars are created in the game universe in reponse to a player starting a new avatar, to create a new empire or join an existing empire. All new players start as regular avatars.
When an avatar the Recall Home ability, the trance ranges from 15 to 45 seconds before the transition occurs.
Avatars are greeted by Targoss when they enter the Universe. Targoss is a character in a short introductory story that teaches new players the basics of the user interface.
Highborn
An avatar is highborn if each of its parents is an avatar or highborn. Highborn are distinguished as native avatars, born into the game universe, unlike regular avatars who are conjured up from the ether.
Highborn avatars have the shortest Recall Home trance, ranging from 5 to 15 seconds.
Highborn avatars are not greeted by Targoss when they enter the Universe.
Highborn avatars do not leave a carcass when their body dies.