lifeaftr_mods | Search Requests

Search Requests

And no one knows how far it goes

As a central element to the game, Search Requests may seem very daunting at first. Never fear! Below is a table of contents for this page that may help answer your questions, giving you the confidence to venture forth into the great unknown.

[ ♆ ] What Are Search Requests?
[ ♆ ] What Impacts a Search Request?
[ ♆ ] How Many Search Requests Can I Make?
[ ♆ ] Why are Searches Limited?
[ ♆ ] Islands Available
[ ♆ ] Search Request Form

What Are Search Requests?

The contents of many islands that make up the archipelago of LifeAftr require player exploration and participation to uncover and chart, as everything from the potential dangers, obstructions, and resources are randomized. Alongside adding weight to the potential dangers characters may face, it also gives you the potential to influence the game as much as possible.

Upon arrival to a new island, a blank map of the island's general shape will be provided with a grid, parsing the island into square sections for the purposes of exploration. Each of these squares are a base size of one mile by one mile in terms of width and breadth, unless otherwise noted. Each square is also labeled for player convenience. Characters who have access to boats or another means of traversing the ocean waters can perform search requests on surrounding waters.

Search Requests are intended to be used as a prompt for IC interactions. While not all search results will hold something of particular interest, such as finding new seeds or fruit, but in circumstances where enemies or information has been located, we encourage ICly threading out these results, or using them to foster new CR.

What Impacts a Search Request?
As of July 2018, there are new factors to take into account when submitting a Search Request:

[ ♆ ] GROUP SIZE limits the timeframe in which a search request can be completed. While a single mile may not seem so far to walk, thoroughly investigating a square mile is a different matter altogether. Depending on the size of a group, characters may choose to push on into an additional square at the cost of spending the night in the wilderness, potentially exposing themselves to other dangers - or in groups of four or more, split the group to cover the additional ground. Search Requests are currently limited to two squares maximum at a time, regardless of group size.

[ ♆ ] DIFFICULT TERRAIN such as mountainous regions, thickly wooded areas, or those under the sway of severe weather conditions may severely hamper a group in covering new ground. Due to this, search requests may be limited on occasion to one square per search, regardless of the group size. This restriction will be announced when relevant.

[ ♆ ] POTENTIAL RISKS can and will hinder characters set on searching more than one square. If searching an area thoroughly, it is assumed that your character is both taking their time, and covering as much of the ground in that square as possible. Obstructions, predators and catastrophes should be predominantly unavoidable due to this.

How Many Search Requests Can I Make?
Each character is limited to submitting one search per week, of up to two squares. When searching in a group of three people or fewer, a second square may only be searched if characters intend to spend the night camping out, which puts them at risk for additional dangers.

Beyond submitting a search, characters may also band together with others for an additional two search requests, but these requests must be submitted by another character.

Additionally, Search Requests may only be forward-dated up to two days ahead of the current date. As LifeAftr may sometimes see events suddenly beginning, forward-dating is limited to avoid the need to retcon.

Why are Searches Limited?
The introduction of limitations to the number of search requests characters can conduct is to ensure moderation of the game's pacing, in addition to ensuring all players have a chance to affect the plot, regardless of their tagging speed or RL obligations. Previously, search requests have been unlimited due to an agreeably slow pacing as LifeAftr established itself. The beginning of July saw the game expanding and going through a new teething stage that required a few new aspects to our search requests system, in addition to discarding mechanics that simply weren't being used.

In some circumstances, such as when an island is due to disappear - potentially for good! - we may lift these restrictions to allow those who'd like to further explore islands to go wild.

Maps Available:
The current islands, their descriptions, and how much area has already been unveiled can be found on the Locations Page. A key describing the area, resources, and dangers can also be found.

The following island(s) are currently available for exploration:

ENSŌ
NASTRANDIR
The following island(s) are not currently available, but have individual locations pages for player perusal:

AI'TUOH
CAHYPDO
CHOL
IO
MAATI
MONSUN
NUIDAN
UMUI
ZIZIPHUS

Search Request Form
To submit a search request, please post the below form in a new comment. Before submitting your request, keep in mind that map updates may lag depending on mod work schedules. Checking the last few posted searches may avoid doubling up accidentally.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL, COMISSIONED ART BY RUKA )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Search Begins...
If you're on the lookout for plants, you're looking in the wrong place indeed! Maati is as dry and bare as islands come, more similar to Chol's burnt and blackened landscape than the verdant fields of Nuidan, or the lush jungles found on Ensō. The cracked rock makes for difficult terrain to cover, but it's probably easier for a pair of monster men than it is for most.

Craggy cliffs cut off not insignificant portions of the island's landscape; F4's northwestern corner is almost completely sectioned off behind a sheer cliff face, while a good third of G4's east is swallowed by a swell of unscalable walls. A chunk of cliff stretches untidily between both regions, funneling sharply upward in a teardrop-shaped hunk. It doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose aside from getting in the way of visibility. How nice.

♆ F4 and G4 have been unlocked on the map of the area! ♆

Ancient History

No viable ores are to be found on F4, alas. As far as supplies go...well, it depends on how you define "supplies."

F4 bears evidence of some sort of...struggle, possibly, though most of those remnants have been polished away, eroded by time and the wind that whistles across Maati's canyons. There are no bones, and certainly no bodies. But there are fragments and pieces that can be picked out of the rocks: a splinter of old wood here, a bit of broken, rusted metal there.

Only two objects have survived the wear and tear of the world and made it out relatively intact - or, at least, intact enough to be identified.

[ ♆ ] x1 ancient crossbow, completely ruined and all but useless. It had a relatively advanced construction, involving gears and the like, but most of those pieces have fallen away or rusted entirely. Try as one might, no ammunition seems to have survived the trials of time.
[ ♆ ] x1 cracked token, circular, roughly coin-sized, and made of some kind of stonelike, vaguely metallic material. It looks as though it was once patterned or carved in some significant way, but it has been worn to near smoothness. Whatever it is, it's useless now.

F4 contains nothing else of note.

Green Thumb
The speckles of green sighted on G4 aren't plants - sorry, Ginko. Those strange outcroppings of green crystal jut out at odd angles, which perhaps harkens back to the Quartzalcoatl found beneath Ensō. While they might initially seem to be nothing more than a curious vein of ore, drawing too close to them will reveal their true nature - and it's not quite so pleasant, though it is, at least, not the presence of any Quartzalcoatl.

G4 hosts a small colony of Crystal Spiders. Often found half-buried in the ground, these particular beasts will initially resemble clusters of greenish crystal. They tend to travel in packs, swarming their victims. While they deal very little damage, Crystal Spiders have the annoying habit of entrapping their victims in a layer of crystal once said victim is bitten. That particular attack ultimately kills the spider, but allows its fellows to hound the immobilized traveler while they're vulnerable. The sheath of crystal is easily broken through with enough swift action, but it can hamper progress.

Small, fast, and difficult to hit, Crystal Spiders are more irritants than they are genuine dangers, but in large groups, they can be deadly. Perhaps their most irritating trait is the fact that they have no resources of note to offer - once they are killed, they simply shatter into fragments of glasslike crystal.

Search Requests

MAATI - F4 | ⋈ OLD TOOLS -- G4 | Ⴄ PREDATORS