Chapter 55: Uniques

The next few days proved to be a trial in that area. Hugh didn't lead much of anything. He spent his evenings on the Net or studying his Book, his mornings making a fool out of himself by trying to learn to run, and the remainder of the day attempting to help Frankie on a growing list of tasks—tasks he was starting to believe were constructed simply to keep Hugh busy.

Hugh didn't mind too much, since he enjoyed the time they spent together, and some of it helped broaden Hugh's knowledge of Nexus. A day of shopping alongside the doctor opened his eyes to what was really available with a little money—and how shops in Nexus intended to stay in business despite players having the ability to scan things. Tech equips were made inert inside the instanced malls so scanners didn't work and nearly every item for sale was Unique, which meant crafted copies would never be as good as the real thing.

At the Farmer's market, Hugh learned the startling news not every plant and animal could be added to his world via Genesis. Unique breeds of plants had to be cultivated the old-fashioned way unless he happened to be the one who created it. Unique animals also required breeding pairs to multiply unless, again, he happened to be the one who created and named it through Genesis.

Hugh's expression grew pained at the thought of more days spent bent over his Book. His Intellect rating was already rising too fast alongside his Empathy. Both had completely surpassed his previous second-highest stat, Constitution, by a noticeable margin.

"Don't be alarmed," Dex said soothingly. "World Raids will provide a constant supply of new variables to give everyone a chance to discover Unique species."

"I think you're underestimating humanity," Hugh said. "Within a week, there's probably going to be a Net database telling you what combinations you need to discover the good stuff."

"But such a database wouldn't be able to predict the effect of player stats on Genesis creations," Dex replied pridefully. When Hugh glared at him, he flushed. "Did I forget to mention that? The further down the creation trees you go within Genesis, the higher the chance your stats will affect the outcome. This was decided to help worlds continued to reflect their creators rather than allowing every world to be potentially identical to the next."

Dex held up his hands, probably hoping to keep Hugh from bursting a blood vessel in his temple in the middle of the Farmer's Market's seed aisle. He couldn't believe his Navigator hadn't offered up such important information earlier.

"You can't blindly search for them," Dex said quickly, backing up against a display of gardening gloves. "Divergences happen randomly to keep players from aiming for them. When you get one, you probably won't even notice unless it comes with a significant coloration or size difference. Think of them like the variation blueprints NPCs get from studying Uniques. They aren't exactly the same, but they'll be similar to what everyone else gets. The only reason it matters is because it creates recessive genes and those could affect further combinations after a divergence happens."

Hugh mulled it over, then slowly relaxed. "What you're saying is I shouldn't worry about what everyone else is creating because everyone's Genesis trees will evolve slightly differently over time. An application or database won't really help anyone in the long run. If I want to make the most out of Genesis, I need to focus on my own scans and how they interact in my Book."

"Exactly!"

"Will this affect my intention to make a world for tourists to visit to find new scans?" Hugh asked. "If the really interesting stuff is all Unique, people aren't going to be visiting for fun scanning trips. Only the people geared for serious hunting and trapping will come."

"Actually, I think it'd be the opposite," Frankie interjected as he absentmindedly picked through a bin of seed starter kits. "People will visit for the common scans you need to make Uniques. Take the moon they're using as the World Raid right now. What if there's moon bears or moon rabbits running around out there? Technically, those would be common scans, but they won't be available forever. People who log in a year from now won't be able to get those unless they go to a player's world where they were added to Genesis and released."

"That works for now, but what about when everyone is logged in?" Hugh asked, feeling his confidence dipping. "Tons of people will be exploring the World Raids."

Frankie shrugged. "True. However, the more you explore, the higher the chance you'll come across something no one else did. And maybe that's what Dex was trying to tell you with the Genesis divergences—it's a way to get non-unique...Uniques? I think I said that right."

"You did, although the technical term would be Rares," Dex confirmed before turning back to Hugh. "There's another angle to consider. Players will likely fall into three groups. One, you'll have explorers who can be counted on to have a wide variety of common scans. Two, you'll have builders who need common scans to seek out Uniques in Genesis. Those likely won't have the time or interest in exploring themselves. And, three, you'll have players determined to keep their worlds as Earth-like as possible and will quit using Genesis once they build their ideal sanctuary. I thought you'd already decided which group you intended to be part of, but perhaps not?"

"I guess it's too greedy to want to be all three," Hugh replied abashedly.

Dex surprised him by saying, "It's possible, but it'd require the combined efforts of an entire Guild for the planet to remain balanced despite the constant flux in the ecology. Once you create a guild, you'll have access to a function called World Merging, which allows members to combine their territory to create a world all parties can jointly control. When it's used, the Guild leaders can set permissions for what pages can be manipulated by who. In this way, you'll build a Pantheon for the NPCs to reference."

"That sounds like a great system, but it means I'm going to need a bigger Guild than the ones me and my friends usually make when we jump into a new game. I'm going to have to recruit members interesting in building the same kind of world as me and are skilled enough not to muck up whatever assignment I give them. We'd need entire teams—one to help me explore the Raids, one to manage the scans we bring back, and one to manage the NPCs and towns. Hell, we might need another team to manage selling Keys so players can visit and booting out troublemakers."

"It's not something that has to be done in a day or even a year. I'd advise waiting until the different groups of players sort themselves out and the more skilled ones make themselves apparent. The ones who are gung-ho, but don't have the passion to continue raiding in such a realistic environment will weed themselves out within a few months. At the same time, others will discover a passion for it."

"And people who think they're skilled builders might figure out they suck at it in this game," Hugh said. "I guess you're right. It's just a lot to think about."