Halo Fanon:Survival of the Fittest

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Intro
Greetings and joyful salutations! Welcome to Justanothergrunt's Actene's Sonasaurus' Survival of the Fittest, where anyone can join and everybody....pretty much dies... This will probably not be a clean fight, you'll see cheap shots, backstabbing, makeshift alliances and betrayals, as your favourite Halo Fanon Characters beat the crap out of each other to become champ in a massive free for all brawl on an island covered with terrain ranging from cities, to lava spewing volcanoes, to icy lakes. Enjoy!

Survival of the Fittest 4.0
Except for a few select components that pretty much make up the core of Survival of the Fittest, the rules have had yet another rewrite, this time with considerably many more changes.

Writing and Submissions

 * 1) Like its predecessors, this season will be mostly written by me. As Actene has pointed out, including too many guest writers causes complications when it comes to keeping everything organized. So if anyone is interested in helping me out, there are a limited number of positions available. I haven't yet decided how many guest writers will be permitted, but the number will be decided once it's almost time to get started with the season.
 * 2) Only character articles in good standing may be entered. Issues such as NCF, unrealism, Godmodding, even grammar, or any similar tags are not eligible.
 * 3) As of season 5, fanmade species are no longer permitted in SotF. This is to maintain at least some level of fairness among the players, as season 4 had been subject to repeated instances where humans, Sangheili, or other canon Halo species had been pitted against giant stompy robots much more powerful fanon species in some very one-sided fights. This had resulted in a small range of users racking up a very high kill count, which created some resentment from other users.
 * 4) The character submission limit has now been revised. As of season 5, each user is permitted to submit a maximum of 3 major character articles, and up to 7 characters in total. Minor characters will have a 1.5x multiplier in risk of death in any given objective and therefore their chances of survival are far lower than that of major characters'.
 * 5) Guidance and advice ranging from my handling of your personal characters to my handling of the overall story is welcome, because while I'll be reading these articles, I won't be able to get into a very deep level of understanding with them. I'm often on the IRC if you want to tell me something, or you can always drop me a talk page message.
 * 6) Once episodes are submitted by myself or any guest writers who may volunteer, they will not be edited in any way. This means that if I or a guest writer misrepresent or miswrite your character in some way, don't expect the offending episode to be revised to suit your needs. But as stated above, your advice and criticism regarding the portrayals of your characters are welcome and if a misrepresentation does occur be sure to tell me how the character is misrepresented so that it does not happen in future episodes.

In-game rules
Unlike previous seasons, season 5 and onward will work almost completely differently from before, with a lot more user interaction to allow it to feel like a community project rather than a sit-back-and-watch movie. Of course, its key aspect of characters hunting and killing each other is (and will always be) retained.

Points and resources system

 * 1) Weapons and resources will no longer be given freely through supply drops. Instead, each user will start out with a set number of "Survival Points" (abbrev. SP) and can spend them on obtaining supplies for their characters (see table below for example). There will be numerous NPCs acting as distributors (most likely my minor characters) that your characters will "meet" once you decide what resources you want for them.
 * 2) The number of points each user starts with depends on how many characters they submit, and the type of characters they have. The user will be given more SP if they submit more characters, however more powerful characters (e.g. Spartans, Sangheili, etc.) will get the user less SP than more standard characters.
 * 3) Users can earn SP by completing objectives that they follow at the end of each round; they can also retain resources from another character they killed (user-submitted only; NPCs don't count) and sell them back for points.
 * 4) The "official" resource pool will require the user to have a minimum number of SP in order to buy something, even if the resource itself costs substantially less. This is both to prevent users from claiming all the most powerful resources in the first round, and to ensure that users will not spend carelessly, run out of SP, and find themselves unable to earn more.
 * 5) There is also an "illegal" black market, stocking older-model weapons, crude explosives, character stat boosters, and other "forbidden" supplies. These resources are much cheaper to obtain and have no minimum SP requirements, but are generally less reliable. Use these as you please, but be careful what your characters keep in their supplies, and take note that the "official" distributors will be working throughout the season to shut down the black market, and your characters may find trouble if they are caught using "illegal" resources.
 * 6) With the exception of grenades and ammunition, there is a limit on every resource in both resource pools. The more valuable resources will be fewer in stock, and likely be more expensive.
 * 7) Each character may only visit one of the two resource shops at a time, and only once at the end of each round.
 * 8) Forerunner weapons are the most valuable weapons available to characters; their ammunition is a power source that requires no reloading and will not run out for approximately ten years (immaterial, considering that the season will end long before that). They are also more powerful in Survival of the Fittest than they are in Halo 4 (which was likely powered down for gameplay reasons). However, they are also the most expensive and have a very limited stock.
 * 9) If a character is targeted by another character and wins, the winning author will receive half the set reward that the attacking character would have earned. They are also free to retrieve any equipment that the defeated character had, and sell them back to the corresponding resource shop for half its original price, or even use the equipment if the character meets the attribute requirements.

Probability rules

 * 1) As a new addition, SotF will now rely heavily on probability. In simple terms, whether a character lives or dies at the end of each round will be decided by a random chance selection. Higher-quality articles will have better chances than others, although no character will ever have a 100% chance of survival.
 * 2) Most resources will have "safety perks", which will grant the equipped character with a slight reduction in risk of death after receiving an objective. When facing other characters, they will also increase the opposing character's risk of death. Bear in mind that some resources, mostly explosive weapons, will carry a small increased risk of death for the equipped character.
 * 3) Just like the "official" resource pool, most weapons and supplies from the black market will have safety perks to them. However, many of them will have a risk of malfunctioning or being defective. Any perks on a malfunctioning resource will be inactive for the duration of the round.
 * 4) At the beginning of each round, characters will be given three types of objectives; low-risk, high-risk, and wild-card. As their names suggest, each objective will be of differing risk levels for your characters, which may increase or decrease their chances of survival. The user who owns the character will get to choose one of the objectives (see table below for example).

Every objective that involves eliminating another character that is put under "high risk" will not have an absolute risk level. Rather, the percentage will be weighed based on your character's attribute stats relative to the target's. It will be decided by taking your character's attribute levels, divided by the target's matching attributes, divided by two.

For example, to pit Melissa McKay against Marco-025 would look like this:

Strength: [(5 ÷ 8) ÷ 2] × 100 = 31.25% Dexterity: [(6 ÷ 7) ÷ 2] × 100 = 42.86% Agility: [(6 ÷ 6) ÷ 2] × 100 = 50% Accuracy: [(5 ÷ 5) ÷ 2] × 100 = 50% Chances of survival: (31.25 + 42.86 + 50 + 50) ÷ 4 = 43.53%

McKay's chances of survival against attacking Marco would be 44%. Her chances of death would therefore be 56%, and the reward for eliminating Marco would reflect that.

However, this does not mean that Marco would necessarily have a 56% chance of success if he goes after her.

Strength: [(8 ÷ 5) ÷ 2] × 100 = 80% Dexterity: [(7 ÷ 6) ÷ 2] × 100 = 58.33% Agility: [(6 ÷ 6) ÷ 2] × 100 = 50% Accuracy: [(5 ÷ 5) ÷ 2] × 100 = 50% Chances of survival: (80 + 58.33 + 50 + 50) ÷ 4 = 59.58%

Marco's chances of survival against attacking McKay would be 60%. His chances of death would therefore be 40%, and the reward for eliminating McKay would reflect that.

The point, as you may have guessed, is that the element of surprise tends to give the attacker a bit more of an edge. That said, this is not a guarantee, so if you are considering using one of your characters to attack another character, make sure you weigh your odds carefully or the outcome could be disastrous for you.

Attribute rules

 * 1) Each submitted character will be assigned attribute points by me, based on their traits, style, and sometimes article quality (this is going to be very rare, and will only be necessary if the article is extremely lacking in detail). Once I've decided on your character's set attributes, I will create a table for them. If you feel that the points I've assigned your characters are unfair, feel free to negotiate them with me.
 * 2) Every weapon will have requirements that your character needs in order to wield. The gravity hammer, for example, requires 7 strength, and if you have a character with less strength than that, they will not be able to use it.
 * 3) Attribute points do not necessarily determine the outcome of a fight between two or more characters (a character with more strength may not necessarily win against a weaker opponent), but rather are used to weigh the probability of a character defeating another.
 * 4) Other attribute points may be boosted by use of "illegal" resources; the sharpshooter's scope, for example, will increase your character's accuracy by 2, which can give them a substantial advantage against other characters.
 * 5) Two attributes that primarily affect survival are endurance and energy. The two are very closely connected and may be affected by the change in one or the other. Characters have a maximum potential of 1000 energy points, although certain types of characters will have a lower maximum. In short, your characters' energy changes depending how how much equipment they are carrying, as well as how heavy the equipment itself is.
 * 6) While energy is renewable, the endurance stat will go down by 1 every time a character kills another character, and it can only be brought back up temporarily. If a character's energy or endurance level reaches 0, they will die.

Previous seasons

 * Season 1 (2007)
 * Body count
 * Season 2 (2008) [CANCELLED] 
 * Body count
 * Season 3 (2010) [CANCELLED] 
 * Body count
 * Season 4 (2012)
 * Body count

=Upcoming season — Season 5 (2014)=

Sign-ups
Survival of the Fittest Season 5 begins on March 1, 2014. Be sure to sign up and have your characters ready before then. I have need for a few guest writers, I'm not sure how many yet. I'll be picking writers primarily on understanding of SotF and ability to commit, and secondarily on writing skill (although both are important). Just put your name down below and I'll pick a few of you by the end of February.

Participants
If you're interested in participating in the season, just use the format below. Fill in only the name and species sections.

Minor Characters
You are allowed up to 3 major characters for this season, and up to 7 characters in total. Pick your major characters wisely; minor characters are more susceptible to death even if they have a high quality article. The amount of Survival Points you will be given at the beginning of the season is determined by the type of characters you submit, as follows:
 * SPARTAN-II: 240 SP
 * SPARTAN-III: 250 SP
 * Sangheili/Jiralhanae: 270 SP
 * SPARTAN-IV/Augmented Human: 280 SP
 * Mercenary/Pirate: 300 SP
 * Marine/Soldier: 320 SP
 * Insurrectionist/Kig-Yar: 350 SP
 * Non-combatant/Miscellaneous: 400 SP