The Admin is Admin!Tron (fights4theusers). In practice, players who want their characters to have extra abilities which are otherwise locked out by Tron's control over the Grid can negotiate them with the game's mods, while the actual characters involved will have to apply to Tron for permission. Until Admin!Tron's active again, that kind of negotiation would happen offscreen, with mod permission. (For future reference, "admin" refers to Admin!Tron, while "mod" refers to the game's moderators.)
Clu1's powers are reasonable; he can keep them. (Not sure what 'death pits' are, though? Deep holes with spikes?) He's a hacker program with reasonable hacker capabilities. The kind of powers I'm talking about are much broader: ability not just to hack but to be allowed admin-level access without hacking, to bypass security measures and lockouts with little to no trouble, that kind of thing. Even Faux would have to work a little to break into some area that was really supposed to be secure, and guards wouldn't just let him in because automatic built-in access permissions.
Regarding David, I've been meaning to catch up with you on that and this is probably a good time. David's powers were approved when he arrived, and you did have various limitations on them; that was good. I'd like to go over those again with you before deciding whether he might get to keep those powers. But with or without powers, as I was thinking about your question I started wondering about a bunch of other things that seem to be preventing you from playing him.
David's last thread was in November 2012, apparently (unless there are others where he's not tagged), so this would be a good time to decide: --Has he actually been on the Grid that whole time (or did the Portal port him out and then back in again later, to account for the long silence)? If he has been there, what's he been doing with all that time, aside from wandering around? What does he know about the Grid now, and what does he do with his life now that he lives here? --How badly has been damaging other programs and architecture, and how often? If it was often enough, Security would logically have heard about it and tried to investigate. If that was the case, since David hasn't been attacked or locked up, how would he have hidden/explained himself/put them off the track? --On that note, who's actually aware that he's on the Grid, given that he's an unusually powerful figure and his appearance is very unique? If key player characters aren't aware of him, why not? Has he been staying out of sight, or disguising his appearance, or something? --Theoretically, if you'd want him to have retroactive CR with other player characters to give him a little foundation for whatever activity and mindset he has now, which other players would you want to ask about that?
Sorting those things out will make it a lot easier to decide what powers he should have to make him a character you want and are able to play here. Honestly, it isn't his power level that's the issue. It's that he needs more threads with PCs. "Nobody wants their characters to get beaten up by him, so he's been beating up NPCs in the background" just means NPC security would investigate and he might or might not get tossed in offscreen quarantine or derezz them and end up in an offscreen manhunt which isn't affecting anyone because it's offscreen and then... why? That would apply to any character with a hair-trigger reputation for breaking things that he didn't like.
I'd like to add, though, that if David and Faux did lose their powers, it wouldn't devalue them as characters, unless by that you mean you'd be less interested in playing them. Particularly in the case of David, whose powers might actually be preventing you from playing him as freely as you could if he can't ICly have a thread with another character because he's powerful and violent.) Characters with far fewer abilities are still valued additions to Grid life. A roleplay character's value isn't in unique powers or a unique appearance, but in their potential for character development and interaction.
no subject
Clu1's powers are reasonable; he can keep them. (Not sure what 'death pits' are, though? Deep holes with spikes?) He's a hacker program with reasonable hacker capabilities. The kind of powers I'm talking about are much broader: ability not just to hack but to be allowed admin-level access without hacking, to bypass security measures and lockouts with little to no trouble, that kind of thing. Even Faux would have to work a little to break into some area that was really supposed to be secure, and guards wouldn't just let him in because automatic built-in access permissions.
Regarding David, I've been meaning to catch up with you on that and this is probably a good time. David's powers were approved when he arrived, and you did have various limitations on them; that was good. I'd like to go over those again with you before deciding whether he might get to keep those powers. But with or without powers, as I was thinking about your question I started wondering about a bunch of other things that seem to be preventing you from playing him.
David's last thread was in November 2012, apparently (unless there are others where he's not tagged), so this would be a good time to decide:
--Has he actually been on the Grid that whole time (or did the Portal port him out and then back in again later, to account for the long silence)? If he has been there, what's he been doing with all that time, aside from wandering around? What does he know about the Grid now, and what does he do with his life now that he lives here?
--How badly has been damaging other programs and architecture, and how often? If it was often enough, Security would logically have heard about it and tried to investigate. If that was the case, since David hasn't been attacked or locked up, how would he have hidden/explained himself/put them off the track?
--On that note, who's actually aware that he's on the Grid, given that he's an unusually powerful figure and his appearance is very unique? If key player characters aren't aware of him, why not? Has he been staying out of sight, or disguising his appearance, or something?
--Theoretically, if you'd want him to have retroactive CR with other player characters to give him a little foundation for whatever activity and mindset he has now, which other players would you want to ask about that?
Sorting those things out will make it a lot easier to decide what powers he should have to make him a character you want and are able to play here. Honestly, it isn't his power level that's the issue. It's that he needs more threads with PCs. "Nobody wants their characters to get beaten up by him, so he's been beating up NPCs in the background" just means NPC security would investigate and he might or might not get tossed in offscreen quarantine or derezz them and end up in an offscreen manhunt which isn't affecting anyone because it's offscreen and then... why? That would apply to any character with a hair-trigger reputation for breaking things that he didn't like.
I'd like to add, though, that if David and Faux did lose their powers, it wouldn't devalue them as characters, unless by that you mean you'd be less interested in playing them. Particularly in the case of David, whose powers might actually be preventing you from playing him as freely as you could if he can't ICly have a thread with another character because he's powerful and violent.) Characters with far fewer abilities are still valued additions to Grid life. A roleplay character's value isn't in unique powers or a unique appearance, but in their potential for character development and interaction.