There are multiple different types of missions here on The Starbound Initiative. Some will be personal, others will require your squad, and some will be much larger scale than that. All mission types will put you on the path toward growth as a character, and open up the possibility of earning more gifts or increasing your stats. Below, you'll find a description of each type of mission, as well as a description of how growth will be handled here.

MISSIONS

TRAINER MISSIONS: The first mission every character goes through upon acception, trainer missions are compulsory before combat in other threading can be done. These are one-on-one missions between a new cadet and either a Trainer or a Captain. The purpose of trainer missions is to gauge how you want to play your fresh-faced student, and to see what they'll bring to the table at Astraeus Institute. Once per month, players can request to do new trainer missions to be re-evaluated and see if they have made any progress In-Character, by submitting a PM to any of the staff.

SQUAD MISSIONS: Missions that will always be between one player and the rest of their squad, or in some rare cases, two squads at once. Squad missions are going to be the focus of the Starbound Initiative, where characters will be made to grow both mentally and physically before they can see any progress made. The objective of these missions will vary, but can be as simple as group training, or as difficult as things like hunting, mapping, or protection. Squad missions will end with debriefings, after which the Captain will leave an evaluation for each of their squad, and the Captain will be given a rating by the Headmaster. Squad missions will always have some sort of impact on the site-wide plot.

CREATE-A-MISSION (CaM): Once per month, a player or players can submit a request to have their own unique mission GM'd by staff for them. This can be any sort of mission, but affect on the site-wide plot must be approved by staff before the mission can be done. These missions can be done solo, with a squad, or with a group of people from other squads, and the possibility for what will be done are endless. Players can do no more than one GM'd CaM per month.

MAJOR MISSIONS: Every so often, there will be a large-scale mission that will advance the site plot pushed forward. This will typically involve squads in some way, and will often break down into chapters of an arc over a long period of time. The format of Major Missions is (TBD). Unlike other missions, Major Missions may typically yield growth opportunities upon completion.

EXPLORATION MISSIONS: Self-explanatory. Every so often, the Astraeus Institute will be tasked with exploring an unknown region, be it mapping, researching wildlife, or anything else that might come with the job. These will be squad-based missions that yield IC rewards upon completion and can be more heavily weighted for other growth opportunities.

INSTANCES: Instances will be special sorts of missions that have few things in common between the lot of them: they will happen at random times, and participants will be limited to the first four or five people to respond. Instances are emergency, spur-of-the-moment missions where there is a call for simply the first available units. The highest rank person present assumes the role of captain, and if there are multiple of the same rank, seniority will apply. Situations will always be random, as will rewards and consequences determined by each unique instance's outcomes.

GROWTH

There is no method of min/maxing growth here. The way opportunities are presented are through activity and character development and, aside from standard post-based growth for primary and secondary gifts, this requires plotting, growth, and more, In Character. You will see an outline of how growth works with stats and gifts below, but note that it won't be as simple as fighting someone stronger than you to get a power upgrade or a stat point. NOTE: If you feel as though you are not receiving growth as often as you should, feel free to submit a request to have your progress checked out by staff (or in some rarer cases, re-evaluated). This will not guarantee you receive growth, but it could help us see something we missed.

STAT GROWTH: Stat points will not be incredibly common. This is because of the fact that there are few stat grades, each with significant growth between them. To obtain stat points, one must show actual growth In Character. This means it won't be as simple as doing 500 push-ups every day to go from A to S grade Strength, or even from B to A. The process needs to be observable. Stat points will come when they feel deserved.

ADDITIONAL GIFTS: Beyond the primary and secondary gifts, players can receive a tertiary and so on. These, however, cannot be naturally obtained and, once they are obtained, do not follow post-based growth like your primary and secondary. Tertiary gifts and beyond will be acquirable only through missions, and even then, will only be obtained when the character is in a situation to truly earn it or they're in enough of a stressful situation to see the gift develop. This works for technology as well, though in slightly different effect In Character: for technology, one can make/receive the equipment at any point, but not utilize it until the same requirements for gifts have been met.