New Cap City

From Battlestar Wiki, the free, open content Battlestar Galactica encyclopedia and episode guide
Revision as of 23:43, 17 October 2010 by Pst001 (talk | contribs) (reworked some, more to come later)
For information on the city from the re-imagined series, see New Caprica City.
A panoramic view of New Cap City

New Cap City was a virtual recreation of Caprica City in the years prior to the First Cylon War. A near identical reproduction of the Caprican city, New Cap city featured a darker atmosphere, and allowed holoband users to engage in violent, gangster-style game play.

Overview

New Cap City grew out of the underground movement on Caprica before the Fall of teenagers hacking pay holoband sites to create free virtual environments like the "V-Club". New Cap was widely known for its violence, a corrupted version of the real life Caprica City that updated to reflect current events in the physical world including the bombing of MagLev 23. Unlike the genuine article, this version of Caprica City reflected a bygone era of propeller aircraft and was patrolled by an enormous, well armed dirigible that would, at times, shoot indiscriminately at users on the streets below (CAP: "There is Another Sky", "The Imperfections of Memory").

Despite being pure fantasy, New Cap City followed the rules of the physical world (users could not fly for example), but portrayed none of the consequences of drug and alcohol use and promiscuous sex that would be experienced in reality. Death, in New Cap, was also a painful sensation and resulted in the de-resolution of the user's avatar and permanent exile from the game (CAP: "There is Another Sky", "The Imperfections of Memory").

New Cap City was accessible through a series of virtual tunnels, like sewers. Real world locations including Little Tauron and Atlas Arena - serving as a venue for brutal hand-to-hand combat - were represented in the game, albeit distorted and, at times, severely rundown by its users (CAP: "There is Another Sky", "The Imperfections of Memory", "Ghosts in the Machine", "End of Line", "Things We Lock Away").

Television personality Baxter Sarno charged the game with contributing to the moral decline of Caprica that led, in part, to the bombing of MagLev 23 by the Soldiers of the One (CAP: "Gravedancing").

In-game Locales[1]

  • Mysteries[2]
  • Eleusinian Theater
  • Shooting Range
  • Airfield
  • Tattoo parlor

Rise of the Deadwalkers

Following the attack on the Caprica City MagLev train system, wealthy scientist Daniel Graystone created a virtual duplicate of one of the bombing victims, Tamara Adams. Hoping to eventually bring the avatar into the real world by implanting it in a robot body, Graystone allowed the simulation to languish within a private virtual space, unaware of its own demise. Encountering another avatar of a bombing victim, Zoe Graystone, inside the space, the Tamara avatar was released to wander the Virtual World alone (CAP: "Pilot", "The Reins of a Waterfall").

Finding her way to Vesta, a powerful figure in V-World, Tamara pleaded for help in escaping back to the real world. Believing Tamara was simply asleep or in a coma and unable to remove her holoband, Vesta shot her with a virtual gun, thinking she would de-res and awaken. However, the holographic bullet neither de-resed Tamara, nor killed her. Intrigued by the possibility of having a user within her circle ostensibly invulnerable to injury, Vesta promised to help Tamara, but for a price. Sending her with Herecles into New Cap City, Vesta charged Tamara with sneaking into the vault of a wealthy user, Chiron, and stealing his money (CAP: "There is Another Sky").

Successful nabbing Chiron's money, Tamara and Herecles returned to Vesta, who revealed to Tamara that she had died in the real world some time ago. Faced with continued use by Vesta and her cronies, Tamara shot and de-resed Vesta. Sparing Herecles, Tamara instructed him to find her father in the real Caprica City (CAP: "There is Another Sky").

Notes

  • The concept of the game has been compared to the real-world video game Grand Theft Auto, while its title resembles that of the 1991 crime film New Jack City.

References