Janice Kent

	Janice Kent
Janice gains 3 every time she makes contact with an extra-terrestrial.
Skills:
1	Shrink
2	IT Expert
3	NERON's only friend
4	Diplomat
5	Radio Expert
6	Self-sacrifice
Position on title lists:
#17	Commander
#1	NERON Administrator
#5	Communications Officer

Janice takes care of the Daedalus' IT requirements. She manages NERON's regular psychological breakdowns and put the A-TRUE protocol into place, which allows the central computer to name its own administrator. Janice also manages the psychological needs of the crew of the Daedalus. She is generally skilled in social interactions, including those with aliens, which is also a personal interest of hers as she likes to study alien cultures.

How to play

Janice's gameplay revolves around keeping the crew morale as high as possible. She is also the default NERON Administrator and will be asked to adjust the various settings. On top of all this, her personal glory requires her to go on expeditions to meet extra-terrestrial lifeforms.

Bronze

Shrink: the best source of morale in the game. Also the most reliable way of curing psychological damage. Taking any other skill will cause everyone to laugh at your incompetence or assume that you're Mush.

Silver

Shrink / IT Expert: Provides free IT action points that will most likely be spent on NERON Projects or Research. Take this over NERON's only friend if crew activity is low or average (especially in case of a slow Commander), or if you prefer being active yourself.

Shrink / NERON's only friend: Improves the efficiency of every point of AP put into the Nexus by anyone. Take this over IT Expert if there are a lot of crew members doing Projects, or if like being helpful in a passive way.

Shrink / Diplomat: Sacrifices some NERON progress for better expedition outcomes. Worth taking if you are going for Eden but Andie is not available or not Polyvalent. Also comes with the handy Ceasefire ability, and guarantees you a spot on expeditions.

Gold

Janice completes her primary set of skills by level four. Radio Expert would require you to hang out at the bridge instead of the dorms, and the bonus to NERON projects is neglegible. Self-sacrifice is an alternative to NERON's only friend and allows you to play slightly different concerning morale, but due to its requirement it should only be considered if you regularly play as Janice.

Mush

• Switching between the dorms, Mush Janice often has access to the un-dismantled shower, turning her into the evil twin of Mush Kuan Ti when it comes to trapping the Nexus.
• Not using a bed and having to shower in secret (for lack of reasons to get Dirty) may often leave her starved for , and a Janice claiming a bed is instantly suspicious unless you are very active. But her generalist nature and vital importance to the mission do give her some leeway in both movement and behavior.
  • Doing little work can be somewhat offset by being active in chat instead. Everybody likes the bubbly cute girl raising their morale, so they may think less about what she is doing that actually costs . Having free points to spend on NERON Projects helps as well.
• Making the usually prudent arrangement with Raluca to be the only person coming to her realm (for hugs and PILGRED relays) in turn means that it is rather easy to convert each other if either one happens to be a Mush. Relays and fuel loading also give Janice excuses for becoming dirty after all.
• Her tendency to know people's level makes it possible for Janice to use Demoralize efficiently. Then again, a crewmate suiciding rather than getting better after her visit is very suspicious.
• Being the NERON Administrator, otoh, makes her an unusually effective Saboteur, as she can use the Vocoder to write the missing "oject broke" messages herself!

• This generally gives her a lot of options to sow at least temporary confusion with fake warnings and death messages, especially when accompanied by repsective chat activity from her partner(s) in crime.
• Not to forget the options of turning off the Plasma Shield or Magnetic Net at opportune moments, blocking research access, destroying food (blaming it all on someone using NERON Depression) or allowing herself to take off in a ship.
• Finally, having access to the BIOS anyway can be an argument for her 'guarding' the Hacker Kit... which, she can then use to move the ship in the right moment, especially as IT Expert.

Useful tips

• Try to end each cycle in the dorms to provide constant morale for your crew. See Shrink.
• Some characters do not regularly use the dormitory bedding. Seek them out and give them a comforting hug!
• Janice cannot boost her own morale, so she relies on Jin Su's speeches or fruit from Ian's garden to stay happy.
• As Janice's objective is fulfilled almost every time she meets any kind of alien, including critters and enemies, you should take part in as many expeditions as possible - Diplomat or not - to rack up insane amounts of points.
  • There are no diminishing returns to this.

Trivia

Janice's glory mechanic defies its description "Part-time Ethnologist" and her characterization as a compassionate diplomat in that she gains not only from making contact with intelligent alien life forms, but from any contact whatsoever - including hunting chew-chews or being bitten by a spider. In that regard, she is more of an Ethologist. (One studies cultures, the other animals.)

• She will gain the bonus even if she is not a direct subject of the alien event; she just has to be present.
  • This even includes instances like a teammate splitting their head open on a stalactite after they glimpsed a passing scorpion in a dark cave. Nothing stops her fascination!

• You will get no from 'Predator - Nothing to report' events, however. Even though it clearly describes you observing one, and spotting a Mankarog on the horizon counts.
  • Also no glory from fighting the alien in a shipwreck, even though most other fights (e.g. alien zombies) count.
  • And none from catching an alien fish or eating insects, as opposed to fighting insects and fighting or eating the predators. These culture studies are a very peculiar science!

As one could expect, all this boosts her expedition gains way out of proportion when compared to other characters with similar goals such as Hua or Stephen, who has to encounter aliens that are hostile and have that lead to a combat event to receive a lesser bonus.

Biography

3128 

Born on Callisto.

3132 

Janice enrolls in cyber-elementary school on Callisto. She learns at a very early age how to negociate FGUI interfaces and at the age of 6 she built a rudimentary database of recipes for Mother's Day.

3143 

Under the influence of a group of alter-universalist pirates, Janice develops the Radish program which will be used to pirate the accounts of large corporations such as Lisegan-Cash and InHumanFinancial. When she discovers that she has been manipulated, Janice decides to reinforce the security of her applications by developing a unique protection system which is based on the trust existing between the program and the user.

3145 

To earn her qualification in Cyber-Psychology on Ganymede, Janice studied human and robot psychology for two years at the faculty of Cognitive Sciences at Bacchus IV.

3147 

She left for university, where she met Terrence Archer a robotics student. He proposes that she puts a learning script in place and that she applies her security protocol ( A-TRUE ) to his drones.

3148 

Janice Kent and Terrence Archer are awarded the Redmoon Prize for their invention of an intelligent drone capable of interpreting and storing new instructions as it evolves. They decide to continue their project on Callisto where Janice's family live.

3150 

During a mission on Jupiter, an analysis of NERON, a jumped-up calculator, offers Janice an exciting new field of study. Its incredible calculating power make it a conscious entity capable of exploiting its own train of thought without any human intervention. NERON, until that point, had developped a profound dislike for its creators, but nonetheless accepted to recommence its calculation work on condition that the A-TRUE protocol is engaged for the duration of the project.

3151 

Janice tries to optimize NERON's thinking processes but the infernal regularity of the PILGRED reactor tests carried out by researcher Raluca Tomescu monopolize the unit's processing power.

3152 

Following a reduction of its workload, NERON sees its processing requirement drop to 75%. Thus, its capacities for evolution are considerably improved. Janice contacts Terrence to ask him to build drones capable of completing the construction of the Daedalus on schedule.

3154 

While SDF forces attempt to regain control of the base, NERON's A-TRUE protocol is activated. He refuses troops access to buildings thus slowing the army's progression to the interior of Xyloph-17. Janice, who was then the only individual capable of controlling the central computer, frees her colleagues and attempts to transfer essential data to the Daedalus. Several hours later, the ship takes off towards the Magellan galaxy.