guide An Overly Long Post Talking About Mediporters and Teleportation (TM)

[McSpazz]

When roleplaying, something that you should always try and avoid is over utilizing deus ex machinas. Literally translating to 'god from the machine', this is a plot device where some aspect of a story is solved by an unlikely or unexpected event that is more so a means of solving a problem rather than wrapping up a story beat nicely. While there are a nearly infinite number of ways to do this, I'd like to focus on something I have seen brought up in just about every roleplay where the building is crumbling around you or someone is bleeding out on the floor. Medi-porters and teleportation.

 

Abusing these in either frequency or effectiveness can cut out potentially interesting story beats and even make it harder for people to run events with high stakes. So rather than making a tangent post where I rant exclusively on how these systems can be abused, I'm instead going to use this as an opportunity to break down ways you can utilize these systems in a way to prevent just fixing things with a snap of the fingers.

I'm also going to rant, but, you know. This is called Overly Long for a reason.

 

1. What are medi-porters
I'm going to start with medi-porters since there's a bit of preamble to go over before the real meat of the discussion around what medi-porters can and can't do. The ultimate reality of medi-porters is that they only really exist because the developers needed some way of explaining what happens to your character after you're defeated; not unlike World of Warcraft's use of graveyards.

 

Medi-porters are specialized teleportation devices that were developed after the first Rikti Invasion and based on Rikti technology. It monitors your vitals and, if you're defeated, will send you to a hospital for treatment. There appears to be a means of jamming or diverting the signal based on the fact that, sometimes, medi-portering in a mission will send you to an in mission jail cell rather than a hospital.

 

For most of the game's existence, medi-porters were, as far as I have been able to tell, never mentioned or explained in much detail. What I said above was the extent of what was known.

 

I could lay out everything mentioned on the wiki, but that feels a little redundant. Instead, I'm going to direct you to that page and focus on...

 

2. Medi-porter Limitations
Just in case you don't want to open an extra tab, there are a few major points I want to make, both directly mentioned on the wiki page and also not mentioned.

 

The first are its technical limitations. Aside from jamming and diverting, as stated on the wiki, there appears to be a limit on the number of people the system can handle at any one time. The exact reason for this isn't exactly obvious, but this does explain why you can't just medi-porter around like some kind of taxi service. It's an emergency service that, at capacity, cannot transfer injured heroes to safety. To avoid abuse, this likely means that medi-porters are explicitly designed to not teleport someone unless they are defeated or manually activated on a person who needs medical attention.

 

The second is that, realistically, the MediCom network likely utilizes something similar to Rikti Pylons in order to provide full coverage over the city. The ability for authorities to intercept these signals also makes it unlikely that you can easily utilize the network outside of where you are granted access. Just as an example, if Manticore is attacking the Rogue Isles, he's going to be reliant on both not being within range of an interceptor AND within range of a friendly MediCom network. It doesn't fully explain missions where you can attack Etoile or Paragon and not get sent to jail, but, as I said, medi-porters were a mechanical explanation for returning from defeat before they were a story beat.

 

Third, not all medi-porters are created equal. In Field Agent Keith Nance's storyline, you are chasing an evil clone after they utilized a 5th Column medi-porter. Citadel outright states that, "5th's medi-porter technology is very faulty," and that the porter couldn't be used again for several hours. That means that offbrand mediporters, even by villain groups who explicitly dabble in high tech endeavors, aren't necessarily as good as the real deal. What's more, when SG mediporters were still mechanically functional, they did not restore you to full health which could either be interpreted as anything between SG bases not being given the same level of access as established hospitals to just a mechanical restriction from the long defunct SG base raids.

 

There's also some logistical limitations. Mainly, most people don't have access to medi-porters. The only people certainly confirmed to be using medi-porters (or at least non-bootleg versions of it) are registered heroes, the elderly, and the disabled. It could be realistically implied that the PPD have restricted usage following the Praetorian war, though there might be political hurdles with that given the violent blowback rogue members of the PPD had in Roy Cooling's storyline. Access is likely far more relaxed in the Rogue Isles. Though, as Arachnos are certainly the ones maintaining the network there (directly or indirectly through Aeon Corp), enemies of Arachnos are unlikely to have access and continued access to medi-porters would be an excellent way of maintaining control over the metahuman population.

 

There's also the fact that mediporters are based on Rikti technology which is, canonically, heavily restricted. Medi-Corp probably operates with heavy governmental oversight not unlike how Portal Corp is set up. While the receivers (where you get teleported to) might be open to companies making alternatives (such as Crey), the stuff you see in hospitals are probably only manufactured by Medi-Corp and Arachnos. This could also help explain why the receivers in SG bases aren't as good as the ones in hospitals.

 

3. Why all of the restrictions on medi-porters?
In short: Drama is the key to a good story.

 

The longer version is that mediporters operating without any restrictions lowers the stake of any hostile encounter. You never have to worry about where you're fighting, what preparations you have to make ahead of time beyond the obvious, and the inevitable injuries that follow. Mediporters serve primarily as a technology that transports and stabilizes the injured, but the fact they are also prone to interception and jamming helps ensure that threats keep mattering.

 

Plus, if mediporters just teleported and healed you just like that, why would there still be hospitals? Even if the teleportation aspect was restricted, I see no reason why immediately and fully healing someone couldn't be separated from the teleporter and used to treat patients that come in on foot. It's rather silly that you would have full sized hospitals at that point and not just hole in the wall kiosks.

 

The restrictions, especially preventing them being used as a means of easy transport, also help limit how easily it can be abused in writing and, more importantly, place extra emphasis on the struggles one faces when trying to operate against the government (as a villain in Paragon or a hero in Etoile).

 

4. Suggested Mediporter Workarounds
At this point, you might be asking how to best utilize medi-porters in your stories. Well, the answer is kind of simple. Just look at the restrictions. 

For example, one major way you could get around many of these restrictions is to have your own mediporter network. It likely wouldn't have the same range or efficiency of the main network, but having your own network would let you determine your own requirements and specifications. I'd urge you to not make it "better" than the existing network, however, as that really comes off as just trying to powergame your way past what should in all likelihood be the best out there.

 

Another consideration? Mobile mediporter networks. There are certainly no networks available to heroes in Grandville, and yet the Longbow carrier ship you arrive on has mediporters available to use should you fall in combat. This is speculation, but mobile, dedicated mediporter relays might be more resistant against jamming and redirecting which could very well help explain why you used non-standard mediporter points during the Praetorian Invasion task forces.

 

There's also probably a secondary market for mediporter networks operated by corporations like Crey with some of them potentially trying to lobby to open up the primary network so they can exert control over heroes in their weakest moments. Just keep good headcanon practice in mind: avoid headcanon that conflicts with the canon lore, would impose unfair demands on other players, and has an explanation as to why said headcanon might not be well known.

 

5. Teleporters, Rapid Transit, And YOU
Unlike teleporters, I don't believe there's a ton of lore talking about teleportation and how it operates. While this does keep things very open for players to come up with their own ideas, it's led to a slight issue. Namely, people have gotten so used to how quickly you can move between zones that simply teleporting out of a location has become something of an afterthought.

 

There's been a bit of feature creep at play here. Back on live, base teleporters were far more of a challenge to implement. Entire rooms would have to be set up to house them, time had to be set aside to unlock locations and earn the prestige to build them, and if you left the SG, you also left the portals behind. Ouroboros was really the only consistent fast travel option with TUNNEL only being added at the very tail end of the game's lifespan and there were two different TUNNEL networks (for red and blue side). Moving between red and blue side also used to be far more of a pain not just because of fewer entry points but also because you had to spend a minimum of two days to become a vigilante or rogue with heroes and villains, as they are now, entirely incapable of doing so.

 

Now there are a huge number of ways you can just jump between zones. On top of being able to enter any SG base with a code (ZONE-888 is literally just a utility hub with shops and portals), you now have long range teleport available to everyone (which used to be an end tier teleport pool power), an expanded TUNNEL destination selection, and, of course, with moving between alignments being easier than ever, Ouroboros and Pocket D remain just as effective as ever. The fact that having base portals to every available location was a major selling point for an SG on live should give you an idea of just how far things have come.

 

This is all, of course, mechanical. The issue with taking full advantage of all of these in your writing is less of a lore issue (with three exceptions) and more of a matter of good practice. Just like with mediporters potentially draining the danger of dying out of any conflict, so too can simply being able to go somewhere without issue. After all, if you can teleport anywhere, it could lead you to start questioning how anyone could stop you from just going somewhere you probably shouldn't be.

 

Why can't a hero just teleport into Grandville and raid the tower at will? Why can't villains just teleport into the middle of Paragon and cause havoc? The most immediate answer would be War Walls, but I feel that answer misses the point of why you should always strive to NOT make it so easy to just travel places at will.

 

I'll get to some suggestions of how to accomplish that in a moment, but there are three notable examples of rapid transit people use that should, honestly, be considered more restrictive or exclusive than people consider.

 

Ouroboros is the first and most obvious scenario. I'm not sure why, but people often forget that Oroboros is highly secretive. The badge that unlocks your access to the zone is literally "Entrusted With the Secret." Mechanically, the only ways to get access to the zone are to either complete a story arc that involves time travel, go to Cimeroa, or have another player literally open the door for you. Even if you were granted access to Ouroboros, they likely wouldn't take kindly to someone abusing their access for personal gain unrelated to their mission. The same applies to the Midnighters and their club, though very few people utilize the Midnighters Mansion to move between zones quickly. Let's not forget that you used to have to complete an entire story arc to enter their mansion at all.

 

The second is Pocket D. Literally anyone can go there and, to my understanding, while the portals that go to Pocket D are mechanically static, in lore DJ Zero can literally move them at will. Which brings to question: why can't people use the club to flee Etoile or smuggle things into and out of Paragon? I don't think it's outright stated, but I think there are enough clues to say that it's because DJ Zero demands people leave their baggage at the door. You can only use the club to enter and leave locations you can realistically go and if you aren't coming to the club to party, you aren't coming to the club at all. He'd also likely not take kindly to people using the exits of his club as ambush points, so, if he suspected an exit point was being monitored, he'd literally just move it or shunt the person leaving the club who was being hunted to a safer location.

 

The third is dimensional travel or things bordering on that (such as TUNNEL). As far as the lore is concerned, there are very few groups capable of dimensional travel and even fewer with a large record of various destinations you can go to. I forget the exact mission, but I distinctly recall a mission where someone is trying to steal Portal's database of dimensional coordinates. That likely means that unless you have the specific coordinates, you can't just jump to that alternate dimension. That's also setting aside the infrastructure required to get much of this stuff to work. TUNNEL itself is also operated by very specific groups and, as such, if your character could not normally reach the intended destination (such as a hero going to Cap au Diable), you could not get the TUNNEL to take you there.

 

6. Tips to Restrict Rampant Teleportation
The most obvious solution is, of course, some kind of jammer, barrier, or field that blocks teleportation. War Walls serve this function and there are multiple locations, such as the insides of jail cells, that prevents teleportation out of them.

 

Less obvious are infrastructure restrictions. Most people can't just teleport at will and it can easily be inferred that long range teleportation without an established portal isn't something that can be done on a regular basis by most people. Just because you can teleport somewhere quickly doesn't mean you can teleport immediately after. There's few if any clear examples in the lore I can think of, but the amount of magic and/or power and/or tech you need to run in order to keep a portal to some distant location stable and running consistently is unlikely to be minor.

 

The fact that helicopters and boats are still used to transport people to remote locations also suggests that there's probably some kind of naturalistic restriction. Why would you need planes if you could just build a portal and drive trucks through it? Why would you need to take a boat or submarine to Striga if you could just teleport there? The exact explanation is kind of down to your own headcanon.

 

Base teleporters are, of course, a major elephant in the room here. As previously mentioned, they weren't always so easy to get your hands on. With them being so easy to get now and able to take you to just about every zone of the game. Restrictions you could place on those could easily fall under the above mentioned infrastructure constraints, but you could just as easily make it far harder to go back the way you came in. Base portals did not use to be in every zone and were mainly added in as a quality of life feature. Maybe your base can only be entered by going to the physical location or maybe only specific locations with base portals are valid entry points.

 

The possibilities of how you can elaborate on how teleportation works are pretty much endless but will, of course, be headcanon. Just like what I said with mediporters: avoid making your headcanon overly intrusive. When it comes to avoiding making your headcanon conflict with other people's, it's far easier to explain how your situation works than to explain how teleportation as a whole works.

 

7. Conclusion
I always try to urge people to avoid using story beats that simply and immediately solves a problem. We're trying to tell a story here! Indulge in the drama and suspense of it all. Just as you shouldn't just instantly heal an injury with a twiddle of your thumbs, you shouldn't nullify the potential story beats that could come into play when trying to simply get somewhere. While it's perfectly fine to handwave away the process of travel if it's unimportant to the story or simply boring, throwing it aside entirely is potentially throwing away a really interesting bit of story.

 

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This is part of a series of tutorials regarding roleplay! You can find the full list of tutorials here!
 

Edited December 31, 2024 by McSpazz

[Octogoat]

This was an interesting post and informed me of a couple things I did not know about mediporters, thanks.

[Andreah]

Mediporters are a super convenient system. But what about when a character has the power to teleport themselves? Can they just pop over to the nearest hospital in a pinch? I suggest the short answer is: it's possible in a roleplay scenario, but it's not the same as using a mediporter.

 

Here's my suggestion for a breakdown of how self-teleportation to a hospital might work in roleplay:

• Teleportation to a Known Location: If your character has teleportation abilities, they might try to teleport to a hospital or medical center they know about. This isn't an automatic thing – they need to know the location and have the ability to teleport there before they lose consciouness in a defeat, and they may need to have established their ability to locate the hospital they teleport to as a 'target lock'.
• No Automatic Healing: This is a key difference from using a mediporter. Mediporters provide stabilization and healing as part of their service. If you teleport yourself when at defeat's door, you're just getting yourself to the location, but you arrive still injured and needing treatment. There's no magic healing just from teleporting.
• Limitations Still Apply: Remember that teleportation isn't always a sure thing:
  •   Jammers and Barriers: Teleportation can be blocked by jammers, barriers, or fields, such as those used in jail cells and by War Walls. If the hospital is in an area with that kind of interference, your character might be out of luck.
  •   Target lock: Long-range teleportation without an established target lock is not something that most people can do regularly. It is possible that maintaining a target lock to a distant location requires significant ongoing effort.
• Roleplaying the Difference: This approach lets you use your character's abilities in your roleplay. However, it's not the same as the mediporter system that is used for all defeated characters in game. Self-teleporting is a different way of reaching a hospital than being sent by a mediporter.
• Dramatic Considerations: The OP suggests that relying too heavily on teleportation and mediporters can take away from the drama of a story, and I agree. Consider the impact of a self-teleport; your character may arrive at the hospital with no instant medical support, and have the roleplay opportunity of being in a more dire situation.

While self-teleportation to a hospital may be possible for characters with the power to do so, it’s not an automatic free pass to skip the normal healing process that a mediporter provides. It can add some nuance to your roleplay by letting you use your character's powers in a unique way, but keep in mind that it isn't the same as using the MediCom system. It could be more challenging and require more roleplay once the character gets to the hospital, since they would likely be in worse shape than if they arrived via mediporter.

 

Anyway, as always, if your roleplay makes sense to you, who am I or anyone else to say it doesn't. Cheers.

[Wicked Weather]

I alway head cannon the the people that could teleport anywhere the city mostly had limited teleport zones set up by the city. Where you could safely teleport to. So teleporting people where not teleporting on top of eachouthers or outher things. 

[Andreah]

I agree. And a more in depth discussion of how we portray teleportation and other fast-travel mechanisms in our roleplay might be worth another  "Overy Long" discussion by the OP @McSpazz.  Maybe I should make an index of those threads and see if there's one already :D

 

Edit: And McSpazz already has an index list of these threads: 

 

Edited January 3 by Andreah

[McSpazz]

8 hours ago, Andreah said:

I agree. And a more in depth discussion of how we portray teleportation and other fast-travel mechanisms in our roleplay might be worth another  "Overy Long" discussion by the OP @McSpazz.  Maybe I should make an index of those threads and see if there's one already 😄

 

Edit: And McSpazz already has an index list of these threads: 

 

 

I did try and make the second part of this post focus on just that: How to portray teleportation in roleplay. I can elaborate further, I suppose, but there's not a TON of lore regarding the various transportation systems in game.

The two tram systems (yellow and green) used to be entirely disconnected due to bickering between the agencies that ran them and were only connected relatively recently. Not much more to say about it. TUNNEL kind of appeared without much warning and the only real information we have are who operates them (Vanguard, Arachnos, and Carnival of Light). The black helicopters are literally just Arachnos operated transport that bring Destined Ones (unlikely just ANYONE who asks considering they are often located in military bases) about Etoile.

Beyond what I said in my OP, I'm not sure how to expand on how to portray teleportation. Because there's such little information to go on, it's one of the areas of the game that kind of demands people use headcannon to fill it in outside of the few areas that are established (such as teleportation suppression). The best implementation of teleportation falls in line with my post talking about power levels and how to best manage them. Regardless of how you go about it, you should try and keep it balanced with your intended power level and avoid making declarations with it that force lore on others.

As far as I know, there's nothing in the game that indicates to teleporters where they can teleport to safely, but it's a great headcannon and it does make a lot of sense. Is that necessary for long range teleportation? It depends on your implementation.

Also, yeah, I've been maintaining that list for ages. I even added a link to it at the end of every Overly Long post. You're more than welcome to share it both here on the forums and in game! I really enjoy seeing traffic on these posts because it can lead to pretty major improvements to the OP when I miss mentioning something. Yes, even on posts that haven't been replied to in over a year.

[Andreah]

As a for-instance, I've seen a few people use Super Jump to represent both using a motorcycle and for using a grapple in the roleplay; and also using teleportation/mission-transports as proxies for being able to run at supersonic speed.

 

We have a number of mechanical means of travel:

• Flight
• Teleportation
• Super Speed
• Super Jumping

Off core versions of them:

• Athletic/beast/ninja run
• Panther/Coyote run
• Jump Pack/Steam Jump
• Jet/Rocket Pack
• Flying Carpet
• Void Skiff
• Rocket Board

 

And of fast travel, to work with:

• Mission Transporter
• Team Transport
• Long Range Teleport
• Assemble the Team

I've probably missed some.

[McSpazz]

6 hours ago, Andreah said:

As a for-instance, I've seen a few people use Super Jump to represent both using a motorcycle and for using a grapple in the roleplay; and also using teleportation/mission-transports as proxies for being able to run at supersonic speed.

Ahh, I see what you mean now! I definitely could do a walkthrough of the travel powers and what they could be used as, but that feels more like something that'd be better suited for players to work out themselves for their theater of the mind. I'll definitely consider it though and see if I can think of what I do for a whole post about that, though.

[chase]

Very good writeup, as always McSpazz.   

Although the devs went through great lengths to stretch game necessities like war walls and mediporters into the lore, I do try to avoid direct reference to them in my characters' day-to-day.   As you've suggested- instant-heal and instant-travel both can greatly reduce drama opportunities, and I particularly like the narrative contrast of my otherwise-exceptional heroes' busy day interrupted by the necessary delay of mundane monorail or ferry systems.   In stories those are perfect for more human interactions, but with in-game RP, you're usually too busy getting your character from point A to point B to really appreciate it.  (Tangent: I've often imagined making a "ferryboat" or "monorail car" tiny base with teleporters hidden to all zones, but meant to host "travel talk" for like-minded folk, but I imagine that's far too niche to see much use,  You RP during the journey then TP out when you reach your stop.)

With the characters I tend to RP, mediporters are easy to handwave away for my own use (Tabby doesn't wear much to attach a 'porter to, the "patch" version doesn't adher to her fur well, and the unregistered heroes would have no legit access to them).   Without a mediporter of my own, I would still have to deal with the well-intentioned hero who selflessly removes their own... but I imagine they're bio-locked, (except... see "arrest teleporter" below)

When I encounter a medical emergency in RP,  I'm sometimes not sure whether they're seeking a mediporter option or not.   You can effectively ask their preferences without breaking character with something like this:

/em 's eyes dart the injuries, taking mental inventory while cursing her fuzzy memories of first aid class, all the while hoping to find an intact mediporter patch and...umm... punch it, maybe?  How do you trigger the trucking thing? and why hasn't it kicked in on its own by now, dammit?"

That gives the injured party opportunity to not only describe their injuries but also help you negotiate the desired level of drama and resolution opportunities.  They can say whether the mediporter is found, damaged, showing "no signal" or "jammer" activity, etc.   With super-strength and super transport options, a reasonable RP patient should also include whether they appear "safe to move" or needing careful handling.

"Arrest Teleporter"
I cannot find anything on the wiki explicitly saying this as part of the lore but I recall a dev exchange early... and vaguely recall something in the lore itself... that implies that the foes that we defeat get something like an 'arrest teleporter' attached to them, sending the guy my wife just fireballed in the face to the Zig's very (very) large inmate burn ward.   It was a weak attempt to handwave away despawning of defeated foes-  something like you clip a transponder onto them and they're whisked away.

Unfortunately, if this does exist:
1) It means that teleporters may not be bio-locked to the assigned hero, as we certainly can't pre-bio-lock who we'll be fighting
2) It makes teleporters a far more ubiquitous solution.
3) My main's character's encumbrance should be max'ed out on arrest teleporters for all the burn victims criminals his wife fricasees arrests in a single visit to Crey corp.  (there's a reason why his battlecry is, "Don't make me get my wife...")

Edited January 4 by chase

[Andreah]

48 minutes ago, chase said:

I cannot find anything on the wiki explicitly saying this as part of the lore but I recall a dev exchange early... and vaguely recall something in the lore itself... that implies that the foes that we defeat get something like an 'arrest teleporter' attached to them, sending the guy my wife just fireballed in the face to the Zig's very (very) large inmate burn ward.   It was a weak attempt to handwave away despawning of defeated foes-  something like you clip a transponder onto them and they're whisked away.

PPD can teleport player-villains to the jail during mayhem missions. It's a stretch, but it would make sense they could do this to defeated npc villains in some cases. In my RP, I usually assume defeated enemies inside a mission will be taken into custody by a PPD team that comes in after my mission team has pacified the mission area.  I do sometimes see people tagging defeated enemies for teleport to jails though. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

[McSpazz]

On 1/4/2025 at 12:32 PM, chase said:

"Arrest Teleporter"

I cannot find anything on the wiki explicitly saying this as part of the lore but I recall a dev exchange early... and vaguely recall something in the lore itself... that implies that the foes that we defeat get something like an 'arrest teleporter' attached to them, sending the guy my wife just fireballed in the face to the Zig's very (very) large inmate burn ward.   It was a weak attempt to handwave away despawning of defeated foes-  something like you clip a transponder onto them and they're whisked away.

Unfortunately, if this does exist:
1) It means that teleporters may not be bio-locked to the assigned hero, as we certainly can't pre-bio-lock who we'll be fighting
2) It makes teleporters a far more ubiquitous solution.
3) My main's character's encumbrance should be max'ed out on arrest teleporters for all the burn victims criminals his wife fricasees arrests in a single visit to Crey corp.  (there's a reason why his battlecry is, "Don't make me get my wife...")

On 1/4/2025 at 1:23 PM, Andreah said:

PPD can teleport player-villains to the jail during mayhem missions. It's a stretch, but it would make sense they could do this to defeated npc villains in some cases. In my RP, I usually assume defeated enemies inside a mission will be taken into custody by a PPD team that comes in after my mission team has pacified the mission area.  I do sometimes see people tagging defeated enemies for teleport to jails though. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

To my memory, there is only one place where teleport arrests are mentioned: the PPD Drones. The drones that are outside of points of interest say in their description that they teleport criminals straight to jail. However, there is clearly a difference between these drones and the drones you sometimes encounter as a villain. As Andreah mentioned, many people do RP teleporting defeated enemies to jails.

However, as I mentioned above, it is possible to intercept mediporter frequencies. Thus, since it is assumed that Destined Ones have mediporters, it's reasonable to assume that's how you're ending up in jail.

Still, my best estimate is that police drones that don't go anywhere are basically putting all of their power towards charging their teleporters. Maybe the only reason defeated foes can be teleported is because they're not moving.