Astral Points

Astral Points, or AP, are the points used to level your character in SA. Leveling up a character increases the power of their Blessing, earns rewards from their rank or Talent, allows them to adopt Familiars, and unlocks character slots for you!

AP is tracked per-character, not per-user. Whenever you earn AP, you must decide which of your characters will receive it! AP is counted on your character's Astral Tracker, an essential piece of SA gameplay that is submitted at the same time as your character. Keeping an updated AP Tracker allows you to claim your level rewards, outlined below!

AP cannot be given away or transferred to other members.

For how to create your AP Tracker, head over here.

## Earning AP

You earn AP by completing and uploading art, roleplays, literature, memes and checkpoints featuring your character (or other SA characters / NPCs). Every SA character you include in your work earns AP, and the points can be given to any of your characters, no matter which characters are featured in the work.

You do not earn AP for drawing / writing characters who are not yet in the group. NPCs earn points in three instances: when they are an official Group NPC, when they are connected to *your own* accepted character, and "random" horses in the background of comics/scenes/etc who are unlikely to be seen again.

You may draw your SA characters as humans for AP. All human art, RP, and literature must still be set in the SA world, but you are allowed to "swap" your character's equine body for a human.

Non-equine animals featured in artwork- such as familiars, wildlife, livestock, etc- can also earn AP! They follow the same rules as SA character earnings (fullbody, headshot, shading, etc)

### Item specific notes

All armor, weapons and outfits need to be purchased for a character to be depicted with those items - this applies both to art and literature. If a character does not own the items pictured, the artwork can not be accepted into the group until items have been purchased. The only exceptions to this are in specific memes or events which allow depicting unowned items/outfits. Unless otherwise specified, even during events items must be owned to gain outfit or prop bonuses.

Leniency is applied to the characters using “tools of trade” in a clear working situation. If an item is consistently a part of the character’s outfit/appearance, its not a tool of trade.

When drawing someone else’s character, items may be depicted freely, but AP may only be claimed if the character owns the items.

### SA Stock Policy

**PLEASE BE AWARE** of one very important rule: Starborn Alignment takes the rights of all artists very seriously, including the rights of photographers. Referencing is a great tool and we support it enthusiastically - **however**, we expect our members to always use **stock photography**, or photography that is under a **creative commons license**, meaning the photographer has deemed it **acceptable** to create derivative works of their photos. Deviantart stock, sites like freeimages.com, and your own photographs are welcomed resources. We **do not, under any circumstances**, accept art that is referenced from non-stock photos taken off google, pinterest, instagram, or photos of breyer horse models. **It is art theft**, **and we will treat it with the severity of art theft**.

## Application Scoring:

The written portion of a character application is worth 5AP, regardless of length. Any art you create for your app is scored to the regular Visual Art guidelines below.

## Visual Art Scoring

Visual Art guidelines apply identically to digital & traditional drawings and paintings, pixel art, photomanipulation, animation, and comics.

Click here to view an illustrated Visual Art Scoring Guide.

### Visual Art Base Values

* **+1 Headshot:** Minimum is a head/face. Maximum is a head, neck and partial shoulder/chest.
* **+2 Partial body:** Minimum is a head, neck, and most of a barrel or two partial legs. Maximum is a head, neck, and barrel with 4 partial legs.
* **+3 Fullbody:** Entire body is contained in the canvas. Can exclude wings, parts of long tails, parts of fins, or hooves. (meaning you can show where feet, fins, etc attach, but are allowed to crop them out)
* **+1 Quick:** A quick drawing that lacks significant detail or rendering. Chibis, doodles, cartoons, etc apply for this. Must be complete fullbody, depicting entire character. Must be fully colored. Cannot receive shading points or bonuses.

### Visual Art Background Values

* **+1 Partial Background:** a background that does not fill the whole canvas. May be a hand-drawn design behind a fullbody, or a floating circle of land, etc. Must be fully drawn, not a gradient, premade pattern, or premade brush. Simple one-color backgrounds do not earn points. Blurry, abstract, or unclear backgrounds do not earn points.
* **+3 Full Background:** A background that fills the entire canvas. Should have a distinguishable foreground, background, and light source. Background must have distinguishable objects, landscapes, or architecture. Simple "horizon lines", and blurry, abstract, or unclear do not earn points.
* **+5 Scenic Background:** An exceptionally detailed background that fills the entire canvas. Has a distinguishable foreground, background, and midground with obvious light source. Extreme detail is shown in rendering and shading every visible object. The background seems to be the focus of the drawing.

### Visual Art Bonus Values

* **Shading: +1 for headshot, +2 for partial, +3 for fullbody.** Shading must have discernible light source, and obvious change in value or hue from highlight to shadow. Simple gradients over a drawing do not earn points.
* **+1 Anatomical Bonus:** Applied to fullbodies only. Counts for scales or fins covering 30% or more of the body, wings, or hippocampus water forms. Entire design (both wings, entire water form, etc) must be visible. Bonus can be applied multiple times to the same character (for hybrids with wings and high-coverage scales, etc). \*\* NEW: Fully visible wings may receive this bonus on a partial body.
* **+1 Weapons / Props / Items:** For detailed held items or worn accessories. Entire object must be visible. Does not receive additional shading bonus. Does not include small accessories like bandanas, eyepatches, goggles, earrings, etc. Applied per every visible large accessory. Character must own an item to receive AP for it.
* **+2 Outfits:** Fullbodies only. Outfit must cover 30% of the body and contour realistically over the form (i.e. a body can't be covered by a flat rectangle blanket). Does not receive additional shading bonus. Character must own an item to receive AP for it. Applied per visible outfit.
* **Gift Bonus:** +1 for headshot, quick drawing, or partial body. +2 for fullbody. Applied whenever you draw someone else's character, regardless of the presence of your own character. Cannot be applied to memes, collabs, or NPCs.  Applies to art trades, but not commissions.SA Gods **do** receive the gift art bonus!
* **+1 Same Character Bonus:** Applies when the character receiving AP for an image is depicted in the image. Is not repeated for comics or "batch" uploads. Cannot be applied to memes or collabs. \*\* NEW: This bonus can be repeated / individually applied to sets of Checkpoints that are uploaded together.
* **+2 Roleplay-Inspired Bonus:** Description must include at least two RP posts.

### Visual Art Special Circumstances

* **Hyperrealism / Photorealism**: 10 AP headshots / 15 AP partial body / 20 AP fullbody.
	+ Must be shaded. Must be genuinely photorealistic, with extreme attention to detail. This is one of the few categories where simply effort is less of a factor, as the image *should* appear photorealistic, regardless of artists usual style.

* **Repeated Lineart:** Halved base points. Must be your own art. Coloring premade lineart does not earn points. Halved AP from repeated lineart is not rounded up.
	+ Bonuses like same character bonus or gift bonus may only be earned by the first instance.
	+ Things like shading, anatomy, outfit can be rewarded multiple times if entirely new/redrawn. If elements are reused, they will not receive any extra points.
		- Example: You make two pegasi with the same base, using the same wings and shading. First pegasus earns 7 AP (fb + shading + anatomy), while the second earns 1.5AP (fb/2)
* **Full Animations and Comics:** Every new frame (new art) / panel is scored as a separate artwork.
	+ For animations, please include all animation frames in a sta.sh folder when you submit for scoring.  Blinking, ear twitches, bouncing and snorting don’t count for animation points.
	+ For comics, please include a panel by panel breakdown of the AP to ease countings.
		- Each panel counts as a separate artwork, meaning bonuses like gift, anatomy etc may be claimed multiple times, while bonuses like NPC bonus apply only to  a single panel (of your choice, as long as the NPC is featured)
* **Photomanipulation**: *made from sourced, linked stock photos only!* All photos must be obviously changed, and horses must be "grounded" in the background, with painted lighting and body prep. Simple cut/paste manips are not allowed. 1 BG photo = Partial BG. 2+ Blended background photos = Full BG.
* **Crafts / 3D Models / Sculptures:** Scored on an individual basis. Submit to gallery to be assessed!

## Literature

Literature must be uploaded to DeviantART (no sta.sh links or Google Drive files, etc).

* **250 words:** 1 AP
* AP per word remains constant. Word counts on checkpoints, memes, etc will be updated accordingly.

Literature Bonus Values

* **+1 Same Character Bonus:** Applies when the character receiving AP for a literature piece is depicted in the piece. Is not repeated for "batch" uploads.
* **+2 Development Bonus:** Applied to pieces that further a character's personal arc or development. Can be positive or negative! Must have a sentence in the artist's comments detailing the development. Cannot be added to checkpoint submissions.

## Collaborations

Includes both artwork and roleplay/other literature collabs.  Count the AP of the collaboration piece like normal, and then calculate the correct percentage to get AP. All art/writing bonuses (like shading, character development) should be added *before* the collab cut, while Event bonuses are added to the final total after the collab cut.

Collabs can not receive gift or same character bonus, nor can they benefit from talent bonuses, other than Co-Operative. Collaborations can not be used for rank/herd changes, checkpoints or monthly prompts/challenges. Collabs can get the Group NPC bonus - this is added first, and the collab cut after.

In the case of decimals/fractions, round up (so 17.1 -> 18 and so on). Collabs should be submitted to the group by only one member.

* **Two person collab / roleplay:** 80% of total AP
* **Three person collab / roleplay:** 50% of total AP
* **Four or more person collab / roleplay:** 30% of total AP

## Event Bonuses

Starborn events, holidays, Chapters and other special circumstances can provide altered AP, or extra AP bonuses. Event bonuses will be outlined on each event's information page, so make sure to read them carefully!

These bonuses are specific to events, and cannot apply to other bonuses or as regular prompts. For instance, a Chapter piece could not double as a checkpoint, or receive a roleplay-inspired bonus. Events, chapters etc cannot double as rank change images or official images.

## Various Bonuses

* You can receive +5 AP for a minimum of a headshot of a newly accepted newbie character of someone that joined within 30 days. Alternatively write minimum 250 words about why you like their character. May be claimed once a month. Opportunity is available for 30 days after the newbie is officially accepted. Gift AP can be claimed as usual.
* Checkpoints provide bonuses for each prompt, as well as the completion of a set of 5.

* Monthly prompts can be found on the front page or in our directory. These give you +2AP per character, and +5CS per month. They can also be bundled (more info on the directory page) for an additional bonus.
* Monthly challenges can be found front page or in our directory. These earn +2AP, +2CS per character.
* Many Talents provide additional AP bonuses.
* Once a month users can receive **50% extra AP** for any image or literature piece that includes a group NPC (Ex: a piece worth 10 AP would collect 15 AP). Collaborations and roleplays count! Does not apply to Gods or Admin NPCS. All group NPC can be found in their respective herd folders and the god's admin account.