DeadLantern

I disagree with some of your statements, Sniblet. "An actor is restricted in that whatever they do, they must have a reason to be on e.g. a Golden Deep vessel with its distress beacon running. I can think of two reasons. You're not going to get a pack of Eridanian mercenaries trying to steal Pickle's secret burger recipe out of that Golden Deep ship, especially if this is canon: the people onboard are either Golden Deep, or they're the intruders that caused the distress (inevitably at least some of every group must be intruders because 2 of them don't have the WL). Implement this with a dozen away sites, and if the average holds true, there are about 24 specific reasons for actors to be present in the gamemode." This is true, but I presume the Storyteller will have the ability to be flexible depending on what actors spawn in (perhaps we can even see who's readied up to be an actor on roundstart, and maybe actors can latejoin into the round in the first 1-20 minutes of a round). So if they want to run that Golden Deep thing, they'll see if there are even enough IPC whitelists to do the story they want. I think your point about actors not having whitelists is a fair point, but the majority of our lore goes into human factions and human lore. Every single player will be able to represent 50% of factions, at least. The storyteller could also announce in OOC before the game for people with a vaurca whitelist to join as actors if they want, encouraging people so they can tell the story they want. Also, I presume most away sites can be configured for a variety of situations. There could be several reasons why people are on a ZH installation--they work there, they stoyawayed there, they responded to the distress beacon, they're pirates/smugglers, they're merchants, etc. Additionally, this holds true for the ships as well, so we're not bound by away sites only. I think there are more reasons for actors to be in a certain spot than you are presuming, and you are also forgetting that ships can also be the fulcrum of a mission, not just away sites (or having the mission occur on the Horizon). "If this is addressed and there's going to be much room for creativity, then actors will need time to think. "About 15 minutes and then Horizon is on you ready or not" isn't generous, and I can picture there being a few occasions where Horizon will bumble into the actors canonically half-dressed as two different factions who have no business being in the same place. Similar blunders already happen with the antags dictating the schedule." Fair point, but I doubt the Horizon will be on the actors within 15 minutes. Also, the Storyteller could have ways of preventing the Horizon from stumbling on the ship/away site before it's ready, like hiding the distress beacon/icon on the map until it's ready, or distracting the Horizon with another minor problem (like hivebots or carp or asteroids or something). They can also just OOCly communicate to the Horizon, which is something you suggest later. It would most likely be against the rules to powergame and blitz the actors before they've had ample time to prepare. "If canon briefings are common, it would turn Horizon's state from "nothing real ever happens" to "wow holy shit there's 7 major problems to solve every day and one of them is always a GD ship overrun by pirates for some reason how is this one section of the Spur THIS busy I can't keep working here." If canon briefings are uncommon, good?, but I think that's against the objective of this change." From MattAtlas's document, it does not seem like canon briefings will be the majority, and I automatically presume canon events will be less intense/less lethal due to it being canon and Storytellers and players subconsciously or consciously playing it more safe. Additionally, I think most players would prefer the second option over the first option. I prefer chaos and conflict roleplay and stories happening over many rounds over... nothing, which is the status quo, from a canonicity perspective. Aurora needs a change, and if the change is too much, that will still be preferred over no change, which has been the state for the entire time I've been playing. "Storyteller might be pretty boring to play. There's a very limited selection of sane things you can do with it. Upfront, you might spawn the actors their outfits and decorate their home. Once the audience arrives, what are you going to do? If the ship's supposed to be falling apart, you might delete some walls, or drop a bomb without knowing what the first number means and accidentally (no really) eradicate half of the server. If the SCC is supposed to be interested in what's happening, you'll draft some emails and ahelp for a CCIA agent to tell you if they're good because this is canon and SCC communications with bad grammar or weird lore implications aren't acceptable. Maybe spawn a reaver in some closet not knowing that the crew have already cleared it, like Left 4 Dead, canonically. You're still not really playing the game. I don't imagine that they'll appear any more often than pAIs and drones once the novelty is past." I kind of disagree with this on a basic level. DMing in TTRPGs is very popular, and we have many TTRPG-enjoyers in our community. Sure, you aren't playing a character, but seeing real life people (and real life people in the setting) engage and work with the story you've created with the actors you've curated is a fulfilling feeling. Just watching it play out will be satisfying to most storytellers, I assume, and besides, storytellers will have to stay engaged to react on the fly, maybe by adding a hazard here or there and giving cool ideas to the actors to mesh with. I sincerely doubt the role will be as unpopular as pAIs or drones. Those roles have little to no impact on round, and provide few opportunities to roleplay, which is why they are rarely played. This is the exact opposite case with the storyteller. I imagine they would be less common than command whitelists, but more common than AI whitelists. I disagree with the novelty wearing off--storytelling-minded people are always coming up with neat ideas and stories they would like to try in the game--hell, I think some storytellers might want to run the same story but with different characters to see what happens and how different the story ends up. I'm not just speaking out of my ass here--on the AI CM ss13 server, there is a similar storyteller role that gives players the ability to control the story and the round for the players. It's a significantly smaller community (600 players in the discord), but the storyteller application regularly gets 20 applicants despite knowing the maximum amount of storytellers the admins will train at a time will be 3. On Aurora, with a significantly bigger playerbase, sandbox, and an unlimited amount of storyteller whitelists to hand out, I do not think we will be bereft of storytellers nor stories to tell, and people excited to do that. By your logic, DMs would have died out a long time ago. "What if Horizon has no pilots?" This is a fair point that is connected with a bigger issue of highpop versus lowpop. I imagine we will have MORE storytellers than we need who will be wanting to storytell during a round during highpop (only 2-4 rounds a day). On the margins of highpop, we may have storytellers most of the time, but in lowpop, there may be significantly more rounds without a storyteller. And that's fine, since the actors are being built in a way that they don't need a storyteller and they could just vote extended/secret, but I'd imagine mission rounds with storytellers will be significantly more unique and interesting than rounds without storytellers. Also, without pilots, it may be difficult for the horizon to engage in away sites/ships (but a storyteller, if present, could account for that and bring the mission to the horizon). This is something that will be a problem no matter the gamemode so I don't see it as a reason to nix the Missions/Storyteller idea, but it is something to keep in mind. "- Having these be usually non-canon lifts many concerns, but isn’t canonicity the point?" The point, in my mind, is to have unique rounds (or more unique than the status quo) more than the time, that engage the Horizon in the best ways (by involving other parts of crew, by using the overmap, etc). The canonicity is also very cool, but I think the main reason to have this system is to break up the painfully repetitive gameplay loop of the same antagonists we've been playing with for over 7-8 years. The point is not canonicity--the point is generating unique and interesting roleplay situations, which is something that is majorly difficult in our current system. "- Separate storytellers into degrees lest we have none at all. Someone expected to run a canon mission, as in run an almost-event independently, as in alone, as in without oversight or consultation, must be both pure of heart and very good at it, so probably extinct in practice. Noncanon storytellers with looser expectations could be common, depending on whether many people enjoy it. I foresee running jokes about L4D versus spawns either way, but that’s fine." I disagree that there are no players that are not pure of heart and good at storytelling. We already have all the lore staff and admins/mods, who have proven they know how to tell a good story and run an event, so we have a base amount of storytellers there. I disagree with separating storytellers into degrees, but it's an interesting idea. I imagine there would be a trial period for storytellers, like command whitelistees, where we can determine if the storytellers would be good at their job or not beforehand (and they can always apply multiple times, gaining experience as they do so). I just plainly disagree that there are no players we can trust with this power that are good at it. These players exist and we will prove that they can do the job by going through the whitelist, alleviating the need for a tiered system. I can think of at least 15 players I know, who are not on the staff team (the base pool), that would make for excellent storytellers, and who will not abuse their power and be mean. There are doubtless countless more I do not know who would be a great fit for the role. As I said before, there would probably be less Storytellers than Command players, since I imagine the whitelist process will be more in-depth and strict, but we will have good storytellers. "- Facilitate limited OOC communication between actors and audience so that Horizon knows when to come. Also do this in a way that doesn’t look like Horizon is just dawdling for no reason after receiving an urgent call every time. - Emphasize actor control over their setting and identity, even if it’s just the freedom to say that their map that was a Solarian corvette yesterday is a Coalition freighter today, with or without a storyteller to back them up. If six people who don’t know what Gadpathur is or don’t like Gadpathur roll an explicitly Gadpathurian ship, there will be problems. Ideally, they get to choose their map wholesale, whether in round or in prefs." These are both good ideas, and I bet there will be systems in place to allow these things to happen. I can also imagine a world where actors, without a Storyteller, would be granted certain small permissions so they can customize their story, like maybe editing their ship in the start of the round or OOCly communicating to the Horizon if they need to.

I’m glad that people are asking questions and being skeptical. That is a sign of an engaged community. However, I hope the developers and maintainers are not put off by this. As you can tell by the comments above, there are some cautious comments, but everyone agrees this is a really promising system. Even if there are certain oddities and kinks to iron out, Aurora really needs a shake-up from the status quo. I doubt many regular players will be opposed to this. Thank you for your hard work! I also think this is a great way to tie in to the canon events that occur with lore. For example, during the Bad Moon Rising Arc, Alb would have cult shenanigans occur on random extended rounds. Assassins would pop out, weird items would be spawned, etc. Not every canon mission has to be super inventive—if it’s an extended round with some bells and whistles (like a PRA commissar visiting to investigate anti-Hadiist activity, some smugglers pretending to be a civilian ship to restock, etc), I think people would enjoy the chance to roleplay and have their actions effect real people that exist in the setting, even if they go away at the end of the round (we might see them later!) This is a great way to involve oft-underused factions in the game, like Kataphracts, Purpose, Ceres Lance, etc. I wonder if an intensity meter would also work well with the system? Like a low intensity game could have multiple storytellers doing their thing (an Idris team investigating some poor characters who may default on their loan, Ceres Lance searching for untagged synths, the IAC running a drill with the horizon medbay, etc). This would be a good way to engage many departments if multiple low intensity missions are occurring at the same time. We can also have those medium and high intensity rounds that involve everyone. As a previous commenter said, service should be included too. It can be in obvious ways, like an Izweski noble or Imperial noble is boarding and we have to make them a feast, but I would appreciate if service/cargo can be used as a logistics role for creating FOBs or transporting supplies and making food and bev. Just a thought. I feel like a research rework would go well with this, too. I find the gameplay loop for research very boring, and maybe we can retool the department to make it more mission-focused once the server gets used to missions. That’s all the thoughts I have right now. I am so excited! I have been waiting for this for a long time. Even though it might be jank in the beginning, I feel like this a step the server has to take, no matter how game-altering it would be. Go forth boldly!

I disagree with this. Theoretically, this "Elevated Morozi" accent would merely come from Secondaries attempting to speak in the Tradeband-accented way of High Morozi, but I do not think the inability to speak in a perfect High Morozi accent constitutes the addition of an entirely new accent. It would probably be obvious that the Secondary you're speaking to is trying to imitate a High Morozi accent, but I feel like that is best noted in the flavor text. Hypothetically, you could have a very talented Secondary who manages to speak High Morozi in a way that is imperceptible to native High Morozi speakers. In that case, that character should just take the High Morozi accent. I do not agree with the idea that someone failing to sound completely like a certain accent is enough to justify the addition of another accent. For the record, I also disagree with the Reinstated Dreg accent for the same reasons. This is different to the case of, say, the Old Ya'ssa accent and the New Ya'ssa accent present in the NKA. New Ya'ssa deserves to be its own accent as these noble Tajara are specifically learning to speak New Ya'ssa--not Old Ya'ssa. Presumably, New Ya'ssa has simplified/standardized pronunciation, made certain things regular, has more loan words from Siik'maas, etc. This is not simply a case of Tajara failing to speak perfect Old Ya'ssa--it is an entirely different way of speaking the same language. It is roughly equivalent to Classical Latin and Ecclesiastical Latin. Both of these different accents/pronunciation systems exist because they are simply different ways of pronouncing the same texts. People learning Ecclesiastical Latin are not trying to learn Classical Latin and failing to adopt the "correct" pronunciation. This is, however, presumably the case for the Secondary learning Tradeband and the High Morozi accent. For the reasons above, I disagree with this addition of this accent, and if this one fails, I would also call for Reinstated Dreg to be removed as well. You can easily just note in your flavor text that your character sounds like they had a Secondary upbringing, or a Dreg upbringing, and that explains their slightly off but telling accent. In the case of your character, I would say that they should use the Secondary accent but note in their flavor text that their Tradeband (or even their Sol Common/Morozi) sounds similar to a High Morozi accent, but is not quite perfect.

A secondary sprite is fine. I ask it to be unique and not super humanoid, to fit in with the cheap and ubiquitous and manufactured nature of baselines.

We are all vastly overestimating the difference in users between the relay and the main discord. In reality, it is a small group of users who only use the relay and refuse to use the main discord, and vice versa. This will not be some grand merger of radically different cultures and biospheres like the joining of North and South America. I am in favor of this as I think consolidating the OOC chats will just make it simpler. It also may reduce the cliquishness people are bringing up, but that is a minority (of perhaps very vocal) users. I agree with NiennaB here and say that the best reason for merging the servers is that it will make it easier for new players. They suddenly don't have to join three separate servers to be a full member of the community. And if they are overwhelmed by the number of channels and don't want to participate in the apartment servers, they can just close the list of channels. If you have reasons for not communicating in one server or the other (besides activity reasons), those reasons are probably relatively petty and small. If they are bigger and would actually drive you away from the server, you should probably make a complaint on the forums. There is no reason to prevent this merger over a relatively small group of individuals who only use the maincord over the relay or vice-versa, who all enjoy the same server and read the same lore.

I do not think the anti-hierarchy and egalitarian Aut'akh (any sect) would be interested in making an arms corporation--at least, not with the current way the Marauders are written. Also, I don't think any Aut'akh would have the social or financial capital to embark on this sort of enterprise, anyways. They are heavily discriminated against in the Hegemony and they actively disrupt Hephaestus activities. Doesn't vibe for me. It being a random private corporation is fine. I am honestly in favor of the Gorlex Marauders, I don't think anyone cares about the TG connection. If it is such a big deal you can just change the name slightly, like Korlex Marauders or Sy'kex Marauders.

Not sure why an Unathi dominated organization would be talking about Fenrir or Angels.

I support Kyres. The two other applicants, while well-meaning and both great writers, are for the status quo. They generally see the current state of lore and its predicted direction as a good one--they mainly seek to expand, not to fix or change (which is fine). I, however, do see fundamental problems with lore and its relation to the game, and I mostly agree with Kyres as to what those problems are, but I am mainly supporting Kyres as they are endeavoring to enter this slot with a clear vision on how to change the game. Ideally, if Kyres were selected, big changes would happen immediately. I do have a few questions regariding Trio's and Kyres' discussion on Kyres' last application. Looking at Kyres' previous application, you can see their discussion on the phoron scarcity and if that event was managed properly. Trio focuses in on the fact that the question "what happens if phoron becomes scarce" was never (and still is) not defined. I, as a pretty up-to-date reader, have no idea how phoron being scarce would affect space travel or the diplomacy between states. I have not seen any evidence of states acting differently due to the phoron crisis other than Elyra shutting down phoron. I think this is a valid point to bring up. Kyres rebuked this statement by saying KOTW did have a large ripple on lore and was very good and very cool (which I agree with)--however, I think Kyres here is conflating KOTW and the Phoron scarcity. The events of KOTW were caused by the phoron scarcity, but they are not the same thing. KOTW was Sol blowing up mars and killing itself--which was very good and very cool and what I believe Kyres was referring to. But as to what the phoron scarcity does outside of Sol blowing up Mars I have simply no clue. I would like to hear Kyres' thoughts on my summarizing of Trio's and Kyres' debate on the previous application. Is this accurate? Do you have a response as to the lack of consequences for the phoron scarcity? I am also bringing this up to illustrate that this argument seems to stem from a miscommunication/misunderstanding. I don't think having Trio and Kyres on the same ticket would be like oil and water. There can be some excellent changes to lore and the server from this pairing, I believe. Kyres has radical ideas; Trio can be discerning on which ones have the most merit, the most priority, etc. I have my own opinion on which problems are the most pressing but I am not applying for this position, so that seems rather superfluous; I will just say that I think having Kyres on as the DLM will be a net positive for the server. It has been three years since KOTW, I think we need a new shakeup involving our lovely Horizon. Also, not to question Cael, but I find it odd that Cael appointed Trio as the DLM, and resigned not a month later, thus putting Trio in charge. I am not denigrating this passage of power; Trio would still be head Loremaster because Cael would be picking a DLM or a LM no matter what. But, it is strange that that Trio's app was to be the DLM--he applied as such and I (and I assume everyone else) read it and appraised it as such. Would it be different if Trio was applying for LM? I don't know. I am earnestly not trying to engage in bad-faith argumentation. I genuinely think it is strange and I do not know where else to voice this. Did you expect to be LM so quickly (or at all), Trio?

Can we revive this btw? This is still an excellent idea in lieu of the dynamic game mode.

Faye has been a long-time lore contributor and her lore is consistently unique yet grounded in our setting, which I appreciate. She is also good at creating opportunities to show off intangible aspects of lore by the players--an example of that is New Gibson. The superficial (but still important) aspects of a culture/group such as their cuisine, fashion, slang, etc is something that is included in Faye's work, but with New Gibson especially, I can get the vibe of a New Gibsonite extremely well. In short, her lore is dripping with character, and I find it very easy to imagine how the average New Gibsonite (both above and below ground) thinks, acts, wants, etc.. That is the most apparent and awesome part of Faye's writing. For this reason, I support this application. I also mentioned that Faye's writing is grounded, and that reflects in what lore she desires to expand upon. I have also found myself wondering what the Konyanger underbelly is like, an an event arc when we are near Konyang sounds awesome (even if it's on text). The expansion of synthetics in the Wildlands and the trinary church is obvious and, I think, warranted. I do have a question though: what are your thoughts on expanding more of the weird and highly experimental parts of synthetic lore, such as the Golden Deep? I think Synthlore can grow in terms of independent synthetic communities, and as you point out in your application, creativities can run free with some of the high-concept organizations one can create when dealing with synthetic-only independent groups. I know you speak of expanding more on the Golden Deep (which is awesome), but what are your thoughts on potentially having more groups like the Golden Deep (basically, very strange and very cool synthetic communities relatively cut off from a piece of human lore)? What are your thoughts of making the Trinary church more weird in the vein of Golden Deep lore? Edit for more questions: Do you have a horse in the Bioshell race? How would you see them implemented, if you do want them? Are there any parts of synthetic lore you dislike/warrant a rework or expansion? You talked about expanding Konyang, Trinary, etc., but it seems like you have a positive opinion on those parts of lore. What do you think about the lore relating to Synthetics in a Dominian context? Do you think there could be more clash between certain Synthetic organizations and Dominia? Or is the status-quo fine (synths don't touch dominia in any fashion and vice-versa)?

This is a great idea, and allows for some gameplay with consequences (e.g. anything you do on an exoplanet carries over to the next round). It's a neat idea and I like it.

We already had this on aurora. It was bad, because people typically use shift + click to examine things, so people would accidentally run all the time. This was especially a problem for Unathi, where sprinting fucks over your energy.

This gives me an idea--perhaps we can add mini games to each rec room area to bolster the use of those amenities. It would require coding but theoretically zero sprinting. For example, if you bring up the "dueling" or "boxing" area for the holodeck, instead of punching each other ss13 style, it could open up a window where you can choose what moves you do and a little game happens. You could do this for basketball as well, and it could be a mix of actually moving and strategy (like, if you choose the block option, you are more likely to automatically steal the ball if you're in front of someone or block them from moving forward and better at passing the ball, but worse at shooting the ball) and etc. There could possibly be something like this for water polo or just a swimming contest or something. The title for this role could be "referee."

I would like a view to space in the permabrig and in the washroom, maybe?

As Carver brought up, if the XO is indeed changed to being second in command or even second in line, it will almost necessitate the species restrictions being expanded for the XO. It would be far too easy for a Tajara, Unathi, IPC(!), or a Diona(!!!) to essentially run the ship and be a pseudo-captain. For that reason, I negate changing the succession or commanding system as my only option for playing a xeno/machine in command without learning lengthy mechanics is solely the XO (OM is hardly a command position).