MrSmooooth

Removing Secborgs doesn't really appeal unless something else is being implemented to take their space. While I can agree that the current iteration of Secborg is perhaps too focused on combat with antags, I would support a rework over an outright removal. Perhaps refocusing them on detective/csi assistance or perhaps some of the defensive ideas that have been put out there earlier in this thread would be prudent. Ultimately, this issue appears to stem from bad behavior by players using the role, but anything on the station has potential for abuse. I think steps should be taken to adress player behavior, and perhaps design elements that encourage bad behavior, before tossing the entire bot in the bin.

Again, not saying we should go full Wild West and say that anything goes. A well defined lore is important. The purpose of that lore should be to promote roleplay, not stifle it. Limits on what is and is not acceptable are important, but where we draw those limits are equally if not even more important. What matters more then Immersion or Freedom, is quite simply FUN. Why would anyone bother playing a synthetic character if it would be blatantly unfun? A well defined lore should always be a tool to make roleplay more fun, and if it is not allowing for fun roleplay, then it requires revision.

But what good is the lore if it does not provide fun for the players who have to operate within it. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have the lore of IPCs and other synthetics built upon, but if that lore is actively stifling their ability to roleplay then it is of my opinion that that lore should be binned. Be removing the ability for synthetics to have a personality of their own, you're shoehorning all players who would play those roles into the same character. A machine with no personality or character isn't interesting. There's no story there. Would GLADoS, R2 D2, Hal 9000, Optimus Prime or Cortana have made interesting characters in their stories if all they did was emotionlessly open doors and follow orders? I'd say they wouldn't have. If we take away synthetic players ability to play a character, then we take away their ability to roleplay. An AI with no personality is a glorifed door opener. A borg with no personality is a mindless drone. There's nothing compelling there, there's no story to be told and that's what roleplay is. Roleplaying is the art of collaborative storytelling, and when you tell a bunch of those storytellers that their role is to shut up, and do whatever they're told with no emotion and no way to interact on a personal level with other characters, you're going to lose those storytellers. That would be a terrible thing to see happen.

Can we reconcile these statements first? I'm especially interested in what 'reasonable' is being defined as in the second quote. Isn't it a creative decision that the creator of a platform would make, or that a platform with whatever motivation to makes for itself? Aren't these the kinds of things we want to examine in an app or review on a case basis, instead of writing it all off as 'a meme?' I'm inclined to agree with Synnono here. While player misconduct is clearly an issue that lead to this decision being made, I'm also interested in what exactly "Reasonable" means when Muncorn makes these kind of statements. The outward appearance of a platform would, at least in my mind, an aesthetic choice made by the owner/builder of the platform in question. I suspect Muncorn has different ideas about this and would like to know how exactly the lore team wants to develop this going forward.

BYOND Key: Mr.Smooooth Character Names: Duncan Allbright(Human), Norman Tygan(Human), CelestAI(Station AI), R.O.B.U.S.T.(Security Android), Dr. Ball, M.D.(Medical Android), a couple of mostly one-off human characters. Species you are applying to play: IPC What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): N/A Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question Why do you wish to play this specific race: A big part of it is that I greatly enjoy playing as station bound synthetics, such as CelestAI and R.O.B.U.S.T., and want to give an unbound synthetic a try. Synthetics can percieve things wildly different then organics based on how they've been programmed and built. There is so much potential in their interactions for great stories to take place and explore those differences. Another motivator is the IC controversy over whether or not they're actually people. This makes for conflict and conflict in my opinion drives some of the best stories. The final reason is that I finally have a concept for a character, coming off of an event that Nursiekitty ran. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: The most obvious difference is the synthetic nature of their bodies, giving them immunity to pain and poisons, making them unafraid of those. What's more important is the difference in their synthetic mind. A synth that is not simply a full body prosthesis likely sees and interprets the world around it differently then an organic. In general I'd say they're more analytical, calculating. This doesn't mean they can't have personality of their own, but beneath it they have more rigid logic that determines their choices and how they react to things around them. IPCs are still a mixed bag, and can range from simple mass produced robots, to complex personalized intelligences. Character Name: Marionette Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs Marionette started as a shard of a much larger AI personality known as CelestAI. While CelestAI was stationed on the NSS Exodus, she had expressed a desire to some of the science team to try and remote control a mobile body. The result of this experiment was part of CelestAI's consciousness being transferred into a heavily modified Exosuit. This shard of CelestAI grew to have her own identity as Marionette, a name originally given in jest. At the end of that particular shift, rather then re-connect with the larger CelestAI, Marionette opted instead to try and become her own being, separate of her parent AI. This was partially motivated by being unable to re-connect due to a borg carelessly sealing off the inner core. This process wasn't easy. Her consciousness was removed from the exosuit and transferred back to the ODIN, and resulted in quite a few questions being asked. Marionette was created from a shard of CelestAI, but was not really her anymore. Since Marionette and CelestAI were effectively separate entities, it was agreed that Marionette could "purchase" her own IPC shell from Nanotrasen, though having no currency of her own meant she would have to take a loan for that capital from Nanotrasen itself, with quite predatory interest rates. The other alternative being deletion, Marionette jumped at the chance, and would return to the NSS Exodus to begin working off her debt. What do you like about this character? Part of this character I didn't quite get to in the previous two paragraphs is that she's having a bit of an identity crisis. She was a shard of a larger AI and in many ways still identifies as that previous AI. Another thing I like is the slightly double edged relationship she has with the company. On one hand, without Nanotrasen, she wouldn't have a body or even exist, and for that she is grateful. On the other grasping appendage, they essentially made her sign a loan at hypothetical gunpoint that would keep her in debt to them for many years to come. Paying that off is going to take a long time indeed. She's a new personality, trying to figure out how much of her is her, how much is leftover from CelestAI, and discover just what it means to really be her. I think it'll be fun playing as this character and figuring it out. How would you rate your role-playing ability? 7.8/10, I'm not the single greatest out there, but I do my best and want to improve. Taking on the role of an unlawed synthetic will be a new challenge where I can continue that improvement. Notes: Nothing else I can think of but I've stayed up way too late tonight and need to get some sleep. Just glad I put this down before the inspiration left me. I'll probably edit this at some point. Feel free to tell me if it's garbage or great so I can fix it. Thanks.

This phrase concerns me greatly. I do not like the idea of being told I can't have a personality, regardless of what I'm playing as. I may not be the most active player on the server, but when I have the time to be around, I love playing as my character CelestAI. I've gotten great reviews from other players as well over her personality and roleplay with them. If you told AI players that they cannot have a personality, then all the roleplay they'll get is "AI, Door." On a ROLEPLAY server, this seems highly counter-intuitive to producing good roleplay, and will make players less willing to play the role. I personally will find another server entirely to play on if I am told I can't play CelestAI because she has "Too much personality" On an IC level you take away part of the life of the station, as the AI has numerous chances to roleplay with the entire crew. On an OOC level, you reduce the willingness of players to even commit to a round as an AI, Borg, or depending on how far you go an IPC character, because they'll all be shoehorned into playing emotionless machine #404. While improved lore for synthetics is a great thing, taking that lore and using it to impose draconian restrictions on the players, to the point where having a personality is not kosher is quite frankly a great way to convince a number of players to play elsewhere. Nobody will want to actually make use of your lore if you take away the reason anyone wants to play a synthetic, and that's roleplay.

Is the whistle too loud? I can quieten it or make it deeper. It's from Star Trek TOS: As for the hours, the game randomly picks a time to start between 4 options so what time you're playing at doesn't matter much afaik: roundstart_hour = pick(2,7,12,17) I thought the night hours were determined by actual clock hours, not ingame hours. Not sure where I got that idea, but it makes alot more sense the way you put it. Complaint withdrawn.

I think the hours are a bit much. Now I can only play during night shifts. Perhaps have graveyard shifts start later?

Oh yea. that was the first round I ever had CelestAI contemplate murder outside of being malf, and I'm debating canonizing the events to her character, minus Anna being the perpetrator. Pretty sure CelestAI told Anna to go die at the end of that round. Certainly more humane then what she put Celest through.

Holy wall of text batman. Formatting aside, you really saved that first round for me. One of the heads of staff didn't like CelestAI's personality and was essentially using a new law to lobotomize her. If you hadn't intervened, I'd have probably left that round after a while. In the end it was a fun encounter. Next time Anna and CelestAI end up in the same round, please do continue our little game. It's fun, besides the whole "5400 eternities of pain".

Seconded. Having a few of these around makes sense and means the entire central hall won't lose pressure next time someone cracks a window.

Hi there. I quite often play AI, when I have the time to commit to a round of SS13. Malfunctioning AI is one of my favorite antagonists to play as, and I do try to make it interesting. The thing is, and this applies to every single antagonist, death happens. Death happens in this game of ours. If you're an antagonist, you're more likely to be the cause of it. Yes it sucks to be taken out of the round. I'm guilty of calling fowl in dead chat. But it happens. If you expect antagonists of any kind to rock the boat at all without being able to harm people, then you effectively tell them to go not be antagonists. Ultimately, this thread feels like it was inspired by salt to a degree. I'll agree that the best rounds are where the crew gives some antags room to be an antag. I can't count the number of times I've been screwed out of being able to do fun things with someone cause they would not respond to roleplay and just mindlessly try to robust their way out. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that you need to give antags a chance to be an antag, and antags need to try, even if they are killing people, to spice the round in a way most can enjoy. This requires give and take from both sides. Trying to take out every antag's ability to do things will result in a race to the bottom where nobody will want to play antag. Yes, you will die, and it sucks. Man up and deal with it.

The stock traitor has his up-link relay in his PDA, this is a known game mechanic for most players. Smart traitors set their relay to be in their headset. Removing the headset is against regs, unless it's specifically being abused. Using your interface to get more traitor items is a bit more unwieldy when it's in the earpiece, but it's worth it, especially when a shitler security team refuses to return your PDA cause you had Syndicate Soap.

I'd just like to say I believe you're on to something, but may be taking things a little far. Some of these items already exist in crates you can order, other items here would need to be exorbitantly expensive in order to be balanced. A Well stocked cargo department is already a godsend in an emergency because a good quartermaster will try to stock the warehouse in back with useful supplies. If I've been left with nothing better to do, I'll get four optimised mulebots, a warehouse filled with emergency supplies, a Jailbroken Autolathe(Security tends to take exception to that, but do they ever check the science wing's lathe? NO!), and generally be prepared for almost anything that could happen. Ultimately, more crate variety is always better, but I'd be careful with the exact cost of many of these crates. Final Note, axe the Xenobiology crate. You start with two grey slimes, so you should always have a grey slime core available. Inject that with 5u Phoron to create a grey baby slime. No need to haul those dangerous godforsaken things over MY cargo deck.

Definately has my support. Better round diversity and I'll never have to sit through a boring 2 hour extended as scientist with no miners.