Ornias

BYOND Key: Ornias Character Names: Astor Noton, Joie Desai, Pining For The Lost Days, Luka Brala, Mitchell Guess 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: Much like Diona or Varuca, they give a lot more room to act audaciously. Not in a way that would break immersion or be obstructive to others enjoyment, but the ability to play something abnormal and yet entertaining. I really enjoy playing Diona, but I feel like I've got to be in a certain mindset to be able to enjoy them fully. They're a lot more laid back, and I want to see a more "fast-paced" (for lack of a better word) race which can still be entertaining. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Kind of a big question. IPC's have a lot of freedom, but are restricted in the sense that they're still property designed with a purpose - maybe not an express purpose, but they were made to assist. I wish I could write more on this, but I can't really think of how to expand - they're different. Character Name: POLYPHEMUS - ALQ Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs POLYPHEMUS - ALQ a recently built industrial shell designed by IPC design company SSK Design Corp on Satet. Originally designed with the express purpose of transporting materials to and from storehouses for companies, but failed rudimentary testing on account of it's navigation systems preventing it from properly memorizing it's environment and paths it was supposed to take. Instead of being immediately scrapped, however, it was sold at a cheaper price to NanoTrasen for use however they saw fit. The papers were signed, and POLYPHEMUS - ALQ was put to work. Originally, it was decided that they would be used in security forces, but due to their lack of navigational ability, was unable to even approach crime scenes half the time. As such, it was put into a job that would require no navigational ability whatsoever- bartending. It was uploaded with a variety of common drinks, taking up a portion of memory storage, and put to work aboard the NSS Exodus. What do you like about this character? I love industrial shells. Way better than those filthy fucking synth-skins. And I really like the idea of playing an incredibly limited character which gets entirely lost if outside of it's singular purpose. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Notes: I'm sorry if this feels a bit short. I just didn't want to play a big character with a long backstory - it's a re-purposed machine and that's it. Love u <3

"Hello, can I have a sandwich please?" "What?" "A sandwich please?" "What?" "A sandwich?" "What?" "Sandwich?" "What?"

I was playing as the Head of Personnel Luka Brala about an hour ago, when Julian McCoy was an assistant. He says that he's helping make food for the crew, and I see no issue because a cyborg is watching and helping and such. Then he says that he's serving diona nymphs. That's horrific enough, but whatever, ICly I'm sure there are cultures and people out there that eat nymphs. So I order over the radio to the effect of "That's horrific. Don't do that. Don't do that ever again". And they go ahead and do it anyway. Dumb, yes, stupid, yes, but whatever. So eventually I pass by and see him serving deep fried diona nymphs. So I pick it up, emote being disgusted by it, and say "This is disgusting. Put this in disposals and get out from behind the counter". He and the robot (and bear in mind t hat I don't begrudge the robot, because they were playing it comedically) insist that because I said "ever again" it was alright this time. I say "You know what I meant, get out from behind the counter". He (very angrily) complies, climbs over the desk, walks up to me, pokes a finger in my chest, and insults me. I say I'd take him more seriously if he wasn't wearing his silly robe (inquisitors robe) and he says that he'd take me more seriously if I did anything productive rather than sit behind my desk all day, and marches off. The idea that ANYONE would treat their superiors like that in a workplace, would act with such wilful disregard for their employment as to insult their superiors for telling them not to DEEP-FRY A SENTIENT SPECIES not only wouldn't have been employed but wouldn't have stood a chance of passing med-school to become a doctor at all. I don't know him OOCly, but I do know that ICly his character needs serious changes. Maybe a complete change of character, but that's not for me to say.

But, on a more serious note: DNC: Allow for a few side effects of cloning, so as to either add mechanical punishments for cloning the DNCs, or just to have a way to have punishments for cloning. Stuff like a bit of brute damage, visible side effects, disabilities that only manifest on cloning, that sort of thing. Non-Compatible: Allow for people to be non-compatible with prosthetic, maybe of specific brands? Disabled: Actually have the option to be disabled without literally missing the limbs (eg. for wheelchairs). Allergies: Characters can be allergic to a certain food item (eg. nuts, milk, etc.) to varying degrees. Eating that food or a meal cooked with that food will have an allergic reaction. And, this won't even necessarily just be purely genetic stuff, right? It could be just... character traits. So... Glass Jaw: Character has a stronger chance to be knocked unconcious. Slow Runner: Character sprints slower. Overweight: Character starts overweight. Bad Shot: 50% chance to miss if you would normally hit. Poor Pain Resistance: Character feels pain at a higher degree than usual. Heavy Sleeper: Characters who are unconscious for any reason remain that way for twice as long (eg. take twice as long to metabolize sedatives, etc. etc.). And, y'know, the more dangerous ones? Terrible Shot: 80% chance to miss if you would normally hit. Illiterate: Character cannot read. Limp: Character limps automatically, greatly reducing their speed and making them unable to sprint. Lost eye/Blindness: Slightly reduced ranged accuracy and a display message unless their eyes are covered for lost eye, as shown on the tin for blindness (except maybe a slightly longer view range than regular blindness, like 2 tiles?). Obvious we aren't doing all of those, but I am in full support of adding more ways to make flawed characters.

"hello this is a random search" "no, this is code green" "RESISTING flash him!" "wait, no, i'm epi n n ngh hhh annnnnnqnennrjjj" "another criminal killed. good job team"

sorry

make them purchasable from the syndicate uplink

I don't think the wizard needs to be taken down/killed. I think they should eventually if it's a good antag, but that's personal opinion. But I think we can all agree that it should be possible to take down/kill the wizard. Literally the only reason I got killed was because I felt so guilty about the whole event I went in and got myself killed intentionally. Because you literally cannot be killed. And, also, that was literally 3 spell slots. I could have probably achieved the same effect with 2. Out of 10. Only level 3 blink is so broken that you cannot flashbang the wizard. Legitimately, you can't even shoot him with laser weapons, how in gods name are you going to time a flashbang correctly? And gas, while it may be possible, would need to be able to take out the wizard in literally 1/2 a second, or they would just blink out. There is no counter to this currently. Other spells may have similar issues, but blink (to the best of my knowledge) has it the worst.

It looks stupid and needs to be fixed. There's no feedback because it's quite literally just painfully fast. Please fix it.

Or at least it's speed. Currently, 1 upgrade in speed sets the timer to about .5 of a second per blink, and god knows if it's possible to get it any faster. While this is absolutely fucking hilarious in every sense of the word, it is also stupidly broken. God help us if a diona finds it. Please.

Because if it didn't end when we got there, it wouldn't be the "end game room".

Frankly, no-one should face OOC retribution for something that there character can't do, unless it is something truly integral to their job (or, y'know, life). Now, realistically, you give a man a loaded gun and he can kill with that loaded gun. But that's in a clear, "man is standing here, aim and fire". If you gave a man a gun and threw him into a war zone, he'd be practically a null combatant - sure, he might get off a lucky shot, but he's not going to want to be their, nor is he going to make much difference. If you hand a character a gun and they say "I don't know how to use this", they're not saying they don't know how to aim and fire. They're saying they don't know how to aim and fire properly. If you hand a random civilian a gun and say "good luck", they'll likely miss most of their shots, if they can even bring themselves to aim and fire in a high-stress situation at all. Anyone can fire a gun. Not everyone can fire a gun at the enemy.

I think we can all agree on two things: Wizard is fucking SICK now. The server is better as a result of this change. But, on the other end of the stick, now we have some... radically unbalanced spells. I'm talking mainly in relation to the most abysmal antag round I've ever had yesterday, but also in relation to a few other spells: Entangle: Can be one-resisted out of, pretty much consistently, or anyone can pull someone out of it with zero effort whatsoever. Basically a completely useless spell unless you get REALLY lucky with it. Corrupt Form: This is just straight garbage. You transform into this SUPER FUCKING SICK DEMON LORD, but then you just kind of. Die. Really quickly. You're slower, can't use items or spells, and are so fucking weak you can just be killed immediately (legit, it takes only ~6 punches from a human to kill this thing). This spell is not only useless, but actively harmful to the user, and to fully max it takes 3 (I think) spell slots. Utter garbage. Cure Minor Wounds: I get this spell isn't meant to like, fully heal the caster, but it heals such minute amounts of brute damage there's hardly any point in having it. This needs to be buffed. I have no doubt there are others. If you're an idiot like me and take only these garbage spells, then you end up being completely fucked for a round. So, uh, please fix! EDIT: Shame has given me the values - Corrupt Form gives you approx 1.0 movement speed, and 80 HP. A laser rifle does 30, a laser pistol 20. And it's an instant death (read: shite).

BYOND Key: Ornias Character Names: Joie Desai, Astor Noton, some other f Species you are applying to play:Snake What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): pink Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: nah Snek's name: Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss Snek's role: Captain What does your snek man do: wssswwwehe hiss please accept me i dont want to miss this oppertunity i'll fucking regret it for the rest of my life

+1, well thought out character

Delta raises a good point about the player conforming to the hobby, and not vice versa. But I'm still in favour of the old system. Make no mistake, there were incidents of the crew transfer being called when it was not desired. But the old system felt much better, and removing a large number of people from the voting pool seems counterproductive. If I join a round that's been going on for a while, based off the characters I have, I'll likely not be able to catch up if I late-join. Thus, if a rounds been going on for over an hour, chances are I'm not going to join, and instead observe. I think that this is fair, I like watching the game and I don't feel like I can get involved this round. Now, in the old system, that was fine. I'm not the only person that does that and, when enough new players are waiting to join and enough old ones are getting tired of the round/have defeated the antagonist, then a shuttle should be called. I understand that the game may focus around those in the round, but a vote must still be majority rules - if a majority of people want a new round on-station, then a majority of people will be happier if a new round starts. Not all of the are players in this round, but not all of them will feel like they can be, and want to play space-game as much as the next guy. Now, you can say 'that's a personal problem' as much as you want, but that doesn't mean it's not still a problem. And when a large number of people start to experience this 'personal problem', it stops being so personal. Correct, it's not managements fault that not everyone wants to late-join, and they're under no obligation to help said players. They're under no obligation to do anything that the community wants at all - they're in charge. But I believe it's most beneficial if everyone currently playing spacegame gets a vote, because fundamentally: You wouldn't have Aurora open if you didn't want to play. Edit: Accidentally confused Skull with Delta. Whoops.

Before I start relentlessly insulting you and being a right piece of shit, +1. You're a good lad OOCly, and I have no doubt you can play the race quite well. Basically, I don't interact well with you as a head of staff. Often, I feel like you're completely disconnected - from having to call you countless times over the radio, to having you start working in my lab while completely ignoring me. Your character does appear to be quite well fleshed-out, but my issue stems from the fact that I can't see that. You're not doing it to be malicious, and I'm sure it's either purely IC which accidentally slips into OOC frustration, or it's an OOC mistake that clearly not many people are having issues with. I feel comfortable that you know how to play the race, and play a believable character, just try to make sure you use this opportunity to interact with crew. So, I give a semi-tentative +1, and good luck on your app!

First off, video game. This is a video game. I don't mean to be like a fuckin White Knight™ here, but for real, it's not like these changes were made to ruin the game or ruin your fun. Stop getting antsy about every little change that doesn't go your way - if you don't like it, then say you don't like it, and make a calm statement as to why, but don't treat the coder as some fucking paragon of everything you despise. This isn't aimed at OP, because OP was respectful and put forward the issues he had, and did it the right way with examples, but statements like "Good job, Nanako. Great amount of game sense and thought of balance went into this." - really? Second, I can definitely see why these issues exist. The main issue is that it can fire through windows and can't be shot back through them. Remove that feature and they'll be pretty balanced - setting up defences which can't be shot back is pretty unfair. Furthermore, we ARE heavy-RP, which means that someone is going to try shooting them with lasers, because why would they know that lasers can't destroy pylons? But I do agree that ERT shouldn't be necessary to deal with a room full of the things, and a single well-armed security officer should be able to make short work of them. Pylons shouldn't be a threat on their own. They should be area harassment and that's about it.

Correct way to go about this: "Hey, Nanako, could you tell me how all this new cooking stuff works?" Incorrect way to go about this: Publically, "Fuck Nanako for updating this. Fuck Nanako for not telling me immediately. Fuck Nanako." This is a free game made by unpaid developers who do it out of the charity of their hearts mang. Don't go shouting down every new addition just because it hasn't been made fully clear within a week of being released.

The main thing I look out for on Diona applications is the ability to not be a fucking idiot with your ABSOLUTELY GODLIKE STRENGTH with which you are imbued. I know there's the whole "diona have weaknesses" thing but there's no arguing that they are unbelievably good. Of course there's the understanding of the lore which is equally important, but if someone messes up the lore people get their immersion broken for a few seconds. If someone messes up with their role, much like a head of staff, it can ruin rounds. If you'd made this application a while ago, I would have given you a -1, just because back then (at least from my perspective) you had an incredibly... pragmatic approach to dealing with threats as security. More recently, you've shot me as a ninja with an ion weapon p. much immediately after I committed a hostile act (which you apologised for at the time, at least). Please don't take this as a personal attack, because it's not, this is quite literally just my experiences with you in security roles. But, with that said, I love you. You have shown me that you can play very maturely and created/participated in some excellent situations. The game of russian roulette with your HoS, even though I died fucking instantly, was one of the moments that I've had the most fun with on Aurora. Your responses show you have absolutely no desire to play them like that, and you clearly understand that is one of the risks associated with the race. +1. Sorry for the speel.

Despite absolutely loving the contest, the way that it was scored felt so... off. Perhaps 'unfairly' is the wrong word, but the anti-synthetics were clearly the most vocal and dominant force. They won most events, and without a constant tracker of THIS IS THE CURRENT WIN-LOSS RATIO, it was incredibly easy to feel throughout the contest like the anti-synthetics were winning by a mile. I guess the issue for me was that the first part of the contest seemed to have so little... impact ICly. Unless I missed something obvious (which would be a problem on it's own), it was a purely OOC thing to provide ideas for your antag play (which people don't tend to get involved with). If there had been some obvious IC build up, even then, it would have been really enjoyable. If there had been visible effects THROUGHOUT, it would have felt so much fairer. But as it stands, it was all one buildup behind a curtain. Sure, it may have been graded exactly as it was meant to be graded, so in the strictest sense it was 'fair', but that was completely invisible up until the contest was finished. This was what made the event so enjoyable for me, I think. The involved bit. A good event is impossible not to get involved with. I daresay those who frequently play xenoes rated higher than those that didn't, but that's just speculation. At one point, while I was talking with someone ordering an exosuit, I let slip a joke which was derogatory to Sol (X was tighter than a Sol Governors daughter). I was immediately threatened with physical violence, and I backed down- and that was one of the things I remember clearest about the entire contest. The individual events are fun, yes, but the best parts will always come from character involvement. The idea that the event actually means something beyond just 'oh, shit, time to play ATLAS' or 'oh, shit, time to play Synth Protector™. I loved this event, but I can see that people who didn't get involved might not. It's not their fault for not doing it - it's just something to improve on in future events, making the effects more wide-reaching. Oh, and can we please remember that GAIA is the leading party of the Sol Alliance? Not ATLAS?

I'm referring to the examples given by other people, not the ones you mentioned. What you mentioned isn't controlling at all, don't get me wrong, because it focuses on the world around the characters rather than the characters themselves. The ones that you mentioned, while I can understand where your thought process is coming from, doesn't really stop the problem that you want it to. Paying for cloning will do very little because of how little value money has OOCly, a disability will likely be able to be cured very quickly, medication will likely be prepared by chemists long before anyone even dies, and the limited clonings per shift is unlikely to fix the problem because it's very rare to take more than one or two waves of security to take down an antag. IC solutions to OOC issues boys. That's the dream.

You could say the same thing about an incompetent officer breaking the law that needs to be demoted. There's an SOP, and it's followed, Head of Staff or none. If someone breaks it, security will be able to either peacefully or, depending the circumstances, non-peacefully, deal with it. You can't have a sec cloning factory if sec is barred off from the cloned. The main reason why I'm so averse to having a mechanical limitation is because it so heavily stifles creativity in roleplay. If it's a PTSD style mechanic, it will either force a character to act in a way they don't feel is what their character should be like, or they'd be acting like that anyway. There's no net positive outcome for the person cloned. If it's a "oh, they're cloned without X organs" or similar, the issue presents itself that the person cloned is going to be spending a LONG time staring at the oh-so-familiar tunnel vision screen while they have surgery performed on them. They don't get to roleplay, and just have to sit waiting for the surgery to finish before they stand up and charge back out. We're a heavy RP game. So much can be fixed not by OOC intervention, but by building on the aspects that make our game so appealing. Add an IC regulation preventing them from going back to work, and that's that. People that try to break it will get arrested, and although it's not a perfect system it's a million times better than controlling how people play their own characters.

I'd like to refer everyone to this: https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=7618&p=74021 It's fantastic. I'm not saying it should be enforced, but I'd love to see more people using it. But, back to the topic at hand, I believe it would be better for everyone (except security who just want their valids) if cloned individuals are locked out of dangerous roles. Someone who is cloned has had their entire life snatched away and given back. People are not going to be safe to go back to vital roles - perhaps even locking them out of all non-civilian roles for the remainder of the shift (unless they pass a psychological exam, perhaps, to give psychiatrists something to fucking do, and so that an officer that got ganked doesn't have his round ruined). I understand why you'd say this, but it's more an enforced by Heads of Staff deal. A security officer literally not being allowed back to work would be different than them just being advised to RP their cloning.