MoondancerPony

You can get dogs and cats from Cargo. Cargo doles out pets almost every other shift like they're candy. There is a pet for each Head of Staff already. Complaints about "pets in the workplace!" are entirely moot. I see no reason why this shouldn't be added, but I think it would be better if it were, say, an item she could use on Lamarr's cage to turn it into a dog crate or something. +1.

"Drop the ship and minimize the station" is what will answer your first three questions. The station is going to effectively be a latejoin point, CCIA area, evacuation point, etc. I think when you said "ship" you meant what we're calling the station. For your fourth question, because we may want to try out different environments, and give people a chance to build the colony in a different way. Also for IC lore reasons that are still being worked out, but effectively we're working under the assumption characters are going to be there specifically to get the colony started, then they're going to be rotated out to set up a new colony while actual colonists take over the old colony. We're open to alternatives, of course, since this is one part we're definitely not sold on. Rimworld was something that was brought up, but in the context of avoiding being too much like it. The intent isn't to make a survival colony game, but to take SS13 and revamp/redo a bunch of mechanics, and add some new ones such as persistent economy (an old project that would fit this well).

According to the comments in the code, this is an intended feature that simply isn't functioning. Meaning it can bypass dev. It was also planned, but I didn't get around to it-- this will be happening, definitely. My biggest issue was phrasing it, but you came up with a good way to word it. Also, you can passive grab, switch to help intent, and click them to check the targeted bodypart for wounds, @Conspiir. Specifically wounds, breaks, blood loss, etc.

I'm in the same boat as Resilynn; while I don't use keloderm, I can see the appeal, and further player choice in the chemical mixes they want to use is good. There's no clear advantage of one over the other, and it's ultimately up to player choice. That said, the metabolism system Burger mentioned on the Discord shows some potential, but I don't know if that's what's implemented here given the barebones topic post. Competitive inhibition of certain chemicals that act similarly would make sense, but I'm not sure if that's what's going on here. Will have to look at it later, but as it stands, I don't see how it's a big deal. Yes, it's an oversight, but there is such a thing as an "ascended glitch". Self-surgery, multi-surgery, and so on. If something favorably affects the metagame to make it more diverse and interesting, I would say that it would be worthy of being looked at-- even if it requires some tweaking to make it a well-rounded, balanced feature.

When you say 'unbranded', you don't mean 'baseline', right? If so, I don't see any immediate issues with this, because that was my biggest concern. My second issue is the balance, I suppose, but Cake already addressed that. It seems, though, that your main suggestion is "let IPCs be slaved to the AI", which... ehh? Sure, but it sounds like a pain to get it to work properly-- what if there's not an AI when you join? What if the AI leaves? What if a new AI latejoins? Is it possible for antagonist NT-IPCs to be de-synchronised, emagged, etc.? Is there (should there be) a way to link these IPCs to the AI via a console?

I'm just going to offer my two cents-- Often the issue is bad command and security play in these 'murderbone' events. I find that shifting the focus onto 'protect civilians and evacuate' instead of 'hunt down the antag' makes them better-- suboptimal play will result in suboptimal outcomes, and if you fail to realise that as neither mall cops nor soldiers, the NSS Aurora security force has dangerous gear and real responsibilities, but is also not a fugitive hunting team or an elite strike force. They are there to ensure the safety of civilians. Structuring the player/command response to events around this principle has made them much more enjoyable, in my experience.

Yes. Due to certain changes in real-life circumstances, I don't expect that to be an issue.

Ckey/BYOND Username: MoondancerPony Position Being Applied For (coder, mapper, spriter): Coder Past Experiences/Knowledge: I was formerly a dev on Aurora. I've also contributed to some other codebases, as well as worked on HTML/CSS projects outside of the SS13 community. Also, all the things in my previous app(s) still apply. Examples of Past Work: https://i.imgur.com/ZcuPAOr.png I've made 28 commits to the Aurora codebase, with 2,560 lines added and 1,300 lines removed, roughly. If you want more specific things: I made hoists, fixed IPC surgery, and did the journalist/newscaster revamp (with more changes planned in the future). Preferred Mode of Communication (Skype, Steam, etc.): Discord. jade-2562#9602 Additional Comments: I meant to re-open my original reapplication a few months ago, but since it's locked and archived it's a bit late. Anyway, I'm mainly doing this because I want to try my hand at more revamps in the style of the journalist/newscaster rework. I can do that better if I can cooperate more with other developers. There's also the whole 'be the change you want to see' mantra that's been driving me since I originally left. After that hiatus from Aurora, and after applying that statement, I think the community as a whole is better than it was when I quit (mostly due to the administration being much better now).

The tribunal doesn't even have to be and shouldn't be completely removed. They could be exiled and living in some system, the frontier, in a ship hiding between Sol and Moroz, etc. This would allow for great conflicts between nobles, Tribunal supporters, and Edict Breakers. The main thing is that the Tribunal is being decoupled from the United Empire of Moroz; it doesn't have to stop existing entirely. The United Empire of Moroz could be compared to 16th-17th century politiques, absolute monarchs, and/or Realpolitiks. They either weaken, consolidate and control, or remove (organized) religions and churches that they consider strong enough to depose or revolt against them. A failed revolution by the Tribunal would allow both to become larger players on a major scale; another state could harbor the Tribunal, recognizing them as the official and exiled governmental authority of Dominia, while others could recognize Emperor Boleslaw as the sole authority. Also, the concept of an elective dictatorship/monarchy (as opposed to a hereditary one, so Boleslaw could just pick his successor if he had no heirs capable/worthy of taking the throne) is really interesting, tbh. Anyway, uh, my main thing is that a monarch sharing power with a religious authority has never ended well in history. One or the other has attempted to overthrow their 'partner', and either they've succeeded or they get exiled, deposed, etc. I just think that this happening to Dominia would do more to bring it into the world stage, because "religion vs state" is a conflict that lots of characters can relate to- the Maraziite Order oppressing various non-Sk'akh sects, for example. And supporters of the Hegemony would likely start being concerned about the increasing power of the Maraziites, and the Sk'akh church would probably have some concerns about the Hegemony attempting the same with them. It wouldn't necessarily have to lead to any changes, since I'm sure they could solve their differences peacefully enough, but it would definitely get a lot of people thinking about Dominia and the state of things in the lore as a whole.

This is what was suggested for the Bridge and Command access; how come "having to ask for permission" would work for Medical but not for the Bridge? Is a CMO's authority over an IAA somehow greater than the Captain's?

I've used it on other Bay-based servers, and been impressed by it, but unfortunately I've been told there's a moratorium on porting features from other servers. I'll try to think of alternate ways to implement the same thing unless someone says the port is alright.

I initially also gave this a +1, but you worded what I was originally trying to say quite well, and so I'm retracting my +1. In the coder discord, I have seen some really rude and obnoxious behavior from him, specifically attacking individuals: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/432343129014927371/449700967068467221/IMG_20180525_173041.png https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/432343129014927371/449699138985263105/IMG_20180525_172206.png https://i.imgur.com/K6zY6Bw.png https://i.imgur.com/OLDgGAh.png His complete disregard for non-dev (and former dev) opinion leaves a bad taste in my mouth, even in the (relatively few) cases where I'd agree with his assessment of the feedback. Burger's behavior in OOC is also rude rather often, especially when playing FLAWED (as the all-caps doesn't help cushion the blow at all). When crew transfer votes fail, he tends to start shouting in all-caps in OOC, as well as when rounds end, insulting people in the round (antagonists, Command, a specific department), again in all-caps. While I get that this may be related to his character gimmick with FLAWED, it's definitely not a sign of maturity or behavior a coder should be exhibiting so often. I can't in good faith do anything but -1 this application. Burger, I would reconsider it if you changed your behavior and attempted to act more mature and respectful. EDIT: https://i.imgur.com/OQe4prl.png I can relate to this, I really can. Like several other developers, current and former, I had to actually completely leave the community for a while and stop developing because the stress from it was adversely affecting my health. But I would say that it was more the toxic, echo-chamber environment surrounding developers and contributors as a whole that made me leave, not the players. The exact kind of toxic behavior you're exhibiting is an issue I have seen several people raise, but the only response seems to be doubling down on it. This isn't a personal vendetta or anything, and I'm trying my hardest to give constructive feedback and also get across that I understand where you're coming from, but the responses to feedback you give are less than satisfactory. You complain about players acting entitled, but I would argue that you exhibit similar behavior; you disregard negative feedback because of some supposed inherent flaw with the feedback or the person giving it (a case of the fundamental attribution error, I think), or you act entitled to positive feedback and don't actually reflect on it at all. Additionally, an inability to listen to feedback, or an outright denial to do so, is not a good behavior in a dev. No one has an obligation to listen to feedback, yes. That's irrelevant. It is a good idea to listen to feedback, and exercise discretion in what does and doesn't matter based on the merit of the feedback, as opposed to outright ignoring it depending on whether a "content creator" or "content consumer" made it. I would really reconsider this assessment of you if you even made an effort to change, regardless of whether or not it's successful.

I didn't intend for the limit to be so low, I think I mistook it for words instead of characters. Support. Will work on it.

It's already been merged, but I assume the dev team is still open to tweaks. Yes, the devs have a policy against removing existing references. That doesn't mean we should actively add more, especially when almost no one was asking for them. The sprite doesn't even look that good or unique, and it's not "forcing" an aesthetic on anyone any less than the noir outfits were. Retrofuturism is a thing, and an important part of the setting. Things like replacing the tape recorder with the new universal recorder sprite, this, etc., are just... I don't know, removing fun and going against the style and direction of the server and setting?

In the current PR, the noir clothing is being replaced not with a normal jacket, but with an item that is admitted to be a reference to Detroit: Become Human. No matter what way you slice it, this is much worse than the noir clothes. Additionally, it keeps the other parts of the noir aesthetic (like wooden floors and tables) while removing the good parts (the unique camera console and wardrobe, as well as the items). I think a reference to another video game as the default is much worse than 'forcing' noir clothes on people. I think a decent compromise would be giving the player options, but on the other hand, is adding a reference item as a supposedly better 'replacement' really necessary at all? Proof it's a reference item: https://i.imgur.com/QD8CLoT.png And in general, I don't think outright removing the noir clothes as an option is a good idea, either. I would say do nothing or add more options. EDIT: Keep in mind that the current loadout trenchcoat is a non-armored (but better looking) variety that isn't role-restricted.

In my opinion, Burger has decent code. I've seen some issues mainly with his attitude and with the... scope? Of new features he tries to add. Like many of our developers and contributors (some notable ones are Fowl and Pacman, as well as Burger), he seems to prefer the stick to the carrot when trying to impact player behavior. However, in the instances where he has tried to catch flies with honey instead of vinegar, I've seen some very good results- notable examples are the upcoming modular kinetic accelerator and mine ruins PRs. In terms of player attitude, I have some gripes regarding behavior in OOC and with specific character. However, it's nothing that I think will impact Burger's work as a dev. Honestly? I feel like Burger would do well as a dev, though maybe he needs to re-examine what direction he takes his development in (I think his recent work showcases what he can do if applied in the right way very well), or perhaps instead be put on a shorter leash regarding what contributions will and won't be accepted. A notable example of the 'stick instead of the carrot' behavior is the vendor food change that was both widely disliked by players as well as game breaking. I heard an alternate proposal, also by Burger (to my knowledge), that involved foods made on-station being buffed/more beneficial, while keeping vendor food the baseline. Without commenting on the balance or feasibility of that specific proposal, I think that the kind of logic demonstrated in that suggestion is more of what we need to see. I already see this with how, in order to make modular KAs interesting and useful, they were buffed instead of nerfing the non-modular KAs. I think Burger would do well on the development team (with some personal reflection), and I look forward to seeing what he has to offer Aurora, as after a while of gaining experience he seems to be moving in the right direction. EDIT: Given recent events that show that Burger hasn't changed at all, I retract my +1.

Elevators aren't affected by cutting off power. You can simply just crowbar open and closed the outer doors to make the elevator go. Beartraps on staircases are a fun tactic on Polaris, anyway. I'm sure it'd be as fun on Aurora. But more seriously, there are just as many if not more ways to disable a staircase or ladder than an elevator. +1 from me.

I wasn't too sure about the thing with his brother, either. I hope the change I made to that specific part works? Also, thank you for the feedback!

I agree with this completely. RNG errors are not fun. Time-based mechanics are incredibly tedious and not fun. Not rewarding player skill is not fun. Buying tech also makes zero sense, as well as your assertion that "science should not be able to jerk itself off". Their purpose is to research things, not to buy research disks and wait 30 minutes. Also, your removal of most of the research categories. No. Absolutely not, that would take so much time to re-do for every item as well as cripple a system that works fine as-is.

BYOND Key: MoondancerPony Character Names: ResearchMate 2459, Monica Huntington, Rita Falcone Species you are applying to play: Unathi What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): Dark khaki (sandy green), #bdb76b 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: In my opinion, Unathi lore is the most well-developed and interesting lore for all the species, humans (and IPCs, unfortunately) included. They have an ongoing and frequently updating narrative that's not only interesting and thought-provoking but also relevant to characters on and off the station. Their culture is intricate and interesting, allowing it to be easily incorporated into a character's backstory in an interesting way. Their news articles, specifically, provide a variety of different perspectives on the issues Unathi have, with a sort of nuance that I feel the Tajara conflict lacks. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Unathi have a very strong cultural identity based around their faith and their clan, and for those loyal to the Izweski Hegemony, their nation. The concept of duty and honor is also very much engrained in them, and no other species has such a pervasive cultural identity (regardless of what faith, clan, or nation you are from) besides the Unathi. Your position in society is very much determined by your clan and honor- a Guwan will spend their life as the lowest of the low, while the heir to a powerful clan may live in relative luxury. There's not much in the way of upward mobility in society, save for perhaps marriage, and none for a Guwan. There are also the mechanical differences, of course- ethanol being toxic, cold temperatures being dangerous, and so on. Character Name: Hiwozir Akhandi Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs Born on Moghes in early Kasavakh in 2440 to the traditionalist Akrunz clan (as one of three eggs laid in the same clutch) shortly after the atomic exchange between the Traditionalist Coalition and the Izweski Hegemony, he had no established home or village as his family was forced to flee their village and abandon their livelihoods to escape the rapidly encroaching radioactive wastelands. His earliest memories are of struggling to survive, travelling to various villages and begging, stealing, and doing other unscrupulous acts in order to get food, water, and other necessities for himself and his family. This persisted until around 2450, when Hiwozir attempted to steal a piece of salted meat from a temple in a village he and the remains of his clan had travelled to. Unbeknownst to him, it was a temple of the Akhanzi Order, and he was almost immediately caught by an Akhandi. Instead of punishing him, however, the Akhandi sat him down and shared the piece of meat with the young Unathi, while talking with him about various doctrines and beliefs of the Order. Initially, this had no impact on him, and as soon as the Akhandi's back was turned he stole more food from the temple and fled the village with his family, as they usually did. However, soon after his mother and sister fell seriously ill, and though they soon recovered they were never at full health again. Shortly after he was robbed by a Guwan and attacked, giving him a scar across his right eye and losing his ability to see in that eye. Several other misfortunes befell him and his family as they travelled, and eventually both his mother and sister became sick again and died shortly after. Recalling what he was told by the Akhandi he met, he feared he had disgraced his ancestors and placed a curse upon himself and his clan. He took what little he had and planned a pilgrimage back to the village he met that Akhandi at, believing that the only thing that would act exonerate himself to his ancestors was to repay his debt to the Akhanzi Order that he had incurred through stealing and taking advantage of them. His brother, having heard of his plans to make his pilgrimage, considered him to be a traitor to his clan and cut off his horn in his sleep as punishment. After, ashamed by his dishonorable deed done in a fit of rage, his brother fled before the morning. As soon as he was adequately healed, Hiwozir gave his farewells to his father and began his journey, and spent much of his time reliving his past travels, this time taking up more honourable jobs in order to get enough supplies to travel to the next village on his route. Eventually, at the age of sixteen, he arrived back to the temple and requested to join the Akhanzi Order as penance for his transgressions. He was accepted as an acolyte and began his studies and training under the more experienced Akhandi at the temple, and after two years he proved himself worthy to become an Akhandi. In 2458 at the age of 18, he officially renounced his clan and became Hiwozir Akhandi instead of Hiwozir Akrunz. Two years passed as he continued his dedication and faith to the Akhanzi Order, learning, teaching, and recording their knowledge and beliefs in the temple. In May of 2460, however, the temple was raided and destroyed, despite several of the shamans giving themselves up willingly to the Maraziite Order in an attempt to get them to spare the temple itself and the knowledge it held. Hiwozir was distraught at yet another disaster befalling him and fled to the spaceport in Skalamar, where he paid a small cargo ship to smuggle him to Tau Ceti. He arrived in Tau Ceti two weeks after his temple was destroyed, and left in the NTCC Odin arrivals bay to his own devices. He was quickly flagged down by a NanoTrasen recruiter looking for new arrivals, and after a short and hurried explanation to a rather bewildered recruiter about the Maraziite crusade against the Akhanzi, hired as a chaplain and promised NanoTrasen-provided housing on the Odin. However, he is very much unfamiliar with both Izweski Unathi culture and human culture, and so his arrival in Tau Ceti was very harsh for him. His immense loss as well as the culture shock have led to him being lost in a truly alien environment, not used to other species, megacorporations, or space. What do you like about this character? Even though he is one of the few Akhanzi remaining, and one of even fewer in Tau Ceti space, his culture shock and the loss of his temple and fellow Akhanzi have dealt a huge blow to his ability to practice his religion and save his culture. As a surviving Akhandi, he has an obligation to restore his religion's texts and teach those willing to learn, but as a victim of the crusade stranded in an alien nation, he's dealing with culture shock as well as overcoming witnessing the destruction of the only concrete home he's ever had and being forced to abandon it and his fellow Akhanzi. To an extent, he blames himself and his 'curse' for it, believing that he still needs to atone for his crimes and exonerate himself to his ancestors. How would you rate your role-playing ability? I don't like this question too much, but I've definitely improved since the last time I applied for something- probably around a 7/10. Notes: Nothing I can think of. My original attempt at writing this got eaten by the forums, whoops. And then it happened again.

I've created a PR addressing your concerns, [mention]Kaed[/mention]. https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/4720 I hope it's thorough enough, tell me if you have any complaints with how I rebalanced them. It's mostly a stopgap solution until someone figures out how to make the things in question more phoron related.

I'm retracting my application. I no longer want to be a dev or contribute to this community.

Is this a bad thing? Lore shouldn't be confusing or unknown OOCly. It should be available to players OOCly, and whether or not it's widely known IC is entirely different. Treating players like they can't separate the two disrespects both them, their characters, and the lore. You have a point about the contradictions and errors, but that would be less of a job for an antag loredev and more of a general lore-maintainer. Contradictions within lore are a pet peeve of mine, but I don't think the loredevs individually are suited to fixing these, at least not on their own. The subtlety, however, I don't really get. You don't really define what you mean by this, so "subtlety" effectively becomes a meaningless buzzword. Again- this could probably be actually known ICly through some sort of manifesto. And, again, it can be OOCly stated if it is true. I don't mean that you should be beating the players over the head with some things, but not everything has to be hidden and obscure- this is why people tend to disregard lore and substitute their own. It's either bad, obscure (to the point that even some loredevs and staff had no idea it was still on the wiki, etc), or outdated (to the point that loredevs acknowledge that it exists and is public, and may even be very easy to find, but doesn't accurately reflect their lore). I'm also worried that if you did become an antag loredev, you would do what most other loredevs have done at some point and done a rewrite (including reverting other rewrites, technically) to bring it more in-line with your "personal vision" for the antags instead of the server's lore as a whole, as well as cultivating a consistent and interesting lore for players to read and incorporate. To that end, what will you do to make sure that this doesn't become another "someone's loredev for a few months, rewrites everything, then quits" incident if you are accepted? What are you going to do to make the lore fit the server's environment, atmosphere, other lore, and aims more than anyone's personal ideas for the lore (including your own)? Aurora has good lore, and this includes antag lore, but a lot of it is badly incorporated or integrated, not fleshed out enough, abandoned, or not internally consistent. I'm worried that adding yet another loredev to this would do nothing to alleviate it and instead damage the coherency of the overall lore and story as a whole, while adding nothing for the players to enjoy besides yet another person's separate vision for the lore, completely divorced from the rest. EDIT: Another thing. Lots of antags are, at least to an extent, lore-optional to make room for gimmicks. Traitors are just traitors in most circumstances (with a syndicate uplink of some sort, but it doesn't have to be used), not explicitly Syndicate sleeper agents. Like in the antag contest, it would be nice to have several minor/background antag factions you could base your antagging off of (like the Synthetic Liberation Front, etc) instead of more than just the Syndicate, etc. The Syndicate being defined as it is is not an issue, save for self-contradiction. A better thing would be to tidy up the inconsistencies and then add more options. Please note that this is not necessarily a personal attack, just prompting some questions because of things I've observed while playing on Aurora and elsewhere. I'm very, very happy you're talking a lot about consistency in the lore. Seriously. You have no idea how happy this makes me. At the very least, I would love it if some kind if (specifically antag?) lore maintainer role were created/added in order to fix all the inconsistencies that loredevs either don't have the time, scope, or willpower to handle themselves. These are small things that can make a huge difference in the player's perception of the lore.

Sure. I disagreed with certain controversial PRs- the brain trauma PR, which I admit my concerns about were somewhat misguided, and I didn't like that joke PRs were being made by people wanting to join the dev team. Specifically, that actual code was put in to make said joke PR functional, and that an actual heated discussion came from an obvious joke PR. However, while these things were too much for me in the short term, at the same time I received wind of long-term changes I'm not really allowed to disclose (if I want to be a dev again and not universally known as a leaker) that made me hopeful about the long-term future of Aurora. Also the fact that a large portion of the playerbase are particularly tasteless in regards to some jokes and comments, but I'm better at ignoring it now when it happens here. That, coupled with the long-term changes I saw coming, make me hopeful about the future of Aurora and my place in it.

Ckey/BYOND Username: MoondancerPony Position Being Applied For (coder, mapper, spriter): Coder Past Experiences/Knowledge: I was formerly a dev on Aurora, before I left due for several reasons. I've also contributed to some other codebases, as well as worked on HTML/CSS projects outside of the SS13 community. Also, all the things in my previous app still apply. Examples of Past Work: https://i.imgur.com/8rjyDNF.png I've made 24 commits to the Aurora codebase, and 18 to Polaris, with a net increase of 1001 lines of code across both SS13 codebases. If you want more specific things, I made hoists and have fixed IPC surgery about two or three times, as well as done a bunch of other miscellaneous bugfixes. Preferred Mode of Communication (Skype, Steam, etc.): Discord. jade-2562#9602 Additional Comments: I originally left before due to both creative differences in what I thought Aurora should be like and strive towards (compared to where I felt it was headed), as well as an inability to properly handle the responsibilities and hardships of being on the dev team/staff as a whole. It was also due to personal issues and for my own health. I noted that while Aurora seemed to be turning around and going in a direction I'd like, it would be terrible for me if I had to stay while it went through the long and arduous process of changing to be like that, and so I left. I think the time has come for me to come back- from what I've seen, I'm pretty happy with how things are going now. Abo's doing a great job as headmin, Skull as head dev, and I feel like I'm at a good place in my life to give it another shot. School is winding down (I have nothing but some AP/IB exams left in this year, really) and I've got a good handle on things.