BRAINOS

BYOND Key: BRIANOS Character Names: Joshua Darkborg Species you are applying to play: Cyborg What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Dark black And Red and Pale Skin Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: No i'm making my own lore 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: I always wanted to Be human but Better so I thought what Better To Do than Play As a Cyborg (man And machine in One). Cyborgs can have Laser vision. Combat mode. Hacker skills. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: He is a Human but Better in Every Way. He is much More hamsome. He has heterochromia (one eye is red but the other is bright red). He has stronger super Strength. He can hack instantly. He can scan any datafile And Penetrate the Datanet. He also is Part Human. Character Name:Joshua Darkborg Please provide a short backstory for this character Joshua Darkborg was born and his parents hated him because he was a black Sheep in the family. He was always brooding. His parents were rich but He didn't just Want money... he wanted More Power and to be More Than Human. So he enlisted in the Cyborg Military. And got his augments. To become a Cyborg man. (Man and machine In One). He quickly became Top Class Special Operative. He can hack the datafile and Penetrate the Datanet. What do you like about this character? I like that he is Cyborg (man and machine in one) and Better than Human and More than Human. His backstory is very tragic and secret and Only he Understands His Reasonings for his Actions. How would you rate your role-playing ability? I have never roleplayed before exept once I played FallOut 4. I don't play a lot of RPGs'... Notes: Plaese except my character. I worked very hard to write him.

i need- and i do mean i desperately need a volunteer to help out with the following: * the .png files here need to be moved over to .dmi * the sprites need to be separated apart into gauntlets, boots, bodies, helmets and backs, each with an ON and OFF state * item states can use the helmet sprite, like the current hardsuits do, and gloves and boots could likely do the same the artsy bit is all done, but the actual work part of it, i really, really have been dreading. if i can get a volunteer to go take over for the finishing touches, i'd literally cry with joy. EDIT: forgot to mention: everything you need is in the attached image. download it and go ham!

bruh let's just completely axe a gamemode that wouldn't be hard to "fix" and isn't inherently "broken" in the first place. we could tweak a few cooldowns. i could tweak a few cooldowns and i've never touched byond's nightmare code. turning this into a "people don't understand coder's hell" thing does nothing to address what is wrong with the gamemode. in fact, nobody has actually addressed what is wrong with the gamemode, and i do not understand why everyone hates it so much. god, please, someone tell me what is mechanically wrong with this instead of repeating "i've never had a good ling round so it's a bad gamemode." i've had a few rounds as ling where i've gotten applause in ooc, and i've been in a few rounds where i've given applause in ooc afterward. never have i had a ling round so bad that i want to completely axe it, along with all of the other roundtypes. this anecdotal support means nothing, but i'm tossing it in with all the other anecdotal opposition. someone mentioned mindbreaker spam. okay, cool. that's one thing. we can focus on fixing what is easily fixed with "okay this has a cooldown now." literally every ''terrible bad and spammy'' ling round can be fixed with simply adding cooldowns to the abilities on top of the general chemical gland shit they have now, so you're forced to diversify what skills you employ, and can't just mindbreaker spam everyone in the medbay lobby because you have fifty chems and it costs five to sting. this leaves us with the only other problem: boring ling rounds. and that's not a problem exclusive to ling, and if it was, we wouldn't have boring traitor rounds or boring raider rounds. removing it from rotation? i'd be sad to see it gone, but at least we can vote for it. removing it from code, entirely? wtf if the coders are too burnt out to touch this gamemode, i get it. i'll literally make a PR myself to add cooldowns to each individual ability on top of chem gland storage. if the idea of cooldowns isn't sufficient, god, tell me why. tell me, mechanically, what is wrong with this gamemode. i am literally, unsarcastically, genuinely and legitimately not sure why we mechanically hate this gamemode.

i will gladly take any medical system named after me, so +1 jk, fr tho, i fully support this. maybe let's not touch cloning (especially since a lot of us are gonna die when doctors have to relearn everything they know) and just save that discussion for its own thread as nantei said. that aside, i am seriously hyped for brainmed because it's just inherently a much more realistic and sane system.

holy shit these sprites look tight i'ma drop my +1 in here; i've seen Sec with some lenience doled out in meager portion in regards to uniform policy before, and this is no different. with as much back story as this has, i'm convinced there's a solid case to be made here.

red sweatervest!!!!!!!!!!!! literally color it red and chop the sleeves off, and give them a dress shirt underneath so it seems like the actual loadout would be: khaki pants+dress shirt accessory attached, with sweatervest in the suit slot. the rest: i really like these, especially the gardener getting overalls now.

heartily agree, i like this idea. i like the ones where it might be easy to mistake an off-station antag for someone else, but going further than that into "Preston Prestoff, raider," territory is definitely iffy and easy to mishandle. there was one round in particular, a usual character was a raider, and i didn't even know. i actually thought they were just visitor. well, technically, they were visiting the station, but y'know. it's fun and neat when people play with darkest timeline interpretations of their characters; but even then you can at least tell it's not straight up literally the same guy you had a drink with the day before. long winded reply really just to say: default rule is no, but plead your case first to at LEAST get some good direction on it from an admin to make sure conflict isn't isolated to your own clique and the round is fun for everyone.

you wanted less doomguy, i brought less doomguy: so the changes here keep the not dad space visor, but the visor change has still radically changed. it's more reminiscent of NT's combat RIG than their newer security RIGs. why is this? well, 1- dead spice visor designs aren't looking too well here, they just don't look good no matter how i do em. they don't look mean enough? i know that's edgy and tryhard, but so is a literal death squad, so... 2- i'm not so sure if such a team existed, NT would want their fingerprints all over the design language. remember, HAPT is basically deaf squid. they're the sort of thing you'd nervously joke about, hoping the captain would just laugh it off and assure you they don't exist, but instead, you're met with a sudden, alarmingly serious look that reminds you: if they did exist, you'd never want to find out. i've changed also, the chestplate, shoulders and back collar of the suit. i added some structure to the chestplate for less doomguy, the shoulders have been lowered, for less doomguy, and i've added glowy lights everywhere to remind everyone how sci-fi this is. they really bring out the suit's shape. speaking of shape, and in regards to the human silhouette: here we can see an updated comparison, not only of the silhouettes of the suits, but also how they fit onto a human sprite. yes, the current suit fits the silhouette much more closely, but you've really gotta consider: is that necessarily a good thing for a suit of power armor? take a glance at the two people in this image above and tell me which one is wearing an advanced combat exoskeleton designed to let them crush someone's skull in their hands or keep standing after 30 cuts with an energy sword. the current HAPT suit, with all big-ass helmet complaints aside, just looks like... any other suit. it could even be mistaken for the old roboticist's jumpsuit.

HAPT sprites aren't exactly the sort of scary deathsquad thing we're supposed to fear or doubt even exists. here's my list of gripes: * big, big, bIG BIG BIG BIG helmet. what's supposed to fit in all that helmet?! * for such a giant helmet, the actual suit itself has no bulk at all compared to the standard spaceman silhouette. you end up with this ugly, chibi-looking guy. * i see virtually no structure to these sprites at all. no shapes or anything. it's just... a mess of stripes and giant splotches of red on the legs. * did i mention the helmet is enormous? it's literally largest than the combat RIG, which is the bulkiest suit in the entire game. * it's an ugly, boring grey. here's what i did: * resprited from scratch, obviously. went for a doomguy kinda look, which is oddly reminiscent of the classic deathsquad look. * even though it looks very much like the old deathsquad, i'd at least like to think the colors and shading are leaps and bounds ahead. * the actual silhouette itself is actually pretty imposing or intimidating: old, new, in that order. i can't bring myself to feel any fear or intimidation from some circle head ass bighead lookin ass chibi SD looking ass guy. aaaaaaaaaand with that i have really nothing else to say other than i have a shitload of .dmi's if we all like this and want it implemented.

can we just shift entirely to branded PDA's that have different sprites based, not on department, but just... well, y'know? like different makes and model of PDA? they're basically space cell phones and we could lean into that, with competing models of PDA that all look like the same rounded rectangle wildly different i get the whole ''it's a secure station and you can't communicate outside it'' but we could also justify that with ''the network that relays signals is private and bounced to the station only'' if we shift toward different styles of PDA, it'd provide so much more flexibility for spriters and players. that said, i do love these new sprites; especially with the updated colors

holy shit this sounds legit so we don't have to be arsed to dig through the code (i'm on mobile) could ya post some example names? full support so far

i've never interacted with natalie but she seems cool obvs jk even as a brand-new player you were very interested in the lore and RP from the very get-go and that set up such a strong foundation for an excellently done character. i really appreciate that nat can have all of this effort put into her character with such a subtle result; it's convincing and means that you really do have to get to know her to appreciate the depth of her character. that's realistic! that said, she's not above being a lovably dumb airhead - and that's something else you pull off so well. i've literally never had a character i can synergize with so well, except for maybe rich and schmidty. there's something i really appreciate about characters who aren't edgy space geniuses or edgy space veterans who still have effort put into real character development. as bear put it, your ability to roll with the consequences of whatever happens during a round is incredible and really shows that you're committed to contributing to an overarcing canon. nat and you both are excellent additions to the server and community here and i'm very glad you decided to get involved.

solid agree on all points here. one thing to add: when you punish people for bad antag gimmicks, you are left with seasoned players who may be very good at what they do, like @Resilynn and @Ornias for example, and you are left with new players who don't know a lot about what they're doing/what the server finds cool, but you're also left with those who quit trying to drive conflict and end up being too afraid to hurt anyone or their feelings - then we have round after round of peace raiders and peace wizards that don't give the crew anything to work together against or even with. i'm not saying peace antags are bad entirely, but it's often rare that they provide meaningful conflict, against their character or otherwise. @Simon_the_miner did a fantastic peacewiz round a while ago on deadhour where he told people they had x number of days to live, and tried to help them find peace in their coming days- not as a threat, but as a mere message. i wish i saw more peace-antags like that, rather than, ''hey check out my cool powers,'' or ''hey we're just here to trade :)'' our number one issue is the sheer amount of salt that comes from fair kills, poor gimmick execution or even lack of involvement. that doesn't entirely fall on the antags; it's something we, as a community, need to understand: 1. as a crew fighting against the antag, we're likely to die. if you have a hyper-advanced cyborg assassin silently tracking your every move waiting to strike, you're likely to die, especially if they've told you you're a target and you put yourself in a vulnerable position. further escalation than that breaks realism for the sake of moustache-twirling. if you have a corrupt and malevolent AI that is capable of blowing up APC's, and you've seen shit blow up before, you really, really shouldn't be surprised when the one you're standing at blows up. generally, what i'm getting at is this: i hate seeing great rounds that everyone is praising in ooc only to wake up to a complaint thread posted about that antag the next day because their specific character died. sometimes we need to die to help drive the story. not everything is murderbone and our antags should be feared. 9/10 times if you're properly fear RPing, you wouldn't be painting the target on your forehead that got you killed in the first place. 2. we may not always be involved. antagging is tough work and we don't give the antags benefit of the doubt nearly enough, especially when we die. antags already spread themselves thin trying to involve a certain department, but asking for them to involve the entire crew is often a tall order. sometimes we need to accept that as a visitor or assistant, we're simply not important or involved enough to warrant an antag risking their round to rope us in. 3. as an antag, we're likely to die. that's the nature of how things go. if you're going up against one of the most advanced research stations in known space, you should expect the crew to be very capable of dealing with one guy in a gimp suit or one guy in fancy robes. you should fear security and command, you should not expect them to play along in every single case just because you have spooky sharp teeth and succed some guy dead in maintenance one time. if you approach a guy who's armed, they're probably going to shoot at you when you get closer to them, no matter how many times you emote. 4. if we want better antags, we need to put our salt aside when we have bad ones. you can't have good antags without having bad ones first. bad antags can get better, no antags will never get better. i often feel as a server we abhor conflict, which leads to the bad rounds like the OP described; they're not sure how to provide proper escalation and don't want to try anything new lest they get a player complaint. we get so angry over things that should make sense. captains getting bwoinked for wearing riot gear when they're under a consistent, clear and immediate threat, cargo ordering guns when Sec hasn't done jack to protect them the entire round from a terrifying blood cult, people being warned by assassins, ''you're next on my kill list,'' and then being 'ganked' when they say over comms, ''hey i'm going into surgery.'' there was one round in particular where a malf ai was saying some spooky shit - and it would've been easily stopped if it weren't for sec working with it. bear in mind here sec was mostly synthetic, aside from one human trying to appear compliant enough to live. it turned a 20 minute ''hey let's pull the plug on this ai'' round into two hours of serious, bloody and terrifying conflict. the one human in sec still got a complaint when they killed someone actively trying to harm them and their goal. even though this guy in sec helped the entire round, the anger came from ''they killed me and i didn't want to die.'' we have to be more willing to take one for the team. sytic said some great shit about being nicer to people: and with that, i also agree. if we're not a friendly community, nobody's going to try interacting with us.

yellow with black stripes, like bruce lee or kill bill

oh my god please let the stackers print this god please yes please

oh lord no that's literally just the default white t-shirt or some approximation thereof. ignore it.

fixed! also no you're doing a resprite, this is mostly a straight addition, cus variety doesn't hurt in terms of loadout stuff

okay so like... our current jacket selection is lacking. like, really, really lacking. for the 8 pages of stuff we've got it still doesn't seem like all that much. so here's several jackets and other clothing items i'm suggesting we add to the loadout. thank preston for kindly modeling these new threads for us: [IMAGE] Name: Description Biker Jacket: A thick, black leather jacket with silver zippers and buttons, crafted to evoke the image of rebellious space-biker gangs. Designer Leather Jacket: A sophisticated, stylish leather jacket. It doesn't look cheap. Flight Jacket: A modern pilot's jacket made from a silky, shiny nanonylon material. Not to be confused with the vintage stylings of a bomber jacket. Bomber Jacket: [ Description already exists. ] Military Jacket: An edgy, military-styled jacket made from thick, distressed canvas. Popular among Martian punks. Patches not included. Designer Jeans: Dark denim jeans carefully distressed to perfection. They're not as rugged as they look. that's all i've got so far, just six items and several color variations, but please let me know what other things i should add. i'm thinking of adding at least several different shoe designs, too.

a cultist had preston pretty much cornered in the conference room. right outside the window, with a sword, demanding he joins them to be sacrificed. preston, being the shithead he is, is stalling for conversation while nervously chugging as much black coffee as he can forcefeed himself. it's not until he starts to visibly shake that the cultist realizes he's purposely stalling, and begins to charge in. a sprinting unathi could not catch him that day as he ran for his life through maintenance. he got away.

hard no on this one in particular- absolutely, absolutely not. as someone who plays a charismatic character, that is something you really have to be creative with to handle well and pull it off. even then, i can decide to put their foot in their mouth at a critical moment and make the failure a turning point for whatever event. you can't just flavor text, "i'm charismatic," you have to have a certain energy and interaction with people around you. i'm not saying this to be some kind of elitist, i'm saying this because the alternative is someone with the personality uncooked pasta who walks around, providing barely any interaction, but you keep seeing, "Titus McGrey is a smooth talker," in your chat feed every 3 minutes. it's jarring and makes you shake your head as you try and imagine how this guy who just hid in an o2 locker for four minutes and then popped out just to run to cryo is charismatic or engaging. also, whenever i see the vampire's flavor presence i cringe and try to connect the dots. i usually fail, and it shatters my immersion as i roll with it. charisma, realistically, can be polarizing. it's not always unanimous and the same thing that makes one group of people love you can make others hate you. this drives interesting dynamic, even outside of the character, as they can be brought up in conversation and get a positive or negative reaction. being told what to think about a character based on flavor text instead of their actions and personality strips the authority of everyone to form a realistic opinion and even strips authority from the player in regards to how their character comes across as charismatic. personality traits, in nearly all cases, should absolutely be RP'd out as it is mechanically impossible to make it believable.

i think, if anything, i'd want this to be an alt outfit for... the wizard. i'm dead serious; a ninja without their RIG is essentially an unarmed assistant with even less access. a wizard, even without their robes, can do some spells - like smoke, and teleport. so mechanically a wizard, but obviously a ninja, throwing smoke bombs, poisoned darts, using a katana. oh, that actually brings me on to another small tweak: a ninja typically would not use a full length katana, especially in the cramped confines of a space station. rather, i propose this: a straight-bladed wakizashi that can be worn on the back. it's specifically for stabbing, and thus deals less brute damage but bleeds more and has a much higher chance of causing IB. this outfit would not fit underneath a ninja RIG and should actually have some decent armor stats. should a ninja actually choose to use this outfit instead of their badass space ninja RIG: the chestpiece should have pocket slots. and good brute protection. the jumpsuit underneath should also have integrated webbing - tons of extra pockets. the belt should also have tons of pocket slots. the mask should have a voice changer built in. it provides some brute protection. the gloves should have some brute protection. the boots are ninja-tabi that do not track footprints or make noise. they also have some brute protection. they should get things like smoke grenades, a dart gun, the wakizashi, a chameleon projector, other sorts of things like that, to balance out the loss of a RIG or more wizard spells.

i like what you did with the katana but this outfit doesn't seem particularly ninja inspired at all, what does it replace? is this what space ninjas wear underneath the RIG?

honestly, i'm excited to see the direction you take this; as ephemer's character didn't seem very monk-like at all given the limited interactions i've experienced from them. shaolin monks have always fascinated me with their pursuit of discipline and wisdom, and i'm glad to hear you're going to continue contributing to the story here once the ban is over.