BRAINOS

thank you all for the really insightful, well thought-out feedback! it means a lot to me to see that the finer points of the character aren't being missed, and that the community is willing to engage in this sort of character analysis for a character who'd probably hurt himself trying to think about what the word analysis even means. i did wanna hop in and reply a bit: i'm actually really glad you bring this up; i don't have a lot of opportunities to explain what the hell preston even is. my ooc relationship with preston is... bizarre. i've been playing the character for close to 4 years now - a lot of the nuances that he gets praise for, i can't really say i'm really any good at writing it in from the get-go, it's just that i've had a lot of time to develop his character. i definitely don't put enough time into developing other characters. after playing someone like preston, it's pretty hard to switch to anyone less social. preston rounds never bore me because people rope him into everything. as far as idealized self-inserts go, i'd like to think i'm nothing like preston. my personal hobbies are things he'd dismiss, his personal hobbies i'd never get into, he looks good clean-shaven and i look better with a 5 o'clock shadow. he's got a bad case of runaway vanity while i don't have enough shame to stop me from driving to taco bell at 3 am in my boxers and an ugly shirt. jokes aside, i don't mind the identity of "that guy who plays preston," because that makes me easy to recognize, but it's safe to say preston isn't simply me with blue hair. the only quality about preston i really wish i had was the fulfilling job and actual stakes in a life and career greater than "pay bills or you die," but that speaks more about the auroraverse than him. with all this development and definite attachment, here's the actually weird part: preston is my favorite character to see lose. he is, after all, the textbook definition of a ling or vampire victim, and watching someone leverage his weaknesses against him is really fun. since most antag actions are non-canon, i like taking the opportunity to explore his weaknesses and his response to trauma. even when people say something awful about preston - it's usually something i agree with. he's not a saint. i'm really amazed at how much this thread has picked up already, and again, i love seeing that people do think about the character! this feedback is all great so far and really reinforces where i want to go with this character and any others.

hey! i've played preston prestoff for a while (years of being on and off) here and i've debated postin' one of these for a while. just curious, what's everyone think? here's the doodle i did for his flavor text, he's the blue-pompadoured quartemaster/visitor.

i just wanna point out that i do use the lunchbox for rp for both characters of mine that do pack one. preston, who has been dieting for a while now, has to pack lunch because he refuses to touch the vendors for the most part and the food he would eat from the chef needs a gardener present to make. he's supposed to eat several small meals throughout the day, so skipping a meal is pretty bad for him. it makes sense that he would meal prep. add to that the socialization aspect of him pulling out a lunchbox with hearts all over it and it's been a conversation starter. ira's wife at home packs him lunch. it's always a nice surprise to see what's in there. if anyone bothered to socialize with this large, sweaty man with broken ceti basic, that'd be a potential for conversation. i'm not saying this to get a pat on my back, i'm saying all this because i know i'm not the most creative person here and i'm 100% sure i'm not the only person who uses lunchboxes like this. i can't really name anyone else simply because i never see lunchboxes, suggesting this isn't what millennials are using to kill chefs.

i kinda liked the posted examples, some pretty neat stuff there as for the wiki page, doc is right, outlining a few major brands and their general design language and utility would work just fine. even though i AM a huge car nut and actually really love poring over minute details, i can see it's unnecessary to get the idea across. i do think expanding getmore a little bit just has a really good ring to it and i can see einstein trying to reclaim some of their lost market with personal vehicles. hephaestus would probably specialize in hummer-like vehicles or other heavy utility vehicles, even specialized mining trucks and military transport. of course we don't have to list everything. also if someone designs a mogunz meat truck like the oscar meyer weinermobile i will give them a high resolution image of a cookie

the only gear i ever get that i hate is the clipboard as qm i kinda hate clipboards irl anyway too so

okay, so here's my thing: not all cars have to be retrofuturistic but that doesn't mean that no cars can be retrofuturistic personal vehicles IRL have a massive variety in terms of styling, capability and function. if you were on the market for a new car, you could go out and get anything from a retrofuturistic car to a militaristic off-road vehicle to a high-tech modern sports car. that said, a lot of the reason we don't have more retrofuturisticy stuff today is actually safety regulations: if you look at a lot of the posted concepts here you'll see glass domes with very slim pillars for structural support. look at a modern vehicle's a-pillars and you'll notice they beefy af. this is to fit inside airbags, sensors and metal. if we're going for realism here we should probably start thinking about what sort of emerging safety technologies will be present and mandated into place, especially if we're going the flying cars route.

Name: Preston Prestoff Species: Human Age: 25 Date of Hire: 11/10/2457 Job Title: Quartermaster Preferred Contact Info: P.Prestoff@NTmail.net, Relay, PDA, sexypompadourmagicman@space.mail

alright, here's how it'd work, ideally: the knitting needles are one item. you pick em up and it shows the held state for left and right for just now. you grab a ball of yarn and set it on the floor next to you. with the knitting needles in your active hand, you click on the ball of yarn. if your other hand is free, it then begins a timer for killing the ball of yarn and dropping a scarf of the same color. like handcuffs, if you move or switch hands or do anything, it stops this process. during the process of generating the scarf, there's an animated item state for holding them. the ball of yarn would ideally be spawned with a random color blended to it in the code just using whitescaling, but if that's too much extra, there are a few different colors sprited in. for some reason, fernando hates yellow, so make sure whatever colors are put coded in aren't yellow, if that's the route whoever implements this goes. all of that aside: i obvs support this. i love seeing characters with quirky custom items that show a thing they're interested in or just help show a part of their personality. this wouldn't be a distraction from the game as we know it and would be pretty amusing to see. i'd love to see it as a loadout item for everyone, but that's resilynn's call.

Name: Preston Prestoff Species: Human Age: 26 Date of Hire: 11/10/2457 Job Title: Quartermaster Preferred Contact Info: P.Prestoff@NTmail.net

When it comes to job hopping across departments that require significant training and degrees, it is absolutely not believable for most humans to jump from Research to Sec to Engineering, and that's something that always irks me. I once saw a roboticist sign on as a psychiatrist. Major nope. Skrell and IPC's can be immune to that rule, however, since Skrell live 5ever and a 12 year doctorate for one is just like a weekend training camp for us, and IPC's can just...load whatever info they need between shifts. On the subject of jobs with significant pay gaps, however, my opinion is much different. I honestly like the idea of a captain who occasionally bartends so they can interact with the crew on a more personal level and get to know who they're ordering around. Mechanically, jobs are assigned on a per-shift basis and it's ridiculous to have it be anything else lore-wise, it's not like the captain decided "time to throw all of my captainship away for long term bartending." No, this is more comparable to a captain deciding to take a day of unpaid time off. Not unrealistic at all. It's not like a "CEO stooping to something so low," unless it's literally janitor work, and even still. NT has a CEO, and the captain of one station isn't even close to comparable. Hopping jobs within departments should be fine - QM to miner, Roboticist to Scientist, etc, as long as they've got good training and records.

Name: Bishop Cybernetics Type: Corporation Founding/Settlement Date (if applicable): April 2418. Region of Space: Primarily Tau Ceti, but has also expanded to Epsilon Eridani. Other Snapshot information: Bishop Cybernetics at the moment has no lore behind them. Yeah, seriously. Bishop is obviously supposed to be a thing lore-wise, considering they're one of the four major manufacturers of prosthetics. I went ahead and drafted up an article. Long Description: Here goes: Bishop Cybernetics is a relatively young corporation founded on Biesel in April of 2418. They specialize in innovations in biomechanical engineering with a focus on prosthetics and mechanical organs. General: Official Title(s): Bishop Cybernetics Motto: Without compromise. Official Languages: Tradeband, Tau Ceti Basic, Terran Mandarin Work Force: (2444 Consumer Report) 232,688 - Total Number of Employees 100,344 - Production Floor Employees 21,816 - Production Facility Managers 50,528 - Biomechanical Researchers 34,674 - Equipment and Facility Maintenance 25,326 - Security and Safety Assurance Influence: Epsilon Eridani: 4 major equipment manufacturing facilities on Isis. Tau Ceti: Headquarters in Mendell City, Biesel and three research and development facilities on Biesel. History: Bishop Cybernetics was founded on Biesel by Grant Bishop and Owen Harrison after both had dropped out of study at the Biesel Institute of Robotics to focus on business. Even though prosthetics wasn't a new field by any means, and it was mostly dominated by giants like Zeng-Hu and Hephaestus, Bishop felt there was room for innovation. Bishop and Harrison both worked out of Bishop's personal pod bay for their first year, working to improve on the existing design for a mechanical prosthetic hand. They unveiled this new design at the annual Mendell City Innovation Conference and caught the attention of several investors with their flashy, sleek design with an integrated holo-watch, communications center and patented user interface with a haptic feedback enabled holodisplay called iTouch. Most notable about this first design was the fact its power draw was no greater than other designs already out there, despite running several different accessory modules. After a wildly successful campaign spanning over ten years showcasing every iteration of their new prosthetics at every opportunity, Bishop Cybernetics opened their first major manufacturing facility on Isis in 2430. This drastically reduced the costs associated with production and allowed Bishop Cybernetics to become even more profitable. The high-energy Grant Bishop still attends conferences and events, giving speeches and demonstrations, and often makes a point to show off his own prosthetic arms and eyes, which he has linked to his own home devices including his thermostat, doors, electrochromic windows and microwave. In 2456, Bishop suffered from heart failure, and underwent an operation to have a Bishop Cybernetics mechanical heart installed. He has since claimed to be "synthetic at heart," coming back from the operation to announce a new division of Bishop Cybernetics focusing on synthetic intelligence research. Bishop Cybernetics' focus on power efficiency, luxury and innovation meant its niche market was composed mostly of technological enthusiasts and a number of transhumanist fanatics. This is, of course, not without controversy, especially among more traditionally-minded consumers skeptical of the radical ideas usually pushed by Bishop Cybernetics. The heavy regulation of prosthetic devices often means the most attention-grabbing products are meant for headlines only, kept behind red tape to never leave the showroom. Uncomfortable with Bishop's direction, Owen Harrison officially resigned from the company in December 2458. The continued growth of Bishop Cybernetics has proven without a doubt that there is a small, but lucrative market for these big ideas and the controversy often stirred with Bishop's ideals has ensured they have a place in headlines on a yearly basis. During the last conference held during a Ned Talk on Biesel in August 2459, Bishop shared the stage with a state-of-the-art IPC designated "Axiom." This IPC's frame was entirely Bishop, with a glass-encased hologram display for a face and a claimed internal battery life lasting for up to three weeks on standby. It isn't known when or even if this model will ever be approved for production. Additional comments: I'm hoping that providing some memorable lore for a company like Bishop will push some interesting RP forward. I've noticed people with Bishop limbs already tend to be a bit fanatic about their choice and it's usually a statement: this article gives plenty of information to form an opinion on the company, positive or negative. With this proposed lore, I've based Bishop off of two real-world companies that are pretty polarizing in opinions: Apple and BMW. Both are known for their big ideas and focus on exclusive, luxury markets as well as technological innovation. Both of those brands bring up strong opinions in their respective markets and have a reputation for knowing their customer base well. Grant Bishop himself is based off of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, also two people who come up in real-world conversations and elicit strong opinions. While Musk is strongly against advancing AI, I've made sure to give Bishop a similarly controversial opinion for synthetic advancement - considering that lore-wise, the more traditional thing to do is be skeptical of AI development. All of this is intended to give characters something to talk about, and if it were to be canonized, I look forward to the discussions it'd lead to. Thanks for your time!

BYOND Key: BRAINOS Character name: Preston Prestoff Item name: Christian Lombardi Edition Aviator Jacket Christian Lombardi Leather Shoes Why is your character carrying said item to work? Preston hates to be seen in cheap threads. His previous employment with Space Boy Racing Apparel means that the Space Boy brand holds a certain sentimental value to him, and their Christian Lombardi Edition Aviator Jacket is his personal pride and joy. Being fashionable, Preston would never be caught dead without an outfit coordinating his shoes with something. His Christian Lombardi shoes complement his jacket. Item function(s): It's a jacket and shoes. Nothing mechanically special. Item description: Jacket: A fancy, vintage-styled leather jacket with a fluffy collar. The tag inside has famous racing pilot Christian Lombardi's signature on it. It looks expensive. Shoes: Sleek, hand stitched leather shoes with a stylized "CL" logo on the sides. They look expensive. Item appearance: Here's the fun part: They use the default sprites for the bomber jacket and brown leather shoes. How will you use this to better interact with crew and/or stimulate RP? At the moment, Preston whines and moans if anything happens to his precious shoes and jacket. He'll do an entire lap around the station if it means stepping around a puddle of oil. Preston is shamelessly and clearly materialistic and vain, and while his shoes and jacket could be described as expensive, the more accurate phrase would certainly be overpriced. This all points to several major flaws with Preston, especially the fact that he is easily swindled out of money by things like expensive branding. (example: At one point, a Vaurca got him to drop over a thousand credits on plain metal rods by saying they belonged to a famous robot wrestler.) The fact that the shoes and jacket don't look any different from the typical shoes and jacket, except upon closer inspection, could lead to a lot of criticism for his poor spending habits, or even praise from people with similarly expensive tastes. Preston would, of course, not be shy about showing off the tags of his clothes. Branding aside, these items also do hold a sentimental value to him: Space Boy is the name of the clothing company he used to work for, and Christian Lombardi is a pilot sponsored by them. Preston's opinion of Space Boy is very high, as it gave him the experience he needed to get hired by NanoTrasen and work in their Cargo department. Of course, the best way to stimulate some RP, though, is to give Preston a solid, material embodiment of leverage and vulnerability for antags to go after. This would, of course, be noted in his exploitable info, that under most circumstances, Preston would go to pretty extreme lengths to keep his things nice. While he's already got plenty of leverage to manipulate him psychologically, it never hurts to give antags another route for creativity. Additional comments: Originally I was going to apply for merely a unique jacket, but then I realized how often Preston's shoes are in danger. I can't pass up the opportunity to have Preston trapped in a hallway because he can't bear to risk getting his expensive shoes dirty. Also, I know I've sprited tons of stuff before, but I feel like these items deliver a lot more impact if they look nearly exactly the same as their cheaper counterparts. Other than that, I think everything's covered, and I'll answer any questions if anyone has any. Thanks for your time!

sorry to be a necromancer here, but the issue of feminine clothing still hasn't been resolved someone message me tonight and i'll get on this

I've known Resilynn for a while (before SS13 even existed) and they've always had a knack for intricate in-universe lore. They've run several lengthy and detailed Pathfinder campaigns and they've always tackled cultural differences between species in a comprehensive and realistic manner that builds on the world the players are in. Their character development skills have been honed over years and years and they know how to approach and implement lore details into rounds and sessions. I can say with utmost confidence that Resilynn can be trusted with an IPC whitelist. +1 for support, +2 if I could!

nah dude they're not hangin' out at all. totally enclosed toes! if they were hangin' out, they'd make for really shitty native footwear with the climate considered

I support the heck outta this for sure, I love the idea of being able to roll traitor without having to break my character in some way. Especially as an option. Even having it pick a random job when you roll this traitor type would be exciting. I'd actually antag if this were an option.

i gotchu fam gimme two minutes EDIT there u go I went ahead and resprited the worn sprites, as well. The original ones were thigh highs...these are up to the knee or so with the wrapping. I made sure to raise the back some as tajarans tend to have a higher heel and also i added the detail of a split toe design seen in tabi boots to make them way more "these are xeno boots" It's subtle, but I feel like it goes a long way.

Honestly? I like Kukarumo. He seems like a guy with his own life and his own past and he's pretty realistic in the sense it really takes time to get to know him. His age has never been a focus for me, but he doesn't seem crazy young, either. It's clear that he's got a lot of experience and his whole mind of safety comes from that. Kooks is a good character with depth and realism.

Looking back on that sprite makes me wish I could retcon IRL. Resilynn forwarded an image today of how a pair of red pants and a blue blazer would go together, 'cus I honestly had no idea. I've always been firmly against red and blue together, buuuut: I went ahead and made everything way less ugly and it's a lot less recolor-looking, now, too. Will provide .DMI on request.

i support dis yes pls

I've had nothin' but great rounds with both Kizzy and Owl - Cloud's demonstrated very tip-top RP capability in the past and manages to do it without the need for brooding, sad characters or hours of chair RP. Owl, as an AI, is one of my favorite AI's in just the three or so rounds I've seen them in. They're attentive to the crew and manage to somehow pull off what's needed to be everywhere at once while dealing with client crashes, multiple station emergencies and several requests from the crew at any given time. Owl's character is a pretty entertaining take on the 'mom AI' thing that a lot of people run with, and at the same time, Owl is still clearly a synthetic intelligence, and it's hard for me to put my finger on exactly how they pull that off, but whatever it is, I'll take it as evidence they know how to play a believable synth character, for sure. Kizzy is obviously a human, of course, but in relevance to the application here, I'd like to point out that Kizzy's an excellently developed and nuanced character. Able to hold a conversation and form friendships with crewmembers, Kizzy's a believable member of the crew with her own ambitions, ideas and opinions. Overall, Cloud's got this whole arpee thing down, and I wholeheartedly support giving them more opportunities to drive the story we're all part of here. If I could give this a +2, I would.

I like this guy. I've seen them as cap'n, and they're one of the few captains that actually pay attention to often neglected crew such as assistants and lower-level jobs, and I've seen them on two occasions actually take an assistant into their office to discuss the possibility of becoming a Bridge Assistant or similar role. I wanna point out the weight of this: this guy was in a grey jumpsuit, yellow gloves and a toolbelt, and the captain still turned around, greeted the guy, and asked how they could be of help. For real, I teared up a little there. Next thing you know, he's following the captain around in a formal uniform and taking down appointments for people to see the captain. As captain, Sup could've just as rightfully ignored the guy and went on with the round. No. Sup went out of their way to make sure this assistant had a great round just because. Even my experience with Sup as an antag has left me with positive impressions. All of this stuff honestly shows to me that Sup clearly plays to make the rounds more enjoyable for those around them and tries to get people involved when they can. This makes for a cool guy captain, likeable, engaging antags and I can see these traits making a cool guy moderator, too. +1

...if the character has long enough hair, switch it to bedhead. inb4 everyone swarms preston for noogiepalooza

> every single day a qm has to peel a fallen miner off of the asteroid because the one department that deals with dangerous pits the most doesn't start with magboots > let's talk about pizzas Now that I got that outta the way, I just wanna say I definitely agree, there should be a solid stock of ten at round start. Any QM worth spending a round with won't have any issues ordering a 20 point pizza crate to feed the hard workers in Supply, so this is one item I don't mind limiting, even if it might run out now and then. The rest of the items in there? No, don't limit magboots or jetpacks or RIGs. As someone who's worked a shitload of Cargo this was definitely an obvious, one time thing that doesn't happen repeatedly - changing game mechanics because one guy broke immersion one time is going to set a precedent where all that ever gets worked on is gonna be tiny tweaks for the next hundred years. Thrown drinks should spill and you shouldn't be able to put unwrapped food into a backpack without a goddamn mess, but there are more important and enjoyable things to worry about. While I have no problem with the "fix" itself and wouldn't hurt much if it were implemented, I don't want any of the coders to spend more than five minutes just to prevent a one time thing becoming a two time thing.