Scheveningen

I'm open to alternatives, this is generally a rough draft of things.

OK. Premise: Station-side cloning bad. Need better solution. How do? Propositions are as follows: Mechanics 1. Axe the cloning lab. Set it on fire. Delete it, whatever. Remap it to be a utility closet room, just get rid of it. 2. Cryocells now have two modes: Triage and Rejuvenation. Triage treatment requires a beaker of cryoxadone to heal an individual to full, barring internal injuries of any kind such as organ or brain damage. Triage treatment should function as normally. Rejuvenation treatment requires clonexadone only. Rejuvenation treatment is designed to, after a period of time, revive a cadaver as if they were at -75% health. As soon as this occurs, a rejuvenated dead person will then require triage cryo treatment instead of rejuvenation cryo treatment. As soon as a person is revived, 60 units of clonexadone is consumed from the beaker to revive the person. The person WILL NOT be revived without a full beaker of clonexadone. Further, a rejuvenated person always has their brain damage set to 59, still carrying the fact that medical needs to spend more than 5 minutes on one person who 'died'. Because they have 59 brain damage, they can still get psychological traumas upon being revived. 2a. Caveat, rejuvenation treatment is useless on someone who needs triage treatment, triage treatment is useless on a dead person. Likewise, clonexadone should be renamed or something, in addition to no longer functioning as a superior alternative to cryoxadone. 2b. Two beakers full of clonexadone will spawn alongside the cryoxadone beakers. Without a (competent) chemist, doctors need to revive the right people wisely. 3. Individuals who are rejuvenated will earn a permanent scar, randomly placed, on their character sprite. This will carry over in the database. At an admin/mod's discretion, rejuvenation scars can be removed per character. 4. If 20 minutes passes after your character dies, or if your character receives 60 brain damage in a round, or if their head is cut off, they cannot be rejuvenated. 5. Remove the ability to produce cloning equipment machine boards, requiring them to be purchased through the merchant instead. 6. Mercenaries get one Syndicate Cloner and a cryo cell on their ship that can pre-scan and clone without brain damage or traumas, however the cloned individual will still have genetic damage. Lore 1. Near-universally ban cloning, citing previous precedent that it was possible legally to clone an army of followers. Exceptions include the Syndicate who don't follow the rules, and the Jargon Federation who are out of reach diplomatically to be pressured to do anything. 2. Axe CMD, replace with RTMD. "Rejuvenation Trauma Memory Disorder". Same principles. 3. Rejuv scars happen because of how clonexadone restabilizes the body. Don't ask questions. Consequences The Good - We don't go the unbalanced defib direction. This is still a drag and revive situation, with after-revive consequences to deal with. Most of the process is the same, but the thematics are different in addition to some of the balance behind it. - Rejuvenation carries (visual) consequences, perhaps far heavier than cloning ever did. This may help facilitate roleplay with seasoned characters who have died a lot yet still survived. - Rebalances medical to be less of a cloning press and it becomes more worth it to collect dead bodies and actually rejuvenate them without the awkward moral concerns of cloning. The Bad - Medical gets nerfed again because clonexadone gets axed and you have to rely on cryoxadone for cryocell triage instead. I know, I know, your job is lame enough, but it's better this way, imo. - Characters who are morally predisposed against cloning and have that as their gimmick may no longer have a leg to stand on, however, rejuvenation can be bandwagoned on as a morally wrong thing, which puts them in a position where they're positioned against people who want their co-worker's life back. "Okay, so you think it's better if they were just dead?" It becomes a much more interesting quandary than before. - Rejuvving is very costly, eating 60u of clonexadone per person. This may or may not make it harder to "essentially" revive people than we did with cloning, but I am quite sure we'd rather that rejuvenation be a last resort for the most crucial in-round characters who need to come back to help save the station at any cost. - Failing to rescue a corpse in time, or someone gets decapitated/brained with a hammer means a character is permanently removed from the round. The Ugly and Stinkee - Dude scars lmao

There are not enough away missions currently in the game right now, nor are the away missions per se rewarding from a roleplay and gameplay standpoint to really justify this bloated department addition as-is. Adding 5 more slots into the game is not insignificant. Furthermore, I've attempted to organize or participate in expeditions as a support role countless times. Preparation takes a really long time, especially considering how crucial and helpful circuit-based devices are for expeditions, such as subspace transceivers that function as multi-way transmitters to help keep everyone talking to one another. 80% of the time an antagonist causes trouble on the station side, and 80% of when that happens, the heads of staff definitively cancel the expedition. I'm not going to rail against other command players, though, this is what I've seen happen through the majority of my experiences trying to get an expedition going, only for that effort to be essentially wasted. At this point, most of people who play regularly have collectively decided away missions are not worth the trouble on any other game mode that isn't extended. Even then, what are the odds you're going to get an RD or a captain who gives a crap on the rare occasion that an extended round happens? Also, park ranger aesthetic clashes so heavily with everything else. This feels like another attempt to make real-world parallels again. Likewise, the identity of a park ranger is someone who protects wildlife and watches for forest fires. They keep other humans from interfering with wildlife or being destructive -- they are not explorers in any sense, they are national protectors of wildlife reserve property. Skull's made their points regarding "gubmint infringing on corporate interests" and they're pretty sound in many regards. Park ranger aesthetic and background needs to be scrapped in favor of contracted space rangers instead. You know, the kind of people explorers or scientists would hire, seasoned frontierspersons whose major purpose is to guide the geeks through the lay of the land (or space, really) and protect them from their own ignorance, and likewise be an extra gun when things get bad. Less of "Smokey the Bear" and more "Seasoned Freelance Ranger" without spilling the blood of indigenous people, of course. Further, to not clash with the art style and otherwise stick to common cliche aspects, nylon jumpsuits and crinkley jackets would be peak aesthetic for them. It would be best if there were only 1 or 2 rangers on top of that, not 5. We do not need a whole new department just to facilitate exactly one aspect of science that is just as optional as doing Toxins, or Telescience, or searching for anomalies on the asteroid, etc. I don't really have a problem of having at least one job or at most two to support the specific aspect of going on expeditions. The intent is fine, but the execution of how this is want to be done is really bizarre.

Thread doesn't really propose any specific solutions whatsoeverv (defeating the point of being in S&I subforum). Posting in ded thred.

Mostly incorrect in some cases, Nae. While they on paper have combat functionality, one can be deemed worthy of a whitelist strip if someone fights as a non-event/antagonist breeder character. Even as an antagonist, I seriously wouldn't think playing them as a traditional violent antagonist would be particularly healthy for immersion.

You will never touch someone who knows you have force gloves and a strong melee weapon. force gloves + any melee weapon isn't close to being "threatening". It's lame min-maxing that makes any individual instantly realize you're the lowest common denominator of an antagonist that isn't worthy of interacting with, not even to shoot.

Oh, yeah, I wasn't saying you thought it. I have heard it from the mouth of certain people before, so consider this a call-out post on my twitter.com against them.

The problem with this is hinging on allegorical examples on either side to determine whether a feature should stay or go. Alb's pretty much the only I've seen with structured reasoning so far, even if I disagree with it. I'd like to see other arguments from detractors -- hopefully ones that don't sum up to "We're not Citadel/vore/etc so it should go". Because no fucking shit we're not, nobody is ERPing with breeders on-station or vice-versa. There's a lot of hilarious discussion about Xetl that goes on sometimes but that's the nature of player implications/memes and not what actually happens. Either way, I do think the Ta Consulars are a big deal, but there's immense responsibility at the same time which makes it easy enough to fuck up if one doesn't know what they are doing. The ones from Athvur's brood are pretty important, considering they're essentially humanophiles that want badly to fit into the society they've been forced to migrate into, because they think it's the easiest way to prosper. @SleepyWolf plays Avaricee, a great example of a Ta from Athvur's brood. I also play one but I've been unable to get as many rounds in as my own Athvur-repping Consul, but I've otherwise really enjoyed the experience and I think others did too. A major part of making the Ta consuls work is making each one feel like they have enough depth and investment in the first place to seem like they are worth interacting with. They're much trickier to get right, but the ones that do pay off really well in terms of roleplaying enjoyment. I also think someone making the comparison of the Tas to creatures from Citadel is particularly disingenuous to the conversation. I get it's a common accusation that someone must somehow have a sexual gratification agenda to want to enjoy something weird and unusual that the detractor themselves is not interested in interacting with, but it is certainly not true in this case. I hate to downplay people's concerns about things even if they are completely legitimate, but I cannot help but think that if someone's position on a matter sums up to accusing people of fulfilling a kink, or someone is playing a character concept merely to acquire attention, or that it "reinforces clique behavior", somehow, then that person's argument should be dismissed and the person themselves should be ignored. As that kind of person is just whining about things they don't personally like, rather than having a good reason for why something should be removed.

I guarantee you that the answer would be, "No, it wouldn't." Hence the meaningless nature of going after this. And hell, let's address some specific aspects highlighted in the OP. 1. The shock surrounding the appearance of the Ta. This theme is pretty heavily touched on in our own narrative surrounding the Vaurcae in addition to its grander inspiration of media known as "District 9." There are a lot of similarities between District 9's setting/plot and the situation with the Vaurcae right now. You know there is, don't deny this, it's perfectly fine that the similarities exist. It allows us to tell a grander story, however, as there are other stories juxtapositioned alongside it such as the plight of synthetics, the would-be imperialistic nature of the Sol Alliance, and the general interests of the other factions and how the Vaurcae tie into their own (such as the Hegemony with the K'lax or the Skrell with the C'thur). And yeah, the Vaurcae are freakish in appearance. The nature of their hives and unconditional loyalty to their queens makes them rather different from typical sentients, but they are sentients nonetheless that can still empathize and sympathize, though the capacity of each Vaurcae being able or even familiar with that concept varies from bug to bug. It ends up being a lesson on its own not to judge a book by its own cover, because Vaurcae characters can be surprisingly deep and interesting. It's kind of difficult to beat the aspect out of people to think "lol silly appearance better generalize and make fun of it". Some people have even more insidious agendas such as still wanting the Vaurcae of now to be removed from the server. This was understandable awhile back when the Vaurcae had absolutely no direction to go off of and they nearly turned out to be Aurora's biggest mistake in development. By virtue of a few community members, they were saved and put back on the track that we know them as now. I'd say the investment paid off. 2. Asking Vaurcae players for specific stories while not asking Vaurcae detractors for specific negative experiences they had. Yeah, this is kind of an inconsistency here. I'm willing to guess that if no Vaurcae regular was able to recall specific experiences they had with Ta that were positive apart from general feelings/thoughts, then not a single detractor of the Ta could come up with a single experience either apart from "Breeder (wo)man bad". One could even argue that asking for specific experiences is a very tentative thing to do as well, considering that not everyone has an Eidetic memory and most people tend to move on from rounds they enjoyed, compared to situations where it's easier to remember what you hated experiencing. 3. Scope of feedback is limited because this is something that likely arised as a barrage of complaining overnight rather than an issue that's been tracked for awhile. As above. I don't think the complaints are structured enough to be taken seriously, as this is the first I've heard that anyone dislikes the Ta as Consuls, and the only issue that's happened as a result of them was someone who played as one and disarm spammed (which, was engaging in combat. that's nonsensical).

Doublepost- And honestly I don't really care if they show up every round so long as it's a good roleplayer behind the Ta. Only one person can be that Ta at any given point in a standard round, and sometimes it may not even be possible if the Consul role is already taken. I don't think the Adhominian tank is a good comparison because the tank can't roleplay, it's designed to roll over and kill people. So thank fuck it doesn't appear every round.

Man, I think they're amazing just the way they are. I'd argue they need a little more customization since there's a lot of clothing that isn't adjusted to them, and they only have one style at the moment (which, granted, is due to their size). The Ta are great to roleplay as, within the understanding that they are not intended for combat and are essentially giant cheerleaders, to put it simply. They're unsettling but entertaining to interact with on the other side of things, provided the person isn't playing the Ta incorrectly. They're fantastic, I will say they deserve improvement because nothing is truly perfect, but the premise of their existence is great and I love how they stand out. Vaurca culture on its own to begin with is radically different from how a human or even any other xeno lives their life.

Did you even read my post? Given you only picked selectively what to respond to that's the impression I have at this point. Stop replying, please.

Do heads of staff need a doctorate in medicine all of a sudden to declare malpractice because a high-strung doctor cut someone's head off in surgery? Do they also need a degree in law to determine what a grand theft is when they're a victim of being stuck up and escorted to an ATM? Do they also need to be an engineer to determine that delaminating the supermatter constitutes as either Neglect of Duty with Serious Consequences or Sabotage/Terrorist Acts? The Chain of Command is not to be taken to mean that you must be incompetent in regards to addressing matters slightly out of your lane with a certain degree of common sense. I am well aware of how the established CoC functions all around the world with varying spins and interpretations on how the system works, and yet in regards to fulfilling the mission, the CoC alone will not solve problems. Having a very exact plan and knowing who to employ to address those problems is how you solve problems. And when a crucial leader is missing in some respect (such as reporting for "dental", or they are in the clink for a DUI), it is the job of other present leadership to pick up the slack not being covered. You wouldn't just leave dirty laundry of someone else piling up, would you? There are countless amounts of occasions in standard gameplay where someone with 0 experience or authority in leadership inquires with a head of staff to call the ball on what a proper resolution to an issue is. If their own departmental head of staff is absent, they will step up to ask another head of staff to help them with their issue, whether it is a personnel problem or an issue with complex problem-solving. That is what heads of staff are for, to give people the means to succeed in their job, whether they're direct subordinates or indirect. It is not stepping on anyone's toes if there is literally nobody who exists to step on their toes for. This is how this has worked for ages past and it's success rate is dependent on how skillfully the head of staff chooses to handle it. If the head of staff is nonspecific or incompetent in addressing the matter directly, that is on them. And that's perfectly fine! IC issue. Further, consider that most heads of staff not playing captain have very little intention of taking acting captaincy considering how easy it is to get accused of exceeding official powers or supposedly powergaming by taking the spare ID and then instantly taking command of every department. This has occurred countless amounts of times even when an acting captain and proper direction is necessary. People complain and bitch, and thus many people outright avoid taking acting captaincy when it isn't absolutely necessary. If I want to play [insert department head here], it is because I want to play [insert department head here]. If I wanted to play captain, I would join as one. Lot of people are the same way, yet they and I both understand that the round-by-round basis with chaotic antagonists means you have to work off-the-cuff while still representing the spirit of being a good leader and head of staff. If a line leader is absent and a department is suffering without the line leader's direction, I shouldn't need to take acting captaincy just to help set another department's affairs back in order, as one department screaming that they're lost all of a sudden isn't as pressing of an emergency as raiders murderfucking the station 2; electric boogaloo. If I'm playing HOS and I ask/order someone to do something and they say "no, I won't help you" or "no, I can't help you", I will find someone else to do it. That's fine, I'm not going to enforce it because it's fucking stupid to arrest someone not in my department for not doing something I requested during a non-pressing issue. But if I make a legitimate request as the HOS to the medical bay to not immediately release a serial killer who got hospitalized back out into the open, then I damn well expect that people understand the serious consequences in literally allowing a serial killer to go free, and that someone will be charged for not listening to simple instructions. Instead, a paramedic can act all smug and malicious and otherwise break roleplay sense and just let the serial killer that security spent time and investment to use force in detaining (particularly to protect the crew from the serial killer), to immediately go free because "lol, it's the policy, deal with it". Granted, I understand the reputation of security. The department deserves it. Yet Neglect of Duty still stands as a regulation. And so does its "with Serious Consequences" variant which includes the shittier aspect of disobeying instructions with a basis on common sense and good roleplay. The two regulations are both designed with the intent in mind of establishing social consequences for any behavior that disenfranchises productivity, sabotages a working atmosphere or otherwise endangers others, dependent on a scalar. If you screw your job up, there should be consequences regardless of whether there is a head of staff above you or not, if it is reported. If you do your job well, there are positive consequences of job satisfaction and otherwise not getting in trouble unless some other head of staff is on a powertrip to nag every person on the manifest. Those people can get bent, sure, fuck those people. I do not play in such a way, though, and neither do my more prominent command player peers who probably play this game more than I do. While it is pants-on-head retarded for a HOS to (not citing anyone in particular); 1. Overthrow command by themselves because of a disagreement 2. Rambo all security encounters by themselves with no intention of using their team to deal with matters 3. Threaten and coerce other department staff with negative consequences if an indirect subordinate does not fulfill something menial 4. Be otherwise argumentative, combative and hostile towards everyone, especially towards their peers 5. Essentially enable themselves and their department to be incredibly overbearing on the rest of the crew to the point of wanting to make every character on the station just go to cryo ...I think we're of the understanding that it is just as pants-on-head fucking retarded to punish everyone who doesn't do this with stupid policy changes, instead of just directly addressing the real problem players or characters by throwing them (or at least the unrepentant ones who aren't trying to get better) into the trash. No matter how many rules or policies you pass, malicious people are still going to find their way around them, hence the pointlessness of establishing these policies in the first place. People who are normally predisposed to breaking roleplay conventions to act like an asshole, or people who generally break the rules, do not really care about policies or rules. Many people don't even read the forums. But let's say this: Is meant to mean: Then great! I love it. No more is there the threat of arresting the quartermaster by the HOS just because the QM told the warden to fuck off with a non-pertinent order that just so happens to be stamped by the HOS. It's a powerful "get fucked" to any power-tripping head of staff. Because surely, the only thing people care about is that there isn't major consequences (fines, arrests, things that will take you out of the round indeterminately) over petty arguments or disagreements. However, because the first statement does not match directly what the second statement does, people will take the first statement and run a particularly malicious triathalon with it around other heads of staff players that are actually playing in good faith, all the while the worse off heads of staff still get to stick around because the guideline in particular can still be rather easily circumvented by giving yourself acting captain unnecessarily just to power-win an argument.

Was present for that round. That ERT trooper was indeed an asshole and did threaten to hunt down Jaylor, and implied they would also kill them after Jaylor left. I'd probably turn around and pick another route to escape too. Literally the entire sec force were full of cultists that killed the HOS within 20-30 minutes into the round, plus one vampire. It was an incredibly terrible round considering all of sec save one and the HOS were antagonists and pretty much sent the station into "every department for themselves" mode. Can also attest for the fact that Brage is a long-time player (from 2014) and Jaylor's character + skillset has been deemed okay in past administrations. I'm not seeing exactly why issue is being taken over it now, considering it's been cleared, brought up and cleared again many times over.

Officers will never arrest one another for anything short of committing one-man terrorism. Heads of staff serve(d) as oversight authority in case anyone screws up in a manner that is unsatisfactory for the job. There is a concept called "making do", and when the head staff of this server make decisions to influence the nature of improvising in non-ideal circumstances to be increasingly harder in-game by putting more hurdles in front of everyone to satisfy a vocal minority, that is an incompetent policy decision.

Securing the spare ID in the safe is one thing. Securing the spare ID on your person with no real reason for doing it is another.

[00:34:22] scheveningen -> aboshehab: Should also report that the captain had the spare ID on (?) their person at roundstart rather than located in their office. It's essentially powergaming to take the spare ID for any reason on code green, as it denies antagonists the possibility to steal the spare and use its access to drive the round. Considering it's Xander I'm not surprised that he's still doing this soft metagaming shit. [00:43:42] scheveningen -> aboshehab: Alright. Xander disconnected, though, so I don't figure you can do anything about him concealing the spare on (?) his person at roundstart with (?) no antag reason to have it kept on them. We literally had to chase them down and kill them to get it which was stupid. You can add powergaming and metagaming to that list too.

yes. The entire dilemma would pretty much restrict the space SMAW outside of ideal circumstances, otherwise whoever shoots it pays a heavy price of consequence. As well as any victim, I guess.

The ion rifle should be gone from the game. It is an intensely low skill ceiling tool with immensely high reward for using it against synthetics, energy weapon users and anyone with the misfortune to have a pacemaker on their character. The ion rifle also completely murders mechs due to having a large capacitor and it is easy to spam on a slow-moving target. So, what should replace it? Space SMAW! While the name is inspired from the real-world MANPAD launcher, the Hephaestus MPMS is designed as an affordable dumbfire launcher platform. The MPMS may only fire a single rocket at a time before requiring a lengthy reload period, and after firing 5 rockets with the same launcher, the launcher itself becomes nonfunctional and must be replaced. All additional rockets must be purchased through cargo, with a base price of 1200 credits for each rocket type. Launchers themselves must be paid for in 8,000 credits, through traitors can purchase these as a substantial cost of TC. Features include being able to load rocketry of the following conditions: HEPH-MPMS Halicon Rocket: Functions as a weak sabot that deals substantial damage if it directly hits, along with a very mild damaging explosion. Additionally, explodes with a 5x5 heavy and light radius of EMP, devastating anything electronic in the general vicinity. One rocket spawns loaded in a HEPH-MPMS by default, in addition to one more rocket in the armory closet of where the ion rifle used to be, for a grand total of 2 rockets that can be found on the station. May travel 6 tiles before 'dropping' and detonating. Can be purchased through cargo. HEPH-MPMS Sabot Rocket: Functions as a strong sabot with very weak area of effect and explosion, but deals incredibly heavy direct damage and ignores all armor, and also pierces through a limited amount of walls, splitting shrapnel everywhere it passes. Designed for direct heavy damage on a singular target, or for puncturing through obstructions such as walls. Has unlimited range, detonates only after piercing through enough walls or striking a living mob. Will devastate, force open and psuedo-emag through airlocks. Can be purchased through cargo. HEPH-MPMS Airburst Rocket: Functions as a weak sabot with high area of effect and deadly explosive damage, in addition to setting the atmosphere aflame if there is oxygen in the air. Possesses a oxygen-phoron catalyst to instantly ignite a general area while also dealing heavy explosive damage. As a smart airburst system, detonates after travelling 4 tiles. Can be purchased through cargo. HEPH-MPMS Fragmentation Rocket: Functions as a mild sabot that explodes with twice as much shrapnel as a fragmentation grenade when it explodes. Travels 4 tiles before automatically exploding. Purchased via a traitor uplink only. The above are suggestions largely to get the ion rifle out of the game while simultaneously offering more options with the launcher system that intends to replace it. It will still be a situational tool that the ion rifle was originally intended to be, but patient usage of it can impact the outcome of a round just as well as the ion rifle can now with no patience at all. And I guess some people would appreciate being able to be "i am rockt guy" for however long that lasts.

What do you plan on doing to make diona feel and behave in a way that is more active and relevant?

The turnout is still awful, though, because nobody short of the HOS or the captain, or far more unlikely being the entirety of command staff, can order a security officer to do anything, because whatever constitutes as a work order is incredibly fast and loose. And considering all it takes is one head of staff to vote nay on an issue, there will be plenty of issues where a captain-level decision cannot be made to reign an issue in. The clarification regarding the role and rights of the QM is fine, that is exactly what everyone sought out for in the first place, but placing arbitrary restrictions on the heads of staff when the problem is game balance and how awful/unenjoyable it is to play QM/CT, is once again like using a .50BMG on a rabbit and calling it a good hunt. The authority/role clarifications on the QM alone would've been a fine turnout to this thread, but instating policy arbitrarily because of the incredibly infrequent cases of abuse makes me think nobody knows what they're doing around here.