Carver

I don't mind IPCs having a weakness, but a random IPC off-duty or service role or whoever halfway across the map on an entire other z-level probably shouldn't get dumpstered by EMPs. Even a 'soft bombcap' of having the effect fall-off past the screen radius (even the radius of 2 screens, if it's on the same z-level) of the EMP would be nice, but presently the intensity that you can drain an IPC across the ship is a bit silly - reminiscent, to a degree, of the old death wave or anti-synth artifacts that xenoarch was once able to find.

Per the title, it can be as large as needed (probably not as small as the regular bombcap that is), but a recent round showed that 80u EMP grenades can effectively zap the whole z-level. As incredibly funny as this is, it's a nightmare for IPCs.

I rather wish there were tiers of intelligence as it were, I’d like to see Warriors semi-smart to move around a bit when in engagement range but not ducking and dodging around like trained boxers. It feels like a wide ravine between ‘runs at you’ and ‘dodges like a Dark Souls character’ as far as difficulty goes.

I would agree if it were by appearance, accent and so forth as well. But you’re left with characters of wildly different physical features in all corners barring name and species, where if you lined all of them up without giving any of their names then I would never be able to tell ‘oh these are all shells from the same model line’.

It's a uniquely Hazel issue. ZIs, IRUs, Vaurcae and the lot of other 'strictly named' character types don't have it because there's more of an identifier in the chat box than two numbers and a letter. I shouldn't need to write a cheat sheet to remember the characters of a singular archetype, even if it's the sort of issue that only shows itself when there is an excess of the archetype.

I'm going to be plainly blunt, I cannot for the life of me tell 98% of the current Hazels apart by name alone. It has been so genuinely confusing for me OOCly that I have to wait until I see the character on my screen to know who/which they are, made worse when they are so often drastically different individuals. Anything that makes it more common for me to not have to memorize twelve different sets of numbers (I cannot memorize this many numbers to save my life) is something I support to the fullest extent.

While I don't always agree with server direction, I have found that Aurora is the one server where the leadership structure for administration and development is truly functional. The present systems have kept Aurora whole where near-all servers that once competed with it have died, often very slow deaths where they lost their core identity along the way. As it were, elections are popularity contests when it comes to SS13. Being a popular member of staff does not mean that you are a good member of staff. The community cannot be relied upon to make these decisions, which leads onto the next subject. Votes, I see similar to 'public staff elections' as usually unwise to begin with outside of perhaps the most superfluous details (the name of the ship being one harmless example), but I have found the only issue with the recent one (I will not discuss the contents of the vote, it has been discussed many times over) is that implementation has been substantially slower than one might expect - leading to perhaps my one complaint in regard to the maintainer structure, in that maintainer discussion does not feel especially predictable or transparent in regard to expected length whether of implementation or the discussion period itself. Barring that singular issue, I felt that it was otherwise handled appropriately. Having witnessed the thorough vitriol that would seem to surround votes on this server (Some of the most disgustingly unpleasant behaviour that I have witnessed in this server's history had surrounded the two most contentious votes in the contemporary period, the second one being the cyborg-related one), I feel that the idea of votes in regard to server changes as a whole should be put behind us, outside of the aforementioned superfluous detail-type votes. I have little else to add on the other subjects, as I haven't paid terribly close attention to the outcomes and threads of the various staff complaints so I cannot speak on them. But, direction-wise I feel that Aurora has maintained the right course in regard to the selection and decisions of it's four heads. I would not trust the server to maintain it's course with any amount of community-voted direction in that front.

Reiterating helmet cameras over accessories because the latter are harder to police (Accessories are generally harder to see), harder to justify not using (Helmets are rarely worn outside of emergencies and presumably wouldn't have vision unless worn on the head) and harder to balance around (One can easily only put it on X or Y type of helmet, purposely withholding it from basic-tier helmets, etc.).

If a combat exosuit was made without the HoS or Captain asking for one (outside of unusual extenuating circumstances or the mechanist being an antag), you're pretty well justified to just ahelp the situation I would imagine. No different than the Warden ordering hyper-lethal weapons from Operations really.

I'd support helmet cameras instead, potentially only for armoury/voidsuit helmets (and I guess the Hazard plus Combat Hardsuits and HoS helmet) too so they'd only be seen on higher alerts. Helmets are easier to manage than accessories (which you could put on basically anything) and decidedly less 'current day', so big plus for them. Finally, they have existing (if potentially deprecated) code.

Yet both can be met by maintaining a grounded atmosphere even whilst being attacked, no?

This can spawn and be played during extended. Lore should also be prioritized wholesale, it’s the primary selling point of Aurora (as shown by canon events being the highest player counts we get). As for a step in the right direction for overmap, I’m waiting on Odyssey for that. Then we can have grounded and potentially dangerous third parties with varying levels of canonicity that can’t get too wacky without an admin or storyteller’s input. Everything about this base currently screams ‘mission briefing material’ to me rather than something that should be on it’s own without a round focus.

Addressing #7 specifically, the scope of the thread was not to remove but limit it's availability to where it'd be reasonable - that is why the thread is a policy suggestion, as such a policy would affect future away site/third-party additions going forward. Supernaturals only within Supernatural modes, and conversion antagonists only within their precisely matching mode. The first to maintain server atmosphere and the second to maintain the round flow of the present mode, to prevent any lower population rounds and lower intensity modes from being overwhelmed by what could be effectively equated to an ERT-tier threat (without the oversight and necessary judgement of requiring administrators to spawn it). To the other points, (1) I'm not in staff and I cannot read staff discussions, it would not have affected my making this thread. (2) The policy suggestion was a policy suggestion, to which only head staff/maintainers are capable of enacting - this thread's existence is instead multi-factor as you chose to directly attack my character by claiming said policy suggestion is a 'kneejerk' or 'salt' suggestion. (3) I do not closely examine most older github PRs, and I generally look to the forums for project discussion over the discord (as discord is rather poor for any serious discussion due to it's design). (4) My policy suggestion was made after reading the experiences of players who had several rounds, often lower pop and extended where Cult could not exist naturally to begin with, up-ended and turned into a murderfest by an extremely disruptive third party. (5) For balance, I'll clarify my position - I do not mind antagonist third parties, even them being dangerous, but I mind the nature of their danger (in this case, supernatural) and whether they are capable of essentially up-ending the flow of a round and undermining roundstart antagonists (as conversion third parties, particularly with some of the strongest powers in the game, are trivially capable of). If these were merely insane madmen making sacrifices without mechanically supported blood magic (cult powers), I would see zero issue. (6) How commonly that it was generated was not really a contributing factor to my making the policy suggestion, and I actually valued that error for allowing me to see more feedback and the effects this away site had on rounds. Thank you for responding.

I don’t have any major opinion, but I’d just like to clarify as a regular lowpop player that when a vote comes up if I vote to transfer it’s because I feel compelled to play every round to the end if possible. It simply feels like proper etiquette not to leave a round early once you’ve committed to it, unless I truly have something else I absolutely need to do or if the direction of a round is horrible (Greimorians without medical and with only a Secoff being a more common example). Don’t point the fingers at lobby sitters as the ones fueling the vote to transfer, some of us in the round just don’t feel right leaving early if we can avoid it.

BYOND Key: GMR25 Staff BYOND Key: dreamixpl Game ID: N/A Reason for complaint: Adding a deeply unbalanced away site (cult base) that entirely circumvents the basic requirements of the antagonist mode that it mimicks (players toggling the role, crew population and even the basic admin intervention required to add disruptive antagonist roles to an existing round), highly interrupts the flow of any round in which it activates if it's not likely to outright hijack said rounds, all whilst further damaging the general atmosphere of the server due to it's own atmosphere and mechanical nature (powered blood magic cultists, rather than just 'flavour cultists' which could be believable for the setting in 'non-magical rounds'). Additionally, and what pushed me to write this, directly attacking me by claiming that my suggestion to bar explicitly supernatural third-parties from appearing outside of supernatural modes (and conversion third-parties from appearing outside of modes matching their role) is a 'salt' or 'kneejerk' suggestion whilst attempting to bar further feedback by proceeding to immediately (vote to) dismiss the suggestion. I will plainly state that my arguments would have been rather similar before it was added if I had in any way been made aware of the PR, but unfortunately I was first made aware of it by other players who had partaken in several extended rounds that were entirely hijacked by this addition - which further necessitated that I make that suggestion. Evidence/logs/etc: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/18578 https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/20258-prevent-supernatural-and-conversion-based-antag-third-parties-from-spawning-outside-of-appropriate-modes/#comment-174440 Screenshot in case the above is deleted, for posterity. Additional remarks: It says 'don't apologize' but I feel that I should make it plainly clear regardless, I have no personal issue with dreamix and it would be unfortunate if that sentiment is not mutual. At the core of it all that I care about is the integrity of the server's serious, grounded atmosphere and existing gameplay flow.

Perhaps it’s never rolled with reason. If a mode isn’t liked, why should it be forced upon the crew (and why should it even be possible in extended)? Furthermore why should it bypass the minimum crew population requirements of the very mode itself? I’d consider this ‘the missing feedback thread’ rather than a ‘salt suggestion’, but I appreciate the insult.

Yeah if they weren’t actual, mechanical cultists I’d never have made this thread. I don’t mind seeing a group of crazies, armed with blades and rifles and whatever (who could, in Cult, potentially be useful converts). I do mind them being blood wizards right off the bat. Take away their magic and my complaint is solved as they’re neither supernatural nor conversion antags anymore. This thread isn’t just about them though so much as futureproofing against other supernaturals and conversion roles being easily introduced into rounds/modes they don’t belong in, without any admin intervention.

Per the title. Don't let conversion third parties spawn outside of modes featuring their very same antag role in the crew (Cult for Cultists, and for futureproofing Borer for Borers and Rev for Revs), don't let supernatural third parties spawn outside of supernatural modes (Cult, Vamp). We have recently had a third party base added (trivially activated by miners or other third parties) that allows for ghost role Cultists, amongst the most powerful and focus-shifting antag types. Once activated, they will have zero issue with overwhelming whoever 'accidentally' visited them and converting them - then going to the Horizon and quickly overwhelming the crew if everything isn't immediately shifted to answer this problem. There are two main issues that make this a problem compared to other third parties: Firstly, this is an entirely supernatural antagonist type that employs magic and will more or less dumpster any and all grounding that the round might have otherwise held. Secondly, as a conversion mode it is more than capable of quickly getting out of hand to where any other antagonist will be immediately sidelined as the crew HAS to deal with the cult. Had a compelling story going as a traitor or something else? Too bad, the blood wizards are here to brainwash half the crew and gib the other half. I'd rather see these sorts of absurd third parties not exist at all. Doubly so for conversion-capable roles. But in the context of a cult base spawning during cult (or a vampire coven during vamp or cult, a borer-riddled station during borer, etc.), it would be tolerable.

Aurora is more than just a station, as it were. I don't think we'd lose anything cutting the 'station' part from the server title if that helps mitigate confusion, but overall I have never seen anyone refer to the setting or server as anything but Aurora, and never 'Aurora Station'. At this point the word 'station' is probably just kept for the sake of the forums. We called it the Aurora back then, not the Exodus. I still agree with your point tho.

Of course it creates a hook, it ties it to the server name in a recognizable fashion. When I talk about Aurora lore, I simply call it Aurora lore. I don't call it Spur lore or Phoron lore. The most uniquely Aurora title is Aurora.

Aurora. Why make it complex?

My one, core issue with them in Science and probably one of the biggest reasons this thread isn’t suggesting them back there, is the corporation choice. NT/Zavod/ZH just doesn’t fit as nicely as Heph/Zavod (and potentially NT in the future given the sprites for that exist, lol). Heph is core to Machinists, while Zavod fits decidedly better than Orion (yet by itself not nearly as well as Heph). If you could be a Heph machinist in Science I’d have little issue with them going back there, as both Eng and Sci rather equally need a pop boost (Tho Eng could also benefit from variety in roles).

An addition to the current auto-generators wouldn't be bad, especially as they're presently entirely optional. But like the current auto-gens, I'd want any kind of 'easy use template' to be entirely optional.

I'm going to be rather blunt, if it's changed to be insistently written in one manner I will simply leave my exploitables blank, and I say this as someone who does try to write in potential hooks into exploitables. Are those hooks presently usable by all, not really, but not every character can be readily manipulated by just about anyone.

I would deeply prefer no expectations, the status quo. If people misuse it, then they are the type who will find themselves banned for other reasons as it were. It doesn't need to be restrictive beyond what existing rules we have.