Carver

I'd say replace the current steak with what you suggested (along with the nutriment buff), have the old sprite be used for a 'Salisbury Steak' for those lazier chefs who dig the 'I went with less effort' aesthetic.

From this, I don't actually see any issue in it. There's no great emphasis placed on the tensions that would otherwise paint the nation as 'struggling' with said issues, and it seems to add a nice bit of a grounding factor in their lore. It gives a cultural focus, adds a bit of flavour to the living conditions via a wholly realistic disparity and gives just a hint of 'internal problems'. Writing any of these out would only result in an unimmersive and quite frankly boring faction, instead they should be fleshed out and expanded on.

Not a bad suggestion. Wouldn't mind also seeing a 'variant' that could function as a radio, taking keys and all.

I sincerely hope this doesn't run into the same issues and problems that Polaris' explorers had, but I'll have to wait and see.

The only thing I dislike about this round type is changeling, but I'd remove changeling from every mode given the choice. I wouldn't mind seeing malf+traitor+some on-station antag role that isn't vamp or ling being a replacement, otherwise I wouldn't really remove it. Not quite worth the effort if it's not in rotation.

I could have sworn job like this used to exist a long fucking time ago, I wasn't around to know why it was removed (if it existed) but I heard it could be fairly boring. I'm not against seeing the return of such a concept; though I'd be wary of how easily it can be abused, yet at the same time a lot of jobs have easy access to that area and I rarely see it targeted by griffons.

This. I've always wanted the things gone for the above reasons, only barely tolerated them in the past because I enjoyed the RP touches they added to certain (long gone) characters who were a joy to interact with (and that was those characters being great, not the mice themselves). A majority of them are greytide-tier annoying and absolutely don't need further buffs than they've had.

I'd say a better solution is simply not allowing the same character (not same player, but same character) to roll antag two rounds in a row if one is looking to prevent the cases of 'John Baton' being vamp, then traitor, then changeling 3 rounds in a row. As for rev/loyalist, I believe both should be unaffected. Neither is particularly 'dangerous' as an antag type on their own, and as recruitment goes I can only hope people join the respective factions based on IC thought and not 'because it's new and fun'. I'd sincerely hope, as well, that most current 'Sec as Loyalist' types do so because it's in their character to do so (and perhaps as well because, logically speaking, joining revs means you were a fucking abysmal hire for NT security).

I'm against limiting contractors, I'd rather do the opposite and further encourage them for the variety they bring amongst the station. Let NT outsource more, it only creates more interesting dynamics ICly. The other slight issue is most (sane and otherwise lazy code-wise) ways you could implement this would cause problem with something I've been suggesting for a while, allowing non-NT factions to play the visitor role. Example being that 'John HephWorker' coming on as a Visitor for some random event/to see friends/whatever (or as a role similarly useless but otherwise already available for contractors) would lock out 'Joe NecScientist' in another department entirely arbitrarily. The only way around this, which would cause immense annoyance to whoever would have to add it, would be having contractor-specific variants of roles (Ex: Two 'Contractor Security Officer' slots, to which you'd have to kill 2 existing Officer slots but the remaining 'standard' slots would be unavailable to contractors).

Funnily, of your example, the truly best AI would be the 'Fair' AI, for being concise. 'Terrible and Very Bad' would only be fine on an MRP/LRP server, 'Better' is simply being vague. 'Best' is either subverted by the antagonist or utterly fucking useless. Now, if you're having issues with AIs, as earlier I suggest playing around them. Having an obstacle will not 'spoil' your round, so for the sake of minimizing my response I will quote myself: If I may recommend a method for avoiding your AI issues? Spend telecrystals on an Agent ID and don't call attention to yourself. There are a plethora of answers to any such problem.

Let me tell you exactly why this doesn't work: The correct response to this is "Okay, what's in there?" "Okay, what are they equipped with?" "Okay, what do they look like?" Letting the AI shorten the need to explain the details causes no harm, and only an idiot will go into a situation without such crucial information. Information gathering is the single most valuable part of having an AI, and the strongest reason to presently subvert one. If one wishes to avoid having information revealed, then plan ahead and be wary not to show all your cards (or just subvert the AI first).

Truthfully I'd assumed it already blinded IPCs, seeing as it (permanently) blinds people with augmented/cybernetic eyes. I still stand by having a more accessible method to floor the fuckers though so one needn't bust out the armoury's ion rifle.

I'm aware of Pikes, but I don't actually know the recipe for them. Consider ahelping the question when you're an antagonist (and posting it here since I'm deathly curious).

Once upon a time, roughly about 4-5 years ago, I considered the AI to be detrimental for the balance of things. Now that everything else station-related has been nerfed to shit, I fear how helpless the crew truly would be with less (or in the case of rumours, no) AIs. They're one of the few credible threats left to antagonists to keep them in check, and I stand by my belief that the game should not be centered around the gimmicks and whimsies of antagonist players (unless they themselves were whitelisted). Is the AI balanced? Hardly. But it's there to support the crumbling framework around it of heavily nerfed non-antagonist tools. Do I think AI should be whitelisted? No. I understand why it would be wanted, but I'd rather not see it relegated to a small pool of players, and I'm of the belief that you can only really get away with having either Command or the AI whitelisted, and not both. It's not uncommon in lowpop that there's no Captain or HoP and only an AI. Now, the moment that the station departments (Security, Medical and Engineering) receive a credible anti-antagonist buff (whether greater access or better tools), is the moment I may support a whitelist (or the rumour suggestion).

It's a decent idea, the damage on it is so pathetic that it doesn't terribly hurt "balance" in the slightest. It'll still be objectively worse than lanterns, as well.

If I was to ever offer a solution it'd be to make EMP less inherently lethal but allow halloss damage to work on IPCs. Logic being that, if they can be shocked, they can be tased.

My argument is that by progressing the weapons allowed on the station through NanoTrasen's official channels (thus opening a greater and far more visible channel of smuggling than the fairly rare/unknown uplink technology), the logical progression is to then increase the local Security's own weaponry. If e-swords become something NT explicitly allows (even for a singular exemption) then I'd expect counters to them (such as shorting them out with ion weaponry). The more common something becomes, the more one can expect local forces to be prepared to deal with said thing. Ex: Cardox grenades in the vault. As it stands, energy swords defeat armour and effectively any tool in the local arsenal besides tear gas (which in and of itself is trivially countered). Expect that for lack of greater equipment, there will be a more rapid escalation. Ex: If an Unathi consular is a committing a crime, I am required to use the pistol or taser foremost against them due to the lack of safety in flashes or batons. And there will be zero valid defense to complain about people doing so when you have an energy sword. There's also the interesting conclusion that if in any canon capacity a consular were to be revealed to be a dangerous criminal or spy, then consular weapons would be banned wholesale by NanoTrasen.

The fuel tanks can simply be shot but you can also wrench them to let them leak, drag it around a bit to create a fuel trail and that'll work. 'Welding fuel grenades' are usually a janitor replacing the cleaner of his cleaning grenades with fuel and then tossing a lighter at the mess, tho this may get you killed if you don't immediately get the fuck out. The main component of a welding fuel fire isn't the fuel reagent, so much as the 'puddles'/liquid fuel stains it creates on the ground that feed the fire.

I wouldn't be opposed to having 0-2 corpses but please no more than like, one or two at the tops, preferably only rarely having even one. The idea that people not only die that regularly on the station but wouldn't be transferred off-station is something that hurts muh immersion. I'd find it more interesting if it were also required to autopsy these corpses first, then have the bag labeled accordingly, if only to give surgeons and perhaps forensics something extra to do on slow rounds.

You overestimate the difficulty of makeshift explosives. Welding fuel is more accessible than phoron/plasma, and burns much, much hotter. The strength of the former (phoron/plasma) is being gaseous and able to spread easily compared to welder fires, which is why skilled griefers prefer it. But with a proper welding fuel grenade? I've seen entire bars of people die within seconds, whereas the purple stuff fires generally take 2-3x as long to kill. As for makeshift weaponry, this wasn't hard to find. https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Improvised_Weapons

Agreed on EE providing a better aesthetic. It'd also give them a more tangible IC presence, something that Hephaestus had before even without contractors due to the two models of IPC.

If it's ever coded to allow for background ui-change like that, I'd prefer instead of simply dark mode it let you choose the colour of your background (and verb text) via colour wheel.

If I need confirmation or assistance, I ahelp. This is a valid use of adminhelp that I have done for years. There is, it serves no purpose after the planning phase, and people often use it for the following or similar immersion-breaking purposes: If they do this I have 0, and I mean absolutely zero intent of responding to them. It is not my obligation to speak to my teammates in an OOC capacity after the planning phase, as antagonism then enters into a purely IC realm. If there's a problem, solve it ICly. If there's a question that isn't related to mechanics (which can be asked via ahelp if it is related to mechanics), then, I shall quote: "Find out ICly." If I'm playing a solo antagonist I have just as much reason to have it off as I do to have the main OOC channel disabled. Or, in a more apt comparison, as I would to having dsay disabled as a ghost. If you, as CCIA, need to have it say 'HON HON HONK NO TOUCHIE ME OR MISTER RULEBREAKER' then it can be handled via a prompt/pop-up akin to the one that appears when an individual is winded (Though I'm more of the opinion that those things should be done off-station anyways, as an OOC immunity is just outright strange, but that's another discussion to be had entirely).

I'd prefer administrations use ahelps if they need to speak to me, as I'm not a fan of disseminating information in such a way that other antagonists are able to see it. With CCIA, when I mentioned an 'alternate method' I meant simply having a pop-up or red text saying 'A CCIA Agent has spawned, no touchie touchie' or the addition of a rule somewhere.

By being on the station itself, you submit to the regulations and directives of NanoTrasen. Being an ambassador does not exclude one from the laws, customs and so forth of wherever their embassy is located. If you consider halloss to be 'powerful' then perhaps you ought to remember just how heavily nerfed it is, if your argument is 'no real armour' then I know you're full of shit from how trivial it is for an antagonist to get armour via theft or simply making it. The 'Golden AK' argument stands, as an energy sword is not something that belongs on station, otherwise we may as well let Tajaran consulars bring their personal Icelance rifles.