Lady_of_Ravens

I'm assuming the admins have a sound rationality for keeping their disciplinary actions secret... probably something to do with not making a fuss about it, or not publicly embarrassing the person being disciplined. Which makes a certain amount of sense, but I'm going to argue that this does more harm than good. Why? Because while the rules as written are nice, they do little to tell a player how those rules are interpreted by our admins, and even less about how much those rules are actually enforced. So until and unless a player actually breaks the rules, gets reported, and is talked to by an admin, they won't ever know quite where the admins draw the line. This has two consequences that I I see... first, players are denied the opportunity to learn from the mistakes/missteps of other players. If you don't mess up and get an admin talking to yourself, you're just not going to know where they draw the line. Gossip among players may mitigate this a little, but that's hardly a reliable way of distributing information. Secondly, and just as important, the natural reaction to seeing someone do something questionable and having no visible action taken is to assume that no action was taken against them. So you either think "I can do that too" or "there's no point reporting that 'cause nothing will happen." Not exactly the response to rule-breaking we'd consider desirable. The experience I base these conclusions on is simple: I've played somewhat regularly on Aurora for nearly a year and, while I've been ganked a few times and abused in questionable (albeit usually amusing) ways on rather more than a few occasions, outside of straight-up bald-style griefing, I'm aware of only two instances of people getting banned due to RP involving me. Both of those times were temp-bans, because it was the person who was banned who later told me, and both of those times were something of a shock. I really hadn't thought that they'd done anything wrong. So, my suggestion is to, in some manner, publicize bans (and probably warnings too, for similar logic). Not in a big way, and not in a way that allows lots of loud and disruptive argument. Perhaps an admin announce at the end of the round listening any disciplinary actions and a word or two about each... enough that people know action was taken without making a big deal about it or adding a lot of admin overhead. It might make some people uncomfortable, but I think in the end we'd all be happier not groping around in the dark on this subject. And who knows, people might even be a little less butthurt about stuff if they know that the people making trouble are being dealt with. No promises there, though...

Well there WAS that one time where the singularity only compromised the part of it's containment that faced the station so that it shot straight upwards, tearing Engineering in half and sucking in all but one of the engineers The AI core is very safe from singularities. XD Not so much against nuke-ops, but... you know... hopefully there'll be at least one sec-lizard left who hasn't killed himself, and he'll save me.

I'd let out a terrible, autistic scream as I found myself turned into something totally inhuman, take a few moments to figure out I'm incapable of actually being upset by my sudden lack of boobs, and then shunt all my unnecessary "Raven" memories into inactive storage to be attached to a very long, very strange bug report.

but i just want to slip and honk people, give shitcurity a long ass chase. This being the exact reason clowns are hated.

I've never needed to get whitelisted for any of the roles I've play, my understanding is that it's not especially difficult even for new players, provided they have a reasonable grasp of what's expected. And while I too started playing here as AI, I know I would've been happy to fill out a whitelist app if that's what it took to get my favorite position on a high-rp server. And at least when I lose the AI slot to Prometheus, or any of the several other good AIs out there, I can be spared the horror knowing I lost the chance to play AI that round just so someone else could do it badly. This makes a big difference. A guide is actually a great idea, I'm even working on one (sometimes, in a very piecemeal and half-assed way), but to have any hope of effecting change in a player, that player has to read it. Anyone who can't be bothered to check out the guides section of the forum (which, I'm assuming, is quite a few new players), won't benefit. However players who want to get whitelisted for a position have to visit our forums and, hopefully, learn some about our community and how we do things.

Well, first off, the laws aren't that simple. I know because I've seen them fucked up sooooo many times. Usually by borgs, 'cause that's what I see most often, but I've noticed AI characters doing it to. Stuff like going nuts when a cerw member is legally executed, or helping someone hide from the security all round. But, mostly, just being waaaay too casual about everything. It frustrates the hell out of me to see my favorite role, which can be done so well, done so poorly. And don't imagine for a moment AIs are short on responsibility. Besides the borgs, which can be quite the handful sometimes, the AI is the gatekeeper to pretty much everything on the station. Along with all the routine access requests, asking the AI is the standard way to get access to stuff like the captain's spare ID. This sort of thing may not require the people skills that most command staff kinda need, but the need for responsibility and good decision making remains. I'm not so worried about griefie AIs... I'm sure it happens, but not so terribly often. Rather, the problem is simply poor quality AIs who don't handle their laws that well, mess up people's immersion, and take up a slot that could be better filled by any of the several actually good AI players we have on this server.

I'm down for this. Avatar images don't bother me, but the big-ass animations that some people feel the need to stick at the end of each post is just a distracting waste of screen space.

I'm sure I don't need to explain how a poorly played AI can fuck up a round, so I'll skip that part. My understanding of why we haven't done this sooner is that it kinda sucks to have a round with no AI. Lately, however, I've noticed that we have no shortage of people eager to take on that role... enough so, I think, that some quality control would very much be in order. Most of the serious AI players are either already whitelisted or wouldn't have any trouble getting whitelisted, so I don't see much of a downside for current players. I'm suggesting adding it to the command whitelist rather than as it's own thing both to reduce admin overhead, and because there's enough overlap in degrees and types of responsibility that it makes sense. And while this may not solve the bad-AI problem, it should at least reduce the rate at which it occurs.

This sounds good to me. Anyone who can't handle a few days without playing an antag isn't going to fit here well anyway.

OH NO! NO NO NO NO NO NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO! And on like that for about half a day and I'd still only have expressed about half how much I hate this idea. But Raven, you say, why do you hate clowns with a burning passion brighter and hotter and more murderous than all the bombs and shells used during world war two? Because they're not funny, they're just an excuse for chucklefucking every round. And they're stupid... why the fuck would NT put a clown on a research station with a population that rarely goes above 50 people? And if my opnion seems a little extreme, I have a dear frenemy who is absurdly robust as a clown, and more than capable of spending all round being chased by security around the station for slipping someone with a banana and then resisting arrest. Not violent or destructive or anything... just really, really hard to catch. If in the horrible and highly unlikely eventuality that we actually get clowns back, I'll invite him to come play here so you can all known the horror that I've known. Unless the clown just isn't on the crew manifest for some reason. I could deal with that. Every round. Fatally.

This, please.

Just a thought, but "Mining Technician" is a good alternate title for miners, too.

Just a thought, but isn't the helmet pressurized in either case?

Ahh, well, don't be too dissapointed. Things didn't go nearly as well as you might guess from the text there. Xenomorphs are bugged so I wasn't able to stick people in with facehuggers before sending them to the station, security was extra-hardcore in enforcing the seperation of the crew and survivors (to the point of gassing them into unconsciousness for 5min), and somehow all the survivors ended up being hunted. Not saying it wasn't a good event... just... flawed in some respects.

For those of you were were privileged/cursed with participation in my second attempt at running an event, I know there was a great deal of confusion about what was going on and why. Some of it was people being shitlers (it happens), but a certain amount was intentional. Like, the total information blackout and the weird AI behavior. Can't take any credit for the ERT, though... jeeze! Anyway, the event is over, so here are some of the text I used setting it up. Initial orders from centcom: AI law (added when the refugees arrived): Information given to the NCV Chimera's RD (every role got it's own block of text, but this was the most comprehensive one): So, yeah, this is why security was crazy tight, the AI was a little homicidal, and engineering was working their butts off constructing a new section for their outpost.

I usually forget about drones and I don't know as I've ever used the drone ping. Is that an actually good way to get a drone to respond? Because to be honest, getting something fixed quickly and efficiently without a lot of unnecessary chatter is exactly what I need rather often while playing the AI.

I like it. Clothing options are always good, and it's not like wizards are anything like overpowered so a little extra disguise ability wouldn't hurt. However, if balance is a concern, chameleon robes could always be added to the list of magical artifacts you can get.

You have something of a point... though it's hard to reason about as Star Trek isn't entirely consistent in how it handles the holodeck. TNG episodes suggest it's mostly real matter, while in voyager we see more evidence to suggest that it's mostly light and forcefields. This could also be taken as advancement in holodeck technology progressing away from the need to replicate matter to create convincing terrain, but that's neither here nor there. If the earlier episodes are taken as the source, materials in the holodeck exist as exactly what they appear and would, therefore, persist if the holodeck failed catastrophically, but anything with a more complicated structure (like holocarp) would disintegrate outside the holodeck. On the other hand, I'm inclined to think the aurora's holodeck is more light/forcefield based seeing as we have both of those things, but no replicators. Which would imply that nothing created in the holodeck could exist outside it.

Well if we're going by Star Trek lore on holodecks, they just rearrange matter. Going by the times where the holodeck gets messed up in Star Trek, it could also, very feasibly kill someone. The only oddity is that, the Star Trek holodecks, even with their own safety bits messed up, still couldn't maintain any holomatter entities outside of the holodeck. They'd just fade. So the fire, the carp, and so on, shouldn't be able to exist outside of the holodeck. Therefore one could very feasibly nerf these simulations whilst still maintaining their lethality, by just having the contents 'disappear' if they leave the holodeck. Oooh, star trek. I like me some startrek. You may recall complex objects vanishing when leaving the holodeck, most notably people although I do recall one episode where they were experimenting with transporting furniture and such out of the holodeck, but if you pay attention you'll notice that simple things often remain. In the very first episode of next-gen Wesley falls in a holographic river and remains soaking wet after leaving the holodeck. And There's at least one episode where the captain has a smudge of lipstick on his face that doesn't go away when he leaves. Also in the first episode it's explained that most of what's in the holodeck is real (replicated matter). This explenation could make sense for the burn test in aurora (not so sure about the holocarp)... though I should note that the star trek holodeck relies heavily on replicator technology, something we don't have on aurora, so I'm not sure how applicable it is to our setting.

As someone who has never once played security or fired a weapon outside of R&D... what's so great about projectiles? I've been seeing this suggested in one form or another several times in the year or so I've been playing and I still don't get what the appeal is. Are projectile weapons that much better than energy ones?

It might very well be worth it to be able to actually read what I've typed.

Socks will ruin aurora's reputation! You heard it hear first, folks. But, seriously, what's the big deal about wearing cute socks? Wanting your character to have a cute outfit isn't an EPR thing, it's just wanting your character to have a cute outfit. And who cares if we have a week of everyone wearing the most absurd socks possible? That happens any time a new feature is added... wheelchairs were followed by a swarm of new characters with no legs, but then the novelty wore off and people moved on. Now, I'd rate socks as a pretty low priority in terms of new features (mostly because I'd never get to wear any), but they would still be nice to have... and I do not live in fear of the sockpocalypse.

Yes kitty ears please! (Even if EmPrESS can't wear them).

Yeah... ahelp, say, me, ooc, the admin channels, all the announces, the AI's ability to message centcom, PDA messages, and, like, probably half a dozen others that I either don't know about or can't remember.

Hey, at least you're not actually expected to listen to/respond to all channels at once in real time like some of us poor synthetics. But seriously, I think this would be a good idea. Another way to visually filter between different discussions would only be beneficial, and anything which reduces the chatter on general is good for everyone.