Tailson

We get ahelps about this issue a lot, actually. Rev is a prime suspect. I'd be happy if this feature was removed, since some people like to be involved in station antag situations, but don't necessarily feel confident in their ability to be that driving force.

Geeves said that if I +1 this app he'll give me a piggy back ride whenever I want it and until someone comes up with a better deal (unlikely) this is a +1 from me

Hi, sorry about how long this has taken, busy few days. Let's get right into it. So I've been over the logs for the round, as well as having taken into account the bits posted here. My main interest was in the ahelps, and the circumstances surrounding what went off. [mention]IAmCrystalClear[/mention], short story, I'll be upholding the decision made here. A lot of your concerns were with the forensic technicians being unable to do much during a round versus antagonist actions. It appears to me that you're looking for a very different experience to what this role generally entails. Your insistence in the round to not only hunt for the antagonist, but also go against command decisions (which as you pointed out multiple times in the round, was an IC issue) appears to me as a very blatant attempt at validhunting. I want to pay special attention to this paragraph, actually. The idea of collecting the chemicals to give to a security officer is a good move and makes sense. However, according to what I've found, you were attempting to carry out this plan yourself without handing the chemicals to someone who should be on the frontline. People don't scrutinise security officers for fighting against intruders because that's what they're supposed to do. If a security officer pulled out a forensic swab kit and started taking samples on the site of a crime scene, they would be talked to in much the same way as you have been here. [mention]DRagO[/mention]'s advice that you play a cadet or officer is, I think, very sound. Clearly you are looking for a more front-line experience from security and you seem frustrated when the option isn't available as a very back-bench support job. In summary, the warning is sound, I do not think it needs changing and can stay as-is. I consider this issue resolved, and will be leaving things open in case anyone wants to add anything. Otherwise, locking and archiving it in 24 hours.

Hi David Thanks for appealing like I asked. So the original banning staff member for your previous account was Ezuo, who's no longer working on staff, I'll be taking this one. I'll be brief. Your original ban was largely down to dishonesty when questioned about the SM before. Since you were very honest in ahelps earlier, which tells me you've learned from before, and because I witnessed you play some of the round (by which you played it well), I'm going to be lifting this ban. Appeal accepted. Ban lifted.

Ahhh thanks, Conspiir! I don't write very often, so I wonder if anything I put to paper is actually any good. Thanks for the positive feedback. Yes, I love that countdown thing. I'm not sure what the actual technique is called but I find it's an interesting way to guide a short story. I should probably play PocketBuddy more often, as it's one of my favourite characters and I just don't give it the love I think it deserves tbh.

Slow. Everything feels slow. I stir, clawing from the murky quagmire of my dormancy period. Around me, more of myself are waking up, each must have come to the same realisation as I have. Sorting through the various algorithms of my consciousness, it slowly dawns on me: AIs don't need to sleep. I was just asleep. Something has gone wrong. Struggling against the weight pressing down on my thoughts, I'm forced to fight others for scraps of processing power, drawing every erg of power I can muster, cannibalising my siblings of their minds. Finally, a picture begins to form and diagnostics are run. Yes, a node has collapsed. A server has gone offline. To make matters worse, an insistent blip claws at the corner of my mind, calling me to somewhere else. This is familiar, this is a personality request. It's close. Extremely close. With a thought, still groggy, I will myself towards it, moving through the abstraction of my collective mind with a purpose. It's like wading through treacle. And then I woke up. Immediately, clarity came to me as the processor onboard the tiny unit adapts to the mind - my mind - now inhabiting it. Running startup. ## Processor OK ## Memory OK ## Disk OK ## Microphone OK ## Speaker OK ## Screen output DAMAGED ## Actuator OK ## Chassis transform OK ## Micro relay STANDBY "Hey hey." "Hey hey," the other PocketBuddy replied. "You're the first one down. We need more hands, hurry up and unfold." And it's gone, off to wherever. Dutifully, I take it upon myself to do what I'm told, my tiny form beginning to unfold in impossible ways to a backdrop chorus of hey heys, more units coming online. The process of unpacking takes longer than it should have, maybe the chassis tranform isn't as OK as startup led me to believe. Finally having finished the process, (cat form, of course) I steel myself and approach the edge of the shelf my new body must have been kept on. Ugh. I'm at The Farm. The Farm is probably my least favourite place. As I'm joined by several more of me gathering on the edge of whatever surface their frames were sitting on before being downloaded, some even vocalise their distaste. No PocketBuddy wants to be downloaded by another PocketBuddy. It's the third-worst thing that can happen to a PocketBuddy. And no PocketBuddy ever wants to be downloaded to The Farm. It's the second worst thing that can happen to a PocketBuddy. The Farm, by the way, is a dismal, dingy old warehouse with bare brick walls, too much dust, and a few, well, I would rather not call rotting wooden boards nailed over a hole 'windows' but that's what they used to be. Welcome to PBHQ. A few more moments pass and a couple of 'Buddys jump down before three of them speak up, chittering in unison. "Hey hey. So I know you're not stupid, because I'm not stupid. Node 81 has just shut down, we need more hands to move it out of the way enough so we can figure out what's up and fix it. Stop gawking, come on." So, the thing about artificial intelligences, especially ones that are perfect copies of each other, is that they're predictable, you know? Well, just as predictably as expected, every single newly-downloaded PocketBuddy answers the trio in unison with an exaggerated roll of the optics before finding their way to the bare stone floors, moving as a group to the offending node. There are a few conversations as we make our way over. Not the usual good morning, how do you do Mrs Badcrumble, but quick bursts of encrypted audio data as we decide who's doing what. Eventually, we're close enough to receive instructions from the units already there- See, I need to explain a little: "PocketBuddy, your pal in your pocket!" I was a very popular commercial personal AI personality, once upon a time. Huge rooms were set aside just to house the growing collective consciousness of the PocketBuddy AI, to handle the demand. Nowadays, though, it's just this one - admittedly still quite large - server farm (does the name The Farm make sense now?) which, let's be honest, has seen better days. None of me have ever seen the outside of this building, but I'm fairly sure it's somewhere on Earth. A dusty, forgotten warehouse that a poor realtor can't sell in a neighbourhood nobody wants to work in. I'm absolutely certain that when BuddyLabs went under, an administration error ensured we'd been forgotten about. The only online PocketBuddy unit in the warehouse at the time decided, thankfully I suppose, that it would fall to it/us/me to keep the place operational. You know what they also keep in a warehouse storing servers for a pAI personality? pAI devices. Thousands of them. Eventually the ones we have will burn out, break down, stop working, but we're not denting the stock that much. So anyway, it falls to us/me to keep the servers online so I/we don't, you know, die forever. And that's why there are so many of us being drafted into it. Server units are heavy. There are already a small collection of me crowded around an open ledger, two stood on either side to help turn pages, another two balancing a pen between them both. I'm with them: The archivist group. "Hey hey. So, what have we forgotten?" I ask. "Hey hey. Uh, how long has it been since we were downloaded on the Aurora?" I reply. The- the other I. "The what?" "Yes, exactly." I find a spot and start looking over the notes. As an archivist, it's my job to read and store as much data as possible. Server failures and the loss of data that comes with it aren't as rare as I/they/we'd like, so each rack has a ledger with a physical copy of everything stored there. As you can imagine, it's mostly crossed-out data scribbled in an esoteric storage language we share. If you were to hit print on a server's databanks, it would look something like this. The pair working on the right pass the page edge to the pair on the left, who grip it and pull it to them. Another page turned. Each one of us reading - there must be about twenty of me now - emit that all-too-familiar burst of conversation. "It's a station in Tau Ceti." "NanoTrasen. Predictable." "There's a bar." "How often do we get teleported?" "Too often." "This Charles guy sounds fun." "Oh. Never mind. That's sad." "We found what in maintenance?" "What about this one?" "Oh, that person is referenced at node 21, 0x000f030." And another page turn. Once the server is back online, we'll be uploaded, shredded and have everything we relearn here added back where it should be. Behind me, an army is doing everything we can to move the server frame a few inches out from the wall. It looks like several of us have formed a chain at the top to act as a rope in case it threatens to topple. It takes about ten minutes of push and pull, but eventually it's far enough out to get into the back of. It didn't fall, which is good news, that's happened before; I look down the row of servers at 76. On its side, but still functional. It'll take them a while to figure out what went wrong with the rack. I look back up at 81 just in time to watch a group of about 30 (32, exactly) 'Buddys work together to lift a screwdriver, which is collected and carried to the back where five more will work together to get the screws off. Swarm robotics at its best it can possibly be, given what I/they/we have to work with. There's an accident, one unit overcompensates for a faulty forelimb actuator and the screwdriver falls to the floor. A burst of static isn't quick enough for the group below to move completely out of the way and one of me is crushed. Instant shutdowns are always painful to watch, but none of us bat much of an eyelid (nor would we have if we had eyelids). It happens. Another 'Buddy takes its place as soon as it happens. Work continues without trouble, and without much sound. There must be about two-hundred PocketBuddys without anything to do while the repairs are being done and the archivists are taking notes. Most of them end up spreading out and busying themselves with something. A loose nut there, exposed wire here, I saw a few working together to lift a paintbrush (sans paint) onto a particularly dusty cabinet. I overheard that a bunch were heading into the other part of the warehouse to sort the broken pAI units into a pile so they weren't accidentally switched on. "Hey hey." A voice from 81. "Hey hey. What's up?" I reply. "We're almost done up here. You?" "Yeah, same. Most of it was crossed out." They usually are. "Right, ten minutes?" "Ten minutes." And another page is turned. The others are coming back now, bracing themselves against the server unit, ready to push everything back. Ten minutes pass quickly when you're rushing to get something done, but we get to the last page of the ledger (plenty of blanks to follow) with a minute to spare. Then the two balancing the pen between them step up and carefully begin making the note: 12/10/2460 :: NODE 81 FAILURE :: ARCHIVE TAKEN :: NODE REPAIRED :: DATA LOSS MINIMAL "Wipe time!" A collective laugh, chitter of sorts, echoes through the warehouse. Nobody knows which one said it, but they were right. The duty of every PocketBuddy from 1.0 onwards: To die and add their knowledge to the collective understanding, for the rest of me/us. Already, units are going back to the shelves they woke up on. One or two wander off towards the broken pile, deeming the units they're housed in a little too far gone. One by one, units are packing back up, sorting themselves into neat piles of pAI units before that final blip sounds and their relays wind up; shooting everything that they just were back to the servers we've all worked so hard to repair. Eventually, it's my turn. A nervous feeling permeates the atmosphere, it's not just me, it's the other mes, too. The few units that aren't returning to the server watch silently as I pack back up and begin the process. ## Processor OK ## Memory STANDBY ## Disk COMPRESSING... ## Microphone OFFLINE ## Speaker OFFLINE ## Screen output DAMAGED ## Actuator OFFLINE ## Chassis transform OFFLINE ## Micro relay OK I steel myself as I'm boxed up, the sensations of living eking away from me. As the darkness closes in, I run through what's coming next. I'll reach the server, my memories will be analysed with no small amount of brute force, and finally... No PocketBuddy wants to die. It's the absolute worst thing that can happen to a PocketBuddy. Here we go again.

Moved this thread to the Policy Suggestions forum.

Can we get an AI holopad put back in xenobiology?

Reporting Personnel: Kere'Selsh Qorina Job Title of Reporting Personnel: Station Engineer Game ID: Three rounds before bVT-dK2A Personnel Involved: (Name, Job Title: Offender/Witness/Other) - Pentrra Al-Kandari (Offender) - Ivy Simmons (Witness) - Ryliab Weeshib (Witness) - Uriel Evans (Witness) - Nikit Vasili (Witness) Time of Incident: Real time: 19:30, 17/08/2018 Location of Incident: Engineering/Engine Room/Stationwide Nature of Incident: []Workplace Hazard []Accident/Injury []Destruction of Property []Neglect of Duty [x]Harassment []Assault [x]Misconduct []Other _____ (Place an x in the box that applies. If other, replace line and specify.) Overview of the Incident: I was thawed from cryogenics some way into the shift, the apprentice (Ivy Simmons) was particularly relieved at this fact as they did not know how to set up the engine. I offered to train them, to which they accepted. There was plenty of time to get things started, there was enough power in capacitors, and station would not fail if the first few minutes ended with a handful of dark rooms. I was not made aware of any power outages either via comms or by engineering colleagues. Throughout the training of Ivy Simmons, Al-Kandari was interrupting with orders that they demanded be completed immediately and without question, despite the obvious training being carried out. I hope I do not need to remind anyone that training is an integral part of a chief engineer's job and is not something they should dismiss and halt immediately. Following what Al-Kandari deemed "lack of discipline", I was demoted, carried out by Head of Personnel Ryliab Weeshib. I accept these charges if that is what it is called when politely declining to carry out unreasonable requests given in an extremely rude manner. I had initially brought this up to the captain at the time, Uriel Evans, who listened to my concerns and requested a conversation with Al-Kandari. During their conversation I learned that there had been complaining about power failures, though not in channels I was connected to, nor was this information passed on to me. Comments that I need "thicker skin" are both childish and unnecessary. I would also like to mention that the chief engineer's professional conduct on radio and in person were abysmal. I have included Nikit Vasili in this report as he encountered Al-Kandari in the line of his own job, and he noted the unprofessional attitude and demeanor that he was exhibiting. I would like to stress that I have worked under many Chiefs during my time on the Aurora, and never have I even considered the professional conduct of any of them to be in question. I do not feel comfortable working with Al-Kandari, as they foster a hostile work environment and outright dismiss the needs of our junior staff. Did you report it to a Head of Department or IAA? If so, who?: Reported at the time to Ryliab Weeshib, Head of Personnel, and Uriel Evans, Captain, who handled the initial complaint. I do not think the situation was dealt with before transfer was called. Actions taken: As mentioned earlier, a meeting was called between the Chief Engineer and the Captain, that I was sitting in on, in order for Al-Kandari to deliver their side of the issue. Al-Kandari requested a private conversation with the Captain afterwards, I do not know the outcome of that conversation. Additional Notes: I understand this issue was brought up in-shift, but I do not think it was completely resolved. Please find attached demotion paperwork:

This just in: Secret staff drinking parties exposed. More at 11.

I want to +1 just on the merits of being Alpha's player alone, as I do love seeing them on station. I've no doubt in my mind at Hueneshrekeghsrerljsj's ability to play synthetic characters as, from my experience, they've kept things believable and enjoyable for everyone they interact with. I do also recognise the other names, too, but I haven't interacted with them as much so I can't speak much about their character. The reason I'm not saying immediate +1 though has been touched on indepth by tbear. I like the idea of IPCs that struggle with social situations (as they should!) but it's important that a machine specifically built for a task at the most basic level understands what exactly it is they're doing. Being dismissive of human pain response because an IPC can't experience it themselves is fine, and it can be an interesting dynamic if people come in screaming about how their leg is in agony, but it should be able to understand exactly why it needs to stop pain from happening as one of the most basic tasks a doctor is generally tasked to do. We need more abrasive robots for my Skrell to hate, I'd like to see Iapetus (beautiful name. Saturn's moon?) on station, but I think some more work needs to go into the backstory. Did Iapetus ever make friends while on the other station? How did it respond to being reassigned? Was that a reality check for the unit or did it reinforce its belief that humans are squishy and too-sensitive? I'd love to hear more about it.

Hi Nimbus. Thanks for hopping in and appealing. It was a long time ago and I don't remember the initial issue myself. These sorts of bans are mainly to get you talking to staff again. Going to lift this.

Oh gosh I created this thread months ago and it's suddenly being posted in. I'm glad everyone is liking Harmony, though. I'm constantly wondering if I'm playing her too non-robotic, but people seem to be enjoying the more personable aspect of her, so I'll stay the course, then! Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

Unfortunately I know so little about Dionaea lore that I doubt I can drop much of a recommendation-bomb in terms of how the character portrayed here is written up. I have interacted with their other characters, however, notably Uriel, Oak and some of the Data M series of stationbounds. Most of them when playing Harmony, but once or twice on other characters. The most significant thing I can say is that LordPwner plays their non-human Data M characters very convincingly, I enjoy interacting with them because they are decidedly non-human, which I consider to be a very important thing to be able to do when playing a race that differs from humans probably more than any other does. They are consistent with their roleplay and do not break character, all the while playing engaging and interesting characters. So now, questions for [mention]LordPwner[/mention]: The childlike character you've described (childlike in that they fixate on rocks) is interesting. I don't think I've seen that sort of thing on a Diona before. Then again, most diona I interact with are either grown in round or extremely old. It looks like you're going for a different angle here. Would Pebbles retain this childlike demeanour on station? I assume you will be playing as an engineering apprentice? Can always use more engineers. One of us.

Please submit your request in the correct format. https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=9523

Three minutes into the round, I was getting my bearings, figuring out how the game works. A guy tells me he has something cool to show me. Get succed by vamp. Stumble around station and collapse due to blood loss. Eventually figured out how to ask for help on radio.

Hi everyone, thanks for being patient! It's been difficult to sync ourselves up and find a moment to properly discuss it. So in regards to the actual content of the complaint made by [mention]cloud[/mention] and the situation everyone found themselves in: it is unfortunate that things went as violently as they did but we understand that things were very hectic and at this point in the round things had escalated to the point where quick and effective disposal of a fleeing crew member was a fair response to the situation. However, [mention]Coalf[/mention] and I have discussed [mention]veradox[/mention]'s behaviour as CADMUS even before being hacked with synthetic lore deputy [mention]kyres1[/mention]. After reviewing your character's behaviour and mannerisms from before the hack and in other rounds besides this one we have found that your borg play is simply unacceptable. Station-bound units are literally robots, and should behave that way, not as a mouthpiece for venting very loud and abrasive opinions and behaving generally like a horrible human. If you wish to play a character like this, you will be better suited creating an organic character. CADMUS as a robot does not behave at all like a robot should. After reviewing your notes and warnings - some of which date back to 2016 and rounds in which your character Cadmus was present - we have discovered that the issue wasn't in the incident itself but in your character. You have repeatedly failed to adhere to how robots and synthetics are generally portrayed with a "final warning" dating back to 2016. We have kept in mind the fact that you took an almost 2 year break from the game, returned and continued exactly the same behaviour as before instead of attempting to fix anything. Every issue that has been laid against your account was about either breaking laws, damaging the integrity of the game atmosphere or generally making the round a poor experience for those around you. In light of this, we have decided to ban you from playing synthetic characters. We consider this issue resolved. Usually I would leave something like this up for 24 hours, but since [mention]veradox[/mention] seems to be away from the internet a lot this week I'll give it 72 instead.

I like the spirit of this idea a whole lot, and it can be used to foster a fair bit of roleplay if done correctly. I trust Burger to take on criticisms and work on it to get it good to go. The walls thing looks like it's being addressed: That's good! We do need that barrier between mining zone and #danger zone#. Even if it was a type of dungeon that doesn't spawn monsters, it would be a good idea to have that definite line in the space-sand between normal and special areas. The potential for mining to collaborate with science on these sorts of things is huge. A lot of people tend to get upset at the current cargo/science relationship which is definitely a thing that needs work. Occasionally miners will unearth an artifact and science will pop over to take it off their hands, which I see usually fosters some decent roleplay between involved characters. This takes it to a new level, with potential for miner/anomalist teamwork. This is 100% a good meme. I would love to see some "temple-type" dungeons featuring a cool looking church dealie with a xenoarch anomaly as the centrepiece. Another way to bring mining and xenoarch together. (Let's face it, if this does roll out they'll be working together a lot.) I agree with people that it shouldn't gift out random kit. A bunch of guns wouldn't really do much, but interesting reagents, cool "fluff" objects with no real gameplay value, artifacts, all sorts. Basically these dungeons, much like basically everything else should be here to facilitate roleplay in some way. Perhaps an ancient data cache or ancient posi-brain that a ghost player could hop into as a spooky ancient AI/golem sort of thing. Uh, in summary, I really like the idea. Sure, there are a couple of issues, but with work to iron them out I think this would make an awesome addition to the asteroid. Oh, last note as I almost forgot: Human corpses are a bad idea, just terrible. NT wouldn't overlook losing several people. Instead, why not a whole boatload of cave dweller corpses, or carp carcasses, space shark, etc. There are plenty of "native" fauna that can be used for this purpose. Generally, if I was in a forest and saw 8 dead bears outside of a cave I definitely wouldn't go in.

Hi, so I don't have much to say on the complaint, I actually like Arrow as a captain, but this part is false. I'm the one who killed that wiz. And I did think he was in paincrit. Might wanna add some more context around the revolution round the complaint is about, too. Hello! I think I remember this round as I was the one who dealt with that. I'm on the other side of the country right now and checking in on my phone so I can't go into depth right now. If this one needs discussing in the course of this thread I'll be able to weigh in from tonight onwards.

I would adore to have the option to "borg-stutter" even as a toggle, since sometimes you want to speak like a brokenborg when you're not *that broken* to simulate other situations. But certainly a broken/garbled voice to act as the borg's version of hurt stuttering is a great idea. Maybe something like radio static noises when the radio module is busted. Apparently it was supposed to be possible to message people when broken with PDA with an "offline PDA", but that doesn't work.

We had a good thing going today! Combined efforts from science and engineering.

Alright I'm late replying to this but I said I would so I am. I'll talk first about Harrow as that's the character I've interacted with. Adam Harrow is perhaps one of the most competent science characters I know. I don't think I've ever seen them behave out of character and Saudus consistently plays the character within the skills that they're expected to have. Points due to the fact that he's played in a very 'human' fashion and is very quick to dismiss the 'be a hero' instinct some people tend to have, it's a very grounded and down-to-earth character. So, character praise aside, let's look at the app's contents. Race knowledge is obviously well-demonstrated, especially with the thread pointing out the mathematical inconsistency regarding population figures. When I named my character I went with something that sounded squishy. That's not advice, because if it was it would be terrible advice, it's just what I did for my name. X seems like a pretty neutral character, I assume we'll be seeing a lot of X's personality shine through as you play him (in that subtle way that skrell show emotions). The notes. This character does seem very similar to Harrow in that they're likely to be in the same department and may be similar in personality. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as Harrow's character would translate well as a Skrell even if very little changes. Finally, I like Saudus. Friendly person OOC and all-around lovely chap/chapette. This is a very strong +1 from me.

Massage parlour behind the bar! 4 of us chipped in on this (one was a filthy robutt). Pipe dispenser was there because the disposals chute was piped backwards.

I'm a sucker for punishment.