Sparky_hotdog

I'll be honest, I've been sceptical in the past about most forms of more junior roles (Obviously not Lab Assistant, I tried to push for that with a PR), but this has potential. There might be some increase in mod work, which I think is important to consider, but is also not a huge deal. Most people playing these would probably be looking to do less, not more. Definitely like the Wait Staff idea, I think it would lead to the main mess/restaurant area being used more, and allow for more private meal RP, without making chefs' lives harder. Also very much agree with keeping regular assistants. My only question (not concern) is regarding departments, and corporations therein. While I think the assistants still being officially outside of the departments they're helping is fine, with the current way alt-titles work I think there would be nothing stopping a well-meaning newbie from making a Zavod Orderly or something (As all corps employ assistants right now). Just a thought,

As is fairly typical of Luthien Pacters, Achiilzhia sees them as beings with pure souls, and feels their treatment and ownership to be morally and spiritually corrupt - Though it hardly surprises her that they are yet more victims of people seeking power. I think she once thought them incorruptible, through being entirely synthetic, but after the Rampancy Crisis on Konyang she isn't so confident in that, more viewing them as the least vulnerable to evil zo'zyola. She sees the Razortails as sort of lost siblings; While she respects their commitment to their faith's ideals, and - having grown up in the Undercity - can relate to their need to survive through illegal methods, she has ultimately come to believe that the best chance for their people is to work with the Corporations, the safety that path offers being worth the loss of conviction. She also finds their unwillingness to work with or trust the other downtrodden peoples of Mendell to be a mistake, and their treatment of synthetics at times to be abhorrent.

Definitely agree. While Arrow is great for getting stuff added to the orders list in a timely manner, its a step that shouldn't have to exist. I'm not sure if there's some code-based reason as to why it's on a DB, but I'd very much like to see it change.

BYOND Ckey: Sparky_hotdog Discord username: _sparky. (Sparky. on the maincord) Character names: Only active on Eris Wyvis at the moment Species you are applying to play: Unathi ------------------------------ General Whitelist Requirements What colour do you plan on making your first alien character?: Azure: RGB 1, 102, 255 / Hex #0066FF (Maybe slightly lighter from Albino heritage, with lore approval) Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: The main page, history, and relevant regions and religions. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question. Why do you wish to play this species?: I've flirted with the idea of making an application for unathi for a while, with their lore being, to me, a perfect mix of Fallout meets Game of Thrones. There is a vast variety of backgrounds the species offers, and a range of religions which interact with each other in quite a unique way amongst our lore. And I'd be lying is the current arc and many rounds exploring Moghes on expeditions didn't rekindle my interest. What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: Purely from a roleplay perspective, unathi culture is very alien, from the subtle body language tells to display emotion, to them finding pointing or the use of first names taboo, and perhaps most obviously their view of gender. As a species, regardless of their background, they are pretty universally shell shocked from the Contact War, the aftermath of which continues to manifest itself in religious heresies and societal struggles. Mechanically, they are carnivorous, have their signature short but fast sprint, can eat/drink most things safely (except alcohol) and are more susceptible to the cold, preferring the warmth. ------------------------------ Character Application Character Name: Ackiilzhia Leyka Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon. (2 paragraphs minimum) Achiilzhia Leyka hatched an azure healer in a small, obscure kingdom west of the Kopesh States on 10/03/2436, to an albino engineer, Troka’odoak, and an azure spy, Kreiikzachiti, a pair of outcasts who found each other. When the contact war broke out, their kingdom joined the Traditionalists, but when the bombs began to fall, Achiilzhia's parents saw the writing on the wall. They fled in the night, never again too see their home that would be lost in a nuclear blaze. They spent all their savings to be smuggled to Skalamar across the Moghresian Sea, where Kreiikzachiti then sold Coalition secrets to the Hegemony. For the remainder of the war, however, the three suffered discrimination, and lived as urchins, their only income being whatever Kreiikzachiti could steal. They were living like this when the first Aut'akh to form a commune in the capital's Undercity arrived, and the family of societal rejects made easy converts. Troka'odoak took up a calling as a shaman with their engineering knowledge for their commune, while Kreiikzachiti began stealing scrap and parts rather than coin. The young Achiilzhia took quickly to this new group, who while not immune from their prejudice, were the first people she ever felt welcome among. Their teachings felt true, an explanation for why she had lost her home, and spent her childhood on the streets. And better yet, they offered a way to avoid it in the future. The war ending changed little for their commmune, save they were now busier with more desperate souls looking to convert. On her 14th birthday, Achiilzhia requested her Ritual of Shards, and was sent north of the wasteland to deliver food and medicine to a group of Aut'akh there studying Mador ruins. While the journey was difficult, the spirits saw her through it, and almost all the way home, until she was set upon by Gawgaryn raiders. It was only through the intervention of a Si'akh missionary that she managed to flee, without ever thanking her saviour. For her Ritual of Rebirth, she selected prosthetic eyes, engraved with runes of knowledge and wisdom, and coloured violet like her Fisher parent, rather than her natural red, to allow her to "see the world as they do". A few years later, she received her second cybernetic - A soul anchor. While initially excited, upon experiencing her first baffles she became less enthusiastic about further augmentation. The memories she saw were versions of herself in places she had never been, and as people she only half recognised as herself: A warrior in the Zazalai Mountains; A fisher in the Southlands; A healer in the ruins of Darakath. Scared and confused by who she was, she turned to mentoring under Troka'odoak as a shaman for answers. In 2457, the Leykas were among those to leave Moghes for Tau Ceti, forming what would become the Luthien Pact commune. It was here, as their commune began to develop their differing view of gender, that Achiilzhia stopped rejecting her baffles, and began to embrace them, seeking new ways to channel each part of her spirit. She would paint and volunteer to help with rituals to channel her fisher nature, while she began serving in the TCFL upon its formation in 2459 to draw closer to her soldier spirit (In addition to drumming, which she took up upon arrival in Tau Ceti), serving as a medic while using a Legion scholarship to study medicine at the Biesel Institute of Medical Science. After the Iron Crusades and the arrival of the Akhanzi Order in Tau Ceti, Ackiilzhia began visiting their new temple, disguising her prosthetics, to learn more about Th'akh, the predecessor faith. Through them she learned of the zo'zyola pantheons of the various regions of Moghes, and discovered she felt a stronger connection to those in the regions she had baffle memories of than those from her true homeland. Her studies were interrupted by the Second Solarian Invasion, where she fought in the Legion, before resuming them later. She began her residency in 2464, splitting her time between Legion vessels and Mendell City Hospital. With the formation of the TCAF in 2465, she switched to complete her residency with the Minutemen, being deployed to Mictlan as part of the Peacekeeper Mandate. Her experience there was difficult for her, as while defending Tau Ceti from the Solarians had been easy to reconcile with her faith's anti-authoritarian views, her being complicit in the conflict on Mictlan was far harder to make peace with. Completing her residence in 2466, she made the decision to leave the Minutemen, using PMCG contacts she had gained on Mictlan to acquire a contract with Nexus Security to serve as a Physician. How has the recent events of the Orion Spur impacted your character? Events such as the Phoron Scarcity, the Solarian Collapse or even the Invasions of Biesel for interstellar-wide affairs, while region-specific events such as the Peacekeeper Mandate, The Titan Rises or even Cold Dawn may impact your character. (1 paragraph minimum) The Invasion of Biesel was important to Achiilzhia, as she began to feel that Biesel might be the lesser of all the evil: She doesn't support any state of governance, but at the time she was fighting for people to have a home, and her own home, which felt right to her. The Peacekeeper Mandate broke this idea: Achiilzhia is now certain that all governments and power structures are equally corrupt, and remains haunted by her own assistance in the conflict on Mictlan. While Hephaestus monopolising the guilds on Moghes doesn't directly affect her much any longer, she naturally doesn't approve of the power they now wield. How does your character view the megacorporation they work for? (1 paragraph minimum) Achiilzhia's view on Nexus is mixed: Like her, they were involved in the Peacekeeper Mandate as a member of the PMCG, however their ties to NanoTrasen, one of the corporations she has a higher opinion of through their deal with her commune, makes them someone she is willing to work for, so long as she can continue to support the Luthien Pact in doing so.

At some point I'll look into making it an anomaly that spawns in the same manner as the others, rather than a random jump scare item when you think you're digging for fossils. That would also make it containable eventually, though you'd have to be quiet to actually study it still.

Only way I can see this working is if the vision from the cameras was heavily restricted, as in 2-3 tiles rather than standard 7 tile view. Might still be too strong, but I think that would also give the classic "watching body cams and struggling to get a full picture" vibe. If the entire security team are there, you can probably piece the situation together. If they're on their own, not so much. Obviously limiting them to blue would be a must as well, as would jamming. I like both of Fluffy's extra suggestions about maintainance and lying down too. Maybe also giving them a really obvious sprite so antags don't try to hold up an officer while standing right in front of a camera too.

I'm in two minds over this. Obviously the realism argument is flawed - Ever since the PR was merged it's been brought up countless times that this technology exists today - but I do think that having to sometimes take a longer route isn't necessarily a bad thing; What is a bad thing is that there are places where there is no alternative route, where there is no option to get a crate or rollerbed to somewhere without going over stairs. That needs addressed, there shouldn't be anywhere that's impossible to reach. The hoverbed option I think works because it creates a way to solve the slowness problem, provided you have the people to acquire them. The argument can be made that just having people solving a problem negates the problem existing in the first place, but by that logic we should all have power at round start and R&D should start maxed out. If, and this is a big if, the only issue presented by this PR was the longer routes being too slow, I think it'd be an okay solution. That said, the Horizon needs some significant remodelling to make it accessible enough for hoverbeds to be a nice upgrade rather than a necessity, and so I think I reluctantly agree this should go.

I wanted to get other people's thoughts, especially other research players, on the noticeable uptick in the number of vampiric statuettes found over the last few weeks (with several people reporting finding one up to 4 rounds in a row). I've tried to find why this has happened, but initial thought of it being Uueoa-Esa specific was disproved with similar numbers of statuettes were spawning both there and in the Badlands (~14 per round across all z-levels). Maybe it's bad luck, or something else in the code, idk. There's also the matter that in theory only 1/4 of statuettes should be vampiric, but I don't recall anyone finding a normal one in recent memory. I'm normally in support of improve-don't-remove, but given I can't actually find the issue here, there's two options I see: Disabling the chance of them spawning as a vampiric one completely, or heavily lowering their spawn rate. I'll be frank, I don't find them a particularly fun mechanic to engage with; If you can call something that infinitely spawns hostile mobs with no way to stop it - short of destroying it with an explosion or some such - a mechanic at all. It basically just means abandoning the digsite, and any nearby, because of RNG. I get that it's supposed to be eldritch and spooky, and I can see the appeal, but right now it's showing up too often and I personally wouldn't be sad if it was gone entirely. It's a bandaid solution to xenoarch as a whole needing reworked, but that isn't going to happen in the near future.

Personally I've gotten used to it now, and I think it's fine.

I support the concept, though I suspect it would involve rewriting how speakers work, as right now they just do the equivalent of a visual emote, which can't have a language. But anything to make people ask for circuits more often is a good idea in my book. Interacting with ghost roles or antags where you can't just speak Basic, be it through having a translation device, or a member of the crew, is always fun so I sipport this.

Just going to add to this again after one got loose on the Horizon. Currently the only reliable way anyone seems to have found to survive them is to use mechs, which as greenjoe says are believed to be bugged such that simple mobs can't attack them. This issue here is that they're simple mobs, who all rely on being faster than players to be challenging; Kill me fast or I'll kill you. You can't do that when this thing has the combined damage output of a full security team and more than enough health to tank one. If they could damage mechs properly, I don't think there'd be a reasonable way to kill them in their current form. Capturing them is out of the question too, as they can and will (As we learned last round) just claw through any and all walls to get out.

Other thing to inadvertently nerf it at night, while making it scarier. Give it emissive eyes. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. (But the OP thing too).

Apologies for the late reply regarding this, but I'm slowly working my way through this thread. If you're still interested in adding some new mobs/plants, feel free to reach out via discord ( _sparky. )

I'd support this. I'd even go so far as to suggest some more extra upgrades could be given - Maybe a sort of random selection of components. It does seem strange that the role specifically for repairing PDAs and computers has no actual access to the hardware needed to do that.

Technically the probes do most of this already. I would like it if there were more probe-like devices, but I'm not sure if it should come at the cost of splitting the probe into multiple devices, or just other things that I can't think of right now. But I agree more non-xenoarch things are good.