Sparky_hotdog

Pilots, prepare for Titanfall. I love this idea. Mechs are really cool, but rarely used due to them only really being available with a machinist (Or through the uplink iirc). I echo Noble's concern regarding balance; I know security have the PEAC, but in using this about a week ago against a traitor with a mech, I found it fairly lacking, though I will admit my aim was awful. But balance is always a thing that can be adjusted, and the core concept is awesome.

Perhaps miscommunication was the wrong term, but my point was that there are differing views on what exactly the PMCG is i.e. Whether there should be differing uniforms for every contractor or just one + classic make-your-own with loadout. I made this thread mostly because there is currently three parallel standards: Contractors with no uniforms; Contractors with entirely unique uniforms; Contractors with uniforms which were requested to have PMCG accents added. I don't think it's very hard to understand the frustration contributors can have when their sprites have changes requested to fit a standard that other existing sprites don't meet (See Phalanx vs Current Wildlands), nor when complaints are made about the mere idea of adding more contractor uniforms while others exist. Disclaimer: I am aware that in the example of the Phalanx, some of the modifications were about more than just the accents, but they were a part of it. Again, I personally don't really care what the outcome of this is, as long as there is an outcome that will prevent this discourse from continuing.

This discussion was initially sparked by PR by RustingWithYou to add a Phalanx uniform, and then propagated by the resprite to the Wildlands uniform I made; In essence, there seems to be a miscommunication between the dev team, lore team, and wider community, regarding what standard unique uniforms for the PMCG are held to. The PMCG are a widely popular faction, and I believe this is largely due to their diverse nature, which unique uniforms help to show. However, I can understand the desire to have some unifying aspect to all of their designs. With that in mind, there are three options I have seen presented: Remove any requirements for identifying PMCG colours to be on subcontrator uniforms. This allows the most creativity with designs, at the cost of unity. Set a new standard requiring subcontractor uniforms to have the current PMCG blue colour included, likely as an accent. This adds unity, but does create issues due to the blue often clashing with other colours. Revise the colour pallette for the PMCG uniforms as a whole to use the gold from their logo, rather than the current blue. This compromises on both unity and being a colour that works with more designs. A visual aid of the Wildlands uniform according to the above suggestions: Personally, I prefer option 3 as a solid compromise, with option 1 being a fall back as I do see the clash the blue creates with other colours. However, more than anything, I would like to see a definitive standard that all the uniforms are held to.

I think this pretty much nails my view on it. Nobody (to my knowledge) is explicitly against a rework, but those don't fall out of the sky, and right now it just seems too far off to be worth keeping in secret.

This is not a good argument for keeping a gamemode that seems to infuriate most on a regular basis. There might be interesting concepts, and a few good rounds once in a blue moon, but that a good gamemode does not make, and with how commonly ling rolls this basically holds the community at gunpoint arm-blade-point until someone comes up with a rework. It is not "just not in a good place right now", it hasn't been in a good place in the 3+ years I've actively played on this server. Ling needs more than numbers tweaked, an ability removed or new ones added; At best it needs a new coat of paint, at worst (And probably more realistically) it needs its guts torn out and built up from nigh-scratch. So I remain in support of this unless someone can at least provide an elevator pitch for an alternative rework.

Ling is a complex mess. There are several appealing fantasies that the gamemode tries to play into - Body horror, gene-stealing, shapeshifting - But in doing so, it kind of fails to deliver on any of those. As is, most rounds basically boil down to maybe absorbing one person (with often questionable amounts of RP), then the loop of "dying" to security, then reviving, until someone gets bored and takes the permanent option. It's not fun to play as security, no scientist ever wants to be handed a captured ling to study, and it has been a long time since I played a ling round that I actually remember being different to any other. Personally I'm not a huge fan of ling stealth either, but I don't have many solid reasons for that beyond having never enjoyed the, admittedly few, rounds I've experienced of that. All in all, as much as - as ever - I would like to see ling fixed, I don't have, nor do I see anyone else offering, any good alternatives outside of just nerfs (which I honestly don't think would solve the problem really). So I think I would rather see it gone from secret until then.

Turns out this was coded, but not displaying due to a bug. PR to fix is up now: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/17011

So I am of two minds here. On the one hand, there is very little for service/ops/research/security/command support (specifically BCs) to do in meteor. It is basically "Engineers fix ship while medical try to keep people alive, for two hours". Which seems incredibly lacking, particularly given that those departments can't even do their normal jobs, as their departments will all likely end up in tatters. So I do think meteor rn is not great. However, I am always of the mindset of rework not remove, and I would rather changes to make meteor more engaging for everyone than its outright removal. Suggestions could include making the Horizon a little tankier, but be requested to try and pick up any off-ships that are dying from the meteors or Meteors that make some simple mobs for ISD to clear out before repairs can be made. Not an extensive list, but some initial thoughts on improvements. All in all, I think I agree with it being removed until someone can give it a new breath of life though. I observed the tail end of the most recent round - I don't really ever want to play that.

As a clasp enjoyer, I would only really be minorly disappointed with their removal. It is like, 4 pixels after all. On the other hand, I would prefer to see them added as an alt-option in the strap settings (The menu where you choose normal/thin/none), given that is a system we already have.

Bumping this because I think its neat and I would be happy to code it. Not sure if this needs lore approval for any of it though.

I can't really comment on values and how armour needs adjusted, but as a fairly long time on-off medical main, I would definitely would like to see more lethal combat - I miss the stress that came with more patients being in an actually critical condition. My only concern would be that, rather than increase the number of people who end up in that sweet spot between 'basically stable with a single injection' and 'so fucked by the time a responder arrives there is nothing we can do', it might just push more people into the latter category. Regardless, I would like to see it tested.

While the concept of battery-powered flashlights and lanterns sounds interesting at first, I don't think it makes much sense from a mechanics perspective. As you said, other light sources still exist that have no power requirements. On top of that, we literally have a species that dies (or at least really hates it, idk how Diona work) if it is too dark, so nerfing light sources seems weird to me. So I'd be in favour of reverting. At the very least, I do think the battery life should be improved. As it stands, all flashlights (from what I can see) last for 200 ticks on their default, medium brightness. For comparison, glowsticks last anywhere between 5,400 ticks and 7,200 ticks, and candles last between 1,600 and 2,000 ticks (These numbers may be slightly off, they were a quick code dive). While these are both less bright than flashlights, they are also more accessible, and I think it lends at least some perspective to how quickly flashlights currently run out.

All of this looks amazing! I will admit, I was quite excited by the prospect of having to go EVA to access the AI chamber, but I'm not going to die on that hill. Overall, these changes are very neat, particularly those in engineering.

To summarise my thoughts on this. The Good: Moving T-comms. It's a relatively high-value target for antags given it's utility, and having it part of another high value target (the bridge) seems like poor design. Moving it elsewhere seems sensible to me. (I know there was talk of moving the AI, so there would be free, or otherwise, most of the starboard wing maintenance is unused I think) More consulars/liaisons. Both of these roles are always really fun to see, and having more in a round sounds super fun. The Bad: Much like Read, I'd rather see other parts of the bridge moved to make room for them Maybe move the conference room to where the bar is now? I've never really seen the bridge bar used, and it just seems to discourage command from going to the real bar and interacting with the rest of the crew (Which thankfully most don't do).

I agree with Triogenix here. If the round is low pop enough to lack an OM, and the ship has still ended up in ship-ship combat, the common channel should be clear enough for interdepartmental coordination. Also, outside of events (where the lack of OM is highly unlikely) the actual need to load guns is fairly non-urgent as I understand, as most third-party ships don't pose a significant threat to the Horizon, and proper escalation should take place (Giving time to coordinate the loading of the longbow/grauwolf).

When it comes to hardsuits, materials are often stretched too thin in situations where they are necessary. The Horizon has always had a materials shortage compared to the Aurora by nature of how mining works now, but particularly in high-intensity rounds where mining have small hauls, and engineering need extra materials to keep the ship together, hardsuit construction rightly gets knocked down on priorities. As for ordering them, I forgot this existed to be honest, so perhaps that would be an alternative.

Firstly, this is absolutely a knee-jerk reaction to the Dreary Futures II finale. However, I do think that the amount of venting possible on the Horizon (Which tbf, makes sense, it's a ship after all), justifies there being more EVA equipment in general, but at the very least more voidsuits for the departments that are often expected to keep working during these scenarios. Engineering already have one each I think, but Security and Medical can't even put half their department in EVA safe gear (Might be wrong on the medical count, but it's only a little more than half). Research also like getting involved, and I wouldn't be opposed to them having more voidsuits either.

So I'll start with my overall impression of the arc, then go onto each episode individually. Overall Overall, I quite enjoyed the arc, though I do have some fairly common criticisms. The structure felt well put together, though I do feel that introducing the main plot hook halfway through made the plot feel a little rushed. While it was a lot of ship-ship combat, as I understand this was because that's all new, and we should see less of it in future. I am a little disappointed that the first arc we've had in an area that's fairly multicultural (The Badlands border Biesel, Elyra, Izweski, PRA and Dominia iirc) just focused on the Solarian Warlords again, but I believe the species-lore teams are making arcs for later, so perhaps I'm just impatient. Episode 1 - The Orchard Moon One (I think) I didn't play this one, so have nothing to say, other than that the idea sounds neat, and that if it was the Orchard Moon event, that was some good planning ahead. Episode 2 - The VR One This I did play (Security Officer, Erina Shen), and I believe it was probably the best event of the whole arc. The entirely hypothetical Horizon vs Solarian warship was really fun, and it was a truly genius way to properly acquaint the crew with ship-ship combat without the OOC risk of losing a character most events have. It also exposed a lot of flaws in both the Horizon's design for combat and in the set up required for the opposing party for space combat, to my knowledge. I don't expect to see the like of this again, but I just cannot say how much I loved this one. Episode 3 - The Elyra vs FSF One This I also played (Engineer, Elise Miravic), and I do have to look past my personal experience of that round caused by a massive mistake on my part. It was fairly uninvolved on most of the crew's part, due to Command's decision not to directly engage either side, but I don't think that was terrible. I can't really say I enjoyed it, but I also can't say I disliked it, nor can I point to anything that could improve it. It was a necessary step to get the Horizon on the trail of the missing phoron. I would say the pacing felt strange between this and the next event (We need to find the missing phoron straight into finding the base it went to), and an intermediate event where we found an attacked shipment or something would have been a nice stop gap, but I know events are hard to plan and organise. Episode 4 - The Station and the Revenge One This I also played (Erina again), and comes in a close second for me. The exploration of the station was really fun imo, and engaged a lot of different departments both in the initial prep and the expedition proper. The Kruger's Revenge hitting the ship also seriously took those of us on the station by surprise, and the chaos of quickly getting back on board to help was awesome. And the ship-ship combat then, as always, provided something for most of the crew to be vaguely engaged with. Episode 5 - The Phoron Bomb One (This is very jumbled, because it's the most recent) I also played the Finale (Erina, once more) and... I think it's important to consider the preamble to this first. I do feel it would have been in the SCCs best interest to, provide more than a paragraph of briefing to the crew, and to provide a briefing, truthfully or otherwise, made the situation sound a little less like a military mission. That said, I also feel the OOC response was way out of proportion for an event that hadn't happened yet. But I digress. The actual event itself was... pretty decent. There was a lot of waiting around to start with, and then the fighting started and... I'll be honest, maybe we had fairly inexperienced Bridge Crew, which is fine, but the Helios felt way too strong if the Horizon was supposed to be able to actually disable it (Which given it was then I believe Admin-forced disabled for the sake of the round, I assume was the intention). But balancing these things is hard when this is only the third or forth proper combat the Horizon's been in, so its not a huge deal. The boarding was probably my biggest issue with the whole event (And I say this not knowing if the event runners wanted us definitively to board, but the aforementioned Admin message did say to do so), as it probably stepped too far over the line of MilRP for me, even playing a Zavodskoi officer. Boarding isn't something the Horizon was ever really expected to do, and combined with the absolute mess that was the Horizon at the time (Most of the ship was vented, which I have non-event specific problems with), and the lag of having 110 people connected, really made it unenjoyable (Yes, none of this was the fault of the event runners, nor could it really be fixed). I understand that it made sense to defuse the bomb, and also the Horizon would have to be very damaged to warrant us being boarded, but it just felt very... mechanic-y, and didn't leave much room for RP, at least as someone who got MSOF-ed after one engagement, and spent the rest of the round passed out before reaching medical. With that in mind though, my experience possibly isn't the best reference point. I think that's all. I look forward to seeing the aftermath of the arc, and also to some less combat, less solarian focused arcs in the future, but I do think the arc was good regardless.

I thought I would put my thoughts, good and bad, on how Heapatus handled that round from my (Erina Shen's) perspective, given I do think it is somewhat decent comparison point. I would start of by saying I don't think anyone in security, myself included, handled the situation perfectly. It was very chaotic, and we lacked leadership. We made mistakes, and that isn't Fluffy's fault. However, while there is nothing that says the Warden has direct authority over the rest of security outside of the brig (A point which is often forgotten, so thank you for remembering), there is also nothing that says in the absence of a HoS, nobody can step up to coordinate. And given that a second warden arrived (Because promotions mess with the slot system), it was fairly clear in my eyes that ISD were looking to Heapatus for guidance, given he was the one that had received some form of interim promotion, which the rest of command had suggested be HoS (I don't entirely know why the OM gave you warden instead, but that's not really relevant). That aside, there are certain things that needed communicated, regardless of whether you were an officer, warden or HoS. Who is in the brig, If you are letting people out of the brig, If you are having research try to help them with a serum. These all were things that weren't forwarded. I don't know if all of these were necessarily your call, but the general lack of communication beyond the regular check-ins (Another thing I did like), would probably be the biggest thing for improvement.

I personally have very little love for borer. It's a cool concept, but not something which tends to work well in practice. I remember loving it the first time I played bughunt, thinking that the idea of two people being the same antagonist was the epitome of RP game modes, but the initial wow factor wears off fast, and you're left with an often repetitive mode which lacks the creativity of most other brilliant antags while lacking the decisiveness that makes most other constricting modes decent. And limette's right - Having any antag which only appears inside of a single hybrid mode is bad: It just makes bughunt raider+ (or raider- due to the lack of options for gimmicks). I will add, in defence of bughunt, we had a round... a few weeks ago now I think, which had a very unique take, at least for my experience, where the raiders worked with the borers as members of a psuedo-cult. It was pretty fun, avoiding most of the uncomfy crew-gets-brain-leached stuff for those who dislike such (Me!). However, it more serves to highlight how poorly the mode performs where a single unique gimmick is somehow a noteworthy memory. (It also renewed my belief that Cult cult should be able to go more Lovecraftian, but that's for another time and place). So personally, I'd remove bughunt. I generally like to stick with the improve-not-remove mantra, but borer as an antagonist feels fundamentally lacking in oomf.

These are all very well thought out changes, and I would expect nothing less from Contextual. To briefly summarise my opinions on each: 1. Yes. This. Absolutely this. This retains the modules that are a) Most loved by the borg-playing community, and b) Highly valued on low-pop rounds, all without just ignoring the problems they can cause. Particularly the suggestion to split medical into basically a physician and surgeon borg (with the spicy flavour that the surgeon borg isn't just a better physician one) is very good imo. 2. Again, this. One of the things that used to drive me crazy when I played medical religiously was when our department would have two borgs. One was often problematic, but two could very easy turn into an automated hospital. I've seen less of that these days, but the fact it's still there should be addressed. Additionally, I would restrict it further by using the sort of groupings you used for your first suggestion (So only one borg helping in medical, be they GenMed, Rescue or Surgical). 3. With these changes, and them potentially losing all-access, I don't think borgs will be a big enough deal to warrant a whitelist anymore. I'm still not sure they would as we have now, but definitely not if we rework them. Honestly, this is the first thing said in this entire thread that makes me want to make a borg, just because the idea of vibing while being an RCD sounds great.

I get this, and I do quite like that people can play a round that is largely independent of the Horizon, as strange as that may be. However, with the current system we can have 3 or more away-sites (I think) with no 3rd parties. At most the Horizon will visit one or two away sites a round, normally only with one or two xenoarchs, a FR, Sec Officer and maybe an Engineer. There's a waste in my eyes in allowing excess away sites to eat into the number of 3rd parties in the round.

This seems sensible to me. Maybe having it be 1 and 1 with the last 1 being randomly assigned to away sites or ghosts, so there is some variation?

I went back and forth on them being warrior or worker, so this is fine by me. Changed.