Captain Gecko

Funny cat. Nothing bad to say about the actual commanding, and a nice roleplayer! Here is the +1

Had a couple of shift with the CE so far, good both on a gameplay AND roleplay level, nothing much else to add. Is good, +1

Getting a tranq gun is pretty cool! But also, now, we have this huuuge empty space, and I think it could use some filling. Maybe add a long range holopad here, some storage there, a charger there, I don't know.

The mech does not help. I made this thread just after a Skrazi whiped out a 6-man expedition safe for the machinist. The Mech survived and beat the Plains Tyrant indeed, but it did not prevent it from killing the five other crew before-end. It's simply way too fast, you have next to no time to react, and the only way to survive would have to somehow have the mech be at the front at all times. You're essentially going to play like this at all times. The freeze gun, assuming it works on simple mobs (I don't know why it wouldn't) could be a good-enough solution to escape it. I'm not exactly sure if you can actually freeze before it reaches you, but assuming you can, the issue is that you just can't make a freeze rifle like that. You need silver, which the miners should provide... If they even find some, that is. This is really just a space-eel situation again. It's good to have danger- in fact it's essential to make things believable, especially when we're talking about Moghes' Wastelands... But this is just ridiculous. It wasn't so bad when the only way to meet a Plains Tyrant was to toy around with a gold core, where you basically seek the risk, and you're not exactly essential to the ship as a Xenobio... But this is different. I fear a lot of players will just stay away from Moghes, fearing to get instakilled by stumbling upon a Plains Tyrant. I don't agree. It's so monstrously tanky you DO NOT have enough ammo/energy on yourself to actually kill it like that. Worst case scenario, while you slow it down, give it even more health/armor Another option I just thought about might be to give players an early warning. Because it often sees you before you see it in the dark, you just can't NOT agro it if you somehow stumble upon it, one way to prevent the unfair "Woops! You're suddenly dead!" and still give players the ability to fuck around (and inevitably find out) would be to give them a chance to avoid it even before getting it in their viewport. Perhaps some warning fluff messages when you get within a certain range of the mob might help. IE: "You hear a bone-chilling roar in the distance" when you get within X tiles of the Skrazi, and then, once you get even closer, "YOU HEAR LOUD STOMPING NEARBY, SOMETHING TERRIFYINGLY LARGE IS NEARBY"

As someone who's been playing nothing but Xenoarch/Anomalist for over two years straight, I'm definitely on this side too... But I still think we need the nerf, though. Taking the example of the net gun, assuming you're a miner or a Xenoarch suddenly coming face-to-face with a Plains Tyrant, you have to: Drop the items you are currently holding Pull out your fancy net-gun (most of the time you don't have access to a hardsuit, let alone an exosuit, so let's assume we have an awesome handheld net gun), assuming it can fit in your belt and you actually put it there (so you don't have to open up your bag and get it from there) Aim and shoot (don't miss!) The Skrazi will already be in your face before you can raise that gun with how fast it is, currently, and that's not taking into account low-visibility. I still think having more tools would be awesome! And whether we nerf the Skrazi or not, and no matter how it's done, I hope we still get more things to play around with. Netguns can be super useful and interesting for plenty of things too, not just fauna.

Putting it here right now so that we can get the most out of it, while we're still by Moghes. We should probably nerf the Plains Tyrant. YES, I know it's effectively an absolute apex predator, YES I know this is basically a space T-Rex, and YES I know that the wastes are meant to be hostile... BUT... I think the Plains Tyrant is PROHIBITIVELY violent right now, to the point where you can't actually escape it if it agros you. It hits VERY hard (you are out of a fight with a single hit unless you're a Unathi - though you won't last long even then), it's very tanky, and it's very fast. It's a shame because there is plenty to do with Moghes, and it's animals among other things. I imagined expeditions revolving around capturing and safely bringing endangered Moghes Fauna to the Horizon to ship them back to the Hegemony, things like that, but the Plains Tyrant is so terribly dangerous that you just can't approach it. And hell, putting aside expeditions, that's a monstrous hazard with next to no chance of escaping it that can just end any unlucky miner or xenoarch too. Thus I propose nerfing it by SLOWING IT DOWN. The Skrazi SHOULD hit insanely hard, and it SHOULD be super tanky. But it shouldn't so fast that even a sprinting Unathi can't escape it, this is straight up unfair, especially with how it will very often spot you before you spot it in the night. By slowing it down, we'll be able to keep it as threatening as it's meant to be, but still leave players with a chance to escape it. Give it the basic Human walking speed, a threat so massive shouldn't be so hard to avoid, especially in low-vis situations.

Record-breaking attendance at K’rath’s bi-yearly music festival. Every two years, K’rath’s Music Festival gathers thousands from across the Ouerea, Moghes, and even beyond. Just two days ago, countless attendees came together to enjoy the first lives of the week-long event… But yesterday the event reached its peak with what was the most anticipated event of the week, the most K’rath has ever seen since this event first started in 2458. It was at dusk that none other than spur-famous Uhszi Ski stepped on the scene as the crowd cheered… Only to cheer even harder when Ski’s partner took to the stage as well, renowned Skrell Idol Weshi Beshi. Many were confused when news of these two legendary artists playing together was spread. While they are both extremely popular and talented musicians, they excel in vastly different genres. Still, fans of both Ski and Beshi came in the thousands to witness the performance, with no less than 85000 attendees. Reception to the performance was mostly positive, but a notable part of the attendance, both Unathi and Skrell, had some reserves. Some fans of Ski reported that they did not enjoy how the Unathi singer had altered some of her songs to make them fit Skrell's style. Likewise, fans of the Beshi were disappointed to see their idol act more as an accompanying force and sing little of their songs. Loksra Ikoru, a famous member of the Keeper of Heirlooms and music critic says: Sinta Articles also managed to interview both artists after their performance. Uhszi Ski explains: To this, Weshi Beshi adds: K’rath’s Music Festival continues, and many talented artists will perform today and for the next four days. Attendance is not expected to go much higher than it currently is, though it is still impressively high, to the point where K’rath authorities had to organize to provide more supplies to the festival to ensure it remains an enjoyable experience.

Tense Protests Shake New Skalamar, City Watch Mobilized to Put an End to it With the Hegemon starting talks with diplomats from the Nralakk Federation, the atmosphere has turned electric on Ouerea to say the least. The people are tense, whether they are expecting the Federation to pay for offense against the Hegemony or the opposite, and this tension has reached its peak just this morning in New Skalamar with sudden, massive protests filling the city’s streets. Citizens of New Skalamar themselves were confused, if not outright shocked by the sudden appearance of these protesters. Ekze Kesoerer, owner of the Starved Stok restaurant, informed our correspondents: What he describes is the initial protest, which appears to have started in the southernmost point of New Skalamar. Most of the questioned protesters say that they simply joined in on the movement, and it appears that it all started with a small group that drew similarly minded citizens as they progressed through the city. The original instigators have yet to be found, though. One of these protestors was Ozle Rsol, who works with a ferry company providing transport between the Ouerean capital and Trizakael. At first, the City Watch had been mobilized to ensure nothing went wrong with this sudden, unplanned protest, but their role quickly turned to putting a swift end to it when another protest, seemingly formed in similar conditions, approached from the northern end of the city, a diverse group of Sinta, Humans and Skrell, asking for forgiveness and harmony between species. The situation was already tense with these protests on their own, but things got even worse when the two groups met in Landing Square. Marcus Gerard, a local human Hephaestus worker, witnessed it all from his office: Around half an hour before noon, the City Watch declared both protests as over, and discouraged the population of New Skalamar to engage in any more or risk being arrested. Overlord Zik'san addressed the situation by noon in a public broadcast: Though seemingly harsh, these restrictions have ample justification considering the presence of important Nralakk diplomatic staff on Ouerea. Open, unplanned protests like these are not only a poor display, they can also be seen as a threat to the foreign diplomats. Representatives of the New Skalamar Watch also raised the concern of dangerous groups such as the Champions of Moghes or other terrorist organizations using ongoing protests as a cover for potentially dangerous activity. So far, the population of New Skalamar is complying with Overlord Zik'san’s words, and order reigns once more in New Skalamar.

Excellent remap so far! My favorite layout for science since the Horizon first dropped! Now as far as issues go: 1) This machine blueprint that we see in the picture above (the one in the circuitry "lab") CANNOT be interacted with for some reason. You cannot remove it, nor can you build anything with it. I'm not exactly sure what may be the cause since I never mapped much, but worst case scenario, this could be removed and replaced with some materials to build the machine ourselves. 2) Add some plastics along with the steel and glass in RnD. Since the Autolathe update making it require more materials, RnD cannot print some basic things without these materials, ESPECIALLY plastics. I'm thinking about the multitools, for instance, that we require to link our tech-processors to the servers (yes I know there is a single one waiting in our server room, but since we always need to use multiple processors, this means A LOT of backs and forth, through the actually dangerously cold server room -which means with a voidsuits that slows you down even more if you're not a Tajara or any other species that can handle this cold-)

Once again, me being very stupid I assume. Sorry about that. Though it is extremely rare for me (science player) to upgrade machines, I haven't seen Machinists being asked do anything like this since the Horizon, but I do believe you. My point was more about player population. It's nowhere near as bad as Science, and certainly not for the same reasons, but I do notice that Engineering is part of the least played departments, which sucks considering how important they are, that was what I was referring to.

Though I think lore is reason enough to make gameplay changes, especially in Aurora, I do not believe corpo lore is reason-enough, just as I believe it wasn't reason enough when we first set foot on the Horizon, but that may be just me. What is not just me is that the matter still stands. The main/most represented exosuits are effectively just powerlifters, I'm pretty sure we spawn with at least two at the start of each rounds (one for each ship gun) as far as most people are concerned, exosuits are generally used for logistics. Of course, engineering exosutis are thing, just like rescue or mining ones (technically combat too, but they're exceedingly rare by fear of earning some boinks), but this doesn't change the fact that the basline for exosuits are powerlifters. Orion Express has as much if not more rights to have workers specialized in building or maintaining exosuits than Zavod. AI and shipbounds are another matter, and while I just said that it would've made more sense for it to remain in Science on that matter, in the end I assume all corporations are used to having robots and AIs on their own ships. It shouldn't be a stretch to think that OE machinists got to work by the side of OE AIs and Shipbounds before... And I believe that positronics are not very popular within Zavod anyways. And while at it... I am not sure if I want the Machinists to return to science. It would make sense to me to have the Roboticist never leave the department in the first place, but what's done is done, and there are other ways we could fix that department, more important ones too... Which I am working on. But that's for another discussion. My main point when mentionning science is just for comparison's sake, and I still do not agree with most of the points raised to move the Machinist to Engineering. There are points to be made, clearly, but I do not think there are enough to justify such a move. Frankly I think there's as much reasons to put the Machinist in Engineering, as there is for moving them to Sec (exosuits are dangerous no matter what they're equipped with and can be armed, and of course, handling the AI is a very sensitive matter after all!) or Medical (cyborgifications, limb replacements, organ printing, and the occasional rescue exosuit all come from the machinist after all). Though on the topic of science there is something I forgot to address. Previously you did say that "...the upgrading and repair of various machines that fall outside the Engineer's standard fare of the power network..." would be the machinist's responsability, among other things. I am very much against that, as it would be gutting something else from Science, we SERIOUSLY DO NOT NEED THIS. I understand that Engineering isn't exactly in tip-top shape either right now, but Science really doesn't need anymore things taken away from it. Upgrading machines outside of Research, Robotics, and the power grid is very rare, but when people ask it is generally science's role to take care of it. It's not that the machinist, in its current state, cannot do it, they technically can, but they are expected to take care of other matters generally. If the Engie-Machinist's responsabilities include doing just that, that does not technically prevent scientists from doing it either, but obviously people will then be asking Engineering for such things, and scientists get one less thing to do.

Well dangit, another case of me being silly stupid. Sorry about that. On the case of clamps I believe they can carry canisters, yes, not sure about the pumps and scrubbers. My issue is that on this angle, this would still be a science thing. With a full command department, it IS the RD's task to fix the AI when an ion law comes and so on. AI-related business is the RD's, and by extent Science's responsability. It would only be natural that this would also include the shipbound robots under the AI's command. Unless we count on making the AI the CE's responsability (I hope not), this arguement still makes no sense to me. I agree that on this specific angle, Operation is not a good condidate, but neither is Engineering.

Victor Jenkins is my favorite telescientist (It's the only one still alive) and I approve of this message. More seriously, Science is in dire need of... ANYTHING, really, any arguements to make the department more fun, or just plain useful, and this is a great idea. I remember Jenkins allowing Sezrak to pull out like 5-6 anomalies in the span of a single hour back on the Aurora, the wonders a talented teleporter player can do are fantastic, and could prove lifesaving in many expeditions and the likes... And just give science the tools to do more experiments and other sciency stuff. We NEED this.

I have no strong feelings about this whole thing, I don't use guns much... But God please stop taking more things away from Science, we're already dead enough as a department as it is, I'm not even memeing.

I have no ideas why the machinist/roboticist would be part of Engineering. As far as I'm concerned they should've stayed in science, I mean they use the same materials, rely on the same research, are right next to science, and even it even makes sense lorewise, since exosuits and robots are complicated machines, and usually employ advanced/experimental technology on the Horizon since it's linked to RnD's servers. I'll accept that YOU COULD argue to have the machinist in operations, since operation does use plenty of exosuits, whether it is to move cargo and ammo around or to mine on some occasions and they deliver other more general machines like cleanbots and the likes.., but engineering? I seen no point in this. Exosuits don't build nor can they perform any engineering tasks, there are no engineering bots (unless you count floorbots? But no one uses them, assuming they still exist), engineers are trained to start up and maintain advanced technology like reactors, generally not build them by themselves (generally they would ask science for boards and the likes when it is not already put in their storage), and engineering might be the only department next to Service that I've NEVER seen use an exosuit in all my time playing... Not that I say that it didn't happen, but it is awfully rarer than, say, operations, security or medical. And yes, while I'm at it, I blame science being the least played department since the Horizon on the roboticist being moved to operations.