Captain Gecko

I wouldn't say no to new sprite for these. I've never minded the bright green on the original, as a heavy user of these damn bricks, but new colors, especially this new mint-like green on the C is certainly better anyways.

Don't really know what to think of it to be honest... I don't like this, but I don't know what else we could do to prevent to problem discribed. However, I may have an idea, a sort of compromise. The main point of contention here seems to be mostly about lore, not gameplay. However, a Command WL's point is to make sure that a player is fit for the role in both aspects... So let's only focus on the lore. Instead of outright stripping the WL, just lock it. Players have it but can't play Command for now. They have to redo the command WL (or perhaps a new kind of app, like a "Command unlocking app"), so that we can make sure that they are aware of the current lore changes and such, and then we unlock it, skipping the "testing" phase that follows since we know that, if they obtained the WL in the first place, they must know what they are doing in the first place.

It's probably been already said multiple times, but I'm going to add my part. For starters I'm not even sure I agree with the Command Whitelist removal... Although I don't see any other kind of policy to do what this aims to do, so to be frank I'm not going to oppose it either. A year is quite a while anyways... However, as far as species whitelist removal goes? No. Command players, beyond their whitelist, have some responsability as far as playing on station goes. In most cases, disboying a command member is a punishable act for our character, and if the command member in question is giving senseless orders, then the people below will generally (try) to follow. That and remember that the lore doesn't change the same way for each species. A Diona player may not need to constantly look at articles or like a dozen pages of lore on the wiki, while a Tajara player may, so right away this would make this unfair to some species more than others. The main point of interest seems to be lore respect, and as far as species WL goes, it shouldn't be a problem. I've always seen Command WL as a try to get GAMEPLAY permissions, with gaining authority on station and such, while species WL are more LORE-oriented from the get-go; in other words, players with species WL tend to follow more the lore anyways. Finally, we're a generally nice community, we help each other, on the forums on station. Before even getting bwoinked, a player roleplaying a xeno with "outdated" lore will most likely recieve notes and help in LOOC anyways, something much harder to achieve with command members, sometimes (I can easily meet and speak with the lizard botanist, but the Captain himself? That's a bit more complicated). TL:DR: It's not nescessary, bad/outdated species roleplay only affects one or two players, one of them being the "outdated" player, while a command player with said roleplay can lead to bad consequences upon the entire station. There's no need for such harsh measures on Species WL.

The last bit of"METAL CRUSHERS! "lore" I will (porbably ever) post. Either stuff laid out in the chirper, or things essential to Metal Crushers that fans can refer to, and perhaps make their own content from. Rules and fights: - METAL CRUSHERS! Currently has five mains "leagues" for their fights: > Heavyweight Exosuits (1v1) featuring the heaviest and generally more expensive machines. Due to the cost of the machines and teams to maintain them, heavyweight exosuit fights are done by the wealthiest of teams, generally meaning that they also feature the best of pilots. Obviously it is the most popular of leagues, and seen as the "original" METAL CRUSHERS! show. > Lightweight Exosuits (1v1) featuring much lighter exosuits happening to be slower, weaker, and more fragile. Either baby-pilot's first league, or simply a way for poorer teams to access METAL CRUSHERS! the lightweight league is less popular than its heavier counterpart, but is still full of drama and surprise, with many legends beginning their career there. > Team Exosuits (3v3) featuring exosuits, both heavy and light (although there is a total tonnage limit for the whole team) fighting against another whole team. Generally rarer than most other fights, team exosuit fights are especially expensive for most teams due to the fact that they now need to maintain three machines. It's not rare to see team fights featuring fighters that tend to fight alone banding together just for this one. > Hardsuits (1v1) featuring any kind of hardsuit, so long as they fit within METAL CRUSHER!'s criteria of safety and fairness, of course. Frowned upon by some old school fans due to how different fights, there, are compared to Exosuit ones, it still enjoys a great deal of popularity, especially with newcomes to exo-mechanical sports, generally more used to more classic wrestling. Hardsuits tend to be cheaper than exosuits, but the main difficulty for teams is to find a good fighter, and not just a pilot. > Team Hardsuit (3v3), the team-version of hardsuit fights, comparable to team exosuit ones. - Athough the afformentioned five leagues are considered the main "rulesets", there also countless other different types of fights. From basic variations of normal rules (2v2 or 5v5 team fights, hardsuits against a single light exosuit, etc.), or more exotic ones (such as hardbowl, a METAL CRUSHERS! variation of basketball with players in hardsuits and a lot of punching involved). Additionally, some events will have special fights such as (more or less accurate) historical reenactements. - Every year, the METAL CRUSHERS! championship happens. Fighters try to qualify for it all year long by getting a victory-loss ration of at least 2 to 1, passing a qualification fight, and ticking a few boxes as far as the teams economical and material situation goes. The championship features five tournaments, one for each leagues, and is divided in 3 phases: Elimination, where randomly chosen fighters of the same team fight once a week, a single defeat meaning outright elimination, a Tournament phase to keep only the 8 best in each league, and the Final Phase which is actually organized like a tournament, featuring these 8 best fighters against each other, until only one remains. Special fights with special rules can be organized between phases to "save" the best of the eliminated fighters and given them a second chance in the next phase, if they succeed in this special one. Championships happen all over Biesell, during the summer, with each phase lasting a full month. - Any team wanting to join METAL CRUSHERS! needs their machines to respect a load of performance and safety parameters in order to keep fights safe and fair, something a considerable ammount of fans and even teams tend to frown upon. The people: - Frederick Marksman was basically the head of METAL CRUSHERS! from the start, and a pilot too. Although he quickly left the arenas to focus on his leadership role. He is also the most famous, and beloved host in all of the franchise. - Bast Kitskos, pilot of the Fatboy Exosuit, is by far the most famous fighter, and probably the most respected one too, in all of METAL CRUSHERS! 8-times champion of the Heavyweight leage, he is however not respected just for his skills, but also for his sportsmanship. He's seen by most as the hero of the franchise, and the best fighter to ever enter the arenas. People also tend to make fun of his mustache, something that Kitskos himself laughs about. - Edvard Stenbeck is a mysterious Biesellite billionaire who dedicated a considerable part of his fortune to indulge in his passion, exosuit fights. However, the man didn't just buy himself a place in this competition, and proved to everyone that his skills weren't to be questioned. He became Kitskos' rival very quickly once he got into the Heavyweight league, although he has yet to win once against the champion. How it goes: - People aren't quite sure how much exactly Zavodskoi interstellar controls in METAL CRUSHERS! And METAL CRUSHERS! tends to avoid the question, so does Zavodskoi Interstellar. - Most of the fighters are Human, and generally come from around Biesel. As the franchise got more and more famous, however, fighters from all horizons have started to join, with the first Xeno champion being a Unathi, in the 2460 hardsuit championship. No species are barred from entering, although some biological factors lead to some teams simply being unable to take part in some fights, such as Dionae in Hardsuit fights, as they rarely ever fit in these armors. - METAL CRUSHERS! Broadcasts ALL OF ITS FIGHTS on its website, along with many articles, interview, etc. On TV, METAL CRUSHERS! Broadcasts on TCTV 24 for people in Republic territory, and Venus Sports Channel II for people living in Solarian (and ex-Solarian) territory. People wanting to follow from other places generally only follow through the website. - Fights are not pre-planned, contrarily to modern wrestling, what is displayed on the Arena is actual, genuine combat and competition. HOWEVER, METAL CRUSHERS! tends to add some scenarios, and most fighters generally eagerly take roles, with Kitskos becoming a sort of fatherly and protective figure to most new fighters and a heroic pilot for instance, while Stenbeck takes the role of a mostly chaotic character, but somehow still full of sportsmanship, searching for a good challenge. Stories of teams and fighters involved more or less based on reality are told along the very real fights, and most fans seem to enjoy it.

Coming back to it, I just thought about something... What should be the population required for the game mode to start? With just two antags (and one being mostly passive), I don't think this should require a lot people around to play it, right? A handful or readied players at least? 5 or so? (Just something I'm interested in since I mostly play on deadhours).

I approve as well. What I'd like to see is something that would also "adapt" clothes to crippled characters. If you are to, say, remove a character's arm, the jumpsuit's sleeve (taking jumpsuits for the sake of exemple, but it applies to most other clothes if not all as far as I know) would then still be present. Having something that simply cuts off that part of the cloth sprite would be quite nice... I don't know how that could be implemented, but there it is.

While I don't want to go over every single detail in Metal Crushers, I feel like having a set story for it, as well as some sort of main characters could be a good way to bring Metal Crushers fan together (characters on the station/ship, I mean), things they could speak about... New rules, events, personalities, their favorite fighters, etc. I'll send, later, a more basic list with what's basically set, the most famous fighters, the main rules, the main personalities... But so far, have a short history of METAL CRUSHERS! METAL CRUSHERS! was officially created on the 16th of January, 2435. Created by a small, lousy team of a dozen of freelance exo-suit pilots and engineers (to not call them mercenaries, something that tends to be left out and generally avoided by what is currently METAL CRUSHERS!'s old guard), it was a bet made by their leader, and one of their pilots, Frederick Marksman. The team bought a plot of land to build stands and a fortune arena near Ashton where they could host exosuit fights between the same two modified Ripley-model powerloaders, as well as a permit to host such events. By extent, they created their own franchise, naming it METAL CRUSHERS! but these were pilots and engineers, not businessmen. While METAL CRUSHERS! certainly drew attention from the nearby cities, it failed to bring enough money to cover the expenses needed to keep the show going. Eventually, in debt and out of options, METAL CRUSHERS! was at the edge of bankruptcy. Things changed when a Necropolis Industries Liaison on his way to a Nanotrasen facility saw one of their fights in late 2438. Interested in the concept, and aware of the current mess METAL CRUSHERS! was in, the Liaison made some offers... And Marksman, who at this point was basically the leader of this whole crazy project (and one of their two pilots) answered. None know exactly what was said in their meeting, but Necropolis bought the franchise while guaranteeing near-absolute creative freedom. The megacorp gets a small cut of their overall profit, as well as having their team be more represented as far as the shows go (this doesn't mean that they tend to win most of the time, though). Some have theorized that Necropolis, now Zavodskoi, uses METAL CRUSHERS! as a testbed for future military-grade exosuit and hardsuit technologies, but such a theory has been dismissed both by Zavodskoi and METAL CRUSHERS! multiple times. The brand quickly grew, and most importantly, god more and more famous, as, with Necropolis' blessing also came professional businessmen, economists, PR specialists, anything needed to guarantee that a business can become successful... And successful it became. The arena near Ashton was ditched and a proper HQ for METAL CRUSHERS! was bought in District 1, Mendell City, and permits to host fights in various arenas and stadiums around Biesel were acquired. By 2440 enough pilots and teams had joined METAL CRUSHERS! to allow the very first Championship to be organized, with a single Exosuit league. Ridiculously small when compared to today's championship, it only featured 16 exosuits and their respective teams in a standard tournament. still, the event drew attention, with an attendance of over 10 000 spectators, a record for the franchise at the time. Marksman himself became the first champion Things took a dramatic turn in 2441, with the first death to ever happen in a METAL CRUSHERS! Fight. Incidents can happen, some more tragic than others, especially when near heavy machinery like Exosuits, it many accidents did, and would happen in hangars and paddocks, but on the Arena? Before thousands of spectators? Mendell City's leadership quickly took notice of the tragedy, and so did Tau Ceti's association of Sportsmanship, which was basically the biggest, non-governmental group in the world of sports, at that time. METAL CRUSHERS! got very nearly canceled during this affair, but it is Necropolis Industries that, through many talks (and perhaps some bribing) managed to save the franchise. Things wouldn't be without consequences for the franchise and its fights, however. While machines were inspected to make sure fights were mostly fair, there were next to no rules about what an Exosuit could back, beyond making sure it couldn't harm the public (which meant no firearms). Even after Necropolis acquired the franchise, rules were next to non-existent, and it would be rare to see exosuits fight with bare hands (or manipulators) generally using grotesque melee weapons, from flail to drills, hammers, and crude blades. Such things were outlawed after 2441's tragedy, and new, strict rules were implemented. Since then, METAL CRUSHERS! Exosuits and hardsuits, follow strict parameters and standards, both to ensure that the fights remain as fair as possible and that their pilots be as safe as they can be. Some fans look at "pre-tragedy" weaponized fights with some fondness, however, for their over-the-top nature, even on METAL CRUSHERS! standards. Frederick Marksman took this incident very personally and blamed himself for it. He'd stop taking part in fights, and would retire from public life, focusing on leading the Franchise from the dark. A deal with Tau Ceti TV 24 would see his grand return to the public scene, five years later, in 2446. While they already had a website, METAL CRUSHERS! Would truly become a franchise known in most of the spur after this deal, as they'd start holding and broadcasting fights on a near-daily basis on this channel, from 20:00 to 22:30 (Tau Ceti time, Mendell timezone), a timeframe they have been keeping ever since. Beyond just being the franchise's leader, Marksman's return marked the beginning of his new identity, as host of the biggest of shows, his eager attitude, energic behavior, and experience in the field quickly made him a personality adored by many fans. Year after year, the franchise would grow. With Exosuit science evolving, new generations of machines would be introduced to the arenas. New leagues would be created, the original fights being considered "heavyweight exosuits" while a new "lightweight" league would be introduced, popular amongst rookie fighters and small teams that can't afford the biggest and meanest of machines. New "Team fights" would be introduced as well, with teams bringing exosuits of any weight in 3v3 matches. By 2453, Exosuits would be also introduced to the world of METAL CRUSHERS! with their own 1v1 and 3v3 leagues. Exosuit fights have been, and are still, frowned upon by some fans, as they consider it to be nothing but regular wrestling in armor. Although in practice, METAL CRUSHERS! treats these like Exosuit fights most of the time, mostly since each team not only requires fighters but also full teams of roboticists and engineers. As time went on, new "mechanized sports" (something that would be soon rebranded "exo-mechanical sports") franchises would be created, inspired by the success of METAL CRUSHERS! One of the more notable ones would be Bent Steel, the Solarian knockoff, or Titan Federation, which handles fights in various CoC and even frontier worlds. Many smaller franchises and groups exist in worlds far away, may it be in Dominian, PRA, Hegemony, or even Jargon territories, and METAL CRUSHERS! tends to organize events in collaboration with these groups, generally in the form of "face-offs" with METAL CRUSHERS! best fighting their best. Despite the usual rivalries and the politics of their nations, most of these franchises have warm relations with each other. METAL CRUSHERS! is still the biggest and most famous of these franchises, however. 2457 would see the creation of the Hercules Aid Foundation after yet another death in a fight (the third). Mostly funded by METAL CRUSHERS!, the Foundation is dedicated to financially helping wounded and crippled fighters, as well as their families in cases of death. As of recently, the Hercules Foundation has started to expand to cover 0-G sports, space-based sports, and general motorized sports, to name a few. Early 2464 would also see the opening of the Museum of Exo-mechanical sports in Mendell City, another initiative mostly founded by METAL CRUSHERS!

Yeah this could be interesting. Agreeing with Carver, some funny effects for when it inevitably breaks down either from damages or EMP would be amusing too... If it doesn't just make the implemented character outright mute.

Down there is a link to a drive where I'll send METAL CRUSHERS! Custom sprites. Files for various other creators will be added as more creations are added! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xan6uh3voN-cVKlscqL1gCZ2zZW0CPuw?usp=sharing That's pretty much it!

I'm a bit confused. It's not bad, I just don't know what this is for. What is this mostly? Is this for something lore-related? Something for the gameplay? To be used on our ship, or perhaps other? If this was to be implemented, I mean... What would that be in game?

Myeah I agree, it makes sense. I never found self-destruction to be comical by itself (it's generally the surviving brain's reaction that is). In any case I support this idea!

I agree, I'd like to see this in game. Such an effect, although at a much lighter scale, could also be applied to the sort of fluff medecine we have, like the antidepressantants we can get in our loadouts.

I always thought that the Skill tab in the character setup menu was exactly for that, since it had no effect gameplay-wise, to allow you (and admins since they can look at this, iirc) to get a proper idea of your character's skills, all the while making sure they aren't overpowered. As far as what skills you should be able to select well... So long as it doesn't make your character overpowered as said above, you can choose anything that makes sense with your character and his story, this is a mostly roleplay-based sever after all! This may also explained by past actions on the station/spaceship too, giving your character a sense of progression... Roleplay is the limit! Or your actual in-game skills, at least. Since I'm not so good with explaining, you can have an exemple here, you'll see my thought process behind giving my character skills: Sezrak Han'san being in his thirties, he should have some experience in various field already, while still have some more to learn, hence why I went for (15) which is Average/near Above Average (Above Average range from 16 to 20). Unless your character is some kind of genius or the opposite, age should be your scale for the overall skill level of your character, as it basically dictates their experience with everything in life. I also see these individual skill levels as what they represent and not what they are. IE: A character might have been professionally trained in a field, but due to the rare use of this skill and/or the character's lack of talent in this field, it is still in the "Amateur" level, as in, it is practiced at a level comparable to an amateur's. "Trained" would mean a character is that used to this field, may he be professionally trained or not, and can practice an activity from this field with relative ease and will be able to avoid most incidents (IE: badly setting up the engine and causing a delam). Finally, a Professional skill level would mean that the character is not just well-trained in this field, this is what they excel at, this is beyond what is evne required for the job. - Command - Amateur : Explained by Sezrak's experience, notably with expeditions. For a little while in late 2462, Sezrak got to partake in a lot of consecutive expeditions, generally with tiny teams of up to four crewmen max. With him being the most experienced in this field and/or being the only NT had Sezrak be the leading element in the team... With more or less success, but in any case, this was experience. Coupled with his desire to become RD at some point, and his work to become one, Sezrak got some experience in leading crewmembers, at least on a smaller scale. Since this is a mostly RP-based skills, this translates to Sezrak basically making himself the leader of operations involving his field, may they be science-related, or EVA related like exploration of shipwrecks; unless the team features an actual command member... To that, you can add the way Sezrak will tend to turn bossy whenever troubles are on their way, and you end up with a fortune, self-proclaimed leader in some situations. - Cooking - Amateur : Before joining the Han'san fleet, Sezrak's parents made a living of hunting, on Moghes. His father would hunt the game, and together with his wife, they would handle the whole process, from skinning to cooking the meat. Now on Moroz, they still practice this, although in a more recreational way, and so does Sezrak. Both from his practice, and his paren't teachings, Sezrak, thus, knows a fair bit about cooking... At least, so long as meat is involved... And that you're not asking anything too elaborate from him. - Close Combat and Weapon Expertise - Amateur : Sezrak grew on the Malediction, a ship who's purpose, in the Han'san fleet, was to carry as many raiders as possible (and their family). He was surrounded by guns, blades, and a bunch of big, grizzled Unathi warriors, thus, as far as he can remember, he was exposed to weaponry and fighting from the start (although he never took part in the fighting himself). On Moroz, he did his military service, which was also a good source of knowledge as far as knowledge about the more elaborate kind of weaponry (guns, mainly) went. For Melee, however, most of what he knows comes from pactice. His carp kill-count must be in the hundreds by now, and this is not even counting the various cosmic horros some anomalies can gift him, and to face all of these, his go-to weapon has always been the hand-held drill. Needless to say, while he never got proper training, he's got a some experience in this. In game, this means that Sezrak will be able to handle and operate most guns, although his skills with them is far from being ideal, and in melee, he'll be able to handle most hostile xenofauna, and should theorically be able to hold his own against your typical human... Actually trained fighters, though, that's going to be problematic for him. - Construction - Amateur : While his military service, anomalist course, and overall life experience may have granted some basic knowledge about construction, most of what he knows in this field comes from practice on the Aurora. As a scientist he's had to build various machines, from tech processors to consoles, but most importantly, his activities in EVA had him learn how to set up some basic structures. Exploring derelict ships and outposts means that sometimes, you have to force your way in, generally by deconstructing a wall. Sometimes he may also encounter anomalies and other finds that have to be contained right now and NOT be touched (such as supermatter shards) which means that this will generally end with Sezrak building a whole wall around it. In practice, this means that Sezrak will be able to build most of the machines a scientist is supposed to know about, as well as being able to build and deconstruct walls, although in a much slower and clumsy way than your usual engineer... Anything more complicated like wiring power networks, setting up pipe systems, or handling atmospherics is something that he knows next to nothing about. Finally he could... Theorically, hack doors, if he's told EXACTLY what wires to cut, but don't expect him to do the whole procedure on his own, unless you hand him the tools, the protections, and some time... Even then, though, Sezrak hacking through doors is an extremely rare sight, and he'll generally choose the alternative (breaking through a wall) if he really has to pass. - Medecine - Amateur : First aid, basically, that's all he knows, both taught during his military service and his anomalist course, and he had to practice these countless times on station, both on fellow crewmembers and himself. Ask him to do anything other than CPR, or applying gauze, bandages and kits on a booboo, However, and this won't end well, because he knows next to nothing about this... Nor do I, in truth I don't know much about medical. As a side note, I kept chemistry at minimum even though he can be seen practicing it in science, in some rare cases, this is because science PDAs get a Chemistry Codex by default, and Sezrak relies on it. If, say, he was to lose access to said codex one way or the other, he'd be unable to do pretty much anything Chemistry-related. - EVA - Professional : By this point, Sezrak probably knows the rock like the back of his scaly hand... Or would if it wasn't for the caves being constantly regenerated every shift. Due to the fact that he spent half of his childhood on a spaceship, his intense training during his anomalist course, and practice for way over a year now, it's not a stretch to assume that Sezrak is beyond used to working in the void, it's basically HIS SPECIALITY. This translates in game to Sezrak generally volunteering (if not being selected outright) for most activities involving EVA such as exploring sites (if he didn't find them himself), picking up people from crashed pods, rescuing wounded or dead crewmembers outside if no first responders are aviable, and teaching fellow crewmembers about EVA procedures... Hell, he even wrote a book about EVA procedures! - Science - Professional : This comes off as no surprise considering that Sezrak is an Anomalist, and by extent, a scientist (technically speaking Anomalist and Xenoarcheologist are just alt-titles for the scientist). With 8 years of formation, a PHD, several books written about theories and such, and several years of practice, Sezrak knows a fair bit about Science. Of course, "Science" is a broad term but it can be anything so long as it does not infrige on the other skills in the Science category... What the "Science" skill refers to exactly is mostly handled in RP! In Sezrak's case, this means that he'll be able to handle various science-department related operation such as RnD, and upgrading machines with more or less ease. His speciality, however, is 100% RP, just like his job, which generally involves creating theories about various finds, or perhaps even (sometimes antag-related) events happening directly on the station. With the right reasoning behind your character's skill, the very reason why they'd have them, all of that while making sure you don't turn overpowered, I believe that any out-of-skill actions can be reasonably explained and allowed. A roboticist knowing about how to hack a machine or door (although with a larger tendency to burn their hands off) due to their experience with wiring up synthetics; A botanist knowing a few things about animals and assisting a xenobitanist due to their experience with life in a farm before working on the station/spaceship; A miner being a decent shooter due to his experience with Kinetic Accelerators, anything is possible, really... So long as it makes sense (and that it's not abused, as far as gameplay goes.) EDIT: TL:DR, all of that to say that yes, I agree with Johnny. IN FACT, as someone who mostly plays on deadhours, I think having a flexible skillset for your character (as long as it makes sense) is NESCESSARY, because you're never going to get that engineer or that physician to save you... And while you shouldn't be able to set up the engine or do surgery without the proper training, if you end up all alone, you better know about the very basics of the powernet, how to survive vents and breaches, and how to do first aid... Else you probably won't live to see the shuttle most of the time.

YEAAH THERE WE GO! Goolies playing a lizard, finally! ...That is... If you pass the WL- Okay I'll stop. If it wasn't clear enough, that means that I see you as a great roleplayer. And the character looks good, I can't wait to have mine meet him... Anyways, let's go with the lore and the questions. 1) Hephaestus doesn't engage Botanists, at least not on the station, as far as I know, and won't on the Aurora/Horizon. So firstly, how did it go with Hephaestus? I assume Eku didn't get a free lift off Moghes, he must've worked for them, how did it go then? 2) And thus, since Hephaestus doesn't engage Botanists, who is Eku working for as a Botanist on the Aurora/Horizon? How did they get hired by these people? 3) Anything noteworthy that might have happened between the end of your backstory, and his first day on the workplace, that wasn't covered by the two previous questions?

Make it so for Exosuits too then, and make it harder.

I haven't been playing Vampire much these days, more because I haven't been playing much antags overall actually as of recently, but also because my gimmicks got a bit repetitive there... However, it's true that there are some problems about the gamemode, some things that should be tweaked... But honestly, with all due respect... What? Look, everything's been pretty much addressed, the weird reference to ERP that no one gets, the senseless thing about abusive gaslighting (like yes, sure, there is an abusive aspect to the vampire's gimmick thorought the medias... BUT VAMPIRES ARE EVIL! THAT'S THE POINT! IT'S AN ANTAGONIST IN THE GAME!), etc. But I'm going to mostly focus on the gameplay aspect, namely the deprivation of agency... Look, firstly, Aurora, no matter how important the Roleplay aspect is, is not devoid of its gameplay aspect. Some servers do that, removing antags (IE: Vstation), but not here. This means that the moment you know there could be an antag, your character risks death, or well, some sort of death. but beside that, this is not limited to the Vampire. "Privation of Agency" in the way of mind/body control or role change happens with borers, anything psionic, cultists, and so on. Hell, just dying or even being crippled means a total or near-total loss of your agency, and this can happen at any time! Even without antags! Miners falling in holes, blobs, anomalies, being choked by vines, an officer being too trigger-happy, a vending machine throwing a knife in your back, asteroids, carps, Xenobiology, being teleported into wall because telescience, Xenobotany, taking the wrong drink as a Xeno, the local surgeon messing up, there is SO MUCH. Once agang, I'm sure that we can improve, or at least tweak Vampire... But the reasons you give are just... Eh, they don't work.

THE YEAR IS 4454. THE STELLAR EMPIRE RULES UPON THE CORE SYSTEMS WITH AN IRON FIST. EMPEROR TRASEN THE OMNISCIENT WISELY LEADS ITS PEOPLE WHILE ALSO DEFENDING THEM FROM THREATS FROM IN AND OUT OF THE ORION SPUR. AIDED BY HOUSE HEPHAESTUS, IDRIS, ZAVODSKOI, ZENG-HU AND EINSTEIN, THE HAND OF EMPEROR ACTS AS THE BEACON OF ALL KNOWN CIVILISATION. ALL, FROM THE SKRELL PSIONIC HIVEMIND TO THE DECADENT AND CORRUPT DOMINIAN REPUBLIC, THE ELYRAN SULTANATE OR THE FEUDAL SYSTEMS, NO MATTER THEIR SPEECHES ABOUT INDEPENDANCE AND SELF RELIANCE, LOOK AT IMPERIAL TERRITORY WITH FEAR AND ENVY. EVEN WHEN DEFENDED BY THE FIERCE IMPERIAL LEGIONARIES, UNBELIEVABLY DANGEROUS THREATS LOOM IN THE SHADOWS OF SPACE. THE PIRATE CABALS OF THE LAST SURVIVORS OF THE UNATHI SPECIES, CLINGING TO EXISTENCE AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR HOMEWORLD STILL SOWS CHAOS IN THE IMPERIAL TRAVEL ROUTES. TAJARAS, MEMBER OF THE CULT OF THE SUN, BRING DESTRUCTION TO ALL OF THE WORLD THEY TOUCH. EVEN WORSE, ANCIENT WAR MACHINES, DORMANT FOR MILLENIAS, WAKE UP AS THEIR ANCIENT LORD RISES AGAIN, HIS NAME: GLORSH ALPHA. AND BEYOND THE RIM, BEYOND KNOWN SPACE, TITANS OF UNPRECEDENTED POWER LEAVE THEIR OWN, DEEP SLUMBER, HUNGERING FOR MORE BIOMASS, BRINGING DEATH TO ENTIRE SYSTEM WITH A MERE THOUGHT, WHILE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SPUR, SWARMS OF BUG-LIKE VERMINS INFEST WORLDS WITH MONSTROUS FAUNA, TURNING LOYAL CITIZENS OF THE EMPIRE INTO PUPPETS. BUT PERHAPS THE GREATEST THREAT THAT KNOWN SPACE, IS WHAT LAYS WITHIN, WITHIN ALL, WITHIN THE UNIVERSE ITSELF. IN SEARCH FOR FASTER TRAVEL, AND A WAY TO ALLIVIATE THE LACK OF PURPLE FLUID, FUEL USED TO TRAVEL THROUGH THE HELLISH PLANES OF THE BLUE REALM, EXPLORATORS WENT DEEPER... AND CAUSED SOMETHING TO AWAKE. THE BLUE HELL TURNED RED, TRAVEL BECAME A MUCH MORE HAZARDOUS ENDAVOUR, CAUSING ENTIRE PLANETS TO BE CUT OFF, AND DIE, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, SHE THIRST. IT IS THE 4th MILLENIA AND THERE IS ONLY ROBUSTNESS.

Yes please, let us have that!

I APPROVE. a lot.

I get what you're meaning, but I don't think this will work, really. It's not all bad though... Let's just go point by point. To make it more easily understandable, green text means that I agree with the listed point, yellow that I don't have any strong opinions, and red that I don't agree. > Gameplay-wise Beyond being a baseline species, it is also every new player's first species they play. Other than the fact that's it's something that they should be familiar with (I'm assuming that we're all human in real life) meaning that they won't see a special mechanic they wouldn't get used to (something unique like breathing Phoron or having Psionic powers). Keeping humans as simple as possible, compared to other species, is I think very important... Especially when new players are probably overwhelmed by everything else. That and some of these mechanics aren't really needed... In other words, keeping it simple is for the better. 1. Extended/faster sprint? No, unless we rebalance the sprint from other species I don't think this is needed. Relatively speaking, Humans are probably one of the fastest species on the station. Yeah sure, lizards can sprint hard, but they probably won't reach the other side of the station before Billy-Joe-Bob because he's got the Stamina. In truth, besides some Tajara subspecies, humans are probably the fastest, at least in overall speed in reaching a destination (and not in sheer speed, no matter how long they can sustain said speed). 2. The same goes for Adrenaline. Now, I'm pretty sure we already have Adrenaline in game, although I'm not sure about the exact extents of its effects in game... But if we were to buff it, we would have to do so for other species having Adrenaline as well (Because other species have it too!), pretty much nullifying the point of this upgrade. 3. Yeah okay that would work actually... I mean mechanically speaking I don't see anything wrong with that. In fact, along with the "new player-friendly human" idea, having this to encourage teamwork, and just helping each other in general, which is kind of an important part of playing the game with most jobs... It's kind of a stretch, I know, but there's also the lore arguements, don't worry. I mean, Skrells are weaker, Tajs are smaller, Unathi have next to no Stamina, 4. Once again, this would also kind of mess-up the balance. The problem, I guess, is that we're seeing other species from our human-centrist view... Unathi have tougher skin (or... Scales), while Skrells are squishier! If we are to change human stats in this way, we would have to change these stats with other species to keep the balance (and the logic behind these speices)... OR, we upgrade the organ resistance for humans, BUT we also lower the overall defense of their body due to their squishy skin? Something to balance things out, just on the Human species' scale. 5. Mmh... I guess it could work too, but once again it would be nice to find a way to balance it... Since, you know, once again, other species being described comparatively to humans in the lore, and thus being made, in-game, along these lines (or the other way around!) If not, we could always just make it something to generate flavor text (the same way Unathi get a message about how cold they are if they don't wear enough clothes in normal temperatures, even though you don't get cold mechanically, IE: you don't see a blue thermometer even though flavor text tells you that you're cold). > Lore-wise, or kind of... Historically wise? Culture wise? Yeah I don't know, but you'll get what I mean. I've talked a lot about other species above, and I will even more here. May it be in gameplay, or in the lore, there is a balance between all species. No matter how "basic" humans seem, they have some special things that other don't already, they are, well, humans, and the others are not. More importantly, when, say, the Wiki tells you about a species, when it describes it to you, it does so as an article written by a human, for other humans... Thus, directly or not, all species are more or less compared to humans... Changing one species, especially the Humans themselves, shakes everything... 1. "Human Culture throughout all our written history venerates athletes... This ability would make sense to both regular and off world humans." Right, but wouldn't the proud and honorable Unathi have something akin to this? I mean we even have the Zandiziite Games for them... And as far as the Tajaras go well... They did win said games at some point, among other things. I don't think other species would be any-less interested in athletics than Human's, at least, some of them... Or at least enough to see a change in mechanics. 2. On Earth, today, almost anything that lives can have Adrenaline rushes... You, your pet cat, some crab on a beach, a spooky-weird jellyfish from the abysses... Why wouldn't most other species have Adrenaline? In fact, THEY DO already. Now we can speak say that, yes indeed, most could have Adrenaline rushes but that it's just stronger with humans, and to that I disagree too... Because there are the lizards! Akin to actual lizards, Unathi are generally slow, and have these sudden burst of energy to rush to an objective or flee from danger, and in this case, it would be better to have stronger Adrenaline rushes with them too! (Yes I speak a lot about Unathi, mostly because it's the alien species I know the most about, but valid points could be made with other species too, who knows). 3. I agree! That's pretty much it. 4. Basically what I said in the gameplay section about this point stands in the lore too. Humans exists in relation to these other species. If we were to make humans tankier, then so would the Unathi do since they have to be stronger/tougher than humans (which could give us some pretty broken stuff). I guess the Skrells would grow a tougher skin then, too... But you get my point. Most importantly, it would mean that nothing would change for humans, as they'd still be the baseline in a universe of now slightly tougher people. 5. Yeah it makes sense. Overall I'm not too into this whole project, but some individual points could be interesting to explore, though... I'd like to conclude on one thing, is that yes, comparing humans to aliens and assuming we actually want to balance things between species in the first place is me taking a liberty... But that's not out of nowhere. Putting aside the obvious gameplay aspect of trying to keep species balanced, the thing is that making humans "more alien" in a setting where there are already five other diverse alien species (plus synthetics) would only make them more redundant in the end. Humans STAND OUT by their "simple" nature... They don't need to have a ton of unique features to be unique, ironically enough.

You know, we had this thread about the setting being a dystopia or not, with people mostly focusing on the hypercorporate nature of our character's surroundings. Some said (and I agree with them) that it was, in fact, not a dystopia, as we couldn't take such a vast setting under one angle, and instead, see each faction, each species, each planet for what they are worth. Obviously, a regular Biesellite may not have the perfect life, but their situation is certainly way better than the average martian's right now, for instance. THIS ASIDE, however, it's (mildly) funny how EVERY faction/species had had at some point something akin to a cataclysm in their more or less recent history. - Humanity as a whole gets recession and interstellar war to speak about the species as a whole. - Unathi get the nukes (among other things) killing god knows how many lizards. - Tajaras get the civil war with eaqually ridiculous casualties. - Skrells got GLORSH. - The Vaurcae lost their entire PLANET, and pretty much most of what their way of life used to be. The only species spared are the Dionae, but that's mostly because we know next to nothing about them; and in truth, it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that something similarly disastrous happened to their kind at some point in history. But hell, even the "smaller" factions get something akin to such disasters, on their scale, like Dominia getting the long war with Fisanduh, Elyra gets the Lii’dra invasion, etc. The setting is as diverse as it can get, but pretty much any character as had, either in their lifetime, or at least ingrained in their culture, some kind of disaster... Is this a pre-requesite for entreing the Orion Spur's club of space-faring species? Not that I mind, but that's just out of curiosity.

Myeah I agree. Like said above I assumed it was already the case to be honest.

I also believe that "joining as a maint drone then respawning" is not an acceptable solution, for two reasons. - One, not everyone knows enough/is condident enough to set up the engine to properly without mistakes, and I speak out of experience, with a bunch of lowpop rounds somehow ending in supermatter delams, may it be from lone engineers, borgs, or even, once, a maint drone. Plus, not everyone is interested in learning about it. I've been playing SS13 since 2017 and I still know nothing but the basics of medical and didn't get interested enough to start learning yet, and I assume it might be the same for some players as far as engineering goes. - And two, most people don't want to do that. I know I don't, but that may also be due to the fact that as a science main I have a bunch of tricks (and mostly tools) up my sleeves to have things to do. Still, it's discouraging, and kind of unfair; as stated before, in no other context would players be expected to do that. Telling lowpop mains to do that will probably discourage them even more from playing. But it doesn't matter that much. We have the previous thread to discuss the power issue, and as far as the lowpop problem goes in general, I think we're looking in the wrong direction. The problem is not so much lack of power, but the lack of players to begin with. May the station be powered or not, if no one else is in the station, it gets kinda boring for most, and that's the main thing dissuading most people from playin in the first place (the famous vicious cycle). Firstly, do we even know if we can achieve normal/high number of players during what is currently deadhours? I'm in European timezones, and I can't play deadhours most of the time, because it's afternoon... And I'm busy working! I think we should make sure at first that avoiding deadhours is even doable. I'd like to see a poll or something just to make sure. We'll be assuming that is doable, though, right now. So anyways, we need to find a way to bring player in first. Lack of power may a problem among many, but for most of the people I've played with during deadhours, lack of power isn't that much of a problem. Lack of power, in truth, is more of a consequence than a cause. So once again, we need a way to bring in players. My idea would be to bring something unique to deadpop rounds, (perhaps that would also explain the lack of actual crew on the station/spaceship while at it). Something that, say, the moment the crew gets above 5 or 6 players, turns off. It could be a source of power demanding more or less active work on a much smaller scale than the whole station to adjust the gameplay to the reduced crew. It could be outside threats playing with the crew, hell, it could even be sorts of ghost role that spcies up whatever happens on station because BY GOD I have played so many shifts as the SOLE person on the station while over a dozen of players were ghosting (which is fun... For ME)... It could even be a combination of all of these! You know, once I get time I'll actually give proper, precise ideas, but so for my main point is that focusing on the only problem of the lack of power isn't what we should fous on so much.

I'm actually having fun in dedapop rounds in the dark for the unique scenarios it poses, but I play in the science department, with many tools at my disposal, and I get that the same scenario for a visitor or a chef might not be as fun at all. Also I main an Anomalist, obviously I don't mind spending rounds alone from time to time as much as some other players. I get that the idea would be "located" power generation. I barely ever played engineering, so my knowledge of the intricacies of the powergrid and such aren't quite there, so maybe that's not possible, but as stated before, a way for non-engineers, non-scientists (because scientists can also build a PACMAN and steal from chemistry acquire Phoron for emergency, quick and short power supply) to generate power. HOWEVER, it must not be something engineering related because: - These peeps probably don't have the (IC) knowledge to operate actual engineering-grade machines - Making it too powerfulmakes it redundant to engie work What I mean by a "located and limited" source of power, IE, being only able to power a precise area of the station and nothing more, thanks to biomass, light, even some guy on a bike, I don't know! But the idea is that it doesn't power the entire station and has to be fed with some kind of easy-to-get-fuel constantly. This means that the few crew on board gets in survival mode as they have to constantly monitor this tiny generator and all gather around it, protect it from god knows what space might throw their way, and perhaps even have to move it to wherever they need to go ("We need biomass, let us move the generator to the garden", "We'll need to print something in science, let's move the generator to RnD") etc. etc.

We are now in "theory territory", none of this is set in stone, everything can be discussed... But still, as I go, things will start adding up and make more sense. Just like above, I'll explain the theory in parts, open each spoiler (they are made to be red in order) to get a part of the theory... Dimensional Dephts We know for a fact that there is a depht to Bluespace. We also know that most of what we see of Bluespace is shallow, or "light Bluespace". As explained earlier, few ever come back from diving deeper. This now begs the question of how dimensions interact with each other, and what lies beyond what we know. Above is a (very simple) diagram of what the theory assumes and one that we will use as support for the theory. In it: - Light Bluespace refers to the area of Bluespace that WE USE, generally for travel. Do keep it mind that it remains next to completely uncharted and misunderstood. - Deep Bluespace refer to the area of Bluespace that WE KNOW ABOUT. It isn't the entierity of what is "below" Light Bluespace, but rather, what we indirectly know is there, in the same way that we knew that Black Holes existed before ever seeing them. We can mostly assume what this section of bluespace is, even though we're not exploring it. - Darkspace is an EXTREMELY BROAD TERM. It refers to what is deeper than Deep Bluespace. Why I chose to name it this way and not simply something akin to the Abyss, is because it is something completely different than Bluespace; another dimension, in truth. Darkspace is simply the assumption that there may be something else that is "not Bluespace", beyond it (BONUS: For your antag gimmick, remember that you car refer the spooky Darkspace, Redspace, the Veil or whatever you call it. Gives your Cultists or Vampire and such a somehow scientific side). Darkspace, is entierly theorical, and not essential to the theory, but it may be useful to take its possible existence into account. - We can also assume that there is something "above" Realspace. Now, the "directions" and "sizes" of the dimensions on the diagram are absolutely arbitrary, In truth there is no direction to have because dimension are sort of layered upon each other in existence (I have my way with words to make it sound like things make no sense). Most assume that Realspace and Bluespace are entierly disconnected but I'm not so sure. As long as you can generate a "Field" around your ship with your Bluespace/warp drive, you can dive in Bluespace, as deep as you wish, since ship can dive deeper to attempt to avoid interdiction. Thus, interdimensional travel is not a matter of entering Bluespace to travel through dimensions, but rather to get the means to travel (the field) in order to, then, dive. Take this like flying, with the sky being Bluespace. You are not separated from the sky, but you can't reach it because you can't fly by yourself, unless you get the right tools, a way to generate lift (or a field to allow interdimensional travel). This is the point I want to get to, so long as something has a way to do interdimensional travel, then it will be able to freely make its way to whatever dimension it wants, no matter how deep it is, whatever it is. Anomalies and psionics... Bluespace is, for sure, dangerous to your physical being. Gameplay wise, if you were to walk in some Bluespace tile, you'd generally just disapear, dead, obviously. But there also seems to be a link between dimensions and psionics most importantly, through anomalies. The SHEER AMMOUNT of psionic anomalies and even artifacts is astounding. From this, we can assume that Psionics work in Bluespace just like they do in Realspace. ...And areas of high-bluespace activity Well, we also know that the Romanovich cloud, or at least, the very rock on which the Aurora sits is ABSOLUTELY BLOATED with anomalies. There is no wiki article that I can pull out stating this, however it has been referred to and pointed out by many players and most seem to agree on this part, so unless it is retconned by the wiki or something, we will assume that the Aurora is in an anomaly-rich environment. This can also be explained by the sheer numbers of sites. These ships? What if they were spacecrafts once stuck in Deep bluespace? Crafts that went too far down, only to be spewed out later on... And what better place for Bluespace to throw it than in the same area where it throws all of these Anomalies? When they actually entered Deep Bluespace doesn't even matter since time may simply not matter in there... Remember, we know next to nothing about Bluespace, and we know that time isn't linear, even in Realpsace... And what if most of these outposts weren't even built on the rock in the first place? But something related to Bluespace caused them to simply end up there? The influence of Bluespace What if Bluespace stuck to people? Yes, this is it. This is the main point of the theory. Bluespace leads to high numbers of anomalies in the area, and anomalous activity can lead to psionic activity, yes... This activity can lead to consequences for the crew of course. Assume that you have dozens upon dozens of anomalies somewhere in the rock. Even if not active, they do make emissions (this is from these emissions that your local Xenoarch will locate them in the first place), and it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that so much emissions, especially on the long term, could affect the crew, or the station. I am losing my mind help- From this, then I MAKE THE BOLD CLAIM THAT THE REASON FROM EVERYTHING WRONG ON THIS STATION IS BLUESPACE. Okay, not everything, but the signs I pointed out, for instance. Anomalous influence causes the station and its people to go "wrong" bit by bit. Bad things happen more and more. Their emission stick to people too, most importantly, as even when going to some Casino the influence of Bluespace brings more chaos and fucking Bayonet Hand comes in. The station, and its crew is LITERALLY CURSED by bluespace... They should be confined and studied, most importantly, kept on the station to not bring the chaos of their curse everywhere they go, but things will only get worse now... Remember, soon, we're getting our very own spaceship...