Captain Gecko

The Horizon landing is... A bit wild. As far as I know, it's not even made for atmospheric flight. The using the hangars as airlock also sounds like a recipee for incidents. The other propositions however? I'm all for it. For events or not it sounds like a good thing in any case. +1

It was nice, character tried to organize a photoshoot during a low-pop, engine-less round to make it all more fun and interesting. May it have worked or not, I salute the idea and effort!

So my brother being really into SCP once red about that thing they call field codes, and I found it very interesting... And I think Aurora could use an equivalent. Think about it, communication in EVA is hard, or perhaps you just want to leave a note for whoever might want to visit a site later on, notes, or "field codes". A "field code" category of symbols one could draw on the floor with pens and chalk would be much quicker to make then writing a message word-per-word, or bringing paper and leaving a paper note on the floor (one that can be taken away, moved, destroyed, etc.) These field codes would obviously be relevant to the Aurora setting, with codes for: Vacuum / No atmosphere Non-breathable atmosphere Breathable atmosphere Automated Defenses People Inside (Implying things like "do not vent".) Inactive Anomalous Materials Active Anomalous Materials Xenofauna Hostile Xenofauna Danger (To tie with other codes, for instance, "Radiations Danger" implying possibly lethal doses of radiations) High Danger (To tie with other codes, generally implying that you should be geared up and prepared for what lies beyond, or flee.) Radiations Psionics Help These codes would be universal, either to the SCC or to the Spur as a whole, with characters naturally able to understand them as this would've been something they could recognize easily, with a basic training to work with the SCC including getting to recognize these codes. Also, I can definitely handle the spriting part of this, this is more a suggestion to know how people feel about this, and perhaps if they also have ideas of other codes to include.

I agree with Dreamix. No matter what happens we should make sure that we will always have at least one place that Miners and Xenoarchs should be able to work in, no matter how many ships there are out there.

I can't tell about the details because I suck at balancing and don't know much about medical, but this whole idea in general definitely makes sense! +1

Just passing by to say that I approve of the idea!

I like having oil be more slippery than water, it's a nice touch! But also, yes, screw Hivebots. Except Ives. Ives is fine.

I have a question too! I have a question too! So... You mention how unique Unathi culture is, concepts of culture shock, it's GREAT! Now the question is, how would Arkoss react to this new culture he is to work with (and within)? It's less about how he would react with specific cultures of specific characters, and more about how he sees the megacorporations and a whole, how he feels working in one, and the overall multicultaral-ish biesellite atmosphere he finds himself in?

Uh damn, my bad then.

What the title says. Currently, playing an alien species (I only have the Unathi WL, but I assume that this works like this for other species as well) as a consular gives you adequate gear, which is nice. However, said gear only goes for one "power". In other words, as a Unathi for instance, you will be dressed as a Unathi from the Hegemony, have a Hegemony handgun, and recieve a fax from the Hegemony, this doesn't change if you play a Hegemony Unathi, a Dominian one, or even something else. These can be ignored when we play, of course, yet, that doesn't mean that we can't change it. Now that we have origins, however, we could defintiely set it up so that it adapts to these. It would take some work on our side in the lore staff, to properly list and see what each roles would get, but in any case, I feel like this is something that would definitely make Consular work even more interesting than it already is, both to the characters in such a role AND to those they roleplay with.

If we can keep it balanced, then I'm all for it.

What could be interesting is also having players that are not buckled to something get flung, just like when standing in a shuttle that's departing/landing without magboots on... Could contribute to sort-of balancing the idea even more! (Also it's funny)

Thanks for bringing this back from death! This IS a good idea! I like roleplaying with borer players, the issue is that you generally cannot have all of the options when other players play the borers. As said above you need to be "nice" to your borer, or borers in generals, there's a certain limit to how agressive one can be for instance. This definitely deserves at least a try, see how it goes, what people think of NPC borers.

Personally I'm for the return of the Wizard... Mostly. Technomancer is way too limiting as far as making gimmicks go. Nothing, as a Wizard, prevented you from actually making a Technomancer gimmick. The only thing that made Wizard interesting was that it was basically a Loner with wilder gimmicks and powers. Removing this ability to go for wilder gimmicks just killed all the interest the Wizard had in the first place, for me. Secondly, I don't agree with "magic" being not in line with the setting. Call it "magic", "paranormal events" or "anomalies", their existence is canon. That and, it's an antagonist anyways, it is not meant to be canon. We can have Borers and Revenants, so why not a man who somehow can harness some kind of power that allows him to summon Monkeys, teleport around, and put his hand on fire. Now, apparently, Wizard had some balancing issue? I'm not very good with balancing, but I'm sure that we can a Wizard and just... Balance the spells without turning it into something that forces us into a single kind of gimmick. Second issue is the wacky side, perhaps? It's less about magic and more about the old/original gimmick of the Wizard Federation? But just like with the Syndicate for some other antags, I assumed that most ignored that? I know I did. Worst case scenario, just rename it. Make a it Wizard, but call it, I don't know, "Paranormal Element", something much broader and not as wacky?

GPS are essential to any extra-vehicular activities. To me it's practically sucidal to work on the outside of the Horizon, go on a mining trip, or an expedition, without a GPS. You need it to find your ship back, you need it to find your friends and rescue the wounded (and be rescued!). I was then dumbfounded to see that the last science rework removed the 4 GPS from telescience. This, however, had me thinking. Even with telescience's GPS we could still find ourselves a tad limited from time to time. So, here are my proposals: Have all departments be able to have a collection of GPS. Security should have one in each of their lockers. Science should have four, not two, and that's not including telescience that should have its own collection of GPS (that the rest of science won't have to steal as often the moment an expedition happens). Operations is covered with mining so far, so I don't see why we should add more (but there's never too much). Engineering should have one in each locker as well if it isn't already the case. Medical should have a handful of them, for the First Responders mainly. There should be an area that would allow anyone, notably civilians, to grab a GPS, perhaps in the tool storages. Have some way to get more GPS. Either by allowing the Auto or Protolathe to print more, or by letting Operations request more.

About things I'd want to see? > Considering that we're heading Galactic South, I assume that we're inevitable going to encounter some Unathi Fleets. These kinds of Fleets. Probably a few sites linked to their activities, with smuggling bases and the likes, as well as ships, of course. > Being an ex-anomalist main, of course I'm a sucker for ancient temples and other archeologically interesting stuff. > Reality defying stuff, map-sized anomalies, with impossible geometries and gravity, you know what I mean.

Because you are a Unathi, the game equips you automatically with Hegemony gear and sends you a Hegemony fax at the start of the round, yes, but as far as I am aware you can ignore this...? I've seen quite a few players do so, such as Dominian Unathi consulars. The ID only says "Consular (Indep)" so as far as I am aware, this is mostly a roleplay thing. Come to think of it, now that we have origins this could probably be tweaked around to make the Consular loadout/fax be more reflective of the character, but that's another issue.

Ahzi was originally a merchant, but I eventually decided to put her in a position I could play more reliably. She is currently a Consular on the Horizon, which I believe is still a position (the only position on the Horizon, even) that would allow her to bring such items at work... Ahzi as a consular does not represent the Hegemony, nor Dominia, she represents the Ahzi. That does not prevent her to act like a proper consular: she will stand for her fellow Unathi, provide informations on various Unathi cultural elements and the likes (of course she will know more about Unathi Fleets than the intricacies of life as a Dominian Unathi, she doesn't know/can do everything). Back to the flag however. her presence as a consular also has another use: she can act as a guide and a helping hand with the command department as far as handling situations related to piracy go, and of course, ensures that her fleet, which is still in decent terms with the SCC (or at least not on hostile ones) remains in good terms, and vice-versa. She has every reason to show her colors to the Horizon, in character, and in function, I believe. The name of the items might also be misleading, which I guess is why you're asking this question, and a rename may be in order. Unathi Pirate Fleets are as much pirates as the Hegemony is an actual Hegemony in practice (although currently has it act more and more like an actual one, the Hegemony waas originally just the head of a Feudal Kingdom). Unathi "pirates" may be merely smugglers, explorers, privateers or buccaneers among other things, in other words, a few reasons why some powers may be accepting of their presence and even services, the Kazhkz being the best example. While the Ahzi Fleet can delve in more brutal actions, their targets are limited, and they are currently not openly seen as a hostile force by the bigger players of the Orion Spur. In truth, even Ankala herself refers to these as "Unathi Fleets" and not "Unathi Pirate Fleets", thus, the items may be renamed to "Unathi fleet flag", "Unathi fleet banner", and "Unathi fleet armband" (I will change their name on the original post if you don't mind.) The fleet, while "original" in the sense that it is not on any wiki page or article, IS publicly available. Any character can know about it if it makes sense, the only limit to the Fleet being so little known is... Well... OOC limits. Obviously I made up this fleet, people cannot read my mind. I generally just OOCly give interested people bits of the Ahzi lore to allow them to make their character aware of what the fleet is and the likes.

PART I - UNEXPECTED GUESTS *** The Little Biesellite's Encyclopedia Category: History Date: 12/02/2462 Article: The Battle of Corot The Battle of Corot (Also called the Corot-1155 Incident) is an event that unfolded on the 12th of February, 2462 CE, during which a space battle unfolded between five different sides, each with a small-sized fleet of its own. It is considered by Dominia to be one of the largest losses of naval ships in a single battle in recent history and seen by many abroad as an example of how complicated relations between Unathi pirate fleets can be. Observed by many specialists in space warfare, the Battle of Corot is often described as a "mess" where "any and all traces of even the most basic signs of military strategies were thrown out of the airlock" as one of the surviving members of the Zhao fleet that took part of the battle said(citation needed). In any case, between the high casualties on all sides (losses are only estimated as far as the pirate side goes), and losses in ships, the Battle of Corot is still one of the largest battles in recent... ...Corot-1155 is a system constituted by a single A-class star, three different asteroid belts orbiting it, as well as one noteworthy barren planetoid. While devoid of any noteworthy resources and riddled with electromagnetic storms preventing any large-scaled mining or even settling operation, Corot-1155 has been an extremely important system both to the Izweski Hegemony and the Empire of Dominia, being located just between the two nations' borders. It is considered by many to be a buffer zone, with both powers... Geospatial location of Corot-1155 ...The Fleets involved included multiple classes of ships, in considerable numbers. Their fleet composition were as followed: - Kazhkz Privateers (Dominia): Trasus' Vengeance - Mimba-Class Destroyer Black Hand - Mimba-Class Destroyer Yzidian the Mighty - Guzari-Class Destroyer Three Frigate-sized crafts Six Corvette-sized crafts - Zhao Fleet (Dominia): The Wall - Yastr-Class Cruiser Under the Blade - Treutduro-Class Destroyer Forged by Sorrow - Treutduro-Class Destroyer Ten Frigate-sized crafts Ten Corvette-sized crafts - 4th Fleet (Hegemony): ... *** Trasus' Vengeance - Kazhkz Destroyer Krarhal Kazhk stood before the armored window of the bridge, staring intently at the infinite madness of the Great Blue. Rumors within Unathi Pirate Fleets told that staring for too long into Bluespace would make one mad... Krarhal didn't believe in such stories, but he liked to imagine that he was defying some sorts of evil spirits beyond, just by looking into these strange waves. If anything, the old captain proved to be quite the daring one, perhaps what had Salak make him the captain of this venerable Destroyer, one that served his clan even before they had met the Empire. The voice of a Bridge Crew interrupted the Captain's train of thoughts, however. - "Speeds lowering, we're surfacing from Bluespace... Entering Realspace in three... Two... One..." He said in Azaziba, the only tongue Krarhal ever wanted to hear on his bridge. The waves of Bluespace vanished in an instant, soon enough replaced by a violent, blue flash... The Oldscales merely squinted, his eyes adapting to the brightness of quite a brutal electric storm, raging right above them. "Black Hand leaving Bluespace..." The Bridge Crew continued, "...Yzidian is following suit, the others will follow around twenty seconds... All systems nominal, so far." - "Good." The Captain merely said, turning around and going for his seat. "While we wait for the others, give us a sensor sweep, find the traitors, I want us to break them as soon as we can." two days ago the fleet of Kazhkz privateers received a message, through fax, no-less, one using expired codes, ones that predated the days of the Kazhkz-Han'san fleet landing Dominia. Usually, such messages would be ignored, but the fact that such codes belonged to the pre-Dominia fleet, coupled with its content, a challenge, an invitation for a battle to the death, only meant one thing... These were Revanchists, Hiskyn's Revanchists. - "Revanchist fleet spotted." Another Bridge Crew said, "Multiple signals, by that planetoid, Galactic North. They are burning towards us and will be in range of our weapons in around ninety seconds. There are also objects up there by the electric storm, slow-moving... Possibly stellar bodies orbiting the planetoid, or parasites on our sensors due to the magnetic perturbations of such a storm... In the advent that these are indeed rocks, we should pay attention to our surroundings, while slow, they are big and could hurt us real bad if we were to collide with one." the Captain nodded. - "Good." He said once again. "Let us hold our position until the rest of our fleet arrives. Relzrik, ready get the gunnery team to ready the weapons. Gra'lzek, holopad, now... I want to see the face of the traitor I'm about to execute today." *** Red Rage - Revanchist Cruiser The Holopad lit up as soon as it was pressed. A second later, the holographic image of an old Sinta was revealed. "Oh." He said, "Iari. It's been a while. You've grown into quite the man." He let out. Such words were met with an aggressive hiss. - "You... Krarhal... I should've known that they'd send the weakest after us." Iari Hiskyn bellowed, "Not that the rest of you traitorous lot are much of a threat either." - "Traitorous lot? As far as I know my crewmen and I still bear the name of our clan proudly. You left, you refused to follow your clan leaders, and you killed your brethren ever since. I only see one traitor here, and it is you." - "And what will you do, then, Krarhal? Beg me to come and land on your frozen world so that I can be judged by your Human handlers? I've heard that this is how they deal with their traitors in there, by begging them to come back." Chuckling echoed through the Red's bridge. Dominians were weak... They were Humans after all. They were nothing, no matter how geneboosted they could get, compared to the might of a Unathi- and not just any... Free Unathi, true pirates, not weaklings that would bend the knee to the first Empire they'd cross... Or so Iari told himself. - "No. No I won't. I am here to smite you, and your fleet, to make sure that your kin won't be spilling any more of my people's blood. I am merely contacting you to let you know that I thank you for your invitation... You spare us the waste of time of actually tracking you vermins down. Now then, let the best fleet w-" Krarhal's voice was interrupted by a stomp, Iari's foot nearly crushing the Holopad as he turned the damned thing off. - "FULL SPEED AHEAD! WE WILL SHOW THESE HUMAN-LOVING, SCALE-LESS CRETINS WHAT REAL PIRATES ARE LIKE!" And so they went, the sudden acceleration of the Red Rage pressing its captain against his seat. The Kazhkz had more ships, but smaller ones. While barely including any Corvettes or Frigates, the Hiskyn pocket fleet had twice as many destroyers, and of course, the Red Rage itself, a small cruiser, but a cruiser nonetheless, one that could eradicate anything as bug as the usual Destroyer with ease in frontal, direct combat... Oh and there will be plenty. Iari would not let this occasion go, he wouldn't make this just some victory, he would make this historical, a glorious fight of massive broadsides, beautiful formations, and of course, ramming. He would make this a tried and true, Unathi Battle, just like his father before him when he served the very same Clan he was about to fight. "They stabbed you in the back for daring to speak of the Revanchists." Iari mumbled, "... Well, I will break them in an honorable battle." His eyes locked on the shining dots that slowly came to view, the Red Rage's Captain stared at the Kazhkz fleet like a predator at his prey. Thoughts of blood, of justice, of honor flooded his mind. This was his first battle as a proper captain, and he will bring the head of Krahrak himself back to Fer'is... - "ENERGY SURGE, GALACTIC SOUTH! WE'RE BEING TARGET-" One of the Bridge Crew tried to warn, but not in time. A bright blue light flooded the Red's bridge for a few seconds, before vanishing... "That was..." - "Laser fire... X-Ray." Iari bellowed... "KEEP THE COURSE! BUT LOCATE THE SOURCE! WHOEVER DARED SHOOT AT US IN SUCH A MOMENT WILL KNOW MY FURY!" - "Captain... It came from... It's... It's Impossible..." *** Trasus' Vengeance - Kazhkz Destroyer - "Who did that?! Where did this come from?!" Krarhal growled, "I did not order any of our ships to fire! I will not tolerate any lack of discipline from my own men!" - "It wasn't one of us, Captain..." One of the Bridge Crew said, "It came from..." - "Look! The right by the Electric Storm!" Another one said, "Is that... A signal flare?" The Kazhkz Captain's eyes widened, he couldn't believe it. Between the blue of the storm, and the warm, orange light of a signal flare, the so-called signatures that floated in within the electromagnetic maelstrom became more and more pronounced... What all thought were mere asteroids suddenly became more... Angular... Artificial. And then... Lights turned on, engines spit flames of Blue... And they moved. Krarhal nearly stuttered, in sheer shock at what he just saw... - "These... Are SHIPS!" *** Notes:

I have nothing against codification of expedition requirement, but finding proper codifications is my main issue... Unless it's more of a model than an actual hard-rule ICly. Personally, I have no issues setting up expeditions as a command member, but between my character and my actual experience playing Anomalist nonstop for two full years that's not a surprise, and I've seen, and even took part in a BUNCH of badly prepared expedition, and no one wants that. The skill thing IS very good, but I'd go even further and say skill and context over numbers. Obviously yes, members need to be first aid-trained (at the very least one of them) and EVA-trained. I however do not like the idea of having at least 4 members. I spend most of my rounds on lowpop, and it's not rare to not even get 4 on-duty, non-command crewmembers onboard. For instance, today's round wouldn't have had an expedition with such a number if not for the expedition being considered safe enough and Sezrak (me) allowing (asking) off-duty bridge crews to take part in it, and that left the Horizon near-empty, which is absolutely sucidal on any round that is not on extended (which is was in this instance). I guess that where I'm trying to get is that the "at least 4 crewmember" rule (assuming it's a hard rule) will probably prevent most expeditions from happening on lowpop, and I don't agree with that part. On another note, expeditions can vary in their objective. One can be about discovering an unknown site, another might be just about retrieving a specific item, yet another might be just about landing on a planet and checking if the atmosphere is breathable. The sites explored may be just an empty space station, or a hive-bot infested base. The mission, and site, will dictate the danger level of the mission. On some sites, four will never be enough, on others, it will be too much. I think might best exemple might be the Aurora's Spider Station away site. Back on the Aurora, one of the explorable away site was an abandonned Zeng-Hu station, nothing to crazy about it besides the fact that another player, then, could play an ABSOLUTELY giant spider/greimorian (I believe it was a ghost role? Not sure) that has all the rights in the world to smite you on the spot. At some point we had a good science team, generally the same, good players playing together at the same time. We got to know each other's skill well, and with one of us becoming RD we would generally start expeditions. Once we tried something, a "two-person recon expedition", a very short, small expedition to, as the name suggest, make a quick reckon of the area in order to better know how to prepare the bigger expedition that would follow later on. It was my character and another, and us two ended up in the Spider's lair, and we knew it, OOCly (and obviously AVOIDED METAGAMING of course). The Spider eventually cornered us, and through sheer robustness, some luck, low-level engineering and medical knowledge, we survived and made it back to the shuttle, not only fleeing in one piece but also bringing back documents and materials from the station, all of that in 15 minutes. Months later a local RD makes an expedition and comes with us on a TEN-SOULS LARGE expedition that took us right in there. Two returned on the station, one was left behind, the rest died. I guess the point is that numbers really have anything to do with how well an expedition can go. Hell, I've seen a couple of miners solo entire sites (don't do it though, unless we're on low-pop, leave the sites for people to explore in expeditions) and come back in one piece! To me what would work would have a sort of check-list of SKILLS required, with crewmembersbeing able to fill out multiple, then, adding extra crewmembers to be extra safe if the Horizon can spare the manpower, or if the site can already prove to not be safe-enough.

While we'll most likely won't see another alien species anytime soon, or at least, not anything we'll ever get to play (current limit on alien species you know how it is), I do believe that there is definitely more alien civilisations and people out there. The Orion Spur hasn't been fully explored/isn't being fully monitored, and even then, it's only a tiny part of the Milky Way and we already have four indigenous spcies from there (not counting Vaurcae and Dionae since they are technically not from the Orion Spur originally). There's no way that the rest of the Galaxy holds no sentient life... Unless... Unless something lays out there, surrounding us, preventing us to go further. Not properly aliens, but the Sinta'Mador, as Haydizzle pointed out, are a thing. Less of an actually alien species and more like proto-Unathi... But they are more than mere lizard Neanderthals, these ones actually had a fully fledged civilisation, with cities, or at least temples, a proper faith, etcetera. As far as actual alien (not that I'm saying "alien" as in not any of the currently known sentient species) species, or traces of such, just like Diggey said, there's Xenoarcheology. Now, it's nothing properly canon, besides the field actually existing, but as your work is mostly roleplay, you may theorize that your finds may be from a pre-Glorsh Skrells, or pre-Alliance Humanity... Or perhaps these finds are much older, much more alien, coming from creatures that may already be extinct. I guess what I mean is that while there is no actial official, written lore about it, there is nothing preventing you from (and I'm tempted to say that you're encouraged to) thinking that there may have been or even may still be sentient alien beings that we haven't seen yet. Also aliens stumbling upon us are definitely a thing, since that's pretty much what happened with the Vaurcae and Dionae already. No matter what they are, there's probably going some tensions and incident at the very least. Every single first contact in Aurora went... Well, at least bad, at worst apocalyptic. Even if in the end we end up being on good terms, I doubt that we'll ever see a First Contact that doesn't go explosive. I believe that the barrier the Spur faces right now is interdimensional interactions. Bluespace is strange, and what lies beyond, perhaps much stronger, and much worse. Who knows what we'll find if we ever go too far...

I agree as well with the idea of keeping the red-zone for cameras, but as far as sensors or even communications go? I'm not too sure about this, no.

I'm not a balancing specialist, so I can't tell if it's a good or bad idea gameplay-wise... But ROLEPLAY-wise? This is GREAT! Hell, that might be enough to draw me back in playing antag much more again! To have that much freedom in choosing what to do also means that much freedom in setting up your gimmick, adapting to the crew, etcetera. Definitely a +1 from me.