Naelynn

Thank you all for your replies - I genuinely do, but I feel like I didn't manage to get my point across as [to me] it feels like you guys are often addressing points I didn't even raise in the first place. @GreenBoi I think this is reference to me calling the station-self destruct Malf-nuke. My point is that the station self-destruct is pretty much never used for anything BUT Malfs, and for Malfs the stories it tends to force are played out so much it's become beyond stale and an actual meme. No matter what the storyline may be, as soon as the nuke is brought in the nuke becomes the primary gimmick. The nuke is -TOO DANGEROUS- to ever be reasonable story telling device. It's like saying that a villain in a book is going to destroy the world. That story is ridiculously boring, because the stakes are too high to actually be real. If the nuke goes off, the antags ALSO die and no one gets a good story. There will be RIDICULOUS amount of collateral player deaths who had nothing to do with the incident AND any storylines that may have been happening are ended. If the nuke doesn't go off, it has completely ruined whatever other gimmicks may have been going on due to how large of a threat it is. EVERYONE has to focus on the nuke as soon as it comes up because it can just kill everyone in the round as soon as it is activated. The story loop it promotes is -NOT- interesting. Please post a good nuke-gimmick example. I play antags boatload, and there are none that I could have thought of that either weren't lrp-bad or played-out to hell. Keep in mind, the gimmick has to be realistically executable with 4 mercs, each of one will want to go do something else. It has to be simple enough for everyone to get in few minutes, has to allow enough freedom for people to improv the details and has to be interesting enough to appeal to the crew [We are a Role Play server. The story is a priority]. Finally, the gimmick should involve more than just command staff/security because otherwise you might as well be running [Maximum Stealth] gimmick because most of the crew won't get to interact with the antagonist in any way. Yes, but this could be made way more interesting if the nuke is replaced with a Virus bomb. [a.k.a: All organics in blast radius become ill with randomly generated virus (class 7) and it has to be treated ASAP. Synthethics are unaffected and will be fine.] And that's literally something I came up with in like 3 seconds. Fair point! Didn't remember them being in originally - thanks for the heads up. I was trying to suggest some things there. @ben10083 Divorcing the nuke and combat modules would be great, yeah. @Carver Yeah but that never happens. Admins will never send HAPT just to deal with nuke threat. I've ran a few nuke ops round, and at best it was randomly Phoenix instead of TCFL spawn. I suppose - they do end the round. But the amount of rage/salt in the chat after a nuke goes off clearly shows that people are not okay with these endings. Queue up as merc and run a NukeOps gimmick - if I'm not on the team to boycott it you might be able to do it. The reason I boycott nuke runs is because they LITERALLY ALWAYS end in either player complaints, bwoinks, personalized salt over discord/pms or any combination of the above. I agree with this in my original post - They do not create interesting RP. We are an RP server. Thus my suggestion to just delete them. @Butterrobber202 But they're not. Villain ending implies that things went the antag's way. The antag is dead, as is everyone and everything on the station. Yes. If I'm on the team, I boycott it. Can't speak for anyone else. The reason for my boycott is because I am not interested in dealing with the ahelps/disheartened players who got 0 rp from antags just flexing on them with a giant bomb. It's a hostage situation except the hostage is the entire station and crew.

Currently there are two nuclear devices that can be used via different game modes. - Merc Nuke - Malf Nuke. [No, it's not station self destruct, I have never seen this actually used by NT outside of Xeno non-cannon events] I suggest that their presence actively makes the game worse and they should be removed. More detailed reasoning below _____________________________________________________________________ Chapter 1: The Merc. Nuke _____________________________________________________________________ The Merc nuke can be used precisely for one single gimmick: Nuke Ops. This gimmick boils down to: Give us what we want, or we blow up the entire station, you, us and everyone else. Role play options presented by this: - Give mercs everything they want because you don't want to die - Fight mercs because you don't want to die That's it. There is nothing else left for you as a crewmember to do because the mercs managed to find a way to not only hold everyone on the station hostage, they are holding the station itself hostage. Solution? Remove Merc. Nuke. It contributes nothing anyway and exists only to be a bait towards bad rounds. No need to replace it with anything. _____________________________________________________________________ Chapter 2: The Malf. Nuke _____________________________________________________________________ The Malf nuke is a bit more of a complicated beast, as it exists primarily to give Malf. an end game. However, this single part of it's toolset has served to spawn countless memes [Stealth malf delta rush, 1:50 delta ...] because of how thoroughly annoying it is to play against. As soon as the malf begins the delta hack, everyone in the round knows what is going to happen, because there is literally no other way for this to do. Malf finishes the hack -> Goes to delta -> Upgrades borgs to combat [Combat module is horribad by the way, it needs a buff] -> Threathens nuke -> Station evacs or storms the core. The only possible deviation from this is that borgs don't become combat. That's it. This is not an engaging story loop after everyone has seen it for the billionth time. Removing this one single aspect of Malf play would greatly improve station's outlook on Malfs as every single round vs Malfs would no longer end in the exact same way. However, Malf should probably get something else 'end game' back for it's troubles, as the nuke hack is currently integral. On the other hand, synthethic takeover exists. So, not sure Malf needs something else. _____________________________________________________________________ Chapter 3: The Nuclear Problem _____________________________________________________________________ Finally, we come to my synthesis of the above points. Nukes do not create an interesting story. Every single time a nuke appears in a round, the round's enjoyment and quality plummets. This is due to the above mentioned issues as well as the fact that as soon as the nuke is brought up, the nuke BECOMES the gimmick, regardless of what the gimmick originally was. It doesn't matter how well planned the gimmick is, it will be overshadowed by the thermonuclear fire provided by the bomb. _____________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: The Final Solution _____________________________________________________________________ 1) Remove Merc nuke and SAT. 2) Add dirty corporate secrets to SAT to explain why it's so difficult to get into. Requires captain's disk + captain access to get inside. 3) Consider adding new end-game mechanics to Malf. 4) ADD ABILITY FOR NORMAL CREW TO GO INTO CODE DELTA - Delta becomes an extreme alert mode that resets all cyborgs and unlocks combat module. Used by station to aid in extreme situations. 5) Rework text on Code Delta

BYOND Key: Naelynn Character Names: Species you are applying to play: Vaurca What color do you plan on making your first alien character: 150, 180, 255 ( Mouv'lek'tanta Unbound ) Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question. Why do you wish to play this specific race: I think they are interesting - the most alien race available to players, even outdoing the Dionae. And I want to give them a good try! Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Many, many factors - normal air is poison, meaning they always need to have internals. They tend to be a bit awkward when communicating due to the fact that their native language utilizes non-vocal means of communications heavily. It is like asking a person to communicate using words with A's and E's in them exclusively. You would feel stifled. They also are huge bug monsters, they should be viewed as creepy and terrifying. They also have the ability to communicate long-distances between one another. The lore behind them is quite solid and thorough, if a bit overwhelming. Character Name: Ka’Akaix’Xor C’thur (Xenoarcheologist) Please provide a short backstory for this character Created shortly after first contact with Jargon Federation was established, Xor was designed for one single specialized purpose: To analyze and harness all the new technologies these aliens were offering to the Hive. Xor had spent the early months of it's life surrounded in the vast oceans of data in Mouv's VR-scape. With it's Imagotis designed to encourage deep analysis and methodical thinking process, Xor dived into the data-streams with excitement. Each little bit of knowledge it has learned, each tiny thing it managed to comprehend taught the impressionable Vaurca things it could share with it's hive, but created so many more questions. Yet, information can too be danger, and Xor had several too-close encounters with triggered defense systems from which it had to be rescued by more skilled Unbounds. After the initial maturation was complete, Xor was quickly put to work in the field it was designed for - deep analysis of unknown pieces of technology. The work was slow, methodical and presented many opportunities for Xor to feel pride at the discoveries and the information it was releasing into it's queen's VR, allowing others to learn further just like it did before. What do you like about this character? Xor is obsessive about technology, especially tech it doesn't understand. It is driven to analyze and compile all information about such technologies before presenting the results. It feels immense pride upon completing it's given work, and feels frustration if it's missing a piece of the information puzzle. It has very clear emotional states that I believe would make a good easy-to-play first character. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Reasonably good - I expect to make a few mistakes with their pronunciations at first, but I believe I can manage to portray a Vaurca in a way that will stand up and match the image of Xor in my head. Notes: I had previously applied to Vaurca before - the app can be found here: Thank you for reading my app

Burger, I share many of the same grievances with Apparition spam that you do. That said, there are few flaws with the proposed changes: This doesn't fix apparition spam. Apparition spam works by having one apparition sac itself for the summoner on a heal rune fueling this cycle forevermore. This... seems kind of meh. The idea to bring a ghost into the round is a cool thing, I don't want to see it removed. Instead of these two changes, here is what I propose - a single change that may very well completely fix all of this. Make apparitions NOT CULTISTS and immune to conversion. Why would this fix anything? 1) No more cult armor+weapon. 2) No more using runes 3) Keeps an honestly cool feature in game. 4) If the apparition is geared up by idk, being summoned in armory, their gear remains where they were killed instead of having endless supplies. 5) You're some random ghost pulled into the realm of the willing probably against your will. Do you really want to be slaving away for some cultist? Yes, you are bound to obey their orders, but there's wiggle room like with laws for cyborgs.

Indeed, it was an oversight. Yes, by @MattAtlas . And I responded on discord in #Code Dungeon, and thanked him for fixing it because I didn't realize my mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. As for the other part of your post... 1) Why does this matter for a mod. No, genuinely, why does this matter for a mod. Moderator that understands the game deeply is a good thing, no? To be able to help people. 2) I disagree. I think you're unable to move beyond the past. 1) Okay. If you won't like me taking a ticket in regards to you, you can always request someone else to take it. 2) Trial mods are very carefully monitored by other staff members AFAIK. If I'm being dumb, I'm sure it will be shown. 1) I have used an Unathi Breacher as a merchant 2-3x as far as my memory serves. And once as a Ninja for a Promise gimmick [hired merc bodyguard] which I found in the vault. 2) This was already resolved by @Marlon Phoenix. Who, might I add, has posted in this thread already. As you can see on the time stamps, that is quite the old discussion. 3) I'm the person who made this post complaining about validhunting from both antagonists and security https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/13124-murderboning-antagonists-and-validhunting-station-crew/. In said thread, you yourself brought up the issue of the breacher-equipped character. This complaint is one you have been bringing up on every single one of my posts where I am looking to try to do something for the community, always with the same notion that because I used a breacher a few times I am a sinner and must forever be stuck in the pits of hell and should be banned from the server. At least that's how it appears to me anyway. I think there's something to be discussed here, because Geeves, we both know that this post was not made because you genuinely are concerned about the breacher. This post by you was made in response to my first reaction upon playing the newly added IAC distress-beacon-response team. Due to the fact how ill-suited for the current situation on station IAC was, I was very displeased and you argued against my points that having an ERT that cannot aid anyone is alright because it's a distress beacon and you never know who picks it up. AFAIK you were the one who added IAC and honestly, it is a good piece of work to add a new response team. I wouldn't know where to begin. The situation in the round was complicated, and I couldn't do anything to help anyone, as the IAC team was not equipped the handle the situation we were called into. I find the timing of your -1 on my application and our discussion about your work very .. coincidental. FINALLY last point: My last rounds as antagonists that I remember were: As Augury [scientist] I bought a laptop and used captain access to rp-out a hacker by the name of Overlord or something somesuch. This hacker was trying to remotely help his agents [other traitors] in their work by listening in on comms, missdirections and creating distractions. Total amount of attack logs vs players: /0/ As a wizard, I ahelped to be turned transparent and named myself NT-RCS-1 and was a baseline. I had the wiki up and open on IPC and Timeline pages and rp'd out a story of a baseline that was there during construction of Aurora 1 who somehow due to bluespace shenanigans ended up being a 'ghost' on our current Aurora. Total amount my character attacking others: /0/. Total amount my character got attacked: 4-5 as far as I remember. As 'Icelander' the merc I got spawned in with someone who appeared to be a newbie during a secret bughunt. We agreed on a gimmick that we are going to station for an unrelated job, and then we will stumble upon the borers and switch priorities because the mercs will believe that getting borer powers will make future jobs easier. The merc-newbie turned out to be rather psychotic and we had to hole up in our ship for over 50 minutes in order to get him to calm down and stop attacking everything in sight, after which me and the other merc who were still active [The last one gave up and just ghosted after asking 'mins for replacement AFAIK] were attacked and seriously wounded. As we have done absolutely nothing in the round due to the uncontrolled violent tendencies of one of the mercs, me and the last merc tried to salvage the round in last 15 minutes and decided that every bug must die. We had no way of proving this, so we just asked everyone if they are infected, and clearly communicated our intent to kill all infected and bugs via two announcements and multiple radio channels. In two of those gimmicks I did not perform any validhunting at all, and mostly used standard equipment issued to the characters. In the third round I spent most of my round actively getting in the way of a murderboning antagonist and trying to create some form of a storyline from what was left when it went up in flames. I strongly disagree with your sentiment that I am 'merely' a powergaming, validhunting person that does not deserve to help people because they don't know how to rp. Make a valid point against this application if you are to oppose it.

a.k.a: have solars [some of them at least] wired and active at round start?

I'm placing a vote for the old aviator sprites.

@Marlon Phoenix I just checked the relevant sprite files [ https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/tree/master/icons/mob/human_races/tajara ] - we do not have tesla limb sprites

@Marlon Phoenix Thoughts?

So the idea is that 'nathi should be strong in combat, but hard to heal - do I have that right? If that's the case, then this will not actually achieve the desired result - as I mentioned you can get away without ever using bicard in medical. If this is the intended goal, consider an alternative: Make them good for in-atmos fighting, and horrid EVA. They are cold blooded more-or-less (the lore is not particularly clear on this AFAIK, but I may be wrong), and get away with using EVA suits without heating units. Want to fight a 'nathi smartly? Vent the atmos. Give them smart ways of being beaten instead of something that's just annoying for those around them.

Can you get me some ref pictures? I'll see if I can make some concepts/sprites. We can use discord if you prefer it (I do - Naelynn#1337 )

yes because brainmed

This would make Unathi vaurca-worker-tier when it comes to wound/pain avoidance. Yes, I do have entire rounds in medical where I never use bicaradine and wing everything with surgery/normal regen/bandages, so it would still allow them to play properly, but 20 organ damage per 10 bicard seems insane.... I don't know, It's just I'd rather each species have a obvious strength and obvious weakness, rather then maybe-strength that has downsides and just muddle them all to be sort-of-shades of the same thing

I'm actually inclined to agree with this suggestion. Why? Because despite humans supposedly being persistence hunters who can jog for hours if in shape, your average Taj can outrun them forever by walking.

What's the difference between tesla prosthethic and a normal one? Is it just aesthetics or do they actually do something special? I'm interested in this, but I need to know how difficult it'd be

I like this. Tajaran choirs when,

I voted yes, but my vote should count with an Asterisk. Why an asterisk? Because it's simultaneously super easy to die, and almost impossible. ------------------------------------- Easy to die reasons: Any burn damage causes infection almost 100% of the time. Even something as small as an electrified grille. If not treated almost instantly, any electric/laser shit is going to be lethal over extended period of time. Shrapnels deal damage. No it is not fixed. They do not just deal pain damage. Try playing an ipc [who are immune to pain] and get a shrapnel. You will constantly be taking damage. As such, any shot that leaves a shrapnel has a chance of just destroying you if left inside for a long enough time. Arterial Bleeding is extremely lethal. It removes huge chunks of blood and blood is needed to oxygenate the brain. Lack of oxy in the brain. Lasers vaporize blood. This when left untreated allows the person to die from lack of oxygen to brain. ------------------------------------- Hard to die reasons: If you have good medical, it is impossible for anyone who gets into medbay to perish. See: Alkysine / Brain Organ Repair Surgery meta. You can have a patient with LITERALLY all organs necrotic who is simultanneously bleeding out, as long as you are using one of those two things, they are alive and can recover. ( I know. I did this as a surgeon. This exact scenario. ) You can literally just prance around in space and give 0 fucks. Void is just a minor inconvenience now. An unprotected human can easily survive for over 2 minutes while still being able to move. A bit of soapboxing + relevant for explosive weapons. (See: https://science.howstuffworks.com/question540.htm - You should be able to move somewhere around 15-30 seconds MAX. Then you do survive for up to 90-120 seconds, but you are unconscious and just hoping that someone else helps you.) The only way to kill someone with ballistics fast is to aim for the head. Head has lower hit rate than torso. If you do not do this, the other person remains combat capable for retarded long periods of time. The best way to kill someone with lasers fast is to aim for the torso. You aim to remove blood from their system and proc unconsciousness from lack of oxygen in the brain. Thus you require best chance to hit. However, this will usually just K/O the target and allow them to survive the encounter, as the brain is not getting directly damaged. ------------------------------------- Tl;dr: Brain med makes it very difficult for someone to die fast, while making it stupid easy for someone to die slow. For players who often play characters that are isolated from help like myself, I suggest nerfing the long term death scenarios. I am all up for having low lethality combat system.

Basic Information Byond Account: Naelynn Character Name(s): Discord username + tag: Naelynn#1337 Age: 26 Timezone: GMT +1 / Central Europe When are you on Aurora?: Very often. Right now pretty much every day all day, however, I'm also currently applying for a job which would mean I play pretty much throughout evenings. So right now about 14 hours a day, in the future probably an actual reasonable amount. On the weekends should remain the same. Experience How long have you played SS13?: My account was created in 2017 solely for the purpose of playing SS13. How long have you played on Aurora: Ever since account creation. I don't like how other servers play out. How much do you know about SS13 (Baystation build) game mechanics?: I'd like to think I'm familiar with almost all of them, including obscure things. Primarily because of how long I was playing, and how often I jump to digging in the code to understand the details. Not to mention that I do not shy from reporting things or even fixing them myself when available, as seen with some of my PR's. Do you have any experience moderating for an SS13 server?: No. Have you read through the criteria thread; https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4198 - and believe that you mark off all the criteria?: Yes. Though I have issues being concise and declining. Have you ever been banned, and if so, how long and why?: Full banned? No. Antag banned? One week, due to an over-the-line example of power gaming behavior. Unintentionally banned? Yes, I have to play over a VPN due to my university internet connection blocking BYOND - this sometimes lands me in a permabanned IP and I have to bug an admin to unban my account as I change the IP. Personality Why do you play SS13?: It's an amazing game in multiple aspects. The absolutely bonkers-insane depth of the mechanics, the fact that everyone in the community CARES about the game and their server (Because if you suffered through the learning curve, there is no way you don't).. And to have fun with other people. This point specifically is a big driving point for me - that *EVERYONE* should have fun in this game. Not just me, or just few other people. Why do you play on Aurora?: Because I despise how hectic and honestly lol-so-random other servers are. Aurora has dignity that other servers don't. Why should we have animations and mechanics for farting?! It's really not necessary... Aurora also has the right pace for someone like me who really likes reading - unlike other servers where it's act-then-talk, Aurora strives for talk-then-act approach by actually encouraging role play! What do moderators do?: Moderators, in my opinion, are people who are veteran at the game and have a vested interest in helping others. Their focus should be on easing other people into the game and making sure everyone CAN do the things they want to do. There also is the part about moderators existing to uphold the server's rules - and I mean that with both interpretations being valid: Moderators should make sure that the spirit of the server's rules is upheld by the population, AS WELL AS being a shining example of rule-abiding behavior. However, moderators also are only people, and to err is human. It is fine to make mistakes, but one has to learn and accept critique of others. What does it mean to be a moderator for our server?: Moderator for Aurora specifically has to be able to distinguish between ic and ooc things - as we are a server uniquely focused on role play. This then has HUUUUGE implications on how things are handled. Because issues on Aurora can get extremely complicated, Moderator for our server should be willing to just say 'I don't know' and ask someone who has more experience. Furthermore, activity. Being a moderator is a /privilege/. One you have to work to keep. Why do you want to be a moderator?: I'm convinced I can do a good job. What qualities do you possess that would make you a good moderator?: I believe I am a very patient person, and strongly believe that I am open to opinions that contradict my personal views. On top of that, I think that my position as someone who spends many rounds ghosting anyway leaves me in a good place to be a moderator. Furthermore, I like to be very deliberate with my actions. Also honest... often to a fault. How well do you handle stress, anger, or insults?: I believe I do reasonably well, but at the same time I have some dignity - if someone will be genuinely pushing my buttons in an a-help intentionally, I might request for someone else to take it, or at least advice on what to do. I'm only human after all. We all are. Anything Else You Want to Add: I have previously applied for a moderator position here: Interview from that app is here: https://pastebin.com/f1UHTVSG Some of the replies have not been changed - the reason for that is simple. I still agree with them. Same with the interview. I stand behind my answers.

Impossible. Bodies are no longer 'easily' wreckeable using explosives. Landmine is probably the weakest explosive that destroys turfs and the worst it does is break a few bones. Ninja's need an explosion that creates gib turfs to hide the evidence of their technology to accomodate their ... uh.. lore?

This point has to be solved first. There are many research characters that INTENTIONALLY REFUSE TO DO RnD. Robotics is cool, but it's primary appeal is the results of RnD. If the only scientists are those who refuse to do RnD, you are stuck in a really bad place. Not to mention, do you really want to be bothered build scanning modules etc. every 5 minutes? You won't be able to leave it and do anything on the station because that annoying roboticist might want a part and won't stop shrieking at you until you give it because they are just sitting in their room unable to do anything.

Ah, you're probably going to be disappointed in me ? To me it sounds about as loud as space asshole in game (just now went in game and tried) , but I know people can be a bit sensitive to the music. If it'll be too loud, I can easily reduce the volume by exporting the project. Thanks!

Thank you. That's very high praise, genuinely. Maybe we can convince someone to add a jukebox to the bar? One that's behind the counter, so the bartender can DJ! Thank you!

Ah... Didn't know. If someone will move it, I'll appreciate it I think you mean the lo-fi esque sounding transition. Yeah... I struggled a lot with getting that part to fit in Thank you very much for the review! I'll see if I can do better next time No promises, but I might do something. Maybe work with one of the lore devs and make something cool?

I'll keep it in mind if I ever make a song for Aurora specifically, thank you!

I'm.. not sure how to react to that?