K0NFL1QT

A janitorial team sounds pretty good, actually. I don't know if anyone would regularly filling up the slots; as you say, janitor is demeaning enough that people don't choose to get reassigned. Also, yes, give them soap. I know, soap equals powergame slips. Just give it to them and bwoink players who abuse soap like a weapon.

I don't think any borgs should be breaking out of lockdown unless there's a malfunction, and if that is the case then it's much better handled by the AI freeing them rather than them freeing themselves. The lockdown is a saftey measure to protect the crew, and yourself. The less kind alternative to lockdown is to blow them up, so be thankful that you're only getting immobilized. However, you should not be getting locked down and forgotten. And if you are, use your radio and PDA to remind people where you are and that you are locked down. Remind them with increasing frequency and volume until someone comes for you. If the situation dictates that you cannot be trusted be to be free, then you can AT LEAST be moved into the robotics lab where you have someone to talk to. They can try to cut your connection to the AI. Usually as soon as you're disconnected from a malfunctioning AI, you're let free to go on with your duties. Or you should be.

There are rare individuals who can stand the electrical discharge of a taser, but these people are exceedingly rare. As clearly evidenced, bulky, battle-hardened marines will drop if you shock them. You drop not just because it is painful, but because the electricity flowing through your muscles causes them to seize up. I'm not sure if it's merely pain tolerance or a subtle difference in biology that allows some people to stand through a tasering. But either way, if you're going to make one-shot tasers have a chance of failure, it should be really small. Five percent? And, as mentioned, there needs to be an understanding that everyone is on the server for ROLEPLAY. Whether you're a taser-toting Redshirt or a Revolver-blasting Nuke Op, being OMG Super Robust LOL and winning all the time isn't the point. Have fun losing sometime. That said, there also needs to be an understanding that when combat starts, that has to be treated as a form of roleplay and that its consequences are fair and valid. Tasering a hostage taker is valid, but there is also RP you could be having there. Taking a hostage makes it far more likely that the hostage taker will be killed, or treated more harshly if taken alive. There's a balance that is missing, exceptionally hard to even maintain, and then will still not be acceptable to people with regards to tasering vs 'criminal rp'.

Right now, for me, the deal breaker is the map. I've been vocal about its redesign since it happened. Most people seem to agree with at least some of my map criticisms, but some people actually like it. I haven't really played since it was deemed appropriate enough 'for now' until we get a completely new map. But if that was the case, why make the intermediary step so much more worse than what it used to be? People asked for a redesign of the bridges meeting room and maybe the AI core, and what we got was a total transplant of Security, Command, AI and Civilian areas. Yes, the AI Core needed a definate rework, but changing half the station to accomodate was too much. After that, it's IPCs being unable to self-repair. I love the new synthetic sheathing, buggy as it is, but being unable to rewire my own hand or patch a dent in my own leg is just silly. As much as I dislike it for borgs, it's just about acceptable considering borgs are generally bound by laws to throw themselves into conflict to defend organics and it's a given that they are meant to see the Roboticist for repairs. For IPCs I get that it's for 'anti-powergame' reasons, which sounds reasonable on the surface, but to look at it deeper reveals how infeasible that would be. So, you'd have a welder in one hand and a weapon in the other. If it's ranged then you're going to have issues with reloading, that will force you to stop and shuffle items. Even if it's melee, the opponent can largely run away/shoot you. And if they don't, having to manage target clicking to hit with selecting the area to target for damage, and then your own repairs will be a nightmare easily overcome by a disarm spamming assistant with nothing else to micromanage but disarming and running away. Add on the fact that IPC limbs are very easy to remove through damage and you get basically all IPCs being burdened with crippling dependency to stop the very rare IPC going on a powergame murderspree. These are my main points of contention. Scopes is amazing for all the work he does. I've never had a problem with the in game staff. They are lovely people. My only sour interaction with forum staff was the recent 'this never happened' mentality, but I'm sure the forum staff are equally lovely people with a tendancy towards overzealous purging. But only because they want the forum to be a clean and friendly place for us to discuss things. Censorship and thread purging do not contribute to that atmosphere, I hope it is a lesson learned. Most of the players are lovely people too, and those who are not are easily identified and largely ignored. Even the occasional griff can be chuckled off. This is a great community of people who are passionate about roleplay, and roleplay specifically within a worklike spacestation environment. With passion comes strong ideas about how things should be, and there will be inevitable conflicts. You can't please all of the people all of the time. What Aurora needs is a strong and present Headmin to say 'this is where we are, this is where we're going, take it or leave it'. At least that way the players can decide for themselves if Aurora is where they want to play.

End thread.

Not all criticism directed at a named individual is an attack. To say that is the equivalent of responding 'muh feelings' when someone provides a detailed analysis and judgement of your merits and faults. And in this case, one that clearly took a long time to write and formulate. To simply press 'delete' and go on with nothing said is completely disrespectful. It's criticism, and it's necessary. If a post is against the rules, state openly that it is so and quote the offending portions. That way the community knows what's been done and why. You don't just delete it and all references and responses to it, as if it never happened. You're not Auroras secret Info Police. A forum mod is a glorified spam deleter. Myself and a couple others thought that the post contained some good and valid points worth discussing, but in completely doctoring the thread and silently erasing the post and everything related to it you completely shut down any reasonable debate we could be having over the actual points.

The threads point is to discuss the topic proposed, obviously. I was fully expecting to be told to shut up and go away, and I was surprised to find that people feel the same way.

None of Cresentises post is a personal attack. And while vaguely defined 'vulgarity' is against the rules, you don't have to delete a post for daring to suggest that some players are way too focused on garnering intimate relationships. Grow up.

BYOND Key: K0NFL1QT Staff BYOND Key: Xanderdox Reason for complaint: For doctoring a legitimate thread and deleting quality posts. Evidence/logs/etc: http://aurorastation.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3254 Additional remarks: It was shameful to lock that thread, even after the tampering, instead of reverting the deletions and edits and allowing the very legitimate discussion to continue. Crescentise made an excellent breakdown of what and why SSLs are and why they are bad, somebody deleted it and every appreciative reaction post. The topic could have brought to light the poor behaviour of some of the players in question. Now all that is left is outrage at being censored and silenced.

Name and shame, please.

Whoever deleted that, bring it back. It was well said, and needed to be said.

We will not be discussing matters of 'balance' in this thread. Wizards are the ultimate immersion breaker. Even in 2d Spaceman games, if you're roleplaying, then there are laws of nature to the characters universe that are to be obeyed. Not just -obeyed-, but -inviolate-. Wizards, by their very nature, defy physics. It's reasonable for Sci-Fi settings to handwave some technological advancements that make things possible that are not possible today, and then there's Wizards who use magic words to do exactly what is not possible. There's not even a pretense for pretending Magic is possible in any other game mode. The Wizard turns up and 'oh by the way, the entire foundation of all your species collective knowledge about physics is wrong'.

Ask your local Chief Engineer why the Bridge and Captains office is one of the most vulnerable on the station. Ask them why the armory is always accessible from space. Ask them why Nanotrasen might implement such a flawed design. Your answer will probably be 'I don't know'. The station design is whatever design the company all our spessmins work for has deemed appropriate and is thus indicative of the companys modus operandi, of which you are supposed to be playing a part. I don't think it can be changed now. Too many people are driving it into Medium RP Hell. We'd need a strong, benevolent dictator as Headmin and an uncompromising Dev team to ever stand a hope of restoring Aurora to where it can fulfill the Heavy RP promise for a Space Sim. If I had the patience to learn Dream Maker, I would have attempted an alternative already. I may still. 99% of Wizards make absolutely no sense. The 1% is a theoretical wizard that I have never seen.

Auroras reputation as a heavy roleplay environment is, like the visual phenomena it is named after, an illusion. The server is labelled, and claims to be, a heavy roleplay environment. But face it, it's not. The endless arguments about balance prove it. Weapons are tweaked to be 'fair', not 'realistic'. The station itself is designed to give antags an advantage, instead of built with common sense and actual security in mind. Arbitrary limiting mechanics are put in place, such as borgs and IPCs being unable to repair themselves, that defy explanation. Wizard mode. Magic isn't real. These are just a few summaries, each of which could, and probably does, have a thread dedicated to them where people debate their preference based on balance. I don't know about the rest of you, but I chose Aurora for the 'immersive roleplaying experience' that it promised. Whether this is intentional deceit, or developers merely caving to hordes of complaints gradually over time, I couldn't say. The defining aspect of any roleplay environment is staying in character, which is enforced. But when a character is confronted with something in game that exists in that state because of balance reasons, there's no way to justify it and all illusion of immersion is gone. Due to this, I'm struggling to enjoy Aurora as the self-proclaimed bastion of 'Heavy Roleplay'. tldr; Aurora isn't heavy enough for me anymore and other servers handle mid and low rp with more enjoyable mechanics.

Tasers are useless unless they disable in one shot. Like, you know, tasers. Police, military, buff guys at the gym; it doesn't matter, you go down. Why would you create a non-lethal weapon that leaves open the possibility for a violent conflict to drag on when used? You want a quick, deathless resolution. If you want to 'balance' it out, make every taser carry only one shot. Give them cartridges that have to be manually loaded. Now you have to use your taser carefully.

The Captain doesn't need a pet. What the Captains needs is a sled and harness. That way, a misbehaving greyshirt can be pressed into being the Captains pet, and then whipped until it takes the Captain where they need to go. Mechanicallly it'd be like a wheelchair in reverse, that the puller wouldn't be able to unfasten themselves from. See if people complain about Phoebes privileged position among Command staff then.

Pretty much this. Medical shouldn't be refusing treatment to anybody, but likewise the station is supposed to be a work environment. I get having a bar for breaks, and I get people sometimes like to spend their whole shift there chatting. That's fine, it's RP, enjoy yourselves. But intentionally getting yourself so drunk that you need liver surgery should be considered Neglect of Duty, not only because you were literally neglecting your onboard duties to drink yourself into a lethal coma, but that caused you to waste the time and resources of the medical staff as well. Maybe once could be forgiven, maybe it should earn someone a sit in with the psychologist, but the kind of character who continually attempts to do this after every attempt by medical to fix him should probably face a criminal charge and be barred from further service at the bar. If it happens accidentally because either your drink was stronger than you suspected, because the barman slipped in something stronger, or because you were literally forced to drink past your limits in another consequence with possible criminal charges to lay at someone else and not the drunk guy.

As a Duty Officer, you know all you have to do is shoot a fax to Centcom and call down the power of the Almighty Nanotrasen if Security are being unreasonably resistant to an IAAs interference. I'm usually more than happy to let IAA go chat with prisoners; it keeps the prisoners entertained, makes the IAA feel useful and frees the Warden up for other duties. IAA indirectly wields more power than Captains; but they can only use it on people who are breaking regulations. I think the problem isn't so much the duties and expectations of the IAA role, it's that the Security team around you don't appreciate or understand that role.

After reading through on a forum catch up, I had to stop here and say something. I don't really know you, Dea. But I sympathise deeply. I want to thank you for all the time and effort you've put into Aurora so far, and I wish you nothing but the best for as long as that is still possible. I'm a firm believer in letting people choose when it is their time to go, if life has nothing but unpleasantness planned for them, and I have a massive respect for your courage in this decision. I hope you're too busy enjoying yourself to ever come back and read this message. But if you do come back, let us know how you're getting on. I don't think anyone will have read your message and not been touched by it. If there's ever anything the players of Aurora can do for you, just let us know.

But for serious. I thought the IAA was already supposed to do all the things you're talking about; ensure everybody and security are following Corporate Regulations at all times, ensure that people brigged are brigged for a fair reason, that their time is fair, and ensure that they are released when their time is up. In that way, I see a lot of co-operation between IAA and the Warden. I tend to play Warden with an extreme bias towards fairness, not only serving as jailer for the actually guilty but also making sure that wrongful arrests are dealt with. As in, if there's no evidence for something then there's no cell time, and I don't let officers arbitrarily inflate cell times because they're jackasses. So what's the difference between Internal Affairs and a Lawyer? Internal Affairs are supposed to ensure that Corporate Regulations, ie THE LAW, is followed by everyone. And sometimes that will mean having to fight for a prisoner who was arrested without evidence. It's the same thing, just a different name.

I'm sure the EMTs could greatly utilize the surgery tools, or the barman could greatly utilize the chemists chem dispensor. That's not the point, Jackboot. You want to play Detective, play Detective. You want to play Forensic Tech, play Forensic Tech. Not both at the same time. The Forensic Tech lost their autopsy table without any discussion. Now, more than before, we need to stress the differences between Detective and Forensic Technician by separating their access. No, they don't. Unless it's on the rare occasion when the characters have a natural tendency to respect each others boundaries and job roles. Which is exceedingly rare. The access was removed after a long discussion, and then recently reinstated without any discussion or community input.

Arbitrary expiration date is ick.

Only if I can play a werebear.

Cloning is never as guaranteed as people in this thread have been making out, yet characters still YOLO into squads of new cops because either the character is reckless or the player is overconfident. But to clarify, I meant largely on behalf of the surviving characters. Because think about it. A clone is NOT the same person. Example; Jon & Jane. Jon and Jane are friends that work at Aurora. Jon is killed. Jon is cloned. The Jon that Jane knew is still dead, but now there's an identical copy of Jon with his memories, mannerisms, etc. IC: Jane can, and should, still be deeply affected by the fact that the Jon they know is dead, regardless of cloning. That they don't is not because cloning exists. They either convince themselves that Jon is the same, or they shut the hell up because you don't tell clones they are clones. Would Jane prefer Jon be cloned to be roughly the same as his old self, remade into a borg without free-will and emotional capacity, or stay dead and gone, just a memory forever? What you call the 'awkward roleplay' of avoiding the cloning topic, or accepting that your friend is now a clone, is what I call 'good roleplay'; consequences affecting characters without inconveniencing the players too much. OOC: Player A, Jons player, likes playing Jon. Despite dying, Player A will probably want to play Jon again in another round. However, for this round, Player A has the option of having to now play Jon as having died and woken up as a mindslaved borg, or not at all. Long story short; if you want death to be more meaningful, find someone to play 'more meaningful death scenarios' with you, or try playing Chaplain and holding ceremonies for the unrecoverable and consoling their close friends. Another note; there's already a tenuous 'semi-canon' link from round to round, where you can remember meeting people and having good times together, but you can't remember any antag activity or any 'negative consequence'. Making death more permanent would make that even more tenuous because Jon has died horribly every round for the last ten rounds, and every round Jane has to go into a spiral of drama and despair over her friends death. At least with cloning there can be an unspoken secret that can explain why perpetually dead characters return, shift after shift.