K0NFL1QT

A scan of my forum posting will reveal a majority presence in the 'suggestion and ideas' forum that, I think, counts for constructive criticism most of the time. I'm also one of the first to thank Nanako for their work when they fix a thing or introduce a new feature, and I rarely see the others in game, so it's not accurate to say I'm being disrespectful of the coding team. I applaud their work; there are always more bugs and there would be no server without the work of the coding staff. The last thing I remember you implementing on the in game side was that neat surgery table, which if I remember correctly I tested and gave feedback on before it was nuked in the codeswap. I've come and gone since then, but I've also offered feedback on the 'new map' as often as it's been shown during development. That said, I've seen little benefit to the code overhaul six months ago that's broken so many things, such as two of my favorite roles and the only whitelisted race I've ever chosen to pursue (to explain why I spend most rounds as a ghost). Last I checked, it's not forbidden in the rules to have an opinion and express it, and I'm not even using offensive language. I just don't think in game is the place for long winded extrapolations due to the rate of screen scrolling, so I will sometimes express myself in short quips that are intended to be lighthearted. For a time I was even using the github to report problems directly, and I don't think any of the issues I pointed out months ago have been remedied yet so you'll excuse the cynicism. Cynical and sarcastic I may be, but searching the rules finds zero matches for 'disruptive opinions', or even just 'disruptive' as a matter of fact; it's not actually mentioned in the rules as something worth taking administrative action over. And unless I'm mistaken, you chose to remove yourself from matters of administration irregardless. Nobody else is getting aggressive with me over throwaway comments celebrating inevitable code flaws, and I think I understand why. Unless I misremember, wasn't the code revert your idea? It would explain why you get so defensive over the consequences.

BYOND Key: K0NFL1QT Staff BYOND Key: Skull132 Reason for complaint: Aggressive manner directed at me personally for critiquing the state of the code. Evidence/logs/etc: Additional remarks: Skull's grown increasingly hostile towards me in the past few weeks, and now I'm being threatened with a ban for something that's not against the rules; having an opinion.

Just recently got ported to Steam, and anyone who bought it from the developers website can get a steam key emailed to them so that the game and all future updates are managed by the Steam service. I know some of you have it, and are playing it. What do you think? Feel free to share tips or stories, and recommend mods. Haven't touched it for a few months myself but I'll be starting a fresh game once my mods are sorted. First mod recommendation is the practically essential 'Prepare Carefully'. It's apparently been updated to 0.14, but it's not on the Workshop. Simply put, it gives you more control over your starting batch of colonists so you can get off to a comfortable beginning without hours of random re-rolling. You can customize appearances, set traits, set backgrounds and skills. I started a game with it last night and had no game breaking issues. https://github.com/edbmods/EdBPrepareCarefully/releases/tag/v0.14.0.2 I also highly recommend 'Expanded Prosthetics and Organ Engineering'. It introduces cool new research features, lets you grow synthetic organs for implantation as well as a heap of cool bionics, with stat bonuses. This is for people and not animals though, so no cyberdogs with this one. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=725956940 This one is also promising; it supposedly lets you reconfigure some of the colonists who join you. I haven't gotten to testing it yet though. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=727626696

I've no need to follow up with a complaint; I actually appreciate feedback. The thing that irked me was that you saw fit to begin Admin PMs over something I said, while the situation was still being played out. I don't remember the exact phrase but it was tantamount to 'I'll go prepare for the worst and if shit happens then we have medical' while the BBI guys tried their angle, and that apparantly triggered you to message me. But because I was talking to you after that I essentially had to completely remove myself from the scene as it developed just to respond to you properly. I don't mind being criticized, but it was a complete interruption over one uttered phrase in a scene I was basically overseeing from the rear. It's not like I was on an assistant killing spree and needed to be immediately stopped. It was a whisper. And seeing as it wasn't an actual infraction of rules but rather a 'bad roleplay critique', such points can be better made on forums anyway.

Informative and thoughtful. But long story short; if you're dumb about where and when you take hostages, expect Security to try and shut you down when they get an opening. I'll admit I was the one who triggered Skull to go on his rant, and you pretty much identified the cause of that behavior; disillusion with hostage takers that don't play ball and expect to get away scot free when they're neck deep in an enclosed area, surrounded by Security personnel, and in clear violation of several regulations that Security are there to enforce. You can stand there and talk to the hostage taker until you're both blue in the face, most of the time they do not willingly relinquish their hostage peacefully and surrender to lawful authority, and they expect that taking a hostage gives them all the power in the 'Verse to make demands and expect no resistance. But like running at a brick wall, you stop trying so hard when it feels like you're not getting through. The situation that prompted Skull to tip over the edge was given well over ten minutes to develop before anyone made an openly aggressive move to end it, so it's not like 'rush the guy' even was the first plan. On the Security side, I dislike the attitude that yielding to demands is preferable to shutting down the situation entirely, but I know that's the tactic of, say, jewelers and banks. They tend to not resist in any way during the robbery, but they have heavy insurance policies and massive profits that casual robberies barely scratch, so the loss is acceptable. But paying off every merc who puts a gun in a civvies face gives off the impression that NT is an easy target. And, personally, I just dislike deception; faking co-operation just to set up an opportune backstab is definitely a cunning way to try and protect assets and minimize costs; I just find it distasteful, and play that out as a character preference. The strategy of deception comes with a different set of risks to the well timed assault rush, but is in no way guaranteed to minimize losses. I can think of examples where 'playing along' introduces more risk and cost; yielding an aggressors isolation and risking further crew harm, increasing chance of aggressors escape, potential loss of ransom funds, or pure dishonorable spite wherein a hostage taker is given a chance to flee but still kills their hostage first. Even when you have a gun to a civilians head, the legitimate power and the authority to use it still rests in the hands of Security, aswell as responsibility for outcomes. Would it be nice if things could more often be resolved without assaults? Yes. Will Sec players still take the opportunity to end a hostage situation with force if the aggressor gives them an opening? Yes, they will; because it may be risky, but a swift resolution can often result in minimal losses if pulled off right. More non-violent resolutions requires co-operation from antag players too though, requiring them to let go of their expectation of being super slick badasses that get away with everything. Either Security or the antag has to yield for a peaceful resolution; in my mind, it should fall to the antag to submit more often than for Security to completely fail at their jobs. 'Release the hostage and we'll let you walk away' is a tactic that sometimes gets played, and rarely accepted by antags. The times that Security do fail their jobs should stand out as examples of a well played antag who planned and made preparations, rather than hastily taking the first person they see at gunpoint, or taking a hostage as an act of desperation, and expecting it to go off without a hitch. The hostage taking we see is usually the latter type, acts of desperation by an aggressor with rapidly diminishing options and an unwillingness to yield, which usually forces a conflict to resolve. Which, as you pointed out, makes both parties less willing to try and play it out without confrontation in future. I swear this 'hostages' thread comes up every couple of months.

Taunting nukies with looted headsets is just stupid. You put it on and say nothing, and you listen to their plans. Unless they're Vox, in which case you get only squawking.

Sorry, Skull already has his own vision for things to do with Genetics. Unfortunately what he's done so far is add in interesting things, and then take all his interesting addons and put them into a Biologist role in Medical, leaving Genetics as is but as a part of Science. This is what is coming with the new map, if it ever finally drops. For the Geneticists who still choose to radiate monkeys; I would love non-randomised blocks, but I don't imagine that's going to be popular because certain shitters inevitably ruin it. I would also love a cleaner method for mutating characteristics such as skin color, hair color, hair, etc. You can do all that as is, but it's just the same 'radiate blocks until value X' as it is for powers. I'll drop in a quote from an absolutely stellar dude;

I'm not in favor of both crew-based antagonists having preset access to every channel on the station. These channels are encrypted. That shit takes time and specialist technical knowledge to break, and it's just given away as a handwave. I like the idea of them having to earn it, or decide whether to proceed without it. This might be an acceptable compromise. Except it would lead to the return of the dreaded 'unreachable bigmouth' nuke op, who just does nothing but troll the station over comms and move the ship if crew get near.

True. Nukies and pirates are another matter entirely. They are precisely the sort to trick out guns to their preference. But I wouldn't want to go ahead with this just to buff antagonists.

I liked that chloral was near instantaneous knockout. I used to use it to make actual 5u tranquilizer darts in case people started getting violent in medbay. Tranq them. Deal with it. But that's me, and I was always careful about dosing and only using it on violent/unstable patients/intruders.

As much as I would love a modular weaponeering system, it doesn't make sense in the setting. This is a corporate mining/research facility, with standardised, corporate security. This isn't the sort of environment that encourages custom weaponry. The station is assigned X units of model Y gun, and it goes onto a rack until it's needed.

Oh, newbies. You're so cute. That's not how Aurora works at all.

I'm wondering how they 'removed it from the material realm', and why Nar'Sie wants a 'Make Adhomai Great Again' hat. It's tajaran sized, Nar'Sie. It won't fit your marvelously aberrant head.

You almost said it's okay for Unathi to act against standard procedure and corporate regulations there, Skull. Are they known for being tough and aggressive? Yes, hence they make good Security. Same as Klingons. But likewise, if they can't keep their shit in check, then they are no good and only serve to damage the reputation of the Security force, and Nanotrasen by extension for supporting them. Nuanced characters? Yes, please. Characters being considered above the laws that everyone else is bound to, just because of their race? No, hell no, and no thank you.

Why even have a permabrig if you're all so concerned that antags can't easily break out of it? Why not put disposal bins in all the cells, too? Why have Security at all?

Alternative solution; disconnect it from the waste loop and have it fire crap straight out into space.

Because these people are chosen specifically by Nanotrasen to run an entire department of their employees, with access to multiple means of causing havoc, death, destruction or simple espionage and corporate losses for Nanotrasen. It makes no IC sense for them not to be implanted. OOCly, it's too easy for antagged heads to do as they please without legal recourse and it forces non-antags to obey antag orders. Should heads still be able to antag? Yes, sure, but it should be difficult and not a round-start default considering the lynchpin they perform in regular operations.

Implant all heads of staff.

As much as I would like to +1 Overseer; it won't make any difference. Forensic Technicians are always called Detectives. Maintenance Technicans are always called Engineers. Surgeons are just Doctors, etc. Overseers will just be called Captains.

I completely understand your insistence on potential intelligence leveling out, if all species possessed a skrell-like culture that reveres knowledge, self improvement and contributions to the civilized whole, as well as the vast resource investment and enhancement implants. That's a given, but that's not what I'm asking for. The races are not culturally identical and this will be reflected in the scores. Yes, it is obviously unfair, but it's a foundation to work from. If Nanotrasen bungied testers onto every homeworld and tested 100,000 people at random, what would the tests reflect? No 'levelling the playing field' to forcefully equalize the scores of those at an advantage with those at a disadvantage. The cultural and technical advantages will be noted as playing a huge factor in the results. Assume genetic variance averages out over the sample size, with about as many specimens testing as exceptionally smart/dumb. General average of a race, as is. Once we have a general figure, we can start breaking it down into a more thorough analysis to accommodate additional factors, breaking down each race on their merits and measuring them against their nearest culturally similar competitors. We can compare the tajaran breeds against each other, testing the unathi males and females separately (because approximately half a population being unable to read and write will catastrophically tank the results of random testing for the average scores of an average unathi male). Additionally, you can make a test that has no words for the unathi females; just because they don't have the learned behavior of reading, does not mean that they are lacking in intelligence outside of the fact that they are and have been locked out of intellectual engagement by their culture. When you read my post, keep replaying the words 'average' and 'general' in your head. There are exceptional examples, good and bad, and it will be obviously, massively unfair in the skrellians favor. This isn't about shaping the perceptions of any such individual character of any race as it is understanding the faceless whole and how they measure against each other in the most broad and obvious comparison.

Yeah, we're gonna need the invite code to join your secret chat club.

As far as I am aware, it is at least partially genetic. Not totally, but significantly. A lot of intelligence is also determined by culture and environment, considered as deleterious effects that can be mitigated to give the illusion of a civilization conducive to high intelligence, when really they've just minimized practices that stunt intelligence growth. Outright dismissing any genetic influence in intelligence is just plain counter to scientific evidence at this point, Jacky-Oh. I wasn't asking you to quantify the races by all the ideals listed, only raw intelligence. Presume tests have been conducted and refined over the years to minimize cultural bias. Intelligence isn't always being right, or virtuous, it's just a marker for general reasoning. I can argue it in the reverse; they set up their society and institutions to reflect and focus their inherent strengths. Or, rather, inherent strengths being amplified by certain institutions caused them to be considered successful over institutions set up to utilise traits that haven't been selected for over the history of the Chinese genetic background. Again, not to say that raw intelligence is , or that the most intelligent make the best artists, musicians, or hole diggers, nor the most honest and virtuous people. Separate out all these extra characteristics that you're throwing out; I want estimates of pure reasoning and intelligence, in easily comparable number form. A skrell, human, tajaran and unathi all perform equally? Despite the influence of their separate cultures over generations? For example; Unathi. Their women are, generally, forbidden to even learn to read and write. Half the species being functionally retarded has no effect on the general intelligence of the race over many generations? The Tajaran Zhan-Khazan are noted as being 'low intelligence', while the Hharar and Njarir are quoted as being equally intelligent as humans, or greater, with punishments for cross-racial sex. Similar to real life Jews, I imagine, who, over the history of humanity, have selectively bred one of, if not the most intelligent subsets of human. I believe historical inbreeding was a problem noted in the Taj lore aswell, which is known to reduce IQ.

NEW MAP FEEDBACK: So far, so good. I'm looking forward to the playtest stages. AI core's looking very nice, but we'll see how it affects the game balance in practice. I very much like that xenobiology is relegated to 'outpost' status on the research sub-level. Medical seems nicely laid out, though personally I'd swap the sleepers and scanners, that way emergency treatments are moved further in and there isn't a cross flow of traffic for patients who require emergency sleeper treatment and those who need a full diagnostic scan. Is it intentional to be missing any sort of recovery area? Would it be possible for the cloning room to have its own dedicated cryo chamber, so you don't have to drag naked clones through general medical, and then ferry their gear around too? I can't see genetics anywhere yet. Fowl said it was back, but different. What we've been shown of the brig looks okay, in that it seems largely centered around the Wardens visibility of the cells and communal. You might want to put the riot gas system somewhere a little more secure than 'openly accessible in the main corridor', though. It's not fun when officers without atmos experience gas the whole brig. Probably put it in the Wardens office itself, but I can see it's a cramped room, so maybe consider expanding the warden office up to that grassy area and absorbing the whole gas connector area. Overall, two thumbs up. Now show me Engineering.

The Skrell are widely considered to be the smartest of all the known races. But what order do the rest of them fall in? Is it an area that's been studied, with published findings that can be plausibly pointed to by any scientifically minded character? Exceptionally dumb/smart examples aside, what is considered to be the average IQ, or equivalent, for the races?

Try turning up to your daily workplace in a balaclava and see how that goes. Security would be tile-stomping you before you could get past Customs.