kyres1

With all that said, I'll go ahead and remove the security restrictions on heavy frames. After all, we'd need them to see how the balancing pans out to begin with.

IPC Mechanic Rework AKA “duhhh IPC man bad” the rework This is pretty simple. One of the prime complaints about IPCs is how unga bunga robust they are. This is fine considering they’re literally robots, but there must be some sort of counterplay beyond stupid instant kills (EMPs) or rarely(?) accessible laser weaponry. Also they’re glitchy, nonsensical and don’t play into the gameplay flow at all. They will be split into four variants based on chassis : Shell, Light, Baseline, and Heavy-Duty. This is also partly an announcement that bioshells are now on the horizon, as explained on Cake’s post here a while back - https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/9719-biosynthetic-shells/ These will tie into the IPC rework mechanics heavily and the framework for both will hopefully make coding them easier for the people in charge of it. Starting with changes to apply to every single IPC frame… In general IPCs have a base of 200 coolant. They bleed coolant from each wound depending on severity, and vent coolant passively at varying rates depending on chassis. Once out of coolant and under stress (wearing armor, running, or in hazardous atmosphere) they begin to overheat and promptly burn to death if they don’t fix it. IPCs will now have damage thresholds across the board where any damage less than the threshold is ignored entirely. These will be extremely low and just prevent vendors from perpetually giving you a red border around your screen by hitting you with a bag of chips. IPCs will retain their vulnerability to lasers across the board. This is mostly because their new weak points are entirely immune to lasers, as lasers do not deal organ damage or break bones. Energy weapons should remain viable. IPCs will have much more pronounced weak points in the limbs, lower body and head for various purposes. Namely easy disabling. HKs will not be affected by shrapnel. This originally said all IPCs, whoops. IPCs will be able to bleed coolant, removing their ability to wear heavy things such as armor or to survive in higher stress environments when they run out. They will very slowly vent coolant over time, with certain frames venting much faster. Positronics will now be able to die without being deleted or cremated. Nanopaste is massively nerfed, antags get a buffed version though. Robotics gets more stuff to do. IPCs will universally gain abilities relating to their new statistics and organs. IPCs will be greyscaled across the board so their sprites are all compatible and colorable. IPCs will get two abilities permitting them to control their coolant, such as a coolant vent and an emergency backup depending on frames. On robotics/R&D and nanopaste Nanopaste will no longer be available to R&D in its current state. In its place, there will be one or two usage nanopaste tubes (rather than the original ten usage) that consumes the same storage space as the original (which is “Normal sized”). Furthermore, antagonists IPCs will gain access to combat nanopaste, which operates fundamentally the same with 10 uses and is a small sized item. It should also fit in combat belts, so that it is spawnable with Hunter-Killer combat androids. The combat nanopaste must have a high TC cost (roughly anything 8 or above) to counteract spam. Robotics will now print two separate things : Prosthetics, and operating servos. The servos will serve as the functioning component while prosthesis functions as the frame. This will apply to both prosthesis on organics and IPC limbs alike. Robotics and chemistry will now be able to fabricate synthetic coolant with a mixture of X, Y and Z. (undecided) Robotics will be able to print all non vital IPC organs. On EMPs IPCs will now be temporarily blinded by EMPs across the board (Certain frames will be stunned.) HKs will be blinded as well. Prosthetics from the individual IPC frames still carry over their respective frame's properties, such as resists. They are EMP resistant as well. IPCs will take no major damage from EMPs except to the optics, which will take 2 damage from weak EMPs and 5 from strong EMPs. Their health cap is 30, for reference, and they go blind at like 15 if it operates like normal eyes. On Atmospheric Cooling All IPCs will operate off of air cooling to a sufficient degree to wear clothing and operate nominally in temperatures comfortable for Humans. Air cooling for all chassis is insufficient to survive vacuum, making liquid coolant a requirement for EVA without a suit cooler. On limbs/bodyparts IPCs will be able to choose their upper/lower body from a modular list, with three frames available and all branded bodyparts still available from these frames. These frames are as follows, with their respective parts : Light - Bishop, Zeng-Hu. Baseline - Baseline, Xion, Unbranded. Heavy duty - G1 industrial, G2 industrial. Military-grade - Hunter-Killer. IPCs can choose from any head or limbs they desire on any frame they desire. Depending on frame, speed and resistances will change. These are detailed at the bottom of the document. Only changes to the upper body alter coolant. The upper body and lower body can not be from separate frames. For example, a Zeng-Hu upper body will always have a Zeng-Hu lower body. This is to avoid annoying organ pedantics. On varying head sprites IPCs will now be able to customize their head sprite. On upgrades IPCs will have upgrades available from robotics working alongside R&D. These are more quality of life than anything, hopefully, and are mostly still in the works. These upgrades will need to be applied by trained roboticists and will not field any outright buffs. On organs IPCs will receive new organs. These are as follows - Liquid Coolant Pump - A pump manifold which acts like the heart of the IPC. Pumps liquid coolant throughout the entire chassis to permit survival of higher stress environments. Located in the upper body. In mechanics - Greatly increases cooling threshold of IPCs when supplied with liquid coolant. After a heat threshold is surpassed, the Liquid Coolant Pump will activate and begin depleting the IPC’s internal supply of coolant. Upon breaking, instant death follows. All IPCs have different coolant capacities, detailed further below. In summary - A protected organ, being in the upper body. Permits some time EVA, with massive variation between chassis. If broken, the IPC dies because lol coolant leak. Lubricant Pump - A pump manifold which sustains a light flow of lubricant to the complex inner workings of IPCs, permitting operations for hours at a time so long as it is not damaged. Located in the lower body. In mechanics - When damaged in excess of ten points of brute damage, causes random limb organs to slowly take damage at one brute per tile moved randomly. When damaged in excess of twenty points of brute damage, causes random limb organs to take damage at five brute per tile moved randomly. In summary - A weak point, basically. Once it’s damaged it will make bringing down IPCs much easier as they will begin to take damage to their real weak spots - limbs. This acts like shrapnel, but affects limbs randomly. Limb servos - The biggest weak point of IPCs. An organ found in the arms and legs (not feet/hands) that controls the limb itself. Found in prosthetics for organs as well. Must be installed in prosthetics separate from their original frame. In mechanics - When destroyed, removes all functionality in that limb until it is replaced or mended with nanopaste. When one leg is destroyed, the IPC remains upright but slowed to ridiculously slow speeds. When the other is destroyed, the IPC physically can not stand without hardsuit assistance. Different servos permit different statistics, detailed further below. Leg servos take damage when stamina is exhausted. When destroyed, servos should play specific sound file (quite a loud one) to let players know something broke, like bone snapping but metallic. All limb servos have 30HP. Limb servos begin to take damage after limb damage has exceeded 30. In summary - The new way to destroy IPCs! Requires planning and forethought beyond “Do you have Ion? If not, die” and provides all sorts of interesting new scenarios. Furthermore, most any armor piercing round should be enough to disable a limb in two or three shots permanently and bring the IPC to a halt. Self-diagnostic system - The biggest buff of the rework, probably. Grants an ability that allows IPCs to diagnose the health and status of all of their internal systems, similar to borg self diagnostics. Located in the head. Simply breaks after taking 10 damage and needs replacement. In mechanics - It’s just a borg self-diagnostic tool, but for IPCs. In summary - A shameless buff that players have wanted for quite a while. A variant not reliant on an organ exists already. Power gauge and central control - An annoyance which controls power output across the entire body. When damaged, confuses the IPC’s chassis and forces them to stumble like a drunk. Found in the head. In mechanics - When damaged in excess of ten points, begins confusion. The IPC will need to use an ability to recalibrate its sensors to retain normal locomotion, and will lose normal movement at a random point within the next twenty seconds. While calibrating, the IPC must stand still. Calibration takes 5 seconds. In summary - Another way to slow down or incapacitate IPCs, this time mostly temporary. Moving on to specific frames... On Baseline Frames - Baseline/Xion Brute resist (upper body) - 0.7 Brute resist (all others) - 0.9 Burn resist (all) - 1.3 Coolant vent rate - 0.30/sec(roughly 10 minutes of sustained stress) Slowdown: Unaffected. Sprint multiplier : Unaffected. Heat : Unaffected. Stunned+blinded by EMPs. In summary - Basically no difference from baselines. A large buff to EVA lifetime, but not much else beyond upper body brute mod. Whether the other nerfs are enough to level this out will need to be seen in practice, honestly. On Light Frames - Bishop/Zeng-Hu Brute resist (upper body) - 1.1 Brute resist (all others) - 1.5 Burn resist (all) - 1.6 Coolant vent rate - 2.40/sec(roughly 60 seconds of sustained stress) Slowdown: -1.2 Sprint multiplier : Unaffected. Heat : Massively increased. Stunned+blinded by EMPs. Can not wear normal voidsuits. Must wear hardsuits with mounted coolers to survive EVA. In summary - Discount M’sai. Gets very little EVA lifetime if at all. Takes huge brute and burn, and has extremely fragile legs. One or two firm toolbox whacks renders them immobile, essentially. On Heavy-duty Frames - G1/G2 Brute resist (upper body) - 0.4 Brute resist (all others) - 0.6 Burn resist (all) - 0.8 Coolant vent rate - No coolant vented passively. Slowdown: Unaffected. Sprint multiplier : Removed. They can not sprint. Heat : Massively decreased. Blinded by EMPs. Can slot coolers onto back. In summary - Stupid resists across the board with the same slower-than-Diona speed. High threshold for heat. It’s basically an all-around buff, making this change very, very questionable with the polarized opinions on industrials. To me (kyres), industrials are in a sad state right now, with much of anything outside of boring resistances to show for exactly how big, sturdy and slow they are. Outside of mechanics Heavy-duty frames will be restricted from roles in security as well as the Head of Security role. Light frames and baseline frames will be able to utilize all roles available to baseline frames before. The above will be retracted after some brief feedback. Bioshells are on the horizon, and with them a shell rework. More on that soon. The PR The WIP PR for these changes are below. It is currently being worked on by @DRagO, bless their soul. https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/6296 The concerns The concerns with this are generally focused around how we’re attempting to balance what is effectively the hardest thing to balance in the game. When confronted with a robot in combat, there must be some counterplay. While I’m certain this suggestion offers plentiful counterplay in practice, there’s always going to be the concern that we’re leaning into them becoming overpowered or (doubtfully) underpowered. Some of the frames themselves, specifically industrial frames, are receiving what is essentially outright buffs, while others are just becoming more true to their intent (like the mobility frames being faster, or the baseline frames being a jack of all trades.) If these concerns are echoed by the community, the first solution is to always conform to the feedback first, but know that much of what is seen here will need to be tested and seen in-game before we can pin down the issues with it. The benefits The benefits, mechanically, are hopefully a more true-to-lore depiction of IPCs ingame and a less infuriating experience for everyone involved. No longer do you need the magic blue gun to instantly kill an IPC, nor do you have to work around the magic blue gun as a synthetic character. At the same time, the required equipment for taking on a robot has essentially become anything heavy as long as you hit the limbs, or anything sharp as long as you make them bleed. Encounters are no longer governed by an instant-kill device that decimates the opposition of whoever has it. With the new organs, more utility such as chassis upgrades and upgraded organs can be explored. More stuff for research to do, more stuff for IPCs to look forward to. On top of all this, we’re cutting away three (and maybe four, depending) unnecessary subspecies, freeing up space for others to be explored. In closing, I hope this is all satisfactory, genuinely, and I'm looking forward to how you guys see it.

Hardly a nerf to give them the equipped variant of the hardsuit. It has a combat injector, laser cannon, military actuators, maneuvering jets, a grenade launcher, thermals and probably more.

I'm a big fan of this application. It's by no means level-headed, and is completely nuts. It's straight out of a space opera and it fits in nicely with the current depiction of synthetics as they are. There are a few things I'd like to cover and clarify with you first, though. For one, while it's cool to be a cult-town sort of deal, this really can't be that small in our lore if it's to be referenced on the wiki. And with that said, I really want it to be on the wiki. How do you feel about increasing the scale of the Trinary Perfection - not to anything ridiculous, but to some degree to permit any relevance on the galactic stage? I have a question as well. What is the ideal utopia to a member of the Trinary Perfection? Do they intend to fully make way for synthetics in the end, sacrificing themselves, or coexist with them peacefully in their state of "godhood" you mentioned?

After letting the feedback come around, it's time to process this. I will be honest and say that the majority of the roleplay I've seen from John Normandy is lackluster, leaning on the blatant power gaming side of things. Your application is mechanically driven, focusing on some of the least important aspects of IPCs themselves (those being the gameplay differentiations) and I see little difference from what originally got your whitelist stripped in the first place in your behavior. I don't feel confident in accepting this application with all that said. Application denied.

I will be honest and say I have rarely (if ever) seen the raider's stealth suit or the merc's crimson suit contribute much positively to any given round. They are both extremely powerful assets, with crimson suit resists going through the ceiling with some basic equipment already installed, and the stealth suit being unbeatable in the hands of someone remotely robust. In both cases, these pose things that at round start are frequently rushed by specific players for no other purpose than to be given a superior kit over their teammates. Whether or not this is out of mistrust for their teammates or what is irrelevant - it's rushed every, single, time, without delay. The amount of times you will see a stealth suited raider as the sole survivor in a heist round worries me, as their teammates are nowheres near as equipped (being given standard voidsuits or unequipped hardsuits in place of the stealth suit) and left in the dust if they weren't fortunate enough to grab it first. The suggestion here is to solve this with the following - Remove the crimson hardsuit from merc suit storage. Instead, 65 TC could buy someone a fully equipped crimson hardsuit with the commando loadout, which includes some pretty snazzy (and very powerful, worthwhile) stuff. In merc rounds, this means the team would have to actually discuss who obtains the powerful asset and why, instead of it ending up in the hands of whoever ran to it first. The specific price would prevent two from being purchased and take TC from everybody, instead of leaving 2 people's uplinks untouched if one decides to have their buddy be given the hardsuit. Replace the stealth suit with an equipped hazard RIG, and replace the present RIGs in the raider ship with their equipped variants. This means the mining RIG would have an inbuilt drill/maneuvering jets (i think?) and an additional equipped RIG should be added as well to help compensate. In this case, I suggest using the EVA RIG, as its sprites are already present and it has an equipped variant that isn't too strong. If I recall correctly the equipped hazard RIG comes with a taser and a utility grenade launcher loaded with flashbangs and smokebombs.

Hi. Sorry for the wait, but there's been a lot of weird scheduling stuff going on recently and while I've had time I haven't been able to get around to this. I do like the inspiration you chose as the reason that you would apply for IPCs. Unfortunately, there's a lot of mismatched dates and a lot of weird stuff going on in regards to the Sidirourgeío. Here, it says that POINT came from the Sidirourgeio, when on the wiki page - The station itself wasn't operable until eleven years after it supposedly came from it? There's no mismatch here - TC-V is explicitly noted here, so it can't be the Amoni you're referring to. Am I misinterpreting, or was the term "laid down" just seen wrong? Regardless, it's a minor gripe. My more important criticism is that, while you noted the backstory to be cookie-cutter, it does seem to be just that. There's very little substance here besides "Bot come here, bot go there, bot end up here." It's long and notes most events of importance, yes, but has a major thing I should point out. "Hired?" Are they owned, or free, and if they are free, when and how did they obtain freedom? The way to freedom is often the most pivotal part of some IPC's backstories. Was it something to disregard here purposefully, or something forgotten in writing? Clear this stuff up and I'll see the app processed soon.

A tad late, but I got to it. While I haven't personally ever seen your cyborgs in-game (probably due to timezones), I'm willing to bet you'll do just fine based off of how much effort you put into the app itself. Application accepted.

ya sure

I'll go ahead and respond to this tonight. Though it's been a few days, you should still probably try to gather feedback for your application if you're on before then.

After some discussion with the loremaster/their deputy, we've decided to decline this application. Thank you for applying.

Please no. Security has ions, all antagonists have EMPs except rev, vamp and ling (and can spam them even more than security feasibly can) which instantaneously kill mechs and/or their pilot. There's also the fact that they aren't really even all that tough against conventional weapons without armor boosters. With armor boosters, it's a different story, but they take valuable slots. Mechs are powerful. They are meant to be powerful round-ending devices. They should be moderated more. Just because you can make 12 Durands does not mean you should, just as you shouldn't wield the power of God via chemistry because you could. I'd say nerf RIGs instead, but they recently got a major nerf where proper hardsuits can not equip every single module in the game, preventing your combat-suited security officer from holding basically an army's worth of equipment on their back without even taking up either of their hands. Alberyk has a PR up to increase their material cost as well if I recall correctly. Half-competent mining can also get you equipped with even more potent weapons than mechs for that matter. See : station-wide EMPs and instant kill accelerators/tesla cannons. With all that said, at least make them immune to EMPs if you're going to make them so ludicrously difficult to obtain.

A short application that is quick and to the point. I'm glad to see you're delving into your strong point once more, with making a pure robot as mentioned in the last bit. The application itself, though solid, would normally be something I would ask for a revision on, but considering the absolutely fantastic state of your synthetic roleplay as it stands, I'm very willing to accept it now. I look forward to seeing how you handle having hands. Application accepted.

yeah they look like this though

A simple resprite of space bears and hivebots. Hivebots look much less visually intimidating and more fitting with our sprite scheme now, and the beacon is no longer a moving dome. The space bear looks more like an alien you'd expect to see in an asteroid than a cartoon bear.

Hi! Synthetic lore deputy applications are now open. Two slots are now available. In the exact same manner as the previous synth loredev format, In addition to the lore developer application format, please provide an original written work on any subject of synthetic lore, such as proposed lore, an essay or a few paragraphs discussing themes and ideas for synthetic lore, possibly even criticisms. Unlike previous applications, on-server activity will be more weighted more highly this time. Applicants who we feel should be playing more will not be accepted on any conditional offers of "improve your playtime."

The time for the introduction event, which will come directly before implementation, is being juggled back and forth right now. We're having trouble getting a date settled but the final date will probably be announced a day beforehand. Most likely no further than next week.

This is a tricky question and one that I'll answer by going over that of a bound synthetic, an owned IPC and a free IPC. For a bound synthetic, what can be considered "daily life" may as well have no standard. Seen as nothing more than a very expensive tool to basically everybody, you can safely assume they'd be subject to everything including their own chassis' destruction on a daily basis. There are simply too many bound synthetics in the universe to pin down a universal daily routine for them. In the current state of lore, it is difficult to pin down what exactly a bound IPC logically does on a day-to-day basis. Nominally though, I'd say that younger IPCs are less prone to "deviant" thoughts, particularly ones of freedom, and thus lack any major drive outside of work they were designed to do. They are activated from storage, utilize their knowledge and physical traits to the best of their ability to complete their daily goals, and enter storage once more. Over time, this efficiency would be bogged down or perhaps enhanced by an expanding and learning positronic. Their daily routine can expand as this does. With all that said, an eight year old owned IPC could have an immensely complex routine. You're activated from storage for the work you're designated to do, greet what you can consider to be friends, spark conversation and develop intricate relationships. The now-learned positronic can seek all sorts of things to do in downtime, even form hobbies. For free IPCs, the sky's the limit. Honestly. Though, the majority of free IPCs most likely struggle with little pay to support their complex needs for maintenance and power. In this majority, you can see little of their routine changing from an owned IPC - with the exception of actually being maintained for free. Free IPCs with a unique routine are most likely to be wealthier because of this, generally in independent businesses or in higher-ranking positions in the Republic. Those are as rare as you'd expect, obviously, with Renter Max and Aristalus being the only real representation for the higher-up IPCs we have in lore. On the IPC lore page, it's noted that a free IPC's life is risky as hell. "For the more wealthy of the IPCs, generally the much older frames, daily life is mostly safe. They can be seen in more secure and studied communities, where they predictably would not be sold for scrap by whatever shady technician gets their hands on them. The number of IPCs who have the financial ability to live such a life are few and far between." These wealthier IPCs could have a life easily comparable to an organic's, working and returning to home at reasonable times to carry out whatever they desire. Depending on the frame, there could be long recharge times or hardly any recharging at all. There could be no routine whatsoever - with no concept of a sleep cycle or any care for day/night, a robot's sense of time and schedule could seem like an absolute mess to the Human eye. In short, a free IPC's schedule is most likely work, work and more work to survive. A wealthy free IPC's schedule is chaotic and seemingly nonsensical. Alienation is the biggest running theme present with them at any given point. They're robots, and while most struggle to do so, there's a unified effort among IPC players to seek out playing the part. From day one discriminating them over this subject seemed to be the goal here, and while I surely want to move past discrimination being the focus of it, it will always remain in some way. With developing things like Purpose and the other synthetic societies, we basically took the most extravagant and crazy things and explained how a robot could do them. A good example of this is the Golden Deep. It's absolute nonsense to us, but to the robots, coating their ships in gold and looking as gaudy as possible is simply nature, and an extension of the logic of "looking good to prove a point." Playing out of the box is something I will always support, and the depiction of IPCs we have now is a tug of war to maintain consistency in the setting while permitting players to be as outlandish as they want.

The backstory is wonderfully written. It excellently places emphasis on the upbringing of the synthetic, it being the majority of the writing involved. Applying as an antagonist character is especially strange, seeing as they're crew and will routinely not roll antagonist. To stress the factor of them being an antagonist in this case seems pointless, even more so when you realize the backstory seems to have no bearing on this fact. Regardless, I do appreciate the effort, and your behavior in-game has made a huge turnaround for the better in recent time. Application accepted.

Ckey/BYOND Username: kyres1 Position Being Applied For: (Species Maintainer, Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Synthetic/IPC Species Maintainer Past Experiences/Knowledge: Basically being maintainer already for the last few months as deputy, and doing the majority of work for my time before that. Examples of Past Work: Basically handling every aspect of synthlore for the last several months, and handling all wiki work as well as whitelists on and off before that. Most if not all relevant artwork, design and concepts for the entirety of it are pinned on myself. All sprite work relevant was my own as well. To work through some bullet points as to what exactly I've done already ; 1. All self-contained synthetic arcs for the last year. 2. All sprite work for synthetic lore as well as some unholy amount of sprites for everyone else and plenty of things in-game. Including, but not limited to - https://imgur.com/a/XXAdWSG 3. All wiki art on synthetic lore pages barring the SIM logo and the IPC sprite on its page, and SUNSHINE's art. Plenty of art for other stuff, including hiveship art, all the Scarab ship art, etc. Including, but not limited to - https://imgur.com/a/fOhjhmZ 4. All event planning for the previously mentioned arcs, as well as plenty of noncanon event plans. This includes all twenty or so Purpose mini-events hosted by myself (even the laughably disappointing grand finale event). 5. Almost all the writing of the synthetic wiki pages. 6. Refactoring the IPC wiki page in its entirety (immediately after becoming deputy). 7. Having the entire Offworlder project lore and planning wise delegated to myself and Coalf, and others pitching in with minor stuff, which I am still organizing right now. 8. The Tau Ceti Foreign Legion sprite work, and most of the mechanic planning. On the required writing - I don't like beating around the bush. There is a lot of work to be done on synthetic lore, with it being at the forefront of everything. From the flopped arcs to the Frost nonsense, they have been a focal point of our lore and to this day stand represented as one of our most unique and versatile narrative pieces that the team can actually use. I love the developing state of IPCs and synthetics, as well as what it's becoming. So let me switch over to what I specifically am critical about, and how I want to change it for the better. Themes. Thematic consistency is very important, and it's something I have personally struggled to maintain to debatable success while remaining within the boundaries of our setting. In expanding our lore wildly in every which way, we've simultaneously created a muddled and confusing mess, and something unique and wonderful at the same time. What I intend to do with these bajillion conflicting themes is simple - harness what we have, and refine it. Our playground is plenty big enough for synthetics - it's time to sit down and play with what we have before making another big step in a new direction. The community. To put it bluntly, I believe lore developers first and foremost write for the community, not themselves. I have always been very attached to the community ever since I became a deputy, and I refuse to shut out pretty much anything from anybody as a result. This does include people who've repeatedly disagreed with me in the past. The idea that we can progress the lore for some people who we're deaf towards is just completely beyond me, to such an extent that I am shocked many people even remain on the team despite flagrantly remaining so. Content. Content, from what I've learned first-hand, should be interwoven into lore as it already exists. With that said, I am more than able to personally provide plentiful content in any way shape or form that fits my skillset. Not only that, but in excess - there's plenty of leftover concepts to be taken apart and integrated with what we already have to let it flourish even more. To be exact, there's over seventy documents laying around that I have relating to synthetic lore. The team. With the lore team itself, I look forward to much more team-wide projects akin to that of the Offworlders where not just myself and a couple deputies, but everyone pitches in. Even if just a little, the fulfillment from the cooperation of the entire team works wonders towards keeping us functional. It is pivotal to maintain cooperation - not necessarily total coordination (as that'd be a pain in the ass), but simply working with one another every now and then. I will personally seek out bettering said cooperation, basically. Arcs and on-station events. One of my most consistently positively received contributions has been the running of mini-events, be it canon or otherwise. Persistent, active lore developers who are capable of playing frequently are more than capable of running simple, persistent storylines that can run on for months at a time. Among my propositions for this was the addition of new guidelines and canon antagonists to be utilized in recurring station events that are logged in an out-of-character manner that permits even those uninvolved to have a basic grasp of what's happening on station at any given time. If I am unable to find a way to implement this with lore as a whole, I would definitely seek out a way to further synthetic lore with it. On a separate, but related subject are arcs and major events - of this, I don't believe there's much of anything major that synthetics should do for the time being for reasons already detailed above. This is obviously subject to change depending on circumstance, but there is little we should bring to the table until we've fixed what we have. Politics. I am of the understanding that the vast majority of the community simply does not give a damn about political mumbo jumbo. "Space opera politics" was something we intended to go for oh so many months ago and never did, instead returning to outrageous "realistic" political coverage spanning the major factions. This, coupled with the done-to-death civil rights confusion is something I strive to flee from in writing and development. More importantly, I consider politics to be my biggest weak point - if forced into it, I'd probably delegate it entirely to a deputy. On mistakes. Can't forget this part. In handling so much as a deputy for so long, I've screwed up quite a bit. There's a lot of stuff I personally messed up that I need to go back and fix, and presently lack the real authority to do so. Without a maintainer, I can not revert or commit to large changes in synthlore. It's not really that bad, but issues like IPC freedom (how complex it is) and the three magically disappearing synth factions is something I want to work on and fix. The game. The game itself is where everything takes place. Everything, to me, is secondary to that, and to say our platform isn't wonderful for role-play is a lie in my eyes. Bettering this platform, further deepening player freedom, and progressing a narrative they can interact and participate in first-hand is important above all else. Let's never forget we're an SS13 server. In conclusion, I just really like this server and want to do better for it. That's all.

nice

As requested of me like fifty bajillion years ago, I resprited the X-ray and laser rifles. Presently their ingame representation doesn't look like the object sprite. This suggestion fixes that. It also gives them wielded sprites, that most weapons have but these lack for some reason, despite literally being the most commonly seen firearm in the game. It does not change the object or back sprites. laser rifle resprite.dmi The DMI can be found above.