KingOfThePing

1.: I have mentioned here what I would want to work on first: All in all Tajara lore is in a healthy state. It is a species undoubtly extensive and rich in lore, yet I personally feel there is room to explore outside of Adhomai. D6 is the most popular option and I believe Hro'zamal and Gakaal'zal are both not as used as they could be. I believe, that giving places away from Adhomai distinctive culture it will also automatically make these places attractive alternatives to "born and raised on Adhomai". I have no concrete plans, because I don't know the current internal visions for these locations and it makes little sense to rack my brain about that until I know what direction the team wants to go. Why do I want to expand upon these places (and maybe even new ones)? First of all, I believe all three major adhomian factions are pretty good. For anyone who knows my characters also knows, that I was a vivid PRA player for a long time, over the past year I discovered the NKA for me. All factions give many angles to approach a character from, but I think it would be good to give players at least some way to define a character without these three major factions as the central piece of influence. This does not mean that they should not be considered at all, but I am certain, that characters, who developed outside of the major spheres of influence of PRA, DPRA or NKA have a place in lore, too. This also explains why I chose D6 as my exmaple piece for the application. Yes, D6 has recently recieved additions and I liked these a lot, but I felt like there is still room for improvement for possibly unaligned (for whatever reason) characters. What would I tackle if Alb said, that this is something that is not currently needed or wanted to be expanded? Then I would want to tackle traditional adhomian fashion instead. For all three factions. In fact, that is something that's being worked on right now anyway. New clothes for the loadout will come. Eventually. 2.: I would not use the term "heavily lacking", honestly. Not reaching the potential? The first thing that comes to mind is the Free Council. I dont know the plans for it, but I think expanding upon it is something that would make it more appealing for players. While present, many paragraphs on the wiki are rather short. There is definite room for expansion there. Other than that, I believe that actually Adhomai itself is still not reaching it's full potential. Compared to other cultures and species, Tajara have not been a space-faring culture for long. Adhomai often feels a bit mysterious and I think this is something that could be played with. Remote regions, abandoned religious sites, long forgotten places. Personally, I like the mystique and think it is absolutely something that can be played with. The North Pole expedition going on right now would be something I personally would try to utilize. These were the two things that came to mind immediately. tl;dr: Free Tajara Council could be expanded upon, Adhomai's mystique as a planet/pre-space Tajara culture could be utilized way more. 3,: This is a difficult question since I don't know the internal plans. For now, I believe the major existing tajaran exclaves/colonies are enough for now. "But Ping, didn't you say you want to expand upon inter-species interactions?" Yes, but it is a mistake to add too much, too fast. Before I would add any major exclaves, I would want to see Gakal'zaal expanded upon. Same with Hro'zamal. At max, I would maybe see something minor added, I had ideas for a PRA funded research station on a unspecified planet/scientific expedition into uncharted space. But this idea is in very early stages. Permanent exclaves are also not the only way to have species interactions. Interactions could also be more on the temporary side - be it space ships meeting, diplomats meeting or politicians doing what they can do best - talk. Tajara - Human interactions are interesting, since Tajara have been adapting human culture over the years. Fashion is a good example. I believe it is a great angle to bring in unusual influences into tajaran culture. That is also one reason I like Gakal'zaal a lot, since it expands towards Unathi culture. Though I wouldn't know right now if Tajara would adapt Unathi cultural aspects or vice versa. Who knows. What species would I want to see more with Tajara? Immediately to my mind came Diona. Adhomai by design is as hostile to Dionae as it can be, so I don't believe there is any interaction for Tajara with them, prior to leaving Adhomai. I believe there is potential, though. Maybe in an underground secret PRA lab to use Dionae for their advantage, however that may look like.....Dionae are a difficult species and interactions would be equally difficult to think about, but I believe it would be interesting. I have no concrete plans, though. Yet. Another one would be IPC.....the PRA has been using surplus solarian combat robots in the past and I believe at least the PRA/DPRA would be interested in IPCs, for both nefarious and non-nefarious reasons. But again, nothing concrete here. I am fully aware that these are difficult and ambitious plans. Even only writing about it is hard - because it involves another team and I, once again, don't know the internal thoughts about the whole topic. But no matter what, I believe even small interactions come with a great benefit.

While I was baffled, angry and seething at first (because that's just who I am), I have given it a read. I am honestly not surprised, that you have drawn inspiration, regarding sentence structure and the even the general gist, from Disco Elysium. It is a bit blatant, but we can let that slide, I think. It only enhances the application after all. I think you hit it on the spot, honestly. I considered something similar for my deputy app, but as Alb, I was also just too afraid to touch such a subject. I think for that alone you should be accepted.

To, 1.: Yes. I have also already answered this in my application, here: If your intent was to make me think about it again, then I have. And my answer has not changed. 2.: Change about the lore? I assume you mean as a form of re-write and/or retcon? Very simple - nothing. Not because Tajara lore (or any lore whatsoever) is flawless and finished, but because I despise retcons and/or major rewrites. Retcons are a plague, simple as that. I have a very hardliner stance on this and it is a hill I am willing to die on. Retcons are the lazy man's cop-out to deal with old and unfitting lore. They may sometimes be unavoidable, considering the fact that lore writers change over the year, yet they should be avoided at all costs. It does take considerable more amounts of efforts to write unwanted or maybe just straight up badly aged or written lore out of the current canon, but it is not impossible. It may take longer, it may take more effort, it may take more back and forth, but it is a definitve improvement to "X is not a thing anymore, period.". As I said - retcons can be unavoidable, because of timeline conflicts or something similar. But even "without any obstacles" I would not change anything about Tajara lore from one day to another. I will still give you an answer on what I would want to see expanded upon, if I had no obstacles at all. Culture, games, cuisine, arts, expressionism - anything related to social interactions, focus here on how the tajaran society currently evolves away from Adhomai, like District Six, Gakaal'zal and Hro'zamal. In my personal opinion these parts of lore define what species lore is about. It gives the species not only depth and complexity, but it also gives the players (you know, the people this is about) opportunites for inter- and extra-species interactions. This is, of course, supplemented by items in game, something I personally want to see expanded upon greatly, even with all the things we already have. 3.: I do not care if it directly "impacts" tajaran lore. All lore efforts, especially combined are good efforts. It is neither a race nor a contest here. 4.: Interspecies lore developments is something I believe has fallen flat for the longest time. Years back, species lore existed as islands, in my opinion. All floating next to each other, rarely visiting each other. It takes considerable more effort and planning to do anything involving more than one team, yet I believe it is a very important and I would even say integral part of the lore developments in general. The greater picture involves all species - and how they interact with each other. I believe there needs more opportunities, both good and opportunity for conflict as well. Gakaal'zal is an example I like - it is a good example of what I mean by species interactions. More directly, more "eye-on-eye".

On my birthday? You shouldn't have, oh my Wait this means I can't play-

Ckey/BYOND Username: KingOfThePing Position Being Applied For: (Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Tajara Lore Deputy Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes, I have read it well enough to know that there is a non-working link somewhere in it (I am not telling). Past Experiences/Knowledge: I won't mention the obvious, like (actually) playing tajaran characters on server, following the news articles and the lore discord. It goes without mention that, whenever somoene applies he is also following the developements of the species on the server. I have no experience in writing species lore (be it on SS13 or another game), I have experience writing in general, though. I am a vivid TTRPG player of a great variety of systems for over ten years now. This includes writing scenarios, settings, characters and partially even niche things as economy and cultural things for the campaigns I ran, co-hosted or participated in. But I have not only used writing to live out TTRPGs. I gathered more "serious" experience during my first bachelor's degree - from 2015-2019 I was one of the writers and editors for the internal university's news magazine, as well as the yearly released university report - basically a booklet that summarized all relevant events, news, achievements and relevant information of our faculties, all organized by the student's council. It was less creative writing and more news, sifting information and (internal) politics, but the magazine still included a creative segment, mostly about current events that were going on or have been going on. It was released bi-weekly. Anyway, I am far from perfect and I still have lots to learn - writing creatively in a team is something entirely different and is something I haven't done since 2019. So I am sure it will be a learning experience. Examples of Past Work: I have not written lore for the server yet, nor have I made a lore canonization app before. However, some of the artworks I made for the server are on the wiki. Most, if not all, have been made working together with the lore team. This is not a complete list, probably but all I can think of right now: NTCC Odin SCCV Horizon Enlist Today For The Kosmostrelki Al'Mari National Nuclear Power Plant No. 1 GHOSTS OF WAR I also made one of the in-server lobby title screens. More is also coming soon(tm). Anyway, I was told that for the purpose of the application I have to write something for Tajara lore. So I wrote about cats here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iHpbNKAkLnST38kQI1qg3uacwBjUKjOH69jYhZIbPzM/edit This was done in ~60 minutes (approx. 55 of which was spent searching for a name) and it is a small excerpt, that expands upon how criminal Tajara, living in District Six, keep the black market stocked and running, as well as just a general expansion on the black market itself. This is just something small that came to my mind earlier today. One point of focus here was to give players the option to have a character with a criminal background, which does not nessecarily include the three major factions. Personally, I like lore expansions to be linked to existing things, so they dont become isolated and it merges into already existing stuff. All already present lore on the wiki that is mentioned in my excerpt is marked in red text. Additional Comments: I am once again honest here. I see myself as an active community member for a long time now, yet we all are getting older and with age come responsibilities. I have not had long periods of absence in the past years, yet it is not impossible that this might happen. I have a demanding uni schedule and I am an active soldier. This has not been a problem in the past and I have been able to announce any (longer) absence beforehand, but for fairness...es.....for the sake of fairness I want to mention it before the question comes up. I also do not plan to resign from CCIA any time soon and yes - despite all this I believe I can manage both positions at the same time.

"Sorry but the suggested, experimental position of Service Manager has proven to be unviable, as per out internal review. It will be cut without replacement. Thank you for your interest. Your existing work and transfer contract to the Horizon project is unaffected by this."

200% certified nice suits, then. The clear visors are cool and I wouldve been sad if they were gone!

Are the visors still see-through?

I dont think that there is a way to express how much I agree with Omicega. Thank you, Omicega, I think you basically said what needs to be said

Have a look at this: https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Guide_to_Character_Records You can see that these always end with "X's Notes". Doctor, Recruiting Officer, such comments about your character would fit in there the best, I'd say.

Solarian, submarine-born Skrell aren't something that are a thing to my knowledge. My Skrell knowledge is not 100% up-to-date, so anyone can correct me on that. But even if it is, the application shows no actual knowledge of Skrell lore, considering it entirely dodges the Federation and everything tied to it or anything relating to their culture, actually, except maybe that Skrell are big smart. I also don't believe in your ability to roleplay, at all. To be upfront with you, I know of at least two people you actually make uncomfortable playing along your characters. One of them is me. You also like to be passive-agressive, unable to differentiate IC and OOC and tip-toe around rules. I will not support this application or any other application from you, as it stands right now.

I enjoy your characters (those I know at least), so I have little doubts in you playing Tajara. Your backstory is good, too I'd say. Two more questions: He follows Ma'ta'ke, which god of the Pantheon does he follow? He has fought in the war, against the enemies of the New Kingdom. How does he see PRA and DPRA Tajara after these events? He knows that there are a lot of differently aligned Tajara in Tau Ceti, how does he react to that?

This is basically going back to how things were and did not really work out well. Boggle summed it up very well actually. There used to be a time where everyone just played surgeon (and thus picked the alt-title for it) because surgeries apaprently were the hot shit, for some reason. There are two ORs, there should be two surgeons, period, since that is how it works in-game. You dont need more than one surgeon for a surgery. I find the "attending physician" equally bad, for the reasons Boggle also stated. The Medbay's jobs have clear definitions on who does what. Chemistry (bless them) prepares medication, Medics bring injured into the Medbay, Physicians tend to GTR and ICU and surgeons operate. I dont see the reason why this should be changed. It is one of the better working departmental systems on the server. I'd like to hear some arguments that were brought up in the discussion you mentioend and that "work for 90% of the medical player base". I have very recently started playing medical again after over 2 years of not being able to channel the mental capacity nessecary for it and I have yet to see one of the "problematic super doctors". The only thing I agree with is that the graphic on who is allowed to do what looks a bit like a shitpost. But it helps to differentiate both professions, in a good way.

What are the concerns about the gamemode? I haven't heard any so I am curious what it is that makes people uncomfortable.

Well, it can be tweaked, to fit our expectations, surely. I kind of like it, honestly. There was a suggestion to port persistent-ish graffiti and sticky notes, too, which fade over time. I like both suggestions, honestly. Especially on the ship I think it can be fun to find sticky notes in maintenance tunnels with something funny or interesting written on it. Some people already kind of do this by using the notice boards and having pre-written random office notices (e.g. "Who took my food out of the conference room last week?") at hand to make their workplace more lively.

I dont get it

I agree with Read. The last screenshots sold it to me, do it, Matt.

Well, after looking at it, I give it that it is moodier. Maybe testmerge and have a poll or whatever or make this the feedback thread. Why not

While I don't hate this, I also dont really like it? I don't know, of course, it's because we are used to it being brighter, but it looks like night mode now. As I said, not sure if I like it. How does actual night mode look with this change?

I think this is reasonable. Expectations shfit, lore shifts, everything is in motion. People who haven't played a year or more maybe do not live up to the standards that are expected from command nowadays. I think it's reasonable.