MattAtlas

Project Anabasis Development Diary #2 The Smell of Ashes Premise “We must put an end to war, or war will put an end to us.” – President Harrlala to the National Assembly before voting to ratify the Provisional War Authority of Adhomai, 24XX (written by @CatsinHD) The current state of Tajaran lore is centered around the Cold War, pun not intended. The three states of Adhomai vie for their place under the Suns as supreme rulers of the planet. There is an underlying presence to all of this. Not simply the machinations of states in a world interacting as states do. Rather, there is a story. The legendary figure, mythical in all aspects, and the acolytes that have warped his vision into mutants. Meanwhile, history incarnate attempting to right itself, to progress out of a foundation of regression. A woman who is set on seeing the words of her former brought to life, and for glory to shine on the lands. It’s easy to forget in the pages of dense writing that there is a story going on. There are characters that are interacting, changing, and scheming. There is a theme. There are many things. However, it must come to an end eventually. It would be tiring for aging zealots to continue their dogmatic march along continually warping paths. So. to answer simply: Mecha-Hadii will not emerge. Super Nated will not manifest. Al’mari’s legacy is dead, his bastard prophets burnt to ashes, souls living on with Raskara Messa. So how, pray tell, does this play out? We’re not telling you. Not here, at least. That is still yet a story to tell in NBT1, and spoiling it would be foul play on our part. So you will simply have to wait, and read, and see what comes about as we march towards the Next Big Thing 2: Tesla Boogaloo. However, what we can tell you, is what to expect for Tajaran lore in NBT2. What factions and ideas there are to look forward to. The curiosities of how characters will fit in new orders. How, when the legacy sits upon its deathbed, the smell of ashes becomes familiar to us all. Credit: NiennaB/laowra Unification “He doesn't like you, and you don't like him, but now we are in the same trench and everything should be done to save Adhomai.” – President Khazdar to Supreme Command Hro’rammhad regarding an alliance between the PRA and DPRA, 24XX An alliance that never should’ve worked. An alliance out of desperation. Enemies, bitter rivals, claimants of the icy throne of Adhomai turned allies in the lowest of times. Then the war ended. And the alliance remained. Fatigue, death, ashes. The damage had struck everyone. The desire for war was gone, burnt down in the flames of Kaltir. Against all odds, expectations, Tajaran nature, unity was found. Security was desired. Rebuilding was needed. In the halls of the National Assembly, a Provisional War Authority of Adhomai was reborn as a federation of republics, simply: Unigov. The old guard was gone, new visionaries were ready. Taking the helm, an aging Ardkhran Hro’rammhad, weary but resolute in seeing Unigov into success. It had to be done. For Adhomai. His compatriot, the Premier Khazdar. Two leaders of two rival states, united with a new cause. Rebuilding. Rebuilding not out of ambition or desire, but for safety. To build the walls and armies needed to survive the menace out west. To thrust Tajara onto the Spurian stage not as conquered servants but stalwart independents. Never again may Tajara be subdued, conquered, exploited. Not by the red banners of that wicked Empire or the sickening logos of corporate greed. But the lands are torn. Those under the spell of Shumaila and her foreign puppeteers. The former lands of juntas and Hadiists alike. Adhomai had rarely known respite from division. So how, dear Hro’rammhad, does one wield such a people? Division of lands, tolerance mandated. Gone are the concepts of the monoculture, the wicked destruction by the castes, the intolerance of ideologues. The lands are divided indeed. And the republics, the titular republics, must bend to such. Adhomai, then, and her colonies beyond the Suns, are rather split. A federation of republics, each a microcosm of Unigov itself. There is a place for anyone, or in absence of such, a place could be found. It is foolish of such dogmatic minds to find intolerance when the Spur does not wait. When the Spur wishes to bring to heel such a planet of potential. Old enemies offered redemption, new friends brought into the fold. Such demands were gone, so long as you beat on the same path, the long road to Tajaran glory among the stars. At the head of the beast, a multi-headed hydra, is the federal government. An endless maze of departments and committees answering to but two Tajara: the Ardkhran, leader of the people, and the Premier, leader of the parties. Sharing equal parts workload, be it the internal machinations and politicking of the Republics or the foreign affairs and colonial mandate. The squabbling of the Congress of Free Tajara, the embodiment of the system. Endless debates, representatives of the Republics fighting for such changes ad infinitum. The State Council, managing the byzantine departments, keeping the mind numbing complexity of the state chugging. Beyond the realms, the snow of Adhomai, the colonies sit. Some new, some old. The steady march of expansion fueled by the companies of Adhomai, led in the light of the pathfinders through the Scar. New planets, new resources, new science. The machine demands more. More land, more people, more resources. More. More. More. It’s mandated. Colonially mandated. Tajara, after all, are destined to conquer the stars. The Fleets “What is Tajaran nature but seeking and failing to achieve ideals?” - FTV Volin Zarkir Kahmanqahrii, 24XX Once fleeing death, history repeating in sick irony, the battered ships of old eek along. Theseus hundreds over, hulls hardly reminiscent of their old, decrepit selves. The inhabitants, infatuated by metal and oil, seeking progress, for safety. Generational trauma, sights no sane being dare see, forever tied to revere the vessels that protect them. Perhaps it was a mistake to step into the Lemurian, foolish and greedy. Perhaps it merely opened their eyes to the truth. To the sanctity of metal. A thirst for technology of all kinds. The vast fleets, endless in numbers, endlessly shifting. Beating on through the stars, wandering from place to place, seeking knowledge, materials, equipment, anything needed to keep the vessels running. Jury-rigged, replaced, modified, expanded. Master artisans of the dear voidship. For what cause? Why, for knowledge itself. For the keys to reality. For mastery of nature, such that even the horrors, the fabled sights of yet living generations, may be truly wielded. The State “We stand on the precipice of reaching the peak, or falling into obscurity.” – Headmaster Harrrdanim Tyr'adrr during his final address on public broadcast before fleeing to Hro’zamal, 24XX Those traitors. Enemies of the state surround, fools seeing a vision of Adhomai in decimation. They stray from the truth of Hadiism. They dare yet imagine a world of unity. A world where the enemies of progress are accepted, reasoned. The fools, the lot of them. Former comrades dead in the minds of the resolute. The totalists. The visionaries. The world is dangerous now. It is only a minor setback that such a retreat must take place. Hro’zamal, pure in its belief, must rise to the task. The colony turned capital, turned fortress. It will carry the spirit of Hadiism on. The schism proved one man right. The Headmaster, derided as paranoid, stands atop the righteous truth. The enemies within are deadlier than the enemies without. Malik was too soft. Khazdar was treasonous. More must be done to secure the Party. Hro’zamal must be built up, control must be extended. We are a collective. One unified body. Sacrifices ennobled, technology progressed. There must be no costs too high. We. Must. Win. For failure will see us crumble. Failure will doom Tajara. The Kingdom “He says exile, she says extended holiday.” - Queen Shumaila to Grand Duke Harqirahm on the exile of the High Kingdom, 24XX They had not started the war. It was an invasion. Their defense was righteous against the tides of the tyrants, seeking to destroy nature’s chosen way. The war was costly, Adhomai was lost. However, hope is not yet dead. The Kingdom lives on. Shumaila, the dear Queen. The mind that saved the Kingdom. The tree around which Tajara will grow. Her throne decimated in the old lands, no bother. Nature will heal. The course will be corrected. King Azunja’s vision cut short by Messa’s embrace, it must be continued under Shumaila’s guiding hand. Bringing the Kingdom to its true nature, correcting the wrongs of greed and corruption. All the while, new lands ripe for taking. Qaraket, the new seat of the High Kingdom, name christened over the blood of a bygone Republic. Serenity was lost on these lands, brought again by Tajaran hands. It would expand. It must expand. In service to Tajara, in service to allies, royalty, the dutiful liege lightyears away on the Morozian throne. Adhomai is not lost, simply deluded. It is destined to happen. The High Kingdom will return, stronger, better. It will bring the misguided planet and her mistaken colonies into the fold. Tajaran banners will stretch across the Southern Spur, Valley to Scar, and truly retake the right of rule, the holy Suns’ light. The Badlands “What can one expect from a place called the Badlands? Bad is written in the name.” - Unknown Lekhtrelkii’s note, 24XX These lands rarely knew peace. Of raging pirate fleets or dutiful patrol armadas, what place yet leaves the desire for peace than that of the Badlands. Yet it is not such when the guns have quieted down, the ammo had run dry. What is left, then, in the wake? Mounds of ash, huddled masses seeking a rising phoenix. Although such implies the tales are true, ignorance to reality. Peace is an ill concept in these lands, then, a rallying cry for those too blind to see their own marching boots. To the north lies the High Kingdom, a land of gaudy cloaks and liberal meads. Sitting on thrones of death atop their appropriated lands. Be it far from the Royalist to be intoxicated by such heroism. Now, they see only their rightful claims. Planets of wealth, ripe for exploitation, along a war path to the jewel of the crown. The jewel of the crown, broken free to seek its own ends. Wisened from its failures, sickened by perpetuous flames of war still yet smoldering on their streets; smoke pushing them onwards, into the frontier. Ever eastward, bringing more into the fold. Preparing for armies of the past, fearing fleets of the future. Expanding in the name of Adhomai. Space is vast, but woefully small. It is only a matter of time before the Rafama meets the other. Heads locked in battle for their right to rule, for the future of Tajara. Then why would such a state, exiled alone, stuck on but a planet so hostile, continue? Because they know the truth. The rest, delusional, treasonous. It is only through the march of progress that the future may yet be bright. United, collective. Urgency is not so poisonous, yet. Time is in the favor of truth. The steady march forward bringing all yet closer to their destined victory. It is promised. The Headmaster knows the truth. However, to sit idle is admitting defeat. In secrecy we work. Subverting those traitors. Guiding, with invisible hands, those who will see us to glory. But Tajara are not alone here. The grip of the Adhomian promise holds so few. The Sinta and Human, equal players in such lands of turmoil. The Pretender sits upon a jewel befitting such lofty delusions, concern to the dear Queen in presence and action. The Karszekan, an ally to some. Comrades oppressed no longer, close now with such heirs of Adhomai. Safety in numbers. Progress in cooperation. Parallel states joined in fear, paranoia yet fleeting of crossing paths and sunken knives. Conclusion “Impossibility never prevented anything from happening.” - First Speaker Kiimro Raghkanhkir to the first session of the Congress of Free Tajara. This dev diary has been intentionally written in overly flowery and, at times, vague language. This was on purpose. As mentioned at the start, it can be easy to miss the underlying story occurring as the setting progresses. The flat, informative writing of the wiki and other such sources will have this effect. This dev diary is less about giving flat wiki information, but rather telling a story. Setting the scene, mindset, and vibes of the factions after all is said and done. Because, notably, we are moving away from the premise of the last decade of Tajaran lore. No longer will we be seeing the schemes and actions of two men chasing after the legacy of a mythical figure, Al’mari. We’re moving into a new story. Hopefully one you all enjoy! So where does this leave players and their characters? Well, we attempted to leave a spot for everybody. Whether you want the loose restrictions of Unigov or the Free Fleets, or the firm ideology of the PRA remnants, or the royalism of the High Kingdom. The goal was to allow plenty of routes for characters to be retconn’d, fast forwarded, or whatever else into the new setting. At the end of the day, the lore is written for the player and their characters. And while we have a vision, at times incongruent with that vision of some players, we also want to leave space for the imagination to run wild. To consider stories and ideas that fuel fun interactions, and ultimately make the experience of being within the setting, being with Tajaran lore, fun.

This is generally a good post that I find myself agreeing with, so I'll bring this up for discussion and see what we can do. At the same time the area with which we can work in is really limited due to the combat/medical system we have, so it'll take some time to figure it out.

This will not be happening. People need an incentive to play different characters, not the opposite, and I don't want to punish new characters.

As you can't do this with current rules anyway, the skills system will not permit this. Although there are some restrictions that I intend to have the skills system lessen or remove (people will now reasonably be able to have some engineering/construction/hacking/whatever skills without it being a rules black hole), things that are explicitly not possible rules-wise (such as piloting skills for characters that are not explicitly in certain jobs/with certain educations) will not become possible with the skills system.

The issue with this is that you would essentially bring the baseline up to what is currently maximum skill, meaning you'd need to have new skill levels so that Security effectively has skills to put points into for combat - otherwise they'd just not invest any points, and educations that give combat skills (or in the future, feats that do this) will be useless. You basically then have two choices. You keep security's ability to increment their combat skill, but you have to come up with some way to make it worth it, because players rightfully won't pick skills that are useless. Increasing things like accuracy or damage is an absolute no-go as I don't want balancing to have to account for higher accuracy from skills, neither does anyone want to go through the hassle of rebalancing this - just look at things like slug shotgun snipers from Bay that happened as a result of accuracy boosts. The other choice is making each skill level give you more unique abilities to use in combat, but this is hard to do with our current system in a reasonable way (we don't currently have many things you can do in combat, so there's no real space for abilities - this will improve with the combat rework in the Summer). Alternatively you could add some gun-related skills such as shotgun auto-pumping or bolt auto-retracting or tactical reloading, but I think this is very anemic. You don't add any more skills, you have to remove combat educations as they're pointless, this is the worst option. At the moment I don't think there's a clear cut solution to this without further reworks to more areas of the game like combat, what I think can be done is to maybe decrease the penalties across the board or give characters enough points to take a trained combat skill and an amateur combat skill by default. Either that or increase the amount of ranks so that you can always pick enough combat skills to be decent at combat, just slightly worse than an officer or an antag.

Accepted.

As an update, the IPC rework is supposed to have a part two that expands current mechanics and fixes a lot of gameplay issues, but I haven't been able to work on it due to my exchange semester in another country (these types of updates require a shitload of restarts, recompiles and testing, which is not feasible on my laptop). I'll address most of these problems when I come back home at the end of May, unless someone else would like their hand at fixing them before.

merged

There will be a fine line when it comes to this. I'm personally fine with people playing characters with a stronger criminal background than what's possible now, which is basically a step or two above a petty thief realistically speaking, but I don't want to see or encourage people actively talking about committing war crimes or whatever. It would be far too silly to just have mega criminals roaming the ship. So there will be some sort of control when it comes to this part of character creation - understand that the mega criminal is interesting if it's one character in a round done well, not when it's five characters in a round loudly screaming about how many Solarians they mass murdered on Vergo IV. IPCs will have a few excuses to be on the ship and have repairs, mainly because it's convenient to have workers that don't get tired and that you don't necessarily have to pay as much. Cannot answer the second question as it's synthetic lore's territory, and they will reveal this in due time.

The Elyran Draft – What Does It Mean? Mendell City - Biesel Josephina Delaloi - Stellar Politics Expert The last time a draft was instated in a recognized human nation of the Spur was in 2278, following the Coalition’s strike on occupying Solarian forces – an event that signalled the beginning of the Great Interstellar War. Until now. Just a few days ago, through the utilization of special provisions in case of elevated readiness, the Elyran government became the first recognized human Spurian nation to have instated an official draft in almost two hundred years. This is a colossally important decision likely to shake up the balance of power in the region. Considering the expected massive increase in Republic forces on the Elyran-Dominian border, it is very likely that the Empire will have to respond in some way. Our Dominian government sources have refused to comment, referring to the draft as, “senseless Elyran warmongering” It is likely that the draft will also bring a host of economic consequences with it. Firstly, it is expected that Elyra will shift a significant portion of its manufacturing towards weaponry and equipment for the new forces, given that the Republic has suffered from equipment shortages for its current formations ever since the Bursan invasion. Phoron extraction is also expected to reach its all-time peak in the Elyran Republic as well, with investors in Biesel reportedly more and more willing to invest additional billions of credits in the Aemaqi phoron mining industry. While it is impossible to predict what will happen in what is now the most volatile region of the galaxy, the draft represents without a doubt an unheard of escalation. It is hard to tell if this is simply a measure of self-defense by the Republic or if this is a more comprehensive change of Elyran policy on the border, but these developments remain nonetheless remain concerning for the Spur at large. Further Reading: ELCO Stocks Reach All Time High Exclusive Interview with Melissa Trasen – Phoron in Cosmetics?! “They Ripped My Daughter Away From Me” – The NCP Protests of New Suez

In general I agree with trialing this suggestion out and I agree with most of the points you make, but I wouldn't draw the connection to this leading to the armoury being used less. More than likely it'll be used just the same. Even if you have a .45 with rubbers, there's really nothing you can do with it against an antagonist with a revolver or a lethal tool in general - any time there's going to be escalation, security will reach for the armoury because otherwise you're sandbagging. The solution to that would be in my opinion probably splitting the armoury into a non-lethal/LTL/limited lethals armoury and an emergency armoury with the truly big guns. That way they'll still open the armoury, but they won't have immediate access to the antag killinator 9000.

The problem at the heart of this is that currently the weirdness comes from the fact that succumb does not work with brainmed, meaning that someone can inexplicably drop dead at 100% BA because they have 180 brute + fire damage, despite them being in no real risk of dying. Obviously this is pretty shit and inexplainable IC, hence why I said that Succumb needs to be made to be brainmed-compliant Once this is made to work with brainmed and you can succumb at 5-10% BA then it'll be fine. Especially because they will not be able to succumb except only immediately after a firefight basically. Cyanide pill I don't think that's in the uplink if I remember right, it's just given to mercs at roundstart. Explosive implant accomplishes things other than just dying so it'll stay as is.

This is the real problem - I think any argument basing itself on "robbing medical of gameplay" is unsustainable. Reason being that there are a million things in this game that can "rob" you of gameplay; is Security killing a mercenary robbing you of gameplay? Does an explosive implant rob you of gameplay? Does a cyanide pill rob you of gameplay as well? No department is owed gameplay, this is a design philosophy we've always had, it goes for events just as much as normal gameplay. Note that this does not mean that a round should not have gameplay for you at all, but rather that there can be rounds where you won't have as much gameplay, and that is fine. Succumbing itself is not different from going to cryogenics in spirit. Both are done because you don't want to play the round any further. However, just as much as you should not assume that someone is going to cryogenics out of bad faith, you shouldn't assume that someone is succumbing because they want to "rob" you of gameplay. That person is not obligated to stay in the round for your sake - it's simply unsustainable to want to force someone to stay when the rest of their round will likely be staring at a black screen and then a brig door. Some people are fine with this gameplay, others aren't. That's fine just as much as it is fine for someone to cryo if they don't like the current rev gimmick. The real frustration, in my opinion, comes from when someone succumbs and for some reason people start thinking it's malpractice. This is nothing some LOOC wouldn't clear up, but this can be solved mechanically pretty easily. What has to be done is making succumb work on brainmed, making it give a custom death message, adding a special description on examine that indicates that this person succumbed, and adding some autopsy data. For the record, if you are being investigated for malpractice when someone clearly succumbed, you can adminhelp it as well and admins will handle it. For these reasons, I am voting for dismissal - succumb should not be removed. It can be improved to the point that it will not be a problem at all.

BREAKING: The Citizenship Draft is Instated UTHMA, PERSEPOLIS (GST) – Following recent events and instability in the border regions, the Ministry of Defense and War has continued the elevated readiness level of all nearby military forces. Additionally, a new draft has been instated for human Non-Citizen Persons – a mandatory draft lottery of ten years in the Elyran Armed Force for one third of all Non-Citizen Persons below 35 years of age and above 20 years of age, with citizenship awarded at the end of the term of service, following a much more streamlined citizenship test. Non-Citizen Persons of the ages of 18 and 19, and those aged 35 to 50 are given orders to not leave during the duration of the elevated readiness. This measure has proven popular in Persepolis, but protests and riots have broken out on worlds with large non-citizen person populations such as Medina, New Suez and Aemaq. Security forces are working alongside the National Guard to quell ongoing noncitizen rioting in the areas. UPDATE 0300 GST: At the time of this update, major riots are still present on Medina and Aemaq, with heavy damage reported to major phoron mining depots and guilds. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has deployed Special Threat Section units to both worlds in an effort to bring stability to the worlds, “before our enemies can take advantage of any weakness.” Domestically, the Citizenship Draft is a popular solution among Elyrans. Most (74%) approve of the measure, citing insecurity in the border and increasing aggression by the Empire of Dominia as their top reasons for support. The Elyran Armed Forces (EAF) has welcomed the projected influx of manpower, with high-ranking sources citing the cuts to the military following the Solarian Civil War as, “a key part of the reason why our great military military has decayed, and why Moroz feels emboldened.” Manpower shortages have been a documented, and ongoing, serious problem for the EAF for a decade, with enlistment reaching a historical low as of 2466 but rising during 2467. The Ministry reports that as such, all Non-Citizen Persons enlisted as part of the draft will participate in specific units sent to reinforce the theatres that are most in need. The MDW has specified NCP units will be led by Elyran officers to ensure effectiveness in the field, and assured the public no citizens will be assigned to these units. The MDW has predicted this draft will increase the size of the Armed Forces to the largest since the immediate aftermath of the invasion of Bursa, where reservist call-ups temporarily increased the military significantly. The Ministry of Economics, Revenue, and Commerce has advised it is, “immediately able and ready,” to finance an enlarged military. Further Reading: Testimonies from the Reserves: “We are Ready” Insider: ELCO to Redirect More Phoron Production to Military Purposes Aemaqi Phoron Output Expected to Reach All Time High: What Does This Mean for the Phoron Sector?

Like I said in the prior post, we are not building a setting where the only reason to do anything is money. I focus a lot on it because it's the driving force of the round structure; it does not have to be the driving reason your character is on the Blood Money in the same sense that your character on the Horizon isn't necessarily there to discover phoron. Making money is just the purpose (or mission, you could call it) of the ship, and what functions as the storytelling engine of the round - you're going places or taking that contract because the ship needs to make money. The individual character can still have whatever motivation they want. You can be a bleeding heart, that's fine (where else is it better to be a bleeding heart than in a potentially dangerous place?), you could simply want to go explore the universe, or you could similarly be rich, you'll just be a lot more out of place and people will logically ask questions. So long as you come up with a good reason to be there - and there will be many good reasons - you won't have any trouble fitting these characters in. It's hard to answer these questions because we are wholly in the terms of hypotheticals. Predicting things like where player culture is heading is pretty hard, and all you can do is kind of try to guide it in the direction you want it to go. There will be many contract types that do not involve shooting people. I think people have gotten too lost in the weeds over "mercenary this" or "making money that". The imagery of a mercenary in NBT2, like I said before, is not the imagery of a mercenary in NBT1. Going to retrieve a package for someone, or going to rebuild a ruined hospital is just as much mercenary work as shooting a bunch of mofos in a black site. It's mercenary work because you get paid for it, not because you kill people. So we plan for there to be quite a bit of these low/medium-danger activities, and the hope is that by diluting the pool a bit, it'll drive in the point that shooting people isn't all we do. People won't have any expectation to be able to handle a gun if they're not in a role that's meant to do it. Skills will take care of everything there, so don't worry about that. Combat training will be more reasonable to have, not more expected. The rest is done through moderation enforcing the lore we'll write. This is pretty straight forward, it's similar to when we removed the crew armoury, we drove in the point that people aren't supposed to be mobiks and it worked out. Our playerbase is generally mature enough to handle it. None of these archetypes are precluded from the new setting for any reason.