MattAtlas

Some things I forgot to mention: interactions with away sites or third parties, and in general with Contracts, will all be fully canon. The exact extent of how the character permadeath rule works with this is yet to be established, though I can say for sure that we do not want people being forced to delete their character over one bad day or one unlucky shot.

Project Anabasis Development Diary #3 The Vision of it All Hello! Welcome to what is probably the most awaited development diary, even though you probably didn’t expect it. In this diary, I will be walking you through the gameplay loop we have designed for NBT2, and the exact reasons why we made these particular decisions. A lot of these decisions are based on a lot of historical context relative to Aurora and my experiences on other servers. As such, I’ll try to fill everyone in on the most crucial details needed to understand the big picture. If there are any questions, as always, you can reach me on the Discord. Without further ado, let’s get started – and find out what exactly you’ll be doing on the Blood Diamond! Why does the gameplay need to change? Whenever you’re doing something, you should always ask yourself: why? Similarly, when it comes to upheaving the entire gameplay loop of a server, first we need to realize why we made a choice so big that we have to rework not only the entire gameplay loop, but also change the in-game universe this much. I spoke about this in the very first development diary as well, but the core problem is that antagonists as the server’s gameplay loop are not sustainable. What I mean by sustainable isn’t that they aren’t fun. Everyone, or most of everyone, loves those high-octane mercenary or tower defense rounds. I do, too. They’re part of what drove me to stick with Aurora, after all – more precisely, in my case it was a Paranoia round that made me decide to build my home here, for those that remember that gamemode. What I mean by sustainability here is that the server’s functioning and population essentially depend on a very, very small and limited pool of antagonists. This pool doesn’t replenish or expand anymore because the server has progressed to a point where the main driving force of what leads you to play the server is long-term character interactions. Logically, you cannot have long-term character development if you are playing an antagonist; you play something that only has an effect in that single round, and then disappears magically. This is without mentioning the numerous contrivances that are a barrier to people picking up antagonist regularly, such as the mass of contrived rules that HRP is, and the general lack of updates that antagonists see. Non-traitor/merc gamemodes are in a fairly sorry state, unfortunately, and this reflects the lack of both developer and player interest in updating those gamemodes. Since the main gameplay loop supports itself essentially on a handful of people, what happens when those people all of a sudden stop playing antagonist? If one, two, or three of them leave, the whole house of cards comes falling down. Because our core department gameplay loops have never been updated and have only been gutted in the past decade, once the sole force that drives a round disappears, nobody wants to join a round anymore because there’s nothing to do. This is the root cause of our regular population droughts. When people have to be absent for a longer time than usual (usually because of exams or the like), this leads to our antagonist pool becoming so small that you can barely even roll autotraitor. Since you can’t roll any interesting gamemodes, people leave, and that’s how we end up in situations similar to the last half-year where nobody was playing the server. It is not a coincidence that population came back only once we started hosting regular events. This means three things: Antagonists cannot be the main source of gameplay. Any gameplay we add must feed into that wish for long-term character interactions. The core gameplay loops have to be made robust and interesting enough to not rely on the presence of a third party. Sounds simple, right? Well, no. Why is the setting relevant to gameplay? The core of this idea is that the gameplay is decided by the setting. Your setting gives you a handful of set pieces in which you can carve out the gameplay of whatever game you’re making. As an example, the Horizon is just one set piece in our setting. Another set piece could be a Zavodskoi installation. Yet another set piece could be a pirate ship in the Weeping Stars. In short, it’s just where the game takes place, but that is a crucial decision, because it also decides what you can add to your game. A dedicated science department on a pirate ship wouldn’t be sustainable, for example, because it just breaks believability. Pirate scientists aren’t really something that’s sustainable in the current setting, at least not without major OOC contrivances. Similarly, the whole of the setting also limits you; a setting where there is mostly no major technological advance because we’re already in a post-scarcity era means that you have very little room to create something like a science department in, or even to justify the usage of low technology tools, just because everything is so available everywhere. Lastly, the political climate of the setting you’ve built also reflects itself on your game. If everything is at peace all the time, it becomes less and less sustainable to have conflict happen. You are limited to the same enemies pretty much the entire time; non-descript pirates, or whatever organisation the administrators and lore writers come up for the new event arc. The lack of risk in the galaxy as a whole means that you are limited in your choice for what events can take place in your game. That is exactly the relevance of the setting to the gameplay. Our setting is made in mind with what was essentially a more advanced office simulator game; that’s basically what the NSS Aurora was. Later on, we moved to the Horizon but kept the same static setting meant for a static game. It’s just not made for the dynamic sort of experiences that a mobile ship should be going about. It’s also not made for exploration as a whole, because the Spur really does not have any mystery to it barring one or two elements, such as the Konyang vaults or the Lemurian Sea. In short, if we want the gameplay to become more interesting, we also need the setting to change. Staying in the current setting limits our breadth of possible experiences too much, and that’s how the Second Interstellar War and Anabasis came to be. For the sort of gameplay we envisioned, we needed a setting where the actors could truly be free of most constraints. We wanted a setting that allowed and even encourage the usage of low technology. We wanted a setting where there was a lot to explore; from post-war empires to ruins of a massive war, where you could unearth forgotten designs and put them to use for yourself. We wanted a setting where you could feasibly meet and fight any political group if you so wished to further your own agenda, and a setting where you could always feel the danger of your choices. And how did we accomplish that, you ask? Gameplay in Anabasis Gameplay in Anabasis is centered around exploration at the core. This means that the entire ship structure, from its construction to its job titles and expectations, are going to be made with the idea that (mostly) everyone will be going down to expeditions. We are intentionally choosing to focus on planetary gameplay because it allows us to keep the gameplay consistently fresh by changing the atmosphere and scenario constantly. One of the important parts of this is that it allows us to inject PvE elements without very complex code contrivances. Indeed, we are planning mostly a shift towards a lot more PvE content than we currently have. As we discussed before, antagonists (intended as players playing something that is antagonistic or otherwise kind of “the jester” for the crew at large) are never really going to be sustainable, so we need to look towards PvE to have a truly sustainable gameplay loop. In this case, the core of Anabasis will be fulfilling Contracts as we’ve discussed before. But what actually is a contract? Contracts We spoke about this before – it’s the gamemode that is meant to supplant Secret as the new flagship gamemode of the server. In short, at roundstart there will be a setup period wherein the Captain (aided by Command), or lacking either of them the crew as a whole, will decide what the contract they will be fulfilling that day will be. A contract is a fairly simple thing. A certain interstellar faction in the region has something they need done by third parties. In the universe of Anabasis, there are many reasons for this: Interstellar nations no longer have the strength or will to carry out continued hostile actions. Borders are still contested and the entire Spur is in basically a cold war, but the road to recovery is long. On the other hand, mercenaries and freelancers are in their golden age, and none will turn down easy money. Interstellar corporations have lost most of their private fleets and armaments, and are now forced to contract 3rd parties if they want anything done. But don’t kid yourself: one thing corporations haven’t lost is their greed and their backstabbing prowess. They will do anything to gain an advantage for themselves, even if it’s destroying a competitor’s headquarters in the region. Local parties will often also be willing to offer money for certain tasks, whether those be resupplying a beleaguered city with food and drinks, fulfilling a shipment order, escorting a ship throughout the region, setting up a reception for an important guest, and so on. In short, a contract can be anything. What contracts are available depends on a few things: Your relations to interstellar factions. The more contracts you complete for a certain faction, the more your standing will increase with them, and the more you might offend other factions that are in competition with them. Pick who you want to get in bed with carefully. The region’s threat level. Some regions are highly dangerous, and as such you’ll not often find very calm contracts there. In these places, it’s kill or be killed, and your survival will be the order of the day. Worry not, though, for it will be very profitable for your coffers. Your threat level. Kill too many people, destroy too many things, and there will be droves of mercenaries willing to cut you down for a price. A contract has its own difficulty and evilness (name pending) ratings. The contract’s difficulty is simple; how difficult will this contract be to complete? Generally, this will be synonymous with “danger”, and the higher difficulty a contract is, the more reward you will receive. Low-difficulty contracts will generally be civilian-level missions, such as completing shipments, resupplying towns and settlements, and so on; things that will be in the ballpark of service, logistics or engineering crew, generally. A high-difficulty contract will certainly require the crew to prepare properly. An extreme-difficulty contract will require the utmost care, skill and preparations, lest several die. A regional-difficulty contract will… well, no spoilers there! On the other hand, evilness determines just how much you’ll make everyone angry in this sector by completing this contract. The higher the evilness, the more threat level you will gain on completion, and the more threat level you have, the more people will want you down. High difficulty contracts will replace current mercenary/tower defense/etc rounds. It’s where the whole crew will be expected to go down to a planet and put their skills to the test. Generally, this will be done by expecting them to go through a regionally-flavoured dungeon, completing various tasks (and probably getting rid of quite a lot of bad actors) to make it to the end and complete their contract. At roundstart, some spots in these dungeons will be filled by players (actors) to take particular spots if they so wish; but this is not necessary for the gamemode itself to function. More on these dungeons will be written in a future development diary, but consider them a hallmark feature of the Contracts gamemode. As your threat level goes up, third parties will be less and less eager to work with you. If your name gets spread for the wrong reasons, third party ships will spawn in with flavour text telling them how to behave depending on your threat level. Even in Anabasis, nobody wants to work with bloody backstabbing killers. And the higher threat level, the more hostile ships to you will spawn. At the maximum threat level, a contract to take you down will be issued, and your position will be broadcasted to every hostile ship in the region. You’ll have to survive to clear your name. Good luck! Once a contract is done, the employer will pay you, and the relations of your ship will update. Simple, right? The beauty of cashless payments. At the end of the month (every month on the 1st) the Tithe will be taken from the ship. If you don’t have enough money… some things may have to be forcefully requisitioned. Departments Finally what everyone was waiting for. Such a big shift in gameplay necessarily requires a shift in the departments: our conception thereof, and also of the expectations of their jobs. Before that, though, I want to talk a bit about the conception of a department in Anabasis. Sorry for the poor graphic, I’m not much of an art guy myself. Either way, the image is fairly self-explainatory. The important thing to keep in mind is that we want to strongly, strongly require inter-departmental cooperation. The Blood Diamond is going to be a machine that can only function at full strength if every department cooperates and fulfills their exploration duties. As you can see, key upgrades for departments will only come from resources/objects recovered from expedition, which then have to be analyzed or processed by the Fabrication department. We also want to have direct upgrade paths for each department with limited persistence (things will break and they have to be replaced, stored resources have a time limit).Supply and provision arrows signify what sort of relationship a department has to another. Without further ado, welcome to the provisional department list for Anabasis! Jobs with an asterisk have their name pending a change as the current name is not entirely fitting. Obviously, everything here is open for feedback, BUT PLEASE DO NOT GET OBSESSED OVER TINY DETAILS. Job numbers and job names are easy to change and will probably change over development time. What I don’t want to happen is a useless pages-long discussion over whether the Commanding Officer should be renamed to Captain or not. Similarly, if a slot number is different, IT IS NOT A BIG DEAL AND CAN BE ADDRESSED. I probably just mistyped a number if that is the case. And if a job is missing, do not panic, I have limited space for the infographic and needed to put down the most important things first. Command Command is generally not changing much in terms of the leaders of each department, other than them being handed more executional powers in the round. Keep in mind that regarding law and order of the ship, it’ll be far less corporate and more practical, so similarly there will be less paperwork and other ball-and-chain around Command’s choices. You’ll get to run your department how you want to. At the top of the Command chain is the Commanding Officer, and this time they have more or less absolute power. Below them is their right hand, the Executive Officer, who – if you’re wondering – will in fact be a true second in command this time around, no questions asked. Immediately below them and equal to other department heads is the Expedition Leader, who is in charge of preparing the expedition and getting it done, basically Command’s eyes on the ground. Armsmen Well, that’s unexpected! Security won’t just be doing security duties anymore. They’ll be the spearhead of any dangerous expedition into a dungeon or in hostile territory, which comes with the expectation that these mercs will use their hands and guns. For that reason, we chose to rename the department to Armsmen to better reflect their new duties. Nothing is that different in this department other than that little © next to the Investigator name. That’s right – corporations will be coming back on the Anabasis as contractors! However, contractor jobs will be limited in amount and in how many contractors there can be per job. The supermajority of the Blood Diamond will always be freelancers, but you’ll be able to enjoy some good inter-branch tension. After all, those are corporates – those are the people that burnt the galaxy to ashes twenty years ago. Investigator is one of such roles, however, investigators will only be able to be corporates. You’ll be the crime-solving and detective type, think a mix between Professor Layton and Ace Attorney… a crossover you could say. About the armoury… more on that later. Fabrication That’s not Science! No, it isn’t. Science fundamentally does not work in the setting and never has – there are too many lore and code problems to make it really work. It works even less in this setting too, so we’re replacing it with something that is more thematically fitting. Fabrication will be in charge of developing and supplying everyone with finished products and tools. The developing part will take place mainly in analyzing artifacts and lost technology from expeditions to repurpose them into blueprints that can be built with materials. Lost technology will be a strong theme in the Second Interstellar War - expect to find things such as old corporate datadisks with corporate DRM to crack, so on and so forth. Technology researcher will be split 50/50 between corporates and freelancers. On the topic of some old corporate data you can find: DRM. Think anything that can store information, and represents breaking their encryption. USB pens, hard-drives, virtual blueprints, holographic projectors that contain information on an away site and also information on how to fabricate something. Collect enough of them and you gain an usable blueprint. This will provide a random technology of low level. Recreating blueprints. Incomplete blueprints can be found around away sites as a sort of “step-up” to DRM. Incomplete blueprints provide the idea of a schematic from the start, e.g. you find a “laser gun blueprint”, but they will need to be processed/experimented with manually with enough materials or through enough experiments. Additionally, tools and equipment will be divided in tiers. Tier 1 The starting technology of every department. Pretty shitty, it’s merc-ship standard. Visually it looks rusty, dusty, or used.. Tier 2 Slightly better technology. If the ship has loads of money, it has a good chance of starting with some stuff as Tier 2. Alright equipment. Visually it’s slightly dusty, but looks a bit shinier. Every department should be able to get some Tier 2 equipment through inter-departmental cooperation at roundstart. Example: medical should be able to get Tier 2 medication through logistics orders OR through botany. Tier 3 Standard, retail equipment. A hand of God for a merc ship. It’s inner ring shit. Visually clean. Not too shiny. This equipment should ONLY be able to be manufactured by Logistics with expedition materials. There will be a way to quickly bring expedition materials to the ship. Phoron usage optional, but shouldn’t be much if any. Depends on the equipment itself. Tier 4 The good stuff. Experimental equipment. Very shiny. It needs to look like what you have in your hands is worth 500 000 dollars per round (sic.) This equipment can ONLY be made by Fabrication, and it should ONLY be at most one or two per round that they make. We want to keep it as something players fight for, and keep playing to find out what they can get. This is the equipment that generally uses phoron, and is thus a limited resource. As such, it should be powerful, but generally have downsides to its usage. All of this is subject to change and is not final, as the department is currently in the theoretical stage. We’d love to know what you think! The Surveyor will be the role that lets you fulfill the nerd scientist fantasy. It’s locked to corporates only and is the role in charge of documenting away sites and anomalies, which can be sold for a good price to collectors and… less scrupulous buyers. Medical For the changes that will take place in medical, see the medical rework. The largest change is the merger between surgeon and physician; this is due to the fact that the shift to expedition gameplay is not compatible with the conveyor loop gameplay we have. We need doctors that can treat more or less everything, or you risk people being unrecoverable because they got shot on an away site and a physician can’t fix their busted lung. Danger and damage will be a lot more present in Anabasis, so that’s not a situation we can afford. Engineering It’s engineering. Regarding the changes that are planned for this department, Batra will have a nifty development diary up for you in due time. Regardless, I can say that we plan for upkeep and maintenance of machinery and equipment to be a major part of Anabasis. The ship’s state (cleanliness, functioning of machinery and etc) will be dependant on how much money the ship currently has, so if there’s little money expect to run around and have to fix quite a bit of stuff at roundstart. Service Service remains mostly as it is, though it’ll be a department full of corporates as the corporations still have a hold on the hospitality sector. We plan to involve service in low-intensity contracts as written above. Logistics Operations is being renamed to Logistics to better represent their job on the new ship. They’ll be in charge of making sure supplies get where they need to, that tools get to their users, and that the expedition is constantly supplied with whatever they need. Expect constant supplies to be needed on expeditions, not just ammunition but also liveries for the crewmembers down there. There will be a big emphasis on needing food, water, rest, and other survival mechanics, so supply will become very important very quickly! Additionally, they will be in charge of one of the armouries of the ship for the expedition. Generally, armouries will be split; we'll have a general armoury for the entire ship, an emergency armoury for lethal equipment, and a standard armoury for Security containing less-than-lethals, non-lethals and basic lethal and tactical equipment. More on this in a future development diary, or in a future pull request. Conclusion That’s all we have to show today. I hope that the shape of what we plan for Anabasis, and why we’ve planned for things to go as they have, is clear to everyone now. Everything in this development diary is still in the development stages and is more theoretical than not (barring the medical rework), so feedback is welcome. All I ask is that you guys please do not focus on extremely tiny details. It really does not help me to see a discussion about whether a name should be X or Y. Those can always be fixed later, they are unimportant details; what matters the most is the idea of what we have, the concept of the gameplay, and other essential parts to developing a game. Thank you for your attention, and I’ll see you in the next development diary!

After a lengthy discussion with the applicant and the developer team at large, we have decided to accept this application. On trial until 10JUL2026.

This is the way things are planned with the upcoming feats/quirks system -- they're just in the skills system at the moment because that way it's easier to test the in-game impact of said features. Otherwise we'd be holding onto them for who knows how long until all of that is implemented. Implementing them in skills might be a bit strange thematically but it's fairly innocuous mechanically, and a good reflection of how these features will work in the future. It will be possible to select how your character interacts with morale in the future through feats, yes. Same case as above, these features being in the skill system is just a test/placeholder for when they'll be put into more fitting system.

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.

Money will not be a requirement to play any role, although it will help if you need specialized equipment. The gameplay loop is designed to work even if you're practically bankrupt, things will just have less quality of life, and take longer, only the higher tiers of stuff will not be possible. Dynamic equipment will help you do things easier, it will not be blocking. We are still evaluating the AI's place in the new setting, so no comment on this yet. Has been planned for a long time but it is low priority. I planned to tackle this in the medical/combat rework by leaning more on realistic (NOT EQUAL TO REAL LIFE; REALISTIC) naming.

Because your post is huge with a lot of questions I'm going to divide my answer into sections, since I don't like spllitting my posts into 20 different quotes. We live in a very privileged era. Today, we can boot up our favourite internet browser, look up the Second World War, and get an almost day-by-day retelling. You can look at the aftermath of the bloodiest war in the history of mankind and you won't read a single positive thing -- and it makes sense. In a vacuum, it will look like the greatest disaster humanity has ever faced. You'll read casualty numbers that are unthinkable, with the greatest tragedies known to us happening exactly in that time period. You will read some things that will make you question how some countries even came back from the brink. You'll see numbers that you cannot even picture in your mind, and ask yourself how exactly people were capable of this much. And yet, people recovered, even in the most devastated of countries and populations. This is exactly the effect that is happening here. You are reading the Wikipedia version of the new setting - and I wrote the diary this way because it's my job to sell the setting and the changes to the players - so, naturally, you're going to focus on the casualties and on the dark tones. That's intentional. I want people to see this as a complete detachment from what Aurora was, because that's what it is. Naturally, when you read things such as "Earth blew up" and "Biesel blew up" in a vacuum it'll look like everything went to shit, but as I told people on the Discord, the setting isn't infinitely grim. It's overall more grim, yes; there are more grim stories than before, that much is true. But I've always been a proponent that it is adversity that creates the best stories and characters, and not prosperity. The setting is this way so that characters have a lot of adversity to face, which means that achieving their goals is that much more important, and has that much more impact. It's that contrast that I really want to capture - the fact that humanity (and aliens) can bloom even in the wake of the most terrible of disasters because that's just how strong normal people are. That's the true core and framing of Anabasis, the strength of the little person to recover from adversity, and not so much the disaster that just passed - that's just the backdrop. In short, the devastation is only focused on in the diary because I have to tell you what changed. Office workers, warehouse workers and the like still exist in Abasis. Society is mostly normal in a lot of places, just comparably a lot worse than during the golden age of the Spur. Not everyone's a gun toting mercenary and not everywhere is an anarchic shithole. In a lot of places, life is still stable to different degrees. Obviously someone is safer in Luna than in the pirate territories in Biesel, but life there still goes on. People aren't getting gunned down on the streets and neither is everyone a veteran. At the same time, there are places where life is truly shit. But that's an opt-in as much as playing something like San Colette is at the moment. Similarly, you can play someone from somewhere remote enough to not be involved in the 2IW, but I'm confident enough in the final product to think that nobody will do that because the alternative will be that much better. There will be short stories published in the future about the life of the little guy, because I want to write them to get the idea across. It is currently a little hard without spoiling some things that are still in development on the lore side, but I assure you that these will happen, and they wwill clear up a lot of confusion. Right now I need people to use their imagination still. It is a mistake to think that people are beholden to anyone external to the ship. The whole purpose of NBT2 is making a ship where the players decide what they want to do on their own terms. So long as they make money Avarizia does not care and will not care, this will not change at any stage of development. It is also a mistake to think that Avarizia is a corporation; it's not. It is explicitly a freelancer company which is not a corporation, this is a very important distinction to make because it will be key to understand mercenary states and the importance of mercenaries/freelancers in Anabasis. Tex-Mex hit the nail on the head here; you underestimate how important money can be as a deciding factor once it is properly integrated into development. We have a lot of ways in mind to achieve this that we think will do the job really well. In general, players naturally tend towards the morally good option, which is counterbalanced by the morally bad option being generally more convenient - that's one balancing factor that is very possible, just to provide one example. Having less money will always be a net negative for the players, both because you need to meet rent and also because you increase your quality of gameplay by having more money (better starting equipment, cleaner starting conditions, and so on). I disagree that this sort of choice does not create a compelling narrative. It only does not if your character has a completely white sense of morality, and I would argue that any literary critic worth their salt would say that such a character is a flawed character. One of my favourite professors - a woman with a Ph.D in scifi studies and with several papers who teaches a masters' course in scifi leature - repeated this to us once, and I quote, "good science fiction is a thought experiment and a moral dilemma". A good character in a science fiction universe will have morals that are troubled, because that is how you create conflict for your own character, and you can advance their arc. Your character making that choice which they did not want to pick for moral reasons is all the writing fuel a writer can ask for. You need to see the game system as the facilitator for your own writing and the springboard for your character, rather than the thing that feeds you your character progression. That's exactly the intent with the money and contracts system, giving players choices to make that will inevitably affect their characters. When a character is aiming a gun at a foreign mercenary during a high-intensity contract, I want them to FEEL that they are murdering someone. I want the ship to UNDERSTAND that their actions have consequences. And that character with white morals forced to abide this SHOULD feel troubled. They SHOULD feel like they have messed up. Because that's just the kind of universe they live in. This does not preclude you from writing a morally good character; this makes you have to write an interesting morally good character who struggles with reconciling their morals with a fundamentally unfair universe. How does that feel for them? Did they have any other way out? Did they pick the easy way out? Could they have done anything to avoid this? These are some of the moral problems I want people to have, And yes, this is a tonal shift that was necessary. Aurora has been a morally good setting for years now (with fundamentally no elements of corporate dystopia left; this is a universal truth now, and not really up for serious debate) and nothing good has come of it. Arguably, it's been one of the main driving reasons for our population troubles. This is why NBT2 shifts towards a more grim setting; we need one in order to really light the flame in terms of character interactions and conflict. A mercenary is not necessarily a paramilitary. An Avarizia office worker who handles the NanoExcel paid leave sheets is as much of a mercenary as the guy going planetside to explore ruins. In Anabasis the term mercenary just means "someone who works for money for a mercenary company". It is not necessarily militarized in Anabasis; this is different in the Horizon's setting as "mercenary" is exclusively used in the context of PMCG. This is just something that will change overtime as culture shifts to match the new lore. The ship being a Solarian destroyer is set in stone, yes, because it will allow us to have some pretty good lore elements that I don't want to spoil yet, and good lore justification to have ship weapons and other goodies that will help us a lot in space exploration and high-intensity stuff (like drop pods 😉). The setting becoming more militarized is something that's brought up often in developer chat. We all want to avoid it, that much I can say. What I can say is that conflict happening more often does not equal militarized. Naturally Anabasis will have more conflict and fighting because, let's face it, that's what drives SS13 population in the first place - it's what Aurora needs in general to have a true resurrection. This doesn't mean that it'll happen constantly and neither does it mean that the setting will become militarized. We're all aware of the risks and that we're walking a tightrope, but those fine margins are what makes this setting potentially so speciall. We think that that goldilocks zone will drive so much conflict and so many moral dilemmas that will make roleplay unique and really interesting. In short, all I can ask is for trust in your development team. Remember; the Wikipedia version of the setting is not the final product. It is a summary of changes; it is nothing more than the ingredients to the dish.