MattAtlas

1. I didn't say strips are arbitrary. There's a staff complaint system in place to make sure that they are not. Whitelists can be stripped for other reasons if they are found to be appropriate. 2. This isn't a slippery slope. Just because I want to remove the whitelists of people that haven't played in a year, doesn't mean I'll end up banning random people. 3. I already said this enough in the comments. I'm not going to repeat myself.

1. This is how they can prove they can still play command - by undergoing the app+trial. I want to have them do this first to again minimize the chances of things going wrong in the nbt tests. 2. Whitelists don't only get removed for misbehaviour and it has never been said that their removal only happens because of it. Removal is at the discretion of the whitelist team 3. Applying for command is not cumbersome: the application is massively simplified compared to years ago, it's now fifteen minutes odd of writing with a seven day trial where you're free to play command as you want to. 4. I explained why in the comments a few times already. As for people hopping onto other servers to play command, they're free to do it if they don't want to go through a very simple reapplication process. There's more to Aurora than just command roles.

I'm going to address the three different bits here. 1. Activity is a factor in command whitelists. You need to be active enough to actually get feedback so that we know you've played rounds and are well integrated into the server. If you haven't played since 2017-2018, and you came back now, the server would be entirely different, and your competency (thus, capability to play a role) would be severely worse. You may have come and gone fairly often, but you're a moderator and inadvertently, through that position, keep being updated on server matters. 2. We do have a system for removing whitelists, but that does not account for what will be the tide of returning players when the NBT comes. I would like as few rounds as possible to be affected by command players like the ones described in the post. To be frank, getting a command whitelist is not at all hard, and a returning player quitting because of them being forced to reapply is a little weird. 3. Being made to reapply is not a punishment, and this is also not something we plan to do again. There's nothing being held against you in the future. All you'll need to do is go through the very simple application process and get your whitelist back. At most it would take a week or two of playing, enough to get a few people vouching for you, and then you're set again.

They would have to remake the application anyway, yes, but applications are like maybe 15 minutes of effort at most. We need them to make a forum thread anyway so we can track things like when they re-applied, characters, etc.

Approved, although you'll have to check if this is actually doable codewise, as I think it is but I'm not 100% sure.

This is approved with the caveat that the normal version is added to the loadout while Eden gets the custom-colored cape.

We haven't required character backstories in command apps for years now. Besides, the trial is just 7 days where you can play anything in command bar consular. And your app goes on trial in 3 days anyway.

The purge wouldn't really be a recurring thing. Doing it once to get rid of players that have been inactive in the 'modern age' so to speak of Aurora is enough, honestly. The thing is, server expectations and character quality have changed so much from 2016 to 2020 that Aurora is basically an entirely different server. And people from 2016 do often return to play command roles without "re-integrating" first. This is essentially what we're doing by making older players have to go through a trial again. You aren't really being punished here; nothing is being held against you, you just need to play for some weeks regularly, reapply and get your whitelist again. You would have no trouble with this if you are a good player. I don't really entirely agree. Command whitelists are also a competency check. You stop being as competent at the game and at command if you're inactive for too long. You also stop being in line with what current standards for whitelistees are. We are much harsher on command whitelistees now than in 2017, for example. Competency absolutely does matter when you are playing captain or head of security; many inactive players return with a completely different mindset regarding antagonists and our expectations for security, which have also changed a lot since back then.

We can check the rounds played by each player to avoid situations like someone playing 1 round in April 2021 and avoiding the purge. I haven't finalized the criteria yet, however.

Former.

Hello everyone. I'm seeking your feedback on an idea that I had today and wanted to share with the rest of the Command Whitelist team. Essentially, with the NBT testing weekends on the horizon, my concern has shifted to the fact that many inactive players will probably return, and some may have command whitelists. Now, as we all know, standards weren't always the same, and people that take long breaks tend to forget about the server completely and not stay updated on rules, character standards, mechanics, and so on. In light of this, I'd like to strip the command whitelists of players that haven't played for a year or more, thus making sure that everyone is up to our current standards. What do you all think?

As the staff member in question is no longer available, I'll handle this. You'll be unbanned. Make sure to read the rules since this is an HRP server, so on and so forth.

Accepted.

I think my only feedback about you is that you need to pay more attention to things like apostrophes/punctuation. It might seem small, but it impacts the quality of your roleplay a lot. Otherwise, I think you've been an alright head of personnel.

Accepted.

On trial until 19JAN2022.

This rule was enforced from before that edit: it used to be enforced under the "too many administrative punishments" clause with the understanding that a ban essentially meant that, since you have to be punished a lot to be banned or fuck up really heavily. It was put into clear writing later, but this isn't an ex facto application.

You actually give pretty damn good reasonings here. I actually might change my way of thinking abt sol common. Good answers on the rest too. Nothing else comes to mind rn for questions but I might be back.

Sounds fine if I interpret this correctly, however I'd have to see a plan of action to be sure. Not something I need to see now anyway. Onto one of my favourite lore subjects, and one that constantly causes division in the team. What are your thoughts on languages in the setting? Do you think that Tau Ceti Basic is fine the way it is? How do you feel about getting rid of it and instead relying on various languages with cross understanding? Do you think the current human languages are fine, or should there be more? Would you break up Sol Common? If so, why? What are your thoughts on current language availability?

Good answers so far. I agree on your plans of action. Adding new planets after the lore is stable, with more consideration, is definitely a good idea. I do think things like Crosk, Zaurghis and maybe Burzsia shouldn't have been allowed in. What are your thoughts on languages in the setting? Do you think that Tau Ceti Basic is fine the way it is? How do you feel about getting rid of it and instead relying on various languages with cross understanding? Do you think the current human languages are fine, or should there be more? Would you break up Sol Common? If so, why? What are your thoughts on current language availability?

What are your thoughts on languages in the setting? Do you think that Tau Ceti Basic is fine the way it is? How do you feel about getting rid of it and instead relying on various languages with cross understanding? Do you think the current human languages are fine, or should there be more? Would you break up Sol Common? If so, why? What are your thoughts on current language availability?

Autocanon is fine but it needs far stricter rules. You shouldn't be able to headcanon planets in core territory. Only non-coalition frontier or other specific territories that can be added in the future (CRZ?), and even then they should have at most a few thousand people, and should basically be politically irrelevant. Well, see, that is the thing! They don't have planets but they have polities on Adhomai, which have a lot of inner factions and inner workings. It's basically the same concept as new planets, except it's all concentrated on one planet, if that makes sense. Good stuff here. I like the questions. Fair feelings. I understand. If that's true, that's fine. I only went through the Dominia page history and wrote down the names I saw.

Tajara and Unathi have the depth they have because their entire content is contained into one to three worlds. This has never been the case for human lore and it cannot be, because Humanity is a fragmented star empire that has billions of times the systems that Tajara do. The impression they're spread thin on a lot of areas comes from the fact that a lot of the areas we have now weren't properly developed before: Biesel, Dominia, Elyra and the then-Frontier Alliance come to mind. But this application is levying criticisms against the current state of things: Elyra's rework is done and on the horizion, Dominia is finished and is flourishing in the playerbase, the now-Coalition of Colonies has many planets (and thus, depth) and Biesel has been reworked to good, but not excellent success. A faction's depth is represented by its planets and the variety of content. The only one I would call anemic as of now is Elyra, which is not the product of the current lore team but of previous iterations. Human lore is not lacking depth. Alright, I concede that my phrasing was off. I apologize if you are reading this, Marlon. So I'll phrase it like this instead: "How have your administration capabilities regarding human lore changed since your last tenure?" I will precise that Dominia was not the work of one or two developers but three. In different eras. Of people that put their hands on Dominia, I can count Pegasus, SeniorScore, Zundy and Marlon himself. So this was not a one-off issue. While I can respect this, I don't really support it for staff hiring. I would like to know Marlon's thoughts on this.

How are you going to accomplish this in a sane way? There are way too many factions in the universe to try and write a page for each faction's feelings on another nation. Even worse if you get down to the species level.

I'm curious about what areas of human lore you think, other than the techno-conglomerate, need to be removed or rehauled. At what point does humanity stop having "too much stuff"? Since the technoconglomerate is such an irrelevant part of lore, it's hardly calculated in most players' heads when thinking about how many factions humanity has. If human lore won't be able to add new planets or locations, what do you foresee them doing? Do you have any work in mind for them? Or perhaps any new ideas for wider galaxy lore arcs?