Conspiir

I support this. It makes sense for drones to be able to fix piping. A person choosing to become a drone obviously wants to fix some kind of mess-up on the station. It would suck if that mess up is pipe-related and they're useless.

I would never ask for the entire story to be put on the wiki. And one for each holiday? It's definitely overlong for something like that, I agree! My hope was to be able to make an entire story like that, and then chop it up and put in the important parts (mostly a remembered quote. Quotes hold power, in my eyes, and are a direct connection to history). Just enough to give every Skrell an understanding of why the holiday is important, while leaving out such minute details that no one but the most dedicated would ever read. Dominia has holidays centered around their religion and government, two things very important to them. I had to think about what Skrell believed were most important. History and Merit, with a spice of Good Federation Values™ came to mind. I don't recall exactly what issue you refer to (I may have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to conflict), but I will explain myself and my philosophy as best I can. I really like when people come forth with thoughts about a pitched idea. A pooling of ideas or thoughts on changing them are what makes ideas better, far better than any one person could manage on their own. So I like debating with people that are willing to hear me out because I never aim to intentionally drag someone down. You don't progress that way. It gets difficult when people debate with a poor grasp of the baseline knowledge and the debate has to take a tangent to correct them, but I'm willing to do so as much as needed as long as the other person is willing to hear them. The best ideas come out of a conversation between several people with different beliefs on how something should be executed. (It's why I enjoy the Skrell discord so much. That's all it is: conversations between different people.) Whether the answer is convincing others to your side or finding a compromise, if as many ideas are heard and examined as possible, it's hard to accidentally leave something out or make critical mistakes. Thanks for the input, Coalf, I do appreciate it.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Conspiir Position Being Applied For: Skrell Lore Deputy Past Experiences/Knowledge: I play a lot of Skrell. I’ve made some idea contributions (I throw out ideas a lot), some minor github things. I’ve edited the wiki slightly before, but not to any great extent. Examples of Past Work: Most of my writing ability is in telling stories. There are some stories on this forum I’ve written. Admittedly, it’s what I enjoy most, which is why anything I write will likely come across in story/article form. My essay is an example of that. Additional Comments: My ultimate goal is wanting to flesh out the unfinished calendar page. I want it to be something engaging, something with a story and lore (hah) attached to it. Something players can say “Yes, this is our history” and not have it be weird or unnatural to talk about—it would be talking about a story you read. Additionally, Skrell religions need some love. I’d like Weishii to have an identity other than “It’s Qeblak but with less stars and more... something, I guess.” I want to flesh both sides out (Qeblak’s horoscopes are unfinished) so perhaps one day a Skrell priest could have something to actually talk about. Plus there mayyy be some fun to be had with some Skrell conspiracy theorists, but I haven’t committed to that yet. I’m also rather interested in genetic defects and diseases that could be a result of the genetic bottlenecking of the species. But maybe that’s just the biologist in me and no one else is. Like I said, I throw out a lot of ideas and see what sticks. You can find my essay Here (Boy I hope that works, I'm not extremely experienced with google docs). Notes: I’m CST (GMT -5 when daylight savings isn’t active) and off for the summer before I start back another year in (a new) college. I can be reached any time I’m not sleeping.

And you're entitled to that. Just as I am entitled to say you may be approaching it with a bit of a heavy hand because you don't fully understand how it works, by your own admission. The memes should definitely be pruned out, but adjusting the rewards and what bounties are kept/discarded needs more tuning. Particularly since there isn't that much variety anyway. They're made with berries, which give only 2 per yield, and eggs, of which there are only 2 dozen. It takes 1 berry and 1 egg per pancake, but you make them in batches of 2. That means to make 13 pancakes, you actually need 14 eggs and 14 berries. Not the scope of this PR, but do know this. Would you be willing to play chef and consult chef players before making a PR changing recipes?

I would literally rather die than go to every vending machine in the station, pay for as many cheesie honkers as exist, still not get enough and have to ask a janitor to restock it, and then load all 30 bags (if you manage it) onto the shuttle and not even get back the investment because the miniscule amount goes to the cargo account instead of your personal account that you use to buy things from vending machines. I think it might greatly aid your PR to actually go and collect the bounties for a several rounds. Common sense can only get you so far if you haven't gone up to a chef and asked for 13 pancakes only to have them excrete tears for how many eggs that takes and say no while whipping up a quick batch of kebabs (which yes, we do have in the code) for the other bounty. Plus, with how reduced the rewards are (even if they may make more sense to you), doesn't mean it'll be enjoyable to go out and get them only to get 200 credits into an account. That covers a full shipping fee, not even counting anything you might need to order. Shit is expensive. Don't think of it like the station is being paid for the objects; think of it like the assets are being reshuffled. All of it is still NT money, the Aurora is just trusted to have a bigger share.

Not too long! Good to see an older Skrell, I like it! How long has she been in human space, having real face-to-face interaction with AI? Will there still be some substantial leaking through of her ingrained feelings past the "you are a tool" mentality she's adopted?

You seem to have removed the earmuffs and monkey cubes and kebabs bounties, which are doable, while not removing the monkey hide or chainsaw or 30 cheese honkers or the 5 briefcases which are... far less so. You also left the "tank of plasma" as "plasma" instead of phoron. And the revolver (which, funnily enough, I think you can cut a capgun and have it count) which is also "unique" to the detectives that shouldn't be handed to the cargo team, as per your third point. I'm curious as to why you decided to keep the frostoil bounty, but not the slime jelly? They would both take a Xenobot or Xenobio. Or space drugs, come to think of it. (And rezadone was kept. I don't think I've ever filled a rezadone bounty. Jeepers.) You left 13 pancakes, but removed 3 kebabs. It feels like... you don't play a whole lot of cargo to know much about the bounties and how they get handled amongst the crew. They will still be the same bounties. There will actually be fewer, so you will see the same ones repeated more, and they're worth less. More bounties should be added to counteract this hit to the fun meter. By that I mean, I've literally never seen bounties asking for the stuff in the /bot or /science lists.

I agree with something like this. Something should be done about the ease of disabling borg traitors. As soon as it does one iffy thing, anyone with a flash can safely disable it, no lockdown console required. It's just stuck.

I feel like my point was missed at some point. I will try to state it as clearly as possible. I don't care about how it works. It just has to work without fail and approved by corporates. Nothing can survive. That is what is accomplished with a Code Delta. I want to say it again: I like this idea. It really does add more to it than the few seconds of countdown. But everything must die. Any oversight could mean the end of the universe as we know it, and NT can't be liable for that. That's why the nuke works right now--it's the best solution mankind has to every conceivable threat and has been for five hundred years. Imagine sitting in a board meeting at NT. "Boys, we need to make sure, if something goes horribly, horribly wrong, that whatever went wrong can be blown up. Suggestions?" "Nuke it." "Agreed, a nuke is the best way." "… Well, sir, actually. We have this new invention that kills everything!" "The robots?" "Yes." "The plants?" "Yes." "Microorganisms, too?" "Yes." "The horror forms of the Devil's own creations that have nothing in common with what we know of living things?" "Anything you can imagine!" "And it's not a nuke?" "No sir! There's even a bonus!" "Tell me more!" "It leaves the station intact!" "How have we never heard of this?" "It just exists, sir!" "Alright, where has it been tested?" "It hasn't been!" "... How do we know it works?" "It just does!" What would help is writing it into the lore. It has to have been tested somewhere at some time, right? Some terrible genocide of an entire planet leaving a barren rock without even a microbe. Something characters can be shocked by. "We have a WHAT on the station?" Something that big doesn't just appear and get approved by stuffy men in suits that need to make sure their money doesn't get eaten by deadly viruses that make zombies.

Adding on this, if this approach is taken, keep in mind z-levels, since it does have to travel across them. Also, remember to have it affect plants and 'other' like blobs. I don't remember off the top of my head how code handles those things and I don't have a lot of time right now to check. I'm still concerned, though, but I know I'm being ignored. What if the station does need to go? Like it's an issue infecting the structure itself? Or the issue mimics the station structure (a living thing made of steel or sand or rock? Do golems count? Is there a special place in the weapon just for golems, too?) Will there be a backup plan?

For every character that has a firm stance on something, I usually have another character who is the opposite. I don't always play both sides simultaneously. It would be terrible to do so in my case; switching POV so fast can mess with my character flow. Take Vedai. Vedai hates synths. Most of my Skrell do. That's just what Jargon does. But then I also have a Skrell who does not hate synths. I do not play him as much. But I acknowledge he is there and his view is valid. It comes from a reason. These viewpoints can come about based on home, too. A Human from Sol is different from a Human from Eridani. But is this greatly enforceable? … Who enforces it? The biggest issue I face playing a character like Vedai is the confusion. Like an IPC (or stationbound) that doesn't understand why it isn't liked when it hasn't done anything. Or gets upset about it. Or its friends get upset about it. I like the conflict, else I wouldn't be playing a character that stirs it so easily. But when the conflict is more about the IPC as a character and less about the IPC as a general race, it feels like it stops being an IC thing to pass the time and more like I'm worried I'm going get IR'd for calling an IPC a bot and telling it to stop talking. Getting mobbed for having believable character stances isn't okay. If there is a reason behind the choice and it is a valid one (but how do we determine validity?) then what follows is just... roleplay. Xenophobe, xenophile, doesn't matter. Would I like to see a bit more grrr thrown around? Yeah. I have an Unathi cook that refuses to serve Aut'akh. Have I been punished for it? Not yet. I worry I might be, at some point. And he will have to stand up for himself by saying "That'sss an Aut'akh" and get the dreaded "So what?" in response. Or worse, "Don't be racist." Yes! Be racist! It's fun on both sides of the coin! I have to crank up the creepiness of my Vaurcae by about 10x in order to get some odd looks. It works, but it's also draining. If only had to crank it up 2x to get the same result, I'd be much happier. Some kind of beacon I can put up saying "be mean to me".

I don't believe in inventing problems. Please don't accuse me of malice aforethought. I've been trying to tell you the plot holes I see so the idea can be fixed and improved so this iteration can be the last one. If someone just like you comes along in a year and says "But... this device doesn't make sense, let's fix it" then we need to be sure that it wasn't something we thought of now, while it can still be fixed and avoid that conversation in a year. That is all I want, Kaed. It doesn't make sense to change something if the improvement margin isn't good enough. Just work it out with me so we can improve the idea. If there's something I can do to debate this with you better, tell me. I believe the idea is they already have a stolen superweapon from NT--the nuke that needs NT codes. This would not change any plot holes. Having it explicitly stated might instead explain one with the equipment we already possess. If we go the bluespace-enveloping route, can we reliably say that bluespace is well-studied enough that there's absolutely no way anything we envelope in bluespace won't get spit out again? NanoTrasen has to be certain that this device will work. Under any horrific circumstance. Deadly spreading virus. Parasites. Hostile aliens. Mind-controlling creature from the depths of hell. Glorsh returned. Whatever comes to mind. Meaning it must work on a set of criteria and it must be guaranteed. No accidents. No hiccups that could make it not work. Nuke criteria for death and destruction: Within range Not immune to big explosions If immune to big explosions, not immune to acute radioactivity New device's criteria for death and destruction: Within range Organic (and... teleportable, perhaps. There's a thought. What about bacteria that get stuck to a wall or something? How do you teleport individual bacteria? I don't know if teleporter lore gets microorganism-sized) Synthetic - But only AI, IPC, Androids, Cyborgs, Robots *Not station structure An alternative we haven't talked about might be to improve the nuke. Force everyone (the ghosts) to the CentComm level so we don't see the station. Make it disappear from the playfield altogether. And obviously make it so no one has osteoporosis. Or perhaps have it release a singularity. Lag ahoy, but would definitely obliterate everything, won't it? And it would be slow enough to allow for evacuation and end-round RP. Problem might be the z-levels, though.

… No, this is a piece of equipment we have sitting on the station. At all times. Canonically. It isn't pulled out of nowhere "just for the round end" like Nar'sie. This equipment exists. Even more than that, it's company-approved last resort, meaning it is not experimental. It must have an explanation. I don't enjoy being inane about this, but understand where I'm coming from. I'm not trying to be cruel, or mean, or asinine. What you suggest as-is is no more feasible than the nuke. The difference is that the nuke exists as a real, explained object. There's no magic to it. There's no "ifs". It is a nuclear device that will obliterate everything. Full-stop, company-approved, no-take-backs, full-insurance. Your idea may function better mechanically, but has more holes logically. You're replacing one plot hole for another. That should not be done. I'm also curious if gibbing ~50 people simultaneously is a good idea. I don't know how the lag would hold up or if it would be an improvement at all in that way. I've never messed with that.

Yes, I can think of three options. First of all, I think we can all agree, this is very different from a nuke. The ability to wipe an area of life but keep the structure unharmed is absolutely, insanely powerful and I think Butter's concern should be re-addressed. The downside of the nuke is that it does destroy the station, completely, leaving behind a nuclear epicenter of wasteland. It can't be immediately resettled or even approached without care. There's different implications there than the quick, no-repercussions removal of life (and possibly synthetic life) in the area. The best solution that still follows the path of keeping the station intact would be it destroying organics but not synthetics. Since if it did destroy synthetics, it would have to be preferential (and distinctly different in design) to positronics. But. This creates a separate issue. Since there's three types of borgs (positronic, brain, and chip), this type of organic obliterator would affect cyborgs, but not the other two types. It also has the issue of great impact on the lore since we literally have anti-genesis. The solution that would be more complete in devastation would be to have it not affect motherboards at all. This means positronics and organics get mushed, but robot-type borgs, mechs, and small robots do not. But obviously, we face the same issue as above with 1/3 borg types being unaffected. The most complete solution that accounts for every variable that I can think of (and it makes me sad that I'm the only one that's thinking of these variables; I could still miss some) would be one that destroys organics, positronics, and chips--this means every single electronic device on the station. If it has a motherboard, it's overloaded and gibs. This would be fairly on-par with mass bluespace teleportation as far as execution. Think about it. Every electronic... With what we have to go off of, there isn't anything we can do to make a "catch-all" bomb that destroys everything but what's part of the station. Even combining organic and synthetic positronic is difficult. There's a reason we have separate guns for vs people and vs synths. So unless we make two bombs, one a massive EMP and another some kind of... I don't know. Gas? It would have to kill every known species and every unknown species without fail. What if the station is infected by a species without traditional DNA and the bomb is intended to target DNA/RNA? Well... shit? Otherwise it would be best to stick with what's known and tried and true--the nuke.

There is an explanation for each of these. Their existence is not contradicted by the explanation. I'm not asking for total realism. I'm totally fine with a science fiction explanation. But that explanation has to be complete and make sense. There are times when "bluespace" is acceptable. This just isn't one of those cases. Since this is not the first iteration of a thing, but the second, it must be improved upon. The general idea is good, but it must be better than what we have and it must be solid and not self-contradictory or lacking. There should not be oversights that are found before implementation, or it should be adjusted.

Okay, we can work with that. How do we account for the bluespace inhibitors? Like, if someone hid next to one. And about the asteroid. What is it using to sense outside of the station? (And in the maintenance tunnels, too, I guess.) Even our actual AI can't. Also, hm. I don't think that mass telegibbing can be reflected mechanically. The point of this suggestion is to try to give a better, more complete explanation and execution than the one we have. If holes are left behind, there will just be another one of these threads in 3 months saying "the execution we have now is poor, let's change it" so we need to have as many bases covered as possible, or not waste resources to change anything at all. Why replace a smelly fish with a smelly cephalopod?

I literally can't accept that. I don't think you guys get it. You cannot say this weapon destroys these chips but not those chips if both chips are made the exact same. That's beyond science fiction. You can't handwave that. "Oh, it's bluespace" is not acceptable.

A cleanbot isn't an intelligent creature in any capacity. Roombas are not liable to take over the world.

They aren't made using them. Only proximity sensors. If we want to explain it that way, then circuits need to be created for these inferior bots to be built with. But... that just makes them another chip device. Which still raises the question in my mind: if it's destroying the Roomba (that's actually just a motherboard--with some sensors and a broom), why is it not destroying all the station hardware that's just a motherboard--i.e., computers, laptops, any buildable machine?

Kaed said floorbots (and it is assumed medibots and mopbots as well) would be affected. Those don't have chips at all.

The science behind this confuses me. What causes it to explode the robots with computer chips, but not the many computers on the station? The laptops? The request consoles? The news reporters? The autolathes, protolathe, chemheaters, anything with a chip?

To think, I thought "Telling people we should do away with the report" would be too radical with how heavily its pushed ICly lately. I do believe there needs to be some sort of accountability. When you send materials to CentComm, you get a report for how much each part of what you sent was worth, which works fine for accountability there. But some way of covering someone's butt when a person says "Mining is working" might be needed beyond that. Proof, if you will, beyond the physical materials themselves. I believe that's the intention of the Yield Report as-is (it's actually a pretty bad form right now. Poorly organized. It has reinforced glass sheets on it. You can't even smelt those--you have to combine them by hand!) I do like the idea of an automatic form (This would be a mechanical change however, and not merely a policy shift.) I was considering "It should print when the points are collected", but the points are a reflection of what's smelted, not what is stacked (i.e. the stacker could still be processing even if the smelter is done). A 'print report' button on the stacker would take some thinking. To make the report, the stacker has to count what's been ejected, but does it count what's still in the stacker as well? And how do you make it not count materials already printed on someone else's form? Would it just keep a running tally instead of individual yields?

I've been wanting to make this for a while (since BRAINOS mentioned it last summertime) and almost did when we added a 3rd cargo tech slot. In the end, it was an actual IC conversation that made me finally do it. Now to get the bias card out of the way: yes, I play a lot of mining. I enjoy it a lot. But I also play cargo techs and a Quartermaster. Right now, it's expected that miners are the ones that fill out yield reports. This does not make economic sense in ANY capacity. I propose we shift the responsibility of filling yield reports over to cargo technicians and the quartermaster instead of the miners themselves. Why shouldn't miners be responsible for what they bring in? Why cargo techs? -Cargo technicians have access to the material stacking room (but NOT mining proper). Why would they ever need that if miners are supposed to be filling out reports and bringing the crate out? -Miners are the ones making the credits. Time is money! They should be maximizing the amount of time on the asteroid digging up gold! and it's mine, mine, MINE! materials, not checking boxes! -There are three cargo technicians whose job it is to sort the warehouse, collect bounties, and take orders. Generally, for those that don't play cargo, it goes like this: At the start of the round, one cargo tech sorts the warehouse. They are usually done after ~20 minutes. They then go out and help the other techs collect any bounties. In between this, a chef might order chickens or something. After they've collected whatever bounties they could, it's time to sit around in the lobby or the bar and occasionally move crates. How would this change affect the current status quo? I believe it will work something like this: At the start of the round, one cargo tech sorts the warehouse. They are usually done after ~20 minutes. Miners will come in very soon after that and that cargo tech can fill out the report, then they (or the miner themselves, if they want something from science) can deliver that first load to science while the other techs collect any bounties. After that's done, they can go help collect bounties. In between this, a chef might order chickens or something. After they've collected whatever bounties they could, it's time to sit around in the lobby or the bar and occasionally move crates and filling out the miner's yields. But, what if there's only one person working in cargo? Well. Miners could still be nice and fill out the report. Or... no report could be filled at all, which is what usually happens when there's no one there to say "fill out the paper."

I think the first order of business before literally anything else goes into this would be to not call it a Meme. "Earworm" or something like that would probably be a better term.