CakeIsOssim

Borgs used to be able to swap tools without having to manually store one and then select the other. Borgs also had a thing where, if you examined them, it would show their tool hardpoints, what is being held on them, and a light indicator to show the examiner which tool they have active, if any. The AI used to also be able to examine anyone and everything by using crtl+shift+click. These features were lost to the Bay merge long ago, and it'd be friggin' sweet to have them back again.

Denied due to inactivity. You are encouraged to reapply should you still wish to play IPC.

Denied due to inactivity. You are encouraged to reapply should you still wish to play IPC.

Application accepted.

Looking good, really like the idea of a completely subservient IPC. It's a pretty uncommon style of character. There is a mandatory 24 hour grace period between the posting of an application and the verdict of an application, however, so I will come back to this later today to determine the outcome.

Application accepted.

This concerns me slightly, as it makes me think HELIX may be a mad scientist of sorts. The moral treatment of others (others being, intelligent biological organisms like the crew) is important when working as researcher in the medical field, especially if you are a synthetic who is trying to hold down both its freedom and its job. If you would care as to clarify this first? Otherwise, I have no issues with this application.

Parts of what Muncorn said, I would like expanded on. Like Shockwave's interaction with organics, its opinion on the fact it has little to no rights, et cetera. If a reply is not posted within two days (48 hours), this application will be denied.

Muncorn brought up some good points and I would like them to be addressed, and I'm going to carry on the application from there. But, if a reply is not posted by the originator in two days (48 hours), this application will be denied.

This was the agreed upon outcome for the continuation of the application process. So, I fully endorse this application under the circumstances. Rolling with as many prosthetics as you can possibly spawn with works for me, and I'm sure it will be taken well, as it's probably not the first time anyone has ever played a character with a ton of robotic parts.

Something else I forgot to talk about was AI and sentience. While, thanks to the antag contest, synthetics may be considered legally sentient, the argument about whether or not they actually are will remain. No definitive answer should ever be given whether or not AI is sentient. The vagueness of it, I think, is the basis of the eternal argument between organics and synthetics: "you're just a machine and you don't know anything about being alive or life itself." It poses a very interesting argument, because if we assume an AI is sentient, it has no way of proving that any other biological life is also sentient. A double edged sword.

I will answer your questions at the same time because the answer I have for one of them relates to generally the same thing. The "robotic flow" is how the community imagines and plays out their machines. While some are robotic and linear, and others are more human-like in their behavior, they remain fundamentally the same. Of course this has its limits. When creating a synthetic, you have a blank canvas, but painting whatever you wanted without even looking at your reference material would turn out quite eccentric. We've had examples of this in the past leading to whitelist strips, and I won't be mentioning any names. The beauty of synthetics is that there is no "standard." I mean, not one that is as linear as, say, a Unathi from Moghes whom is also not a guwan. My personal view of synthetics goes a little something like... cold, distant, disconnected, but not emotionless. It would have trouble understanding and relating to human emotion, while attempting to help humans understand its own form of emotion. Actions dictated maybe not so much by logic, but by intelligence, experience, and the synthetic's opinion (or, emotion) towards said subject requiring action. My favorite robot ever is without a doubt Ultron. I'm sure that was obvious, though. Ultron is not without emotion, and while it does dictate some of his actions, it doesn't really get in his way. And while he's insanely smart, he's equally as arrogant, and this arrogance usually results in whatever plans he made to be smashed to pieces by the Avengers (MCU is reluctantly included in this). I can name many examples of other synthetics I deeply enjoy: Chappie (even though the movie kind of sucked, the way the AI is portrayed is quite interesting), the androids from Alien, SHODAN, BT-7274, Jane (from Speaker For the Dead), Kaizen-85, Bomb 20 (even though it was a satire), and HAL-9000. There's so many more but I could go on all day. HAL-9000 is a good one, because it's a great example of what I think an AI would do if it went completely off of its rocker; terrifyingly logical, and what we can perceive as instant decision making. Bomb 20's a good one too, because even though it came to the decision that it needed to explode, the crew convinced it to do otherwise. Really, I believe it's very difficult to push the limits of what you can do with synthetics. You have the freedom to be very creative. There is such thing as too much creativity, however. These players would have to be assisted in toning it back, back to the reference material, so to speak. Some of the notable synthetics, I really do not like. And I know I'm not alone. Expect these to change, probably soon. Not sure how I feel about Jim, though, TBH. Like, actually on the fence, not the kind of "hmm I dunno..." that makes you seem like you don't like it. I believe that was botanistpower/rrrrrrr but I could be wrong. I like it a lot, too. Ties into what I said about HAL-9000 earlier. Depends on the level of emotion displayed. I personally believe synthetics should not be running around as if they had a nervous system to experience the level of emotion that humans, or otherwise, experience. The way synthetics should experience and display emotion should be on the colder and more distant side, or whatever form of display fits best with the fact that they are a machine, made of metal, silicon, and surviving on code. No, this does not mean all synthetics should be mindless, emotionless automatons. Application of you own interpretation is very, very important. If you mean which way the lore will go for cyborgs, likely the same way it will go with the rest of them. Cyborgs are actually outdated, but the technology to create them continues to improve. As a cyborg, you have just as much freedom in being an individual as any other synthetic. But, your reasoning for such relies more on the fact that you have an actual organic brain, even if it was wiped of everything that made it human, or otherwise. Station bound synthetics will fall under the work done for general synthetics, as they're just synthetics but bound to the station.

Synthetics being considered people will slowly (not like, painfully slowly - I mean this as in over time) be normalized in society. The close victory assures that synthetics will still not be trusted with their newfangled title of "actually sentient, wow." Tau Ceti being the hugbox that it is, we will see more developments with Tau Ceti and synthetic rights than we will with any other state, more than likely. Specifics are unclear as of this moment, but there will be developments and I think they will be received well.

Bless all forms of Intelligence. Welcome, I'm glad you're here reading this. I know that there's been quite a few synthetic lore developer rotations. I'm here to reassure you that I intend to stay. I'm also here for two other reasons and those are going to require a lot more reading sorry. So, topic number one: How do you feel about the previous changes and declarations made about synthetics and/or IPCs in general? Please be as open as you like. I'd like to know how all of you feel about the previous changes made, as I understand there was confusion, frustration, and fear. Let me add to this that I do not intend to make any drastic changes any time soon. This includes the retconning or redaction of anything any of the previous synthetic lore developers did, unless I find that it's not up to par with the server's robotic flow. I've been discussing the whole idea behind shards with the previous lore developer, and I've yet to come to any concrete conclusions. So, for now, the inability for AI to be sharded will be staying. This is subject to possible change at any time in the near future, so expect news on that. Topic number two is: What do I intend to do with synthetics immediately and in the future? The latter part of that question is difficult to answer right now, but give me some time and I'm sure I'll come up with something nice and cool. Radical changes aren't really my thing, once again, so don't expect many, or any, of those. As for immediate changes, I've already been discussing mechanical changes to each of the subtype IPCs. Mainly, how their cooling works. This is still up in the air and can change at any time. As I've said earlier, I'm also still discussing things with the appropriate people (including you, reader) about shards. Another idea I had in mind was to separate the IPC page from "general synthetics" page. This is because all IPCs are AI, but not all AI are IPCs. Transparency is good, but you can't make everyone happy. Remember that. I'm here to gather information because I actually really need it, to better suit my position as a lore developer for the community. I do have one request, though, that if you're going to gripe about the constant passing of the baton, please at least humor the first question posed. Yes, I know I've inherited a position that's been popular for its ability to change overseers quite often. I ask you to look passed that for now, because I don't intend on going anywhere.

All synthetics are covered by the synthetic lore dev (as of the date posting this, myself). Laws are, indeed, regulated to prevent unregistered, or even registered, synthetics from having law sets that obviously violate the laws and statutes in place within whatever sovereignty the synthetic is bound to serve. The laws can vary from individual, to company, to state, and the regulations for the laws also vary. I would also say that there's no such thing as a "standard law set" when talking about a larger scale state, such as the Alliance. Corporations or otherwise would probably have default or standard law sets. I imagine the Alliance navy's AI would have something akin to 'NT Aggressive' but moreso geared towards service and protection of their crew and other naval personnel. Also remember that bound synthetics outside of their assigned facilities would have little in the way of ability to interface with anything electronic, because they aren't connected to those systems. Station-bounds are able to do this because they are bound to the station. Unregistered synthetics would still be dangerous, though, because they're still robots with unpredictable capabilities. I'm sure that was obvious, though.

Ckey/BYOND Username: CakeIsOssim Position Being Applied For (coder, mapper, spriter): Species lore developer Past Experiences/Knowledge: I've been the corporation overseer for a few months now, and have worked with the lore team (as well as the previous synthetic lore devs) ever since. The newer Hephaestus Industries page is part of my work. Examples of Past Work: https://aurorastation.org/wiki/index.php?title=Hephaestus_Industries Preferred Mode of Communication (Skype, Steam, etc.): Discord, Steam. Additional Comments:

Gone. Forever.

Do you perhaps remember the round type? I don't have access to the logs database or anything, but I can try to expedite the process by determining the game ID. edit: The only round that ended yesterday at midnight was a malfunction round. The game ID would be bmsWXf.

BYOND Key: CakeIsOssim Character name: ESRA Item name: It's a custom AI core display. Why is your character carrying said item to work? ESRA was designed around organic-AI interaction, so people would feel more comfortable talking to a machine that talked like a person. The display was more or less chosen for it, as it best fit ESRA's personality: smug, narcissistic, and faceless, yet something dependable and honest... like a cowboy. Item function(s): No real function - it's an AI core display. Item description: A grey humanoid head with a cowboy hat, no face, a cigarette, and a yellow neckerchief. The display itself is animated to a degree; the cigarette glows red and orange, and there's a digital distortion bar that moves from the top to the bottom every so often. Item appearance: How will you use this to better interact with crew and/or stimulate RP? Similarly to why ESRA has this face to begin with. It allows for more personal interaction (when someone can see the core, of course) and accentuates (quite perfectly, might I add) ESRA's personality. Additional comments: edit: i forgot to add this https://www.dropbox.com/s/6tlr6t8z07g48j8/ESRA%20custom%20AI%20core%20display.zip?dl=0 slick

Pretty much this. Mice are not characters. They are backseat pseudo observers. They are also pests. A mouse pointing out shit that humans use on a daily basis, and would have no idea what it even is, is not okay. It is not against the rules to kill pests. It is not against the rules to play a pest. It is against the rules to abuse a role to do stupid stuff. This vehement defending of mice is seriously getting kind of ridiculous, and though such a personal response out of me may not be so becoming of a moderator, it is honestly how I feel.

Hephaestus Industries Announces Completion of New Experimental “Superfreighter,” Pledges to Fund New Frontier Colonies 10.11.2458 Today, CEO of Hephaestus Industries Titanius Aeson and the chief starship construction overseer Packard Rigela gave a speech at the company’s Sol-based administrative center, the HAS Olympus, to announce the completion of a new, groundbreakingly large, experimental “superfreighter.” The vessel, registering at an immense 3.8 kilometers, larger than any ship of its kind, demonstrated its Bluespace jump capabilities to a crowd of several hundred people at the administrative station by appearing, on cue, outside of the demonstration room’s exterior window. “My father said that societies and economies are built on the backs of industrial giants,” said Aeson during his speech, shortly before the freighter finished its realspace entry. “It was his dream for this company to become that industrial giant… and today, I’d like to show you another giant that I intend to use to carry humanity’s growing society and economy to the ends of the universe.” It was at this point that the newly-christened HSF Titáv exited Bluespace outside of the demonstration room window. “Not only humanity… but everyone will stand on the back of this giant and revel in the wonders that it brings.” Aeson and Rigela further explained that the Bluespace-capable freighter would first be used to shorten the amount of time it would take to complete the construction of the orbital manufactory at Ourea, and any more manufactories planned to be constructed in the future. According to Rigela, the Titáv is an industrial capital ship, capable of carrying other smaller vessels, mostly for the purpose of moving held cargo to and from its current destination, as well as immense amounts of pre-assembled parts, machines, and raw materials. The freighter also utilizes many large cargo teleportation pads within its bays. Rigela continues, "The amount of cargo the Titáv is capable of carrying is immense. The same goes for the amount of power it consumes. She boasts a Supermatter core as well as two large backup phoron energy generators. The Bluespace drive is about the size of a small shuttle or runabout. And of course, our own programmed autopilot and guidance AI system. We've tested and tested and tested and tested, all in controlled environments. And all her systems have passed with flying colors. We're ready to move her into the field and really see what she's capable of. I'm personally excited, and I can't wait to see where she goes and what she brings with her. And you can guarantee that if she works, she won't be the last." During the closing of the demonstration, Aeson pledged to begin the funding of new colonies in the frontier, and offers supported infrastructure on already established colonies. “These worlds, they’re tough. The people on them are even tougher, but everyone needs a hand and a pat on the back every so often. What I propose is the bringing of jobs and production to them,” Aeson says to the crowd. “Some of these worlds are harsh. If you’ve ever been to Earth, you know what kind of beauty can be had from a planet, and even how easy it is for some lazy, careless people to ruin it. I think we can do better than that: better, cheaper, and easier terraformation. We’ll work hard, every day, to bring these worlds what they need.” The Titáv is expected to jump to Ourea some time next week, full of parts and supplies necessary in the completion of the Ourean orbital manufactory. Further news on Hephaestus’s colonial charter to come.

I am willing to give you this chance. It will be your responsibility to not play important roles during times that you are aware that your ISP may disconnect you. A note will be placed on your ckey stating that if you are found logged out during the time you stated (15:30-17:30 GMT+1), another permanent ban must be placed (and it will likely be unappealable). You'll have several chances, or strikes, or what have you if you are found logged out as warden any time outside of the time you have given. By the time you finish reading this, your ban will be lifted. Enjoy, and I implore you not to blunder.

What timezone?

If you can't find the AI because it moved, perhaps you should instead focus on capturing the borgs that moved it. That is your counter. Capture them, relaw them, order them to tell you where the AI is. Difficult does not imply impossible. And while it isn't exactly inapplicable, the rule of being a dick applies mainly to OOC.

I believe my decision was just, considering it also had the support of a head administrator. Outplaying your opponent is not an exploit. The crew have found AIs on the telecomms satellite before, they did it that round but failed to reach them, and they will continue to do so in the future. If you want that changed, you should be making a suggestion.