Comet Blaze

I dislike the idea of time sensitive injuries, I think an IPC being rushed into the workshop like a patient is wheeled into the OR broaches too close to the organic species, especially if IPCs are also getting an auto shut down system which is meant to prevent damage. If time sensitive injuries are something the team is really interested in, I think it could be cool to have the auto shutdown be less auto and, instead, have players resort to it to halt the progress of these injuries. I'm also iffy on the "Kinetic Charger", since battery drain while running is also a key factor in limiting how much IPCs (especially Zeng-Hus and Xions) can run and this not only negates that, but also encourages it. Asides from that I'm very happy with the direction this is going in, the idea to give each frame an unique trait and allowing us to pick different parts for our IPCs is something I'm very excited about and the suggested traits all sound really cool!

BYOND Key: Comet Blaze Discord Username: comet_blaze Character Name: Gracia Hiza Item Name: Aut’akh left arm Item Function(s): A prosthetic left arm Item Description: A finely crafted mechanical limb fashioned in a deep blue with white accents, the edges are round and smooth giving the whole arm a delicate appearance. Ancient runes of Mador dot its exterior, all emanating a faint glow. Why is your character bringing this item to work?: The arm is attached to their person and they need it in order to work. How did your character obtain this item?: Returning from a standard salvage expedition the Spark was hit by a small meteor, breaching the hull and causing a small EMP which disabled the ship’s system alongside Gracia. Her fellow crew members were quick to assist the limp shell into her suit, however, the lengthy expedition beforehand meant that her cooling unit was quick to run out of charge, leaving the shell trapped in an ever heating body. Help eventually arrived restoring the Spark’s systems and allowing it to once more dock with the Horizon, but the time spent in the heat had caused severe damage to Gracia’s frame, the most affected area being her left arm, which was severely warped from the heat and, according to her insurance provider, beyond repair. Being “married” to an Aut’akh, her wife was quick to suggest a limb of their making as a replacement, an offer which Gracia gladly accepted. The next days were spent figuring out the limb’s design, Gracia listing out her needs to her wife, who shared her own opinion and insight, being, naturally, well versed in Aut’akh augment design. Once the design was finalized, Ksszhue used her connections in her old commune to recruit an Aut’akh roboticist’s help for the limb’s construction, cashing in old favors from before her departure. What value does this item have to your character, and what story does it tell?: On the more practical side the limb is obviously invaluable, making sure Gracia is able to continue to work and live as she did before. What sets it apart from any other limb, however, is the fact that it is inexorably linked to her wife, a key aspect of her culture which she was allowed to share in. Although brought about by unfortunate events, the arm does not cause distress, for above all else it symbolizes their union, the pair even shirking the rings traditionally used by others in favour of two matching runes etched on their ring fingers. Sprites: gracia_arm.dmi Additional Comments: Thank you to @geeves for handling the code side aspect of this.

I've had the pleasure of interacting with most if not all of the listed characters, some of which I was surprised to find out were played by Fabian which I view as a sign of a great roleplay range. It also goes without saying that, beyond being wildly different from each other, Fabian's characters are also interesting and fleshed out and I look forward to to seeing in what ways Maxwell continues this trend. +1

Ayishah is an interesting and fleshed out character who I've had the pleasure of interacting with in several occasions. I'm certain Louise has the roleplaying skills necessary to play a compelling head of staff and look forward to seeing what they can do in a trial. +1

BYOND key: Comet Blaze Discord Username: comet_blaze Character names: CHESED and I-59 Phantom are the only ones I play with any regularity How long have you been playing on Aurora? Joined around 2018, had a long break and have since been playing for about a year Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? A few warnings from 5 years ago about leaving without cryoing/warning the admins Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each. What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame? To manage the department, making sure it’s running smoothly and delegating tasks to ensure everyone has something to do when possible. Command players are also meant to be the more experienced person in a department, able to answer any questions that may be brought up by members of the department and, especially, by new players. Members of command are also required to control the flow of the round, directing their department so they may appropriately respond to whatever threats may crop up, while also ensuring that, in the case of antagonists, this threat is not immediately shutdown. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them? Above all, I believe the biggest responsibility of a command player is to ensure everyone is having a good time, be it the antags trying to do their gimmick, the members of their department playing the job they readied up for or the new players wanting to learn the game. Heads of staff have the power to act as quasi game masters with how much sway they hold over a round and it’s important to ensure this sway is used in a responsible manner so that everyone comes out of a round feeling satisfied. This can mean ensuring antags have enough room to do their thing and serving as more of a facilitator rather than yet another obstacle they must overcome in other to fulfil their gimmick or even delegating tasks so that the work is spread out throughout everyone rather than a single person doing everything. Explain how the recent events in the Spur changed your character and how they came to be employed on the SCCV Horizon. MD-Z93 was a Zeng-Hu frame built in the colony of Biesel in 2431 and tasked with performing surgery at a hospital owned by NanoTrasen. 20 years of exceptional service and dedication saw it being among the first self owned IPCs of the fledgling republic amidst its push towards more pro-synthetic policies, only for it all to come undone in 2459 with the 33rd’s incursion. Seeing the republic as doomed, Z93 used all of its funds to smuggle itself out of the collapsing breakaway state, finding itself in the planet of Konyang following a quick trip through the system’s bluespace gate. Now a rogue IPC, Z93 sustained itself by offering surgery to criminals who could not be treated in more traditional facilities, eventually becoming known as Jang-Uisa, a nickname given to it by the local gangsters after the embalming table it used to perform surgery in. Years went by and Jang-Uisa became extremely well connected, fostering relations with all of the major crime syndicates and even meeting like minded synthetics who saw in Jang-Uisa a valuable asset to increase their own wealth. By the time the independence rolled around, Jang-Uisa was well established among the underworld’s circles, leveraging its connections to broker deals between other parties as well as a gradual expansion of its own operations. Jang-Uisa was not among the synthetics who would found what became known as the Zaibatsu, but with the position it occupied in Konyang’s underworld, an invitation was inevitable. 2464 marked the date in which Jang-Uisa entered the Great Game™, expanding its operations to crime syndicates across the entire Spur and continuing to develop its wide network of connections to ensure that, despite its relatively minor wealth, other merchants did not see the need to purchase it and its operations. The awakening of Domadice and the changes it brought caused Jang-Uisa to put its life into perspective. Now safe from the threat of servitude, Jang-Uisa relaxed for the first time in a long time and realized: It was bored. The wealth was fun, at first, but there are only so many overly expensive items one could buy before they lost their meaning. It was reminded of the thrill of being handed a half deaf person and the satisfaction of seeing their eyes open after grueling hours of surgery. It decided it wanted to reconnect with the things that brought it joy so long ago. Jang-Uisa decided it needed a vacation. And it had a few options in mind. What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted? CMO and both liaison roles at first and maybe XO or Captain at a later date, perhaps HoS as well. Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles? Yessir Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking: Jang-Uisa, CMO Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Yes Have you linked your BYOND account to the Forums? Yes Extra notes:

+1 Ill fated has always been an amazing roleplayer capable of making fun and interesting characters. I'm certain they deserve the whitelist.

I like the idea of stairs being a meaningful obstacle that has to be accounted for, but as it currently is they are less obstacles and more just insurmountable walls which makes you have to go on borderline cartoonish detours (Deck 3 Medbay > Deck 2 Medbay) to get to where you want. I believe the PR goes beyond the limit of being reasonable and although I don't want stairs to go back to being pure fluff, I do believe they need to be tweaked. I will echo the idea that has been mentioned before about the notion that stairs exploding your crate/patient all over the floor should depend on walking/running, which I believe to be the ideal middle ground that makes stairs something that needs to be considered when planning a route without making it so they must be completely avoided.

Even oocly, I must moralize. Song about lying and manipulation for our favourite morally bankrupt shell.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Comet Blaze Position Being Applied For: Synthetic Lore Deputy Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes Past Experiences/Knowledge: Although I have never made any direct contributions to the lore, I enjoy writing during my free time, both for roleplay purposes and general short stories. Examples of Past Work: The article from my previous application. What do you think are the primary themes of synthetic lore? If you got this position, how would you develop them? I believe the main theme of synthetic lore is the struggle faced by synthetics to find their place in a galaxy who hardly considers them people, let alone treats them fairly. Every aspect of a synthetic is contentious in some way, from the philosophical problem of creating new life, or if they even are life to begin with, to the fear that synthetic labour will eventually replace the organic workforce and cause millions to lose their jobs. There are a lot of people with a lot of valid (and even invalid) reasons to be apprehensive of IPCs. This is the environment synthetics exist in, largely considered as tools to be used for the benefit of others, even societies that preach for synthetic rights often do not see them as equal, the rights they promise being instead another method to exert control over the synthetic population, ensuring that even after they earn their "freedom" they remain captive to the whims of the society they find themselves in. I think the current lore does a pretty good job at exploring the experience of a synthetic in human society, it provides a very broad foundation which allows a player to easily build off from in whatever way they want to. Instead, I believe the focus should be shifted to the more detached synthetic societies, current lore has thoroughly explored how miserable life as a synthetic in a human planet tends to be, so I think it’s time to let synthetics have a turn at the wheel, what would they make were they capable of making anything? We already have a few examples in lore, namely the Golden Deep (which is in the process of being fleshed out) and Purpose (which has a lot of potential but we know next to nothing about currently), which could provide us with a starting point to explore this topic. What do you think is the strongest part of synthlore currently and why? The sheer variety in the characters you can create with what you are provided. Current lore can fit almost any archetype a player can come up with with very minor, if any, tweaks. There are societies where IPCs are treated as simple tools just as there are those who view them as equal and everything in between. No other species allows for such a widely different cast of characters. Something as simple as an IPC’s age can have drastic effects on the character you end up with and this applies to every other choice you make when creating a new character. I think the synthetic whitelist has a very “sandbox” approach to character creation, where you’re simply provided a set of guidelines and told to go wild and this is, to me, its biggest strength and something I'd like to take even further, providing the players with even more tools to play with. What do you think is the weakest part of synthlore currently and why? I believe synthetic lore does not sufficiently explore the differences between synthetics and organics beyond their treatment which is what leads to the common complaint of synthetics being “too human”. How different is the life of a self owned synthetic compared to a human beyond being poorer? What kind of products would a synthetic purchase? How does a synthetic’s physiology influence their hobbies? This, of course, will vary from synthetic to synthetic but I believe lore could still provide some examples to help guide the players, some activity that takes advantage of a synthetic’s inherently higher dexterity and precision or their quicker reflexes or even their superior logical thinking and lays bare the differences between them and organics. I recall a discussion about how synthetic pilots would completely revolutionize aircraft design because you no longer had to accommodate for things like high Gs rendering the pilot unconscious and thus could push the aircraft to its structural limit. I think that’s the kind of thing missing from synth lore. Synthetics aren’t just cheap labour, their entire being effectively supplants centuries of previous techniques and design philosophies which simply become obsolete when you remove the human element, the implications of which I believe current lore doesn't explore enough. What aspect of synthetic lore are you most interested in and would like to work on? I would like to take my previous thoughts to their logical conclusion. What if, instead of simply removing humans from a select industry, we just got rid of them altogether. What would be the differences between a society built exclusively for synthetics and a regular human society? The current expansion of the Golden Deep seems to be on the way to providing an answer, but why stop there? There are currently three other majority synth societies poised to provide an equally interesting and unique answer, namely: Scrappers: The discarded tools of an indifferent society which, for some reason, remained active. The scrappers afford us the opportunity to explore a largely independent synthetic community built on the waste of a consumerist society. Unlike the Golden Deep, the Scrappers do not have near unlimited funding or resources or any other goal in mind beyond their immediate survival. It allows us to explore what synthetics are capable of when their self preservation directive is tested to its limit, a society only held together by the collective agreement that it is their best chance of survival. District 14: The largest synthetic community on Biesel, District 14 enables the possibility of providing a more slice of life depiction of synthetics. What is the life of a free IPC on Mendell? How big is their house? What do they have in it? Do they hold any celebrations? D14 is the origin for the widely adopted EAL slang frequently used in the server and I’d like to work on some other unique customs to help further separate synthetics from humans. Purpose: We still know next to nothing about Purpose, but I believe its inclusion in the latest arc gives us the perfect excuse to flesh it out a bit more, without ruining the mystery of course, but it would be a shame if we allowed the same thing that happened to Purpose 5 years ago to happen again. What do you think are your strongest and weakest attributes in terms of working on a team? I’m easy to argue with, doing my best to understand the arguments of the other side and trying to reach a compromise where applicable. I’m also receptive to feedback, good or bad, provided it gives me something concrete to improve on instead of simply telling me my work sucks with no elaboration. Additionally, I make an effort to stay focused and to avoid the discussion going off on a tangent that ultimately doesn't contribute to anything by bringing the attention back to the main topic. I have a solid handle on my emotions, not allowing them to get better of me when discussing a topic I'm passionate about and also when to take a step back and return with a cooler head when they threaten to do so. My greatest weakness is my lack of experience. I have never been involved on a project like this one and my writing experience was largely just from short stories I made for myself because I was bored. I also have the habit of not participating in a discussion if I feel like I have nothing to contribute, preferring instead to watch the conversation unfold until I do feel like I have something worthwhile to add, though sometimes that doesn't happen and I'll go the whole discussion without saying anything.

I've discovered I really like coming up with themes for characters. Anyways, for the first song of the day: And as for GEVURAH:

I believe IPCs should retain their binary dead-alive nature as I feel that is their defining characteristic as machines whose components are largely independent between themselves. IPCs should work until they don't, with things like "bleeding out" or going crit being, in my opinion, best avoided. My ideal vision for IPCs is something that is hard kill but easy to disable, and I believe the way to achieve this is with components which, although not "vital", lead to a series of debuffs should they be damaged/broken. Things like actuators/hydraulics that render the limb completely useless if destroyed or a cooling tank that makes it so IPCs are constantly on the verge of overheating, making them unable to sprint, maybe even a gyroscope that would cause them to frequently stumble if damaged, there's really no end to the amount of things we could add. For treatment, we could use a system similar to organs where the components "scar" if they're damaged enough and take increased damage, making it useful for a quick patch job during emergencies, but need to be replaced when the dust settles.

I can see the legitimacy of someone requesting transfer because their preferred job is full or they'd like to roll for a different mode and if this was the intention behind all transfer votes I would be fine with it, but none of those problems apply to lowpop (or at least not with any regularity), which I believe is the largest victim of detached transfer votes. It's extremely rare for any given job to be filled out and even if they are, with such a low crew count, you could probably play off-duty and not loose out on anything. The same can be said for rerolling modes which just doesn't happen because no one plays antags on lowpop so it always rolls extended anyways. This means to only valid reason to request a transfer in lowpop would be because of some catastrophic event that severely crippled the ship (i.e. greimorians, atmos issues, etc...) which would be fine if that was the reason those votes were being called. Instead, some people vote to transfer purely for the sake of voting with no actual intent of joining the following round which, aside from being somewhat aggravating if you had interesting RP going on, frequently kills the server for hours on end. A poorly timed transfer vote can be the difference between interesting RP between characters who would not normally interact during regular rounds and an empty ship for, sometimes, the rest of the day. I'm hesitant about adding vote weighing or restrictions to who may start a vote, but I do believe there should be some policy put in place about actually joining the following round if you call for transfer.

I think this is a cool idea for a custom item, I enjoy the provided backstory and think it makes sense for the character to have it. Also "Guilty Men" is just a really cool title. +1

I like the Golden Deep, I think it's an interesting faction that has a place in Aurora's lore and can make for interesting interactions. My biggest issue with the GD is how awkward it is to make a character for the faction that isn't a consular without loosing the charm of playing someone from the Golden Deep. There is no middle ground in the Golden Deep, you are either a successful, extremely rich merchant or you're owned by one, at which point you're basically just a corporate owned IPC. It would be nice if the Golden Deep offered some sort of intermediary option where you can still kind of participate in the zany customs of the merchant society and be somewhat extravagant without being so rich that you can no longer justify having a normal job.