Nantei

So there's one specific reason they should be on the manifest: AI laws. Guarantee if you make visitors non-crew it will be abused eventually.

You can also add actual incentives to thralling for the thrall. If we are pulling inspiration, Ghouls in VTM gain some minor powers that encourage them to stay loyal to their master beyond the obvious implications of death. This requires way more work though, and we would need to limit the amount of thralls you could have. But in that sense, you give them the powers temporarily, and they have to keep coming back to their master to get more. So they are dependent on each other in positive ways. Ghoul gets power, Vampire gets a willing pawn. Maybe give them a weaker blood heal and their own blood pool based on what their master gives them. That said, this is pretty unlikely to happen because we would probably need to make new powers unlike with apprentice wizards. I think the simple fix of the blood being addictive will mend this for the most part.

Establishing mutual benefit is an important part of building trust, and trust is very important. Giving them lots of space helps. Don't make it obvious if you are blocking off their exits. Establish to them that you don't want to chase them down after they flee because it means you could get hurt or killed. Try and find common ground and empathize with them. I would also add to avoid crowding the hostage taker, this can make them anxious and make them act irrationally. Also if they harm the hostage in any significant way, it's usually time to go in and stop them. A lot of this also comes down to being able to read people and the situation. If you can figure out why they are doing this, it helps a lot. Because now you know what to offer them to make them go away. If you can empathize with them, you are going to have a dramatically easier time. Also it helps to be a third party of sorts. It's a lot harder to convince someone to trust you when you've already done something aggressive to them. You need to let yourself be vulnerable to them in both the physical and emotional sense, offer up sensitive things about yourself to help them connect. A lot of this is very much a play by ear, psychological thing. Sometimes it's best to present yourself as an overwhelming force that will crush them if they don't comply, but if they do you will treat them well. Sometimes it is best to let them have the physical power, or at least the illusion of it. Also as a general rule I will add that it can be a very good idea to have non-ISD people do the negotiating sometimes. Some people just don't trust security. So find someone you can trust to negotiate, and be ready to bail them out if things go wrong and they try to take them too. It's a lot easier to believe the HoP won't hurt you than the guy with a laser rifle and riot gear.

This actually sounds perfect. My issue is it doesn't require any RP currently, and this enforces that in a very flavorful way.

I have no idea how you expect that to be productive in any way. More than a few times this thread you've just focused on ad hominem attacks. If you aren't going to argue in good faith I would rather you didn't at all. I don't think it's absurd to expect an antagonist to spend more than 30 seconds speaking to me before they enslave me, which I have presented as a common example several times.

I would say that's a step in the right direction. I often find people will accept far more often if you build up to a conversion/thrall than just force it on them mechanically, which is really the yucky feeling I want to avoid. We don't allow that kind of behavior with embracing, so why should we allow it with enthralling? I think if they deny the vampire should absolutely be refunded, or have the code change so it only takes the blood upon success, and have the similar roleplay things we have for bites where you remember nothing of it other than a positive experience so the vampire isn't immediately forced to murder you to stay incognito. Also my issue isn't character sanctity, it's being forced into a subservient role with little to no roleplay. I am quite fine with my character being forced to act differently if there is roleplay that makes it make sense. Just enthralling me with no buildup after a feeding is pretty crappy, but I have seen people do it quite frequently because the mechanics enable it. TL;DR: I think this will subtly encourage vampires to roleplay with their thralled victim more so it is more fun for the thralled victim, and similarly mean that people who are thralled, want to be in that position.

For what it is worth, I have not been enthralled without my prior looc consent for awhile, months actually. I am not 'salty', I genuinely just don't like that people can forcefully enthrall you with little roleplay. There are a few particular players that abuse the mechanic regularly (Of whom I will not name and shame) and I think it negatively affects the round quality. I'll have a more in-depth response later, because you made a lot of good points I'd like to address. I also will mention I would be absolutely fine with just going with my other suggestion of making it require consent from the player similar to Cult. I think that's a fair compromise that still lets people who want to use thralling, but doesn't let certain players abuse it mechanically to create a bunch of slaves with very little roleplay. Being essentially borged against your will should require a lot of roleplay IMO, which is why I don't mind cults using soul crystals since it has the usual standards that come from killing someone.

Every time I play vampire I refuse to use thralls unless someone explicitly asks for it in LOOC. Why? It's generally the least fun thing in the kit for either player. It is abused 99% of the time with very little buildup or roleplay after. I don't usually like to use this to describe RP, but I find thrall RP to be especially cringey too. On top of this, Vampires already have a very strong ability similar to Thrall that is far more compelling both mechanically and roleplay wise. Dominate. Vampires do not need to be able to take permanent control over another person. I cannot think of much that thralling positively adds to a round, and honestly have never actually seen it positively impact a round. Alternatively, have the thrall option actually be used, and let people who have it off get a prompt similar to cult. If they deny, refund the blood and stun the victim to give the vampire breathing room.

Medical just needs to process people correctly and set them to deceased. The body itself is not an issue, the long-term morgue is massive. It might be a nice feature if people who have binary or higher sensors on were automatically marked as deceased when they died, but making that work well would be very difficult.

That's simply Freya to a tee. And it's why she will never be in a command role. She's childish, impulsive, and rushes into things head first. None of my other characters would do that, and anyone that's played with her extensively can attest that's pretty normal behavior for her. Her first away mission was extremely disorganized and she ended up getting shot at by combat drones and running out of oxygen while running back. The second was similarly disorganized. This one was actually the only one that was run by someone who seemed to actually care about safety, which helped, but nobody ever seems to take the time to stress to her how not okay these things are, so she doesn't ever change much from it. Regarding the closet itself, my internet was pretty spotty so I really never got a good look at it. (Constant rubberbanding, it's why I lagged behind so much towards the end) From what I gathered there were about two space bears, which I later realized was wrong, but at the time I didn't know that.

Thank you for the kind words! ❤️ In order: Probably not. Frei is fairly internalized, and when things are hitting the fan tends to numb a bit. She's old enough and lived with them long enough that she has fairly healthy coping mechanisms, and they don't tend to shine through unless things are calm and she is comfortable. Caydence is a bit of a wild card for me right now. It is going to depend heavily on how Kyres responds to the concept I am talking with Chaos/Chada about. But essentially I am going for an IPC that desperately wants to be human, and is quite old at that; at least for an IPC. So as far as emulating emotion and empathy goes, they will be pretty good at it, while still having your usual IPC flaws. TL;DR: Pretty caring and compassionate for an IPC. If things end up not working out with an IPC I will probably make a human that touches on some of the same beats personality wise.

+1. I've played with you as Curator more than a few times, and always found it to be a positive experience.

I've already put time and effort into these characters, and I set them up story-wise so that it would make sense. When designing Mya I thought I might eventually want to make her an RD. With Mia I initially just wanted a warden, but as I was designing them decided they should actively pursue the position as part of their arch. With Mia I especially wanted to try being an interim first too, so other command players could give me advice since HoS is a very difficult role. Generally speaking for larger promotions I prefer to have established characters rise through the ranks rather than completely new ones. Mia is known fairly decently within her department, and given how often she has been IHoS it would make sense that she would eventually receive a promotion.

BYOND key: Nantei Character names: How long have you been playing on Aurora?: A little over a year I think, off and on. Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I think I can steer departments in a positive direction more easily as a head than I could as a normal member. Why did you come to Aurora?: My account is I think almost ten years old if not older. Initially I played on your usual servers like TG/Goon, When I came back I tried CM and decided people weren't acting human enough. I came to Aurora after my friend BurritoJustice recommended it to me, and immediately fell in love with it. Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?: Extensively. I made Mya and Mia expressly to eventually promote them up to their respective head positions. Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? Yes, a warning last year for breaking directive 4 as a detective. I was still fairly new and learning the server. I think I have improved a ton since then. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each. Give a definition of what you think roleplay is, and should be about: Roleplay to me is the interaction of two or more characters in what is essentially an improvised creative writing scenario. In my ideal scenario... Roleplaying should be about creating a story together. One of my favorite aspects of SS13 has always been that you can talk to anyone about their round and get an entirely different story than they had. The interwoven perspectives and stories we each tell from our own experiences inside a given round is to me, what roleplaying should be all about. What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: To steer their department in a positive manner to create fun scenarios. HoS specifically has a fine line to walk between not shutting down antagonists, but also making sure security doesn't get rolled over and that people are informed as to what is happening. Research Director has some really exciting roleplay potential with expeditions, as well as enabling their department to do interesting things they might not otherwise be able to. HoP meanwhile seems to be a bit more of a jack of all trades, but one of my favorite aspects of playing my detective is talking with people and working out interpersonal problems, so I think there's a lot of potential there to positively impact the round. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: Creating a friendly and welcoming environment. I think whitelisted players should be positive contributors to the community, even if their contribution is as simple as being a good player. I do my best to help out the community when I can, even if it's as simple as wishing people well in OOC or trying to teach new players. I've taken a few security/medical newbies under my wing a few times this month, and it's amazing to see them grow as players. One of the first things I do with new engineers is take them to a Chief Engineer for tutoring, and I really want to be in that position to help teach and integrate new people into our community. Could you give us the gist of what is currently happening in Tau ceti and how it affected your character and their career? The Lii'dra invasion was of massive concern to Mia, as is the recent Unathi 'ghost ship' reveal. Being a Frontier girl, Mia gets along well with most Unathi, but the manner of which they revealed themselves could sow a lot of distrust for this specific group, and fuel the flames of certain 'undesireables' as she sees them to prove how untrustworthy alien species are. The Lii'dra meanwhile are a continual threat to the delicate peace we currently have as far as Mia is concerned, and being closer to potential targets makes her more likely to be able to protect people from them. Also she loves mechs and is really interested in the upcoming competition. Mya is far less politically inclined, however, and primarily came to the Aurora for the plethora of scientific opportunities. What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted? Head of Security Research Director Head of Personnel Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking.: Mia Frei: Head of Security Mya Krastev: Research Director Caydence: HoP (Not created yet) How would you rate your own roleplaying?: About a seven out of ten. I think I have gotten way better than when I first came here, but I still have difficulty playing characters that diverge too far from my own personality. Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Of course. I wouldn't expect to keep it if I misused it. Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles? Yes! Extra notes: I have been putting in some extra hours as Interim HoS lately. My first few rounds have been rocky, but I am feeling a bit encouraged after recent ones. I've taken some feedback and I think I have improved my radio communication a lot since my first round. If anyone else has any feedback regarding those rounds for me, I would like to hear it.

I'd be fine with that as well. I primarily like laptops for their ability to unchain certain jobs from their departments when they aren't pressingly needed there. Warden, doctors, etc. So if we had those two programs added to the security preset that would fix it too.

I want to say while I appreciate people coming to my defense, I do not mind Arrow's PR being discussed there. It was relevant even if it wasn't my desired change, since it was being discussed there.

No. There's massive holes in department laptops. The security one only has camera control, no warrant assistant or alarm monitoring. The rest are mostly fine, but I believe some departments lack cargo ordering oddly enough.

So my suggestion involves two possible changes that I think are low impact but nice quality of life changes that should be rather easy to implement. As is, laptops are wonderful for letting some jobs like Medical roam about the station where they would otherwise be tethered to medbay lest they risk missing injured people on CMC. This could actually free a ton of jobs up, including Warden, but currently doesn't because it's so difficult to get vital programs onto a laptop despite the programs being ID locked in general. So my suggestion is one of these two: Either add portable storage devices to the laptop vendor (maybe comes with the laptop if we want to be lazy), so that you can copy programs from your work terminal (such as warrant assistant, camera monitoring, etc). Or, allow us to download most/all programs via NTNet's download software tool. It seems really odd that it's as hard as it is to get access to these programs considering the programs are already locked to your ID.

I've heard this a few times and I still do not get why people think antags are shut down by EMT's retrieving dying people. Yes, they go through medbay quicker, but they are still out of the round for likely ten or so minutes. Considering I get this access constantly and don't shut down antags, I really can't understand the argument at all. Are we really upset that less people die and stay in the round? If an antag really wants to execute, I am almost certainly not going to be able to stop them. I had this a few days ago with someone breaking antag rules by not roleplaying at all with victims. They shot the captain wordlessly, I responded to try and save his life, they shot me wordlessly, I ran away, Captain still died. It's not hard to keep an EMT away from your victim unless they are rule breaking. I agree about janitors, but I think the idea that EMT's with general access that almost every HoP/CMO agrees they should have—I have literally never been denied—are going to damage things in any significant way is silly to me. This is already how tons of EMT players operate, this just makes it less obnoxious. I think at the very least we should try giving them general access and review the change later. Because my own experience heavily contradicts the concept that this is damaging.

This statement confuses me. I don't see the inherent issue in a character doing something reckless and getting into trouble for it. One time I ran into research to free some security officers who were stuck. I accidentally leg actuator'd into four raiders on crossfire, middle of a hostage situation, and it made my, and their round better. I could have stopped to ask if it was safe, but not doing so and potentially getting into trouble made for a better story. The only issue I can see here is people rushing to grab a body while being shot, but we have rules for this and I don't think general access makes it any more prevalent; especially since most will attest I'm getting brig access almost every shift anyways. It's really just more undue burden on the HoP.

Not really. Tons of places don't have windows and engineers can hack a door in two seconds compared to breaking a window takes well over a minute. Considering how many people are completely fine giving me general access, I really doubt anyone is going to think, "Why doesn't X have general access?" because the reason an EMT/Para has general is fairly obvious. Unlike the janitor where it's more insulting than anything.

The issue I have with that is Paramedics/EMT's need this as part of their core job, and it's an extremely important job where seconds matter. Icly and oocly I don't think it makes much sense to not let them have hallway level access. I can see the argument for removing it from the janitor since their job isn't a critical thing. But this is something I ask for every round as an EMT, and it's been universally approved every time I ask. I think a lot of people agree this should just be a thing.

This is what Jackboot was talking about that I agree with. It seems like a lot of effort for something that I don't feel adds a ton to the server. Sure, we don't have that awkwardness of calling out names of people you have never met, but... is that really worth all this hassle? Not to me.

Many things that would validate an IR never have an IR filed. Phi once almost filed four separate IR's in a week, that were all cancelled for various reasons such as: Key witnesses refusing to cooperate, the action itself being made non-canon (I had two manslaughter/gross neglect IR's surrounding Thea's death until they asked to void), or simply not wanting to put forth the effort or get someone in trouble. There's numerous reasons, and player complaints are probably the lowest barrier of entry. Any sort of ahelp about you would be rather fruitless inside the round itself, it would only help establish a pattern, which frankly isn't helpful to me if I am not purposely going out of my way to try and get you in trouble; and I am not. I will try and say this as kindly as possible: You do not strike me as someone who responds well to criticism, and that makes it very hard to approach you regarding these issues. That is probably why these complaints appear to come out of thin air to you. People are afraid to approach you, and whether that is justified or not, it's still a problem. It genuinely causes me pain to think about taking a character away from you, or anyone else for that matter, so I want you to understand I am being totally sincere when I say: I only want you to improve.

I like the idea, but I am not sure I want it, as odd as that sounds. I have really mixed feelings because the confusion that comes with this can both add and subtract from a round. Also generally speaking, I don't want to have to manually type in peoples names or otherwise go through a lot of hassle. If it was automated that might be different, though.