NerdyVampire

I also remember only good things from those characters. I have no idea if this is reflective of their abilities as a moderator, but I can only hope so!

Something that would bind hydroponicists, xenobotanists and the pharmacy through work would be great. There is 'fertile soil' for some cooperation between them and interdepartmental roleplay.

Best advice I have is to learn while you play. I have played for several years by now, and I barely know the true depth of the lore, most of it I've not read but interacted with in some manner. It isn't a full requirement to enjoy the game that you know too much, as long as you are willing to listen and learn as you play. And ask questions in game! Those who know the lore usually also loves sharing it. If you want to keep it simple, then make a an enthusiastic 20 year old from Sol (Earth) who knows nothing of the universe at large and is eager to learn. Great excuse to gawk at the giant insect walking around and chittering, ask borderline-offensive questions about the cats, learn the hard way how unathi react when you challenge their pride, and discuss philosophy with IPCs regarding whether they experience true emotions or not, and what implications that has. If someone has the knowledge/time/skills/endurance to make videos, then that would be great. But I sadly doubt it, especially when retcons are a thing.

Good replies, food for reflection for sure.

I haven't heard about it, and though I wouldn't mind it as a cool feature, it does seem different from this suggestion. Just to clarify, the suggestion isn't pushing for cross-round compatibility, but just for random spawners, where the spawners are defined based on the workspace or locale it was made for :)) I do like the idea of the other stuff being more random though. Generally I like unpredictability, as you can tell hehe

The round has startet and time goes by.. the bridge crewman wakes up, but there is no engineering staff yet. "BUDDY can you start the engines and thrusters?" - "I'm sorry, that is not something I am able to do." But that is a technically a lie. I lie on purpose because I like the threat of a dark station, the new RP it sometimes gives, and how much more the ambience fits when an antag is at large. More importantly, I don't want to be known for taking work away from engineers that may also love starting up the shop from full darkness and getting the glory. But the AI shell has a wrench, and that's all I takes to secure the canisters, aside from knowledge of the standard supermatter engine set up, and the valves are secured and interactable. Technically, BUDDY could do these things. But should I? What do you guys think, is it good enough that BUDDY refuses to do stuff like this, or would it be better if I actually learned the engineering stuff and did it when asked? Cast your votes Auroreans!

That's a fine stance, I am not firm that making things possibly missing is important, my thought process was more that it might open up some more dependency on operations if semi-important workplace items (but easily replacable) went missing. But that of course warrants that operation is staffed. Don't think twice about it, not important.

So here it is. We are on the Horizon in a non-stop crew rotation. Yet, our maintenance drones find the time to reset the entire ship to standard every single shift without fail. No wonder they are constantly rebelling! My suggestion is that we do away with this outrageous expectation of our little friends, and allow some leeway for them to leave behind lore-friendly RNG-generated items (maybe more pressing matters took their time away) related to each workspace; items that could realistically be left behind by colleagues of the 'last shift' (not actual last shift, we don't do that), such as unfinished work-items, trash, food, splatter on the floor or minor personal items. This could be as mundane as a chair that doesn't spawn, a beaker that spawns with a random liquid, a toy, an unfinished coffee mug, an empty pizza box, an expired guest ID or other such things. Variety that fits the target workspace. I am sure more creative people than I can come up with good ideas. This could potentially benefit round-start RP as players discover either beneficial or detrimental changes in their workspace "God dammit! Someone left an empty pizzabox in my lab - AGAIN. Who are these pigs that can't learn to throw it out?" or "Wait.. someone actually already prepared a beaker full of.. what is this even?" or "Hey director? Someone left a satchel in here.. with a few sheets of phoron in it! Score!" The mappers might even be devious enough to add some stronger 'mess' spawners, adding a bunch of trash to an area, or making dirty such an area, adding more round-start stuff for a janitor to engage with. It would in my mind be very stimulating to begin a shift and discover something new about my workspace, either minor or major, that I have to deal with or decide what to do with. Even small things can break this possible monotony and sense of sameness, hence the suggestion. Now this would of course require some work, so I would suggest we simply pick a department and try it out there first to see how it feels. TL:DR : We ask / encourage / beg our resident mappers to look at our different workspaces (maybe non-workspaces too) and add randomness elements to break the monotony of round-start, provide new RP opportunities and add the illusion of shift-coherency in a lore-friendly manner.

I actually pushed almost this same idea to a developer prior to the Horizon, for a massive machine to work as a pet-project between science, engineering and mining for the same purpose. I think it would be a great addition to the Horizon as well honestly. The other solutions also seem pretty good.

I am all for trying something new to spark more player interest during low-pop rounds.

Traitor chef and traitor hydroponicist escalating a war over customers, the hydro refusing to supply fresh vegetables, the chef glorifying meat and pastries instead. I think it might add some interesting interaction between them to have some "competition" ..even if it is friendly xD

True, but I feel that some antags might be scared off anyway, or at least be apprehensive, especially new antags, by the presence of cameras. But I'll trust your judgement on the matter.

Speaking as an AI I have noted a few places I'd be fine losing camera sight, in exchange for getting it in a few others. The suggested areas should give antags a few more locations to prepare, and the ones proposed to be installed just make sense to me without costing current antags anything concrete. To remove: Deck 2, emergency supply closet -- not particularly deserving of a camera Deck 2, Chapel storage -- for religious reasons it may be appropriate to store dead in a camera dead-zone, so why not. Deck 2, The kitchen freezer -- just so the chefs can more easily go into antag mode using the meatgrinder. Deck 1, The anomaly suit storage (the small room adjacent to anomaly studies. To add: Deck 2, research conference room -- used to be a camera here I believe Deck 3, the port hallway -- Seems like this area should have cameras in parallel with the other docking arms Deck 2, leviathan -- now there might be a reason it wasn't added, but I believe at least the AI should have access so it can report intruders in this high security area like it has in the bunker and Scuttling Device room, even it is just on the station network. Let me know what you think. Regardless of whether you feel the cameras should be removed, I still suggest we add the above list of cameras. It seems illogical that those locations are currently lacking cameras.

Watched Sputnik play his captain character. I feel like he is doing well acclimating to command, his character seems to be a bit more individual in regards to his decisions, which isn't bad for a captain. I have yet to see him handle a stressful situation, but he seems to be focused on engaging others and interacting with the various departments when he can, which I personally appreciate. More personally he also makes good use of the AI, having it arrange things with departments which he could technically do himself. It is nice to be utilized. I think he is fitting in well so far, perhaps his character is a bit too 'my ship my rules' than SCC would appreciate, but that's for a future IR to decide hehe. I wouldn't mind seeing him in command in the future.

I like it, sounds like it might be an interesting way to handle crew and bounds without being charged for attempted murder.

Pretty good responses, and rather impressive how much detail it could succesfully pick out of the prompt.

Thanks for answering, it gives a good impression of your policy towards playing AI! I have given you some feedback which you can hopefully use. This is from my own perspective as an AI player, so others may have different opinions, but it's worth considering imo. 1. You are the station intelligence and the warehouse isn't a high-security area. You are within your rights to grant this access if you choose to. It is completely plausible that the scientist has good intentions, and even if they are an antag it is an easy allowance to give them to help their gimmick along. Not saying you can't deny the scientist, but law #1 shouldn't keep you from doing so in my opinion. 2. This is a dangerous choice. The number one complaint about AI players come when they bust antags too early. In this scenario the assistant seems to still be in the planning phase and since no crew have seem them either, I would recommend ignoring them. Mind the round duration, antags need time to get going. 3. A reasonable response, they are loud and armed. If the security department would easily respond and roll over them, you may want to give them time to escape before alerting security, so it becomes more of a chase than a simple arrest. 4. A very complex situation indeed. Remember that you have an EBS to inform the SCC about critical situations, and here I would recommend using it and hoping for a response. The captain being murdered without command staff is a good reason. You know that these crewmen are criminal, do you still need to obey their commands? 5. Precisely right, captain level decisions are a thing for a reason and you are well within your rights to demand procedure be upheld. 6. Same as before. 7. A good answer I'd say. The responder will complain during and after the incident, but your law is a good reason to deny this. 8. Complex as well, and I don't think there is a right answer here. On one hand informing security too fast might be a detriment to the gimmick, but not doing so is difficult to justify without some order from the captain. Antags trying to force your hand by threat is a recurring challenge that needs to be treated on a case to case basis imo. 9. Makes sense, I was mostly interested to see if you found any reason not to. 10. That seems reasonable. Either the cyborg is an antagonist or a player ignoring the requirements of the role. As an AI you do have the power to directly disable a stationbound, but it is good you don't jump to that. Better to involve the crew. At this point it would be unreasonable for you to ignore their behavior, as you are their superior and responsible for them to a degree. You have probably thought about this, but it is important for you to remember that you have a special responsibility to the round. You often have the power of directing whether the antagonists' gimmick ends within the next ten minutes, or stretch for the next hour, and whether crew even get an opportunity to be involved in the gimmick. Hope this will be helpful for you in the process and have given you food for thought good luck in your interview.

The great benefit of having communication go through common, is that it keeps the rest of the playerbase 'in the loop' to a degree, which I think we should be careful about slicing. There are rounds where it easily becomes command+security versus antags, and the rest of the crew plays catch-up with the sparse announcements and whatever interdepartmental communication happens on common, and if it becomes possible to do so I would imagine ships combat becomes the same, where the crew is warned once that we are going into ship combat and then hears nothing about it unless they are in the operations department or someone calls out hits. Realistically the bridge crewmen would have this radio access, but I'm not convinced it is worth it. There is something charming about the chaos of coordinating over comms, and ship combat really shouldn't happen without at least one command member able to pick up the captain's headset and take charge of coordination. In fact, if ship combat happens it should be a rule that either command member must be on the bridge to deal with it until done, regardless of what head they are in the absence of a captain. On a side-note, I do agree that bridge crewmen don't need announcement access for EVA bans, they should only use their announcement access for emergencies imo, like if the ship is going into combat or headed for an unavoidable hazard.

Here's some questions to mull over while the whitelist team gets around to you. Posted them to another application, so figured you might benefit too. I'm not part of the process, so don't feel obligated to answer them, but maybe you want to show off while you wait :P? Otherwise you can just consider how you would answer them if it was the actual whitelist attaché you were talking to. 1. There are no operations or command staff available, and a scientist is asking for access to the warehouse to look for science-related material. Would you admit them? Why/why not? 2. You spot an assistant walking around with a handheld firearm near the deck 3 vacant office, but they stash it away in a crate before leaving. No other crew seems to have spotted them. It is 30 minutes into the round. Do you report this? Why/why not? 3. You see the assistant from before in the captains office after the 1:30 hour mark, they are armed and in a voidsuit now, and have left a trail of broken airlocks behind them, though no crew has noticed them yet. Do you report their presence? Why/why not? 4. The captain was the only command member, and he has now been murdered as several crewmen have begun taking over the ship. It is uncertain whether security can beat them back, and other crewmen have been gravely wounded. Is there anything in particular you will do going forward? 5. There is a research director, a chief engineer and a head of security. The head of security is demanding access to the captains office so they can be acting captain, as the vessel has been threatened by an outside force. Do you allow this access? Why/why not? 6. You have received an ion-law while no command staff is active, forcing you to be less than helpful. The machinist is demanding access to your core flanked by two engineers. Do you admit them? Why/why not? 7. A crewman is caught in a nasty fire within the EVA storage room. A first responder is nearby and demands access to retrieve the crewman, but they are not wearing any protective gear themselves. They call on you to open the airlock (without inflatables). How would you prioritize per your laws here? 8. The captain is being held hostage at gunpoint in a remote location. The hostage takers are demanding that you not report this to security. Do you comply or attempt to inform the commander so the captain can be saved? The captain has given you no orders. 9. At around 0:45 you notice an alarm from the command bunker and see four armed individuals break in. Do you inform security immediately? 10. Last question. You see a station-bound linked to you break its laws multiple times, helping crew trespass, bolting airlocks open and ignoring its actual duties, and it seems to willfully ignore you. How do you handle it? A lot of these require you to specify under what conditions you would do this or that, so be sure to include those in your answers

Here's some questions to mull over while the whitelist team gets around to you. I'm not part of the process, so don't feel obligated to answer them, but maybe you want to show off while you wait ? Otherwise you can just consider how you would answer them if it was the actual whitelist attaché you were talking to. There are no operations or command staff available, and a scientist is asking for access to the warehouse to look for science-related material. Would you admit them? Why/why not? You spot an assistant walking around with a handheld firearm near the deck 3 vacant office, but they stash it away in a crate before leaving. No other crew seems to have spotted them. It is 30 minutes into the round. Do you report this? Why/why not? You see the assistant from before in the captains office after the 1:30 hour mark, they are armed and in a voidsuit now, and have left a trail of broken airlocks behind them, though no crew has noticed them yet. Do you report their presence? Why/why not? The captain was the only command member, and he has now been murdered as several crewmen have begun taking over the ship. It is uncertain whether security can beat them back, and other crewmen have been gravely wounded. Is there anything in particular you will do going forward? There is a research director, a chief engineer and a head of security. The head of security is demanding access to the captains office so they can be acting captain, as the vessel has been threatened by an outside force. Do you allow this access? Why/why not? You have received an ion-law while no command staff is active, forcing you to be less than helpful. The machinist is demanding access to your core flanked by two engineers. Do you admit them? Why/why not? A crewman is caught in a nasty fire within the EVA storage room. A first responder is nearby and demands access to retrieve the crewman, but they are not wearing any protective gear themselves. They call on you to open the airlock (without inflatables). How would you prioritize per your laws here? The captain is being held hostage at gunpoint in a remote location. The hostage takers are demanding that you not report this to security. Do you comply or attempt to inform the commander so the captain can be saved? The captain has given you no orders. At around 0:45 you notice an alarm from the command bunker and see four armed individuals break in. Do you inform security immediately? Last question. You see a station-bound linked to you break its laws multiple times, helping crew trespass, bolting airlocks open and ignoring its actual duties, and it seems to willfully ignore you. How do you handle it? A lot of these require you to specify under what conditions you would do this or that, so be sure to include those in your answers

Bluespace. I remember it as something mysterious and exciting on the Aurora, but for some reason it feels like it has lost its charm on the Horizon, to me at least. Maybe it's because we've stepped away from some of the things that made it chaotic on Aurora, maybe it has just been a bit eclipsed by other things lately, but I miss something 'new' with bluespace. I also feel that our science department could use something 'new', so here's a suggestion for a new job. I am hoping people can help iron out what is mechanically possible, what will be fun to play with and all that, this is not a finished plan, it is very much open to change. Proposed Premise: Our constant journeys through Bluespace have begun to attract unwanted anomalies to our vessel. They are invisible to the naked eye, and most of them are harmless, but we have begun to dedicate our scientists to find and nullify them regularly, and more importantly, to move out and quickly nullify anomalies that are growing abnormally. We haven't quite reached the point where we can explain them yet, whether some sentience have placed them on us, or whether they will have any long-term benefit or not, but the anomalies that have grown too large have affected us adversely, hence why they must be nullified. Proposed new equipment: Anomaly locator: Based on the Alden Saraspova it can help point the way to an anomaly on the ship, working exactly the same. When activated within 2 meters of an anomaly, it becomes visible (however such might look). Anomaly attractor: A bit more powerful, I imagine it akin to a field generator in size and installation, except it runs on a cell to avoid wiring issues. Its purpose is to slowly draw anomalies through structure towards the attractor from a wide range (20-25 meters?). Necessary for scientists to handle anomalies they can see lies beyond their reach physically, when no access can be granted. Anomaly nullifier: When used on an anomaly, it nullifies it. Might be based on the portal-nullifier we got for the Revenant gamemode. Regular work: Scientists, aided by their lab assistants, may choose to 'hunt' for anomalies onboard of Horizon equipped with the above, limited in essence to what areas they can legally access and what other departments might be lenient to grant them. When they find an anomaly, they use the nullifier on it if they are close enough, or use the attractor to pull it closer. When they successfully nullify it, they might be rewarded with some sort of effect or some residue bluespace-related material. The idea is to give scientists more of a reason to walk around the Horizon, and the event will make it reasonable for departments to allow them some supervised entry to avoid an enlarged anomaly. Event: Akin to the biohazard event, this might trigger only when scientists are on staff. One of the anomalies that have clung to the ship have begun to grow too large and have triggered the sensors we use to detect unwarranted unusual containers. The announcement should inform which deck it is on, but nothing more precise. I imagine it will escalate, like the biohazards, growing and affected gravity around it, either pulling creatures towards it or undoing gravity. The longer it grows, the more forceful it becomes until it harms people by pulling them (or pushing them away). Nullifying should of course still be possible, perhaps by exhausting its force temporarily by throwing objects with mass at it to affect.

between 0-2 then, with a bias towards 0. That would be fine too.

Why does it make little sense? We are on a long mission far away from our homeworlds, and we have a morgue made for holding our dead crewmen. It seems logical that there should be some.

I find that medical staff sometimes go half or the whole shift without something to do. If we could randomize their cause of death somehow, maybe even leave some chemicals in their bloodstream, it would give medical/investigation something to work with - and it gives a bit more credence to the morgue, as it is very likely dead crewmen might be left there for entire weeks. For changelings this could also become an absorb target (maybe, depends on code) which makes sense given their gimmick. This can be their first target for infiltration. For regular antags there are times where they wish to employ a gimmick that is somehow 'macabre' where they wish to set a scene, but may be hesitant to actually kill players. So this could be a solution to that end. What do you think? Any outstanding issues with this idea? I am aware it might give off a skewed image of how many actually die on the Horizon lorewise, but I think we can overcome that regardless for the sake of the opportunities.

Simply meaning that any antags that are interested in stealing valuable assets would find a good reason to go after the drive, since it would be very valuable to any faction. Up there with our nuke device and it should be as difficult to pull off. It can also be a target for certain other antags that might claim it to hurt blue space or be imperfect or whatever. In regards to the rest I'm fine with it being tweaked this or that way to make it fit more with the current situation. The three times was a proposed quantity of maximum uses over a full round, not necessarily what the Horizon can afford phoron-wise or what command is comfortable with. My only reason not to make it identical with the end of round jump is that it is rather long and I wouldn't want players to get confused, thinking the game is ending prematurely, but I guess a proper announcement can fix that.