LordFowl

EFTPOS is not even used by Cargo anymore. Plz get learnt before you dismiss threads. That does not affect my opinion. It only narrows down the option to the one I spent more time discussing, and the one that cannot be solved.

Voting for dismissal for the reasons outlined above by Arrow. Binning.

Voting for dismissal for the reasons outlined above by Arrow. Binning.

Voting for dismissal. Creating mechanics to distinguish what an announcement is would be fruitless, because it doesn't really matter what an announcement is.

Voting for dismissal. Creating mechanics to distinguish what an announcement is would be fruitless, because it doesn't really matter what an announcement is.

If the problem is that the current EFTPOS system is too clumsy, wouldn't the more apt suggestion be to rework the ancient and byzantine EFTPOS into a more usable system? If the problem is that the head of staff as a middleman is too arduous, I don't see a solution to that problem. Somebody needs to be approving the orders, and only the head of staff has the authority to do so. Burdening the CT with the authority that they shouldn't rightfully have is just a can of worms in its own right. The bureaucracy of our server is not orientated towards approval-less systems - I would be all for removing paperwork entirely, but at the end of the day the administrative system expects a signature. Voting for dismissal.

You can lock my lore-dev app, but you can never lock my freedom.

This is not a polucy suggestion.

In regards to your first question, the math of it is that ultimately the current society can sustain itself thanks to the Skrellian penchant for efficiency assisted by their calculative drive and their robust automation. Unlike many human organizations, while Skrell may have a heavy bureaucracy it's a highly efficient one. But that's not to say the state of affairs is stable. The declining Skrell population has created many problems with this system - the Federation, once mighty and expansive, is in decline. The core systems are well maintained, but the frontier systems - especially those that are not full fledged members of the Federation yet, do not enjoy the same luxury. But as a whole, the point of the system is to maximize the effect of a few Skrell - relatively few Skrell can successfully operate the infrastructure of a fairly large area. In regards to your second question, I've always imagined that Skrell practice amplexus, like frogs and toads. Regardless, their reproduction is via external methods - the female releases eggs, and the male releases the fertilizer. The process takes a while (In frogs amplexus can last for days), and instead of being the passionate and private affair that it is in human society, Skrellian intercourse is highly ceremonial - they might even have fertilizing parties (Especially now when fertilization is so rare). Incubators would probably be used instead of incubating eggs beneath the head-tails in modern society, considering that all Skrell lead rather busy lives.

Comparing a traitor AI to a malf AI is like comparing a regular traitor to a fucking wizard. Should we remove traitors because they don't get fireball? The malf AI is powerful because it is alone. There are always other traitors along with the traitor AI.

Inspired by the muses and some ideas I had regarding on why the Federation navy is so uniquely effective, and with some free spare time, I wrote an article concerning it; https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cmUpbIphIJtKYOrFYhaxUQ-18InU4Bcbe6S6sq6HKmE/edit?usp=sharing Notably, it is not in an essay format and reads more like a wiki article, and is indeed patterned off of currently existing naval wiki articles.

I still hold that traitor AIs are perfectly functional antagonists. The AI is very powerful, and in conjunction with the chaos of other traitors (or indeed even in co-operation with them) can achieve much, even without all the abilities of a malf AI. Ergo, removing the AI from the possibility of traitor and auto-traitor is unnecessary and undesirable. Not to mention that even if traitor AIs were underspecced, wouldn't the more logical conclusion be to grant them specific traitor ability options?

I would think you'd remove the detective then, and not the FT. Originally the detective was going to be a civilian role (Hence its original position being not actually in security), but at some point we decided against that.

What is the difference between a PI and a Detective? They sound literally the same, except PIs are civilians instead of security.

I don’t really see a reason to remove traitor AIs. Not to mention that all this PR ultimately does is make antag AIs even more unlikely.

Warbling is just what warbling is - a short songlike utterance of constantly shifting notes, like a birdsong.It does not convey any particular facial expression, and has no specific meaning. It's like sighing for humans - it can convey many emotions, but is typically some sort of exasperation.

Anyone interested is free to form their own opinions on that particular little incident, but your intake on it is a little flawed. You claimed that Dionaea were unbalanced despite admittedly never having actually interacted with one mechanically, and I said that complaining about balance despite never actually interacting with the feature in question is a bit ill-founded. You then rephrased my comment as an attack on you, saying something to the effect that I believe you aren't allowed to complain about something unless it personally effects you. Then (And not immediately, as you claim), did I say that you were pulling your theoretical balance out of your ass, and then the conversation escalated from there. Notably, I did not "make fun of you every step of the way" (In fact you're the one who started calling me an idiot, not that I really mind.), nor did I "dismiss your opinion of hand" (In context, there was not much to dismiss. You claimed that Dionaea were OP but never really went into why), and the "argument" soon devolved into a game of "spot the fallacy" before it quickly burnt out. This conversation was hardly clean for either of us, but do not frame yourself as an innocent angel when you're the one who escalated it to it's zenith. I do admit that I must claim some responsibility - I should've stepped out far sooner than I ultimately did in the end, probably around the time we stopped actually talking about Dionaea. Regardless, I think this incident is something of an aberration, and not the rule. Finally, I have no interest in continuing the discussion here, even to the point of defending myself from further accusations on the specific incident. I just wanted to issue my side of the story as soon as possible, because over my long time on this server I find that mountains arise out of molehills like this far too often, and I wanted to address any possible difficulties before they festered.

Regarding the idea that my apparent unapproachable nature would diminish returns on whitelistees, I think this particular claim can be pretty easily dismissed by the fact that I already have previous experience in this field. I don't think my demeanor with the community has changed much in the roughly ~1-2 years since I started as Vaurca loredev (Well, I actually think its improved), yet when I was a Vaurca loredev I saw only an increase in the number of applications that were processed compared to my predecessor, and I have not seen that the rate of application has hugely increased with the actions of my successors, instead plateauing at a reasonable level. So no, I don't think my behavior negatively impacts my responsibilities as a subject matter expert. We still had a discord back then. I was still active in it, shitposting and professionalism along. There was still server drama, and there were still cliques, so it was not so different compared to now. Yet back then I kept people interested in Vaurca, kept Vaurca relevant, answered honestly and thoughtfully questions regarding Vaurca, and kept a steady rate of Vaurca whitelists, and I have zero doubts that I can do the same for Skrell today. And considering that even as a non lore-dev I rather frequently hang around in the lore channel and answer questions, I also don't think that as a whole my ability to answer honest questions regarding the lore is an endangerment (Although I am sure there are some specific incidents otherwise, I speak on average). I also don't really hold low opinions on anyone (except IPC mains and weebs). I don't believe in grudges, and I don't involve myself in interpersonal politics.

I can't really respond to their feedback until they post it, and while I am dubious as to the size of this community portion that feels so strongly about me, I am nevertheless saddened to hear of individuals who think that way. I think however that I am not really all that unapproachable - I answer questions, oftentimes passionately and in-depthly especially in regards to lore. I always seek to conduct myself professionally in professional matters. Am I perfect in this regards? Well, perhaps not by some metrics I guess, but I make a dedicated effort at it at all times. I campaign strongly in the dev circles for better community outreach, and am always listening to feedback and trying to incorporate it. As I explained in the app itself, I did not originally have any intention to apply for the skrell lore-dev position, and just wanted to stir the lore-team to at long last make a decision regarding Skrell, instead of contenting themselves to let it slide into obscurity. I was later persuaded after creating the PR to apply myself. I go into my reasons why more in-detail in the application itself. My playtime is sporadic, but it is certainly not non-existent. A pattern exists, and it tends to be clumps of rounds played followed by droughts of rounds not fully played, rounds observed, and nothing. I play as much as I am able to, but the truth is that I find difficulty fitting in multiple 2-3 hour long rounds into my daily life, do not like joining rounds midway through, and prefer only very specific jobs, and so more often than not observe or sit in the lobby, when I do log on. But there is a distinction between "he doesn't play" (Which I contend to be false anyways. I think the accusations that I actively do not play tend to be overblown, although of course the data available to you will paint a clearer picture.) and "he's inactive". I am a highly active member of the community, and am constantly looking to make sure I keep in touch with them. Fears that I might become detached from the community are thus, I contend, groundless. In this regards, I think that I play as often as some loredevs, more often than past loredevs, and am as active in the community as even the most active loredevs.

When it comes to whitelists, I believe that on a basic level people should be able to play what characters they want to play (in accordance to the rules and the lore, naturally). My role as a whitelister is not to keep the pool closed, to guard the lore like a dragon and his loot - it is to recognize the capable players, and to help along the ones that need help. When I oversaw Vaurca whitelists, I tended to only deny whitelistees that did not want to be helped - typically when they did not update their applications, or otherwise respond to problems in their application. Denying someone on the basis that their application did not receive enough feedback is ridiculous - for one it penalizes players that aren’t a part of a clique, and for two providing comprehensive feedback is my job as the subject matter expert. The input of other players is welcome, but they tend to be more useful in identifying whether an applicant is a shitter or not (in which case an endorsement is actually good feedback for me). In short, if everyone could have a Skrell whitelist, I’d be happy. But that of course can’t happen. My job as whitelister is to try and make that happen by guiding applicants into being capable of playing Skrell capably, not gating it to the happy few with natural talent.

The only ones even possibly justifiable here are Hardware Engineer, the various merchant subclassses, and possibly curators. The janitor role is not complex enough to allow it to be divided into two separate responsibilities, Toxins Researcher is completely redundant to Phoron Researcher (Indeed, I am pretty sure Phoron Researchers used to be called Toxibs Researchers). Supply Manager is equally redundant to QM, has a bad name, and really again the QM role is not diverse enough to warrant stratification. Newscast Maintainer is just... no. If people want to have a silly riddle channel, they can do so without needing to occupy an even more useless job than typical journalists. Finally visitior and tourist accomplish the same role, so in effect we already have tourists.

Skrell have the most potential to influence NT (And by extension Tau Ceti) because they are not economically dependent on them, unlike the Sol Alliance. I see it as an economic war - NT is trying their hardest to push into the Skrell market, and the Jargon Federation is trying their hardest to curtail the dangers that NT so brazenly makes. Much of what they do is subversive, such as when they influence the SA into performing the blockade. The Skrell are not a direct species. Tup Commandos will likely stay, although I'll inevitably modify them. They are at this point an iconic piece of Skrell lore, and indeed they did save Elyra.

The Skrell do not have a particularly active playerbase, from my perspective - it exists, but it is not particularly not outspoken nor consistent. When I play my Skrell xenobiologist (Dr. Waelin Qoul-Nuul'put), I find that any Skrell I meet tend to be here today, gone tomorrow. Why is that? Well, playercount is certainly one reason, but Vaurca are played less than Skrell yet they emjoy a rather feisty if diminutive community. I think it’s because there just isn’t much for Skrell players to care about. They need things to care about - living lore, significant history, mechanics, and comprehensive ideals.

In regards to the first point, my first essay covers only the period of the Glorsh Rebellion with a focus on the various resistance movements. I was largely inspired by the French Resistance during WWII, who experienced something very similar (total domination by a foreign power, infighting along political boundaries through various resistance groups who wanted to ensure that their ideology assumed power following the war, and the formation of various movements (which in the French case was precipitated due to outside oversight, largely the British)). The point is that for the scope of the essay, these are just Resistance movements. The ideologies they support become legitimized nations following the Tri-Qyu incident, and for roughly 170-200 years (according to current lore), Jargon IV is divided among disparate states. My essay was originally going to cover this period also, and detail how the Second Federation rose to its current power, but I decided for the sake of the graders I would keep it short. As to how did they integrate? In short, my belief is that the Second Federation spent this timeframe trying to avoid open conflict and restore the peace of the First Federation and the Tup ideologies. They achieved ultimate power however through a space race - I believe that the first Jargon nation to re-activate the space potential of the Skrell would quickly subjugated the remaining nations of Jargon IV. There are of course a number of other factors, but I believe space dominance was the pivotal moment that led to the formation of the Jargon Federation as a stellar power. In regards to the second and some of the first, while these political ideals would probably be present in the hearts of various councillors, the nature of the Jargon Federation is definitely one of an overbearing one party state. While publicly identifying with one of the older movements probably isn't a crime (As my picture of the Jargon Federation is while it is a collectivist state, it does so more with soft measures than hard measures, it prefers to incentivize before it punishes.), it would likely garner you more than a little suspicion. These movements are by now hundreds of years old, but then again Skrell can live a long time. I'm sure some people are still hanging on, but the majority of conflict between these ideologies already took place during the last days of Glorsh and the first days of the second federation.

Xeno shells were removed at the request of the loredevs because each xeno loredev respectively felt that their species was being abused by shell players - that they did not respect the lore and overall reduced the quality of roleplay. I can tell you right now that a species requiring a dual whitelist to exist is pretty unlikely (I don't even know what kind of snowflake code that would require), and a whitelist just for xeno shells doesn't really fix the problem, which was the original loredevs of the alien species feeling like their xenos were receiving the butte end of roleplay. It led to first Dionaea shells being impossible at the request of the loredev, then Skrell shells, then Vaurca shells, and then pretty much every loredev agreed it was a bad idea. Ultimately, even if the above problems were solved, xeno shells are not returning unless the loredevs agree to it, so necessarily this suggestion will require [mention]Senpai Jackboot[/mention] and [mention]Mofo1995[/mention].