OffRoad99

Not a fan of calling them "doors", to be honest. With the upcoming NBT map, as we're going to be playing on a ship, I would actually rename them to "hatches", which is far more thematic. Therefore having a sealable door that closes behind you on its own is far more safer in case than, say, a depressurization.

Not to mention...playing as a maintenance drone hardly classifies as roleplay.

Yes, two mining pods with some tweaks could also work. That'd allow another person to play as Miner, thus bringing it from three to four. AND, it'd allow two simultaneous mining operations in two different away sites! Great idea. EDIT: The airlock still needs a rework. I'd still remove the three internal doors because, even if it's only marketed for two miners, you would still be unable to drag two ore boxes *and* be in the airlock at the same time unless one lies down, which I profoundly dislike. And God helps you if you're hoping to drag a drill down.

Mining Bay/Refinery Review 1. Please add marking lights on the voidsuit racks. As of now it is impossible to mark a path on the asteroid. 2. From the moment the mining pod leaves the ship, everything from GPS, to suit sensors and comms stops working. That is done intentionally, as we fly out of the Horizon's telecomms range. Baystation's headsets networked with a hand-held radio that you hopefully carried with you that ran on a limited power battery and created a local comms network that allowed people to communicate). As I am not sure on whether you want to replicate that or not, perhaps station-bounced radios in this scenario would be both immensely helpful and represent a rather immediate solution. Would it be possible to have a large stack of station-bounced radios spawn on a table, somewhere near the mining gear lockers, perhaps? Mining Pod Review For the sake of the review I will put Aurora's first iteration of the mining pod (picture on the left) with Baystation's final iteration of the mining pod, also known as the GUP (picture on the right). Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to discriminate or undermine our current mappers or the current iteration of the NBT map, it is an informative reply that hopes to help and rectify some perceived issues whilst drawing from Baystation's experience and an amply-tested map design. As it is now, and I am sorry to say it, but the current structural design of the mining pod is completely insufficient. On the 2nd NBT round there were three miners, with me being one of them, and we were barely able to move around the shuttle. To keep us from getting stuck inside we had to leave one box in the airlock. I have taken a picture of the shuttle during that round and with some light and amateur editing, have mostly recreated the situation in the mining pod at that time. The people sitting on the left and right are effectively stuck: they're trapped in by the guy sitting in the middle and the engine console/hydrogen canister respectively. There is barely enough space for the TWO boxes. To leave the pod we had to shift the boxes on the rightmost and center of the airlock. Two of the Miners had to lie down under the third while he worked on the airlock controller. Now imagine trying to push three ore boxes in there. I will tell you right away, it's impossible without cycling the airlock twice to get both the boxes and the people out. Here is some suggestions I would like to offer: Remove the airlock: Leave the external doors and remove the three internal airlocks. That will clear a lot of space and if we're hellbent on keeping the current mining pod as it is, it MAY fix most of our issues. The air pumps will either fill or depressurize the entire mining pod once it lands on an asteroid and store the air in the bright red canister on the picture. If we worry about an air contamination I am certain that Atmospherics could find a way to help with that. I believe Bay had a system in which the mining pod connected to an atmospherics port once it landed which took care of the air recycling/filtering process of its ships. I am not sure of that right now. Add a Long-Range Holopad: I am fine with a complete absence of comms, but there has to be at least one way to communicate with the Horizon. Slap a long-range holopad somewhere at the centre of the mining pod, so that everyone can be seen and can communicate with the Bridge. The Consoles: As of now I am uncertain as whether they're meant to be placeholders or are here to stay. Bay's consoles were immediately recognizable and with nothing but a glance, you could tell their purpose. In our first iteration of the mining pod it's a lot less immediate. The two seats on the left and right are also virtually useless, the idea of each miner contributing to piloting in a short-range mining pod is, I am sorry say it, rather naive. ONE person should be left in charge of the flight. One. Add a NanoMed: A basic NanoMed for the sake of first aid.

I gotta say, I am somewhat disappointed to see them bumped up as a "professional fighting force". Historically NanoTrasen always seemed skeptical in allowing Biesel to have their own standing military and the TCFL was a half-assed attempt at giving them one. Despite the jokes that afflicts it IC/OOC (every military force in the game has some), the Legion's theme was that of a militia that managed to achieve some impressive results even with what little equipment they were issued. Turning it into a fully-funded and (I guess in the future) better trained army feels very sudden: how is NanoTrasen even "ok" with this? Why the sudden change of heart? Is it because of the 2nd Solarian Invasion? There is now the legitimate risk of Biesel, one day, turning the TCFL against either NT or the SCC. That's basically giving Biesel an awful lot of hard power. Are they not afraid of that?

Operations is by far the best department when it comes to uniforms. Security's ok-ish, but I really, really dislike the Investigators' uniform. The PMC"s uniform is by far the strangest, it's a bland grey that imho kills an awful lot of details.

I like C and D, though I'm not a great fan of the HUGE buttons.

Ahh, everyone's favorite Republic of Miranda I'd like to quote what Witchbells said in the post above. However, knowing that Biesel is essentially Eridani Federation 2.0, I'd like to see how bad the anti-corporate movements are treated. If the Eridani Federation treats anti-corporates like literal criminals (at least in my mind), in Biesel I suppose they won't be prosecuted but will be instead publicly shunned and discriminated. I don't think there's going to be a strong and widespread anti-corporate sentiment among Biesel, as nearly every sort of private business is, in one way or another, directly tied with a megacorporation and by fighting it, means you'll lose everything.

When I think of this, the first notion that comes to mind is being hit by a power fist in-game, it sends you flying across the room without actually knocking you down. Could one implement this mechanic on your suggestion? That'd perhaps avoid "cheesing" by insta-stunning someone by tackling him on the floor...and yet keep the pain/pushback effect.

I massively approve. I occasionally chatted about the Shadowling from Paradise in dchat and how it could be tweaked (read nerfed) massively to work as some sort of monster that feeds and thrives in the dark and potentially spook crewmembers to quasi-literal death. The best SS13 rounds to me are those where either chaos or crazy IC fear rules rampant. This reminds me of that idea, just...much better executed. Yes. Si. Please. Add it. A thousand of +1

I'm going to echo what both Faye and especially Anselm have stated. I am not a fan of Tajarans, and yet I recognize that their lore is very well-crafted and thorough, which is a testament of your good work. But, you already are a Head Admin, a Tajaran lore developer and a wiki maintainer, and while there are no rules that stops it I must admit to be very worried to see one person receiving so much power and responsibilities. I'm sorry, but it's going to be a -1 from me.

From all the interactions I've witnessed of Marlon, as well as his innovative suggestions that concerns the Research department, I'd say he's WAY overqualified +1 from me. Can't wait to see your work being canonized.

I'd be alright with this as long as I can still add custom entries on each of my records.

I agree here, although...Tau Ceti Basic is the de-facto lingua franca of the Spur. Imho it'd be fine if some sort of pop-up warning showed up when you remove it from your known languages. It would particulary be helpful for new players.

Bluespace is the odd blend of the Warp from Star Trek and the Hyperspace from Star Wars. As everyone here already said, the most fascinating aspect to me is how everyone knows very little about its nature, which brings near-endless RP opportunities. My head-canon treats Bluespace as the one dimension that keeps all other alternate timelines separate: each round (including antag rounds) represent its own timeline, in which our characters are either killed or otherwise partecipate, witness and live with the crazy in-game events that concerns changelings, mercs, borers... This dimension on its own is both dangerous and toxic unless the ship is properly shielded. And these sort of dangers sort-of remind me of Bay's bluespace, in which moving whilst the ship is in FTL would create a "clone" of you, and physical contact with your clone will be tremendous to your mental/physical health. Bluespace is the in-universe answer to the fastest FTL method as well as the most dangerous.

Would that be possible for a Human to, say, understand alien languages? Perhaps with a high investments of "points", as you put it? A Human who worked for years among Skrell MAY be able to understand the language, even if it'd be still impossible for him to learn how to speak it?

Because the server population is full of non-Biesel characters and what happens to their homeworlds and nations is meant to have a big, personal impact on all of them.

The Sol Alliance still controls important territories and assets, and as we're not playing Stellaris, you can't make a nation disappear like that. I'd be even more surprised if Biesel was the one who made the Alliance "disappear". Biesel is barely able to keep Mictlan under control, let alone take over the Alliance. And with the days of the Sol Alliance being the strongest Human nation in the Spur are gone, Biesel is left with an impending recession and the Wildlands to take care of, which is full of rogue Solarian fleets and pirates. That being said, with the Alliance focusing its attention inward and Biesel trying to keep their things together, I would not be surprised if other factions seized the initiative, like Dominia and the PRA, to quote Gecko. It would also be a cool opportunity to see some attrition growing between non-Human powers, or between monarchies like those who rule Dominia and the Hegemony. The whole focus of the King of the World act was mostly centered on Human territories, let's now see what the other nations can do. There's also the whole matter surrounding the Stellar Conglomerate Coalition: it's well-known that it includes the wealthiest and most powerful figures in the galaxy, who lead the most powerful and influent of megacorporations, and when it comes to soft power, the SCC is unmatched. Einstein Engines is on a 1v5 against and it ripped off a chunk of Mendell, out of NanoTrasen's hands. It still remains a powerful and wealthy ally for the organizations, governments and individuals willing to act against the SCC. Putting megacorporations aside, what are the non-Human nations saying about it? Are they worried? Will some of them resort to covert or overt actions to oppose the SCC? TL;DR In my head-canon, the future will bring the freshly-formed SCC and the rest of the Spur (minus Biesel) into a slow attrition.

Elyra is like RL Switzerland, isn't it? There could be Hell raging a war outside of their borders but they wouldn't do anything to help their neighbours. They're neutral to the core. I agree with the Coalitions of Colonies, those guys deserve some of the spotlight.

Yeye, I'm ok with that! Just wished to know what made you consider listing Biesel as the third most technological faction in the Spur

Another great Topic of the Day. I only have a few questions: I am truthfully skeptical to see Biesel as the third most technological faction within the Spur. Why? I've never seen much on the wiki/lore that suggests so, and out of all the factions in the Aurora-verse it seems like the most average in terms of technological development (for a sci-fi nation). Why not replace it with the Eridani Corporate Federation, instead? It is known that Corporations releases bleeding-edge tech on the market, for its citizens, and its something rather unique to them. There's always a strong correlation between superpowers and Weapons of Mass Destruction. We know that NanoTrasen has bluespace artillery and someting about a mass-driver cannon that obliterated a Solarian fleet. Does the Sol Alliance have any? What about the Jargon Federation? And the Coalition of Colonies? What do the rest of the Spur think about WMDs?

I always thought that it's kind of cool to see Einstein Engines, on its own, having invented a reliable way to completely bypass and compete evenly with Bluespace drives, as it leaves the entire SCC in the dust and forces them to work hard on R&D and find fresh Phoron deposits (like what we'll be doing in the NBT?). But yes, I too would like some clarifications and/or updates about this, as till this moment I've been getting conflicting information about its worth and efficiency.

ImmortalRedshirt's started asking some great questions, and I wish to continue with some of my own: The newest Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive pioneered by Einstein Engines: several lore articles as well as the Sol Alliance page on the wiki explicitly say that its "capable of rivaling the best phoron-fueled bluespace engines", though this statement's been declared false by several lore developers on Discord, citing something about "propaganda" (even if it's written on the wiki, outside of the IC perspective of a newspaper article) and being marginally better than conventional Warp drives. Is it possible to know whether this new Warp drive is able to compete evenly with a bluespace drive or if it's really slower? On-Board Artificial Intelligence: are AIs common on civilian ships? What about military ships? Training Requirements: how "easy" is it to learn how to fly a ship? Real-life pilots train for years, and that's to just fly a very specific airplane and know their systems/computers like the back of their hands, and the same applies for military pilots, whereas in many other sci-fi universes (like Star Wars) it's just much more easier: everything looks standardized and is definitely more immediate and comprehensive. Which philosophy is used on our server-lore?

A solid improvement! A minor nitpick, if I may: both engineering suits look like a firefighter uniform, and that's one of the jobs usually assigned to atmo techs. Imho the engineer and atmo tech suits should be switched.