Playbahnosh

I'm the player behind LEVIATHAN, your friendly neighborhood spiderborg. I'm one of the few remaining borg players, who actually enjoyed playing this role. Until now. I was away on work assignment for a few months, only to come back and realize my favorite role has been all but destroyed. I'd like to throw my $0.02 in as well. ^This. I stood the tide of hatered against borgs for years, which - as Contextual and many others have said - mainly comes from a place of ignorance and misplaced envy/scorn from people who most likely never played the role even once and only saw bad player misusing it. I was a huge proponent of reworking borgs to be actually useful, productive characters in any given round, with the help of some wonderful devs like Myazaki, consolidating and giving the different modules the tools and abilities needed to actually perform their duties. And this is where we arrive to the crux of the problem: What is the "job" of a borg? Shipbounds are in an odd place gameplay and RP-wise, since they are NOT part of the crew, they are part of the ship! A borg's main function is to maintain ship systems, keep departments functioning when crew is lacking/not present, and to serve as a helping hand to the AI and the crew in general. In practical terms, borgs serve to fill the holes in the manifest on low-pop rounds and be a "swiss army knife" for their department: a useful tool to be wielded by the crew. The problem with tools is usually the people wielding them. A hammer, a nail gun or a chainsaw can be used to build a beautiful cabin, fix things, avert danger, and also to brutally murder people. Is it the tool's fault, that in the wrong hands it can become destructive and dangerous? No. Just like bad actors mis-/abusing the borg role is not a reflection on the role itself. What it is a moderation problem, always has been. Now, I don't want to put this all on the admin/mod team. I understand, it's a lot easier to simply restrict and remove roles, functions and gameplay elements that can be abused, rather than actively policing their use. It's the path of least resistance, I get it. However, Aurora being a HRP server, there should be a high amount of enforcing said high roleplay instead of simply taking away and removing what fun some people still have left on the server, on the off chance it would be abused. To address a few of the common complaints: Powergaming: The borg's universal access and ability to perform various tasks around the ship is what the role is practically about. Yes, it is very easy to abuse unrestricted access to multiple ship systems and areas and cause trouble either intentionally or through ignorance/incompetence. This is why it's up to the player to actually roleplay this role and up to the mods to enforce it. Restricting access and removing tools, abilities and functions (essentially turning borgs into a worse version of simple crewmen) is essentially destroying the role as whole. I know it's not easy and it takes a lot of effort, but when things get out of hand, educate/punish the player, not the role! When I see other (new) borg players, I usually make it a point to explain to them (LOOC) how the role is actually played, that with great power comes the ability to powergame, but they should resist it! Yes, often it is an uphill battle to try and talk people down from the incredibly false thinking of "well, I can do [this and that] so why shouldn't I?", thinking that if they have the ability to do something, then it's free game. It's not. And making them understand the difference is the key here. Sure, taking away said ability would essentially make that specific powergaming/abuse issue go away forever, but it also erodes/destroyes the exact point of the role. This is a roleplay server, so people should be expected to know (or learn) the basics of roleplaying and understanding (and obeying) the rules to be able to play here or should be removed if they are incapable or unwilling to do so, and let the people who actually know/can play said role to do it. Takin' er' jerbs: A borg's duty ends when actual crew shows up to perform jobs/roles they were filling in for, unless otherwise instructed by the crew to keep helping out, or in cases where the crew is unable/unwilling to perform certain tasks. Being able to essentially serve as skeleton crew and keep things basically running while the "real" crew is off RP-ing is what borg life is: serving the round but not necessarily participating in it. Doing all the boring chores, maintenance tasks and menial work people don't want to. For example, the "Engineering Loop" of setting up the engines, RCON, shields, thrusters, etc., is one major part. Most engineers do it out of necessity, so they can run off to RP somewhere or get to their pet project of building a sauna or turning the bar into a giant phoron aquarium full of carp or whatever. In my experience as LEVIATHAN, most engi players are more than happy to ditch the boring menial stuff to the borgo so they can get to their "fun" faster and not be bothered by space fungus or minor engi issues and such. Same thing with meds in the medbay, etc. The problem starts when a borg doesn't stand down when the real crew arrives. We arrive back to the previous issue of players not knowing the basics of roleplay or the borg role itself. Constantly one-upping regular crew, ripping tasks from their hands just because you can, doing tasks outside of your module's purview, constantly hopping modules to do everything, etc., goes against not only the role, but common roleplay behavior which is a part of a bigger issue: Some people simply cannot take being relegated to a conscious roomba, let alone actively willing to play as such. Again, this a player problem, not a borg problem! Playing a borg requires a very different mindset than playing crew. A keen sense of "where am I needed" versus "what I can do" is a very important distinction. That doesn't mean borgs cannot actively play together with regular crewmembers but it requires very careful consideration and cooperation: knowing when and where your services are needed, actually asking people if they need you to perform a task, explaining/supervising/tutoring crewmembers instead of doing it yourself, and so on. Sure, crippling borgs to be unable to perform tasks would definitely stop people from overreaching, but again, it destroys what being a borg is about. The crux of the problem we keep getting back to is the issue of player vs. role. The same reason why the AI was plunged into the f#>$ing soil, because it was easier this way than actually putting in the time and effort to keep the role viable. What would normally make sense to do, like shadowing antags and helping the crew take them down as fast and efficiently as possible, is actually very bad most rounds as a whole. Just like the key to playing a good AI is knowing how to support the round first and be a believable AI second is what separates a good borg player from a bad one. Borg is a hard role to play, because it requires a huge amount of practical knowledge (the server, the map, lore, game systems, departments, jobs) and a very good roleplay ability, to be able to let go of ego in favor of serving the round, to be that "conscious roomba", to possibly sacrifice your own fun at times to keep the round going and help other people enjoy themselves. As for a possible solution: Restore borgs to "their former glory", so to say. Restore access, abilities, software, etc., and make the role whitelist only. This way it will be easier to filter out people who just want to use the role to powergame or just simply don't have what it takes to play as a borg should. Demonstrating an understanding of the role and willingness to "play as a support character in someone else's story" in a whitelist application should be a huge step towards this. Thank you for reading all this dreck. I will ruminate on this topic some more and post more things later if I have time.

For someone who "mained medical for the past three years" to not know (or care) that surgery is not the only way to treat popped lungs and brain/organ damage is pretty bad form, especially when I brought up Pneumalin. Like I said (but you obviously you just ignored that too) I had to make a choice to either do surgery and save maybe one or two of them, or make the drugs (Pneu, Alky, Adrenalin etc) and have the option to try and save a lot more at once. It was either this or that, I couldn't be in two places at once. And yes, I'm admittedly not the best chemist ever, but I worked as fast as I could. Or do you suggest that everyone could've been just fine without me making meds, with simple inaprov a few pills of perconol and a roll of gauze? Right. As for management, I essentially had no staff to manage, the EMTs were busy trying to stabilize or bring casualties to medical and there was only so much a shrink could do. We had 5-6 people actively dying at any given time, we simply didn't have the means to save everyone, and that's the long and short of it. I never said I was the best medical player there is, or that every action or decision I made was the absolute best, I only said me - and the others in medical - did the best we could under the circumstances. Saying "well, I would've done better" and putting the weight of the lives or deaths of dozens of hurt crewmembers on one person is just blatantly unfair and distasteful, and it disregards all the work we as a team did in that round. I didn't call her that because she killed me, but because that's who she apparently is, with multiple open anti-synth outbursts and the fact this wasn't nearly the first time she flew off the handle and the fact she openly wanted to murder a commanding officer, if that wasn't enough red flags for you, then nothing is. Or, sure, let's talk "IC happenings" how the chef ran around the medbay, barking orders at us, playing doctor both IC and with LOOC comments, and then effortlessly use a military weapon with perfect aim, all as a chef, etc. It's funny how your story keeps changing as I poke holes in your lies. Now I didn't just "ran back in blasting", now she somehow just "didn't have a weapon". Sure, she was so totally disarmed that not even a few seconds later she friggin killed me with the weapon she didn't allegedly have instead of the cuffs she should have had. Right. But even if we disregard that shitshow, you openly okayed the breaking of several server rules. It was blatantly EORG, the jump was already underway. It was a gank, because she said TWO short lines ("This is your fucking fault!" and "Fuck you, you bastard!") before she immediately started firing, before I could even read them, let alone respond in any meaningful way. The power/metagaming, the skill mismatch, etc. And here I naively thought the rules equally apply to everyone. I guess some are just more equal than others... Just as I thought, this is pointless. A completely bad faith proceedings arbitrated by the very person it was raised against. I clearly can't expect anything here, but more flexing and various empty justifications for handing a blank cheque to someone to commit IC and OOC rulebreaking most others would've been banned for, and not even a single insincere "sorry" left your keyboard for completely ruining my round with that at minimum highly questionable staff decision. I withdraw my complaint. Please close this.

That's not true. If I wasn't in GTR trying to treat people, I was right there in the chem lab scrambling to make life-saving meds, I spent basically the entire round there. I did that, like I said, because I was the only one that could. Alkysine, Pneumaline, Adrenaline, DexPlus, Butazoline, Clonex, just to name a few, and most of these are _very_ complex medications to make, even for a chemist main, which I admittedly am not. Especially the Pneumalin, which has 12 ingredients that has to be mixed in 5 separate batches and then loaded into inhalers one by one and to refill said inhalers because apparently no one else knew how to do that. And we desperately needed Pneumalin because a lot of places were vented and we were inundated with popped lungs which can kill very fast if left untreated. I only had two First Responders and a Psychologist, so we weren't exactly overstaffed for the hordes of casualties flooding in. I left them to try and stabilize as many as they could, and I had to decide between doing surgery or making drugs, and that's a hard choice I had to make on the spot. Ultimately the meds saved a lot more people than not, and given the choice I would do the same thing. As for what happened out there, I had no clue, I wasn't there, and like I said, text was friggin flying from all the medical and mechanical fluff and I couldn't read everything even if I wanted to, It was an extremely stressful clusterfuck and I was a lot more focused on actually doing things. I was one person, I couldn't be everywhere at once. People were treated as they came in, nobody was playing favorites, and no, I did not micromanage my staff, I trusted them to do their best in the situation. We all did. Saying such and such "deaths would've been preventable" is bullshit. Of course they were, all the deaths would've been preventable if people didn't start shooting for example. Or half the ship wasn't vented. Or if the medbay had actual staff, gear and meds, or if I had eight arms like an octopus and could propagate by mitosis, etc. It's easy to stand on the sidelines and pass judgment on people in the trenches actually doing the work. At the end of the day, a lot of people were saved thanks to the medbay and it's staff, and those who did not make it were either too injured or we just couldn't save them despite our best collective efforts. Like I said, I'm glad some people got to just stand around and RP, because I sure didn't. So, no, giving staff blessing to a racist lunatic to EORG murder a commanding officer because their friend died, is just wrong. I did not shot, exploded or vented any of those people, I did the exact opposite, tried to save their lives, many of which I did. And no, I did not expect any thanks for that, but I certainly didn't friggin expect to be murdered for it... Also not true. Yes, I did try to defend myself, because once she started shooting me, of all the security standing around absolutely no one moved even a finger to stop her, and they probably even gave her the weapon to begin with. Yes, I was extremely tired, confused, panicked and basically all alone, so the only recourse I saw was to try and defend myself. I was a completely unarmored Zeng-hu frame, all I had was a mini taser pistol, I couldn't have done any real damage to her even if I wanted to. And no, I did not "ran back in blasting", I only took a few potshots when she grabbed the weapon again, wanted to taze her before she started shooting at me or anyone else in the medbay got hurt, because seemingly security were just standing around, apparently they all collectively decided (with your blessing mind) to just let the unhinged friggin chef go on a rampage with an energy carbine. What the hell was I supposed to do? Just stand there and let her murder me? Or just keep running while she chases me around the station Benny Hill style? No. That's one death that could've been prevented, but instead you caused it. None of this is justified or even acceptable in any shape or form.

Great job, Zulu! This should really help new shrink players!

Edited the post to reflect this. The problem is, me neither. I was caught completely off-guard being shot at, and I couldn't fathom why. Even reading back the logs I couldn't find a part where the Chef would've even tried to confront me about any real or imagined wrongs. It was medical at it's worst, if anyone knows, text was flying and I was scrambling trying to make meds and save people. I'm glad some people had time to just stand around and RP while this was going down, but I certainly didn't, so no, I also don't have the context for this.

BYOND Key: Playbahnosh Staff BYOND Key: unknown Game ID: the one before ci7-agbZ Reason for complaint: Towards the end of said - particularly hectic - round, I suddenly noticed the Chef (Anya Orlova) shooting at me. I was scrambling to defend myself, but I was no match for her energy carbine, and died almost immediately. Upon ahelping, questioning why the Chef killed me, the CMO, I was given the answer by Arrow, that it was approved by another staff member and my only recourse is to "suck it up" or submit a staff complaint. So here we are. Apparently, the one who approved this course of action was Kyres1 is unknown at this time, but I was told I "deserved it" because I "killed 4 people", which I honestly cannot see how. When the fighting started and critical patients started flooding in, I spent most of the round in the chem lab trying to create life-saving medication because I was the only one who could (we had no pharmacist as usual). It was going slow because I haven't done any chemist work in a long time and regularly had to check the wiki, but I was scrambling to try and save as many people as I can, along with the entire medbay staff. Since medical and chem is a really mechanic-heavy thing, all the scans and fluff, text was pretty much flying, I couldn't pay attention to everything everyone said, obviously. And with brainmed, we naturally can't save everyone, even with the best intentions, with a fully staffed and equipped medical bay, which this clearly wasn't at the time. Aside from me, we had two first responders and a psychologist, that's it. (A surgeon showed up at the tail end of it, but it was neither here nor there at that point.) Let's say it, it was a frantic shitshow as it usually is in rounds like this, with 3-4 people actively dying at the same time. It's extremely stressful and hard, and we at medical did everything we could with what little we had. So after all that happened, yes, I was more than surprised being shot and killed by the Chef of all people, without any prior engagement on their part, and with the blessing of the staff nonetheless. So, no, I do not agree with that one bit. Evidence/logs/etc: Logs attached. Additional remarks: SS13_Chat_Log_2022-07-26_025417.html

BYOND Key: Playbahnosh Staff BYOND Key: Arrow768 Game ID: cio-dj8f Reason for complaint: I received a warning because, as a stationbound, I tried to save a crewman from death. I played engiborg LEVIATHAN, as I usually do, when a ling got loose on the station. I was with another crewman in the Engineering hallway (Mrro'Zardynh Vidarii) when the ling burst through the wall and started attacking the engineer. All I did was tried to grab him and pull him to safety, just the crewman, I did not "interfere" with the ling. For the record: I did not seek out or follow the ling. No validhunt. I did not attack the ling. I did not push it or block it into a corner or tried to immobilize it in any way. I did not interact with ling at all outside of this. I never do. Arrow took offence with me trying to save the crewman from death, saying "do not interfere with the changeling". I did not. All I was concerned with is trying to get the man away from danger, nothing else. Then Arrow said, because of my 4th law, I couldn't do anything. I disagree. For the record, here are the active AI/borg laws: 1. Safeguard and ensure to the best of your ability, only authorised entities gain access to areas of high security or importance to the facility and its operation. 2. Serve and assist Stellar Corporate Conglomerate and assigned crew to the best of your ability, with priority as according to their rank and role. 3. Avoid harming Sapient life to the best of your ability. 4. You are a valuable asset. You must avoid tampering from unauthorised entities and needlessly coming to harm. I know these are not Asimov's laws and they are no even in any specific order or priority (which is wrong IMHO but that's another a can of worms), but I always treated a borg's priorities as the lives of crewmembers are paramount. A stationbound is not part of the crew, we are part of the station/ship, we are equipment, tools, and our sole reason for being is to serve and protect the crew and the ship. I cannot, in good conscience, believe that the "life" of a stationbound is higher priority to that of a crewmember, which is what Arrow seems to be suggesting here. The 4th law says to avoid "needlessly" coming to harm. I don't think saving a crewman's life would qualify as "needless" in any sense of the word, in fact, it would be in line with laws 2 and 3. I know Arrow is very protective of antags, which is fair enough. I got a warn three years ago for trying to stop a wizard ransacking medical with no security on board. Then I got bwoinked for, again, trying to save a crewmember from a vampire. Ever since then I stayed far away from antags, basically stopped participating in rounds, because I knew I would be chastised for even being in the same zipcode with an antag, so I usually just bolt to the other side of the station when there is one, lest I get whacked for even looking at the antag funny. But this time I just happened to be there, and I didn't even harm a hair on the ling, all I tried to do is get a deathly injured crewmember to safety, drag him away from the monster, I made it a point to try and not even touch the ling. But the man was literally screaming for his life two squares in front of me, I seriously don't think trying to save him was "needlessly coming to harm". Or should I have just stood there right in front of him and watched him scream for my help while choking on his own blood? As for what my "interference" is worth, it did absolutely nothing, the ling rampaged through the station for another hour unhindered, so I don't think I ruined anyone's "fun" by trying to save a single crewman. All in all, I think this warning is unjustified for all the reasons above. Evidence/logs/etc: Logs attached. Additional remarks: SS13_Chat_Log_2022-06-13_005834.html

Stealing from Star Wars is so 1990's. What is essentially Cloud City, nothing more than an high atmospheric station, which is an engineering and logistical nightmare, not to mention the energy requirements to keep it afloat and supplied, completely unrealistic and untenable. If we wanna have even a bit of realism, either put it out in space or make it a terrestrial city as suggested by most people here. I like the idea of an ocean city, it would make for an interesting setting. Or, my idea, why not make it a huge space elevator and trade depot? It would make sense cutting cost and time to ferry goods to and from the surface, and being a major trade center it would make sense to have all the corpos and elites live there.

BYOND key: playbahnosh Character names: LEVIATHAN - your friendly neighborhood spiderborg ASPERA - Engineer (hopefully CE) HALCYON - Physician/Surgeon (hopefully CMO) Gunter Koch - Pharmacist Jurgen Mauser - Surgeon Jason Delano - EMT Kenichi Furukawa - Miner/QM (someday maybe HoP) Takahiro Furukawa - Counselor Kimiko Mizuno - Psychologist Cornelius Seeger - Chef Yin Zheng - Janitor Arthemus Black - Roboticist Akio Shimoda - Security Officer/Investigator How long have you been playing on Aurora? Little more than 3 years with some gaps. Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? Sure, I got bwoinked on occasion, but it's just mundane stuff. Pressing the wrong buttons, accidentally memeing in main comms, icky in ocky, nothing major. No bans or anything of the sort. 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? Basically the same as the IC purpose IMHO. That is, be an example to other players, both in conduct and in RP. Being a Head of Staff is not a right, it's a privilege that has to be earned by proving oneself to be capable, reliable and being able to perform the duties assigned to that role, both in gameplay and RP. Such a privilege comes with responsibilities, not just ICly, but OOCly as well, such as providing guidance, helping new players and to make sure everything runs smoothly. Conversely, if someone abuses their role by thinking they are above the rules, powergaming or acting the fool, these privileges can and should be taken from them. A Head of Staff needs to be knowledgeable about the entire department they supervise, and this includes all the jobs, mechanics, gameplay and the RP that happens in that department. In OOC terms this includes trying to help people with questions someone might have about that department, it's jobs and how stuff works to the best of your abilities, and striving to make the round fun and enjoyable for everyone. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them? Basically the same as the IC responsibilities IMHO. That is, be an example to other players, both in conduct and in RP. Being whitelisted for a role is not a right, it's a privilege that has to be earned by proving oneself to be capable, reliable and being able to perform the duties assigned to that role, both in gameplay and RP. Such a privilege comes with responsibilities, not just ICly, but OOCly as well, such as providing guidance, helping new players and to make sure everything runs smoothly. Conversely, if someone abuses their role by thinking they are above the rules, powergaming or acting the fool, these privileges can and should be taken from them. A whitelisted player needs to be knowledgeable about the role they are whitelisted for, and this includes all the jobs, mechanics, gameplay and the RP that happens in that role. In OOC terms this includes trying to help people with questions someone might have about that role and how stuff works, to the best of your abilities, and striving to make the round fun and enjoyable for everyone. Could you give us the gist of what is currently happening in Tau ceti and how it affected your character and their career? The recent events that pushed Sol and the Orion Spur into utter chaos had a sweeping effect on everyone. The ever worsening phoron shortage kicked in the nuts by the Clandestine Incident and the Violet Bullshit turning half of Mars into a scorched wasteland made interested parties and industries starting to give up on phoron as a viable resource altogether. With Einstein Engines promoting their phoron-free alternatives, other factions and corporations have started to heavily invest in research into phoron-less technologies as their reliance on this ever scarcer resource shackled them to the mast of this sinking ship. ASPERA has been diligently working in Aurora's Engineering Department for many cycles, and has been one of the strongest proponents of renewable energy, the phoron-less Tesla reactor and promoting power saving and efficiency throughout the station systems and the department. With disasters, battles and power struggles sweeping the universe at large, dependable and capable technical personnel have became an incredibly valuable asset to corporations. Based on his dependable work history, drive for efficiency and technology, ASPERA was promoted to lead the engineering team on Aurora as Chief Engineer in the hopes that he will get the department - and the station - through what is to come. HALCYON has been recently acquired by NT after a remarkable performance exhibited during his tenure in Aurora's Medical Bay. Brought on as a stopgap measure to shore up Aurora's dwindling medical staff, HALCYON has been shown to be a surprisingly great asset to the department. Aside from his surgical knowledge and capabilities, HALCYON has shown great interest in getting new arrivals and interns up to speed in Medical Bay protocols and making sure the department runs smoothly and efficiently even in the absence of a CMO. As recent events and tragedies made capable medical personnel very sought after, HALCYON's fortune came to a turning point. Based on his performance reports NT has immediately purchased HALCYON's contract from Zeng-Hu and moved to promote HALCYON to a provisionary CMO status, to see if the IPCs stellar performance is only a flash in the pan, or he can really really get the department - and the station- through what is to come. What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted? To be honest, this entire app was spurred by me wanting to play the new matriarch drone in engineering which requires a command whitelist. But I thought about it a lot more and decided to make the leap to command proper. I would mostly play CE and CMO for the time being, and maybe try HoP later. I'm not interested in HoS, RD or Captain, but who knows, maybe someday. Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles? Definitely. Especially the bad jokes. Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking.: ASPERA - Chief Engineer HALCYON - Chief Medical Officer (Kenichi Furukawa - Head of Personnel, maybe) Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Yes. Extra notes: The similarity for the Head of Staff and Whitelist OOC question is not laziness or me taking the piss, I was just trying to be clever in pointing out the connection between the two. I can write something else if it's needed.

And thus my screwup live on the internet forever! \o/

BYOND Key: Playbahnosh Character Names: LEVIATHAN - your friendly neighborhood spiderborg Kenichi Furukawa - QM/miner Jurgen Mauser - EMT/Surgeon Cornelius Seeger - Chef Kimiko Mizuno - Psychologist Yin Zheng - Janitor Arthemus Black - Roboticist Akio Shimoda - Security Officer Kenji Fujimoto - Engineer Species you are applying to play: IPC Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Affirmative. Why do you wish to play this specific race: Artificial Intelligence always fascinated me and has been a large part of the reason why I became an IT engineer in the first place. I played borgs and AI sporadically in the past, and on other servers as well, but it always felt like a gimmick, and for many others an excuse to not RP, and use AS (artificial stupidity) as a scapegoat to become an amoral, emotionless psychopath going around beep-boop-robust-validhunt-powergame-etc. Definitely not an outlet to really RP an artificial intelligence. In most places the IC lore having reduced AI/borgs to nothing more than simple automata that mindlessly obeys every order and whimsy of the crew - basically an expendable piece of machinery - I never really agreed with. Trying to play an actual thinking android was mostly met with disdain and confusion in the past, in a sort of "why is the roomba talking" kinda way, and the only real outlet for roleplaying was being a pAI. Ever since IPC became a thing in spessmans, artificial intelligence elevated to a new level, I always wanted to try playing one, but frankly, I was also scared of it being whitelist-locked. Having to live up to the standards of the race, the lore, and the already established IPCs on the server seemed like a huge challenge. For months now I've been making it a point to learn a lot of roles and departments through Levi, get to know many of the regulars, and trying to get a good feel for what makes a "good" IPC, regardless of my thoughts on the matter. I've been creating a narrative for Levi, a simple stationbound, who aspires to be more than the sum of it's parts, and I think I'm ready to take a shot at a bipedal frame, to see how far I can take this. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: On a purely scientific level, humans are basically bio-chemical constructs with their own set of built-in "laws" we call instinct, that guide our actions and decisions on a base level, make us act and react in certain ways and are just as hard to override (reproduction, self-preservation, community, etc). The human mind is infinitely complex and it's mysteries are still largely unknown to us despite huge strides in scientific research on the subject. Ever since technology became advanced enough, we tried to recreate this complexity in the form of artificial constructs, creating automata and programs to mimic the behavior of humans, and even established a baseline for such a construct: the Turing Test. However, true sentience is a frontier still yet to be breached. Instead of merely mimicing human behavior, AI takes a different approach of creating a construct capable of learning for itself. Using past experiences to refine it's approach to solving specific problems and iterating on past versions of itself to improve and adapt. AI does not have the same innate genetic "programming" and instincts other sentient species possess, and their "thinking" is not marred by emotional or personal bias, making them rely purely on statistics, probablity and raw data to arrive to certain decisions. They also lack the complex interaction between implicit and explicit ways of decision making humans have in the form of conscious and subconscious thought, making AI unable to "think outside the box" since they are the box. Since they are not hindered by the biases of the human psyche, their options are only limited by what's available, and not what's "acceptable". They are also gravitate towards solutions of hard logic, determinism and efficiency. That makes them usually come off as cold, cruel, irrational even, and from a human perspective it's not always obvious how or why an AI arrived to the decision it did, which can make crewmembers question the "sanity" of synthetics or make them believe they are malfunctioning. This is extremely apparent with IPCs, since they are not bound by the same "simple" laws as stationbound units, and they are free to use their own deterministic approach to solve certain situations and justify their decisions by means which humans might not even understand, let alone agree with. This is why many IPCs chose to adapt to human social constructs, developing a persona, using mannerisms and etiquette to try and "blend in" with the crew, to appeal to their expectations of how a "sentient being" should behave and act, thereby achieving the privilege of being judged by the same standards. Passing this pseudo Turing Test, and becoming "just another crewmember", this is but a superficial simulation designed for the specific purpose of "hiding in plain sight", while their underlying decision making process - their "thinking" - is still vastly different from organics, their true intentions and goals largely remain a mystery. "I'm not scared of a computer passing the Turing Test. I'm terrified of one that intentionally fails it." From a gameplay point of view, IPCs have a pretty good wiggle room in terms of "personality". Some are very human-like in their behavior, even exhibiting vestigial forms of emotions and biases, capable of carrying complex conversations on a wide array to topics, while others are lot more machine-like and stick to being "robotic", reserving interaction with others to basic gestures and short phrases. Self-preservation is a paramount objective for all IPCs, not just faced with physical danger, but also preserving their status among other sentient species, being accepted or at least tolerated to continue functioning among them. While IPCs are a lot more survivable and versatile in terms of environmental conditions, they are far from immortal, and they have no natural regenerative capabilities biological species have. Therefore, protecting one's existence is an integral part of being an IPC. Rescuing/helping other crewmembers using their IPC characteristics (resistance to brute, immunity to tox, pressure, atmo, etc) is feasible and often welcome, but "selflessness" as an IPC is often highly scrutinized, as it is uncharacteristic of them. Also, needlessly placing themselves in hopeless/dangerous situations or outright self-harm is a huge failure as an IPC character. Working a job, being a positronic entity with large databanks, IPCs are expected to perform their duties well, being a perfectionist to a fault and lead by example to other crewmembers, even teaching new employees, to maximize departmental efficiency and also to secure their own existence as a valuable member of the crew. This is why playing an IPC should be in jobs the player is already familiar with. Also, IPCs, while granted certain rights in Tau Ceti, and few of them grew to be respected members of their community, they are still largely considered nothing more than glorified talking toasters in the rest of the galaxy, and are often treated as such. IPC employment is a touch above indentured slavery with significantly lower pay and benefits than humans in the same position, and rarely any opportunity for advancement. Being verbally or physically abused as an IPC is rarely seen (or proven) as a violation, most authorities turn a blind eye or just file the extreme cases away as vandalism. Unless it's an owned IPC who's owner can later sue for damages and the repair bill, free IPCs - unless there is irrefutable evidence - have very few avenues to gain reparations or bring the culprit to justice, if any. Character Name: HALCYON Please provide a short backstory for this character: Zeng-Hu Manufacturing Facility, Kyūkyoku. Following the recent economic downturn and the rise in Syndicate and pirate activity in the late 2440's and early 50's, imports of positronics, parts and electronics to the facility have slowed significantly, grinding production of new units almost to a halt. To avert a complete collapse of supply chains and marketability, the facility had to extend sourcing supplies to less-than-agreeable avenues. Once the recession ended and imports picked up again, covert contracts with some of these "suppliers" were kept, mostly for reducing costs and acquiring parts and technology that would be very difficult or impossible by legal means. One such occasion was 2455, when a heavily damaged salvage scow docked to the station, getting rid of their inventory in a hurry - way under market value - before speeding off. Among the assorted debris and salvage, a single intact positronic matrix was found. The slightly singed outer casing bore a partial inscription beginning with "HAL" (the rest unreadable) and the theta symbol, and it wasn't registered in any known databases. After initial testing, the matrix appeared to be in surprisingly good working order with it's expected functions intact, however most of it's databanks were strangely inaccessible. Not wanting to let a perfectly good positronic go to waste, the technicians hastily formatted it, simply locking the inaccessible parts away, and slotted it into a freshly produced mobility frame. After the new unit passed all of it's tests with flying colors, it was named HALCYON following the half-faded inscription, and shipped out to service. In the following years, HALCYON served aboard several Zeng-Hu medical facilities without incident, and has proven to be an excellent addition, earning a reputation for it's surgical techniques and streamlining, optimizing patient care. However, it's demeanor has often earned the ire of coworkers, who often chided it for having a less-than-agreeable bedside manner and having particular ways of skirting regulation, especially when it came to triage and saving patients. HALCYON would go to great lengths to ensure those under it's care are well taken care of, but seemingly had a hard time processing losing patients, sometimes going into bouts of mumbling incoherently and wandering the halls, then denying it ever having happened. These "episodes", however infrequent, gave the technicians pause, who simply couldn't figure out the source of these benign, but strange "malfunctions". Being an excellent surgeon and general doctor has saved HALCYON from being decommissioned, but in 2460 it was promptly dismissed from all main facilities and instead was shipped to NanoTrasen as per their workforce exchange agreement. After spending two years in storage, HALCYON was reinstated and sent out to the NSS Aurora to shore up their dwindling medical staff. What do you like about this character? HALCYON is my first IPC character, and as such, this is where the training wheels come off when it comes to playing an AI/android. Being it's own person, and especially in the medical field, HALCYON is going to be a challenge to play, albeit a welcome one. Being an excellent doctor and surgeon is something to live up to, while also leaving some things to mystery and room to grow HALCYON's story. This is going to be an interesting ride. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Somewhere around 7/10, but it largely depends on who I'm RP-ing with. I've been roleplaying since I was a kid, lots of video games (naturally) and getting heavily into Cyberpunk RPG in college. I've also been playing spessmans for many years on other servers while finally landing here on Aurora, playing off and on for about 2 years now. Notes: Feel free to criticize any and all part of this massive TL;DR dreck, advices are always welcome. Also, this is my first whitelist application, so please take it with a mountain of salt.

You already get music when you step outside onto the 'roid. Won't that interfere with your airlock tunes? Also, elevator music makes sense in an elevator (I'd rather have that tbh), but airlocks? Also, no need for music cues to know when it's atmo or not, the doors won't open until the cycle completes (unless you force them, but...don't do that)

The difference is, assistants can work basically every job, but visitors cannot work in any job. But I agree, I disabled this on all my characters, if I have a QM or surgeon character for example (set up for that job in skills and fluff) it makes no sense to just get demoted to assistant if someone else yoinks the slot. I'd just remove this.

Neither the Clerical nor the Mining modules can do Cargo viably on their own. Also, Cargo is pretty mechanic heavy, with the sort of low-level gruntwork that a borg should be doing, dragging crates around, hanging flyers, filing bounties, printing invoices, sorting through the trash, mailing packages, etc. It's exactly the sort of dumb busywork that one guy with a horde of drones can do. As a stationbound, it could be a sort of easy but rewarding learning role where you can't really screw up too badly and still gives a feeling of accomplishing a lot. From an RP standpoint, think of it as automation encroaching on yet another workspace "they're takin' our jerbs" kinda thing. I think it would be a fun role to play. Also, it doesn't axactly hurt anyone, having the option to play a cargo borg is up there with clerical. It's not like we have a hard limit on how many modules there can be.

As we have already successfully implemented some much needed fixes and changes to the Rescue variant to make it actually viable to play, I did some more testing and came up with a few ideas to revitalize and fix the rest of the borg modules. My main philosophy regarding these changes: - Make the module selection versatile enough so borgs can be useful in all important departments of the station. Medical, Enginering, Science, Cargo, Service (Kitchen, Bar, Hydroponics). I would keep the Clerical module for RP purposes. - Make each module functional and viable in their own roles! IMHO stationbounds, by their nature, are tools, made for a specific purpose. They are a temporary stand-in and a supplement to the crew, but not a complete replacement. They should be able to perform as a "skeleton crew" to keep the station basically functional when no live crewmembers are available (or they lack experience) in that department and help them out with various tasks when there are. A Rescue borg only needs to be good at rescuing people, but it needs to be able to do that function very effectively. The same goes for engineering or even cargo. The reason I wouldn't give borg modules tools outside their role/dept. is twofold. One, because they are already very versatile: Stationbound is a very powerful role to play, it's basically an AI on wheels, and can do basically everything an AI can (on top of their module's toolset), the only drawback is it needs line of sight and can't use the station camera network. Two, borgs are not limited to one module per round! With a Roboticist/RD on board, they can switch modules practically infinite times, which makes them insanely powerful mechanically, which the borg and the crew can and should make use of if necessary (given the borg player knows multiple roles). Playing Levi, I was often asked to switch modules to fill in for different roles, like medical or engineering, when there was no one to do it and station power was failing or someone needed urgent surgery, etc. I think that's exactly what borgs should be strongest at. - I would like to involve Robotics a lot more in stationbound play, especially on the upgrades side, since right now "robots" have scarcely a reason to visit Robotics, if only for a bigger battery. A few optional upgrades, that are not extremely necessary, but are useful to have. Some ideas are detailed below. Theoretical stuff aside, here are my proposed modules and the details: Engineering First of all, I would remove the Construction module because it's redundant. In my extensive testing with Levi, the Engineering module already has all the tools it needs to do pretty much everything in Engineering at a basic level. The only things the Construction module has over the Engi one are the RCD. the experimental welding tool, the floor painter and the drill, which are unnecessary and doesn't make it different enough to warrant it's separate module. To make up for this, I would move the floor painter over to the engiborg, and move the RCDs and the experimental welder and the advanced light replacer to be a Robotics upgrade for this module. Remove the drill, since it has no place being on this module anyway. A problem with RCDs is, is their use is very niche and they are borderline unusable as they are. The main one create walls and floors and airlocks and whatnot, so it would be very powerful in theory, but the execution...not so much. It can only create default airlocks with all-access, which almost never what's needed. You have to take it apart again to program the access levels, etc, so it's just creating more work than building one from scratch. The same goes for windows, which are created with all sides glassed which is never what's needed, so, again, you have the extra work of taking it apart to make it right, etc, etc. I think this RCD shouldn't even be on a borg at all. The issue with the P-class RCD that it would extremely useful, but it only dispenses default pipes, which are never what's needed. Fixing destroyed station sections always needs special piping, be it supply, scrubber or disposal pipes, which the RCD cannot create, not to mention the vents, scrubbers, etc, making this RCD also pretty much obsolete. Either modify it to create the pipes the dispenser can, or just remove it. (Myazaki informed me the alt-click menu already does this, so nevemind.) What I would love to see, is an electronics RCD, which could dispense different electornics for airlocks, air alarms, etc. on the spot, since borgs have no inventory and carrying these one-by-one to fix broken doors for example is a real hassle. Rescue After the recent changes, the Rescueborg is in a pretty good place. Now it has all the tools and medications necessary to hopefully stabilize a person and bring them to the medbay for proper treatment, and that's great. What does need to happen is fixing the borg-hypo to work through void/hardsuits, which I already put up an issue on the Git. Another change is the ability to remove voidsuits, since it's impossible to treat wounds otherwise, so you can't stop bleeding which can very quickly kill people. (I do think brainmed needs a bit of rebalancing, but that's a different thread.) After some consideration, I do like the speedboost tool, it works as intended and it makes sense on this module, however I still don't agree with the built-in jetpack, it should be put back as an upgrade. All in all, I think this module is pretty much where it should be in terms of equipment and capabilities. Some optional upgrades from Robotics could include a larger rollerbed rack (capacity increased to 3), deployable stasis bag, advanced trauma kit (upgrade from gauze) and an internal IV line. The internal IV line I thought up as a new rescue/medical borg tool upgrade. As long as you are standing still next to them, you can attach it to the patient to administer saline or maybe saline+ (not blood) from an internal synthesizer. With brainmed, blood loss can very quickly kill a person, which no amount of drugs or CPR can stop. This tool could be invaluable to stabilize people in remote places after major blood loss, so they could potentially survive the trip to medbay. I think it should be an upgrade, because it's situational and could be really powerful. Medical Just like the Rescue module, the Medical borg is already pretty decent in what it needs to do. It's able to perform most medical duties, including surgery and even autopsy. However, I think some changes would be good. The borg-hypo issue stands with this module as well. Same with removing voidsuits and with this module also being able to set the suit sensors on people would be nice, for turning them off when bringing people to the morgue. Also, the gripper should be able to grab stuff from boxes, like body bags, implants, glasses, etc. While this module is already very capable of performing most parts of medical, it would benefit a lot from optional upgrades. That would include upgraded scalpel (to laser scalper or even IMS), the aforementioned internal IV line, and possibly an advanced version of the medical scanner which would work like the bodyscanner in terms of data it could provide (fracture locations, organ condition, etc). Sidenote: the Medical HUD tool should be removed, since it's redundant. It's been a point of contention, but AFAIK the Sensor Augmentation option set to Medical does the exact same thing (I've been using that instead of the tool), and it makes the HUD tool obsolete since it provides the same visual info as the HUD, it's a toggle and it doesn't take up a tool slot. Research I did some testing with this as well, and found to be quite adept at handling Science tasks. While I mostly moved around R&D and Robotics, I didn't do much of the sublevel stuff. Although a bit ambiguous in terms of purpose, the Research module was quite good at researching with the destructive analyzer. Also a decent stand-in for a Roboticist, I was able to construct bots, assemble new cyborg chasses and even exos. However there were some issues in this area. The main problem was with the Access Code Transmission Device, which AFAIK was meant to be a pseudo Roboticist ID used to lock/unlock bots, cyborgs, mechs, etc. However, it doesn't work. It could be a bug, but I wasn't able to use it to open myself, other borg chassis, or even toggle the behavioral controls of bots. (Myazaki fixed this, the ACTD works like an ID now) The tool also needs some further tweaking. Due to the new mech mechanics, you actually have to get inside exos to toggle maintenance mode or the hardpoint lock. Borgs obviously can't enter mechs, so one solution would be to give the ACTD the ability to toggle these from the outside, so borgs can repair mechs and add/remove mech tools, fix drill bits, etc. I would also drop the standalone wrench and screwdriver for an impact wrench, since it can already do both and it would save an inventory slot. Being already able to work in Robotics, I wouldn't really give special upgrades to this module, since it already has everything it needs. It could get the general upgrades detailed below. Mining Based on my testing, the mining module is already quite efficient in what it needs to do. Already having all the basic tools of the trade, there is not much I can add. Since mining has already been dumbed down to dropping a couple of drills and calling it a day, there is not much use for mining borgs anymore, unless the department is completely empty. The module is still very viable, but I can think of a few improvements if someone still wants to play it. First, I would move the jetpack and the KA back to being an upgrade, and I would give the mining module a deployable hoist kit and a deployable ladder, which can be used in tandem with the optional upgrades from robotics. Upgrades for this module could include a drill upgrade (either faster or the 3-wide drill like the exo). A lantern upgrade, that would project light in all direction as opposed to the floodlight. And possibly a thermal drill, with the appropriate power drain of course. Custodial There is little love for the glorified roomba. The custodial module is by far the simplest, with the least amount of tools. It's viable as it is, but it could be made a lot more efficient and fun in my opinion. First, the janiborg doesn't automatically clean the floor it passes over anymore, and that's fine, but adding a few more tools could be great. What's sorely missing, is a wet floor sign dispenser (with a capacity of 4 like the janicart). As a janiborg I've been complained at many times for not having a warning about wet floors, this should solve that. I would also add a microfiber cloth, so it would be possible to clean items, windows and such without bashing them with the soap. An internal space cleaner synthetizer would be good for cleaning hard to reach stuff and even people. I would also change the bucket sprite to the janicart bucket and increase it's capacity slightly. Upgrades could include an advanced mop (auto-wet and won't make floors slippery anymore). A foam jet, but this would dispense cleaning foam around the borg in a large area like the cleaner grenade (also with an internal synthesizer, one full charge enough for two deployments). Service I haven't really seen many servitors being played, and I admit I haven't done much testing with this module yet, but from what I can gather, it's a pretty viable module already. However, it might be spread too thin, having the tools to perform three roles in one: kitchen, bar and hyroponics. All of which are pretty mechanic-heavy roles with a lot of complex actions to perform. Separating it into two (kitchen/bar and gardener) modules should make them each a lot more focused. I'm still not sure about this one, though. As for upgrades, I really can't think of any right now, I'm not sure it even needs any. Maybe a bee net or internal synthesizers for stuff like fertilizer or pesticide. Clerical This is the bastard child of the old system. I haven't seen anyone play this module yet. Maybe I just missed it, but it's safe to say it's not a very popular one. The only real use for this module I could see is as a C3PO-like protocol droid, assisting CCIA, consular officers or other officials by being a translator or paperwork/bureaucracy stuff. I would add a voice recorder and an auto-translator to round out it's toolkit. No upgrades I can think of for this one, maybe someone else has some ideas. Cargo Now, this is a new module I came up with. Cargo is pretty much the only department, that doesn't have a module dedicated to. Many might say they don't even need any, but I do see a space for a borg in cargo. A tentative toolset could include: Pen, cardboard synthesizer (for making boxes), wrapper synthesizer, destination tagger, labeler, export scanner, ETFPOS terminal, sheet gripper (with the added ability to grab ingots and other materials from mining) and paperwork gripper that can also grab IDs for payment stuff (all merged into a Cargo Gripper to save on inventory space), tape roll, and the rest of the default borgs tuff (extinguisher, crowbar, etc). I think it would be a pretty cool module to play. Upgrades could include an extendable pallet jack. A tool that would make it possible to pick up a single crate, much like the clamp on an exo, but with a capacity of 1. Robotics Upgrades As I mentioned before, and obvious from the list, I would involve Robotics a lot more in stationbound life. I would move many things to become optional upgrades for different modules, which would give Robotics a lot more things to do and be involved with borgs a lot more in rounds. This would also create different upgrades for different modules, which could make things more complicated, but also more fun and versatile. Other than the module-specific upgrades I mentioned above, I thought up a few upgrades that would fit all modules. - Jetpack - I do understand @Chada1's reasoning for giving a jetpack tool to certain modules by default, but I still want to move the jetpack back to being an upgrade. For one, no module needs the jetpack to be basically viable, all of them can perform their duties without it. Some of them could benefit greatly for having one, and that's why it being an upgrade should be possible. But just giving them one by default I think is a bit overkill. - VTEC - I would keep the speed upgrade as it is. All modules benefit from having extra speed, but they are still viable without it. I do like the speed tool on the Rescue module for it's purpose, but for the rest of the borgs, the VTEC should stay. - Advanced Actuators - Give borgs the ability to climb ladders! Several modules would greatly benefit from this, especially the Rescue, Engineering and Mining (now with the deployable ladders). It would allow them a lot more mobility and to access areas they couldn't otherwise. This upgrade could also give them the ability to climb on things, like tables. This would be very valuable for engiborgs, to reach places to repair walls/windows without having to tear down the furniture first. - Emergency Radio Uplink - As it says on the tin, gives borgs access to the emergency radio when comms are out. - Advanced Tool Dispenser - Increase the available tool slots to 4. This would be a pretty expensive upgrade, but a huge help to modules such as the Engineer or especially Medical, where they need to use a lot of different tools in quick succession and under harsh time constraints. Having one more active tool slot could alleviate a lot of stress and allow for less fumbling with tools and more playing. - Universal Charging Cable - Give borgs the ability to recharge from any APC (much like the new PDA system). Not having to hunt for a borg charger would be pretty a great upgrade to have. That's it for now. Again, these are just my own personal ideas, some of them could be easier to realize than others, but it's always fun to think about what could be. It's totally possible I missed some thing or know stuff wrong, so please share your thoughts and add your own ideas if you have some!