kermit

Pocheto and her characters are great, every significant interaction I've had with her on any of my characters has always been memorable. I'd love to see what she can get up to with an IPC whitelist, especially her Cytherean-Golden Deep shell idea which makes use of both of my favourite parts of IPC lore. Easy +1.

The modmin team already act as mentors to a large degree and there is presumably an expectation that those who apply are familiar with game mechanics, given the question on it in the app format. Can't speak for every modmin, but I know there has been that sense of 'I've got to figure out this department's mechanics so, when an ahelp comes up on it, I can provide a thorough answer.' among myself and a couple others. Part of telling some people off is then being able to lecture them on how they could have better accomplished what they were aiming for – mentoring is part and parcel of moderation. It's also not really that heavy of a role to tack onto the fairly short list of things mods do anyway, I don't think anyone on the modmin team is unhappy that their position isn't just whacking people with sticks for usually very small mistakes lol. So yeah, don't think a whole new branch of staff is necessary personally. As for people knowing that ahelp can be used for things beyond calling out trouble makers, most new players, in my experience, quickly find out that ahelping can be used for 'I'm stuck, what do I do???' questions, whether they've approach us first or we have.

I like the ideas you've presented so far and would be happy to see what you come up with as a deputy. A fully-fledged IPC society that is largely uninfluenced by their human roots is something I feel is missing – Purpose, whether entirely re-done or expanded on it's current state, could be a good candidate for an uninfluenced IPC society with a very alien but logical structure. The Golden Deep comes close though remains pretty human-like in their greed, it's also a fairly awkward origin to weave into most jobs aboard the Horizon. Your plan to expand upon society on Pactolus and Midaion could aim to flesh it out with more potential routes to explore a Golden Deep character. Besides proposed ideas, I think you have a solid grasp on existing lore having interacted and had a lot of IC discussions about shell and synthetic nature with CHESED. +1 from me, good luck.

I really like everything about the remap, lots to like with the Atrium alone being great even on it's own but, as I've played this week, a few things have stood out and I've got to agree with Butter in that more work could be done for the Captain's Office. All of the tables are very cluttered, there isn't one table that's just empty, all of them have buttons of some kind on them. The room's very w i d e and, what nags me, is that it's uncentred. I'd quite like it if the captain's share of the room was increased, just to make it more spatious as, like Butter's said, it's rare to have visitors in the captain's office when the conference room is better suited, and it'd allow more space/tables/shelves to disperse the clutter and item placement so it's not so crowded. It's also allow things like item cases to be behind the captain's desk too. I'd also like it if the whole room was rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise so that you can actually see your character when sat down in the meetings that do happen – staring at the back of your character's head is kinda lame. The other thing I'm not so sure about is the gradual increase in the Bridge's weapon armaments. We've gone from a single, tucked away cabinet containing 3 carbines to a whole mini-armoury with 3 stunbatons, 3 carbines and 3 .45 pistols with lethal ammo. I might be wrong, but I don't think the cabinet is even ID locked to Command anymore and can be opened by the BCs themself, which makes it a bit baity for newer players in the Bridge Crew role – might just not have been paying attention that round I noticed this. I don't think a whole Weapons Room was needed either and a single cabinet tucked away worked for what the Bridge is. I imagine this part won't be changed though, so I'm just airing my dislike. A larger ballache for antagonists than the 3 carbines already sometimes was.

I've liked my interactions with your captain on my RD; you do a good job of involving people or having other command member's input heard. You handled a pretty rough nukies round well as well, from what I saw, and were on top of announcements and engaging with one of the antagonists in particular. I've noticed the usual trial hiccups - sometimes being overwhelmed, not figured out a mechanic yet - but that's to be expected. Good luck in future captain rounds.

I slept on it a couple nights more and have decided to U-turn. I'm sure you know if anything in a similar vein happens again, the permaban will be reinstated. Locking as said.

There were two characters this was an issue on, your librarian and your psychologist, of whom the psychologist had zero prior interaction with the subjects of the in-game harassment. That makes it OOC harassment too. You also had a third character, your chaplain, who was seemingly built around the premise of singling out and harassing Europan characters – no issues that I remember arose of this by the time you received your ban – however having three characters involved in some form of harassment, both IC and OOC, isn't looking good. I don't plan on unbanning you, as I have no tolerance for targetting a handful of players OOCly to harass them ICly, as well as you seemingly basing your character creation around harassing characters ICly. The reflection on how this may have impacted other peoples' games should have been done when you were creating these characters, not after receiving a ban. You will need to make a staff complaint if you disagree with this outcome; I will be locking this thread after 24 hours.

I think skrell-dionaea relations are in a good place. When asked the same question on my skrell deputy app a little ago, I didn't really have a great answer as there weren't any immediate additions I'd make and I like much of what's down on the wiki. With the Traverse States being given an amount of autonomy, it would be interesting to see what differences arise between dionaea who are raised within Core and Waves of the Nralakk Federation and those raised in the Traverse States. Could there be a cell of the Lyukal that features dionaea to a large extent? Would the Traverse States reject dionaea entirely due to their link to Glorsh, pushing them back to the Core systems or out of skrell space entirely, or would the Traverse States welcome dionaea who were failed by the Federation's socialisation and adoption system? My thoughts are much the same for Dionae-Unathi lore too; overall, I like where Dionae-Unathi lore is. As mentioned in my application, the effect of dionaea on ecosystems is something I don't think has been given much attention. Moghes could be a good spot to explore some of this as the Hegemony and Hephaestus attempts to revitalise the planet, though also dealing with the strain of a large number of dionaea that some of the populace has begun to see through a spiritual lens and which initially were seen as a way to help restore irradiated land. As radiation begins to dwindle in the Wasteland and with most biomass already depleted due to said radiation, some dionaea could become a burden on fringe agriculture/aquaculture industries on outskirts of still-green areas of Moghes, is one thought. I mentioned negative technologies resulting from dionaea; I think the Tarwa Conglomerate could be a really good starting point for that. Something that would explain their secretive nature, perhaps an extreme form of symbiosis among some ranks of the Tarwa – perhaps rank could be based on the degree of symbiosis between the unathi and dionaea. Lots of potential. As the Horizon is currently in the Coaliation, I think an in-character arc involving the Narrows would be interesting. An arc I had in mind involves the Horizon passing through the Orezela system where they make contact with the Narrows. The Narrows sends a group of dionaea, including an Overseer who has been assigned as a liaison to engage with the Horizon, to strike an agreement with Command where they agree to go on a few mining gigs together in surrounding asteroid belts. The Horizon will have the opportunity to visit and tour the Narrows vessel, with the Horizon's mining crew getting their much deserved love and admiration from the Narrow's crew – Hephaestus values on display. If we were to go for something higher intensity, which I think would be a nice change for a dionaea event, then during a joint-expedition, the crew of the Horizon and Narrows would then be faced with a Scarlet Score threat. The preceeding events would then involve the clean-up of this expedition involving Medical and Science, with a number of benefits or consequences depending on some conditions that are reflected through high-profile visits or new articles during the wind-down and close of the arc. I drafted a semi-detailed breakdown of a potential Narrows-involving arc, including some consequences and boons post-arc. I'll probably give to the dionaea team as an event suggestion when I've refined it. To be honest, I haven't got any strong opinions on the EUM, despite it being one of the largest dionae factions. I'm also already aware of your proposal to take the EUM in a for-all-dionaea direction, and I don't want any bullet-pointed draft to be against or a parody of what I've presumed you've already got planned lol. What I have done is create a bullet-pointed draft (EUM Media Draft) that should fit with the above, as it is a direction I'm interested in nonetheless. I think the EUM, for the only true dionaea planet, really doesn't have much outreach – in-character to dionaea, but also out-of-character to the players – so what I've done is create a, hopefully, interesting, dionaea-based take on media that increases their reach in-character to non-EUM dionaea throughout the Spur, but also allows the creation of a News Database article to reflect EUM views. I've left everything somewhat unnamed so the specifics can be come up with by the dionaea team as a whole. Not really sure this answers the question or is the draft you were looking for.

Moved this to Suggestions & Ideas per the author's request; the post was being treated as such anyway.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Sadkermit Position Being Applied For: Dionae Lore Deputy Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yeah. Past Experiences/Knowledge: I can bring some amateur programming experience to the table and have worked on small/medium-small PRs before. Examples of Past Work: Just a bit of skrell lore for a previous deputy application here. What would you change about Dionae if you could unilaterally do so? Honestly, I would probably remove genetic memory/blood learning as a thing and instead further emphasise mimicry as a method of learning. I used to like the idea of genetic memory and blood learning, but it’s not something I’ve been fond of lately; I feel genetic memory detracts from dionaea being experts of mimicry, and I think skills/traits being passed through blood has iffy connotations – it's also kind of silly how accurate it is too, but not everything can and will be so shrug. A more malignant form of mimicry at every step in a dionaea’s learning would be my preference if I was starting from scratch. This would have a large, briefly brainstormed impact on Dionaea lore, on things like Mourning Masses and the Blood Market. I doubt this is something the current dionaea lore team and player base would like, as blood learning is one of the more well-known facets of dionaea – even to non-whitelistees – so I've not taken this anywhere besides initial brainstorming. What do you find is an important theme for the species, or if you believe it lacks one what would you do to remedy it? Time and aging has always been the big theme I play with when playing dionaea. How does my dionaea perceive time, how does this affect their interaction with humans, how does this affect their decisions – these have always been important to me and I think they’re fun to play with. The recent addition of Voidic Proto-Culture was one I’ve really enjoyed playing with and consolidates much of what I had already been drawing on when playing dionaea; the apathy, besides odd curiosity, towards Spur society and customs as the Voidics are aware it is just another fleeting expression of the universe that won’t last in the grand scheme of things. Consumption is another important theme that I’ve enjoyed working into my characters, with the sects of the Eternal representing how a dionae conducts their consumption of biomass and whether they prefer to learn from blood or conventional means. I was always drawn to the Blood Eternal and the Viscera Belt cluster while they existed and while I did like playing with the idea of learning from genetic memory. A dionaea’s consumption of radiation and light has been a recent favourite of mine, with my aforementioned, recurring ghostrole dionaea character being a Nocturne Notes mindtype who is obsessed with hoarding batteries and radioactive materials, preparing for the universe’s heat death or some other freak event while they are still a Geras that is capable of manouevering through space. I think the burden of Dionaea on terrestrial ecosystems and habited environments isn’t something that has been explored yet and is something I’d enjoy working on. It’s the more naturalistic themes that I tend to gravitate towards, the more alien of the already alien. I think it would be interesting if some kind of conflict was created between Voidics and those who have adopted or been integrated into a more human-like–form of society. Where would you like to take Dionae Lore? The dionae lore team recently announced their intention to move dionaea from plant-based organisms to fungus-based organisms. Personally, I have always equated dionaea to something other than plantlife, and so this is a welcome step in the right direction to me, and was the final push to me deciding to put forward a lore deputy application. I mentioned on the recent feedback thread that, though I think fungal dionaea is a good move, I would probably have tried to avoid tying dionaea to terrestrial kingdoms of life as a more liberating option, however I am still eager to work on just steering dionaea away from plant-life. I recognise that having something with more solid themes and is more immediately recognisable – so, fungi – is easier. Having a more active role in shaping some of dionaea culture and behaviour during and following this change is something I’d like. I’d also like to outline how other factions in the Spur may exploit dionaea. We have examples of harmony between a species and dionaea – skrell and dionaea, how dionaea are integrated and socialised in the Nralakk Federation; unathi and dionaea, with the dionaea honour code variants and how certain Wasteland clans integrated dionaea – but there aren’t many examples of, for an easily dehumanisable-able alien species, where they are exploited. The Alliance forced dionaea into hard labour following the Rueltab incident, but that’s about it for explicitly written stuff afaik. Some negative technologies born of dionaea could be conceived, tied into the theme of consumption and the dionaea’s effect on terrestrial ecosystems. One idea I had was the potential for dionaea to have a parasitic form of birth; if the original ‘seed’ for the dionaea rooted itself within a host, the host would find themself gradually replaced from inside out – makes for an interesting weaponisation/exploitation of dionaea, ties into dionaea limbs, and is another form of origin for dionaea characters. I’ve mostly mentioned stuff that’s related to the more wild, naturalistic side of dionaea, as opposed to the civilised and spiritual side they have on terrestrial planets. The more natural, biological side of dionaea - in contrast to the otherwise very civilised species - is definitely where my fondness towards dionaea comes from, it is what I’d like to see emphasised, and is what I will prefer working on. I am still happy working on the more integrated side of dionaea though; groups of dionaea akin to the Narrows, where their society is a mimicry of their origin yet slightly reshaped, is something I really like. Additional Comments: None.

I like most of these – the Airlock one, ATM Malfunction and Bluespace Tunnel especially. None of those are too disruptive when compared to radiation/hivebots/similar, and instead have the potential to add to roleplay instead of detract, which is a problem with a lot of our random events right now imo. A little bit iffy on the Bluespace Bear one, just because the Bluespace Bears were a little silly anyway and the potential for someone to take it as a pet is a bit goofy – funny, though.

It's said in the doc that fungi do note rely on photosynthesis/light; the new fungus dionaea will instead rely on radiation and the absorption of nutrients. They shift from a species born of light. Will this not require a fair degree of change to the Eternal and similar Dionae beliefs, where Dionaea are seen as celestial entities, with the Eternal propping up the existence of a primordial entity that exists within light? dionaea being born of light and guardians of celestial bodies does not seem compatible with fungi, which typically represent darkness and decay – not to say that all fungi are light-avoidant. The document mentions cultural changes as a footnote, with everything else being largely biological. The cultural changes to me are more important than the biological side of things, so it's hard to support a change from plant-based to fungi-based right now. Are there any cultural changes the lore team already have in-mind that they're free to mention? Drawing on what Ping said, many of the proposed ideas are not unique to fungus and can be done just as well with plants. For example, mycorrhizal networks are not something fungi do independently and relies on plants, which ties into what Wezzy said above about a fungus-plant symbiotic relationship. Spur-wide mycelium/mycorrhizal networks which traverse a void also don't seem like much of an improvement on what we already have, which is a high-frequency song that only dionaea hear – unless I've conflated headcanon for realcanon. The high-frequency song explanation at least fit the dionaea theme of music and song. Given I don't like dionaea being plant-based, fungus dionaea are automatically a step in the right direction for me. I do think fungus dionaea will run into their own limitations though and I think it's a shame that, despite being one of the more alien organisms in our lore, we're still boxing them into the well-known, terrestrial plant, animal or fungus kingdoms. Why not go for a more alien, amoeba/mold-like protist, where there are no biological rules or thematic constraints? Protists can create mycellium-like structures; protists can be aggregate organisms which share knowledge when joining; protists, being the catch-all, can be whatever the dionae lore team wants. It seems like the lore team is escaping from one set of constraints from having a plant-based organism, only to jump to fungi which offer another set of constraints and themes – could a lore team down the line, wanting another set of themes, make another jump to another type of life? Dionaea, being the only truly spaceborne species with no known terrestrial origin, could/should be separate from the plant, animal and fungus kingdoms, in my opinion. Turning this into a question, was the idea of making dionae more alien, protists considered; was there any pull to fungal life over protist life that I'm missing?

Lore Impact: Medium-Small Species: Skrell Short Description: Overhauls Kir'gul, as seen in my deputy app the week gone. I pinky promised Meep I'd have this up sooner rather than later ❤️ How will this be reflected on-ship?: Kir'gul will become a more unified philosophy instead of one left fully to interpretation, making it easier for players in-game to discuss Kir'gul themes. It also expands on Kir'gul's place in Nralakk society, opening some lanes for character backgrounds featuring Kir'gul. Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Kir'gul is a pre-existing thing, so this just expands on what's already in-lore. Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team?: Yeah. Long Description: The proposal has the following aims: to make Kir’gul more uniform such that all Kir’gul skrell have a similar vision in mind, they can then play with this ICly with other Kir’gul skrell without there being vastly different interpretations with different cherry-picked elements. to allude to a more defined role that can be played as a counsellor/chaplain, to elaborate on individuality and self-expression as well as the journey that comes with this – it provides something solid Kir’gul skrell can discuss among one another, instead of just having vague concepts to work with, to isolate Kir’gul from other faiths which really don’t meld well with it, despite it previously saying it works in harmony with other belief systems. Kir’gul already preaches non-violence, yet it’s allowed to coexist with Suur’ka – a bit weird. to create conflict between Kir’gul skrell and those subscribing to more mainstream beliefs – Kir’gul skrell avoid dreaming and psionically communicating with those who they are not really close with. to add a belief system that has Srom more in mind than others. Srom is a vivid, lucid dream that can be explored alone or with others – tack on some Jungian ideas and it’s set up for some really cool ingame discussions. there aren’t many ascetic belief systems in lore that I know of – Si’akh is the only one that comes to mind. While it’s not going to be forced with Kir’gul, it’s there as an option for the incredibly devout Kir’gul skrell. Psionic monks are always pretty cool and a trope I imagine people’ll enjoy playing with – an easier, alternative means for people to get into Kir’gul than with a character who’s an artist/writer/similar which may not grip as many people. Link: Kir'gul Expansion

To help out though, and as a little known fact, you can Ctrl+F the old names when browsing the Chemistry Guide and it'll take you to the current name - Burrito's idea. Try Ctrl+F'ing 'Imidazoline'.

Yeah, definitely, this is how I see it too. I think it would be interesting if this was explored a bit more then, as while it's mentioned on the Beliefs page, there is no clear distinction as to who follows it. To me, right now, it seems like an optional belief system you adopt for goodie points with the Federation. I think, if I find out it's not already been done after thoroughly going through the wiki, I might take a page from your Weishi proposal – which I quite like – explaining how different groups within the Federation see Qeblak: scientifically-inclined skrell may simply adopt it to get a boost to their SCS for that high-end lab position; government and religious officials may not even follow it, knowing that it's just a tool, but say they follow it, etc.. Nothing to say this can't already be assumed, but making it explicit may do some good and introduce a bit of nuance. An idea I just had would be a potential article mini-arc where a high-level Starchanter is found out not to even be a devout Qeblak follower, only to gain the full ire of the Federation and disappeared – perhaps to the Lyukal's delight, as they'd spin it as the weakening of an institution core to the Federation. Not necessarily a power as they're introduced now, but something I like the idea of is a selectable skrell disability where, at a random but infrequent interval, you are prompted to enter your current thought that is then leaked to everyone around you. I noticed one skrell player already do this using Commune, then going 'Whoops, didn't mean to broadcast that.' Not even being able to control your own thoughts and who hears them is an interesting concept I like. I mentioned culture-based psionics in my application too. Origin-based psionics would be a very cool thing I'd add if I had the know-how. Aweiijans, the ability to invigourate plants to have a larger yield and to detect mineral deposits like an orescanner; Qerr'Malic skrell, a stronger form of Suggestion; Europan skrell, the ability to befriend and command a whitelist of simplemobs; Tattutig skrell, the ability to do some kind of combat focus where their firerate and accuracy with guns increases for a few seconds for those Spaghetti Western shootouts. I think stuff like that would be cool. At some point, I may take a look into actually doing something like this, but I think tying it into Origins might be quite difficult, as they're isolated systems. Nothing serious immediately springs to mind, to be honest. If I think of something, I'll edit it into this post. For now, I will just say that I don't like how slimes are connected to Glorsh, and we'd be better of just removing slime lore and slimes in-game, but that's neither very significant nor an unpopular opinion, I don't think. It would be difficult to remove the lore for them though without finding an in-game replacement for xenobiology to work with, but PRs which rework parts of science are oh-so-rare. I'd rather see xenobiology create super wacky hybrid simplemobs, Rimworld genetic engineering style.

The drug names bone apple tea PR wasn't really about semantics and was done for a real purpose. The biggest draw for the PR which garnered both dev. and playerbase support in the feedback thread was that the bone apple tea'd names allowed for more dev./contributor freedom when creating or altering the drugs, as there was no need to stick to real life drug conventions or do any research into how a drug ought to best be implemented. A more obvious example of medical realism getting in the way of devs./contributors is defibrillators, up until Matt added them, with the whole VFib. vs. Asystole argument. Avoiding IRL drugs and having bone apple tea'd/fantasy ones avoids this. I was against the initial PR at first, but when working on Chemistry PRs in the past, bone apple tea'd variants allowed more freedom and creativity, so yeah, I'd rather keep them than go back. From my rough gauge of our Medical playerbase these days, a lot of them have only ever known the current naming version of chemicals, so I think – for something that will have a significant impact as it won't just be slight name changes (eg. Mortaphenyl to Tramadol, very different; Asinodryl to Ondansetron, very different) – it's a little unfair to go back to the old names just for personal preference/convenience.

Honestly surprised and a little flattered you still remember it, thank you <3 I really like how dionaea have been integrated into the Federation, from the socialisation of Federation values into adopted nymphs to the effect that has on dionae mindtypes, to how Xrim struggles with both Glorsh and Nralakk influences. The one thing missing that springs to mind is how the Federation may exploit dionae biology to create new technology. Rubbish examples as I've not put too much thought into yet, but something like a dionae-based weapon. Writing this, I just had some wacky thought about a Qukala naval ship deploying a Dionae Kraken during the ongoing Traverse conflict, and I'm just gonna stick with that. I do like the more untamed and monstrous side of dionaea – the recent Voidic Proto-Culture page was a welcome addition for me, and I've always had a sweet spot for the Viscerabelt. Hopefully, I'll think of something more workable on the theme of Nralakk-dionae tech. innovations down the line. I can't think of anything I'd change about dioane-skrell lore if I had Unlimited Power, so I'll offer something on only-diona lore. I haven't glossed over dionae religion for a while, so I may get some stuff wrong, but dionae, which learn through consumption, suddenly developed a fancy for the Eternal somewhere – this isn't isolated to human society—integrated dionaea, it's something which affected isolated clusters too, like the viscerabelt. I think the Eternal even developed with the Blossoms cluster as a starting point, and the Blossoms aren't even from the Spur – though maybe this is an allusion to an extra-Spur state which planted the seeds of religion into the Blossoms, then the Choir, and so on? Therefore, if I could change something, and this is in-line with how I like to see dionaea as inovationless and instead great at mimicry and plagiarism, it would be to emphasise how dionae religion is a result of genetic-learning from the other races which already had developed religion. Again, not done too much reading into Dionae religion recently at all due to my favour towards wild dionaea, so maybe this is something already emphasised and I just glossed over it – the Blossoms and what I see as an allusion to an extra-Spur state may be enough too. Not at all, I welcome the opportunity to work cross-team, if only with a little bit of hesitancy due to my lack of experience.

Ckey/BYOND Username: sadkermit Discord Name: smellyelle. Position Being Applied For: Skrell Lore Deputy Past Experiences/Knowledge: I’ve no experience writing lore for any online community. Examples of Past Work: Nothing relevant or significant enough for a lore deputy application. Why do you want to join the team and how do you plan to spend your time as a Skrell deputy outside of assigned projects? Having experimented with just about every aspect of skrell lore through many characters, I feel I have a fairly solid understanding of skrell lore as it is presented on the wiki and in-game via other peoples’ interpretations of the lore. This leaves me with a general idea of what is fleshed out enough and where some lore may fall short. Besides that, I just all-round enjoy playing skrell and being part of the player-base which holds the whitelist. Discussing lore and seeing what other characters people make using the lore has always been interesting. As for how I plan on spending my time outside of assigned projects, I have often dabbled in small/medium contributions – nothing amazing – so I can see myself working on skrell-centric contributions. Being in the position where I can better talk through players’ views on skrell-lore would also be an easy thing to do in spare time as a deputy. What are your thoughts on Skrell lore, both good and bad? You should also mention what you would like to change or expand upon. It’s hard not to mention psionics and how they’re tied into social influence and used as a tool by the Nralakk Federation’s government – I really like this. The ways in which skrell from different groups take measures to isolate themselves from the Srom/Nlom is another part of the psionics lore which I like making use of with the characters I play. For a long while, a lot about psionics didn’t feel that impactful in-game, but the addition of the Nlom vote has remedied that. I am looking forward to the first skrell event which features a more powerful psion interacting with the lay-skrell and manipulating the Nlom. The Zi’Pluax is another part of lore I really like; the generation ships in general are all a good read. How culture affects the usage of psionics is something I think could be expanded from just the Zi’Pluax to other areas of Skrell lore, making the usage of psionics unique to location. Zi’Pluax culture developed a psionic usage to commune with what they believe are the dead, perhaps skrell of Aweijii may have developed more agricultural uses of psionics - tying it into mechanical psionics, there could be Origins-based psionics added to go along with the Core psionics all skrell have access to. Europa also sees some cultural effect on psionics usage, which probably explains why I've enjoyed playing Europan skrell a lot. Another part of skrell lore I really like. As for what I don’t like, I’ve honestly never been fond of the skrell religions. It’s a strange juxtaposition, with the Nralakk Federation being at the forefront of science and yet still emphasising spirituality – I've tried playing skrell who are religious, but given I tend to play Science or Command roles, it's a bit weird justifying why they'd follow the more spiritual religions, they just end up doing it for conformity reasons more than anything. That said, I understand the significance of skrell religions, especially their effect on early history. Kir’gul and Suurka, on the other hand, appeal a lot more to me, given they’re more philosophies than religion. Expanding Kir’gul and Suurka is definitely up my alley, as Kir’gul especially could do with some love given it’s anathematic to Federation values. My proposal below takes a proper look at Kir'gul and tries to make it something more useful for in-game play. A proposal for a new piece of Skrell lore. It can be about anything, but it must be something that could be reasonably added to the wiki. The proposal must be provided as a google doc with legible formatting: I wrote this Kir’gul expansion last year when skrell deputy applications were last opened. Let it gather dust when I decided not to apply but, given Kir’gul hasn’t at all been touched since apps were last opened, it remains my main proposal and I'll probably further expand on Kir'gul as a deputy with this as a base. I haven’t thoroughly gone through Meep’s proposal in their application as I’m aware it also touches religion, but I’m hoping they’re both compatible so both our proposals could potentially go in, regardless of who is picked for deputy. Kir'gul Expansion

Sorry for letting this sit a while. We've all had a chance to review comments, logs and come to a decision now. The short version is we expect characters, with the limelight on Security more often, to exercise a lot of caution around vented areas of the ship. For this reason, we've ruled largely in favour of the complaint. In more detail, we came to this decision because we all agreed that Suvek and Deshan pushing into a vented area without protective equipment shows a little bit of a disregard for believable action in the realm of self-preservation. We recognised that the area was – at the time of entering – partially vented and that oxygen masks were taken, but we didn't think these measures were enough as those who entered the partial void were aware that there would be raiders inside moving through/opening shutters and further venting the area. The other 2 officers who did not enter were cautious enough to remain out of the vented area. There was nothing of massive value within the Communal area that could have justified forgoing some self-preservation. None of us believe there was any poor sportsmanship motivating the entry into the area though, just a lack of necessary foresight. As for the firefight and not disengaging despite being in a void, we didn't see any fault here. It was only after Suvek and Deshan entered that, due to the raiders moving through shutters, that the emergency shutters locked behind them. There were attempts made to leave through the shutters, but when actively being engaged, it makes sense for them to race to incapacitate the raiders preventing them from escaping the void, such that they could then locate the tools required to leave the vented area. A note will be added to Evandorf and FluffyGhost's record about exercising said caution around vented areas as Security. All things considered, we didn't really feel the action taken should have been any higher than a note. This'll be locked & archived in 1-2 days if no one has anything to add.

Going back to encrypted comms, one thing to consider is that a lot of traitors tend to buy encrypted comms for different reasons. It, on it's own, isn't a token that shows you've teamed up, as sometimes people buy it for the eavesdropping or to just give updates/warnings. It sounds like they were using encrypted comms to keep you up to speed and appraised of security's behaviour more than anything, which tracks with their surprise when you did go to help out. If, say, a third antagonist had bought encrypted comms earlier in the round for any purpose, then overheard you and the second antagonist talking, that too could be construed as a 'team up' and ticking the 'I know they're a traitor' box, when really your interaction with that third antagonist would have been minimal and wholly disconnected from your actions up to that point. When you're not even working together and your actions/objectives are miles apart, any team up organised over antag-only channels, such as encrypted comms, needs to be communicated in some way to non-antags in the round as part of build up/a story, is my stance on things. Encrypted comms on it's own isn't really sufficient, unless you've agreed to work towards the same objectives and you're both doing the same/very similar actions, and it's clearly communicated through these actions that 'Oh yeah, this is a joint-job with 2 people working against us' or whatever.

This sounds fair enough then. The problem I had was you inserting yourself into this situation when there had been very little buildup/roleplay leading up to it, just the 5 minute 'Here's what I'm doing' and occasional updates over enc. comms to the point even the other antagonist wasn't really expecting your help. From the perspective of everyone else in the round, you appeared out of the blue shooting everyone, when before you weren't on anyone's radar, minus the intern because you had psionic-punched them. Arriving to a firefight makes things tricky, yeah, but I think with the lack of roleplay/build-up/story towards you inserting yourself into that situation, the best thing imo as someone who also plays traitor would've been to back off. You mention the hypothetical of breaking him out after his detention; that would have been fine because it's not a 0 to 100, it's not firing on everyone without any regard of their involvement/them being bystanders, and it establishes to everyone else in the round that you and the other traitor are working together. You didn't work together, you had different objectives, you just knew that they were also a traitor. I guess you were both using psionics, but with how the psionics were used they seemed more like a weapon/means to an end instead of something that was deliberate to connect you both as working together. I personally don't think it's a good enough reason to interevne on their behalf, but let's say it's enough to establish a team up between you two; you still didn't establish this team-up in anyway to other people in the round, there was no roleplay/story which connected you two. They got themself detained, you had ticked the box of saying 'We're traitors' to each other, so you used that to sprint over and shoot/nearly kill everyone involved or bystanding the arrest. I don't think it's enough, though maybe Garn will rule differently.

The reason I opted to go with some kind of moderative action in the end is because the basis of this conversation to team up was a 5 minute 'What are we both doing?' exchange where you never actually agreed to do anything together, and instead do things separately. The other antagonist wasn't expecting you to help them and expressed some surprise in OOC channels when you did. Your actions and escalation that round were entirely independent from the other antagonists, and it was not communicated in any way - through actions or verbally - that you were working together. I also don't see encrypted comms as a token of working together, as pretty much every traitor with some experience buys the encrypted comms key, even if it's just to spy on Security/Command comms. In addition to this, your last action before running at the scene of arrest with the psionic pistol was punching an intern; there is no escalation of conflict, it was like, ten to one-hundred. Did you have a reason to go guns blasting? Yes, they were another psionic ally, which is fine. I do think this reason was retroactive on your part, as the primary reason you gave me was that you knew they were a traitor in the OOC sense. Was this reason conveyed to others in the round as part of the antagonist's role of storytelling? I would argue not. You near-killed several people and fired upon first responders even after all of security had disengaged, you later ran into Medical then began shooting surgeons. Did you make an effort to explore other avenues before resorting to killing, especially to bystanders? I would argue not. The reason I opted to go with a 3 day antagonist ban is because you have numerous notes or warnings on antagonist conduct over a period of months. At least 3 of these relate to escalation, others were in the same vein as not telling a story through antagonist actions. Going off note/warning history and my own experiences with you, there is very little/the bare minimum attempt of roleplay behind your actions and, while it's unfair to expect every someone's antagonist round to have an intricate story or amazing roleplay, often the case with your antagging is there is little attempt at a story and little effort at roleplay, with you viewing things more through the mechanical/fun lens - absolutely fine, when there's some effort put into a story behind it or the proper escalation/roleplay to go with it. Mass-shooting everyone you can see demands a lot more escalation/story than what you'd done.

I asked to get this turned into a staff complaint given it more concerns my decision in a ticket, so I'll give my side of things now that's done. Addressing Loorey throughout this, much of what Comet said above is what I observed personally and then had quickly clarified to me in a ticket. They were unluckily caught out by Security quite early and were on the backfoot, attempted to take a hostage which didn't go to plan, then were trying to just flee. Your HoS ran after them and made us of the AI to bolt doors behind Comet as they fled; this backfired on you as you were then bolted into telecomms with Comet's fleeing ninja. That's enough justification for Comet to kill your HoS after you got locked into telecomms together. Comet mentioned it was accidental, but even purposely this would have been fine really. I can't have expected Comet to read your mind that you intended to pause the previous firefight and resume diplomacy and, in either case, conflict isn't an on/off switch that gets reset everytime someone chooses to dial things back. Neither was Comet expected to always make the second move and be reactionary to Command/Security; antagonists can make the first move against security, if they have a reason. So, going by the rules: Did Comet have a reason to kill your HoS? Yes, you were pursuing them after they attempted to pose as a captain/take a hostage. Had Comet been trying to generate some kind of story before resorting to combat/killing? Yes, they had a plan involving posing as a captain/XO, unfortunately it didn't go to plan. Being killed/removed from the rounds despite your wishes/expectations/sense of fun isn't a consideration; antagonists have enough to consider (rules, their ingame plan, etc) and it is impossible to cater to everyone player's sense of what is the 'right way to play antagonist' or what is fun. That was the basis behind my decision and me saying 'antagonists can execute security on-the-spot if they're in a fight'. Admittedly, I may not have taken the time to thoroughly explain the decision to you in the ticke.

I do like this idea, however I think if we're to make these events regular, then it'd be a necessity to have a proper opposing force ship, instead of having what looks like something slapped together in 5 minutes lol. The current ship we've had used for shipcombat events ends up being held together with duct tape and BuildMode because it's so exceptionally easy for the ammo room to blow up, the helm consoles to be destroyed, and the event-running admins have to work overtime to replenish ammo, rejuvinate the opposing volunteers, etc, just to prevent the event ending too early. Shipcombat events really don't work without admin intervention as they are right now.