Boggle08

yo 1. How does Cessation feel about encountering others of its kind, outside of meeting with the Eternal church? 2. There are many other aliens inside of Mendell, including humans. Did Cessation have any encounters with them that left a lasting impression?

In addition to the format, answer these questions 1. What other skills related to lore development do you have, besides writing, if any? 2. Choose any Dionae background besides Moghresian, Hieroaetherian, or Voidtamer, and write a 2-paragraph summary of some cultural additions that you believe would improve the writing as a character building resource. 3. Do you have any thoughts regarding Xrim or Nralakk-integrated Dionae? What direction would you take with them? 4. Our primary factions as of now are The Eternal, The Voidtamer Confluence, and Hieroaetheria. What are your thoughts on them as of now, and how could you see them progress? 5. How would you expand upon the Biesel background? 6. What is your availability?

I think the solutions I'll use will depend on whatever we're working on, but the bottom line is that they need to bring a level of relatability to our material. Our species houses writing and concepts that place us at the far end of de-familiarization in terms of xeno-fiction. We have a number of backgrounds that exemplify these alien qualities, but because our species is so sociologically malleable, we can account for a whole range of characterizations for them, besides just one extreme. There are already three categories our backgrounds fall into: 1. Societies that are heavily influenced by or reliant on other alien cultures (Narrows, Biesel, Moghes, etc). 2. Societies that develop on their own, on a terrestrial planet (Mictlan, Hieroaetheria) 3. Societies that develop totally on their own, without reference to terrestrial or planetary concepts (Voidtamer Confluence). Other departments rely on existing cultures, history, or other forms of media as a reference heuristic for their worldbuilding. They're able to get away with sparser character creation materials because you can supplement it with your IRL understanding of the parallels. For Dionae lore, I actually want to base a lot of their aesthetics and culture around pre-classical cultures, such as late bronze age civilizations or Sumerian city-states, as well as the nomadic chariot tribes that existed around that period too. Dionae technology is mostly the product of their biological capabilities, rather than the exclusive outcome of centuries of technological or cultural development. Imagine if the ancient Egyptians actually did have access to latent powers that allowed them to fly around and contact aliens. I should briefly go over the character resource material we currently already have: Much of it relates to mindtypes, biology, and the overall psychological profile of Dionae. All of it has proven to be very useful and necessary to understand the species, but most of the definitions and concepts described on the wiki aren't written as concepts that are a product of culture. Most of them are written in a clinical author voice, and describe phenomena across the species, independent of cultures. I think that his has led to a lot of confusion from our whitelistees, as this material tends to get directly referenced during IC dialogue exchanges in a way that doesn't feel natural. We are going to have to solidify the intent behind these character materials and offer culturally specific ways to interact with that part of Dionae lore. Managing three separate factions simultaneously on this one planet is too much. Ideally, I'd like to get full team consensus before we commit to any major changes, but the one thing that is certain is we need to reduce the number of polities operating inside of Hieroaetheria to just one and have that interact with the rest of the setting. The actual reduction in factions is something I think we can do through organic developments, rather than outright retcons. Otherwise, we definitely need to rework the individual faction pages. I'm not sure how to put it, they sort of read like Dionae-themed human countries on the wiki. Those are likely to go through drastic changes, we might cut down on the size of at least one of them. I don't want our faction pages to get any fatter than they currently are in this process. The wordcount on the page is gonna be the word limit when we start changing things. Hopefully it's the last "big" pass-over we'll need to do.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Boggle08 Position Being Applied For: (Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Lore Developer Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes Past Experiences/Knowledge: Three years as a Dionae Lore Deputy. Prior to that, I contributed several lore canonization applications, notably the first iteration of Burzsia. I have an informal history with computer science and am capable of using GitHub. Examples of Past Work: I pitched and wrote the Initial draft for the Underhive Collective, assembled the first iteration of the Mohresian Dionae page, I helped write Hieroaetheria, particularly the history sections. I pitched and helped write the new consolidated voidtamer confluence faction we now have. I also worked on overhauling the Rueltab incident, and its consequences. I'm just going to get right into it. The Questions 1. What is a particular section of Diona lore that you think should be expanded upon or removed? I'll save my thoughts on Hieroaetheria for the second question. The Voidtamer Confluence is something I'm rather satisfied in how it turned out: It consolidates a lot of the concepts we've had with previous iterations of voidic/spaceborn dionae and voidtamer groups. They make an excellent face for the species, they exemplify their most alien qualities, they have a lot of potential as a foil to Hieroaetheria, and I'd like to see them expand as a major faction in the Dionae sphere of influence. 2. What are your thoughts on Hieroaetheria as the new focal point for the Diona species - be it direction, points you like, or points you dislike? I've always had mixed feelings about Hieroaetheria. It was one of the first things I worked on, back when it was still called the CT-EUM, and helped it through its second rework into Hieroaetheria proper. The intent behind it was to give Dionae a planet modelled after Moghes or Adhomai, in the sense that it would concentrate on depth of worldbuilding and intra-planetary species developments. In a lot of ways, it's become a ball and chain for us. Hieroaetheria is colossal, and so is the supplementary material for its subfactions. Most of that material is dry world building that doesn't give players much to work with when designing characters, and in some ways, they are far too comparable to humans in how they operate. Governments are a good example of this. As time as worn on, we've consolidated and expanded upon Dionae outside of Hieroaetheria. Rather than putting our eggs in one basket, we have the potential to organize and distribute our world building in a similar way to human lore, which does smaller developments focused on multiple planets or cultures. Hieroaetheria needs trimming and reconsolidation. No retcons(PLEASE GOD), but we need to retool it so that it isn't as demanding as writing an Adhomai or a Moghes, and so it's easier to parse through and conceive of a character from the player's end. 3. What are your thoughts on the physiology of dionae, first in connection to lore and secondly to game mechanics? There is a vast discrepancy between what dionae are capable of in lore and what they are capable of in game. In-lore, they are flesh mages. Their biology is comparable to a magic system. In a lot of ways they remind me of the magic systems and concepts I've engaged with playing old WoD campaigns, especially vampire. Ingame, they must adhere to balance considerations set by the maintainers, and of course, they have to actually be programmed in. What is important is that what we eventually establish as possible in lore has to be consistent with what you can do in game. Right now, there are no rules, there are no upper bounds, and it's the way it is because there's no mechanical implementation of what they can do, besides print walls, doors, and glow bulbs. With all this in mind, I have design documentation for a mechanical overhaul of the species. I'm going to source as much of the actual work implementing it as I can on my end, because I know that it isn't realistic to expect anything substantial from the dev team at this point. Not unless someone wants to help and has time for it. It is what it is. 4. What are your thoughts on the prevalence of the Eternal religion among dionae and their factions? In some ways the prevalence of the Eternal religion is contrived, think Moghresian Dionae and Hieroaetheria. The paradigm has always been to incorporate it into every single Dionae faction, but I think there are more interesting directions we can take with the Eternal besides doing just that. Despite me saying all this, I think the Eternal is solid as a concept, and it will help serve as an indicator of the cultural divisions I want to instill into Dionae lore as themes. We discussed this as a team shortly before Cael left, but the thematic direction I'd like to take Dionae lore into is one where there is a dichotomy of two opposing worldviews or philosophies among Dionae as a whole: One side sees the world as cyclical, mysterious, and an extension of a divine being that they are in service to, and a part of. These guys worship the eternal and are generally Voidtamer aligned. The other side sees the world as chaotic, evil, and senseless. They are materialists, and seek to create their own gods while rejecting any notion of natural order or service to an existing cosmic godhead. These guys will practice a different kind of philosophy religion that will emerge inside of Hieroaetheria. Two halves that oppose each other, no more, no less. 5. On the Diona team, you will occasionally coordinate projects with both the Skrell and Unathi teams. How confident are you in your knowledge of the lore of those species? My understanding of Unathi lore is solid, and the writing on our end with them is in a great place, I just need to catch up a little on their recent developments. Skrell lore has never been my strong suit. I know enough about it to write for my own species, but If I'm accepted as lore writer, I'm gonna have to spend an evening ripping through the wiki and touch bases with the Skrell team. Being rusty on Skrell lore is something I am more than capable of correcting. 6. What do you see as a cause for the low number of diona players compared to other whitelisted species, and is there anything you would do to solve this? There's a lot to get into with this question. When it comes to problems that antagonize player character retention for Dionae, there's two categories: problems that the writing team can actually fix by writing, and problems that require code and other assets that can't be fixed by writing, yet are extremely critical to the species' success. Category #1: What can be fixed via lore additions. Dionae lore concerning individual cultures is often written from a very top-down perspective (i.e. it reads like world building notes rather than character resources). Considering how de-familiarized Dionae lore often is, special emphasis needs to be placed on what the setting looks like from an individual character's perspective, in our wiki resources. What it means to have a place in their societies, what they see in their day to day life, what motivates them, their values, their wants, desires, and concerns. Why they would leave their societies for the Horizon. This is more than possible to implement, Vaurca and Skrell lore already have it. The other thing we need to continue to establish them as active participants in the setting. Dionae lore has suffered from a ton of hard resets over the course of its development (all of this was mostly before 2019); this has meant that it has lagged behind trying to reestablish itself while the other species' departments have had time to work off their foundations and establish a reputation for their factions in the setting. This isn't as simple as creating a wiki entry that describes their reputation, the player base has to recognize this information and incorporate it into RP situations when it is appropriate. This isn't a process you can really fast track, but it can be nurtured, and the least resource intensive way to do it is through article arcs. This is where most of our cross-species team collaboration efforts are going to be concentrated in. These don't have to be long or complicated arcs either, I'm more interested in the plurality of each of our factions doing stuff. Lastly, we neeeeeed to revisit Dionae in Biesel. We've touched on many things since I've joined the team, but this is something that fills a much-needed vacancy in our character concept roster: Dionae that are integrated into a human-dominated setting. If we flesh this out and give it that individual character perspective writing I talked about two paragraphs above this one, we will fulfill a vacancy in our character origin roster that I think a lot of people will appreciate. Category #2: What can't be fixed via lore additions. For this category, I'll start with what's easiest and work down to what's hardest. Loadout items, Sprite-work. This is easiest to do, Yonni and I are capable of making our own loadout items and uploading them to the Github, and we've already been doing this. The bigger challenge is redesigning the actual character sprite for Dionae, which I believe is necessary. The current one has a terrible, lumpy, asymmetrical silhouette that makes anything form fitting look terrible. Most of the loadout accessories that look good on them deliberately break up their outlines, like dresses, ponchos, robes, and hoods. The way I'm thinking of doing it is finding something to port and modify, to reduce the workload. Whatever we choose to do, the customization options for dionae will likely need to be completely remade. Drip is a fundamental part of designing a character, as trivial as it sounds. People are willing to pay commission money for their characters here its important. It's also the primary way of conveying faction aesthetics on this server. Once the sprite is fixed, gonna probably have an internal roadmap for loadout stuff we need to make. The next thing is art. Pictures specifically for the wiki. Most of the ones we have are flags, and most the ones that aren't are half a decade old and all come from SleepyWolf. Pictures on the wiki break up the massive walls of text we write and help players establish in their mind's eye what a culture, species, or place is like more efficiently. I've got some artistic chops, but I'm not that good. I'd be able to make some pictures on the wiki happen but it'll look like the Big Lez Show. Most of the other art you see on the wiki is sourced internally by their respective teams, and we don't really have that kind of capability right now. The final thing is mechanics, features, mapping, code. Medical overhauls to the species, new mechanics, bugfixes, biomass abilities, blood learning, you get the idea. Gameplay QoL goes under here too. The quality of life for this species is by far the worst in the game compared to any other species. Objectively. This isn't something I'm technically supposed to worry about, being on the writing team and all, but the way Dionae handle ingame right now is such a mechanically handicapped experience that It actively hurts player retention. And it shows, most of our players choose extremely sedentary roles when they play as Gera Dionae. There's more flexibility with Coeus, I've seen them in medical and engineering, but there's kind of a soft ban on them doing anything involving combat, or otherwise getting themselves into situations where they need to defend themselves. Gera Dionae can play as officers and can get themselves into trouble in the same way as everyone else can, in a sense, but the speed they move at, man. Could you imagine us trying to run a High intensity event with Gera Dionae in the state they're in now? G2 Industrials are capable of outrunning them. It's a problem that's persisted ever since the species rightfully earned a bunch of nerfs, and the only solution I can think of to remedy it is to try to take all the experience I have with programming and attempt to fix things myself, via a complete and total overhaul of how they work. It's going to cut into the time I could use to write, and I'll probably turn into just an editor for my deputies when I finally choose to work through the hard part of this, but the way I see it it's the only way to fulfil my obligations with respect to improving Dionae character retention. I've got the design document and everything. 7. What do you think are your strongest and weakest attributes in terms of working on and managing a team, and why? Not gonna lie, this is the first time I'll be stepping into a leadership role like this. I have a fairly good understanding what I want to do and how I want to run my own department. Cael, Yonni and I were on a roll with the direction of Dionae lore we wanted going forward. What I have the least amount of experience in, and where I'm going to be cautious with myself, is working inter-species team projects, and coordinating with other departments outside of lore. This does not mean I am going to avoid those things, because I will have to do those things. It just means there's gonna be a learning period on my end. Also, it should be said, I am strapped for time just as everyone else seems to be right now. Manual labor job, College, Career building, Winds from the east, mist coming in and all that. I want to make sure Dionae lore is ready and able to capitalize on the launch of the NBT2 as much as it can, no loose ends. After that, I'm out. Closing Thoughts Despite the problems and shortcomings I've described, Dionae lore has never been in a stronger position than it is now. It has identity, it has direction, it has interest, it has a thematic center that is strong and waiting to be fully realized. We are so close.

You've seen it in events, you've seen it in odysseys, you've seen it in expeditions. There is always someone stealing shit during these things. I think that the aurora crew broadly has issues being civilized or otherwise respectful towards people, places, or entities that aren't explicitly protected by corporate regulations, but this one right here is something that infests character behavior, regardless of context, regardless of intensity, and sometimes even regardless of if it makes sense for their characters personally to be doing it. Expeditionary conduct should be a feature of corporate regulations, at least something bare minimum that can be broadcasted over the station announcements systems so we can get it into people's heads. It's fine if some people have characters that NEED to steal, but I think the stealing we're seeing now isn't consciously thought out. Just people looting shit because it's a videogame and most videogames reward you for doing that. Considering that this is a corporate setting as well, these kinds of memos are appropriate.

It is intrinsically hard to involve departments or roles such as Hangar Technician, Service, and Science roles, as these are severely lacking from a mechanical standpoint with what they're able to contribute, compared to the usual suspects. We can resolve any server culture problems with the game-mode easily, but those are informed by incentives presented through gameplay. The ship generally doesn't need dedicated logisticians. Most departments have everything they need and can throw and drag whatever crap they want brought down in a single crate. Science is science. A lot of us in science say no to expeditions simply because we're just going to stand around bored for most of it, unable to contribute in a way that other departments can't do themselves. I think it isn't a bad idea to bring a chef down for catering, especially since people are running about a lot more, but it's harder to justify something like a bartender, or, librarian. Not to say that it's impossible to involve service, but not every Odyssey round can be about inviting VIP's aboard and catering for them. We've been asking for ways to involve these departments for in-round narratives ever since I started playing five years ago. It's probably been this way long before that. What we're seeing now is just a continuation of long-standing issues that have been set aside for other projects, because of a lack of interest or direction. That being said, I think we can mitigate some of these problems through the structure of Odyssey rounds themselves. Right now, there's only one plot, an A plot, which involves everyone packing into the intrepid and leaving the ship barren. I think, especially for lower intensity canon rounds, storytellers should attempt to craft a B plot for those who remain shipside. I'm not sure how many actors story-tellers get, but they could probably feed directives to third party ships to interact with the Horizon. Or to have the Horizon and the Third party ships interact with other elements of the overmap while the Odyssey mission is underway.

Article #2 of the Pactolus Rocky Horror Picture Show Arc Xenobiologists on Pactolus Make Surprising Discovery: Previously Unknown Species Unearthed Flora and Fauna Adaptations Suggest Rapid Evolution Post-Cataclysm By The Hierophant Writer [63 - 77%], posted 2466-12-17 from the Reach Expedition Zone. Here marks the twelfth transmission of The Sacred Echoes of a Titan's Bonded Progeny into the Voidic Rootsong Network, centring around the Pactolus Exploration League in which the discovery of unknown species has caused quite an alarm across the Consortium and Golden Deep. “In a groundbreaking development, xenobiologists stationed in the Reach Expedition Zone have uncovered an ecosystem teeming with previously unknown species, some exhibiting characteristics that suggest rapid evolutionary adaptation. This discovery, made by a joint expedition under the Pactolus Exploration League, has stunned scientists from both the Consortium of Hieroaetheria and the Golden Deep, igniting a flurry of research efforts to better understand the implications of the find.” Further listening is available here. Located within the rugged mountains west of Eurydice, the Reach Expedition Zone was initially thought to be a barren region. However, the discovery of intact ancient power facilities sparked new interest in the area. While engineers focused on restoring the dormant energy systems, xenobiologists and ecologists turned their attention to the surrounding environment—and were met with astonishing results. Xenobiologists described the discovery as “unprecedented.” The expedition unearthed a thriving ecosystem, with species of flora and fauna that had never been documented before. Early analysis suggests that many of these organisms may have evolved in response to the energy emissions from the ancient power facilities, leading to mutations that are both fascinating and perplexing. “Many of the creatures and plants we've found exhibit adaptations that don't match the known evolutionary timelines,” explained an on-site xenobiologist. “It’s as though this environment was subject to an accelerated form of natural selection, possibly triggered by the technology left behind by pre-Interstellar War civilisations.” What has particularly intrigued academic circles is the apparent link between these biological anomalies and the ancient power facilities buried deep within the mountains. Initial theories suggest that the power systems, despite being dormant for centuries, may have emitted low levels of radiation or energy that affected the surrounding environment. The xenobiology teams have already identified several mutations in the genetic makeup of local organisms that indicate a possible interaction with these energy sources. “The mutations are remarkably uniform in some species, particularly among the flora,” said Dr. Ver’lyse Qin, a xenogeneticist specializing in post-cataclysmic environments. “It’s as though these plants have been feeding off the residual energy, adapting at a rate far quicker than we would expect in a normal environment. Some have even developed bioluminescent properties, likely a response to the subterranean energy flows.” While the exact nature of these mutations remains under investigation, the Pactolus Exploration League has committed to further study. The League has deployed additional drones and sensor equipment to monitor environmental conditions, focusing on potential energy fluctuations from the ancient power systems. Translated from Rootsong. Assign a rating: View Comments (1,112) 💬 Share 📲 Donate Explore News For You: NEWS - Surprising Discoveries on Pactolus WEATHER - Hieroaetheria closed to the Dancing Stars, predictions of weather... NON-DIONAE - Ekanian imprisoned following...

It is hard to actually make fun for yourself here. Seriously, most of the departments here get their gameplay from reacting to shit that happens around them. This would be fine if we were as batshit as MRP, but as Menroka put succinctly, we’re playing highly conscientious characters that don’t cause trouble. It doesn’t matter if it’s the lore team, an antag, or a vetted story teller role: they all exist to give everyone something to do, but you can’t guarantee quality, consistency, or uniform satisfaction with any of those. Because all three are humans that are Fallible and can’t be online 24/7. It feels like, it feels like the ship needs to have some kind of generic goal or purpose to work towards, because almost every single role aboard the ship is so passive in nature. RP alone isn’t the solution when we have two threads up complaining about character retention/turnover, and the fact engineering’s population crashed when we tried to start the round with a fully charged main battery. I don’t think we have to give every department an overhaul, just something that’s worth working towards that doesn’t need some special third party to spoon feed us all the fun.

As a resident industrial enjoyer, I think they already are in a good spot in terms of balance and durability. Which is to say, they really cannot afford to be crippled by debuffs from new components, or additional maintenance requirements that would hurt their survivability. Industrials at low health already get punished hard for refusing to prioritize healing or avoidance, because if you get caught out on low health, there is no way you can run away from the fight, and you are too heavy and slow for anyone to pull you out of a bad situation. Hell, even if you aren't playing an industrial as a murder bot, you are bound to take constant chip damage and glancing hits from the environment/badguys. They can remain banned from security for all I care, I prefer seeing industrials in roles they were made to do. Like Bulwarks. The one thing I wouldn't mind to see, both for industrials and all other frames, are more time-sensitive injuries. Right now, IPC's effectively live in a stasis bed that's always on. If they get injured, they can waddle away somewhere and bide their time until they can get paste or a machinist. It's why mining on initial release was so industrial heavy, because anything organic kept bleeding the fuck out before they could get help. The time sensitivity should of course depend on the injury, and like organic injuries, the IPC should be able to do some kind of self care to mitigate or slow the effects of the injury until they get help. Lastly, I think it's annoying to see 80% of security IPC's being shells. They can still be selectable in sec, but I'd like to see more mechanics that address the implications of attempting to put what is essentially a luxury Rolls-Royce into the same role as a toyota hilux technical. Make them more expensive to repair. Make the synthskin an optional step to repair, so as the code red wears on, the shells look more ragged and terminator-like. Make their optics and sensory inputs more sensitive, idk, just something so it feels like you aren't just playing human+ with less sprinting endurance.

Scientists need an incinerator of their own, like the one xenobio has, to dispose of monkeys they test. They use monkeys to test modular guns, among other things. The exploratory chem lab is missing an ethanol cartridge. The requests console in the RnD lab isn't properly labelled. We could use our own operating theatre, for medical research. The old station had one. A generic test chamber would be swell, similar to the environmentally controlled cells in xenarchaology, but adapted for scientists to use.

The fact there's no lore that seamlessly facilitates these kinds of modes hurts player investment long term. Coupled with the fact everything in the cultist's toolkit is made to either kill or convert, I really doubt this is going to be fresh and interesting once the novelty's worn off.

Two things that don't give science any gameplay at all. With modular guns, you poke, prod, experiment, and test them in the range. It's an activity that forms the core of science gameplay, for most scientists. These? You hit the button and then give the officer the toys. Your officer. You don't play science. If a rework of the modular system is on the way I'd rather see it exchange the old system in the same PR, not gut it and leave us waiting.

I’m kind of happy where they’re at. Operations supplies stuff, machinists supply fancy stuff. I would go as far as to say the machinist has potential to become the primary supplier of protolathe/RPED related requests, while the scientist becomes the tertiary supplier, should the latter grow beyond what it currently is.

A large part of the issue is that we can only design events with the mechanics each department has. Those are the tools we use to conceive of activities for events. The problem is that the departments that could enable low stakes, non-combative events are too lacking in mechanics or purpose to have any staying power. Combat has the lion's share of complexity and engagement, medicine follows as a consequence of combat, and the fact that accidents are inevitable (Looking at you, person who drinks themselves to death during party events). Engineering has mechanics that are literally baked into the design of every single map. Command is self-evidently involved. Bridge crew are conditionally important, only if there is ship combat. That leaves cargo, service, and science. Hangar technicians are the weakest link, as their job encompasses three activities that are completely optional in the operation of the ship. You naturally cannot involve service unless you drop a kitchen down or make them cater for something. Science has the most potential on paper to contribute to rounds narratively, but they purposefully designed to contribute nothing but research levels, and lack any way to advise the crew on a given area of expertise. Because that isn't defined. I enjoyed silicon nightmares, but that arc was where we got to see all these design problems hit their absolute zenith. Engineering? Medical? Security? Command? There was plenty of work to go around. Everyone else? Cargo technicians had their shuttle break down on them, their one purpose nullified. Scientists did absolutely nothing to help in the crisis, any intelligence they could have helped acquire was instead fed through to us by Purpose and reports by the Konyang government. They did get the wreckage from the secondary transmitter to... doo... sciencey.... things.... with? But in reality it was just a paperweight. Service? It's not like it makes any narrative sense whatsoever for them to serve the hivebot beacon spaghetti or whatever. Since all we have to work with is combat and its consequences, it naturally followed that each event just ramped up in stakes and violence, until the last event where we gave everyone a gun and had them save the planet. So I agree with you 100%: Lore in the future should consider arcs or events that are less resource intensive and lower stakes. Events getting bigger and more violent are a consequence of regular gameplay in other departments lacking. Operations, Science, and BC's need more attention in order to move away from how we current design major events. The new round structure Matt announced is a colossal step in the right direction.

I concur with butterrobber. XO has always felt like a directionless role that competes with the OM in terms of functionality to me. This new XO feels like it was designed to not disrupt the current chain of command at all, and to minimize OOC administrative headache by putting it in such a confined, non-executive condition. Uselessness begets lack of interest begets lack of feedback begets lack of change.