Boggle08

Research needs more than just the machinist to solve any of its problems. RnD is the one thing that allows them to contribute to rounds, but it's a shape matching game with only half the pieces. Most rounds I see RnD just being a nanopaste dispensary that occasionally passes out tools. I can understand moving roboticist back if just to make the population numbers less miserable, but that's just trading out the current status quo for the old one. Roboticists will still have the same dependency issues, science will still be an anemic, underutilized department. The entire department needs a big rework, but that's outside the scope of this thread.

Operations is an appropriate department for what the machinist does. They may have many areas of expertise, but the bottom line is that most of, if not all of the equipment they make is supposed to leave their hands. Moving it back into science won't change the way machinist plays, and it just means they have another commline to yell at someone do research. I'm actually in favor of giving the machinist a destructive analyzer instead. Science as a department is anachronistic in its design, and has been gutted over the years for it. Robotics going back to science just feels like a step backwards. Moving the department into medical is a rough option too. They've lost their ability to work with mechanical organs in surgery steps by default; any additional medical knowledge a roboticist posseses is "extra" rather than "intrinsic" to the role. They print organs, nanopaste, limbs, and then deliver them. Moving the machinist around to different departments won't fix anything about the way they play, nor their dependencies in the slightest. The Machinist being off the main level is a problem, however. It's a role that can get more traffic and requests than even the cargo desk at times, they could stand to benefit from either a relocation, or ladder/stairs access. They're actually in a half decent spot, it's just not on the main level.

Aurora will continue to be far away from Magnum Opus status, so long as it is bereft of a fishing minigame.

You know how you can teleport into the Intrepid from the Horizon at a certain range? Well, the idea is that you have the exact same thing except going the opposite direction. Why? It would give the crew a lot more flexibility when it comes to expeditions. There doesn't have to be stress about sending away valuable personnel, or not being able to allocate them evenly when you can go back and forth at a moment's notice. The catch? The Intrepid's teleporter is extremely power hungry, eating 10-20% of the SMES unit's charge each time it's used, and has a long spool up period between each use. Not sure how everyone would feel about it, though, hence this thread.

I have a few concepts. The Iron Eternal comes to mind. I definitely want to extrapolate that organization's relationship with IPC's, particularly the Trinary. There's one other potential thing I'd like to try, but since it comes with it's own mini-arc, I'd rather not divulge on it here. Otherwise, I don't wanna get too crazy or ambitious with it just yet, simply because there's so much to consolidate for the other backgrounds.

Apologies for the delay, the past few days have been very demanding From my anecdotal observations over the years, the Titan Prime strain of Dionae have been one of the most popular and consistently played backgrounds, and I think much of that has to do with the fact that it's one of the few places in the lore where there is active, personal tension between dionae themselves and another party within the Orion Spur. Vauca and Dionae are very similar in that they overlap heavily into the same spheres of influence; Think places like the Nralakk Federation, Moghes, and Biesel. Part of my focus will be to expand the interrelationship of Dionae and Vaurca, relative to these locations, and determine if there ought to be conflict or cooperation. Of course, this is something I hope to collaborate with your team on. Besides what I mentioned relevant to the Nralakk Dionae/C'thur dynamic, something concrete I definitely would like to tackle are Dionae's involvement in the Refugee aspect of Skrell lore, and the outcome of the second Warbling act. I think this will manifest mostly in the form of retroactively writing in a Dionae minority in the Starlight Zone, as it's feasible for some to be there. About your second question, I believe that being literate and involved in the doings of other departments is the key to success. Rather than having a close relationship with just one species, like IPC's are, Dionae at varying degrees of involvement with nearly every species in the setting, with the only exception really being Tajara. I started up this application with the expectation that it requires much more breadth in terms of knowledge across the setting, and if that I don't collaborate, I'm essentially failing my task.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Boggle08(discord: GrandMasterChef) Position Being Applied For: Deputy Lore developer Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes Past Experiences/Knowledge: Most of my work comes in the form of lore apps I've contributed over the years. I'm responsible for the initial draft of Burzsia, and a subsequent addition for it. More recently, I've written lore for fusion technology in the setting, and I've started making minor contributions on github. Although I can't take the credit for writing it, I feel confident enough to claim that one of my characters led to the inspiration of a dionae mind-type: Mourning mass. This was the same character I used to procure a whitelist for the species, so I'll be linking the application below. Examples of Past Work: https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/14011-the-system-of-burzsia/#comment-138744 https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/15144-acceptedboggle08s-dionae-application/#comment-142670 https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/17095-technology-page-nuclear-fusion/ https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/13682 What do you believe is the strongest aspect of Dionae lore that you’d like to keep pushing forward? Mind types opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for development. The relationships between the mind-types, and how they manifest differently throughout the spur. Dionae already contest the crown for the most alien species in the game, but it takes it to a whole new level when the psychological profiles of dionae can vary so immensely to the point where they're practically alien to each other. How do you feel about the changes made to the species over the past year or so? Good and bad. We've seen the addition of a new subspecies, mind types, and I think some work was done with Xrim. While Dionae lore has significantly more resources for building characters and playing them now, I feel like their overall involvement in the setting has stagnated somewhat. Is there anything you would like to change or specifically work on regarding the species? Dionae have had much work done for them at the individual player, RP interaction level. However, what the species really needs is overlap and activity with elements of the canon that non-whitelistees could find interesting. Dionae lore suffers from a problem of feeling isolated from the rest of setting. Much of the character backgrounds for them are from isolated collectives that are in a position to stay out of worldly affairs. Because of this, there's not much incentive for people to pick up on dionae related lore beyond knowing the bare bones. Meanwhile, other whitelisted species have people that will vicariously follow developments, yet never touch a whitelist application. I feel like dionae lore is written for dionae whitelistees, and focuses on the species' niche of being the most otherworldly alien you can play here. I think for us to grow, we must concentrate on expanding the species' involvement in galactic affairs, and piquing the interest of people who would otherwise not bother with a whitelist. I feel like it's about time for Dionae to get more involved in the setting. We ought to expand upon existing backgrounds nested in the setting, and push ones that are too far away closer together. Article Arcs would help foster interest and investment in the species, and it's something I look forward to doing most during my tenure. The other thing I'd like to do, or at least account for in writing, is the mind types for dionae, how they manifest across locations in the setting, and their inter-relations between different clusters and gestalts. The way these mind types manifest, it is enough to have sociological consequences. Finally, I'd like to do work regarding the biological feats dionae are capable of. Biomass, and other constructs that dionae are capable of forming. I feel like there's a lot of potential here for this. How do you feel about Dionae relations with other species? I'm very interested in doing more with Dionae in the Skrellian and Unathi sphere of influence. Humanity, however, is really where there must be investment. I have some ideas for Biesel, but eventually, I think we would do well with a few more locations in the setting with integrated dionae populations. Do you have an interest in working on more small scale or larger scale content? Like, major overhauls or retcons? Not really, what's written for them is solid. There's not much reason to completely change direction. Down the road though, I think we ought to introduce a big dionae faction into coalition space, as a politically involved constituent of the nation What is your overall availability for writing, proof reading, and general coordination? I'm available most of the week. I am a college student again, so there will be periods where I have to prioritize academic crunch. Do you believe you would be able to work on anything outside of lore regarding the species, sprite work or coding, ect. I can do spritework, use github, and code a little. I feel confident enough with my abilities to make item or clothing PR's.

I think maybe I'm only trying to remedy a symptom of a problem in this thread: Expeditions headed specifically by bridge crew have no precedent in the regs. They don't have any CCIAA announcements about shuttle use, unlike Xenarchs and Miners. They don't have any written policy for anything else. Their wiki is still empty. On paper, it's extremely easy to blow them off from anything away-mission related, because what they are supposed to do is one big inference. Otherwise, this thread is attempting to address the current culture in bridge crew ran expeditions regarding personnel standards. In that I find them too high, and it often stonewalls expeditions.

I never suggested that security should be mandatory. The opposite, actually. I've seen a lot of expeditions miscarry because "not enough officers or medical." I feel like a lot of expeditions never get off the ground, because the shuttle refuses to move with anything less than a well rounded compliment of specialists. Defining our operational minimums, then setting them as the standard will reduce hesitancy. If medical doesn't want to go, people do their first aid the same way a miner would. If security doesn't want to go, the BC doles out shotguns.

I'm not clingy to the idea of a crew limit at all. We could just knock down what officiates an expedition into something that command or a BC starts. About away missions having different objectives, I'm totally okay with that, it's just I'd like our overmap generation algorithm to kick out at least one or two derelicts that can be done with the bare minimum. The Hazard analysis mechanic I've described is already half present in the descriptions provided by printouts from the sensors console. Hell, it could even give recommendations on away-team sizes.

So picture this: The Horizon finds a derelict, and command greenlights an expedition. You find more than enough willing volunteers, and you've actually been timely about getting your shit together. Everyone's buckled in, when suddenly, all the officers in the shuttle silently get up, and start running for the elevators. Blue alert is called, someone took the spare. Command shitcans your expedition. You sit around while the people relevant to the alert do shit. Imagine another scenario. The population is tiny, but there's plenty of places to explore. You and maybe a few others would be willing to go, but command/bridge crew decide against it, because there isn't an optimal ratio of surplus personnel to man the intrepid. Or there just isn't medical. Contrast this all with mining, or even Xenarch. They don't need to consult anyone before going out, they don't even need other people to go out. A miner is theoretically the best man to start up an expedition, because all he's doing is just bringing people along while he does his job. They can go out into the over-map, into asteroid areas that are even more fucking hostile than most derelicts, because they have policy ensuring they can. What I propose is a minimum requirement for group expeditions ran by bridge crew, based upon qualifications rather than being from a specific department. All expeditions must at least have one person competent at first aid(Think about as competent as miners have to be to do their job), and everyone must be EVA certified. These expeditions require a minimum of four people, including the pilot/bridge crew. Expeditions should not have to be outright cancelled on blue alert. Personnel can be recalled before an expedition starts if their department is relevant to an ongoing crisis(think sec or medical), but it shouldn't outright shitcan it, and other personnel should be found to make up for the absence. To help facilitate this policy on development's end, some changes that would be good would be to introduce a hazard ranking system, or something like it built into the scanning console that allows us to detect how dangerous an away mission is, and make it so the laser shotguns can fit into any suit slot, and can be crank-charged. I think there's also a trend right now of reducing the hostile mobs in derelicts, and it suits the policy I'm proposing by making it so the crew/command doesn't feel like they have to min-max and be ABSOLUTELY 100% PREPARED for expeditions. I realize there's a thread in policy suggestions right now that is kind of asking for the same thing I am in this thread, but frankly, it did not begin with concrete, goal focused proposal, hence this thread.

Most of the issues that our current system needed to fix seem absent. My only concern is superdoctoring at this point. Merging the two roles together will reduce a large chunk of concrete rules for delegation into just informal etiquette. It'll be less cut and dry when someone is being greedy, and more circumstantial. I think most of the playerbase can be trusted to play fair, but there will always be people that take what they want if there's nothing stopping them. These changes could be fun to try, but they will lead to issues that'll need policy to address.

Going from top to bottom is apparently in-line with naval nomenclature. Really, I feel like the deck numeration is liable to throw people the fuck off, no matter how we arrange it. If we change it, it comes at the expense of a month or two of adjustment. If we don't, people fresh from other servers with ships are going to point at the elevator and scream at the buttons. I prefer things from going from top to bottom.

It's so simple of a suggestion, but it opens up a ton of possibilities when it comes to having control over what you want to do as an antagonist, or even how we design antagonist types to begin with. A feature like this would definitely hold hands with dynamic's intensity voting style, with certain options being made available or greyed out as you go up and down the chain. What we might see is antag variety die. Even more than it already has. No one is going to pick raider over merc, unless there's a specific reason for it. In fact, we'll get a lot more merc. Allowing antagonists to choose the gamemode is kind of like having a different demographic to appeal to, in my mind. Whether or not a gamemode has variety, is fun to play, is powerful, or can carry a decent narrative will become significantly more important.

I think you can do this just by keeping secret, but allowing the game to announce the mode when the round starts. It establishes expectations just as fast, and people can decide if they immediately want to cryo or not.

The best way to approach any incorporation of proto-Eridani culture is to present it as something that the corporations of the system have gutted, commoditized, and restructured into an entity that controls the population. Something that wasn't forcefully torn away from the population, but subverted to the point where it's about as cynical as being a member of an expensive fandom, or gatekeeping identity with a hefty price-tag. We can have these things without having to compromise Eridani's themes.

I reviewed the material upon the creation of this thread, and felt like I didn't have anything to add. There's material for an Eridanian offworlders in here, and the backstory of element of Amon's dreg abducting labs still exists on one of the planets. Those were the two things I wanted to still see around after the update, and there was nothing that struck out as egregious in the material. It's all solid. Upon further reflection, I think I've only ever met one sympathetic Suit, and they're always outnumbered by Dregs. Eridanian lore has always coasted on a bed of thematically accessible and easy to understand cyberpunk tropes, but it's always hurt suits because it churns out extremely restrained, unsympathetic, and antisocial corporate characters. I can see there's an effort to expand upon suits on the page, but I feel like if anything needs more attention, it would be about their social life, culture, and how suits can express themselves on the ship. I adore my dystopias, but not if they come at the expense of characterization. I feel like the hyper-materialistic, cutthroat, and judgmental environment the suits occupy leaves very little imagination when it comes to designing a motivation for a character. We have to consider what would motivate a suit to support and participate in their environment, besides trying to make ends meet, or hedonistic self-enfranchisement. It could come from a place of ideology or principle, but it looks like it could also come from a robust social life heavily sponsored by corporate connections. A Dominian primary, secondary, and tertiary can sit down with you at the kitchen and walk you through their world view, justifying how their society works and how it all fits in together. Speaking anecdotally, a typical suit in my mind would shut down at the topic. I like what you guys have written for the suits already, and I hope you can eventually expand on it.

From what I understand, the map was assembled on short notice. It used a lot of preconfigured assets, but I personally felt like it got the job done, with one heavy asterisk: It was extremely fragile and light on engineering related subsystems in places where it would have been important. The scariest thing about the map was the lack of emergency shutter and vent coverage, and while full reinforced windows are more durable on paper, all you need to do is break the one and you've vented the compartment. We almost had that happen, when one of the SFA characters accidentally blasted a window, partially venting the area. With no emergency shutter to catch it, an admin had to fly over and quickly replace it and the atmos that leaked out. Some more open spaces would be nice, but I think it's equally important to consider the durability of the map, whether or not we want it to break, and either reinforcing it with better materials or putting additional effort into the engineering subsystems of that location. Especially if ballistics are involved.

I was looking forward to seeing this application. There's hardly much I can say or ask that you haven't covered in your initial post. Sol has become a place for a lot of potential narrative, and you're the guy for the job. Your bit about offworlders is sound. Affixing offworlder populations to planets is a good way of doing things, simply because human lore is so planet-centric. I do have some questions: 1. What's your vision for the coalition? I'm mostly asking in regards to Xanu and the coalition's national or "federal" institutions. 2. What are your thoughts on the badlands region in regards to human lore? This can encompass Dominia and Elyra. 3. What are some potential avenues for collaboration between the other species' departments and human lore that you think would be interesting to pursue or support? Human presence in the setting is significant and ubiquitous enough to the point where collaboration is inevitable, or a necessity for most departments. I just realized that Cael kind of already asked this question, but I guess I want something more specific, or concrete.

For the Parapen idea, it might be better to take the normal parapen, reflavor it as magical bullshit nanobots that attack both flesh and steel, and have them be able to perform in the exact same way you're describing. It'd be less strain on the TC that way. Make the prod cheap too, or give it an option that works on people. The sec baton already does the exact function you're describing when you power it up on harm intent, a juiced up version for traitors would be good.

From the discussion in discord that spawned this, it sounds like the problem is the acceleration cap put on the ship, more than anything else. Even if engineering can create a pure phoron pipeline at pressures exceeding 15,000 kPa, it would likely not make much of a difference. Sucks for the bridge, sucks for the backend nerds that are trying to optimize. The cutoff point where all you can do is add more volume to the thrusters so they don't bottom out as fast sounds much closer than anticipated. Even if there's no cap, it sounds like standard operation is too slow.

I've seen round population fall off a cliff after everyone readies for merc, and it doesn't get slotted in. I don't mind the banter, but I don't like what it does people's willingness to stay locked in.

that's ok, I only suggested peridaxon because I thought it was the weaker option

Simple as what the title says. Lungs are by far the easiest organ to bust up out here, whether it's from bullet RNG or someone forgetting to turn on their internals when they step outside. We would have these things on the intrepid, the mining shuttle, and the emergency trauma wall locker in the GTR. Each location would get a small, flat amount, no more than 2-3. This would serve as a few get out of fuck-up free cards for when medical is critically understaffed, the entire ship is lowpop, or so some poor bastard miner doesn't have to cut his run short and fly back choking to death.

For the blood loss, we'd be in a good place if we either modify Coagzulog or create a variant of it that can completely staunch bleeding short of an arterial. Unless I'm missing something with bicaridine and butazoline, we don't have any way except bandages to fix normal bleeding. Coag just slows it. The anti-bleed juice needs to be in auto-injectors, and the auto-injectors need to be on the shuttle medicine cabinet Additionally, I feel like mining's equipment starts off way too sparse. They don't even get lanterns, which really makes a difference in catching Xenofauna before they get the first hit in.