Boggle08

Killing this game mode off now would be too premature for the reasons Caelphon outlined It's not exactly a stellar game mode in my view, but I'll take the occasional listless technomancer round over an excess of uninterrupted iterations of extended secret. We need new game modes, scenarios, and missions for the new ship before this gamemode can be vestigial enough to seriously consider removal or reassessment.

The light randomization looks much better. It's not as oppressive as the full-brights while still being easy on the eyes and not eating up all the colors.

The color pallet and composition of the station is ultimately what makes this look like a horribly muted ocean of grey to me. Our primary colors are grey, grey, and blue. The station was desaturated to in order to reduce the eyesore of the tiles we used to have, but with a darker station, it becomes more apparent how little contrast there is in the environment to begin with. The few colors we have that aren't appended to lights and consoles are muted to shit. The picture of central primary hall illustrates the worst extent of what I'm talking about, especially the purple tiles. This isn't "moody", it's lifeless. Contrast that with the picture of medical, where the color isn't murdered; the white tile contrasts against the dark, bringing out the green. Using more colorful lights like what Danse said would be a great idea. You could use it to set the mood or function of rooms. Give console heavy rooms cooler, cyan colored lights, or even give Xenobotany bright violet ones to simulate UV lamps, etc. The best example of color use in a dark environment currently exists on station in the engineering sublevel. We have the nice yellow of the lightbulbs compounded with the orangish yellow in the side tiling. The grilles in the center of the hallway even provide color by exposing the piping underneath, and there's caution tape interspersed throughout halls in front of engine doors and where fire alarm airlocks drop. If this thing gets merged in, I don't really care enough about the current map to want for a visual overhaul to go with it. It's going away soon. I do care if it's going to get transposed into the NBT. The ship is already quite murky in places, and it could lead to a situation where we're way too desaturated again, or the ship becomes too damn dark.

I'm not really a fan of this, because it desaturates the shit out of the environment. The colors look duller and blend together. One of the reasons why I don't like playing the Torch is because they combine the shitty lighting with deep navy blue bulkheads. It absorbs the silhouettes of objects and sprites. I'd rather not lose visual clarity in a game where I'm already straining my eyes. If this ends up getting implemented anyway, I kind of want a bright mode. Not because I want to get what I want, but just to accommodate dionae. Night mode already puts them into a nervous situation, and it's going to be exacerbated when the bulbs start randomly popping.

This is one of those long standing skubtastic mechanics of engineering, like how people think they can fix power nets with bad RCON by replacing power cells. I could be totally wrong on this, but I still feel like I have to repo dive and test to confirm things. I know how these devices function. You could get even better flow if you knocked out the regulators and replaced them with manual valves. Or got rid of them entirely. They do need power to stay open, after all. Many of the regulators are situated under grilles that have to be welded off, and I wouldn't say there's a precise order to their arrangement. They look cool, but I don't really see their utility.

I would have to see conclusive testing before believing that. The efficiency or rate of nearly all of our pipe devices is dramatically improved when the pressure difference from the giving side is significantly larger than that of the receiving side. From my anecdotal experience, it does make a difference between a room filling up in a minute versus a few seconds. The other thing is that if people just want to keep the network at 200 kPa, they can just not fuck with the pumps. Same isn't true for people who want to go over the threshold. To be frank, I don't look forward to any kind of pipe bursting or leaking simulation, just because it doesn't add anything. Just places an arbitrary restriction on what you can achieve with pipes. There is only one way to set up atmos on bay, and that is to put in a pressure regulator, and set it to a pressure you can still remove the pipes at. It's horrible for gameplay variety.

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Planet Addition Short Description: Fleshes out the Native Offworlder population of Burzsia, and incorporates Dionae. How will this be reflected on-station?: Adds more player backgrounds, gives context to some old ones. Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Gives the native Burzsieans some proper world building, adds more material for Dionae. Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways that you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team?: This is a first draft, there are always alterations. Long Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1epOZAVSjqo79AR_hNTQB5lz-F66dPOr7MEWBoJQxtG0/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/16J1Pdqlyj7iXYLtGhgpryPrjK7uo89hY8hUHhq_F-dw/edit Notes: Took way longer than I hoped it would, but this is the last loose end of world building for Burzsia. The lore for the natives was too sparse, and people were asking questions about them no one could answer. If this goes through, I'll start slowly trickling in loadout shit for the planet, and then I can finally be done. For the sake of editing, I pretty much copy pasted the old article and put in my direct edits that way. Large changes made directly to the page are highlighted, though I did move some minor stuff around in un-highlighted sections to fit the new information.

Most of my thoughts are on the engineering side of things, particularly atmos The first immediate concern are the pressure regulators interspersed throughout the station's distribution network. These things have their default pressure targets set to 200 kPa. This kills any attempts for atmos to overpressurize the networks in order to get vents to fill rooms faster. They don't need to be removed, they just need to start the round either maxed out, or with their settings at input 0. I don't know if the regulators are going to be important later in development, but right now they are an obstruction that limits gameplay. About the propulsion modules, it would be nice to have other pipelines or even a separate mixing line at round start to play around with. I've heard conflicting things about the engine: that it can accept hydrogen, or other gasses as a form of fuel. The bottom line is that the only fuel line that feeds it continuously comes from the precious phoron tank, and we are constantly bleeding it every time we move. At the very least, we would benefit from an additional line from the hydrogen tank output going into the propulsion rooms. The work areas for atmos are fine, but we could use another locker for the third technician. We only have two. Kind of weird that the shields are a command only thing, but I'm cool with it. Telecomms being more accessible makes up for it. My last critiques are with maintenance, and they are very miniscule. The first thing is that there are far less common areas to walk into and out of maintenance from. Unless you start hacking open doors, there's usually only one or two ways to get out of the tunnels in certain areas, particularly left hand side maintenance. It's probably a tradeoff from everything being so clumped up together, more ways to exit the tunnels into common areas could be devised over time. The other thing about the tunnels is that the loot is shit and there's no abandoned locations. It doesn't feel right unless there's an abandoned bar crammed somewhere in the back. We have all this glorious space for maint goblinry, but the things that sustain the hobo economy are not here. It's obviously not a priority of development right now, but I hope maintenance eventually gets some love. Overall though, the new ship is going to do amazing things for engineering. It's like life and activity is breathed into the department when we do testing rounds.

I feel like the premise of the Grim Compact being a bunch of traditionalist refugees conveniently landing on a planet, then being led by a bunch of Hegemonic Nobles to be incongruous. The nobility wouldn't abandon their race's sole and most beneficiary power broker in the galaxy just to go play dishonorable bandit. As for the traditionalists, It just feels narratively convenient for them to all land on Ha'zana and then turn into pirates. I feel like we need to ditch the nobles leading the Compact at the top in favor of a Hegemonic trading guild that was severely down on their luck, and getting consistently neglected by the rest of the Hegemony. So much so that they have to band together, start raiding, and disrupt Hegemonic trade so much that the government is forced to recognize them and integrate them as an irregular force in their navy/trading empire. Turn their creation into a caste shake-up that's a consequence of the changing times. The Influx of traditionalists, wastelanders, and other weirdos shouldn't come from primarily from Ha'zana. I think the best way to do it instead is if the Compact literally flies down onto Moghes, and impresses wastelanders into service to replace their numbers. Ha'zana feels like a first draft or iteration of a planet right now. It could either use development, or removal. Either option is worth consideration. Giving the compact their very own private moon or planet would be a good way to showcase their power. I agree with this, and the people in lore already have some ideas for general piracy expansion. The grim compact is intended to be a place where someone can reasonably pull out a character background. Having them turn into a rule-abiding, sanctioned trade fleet/privateers is a step in the right direction.

Someone who has been gone for a long time is going to have to play catch up, no matter if they have any whitelists or not. I could see situations involving people operating with archaic lore so off the mark and disruptive to the point where confrontation or a whitelist strip might be necessary; however, it's a niche enough issue to the point where it could reliably be dealt with on a case by case basis. We're already starting to see a consistent trend of ancient command characters creeping back into the server with the countenance of deer caught in headlights, but something similar hasn't manifested with old species whitelist holders. I don't think we have to impliment something similar to what's going on in the other thread.

It's hard to say something that already has been said in this thread, but I support this policy, especially since I now see it's going to be a one time check specifically for the NBT. Besides the expectations for command changing over time, our repo also has changed. It's glaringly obvious now when you get an ancient CMO attempting to use pointmed, and you have to reinstruct them on how to do their job like they're a medical intern. This isn't as much of an issue in other departments, where we haven't had as many major mechanical overhauls. However it's still significant, and it will compound once we transition to a whole new ship with new rules, expectations, and mechanics.

Looks good. Kind of reminds me of the expectations for flavor text.

I echo Carver's sentiments. I can't think of anyone more dependable for the position, and you're responsible enough to the point where I'm not really worried about you holding onto so much power. I can see Deputy Loremaster is a responsibility to you, and not a vehicle for sporadic ambition. And now that we're slowly clambering out of NBT and into maintenance hell, that's what we need. My one concern is if you're going to hold onto this position indefinitely. Upon completion of your roadmap, will you relinquish this deputy position?

As a whole, I don't think we are totally a dystopia. It depends on where you go, and how it's written. Having a pluralistic tone for the setting gives players and contributors more freedom and flexibility when it comes to writing locations and designing characters. Declaring a set tone on the entire setting is incorrect given what we already have here. I would say it goes as far as to narrow creative vision. Personally, I think the lore as a whole manifests a "realistic", grey tone. There's a divide in the priorities of the community as to why they come to the aurora, and how they design their characters. One camp wishes for conflict: within their characters, interpersonally, and against the setting. The other wants an innocuous social game. The tone of the immediate setting is a massive concession to the latter. It feels less like an ugly corporate exploitation machine, and more like a cross between a department store and a liberal white collar corporate environment. As Alberyk said, the ship setting will fix a lot of this. The amenities on the new ship will be a reasonable concession for the kind of deep exploration we'll be doing, rather than a luxury. As for the employee friendly environment, that can easily be modified with alterations in station procedure and contextual information, like what Caelphon described with the healthcare plan. For the tone of the SCC and corporations themselves, We constantly see them using soft power and positive incentives to placate their holdings on Biesel, and other locations in the Spur. It might be worth putting to paper the idea that the SCC and it's affiliates are using a particular doctrine of benevolence or soft power manipulation in order to consolidate some of their holdings. Not out of good will, but to guarantee loyalty and control. This would justify a lighter tone for the immediate setting whilst preserving the corporations' amoral disposition. Make people question if they should really feel comfortable.

I still think that having some kind of default language like TCB is necessary, just because a tower of Babel situation would contravene on Job Accessibility Requirements. About partial understanding, though, I think the current system could use re-implementation, if and when the time comes. The current system randomizes letters, rather than words. And it's done without respect to simple or common words like "hello", "stop", "yes", or "no". My idea of a better system would pick words to randomize, rather than letters, and would also have a bank of common words that always go through properly translated. This way, people can properly grug out pidgin speak at each other. Each race could eventually have their own different banks of common words, and different methods of word or letter randomization.

I like this concept. There's a lot of cultures or backgrounds that would really benefit from this proposed system, but are cucked out of it by current restrictions (ex. Wasteland K'lax and pretty much anyone from Ouerea). One thing I am kind of worried about is quality control, or people arbitrarily picking up languages that contradict precedents set in the lore (i.e. a Dominian priest that can fluently understand EAL, or someone that picks up a language only to play with a station clique). It might be worth considering to have it so access to the languages across species and characters are tied to their respective whitelists. Just to hold people accountable and prevent unnecessary load on the moderation team from happening.

Sup. I like that there's some consideration for the technical aspects of the lore in your application, such as your interest in fluffing up pre-contact war history and the TradCoalition. It's also good that you're coming in with ideas about Piracy and the Compact, elements of Unathi lore that are in dire need of development. Regardless of their touted inconsistencies, I still think Unathi pirates are good enough food for character backgrounds to be worth reconstituting into something that works in the setting. I'd like to give you some questions: 1. What sort of things interest you in regards to developing the culture and religion of the species? 2. Do you have any thoughts for developing the planetary settings or locations for Unathi? This is asked mostly in regards to Moghes and Ouerea, but there are a scant few planets besides those two that do possess a Hegemonic presence. 3. What are your thoughts on the Hegemony's space capabilities? What kind of lore would you write for that, if you believe it requires it? 4. What is your least favorite element of the setting? Why? How would you change it?

Sup, I just have two questions for you. The lore on the server has become more pluralistic since your departure, wildly varying in tone, theme, and presentation. This has been a blessing, as it facilitates more varied character designs and makes the setting feel more lived in. I'm still left with the impression that you approach lore using a very specific framing of narrative, and that the basis for developments should function to support that narrative in some way. Although species development still makes use of overarching themes, these have become more like guidelines, rather than rules. Other elements of design are taking precedence right now, namely culture, and they may or may not be parsed with what I presume is your preferences for narrative and presentation. If you become a lore deputy, how flexible will you be with this change in paradigm? My last(but not least) concern is the state of Unathi worldbuilding. Canon echoes my sentiments about it: that development during your tenure spared consistency in favor of the fantastical. I like fantastical, but the core world building we need to keep the setting grounded and plausible feels neglected. Most of what I have to say about this is on my rescinded application. If you were to flesh out our setting and worldbuilding devices for Unathi, what would that look like?

I don't want people to think I'm operating in bad faith. It wasn't really even my intention back then, more just me being stupid and callous. Doing things that don't reflect my disposition. Some people have shown continued interest in my application's progress, and I appreciate that. However, I feel as though it's already a sign that this is application is quietly turning into something that's polarizing. I hate drama, and I don't want it to sour the relatively mature atmosphere we try to cultivate in our community. I don't want to see the development team inherit the same value judgements and mistrust I'm getting right now, and If Haydizzle were to accept me, it could risk putting him and his team on the spot. I still want this position, but I can't pursue it in good conscience any more. Right now, I am in way too hot, riding off administrative actions I still have to make up for with time. I think the only way I can fix this is if I rescind my application, and continue to show that those posts aren't me, rather than only being able to say they aren't. Because they aren't me. I'm far from being done with the community, nor with contributing, but It's going to be a while before the next time I try for a staff position again.

This is one instance of a small handful of tasteless jokes, held against three years of involvement and proper conduct within the community. I removed the post myself when I was confronted about it, then had my strike applied. It is an anomaly in regards to my interaction with the community, my conduct around others, and my contributions to the server's lore. You were not the only person who saw that post, and as far as I'm aware, they all moved on. A misdemeanor handled. I don't expect you to change your opinion of me, but I can assure you and the rest of the community that my conduct won't feature that kind of content any more. As far as I'm concerned, I've kept to that promise.

1. Since the time I retracted my first application, I've monitored the developments of Unathi lore, spoken with regulars and developers about the lore, and created several different characters using the whitelist. In my view, doing these things gives you an intuition for the material you can't really possess just by ripping through every single article on the wiki several times. Actually creating and using characters is especially important; It's where you get a feel for the species, try new concepts, and get a read for what the community is interested in. I am now confident in my ability to generate concepts for the species. 2. Relative to the lore as a whole, the grim compact are perhaps in the most dire need of an update. The page for it still uses this thing. Relative to the sort of world building I'm interested with, I'd like to eventually develop lore for the Traditionalist Coalition, before the bombs fell. Much of our wasteland and refugee characters pull backstory from these locations, and Unathi, especially in their 40's and up, will be old enough to remember these institutions and locations in their prime. The time before the bombs fell is just as important as after, simply because the past before the apocalypse is still in living memory. This is something for further down the line, however. Developing the present is much more pressing than the past. 3. I see the K'laxian hives as being immensely useful allies/vassals for the hegemony, mainly in respects to maintaining or expanding their space program. They are an entire species that can manufacture specialists or laborers in this field on demand, possessing bodies that as a whole are resistant to most of what space can throw at them. Having them is very useful when most of your population are feudal peasants, and you've lost much of your planet's infrastructure in an apocalypse. I foresee them being a common sight aboard Hegemony operated star ships, space stations, and ports. 1. Full autonomy is extremely distant from my ambition here. I really like the work the current team is doing, and I wouldn't trade it for all the power in the lore. My ambitions here as a deputy pertain to much more specific, but nonetheless important issues with some of the writing. 2. The grounds for me applying is my dissatisfaction with the world building. There's an idea called Moghes, but I couldn't tell you much about it besides short overviews, inferences from the cultural pages, and copious amounts of headcanon. We do have locations and regions in the lore, but they are so sparse and unremarkable that most whitelist holders have to quickly tab out to refresh themselves in the middle of a conversation, just so they can maintain a believable understanding of the planet they used to live on. The solution, in my view, is to tackle the problem head on. It's a problem that isn't just a Canonization application fix, and requires attention and contributions over a long period of time, hence my applying. Skalamar will be first on my list, as it is the capital, and where most Hegemonic characters cite origins prior to employment aboard the Aurora. 3. This does tie into my interest for developing settings for Unathi, now that you mention it. If I were to implement some kind of location or district for Unathi, it wouldn't be the full thing, more like half of a district, mostly desegregated, and heavily intermingling with humanity. Unathi in Biesel are in a position where they have to intermingle and develop an opinion of humanity, simply because there's no insular ghetto that players can just put their characters in so they don't have to think about it. 4. I personally believe that lore development generally benefits from the overlapping of different cultures on top of each other, and species are no exception. What Unathi lore has done so far with Dionae, Vaurca, and even Tajara is in my books a success. If there's one thing I'm interested in expanding, however, is the Skrell on Ouerea: Their cultural influences, and where they're at now. They're kind of just a footnote on the Ouerea page, which is understandable given the era they were implemented in, but expansion now would provide a lot of opportunities for character concepts and interactions. If lore development is insular, so will the writing be. If the writing is insular, the players will be. And if the players are insular, then the species whitelist can turn into an exclusive clubhouse. Which is terrible for facilitating interaction. Just to briefly address this, every one of my strikes has expired by now. The image you're talking about has absolutely no bearing on my personal views, which was probably why it was just a warning strike and not an outright ban. I have a vulgar sense of humor that functions in an apolitical context, which means I have to be more aware when I'm posting here. That period where I was receiving strike after strike turned into a valuable wake up call. My conduct has been clean since then, as it was prior to those series of strikes. I will monitor it further if I acquire this deputy position, as I also consider good conduct a base expectation of being staff.

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: I've contributed Burzsia, a revision for it, and some information to flesh out the Golden Deep. Mostly synthetic work. I've been here since late 2019, and I've followed the Unathi team's progress since I picked up the whitelist last November. Examples of Past Work: https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/14011-the-system-of-burzsia/#comment-133562 https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/16205-golden-deep-dlc-expansion-pack/#comment-149525 https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/15985-burzsia-revisions/#comment-148144 What I intend to contribute: Prompt: In order to fulfill the requested writing assignment in the lore deputy prompt, and showcase what I have in mind for location lore, I've wrote up a quick elevator pitch for a Janvir rework, mostly focusing on the history. Just a few paragraphs:

I remember in 2019 when the station would regularly escalate into indiscriminate, chaotic fits of violence. Many considered these to be good rounds, and upon completion, they were promptly followed up with voted extended rounds that people actually stuck around for. I'm very guilty of being attached to my characters. I put so much investment into them that I'm hesitant to bring them into canon events. But extremely chaotic rounds were very common and sought after before they slowly died off, and all of my characters are designed to weather these in some way. Frankly, I agree that we need to bring back bloodsport a little; It's the chaotic rounds where our characters are pressed to interact with people they would normally never fuck with, and have their absolute potential tested. The extended rounds afterwards were a much more valuable reprieve. Tangentially related, I've also noticed that people are becoming increasingly anti-gameplay in discussions. That adding obligations or additional mechanical features to departments is somehow terrible and detracts from roleplay, When our two most consistently popular departments(medical and security) Feature both fore-mostly. A part of investment in this game is having your actions be meaningful, even if it's only in the immediate sense or within the confines of the round. Even if these things don't remain canon, they remain in story and memory. The interactions your dudes have with others are more often than not eligible to carry over as well. I know we're all here for characterization and a narrative driven experience, but I don't think part of that is turning our game into a padded second life lobby.

In conception. The implant is currently useless, but conceptually, it exists to improve what is already a solid mechanic. And I believe that the implant being an upgrade in and of itself is harmful, redundant, or better off removed to save UI space. You aren't changing up your playstyle besides managing a few extra resource bars, in exchange for being able to chungus your way out of certain situations more efficiently. Unathi don't come with metal legs or bodies. The consistent output of what I'm suggesting with the implant changes will reflect such.

The piston implant is, in conception, an improvement or altercation of the existing sprint, rather than a sidegrade. You won't be playing unathi any differently from someone without the implant. If it becomes usable operating off this current design concept, it will either become something you should have no reason not to pick if you're able to, or it will become a 1:1 copy of the existing sprint that just depletes different shit. The current unathi sprint is already very powerful, and has appropriate tradeoffs for it. My suggestion is to make the piston implant take away the unathi sprint in favor of running like a human or a skrell. You cover much more distance consistently, but you're now working with a a top speed most of the other races can outrun. Harsh penalties such as food consumption, pain, or the pelvis snapping in half will not have to be considered, as the upsides and downsides are built into the design.