Boggle08

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.

I think the best way of making this piston implant relevant or useful is to have it so it alters the unathi sprint for something more conventional. Like if it were to trade a ton of speed for sustainability. Maybe even give it a nice metal foot stomping noise for flavor, since you're a metal man. Without penalties, the piston implant sounds like it is there more or less to give a flat benefit to running for those that select it. I would rather see something that makes people have to play differently, rather than play the same except more efficiently.

The sheer amount of empty floor space in this room makes me very happy, more room for laying out pipenets or other forms of engine modifications. The extra layer of boronoscilliate glass can even serve as a foundation for expanding the size of the containment chamber. The spare canister in the waste collection room is a nice touch as well. I do have some criticisms, but they are relatively minor compared with how pleased I am with the design: The radiation lockers, like Bunky mentioned. We could disperse those outside of the airlock, and replace them with showers. The other thing is It might be best is if we gave back the waste cooling room the freezer it lost. The current station has three, this one has only two. Finally, I see that there's now a pump in the coolant room that allows you to siphon hot-loop coolant directly into the waste extraction room. This is excellent, but the pump that's used could be traded out with a high capacity pump.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO +1

Bye canon

I think it's fine as it is. Medical handles just fine with the little glass cuckbox, and this is slightly bigger than that. Current cargo office is so large because the mining, bounty, delivery, and warehouse supply chain runs straight through it. Looking at the doors and halls surrounding it, supply can side step around the office for crate deliveries. More chairs would be nice, though.

BYOND Key: Boggle08 Discord Username: GrandMasterChef Character Name: The Continuity of Ulzka Dorviza Item Name: The Skull of Ulzka Dorviza Item Function(s): Goes into the head slot, but thematically, it's the gestalt's head. Item Description: This is the polished skull of a long dead Unathi. Great horns adorn either side of it, however, one of them is cracked off. In the rare instance it isn't lodged firmly in the gestalt it belongs to, it is bagged and tied up into the cowl that houses it. Why is your character bringing this item to work?: The short of it is that it is that the gestalt considers it to be a part of it's body. How did your character obtain this item?: The Dionae gestalt was originally the limb prosthetic of a travelling Th'akh medicine man and shaman. During a bad run in the wasteland, the Shaman is mortally wounded, and he promptly sacrifices his body to the gestalt so it can carry out his mission to help a village ravaged by plague. The bones of the Shaman are interred within the gestalt, and it clings to them for structure and form. What value does this item have to your character, and what story does it tell?: The bones, and by extension this custom item, help visually describe the unique predicament the gestalt is in: That it has been fused together with another being for so long, it's gestalt mind has perceived itself as it as an extension of that being, and that being an extension of itself. The fact that it was given blood, memories, and feedback from the Unathi's nervous system for so long only exacerbates the issue. When the gestalt clings to the skeleton, and the skull, it is basically holding to what it believes is a part of it's body. Sprites:UlzkaSkull.dmi Additional Comments:

Leniency in things like basic first aid, construction, gardening, food/beverages, EVA, and physical conditioning are some things to consider. For food and beverages specifically, we might even have it so how good something tastes scales proportionally to the skill I think where we'll see the strictest conditions, and potentially the most administrative benefit, is in skills pertaining to the department operation of medical. We'll have that additional layer of mechanical tiers to help keep that hyper-structured environment organized. I think some skills at the basic first aid level should be given leeway, however. Putting amateur into the related skill should give you the ability to use advanced kits and splints, and maybe even syringe use. Engineering is something I sweat a little over. It could be used to enforce a mechanical distinction from atmos techs to regular engineers, but if we were to put that into effect with the feature bare state engineering's in right now, it would just damage interest in the department further. It's worth considering eventually, because both roles have become extremely irreverent about the distinctions of what they do and the equipment they use. Something like this skill system is going to exist parallel and separate to our current administrative way of handling things, but I think one thing that can help is using the flavor descriptions for each skill as a means of guiding the expectations for what you pick and use; especially since these skills are tied to character rather than to job.

It doesn't matter to me if that's all it is. Inconsequentially better aim or QoL skill augments, more for flavor rather than to powergame or gatekeep combat. The precedents set forth by fear/pain RP and the disparity in equipment already do a very good job of keeping people bystanders when they should be. Maaaaybe they can turn into something more substantial down the line, but with nearly every single round centering around conflict that's physical and antagonistic, I feel we're a long ways off.

It's more I don't want to get into a scenario where you need to max out combat skills as a base requirement to fight people who've maxed out theirs, regardless of who has what equipment. Equipment can be looted, replaced, or ordered in. Skills can't.

@Peppermint Voices my sentiments about the skill system as a means of reducing administrative oversight. It may or may not reduce tickets, and our current system of how we handle skills and extradepartmental knowledge isn't broken at all. Some kinds of tickets are never going away, regardless if we have this system or not. Roboticists will not be allowed to touch the protolathe, surgery will continue to be subject to the autism of medical hierarchy, security officers that spec into broad cross departmental skills are going to get the stink eye, etc. I have two primary concerns with a serious implementation of this system: 1. The system could encourage people to overspec into mechanical skills relative to their department, neglecting everything else about the character. Our current system of administrative oversight allows for characters to have specializations where they need them, and broad, unspecific low level skills in other areas. Putting points into life skills like accounting, fitness, or cooking takes away from being more efficient at the video game, which is the bottom line of the medium we've decided to place our setting in. For the same reason, I hope we don't have it so that putting little or no points into certain skills absolutely cripples your ability to work in that particular area. I saw people on discord talkin about how on Bay12 you needed to spec a lot into cooking just for the privilege of being able to use the microwave without burning everything, shit like that. 2. Station antag roles have a large equipment disparity to security, as does security have a large equipment disparity in relation to the crew they protect and occasionally monitor. I really, really, really am not a fan of making this gap between security, crew, and antag even wider by implementing a skill system that cripples your ability to fight back if you don't spec into it (and if you aren't security, cripples your ability to do your job if you do spec into it). We already have this disparity in the form of items, armor, and weapons, a crippling skill system would be overkill. The above concerns can be addressed mostly by just altering what the flavor description says for each skill level, and potentially granting some leeway for skills at the low or unspecced level. As an example of what I don't want, if you don't take cooking in bay, the untrained field describes you as being a retard that barely knows how to feed yourself, and has the saving grace of knowing how to work a vending machine or put water in ramen. The amount of leeway and freedom each skill gives you varies upon the skill, of course. For surgery, we can directly base the procedures you can perform using the chart we have on the wiki, as an example. For combat skills, I hope we don't have them at all. If we have to have them, I don't want them to turn into speccable stat-sticks that increase your weapon accuracy or other qualities to the point of incontestability. As a final note, I think it would be fun to experiment with having negative skills. Failing to spec into a skill on bay sometimes has negative effects on your character, like shitty conditioning for athletics. Using that athletics example, I want to have it so adequacy is the baseline for not speccing into athletics, and that you can negatively spec your character into having Paul Blartt conditioning in exchange for bonus points you can put somewhere else. Otherwise, I remain wary of mechanical skills. I understand this is done in the spirit of character building and dynamics, but it isn't solving problems our current system wasn't monitoring, and it's long term implementation could turn restrictive and gamey.