Boggle08

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.

I'm not the OP, but I kind of enjoy events when the entire station is given a stationwide directive, mission, or project that necessitates joint cooperation between departments; they facilitate engagement as much as they provide a narrative. The KOTW event we had where we were thrust onto the phoron asteroid and told to build and prepare was a good example, even if it was rough around the edges and proceeded to crash later on. I think the reason why the power level in these events gets ridiculous, specifically the ones when potentially hostile elements board the station, is because the event handlers don't want to enable achievement creep or power tripping in characters. The other reason, I think, is to prevent things that are wildly unrealistic or setting/narrative destroying from influencing the arc. The solution to keep things grounded, it seems, is to have elements of the event preordained, or give the event characters uncontestable equipment. I think the initial post of this thread is asking for a solution, but isn't specific at all about what that could be. Regarding gamemodes that involve physical, traditional conflict, the best way to address the above concerns whilst reducing player frustration would be to either reduce the wholescale setting consequentiality of the violence, or to have our station operate jointly with event characters in OP power armor to meet the challenge of the OP power armor characters. After hearing people in discord talk about it, this was sort of what the Geist event round was like, where a skyrim werewolf was randomly dropped into the the station and the crew had to survive it until the TCFL executed it.

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Faction Update Describe this proposal in a single sentence (12 word maximum): An update for the Golden Deep, featuring new sub-factions and other changes. How will this be reflected on-station?: This will give Golden Deep characters substantially more to work with, and improve setting investment. My initial goal with this update was to broaden the scope of character concepts you could pull off using the Deep, but it has since turned into a history catch up for the faction. Does this faction/etc do anything not achieved by what already exists?: The Golden Deep has been on the wiki as an unknown, sparse entity for the longest time. Much of the page information references setting and story elements that have been long gone before my time here, or were made outdated by recent events, particularly the Second Interstellar War. This update will make them go from a 2460 faction, into a 2463 faction. Why should this be given to lore developers rather than remain player created lore?: It is a substantial faction overhaul, one that alters crucial elements of their world building in order to make some of the elements I intend to introduce feasible, such as population size or member count. Do you understand that if this is submitted, you are signing it away to the lore team, and that it's possible that it will change over time in ways that you may not forsee?: Yes Long Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aY2mOCWH2BEsyhPMltHjNNTv8-32BttKc-K9w_IZUfM/edit?usp=sharing Notes: A word on how I've organized the document: each element is organized into it's own little section for ease of inserting onto the wiki. The whole thing is meant to have enough information to become it's own page on synthetic factions. I have also color notated certain parts of the document. Things highlighted in green are information currently from the wiki I have pasted over onto the new document. Things highlighted in yellow are edits made to these pasted over sections. Things highlighted in red are things that are going to be removed from these sections.

1) The Golden Deep is a favorite of mine, as are the Mega-corps(technically speaking). Both interact with, or are the direct cause of the corporate and materialistic conditions of the setting. The Deep has a varied approach to the matter in particular: whereas other synthetic factions usually have a doctrine that outright rejects most of the conditions of the setting, The Deep has the capacity to embrace many of the materialistic or corporate aspects of the setting, or reject them all the same. 2) There's a few things. I think the Unathi team's primary focus right now is wiki restructuring and setting maintenance, and the Dionae team needs help capturing player interest(as much as it pains me to say it). For me personally, the faction in our setting that is in most dire state right now is the Technoconglomerate. Off-worlders could use a little love in general, but especially the Conglomerate. I think whenever people try to make Conglomerate characters, they rapidly lose interest because there's very little substance for them to work with. Characters from the faction have a consistent habit of disappearing after a few rounds because of this. They really, really need more fluff. 3) The Golden Deep revamp I mentioned was something I was drafting into a canonization app at least a week before the deputy slot opened up, which is why I have so much done for it right now. I actually have a few ideas for some new locations for Unathi lore, but I think the Unathi team said before that they're more interested in setting maintenance first before they can consider canonization apps; at least for now. Whether or not I am chosen for this position won't stop me from writing. Having someone above me to set the agenda and have a final say when it comes to edits or revisions actually takes a lot of pressure off me. I'm very wary of putting out lore that's inconsistent or doesn't line up because I personally missed something. I do make an effort to stay grounded with my proposals, and that's because I'm cautious of pulling a George Lucas with my material. If Lancer or Stryker need something changed or written, I'm down for it.

I am already about 60% of the way through the first draft for the Golden Deep revamp, and I intend to provide enough material for there to warrant an entirely separate page on the wiki for the organization. The revamp contributes three primary things: ideology and values for why the deep was formed and why it holds together, the official body of the deep and it's offices, and the establishment of factionalism within the deep(such dubbed formally as Cabals). The end result will create a golden deep that feels much more broad and intricate. Corporate IPC lore, I mostly want to expand upon how each megacorporation treats their IPC workers, owned and free, their opportunities for freedom relative to each megacorp, the trials to achieve such, and their various other preferences when it comes to synthetic workforces. The reason why I wish to pursue this in the first place is because it will provide assistance to players that wish to create a personal arc for their characters that involves them securing freedom. Right now, the most explicitly defined path to self ownership is the process of becoming a synthetic citizen of Biesel, and that has it's own unique trials and tribulations for players to overcome. It's not to say that I want to put a railroading stranglehold on our options for self-ownership, but I feel like it's for the most part a vague wild-west of floaty head-canon right now for people who want to earn self ownership. Having more defined methods of getting self ownership would help players who might need direction, and give those who are confident in their ability to create head-canon more to work with and extra consistency. These new policies would either be bolted onto their respective megacorp pages, towards the bottom, or they would be gathered together on their own page. Whichever is more convenient in the end. Otherwise, I would like to do more with purpose, Expand upon government owned IPC's, and turn Hivebots into a regular pestilence in the setting. I always have ideas. Their usage preferences between megacorps will likely be detailed on the megacorp lore I want to contribute. Otherwise, I don't have much that directly pertains to them for now, except perhaps writing about government/megacorp policy regarding their existence and infiltration. I've worked in collaborative projects similar to this in the past, and from what I've learned doing that is that crunch should be used sparingly, and that work is meant to be distributed. I myself am tooling around with Github to make my contributions more varied in the future, but much of what we'll be doing can't be hero'd by one person, whether that be me or someone else. Besides that, I look forward to working in a team collaboratively on the lore, I think it will be fun. I present my work with the expectation of it being picked apart and analyzed as part of the design process, and I am not afraid to do much the same for others. I am interested in quality and consistency with my work, just as much as I am creating it in the first place. I value criticism highly because of this. As for complaints, I'm just as open. Wanting to always be right is an easy trap to fall into, and I try to stay conscious of that.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Boggle08(Discord tag: Grand Master Chef) Position Being Applied For: (Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Deputy Lore Developer Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes Past Experiences/Knowledge: I am presently in college for an English major. Reading and Writing is my passion and purpose in life, and something I have done ever since I was 18 months old. In high-school, I've led projects in the Technology Student Association, and therefore posses a history when it comes to collaborative projects involving programming and sprite-work. Prior to discovering HRP on SS13, I spent my time on a now-defunct ARK Survival Evolved HRP server, and have always maintained an interest in role playing games similar to here and on the table top. I have contributed planetary/IPC lore to this server in the past, which I will link below. (Carried over from the previous application) Examples of Past Work: I've contributed Burzsia. 1)How much time can you devote to lorewriting? Much of what I said on my previous application for lore dev still remains true here: I am able to dedicate much time for it, and intend to organize things on my end such that contributions I make can roll out at a steady pace, even when things get busy. By the end of this week, I will have quit my job, and following one or two weeks after, it will be replaced with college. Besides my weekends finally being freed up, this inadvertently grants me more time as the hours were long and exhausting. 2)Do you have any plans for the lore? I've outlined much of what I was interested in achieving in my previous application, but the two big lore elements that are of the most immediate concern to me are fleshing out the Golden Deep, and corporate lore regarding IPC treatment and their respective paths to freedom. Unless there are other matters of equal or exceeding importance, these will be my foremost concerns initially. Biosynthetic shells were a big feature of my previous application for many people, and I personally have interest in them because they have the potential to introduce a plethora of sci-fi concepts into the lore beyond the shells' introduction at face value. However, I also mentioned several times throughout that it would be a large undertaking that has the potential to be too resource intensive or incompatible with the lore. If Lancer makes it an item on our agenda, I will throw all that I can into the project. If not, it's just as good. An under-executed form of the concept would be much, much worse than not doing it at all. 3)Why do you want to join? Because I am still interested in making regular contributions to the lore in a team environment. I even look forward to things like whitelist application evaluations, since much of that is all about reading and comparing material for consistency. Synthetic lore is my strongest suit, and where I draw out my most potent character concepts on station. Additional Comments: I will link my previous lore developer application in this bottom section, as I feel much of the questions asked and topics discussed are relevant here. Any other questions, comments, or concerns are very much appreciated.

I remember Vira Bolivar. Speaking as a command person myself, having a competent HoS or Captain helps keep the cortisol levels low, and Schev plays exactly that. +1

Before I applied for Unathi deputy, I think I completed the whitelist application about a few weeks or so prior to the announcement of a new slot. In the process of creating it, I read through every page relating to Unathi on the wiki several times, and found issues with worldbuilding holes and page organization. I leapt for the deputy position on the sole basis of wanting to go in like a technician and fix the problems I saw. I was eager to contribute, especially to an aspect of the lore I had a newfound interest in. I backed out because I felt like I did not have the greater context and intuition needed for the position, regarding Unathi lore and it's development. The kind that comes from engaging with that department of lore over an extended period of time. Up until the point I became interested in an Unathi whitelist, I didn't talk regularly with staff and players in our OOC channels about Unathi lore; I did not follow new developments and articles written by the Unathi team; I did not contribute any lore associated with the species. Most egregiously, at least to me, I did not actually have a functional Unathi character on my roster until about a week or so after completing the whitelist. The reasons I applied for deputy and the problems I wanted to fix were no revelation to anyone who had been working with or following Unathi lore, and so I realized I did not have much to offer besides a promise to fix something that was inevitably going to be fixed. I quietly asked for my thread to be closed so it wouldn't distract people from the other applicants. To put it succinctly, I closed the application because I realized at the time that I did not know enough about Unathi or their development for the position. Enough to hold onto a whitelist, perhaps, but not write for them.

My biggest strength has to be my capacity for brainstorming. My ability to inductively pull out vast concepts from setting elements both large and small means that I have an idea for nearly every aspect of our setting, and that If I don't have one, I can easily make one. I also make an effort to be flexible in regards to developing concepts and setting an agenda. Equally as much as I love delving into new ideas or fleshing out old ones, I desire for such to be consistent with the rest of the lore and our other departments. Much of what I propose is modular, and the process of peer review is something I value just as much as brainstorming and drafting a concept. This is something I have made a deliberate effort to convey throughout this application process. I have ensured that my responses are thorough and comprehensive, and have made it very clear what concepts are in the realm of possibility versus certainty. In my time here since 2019, I have always had an eye on the developments of synthetic lore; I have full confidence that I can meet and exceed the writing and setting maintenance needs of being a lore developer. As others have said, what I have over the other candidates is that I would be a fresh addition to the team, in a position where I would be most capable of providing new ideas and direction to synthetic lore. I can't deny the big elephant in the room, that unlike the other applicants, I do not have previous staff experience. However, what I can guarantee to you is that this concern is not going to be permanent if I am given the opportunity. I intend to learn more about my role and continually grow into it. I will give my best, and strive to outdo myself in that regard.

1). For this task, I will be giving myself a set number of mandatory hours to work on it every week, which encompasses writing and management. Crucial matters or projects that are overdue will be given special attention, but I want to make sure I don't burn out or put too much on myself or the department all at once. As for whitelisting, I think I have the gist of knowing what to look for when it comes to receiving new applicants; I've helped advise new players seeking whitelists in the past, and of course, own one myself. On the matter of whitelist issues, I think it's something that can normally be resolved through DM's or other soft means of confrontation. Similar to how the server is moderated, a whitelist strip will usually be something you have to escalate up to. An automatic strip would be for exceptionally egregious cases. Like, Hippie station-tier character gimmicks. I'll definitely be conferring with the synthetic deputies about the specifics and nuances when it comes to the whitelisting, however. Whitelist management is definitely going to be a new thing for me, and they most certainly know far more than I do. 2). Konyang is interesting because it has a lot of facets of IPC lore kludged together into one planet. From the reading, IPC's can be owned, or citizens. The Golden Deep openly trades here, and the Trinary Perfection has a large presence as well. A lot of expansion for the Golden Deep will happen here. More importantly, the many facets of IPC lore in the system all softly contradict and oppose each other; So while Konyang might be a haven for IPC's in the setting, it could be one where the synthetic denizens start to become politically divided on issues pertaining to their existence. There's a brief sentence mentioning that Konyang has beef with Burzsia, owing mostly to how differently they treat IPC's. This could be expanded upon, rather than being just a simple disagreement in ways of life and values. 3). I like the idea of having several subspecies to choose from. They offer unique changes in gameplay, most of them look good, and they're almost like different "classes" within a cooperative multiplayer game. I don't think we have a problem with too much choice, because each frame has it's niche in the playerbase when it comes to character design and playstyle. Regarding the matter of certain chasses getting barely played, this is an issue primarily for the G1 chassis. It has an uninteresting subspecies mechanic of being a quicker, less hardy G2, and it's current sprite is unsatisfactory. Anecdotally speaking, it is the least played chassis in the game, and it's even lost out on it's niche as a quicker G2 now that the G2's can sprint for longer distances. I've talked a lot about wanting to add biosynthetic chasses into the game. Not just a shell, another flesh chassis that's much more inhuman looking. If it becomes a serious item on our agenda, these two concepts will be combined into one new biosynthetic chassis with customizable parts, and the G1 subspecies slot will be removed from the game. Instead, the G1 will be playable as a customization option for the G2 subspecies using the prosthesis menu. If we can't get the bio-chassis concept off the ground, it could go either way with the G1 getting merged into the G2 or staying the same. No matter what happens, changing that sprite is on the agenda. Subspecies bloat is a big issue from a maintainer/coding aspect, if I'm not mistaken. Something about it being very obtuse in the character selection and loadout code. Because of this, I don't want us to exceed the current number of subspecies slots we already have. I've read over reworks in the past that propose a much more modular IPC design, that allows us to ditch subspecies all together and umbrella everything under one IPC race. I'm not against this in concept, but in practice, I would only be interested in such a system if it's designed so our all of our IPC variants are still distinguishable and retain all of their special mechanics. When you shift examine a Zheng-hu, it should still read out as a Zheng-hu, not "light frame." Beyond simple mechanics, our chassis variants have too much lore built up around them to be turned into indistinct borderlands-tier exchangeable parts. Any new system to reduce subspecies bloat must preserve the chassis variants.