Boggle08

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.

One of the biggest things we look out for when evaluating whitelist applications is if the applicant understands the positronic brain. How it works, how the machine's incentives are shaped by it, it's relationship with the concept of emotions, et cetera. It's a crucial element of their design, and the fact that they are fully artificial is a big reason why their rights and legal status are contested. Now look at the FBP. It does not use a positronic. It doesn't have contested legal status. The brain inside is sapient, alive, and organic. It doesn't have all of the behavioral quirks or limitations of the positronic brain. It is a human in all things but body, which is antithetical to the design of our actual IPC's. Getting an IPC whitelist without respecting the Posibrain is like getting a Tajara whitelist by playing a Zhan that was raised by humans and has absolutely no understanding of Tajaran politics. It's way too divorced from core elements of IPC lore to be good for it. And that's before we even get into complications like no first directive to police powergamey behavior, or the cursed premise of fitting a FBP assembly into a bioshell, coming full circle and just exiting the entire premise of robots in space. There's already ways to play characters that are spiritually similar to FBP's just by getting creative in the loadout. Playing a heavily augmented human satisfies the niche the FBP would normally fulfill, in my opinion. But to implement an actual FBP similar to what other servers have, with the brain physically transplanted out of the body and into a chassis? I don't think it's something we should consider implementing.

It's kind of difficult to describe the ideal form of an IPC in our setting, since there are so many valid avenues you could take that rest within and beyond my perceptions and preferences towards the lore. For the sake of answering your inquiry, I think the best way to answer this question is to describe an IPC using a dichotomy of nature, and nurture. The element of nature is corporate, and the nurturing element is human. In my view, the best entrance a synthetic can make into the setting is to be activated as property of a corporation. It directly connects the character to one of the more central elements of our setting, and provides a potential conflict right off the bat: the relationship between the machine and it's corporation. To most in the setting, a corporation is nothing more than a cruel hierarchy. To an IPC, it is the alpha, and the omega. It is the reason why the machine exists, the one that designates it's purpose, and the one most likely responsible for ending it. Almost all production for IPC's is fueled by corporations, and the big five array themselves under the SCC like a pantheon of dispassionate, uncaring gods. The first trial of our IPC is determining it's relationship with it's makers. Does it embrace its god and become a living avatar of its parent corporation? Maybe it develops ideas or ambitions that rest outside of its original purpose, and finds itself with the desire to separate? Maybe it angrily rejects its corporation outright, for whatever reason. The counterpart to this nature is nurture, and such is derived from the interactions this IPC will have with those around it; primarily humans. There is, however, even duality in this as well: These experiences can be positive or negative. The negative is self evident, from the nature of megacorps to the policies and beliefs that control the lives of IPC's. The positive, however, comes from connections and experiences that the IPC accrues over time that push it towards establishing it's own ethical framework, self actualization, and purpose. This idea of nurture is so thematically potent, we have it manifested into a religion: The Trinary. Our ideal form of an IPC in this instance isn't one singular character or concept, rather, multiple potential outcomes, multiple character concepts, using this framework of nature and nurture. Corporate and human. This dichotomy is by no means rigid either: it can be altered or subverted in the interest of character design or narrative exploration. This is by no means the only framework or mentality I will use when designing lore for this department. I think you need to know your biases and get as much perspective as you can to be the most efficient with this kind of work. But, for the sake of answering the question, this is part of the mentality I use whenever I design my own characters.

Sorry for the delayed response! I had to crunch through summer finals. 1. If I had total control over the department, omnipotent means to enact my changes, and reckless abandon towards my peers, The golden deep would get significantly more fleshed out, Purpose would have more presence and fluff in the setting(maybe not playable as a ship/station role, but certainly otherwise); Biosynthetic shells would slowly rise into prominence, following after the wake of a biopunk technology revolution fueled primarily by Zheng-hu. In fact, we would get another "work" variant of IPC composed of a mix of mechanical and synth-flesh components, in addition to the shell. Hivebots would become a pestilence in the setting, and an existential threat in some parts of the Spur. 2. The lay of the land is good, but I still think there's more to be fluffed up and expanded on. Many of our corps lack an official stance and policies regarding IPC's under their ownership. How lax or regimented their lives generally are, their policy when it comes to allowing IPC's to purchase their freedom. While we do have information on the wiki for the matter of IPC's securing their freedom from corporations, I feel like it is insubstantial, and isn't as encompassing as having a doctrine for each of our mega-corps. Slightly related, It might even be worth expanding into lore for State-owned IPC's, and all that it entails. 3. IPC lore is stapled to human lore, by design. I surmise our department will be doing a lot of work with the human team because of how linked together the two species are. The implications of synthflesh IPC chasses, and with the kind of Biopunk tech progression I'm thinking of, I want to make sure doesn't conflict with other departments if we decide to go through with it. Especially for Vaurca, as they already have organic technology similar to what I'm thinking of, and it could horribly overstep into the uniqueness of that species. In fact, I want to heavily involve Vaurca if we manage to get an idea for it everyone can agree on.

I can put in quite a lot of time for it, right now. I'm a stage in my life where I have a lot of disposable time to burn. In the initial half of this year, when I was processing the rework, writing lore and contributing here was a fun hobby that I was having to constantly put off due to a busy, disorganized life. This has since changed over the summer, however. If I acquire this position, it will be something that I will really take ownership of. Lore developer is a huge responsibility beyond managing and contributing lore. It is organizing events, managing whitelists, coordinating with others, mediating the occasional dispute, and being a figurehead in the community. If life becomes busy again, I will make time for it. Despite how direct I come off here, it isn't a deal breaker if people interpret things differently than I do. Lore, thematic analysis, and inspiration are not top down. I do not want to institute rigid orthodoxy. I make my fun on the server by trying weird character ideas, or selling whitelist applications off of characters that cross-combine different elements of the setting together. I hope to be inspired by our community as much as I hope to inspire them. In that first section, I was more or less describing the broad trends I see when it comes to how we interact with the material and setting, consciously and unconsciously. My views regarding the setting are shaped from the realizations and perspective of others as much as my own. Getting mired in our own ways is a recipe to make the setting stale. All of my talk regarding these specific thematic elements in our writing will not affect the process of acquiring a whitelist or holding onto it. It is just observation. Purpose could become relevant again, especially given our setting change. Maybe we could tie them together with the hivebots somehow, or even have them show up as an occasional ghost role. I kind of want to make them a little more than just an event faction, even if it ironically means doing another event arc involving them once we're on the space boat. As for the other factions, I could see the trinary branch out into other systems or nations, merely as a consequence of our setting moving away from being Biesel-centric. Regular shells would still be prominent across all of human space, and Biosynthetic shells would initially start off as incalculably rare, and almost exclusively corporate property. Given our setting's current technology level at a macro scale, mass producing synthflesh shells for the domestic or commercial market wouldn't really seem all that feasible initially. Even before these shells are released out, I feel there needs to be technological build up in the form on an organic replaceable parts revolution. The bioshells would be the culmination of this technology. I'm particularly interested in getting something out for The CoC(more specifically, their "federal" government or Xanu), Elyra, Hephaestus, Zeng Hu, maybe Idris's non-ISU/IRU units, and Nanotransen itself. Our setting will get only more pluralistic after the NBT leaves port, and so how these companies and nations handle their IPC's and offer them freedom will become more important. I really enjoy making canonization applications, so the last thing I'll ever do is cockblock proposals out of misguided principle. A lot of interesting ideas come from the community; it's a great way for people to get really invested in the server and get their feet wet with contributing. The way this department has handled and integrated them in the past has shown me that lore flows bottom up as much as it does top down. Aurora is a collective community project foremost, and so is our lore. The lowest Nadir of our setting will not dominate the lore. Severe levels of destitution or slavery, the cruelty of contracting companies, and Burzsia are in a lot of respects optional elements of our setting that players choose to opt into and impose upon their characters. Making the lore too tyrannical and controlling absolutely destroys character variety. All of the evil elements of our setting are neatly contained within their respective spheres, as they should be. The opposite end of this spectrum is designing characters or lore with the deliberate intention of negating all of the trials and tribulations synthetics must face in our setting; Happily ever after is hardly compelling, and is liable to make things stagnant, in my view. Some struggles must be universally shared or considered, while more severe elements are up to the discretion of the user. All that being said, I don't think we have much cause to make our setting more dark for machines than it already is. In fact, I sort of want to expand upon free positronics, how they acquire the means from their parent corporation if applicable, and the path to citizenship from nations that offer it.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Boggle08 (Discord key: GrandMasterChef) Position Being Applied For: (Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): IPC 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. Examples of Past Work: IPC lore as it is: IPC lore is in a particularly healthy place right now. Most of the questions regarding their hardware or "rules" have been defined and settled, and the lore we've given for them is exceptionally chunky; owing to their relevance and associations with broader science fiction, they have many avenues for character direction or narrative exploration from the perspective of a player. Underneath all that is written for them, I see broader themes for the search of purpose and belonging; Rootlessness clashing with fate that's been preordained by others. Nearly every faction in our setting has a take on where synthetics belong, and synthetics themselves rest in the center, left figure it out if they are able. Nothing about these thematic conditions should change, as it is a wellspring of conflict for synthetics, at both the small and large scale. Our responsibility as lore people is to propose our setting to the player base in such a manner that they can think deeply on it, catching upon the broad themes and setting elements and work with them. In the context of IPC lore, this would be asking those questions of fatalism, rootlessness, belonging, and purpose through our material, and then the players giving an answer, a subversion, or a refutation through their characters. There is nothing that egregiously needs to be fixed, meaning that we are in a prime state for us to expand upon our setting, To ask different questions, in a way. It is my hope that I can provide some. What the future entails, and what I would like to change: NiennaB ran a tight ship regarding plans for the future, looking over past announcements(in particular the roadmap), there is still much to be completed that was initially proposed. For the most part, this roadmap will carry over into my tenure. I have ideas in particular for how Biosynthetic shells can progress into our setting, especially regarding the potential cross-applicability of the technology that would be required to make them. One thing I am certainly interested in expanding on is the Golden Deep. Introducing some cultural elements, internal beliefs, and a little bit of factionalism would do them nicely. Of course, this would done in such a manner that it would not be at the expense of the Deep's unknown, secretive quality. There will be no excessive de-mystifying. The issue with them is that there's a little bit too much unknown. I think with the approach of the NBT comes the concern of how characters on the ship will be able to reasonably maneuver towards a path to citizenship, and all of the intricacies and clauses when it comes to that. Many corporations and organizations involving IPC's can give a definitive flat "no" on the matter of freedom, but the ones that can potentially grant freedom to their machines need clarification. This could be complicated further as the ship moves between borders, or if it projects it's own sovereignty as it travels. I hope to at the very least have consensus and a basic plan by the release of the NBT. Additional Comments: Comments and questions are very much appreciated.

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Rework Describe this proposal in a single sentence (12 word maximum): Improvements for IPC characters from Burzsia. How will this be reflected on-station? These revisions alter a core element of Burzsia's lore for IPC's, and grant additional supplementing information in regards to character concepts and background information for them. Essentially, it will give players more to work with. Does this faction/etc do anything not achieved by what already exists?: My intent with these revisions are to flesh out the Burzsiean method without violating the rules of the setting, and increase the character variability for Burzsiean IPC concepts. Some material has also been added regarding Burzsia's supply chain. Why should this be given to lore developers rather than remain player created lore?: This significantly alters how the Burzsiean method itself works, which is one of the large central elements of the star system's design. Such a thing cannot remain player canon. 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. Additional notes: Each section I have modified from the wiki is in the linked document below; the text highlighted in yellow denotes the new material I have written for the page. Long Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11jWCEkJN1oKZitFtSzadLdCvBiZ69PmkIStNHEXZqHM/edit?usp=sharing

I like Danse's take on the crew armory. It actually isn't very hard to get your hands on good weapons on the aurora as it stand now, between people loading up from the existing armory, ordering from cargo, using the protolathe, or even just building makeshift. If we get an emergency armory, it should exist as an intermediary that doesn't make the crew absolutely defenseless, or buys them time to get a better weapon and organize. This is a small thing, but in addition to removing departmental break rooms, we should place a lot of focus on having every department having a lobby, and that lobby being designed to function as a micro-social hub. Medical and the kitchen are fantastic examples of this, because the workers of said departments have their workstations jutting out into the public area, and the public area itself surrounds the work area in an L or U shape, creating an effect where it's easier to face towards and talk to more people. Like a circular table. On highpop, where there is a chef and a barkeep, more congregate around the kitchen. On lowpop, where there is no service at all, The medical lobby becomes popular to all people. I think how I feel about exploration will change as we accrue more away sites and mechanics, but I really want science to be heavily involved in some way with these. The entire department, as it is now, is the same powergaming mechanic dispenser that classic space station 13's always had. The difference is that there's no plan for it right now, and it's been gutted and defanged through a mix of PR's and policy. It isn't fun or rewarding. I would not really miss science in it's current state if we only ported over full research robotics to the new ship. As of now, and only as of now, I feel like reorienting science around away-site missions and anomalies is a step in the right direction. Perhaps even having it so specific research levels/types require anomaly testing in order to unlock.

Security definitely has a place here, without question. Command can't regulate the station without them. The corporate law might as well be toilet paper if we removed them. From a setting and lore standpoint, it makes perfect sense and incentive for our soon-to-be spacefaring ship to have asset and crew protection. It's a crucial part of maintaining the HRP atmosphere. From a gameplay standpoint, they are still unhealthy. We do not have a problem with security and command players being psychologically wired to be dicks that keep all the fun in a box away from everyone else, the design of the game and In-Character incentives encourage the playstyle. Isolate, Control, and Contain will generally be the motto of a station with a healthy, well staffed command and security department. Keep the station together, Keep the crew from dying. Exceptions exist outside of this framework, but the station is in perpetual orbit of this meta-outlook. I generally follow this outlook whenever I play command. Because all of our gamemodes are geared towards direct physical violence, and our station crew generally observes and respects the regulations/chain of command, we have this paradigm. When it breaks down, you suddenly get a game that includes more of the crew in the action. I know we're HRP, but some of the most engaging times I've had on the aurora came from cult, revolution, and revenant rounds where everything goes to shit and command/sec throw away the regulations in favor of just trying to weather the round and survive. It's surprising how the hatred against sec instantly evaporates when people get to stand shoulder to shoulder with them to tackle a dangerous problem neither could've taken care of on their own. Besides introducing gamemodes that are more balanced around other departments/not violence, Like Zundy suggested, we should also consider the implementation of systems that include the crew into more of the round's shenanigans. New gamemodes are a good idea, but they require coding, time, testing, and investment from someone. Inclusive policy changes only require just that; policy changes. We need security, and command, to say "No" less often. New policy aboard the NBT sounds like it will dabble into this. Unreliable ERT summons coupled with a potential new system and infrastructure for crew militias means that command will have more incentive to levy from the rest of the crew instead of summoning a thematically uninvolved kill team to mop up the problem. For this, I hope the policy regarding militia operation revolves around a dichotomy of department crew holding their workstations in a static defense, and occasionally some joint operations with the remainder of the ISD whenever it is deemed situationally necessary. The militia should be there to help supplement or even directly contribute numbers to security, and their default equipment should focus more on keeping them alive and less on killing. Anything with a magazine larger than 1 needs to be in pistol cartridge. Anything larger than a pistol caliber should be a single-shot breach loader, or if we're feeling really generous, bolt action. To finish and summarize up my thoughts before this post gets more bloaty than it already is: I don't think every round should be oriented around direct conflict and violence, and more of our round design in the future should be interesting without needing the classic idea of an "antag". I don't think we should exclusively blame command and security for the way they act, when our rounds are designed as they are. I think that security should still be the first and primary means of dealing with violent gimmicks and antags, because it makes sense. I anticipate the potential for a militia system, only because almost all of our gamemodes are designed for, and often create, violent outcomes.

There's actually a complete list of what works and what doesn't somewhere in the repo. I remember the list being very small, and very stingy. Most of the junk items don't sell, so there's no utility there either.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Boggle08 Discord Name: GrandMasterChef Position Being Applied For: Unathi Lore Deputy Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page: Yes Past Experiences/Knowledge: I'm in education for an English major right now. Prior to this, I dedicated most of highschool specializing into computer science, but it didn't really work out. I did lead a few projects for a STEM club relating to programming. I can read code, and am in the slow process of figuring out github. I've always had a fixation on worldbuilding and fiction regardless; I have pages and pages or art and design documentation for ideas and concepts I've created in my spare time, but never actuated. Prior to the Aurora, I've had experience roleplaying on HRP Ark Survival Evolved servers, at least five. I've participated in table-top RPG's, but never GM'd. Examples of Past Work: I've contributed Burzsia I also have my Unathi, Dionae, and IPC whitelist applications, if you need more direct examples of my writing ability. Additional Comments: I have everything in a google doc. It's a three parter, discussing the structure of unathi lore and what I would like to achieve, Some miscellaneous ideas of what I might contribute in the future, and the writing exercise requested by the lore developer: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IYzdcyFBC0X1xJGk9M2nxEXfStoBJQR-FGWjPkHEnAQ/edit?usp=sharing