Kintsugi

As a general update, Visegrad has seen some minor reworks. Sections I felt were obtuse or awkward have been removed, and a lot of language has been clarified. Additionally, there exists a provisional section on the state of affairs during the collapse, though obviously this is mostly filler and could be discarded. Additionally, hard numbers have been removed and so have unwieldy direct references to specific ethnic groups, with such information instead to be inferred by regional/history info and cultural lore.

I like these. They seem to be much more in line with our aesthetic, as opposed to the pip-boys of old.

If disruptors are going to be nerfed this hard, you might as well remove them outright. Five lethal shots is a joke and to top it off they do peanut-tier damage. Hard pass on this PR, personally

also I want solarian consular to be turned back on very soon thanks

This is Danse's Grand Feedback Post. The KOTW arc was a unique chain of events - extremely ambitious and all-encompassing, it has had, to my knowledge, more of an effect on Aurora's lore than any other arc ever. It was fantastically fun and interesting, but that doesn't make it perfect - I'm going to go over each section of the arc, and assessing THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE UGLY (Things I want to comment on but don't want to file into either category). None of this is proofread. Have fun! Act Zero: The good: There was a lot of good exposition here. The scarcity phase might've been a subtle phase, but the minievents helped establish a sense of atmosphere as far as the arc is concerned. There isn't much to say about Act 0 - it was the most laid-back part of the arc. The second half, though, I think could've been better in some places. The bad: Gus pretty much got swept under the rug. I get that nobody was available to write an article about him dying, but in the end the death of Gus Maldarth was a total wash. The ugly: EE was a mixed bag. They seemed to be a major player in the arc at first, but as soon as the scarcity was done with, it seemed like they got swept under the rug. It would have been interesting to see EE participate in the invasion phase. The phoron worms were also a bit of a mixed bag - they weren't really explored at all, beyond the events that they appeared in. They had a lot of potential to be really scary, but they mostly just vanished. This guy was also never explained - the worms had some lore, but the homunculus was just... there. A little odd! Act One: The good: Clandestine set practically the gold standard for events in my eyes. It had a few problems, but these were technical - and therefore I will omit them completely. Clandestine engaged the entire crew, was an interesting event with a lot to explore and discover, and had a fantastic bang. In a way, I feel like Clandestine was so good that it raised my expectations for the rest of the arc, and I was disappointed we didn't get something as good as this. The bad: This act was a little short. Players had the opportunity to investigate Chainlink via the secret room, but I feel like it was too heavily watched to be worth looking into. The ugly: EE really should've made appearances here, but I say pound-for-pound Act One was the best Act of the arc. The article hinting to what was going to happen to Mars was really incredibly vague, and should've had at least some absolute terms included in it. Act Two: This act was basically all article. I can't say anything about it- There were some things related to the conspiracy here, but the conspiracy is largely undocumented and I'll address it later. Act Three: This one was also all article, but with a lot more meat on its bones. The good: The Mars disaster was a fantastic occurrence, from a wholly IC-perspective. It was something that by virtue of pure scale and impact engaged a lot of players, to a level which I have not often seen on Aurora. The bad: A trend of flanderizing the Alliance and especially the Alliance's military begins here. The total refusal for the ENTIRE Alliance military in the area to render aid strikes me as improbable - at least some mutinies would occur, surely? Why wouldn't the Alliance try to evacuate Blue strongholds? Additionally, the self-replicating phoron doesn't really get touched on again for the duration of the arc, leaving it in the bin of "things not touched upon again". The ugly: No ugly statements here. Act Four: The good: A lot of effort to get additional factions involved here was made, which is good - though sometimes it felt forced, just about everybody had something to do with Act Four. Additionally, I think the invasion phase was an interesting prototyping of what the future of Aurora could be like - less of a focus on traditional antagonism, and more of a focus on spontaneous storytelling with random events and ghostspawners. The crashed Solarian crew, Solarian marines, the Solarian refugees, etc, were all a great addition to the game. The invasion was very engaging by design, and the random events were all fantastic. The bad: The death of Frost was very sudden and felt a little forced. His death was obviously necessary and in a lot of ways, welcomed - but little explanation was given to it. How does the most powerful man in the spur get gunned down in his imperial palace? Additionally, I feel like the planned events in this section were flawed. The investigation (In my opinion, one of the worst events of the arc), again, sees the Alliance's military flanderized into being an evil fascist organization - the players are not making their own conclusions, the players are being told that Sol's military is a gang of cowards, assholes, and thugs. The lack of a finale really harmed the invasion's sense of climax and development - I understand the finale was abandoned for a reason, but I don't feel the justification was strong enough to outweigh the benefits. Knowing what the finale was - I am very disappointed that it didn't happen. At the same time, the nuke-assembly events were just bad, in my eyes. They were unengaging (Only supply really had anything to do with them) - for everybody else, they were extended rounds. The first was better due to the arrival of marines, but there was a total lack of player agency in the nuke events. They were being assembled either way - it was just a matter of time. The invasion week was fun- don't get me wrong. It just had no climax. Without a finale, the entire arc feels lopsided - anticlimactic is the best way to put it. Act Four was an anticlimax. The ugly: The death of Ozdemir was a little disappointing. I thought he could have been an interesting long-term villain. That's neither here nor there, but it'd have been cool if he had a warlord state of his own in the long run. The destruction of Sol is going to need a lot of elbow-grease from the lore team to be well-executed - new countries need to spawn from the breakaway areas, and the galactic map is going to need some revising. Additional remarks: The conspiracy part of the arc was interesting, but flawed. The integration of the conspiracy into normal extended rounds was a fun way to get things going, but at the same time this meant that it was difficult for most people to be engaged. As someone who was involved with a LOT of things this arc, I was barely on the periphery of the conspiracy. I was involved, but I'd say the people with a real stake in it could be counted on one and a half hands. And by the end of it, it turns out that all the investigating was for naught - the mystery turns out to be your new employer. The SCC concerns me a lot. I feel like we're getting into unpleasant corphell grimderp territory - this might be a matter of personal taste, but I think Aurora suffers if it goes too much in on totally coddling the megacorporations and treating governments as their gimps. I saw the SCC's new wiki page - and while it's obviously unfinished, I feel like it just confirms my suspicion that the SCC will end up being the spur's sole superpower. To be frank, I was megacorporations to be on equal footing with governments - they have their unique strengths and weaknesses, and need to cooperate with governments or overcome them under the table to be successful. For me, the growing focus the lore is taking on megacorporations is deeply concerning, and I think it is a mistake. I might think they're boring, but I also think that making them the focus of the setting is something very few people will enjoy. You just can't empathize with a megacorporation the same way you do with a government. Final opinions: KOTW was a lot of fun. Despite the fact I feel like the final act could've been better - it was still good. It was imperfect, but no arc of this scale was ever attempted before. I hope that the lore team learns from the mistakes made here, and from also from the right choices that were made at the same time. I don't mean to sound like a negative nancy - by all means, I think the arc was a quality experience and I applaud the team for it. But I am being honest: for as good as it was, I think it could have been better. In general, I felt like player agency was lacking, and the arc itself was somewhat black versus black, with few dogs in the fight for the player to root for without playing a character who has a malfunctioning moral compass. Looking forward, I would love to see some concepts experimented with during the KOTW integrated into the server, especially the prolific use of ghost spawners. I also wait to see all of the new lore that'll come out of this - I am very excited to see the warlordism and successor states. And maybe down the line, a Sol redemption arc would be fun.

Have you considered making it so only running causes damage, instead of for all movement? I think this would be a fair compromise. Additionally, this strikes me as an antagonist nerf: It just lowers their endurance further.

I intend to make a much more in-depth feedback post in the future, as right now I'd be making a lot of conjecture and predictions that may not come true. For now, I will say that I have enjoyed the arc a lot so far, and respect the sheer amount of work the developers put into it - I will say that while I don't want to rain on any parades, I think a few mistakes were made so far that we could probably stand to learn from, and I think depending on how things play out, a few more could end up being made. Me being a downer aside, I've really loved the arc. Probably my favorite on Aurora so far! One thing I can say is that I think the Schrödinger's canon isn't going to work out. I see a lot of people getting confused over what is and what isn't canon - people confusing antag gimmicks for events, etc. I think we should stick to hard canon for all events, especially during extended.

Do I know Omi well? no. Do I think Omi is cool? Yes. Do I think Omi is good at synthetic roleplay? Also yes. Do I think Omi is good at roleplay in general and at the game? That's a yes too. With those factors in mind, I'm afraid I must simp in favor of them. I think they're going to make a great command player, and I'm sure their golden deep commando will be great on top of that. +1

Shading is so dissonant with our other sprites that this would look terribly out of place. Don’t get me wrong, I want new captain clothes but this just doesn’t look right.

I must make a disclaimer that these sprites are not my design, and are borrowed and kitbashed to fit here on Aurora.

It shall be done, king.

Or remove the armored variant and make it so armor doesn't look like clothing and clothing doesn't look like armor. If sec officer is about playing dressup to you, do it at your peril.

Because is seems Wezzy has reversed his position back to his original one regarding armored officer jackets, I must once again try to make the case that they are a net detriment to the server and the server's atmosphere. When you see this, what do you think of it? Because in my eyes, this is a component of a dress uniform. It has little coverage for the torso, it has shiny silver buttons, so on and so forth. This is not a component of normal officer patrol wear - this is something a security officer wears for special occasions. There are countless reasons why a security officer would not wear something like this for patrol clothing - from inefficiency, to comfort, to choke risk, to the fact that intimidating people is part of the job, and a jacket that looks like you'd be wearing it to the secofficer's ball is not intimidating. Additionally, there is a matter of atmosphere. In our oppressive corporate environment, how do you want armed corporate goons to appear? Like a friendly neighborhood bobby, wearing a uniform that's practically their sunday best, or A private security contractor working for a megacorporation that regularly abuses the rights of it's employees? Given the current equipment of the security department, I'm inclined to believe it is the latter. The fact of the matter is that this is not armor. It is not supposed to be armor. By design, it is not something you would wear into a combat situation. You wear it to look nice, for a nice event. You do not wear it alongside a helmet, wielding a laser rifle. Additionally, this would have an item that is identical to it without armor values. So, yes. There will be trouble identifying whether an officer is armored. Additionally, this is a sec officer buff. This armor will be SUPERIOR to the plate carrier by virtue of having more storage, while having identical armor values. All in all, a discord user said it best: Armor should look like armor. Clothing should look like clothing. I personally intend to work on this after my current PR goes through by way of removing the extant armored clothing current in the game.

You should have to decide between style and defense in a combat situation. Why would a simple jacket have the same level of protection as a kevlar plate carrier? It doesn't make any logical sense - and it also hampers quick identification of security officers who are ready to fight. I can imagine an antag going in, thinking an officer is unarmored (because, after all, they ARE unarmored), only to find out that their jacket has a magical enchantment and the thin cotton can stop half of the damage they're dealing.

Alright. Sol Navy Crewman: Sol marine in service uniform (Hat is not new, uniform is): Sol navy service uniform (hat changes depending on the rank you'd want to depict): Sol junior officer: Sol senior officer: Sol admiral uniform is in the thread OP.

This is a lot of time and effort so if you want to get a better idea of it, sure, but I'd prefer it if you tell me specifically which you want to see, for comparison purposes

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/10510 The new sprites: The old sprites: Frost in his new uniform: Frost in his old uniform:

I'm fine with this, I guess. I mean, I guess I'm kinda fine with this. Too many sec dressup options can spoil the look of the department, though. I'm fine with this. I absolutely detest this, I in fact detest it so strongly that I'd rather see this PR not merged at all than merged with this in it. The armored officer coats for the HoS and warden are leftovers from a bygone era that take us into anime-esque territory. Remove the HoS and warden jackets, I beg you, and do not give them to officers either. Armor should LOOK LIKE ARMOR. I am not a fan of this. I preferred the old shape.

"Adelina, it'll be alright." as I make a noose to hang her with

I don't support this change. While I think the current sprites have a minor inconsistency issue as far as contrast with the rest of the server is concerned, I do feel that they're still better than these proposed replacements- which bear far too much resemblance to the security .45, in my eyes.

Bump

A high quality security team and a high quality mercenary team will always, always, always see the security team beat the mercenaries. Why? By virtue of numbers and the cooperation of the station- there is very little that the mercs can use to get a one-up on sec. The only thing that can really turn the time is an expertly placed bomb or an absolute armory blitzkrieg.

What in tarnation