Killerhurtz

Sorry about that, there was discussion on the subject of IPCs (and their current lack of overseer) and it's been resolved. I like the concept of Evelinna, and people seem to generally have a positive feedback so I'm going to go ahead and approve it. Hope to see you stationside soon!

A brief message appears on the page. "I return."

-1. Botanist can't take anything seriously - and there's already enough tajara troublemakers without Botanist being one.

YESSS do it Skull. I like this idea for the points mentioned by everyone else - the justification of deadhour, how it makes things simpler, so on.

It's actually already on our (or at least my) to-do list. We want to populate the wiki with all of the important information needed (verify the accuracy of the species guide, make/import all of the roles pages most notably). Once that's done and we have a full wiki, we'll be discussing ways to make the content a lot more accessible. Thanks for the feedback though!

Should be in. Enjoy, and shoot me a PM if there's anything (Or skype.)

Just dropping in to say something: During an OFFICIAL, CANON event, PootisManiac was ALSO found making heinous food and poisoning VIPs.

+1 from me too. Get another approval (remember you can advertise once per round in OOC) and it's a go.

As far as Dionaea go, I've put a LOT of thought about evolution in it (to the dismay of many people - I'm not sure it's ever going to be fully released). And evolutionarily? I've grown quite affectionate of my evolution branch, and let me tell you: the Epsilon Eridani shell's statement of "their creation was nothing short of a miracle" is actually an understatement. IQ-wise, it depends on the stage. Nymphs are 80-90, Workers are 100-130. Other forms defy classification.

Yes, Dionaea nymphs can do as described, absorbing information through genetic data - though the role is greatly overstated. While they DO learn a lot faster - the knowledge absorption IS still genetics. Hence why language is so easily to obtain - having been in a species' genes since before writing was a thing. However, the more complex the subject, the longer it has to have been - so for cooking, a chef which is the son of a chef might be able to give a Dionaea a good knowledge of cooking... but engineering would have to go back five generations or more for an "equivalent" knowledge - and so there's basically no one that could teach them how to set up a supermatter engine or a singularity engine. So yes, they can effectively become a member of crew at six months old (in "lesser" roles". However, because the Dionaea aging and genealogy is misunderstood and very complex, NanoTrasen has established a roughshod equivalence guide where Dionaea are evaluated on their "psychological maturity", which also pretty much evaluates how close to a human mindset they seem to be, and their capabilities - and gives them an age equivalent for the records. So an ancient Worker gestalt that has an alien mindset and very few useful qualifications could be evaluated to be 20, while a very recent and very qualified gestalt could get a 40-year equivalence. For qualifications - the Dionaea are various. Most commonly, they get certifications on knowledge they have - a simple two-weeks seminar to update and clarify subjects that yield a document that approves them as being capable of working in places. Some groups (like, for instance, the Ophion gestalt with Research, or Venter's Satellite with atmospherics) get an "umbrella certification" - which allows every Worker that comes from a preset group to benefit from the certifications. Otherwise - when a Dionae wants to learn a new domain - there is no standard. Some seek digital sources - manuals, booklets, educational documents - on the Extranet, some DO take classes with other organics (mostly Skrell and Human), others seek people of expertise to obtain as many genetic samples as possible - as while an individual sample could only very limited knowledge if the person learned it in their lifetime, it is possible to cover subjects with the "sum knowledge" of a field - for instance, if a Dionae convinced every medical graduate to grant them a sample, the Dionaea would most likely get the sum of knowledge that the students had learned during their studies. Regardless, unless their method of learning comes with a certification, they will need to pass tests to prove their competence. TL;DR: age approximate through evaluation mandatory for all Dionaea, they can become crew very fast, they're proven to be good at their jobs with certifications just like foreign immigrants.

I actually have an alternate fix. I'm a BYOND subscriber and I didn't crash because it removed the ads.

OH look at this I want honest feedback on the following characters, please: -Farreipshi Tup'Tesh -Viridian Chrisocolla/Vermillion Carminite -Sybil (of course) -Lua Saudosa -Ashton Murphy

And that's also a +1 directly from me. Approved, give it a few days to be applied.

No, it's all good. Application approved - please give it a few days to happen.

So, I've been thinking about Tenenza's post in this thread, and it got me thinking (disclaimer: I actually also discussed it with them over Skype) and I/we came up with an idea. Instead of protolathing fully complete items, the Protolathe is purely to create restricted or prototype components. And either by hand (Protopistol style) or with a machine (basically a Research microwave that makes devices instead of food), we assemble them. In short, there would now be SIX machines in the Research and Development laboratory: The Research Console Circuit Imprinter Protolathe Destructive Analyzer Deconstructor Assembly Machine The console, imprinter and protolathe work very similarly, except the protolathe makes advanced components only. The destructive analyzer would actually be a destructive analyzer. It could take antag components from the deconstructor (see below) and yield usable components by Research. Which gives a whole new venue of RP - where Wizards actually DO have something valuable to provide NT and so that whole branch of the protocol could actually be played out. The deconstructor. As it says - you put an item in, you get components out. For instance, you put in a laser carbine, it gives you "1x Laser Rifle Frame, 1x Laser Carbine Diode Assembly, 1x Laser Rifle Frame, 1x Capacitor, 1x Standard Weapon Power Cell". Or put in the wizard staff that can push people and get 3x Unknown Components, which could be identified by the destructive analyzer as "Wooden Rod", "Gravitocapacitive Focus" and "Unidentified Power Source". And of course, there's nothing stopping you from deconstructing a xenoarch artifact, at which point you could either get random components, or pre-listed components depending on it's effect (radio components for the tiny radio things, gun pieces from the guns, so on). Or with the Captain's approval, deconstruct his antique gun and get a compact RTG to give security a whole armoury of slow-firing but infinite laser guns. And the Assembly machine does the exact opposite - you put in the components and you get a device. BUT there would be a very slim chance that on standard recipes (and a 100% chance, if you just put random junk in) you get an Artifact. Which is pretty much the same as a xenoarch artifact with effects unknown. And of course - the difficulty of the recipe scales with the complexity of the item. A security HUD, for instance, would be made of a pair of sunglasses (given from security), a laser diode, a compact communication board, a capacitor and a security encryption key (also obtained from security). On the flipside, a Lawgiver would probably need something like one laser rifle frame, one Lawgiver prototype control board, one laser carbine diode assembly, one double-ionized "stun" laser diode assembly, one high-power laser diode, one prototype portable relativistic mass accelerator, one prototype switching mechanism, one universal recorder and one prototype variable-focus magnetic lens array, or something like that. Finally - there would probably be new items that could be made. Engineering swiss knife that can switch, with a command, to trigger the screwdriver/wrench/wirecutter/multitool/T-Ray triggers. Holokinetic weapons with the wizard staff's focus. So on. What would this bring? Actual RP: by being actively involved in the construction process of items instead of just mindlessly going through a preset list of items to deconstruct, there's potential for more RP (without mentioning the RP revolving around the fabricated artifacts) Actual things to do: with the artifact system, the possibilities are almost endless. Even basic requests will give something interactive to do - it's no longer "press a button and give the item". It's a process. Cuts down on chucklefucking: With this concept, and since antagonist/illegal components are not available by default, there's no more loophole to get them. It's no longer a question of "can I find the item that will give me the item" and more of a "can I find the component in the first place" matter. If someone wants a chameleon suit, they'll need to legit acquire a photoadaptive matrix... probably from a chameleon suit. If they want an energy shield, they'll need to find a portable field generator, probably from an energy shield. Or xenoarch artifacts. Cuts down on abusive Research bastion: Should this be implemented, I'd be down for adding a weapons charger to Research because it would take a coordinated, sustained effort to manufacture enough guns to be a threat. Plus the AI will probably question why you're building so many guns, with the time it would take. AND the more advanced the gun, the more time it would take too - a basic laser pistol would maybe take 5-10 seconds, while that Lawgiver might take a whole minute. Gives additional antag options: Both for traitor and other antags, it gives more options - making artifacts until they find something useful for their purpose, having the Wizard actually fall under the "can trade" part of the protocol, or just deprive Security of their guns by deconstructing them all. Thoughts?

I was menaced at gunpoint to say Dea is the best person ever. (Menaced at gunpoint in Just Cause 2, that they gifted to me, that is.) But in all seriousness, Dea's an awesome player, and as mentioned they've got the skills to write flavor text for characters. If anyone is deserving of a whitelist, it's them.

dea my <3 just cause collection?

So just to make this clear: Willow already exists as a nymph?

@Eliot Chef - that's where the datakey comes in. Not individual lockboxes, but a RD (or the Captain or someone else with access to the RD locker) to unlock individual research sections. @Raven - I love this, it makes so much sense. @Synnono - less useful? No. It switches the focus from "must steal items to get the items done" to "all items are there, and we can test whatever the fuck we want between item requests" AKA what real science is (though I can easily see it devolve into Mythbusters style - and it's a good thing). Repetitive deconstruction is NOT needed. It can either be a focus or a happy byproduct of broken items. That's the main point of this suggestion. Mining materials stay in for mining and RP purposes (because right now Research is pretty much the only reason why Mining exists, really).

Here's my two cents: while I made up justifications IC for why we do it over and over, it makes no sense OOC for a game with character persistence to have to re-build research levels over and over. I personally believe that the whole system is a vestigial remnant of a playstyle that was focused less on the RP and more on the action. And so here's my pitch: remove the whole research level concept. The protolathe would be instantly capable of producing all items (with three exceptions: illegal items, bluespace items and weapons technology, each of which would have a datakey in the RD's locker to enable) My reasoning is this: it serves no real purpose except to add a small amount of tedious things to do to get to the core of RP research, right now. And it's a big handwave as to why the research levels are reset. What this would do? Of course, it means that the chucklefucks get easier access to things BUT. -No more PDA problems -No more scientists sacrificing their time to get the research done for Robotics -More time spent on actual science - that is, building things, figuring out how they work and making things happen -More time spent on RP in general -Less frustration to players who toiled away at Research for very specific purposes and whose work get cut short by a transfer shuttle at the 2 hour mark -Since everything is available, greater interaction with crew who might want to obtain more restricted or complex items (security would get more interaction out of obtaining special equipment, medical would get more interaction through obtaining the lifesupport table and the advanced medical tool, engineering would actually be able to do things when there's not a disaster by mass-upgrading the station's APCs, so on, so on) -Makes Research a bigger target for antags, which gives other things to do and more RP options Instead, what I suggest is this: a refinement process. Most items are limited by materials regardless, and most items also break down before their "level" is reached. And so instead of research levels, deconstructing a broken item makes it more reliable (and thus break less often, and thus give less opportunity for refinement) and improves upon it; -Power cells would get slightly faster charge -Energy weapons would get a slightly better shot-to-energy ratio -Ballistic weapons would get a slightly faster firerate -Components would get slightly better at what they do -Some items would get a lower production cost -Circuit boards would reduce the production cost of all boards And so on, and so on. That way, there is still an incentive to deconstruct items - but it is not an absolute need for Research to be able to do things. And it makes more sense - deconstructing items over and over to see if something new pops up is eh. Deconstructing items to provide valuable optimization data? That sounds more reasonable. And to make sure that Research stays fair during antag rounds, the Bridge has a "Research Shutdown" button that forces all Research APCs to switch to "equipment off", or discharges the APC and disables charging. Thoughts?

That's without mentioning that it could prevent (and/or justify) the whole "research spams power cells and the whole station runs on robotics' production potential" if teranium is needed to make power cells.

In light of this new information, it's pretty much just the hatched early thing. The botany is explained simply by faulty pod genetics - just like an animal or plant can develop with severe malformations, a diona can grow wrong and die at birth. Thing is, because of how dionae work, botany gives them the best conditions they could have, allowing them to grow real fast - so it didn't hatch early, it hatched on time, it was just a bad pod. Otherwise, it checks out. Get some people to vouch for you, and I'll approve it.

I have a question. When is the last time you have read the lore page? There has been some changes recently, which makes this character (while interesting) not entirely correct. The most notable two things is that one, nymphs do not "hatch" early - they go into hibernation until they have sustenance. Two, the pod would have had no trouble following the roots of the willow down to where, most likely, there was nutrition - as Dionaea are particularly versatile at that. Otherwise, once you fix these two details, post a link to your whitelist in the OOC chat (once per round) for advertisement so that I may have feedback from other players as well.

Application approved. Please add your byond key however.

Galaxy Science News Network Source of all science news, everywhere. Venter's Satellite opens negotiations - requests completely unexpected The scientific group which had been communicating with Venter's Satellite - which has now declared themselves as being identified as "Seeds that Shattered the Skies" - have now finally concluded their research, to no avail. However, an enthusiastic group of ambassadors have volunteered to take their place. Such a choice came with clear benefits: a greater degree of communication was established, and trading even began. The gestalt had agreed to trade knowledge and working bodies in exchange for a request that only fortified the rumors about Dionaea being truly dark creatures. However, as per the agreement, the Sol Alliance will be delivering large amounts of biomass - monkeys, cows and chickens, most notably - to Venter's Satellite for consumption. Furthermore, a Sol Alliance official has made the following statement: "We have made a powerful ally this week. The Dionae were always seen as friends to the Sol Alliance - but with a gestalt of such stature, we were allowed to take it to another level - sharing research and workforce for a small price. We will still need to iron the details out - but soon, the Sol Alliance will offer a new mortuary service, which will serve a dual purpose. If it goes through, all Sol Alliance citizens or civilians under work visa will be allowed to volunteer to feed Venter's Satellite. If desired, your family can be compensated. And if all goes well - it will allow the Alliance to handle your funerals by preserving your body and allowing it to join something greater. Our new ally will thus learn about us - and provide us with any advances it find, while providing some of your coworkers. An official press conference will be held somewhere this month." Is this one of the best things to happen to humanity? Or is it the beginning of something truly horrifying? No one knows. Alfred Hemmer, Journalist, signing off.