Killerhurtz

@Carver: I agree with A. However I think we can both agree that if an antag was a complete shitler, people would generally agree - and that's why negative weighing would work, I think. With B? You underestimate just how many people would need to be on board for that to be a problem. @Frances It's not submitting then to the constant pressure of voting. It's submitting antags to the pressure of knowing that if they decide to just powergame their way to victory, they're going to get shot down and not have antags as often anymore - and to me, that's a good thing. Admins running event I won't say much - for many reasons, but w/e And as far as innovation goes - not really. The goal is not to streamline antags - it's to avoid shit sucking 20 minutes into the game. If anything, it would help innovation by forcing players to find ways to RP said antags instead of just bullrushing. And yes, admins CAN do that - but generally speaking, it can be a very lengthy process that doesn't always work - and is also a source of workload on the mods and admins that I believe shouldn't be there. The antag-downvoting would serve the purpose of eventually reducing the mod load of that aspect.

I'm ambivalent on this because it would also make a LOT of things more difficult for certain antags (and these changes would also make RCDs definitely overpowered), but on the flipside it makes sense realism-wise.

I like the ideas so far. It would definitely add a layer to it. Or hell, Fractal - didn't you want to do away with the concept of a posibrain being the only source of computing power in androids? We could probably add a "Microprocessor Card" to the Robotics fabricator, and say that the Positronic Core is just a special processor with remote access. We can use that two-ways, from there on: One, the board behaves halfway between a posibrain and a pAI - you plug it into either the Research computer or a specific console, which brings up an interface that allows the roboticist to start a query on it - which brings up a prompt to either any player who has the job 'android' at at least low (like how the game doesn't sort you into a Head role you're not 'volunteering' for) or has another toggle on. The toggle explicitly says that it's a processing board for a cyborg (and make sure that the board can't be inserted in a robot body that doesn't have a law board), and then the roboticist gets to pick an android kernel to download - after that, the microprocessor card behaves exactly like a brain. Pretty much literally beaming down an OS into a processing card. Two, the microprocessor board allows 'activating' a blank Android with no kernel. From there, the roboticist pushes the android into a 'Download Station' machine that does a similar thing, sending a prompt to all people with the toggle on - that allows downloading them directly into the android body instead of a card. Personally, I'd rather have the second option (mainly because it allows construction of blank androids to perform tests on) - but IMO either could work, especially if we also add a "Heavy microprocessor card" specifically for AI players to choose from. Thoughts?

Susan, everything is NOT fine. Because let's be honest - antags are supposed to make the round more fun. As soon as antags are captured, it means that the gametype is going to be pretty much extended. With alternate sentences, it allows people to interact further with the antag - maybe even allow them to make a come back to make the round interesting again. I don't care that you're fine with the round being post-antag extended - I usually am too. But I see beyond my self-interest - that if roundtypes are voted, people are interested in it. Hell, if the situation gets better, I may even be interested in antags again. But shunning antags more and more is NOT going to help the Aurora grow. Delta, yes the current situation is fucked. Instead of complaining that it's never going to work, try to contribute - because if we make the suggestions here lore, we CAN actually enforce it IC because if security applies none of the final measures decided upon, they're acting against Central interest - and thus can face consequences. Sure, we could all stop breaking the law and just mechanically do the same task over and over. But let's admit it - if we did that, security would have no purpose, we could make away with it. Little crimes in extended, and major crimes as an antag, is the very reason Security exist, and they can most definitely create interesting situations if people don't see it as "this guy made IC illegal actions, let's punish the player by isolating them from everything" but rather as "this guy made IC illegal actions to try and start a situation, let's use this to our advantage to make things interesting" and let the mods and admins sort out who's a shitler and who was legit trying to roleplay something DIFFERENT than the model citizen for once. Seriously. Doing nothing will result in nothing. Worse, doing nothing STOPS nothing, which means that the situation can get a lot worse. Putting ideas out will at least get things moving. And if it doesn't work? We know it doesn't work, and we get on thinking of other solutions.

Brage, that's the thing though. While I agree about whitelisted players being capable of voting, I would disagree about admins - because when there's no moderation on, these are the times that would suffer most (though with this new wave of mods that are going to be picked, it might be less of an issue. Though I strictly disagree with a 'positive' weighing because with rewarding 'good' antags, we lump the new antags with the neutrally-good antag with the bad. Which means that while the server, at average, DOES see better antags - it means that they will always be the same people playing antags, and new players will have to wait a LOT longer to get antag role (which, if I were a new player, I would find extremely frustrating - I already almost never get antag, if I was weighed less than other players...) By weighing negatively, we only cull the continually bad. My point is, whatever system we need to adopt - it shouldn't put new players at a disadvantage.

@Frances I mean just that. Because someone brought it to the table, these communities completely dissolved because of the sheer difference of opinions and the ensuing shitstorm that happened on a subject that seemed irrelevant a few days before that. Gone forever. And so far I haven't seen it - and with the whole Tajara episode, I don't want to risk actual racism being an issue. (I'm not talking about cultural appropriation - these people I ignore because it breeds segregation. I'm talking about bona-fide shitshows happening because someone got pissed at someone else for portraying an ethnicity wrong.) But that might be just me.

Sorry Frances. It's just I've TWICE seen communities get entirely destroyed from within with a comment like that, and I don't want this happening again with Aurora - it's a reflex. Hell I might even delete that post. I don't know.

Here's my two cents: First, for me, it's not a question of attractiveness or even relation to characters. It's a sheer manner of cultural appropriateness. I can do as much research as I want, I don't travel - I don't KNOW who the other ethnicities are. I don't know how the Indians, Africans, Middle-Eastern or even Black Americans truly behave, all I know is a bastardized flanderization of them. I do, however, know whites and east asians because in most of North America, they are very prevalent and most people seem to think, at least, they know them well. But I feel that if I tried, I'd at best do a disservice to the ethnicity and at worst seem blatantly racist and possibly line myself up for a ban because of cultural inappropriateness. Second, for the species: it expands on that. Because there isn't *cough* any real Tajara, Unathi, Skrell, Diona or IPC, if I fuck up - it's not inappropriate, it's just an error. It can be corrected, and no one but people who want to be will be truly offended. Let's put it this way: by some random blind luck, two highly influential politicians play SS13 on TV. One plays an Indian person, the other an Unathi. Both radically fuck up their characters. Which one is going to lose his career? Third: Honestly, why the fuck do we care? As Frances said, human culturalism is most likely to be unrecognizable in 442 years. You see a lack of cultural diversity. I see people playing as spessmen. Why did you think it was even a relevant point to make? We're not here to make a life-accurate simulation. We're here to have fun. And as it happens, there's too many risks involved with said diversity. Fourth: Honestly? There's very little that gets my blood boiling more than making a rant on which the only solution is implementing X for the sake of X. Let's ask you a question: Have YOU played a human of any other ethnicity than some caucasian, east-asian OR your ethnicity? Yes, I'm defensive. Yes I'm slightly agitated. But it's because I've been burnt before, and there's only a few ways this can go, and none of them is well. --I tried posting this before Nikov posted, but pretty much what he said--

Under certain circumstances (like trying to add a third item), labcoats devour items.

Robotics storage is a good idea. But yeah - while both AIs and borgs can be made from new posibrains, which voids this whole thing since Research can get the research to manufacture them, I like the idea of a robotics storage. If a borg needs to go off, they go into robotics storage - HOWEVER we could probably put something in where it de-links the ckey of the previous players, and holds the body for about 45 minutes (before deconstruction). Within that 45 minutes, there could be an observer/lobby verb to check for bodies. If there is, said player can re-activate borg, give it a new name and assignment (pretty much respawns the borg) and play like that. The main issue there is, as far as I can tell, with making borgs generally spawnable mid-round is twofold: first, on round-start, there's a 'role' limit of 2 cyborgs (more can't spawn). Just like other roles, IC actions can instate more borgs - but allowing that would, most likely, go against the role limit. Second, while I cherish and giggle at the idea, I don't think many players would enjoy a round where 90% of the players are cyborgs normally.

MESSA HELP US ALL +1. I don't know how to put this without sounding like an asslicker, but I tend to forget that Sierra isn't staff yet despite their large contributions. I feel they're definitely one of the (many) pillars of the community, and having them be a forum moderator would do a lot of good.

+1. You're not jumping the gun if the gun is shiny and chrome. Though while this application is REALLY REALLY GOOD, there's a little thing you should know: it IS an universal head whitelist. You don't need to reapply - as long as your characters are good, you can have as many Heads in whatever position you want.

Jesus christ Susan what fly bit you? But yeah, what Zundy said. It's not low-RP notion. It's notions to make brigging not a fucking boredom sentence. Sure, you can put more things to do in the communal brig - but there's only so much you can do after a while. And it still doesn't help the permabrigged people. Instead of going 'it's monumentally stupid' how about you actually suggest things to implement instead of the given suggestions? Seriously.

Posting to say I updated page with suggested changes. Notable changelist: -Switched the History format from being split across all categories to be it's own category at the bottom, ordered -Included a segment on Skrell AI history for context -Removed all instances of 'posibrain' as a thing - it's now a Hephaestus Industries brand of processors (just like Pentium/i5/i7 for Intel) AND a domestic name (like how it's never 'acetylsaliciclyc acid' but always aspirin; it's never a vacuum flask, it's always a thermos, it's never glass wool it's always fiberglass. They're all frisbees regardless of brand. And most people will look at you wierd for calling a JumboTron a really big TV/screen.) -Added clarifications of robots VS cyborgs (robots=non-Turing complete androids OR brains grown/adapted to an interface, cyborgs=an interface built for a fully-developed brain without alteration to the brain) Thoughts?

+1. I appreciate Owened's presence on the server, and I like his motives for applying. Anyhow - regardless, Owened - I'll hit you up if I see you on the server, I can teach you that science and engineering you're missing.

Though there's one thing we should avoid. Yes they're energy sword, but let's not make them lightsabers (even though they got the sounds of them). Hell, if we want to have both burn and brute, we can make it superheated quadranium (or whatever other material we want it to be - but basically, a material with a really fucking high melting point to the point where it's possible to make it so hot it glows blue, with a magnetic field stabilizing and containing the air to avoid just burning an atmosphere)

(yes it was me all along >) More to come eventually.

Okay I actually laughed at 'Tarjar'. One of my characters is TOTALLY going to pick up on that. Otherwise - I don't entirely know you, but your application is almost-but-not-quite: 'Being good at it' is entirely subjective, and so is not really a reference, but that might just be me. The 'what makes it different' part is a little lackluster. I'm not sure the name fits well for a Tajara aboard the Aurora. Are you sure you've read the lore? Backstory is short and bland, it would be great if you could expand upon it. 'Being mysterious' isn't going to cut it. It's a term that's too vague and that allows for too much leeway. Fix all of this and I'll +1 just because 'tarjar'. In case you weren't joking, the proper name is Tajara. Same name for one or multiple individuals, and it's the name of the species.

Short and to the point, and Akino was quite fun. I like it. +1

Personally, I'd rather have it a contained boson/gluon/quark field. What does this mean? It's high energy, so it's still hot. But the fact that it's made out of photons/bosons/gluons/neutrinos/what-have-you means it still has matter-like property, and so we can say it behaves like a subatomic chainsaw. Thoughts?

IIRC mrimatool.

How much of the community changed since last year? We don't even use the same forums anymore. I'd say we should consider a re-vote.

I have six major problems with this. 1) it implies that it's an energy shield, and Security, by default, can't obtain energy shields any way but by asking the RD to research a branch denoted 'illegal'. 2) I'm seeing a pattern where 'battery power' is considered as the universal solution to everything that shouldn't last. Ignoring the last point, I'd much rather have a shield that needs to be wrenched into a wire, like an emitter (and so it could hold forever when wrenched down, and charge) than something you'd just change the power cell. 3) It transforms the item from "emergency item needed right here right now, and order three in case even though they're expensive" to "Hey, it's shift start. Let's order that shield tech thing and put it in the armory in case there's some bad guys coming in, and don't forget to stockpile power cells". 4)Hotswapping. You KNOW that there's people who are going to specialize in hotswapping - AKA the art of switching a battery so fast the shield doesn't even have time to go down. 5) Lack of urgency, and too general purpose. Say that security needs urgently to breach a room, but there's significant firepower or even an emitter on the other side. With energy? If they fail, they just pop a power cell back in and try again until the antags run out of firepower. Being made of actual, crumbling matter stifles that. 6)Power cell issues. Unless we make it a proprietary cell that can only be charged in Security weapons charger, we run into two major problems that are inversely proportional: charge versus power cell level. Give it a basic power cell, and science can upgrade it into an everlasting monster with a super-capacity (easily available, 4x the charge) or hyper-capacity (still easy to get but needs mining, 5x the charge). On the flipside, the higher you go in the base cell hierarchy (higher drain rate but higher capacity), you run into the problem where either Research gets absolutely free research out of them, or it becomes a problem to order them because of a prohibitive cost. That's JUST for the power cell issue. MOVING ON: Getting pushed like you push crates defeat the purpose because two reasons: one, it removes the 'directionality' of it (which means it would just be a movable wall - in theory, it would block only from one direction - so if you hit it head on, it blocks - but if you gank from the sides, even if the shield is in the way, it's going through). Two, a lot of scenarios involving pushing it like a normal unanchored object means that you'd need to get in the line of fire, which is completely counterproductive. THEN there's the no slowdown issue. It's an issue for two reasons, as well: one, RP-wise, people can't push a massive slab of steel/machinery that fast and two, it just invites abuse by making storming WAY too easy. Can be locked down - that might not be necessary but it's an idea. Though not used as a barrier - like a flipped table (you CAN hop flipped tables right?) Available for security at cargo, yes that's part of he point. ERT being able to carry one or two from Central is also a brilliant idea. But nukeops? HELL NO. They've already got so much stacked for them, if they want one they'll need to steal one from Security/Cargo/ERT. I mean - they already can come in with heavy armor and good weapons, and NOW you want to give them temporary invincibility? Coupled with the idea of making it a power cell, it just invites antag abuse by making an impenetrable, constantly moving bastion of doom. Doesn't help that IIRC they can get energy shields too.

Rolling assault shields. Like the French used to breach to the hostages. Orderable from cargo only (not available at round start), it would behave like a cross between a wheelchair and a flipped table - someone could direct it from behind (though they would be massively slowed), and it would block incoming shots and items from the front while allowing them from the back. Of course, since it's still a slab of metal, it has limited blocking potential - and so once it's health is depleted, the blocking effect stops entirely. Thoughts? (Also I know this might be slightly insensitive, but eh. I think it's a neat idea anyway.)

Forced test subjects: I don't ENTIRELY see how it's unethical. And I watched my wording, this time - offers themselves. It's not a forced sentence - it's one of the volunteer ones. And it's also specifically non-lethal AND non-permanent - so in the moment it might be painful, but they will leave like they came in at least physically. For suicide? I agree. That's EXACTLY why I made this. It gives them something to do, to think about, in one of the safer spaces of the station... instead of the recommended possible brig and demotion. It's more of a 'time-out, calm down' type of ordeal. Voluntary borging is SPECIFICALLY in synthetic history. They GOT the whole idea, and tech, from volunteers. It makes sense, to me, that even though the technology is pretty advanced, that people with a proper psychological assessment, could decide to become cyborgs. (Though I did touch it in my Lawed Synthetic page that I posted in Lore Canonification - that most people would instead go for IPC platforms)