Dreamix

join at round start see sensors, nothing nearby no engineers, or just one, or an engineer with an apprentice power and propulsion maybe set up at 00:30 or later finally start moving Situation above is far too common. The simple fix is to just spawn things near horizon... But then we are a ship, so it'd be preferable to just move where we want to, instead of making everything cool spawn near horizon, making it so there's no need to move it. Like I commonly see other ships and sites spawn on the overmap, but if Adhomai or whatever spawns near horizon, then there's no reason to visit anything else. I'd prefer if propulsion and power were set up at round start. I don't think engineers wanting their bit of gameplay (setting up) should be prioritized over anyone else (going places, expeditions, etc).

1. I observed all events, and did a bit of volunteering in the casino and finale. The events were alright, I guess, and so was the arc. The mapping was alright, the ghost roles were cool, and the lore was fine. I had fun observing, and volunteering. I think the event arc overall was planned well, but... 2. Communication between the events basically did not exist. The events as they are incentivize roughly the same command team for the whole arc. The command forum is lacking in any updates or information about what is going on. People complained about this in the previous arc, and the one before too. Like the ALA coming to Horizon to get supplies mini-event, after it ended it was not mentioned how it went in any forum thread (or I am blind). So if I wanted to play the finale, I'd have no idea IC or OOC what happened then, if the ALA did get any weapons, what supplies did they get, etc. I had to ask other players on the OOC discord channels. Same with the negotiations with the ALA in the casino event. Reports like Owen's from the North Pole Expedition expedition do help, of course, but I feel this should be done by staff, giving to command staff a proper report/briefing as compiled by the SCC people. 3a. Crew acting absolutely insane and in LRP manner, and going unpunished, is absolutely lame. People on the OOC discords before every event would meme about "event captain skeletons rising up from the graves", or "huboids coming in to ruin the event". But in reality, it was always experienced players with established characters messing things up. First archaeologist event, OM doing some target practice on NKA's farm animals. Event finale, HoS deconstructing tables and looting the inn, as well as other crew looting the whole village and stealing the horses because "the village looked empty". These are just two examples that are the most prominent, and I do not want to be seem to be targeting just these two characters and players. After the first NKA event, I went "this was fun to watch lol, but this should absolutely not repeat again". And then it did repeat again. Crew absolutely does not deserve any bonus pay for this. I do not like crew patting each other on their backs, cause the mission was a success, so it's all cool despite all the deaths and the chaos and mess we leave on Adhomai. 4b. As for any consequences, I don't even mean IRs. Crew fucking up so bad like this, it shouldn't even be a matter of making IRs. Crew fucking up the NKA noble's house and farm should worsen the relations of SCC with NKA, and Horizon crew should be blamed for it. Crew fucking up the inn should worsen the relations of SCC and DPRA, and Horizon crew should be blamed for it. Crew angering the local village and the ALA, etc. I would hate to see CCIAA go "well no one reported it so we can't do anything". SCC should absolutely not be proud of crew's behavior on Adhomai, and they should be vocal about it, not give any bonus pay for it, star investigations themselves, and give out appropriate punishments. SCC should also not be proud of losing so many crew on this. I do believe this mission should NOT be seen as a success in the eyes of SCC. Everyone jokes about it, myself included, but I really do not want it to be a trend that Horizon is fucking up every place we come to visit, leaving a trail of destruction behind us. Edit 3 minutes later: Of course, consequences could come later. If they do, I will be satisfied, and edit this post again.

I think it's fine in ops. The OM should have access to it, to store valuables there, but not the hangar techs. Left is the previous storage, right is the new vault. On the bottom is my proposal. I am really not a fan of the maintenance tunnel being made smaller and tighter. I'd prefer if the vault was moved east a bit, so the tunnel can stay as it was before.

I've put my thoughts regarding a vault, in the other thread.

I have no opinion on a vault myself. I do share the concerns below, but I don't really care all that much if it is added or not. I have seen on a few occasions other people say a vault is bad, and was not included in Horizon, because: It provides incentive for antags to just steal from it, instead of actually interacting with the crew. It makes for repetitive and/or low-effort gimmicks. Crew is "forced" to approach the antags. Stealing from the vault does not endanger or discomfort any crew. The average crew might not care about some company credits being stolen, as it's not the crew's personal cash, no one is getting hurt, operation of the ship is not really impacted by it, etc. Like how irl bank staff is advised to just give whatever to the robbers.

I can do nothing but support this app. Tsisana is awesome, and so is their player. Great roleplay and stuff. Can't wait to see Tsisana as RD, and the chaos that is going to ensue (chaos of the good kind).

I think it's very awesome now, and only getting better with each iteration. I love it. But I think we're at a point of only like, minor changes that could be left for later, and I think it should just be merged/test-merged some time soon, so it can be actually playtested and stuff.

Yeah, uh. The sprites are very nice. But imo the colors should be "inverted". As in currently planets and ships are dark, while hazards are bright and super visible and marked with the red and yellow exclamation mark. I'd prefer the opposite. Bright planets and ships, and dark hazards. (edit 1 hour later: I mean that as in, so places of interest stand out more, and are more visible than hazards)

I would like to suggest these minor changes. I do not like the huge 5 tile wide hallway, cause it's really just a waste of space. 3 tile wide hallway is more than enough. And I hate the plants in the middle of the hallway, personally. They're just weird. Why would anyone put plants in the middle of the hallway, which people use to go to places. Also the asymmetry. Ugh. Probably is not fixable though. I hope the 1 tile overhang stays. I like it, for EVA and stuff.

I think the newest iteration is very nice. The problems and issues mentioned, were addressed and fixed. I think this is a massive improvement overall, compared to current state. No more bar in the hallway. No more conversations bleeding between bar and kitchen. Basically the only complaints that I have (that aren't really major, or deal-breakers): - It is no more symmetrical (or close to it), with the stage and L couch room protruding to the front - Hydroponics is super cramped - The smaller bar front (the one with 4 stools) is super small and cramped, and kinda useless. I cannot imagine finding that enjoyable to use for the second bartender (as we have two bartender slots). - There is a huge 9x5 space in the hallway in front of the bar/kitchen. That space is just empty and has zero use.

Dunno, after some thinking and stuff, I'm actually against it. The current heads situation is nice, with all heads being equal under the captain. I like that XO can be as chill or as involved as you want, and I find that comfy. XO being 2IC would probably make XO as stressful and involved as Captain, if there is no Captain on shift.

At no point I have mentioned "realism", or any "philosophy", or "this is how it would really be". Only you did mention that now. And you also did so yesterday too, on the discord, about having SWAT instead of a crew armory, or bringing back ERT, saying that it'd make more sense ICly and OOCly and be more immersive than what we have now. So why are you saying that I want "realism"? The previous brig I believe was optimized around gameplay. The "crew getting unruly and needing a fine and/or a short break to calm down in the cells" are the most common situations that crew and players experience. The merc rounds are not even guaranteed to happen once per day. And even then, making it even easier to respond to threats with guns and armor, is not a positive thing. Antags having an easier way to escape is a noble goal, but most antags do not survive long enough to be put in the communal brig, and if they do, they are stripped of any equipment or gear, or the round is basically over anyway. Those that do not require HuT, can just wait a few minutes and get out. I had some ideas on how to rearrange the previous brig's armory, put it a bit up northward, add some maintenance there, to make escaping from the communal brig easier... but then this remap was merged, so there's little point in even making a mockup for that, is there? And speaking of merging. Why was this not test-merged? It was speed-merged after, what, five days, which is not nearly enough to get any actual feedback from players or devs. The PR was approved by two devs who mostly do spriting (good spriting, but still), and not by devs who do mapping. I'm not sure I have anything else to say, as we are going circular, so that's it I guess.

Why not? Because other things need to be closer to the entrance. Things that with your remap are further away. Unfortunately, we can't have everything be at the entrance, and something needs to be further away. The brig should be optimized around the canonically most common and everyday situations - crew getting unruly and needing a fine and/or a short break to calm down in the cells. Previous brig was optimized for exactly that, with the processing rooms and the prisoner cells being right at the entrance. We are not getting raided by mercenaries every day, to necessitate the officers being always on the ready and within arms reach of weapons. The new brig is optimized for this instead. Especially since security tends to crowd at the lobby or just outside, this will probably make for crazy fast response times, to arm up and go kill, which is not desirable. I do not care about how it was on Aurora. It's irrelevant. And even if it is relevant, looking at the mapping of Aurora, it certainly should not be taken as an example of great mapping, with its huuuuuge rooms and looooong hallways.

I made pics of Gem's changes, since the bot that makes pics of mapping changes is dead currently: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/15925#issuecomment-1452132140 ----- Personally, I still do not like it. My concerns from the first page are still there, and they cannot be just fixed by some reshuffling or expanding a room by a few tiles, without changing the layout completely again (or going back to previous brig layout, which I think was perfectly fine). The warden's office is super tiny and might as well not exist. Before, it was near the entrance, overlooking everything that is going on, seeing people come in and out the lobby, in the perfect spot to be the master of the brig, even being able to see into both processing rooms. The locker room has no reason to be this close to the entrance, being used only at round start or by late-joining sec officers. It's also still smaller than it were before. The processing rooms now are tiny, and further away from the entrance. They are the most used rooms in the brig I would imagine, so they should be near the entrance, and not far away and around the corner. Before, they were close to the entrance, had a waiting area outside, and the warden could look into both of the processing rooms from the warden's office. The cells themselves are now tinier and more awkward. I'm sure most prisoners do not even get to see the communal brig, and that's where they spend their time. I would expect prisoners to get even less engagement than before, both in the communal brig and in cells. Before, prisoners were out near the entrance, and could see officers passing by to the equipment room or the armory. Now a prisoner or the warden could go SSD, and no one would notice cause it's out of the way, as there's no reason to go there (except to check up on the prisoner/warden). The armory has no reason to be this close to the entrance, as it takes up so much space in the core area of the brig, that could be better used. This really should have been a test merge.

Dunno. At first I thought it'd be alright, but after some more thinking, yeah. Power going out - no ammo. Also crowding. Also ammo/gear being in just one (or two) vendors makes it a ton easier to just steal it all, I guess. And, like, dunno, I think I like the aesthetics of lockers and racks more. You can see how filled they are from across the room (if they're open), etc. I associate vending machines more with the, uh, snacks and soda cans and etc, than ammunition.

Uhhhhhh, I meant, move XO to Command Support. Corrected. As in so XO is not in service, cause that's kinda weird for a lot of reasons. Service does not really need much managing, and in my experience, XO is more about doing general command stuff. Managing BCs and the ship/guns, helping other heads with whatever they need, and potentially taking place of heads that are absent/dead.

I think it's fine as it is currently. BCs are not ops nor service - they are supposed to serve all heads, and pilot the ship and do guns. Liaisons and consuls feel weird as service too. If anything, I'd move XO to service command support too.

Is security meant to respond quickly? It makes sense that they are meant to, of course, but it also makes antagging harder if the security officers sitting in the lobby are just 5 tiles away from the blood-boiling laser rifles. The brig (and probably anything else too) should be optimized for the common everyday situations. Your remap moves the armory closer to the entrance so getting weapons is quicker, for the non-canon merc rounds when they go shooty, while making the actually common tasks harder and require more walking around, like processing and detaining prisoners. And, honestly, I do not care about the layout on the Aurora. It's been months since then, and it's Horizon now. I think our current layout is better than whatever was back on Aurora, and our current brig has had many QoL small remaps and fixes since the launch of Horizon. The warden is in charge of the brig, prisoners, processing, etc. The warden needs to be by the entrance and close to the center, so they can see what is going on, and keep track of who's in the brig, how many prisoners are there, are they being processed, etc. The current layout is perfect for that. The warden does not run the department, but they run the brig. And even then, wardens often take the leadership role in security, whenever there is no HoS. Putting the warden's office at the end of the brig, as Ping said, will kill any interactivity with anyone the role had beforehand. And it'd be hard to be useful from inside of the warden's office, since you can't see anything outside of it, and there's not going to be much traffic there. If a warden were to go SSD in their office during a slow round, they might not even be noticed, as a sec officer has no business walking there (other than to check up on the SSD warden). I meant specifically the useless tunnel that connects one security hallway to the other, and is not connected to the main maintenance tunnel network. If an antagonist is using that tunnel, that means they've already broken into the the brig from the proper maintenance tunnels, leaving a broken door or whatever. Would be better if that tunnel was connected to the tunnel with the ladder above the garden.

Personally I really do not like this, and I think it's a downgrade to current layout. The armory and locker room for officers have no need to be this close to the entrance and right in the heart and center of the brig. They do not get the traffic to warrant it, and can both be just fine at the end of the brig, like they are currently. The warden's office and the processing rooms, on the other hand, should be both close to the entrance and be right in center of the brig. Like currently, the warden's office is the heart of the brig and overlooks the entrance and anyone that comes in and out of the brig, can see into both prisoner processing rooms, wave hello to the HoS. So currently it is in the perfect spot to know what is going on in the brig - I think this is very important, as the brig is the warden's whole job and responsibility. But this remap instead puts the warden's office at the end of the brig, isolated from everyone else, in a place that is going to get very little traffic, if any at all. Losing all of the advantages of the current location that I mention above. Also the useless maintenance tunnel is... useless, serves no function, and is not even connected to the main maintenance tunnels network.

Well, that's interesting, I guess. Thanks for the answer. So panic bunkering does not really help here. If all these players did not just come straight from the hub, then chances are, playtime requirements would not work either.

I do not like panic bunkers, or playtime requirements, or similar restrictions, cause they are elitist and gatekeepy, yeah. The last event was fun to watch and brought us some memes, but it was absolutely not representative of the general server atmosphere, and I do not think we'd want a repeat of that, ever again. I'd rather lose the few players coming from the hub, than have another event go all messy and chaotic again. Did we go off the hub in saturday's event?

Problem #1: Everyone being off-duty. Especially the lack of designated command, means that everyone is going to just go off and do their things, without any real direction or structure. You can say it's a "skill issue", and people should just self-organize, naturally follow people who have experience, take leadership, etc. But when in every normal round we have an actual command structure, so I can only expect things to go chaotic and messy in a round without such structure. At the same time, I do not like the idea that off-duty chars should lead others. There shouldn't be an expectation that off-duty people should listen to orders of other off-duty people. Or like previous event, everyone was off-duty, but yet command was called in to negotiate and make decisions. I was also told non-command chars were present in that meeting, which is bizarre to me. Problem #2: Event maps with suboptimal design. Okay, like, this sounds like jab at the mappers, but, like, it's the reality, I guess. Mapping is hard and takes a lot of time. And it's hard to justify spending a ton of that time, on a map that will be played in just one round, and then most likely never ever again. This means that an event map will just never have the same quality as Horizon - which is a great and highly detailed map, and is constantly being improved upon! It might mean that sometimes some areas might by suboptimal (like a medbay with not enough meds), or mean that there might be long hallways or huge rooms that are empty and undetailed. Or some characters might have nothing to do, like if the event is geared for combat, actually sane characters who care about their life and safety, might have nothing to do but sit and chair-RP. Solution #1: Keep Horizon and job slots as normal. Add a shuttle, or two, or use the teleporter, to allow free and easy and fast travel between Horizon and the event map. Maybe make it so Horizon is unsimulated, so it's less laggy. Also do not spawn any away sites, block overmap travel, etc. Maybe also some other optimizations. This has the very nice quality to it, in that characters who have no business interacting with the event, can just stay on Horizon and do things as normal. Also this means that crew has full capability, has something they are very familiar with, and is less inconvenienced by suboptimal event map design. If things go bad on the event map, crew could medevac up to horizon with a critical patient, or go up to change gear, regroup, rethink the situation, etc. Solution #2: Or if we don't want Horizon for events, make it so there are only command slots, but everyone else is off-duty. So that we have the Captain and the heads to lead the crew, make decisions, negotiate with the event chars, etc. But everyone else is off-duty, so everyone can play their beloved character without restrictions. Command chars could go off-duty as well, if they fail their roll, ofc. Could also do a combination of these two solutions. Disclaimer: Of course, the above problems and solutions do not apply to chill events, like the Idris Cruise ship event.

Offworlders aren't another species. Muscle atrophy is not genetic. They aren't "new", and have existed since the first day of space exploration, and there is no reason why they wouldn't be hireable by megacorps. They can have the same skills and knowledge as "normal" humans, if not better, since they live on ships and stuff. An off-worlder ship captain with real life experience of long-term living on, and managing a spaceship with its crew and equipment, should be very desirable. HoS restriction makes sense. Captain restriction does really not.

I would be very curious to see how 2IC XO could go. I think it would be worth to at least try it for a month, two, or three. Even if just so we can say afterwards either "oh, it's actually a bad idea" or "actually it's nice and it should stay". Or even "actually it's nice, but does not really fit our atmosphere" How should it work? It should be 2IC plain and simple. Not second-in-succession, but actually second-in-command. That means Captain-level authority if the Captain is dead or absent. If there is a Captain, 2IC should not be making Captain-level decisions unless they align with the actual Captain's wishes. What should be 2IC XO's normal duties? Outside of emergencies, XO's duties should be the same as currently. XO should be managing helm matters, helping other heads with whatever they might need, handling access and accounts, etc. How would it change during emergencies? XO would be above other heads, with Captain-level authority. So if the Captain dies or is absent, XO would be able to give orders to other heads. The difference from current state, is that currently an acting Captain might need to be elected, which may sometimes take a short while to figure out who should take it, or potentially even might not happen at all if heads disagree (but I've not seen that happen, personally). What to do about species restrictions? Well, that's a tough one potentially. I think they should not change for XO. During normal operation, 2IC XO would not be above the Captain, so it's all good there. During emergencies, any head can take acting captainship, so clearly SCC is okay with non-human non-skrell heads to be taking command - just not permanently and in standard operation. There could be soft rules/guidelines that XOs must be somewhat loyal to SCC, and cannot be some random low-paid low-skill alien hired from mendell city slums, or something like that. Concerns about overstepping and etc? Same as the Captain, XOs should not be micro-managing departments, should not be going over heads to order their staff, and should not be butting into departments unless there is an actual reason to. Both during emergencies, and during standard operation. I think the concerns about XOs stepping over other heads are overblown - they'd have to follow same rules as the Captain.

I do not think any of these fit well, except for "Senior Officer" (which I have myself proposed... but it's also very non-specific and generic). For me, finances, paperwork, and personnel management, are like the tiniest part of XO's job, and one that does not even pop up in most rounds in my experience. These names are far too specific, and it'd be like calling the CMO a "Chief of Chemistry Lab", or HoS a "Head of Investigation". For me, the XO's main job is handling bridge/helm matters, managing BCs, assisting other heads, giving emergency access and appointing interims, helping with communication between security and command, and being the Captain's right hand. And like, isn't the above what XO's do on real life ships (and on bay)? Except just that our XO is not actually a second-in-command. Also, uh. I really like the name of "Executive Officer". It sounds nice. I'd keep it for that reason. ................................... I have only just remembered. Our BCs are called BCs. So just rename the XO to a BO. A Bridge Officer, who leads the Bridge Crew.