Sycmos

Though my experience with Lain is not as thorough as it might be with others commenting here I feel that they have the necessary attitude and skills to be an efficient and helpful moderator. My general experience with Lain, both as a player and from a staff perspective, has been universally pleasant and they display a level of composure and understanding of our setting and the community that is deserving of their position as maintainer, and would be more than worthy of a moderator position. +1

I suppose then it's a matter of perspective. I do not see the videogameness of SS13 to be anything other than a crutch to support engagement, or at worst an obstacle to roleplay, but ultimately it's a foundational aspect to what everything we have and there's no moving away from how mechanics deeply influence the way we interact as our characters. It's unfortunate because I feel that we could have more space for compelling storytelling if we did not rely on these things, but I come from a background of predominantly text-based RP and have never felt totally comfortable with how much I've had to make room for mechanical obligations. Minimizing the upkeep to make space for more growth is a start at least, and RCON presets along with other changes will hopefully allow for more headspace for better things.

The bulk of Engineering busywork is soft required because without it being done the ship does not function as effectively or safely as it should, and becomes noticeable to everyone else. Engineers should not and do not have to set thrusters because that's technically an Atmos job, but they do it out of soft obligation because Atmos Techs are sparse and they're required to move the ship. Setting RCON is a soft obligation because the default settings are incredibly underwhelming when it comes to power demand, and leads to potential injury like Ramke stated. Random events like vending machines and fungi are not necessarily required work, but ignoring them entirely looks bad on Engineering to other departments who often suffer from these issues. All of these things are expected by other players of Engineering whether or not we think there's any obligations to tackle them. RCON presets among other needed changes serve to minimize that work so engineers can focus on the primary intent of the server - roleplaying. Mechanical play should not be informing RP opportunities, but as it stands there's enough busywork in Engineering that most Engineers have to work RP around their mechanical obligations, and that's not how things should be functioning for a "heavy roleplay" server.

I see no reason for not having a preset RCON configuration. Having a preset preserves the integrity of the power grid, and saves engineers time meticulously tapping in each input. Engineering already has enough tedium busywork involved, we should be aiming to limit this to better afford engineers time to actually roleplay on a roleplaying server.

Hi, thank you for the questions! Stationbounds are in an odd place in our community where they are constantly scrutinized for being do-it-all machines that provide little to no role-playing potential while also being constrained to very simple tenets that do not allow for creativity - they can neither be strictly utilitarian machines, nor are they treated as entities worth engaging in roleplay. I believe that stationbounds should be given a look in regards to their functionality and roleplay value in our setting and be given more leeway in characterization in exchange for utility. Aurora's community considers itself a "high roleplay" community, and as such I feel that having mechanical obligations that curtail roleplay are harmful to that vision and should be revisited. Players should not be making the choice between fulfilling mechanical functions and participating in roleplay and engaging characters. Mechanics should always include roleplay, and roleplay should inform mechanical play. Mechanics should never restrict or prohibit roleplay in any case. My feelings are the same regarding AI. I have had the pleasure of experiencing several AI with nuanced, rich personalities that still served their primary functions (Charles Pierce-Rousseau comes to mind) and I feel that stationbound entities such as this should be the standard and not the exception. We can derive more from our experiences as long as we are willing to allow breathing room where we leave trust in our whitelisted players. For this reason I do believe that whitelists should be required for cyborgs as well.

Thank you for the questions, Stryker. While I find that the Trinary wiki pages have plenty in terms of content for elaborating on the theology, doctrine and general politics of the religion it has little in regards to how Trinarist communities function in places where they are considered fringe or potentially unwanted groups, or may be recognized at the state level such as the Biesel sect. How do they organize at the community level? How do they arrange to take care of their places of worship and their community members if they are not sponsored or funded by a state polity, or if they are? What does your average Trinarist community look like, do they have their own music and art movements? Are there unique flavors of said movements depending on where the Trinarist sect is located, and if it's led by humans or synthetics? The cultural, organic parts that surround religious communities are something that interest me and I feel that attention to these details is important for not just the Trinary, but for all lore in general. I feel that emphasis on the Golden Deep as a synthetic faction often draws too much on the power players and figures who wear the gold instead of those who may work behind the scenes to bring said gold to the stage. Playing wealthy, property-owning Golden Deep members is fine and can be executed with nuance, but I believe that more can be drawn out from the bulk of gentry and laborers that surround this class of synthetic high rollers and show how even synthetics are not free from the pitfalls of being a free-thinking, sentient beings - contrary to what the Trinary may espouse. Brokers, ship technicians, financiers, infrastructure engineers, people who all perform duties that are essential to the gilded image of the Midas Group and Golden Deep but are rendered invisible by design. It's in the cracks of the veneer of this extravagant image that I feel personable, real characters can be made and I'd like to expand on what makes the Deep Golden.

Thank you for the questions, Cael! 1. Having already discussed the matter with our current CCIA Leader, Bear, we both understand that my energy will be split between the two and that I may choose to retire from CCIA should it be necessary to give lore more of my attention. CCIA has been a good experience for me and given me the know-how required to navigate the community more effectively, and I feel that another community member should be given the opportunity to fill that role and gain that experience in my place. Should I not take the synth deputy position however I will remain with CCIA and continue my duties as usual until I feel comfortable relinquishing the position for new blood. 2. Part of being on a team and participating in a collaborative effort means making compromises. Compromise means working on projects and discussing things that I may not be personally interested in, or having to revise projects that I am invested in so that they might fit the bigger picture. While I may have something of a say in how things may play out as a lore deputy it's ultimately my responsibility to uphold the vision of the lore team as my duties require, and not just when I'm personally invested. We are all here to see this narrative play out to the best of our abilities and it's important to remember that we all have different ideas of how things should go and how we expect them to, and collaboration means working together to make all of the tiny moving parts of our imagination fit together.

Thank you! Participating in the community as a player utilizing the lore is wholly different from participating in the community as a member of the team that writes said lore. The lore team is solely responsible for the direction of the narrative of our setting, upholding or modifying the tone of it, and potentially making changes that could alter the direction of our server's setting for months to years to come. Being mindful about checking my feelings at the door and focusing on the work of making sure that our setting functions as the team intends it is more important than being seen as right or getting the last word, and I would not see it any differently than how I do my position in CCIA or how I've conducted myself in any of my previous workplaces in real life. There's an objective and that objective needs to be met whether or not my feelings are in the way or not. Our staff team is made up of a myriad of different people from different backgrounds with different beliefs and lives that informed the way they think, and it's the absolutely cheapest courtesy to behave cordially if we share a mutual goal. If I didn't think that I could feasibly settle issues with other lore team members in an amicable and swift manner I would not have applied at all.

1. Though not using the term 'bioshell' the concept has been explored through a myriad of lenses in media for decades (I Robot, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/Blade Runner, Tower of Glass, Alien, etc.) and have served as something of a foundational aspect for how we address free will and sentience in artificial beings in the media that followed it (Mass Effect, Detroit: Become Human, Signalis, etc.) and in everyday discussion surrounding the growth of artificial intelligence and robotics. While I feel that bioshells have a place in our setting as the next step beyond in the development of the IPC I think that their implementation would require extreme caution by the responsible lore team and the utmost scrutiny of synthetic whitelistees - bringing the concept of a synthetic closer to being human while not fully answering the question as to whether or not they deserve the privileges and rights of being considered such brings its own unique obstacles to roleplay and character development that I feel requires much more critical thinking. As far as Signalis goes - I'll wait to cash my opinion in until I'm finished with it! 2. I feel that how we address stationbounds and simple intelligence in our setting could use some work, as I feel that our implementation of cyborgs leaves a lot to be desired from a narrative standpoint. I would feel more than comfortable working on it however, as I think that it's arguably the weakest part of how synthetic intelligence is approached in our setting and should be given a closer look. Whether or not this is a synthetic lore responsibility I am unsure, but it's definitely something that I've thought about and should be addressed. 3. Personally I feel that cyborgification is incredibly out of place in terms of tone in our setting and should either be vastly readjusted or removed entirely. I do not feel that it adds any significant weight to the corporate presence of our ongoing narrative besides making megacorporations who practice it look cartoonishly evil by having a fleet of forcibly enslaved consciousnesses doing menial labor. It feels more suitable for Warhammer 40K than it does the setting and atmosphere of our setting. While I am unsure whether or not synthetic lore has responsibility over cyborgification as an aspect of how synthetics are portrayed in lore I would like to see it changed someday to be a little less overt and perhaps reworked entirely, if not removed. 4. I feel that there are some cultural and political obstacles between certain species and factions that need to be addressed before cross-species lore can be discussed with them, most notably Unathi and Skrell. I feel that Vaurca and Diona are the two species most likely to enjoy cross-species integration with synthetic lore, but the groundwork for that would need to be worked on and discussed between the relevant lore teams first. I feel that one of the strengths of synthetic lore in our setting is its scalability - you can scale the breadth of synthetic intelligence up or down for whatever you need it for, whether it's for menial maintenance drones or a system-spanning security intelligence like BUBBLE. In the end it is still synthetic in nature and can be molded however the team feels would fit a certain system, planet or faction the best.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Sycmos, Discord @ Syc#3133 Position Being Applied For: Deputy Lore Developer Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: I have, several times. Past Experiences/Knowledge: I have been playing on Aurora on and off since 2014, but have been consistently active in the community since early 2020. I have been a CCIA agent for the last two years as of a couple of weeks ago, and have volunteered for a number of canon events as event characters for several species. Outside of Aurora I have 15+ years of experience with roleplaying communities on various platforms/forums (RuneScape, Achaea, WoW, GaiaOnline, SWTOR, NWN, etc.). Examples of Past Work: I have a currently outstanding canon lore application that extensively details a region of a human lore planet, Moroz. You can read the application via the link below: I've also contributed here and there to small lore bits after being asked for counsel by Caelphon and other lore team members, and provided a canonical flag for the Red Coalition following its approval by human lore. --- 1. What aspect of synthetic lore are you most interested in and would like to work on? As a whole I feel that synthetic lore fills a unique niche in our setting that provides a wealth of opportunities to expand upon, so I'm not particularly interested in one specific aspect, place or culture. If I had to pick one that I am particularly interested in expanding or detailing it would likely be the Trinary Perfection, and giving players more to work with in terms of how to show their faith, how said faith ties into the culture of those places who have large populations of Trinarists, and the problems that come with being part of a relatively new religion in a space-faring society. I also think that there could be more content surrounding those synthetic communities that live on the fringe of galactic society (Scrappers, Trinary Exclusionists, etc.), and how they survive without having benefactors in corporations or private owners. I feel that it's important to draw attention to these aspects as we can directly contrast how a majority of IPCs on the Horizon live by comparison, and perhaps inspire more ideas as to how those employed by the SCC may be viewed by those less fortunate (or even willfully outcast) synthetics that live in these spaces. 2. Do you work well in a team environment? I have direct experience with working under the current Synth Lore Writer, Lancer, during their tenure as CCIA Leader and have worked under him and with the CCIA team for the last two years. CCIA is a constantly-evolving machine that adapts to new in-character problems as they appear, pushing its team to constantly discuss and debate the best courses of action among themselves. I feel that my experience with Lancer and with CCIA has put me in a unique position to achieve greater cohesion with the lore team than I would otherwise have if I did not have this experience. 3. How active do you think you will be when it comes to writing lore? I am more or less writing things constantly - I have been dabbling in creative writing for more than half of my years on this Earth, and spend at least an hour writing daily. Besides writing for characters and lore applications on Aurora I have been quietly working on a novella for the past couple of months as an independent outlet for my imagination. Writing is thankfully something that comes to me incredibly easily when I am able to focus, and I do not feel that I will have any issue churning out lore when asked and given a prompt. 4. Present a written work about anything related to synthetic lore so we can see your writing style, around 300 words minimum. (Presented here is a brief addition to the Anchorage section of the Pactolus/Midaion wiki page, written ad hoc for this application.) "Beneath the Anchorage's elaborate exterior lies what is colloquially called the Undercarriage by its inhabitants - a vast and labyrinthine network of subterranean maintenance tunnels, storage facilities and infrastructure systems that span vastly beyond the visible portion of the Anchorage. The insurmountable amount of work required to keep the Anchorage both functional and physically pristine requires the Undercarriage to house a body of laborers so large in size that it permanently occupies the space beneath the titanic dockyard, forming its own separate community from that of their counterparts in the Ring. These individuals, known as 'Dockers' to the bourgeois personnel who live above in the Anchorage, live among the myriad of converted storage rooms that dot the web of passageways of the Undercarriage and often eke out a living performing some manner of technical or physical labor pertaining to maintenance of the Anchorage. Despite the enormous importance on the Dockers to maintain the Anchorage the Midas Group maintains an unspoken rule on prohibiting their presence above the Undercarriage, citing concerns of 'decency' - effectively isolating them from the wealth and services offered to those who work and live in the Anchorage. It is through this doctrine that the Undercarriage has developed a self-reliant ecosystem, completely detached from the goings-on of their benefactors. While the Anchorage does provide a wage to those living below it is often insignificant compared to the cost of living anywhere in the system besides the Undercarriage or the Ring, and many who live there often eschew credits in favor of barter or mutual favors. Those who do not work directly on the Anchorage are often providing some other manner of service to the permanent community, such as maintaining the enormous population of synthetic personnel or growing food for the organics that live among them. Despite these arrangements quality of life for Dockers can be said to be better than those living in the Ring, and labor in the Undercarriage is considered favorable work experience for those who choose to move on from its cavernous corridors." Additional Comments: Play Citizen Sleeper!

While I'm inclined to agree that CCIA require more of a public presence as a resource for players to resolve in-character issues (something that I've personally addressed with other CCIA staff) the reality is that we cannot act without players reporting these behaviors. We are not omniscient, and we cannot preemptively act on issues much like moderators cannot. Many of us are in college or working and are often stretched between these responsibilities, other personal interests, and their CCIA duties. Any issues with past charges needed to be addressed within a reasonable time frame of when they occurred as evidence and testimony become dubious after a long enough period. Whether or not you were aware of CCIA as an organ of in-character moderation does not change the fact that the behaviors displayed by Samantha were not appropriate and worth reporting, either. I acted on the evidence that was provided to me via the web interface - charge history and a previous CCIA action - and made a decision according to that evidence. The evidence pointed to Samantha continuing the problematic behavior that was previously displayed via her history on the web interface. Regardless of whether those past charges were questionable in nature she still accrued two more violations in a short period and was named an offender in an Incident Report, so I cannot reasonably dismiss that this past behavior was irregular simply because you've shared that you feel her previous offenses were illegitimate. If those past violations were out of character for her then the behavior that led to the Incident Report and her charge of Minor Assault would not have happened - but they did, and they led to the conclusion that she no longer belonged in the workplace.

I was not aware of this at the time, nor was it documented anywhere, but I don't feel that it was of any influence or consequence to my decision in any case. As my hours likely differ from when you are usually available I was not aware Samantha had been active again until the aforementioned Incident Report.

I want to preface my response with the assurance to anyone reading this that terminations are not handed out lightly - they are, at their most essential, a character-ending decision. Terminations are considered a last resort by CCIA personnel, and are only utilized when an offense is so grievous that any other punishment would not suffice, or when a character has exhausted the good will of their parent company and by the extension the SCC. That being said, I stand by my decision to terminate Samantha Welstrom, and I will tell you why. Between the end of 2643 and the early months of 2465 Samantha accrued 8 canonical charges (those striked out are from antag rounds and thus non-canon) of various degrees of severity, from petty hooliganism to acts of intended malice. Six of these eight charges were accrued in less than two months time, which prompted a Review Request by another character, Kathira El-Hashem: The information detailed in their record as well as their extensive violation history in a brief period prompted CCIA at the time to permanently reassign Samantha to Janitor on January 2nd, 2022. This change can be seen in their history of rounds, as detailed in the WI: Samantha was then present for the remainder of January as a Janitor without issue, and then their activity broke apart into long spurts of inactivity until January of this year: No formal appeal to be reinstated as Shaft Miner was documented at this time, as far as I can see in our archives. By and large this flew under the radar until the most recent Incident Report in which Samantha was named as the offender: We can see here that not only was Samantha charged for this behavior (though was deemed inadequate by the reporter of the IR, thus leading to its report), but she also was charged for i103 - Minor Assault only a few days later. Samantha's prior CCIA note regarding her reassignment to Janitor mentions that "any further infractions will result in the termination of employment aboard the NSS Aurora". One might be tempted to retort with the technicality of the note only mentioning the NSS Aurora and not the SCCV Horizon, but ultimately this has little ground given that we had moved to the Horizon map only three months later from the date of the reassignment and Samantha was largely inactive for the remainder of 2022/2464. "Most real places of employment will waive past offenses after a certain amount of time has elapses when considering new offenses. Given that a year passed in between I do not believe the incident in question on it's own was severe enough to warrant outright termination." While this may be the case for 'most real places of employment', the reality that Samantha was more or less absent for the majority of the year and returned to regular employment only to be wrapped up in an Incident Report and accrue two charges in less than a week tells me that there's very little to consider about whether or not Samantha had actually changed her behavior and was ready to join the Horizon crew as a productive staffer. A statute of limitations on consideration of offenses does not work when a player can simply sit out for months at a time until they fall out of public view - it creates an unfair environment for characters who follow regulations and are regularly present on the ship. If a character can accrue a number of charges and simply go inactive to allow them to fall off it opens the door to bad behavior without due recompense. For the reasons I've detailed here and for the sake of preventing patterns of behavior like this in the future I decided to terminate Samantha Welstrom.

Lore Impact (Small/Medium/Large): Medium Species: Human Short Description: An expansion on the Lyod regions of Moroz, and the backgrounds of their native peoples - the Lyodii. How will this be reflected on-station?: Characters created from this region that are working on the Horizon will have more content to work with in developing their characters' backgrounds, personalities and motives. Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: It further expands on what little content is provided in the Empire of Dominia lore section on the wiki, effectively giving it its own unique character previously not afforded by what lore was previously offered. Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team?: I do. I've spent nearly a year enjoying the ideas which I have presented here with my own character, and now I'm ready to allow everyone else to hopefully enjoy what I've spent months playing out in my head. Long Description: An expansion on the arctic regions of Moroz called the Lyod, including provisions for developing a Lyodii character. While not intended to be all-inclusive and left open-ended in some places to allow for personal headcanon, the content should be plenty to provoke ideas and stories in players who wish to utilize this unique region inside the Empire of Dominia without feeling trapped into playing your average cut-and-dry Dominian. Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_1NL8DcVqOSp6_24pcL__v-WKkAy4YLuJBNtocD8Ng4/edit?usp=sharing --- This canon lore application is the culmination of nearly a year of playing around with a myriad of ideas for my own character, Ravna Surtaeva. What initially began as the simple idea of a reindeer herder displaced from everything she had known and dropped into galactic society grew into something that not only served me as a personal playground for character creation and development, but a sandbox for a bigger contribution that I never imagined I'd make. Everything you read here came straight from improvised interactions with other characters, discussion with friends about what the Lyod was really about, and my own personal journey with researching the groups that influenced Ravna and both her custom item application and this canon lore application. I'd like to thank the following members of the community for their help: - Ramke - for providing great ideas that are featured in the Religion section and elsewhere. - Schwann - for giving direction and encouragement throughout the process as well as providing the original footprint of the Lyod on the wiki. - Mel, Gillian, Lancer - for giving my character a chance and allowing the idea that I had to breathe and grow into what it is now. - Stryker - for spriting the Lyodic Morozi accent tag, which existed solely for just me to use for months almost, and providing a lot of great interactions that spurred plenty of questions I hope to answer in the application. - NiennaB - for spriting Ravna's longcoat custom item, providing incredible character art that gave life to the ideas I've had, and encouraging the better half of me in roleplay and writing. Without further ado...

I am for mechanical additions for Engineering that are optional for Engineers to participate in. As it stands, a majority of mechanical play for Engineers require mandatory participation (engine setup, blobs, structural repair, etc.), and those that don't are often made so by pressure from other crew (fungi, vendor issues, etc.). Giving a niche to Engineers that can bring variety while not being mandatory or high priority will provide more flavor to what may otherwise be a dull or tedious round for Engineer players. In addition to firing pins I believe that ID-locking these devices would prevent unauthorized use, and provide accountability for when such devices are used illicitly.

Provenance is without a doubt one of the most well-developed, nuanced characters currently active in the community and has been incredible to interact with since day one. My experience with the transition to the SCCV Horizon would not have been half as engaging or enjoyable without Nienna's excellent execution of how a corporate synthetic can experience trauma and change as uniquely as a synthetic in our setting could. Putting aside obvious bias I feel that there's a distinct lack of synthetic-oriented apparel that isn't tied to a faction in our lore and having some representation of how culture and its influence on apparel may adapt to the living conditions of synthetics would be a great start in potentially shifting the precedent in how we represent our chrome companions visibly in game. +1

I can't say that I agree with this when considering current OOC restrictions regarding repairs, either by the synthetic themselves or another character, as it disproportionately affects synthetics when Machinists are absent. Synthetics being permitted to self repair also introduces several questions as to what backgrounds allow for self repair, lore questions regarding a synthetics ability to self-maintain which could easily be used to justify repairing other synthetics without needing to be a Machinist, and concerns of tool access which may not be available given a character's role or population of a round. Given that Machinists are not the most commonly-filled occupation it puts synthetics at severe disadvantage to be repaired when they are often expected to endure physical harm in lieu of organics, even for trivial random event spawns like greimorians and drones which already severely inconvenience lower population rounds. Instead I feel that adding a considerable delay to applying nanopaste may be more applicable, as it will counteract the use of it in combat and emphasize caution.

There's not much that I can say without parroting what Nienna already mentioned, but I can say for certain that Lancer's example should be the precedent for which we base our standards for staff and I would not be coming up on 2 years of being CCIA without his instruction and friendship. His experience and affinity for tact puts him well within the requirements of being a server mod. +1.

More on this, now that I've had time to digest the topic: The primary issue that spawns from making the XO a true 2IC is that it has the potential to replicate the dilemma of unseating a captain or choosing an acting captain, without the simplicity of having a general command vote, which then forces the remainder of command to fall into a hierarchy in the event there's an absence of authority. If the 2IC's authority supersedes that of the other command staff they can simply choose to take acting captain regardless of whether or not command are comfortable with the character in question simply by virtue of their station, and if their authority supersedes that of the other command then ultimately they can choose to throw a vote of no confidence against the captain by weight of their station. If there is no XO, do we fill the position of 2IC or skip straight to acting captain? What if there isn't an XO available and the captain chooses a command member to fill in as 2IC? You then have the issue of who gets picked for this secondary position, and thus an entirely new problem of establishing a hierarchy arises. A more simple fix that would avoid the issue of navalizing command would be this: - Give OM authority over Service and Operations, leaving the XO to duties involving the bridge and its armaments, coordinating with Operations to load guns and Engineering to prime the Leviathan and optimize the engine - Rename XO to something that does not deliberately imply being second in command, like Flight Chief or Crew Chief, implying their responsibility for the Horizon as a flying vessel, its operators (Bridge Crew), and its satellite vessels (Spark, Intrepid) - (Whitelist/CCIA issue) Write and enact step-by-step protocol on choosing a new captain with X amount of command staff to keep accountability The further away we stay from militarizing the positions on the Horizon the better we will be able to keep similar trends from our setting, which will serve to better set us apart from being compared to Bay.

Change the name of XO to something else that doesn't imply they are a 2IC. The use of XO is confusing and implies a level of naval hierarchy that simply does not exist on what is supposed to be a corporate vessel. We do not need a non-captain command role that has authority over the others. If you want to play captain, simply play captain.