Sycmos

As far as I'm concerned the entire argument against mute accessibility stems from a place of cultural disdain for mute characters in this community and has absolutely zero reasonable basis outside of paranoia about RP quality. Aurora is not the server it was in 2016, 2018 or even 2020, and whether anyone chooses to acknowledge it or not the tropes of yore have largely dwindled in prevalence or died off altogether. The stain of bad character writing may linger, but it should not be used as the foundation for further restricting access to playing more diverse characters. The kind of attitude displayed in this thread is only harmful to the portrayal of our community by newer players and those looking in from the outside.

Considering me and Schev have talked about this elsewhere I'm willing to chip in actual money on this to be a thing.

The announcements being alarming is fine, and the provocation of IC drama is also fine - but considering the direction and the purpose of the Horizon have not been made clear to either characters or players since its departure events like this need to have more in the way of context for the Horizon's involvement to avoid blowouts like this. There's a distinctly worrying grey area where the Horizon is currently sitting that is detrimental to the backgrounds of a myriad of characters that live and work on it, and it needs to be either clarified or minimized so that we can avoid this in the future. I am not sure of how this can be done given that I have no idea how the lore team plans their arcs, but it's quite clear that a number of players were led to believe that the Horizon would be a civilian exploration vessel with armaments for self defense and would not be actively pursuing danger of this magnitude. I think something needs to be done to make players more aware of their characters' actual responsibility, because as it stands trying to justify using the Horizon as a naval asset while being staffed with civilian crew who have received last minute training with armaments installed last minute feels very flimsy - at the moment. That could change, and I hope it does. Secondly, and this is more of a symptom of the current area the Horizon is in - I feel that the constantly nagging Solarian presence is only making this issue more aggravated considering we just came off of a major arc that included Solarians that segued into the NBT, and we're continuing to deal with the belligerent macropolitics that plague the faction. I understand that they are a major player in the setting but characters have been dealing with griefing from the FSF and the SFA for several months with little else on display to offset their presence is likely tedious for players at this point. I think that once we finally move away from this things will settle down, and flare-ups like this will hopefully be less whatever this is. Lastly... there's commentary in this thread I'm noticing that are coming dangerously close to dismissive with buzzwords like "vocal minority", challenging players for not contributing mapping/coding, and accusations of clique association. While I don't agree with the verbiage being used by some players who have decided to voice their disappointment with the current narrative (and I implore them to re-examine how they approach the issue) I don't think it's fair or acceptable to hang these things over other players, especially by those who are not lore staff but have actively contributed to this arc by either mapping, coding or playing event characters. Whether we like it or not this server is on display 24 hours a day to whoever wants to come in and play, whether or not they support the current arc or they find it distasteful. If you choose to support it with your technical skills or time, that's great and I'm glad that you're dedicating your time to making the server better - but just like you and staff the players are volunteering their time and their energy to make your efforts a living, breathing experience. The value of their enjoyment or lack thereof is not dictated by whether or not they contributed. I think that poses an unhealthy dichotomy that doesn't and shouldn't exist. Ultimately I feel that the Horizon will be a better vehicle (literally) for better exploration of our server's setting and with time find a more unique niche which will set Aurora further apart as the definitive HRP server, but there's a lot of work to be done between staff and the players - not just one or the other - to get there.

Considering my initial commentary went without response and it would be redundant to voice my other concerns as they've been shared by other voices in the thread, I want to touch more on what Peppermint just mentioned - the mention of delaying feedback, the lack of "official" remarks regarding the event, and the general tone it carries. I take issue with these remarks specifically - they come across as dismissive of player feedback to the announcement of the event, which I believe needed to be more concise and elaborate on the context of the event rather than giving a vague blurb which coupled with the recent narrative direction has painted a considerably worse image than what is being discussed here. For events of this magnitude I believe that it's absolutely necessary to have a follow-up explanation on how this impacts the Horizon and its crew, and ultimately why the Horizon is participating. Providing further context will give more purpose to player characters to participate in the event, and hopefully assuage any potential doubts about the direction of the event before it occurs. The gist of "we're not receiving complaints until the event is over" from these comments when the announcement of said event was alarming on its own is only going to serve to alienate players from participating. "As of now, the crew of the Horizon and it’s expeditionary force have confirmed, without a doubt, that remnants of the Southern Fleet Administration have gone beyond what was expected of them in terrorizing the Spur and it’s people. Undeniable evidence has revealed the construction of a phoron bomb - an SCC prototype weapon thought to be un-replicable before today. Further evidence collected in the asteroid base reveals an even more worrying sign - movements in the sector suggest a collected SFA strike force, leadership unknown, are gathering to attack the Orchard Moon mining facility. Local SCC ships, including the Icarus, are being called to support what is likely to be a sudden and powerful strike. As one of the closest and fastest ship in the sector, the Horizon must burn for the system immediately, and join the fight in the name of the Chainlink." Informing players that they are to participate in the defense of a corporate point of interest against an organized and motivated SFA task force with potentially above-nuclear capabilities canonically at the risk of permanent death, but telling them that you're not receiving complaints until the conflict is already over looks incredibly apathetic to the likely traumatic experience of characters and their players. Further event announcements need to have more context to avoid this.

Sputnik has been part of the community for a considerably shorter time than I have been and has more or less hit most of all of the points I could have as someone who has been consistently active on the forums, in the Discords, and in-game for the last two years, which should be concerning if not downright alarming. I have been present for a significant number more in-game events, out of game events, community blowouts and drama happenings than he has and yet the conclusions we've both come to still come to be startlingly similar. If a relatively new player can immediately see the faults in our community relations and how they impact the narrative of our setting's story as clearly as I can see them, does that not raise a larger issue with how we as a community function? The NBT was in development for a significant period, before I had returned after a lengthy hiatus, and continued well until the year after the conclusion of the King of the World arc - a period of time that seems so incredibly long in the lifespan of an SS13 server that a narrative shortcoming of this magnitude is symptomatic of something considerably deeper than just player dissatisfaction with the direction of our new setting. I feel that there is a very real and possibly irreconcilable divide between staff intent and playerbase opinion to such a degree that the reality in which a majority of decisions are made by staff are not the same as the played-in experience of players who use the lore and setting they curate, and to the detriment of the actual played experience when the vision of lore does not meet it. It takes a considerable amount of effort to create something of this size in a circle that constantly changes members and in turn opinions on a monthly basis, but the fact of the matter is that this effort still needs to be received by a playerbase who are there to experience it - positively or negatively, and the latter will always hurt more because players invest a part of their own energy in trusting staff to take care with their stories and will feel burned when they don't. Ultimately this is the crux of the issue with the direction of this arc - it feels completely apathetic to the lives of player characters and the setting that we've all been led to believe is a civilian exploration story. Excuses can be made in favor of the corporatocracy that dominates our setting, but I genuinely believe the escalation of events stretches the realm of possibility given the circumstances which said corporatocracy exists. If the ship is not a civilian one, is it a military one? If it's not a military one, then what is its purpose among the myriad other military fleets in the setting? Where is the line that players can draw a safe reserve which they can base their characters, knowing they won't be tossed to the wind by the whims of writers? I am beginning to feel that there isn't one, and that the unique setting which the Aurora offered is being muddied for the inclusion of mechanics that are further flanderizing our setting and characters, making high roleplay less and less manageable, and cater to a small subset of players.

Due to the aforementioned situation being influenced by antagonist action this IR will not be pursued, and this thread closed.

I do not believe the applicant displays the temperament or maturity to be trusted with the powers and responsibilities of a moderator position on our server, especially after spending such a short period as a member of the community. I would recommend that the applicant try again in a year when they have a better grasp of our community, and a more thorough understanding of what is acceptable behavior as a member of it.

I participated in approximately none of the events, and have only have secondhand experience as someone who has characters that work and live on the Horizon - adjacent to people who actually participated (none of the events were within my schedule). Thus far, just from this secondhand experience alone, I would not say that any of the events affected my characters in a positive manner, if anything discoloring their attitude about working on the Horizon and generally souring their attitude about not being able to visit Elyra. I had made plans for two characters to do things with other characters while in the system and those were immediately dashed upon realizing we had become persona non grata in the very space that the arc had been setting us towards. It sucks. There's no other way to put it. If there are going to be events like this for each system we enter and we have to make some catastrophic decision at the end then soon enough there will be nowhere to visit because we've blundered through space until everyone hated us. I'm not interested in getting into pissing matches with every military in the Spur. I want my characters to have actually enriching experiences with the lore established in these places. Stopping by Mictlan on the way out was cool. More of that would be nice for characters to have some kind of beneficial experience so they're not burned out on every arc from bad encounters with people who want their money or their lives.

Unless there's a deliberate and concise effort via PRs to adjust the game mode and admin action to follow up it cannot be guaranteed that players will follow themes coherent with our setting. Wizard and Technomancer suffer from the same disconnect that a number of SS13 gamemodes Aurora still keeps to make the rotation varied in that they have little keeping them grounded in the lore and tone of our universe, and more often than not that's enough reason that those who play those roles regularly don't concern themselves with it altogether. Technomancer was an attempt to rectify that issue and instead the same manner of LRP-adjacent play that pushed players to cryo during Wizard was exhibited. You can't reasonably police antagonist play without stifling interest, but you can't not police it either. Honestly? Remove both. Unless it received significant retooling I have no interest in going back to fireball and staff of change wizardry and I'm certain others feel the same.