triogenix

Thanks for the feedback! Yea, giving orders and having an actual presence I feel I need to work on. As I play more higher population rounds, I think I'll get much better at having a presence in the department, most of my shifts so far have been very lowpop and extended, so I think I started playing bastin a little too passively for how he should be.

This is fuckin sick, good job.

As @Carver said I do not see many players referring to this cheatsheet or whatever you want to call it regularly, and while I would certainly find it interesting, I don't think the effort should be made to create something that would not be used by players. On the topic of this, we have companies TODAY that discourage(strongly) employees discussing their salary with one another. Nanotrasen would probably follow this to a hardline-possibly including salary under the NDA all employees sign when they start working, so I don't really think it should come up in IC situations beyond "X company pays better then Y" or "X person defiantly makes more then Y", because hard numbers would be heavily discouraged by NT. Though I will also say, I think something about salary should be put on the wiki, especially for humans, just so potential new players and others can have an idea of what their characters quality of life is. I just think the approach suggested here is the wrong something to do.

Danse Danse Revolution

BYOND key: Triogenix Character names: Vadim Vaziri Jasper Feron Ivan Popov Xu'Qua Tyak How long have you been playing on Aurora?: Around 11 months now Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I want to play Command & Counselor roles every now and then, and getting on the whitelist is how to do it. Why did you come to Aurora?: After my first experience with HRP in SS13 got shut down, I wanted to continue to play SS13 on a more established HRP server, so I decided to try Aurora out, and finding that I enjoyed it, stayed. Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?: Yep. Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? No administrative actions that I can remember or find. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each. Give a definition of what you think roleplay is, and should be about: Roleplay is creating a unique character that fits into a setting, and then using that character to interact with both other people, themselves, and the setting at large. It should be about the interactions your character goes through, both with people and things happening outside, but also their interactions with themselves and how all these interactions shape their growth as a character. What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: I think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff has three parts. Firstly, they are there as educators, OOC’ly a head of staff player should know the ins and outs of their department, how it functions, and what its role in the wider station is, while being able to explain any part of this to another player OOC’ly. Secondly, they are the link that ties the station to the rest of the setting, being able to send and receive faxes from the Odin or other parties. And lastly, they are there to facilitate RP, how this is done can vary from character to character. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: I think the only real OOC responsibility of command whitelisted players is when playing a command role to keep in mind the experience of other players. There are multiple reasons why characters may do things that would harm the experience of other players, most examples revolving around the command characters' likes/dislikes. While this can be believable in the setting, and shouldn’t be completely off-limits, I believe it should be kept to a minimum in order to make the experiences of a round enjoyable for everybody. Could you give us the gist of what is currently happening in Tau ceti and how it affected your character and their career? For Bastin Schmidt, the CMO I hope to play during trial, after the stresses of the second incursion bled of, instead of going to his seemingly all-but assured job as a chief medical officer aboard a Nanotrasen, now SCC, station, he found himself propelled away from his family and into the CRZ to tour medical facilities on newly acquired planets, speak with doctors, giving tips, tricks, and general advice on how to become more efficient, as well as teaching them how to use newly purchased corporate equipment. He found the work enjoyable but dull, on top of keeping him away from his family, still wishing he could return to Biesel proper and manage a department aboard a Nanotrasen Station. He was noted for being able to teach effectively, and had a higher rate of corporate purchases from hospitals he toured than most other doctors. Eventually, he got his wish, and was assigned as a chief medical officer aboard the NSS Aurora. What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted? CMO & Consulars, maybe HoP if I feel like it, possibly CE after a month of playing engineer again. Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking.: [Bastin Schmidt] - CMO [Farid Achaari] - HoP How would you rate your own roleplaying?: I’d say I’m a solid 7.5/10, I still stumble and get dry in some scenes, but I’m much better than I was before. Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Yep Have you familiarize yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles? Yep, despite the fact the CMO one is really out of date. Extra notes: N/A

I'm super tired and only doing this now because if I wait I'll never do it, so sorry in advance if I ramble or an unclear, I'll take a look at this tomorrow morning and clean it up if I was. I am very against the implementation of a mechanical skill system, such as the system on bay, because I think it makes the focus of the game more on mechanics, rather then on RP. As for why, currently, players play characters that are well-rounded, they may specialize in their occupation but they know other things BEYOND their occupation. An example would be an engineer who also knows their way around certain weapons due to being a volunteer in the TCFL, or a security officer who enjoys cooking and cooks for themselves at home so may make a meal on-station for the rest of their department using the kitchen. Neither of these characters will be up to par with a proper solider/chef, obviously, but they'll be able to do it believably. HOWEVER, what I believe changes with a mechanical skill system is that people tend to min-max their characters for their jobs. So in my experience that meant every engineer was a master at building, every security officer was a master at the usage and maintenance of all types of weaponry, every EMT was in the best shape, etc. And, due to the limited number of points given to each character, it also meant that those little other skills were less likely to be a thing, as people min-max as hard as they can for their job. It's the same issue with tying it to jobs, it makes each character instead of a person, into a robot who only knows how to do one thing really well, and can't function with anything else. The way I could only see it work in theory is if the skills that could even be picked were in some way mechanically limited by a factor(age, species, w/e), as I think if they had to be limited by the modmin team it would be even worse then it is now, but going down that road would only lead to more issues. This doesn't even touch on the amount of pure people effort it would take to hammer out which species could do what, like, "Should Skrell be as limited to skills as humans if they're in the same jobs?" It would be a herculean task(Just with hammering everything out for people, I dunno how hard the coding end would be cause I dunno anything about that) that, in my opinion, is not worth undertaking. Tl;dr, It's not worth the hassle to add something that will cause characters to become more two-dimensional with their skills.

So, I really like this as I've been wanting for an Earth Rework for a while now, given the amount of characters from it and how little lore there was previously on the wiki(most of the good stuff you had to dig through the news for). However, I still have a few questions. To start, this seems eerily similar to the "theme" of the Eridian Federation, what with the extremely stratified society and corporate dominance, and, while I do not necessarily think this is a bad thing, what does this Earth Rework do different to truly distinguish the characters coming from the planet compared to those coming from the E-fed? I think my primary worry is that people will start playing Earth characters like they're suits or dregs. Secondly, I don't see much mention of the Solarian Collapse and how it affected the planet, which I think would be a good thing to add, as in, with the formation of the SCA(Solarian Corporate Authority) has megacorporate influence waned on the planet? How do the different types of people on earth feel about the formation of the SCA and the collapse of Sol? Stuff like that would be really interesting to see. And, on a more personal level, I don't see anything referencing the climate disaster that was caused by Sol's Terraforming system in 2458, as in, how did it affect the gardeners compared to the Urbans? How did the disaster change the views of x people? Is it just being retconned or did it still happen? I personally think it's a very interesting piece of lore that seems to have been forgotten(even more interesting after Violet Dawn) and it would be a shame to not have it expanded upon properly on the Earth wiki page. That's all I have for now! I may think of other things to ask/comment on later, if so I'll post them here @Marlon P..

Right, thanks for the questions! To answer the first one, the reason they came to Biesel as I outlined somewhat in my app, is because they wanted to go to the stars, specifically another space besides the Jargon Federation, and due Sol having collapsed and the Coalition being a backwater, as well as the Badland states that would actually accept Skrell also being backwaters(in their eyes), it really only left Biesel. As for the synthetic life in Biesel, they somewhat see this as a trade-off, in order to fulfill their desire to see and work in the civilized/stable parts of the galaxy outside the federation, they will need to deal with being around synthetic life, and even working with it. While they do not enjoy this, they will be able to tolerate working with synthetics within a workspace, holding them in high suspicion for anything that goes wrong, and not attempting in any way to have a relationship more then colleagues with synthetics. The second one, Social Credit Score. While Qau wishes they had a higher score, they are not very upset with the 6.5 score they have, seeing it as better then below a 6. They of course wish to increase their score, at least enough to become a Primary Numerical, which, if achieved, depending on what happens IC'ly and how high they get, may entice them to return to the federation. As for their opinion on the social credit system, they have some gripes with the system, revolving around how certain things are rated, but all in all believes the system is a good way to reward Skrell for being not only good citizens, but good people. Third question, the warbling arc. Qau, like alot of federation citizens, followed the events of the arc on the news. At the time, they outraged, with the possibility of the archive may never be opened due to the actions of a rogue scientist, with that same scientists usage of artificial intelligence adding more fuel to the fire of their outrage. They closely followed the story up until the arrest of three terrorists aboard the NSS Aurora, after which they were much to occupied by schoolwork to really continue to follow the story. The had heard from some friends however that a wave of anti-skrell sentiment had been growing across human space. As for how it will impact their decision making aboard the Aurora, unless they are told more about the events on-station by a crewmember IC'ly. Question number four, the relationships. Qau had multiple Qu'Nioh, and one or two Qu'Kaax(who he worked with during residency) but has never a Qu'Poxii. They have however, had one Lu'Poxii, who surpassed them enough for the rivalry to be null near their final year of college. The reason they have never had a Qu'Poxii was primarily because they have had difficulty knowing if someone was/is right for them, and feels uncomfortable in moving quickly(in Skrell terms), this however may change now that they are out of college and in Biesel. As for how their relationships affected their personality, the biggest affect was with their Lu'Poxii. Their relationship just took Qau's basic personality and amplified it, making them want to help more people, primarily psychically, in order to one-up their rival. Beyond that, there was not much affect on their personality with non-familial relationships. Question number five, how does my skrell view other species. Well to start with humanity, they view humans as very reckless, participating in the proliferation of artificial intelligence, but they also respect and admire humanities drive for technological advancement. For Tajara, they view them with concern and pity, concern due to the proliferation of nuclear weaponry on Adhomai, combined with the Cold-War situation, and pity because they are in that situation. For Unathi, they view them with Pity, due to the ruined state Moghes is in due to the events of the contact war. For Diona and Vaurca, due to the relationship between the rogue scientist in the warbling, and their primarily vaurca/diona research team, combined with Qau not being exposed much to either species through their life, has caused them to view both species with suspicion, unable to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong, needing to be told by a species like Skrell. For IPC's, they find them to be dangerous, and if not outright destroyed, held in the highest suspicion possible. Question six, the current election. They feel unsure of themselves, liking the foreign policies of Weashbi, trying to help as much of the spur as possible, while also liking alot of Weibii's policies to deregulate the megacorporation's with Federation Space in order to keep the economy afloat, and their "Skrell First" policy, of fixing the issues of and helping Skrell within the Federation, while not being domineering. As of now, they are very much on the fence between those two candidates. I hope this answers the questions you had!

Pretty simple, there's no reason why my [X gimmick faction] should have a completely different citizenship because of the character I rolled for antagonist with.

BYOND Key: Triogenix Character Names: Jasper Feron Vadim Vaziri Species you are applying to play: Skrell What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Xiialt Blue Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question. Why do you wish to play this specific race: Skrell have always interested me, originally they were going to be the first alien species I applied for, but following lore changes I decided to go for Tajara first instead. I think the biggest things that draw me to the race is firstly how they form relationships, Quya’s, and what that means for both development of children, and how skrell act on-station. The secondary things that draw me to the species are their history with Glorsh, and how their knowledge develops, in plateaus. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Their psionics is the first thing that comes to mind for me, as it, in combination with the J’ox’a is the starting point for all deeper relationships between skrell. It means that basically nothing of what you think of them can be hidden from a romantic partner, and this allows skrell Quya’s to be extremely flexible with skrell moving in and out constantly. The other thing is their emotional sensitivity, Humans may be able to be nihilists, but skrell can’t. Therefore, they will care deeply about what they believe to be right/wrong, as well as their friends, however, but just as likely not to care about friends if they believe to be insulted. Character Name: Xu’Qua Tyak Please provide a short backstory for this character Qau was born at the end of the Supernova Era, in the year 2392, in the region of Orcor, on Qerrbalak with no Qrra’Myaqq. Their familial clutch had a Qrii’Myaq, Qraa’Myaq, a single Qrra’Myaqq, and Myaq’Lak. Their Myaq’Lak, born in the early days of the Abyssal Era, taught the tadpole from a very young age about the horrors of Glorsh-Omega, their hate and disgust for it flowing into Qau’s brain, and, because of this, Qau distrusts synthetics heavily, and will never attempt to have any form of relationship beyond work with them, and even working can cause them undue stress. Their Qrii’Myaq, a geneticist, steered the young tadpole into helping others through kindergarten, whether it be through their own work of attempting to repair the genophage of a species wrecked by Glorsh-Omega, or other practices. During this time, they were brought into the faith of Qeblak by their familial clutch. Qau found themselves following the faith closely, even making a trip to the Eqloq region to visit ancient shrines later in life. However, right before Qau was to go to college, disaster struck, his Myaq’Lak, who had told them of all the horrors of Glorsh and who had been a good mentor to them, passed away due to age and injuries sustained during their childhood under the tyrant intelligence. Qau was near inconsolable, wracked with emotions and unable to effectively control them yet, it was only by the work of their Qraa’Myaq that they eventually subsided allowing for them to realize that all things must come to pass physically, but memories and teachings live on. Because of this, Qau adopted the Honorific Xu’ to their first name. They would also try their best to live the rest of their life to the ideals of their Myaq’Lak, attempting to help whoever they could(as long as they are not synthetic) and try their best to stay loyal to the principles of Qeblak. As college and life marched on, Qau pursued medicine as a field, first getting a general practice degree, then a degree in general medical-chemistry, and finally a degree in anatomy. Throughout College Qau had a growing feeling of wanderlust, so when they finally graduated with their third degree, and a social credit score of 6.5, they petitioned the Federation government to allow them to travel abroad to Biesel. Sol was out due to the collapse, and they didn’t want to go to the backwater Coalition. So, with a sizable amount of money from their Qraa’Myaq, they headed off for Biesel, through Kyonang. Besides a scare with a SRF ship, the journey was uneventful. Eventually, finding their way to Biesel and leasing a apartment in Phoenix park, they pulled up the extranet and applied for a job with Nanotrasen, who, as their research had said when they did it back in the Federation, was a good human megacorporation to work for(ignoring the cyborgification), as a doctor. Their application was accepted, and after orientation, they were sent off to work as a surgeon onboard the NSS Aurora. What do you like about this character? Like with most of my characters, I like that Qau starts basic, so that I can develop them in multiple directions over the 6-7 months or more I plan to play them if this app is accepted. I also like their religious aspect, as I feel it has the possibility of granting some interesting RP. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Mediocre-Good, there are still a few things I need to improve on to rate myself as good, but I’ve been getting much better. Notes: The reason I didn’t pick Zeng for Qau, is because I don’t really think it makes sense to have a Zeng-Hu Skrell now, what with the company focus being HUMAN perfection.(If it’s even mechanically possible for Skrell to be employed by Zeng). And oh god the amount of red lined words.

I suspected the first part might be the case, I was just curious and interested in any possible thoughts you had on more specifically what to do. I also very much like the idea of more in-universe developments for human factions/planets rather then additions/reworks so I'm looking forward to see how you do it! As for the second part, that's good! yea, no one ever likes having something they worked hard on go down the drain but being able to deal with it when it inevitably does happen makes or breaks peoples when working in a small team from my experience, and it seems you have the right mindset going in to deal with it. I have no idea how dev apps work or if my opinion even matters but I'd like to see you as a human lore dep. +1

I tend to agree with what you said here, however do you have a specific part of the coalition expansion you could share that would help fix these issues? Ontop of that how would you go about implementing the change you want to see? As in, would the changes be in-universe developments due to recent events, or would they always have been there but are just getting written in now, or a mix of both? I'd like to get an idea of what you see yourself doing with the Coalition without asking and having you write every single detail of whatever idea/plan you may have. In addition I am also stubborn when it comes to things I care about, or made, and I am assuming you are somewhat similar to me in that way. It seems obvious that you care about, and have a passion for, the lore you wrote/will write if you get this position. With that said, do you think you can deal with sometimes having a piece of lore you worked very hard on either shot down due to whatever circumstance, or tweaked in such a way that it doesn't resemble what you wanted it to be?(an example would be being told to remove/wildly change a part of rewrite you really enjoyed by one of your peers on another lore-team or the human lore dev due to it just not being able to work with the setting or whatever reason that makes sense)I only ask because this is something I had trouble with when I began working in a small team. Though what I do is very different from what you will do if you get this position I believe the difficulties I had may still apply to you, if they don't just ignore the last few sentences.

The other option I see is just throwing specialized armors in the uplink for the same price as the normal heavy armor, and giving mercs two sets of each for two of their heavy armor sets in their little pre-deployment area(this is what security gets to my knowledge). This really doesn't fix the issue of how they're coinflippy or a bunch of the other issues raised, but it just gives both "sides" in a potential conflict the ability to get the same level of gear, instead of locking certain pieces to one "side", like the how the Laser Rifle is now in the uplink. I'd still prefer to see them removed from the armory in favor of two new heavy armor suits, as it takes away all the underlying problems.

God I hope I quoted that right. So, I agree with nearly everything you said here, and just wanted to throw my two cents ontop of this. I've kicked around the idea of making a dedicated discussion for this one thing, but to put it bluntly combat just doesn't feel fun for me as antagonist anymore. Due to recent changes, security feels as though it's on such a higher mechanical level, once they crack open the armory, and like a declawed kitten before then. I'm not, as antagonist, going to put effort into attempting to do a unique gimmick(using lore stuff that is) that involves fighting security, just because I know I personally won't have fun because I'll get shot twice in the chest with a laser rifle and require surgery(Unless I'm wearing the banshee, the ONLY armor/voidsuit/hardsuit that has laser rifle armor besides the ablatives and adminspawn stuff that I could find, but, that's a story for another time). And yes, while I realize in a perfect world all antagonists would prioritize the fun of the collective over the fun of themselves, you can only do that for so long before you just become extremely jaded after getting shot three times and having your heart stop, or watching an officer/command member question a CC announcement that makes sense given the background lore. So, what does this actually mean. Well, for me, it means I'm probably going to stick to the gimmicks I've seen succeed in the past or only marginally change them. For two reasons. 1) No-body has fun when the antag dies at 00:30. Most of the new gimmicks I've seen tried, good or bad, gets shut down very quickly. This is partly due to how screaming "Armed [x]" can instantly have the entire armory open and in the hands of officers(I saw Ballistic plates and Las-rifles broken out for a single guy with a 9mil and no armor) So trying anything new besides peacetagging or buying an announcement to say you're actually from CC(which are both pretty boring IMO) will most likely end with you dying very quickly after setting off to whatever your gimmick may be. 2) Fear of OOC Retaliation The amount of toxicity regarding poor antagonist play in after-round OOC is extremly detrimental to trying anything new, as there's an innate fear people won't like what you have thought of and so will straight up throw slurs at you in post-round OOC. and yea you can say that people shouldn't take it seriously and that would be true, but why try anything new or risky if one of the possible reactions is public shaming. And I realize this is pretty much the pot calling the kettle black, as I've done this multiple times before when dealing with other situations, but I'm trying to step away from it. Because even if you have valid points, it just isn't a constructive way to give feedback, and will most likely just reinforce the "Us vs. Them" mentality that seems to be growing with every passing day. It's also just kinda plain mean/rude. and I forgot an entire section: Pretty much, I think the best way to deal with this, not already in progress, is what @Lemei mentioned, increasing timers in order to play as antagonist. Currently I believe it is Eight days after you join the server, and doesn't take into account how many rounds you played during that time. I'd personally do it so it's based around time played in round, and increase it so that assuming 1 round played per day it takes around a week and a half to unlock antagonists. Where I think I differ, is that I would also like this applied to security. There would have to be caveats of course, primarily around old players and cadet. The reasoning for this is because, while fewer in number, the amount of people who play security and only security is much higher then it should be IMO, and people should have more experiences before jumping into the arguably most Roleplay Intensive Job on station. And, this is not like a 'Oh you should have to refresh it every x months' no, once you get it you get it, it's more about the people who joined the server, joined as officer/cadet, and since have only played in security with possibly 1-2 round minor excursions to apprentice or internships(or EMT which is pretty much medical lite coming from someone who plays it alot).

Quoting is hard. While I agree with a your conclusions, and some of the other points made, others confuse me so I thought'd I'd just ask. When you say Antags getting Powergaming gear, can you expand on that? Like, what piece of gear in the uplink, or ability afforded to those types without one, classifies as powergamey to you? "Mains on both sides are terrible at their roles and unwilling to learn new roles or improve" - Is this like a, security players should try playing more antagonist, and vice versa, or like a- both mains should go play a completely different department like sci or engi instead of the one they play now? "Lore Events focused on new weapons and kill counts. Antags usually work with less prep time." - First one just confuses me, second, as in they have less prep time then the lore events? Or less prep time compared to the volunteers for the event? Yea, that's pretty much it, I have no idea if I'm even allowed to ask questions on somebody else's question thread, but I'm just going to send it

I'm super tired so sorry in advance if I massively misinterpreted what these new laws mean, but it seems that people are forgetting the other laws exist. The AI cannot hinder security or the crew in fighting a horror form, because that would go directly against law 2 of Serving and Assisting them. At the same time, the AI cannot actively assist security and the crew due to the law 3, protecting all sapient life, but it can still help those who wish to run from it, or don't seek to harm it. Given this, I think a major point of the new laws, is the fact that AI can no longer assist security in tracking down, detaining, or killing antagonists. But it still also can't actively hinder those efforts either, like safeguarding a murderer. It seems to be deliberately crafted so the AI can pretty much not interact with either security or the hypothetical antagonist besides possibly opening doors for EMT's to drag wounded out and over to medical. This is not making the AI protect antagonists, this is removing the AI completely from nearly all security-antagonist interactions, which while being a possible issue, it is completely different then the perceived issues I saw in other responses and quoted here. An example. JoeMcJoe, Officer, asks the AI to open a firelock on a window so he can shoot a traitor currently hiding in that room. The AI's laws now contradict each other, laws two and three specifically here, and when laws contradict, the end product is inaction. So now, Officer JoeMcJoe needs to go find an engineer or crowbar the shutter open himself, and if he does get it open, the AI can't close it because that would not be serving and assisting the crew, so then Officer JoeMcJoe shoots the traitor. The end result is the same as before, just with more effort required on the part of the crew to accomplish their objective of shooting the traitor.

Pretty much what the title says, a single vampire in it's current state can effectively stomp the entire station unless they impose limitations themselves, I know because I've done this. I personally(as well as some I've spoken with OOC'ly) think this isn't very fun for a number of reasons, and should probably be reworked. 1) Dominate. Just get rid of it, and if people don't want that atleast get rid of instadom. Dominate itself is so annoying to deal with for the person who is being dominated, as it is pretty much "You now have to do this, or face administrative OOC action" with seemingly no cap on how absurd the commands can be.(I.E Kill everyone except X, Y, and Z). So, instead of dominate I'd make it so presence, the ability which "Influences the minds of the weak" becomes more of a... hey maybe you should let this guy off the hook? they're a nice person, etc. This way, officers and the crew can still "resist" the messages(not going against a core part of their character even for this friendly guy) while the vampire may get a pass on some things.(Sidenote: I'm not sure what the current messages are for presence but last I remember they were pretty much "You pay more attention to what x is saying" and the like, so making them give those affected more hints at liking/being friendly with the vamp would be nice either way /sidenote)(Sidenote 2: This is kinda already done https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/11279 though it happened after I wrote this section and I still think presence being buffed in an RP sense would be good to see, so I'm leaving it as is) 2) Thralling I personally don't see many issues here, since it actually takes time, but it would be nice if there was a way besides a mindshield to resist some of the effects for a short time to scream for help, or inform people you don't want to do this, probably at the cost of something else.(Thinking like a action which clears your mind from service to the vamp, but you take a bunch of physical damage or smth) 3) Hulking, and getting a reward for doing poorly. Hulk is probably one of the biggest issues currently with vampire, because if you fail to basically do what the entire mechanical point of the antagonist is. Sometimes it's used in interesting ways(though I can off the top of my head only think of 2) but most of the time it's used to end the vampires gimmick when finally captured by security. This just isn't very fun IMO, and counter-intuitive for what the vampire should be doing. So, instead, I'd say reward the vampire at a certain level of total blood(personally thinkin ~1500) with "Power of the Veil" so to speak, making them lean and mean like stereotypical vampires are, and not a bruiser. What this would look like mechanically in my eyes is, faster run speed(like an M'sai on Hyperzine fast), more stamina, better lowlight vision, powerful clawing attacks, dodging fired projectiles, with the counterbalance of, massively increased melee damage(If it's even possible in the code something like +500% damage from all melee sources, 2 mag-light hits should drop them) and possibly either placing a time limit on it mechanically(RP wise it could be they ascend to into blue/redspace or something similar) or having it slowly drain blood reserves, and the rate at which blood drains increases as a function of time. So what then happens if the vampire hits zero blood? Well, long story short, the vampire dies. Personally what I'd like to see is something along the lines of, when you hit zero the vamps got maybe two minutes before the corruption of the veil overtakes you, and during this time they can try and get some blood using the last of their abilities, or do some RP oriented thing about preparing themselves for death. After the time is up, the corruption overtakes the vampire, with a period of 5-7 minutes their flesh flaking off, their psychic powers burning anguish into the minds of those around them, until their body fails to contain the corruption, leaving naught but ash.(Sidenote, the psychic thing could be like a last ditch thing to try and have the vamp saved, where like presence, little messages are given to those around them to help them in any way possible, for example, possibly holding a bloodpack up to their mouth to get a little bit to try and heal the damage already caused, or surgery or anything the people around them think of based on the round) To cap off, this is just what I think could be done to fix vampire, those who have other ideas or want to say they dislike mine, please do so on this thread, and if you actually read all that you're a legend. tiny sidenote, gonna be editing this for a while, I just tried to pretty much get it out there ASAP, as it's that or sit on it for six months when it comes to me, all the edits will be minor like changing how a sentence sounds or a word used, nothing major.

So, over the course of this thread I've realized a majority of what I said surrounding that event specifically was incorrect, and while I would like to remove it from my original post I think it would be wrong for me to sweep a mistake I made "under the rug" so to speak. Knowing what I know now after reading responses from both you and @DanseMacabre I don't think I'd make it again, and with that I am slightly thankful for this thread being able to get rid of some of my incorrect assumptions about what actually occurred, as well as showing me other perspectives that I hadn't seen. While I still believe it was a reason for overall dislike, based purely on perception and assumptions filling in the blanks by those who were not directly involved(engineers, medical, a couple of people from the ERT team, etc), I hope they can also realize from this that the assumptions made by "us" whatever they may be were most likely wrong. I still standby nearly everything else I said about why I personally think people dislike security as a whole, and thank you both again for showing me a different side of what happened.

So, I still need to figure out how to quote, but for now I'ma just respond like this I think I touched on this minorly in my original post, saying that there was an explanation to why they didn't engage, but that was probably not enough. If there was no reasoning behind it, I think first) there would have been a player complaint and second) more people would be mentioning it. That being said, at the level some people(including myself) understood, it fell under a misbehavior, and was another minor reason alot of people tend to dislike security OOC'ly. I think the tldr was that it looks bad, and is perceived as bad by alot of people, even if in reality is was not bad. I meant to comment on the perception I, and atleast five other people had of the event, not what really happened. Apologies if that did not come through clearly. I think that's partially my fault given I was kinda salty/worked up at that point in what I was writing, but, again, to end off, it was meant to be perceptions and how it looked from an outside perspective, and how that influences peoples opinions of security as a department, not what really happened.

So, when it comes to the opinion that "Security is bad and fucks up everything it touches" I think that's actually held by a minority, but I think that atleast half, if not more, of the playerbase has an opinion ranging from Mild Dislike to Outright distrust/hatred of the department and it's players. I also think there's both an IC and OOC dislike for the department, but like most things they can somewhat bleed together, so for now unless it's requested I'ma just focus on the OOC dislike. To start, I think a big reason for the OOC dislike is how difficult it is to differentiate IC actions from OOC thoughts. I think this is a problem with literally every department, but it is augmented by the prevalent type of characters I personally see in security and what I see in D-Chat or post-round OOC. When a character is making fun or you, or your species, or your department IC'ly, then you see the player doing in OOC'ly as well it becomes very difficult to say "Oh, it's just an IC action ignore it." I think everyone does something similar just based off how you have to actually /play/ your character so OFC a part of you is going to be in them no matter what happens, but again, it's amplified by the type of characters I see in security. Getting to that, a majority of security characters just seem to either be very rude/verging on just being an asshole, even if the company that character is from is famed spur wide for excellent customer service or professionalism. This, combined with how difficult it can be for anyone in any department to differentiate OOC and IC thoughts/acts, makes it so that alot of people think security players are like that OOC'ly as well.(I've said things similar to that when I was super salty in D-Chat or LOOC) There was even a round recently where in medical we had a short conversation that was basically "Yea, now I realize why people dislike security so much" after an interaction with a couple characters. Onto their interaction with antags, I think I should touch on is powergaming/validhunting. The powergaming from security that I've seen as an antag or observer is way to high, ranging from ordering loads of guns from cargo when crew aren't even being attacked and the armory not emptied yet, to asking for an ERT with the entire department still up. If a merc team got on station, RP'd for ten to twenty minutes, failing to reach an agreement, and just ordered a bunch of bullpups and better armor with the cargo console after security said they'd fight them, it would be an instant ahelp and the mercs would be told to knock it off. In the same vein, it get's super annoying for antags when they try to do a peacemerc gimmick, the example I'm using is an SCC inspection/review of the Aurora from a couple days ago, and they're second guessed from literally the start. I remember sending the announcement and the FIRST THING I see in the security channel is "Why is the SCC coming here? Should we trust them?" and NGL it pissed me the ever loving shit off, especially because we had an argument in AOOC right before as to if we should even attempt a peacemerc because "Security is just going to find the smallest excuse to valid us and I really don't wanna die". That's relatively small, but I've seen things like secondguessing if the HoS is actually the HoS, shooting hostages just to try and get the antags, etc. It gets very tiring seeing 'Oh, let's fax for conformation for something that is totally in line with NT's policies', or just secondguessing a CC announcement/possibly CC officals(Unless it's really obvious like a CCIAA with a toolbelt and googles instead of a suit) To expand but more minor, validhunting doesn't just apply to antags. I remember a round where a glitch caused some K'ios to phase through a solid window and accidently kill someone. Security arrested everyone involved and spent the next hour trying to prove it was an IC mistake and not an OOC glitch, with things such as "If the windows were borosilicate it wouldn't have phased through! That's why xenobotany has those windows"(even after the CE said that was dumb and the windows were borosilicate because of fires) and again, it get's really fucking annoying seeing and dealing with it. And last but not least, the difference in action between canon and non-canon rounds is super obvious. This is relatively minor, but oh my god is it annoying seeing how situations are approached differently during events and then during regular secret rounds by security. I think this was highlighted best during the first incursion event with the "Inspection" of the Aurora by Sol, where, a crewmember was murdered, a gun was pointed at the captain, multiple crewmembers were beaten badly, and there was no engagement by security, even once the ERT was called(though they fled I think nearly directly after). Also to mention, I have no idea if the HoS or Captain or all of security were told not to start a fight by the event runners and admins, and if so then I'm sorry, this is just the opinion of someone who was on the outside. I'm sure there's an explanation, but I think it is almost impossible to say that it doesn't look bad/lousy. Especially because then again during the incursion there was a gimmick that was pretty much the same, and because it was a non-canon random event a firefight started and went throughout the whole station. I want to end saying that I don't think security should be removed, it fills a unique and sometimes enjoyable niche to find RP with our server, but how it is currently it's very hard to say 'Yea, I like that department as a whole.' Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this, and this is just my salty ranting, but I'm willing to bet I'm not given the amount of arguments in discord that you made a fourm thread specifically for it. I may add some suggestions later on how to fix it, I can think of ones for both antags and security, the two biggest being, if security actually attempts to deescalate, maybe do it for once? and how security appears to outsiders with their actions, both with crew and antags. And thanks if you actually read through this whole thing, apologies for any spelling mistakes or grammer issues. If you have any questions I'll try my best to respond if you put them here!

While I've not had the pleasure of interacting with their HoS as antag or security yet, the limited interactions I've had with them as a doctor and EMT have been wonderful. They're mechanically competent with solid RP, making a round with them as command enjoyable. +1 Edit: Removed a redundant word

I dunno how to quote so I'm just gonna type the question. What does Vaziri think of the other two factions? To start he thinks the both of them rebellions, not proper nations within their own right, this is especially true for the DPRA for reasons I'll touch on shortly. Due to him never directly fighting the NKA, his mainly thinks of them as a continuation of the former oppressive regimes before the first rebellion, and therefore should be brought back under PRA authority, but can grasp at why the old nobility might wish to attempt to reclaim their lost land and wealth. In that way he, while still disliking them, understands their motivations. However, when it comes to the DPRA/ALA, he detests them. Not only due to mainly combatting them during his service, but the fact that a large majority of the leading Tajara in the ALA/DPRA betrayed the PRA when they defected. He sees the DPRA as a Junta run by power-hungry generals who betrayed not only their country, but their species for no other reason then an attempt to be at the top. This also applies to those who fight for the DPRA, or attempt to sprout their message, however not to the same extent, as he thinks them more fools, used as pawns by those who wish to destroy everything he fought for. Hope that answers it adequately!

BYOND Key: Triogenix Character Names: Erik Saylor Ivan Popov Caius Strelitz Jared Looper Liam Tasev Species you are applying to play: Tajara What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Somewhere around Taupe(72, 60, 50) Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question. Why do you wish to play this specific race: When I first wrote this section it took up more than a page on the google doc, because there’s just so much I want to talk about with Tajara. Starting with, Tajara have, in my opinion, some of the best lore currently barring humans. It’s deep enough where you can do a lot with canonicity(other players actually know it if they’ve read the wiki and don’t have to read a google doc) while not being so rigid you don’t have room to improvise. Of course it’s not perfect, but I love the way it’s written and how I can potentially use it to create characters. Attempting to keep this short, the only other thing I’ll touch on is the RP you can get with other people, like a PRA Ultra-nationalist trying to work with a noble for the NKA, or vice versa and many other things. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Their history. It is very different from human history. Humanity has been roaming the stars for hundreds of years, whereas Tajara only made contact with a star-faring species 50 years ago. From that contact came two revolutions which basically tore the planet apart, with casualties nearing 100 Million. That means nearly every Tajara character will be in some way touched by a cataclysmic war which in recent history, humanity has not had. On top of that, they’re a fractured species, with tensions running high between not only the governments themselves but the people from different areas, and of different species. Character Name: Vadim Vaziri Please provide a short backstory for this character Vadim was born in 2433 to a Hharar couple in a small town named Bastata about a 100km north of the city B’urr. As the first child of 3, he took on responsibility from an early age, helping his father tend to the fields, learning how to repair the new farm tools given to the townspeople by the PRA as part of a program to uplift Adhomi, and helping to keep the family afloat. He was raised to worship S’rendarr and Messa from a young age by his parents, mainly imparting the values of collectivism and helping those who cannot help themselves. The newly formed Peoples Republic of Adhomi left his small village in relative peace, only doing the bare minimum of governance. That changed in 2451 with the assassination of Rhagrrhuzau Hadii, and the formation of the ALA. A larger police presence was established and trucks full of soldiers became a common sight on the newly paved roads. Eventually after nearly 6 years of fighting the guerrillas and the establishment of a proper frontline to the west of the town, a permanent military presence was established in the village, putting a strain on resources but also opening the now medium sized village for more economic growth. Vadim at this point is a teenager, working full time in the fields to provide for the family and village. With the fall of Tampiksa to the ALA and introduction of conscription, Vadim found himself fighting for the PRA, with a large majority of his village's male population. During his very short basic training it was found he was very marginal with weaponry, but had a keen eye for medicine. So it was decided and he was given a Rusack full of medical supplies and assigned to a company full of other conscripts from around the still loyalist areas of the PRA, being shipped off to fight in the siege of P’urr/B’urr. The retaking of the city was horrific for Vadim, from the first moments he arrived to the thundering of the PRA heavy artillery divisions to the advance under fire trying to save as many of his comrades as he could, and the final walk through the shelled out buildings of the city and its inhabitants. Vadim spent the next year and half fighting a compliance action on the porous frontline near Tampiksa, dealing with insurgents and subversives, which had its own share of horrors forced onto the young man. The war had been dragging on for everyone, Vadim now back on the frontlines by the city Tampiksa, when he learns that his younger brother of 2 years died in the Khazan mountains fighting the Liberation Army. The family is devastated by the loss, but worse so that Vadim could not attend the funeral due to the fighting increasing around Tampiksa as the formation of the DPRA allowed for rebel reinforcements to reach the city. The fighting around and for the city has now totally devolved into attritional warfare, with entire divisions being sent to their deaths in an attempt to break the deadlock. This is the most horrific combat Vadim has witnessed so far, giving him nightmares into the far future. During the year or so of fighting around the city Vadim is wounded twice, once in the shoulder with a bullet attempting to rescue the decimated remains of another division, another time when a mortar round landed on the lip of his foxhole causing the wood reinforcement to splinter into his back. At this point rumors are circulating that the PRA has all but lost the war with the recent defeat Das'nrra, and the successful offensive of the NKA expelling the PRA from Harr’masir after the siege of Olska. Vadim believes that the PRA will still preserve, that it must due to the massive sacrifice of life so far given in the name of victory. The rebel assaults increase in tempo as a blockade by the Solarian Navy is announced, Vadim desperately attempting to keep as many of his comrades alive as possible, his original division decimated and spots filled with green recruits who had less then a week of training. After nearly 3 months of relentless and horrific fighting Vadim notices something. The trucks that normally drop off more troops for the meat grinder are delivering human troops. His first thought is wonderment as to why the PRA would allow humans to fight for the future of Tajara, his second is confused as to why they are here. As the week passes without any major offensives by either the loyalist or rebel forces more and more human troops, more equipment, and new vehicles arrive, significantly bolstering the loyalist forces. The Heavy Artillery Divisions start firing 24/7, a steady supply of shells being fed to them, Vadim is now so accustomed to the sound he doesn’t even register the firing, or the insane amount of shells flying over his head. For the next 2 months the attritional war continues, though now they make progress pushing the rebel forces out of Tampsika, all the way to the western coast. 3 months after the deadlock is broken, Vadim is told that a ceasefire has been signed by all parties of the three way war. He first reaction is shock, and then he goes back to his foxhole and begins to cry, due to both joy and sadness. Joy that he survived, sadness for all those who didn’t. After his honorable discharge, he returned to his small village, unable to sleep well at night and waking screaming a name his parents never knew, one of many faceless conscripts sent to their deaths. He spent the next 2 years bleeding off the stresses from his time in service, marrying Per’slevi Peev, now Per’slevi Vaziri, and trying to find work other than farming. Then, nearly three years after his discharge, unknown hours spent toiling over fields and being haunted by the ghosts of those who did not survive from his town, he goes to the local Nanotrasen Office a few towns over, and asks if they have any job openings or opportunities outside of Adhomi. He is given a list of jobs most of them having to do with medical, specifically being a First Responder, and returns home, looking over them with his wife, decides on a posting in the Republic of Biesel, with 45% of the travel fee by Nanotrasen shuttle paid for by the company, plus free classes for an EMT certification. Returning to the NT office the next day, hammering out the details of the contract, and managing to get enough credits to afford the rest of the transit on an NT ship by using a majority of his pay from the Army, he goes to Nal’tor, where he spends about four months learning Ceti Basic, and getting his EMT certification, before boarding a shuttle to Tau Ceti with his wife, leaving Adhomi. What do you like about this character? I think the thing I like the most about Vadim is the fact he’s a new arrival to Tau Ceti, living most of his life in a small farming town, now working on a space station in one of the most populous human systems. I think it will lead to a lot of unique RP opportunities. He’s also currently pretty basic, with strong opinions on few topics which allows me to take his character development in multiple directions depending on what happens in the future with events and the like. How would you rate your role-playing ability? 6-7 out of 10 Notes: This is my first time using the Forums proper, so I apologize in advance for any mishaps that may or have occurred.

Everyones kinda already said it regarding RP and her personality, but just to throw in my two cents, probably one of the best CMOs to be under, enjoyable to play with, and a very mechanically talented medical member ontop of everything else. +1

+1, very good app.