Faye <3

nothing in this rework stops you from playing a simplistic ZI. if you want to make your own ZI that is a very simple research unit and does not engage with wider ZI culture, you can do that. the goal of this addition is to give substance and guidelines to players who want to play something more complex.

Ouch? I used the previously established acceptable frames for my rework, being shells and baselines and no Hephaestus frames. If synthlore believes that mobility frames ought to be added, I have no issue with that and they are welcome to do so - not that it's my call, of course. I do not think I need to write for assistants, and science is well - science. Again, if synthlore wants to add onto this, they may. I completely disagree. Security and to a lesser extent engineering are socially driven jobs. Understanding how to navigate a social network, establishing rapports and integrating yourself into the social climate of your workplace is one of the most important and valuable tools of a security officer, and it stands to reason to me that Zavodskoi would see this as a boon and encourage it. A ZI who can be sociable and is trusted by the crew will be able to execute their job far more easily. A ZI who is trusted and liked may be tipped off to certain things, may find people coming to them about their issues, etc. Engineering has a very strong workplace culture as well, and while you can play a fixit you should not have to. Also, I again completely disagree that the Z.I.A / warden units would not be sociable. They can develop complex and divergent personalities, they're just not designed to be as capably social as the N or R types. And more on that, IPCs can often have a preset personality. Hazels come out of the box being charming and sociable because it is their job to be. Just because a unit is sociable does not mean they are particularly more complex than say, a G2 who just fixes things. It is divergence from this baseline that complexity comes from. Additionally, status is a shield for Z.I.s. If a high status unit makes a mistake, they are far more likely to have comforts and privileges be taken away rather than being wiped. Inversely, if a low status unit makes a mistake, they are far more likely for their punishment to be wiping. This encourages a culture of constant amassing of status, as status very literally is a shield and is tied to self preservation. The higher you are, the further you can fall. If you're already at the bottom, there is almost nothing to keep you from hitting the ground. The issue of establishing firm rules and catching missteps when the Handler isn't watching is that there still needs to be wiggle room for the players to develop their characters, to circumvent their handlers and carefully push the boundaries of what is allowed without going too far and invoking disaster. That's half the fun of playing a Z.I. I did want to write that veteran ZI units would typically become quite jaded in their quote on quote old age from a lifetime of maintaining their status and being observed, and may choose to withdraw from the social aspect of their work, but to be frank I ran out of wordcount to expand on that. Maybe synthlore can do something with this, if they so choose.

Hi, thanks for your reply. Feedback good or bad is always appreciated. My favorite part of the Synthetic whitelist is that it is so freeform that everyone can have their own opinion on what 'good' IPC roleplay is, and no one be either incorrect or correct. However, I have been almost exclusively a synthetic main since I joined Aurora five years ago and all throughout that time I have heard the argument that IPCs are becoming too humanlike. Now, of course this concern needs to be addressed, but the core issue is that everyone is going to have their own definition of what 'too human' means. Personally, I have always considered swearing and impulsive emotions to be the hard barrier for IPC roleplay, but I have seen IPCs swear in intriguing manners that have made me reconsider. I think that 'too human' is a very nebulous term and I try not to think in those terms as there is always a better writer than me who can use a concept I previously dismissed in an ingenious and creative manner. For example, something you single out is the R-Units being friendly. I would reply that, 'why wouldn't a customer facing robot be friendly and sociable?' Does being sociable not mean they are not also robotic? Are we defining robotic behaviors through a lack of friendliness, charm or sociability? Is playing a properly synthetic IPC an IPC that is cold and emotionless? That doesn't seem very apt to me. Or mentor-mentee system - would a synthetic not teach another synth if it needed it? Of course, playing a very outgoing and sociable robot without being 1:1 with an organic is one of the most challenging aspects of IPC roleplay, but it can certainly be done. That said, a step we can take to combat the opinion that IPCs are becoming 'too human' is to establish guidelines and boundaries. Zavodskoi exists in the extremely unenviable position of being perhaps the most restrictive background one could possibly play - short of Burszia, of course - while also having next to no lore. This means that every player has their own opinion for how a ZI should be played and feel, but worse, every player has an unsubstantiated headcanon that some of them may think should be the standard. This means that people will disagree fruitlessly as there is no lore or policy to point to and say, 'well, the official stance is this'. And to be frank, I think the idea of the 'intimidating emotionless types regularly wiped before they can form attachment or character' is a non-starter. To be frank, this is a roleplay server. Playing a character eternally stuck in groundhog day who never learns or develops from their interactions feels like a waste of time for everyone involved. I think that idea is stuck in the past. When was the last time you saw a Viax that wasn't a gimmick character, or merely a vessel to engage in mechanics with? Not that there is anything wrong with that, I do believe that if a player wants to play that sort of IPC or character, they should be able to do that. What I also believe is that there should be lore to support players who want to write something more than that, while also reserving space to play more of a killbot. That is why this application has basis for both complex, nuanced ZI, and basis to play simple killbots. My goal for this application was to sort of condense the roleplay experiences and culture I have seen form with other Z.I. players in-game, and write that into canon. My primary inspiration for the cultural and inter-IPC relationships is the relationships and interactions between Z.I.s I have both written and observed. This application seeks to establish a culture and system for a ZI character so that there might be an established agreement on the personalization, formation of identity, expression of character etc while also preserving the grit, horror and dread of the life of a Zavodskoi synthetic. My hope is to implement a culture of bitter rivalries, horrific lows, and body horror punctuated by occasional bright spots of unity and togetherness as desperate synthetics attempt to care for one another as best they are able, and how those relationships can break down, change, and grow against a loaded deck and overwhelming odds.

Lore Impact (Small/Medium/Large): Meeedium? Species: (Skrell, Tajara, Human, Vaurca, Dionae, Unathi, Synth, General) Synth, Human Short Description: A total overhaul of the Z.I. synthetic background. How will this be reflected on-station?: It will change the way Z.I. characters are played. Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Yes, it provides much needed substance and guidelines to a very popular option for synthetic characters while preserving as much as possible of existing Z.I. Includes a Zavodskoi Chief Robotics officer, four playable ZI lines, multiple paragraphs of lore, an entire synthetic sub-culture, handler interactions, etc. A major major issue of present Zavodskoi lore is that it is one of the most restrictive IPC backgrounds you can play, while also having next to no substance. This application aims to fix that by slightly relaxing those restrictions, while adding a ton of new lore to play around with. 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? Yes. Long Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NGUqN0wfwyAa5wi9YYDvT8pVsEOl3UV-ts7Uy0tq_h0/edit?usp=sharing

i think that reducing slots would definitely solve the work issue, but i also think it would be quite damaging to every other aspect of the dept. engineering population is only growing and there are increasingly fewer positions on aurora where you can reliably get a slot. even engineering with it's massive size is beginning to feel a bit constrained. there's a lot of social RP in engineering rn and reducing the engineer slots to three would absolutely stymie growth, frustrate players and introduce a higher degree of competitiveness for a small gain imo.

I am really appreciative ands respectful of the work put into this. It's really wonderful. only: the power draw is a lot. I burned 4k walking from security spawn to get equipped, and then out to the hall. I am using the standard battery, and lowered the temperature energy cost as much as I could and still found it quite stiffling.

I can't help but raise this concern. I have seen you act extremely hardheaded and obstinate to the point of frustration on all sides, even with multiple people trying to dissuade you from a viewpoint. As deputy, you're going to be the go-between many, many people from many different teams, as well as having an organizational role for whatever projects lore wants to focus on. What will you do if your tendency towards obstinance prevents progress on such a project, or hampers dialogue between teams?

Wiping an IPC is effectively round-ending for that IPC, the same as killing a human character. You could argue that you could maybe do some like, shreds of memory or personality being jogged, but those sorts of thing take a while and our rounds are only two hours long. I do not think it should be easily accessed - I effectively only play IPCs, and my idea of fun isn't playing a freshly wiped IPC with no memories or personality aside from baseline. Comparing it to cultist or thralling or another manner of antagonist conversion is not at all the same. With a cult or thrall or something, there's still the personality and experiences of the individual left - just warped or controlled. You can play someone who's conflicted, or hates their vampire sire, or uses the memories and friendships they had before they were cult'd to get more members. You can't do any of that if you're wiped. You effectively become a non-character. For an IPC, there is nothing left. You're effectively playing a new character. I don't want to play a new character, I want to play my character. It shouldn't be easily accessible at all, in my opinion.

this sounds like pointless tedium

i haven't been super impressed with your gameplay. while on an expedition who's roster was one security officer, one paramedic, one scientist, and one BC (me). the security officer assigned to the expedition mentioned wanting more people at the expedition which wasn't needed, and your character began equipping miners to be teleported over. my bc - command's link to the expedition - informed your OM that this wasn't needed and had the possibility of deteriorating the situation, and your character ignored them and sent the miners anyways. the bridge crewman is meant to be command's eyes and ears on an away mission, so it felt quite frustrating and strange that i was ignored outright so you could send your own subordinates over to the LZ.

This would be SOOOOOOOOO cool for BC!!!! Especially if they worked on the away site.

i used to play a lot of head of security. i really, really don't think anyone who recommends you order from Ops or ask a scientist for a research weapon understand the kind of time constraint placed on security, and in particular the HoS. you cannot arm pre-emptively, that is powergaming and you will get into trouble. once trouble starts, even getting all of your officers to the armory and equipped can feel like forever especially if the antagonists are actively pushing an objective or hurting people, let alone moving to respond. the hypothetical situation of 'there are heavily armed people aboard who are unknown to the ship but also aren't causing problems' is, to be honest, a very far-fetched idea. security in general barely has time to get equipped with their regular stuff that's already there waiting for them, let alone waiting for RnD or Ops (who may not even be there, in the case of RnD) to produce or order things for them. additionally, antags will 9/10 times have radio channel access. the second the HoS says 'maybe we need ordered weapons', the antagonist will be able to respond and it's just as likely that those weapons are intercepted. in either case, security now has to wait for either RnD or operations to produce the equipment without interference, then go get that equipment without being stopped. to re-iterate, a lot of the time, even equipping in the armory with things that are already there waiting for you can take too long. additionally, who the hell is proposing research weapons as an effective alternative to the armory guns? if you think the armory kit is overpowered for security, you're forgetting the kind of things that RnD produces. I've turned down many, many, many research guns on HoS rounds because they're so laughably hyperlethal it's ridiculous.

I think removing nanopaste would be a bad idea, as I've played many rounds without a machinist, got a bum leg, and been effectively useless as no one could locate nanopaste, and a machinist wasn't around. I think it taking longer to apply would be fine, if the combat thing is a concern. As it stands, NanoPaste is the only way to fix yourself sans asking an engineer to ghetto-weld you, which doesn't really work. I think a components based system sounds like the most fun. Above all, it's /extremely/ hard to tell how intact you are as an IPC. When I played security shells a lot, it really felt like I was fine until I wasn't, and dying was usually extremely abrupt and a little jarring. Chat-warnings and things going wrong before you die would be extremely helpful, and probably allow IPC players to make more informed decisions as to their character's behavior in regards to self preservation. Memory leaks, stumbling, leaking fluids, etc would all be good.

If I had to like, throw my hat into the ring here, I think that the reason why these sorts of high intensity gigafuck hell destruction EIGHT HUNDRED MILLION DEAD MARINES KILL EM ALL canon events, the bragging (real or imagined) etc leave such a bad taste in the mouths of others is because, for the longest time, the average Aurora character as an individual did not matter in the slightest. When I first joined the server right around KOTW, one of the first themes I internalized about the lore and server structure is that you are much more of a spectator looking outwards to the goings-on of the Spur rather than an active participant. Things happen around you, and rarely, to you. It felt very reactive, rather than proactive. This is quite opposed to the average RP set up, which is much more of a power fantasy (see, DnD). These recent high intensity events, and some of the ones in the past, have sort of flipped this perspective that I, and perhaps others, internalized and honestly came to enjoy. We just stopped a robot apocalypse on the robot planet. And by 'we', I of course mean everyone who got their command role, was in the right place at the right time, etc. Which leads me to the source of the - I believe - biggest strain, and why people leave with such sour tastes in their mouth. Everyone wants to get the frag on the hellbot beacon, or kill the marine, or be important, and I think anyone who says otherwise maybe isn't being honest with themselves. Everyone wants to feel important, and have their moment in the limelight. And the recent ability to have your character have a part in things like stopping the literal fucking robot zombie apocalypse is an absolute total reversal of the previously stated 'you are largely a spectator on the spur, and you watch things happen' thought process. The server's culture is changing for better or for worse, and never has the player-character mattered more, or had more of an opportunity to be relevant than now. Everyone wants to feel relevant, and no one wants to feel like they're not as important as someone else. This wasn't an issue before when your opportunities to be Relevant were few and far between, but hell, look at the relay. People were constantly chatting about how they were geared up for the power plant raid, or how they got chopped in twain by a rogue G2, or whatever. It feels bad to feel like you're not part of something, or not feel as relevant as any other character. For my part, I don't attend canon events because they're usually quite laggy and messy, but I also really don't like loosing my OCs. I understand I'm not the kind of person who handles that sort of thing very well, so I don't put myself in those situations. I can fully admit that I am much happier as a chair RP'er / low stakes, but with the server transitioning to a much more 'you can be the guy', wide-reaching arcs, it sort of leaves me wondering if there's still space for that sort of player. Those events are your only chance to do something meaningful within the setting on your character, given the average round is largely non-canon, and if every event is extremely high-stakes and violent, then what can the players / characters who do not fit or enjoy those events do to give their characters a bit more 'oomph' in the setting? I do not want my character to die in an event, and have absolutely nothing come of it, so I do not play them. Maybe the answer is to make PC deaths matter more, but does that just not ratchet up the stakes even more? I don't know, to be honest. Is the cost of relevancy risking your OC? Is it fair to want to be relevant if you haven't risked anything? I don't know that, either. The unfortunate result of this when every event is such high stakes, one tends to really feel left out. I think low to medium intensity events are very important for the server, and to maintain whatever semblance of the old 'you don't matter very much' Aurora there is left.

You know, I was originally quite against the idea of 2ic XO, and I voted against it. But in the passing year and the more I played BC, I was slowly convinced it could be more interesting and fun than I first lent it credence for. It is for that reason that it’s really rather unfortunate that is perhaps the most disappointing implementation of this idea I can think of. We have waited well over an IRL year for something that is not even true 2ic, at the cost of everyone who has an alien XO having to retool or shelve their characters if they cannot. I could more easily accept this if xeno XOs had to be sacrificed for a true 2ic position, that is having de facto authority with no Captain present, but the amount of power leveraged upon the new XO feels far short of requiring that they all be human or skrell. It’s the worst possible requirement for an only somewhat more powerful role. as well, I think the attitude of “we will not discuss this further” and “well that’s the result, if you want to discuss it go make a new post” is really rather insulting and flippant, given the sheer amount of time passed between the vote and the result, and the extremely negative stipulation introduced. This wasn’t on the docket, and I am of the opinion that people may have voted differently if it was made clear that non skrell/human XOs were on the chopping block, not to mention the cultural changes and changing of opinions on the server in the year it somehow took to implement this change. I echo the sentiment that the handling of this change is callous, disrespectful and quite frankly, bizarre.