Faye <3

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.

my submission is Bitter Promise,62 i think for a depressive investigator, there's only one real theme option. lots of past, no future

Reporting Personnel: Bitter Promise.62 Job Title of Reporting Personnel: Bridge Crew Game ID: csn-crKV Personnel Involved: Bitter Promise.62 - Bridge Crew - Witness Wikolia Kelekolio - Warden Cadet - Witness Homer Donaldson - Security Officer - Witness Elena Rose - Paramedic - Witness Luke Kortenaer - Paramedic - Offender (?) Secondary Witnesses: Time of Incident: Real Time: (1030 AM ish EST) Location of Incident: Konyang Nature of Incident: [x] - Manslaughter (?) Overview of the Incident: I arrived late to the shift. As soon as I came out of the elevator, I was informed of an urgent distress signal from the surface of Konyang. A Konyng citizen had been attacked and wounded by infected positronics, their partner killed, and their vehicle destroyed. Their immediate location was safe, but they were trapped and did not know where they were. They pleaded for anyone in the vicinity to please come and rescue them. Kortenaer and Rose were already ready to depart but merely lacked transportation to the surface. I decided that rescue should be attempted, and drafted Officer Donaldson and cadet Kelekolio to our away team. I retrieved the expedition shotguns, one for Donaldson and one for Kortenaer after being assured of his training with the weapon. I instructed them that were to only discharge their weapons in the case of absolute emergency, and should not kill unless there was no other option possible for the safety of the crew. Both told me they understood. I instructed the away team that they should proceed immediately to the individual's location, retrieve them, and return straight back for immediate return to the Horizon. Once we arrived, I attempted to discern the location of the individual. He was in shock, or so I believe, and I had to fight for his attention. He had lost where he was in the fighting, and could only say that he was in a "village of corpses'. After identifying a local village on a map and lacking the authority to issue orders, it was decided everyone but myself would proceed there while I remained on the Intrepid to facilitate communications with the survivor, and safeguard our exit. After the team departed, I remained by the intercom to speak to the survivor and advise the crew as they made their way through the city. However, after a period of silence, I heard Cadet Kelekolio scream that Kortenaer had killed someone and "put them out of their misery." I managed to discern that the amount of infected and their resistance was more than anticipated, and it was decided that the away-team would retreat due to injuries sustained, and the potential non-self-defense killing of an IPC. Once returned, the away team seemed to infight and blame one another for what occurred. Cadet Kelekolio - who took Kortenaer's shotgun sometime after they departed, then asked her to hold it for him but not use - claimed that Kortenaer walked over to, shot repeatedly, and killed an infected positronic who was stuck behind a fence and did not pose a direct threat to the crew to "put it out of its misery." I do not recall Kortenaer denying this, but I was not there. Kortenaer claimed that her status as a Trinary perfectionist made her hesitate to do what was necessary to ensure the safety of the crew. Additionally, somewhere along the way, an infected IPC had physically attacked the away team. It was dispatched with melee weapons in an act of self-defense undisputed by any of the crew, Kelekolio included. I had the two corpses lined up outside of the Konyang buildings nearest our LZ, under awnings so that they did not rust. I do not know their names, as they were without clothing or identification. Both were simple baseline frames, painted black. I did not interview either of the crew at the time, as I was focused on removing us from the hazard zone as swiftly as possible. In the confusion of the injured crew, the arguing, and our presence in a hazard zone, I was unsure of what exactly had occurred. It was only later that Kelekolio came to me to speak on what happened, and why I write this report. I promised her I would escalate the matter. Would you like to be personally interviewed?: [x] - Yes [ ] - No Did you report it to a Head of Staff or a superior? If so, who? If not, why?: No. none available. Actions taken: I lack any authority to handle this matter myself. Additional Notes:

i am against this for the simple fact i get sad when the animal dies. pointless removal. bad.

I’ve never had an issue with IPCs acting human-esque. Most of my IPCs do. I do have issue with personable borgs because to be frank, I do not view them as characters. Their existence is rooted in a mechanical fix for a lack of staffing on the manifest. They’re just barely complex enough to get the job done and very likely wiped regularly, and that’s all they will ever be IMO unless a whitelist is added for them. When we’ve had borgs in the past form relationships and friendships, it inevitably becomes a moderation issue when said borg becomes “my friend with all access.” IMO if you want to explore the concepts that synthlore is built around i.e. personhood, self-determination you should get the IPC whitelist. If the community wants borgs as actual characters, then we need a whitelist for them as well.

i think that the golden deep suffers from three main issues that prevent it from becoming more popular an origin. 1) the nature of the Deep as-is encourages a relatively narrow character type: the Deep is known for it's flashy, showy, in-your-face eccentrics who are often wealthy and powerful. 2) that narrow character type is very hard to play: Anyone who has roleplayed with me knows I love to make weird and often out-of-the-box IPCs, so let me be the first to say that playing a weird character is very difficult. it's easy to play a nonsense, outrageous character, but very hard to play a consistently odd IPC who is weird in the same ways time and time again. the Deep's unfettered capitalism, worship of material wealth and power has resulted in an almost orange-blue morality system, and a culture that is very alien to our own. this goes for all alien species: the more divorced from human culture a group is, the harder it is for us (humans) to write and understand effectively. In other words, if I am a new synthetic whitelistee, am I going to play the relatively easy-to-understand ZIs, IRUs and ZH units, or am I going to try to play the extremely odd and demanding Golden Deep IPCs? Do not misunderstand me here though, I love this about them, I love their bizarreness, and I wouldn't change them. that said, it's undeniable that it's a barrier to play. We should create lore supporting more grounded characters in the Golden Deep, while also allowing the quirky and intense IPCs the group is known for. 3) they have almost no good narrative hooks for other factions. if memory serves, they have a short blurb about being allied with NanoTrasen and that’s about it. I think this is a huge mistake. Let’s say you’re willing to commit to making a Deep IPC despite the relatively high entry barrier, so you have your Ayn Rand robot…then what? The Deep sorely needs more of a presence in the Spur. They could be friends with Idris and maybe hire their IRUs and ISUs for the security of Deep vessels. Maybe Idris even wants to open a Golden Deep branch? the Deep is surely too large and too luxurious of a merchant fleet for Idris to ignore. You could give Idris players the opportunity to write things like “oh, i was loaned to the deep for security” or “i was a chef on Pactolus making IPC food” etc etc. We have Zeng-Hu Jargonfed items, why not Idris - Golden Deep items? People love loadout stuff. There could easily be a plot hook with the Trinary Church and Konyang as well. The Deep could be a “deal with the devil” style corruption source within the Church, and as for Konyang they could easily be tied into the gangs and corruption there. In short, to get more people playing the golden deep, we need to give more opportunities to play normal people while also allowing for the low concept eccentric ipcs the faction is known for, and we need to add more plot hooks for the Deep around the spur. had a few ideas - a write up and an arc example. enjoy https://docs.google.com/document/d/12bqcV_0H8jYf5Ls7Oj6utp29-5NVFm_oKhkwk0fQfDQ/edit?usp=sharing - Synthettics in Solarian Wildlands https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bUbfFAtUvoXPi_RJvWg4p2cI0JmDCUNI-BSqorCTekw/edit?usp=sharing - Trinary d14 Powerplay. this isn't exactly how i'd do it if i was on the team, it's just to show the concept. if i was on synthlore, there'd be a lot of build up. a proper arc.

I think it’s silly, and unnecessarily dark. Mechanic wise no change, but I would moderate bounds more strictly and have them restricted from making consistent round to round relationships. You’ll often see people complain that some ipcs are too human, but IMO it’s the bounds who most often have this flaw. As for AI, I am much more sympathetic towards them because they’re super computers and you can do a lot with the concept imo. They’re fine as is. thanks for your reply! thanks for your reply. as a lore contributor, why would I write about things that do not interest me, you know? but as a lore deputy, you do loose that privilege. I think i’m passionate enough about synthlore that working on something I don’t personally care for wouldn’t be the end of the world to me, it’d just be work. as for having my ideas tweaked, my dominian dueling submission was heavily edited and some of the stuff i really liked was removed. that sucked, yeah, but i never had a meltdown in schwann’s DMs over it lololol. i don’t see it being an issue, i like writing just to write. and as i said before, my interest in applying isn’t based in some specific agenda. there are things i’d enjoy working on and things i wouldn’t, but i primarily just want to be where it all happens. that’s fine, i’m interested in plenty of other areas that aren’t ipc lore. i applied to work on ipc lore but if for some reason someone else on the team wants my help i don’t see it being an issue. Well if i’m honest I don’t think that a new deputy should be trying to make the boundaries up. My boundaries would frankly be whatever Lancer says they are. If there’s something I wanted to work on the that falls outside of those boundaries, I’d ask whoever was in charge of it if I could pitch in.