Pedantic

Gotcha- didn't think to add in the separate sub-species. I'll see about getting those up to date. Also, I had no idea about the k'ois and the tank, going to add a disclaimer to that part and the iron until I can verify how much is too much. Also-Also, thwocking myself for forgetting to add in Cardox, should be in there now.

Massive Thanks Kaizr for sending me all this data on how they work. There’s no way I could’ve written this without them. So, you’re a doc in Medical, and the round has been going well so far. You patched up some zapped grey shirts, fixed the engineer’s eyes for the fourth time today, and the shuttle is getting called any- VAURCA DOWN IN BAR! Now, you might be thinking “Goddamnit, why?! Things were so simple! I don’t even know what a Vaurca EATS how am I supposed to fix it?!” I’ve been there, as has just about every other doc out there. I know the bipedal ants are intimidating with their weird dietary, atmospheric, and chitinous needs. But fear not! While they’re a bit more complicated, they can be saved if you keep some things in mind. And yes, I am writing this because I messed this up too. And yes, it is in part due to a lot of this stuff being spread across three or four wiki pages, buried in archeocode, and you need to throw a soul or two to the God of Brainmed to get to the good stuff. Also, if your just here for tips and tricks, everything above “BUG DOWN, WHAT DO?!” is for you. Note: this guide is based on both hard-coded variables dug up by the wonderful Kaizr, TheGreyWolf, Desven, and supposition from myself. Use your best judgement with the information I’m putting forward. Also, this guide isn’t entirely NewMed friendly, though I try to provide context where possible. I’m assuming you know how the various drugs the pharmacist throws at you work. Speaking of them, I tried to keep in mind a standard drug loadout you would expect a pharmacist to give. If they’re good, you can request other stuff that is much more effective in different situations than what I talk about here. Also, since at least some of this guide is hear-say, expect a few updates as we prove/disprove stuff. General things to keep in mind: Unless its stated explicitly here, most drugs (including Nano (O-) Blood!) are Vaurca safe. Any food that doesn’t have K’ois (and thus, phoron) is going to cause toxin damage in Vaurca. Don’t do it. Conversely, food with K’ois is freaking awesome for them- it acts like tricord and peri rolled into one, while also restoring their phoron reserves. Note that too much food will rupture their internal tank, so try to limit the cramming. Nitrogen, Dexalin and Dexalin Plus are toxic to Vaurca (And always have been- regardless of what certain, amazing guides might have once said!). Side note, about 79% of the air is Nitrogen. Don’t let them breath that. See below why this is VERY BAD! Vaurca bleed 2.2x faster than a normal human, and unlike our favorite shaved apes, Vaurca don’t stop bleeding on their own. They also require drugs and food to regenerate blood, unlike everyone else who just kinda do it slowly. Replace Scalpel with Drill in the initial incision for surgery. Also, fun fact, they don't need a bone saw to access the torso- since, you know, you already drilled a hole in their skeleton. Contrary to popular belief, Oxygen is not toxic to Vaurca, but they cannot use it without phoron in their internal storage. They should know if its running empty, so try to keep them conscious with pain meds to communicate. Keep the mask on, so they don’t die to nitrogen-induced toxic shock and suffocation. Speaking of that tank, if its damaged, the Vaurca in question is going to have a hard time, even if their heart and lungs are working perfectly. Get them to a roboticist stat. Lastly: Cardox. Cardox is that funny "Definitely Not a Weapon" cleaning agent that removes all phoron from anything it touches- including Vaurca. Don't let them get hit by this, and if they do, make sure to hook them up to a phoron tank quickly. Damage Modifiers for Vaurca in Engine: For ease of reference, these numbers modify the damage a vaurca receives from different sources. Assume that 1.0x is the baseline for a human mob. The order is Worker/Warrior/Bulwark/Breeder/WARFORM (I really doubt any of you crazy bastards are going to work on these, but its here regardless) 0.5/0.7/0.65/1.0/0.5x brute damage (smashy or slashy things) 1.5/1.2/1.0/1.0/0.1x burn damage (Lasers, shocks, and of course, fire) [Note the Warform: Sec, if you guys gotta fight these, pull out something bigger than a pistol] 2.0/2.0/3.0/2.0/1.0x toxin damage (Infections, OD, MSOF, and of course, breathing normal air) 0.6/1.0/1.0/1.0/(N/A)x oxy damage (Forgot to use internals, damaged lungs, YOU TOOK ITS MASK OFF, DIDN’T YOU!?) 0.2/0.5/0.0/0.2/(N/A)x rad damage (SSD’ed during a radstorm, stared at the SM, made friends with a Uranium golem) 1.0x genetic damage (The intern thought giving it buta/bic was a good idea, slime snuggles) [This is the same across the board] Random, But Useful to Know Stuff: Vaurca get a 3x blood regen from Sulfur, and, somehow, Drone Fuel. Don't ask. Internals. If you're trying to get the bug back on his phoron tank, you'll find... there is no option for internals. At all. You can't access their internal tank, so if they're really out of it, scream at engineering or cargo for a phoron tank, slap it in their hand, and NOW you can turn on the 'not die' button. Eyes. Bug eyes are, unsurprisingly, weird. They're very vulnerable to flashes, and if they get flashed too often? They go necrotic. You have a few options here- first, have the surgeon remove the dead bits. Its quick, cheap, easy... and causes massive scarring, making them not great. Second, probably better option: Drag them to the Roboticist, plant the bug in front of them, and demand robo-bug eyes. Assuming bug wants them. Final option? Oculine. Turns out, perma-blindness was kinda unintentional, and if its from flashes, you can fix their blindness with oculine. If you fail miserably despite your best efforts, worry not! IC, Vaurca are kind of immortal, due to their neural sockets. Get the surgeon/roboticist to rip it out to give it to the queens. Its fluffy, and gives them something to do, which most players like. Inaprovaline isn’t coded to cause toxins to Vaurca, while improving oxy. Meaning it can still be used as a stabilizer to buy you time. They have two hearts. This has zero mechanical benefit in game, since they both count as one organ, but its still interesting. Okay, Cool, But WTF Does That All Mean? Basically, what the above means to Medical Treatment is that a for a comparable injury in a human, a burn will take three times the amount of damage to heal as a smack from a comparable blunt object. This also translates into more blood going poof from a laser or energy-based attack, making it that much more important to get them stabilized (see below for tips on how). Additionally, if something toxic (LIKE NITROGEN OR DEXALIN PLUS) is introduced to a Vaurca, expect them to be in a bad way very fast, particularly the Bulwarks. This also means that moderately and heavily damaged organs are going to be high priority fixes to prevent toxic cascade, especially the liver and kidneys. Due to the toxin damage, infections are an even worse beast than they usually are. If there’s a burn, keep the theta (or STERA!) handy. Interestingly, the Oxy damage when mixed with the bleed implies that while they will be at reduced oxy levels quickly, the effect on brain activity is about 40% slower, and they’ll recover from suffocation faster. In short, they basically have built in pseudo-Dexalin. This can be supplemented by inaprovaline, and chest compressions if their hearts/lungs have stopped. Even if you can’t get it up to Dexalin Plus levels, you still have a lot more time to treat them than with a human if for some reason (cough *bombed medical* cough) you don't have dexalin. And finally, Rads aren’t a huge issue to them… Unless they decide to bathe in a radstorm. At that point, it may be better just to shoot them, since a Vaurca entering MSOF is almost unrecoverable due to the doubled (or tripled, for Ras) toxic damage. Oh yeah, just in case this hasn’t been made clear- leave the mask on, and Dexalin/DexPlus are toxic! BUG DOWN, WHAT DO?! Okay, so obviously, SS13 doesn’t lend itself well to algorithmic methods. The below is my general order of importance for “What will kill the Bug fastest?” You might notice that these bear a striking similarity to what would kill an ordinary person quickly, but with bugs, these first two need to be dealt with especially quickly. Don't be afraid to stasis bag them if you need more time to get things together. Bleeds, leading to brain death due to low Oxy and no Dexalin/DexPlus to save them Toxins, if present, leading to toxin cascade and MSOF (Dead bug) Everything else. Now then- I put the rest of this into a spoiler tag. Its my current working plan, and a lot of it will be obvious to medmains, but if your an intern relying on this, I figured I'd include something more concrete for you. Note that during this whole plan, you’re keeping the brain up as best you can. Its easiest to do this after Step 3, since alkysine can be applied then, but its still something to keep in mind. Hopefully, if you’re reading this, you know that 0% activity means a squashed bug. Last Minute Thoughts: So, if you got this far through my wall of string and pins, you’re either hopelessly confused, angry I forgot something, or some combination of the two. On the off chance you learned something, and haven’t gotten bored yet, I have a few parting thoughts I couldn’t fit easily into the rest of the guide. Mostly, don’t be afraid of stasis bags. We have cryotubes for a reason (AND THEY WORK NOW!), so don’t worry about the genetic damage. Once they get hurt, Vaurca are on the clock, at least, more so than most other people. I would say that if they’ve lost a lot of blood, and have a ridiculously high heart rate, its time for the bag, while you get everything organized. Frankly, this could also apply to any other species since that’s a pretty bad situation across the board. All right, hopefully you crazy guys and gals of Medical have a better understanding of this stuff, I'm going to go burn down the conspiracy board I needed just to make this.

All right, thanks for the heads up on the self-purchase, going to shift that to their previous owner, a shipping company, selling Domino at auction to Nanotransen following bankruptcy. As for the three year ownership, I can change the ownership to a Solarian Bulletin team, rather than a domestic expedition, with their later ownership being largely due to poor record keeping of second-hand markets. On a related note, the three year period applies to the same company, but if they change hands repeatedly, does the clock reset each time, or does that carry over from their initial purchase date? Presumably they would've also been categorized as salvage following the collapse of their initial owner's company. As for the philosophical side, I forgot to include that it has a tendency to analyze cause and effect through the lense of Hume, attempting to better understand the limited world view of IPC's. Their entire existence is tied to input-output, cause-effect, meaning that if it can understand how a potential input requires a certain output, it can better lead its own existence. Thus, the name Domino- the Domino doesn't choose why, how, or when it falls. It is simply the effect of a cause. So, the name resonated with D0-N1, especially since it hasn't had much authority over its own existence.

BYOND Key: pedantic11 Character Names: Andrea Illazso Mariana Ortiz Halina Na'Baal Njoki Mostafa Species you are applying to play: Integrated Positronic Chassis (IPC) Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: I have. 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: I'll admit, I originally didn't want to do much with them. Mechanically, they're interesting, but I kept running into problems trying to come up with a concept that I couldn't just do with a human. However, since I've been playing a Dominian for a while, I've had to deal a lot more with IPC's, just from the nature of playing a Tribunalist. So, after bashing on robots for a month or two, figured it couldn't hurt to try seeing them from the other side. Additionally, the unique mechanics of being an IPC (Repairs vs Chem healing, charge, resistances/weaknesses) make them interesting to play from a gameplay perspective as well. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: From a roleplaying perspective, the simple social power gap between even a Free IPC and a human (or any living being for that matter) immediately gives tension and conflict to most of their interactions. Even if a person is friendly to an IPC, there's still that knowledge that, legally and culturally, the organic is in a position of power. I've always liked underdog stories, and an IPC will always have to be one. Additionally, being a created intelligence versus one that was born brings out a lot of interesting philosophical questions, including to what extent such a being could even ask those same questions. So, getting the chance to explore some of that through emergent gameplay and storytelling would be fun. Character Name: D0-N1 (Domino) Please provide a short backstory for this character: Initially commissioned in the Republic of Elyria, D0-N1 was created specifically to help a fledgling Phoron Bulletin team on Medina. It was intended to help haul equipment, mine in areas too dangerous for the human team members, and generally assist the team as needed. The expedition leader, Samir Akkan, opted for the Burzian method of using D0-N1, using regular memory wipes to keep it at factory settings. After finding some initial success and ensuring that their IPC was performing as needed, the team opted to chase down a somewhat exposed claim that had been recently unearthed. Shortly after reaching the claim, however, the expedition was attacked by a rival group. While the team was able to survive, their site was largely destroyed, with most of their equipment, including D0-N1, badly damaged. Opting to leave the largely destroyed IPC behind to make the return to the nearest city easier, D0-N1 was left to rust on the surface of Medina for several years, running out of charge within several hours of abandonment. Eventually, the sacked camp was discovered by a scavenger team, which opted to repair the Baseline for resale. D0-N1 went through several sets of hands over the next decade, often being seen as a bargain by its new owners due to its cheap price, which only got lower as time went on. Its owners included primarily small businesses on Medina, where it was used to move cargo and stock throughout the docks of Drifa, as well as the occasional mining teams in the system. While this work was occasionally dangerous, the relatively cash-strapped nature of its owners kept it from being continuously memory-wiped over the years. While its internal priorities are well-followed (Self-preservation, follow orders given by superiors) it has a habit of completing them in unusual manners. When questioned about this, it reflects on its programming, and has even been called “philosophical” at times. D0-N1, or ‘Domino’ as it refers to itself, recently purchased itself for its current market value of 2,500 Galactic Credits. Its value being low due to both its status as a used IPC, and its age of over thirteen years, it has depreciated considerably. It then chose to make a contract of sale to Nanotransen for covered repairs and safe storage of its chassis in exchange for a position in the Supply Division of the NSS Aurora. What do you like about this character? For one, having a largely subservient, if eccentric, character sounds fun, and being an IPC opens up less-human options for roleplaying. The positronic's age also gives some lee-way to its behavior, which will make it an easier first IPC. I also like the idea of this strange Baseline, held together with aftermarket repairs and paint, that just kind of does its own thing to help the Cargo Department. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Quite good, so long as I can set a few ground rules for a character, either by myself or from their lore. For instance, my Engineering character, Halina, has to balance out poor Basic language skills as well as various superstitions and folk beliefs, which I use to shape decisions. However, I'd say this is most prevalent with my Medical main, Mariana, where having the set-in stone Edicts helped shape a lot of her interactions with the other characters on the station. I'll admit I tend to default to benevolent characters over antagonistic, but I try to keep their existing prejudices in mind when interacting with others. Notes: I tend to be a "seat of my pants" writer, especially with new characters. Whatever I put down is more than subject to change if I get some feedback, and I fully expect to have to rewrite some of this. I'm going to try to pin down a couple of "Tent Poles," or moments in their life that are set in stone, as well as a couple of ideals/priorities that they simply can't change. This way, any subsequent directions I take them are bound by both the tent poles and ideals to keep them in character.

So, somewhat new to Atmosia, but I have some real-world experience with this kinda thing. I'm curious about how we model the heat capacity of gas mixtures- specifically, are they affected by the molar fraction of gases in the mixture? For example, Phoron has a HC of 200J/mol-k, and Hydrogen has a HC of 100J/mol-K in our sim. If I did a 50-50mix at constant temp and pressure, they'd be at equimolar amounts then. So, based on that, we'd have HCm = HC(phoron)*(molar fraction phoron) + HC(hydrogen)*(molar fraction hydrogen), or HC(mixture) = 200*.5 + 100*.5 = 150 J/mol-K. I know in real-life you'd need to use volume/mass for this, but I'm like 90% sure our atmo sim uses moles in place of mass, so I'm basing it off that. Anyway, just curious about if I could use this to lower the heat capacity of a phoron-mix to make heating it up to can pressure easier- heat it up to increase pressure, then filter out the now-hot phoron to use up less of it. Not especially practical, but makes sense from a lore perspective. Plus, could be used to super-cool nitrogen mixes by using a gas with a lower heat capacity. Anyway, sorry for the math, just trying to make sure I understand this right.