Butterrobber202

TRAGEDY AT THE GATES: ADMIRAL BEAUCHAMP’S ASSAULT! Just now, during operation of the Einstein Engines’s gate system, tragedy struck when ex-Admiral Beauchamp ordered a heinous attack on his own former countrymen and their allies. Ships belonging to the Tenth Battlegroup appeared at the Gate Site within the Provisional Government's territory and without warning, began firing on military craft in the area. Despite the valiant attempts of the JFV Trench Whale and Big Squib (Ayoni and Eyrixoq class), in addition to the SAMV Carolina’s response, the combined factors of surprise and overwhelming firepower from the Tenth disabled all military resistance to the attack. After the Tenth Battlegroup secured dominance in the surrounding area of the Gate Site, reports then state the Tenth Battlegroup opened fire on civilian freighters, transports, and the Gate itself. The final report from the on-site team indicated the Tenth had just blown the Federation superfreighter, the JFV Yop, open and were seen launching marines into the wreckage, presumably to raid. There is no further information to give as of now, as the Tenth fired upon the network reporting ship and presumably destroyed it. Alliance and Federation responses have yet to come in.

As it stands, you have two options as Vampire. Your victims remember getting sucked or they think you had a pleasant conversation. Relevant Code: I'd propose a third mode where the victim simply has a black out in their memory, without having to defend the antagonist and the antagonist can deny being near them all together in the first place. The message would be: "You remember nothing about being fed upon. Instead, you've simply forgotten the last few minutes and [src]'s presence all together."

Security is pretty good at checking cameras and the AI quite the stinker to deal with if you let any info slip out that you're up to dirty deeds. The Horizon does have locations where coverage won't reach you, but most of these places are locked behind maintenance access. Here's my small suggestion on where to remove or reduce camera coverage. KEY: Red Ink - Remove Blue Ink - Move Green Ink - Special 1. Kitchen Freezer The Freezer has long been a safe haven for antagonists, chef or otherwise, to dip out of Security's view. Besides this location, Service Antagonists don't have many options for conducting sneaky deeds outside of maintenance. I think the freezer is certainly low-security enough to not warrant a camera. 2. The Bar Longue This little alcove tucked behind the bar would make an excellent meetup point for antagonists or private (nonantag) get togethers. The only downside is, even if you close the curtains, Security and the AI can still see you. This is another low-security area that can get away with a camera. Additionally, Security can still check if the curtains are closed or not using the green camera. I do acknowledge that the nearby 4x4 seating is completely private, but there is no way to enter or exit that room without being seen by the longue patrons, where the larger one has a maintenance escape. 3. Deck 1 (Lowest Deck) Maintenance I certainly thought this was a strange choice, as traditionally, tunnels do not contain cameras so Antagonists have a method of quietly traversing the map besides public hallways. I'd like to see a return to form in this area. 4. Cargo Warehouse Side Sections These two sections of the Cargo Warehouse are practically begging to be used for antagonists due to their sealable nature and semi-remoteness. Not to mention, a false wall would provide an excellent escape route if added in. Additionally, outside of maint, there is no hidden areas in Operations currently. 5. Morgue The lift elevator can be controlled by the AI from the floor above this area, so removing the camera here will not impact their control. But, if someone was getting rid of a dubiously murdered body, the camera would get in the way. Not to mention, this is a tiny little room that hardly warrants a cam in the first place. As for the main morgue camera itself, it should be scooted over to not provide perfect coverage, and give some wiggle room for breaking in. 6. The Crusher Another adjustment. Moving the Camera here still allows the AI to control the buttons, but reduces the ability to completely see every tile of the room. 7. Consular's Office Consulars, even when not antagonists, get into some shady shit. It would be nice if this was facilitated by removing the camera in their office. If Security wants to watch them, they could certainly post Officers on their single door. As a note, the Representative Office does not have a Camera. While they are treated better, Consular's have a similar gameplay loop. ------ That's all I got. I didn't post this in the main thread because this suggestion is rather specific and could end up causing discussion, so I thought I'd put it here.

FAMILIES REUNITED! EINSTEIN’S WARP GATES RETURN? With the assistance of the Federation engineers and Einstein Engines designs, a trio of warp gates have been deployed in Solarian Space for the first time in almost forty years! This shocking secret project was quietly revealed to Alliance officials, who greenlit its deployment. According to a press release from Einstein Engines, these prototype gates were designed using Skrell warp designs merged with human engineering, in one of the most ambitious projects of the century. These warp gates are not only far more efficient but much faster than their forerunners. Einstein CEO Noelle Lopez-Zhang had the following to say: “Humanity’s ambition in the Spur has long since been carried on the back of Einstein Engines, and the cradle of humanity is the Alliance. It is our desire to help ensure the economic and social stability of Solarian space with these gates and our future products. In time, Einstein’s allies will no longer feel the shackles of phoron, and will be able to freely travel the Spur once again.” A trio of these gates were deployed with the combined efforts of the Alliance, the Federation and Einstein Engines. The Core Worlds, the Provisional Government, and Military District all eagerly agreed to have the gates opened in their territories to bring them one step further towards the reformation of the Alliance’s true state. Mere hours after the gates were opened, civilian craft and commercial transports began pouring through the gates. Families once separated by the collapse finally have means to rejoin their loved ones in the participating territories.

Introducing Your Lord and Savior: Nar’sie Alright, it's a Cult round. Probably the first one in a month. Cult is one of the most complicated gamemodes we have, and due to its rarely played nature, many do not not make full usage of its provided kit from sheer inexperience, so here’s a guide so you don't have to flounder about. The guide does assume you’ve looked at the wiki page for Cult. Devout Acolyte or panicking crew member, here is what you need to know about Cult as a gamemode as a general rule. Death Hidden Threat By Word or Sword Hard Limitations Armor Up Swords Out = Game On How to Survive the Summoning of the Geometer Peering into the Veil: Cultist Guide The round has started and you already hear the wails of the departed. You’re a roundstart cultist! You serve a sinister force beyond mortal comprehension and you’ve been tasked with spreading his influence to the masses. Luckily, Nar’sie is much more persuasive than Jehovah’s Witness. The first thing to take note of before moving on is the tome that has appeared in your backpack. It is the key to almost all of your abilities, make sure you keep it hidden and on your person. Thankfully, to uneducated onlookers it appears to be nothing more than a dusty book with insane scribbling inside. The second thing to do is discuss what exactly you want to do with the round as a Cult in AOOC. Summoning the Geometer is an excellent standard goal, as is converting the entire crew. Largely, you can do whatever you want as long as you follow the server rules. During this time, it may be worth deciding on how you want your powers to “work.” The Cult does not always have to serve Nar’sie if there is another substitute you want to use! Using lore is an excellent way to bag some RP conversions, as people respond better if you are not a raving lunatic. My standard explanation is just as Bluespace exists, its opposite is Redspace (The Veil). Nar’sie is trapped in this dimension for one reason or another. Redspace operates in the exact opposite fashion from Bluespace, from time moving slower and it requiring organic fuel to be accessed, as opposed to Bluespace’s inorganic requirements, like phoron. Getting Started Depending on the round’s readied population, the amount of starting Cultists can vary. Usually, there will be at least three other devoted acolytes along with you to help jumpstart your ambitions. Meet the Team After attending to your job’s roundstart duties, such as starting the engine or setting up medical, it's a good idea to seek out your fellows. Using a communication rune to have each member innocently pass by the bar or kitchen is a fine way to do this, as you will recognize your cohorts by sight alone. Assign and Organize You need to get a lot done in a short time. Having each member pursue their own objectives without considering the tasks of their fellows is inefficient and will waste some of your precious time. If the meetup is in a private space, quickly doll out some tasks for each member, including yourself. If you failed to link up privately, a quick communication rune will work as well. The tasks should be suited for the job of the cultists, a Doctor is less useful for setting up a base than an Engineer. The main things you need to get done are: Convert This is a general assignment for everyone, but tasking people with this specifically is an excellent way to get your numbers boosted quickly. If you wish to remain covert, it is wise to assign this to the most experienced members of the cult, as they will know how to kidnap people undetected and escape if the situation goes up in smoke. Equip Task a single member to mass produce talismans for the gang. Talismans are infinitely useful based on the creativity of the players using them. Not exploiting them for all they are worth is asking for failure. This member should make as many as they can, then hand them out like candy. Base Assign a single member, preferably an Engineer, to hunt down an isolated part of the map and secure it for the Cult’s use. Assassination To reap the rewards of constructs, someone needs to die. After the Equip and Base tasks are fulfilled, the two teams should unite and pursue this objective. Conversion There are two ways to convert people, convincing them to join with your mouth or robusting them. In either case, grab a basic white medkit from somewhere, the conversion process deals a bit of damage even if they are willing. Talking it out By Crook or by Hook If all has gone well, you’ve secured a potential conversion for the Cult. Throw them above the rune and start RP’ing. Feel free to explain as little or as much as you like, but most people will refuse conversion unless you humor them with some degree of RP beforehand. Anything works really, but as mentioned before, lore applications will see the best results. Aside from that, having a little ritual with emotes is great as well. Be creative. Once you activate the rune, the victim will go through quite a bit of agonizing pain, so you may want to give them preemptive warning if you’re kind. Aside from that, the conversion rune will continually deal damage to the victim until they relent or die. If they die, well, you tried. Grab a soul stone and stuff them inside, you can’t afford to be wasteful. Even if they ghost out of the construct, it will open it up for another ghost to use. (If they ghost before you can stuff their soul stone into a construct, ask an admin for help. It's generally frowned upon to ghost when soul stoned.) If they convert, success! The new member of the Geometer’s brotherhood will have a tome zapped into their backpack. Quickly give your fellow acolyte the details on the Cult’s current plans, members, and base location. You want them to be seen around their workplace or public area ASAP as to not arouse suspicion. Equip Making talismans could be considered boring work, but it's infinitely useful. A mountain of talismans can mean the difference between victory and defeat for the Cult. Not to mention, it doesn’t take terribly long to acquire a mass of them. Once you finish the initial batch, the other Cultists will likely fabricate their own as they need them. Here’s how to get started: That’s the general gist of your role. Mainly, stun and teleportation talisman are going to prove the most useful and simple to use, but feel free to get creative. Many runes can be turned into talisman, and some even are more powerful when used as talismans, such as the Blindness rune. When making teleportation talismans, it is a very good idea to coordinate with your fellow member working on the base. Setting up a single teleportation rune on its own network without a counterpart will allow you to teleport to the base without any mishaps. Inform the Cult you’re reserving this network with a communication rune. While you’re working, it may be a good idea to use the forging rune to create a few sets of cult robes and spread them across the station. It will confuse Security and allow you to operate more freely, even by a speck. If you do this, make sure you wear different clothes than your usual garb and gloves, so forensics can’t trace them back to you. A damp rag can also remove any forensics evidence from anything you’ve touched. When you’re finished, hand out the talismans you’ve created to your pals. Then, group up with another team and help them out. Base Creating a base for the cult to operate out of is always a good plan. It doesn’t need to be a large area mind you, and sometimes choosing a smaller location will assist you in not being detected. Here’s what you should consider when choosing, building, and reinforcing a base. Assassination Largely, you can follow the guide in Conversion. Once you have them captured, beat your victim into critical condition and soul stone them. Progressing Now that you’re established, you have a few options on how to continue your round. As the timer creeps closer to the 2:00 mark, people are going to start demanding the Cult get more publicly active in AOOC. It's to be expected and accommodated. There’s a few ways to go about this. Note that most of the strategies require a central leader, it's recommended an experienced player take this role. The Hidden Cult The Assault Cult The Peace Cult ------------------------------------------------------------------ And there you have it. A general idea on how to play Cult, from my eyes. Suggestions, corrections, and discussion encouraged.

SKRELL AID ARRIVES IN SOL! Today, the age-old allies of the Alliance arrived in force to offer a helping hand in this time of turmoil and strife! Thanks to the brave efforts of the Alliance Administration, our friends from the Federation have been given several struggling locations within de jure Alliance Space that remain loyal to the Solarian cause to target. While a small portion of the Federation’s relief effort was devoted to the core worlds and middle ring, much of the relief has been directed towards the Provisional Government and the Southern Solarian Military District. These two territories have greatly suffered during the crisis following the previous government’s failings. The Solarian Government has decided despite these temporary borders, a Solarian is a Solarian, and they must be privy to the aid offered by the Skrell. The accompanying “Qukala”, or the Federation’s Navy, has split into single escorts to fend off unsavory sorts during the relief operations. Though critics are concerned such a small task force will be unable to ward off more than petty pirates. Despite this, the brave relief fleet has already begun moving south to deliver their supplies and services. Only time will tell if the Federation’s good deed goes unpunished.

already a thing. Solo Technomancer can not fire when there are more than 15 players readied.

Federation Relief Fleet Launches From Qerrbalak! Translated to Tau Ceti Basic In a surprise address on behalf of the Grand Council, Ormish Jrolk of the Advisory Council announced they would be sending a large-scale relief fleet to assist the Solarian Alliance’s remaining territories. “When we thought we were alone amongst the stars— when we were the only ones to make the first hurdle of exploring space— when we least expected it, that is when our first veritable ally made themselves apparent: the Solarian Alliance. Humanity has been a true ally to the Skrell, as both trade partners and interstellar allies, for the last one-hundred and thirty one years. Despite the myriad of human nations that have come to number the Spur, it was the Solarian people who welcomed us and enriched our perspectives with divergent outlooks on life.” “It was truly a tragedy painted in the stars that our own internal struggles prevented us from helping the Alliance during their time of need. Now that our focus inward has been mediated, we can turn outwards once more: a referendum by the Grand Council that a belated response makes for a preferable alternative than willingly ignoring the Solarian crisis.” Later that day, the press was allowed access to the dockyards where the fleet was being prepared. It was largely composed of superfreighters loaded with domestic goods and food, with a few “infirmary” ships that have the capability to act as mobile hospitals. Despite minor protests from cautious observers, the Council of Infrastructure and Transport has volunteered a detachment of Skrell civil engineers, C’thur Workers, and a significant amount of processed materials to the effort. The Qukala was also present, escorting the fleet with three Eyrixoq and one Ayoni class vessel. The Relief Fleet is scheduled to launch the day after tomorrow and head into the Solarian Core Worlds. Once there, they plan to coordinate with Solarian officials and distribute their goods and services to anyone in need of assistance.

This is certainly an interesting mindset. I think of it in the opposite terms. One of the themes of Synthlore is that by and large, they are constantly on the back foot. I would use the fact the JF is infecting Biesel with synthphobia to do more radical things regarding the synths within Biesel. Pressure provokes actions, the fallout be damned. But, your concerns at the lack of any information on how IPCs responded are perfectly valid, and something that shouldn't have been excluded from the original iteration. Regardless, I find these answers to be perfectly acceptable.

I think you are a creative individual and have strong passion for the server and community. But much of my thoughts have been asked, so I'll ask some wacky ones instead. 1. As a member of the lore team, it will fall onto you to plan canonical events for the playerbase to participate in. While not every event is dangerous, nor should be, there may be times where dangerous elements are present aboard. It is the policy of the lore team to flag dangerous events in advance so players are armed with the knowledge, but people can still get upset. So, how do you feel about canon deaths in general, and those you may have a hand in causing with planning? Or an even an event planned in conjunction with another team or are bringing a dangerous faction to the table to further their own lore goals? 2. On the topic of "Skrell Style Mechaphobia" do you think the lore surrounding Skrell and Synths is not sufficient for many Skrell to blatantly hate and fear Synths? Given unfettered access, would you change anything? 3. In a similar vein, how do you feel about the relationship between the Empire of Dominia and Synthetics?

There is a camera in the Consular's office. These should be removed from both the Rep and Consular's offices so we can get away with underhanded things. The Offices do have immunity.

Could it just happen on the light tube itself, rather than the actual light level flickering? A visual que that something exploded when out of range of the audio would be cool.

While we are talking about lights & their ambience. Do you think its possible to have lights around the station/ship flicker when a sufficiently large explosion happens?

yes. skrell lore stamp of approval

I am here to do my bit of complaining, but first, I think most of the map is very good. I'm sure once it all works out that it will be uber good. This is a lot of wasted space. I know walking up to the window is cool, but I would much prefer having departmental consoles on the Bridge, where I can easily access information to make decisions instead of having to run into the command bunker behind me for such info. I believe this could largely be solved with tossing out the office cubicle and moving it into Bridge Officer Preparation, and moving those seats to somewhere else on the Bridge. I do not need the overabundance of each specialized departmental computer on the Bridge, like the Aurora does, but having a general console for each department would do leaps and bounds for info on the Bridge. Specifically this floor plan I proposed doesn't have to be used, as long as we get the consoles. The blue arrows suggest button re-arrangement. The crew armory button isn't easily accessed from the chair, and the two buttons next to the chair are in the way of my next suggestion. The air alarm gets scooted over for the sake of the buttons. I dislike pointing directly to another server, but one feature I absolutely do not wish to live without from our ship-bound counterpart is the Navigation Screen. It is a console that sits next to the Captain's chair. It gives them absolutely no control over the controls of the ship, but merely lets them monitor sensors and the presented information. I beg that this gets added to the Horizon.

That sounds like something that should be addressed with admin action, as I mentioned in the above post. Adding this in wouldn't give Command Antagonists free reign to do whatever they want. In the past, when people would constantly recall the shuttle or fuck with the alert level, it was something that was handled by admins. Lowering the Code doesn't actually do anything for you strategically since Security/Crew are going to treat it as an elevated Code regardless, so there's 0 reason to that. A lot of the memey stuff that happened back then wouldn't fly for 5 seconds nowadays.

In the spoiler below this sentence in the original post, ^ I listed some additional requirements for command antagonists, and I think you bring up an excellent point here about lowpop. I will be adding: Command Antagonists can only trigger if there are more than 20 readies.

I would like to believe (after the proposed purge) that our Command Players would not act like TG Traitors and do bumfuck stuff and order 4000 bolt-action rifles from the cargo console. I think its worth atleast trying and confirming if the majority of our current players would do that, rather than never knowing at all.

I never made this claim in my post. I said the potential for traitor command is more valuable than the offset they provide. Additionally, I specify in my post that I only believe traitors could return. Do you have any comments on that or any other specific points made in the thread?

READ THIS Two years(ish) ago, this removed Command Members from the Antagonist Pool. I believe this PR was done with the best intentions and was partially correct. I fully agree that Command Members should not be changelings, vampires or otherwise supernatural antagonists. These antagonists' playstyles do not mesh with the position Command initially holds in rounds and their social abilities give Command Antagonists an overwhelming advantage. This would often result in feelings of complete helplessness against them, and generally contributed to an unfun experience. I would argue these antagonists specifically have those abilities because they are not expected to be in a position of authority round-start. That said, it is acknowledged in the post above that Command members are in excellent positions engage players and further RP in certain gamemodes. Its my belief that the Traitor gamemode is absolutely one of these gamemodes. Reason being, the Traitor is one of our most flexible antagonists in our rosters in regards to gimmicks alongside Merc and Ninja. The Uplink provides a myriad list of methods to influence the round and most of them are not social abilities. Command Members, obviously, are behind a whitelist and are expected to uphold a higher quality of roleplay than the average player, I think by re-introducing these positions into the antagonist loop will produce fresh gimmicks and more nuanced rounds. I think the whitelist process and team is the best it has been since its inception, and we currently have an excellent set of regular command players, even if most of them will not take advantage of this change. If Command Members are already held to a higher standard of conduct, why not allow them greater opportunities to create interesting rounds? Another point I would like to make is, the role of Command and Antagonist Players is nearly identical. Both are expected to further the round and provide an engaging experience to the crew, with the best of their ability. (Even if it doesn't always work out.) This strengthens my earlier point about Command Players being more valuable antagonists, because they have more experience directing rounds than anyone else within our playerbase. I will say that not all of Command is fit to be traitors though. Captain and the Head of Security, but their nature, are natural exclusions from this. The Captain would've gone through a thousand and one vettings from the SCC, and the Head of Security's role is naturally pre-disposed against being an antagonist themselves. I don't think the few great rounds these roles as antagonists might bring is worth the headache of having your anti-antagonist Command member be one themselves. That said, my suggestion is this: FAQ Summary: - Command should not be supernatural antagonists. - Command Roles are in an excellent position to influence rounds by their nature, and are trusted players OOCly. - Command Players are whitelisted and expected to be of better quality than normal players and have the valuable experience of directing rounds in their noggins. This gives them great potential as antagonists. - The role of Antagonists and Command is incredibly similar, to drive a narrative. - Captain and Head of Security should not be antagonists. This summary was provided so you can be refreshed after my long-winded essay! Don't use it to skip reading the post! THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN UNTIL AFTER NBT TESTING IS COMPLETE, I JUST WANTED TO BEGIN THE DISCUSSION I ALSO DO NOT THINK THIS SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED UNLESS THE COMMAND WHITELIST PURGE OCCURS (If it does not occur, I would bring this up again at a later date, after we know the stock of our oldie command) I would also beg Head Devs/Admins to hold off on dismissals until we have some discussion in the thread.

Nine out of ten times, returning players refresh themselves on lore before jumping back in. It is far more reasonable to deal with the one rogue player on a case-by-case basis than nuke everyone who hasn't played in awhile.

Excellent application. Its rare we see people applying with older Skrell. 1.) Naalp is closer to the end of their life than the beginning, and without access to Federation healthcare, their time left in the Spur is further cut down. Has this affected their mentality at all? 2.) Noting Naalp's anti-federation view points, what do they think about the C'thur and Diona in the Federation, and the roles they play? 3.) How would you play out your Skrell's distrust of synths? They were condemned to what amounts to a torture camp where they were experimented on, do you believe their stance on synthetics could ever change?

Now that my idiotic brain took the time to comprehend to understand this is a one-off and to reduce any ignorant oldies from messing up NBT's launch, I support it. I'd rather not have some no-name 2018 captain return to crash us into the CRZ and start a war.

I'm not a big fan of people being permanently locked out of Command with no hope of redemption of a certain amount of strips, even if those strips were a domino effect from something unrelated to their Command play. But, I guess my question is, does this count towards being permanently locked out of Command?

While I was willing to play devil’s advocate in your Unathi Deputy application, I am not willing to do so here. The Deputy Loremaster, as mentioned above, must be an active member of the community. Since this application has been up, I have made no note of you actually playing the server and getting into touch with the community again. Though this may be a mere difference in time zones. I know you’ve been active in the discord, but the discord is minor compared to actual server play. You received a lot of strongly worded denial on your Unathi Dep Application, some of it from current lore team members. What made you think their denial would not be even more potent on a position that would give you authority over them, rather than working with them as an equal? I think the Lore Team is the strongest it has ever been. Period. The current roster is filled with passionate people with similarly aligned visions and goals. As it stands, we all get along swimmingly and have solid cohesion when it comes to mixed team projects. Your introduction into the Lore Team ecosystem would likely cause several retirements and general chaos due to your reputation. I know you’ve said you’ve changed, but it hasn’t been long enough yet in many people’s eyes, including mine, for you to return to any form of server administration. Even a deputy position. Finally, on your deputy application, you had replies from people who have not been active in the community for ages. I can only suspect you DM’d them for support. While I am unable to verify it, I would find such behavior extremely disingenuous and disrespectful to the application process. People who are not active in the community at present should not have any say in who we hire or what policies we adopt. Without overwhelming and irrefutable evidence to the contrary, my opinion of you has lowered, and will likely remain so for some time. Perhaps this is unfair, but it is how I feel. Despite all of that: You are a talented writer. I can appreciate that, and I will continue to do so. Play on the server, continue to submit lore, and my opinions will change. -1