Desven

Instead of creating new accents just to eventually only use the newer one, wouldn't it be better to just refluff the existing one? As a received language and pronunciation, there would likely be little difference between “old” and “new” Ya'ssa. Think of how RP and Transatlantic kept stable for a long time.

Application accepted.

This application is denied. You seem to have a passing grasp of the species, but I'd recommend you read pages like Vaurca Hives for more information. You may reapply in a week.

Accepted.

Hi. We appreciate your enthusiasm but noticed some mistakes made on your app. Namely, there are two that strike the most: the naming nomenclature and the Bulwark being 10 years old. We also would appreciate longer answers for some of the questions; we know the backstory part is hard with Vaurcae so there's no pressure on that, but your answer on "What makes RPing as this species different than human?" could use some improvement. For those reasons, we've decided to deny this application for the moment. You may reapply in three days. In the meantime, you're welcome to ask me or my deputies any questions you may have over Discord.

The applicant expanded the backstory in private. This application is accepted.

Hi. Do you think you could expand a bit more on the backstory? If that's too hard for your concept, you can think of just any backstory a Vaurca would have.

He was badly injured from what I remember, I treated him on spot then asked for other medical staff to take him. Navarre ignored me treating her, though, until I basically caught up with her and she said "Oh, I thought the Dominian was more important" or something among the lines in a snarky tone. She probably would've shot him to death have I not intervened. I'm still wary about Navarre as a character because I don't really like the overtly rebellious security chars that appear every now and then. She once got herself killed for changing at the antags without orders, while security was still preparing. Anyways, to this round. I honestly didn't notice you were playing Captain until almost near the end. Your presence felt a little bit missing, I thought you were a helmsman at first. Though it was a really chaotic round and with very little chatter in Command, as the HOS didn't update us always for every situation. I won't give any judgement for your Captain yet.

Application accepted.

I don't understand why you can't do all (or even, some) of that list. It's something everybody is expected to do, especially in Command. If you believe it is too hard, maybe continue playing and reapply again in a month or two when you're more comfortable with these tasks.

Hi. I have some questions. What are Suth's views on other Hives? What does Suth think of the Horizon? Does Suth have any interests?

I agree with this. No punctuation is really off-putting in HRP, especially when it comes from a head of staff.

In TG, stasis beds have a purpose: you will be killed or have a near death experience minutes after the round starts. So, as a doctor, you want to ensure you have the most gamer tools available for when the bodies start to pile up. But even there, in most maps, stasis beds aren't at round start. It's something you craft, usually after stealing a bunch of materials because science would rather make some wacky bombs or something. They aren't necessary on Aurora. I don't know why they were even ported, but I didn't mind them as much when they were something optional science could do. Now, you just have two of them right off the bat. I'm glad surgery was removed from stasis beds, but this isn't enough, in my opinion: they should be removed from the code. I would rather use sleepers, stasis bags, or keep players alive using a cocktail of drugs. It's more rewarding and it fits more at our gameplay. Aurora isn't deadly anymore. I don't think this is bad, but I wish medical was made a bit harder, and removing stasis beds would be the first step. I don't think stasis beds should remain as a science upgrade because science upgrades are futile: they get reset after every round. This is more of a problem with how science works on SS13, but I digress. The beds themselves are really OP. Maybe I could see them work if they did as in other servers, were they halt metabolization and thus you don't get the benefits of chemicals. But even there, they're there to stop you from kicking the bucket. Sure, it's the future and all, but our chemicals are already more than capable of salvaging some really crazy scenarios. In fact, most meds don't really have any bad side effects apart from some very minor ones. Simply put, I'm unhappy with how stasis beds change the medical meta. I know it gives people a reason to use the ICU, but I don't think that's enough of a justification.

You were elevated for Command eventually, as far as I remember. At least, that's what the OM said before they left. I agree with not arresting them on point. In fact, I called out the RD for trying to elevate the situation when the troupe first appeared. Command sometimes requires suspension of disbelief to keep the round going. I myself praised the gimmick, I think it was fun and there were a lot of antags. But I reiterate the poor presence of security. For the most part they were all together inside the department while there were other things to attend (like the anomaly). I know we didn't have any losses because I was playing CMO (turned into acting Captain), but I reiterate that security presence was really lacking. I was mainly displeased with some of them, which I know is out of your hands, but I wish you took control of the department better when given a promotion. Sometimes Command also requires a lot of spouting directions at the radio too.

I'll have to -1 this one. I suggested you as interim HOS early on on a chaotic round. It wasn't particularly deadly, just a lot of antags that needed to be wrangled. I thought it was a great opportunity for you to showcase some leadership. Instead, Trovensky was reluclant to take the big seat. When he finally did, his presence was at minimum—it was basically like if we had no security, despite a full department. I know, there were two very active cadets and other really new officer characters, but I still think a lot of things spiraled out of control because of poor presence in sec. My advice is to play more, learn more at how each HOS acts during hard times, and improve from there.

Here is the timeline for the last Vaurca arc. Station events had to be cut short because they're not always easy to plan, and having so many events center on the Aurora was really stretching it. Seriously, running an arc is an incredibly complex task, and while you can't always please everybody, having it be an engaging situation is hard. We are planning a Vaurca arc but don't want to rush it. Me, personally, I've never been a fan of events and arcs that only end in death, but I understand why they're the most feasible. Even planning a small non-canon event for Vaurcae is requiring a lot of work from our small team—remember that this is a hobby and none of us are getting paid for it. We have jobs too, and as you mention how you can't always bother to read an article, we can't really devote ourselves full-time to lore either. I think people should lower their expectations as to what can be done in BYOND. There's just so many tricks one can pull to keep the audience engaged. SS13 is not an open-world game where you can just generate an infinite map, with many places and NPCs that have lengthy dialogue, and call it a densely populated planet. In fact, I doubt we'll ever actually have shore leave in a major city because it's mechanically impossible to make it work. Still, while I don't share everybody's opinions on this current event and arc, I think feedback is important and I'll consider everybody's points for any future events that are under my supervision.

Normally, we ask for players to apply with Unbound characters. However, doing so in this case would be really petty, as I think you show already a fair understanding of Vaurcae. We can't be as tough as other species when it comes to backstories, because many bugs are basically built for a single job only and many are also very young, having their first experiences usually on ship. That said, I want to make clear that this is an exception and that I still very much recommend to apply with Unbound. Application accepted.

Application accepted.

I'm willing to accept this application if you change your character to Warrior. It's just an environment a Warrior would be more comfortable with, even if they don't really have combat experience.

Application accepted.

How would we limit character ages? Certain species have age restrictions. Not to mention how messy it would get with Vaurcae.

This was a PR a while ago but it was considered too immersion breaking. I agree, having AFK appear on top you in the game screen is not fancy. That's why I suggested the zzz speech bubble. I haven't been able to log in to Paradise just to show an example of how it looks, but it's much more elegant and gets the point across.

Sure, there could be a grace period. I guess what really needs to happen is some kind of indicator that the player is disconnected, so you no longer interact with them until they come back. I'm thinking about all the dramatic conversations I've had with security and suddenly an officer falls face to the ground. It ruins the mood and someone has to go get them a chair. Perhaps it's better to suggest only that the person is sleepy with a speech bubble, that way you could ICly say they were bored/distracted/falling asleep.

If you've played Paradise, you probably know that there, people that are no longer in game remain in their place but with a zzz speech bubble. Being a huge, LRP server, this prevents the floors being full of people just appearing dead. However, I think our setting would benefit from this a lot. Being disconnected is not something you plan, instead just something that occurs. In HRP, falling on your face, just suddenly asleep, is awkward and always has to be brushed up in the weirdest ways possible. Sure, falling asleep on your feet isn't fancy or realistic either, but the zzz speech bubble serves as an AFK tag that isn't immersion breaking. You no longer have to run and pick up your narcoleptic friend to buckle them into a chair or something, you can just ignore that person while they rejoin the game.

Technology advancements are not simply who has the best guns. At one point, you could say Vaurcae excelled at that, but we have distanced ourselves from it. The problem with giving Vaurcae too many gamer weapons is, mainly, that they would have no reason to be as oppressed as they currently are. It also has created a dissonance in lore that some may think remains. I'll try to explain, briefly, how Vaurca technology is actually meant to be now. At one point, Vaurcae did build incredible weapons that could probably outshine many of the current faction's armies. However, these were incompatible with how they philosophically understood war. Many of those weapons were banned because they do not wish to have a war in such a big scale again. You can read about the Great Hive War here. Vaurca technology stagnated in a time Virtual Reality flourished. There's various factors to it: not only you can say Virtual Reality is the pinnacle of Vaurca tech, but they also had a "dark age" after the Great Hive War, which prevented many more technological advancements. Before that, they made great leaps. You can read about the Hives Renaissance here, which explains the reforms made shortly before their Exodus. It might not be as amazing as shooting lasers or something (though, canonically, there are types of Warriors that do have integrated lasers), but Vaurcae remain highly organized and have achieved a lot in less than a decade. I think Tret is a great example of just how advanced Vaurcae are: they reshaped a whole planet to become the biggest factory in the galaxy. One of the problems when you wish to add advanced technology in game is mechanics. It's also something the Skrell lore team has had to deal with before, especially when it came to the Tups. You have to be fairly balanced, and you also must recognize the limitations of Byond and what we can do with our current code. There have been many proposals to add some pretty advanced Vaurca augments that are just straight broken. In my opinion, technology should give more flavor than actually create an upperhand. It's also why the All-Factories of Vaurcae had to be nerfed; they were too much and too magical and remove the idea of conflict within the scenario. That being said, I do wholeheartedly believe that Vaurcae are at the same level as Skrell, technologically speaking. However, the Skrell have made significant progress in other areas that are economically viable, and have a long history as an established species in the Spur. Vaurcae are outsiders, and their technology, even if as advanced, is not as understood or not as practical. Nonetheless, think about again as to how much they've accomplished in a short time span. The leaders of the Vaurca Hives (Queens and Breeders) are playing a strategy game and have accumulated many assets for themselves. The Worker Vaurca you see on the ship may be underpriviliged, but it's serving a role in making sure the species as a whole continues to integrate, colonize, and gain freedoms.