Desven

Sorry for the delay. I wanted to discuss it with my team first. I think you have a good grasp of Vaurca lore, much better than your previous application, but some things still remain odd. For example, when I asked your character's age and purpose, it was exactly because Vaurcae are designed after a purpose. Overall, I think you've done much better, but I still think you would benefit from reading more and asking some questions. Don't be afraid to reach out to my team on discord or visit the Vaurca channels at the lorecord. That said, I'm denying this application for now. You can reapply in three days.

Hi. I have a few questions: How old is Tek? You mention its interests, but what was it designed for? What did Trek do before joining the Horizon?

Probably unrelated, but why is the new bar so hidden from this room? I wish it had a door or something so the bartender could deliver your drinks while you chill at the big room.

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.