ErshOurHerzog

BRUH

Amazing event, though I was only participating in the final one as Rang, so I'm gonna talk about the last even only. First, other non-tajara or non-vaurca characters should've had more lighting sources available, maybe even night vision goggles. More powerful light sources. I believe lack of light caused a lot of deaths to the Zhan Pit the Abyss. Second, the caverns should've been a bit more straight-forward. There were a lot of random tunnels and literally NO HINTS to the location of the main tomb. Add more skeletons, maybe some kind of signs or anything like that. Everything else was great, for a Space Station-based event. I wish there were more decorations in a village, like cool wooden roads or something. The village felt too empty and uncanny, but that's my personal preference. I'll agree with Girdio, the main issue is the crew, but what can you do, ban people? Nah. Love lore team, love spriters, love Aurora.

On second thought, the app is just bad, and I don't want to play Aurora with a bad, underdeveloped character, and I don't have time or will to try and fix this. I'll apply again someday, with a better story. Maybe. Maybe not. Thanks for reviewing the app, though, Lancer. Please close the thread if you have nothing to add :')

To be honest, I don't really know how employment in security or police works. I figured that if someone has a background connected to law (even a lawyer assistant), they can train to become a police officer, because they know about law a lot. Perhaps Cog was not content with being just an assistant and wanted to help people actively once they're free. I imagine Cog needed to pass several tests to become an officer. Psychological evaluations, tests about scenarios that might happen on the street, theoretical parts. Being an IPC helped to pass those thanks to the positronic brain Cog has - a very logical processor, able to remember and think about a lot of things.

Yeah, sorry about that, it's probably hard to follow because it's short and the details are, uh, non-existent. District 14 is a dangerous place, as far as I know. It doesn't mean it has no law. As I said, they were always a police officer in Mendell City after becoming free from their owner. Cog is one of the rare IPC officers who worked in a bad district specifically known for IPC gangs that do all kinds of crime. One day Cog was patrolling the streets with their partner, another IPC, on a car. Unfortunately, they ended up being in the wrong place, in the wrong time -- Cog and their partner met the gang suddenly, they had no previous information about the Scrappers expanding their influence to patrolling area. Their patrol car got hit with a barrage of low-caliber bullets as soon as it was spotted. Somehow, Cog's head-plate got hit with a small bullet, causing sort of a shock, damaging the main memory base - baseline IPCs are not very sturdy in that regard. The partner was less lucky, shutting down quickly. There were some Trinary Perfection followers in that Scrapper gang, and when they realized that Cog is missing memories, they used it to their advantage and left Cog in the nearest factory, alone. They didn't want to kill a synthetic, even if it's a cop - that can cause bigger attention from the MCPD. Cog's owner was an old, quite well-known man who was also working for Nanotrasen corporation, but as a lawyer. Cog was generally helping him with the documents, following the man around all the time during meetings even though the clients were uncomfortable with that. With more news about Trinary Perfection and the IPC struggles in the Universe, with issues of an old age, that man started thinking about helping his own IPC to become free. Cog was willing to free themselves as well, otherwise it would hinder the life of their owner - IPCs are very expensive. Now, this man's legacy lives on, but Cog does not remember that part of their past. The rare photos with Cog's owner and official documents from their past 'job' seem like someone different was functioning back then - not Cog.

BYOND Key: Ershovdi Character Names: Species you are applying to play: IPC What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Dark-Green Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yeah. Why do you wish to play this specific race: I like IRL robotics and Artificial Intelligence stuff. If there is a chance for me to play a synthetic character in any game - chances are I'm going to play that character a lot. The whole idea of an artificial mind piques my interest. It is fun to be able to explore different ideas about AI while playing Aurora. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Roleplaying an IPC is different than playing as any organic species here, on this server. The brain is not organic, it's artificial. Coded, created by a sentient being. Every IPC has a very one-sided yet adaptable personality. The way they think is very different from humans. I mean, do you know anyone who only thinks in 1's and 0's? Character Name: Cog-AMI Please provide a short backstory for this character: Cog-AMI is a baseline IPC unit serving in the Mendell City Police Department after acquiring a synthetic citizenship card, thanks to the prolonged employment in the Nanotrasen corporation. Cog was freed several years ago by it's owner who was deeply sympathizing with the Synthetics' struggles. It's relevant story starts in a dark place, somewhere in Mendell City's District 14. After activating in an abandoned factory, Cog ran several analyses and status reports that showed all of the parts being functional, but the outer "armor" plates were quite damaged. Finding a roboticist would be simple, if the majority of Cog's memory was not wiped, for some reason. Even the basic knowledge of universal politics and memories about it's owner were all gone. Basically, Cog lost itself. The abandoned factory was a bad place to stay, so the only choice left was going out of the factory and start looking for help. As for the memory, the knowledge of Cog's own basic abilities was enough to escape the district while hiding from the Scrapper gangs. Navigating through the city was challenging, but Cog managed to get to the Mendell City Metro and finding out about itself. Cog's new identity was basically created from official government and MCPD records. Thinking that continuing the old life after losing most of it's memory is not a stable choice, Cog signed a contract with a PMCG "N4NL Incorporated", getting a job of a security officer on the SCC Vessel "Horizon". What do you like about this character? I like the theme of finding the true self in this character, while also being able to find out details about it's past through, maybe, talking to other characters (though it would be very awkward thanks to the loss of basic knowledge about stuff). I would love to RP a "weird", yet very stable Baseline IPC with a focus on the current story, not the background. How would you rate your role-playing ability? 8/10. I'm far from being a genius roleplayer, I'm not very deep into this stuff. Just having fun, that's all. Notes: im gathering all the whitelists of infinity, muahaha.

+1 from me. Satorn is a good guy to play with. Of course, his grammar and english vocabulary suck, but that is solvable by putting the text through websites that spot all the mistakes; by actually practicing in game. What is funny is that Ratam is a Zhan, so his bad Ceti Basic would actually look normal in-game. As for Satorn's other human characters, I didn't see much difference besides their names and departments. They are not unique, and they all are plutonians (because Satorn is most likely a russian dude). I think he should try making more unique personalities for his characters. Maybe use another human system from Aurora-verse, I don't know. But anyhow, his knowledge of Tajara lore is very basic, so I guess someone's gotta ask a lot of questions, lol.

It is not a joke. I played the off-ship roles for an entire day past week and we didn't have any problems as the Skrell smugglers or the Tajara smugglers. We had a kitchen, a full cargo hold full of everything you want: weapons, equipment, sometimes food, even a hydroponic tray for making drugs. This seems to me like the biggest mistake. How can you expect a player to believe in the hard times the universe is facing when they have a 'pleasant' time playing an off-ship role that was supposed to be struggling? I mean, yeah, sometimes off-ship dudes docked to the Horizon for resupply and all that, even traded goods for that resupply, but it doesn't happen very often. In fact -- it is rare, because players only wanted to do a gimmick like that. Again, I'm speaking from my own experience. The Universe is an unforgiving place. Don't make it a walk in the park. especially in badlands

Nah, there is no need. It wouldn't work, because it is, again, too much time. Admins can't schedule events everyday. So, we just need to code the game to have these off-ship roles suffer. Make them suffer if the scarcity is so bad. Give them only one canister of fuel, make their phoron tanks almost empty, take away their eqipment so these off-ship roles have a sense of scarcity. For example -- make some tajara smuggler ship always low on fuel so they need to contact the Horizon as soon as possible to trade with them. Make the SFA ship struggle with weapons and ammo. Give them only one gun and little food for an entire crew of, like, 5 people? The majority of the off-ship roles don't even really need to go out in the space because they have everything on the spot: food, water, equipment, EVERYTHING. So yeah, to solve the dissonance we're having with the current situation in the Spur we must make all the off-ship roles suffer! Why do every one of these smuggling ships have a cafeteria and a small kitchen? They should eat shit! This is called 'Ludonarrative Dissonance'. It is a conflict between the narrative told through the story and the narrative told through the gameplay. You say one thing in the Lore/Cutscenes, and then you see the entirely different thing in the game. Like, some soldier in COD is saying 'WE'RE LOW ON AMMO" and then you proceed shooting everyone with thousands of magazines for a carbine. That's what we have with offship roles, from MY experience.

Making it faster is not possible. It is not possible for any SS13 community. The new setting basically bites more it can swallow right now. Everything that people want from the Horizon is exploration, landing on real planets, right? Well, it's just not possible to make all that even in two years. Because, as Matt said, you need to code, write lore, talk with the community, make sure everything is in order... It is the most hardest part of developing a server like that. It requires a lot of time, and the players can't always give their time to a project like that. I agree with you, Schev. I feel like going back to Aurora, THE Station will be so much better. It's sad that I have these feelings. Horizon is too ambitious for canon events. Though playing the usual HRP SS13 rounds is alright. Off-ship roles help with that.

I'm gonna write my own concerns here. I feel like I was lied to. I always thought NBT was supposed to be something different from Baystation, without military RP, big artillery guns and whatever. I always saw AuroraStation server as a StarTrek-like multiplayer roleplaying game with a focus on aliens and Sci-Fi mysteries and character relationships. I wanted exploration of the things we have in lore. I want to visit Adhomai. I want to see how Unathi live on Moghes. I want to find the IPC group called "Purpose". Now there are guns, Leviathan, maneuvers, involvement of the Horizon in politics and war, phoron bombs, the Spur is ON FIRE, a galaxy-wide Great Depression is happening when everyone suffers one way or the other, and now the Horizon, a civilian ship with 80~ percent of the characters having NO MILITARY BACKGROUND being mobilized to help with a defence from Solarian Alliance. I am not going to lie, I see some fucked up references on some real life events. This hitting me right in the gut because I am trying to escape the reality by playing as my favorite characters, I do NOT want to dive and go through the same shit as my characters, because I am going through that right now. I hate being forced in military RP. I also find it hard to believe the current situation. The SCC actions do not make any sense from the POV of Logic. SCC is one of the most powerful entities in the entire galaxy and has help from TCFL and all the corporations besides Einstein Engines. What is the reason for this backtracking? The lore team says it's all because we have cool scanners and a BFG Leviathan. But the lore team forgets that we don't really have trained personnel for this. As I said, the majority of the crew does not have military background. Nothing stops the Horizon from having another mutiny again. The SCC must understand that. By calling the Horizon they risking losing two VALUABLE projects: Orchard's Moon and, well, SCCV Horizon. They are valuable because these two projects are doing everything they can trying to save the Spur. Calling the Horizon is a waste of time. The weapons and the drives on the Horizon are experimental. This does not make any sense. And as you probably know, if people want decent RP, the universe must make sense. Lore writers often like to ask: "Did you read the lore articles? You have no idea what happened because you didn't read the post I wrote." I am probably going to surprise you: Almost No One Wants To Read Imaginary News. This is time consuming. These news are connected with each other. They are connected with the species lore. It gets more bloated and complex every day. And to understand what exactly is happening in the events, players must know the details and have their fullest attention. This is not, you know, user-friendly. Not to mention we don't see most of that lore in game, it's practically non-existent. There must be a way to make the lore simpler. I can't imagine how difficult it is right now for the new players who want to get themselves in canon and establish their characters. My support goes to Sputnik. My characters also do not have any motivation to not leave the ship. It is becoming more and more dangerous. My Zhan Tajara, Jribekk, will feel a lot more safer on ADHOMAI, on Crevus. My skrell character, Willsh, does not want to fight for the Corporate, even though they can. They will go back to serving in Qukala, skrellian navy. Making those two characters ignore this little war and stay on the ship will be, I dunno, FailRP. I respect the lore writers, however. Species and the factions lore articles are great and I enjoy making the characters using them. But I hate the current way we're going. Please, take your time, rework whatever you were doing there. Sometimes taking a step back gets you ten steps forward. That is my way of seeing things, however.

Posting a screenshot with my characters.

BYOND key: Ershovdi Discord Username: Kersh#2307 Character names: Ka'Akaix'Sotis C'thur - a Vaurca Xenoarcheologist Za'Akaix'Rang Zo'ra - a Vaurca Security Officer Jribekk Drajulmir - a Zhan-Khazhan Ship Engineer Qubick Maquse - a Skrell Investigator from the Coalition of Colonies Willsh-Qabe Juxeq - Federation's Bridge Crew Harrmalik Zaydan - a PRA M'sai Head of Security. -- Matt told me I can create other command characters doing my Trial. So, I also want to try out new roles. How long have you been playing on Aurora?: I have seen the original AuroraStation and played there as a human character Thadeus Proteus who I'm not playing as anymore. Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? I've got one or two warnings on Aurora discords for talking about more or less personal things publicly. Nothing too serious though. QUESTIONS What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: OOC purpose of any Head of Staff is to be an example to every other player. If someone becomes a captain, for example, every player will look up to them and make opinions about them. If a newbie comes to the server, they will most likely look at the leaders of every other department to see what kind of server they are on. So, keeping a good image of yourself is important, IMO. I am not even mentioning how Heads of Staff are almost the most important roles for decent corporate Roleplay and overall feel of the game. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: Whitelisted players must show their responsibility and good roleplaying skills. These are the most important as well as the knowledge of the lore. And the thing about Aurora is that it's lore helps EVERY player understand their character's places better. The more you play - the more information you consume, and at some point everything will connect. Whitelisted Command players must understand lore to understand their own characters and the character of every other player to create better roleplaying experience. And how I'm going to uphold these standards is simple: Read Lore, Be creative, Be kind to people. Could you give us the gist of what is currently happening in Tau ceti and how it affected your character and their career? Tau Ceti has a phoron crisis - everyone in the galaxy knows that (besides some Zhans in rural villages LOL). When I was writing my Skrell WL Application with Willsh, I was planning to make them a Captain. Their background is as follows: a Qukala soldier with several university degrees becomes so experienced that the Federation wanted them on the Horizon to solve the phoron scarcity problem. However, Phoron issue is not the only thing happening in Tau Ceti! Einstein Engines found another way to travel - Warp Drives. And just when everything started to sound okay-ish, Beauchamp attacked the Warp Gate. That caused a development of a small prejudice against humans in Willsh's mind. Now they think that the Skrell should have more control in human affairs. I think this is a pretty interesting idea for a Skrell character. Of course, Willsh wasn't a politician, but with their experience in the Federation Navy should make sense as they are getting an Executive Officer job - these guys also control the Bridge Crew. What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted? Executive Officer, Captain, Research Director, Head of Security, Consular - these first four are my most favorite command roles of all time I was playing Space Station 13. And I also want to create a Vaurca Breeder character. We'll see what will happen. Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles? Obviously. I've read the job articles long before actually playing on Aurora. (It's funny to me how every one of them mentions paperwork, but seeing real beurocracy in-game is quite rare) Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking.: Willsh-Qabe Juxeq -- Executive Officer (aspiring to be a Captain in the near future) Harrmalik Zaydan -- Head of Security (created because I want to RP as an experienced police officer from authoritarian country, PRA). Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Yes. Have you linked your byond account to the forums? Yep. Extra notes: I wanted to get a Whitelist to the Command roles before, but then I realized that I don't have the time for this. Good news: now I'm back and I have a LOT of ideas for characters. Thank you for reading this application.

+1, yez, give him the access to a furry whitelist. I want to see how Zhan traditions can affect the rounds in game. Also, Tazan is a powerful name. TAZAN. TAZAN.

I am not playing a lot of time on Aurora - I just don't have good character ideas to play as. But when I played, I observed Sputnik's Wolf Arges relationships (specifically with Unathi). Hossl Suazra, Ankala Ahzi (God smite me if these names were misspelled). Everything was played SO WELL. I am pretty sure Sputnik wanted to get an Unathi WL just because of Aurora Croco players. As for the backstory, honestly, it's good. It's an another security character, yes, but if you look very closely, Sputnik's characters are different from each other. - Wolf is a war veteran who tries to live a life after a traumatic episode of war, and is quite religious. - Now with other WL... Didn't play with TAKMAN a lot, but it didn't seem to be a FRAGMAN. TAKMAN is honest, it has an interesting corporation lore, the bot does it's job well. It's a young IPC that learns about the world. It is cute. And it is creepy, because it is a professional officer. - Now the Unathi. Another warrior. Traumatic past. Yes. But let's not forget that Reshkat is not a human, but an alligator with his own story, emotions, way of thinking. Honor and dignity is not morale and God. I don't know about "power gaming" and "poor sec play". Yes, Sputnik had some strange episodes, but HONESTLY? I don't think it is always his fault. He always acts according to the situation in round, he is trying to make it fun for everyone. Notes and warnings must not be a deciding factor in giving a whitelist. Do not suspect Sputnik in some weird desires to KILL EVERYONE AND FEEL POWERFUL, please. +1