Marlon P.

Overview.This is the second part of my proposed RnD overhaul. Because it’s detached from the original document it can be accepted or rejected without harming the cohesion of the original suggestion, found here. Justification. The xenoarchaeology/anomalist job has been suffering from staffing issues for years. It is also completely detached from the operation of the station as a whole, and the more important consequence of being inconsequential to its own department. The results are also repetitive, with the jobs not being satisfying in long-term play. That is why I have split them into 2 separate, 1-slot jobs. New Anomalist Job Basics Anomalists’ use specialized equipment to seek out locations where one or more dimensions has come into contact with ours, colloquially known as ‘Dimensional Rifts’, which measure typically only 5ft - 10ft. (2 tiles) Using additional equipment these rifts are ‘stabilized’, then resources are extracted from them. Using these resources, Anomalists can unlock research bonuses or ship them to NT for monetary rewards. By their very nature these rifts can be incredibly dangerous. How desperate are you for that next big hit? New Anomalist Mechanics (With Technobabble) The anomalist requires the following primary tools. Everett-Rift Detector: This is what you use to triangulate the position of Everett Rifts. It is a handheld device that beeps when within 50 tiles of a rift, and beeps faster the closer you get. Michelson-Morley Quintessence Infuser: Used to store and utilize harvested quintessence. Boltzmann Anti-Causality Generator: Used to tear open the Everett Rift and harvest the exotic resource Quintessence. It can stores 1,000u of the material. It takes the place of the current field generator. It has three modes that allow the anomalist to choose the difficulty of their current dig. Standard. Intense. Overclocked. Weaponized A Generator is deployed with a wrench and is activated with one of the above modes. The active process of interaction then begins. During standard mode the rift will change colors every 10 seconds for 60 seconds until the dig is complete. The anomalist must make sure that the generator and the rift do not match colors for more than 5 seconds. Allowing the colors to match for two cycles will cause the generator to emergency shut-off and not destabilize the rift. The process can be shut off at any time. Resources gained from this mode are middling. (Base 25u - unstable 50u) During intense mode the rift will change colors every 10 seconds for 60 seconds. The anomalist must ensure the generator is the complementary color from the rift, opposite of the color wheel. Allowing the colors to match for two cycles will cause the generator to emergency shut-off and permanently destabilize the rift. The generator can safely abort the extraction at any time. Resources gained from this mode are modest. (Base 100u - unstable 200u) During overlocked mode the rift will change colors every 8 seconds for 40 seconds. The process cannot be aborted. Allowing the colors to match for two cycles will tear open the rift. This also happens if you fail while overclocking an already unstable rift. The resources gained from this mode are abundant. (Base 250 - unstable 500u) Rift Mechanics An rift is either inactive, stable, unstable, or torn open. A rift’s state is permanent for the duration of the round with the exception of one torn open. There are 3 rifts present on the miner’s asteroid at any time. An inactive rift cannot be interacted with without a generator, or detected except by the anomalist. A stable rift is unremarkable and will change colors periodically until the generator is shut-off, after which it will fizzle out and disappear. An unstable rift will randomly activate one of the following effects every 12 seconds with equal weight: A blinding flash. (8 tiles) No effect. Shoot a bolt of energy into a random direction, doing light burn damage on impact with a range of 8 tiles. In addition, resource gain from an unstable rift is doubled. This creates a meta of destabilizing the wormhole with an intense extraction, then moving to standard extraction. However, destabilizing an already destabilized wormhole will upgrade it to be torn open Entering an unstable rift will teleport you to a random location. A torn open rift will immediately activate a blinding flash, spawn 1d12 wormholes within a 20 tile radius, and then roll randomly to activate one of the following every 5 seconds: A blinding flash. Detonate an EMP centered on itself. Detonate explosion centered on itself. Make everything within 10 tiles catch on fire. Shoot 1d8 bolts of energy in random directions, doing severe burn damage. After 120 seconds the torn open rift will transform into a stage 1 singularity and dissipate naturally unless fed. Entering a torn open rift will turn the victim into ash. A weaponized rift acts torn open, and after 120 seconds transforms into a stage 3 singularity. Quintessence Stored inside the Boltzmann Anti-Causality Generator, quintessence is extracted into containers as a liquid to be inserted into Michelson-Morley Quintessence Infusers. There it’s used to interact with items or be compressed into a single brick. Solid quintessence is sold to NT to increase the RnD budget by 2,000, and 1,000 credits to the anomalist. Solid bricks can also be harvested by the infuser to add 4 points to the xenoarchaeology and extra-dimensional topics. These stack. It interacts with known matter in interesting ways. Because it’s the result of collapsing causality across dimensions, the effects are not consistent and drastically change over time. This is the justification for the table of effects to be randomized every round. The table of what effects liquid Quintessence will do to a splashed mob will range from mundane, to lethal, to bizarre. If spilled onto the floor it should either spawn a wormhole, melt the floor, catch fire, light the entire room on fire, do nothing, etc.

1. Hypothetically, let's say you have complete and unfettered access to take lore in any direction you want. What would you do? I'm not interested in big lore questions anymore; it's been decided. Things are locked down and regimented. There is no place for freeform expression or experimentation on the macro lore. I define Macro lore as fundemental axioms of the setting: "The mega-corporations are in charge." We declined a non-corporate based NBT so it's not going to be altered. I just want to contribute to Unathi. 2. What do you not enjoy about Unathi Lore? How would you remedy this? It's in a good place. There's nowhere that I'd say I don't enjoy some aspect of it. Haydizzle Shen and Deadlantern already touched up areas that needed touched up. That's not cozying up either; I just like what I see. 3. How do you feel about megacorpotions in the Izweski Hegemony? Would you want to expand on it, or rather write other methods for Unathi to deal with their issues? An example could be opening relations with the Jargon Federation for humanitarian aid. Hephestus has its foot in the door in the Unathi space and that gives Unathi characters another "in" to get their characters to Tau Ceti. More megacorporations in unathi space would be retelling the same story that's already been told a whole bunch. Only the Unathi and Skrell deal with megacorporations on their own terms. That's an interesting angle, at least to me, if only because our setting is bashful about giving agency to non-corporate entities that could compete with them. As for skrell; i suppose. Im up for anything if it carries space opera drama. Unathi do like to do their own work tho but we will see. 4. Do you think a district in Biesel "dedicated" for Unathi would perform well? Something like District 6 (Tajara) and District 8 (Skrell), District 11 (Dionae) and District 14 (Synths). I don't know, I guess if people wanted it? It doesn't vibe well for me*. The current meta for ethnic-majority neighborhoods is crime, violence, and poverty. The vibes in question conflict with the Unathi's usual fables or stories. The poverty on Moghes has been written as a focus on colonialism and exploitation from feudal governments. Doing it on biesel is writing the same story but from capitalism. Without a wider anti-capitalism messaging from the rest it would just look incongruent. Also the fun in Unathi is being exposed to alien life and how that changes them and challenges their beliefs, so giving them a little enclave of like-minded individuals would really throttle individual Unathi characters' "being forced to integrate" arcs. Even if it's a especially Guwan hive of scum and villainy... What hasn't been told already? *My vibes are subject to change. Now for YOU to answer MY questions. Yeah, I’m in charge right now. What do you think of my poetry?

Is it possible to show a sprite wearing some accessories?

=== The previous post had to be cut in half because it continued giving me errors when trying to post. I lost three important pieces of content... I'll just write one, because it was a lot to try to redo. The Loremaster does not have the broad and undefined power that it once had. I would have not only Mofo but the deputy loremaster, my direct superior the unathi maintainer, the Head Developer, and to an extent the Head Administrator who would all evaluate my behavior. Shenanigans do not survive easily in the current staff enviroment. One thing that still incites a fire in me is feeling that I'm being judged for who I "am" rather than the content of what I'm doing or writing. If I felt I was becoming a favored child I would patiently but firmly make sure it was addressed properly. I have always been extraordinarily sensitive about these issues and its why I rejected invitations to join any sort of 'clique' or group. I want to succeed by merit. On a related note, as a personal favor to this last part, could you, if you want to apply more feedback, please include some level of consideration for my proposals? If only one, at least the unathi poetry.

Thank you for the reply, Haydizzle! Even if I was rejected as deputy, if the concept(s) were still something desired I'd be happy to see them included. Or vice versa! As an aside, I do not have you blocked Coalf. I undo a block when I either forget why I had them blocked or when in a few peeps I notice a change. Your post is very flattering, and it does address the process of what happened very well. I would only add an addendum that as a person in authority I do share a larger degree of responsibility for individual failings. I would only use Mofo's post to - not justify - but explain why my managerial ability went on a rapid decline, because of the harrassment. I do agree with your take on the balance between humor and seriousness and how it shifts. I personally still enjoy that era's humor even though I wouldn't replicate it in the current climate. Thank you! When I have something lore-wise on my mind that I'm not sure about I decide to defend it and try to engage with others about it. Then by the end I can decide if the idea vibes well or if it was obliterated at a quantum level. In that specific conversation I learned more about the topics in question for Tajara, and mutually I got new ways of thinking about things. Though I'd have no way to articulate it at the time, my goal was to keep comedy tonally consistent. The humor wasn't from wacky randomness, but intended as natural consequences of the abilities/culture in question. Skrell could read minds. They could identify synthetic beings in the way shown in the article. The attempt wasn't a coordinated assassination attempt, but more of a "Show thrown at George Bush" situation that embarrassed the president. The same thing happened with any other "cultural misunderstanding" article that was and still is a genre favorite of mine. The real world has wacky situations all the time. From shoes thrown at presidents to embarrassing faux pas by people in power. Denying realities' innate absurdity makes a setting feel detached and alien, at least to me. Bathos can and is overdone, of course. It's just a product of the time on if it is or isn't. Shakespeare's work used to be the "Dorn Thanksgiving Turkey" of old england. Am I comparing myself to Shakespeare? Some might say that.... I believe you're talking about the "authors voice". That's present in every single writer. I personally can identify the writer of a lot of articles, even new ones, without looking at who posted it based on whether or not I've read the writer's work previously. Because I was writing at every level and in every news channel my personal voice became very common. Unfortunately there's not much I can do about that, or at least without extensive practice. Can you think of how I am supposed to do that?

Thank you for the feedback everyone! Even the critical ones. I will reply to those soon. I sat down and wrote something original to submit that came in after Haydizzle's announcement. It consists of unathi poetry and dancing meant for the cultural page. I'll add it here, and to the original post. It is in google-document form. Do I also need to submit it as a lore-canonization thread? @Haydizzle Bear in mind every "genre" of poetry listed has more than 1 example except limericks, because I personally cannot write limericks at all. The one limerick was ripped out of a limerick-generator. If this was accepted, even if I as a deputy wasn't, I'd want to outsource any additional poems to the playerbase. Unathi Echoed-Songs / Poetry https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dhlyBuyQra8q7quSFdsBT120Psziu3UV_eWAKPnL0HU/edit?usp=sharing

The player had DM'd me gay porn and an image with softgore of a foot punctured by a wall plug-in. The snide remark referenced that during an argument. The player since apologized. it might be difficult to understand the deluge of harrassment going on at the time. When was this? You've been sitting on this awhile. I honestly dont even remember these conversation. Being 2019 tho yeah it was a bad time. If i get mutually exclusive answers about lore i will post a question. If I have a question in general, I will ask. Also for the sake of clarity please call me Marlon. A lot of people would not intuitively recognize my old ckey.

Thank you for you quick response! I popped in for a moment because of a delay in a DnD game I have going on today and saw it. I really like these conversations! I love exploring my positions by engaging with others. It sounds like you feel I was trying to argue with you, which I didn't intend. You kept engaging, so I kept chatting. As I recall, I didn't contribute District 9 references. That's fair! Nothing's perfect on launch. I'm glad work is still progressing. At the time the Vaurca were pretty close to being removed as discussed in staff circles, and it was my thought that any sort of revitalization was necessary. I take concern with this. I wasn't pressing; I was asking if the old parties were still canon or retconned, then asked if it was a change done IC. I don't believe that asking questions about lore developments is a bad thing. I have no stake in the old parties being kept. I'll be a unathi deputy, not the loremaster. The direction of the team is not my responsibility. Anything about the old is me reminiscing or working to document them on the wiki, which also addresses the complaint you provided about not documenting contributions. Again, thanks for the reply!

Ckey/BYOND Username: marlonphoenix Position Being Applied For: Unathi lore deputy. Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes. Past Experiences/Knowledge: I was the maintainer for Unathi from ~2014/15 to 2019 and Loremaster from 2015 to 2019 at the same time. Outside Unathi I've at some point in the past provided major contributions to Vaurca history and general lore. For Skrell I added Glorsh and the Three Incidents along with the Skrell's relationship with synthetics, contributed to the Tajara lore with wiki pages and lore progression, added the original Crevus, reworked the Alliance, created the divide between inner- mid- and outer- spheres of human space, managed the first two antag contests, the two elections for tau ceti, the election for the alliance, the major lore arcs for unathi, the invasion of Tau Ceti, and most of how we run events as world events and the existence of our news articles carry off my original experimentation. Competitive, canon events between antagonistic factions which carry over through lore were also something I experimented with. I also pushed the concept of IC rewrites, in the sense that if something shifts massively within the lore, we explained it as a change happening in-universe. This concept is responsible for many arcs that I wrote for factions in which they fundamentally changed. The Ur-example is the Unathi Crisis where Ouerea was rewritten to be a colony of the Hegemony and no longer a colony of the skrell and alliance. This at the same time was the Ur-example of lore events changing the universe. Within Unathi I've written some element from top to bottom. The most important things are the religions with the exception of Aut'akh, their history, and their honor code. Examples of Past Work This entire freaking post keeps breaking due to the formatting caused by previews coming in from linking forum threads! It's wiped my progress four times with a broken ctrl-z. Im not linking anything until after this is posted. In leu of links please see the contributions for the wiki from the following users: Jackboot Senpai Jackboot Please see articles primarily focused in: Sinta Articles. Martian Vice. Alliance News Network. Mendel City Bugle. Wasteland Window. Additional Comments I burned out in 2019 because an incredible and chronic series of abuse and vitriol, including genuine hate-mail, acts of wiki sabotage by quitting or fired wiki developers, harassment, a complete breakdown in civility, and my feeling of a total inability to address the systemic problems, over the course of at least a year turned me into an asshole perpetuating the cycle of abuse that came to a head with my demotion and then decision to leave. This was after a discovery of messages from an unaffiliated server about stabbing an effigy of me. It lead to a confrontation in front of the entire team, after which I decided to just quit because developing suddenly wasn't fun anymore, which I place as the prime priority for contributing. Rediscovering Aurora relatively recently I've found most of the perpetuators of the worst chronic behaviors have been banned, changed, or made amends with me after acknowledging our mutually problematic behavior towards one another, with myself bearing more responsibility because of my position as an authority figure. I'm not going to name any names; this acknowledgement is not to drag anyone, but to focus on the how and why of myself. I get energized interacting with players who find engagement with the lore and I enjoy the staff-to-player relationships lore developers uniquely have. That's super fun! Contributions since my return in order of submission: A cultural addition for Ouerea involving a unique take on marathon racing that is half survival, half traditional race. https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/16388-ouerean-racers-the-red-rocketeers-and-the-yellow-bellies/ The tweaking of the Grim Compact's hierarchy. https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/16498-grim-compact-addition/ A summary of all news articles written for Unathi for the Unathi history page, formatted as a soap opera and with each major section opening with a quote to establish the drama of the period. https://docs.google.com/document/d/157ys4e-LPkXbOjxK8gO1_KCyyb-kbswvLknGMM_8lDM/edit?usp=sharing These were made for this application: A draft on non-hegemonic cultures and religions with a proof-of-concept. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tOOOS3e9TEqR0W8NyqfkcqYAZMmFIglTk6ZD0khc9c0/edit# Unathi poetry and its use in daily life. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dhlyBuyQra8q7quSFdsBT120Psziu3UV_eWAKPnL0HU/edit?usp=sharing My agenda is next to propose to Haydizzle an expansion of minor factions and religions outside the Izweski on Moghes prior to the apocalypse, and how they transformed into our existing wasteland factions. Each one ideally with some element of impact on how the unathi from each of these is roleplayed on station.

My question was answered on discord! they were not

Were the 4 parties from before retconned or did they dissolve into the new ones? I imagined the KOTW threw tau ceti into another in-universe political rewrite but alb mentioned the old parties may have been retconned out.

Sick. Fastest suggestion resolution ive ever seen!

Im personally hesitant to throw the law at people due to events; supply shortages creates a lot of rp potential for many people where tough-on-crime is pretty exclusively security. If foods wildly expensive for example then the gardener becomes super valuable for people. And their decision on what to do with their produce that round has an outsized importance.

Throw a 0 behind all goods for sale from vendors and cargo vendors to simulate the economy tanking. During the embargo of tau ceti by the Alliance before and the economic troubles afterwards i experimented with hiking up prices on some goods to show a persistent effect of the disaster. The prices also stayed up to show corporations price-gouging even with the crisis passed. The KoTW disaster is roiling the entire galaxy and our analogy for fossil fuels, phoron, is supposed to be scarce. The superpower Alliance also collapsed. Presumably the economy is mucky atm. But we dont see that on station. Theres no concerns for money. I honestly forget that there's anything wrong in the galaxy mid-round because everything is normal.

Mendell City Bugle Pt 3

What a great idea. Small steps to more persistence is good. +1

Losing all your whitelists because of. 24hr ban would be catastrophic. It would take 2 months to recover from a single 24hr ban if you apply and receive every whitelist every single week. There is no discretion allowed by admins. Ive seen 24hr ban appeals where the admin expresses regret in the command whitelist being stripped along with the ban.

Fixed.

Sorry, I wasn't sure if it would be policy or not. But, I agree with Desven. This was not a good suggestion. Please lock and archive.

Thank you @Arrow768, though while im aware of the policy as I mentioned in the OP ive been told by staff members that old articles are no longer canon. Following up this comment with other staff got even more contradictory information or the staff member themselves said they had no idea.

Sorry, Warnings and/or 24hr or less bans. Any standard comes with problems. Command has always been a sparse roster. Is zero-tolerance deterrence more important than filled command slots? It is a whole process. I can't speak for others however. Just what i see and personally feel. The elements of reapplying are: The social aspect of being seen reapplying after being banned. Filling out all the questions. Being monitored for an entire week. Having people unload all their opinions about you in the application comments. It is not easy to get, but it is easy to lose. My concern is its a hard requirement. If circumstances are set in a way that I, for example, ban you for a reason that isnt related to your command play then then it is either the admin doesnt ban you at all (not ideal) or more likely bans you anyway with that additional, second punishment. There is no discretion. A strike policy at least creates a window of time for behavior to improve. If not 3 strikes, than any form of discretionary allowance in what form the punishment takes. The current result of zero-tolerance deterrence continues to be more detrimental to the server than beneficial.

Any ban, including a 24 hour ban, results in a full removal of your command whitelist. Even if a behavior has no immediate tie in with command behavior. The server has always had a problem retaining adequate numbers of Command players. Lowering command retention over a zero-tolerance policy is detrimental to the server. Switching from a zero tolerance policy to a 3 strike system retains a punishment for repeat behavior. Repeat behavior we would want to see addressed via a reapplication by the player. But a one-shot ban - regardless of its duration or severity- leading to a Command strip is not utilitarian. Transparency: happened to me once.

As an aside, i appreciate you posting and engaging in the conversation, @Zulu0009. I do not want you to feel dogpiled. My goal is an engagement of the problem. Hopefully there are reinforcements for you soon; I know a lot of people agree with your positions and working through them is great.

What can antagonists do, that can be repeated round to round, do to both create roleplay and also fulfill your criteria for what makes the correct kind of rp?

I've been chatting about old news articles during a project where i am indexing and summarizing all of them. Many people, including lore developers, have given wildly different answers on whether or not anything written on the forum news for humans prior to KOTW is still canon. Working to summarize old canon to eventually give as a wiki submission would be a waste of time for me and devs if it's all being rebooted. Could someone please give an authoritative decision on the fate of articles prior to KOTW?