GeneralCamo

Ckey/BYOND Username: generalcamo Discord Name: generalcamo Position Being Applied For: Coder Past Experiences/Knowledge: Hobbyist C++ Coder (~5 years), hobby project management, open source development experience. I have some experience with BYOND development. I now have SQL and C# experience. Examples of past work: A rework of our web authentication system (to fix critical issues) during the great DDOS: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/20769 Emissives: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/18895 Fuel/Auxiliary piping: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/16141 An ongoing fabrication project: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21668 Modernization of our wounds system: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/20757 Additional comments: Was previously denied for various reasons, see prior thread: I like to think, since then, I got a real reality check (due to a discord suspension this year), as well as having improved my attitude towards projects in general. I am still dedicated to ensuring the server has the best experience possible, with a key emphasis on the new player experience (this is a huge focus for me, 100%). Though I am now a lore deputy writer, I still wish to contribute to the success of the server in other ways. I plan to at the very least, continue with my fabrication project, regardless of the status of this app. This would just help me coordinate internally better.

National Assembly reaches Compromise on Power Infrastructure Renewal After a week and a half of intense debate, the National Assembly has agreed to implement a compromise plan to renovate the nation’s power infrastructure. At the insistence of the Adhomian Blue Party, several new power plants using biofuels as well as other non-fossil fuels will be explored and built, with any expansion requiring a usage of at least 50% of renewable biofuels. Ex-interim President Brajrr Alnadruskiy has also compromised with his party, removing the provision of extranet expansion, but at least agreeing to ensure all libraries, schools, and universities have extranet installed. At the insistence of both the Blue and People’s Party, expansion of the power grid into Southern Harr'simir has been indefinitely tabled, to be explored at a later date. Rrhaza-Akhran Muharajuurl Muhr'Fal expressed his disapproval at the last minute compromise, stating his disappointment that the people of Southern Harr’simir ignore the positive developments of universal electrification, while emphasizing the negatives. He has stated he will nevertheless respect the bill, “excepting infrastructure required to maintain our defensive posture against the Royalists and… others seeking to disrupt our revolution." At the final vote, only the Followers of Nated voted against the proposal, with Maksym Razin giving an angered speech to the Assembly, until he was ordered to regain decorum by President Harrlala for failing to request the floor. Commander Kahan Hro'rammhad has ordered the Liberation Army’s generators be used to supplement power generation while the project is being placed underway. Additionally, he has ordered the Liberation Army's engineers to assist civilian workers with the expansion. Rrhaza-Akhran Ahem Kah’nrir initially announced he would not allow any civilian workers into the Northern Ras’nrr territory to renovate power infrastructure, until Supreme Commander Nated personally ordered a Liberation Army division to directly escort and protect civilian workers in the Junta. Ahem Kah’nrir then sent an apology, blaming the previous message on a “communication malfunction." Today's most popular articles: Crevus to open emergency landing pad to evacuate stranded space liners. Profile of a Hero: How a humble Zhan-Khazan baker fed his town without power. Partial emergency repairs to critical substation expected to last through renovation.

BREAKING: Continental Blackout threatens lives 21.12.1467 A full blackout has been implemented after the failure of a major substation that supplies Crevus and Shastar City. The entirety of Das’nrra is now without power to prevent major damage to the infrastructure, with failures now expected to worsen in Southern Ras’nrr. Due to the timing of this during a major coldspike in several locales, alternative heaters and heavy blankets are being distributed across the continents during this emergency. Due to a lack of power at spaceports, all shuttle service in Crevus is now suspended with the exception of emergency flights. Several visitors have expressed confusion and even anger at flight cancellations, made worse due to the lack of power affecting hotels and restaurants. The National Assembly, after a short recess yesterday, continues to debate on the modernization plan. The Adhomian Blue Party has lessened some of their opposition in the face of the recent events, though insists that fossil fuel power plants be downplayed in the expansion. Ex-interim President Alnadruskiy continues to work with his party to craft a proposal that his whole party will agree with. The Followers of Nated have not changed their stance, with only two of their members abstaining instead of voting against the bill in the latest vote. We will continue to provide news, in multiple forms, during this developing crisis. Today's most popular articles: Rhaza-Akhran Rahman urges action to restore power to arsenals, states Amohdah cannot be secured with “ceremonial antiques.” Where to find your nearest emergency distribution center. Mysterious signal reported in Din’akk Mountains.

Brownouts reported across Nation 18.12.2467 Due to a currently unknown issue, intermittent brownouts are being employed to prevent severe damage to power infrastructure. The National Assembly, which had originally been in recess for a week, has been called into an emergency meeting today to discuss the incident. Until the matter is resolved, a general advisory remains in place for occasional power losses; local election sites in Southern Ras’nrr are distributing emergency supplies including alternative heating sources starting today to cover for the loss of electrical heating. The Chief Engineer of the National Grid Authority has been asked to testify regarding the incident in front of the assembly. Nearly nine years ago, ex-Interim President Brajrr Alnadruskiy called upon the liberated to renovate the ramshackle power infrastructure left by the neglectful Hadiist tyrants, or never constructed by the usurpers in the first place. Our citizens braved tough conditions in the middle of our revolution to complete this project 8 years ago, considered important to secure our independence. Now however, in a lengthy testimony before the National Assembly, Chief Engineer Haskiim So’renz has stated that the suboptimal conditions endured by our citizens has hampered the quality of infrastructure. So’renz, after a heated debate amongst representatives present, said “he has been working around the clock to prevent a catastrophic failure. Only a renewed renovation will allow him to stop ordering power stoppages to prevent major permanent damage to the infrastructure." Ex-interim President Brajrr Alnadruskiy took the floor soon after the testimony to propose a full renovation and renewed expansion of the power grid, stating "it is needed to secure the sovereignty of our people, and show the supremacy of the true followers of Al’mari’s ideals!” President Almrah Harrlala and the National Adhomai Worker’s Party immediately supported the idea. Representatives from Crevus also proposed a universal extranet connection be tied to the project. In a rare move however, several members of the Free Tajaran’s People Party broke with Alnadruskiy to oppose the measure, stating that the need for electrical power is a human concept that has corrupted Adhomai since the First Revolution, and the money would be better spent elsewhere. Bakhteiarova Mirzakhani agreed, with members of their party stating they would oppose the expansion of universal electricity into Southern Harr’simir, which was not part of the earlier project. Maksym Razin of the Followers of Nated has also expressed his direct disapproval, stating that electricity has a “holy origin," and the misuse of it would be an aberration to the scripture of the Twin Suns. He has also expressed direct condemnation of the proposal to expand extranet access, with members of both his party and the Blue Party agreeing with his statements that it would "corrupt the young by exposing them to Raskariim and foreign ideas.” Supreme Commander Nated has not commented on the proposal, only stating he would “respect the wishes of the Assembly." The split People's Party has used his lack of a stance to argue both that he clearly supports the proposal, and doesn't support the proposal. Today’s most popular articles: Editorial: Why the nuclear program should be disbanded. Honoring retired Das’nrra marksman Haliram Zarrinsj, hero of the B’urr evacuation, dead at 71. The ALA then vs. now: Exploring our Liberation Army’s journey from ragtag rebels to professional liberators.

Generally, the general themes are factionalism and space neocolonialism. With the planned de-emphasis on corporations, that leaves room to look into what happens when these kinda corrupt support networks, collapse. The PRA is actively building a bluespace gate with the support of NanoTrasen, for example. Can the PRA, alone, really maintain this? This kind of uncertainty and instability is a key concept we should maintain with NBT2. Such a thing would easily provide an incentive for tajara to seek a potential slightly better life as part of an independent collective, instead of relying on the uncertainty of their home. We don't necessarily need to keep the factions as they are now. But the scars of the past alone should drive them to seek better frontiers. You're correct that it's best used in moderation. Other times it's best to instead look into unity of the factions against general xenophobia and oppression. Having an arc involving an unfair guideline implemented that all three factions oppose together for instance, could be a way for players to engage with the lore. The main thing however is to give reasons to engage with said lore. North pole races are interesting lore, but they provide little incentive to engage with it in the context of the game. At the end of the day, we're not a collaborative wiki project; we're an RP multiplayer game. I suppose the main thing is to consider how things affect players day-to-day. A players character's homeland being contested between two factions could provide conflict, as they could have their entire life ripped apart based on how that goes. But "pie in the sky" things are much harder to relate to, and therefore engage with. In my other teams, I generally handle ideation, writing, and copy-editing. Being a writer for the game mod Rise of the Reds often leaves me very conscious about render description lengths, as an example. I believe you mentioned particular trouble with making things "too long", which is something I particularly specialize in. I have volunteered for events in the past. I am fully willing to step up and run them instead, or in addition. Possibly even mini-arcs that take little effort. A visit from a government official, or an election day, are small events that anyone can partake in. Typically providing a fair amount of content to engage with, while being extremely light on risk.

Ckey/BYOND Username: generalcamo Position Being Applied For: Tajara Lore Deputy Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes Past Experiences/Knowledge: I work as a writer on some external projects, and have worked on Aurora's code before. Examples of Past Work: I co-wrote a proposal for a Himeo expansion: https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/18941-himean-military-expansion/#findComment-167845 - Is there any part of Tajara lore should be expanded, removed, or changed? Explain why. A few years ago, I wrote a major expansion of the Himean military. While this application was denied for understandable reasons, I wrote the majority of the FTC's section on this. I feel with the FTC, while significantly expanded under Catsin, there's still a lot of room for improvement. These people are claimed to have underground bunkers with weapons, and endless training. How is this happening? Would Himeans really prefer a second military competing with their existing syndicate forces? I would prefer a total rewrite on this to instead feature some token integration into Himeo's existing forces (which would be controversial with some members, mind you), instead of having their own military which is completely independent. Honestly this lore doesn't really gel well with the newer lore on the factionalism anyway, tbh. Why would people who don't support the plan to return to Adhomai, train in this group? There's already some existing lore on this integration, but it isn't well-versed or described. I believe differing views on this could be a major reason for people to get involved with it. Fleshing out the DPRA's various internal factions more would also be nice, especially how they see the DPRA's future in an intergalactic sense. Obviously the Ruralist Al'mariists want total isolation from the galaxy. But what about the moderates? Or the Natediists? Some might seek Al'mari's original goal to stand with the galactic community as equals. Others might see this as impossible given the circumstances of the Second Revolution, and revise their thinking accordingly. There may also be different views on who the tajara as a whole should align with, even within the supposedly unified and centralized PRA itself. With NBT2 coming up, I feel this is something that we definitely need to expand upon, so we can tie it with the future of the lore as a whole. - What area of Tajara lore would you like to work on the most, and why? There's a few areas I would like to look into, even before we move to NBT2. First, I would like to go ahead and standardize the usage of improper noun "tajara" vs. proper noun "Tajara", perhaps introduce a new form of the proper noun where we use it currently. Second, there is very little reason to engage with the lore. In the past, the war provided excuses for people to fight on behalf of the forces in our setting, either as antags, or a more natural soon-to-be IR'ed incident. But with a de facto peace, there really isn't much of a point here. While I think igniting a new war on Adhomai wouldn't work, I do believe there is a lot of potential with the FTC's impending proxy war in potentially getting this element back. We could even involve other species in this proxy war so others have an opportunity to get their characters to have opinions on the war. I can't imagine the Coalition of Colonies and Himeo not having a stance on the proxy war that is happening inside their own borders. - What would you like to see in the future of Tajara lore? Overall, the tajara are in an interesting place. Their lore is well-crafted and organized, with only a few issues to solve. I believe we should continue to expand and develop on the existing lore, while looking into how we can integrate tajara into the NBT2. There's plenty we can do on NBT1 mind you, that could serve as a backdrop to how we move forward with NBT2. That apparently won't happen for a couple years anyway. Additional Comments: I am also alright at coding. Though my spriting skills are basically coder sprites at best. I've always been discussing in discord a lot about tajara, and asking questions. I will note I have a character who belongs to the FTC. Given my desire to work on the FTC, I will retire them permanently to avoid any perceptions of a conflict of interest.

I'm neutral, but I've always been of the opinion that IRL drugs should exist alongside "fantasy" space drugs, to reflect our extremely wide setting and depth of lore. I see no reason why the two cannot co-exist. People obsess over small differences IRL, a whole new alien species with similar effects being big in the market is not that farfetched if we consider it from that perspective.

As a former antagonist main myself, the ability to flag bypassing escalation would be an amazing tool for certain gimmicks. Plus, we could throw an icon in the player list on the uplink, allowing both a full exploitable as before, while also an "at-a-glance" viewing of whether we can treat them as a redshirt.

BYOND Key: generalcamo Total Ban Length: Permanent (Discord-only) Banning staff member's Key: roostercat#0 Reason of Ban: Reason for Appeal: Honestly it wasn't common sense for me at the time. This was a problem that I recognized after some self-reflection, and I realized that the stress from the situation here had made me more jaded, and cynical than I realized. This is no excuse to bring this behavior to the community however, and I apologize for my actions here. I took a few weeks hiatus to reflect and improve, and without going into personal details, I have made definitive steps to improve my situation and attitude. I took some more time away to ensure that prior behaviors did not return; this appeal was only made after I ensured that the steps would stick, and I would not regress easily to old attitudes.

A question from myself on this: Do you feel we should have better representation of these synthetics in-game? Is there anything else you would want integrated?

I tried proposing this many times in the discord. It was rejected each and everytime. @Sneakyranger is a major critic of the idea, so I'm pinging them to get their feedback here.

This proposal doesn't fix my largest issue with Earth lore: there's no unique culture to work with here. It's basically completely barren other than being "the cradle of humanity". It's a waste of a planet slot the way it is honestly, as the origin isn't unique unless you count a token "oh they're from the birthplace of humanity", which I don't. If anything, your proposal makes it worse, since you couldn't even claim to have a cool space station capital in orbit.

It feels like this should require a tribunal or something similar. To add a check against abuse, add an opportunity for more roleplay, and potentially allow the antagonist to escape.

For you, I have a couple questions: To what extent should gameplay reflect the lore, and vice versa? Are there any exceptions you can think of to your general opinion on this? What are your thoughts on real-life modern concepts added to the game, and the lore? Let's also consider destructive concepts such as drugs.

So we had a debate on this in the general discord. I'm curious on your thoughts. To what extent should gameplay reflect the lore, and vice versa? Are there any exceptions you can think of to your general opinion on this?