Girdio

Thanks to Gabby and Hansolo (I realize I've never had to actually address your username, so hopefully that actually works lmao) for feedback. Thanks to CatsinHD for feedback, and for helping expand the concept of Tajara tail's sporadic 'flicking'. Lore Impact (Small/Medium/Large): Small Species: Tajara Short Description: This will expand the body language and non-verbal communication exhibited by Tajara, which all affect their social realm. How will this be reflected on-station?: It will give characters more 'uniform' Tajara actions, that more people will be able to interact with and engage with. To phrase it differently, it will allow players to have quick and easy references as to ways to flavor actions their Tajara is doing, or ways they could respond to actions from others. Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: I believe so. Currently, (and as far as I know. If I'm wrong, it's going to be really awkward), the only discussion on the wiki of how Tajara may non-verbally express their emotions, affection/trust with each other or anything else is relegated to: "Because of their anatomy, Tajara are capable of using their appendages to express their emotions. Folding one’s ear back usually expresses fear or worry. Ears perked forward to demonstrate interest or attention. Ears also flick involuntarily when exposed to unexpected or loud sounds. Swaying one’s tail continuously is considered a childish way to express satisfaction. Curving down and blistering is a sign of hostility. Bumping muzzles and holding someone’s wrist are common displays of affection." I believe that fleshing this area out lets it fill in a gap not currently achieved by what's on the wiki. Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team?: Yes. Long Description: I couldn't think of any better way to include everything, so I put it in quotes. Obviously, tried to keep it relatively short. I attempted to avoid any possibility of unwanted consequences from occurring due to the area of "expressing affection", but I feel most players granted a whitelist are wise enough not to make their characters unrealistic/inappropriate when it comes to showing affection to other characters. I also attempted to write things in a way that would not retroactively damage existing characters (e.g, nothing is written to imply every Tajara must do this or adhere to any of it), or players that simply don't want to engage with this particular area.

Not in favor of this. We already have security checkpoints (three, iirc) and they get used a total of never. I can't see this suddenly making them occupied, and it's at the cost of negatively impacting Service/janitors. You could argue that it's because they're in areas only sometimes used, but the fact is that they do exist already, I don't really want to add more to a role/department that has a lot, while taking away from a role that doesn't. There's already not a lot of people who play janitors on the server, why take something they could use away from them? Furthermore, I don't really know if it adds anything to security, that they don't already have. Security already hangs out around the medical hallway, and in the service hallway, so they've had the opportunity for (basically) desk RP in that area for a while. If you REALLY wanted security to have a checkpoint in this spot, I feel like switching the janitorial closet, and the security checkpoint near operations would have to be the move. I could see an argument of "it makes more sense for the bug zappers to in a more central spot".

Don't know if this has been mentioned before, but remove this water cool/table combo in the interrogation room. I get flavor-wise why it's here ("do you want some water?", and it gets swabbed for DNA later) but realistically it's rarely used and kinda just clogs up the room. Firstly, since the 'default' sitting arrangement most people take is the suspect closet to the wall, and the interrogator near the door, any third-person in the room has to awkwardly stand in the corner, near the door as well - like this. I feel like, realistically if someone else wanted to sit in for an interrogation (and not in the hall or in the interrogation booth), it would make more sense for them to be positioned behind the 'suspect', like this, or where the table's at. Obviously, you could argue 'well, if someone else wants to sit in, just flip the seating arrangement and your problem is solved'. Luckily, there's also the additional changes you get by cutting it out mainly? The room will be even and look neater lol.

A missing cheese case, you say? Say no more, I know my first suspect.

A real monkey business meeting. Go on apes, escape.

Are spirometers already in the medbay to an extent? No idea what all medical actually has.

Hey! Noticed nobody had said anything for two days, so I decided to stop by. Have only a passing knowledge of your characters, so I can't weigh in there. I guess the easiest questions are always the repeated ones. I know you mentioned what seems like mixed views on the monarchy itself by Masha. Is she someone who would find herself more in line with the Commoners' party? Also going off that, how do you imagine her beliefs of the DPRA or PRA may be? It's intriguing, and it'd be interesting to hear more, she has views of the PRA having been relatively good to her, but simultaneously is following in the teachings of her parents. While not a necessity, religion is also a pretty big chunk of life for a lot of Tajara, but I didn't see it mentioned anywhere - does she have any particular leanings to/feelings towards the Parivara or the Ma'ta'ke pantheon?

This is probably my biggest concern here as well, and I feel like more details would be helpful in this regard. From the way it reads, without a Storyteller role you're simply going into the Mission with a similar outline as the other times it cycled to this particular mission. I can see this being exciting for the first few dozen times it gets run, but in time it'll lead to the same issue that Adhomai/Konyang had regarding planet-side ghost-roles. After a while, people get tired of the same exact thing, and it feels as if there would be a good chunk of limitations to the average "Actor" player in regards to telling a story, since a heavy emphasis is being placed on the story-teller to create 'mini-events' almost. That said: I do think this will be a good solution for juggling the people who want high-intensity/combat in a round, and those who would prefer not to at the moment or in general without having to play extended. As it stands currently, playing off-duty doesn't make you exempt to getting kidnapped and killed by the mercs, or accidentally getting set on fire by the techno. Surprisingly, people usually don't enjoy this happening. Dividing the ship into two sections feels like it would create an environment where both subsets of players are being seen to. In an ideal world obviously, you wouldn't have people complaining about there being too little or too much action because they chose to stay on the ship or go down. Of course, that's implying this implementation works perfectly. I think my only other comment is similar to the questions about how secret will be changed, but more specifically: what is the rollout in this going to look like? I don't see it mentioned in the Doc anywhere. Will this be something that gets drip-fed to the playerbase with like, a Mission round every weekend to get them used to idea, is it going to be a flooding-like situation where the server is rapidly shifted over to the concept? Perhaps that's outside of the current scope of the basic suggestion, but I'd still like to know how this would be implemented for the average player if it did go through. Is there a current timeline of when these changes would be made to begin with, if they went through? I know the statement is that it's been 'in the works' for six months, as a brainstorm but is there any idea on how long this concept would take to implement? I'm assuming it would be a massive ordeal, so is this something that would be a year? A couple years? As it stands, the concept is unique and a refreshing take that would keep Aurora uniquely different from other servers, while being a positive step forward for RP in general. I just feel like I'd appreciate more details for the finer stuff at some point.

I think these parts really hone in on what I've thought about recently. Maybe I'm missing the mark here, but the fact that we have such intense, Spur defining actions on the one hand, and then fuck all happens with that after makes it kinda feel like "what's the point?" These things happen in the moment, they're cool in the moment - and then it feels like it never mattered.

Personally, there were parts of the ship that I think was better flipped. As I mentioned throughout the day, I feel like some places having stuff closer in the foreground/closer to the viewer made it look more natural. Like the Service wing for example.

I think my biggest piece of feedback, is concerning the events during this arc all falling on the same day of the week. I know it's not always practical for lore-devs to have events alternate between Saturdays or Sundays, but it would have been nice. I know a good chunk of players, myself included mentioned off-handily the fact that they simply weren't able to be involved in really any of the events because they had work on Saturdays, or other pre-existing matters that were set in stone on Saturdays, but not Sundays. Hosting it on Sundays means that some players can't partake still, sure. Players who would have been able to play Saturday but not Sunday are left out - but that's why I feel like the events being switched between Saturdays and Sundays would have helped involve as many players as possible (and, yes I am aware that the events had a sizeable amount of players on). I know one event was hosted on a Sunday, the repeated shore leave to let people explore P.V. from the previous week, but I'm not quite sure why this didn't set up a trend. While I was able to cancel my weekly plans once to attend one of the events, I can see it leaving a bad taste for the players who simply didn't have that luxury and therefore didn't get to be involved with the events during the arc. Furthermore, I agree with Shimmer that P.V. was a little bit TOO detailed. Outside of the two-shore leave events, and the very initial off-duty waves, P.V. felt barren. There were simply TOO MANY things for the crew to interact with, which obviously adds flavor but means a lot of times people are walking around going "there's nothing here, I'm bored!".

Soul wins in the truest fashion.

Would it be possible to just give Konyang their own unique channel, instead of having to remove Common from off-ship roles? I'm not sure if that would be easier or not, but given that off-ship roles already have unique radio channels for themselves, I would assume something similar could be done for Konyang.

As much as I would like to see rats return because it would be funny if they ate the chef's food, they have no reason to exist outside of ruining RP.

BYOND Key: Girdio Game ID: crT-dtL9 was when it was ahelped, but this is an ongoing problem. Player Byond Key/Character name: Rawmoodles/Samson Letterman Staff involved: ABigBear Reason for complaint: Repeated poor antag gameplay. Did you attempt to adminhelp the issue at the time? If so, what was the known action taken by administration/moderation?: Yes, spoke to Bear about my concerns about Rawmoodles, and the possibility of them being spoken to by staff. I was encouraged to make a player-complaint instead regarding the situation. Approximate Date/Time: Ongoing problem, no concrete dates. ------ I've watched Samson's numerous traitor rounds and they routinely leave a lot to be desired. Primarily, their antag rounds boil down to doing something minor, should it be stealing something or shooting someone and then escaping into space. From there, the round turns into Samson running from security and commonly misunderstanding game mechanics, then dying. From my interactions with Samson, and my time spent watching Samson, he doesn't try to have any gimmicks or interactions with anyone in the crew. Instead, it feels like him prioritizing 'beating security/winning' over anything else, a feeling which isn't helped by the fact that he will commonly hop into lockers at the slightest hint of trouble. Every time he is an antag (which seems to be very often), he tries something very similar to his other rounds with nothing new or engaging being thrown in. In the round that I ahelped the situation, crT-dtL9, he had taken the traitor powers that allowed him to teleport, which could be fun, if it was used to create something interesting. Instead, he used it to teleport endlessly to evade security, creating a segment straight out of Looney-Toons where he would teleport from one locker to the next to hide in. This isn't engaging, and all it does is force security on a goose-chase for a character. This, as mentioned, is quite routine for his antag rounds. Again, there are no attempts to interact with the crew, and interactions with security are also a bit silly as a lot of his discussions with officers or investigators end up being very goofy. I've aware of Samson apparently being new, but it may be good for them to step back from antag roles currently - at least until they can get more familiarity with the server, and a better grasp on playing antag.

Ran around as an investigator during the round, so I wasn't directly on the frontlines fighting, but also wasn't really hunkered down hiding somewhere. I agree with most of what Fyni said, it was definitely fun but ended up being perhaps a little overly difficult (understandable, it was the first time it got ran). Had there not been two mechs chasing the spider down, there was absolutely no way it would have gotten killed. There definitely should be a little more "animalistic" nature imposed on it in the future for other players. As someone called on ICly, it was a little weird that the Queen would know to keep attacking the medbay. Obviously, it's a ship wide threat but it felt a little much at times. It makes me think of the geists that would occasionally pop up during the last Tajara arc. Very strong and devastating, but not strong enough to possibly wipe the entire crew. Definitely unique and interesting though! Looking forward to seeing how it ends up getting utilized in the future.

For all the jokes that Bear levels out on OOC and in the Discord, I feel that the ability to engage with the community in a manner that is both jovial and friendly, without taking things too personal is a necessary requirement for a moderator. +1

The system doesn't require twelve, or a vast number of members, as I believe (I could be wrong) that would be outnumbering most of the other teams of staff members. Furthermore, with the fact that they lack the ability to cause significant harm to the server, keeping track of a system like this would most likely not be a high-intensity duty. Occasional oversight to ensure nobody is threatening/misleading players would seem to be much easier to handle, than someone who has access to server commands that can alter a round, or can be used to metagame. As well, this system would undergo an application in the same way any other staff role would be conducted on Aurora, and in line with other implementations on different servers which also require applications. It would not be a situation in which existing staff are performing an outreach and personally requesting favorite players become Mentors. Including them as part of the Staff is still fine, if people believe that they're not 'real assistants' until they're included in the Staff list. Mentors would, akin to other staff roles, still need a period of playtime on the server to ensure they would have a commitment to the server - I don't believe requiring that would be showing favoritism. Aurora has a reputation of being easy to learn the mechanics for some maybe. That said, there are still consistent discussions with new and experienced players regarding engineering and medical mechanics being daunting to learn and tackle. Even in an environment in which it's easier than /tg/, they still can be frustrating and challenging to adjust to especially if you're just getting into a server for SS13. Players being requested to learn these systems during Extended rounds continues to the issues of them still having to switch between platforms to figure out the next steps. As well, even if Aurora may be seen as an easier environment to learn compared to high-intensity platforms, there isn't much reason to not give additional measures for aid as improvement can always be made. In regards to just utilizing Lore discords, that certainly helps but this also implies that a new player is active or available to utilize Discord. Someone joining for the first, or perhaps second round may not be ready to join a community's Discord servers, and therefore telling them 'go ask on the Discord' for example, doesn't alleviate what they're asking about in the moment and just means that they feel like the question is unanswered. Yes, having new players engage with the greater community is something that a Mentor in this setup should advocate for and suggest, but it doesn't currently resolve the issue by itself. This puts additional responsibilities on current staff that was not already agreed upon. While some members of the staff may be fine teaching new players during the middle of a round, others may not and placing more duties can increase to burn-out for some positions that can be more demanding.

While this initially was just a throwaway idea I made on the Aurora Discord, I quickly realized that it might be a good suggestion to make formal, especially since it's apparently not been made in the Suggestion forum's history (which is surprising, given the age of the server and forums). Reason for existing. The Mentor role is something that has begun becoming more and more popular on SS13 servers, within the last five years. Goon, and CM for example, both have mentors and I'm sure a plethora of other servers utilize this position as well, with apparently positive results. While mentor roles may differ on these servers compared to Aurora, I feel that this is something that is long-overdue for Aurora, especially when it comes to fostering a growing population, that is supportive and encouraging of new and old players. Aurora is, without a doubt daunting to get into. I'm sure many players can attest to joining the server and being overwhelmed with the mechanics, options provided, and even the map. When I came back to the server last year, after being away for so long, I had to reorient myself with a lot of things and I'm sure I would have been more hesitant sticking with it, if I were new. In fact, I've seen this exact behavior happen with new players, people who hear about the server and want to try out this 'high-roleplay environment', and then are completely lost. I've witnessed multiple players join, and wander around for a while before eventually going SSD in the hall or in a chair, never to come back. This actively means we're losing out on players who may really enjoy the server, and help foster a better environment. It's easy to say "but all you have to do is read the wiki" but that doesn't cover all the questions a new player may have, for example. A mentor program would be able to fill in the gap with responses from a person in the moment able to help out new players or even older players trying out different areas they're unfamiliar with. How would it work? Similar to how Mentors are on other servers, Mentors are at the very bottom of the staff totem pole, with some servers not even considering them staff and simply 'slightly above the average player' in terms of responsibilities to the community. As such, Mentors (and the Mentorship team) would have no (or almost no) power, besides being able to respond to Mentor Help requests. Of course, this would mean that while Mentors would most likely need a special chat for them to communicate with, they wouldn't have the ability to see AOOC, current antags, msay/asay, have access to the GamePanel, and anything else. A MentorHelp is common on servers that have mentors, and is generally used in a similar way that Ahelps are, with it going directly to those with a mentor role, with an individual mentor claiming and closing 'mentor tickets'. In turn, a Mentor would entirely be there to answer MentorHelps, convene with other mentors if there was a question they wanted clarification on, and help new players out. This also means that Mentors would be much less stress than the role of, for example, a moderator or admin who has to deal with griefing, arguments with the community, and other related issues, and at the same time the Mentor team would take the load off of staff who are currently dealing with questions that would be better suited in a mentor program. Mentors would have the responsibility to simply guide new players. This can mean simply learning the map, to game mechanics, to minor lore elements, to even explaining how to start getting involved in roleplaying itself. All of these can be challenging to understand and grasp when you're hit with all of this new information at once, especially if you've never played SS13 before. A mentor would not be there to tell a player every single little thing, as new players are still smart and should be expected to figure out some things on their own. In general, a mentor is there to, well, mentor someone and set them in the right direction. Letting players make their own discoveries (within the server rules) and their own mistakes (also within the server rules) would be a necessary restraint mentors had, and they would only be helping when requested. Responding to possible concerns Would this not cause staff bloat? Even with the powers being so limited for mentors, it's possible that a lot of people would sign up to be a mentor, just for the title or the 'power'. I don't see this as being a real issue. Due to mentors having no power, and being able to be removed from their position if they're simply sitting on the title for bragging rights, I don't think many people would take the time to apply and then do nothing. After all, I would assume a mentor application would (primarily) look at players who have put a substantial amount of time into the server, just like other staff roles. We don't see the existing staff just sitting on their laurels to flex having a title or showing up the Staff List, so I doubt this would be any different. What's stopping a mentor from overstepping and explaining the entire lore/combat tricks/perfect engine setup? Firstly, I don't think most new players who are reaching out about something are going to be suddenly thrilled with the answer of 'find out ICly', when it comes to setting up the SM, learning how to pull off an oxygen tank from a dying crew member, or even the lore for a place like Dominia. Obviously yes, letting players ask these questions ICly is ideal - but not everyone is that extroverted even in a roleplay environment. I feel that if a player is genuinely reaching out and asking questions about lore for example, it shows a willingness and interest in the world that Aurora has created, but a concern over the large amount of lore presented in one big clump. When it comes to new players asking about lore, Mentors would need to encourage new players to still find out ICly or through the wiki but still answer the question posed by the player, and perhaps even offer a small additional explanation of lore, for the aspect they're asking about. Mentors should also explain to new player why they're being encouraged to find out ICly, and explain the benefit it may give them with feeling more immersed in the world. That said, they should not be discouraging new players from asking questions to them, even if it seems like a new player is still just asking questions about lore exclusively. Again, this shows an interest in learning and engaging with the community and the server, and shouldn't be considered 'wrong' just because it's not the ideal way of learning lore. Gameplay mechanics I feel are more straightforward. To put it simply, sometimes tutorials on the wiki don't make sense and at times may be outdated or not in-depth enough. While this can at times be fixed by playing an Intern or similar role, there's not always going to be a 'full-fledged' engineer on for example, and a new player may need to request assistance in setting up something vital like the SM. A new player will not just say 'well I don't know how to do it, I'll sit and wait for someone else to come on', at least often. Instead, a player may bring up the wiki and end up stressing themselves out by trying to follow it. This is another area where a mentor can help, by giving basic guidance (while not spelling everything out) so that a new player (or new-to-the-department player) can get the basic gist of something, and be able to later do it on their own. This directly would mean people feel less "under pressure" if they're constantly having to tab out to check something, and instead have someone there patiently working with them, even if it's not an IC player. Is this really necessary? Adding it may take a substantial time implementing a MentorHelp button, and a Mentor chat. A new player may not engage with it to begin with. I believe wholeheartedly that implementing a Mentor program would only benefit the community, for both new and old members. Despite a new player possibly not interacting with it, it still gives them an option to. Having an ability to reach out, is sometimes all someone needs. While it may not be the easiest thing in the world to add, I believe the longer we go without something like a Mentor program, the longer we lose out on potential new players, and potentially long-term community members with art, stories to tell, roleplay to add, and discussions to build Aurora up. Afterword This is my first attempt at making a suggestion on the forums (I believe), and I'm aware that the suggestion isn't a minor one. I fully encourage people to throw in their opinions on this as well, as there may be areas that need altering or could be expanded on. Thanks!