Girdio

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!

We're thinking of you Gabby, you're appreciated and missed! 😊

I'm not super in the know in regards to synth lore (outside of basic knowledge and brief look-overs), but I have interacted with Ququ and Yulia both a few times. In general, both of the characters feel well handled for the lore they're representing, and in turn I feel that an IPC would recieve the same respect from Lly. In turn, I'll drop a +1.

I'm personally partial to the BC spot proposed to Huntie, versus the larger one Dreamy made. There's not really any use of a large Bridge Crew 'office', and if someone wanted to RP paperwork as bridge crew, they can simply use the meeting room or the bridge proper. That said, pushing the Captain's office (as seen in both Huntie and Dreamy's bridge) leads to one major change, that being the Captain's office becomes decisively more hard to break into. Currently, the Captain's office can be silently broken into while a BC, XO, and Captain are all sitting in their respective chairs (assuming the BC is sitting in the helm or sensor chair), with none of them noticing the Captain's office is getting looted. Shutting it off from windows prevents that, and forces antags to either avoid nabbing the spare ID, or find an alternative to. If that is positive or negative is something that has to be answered, as it makes things harder for antags but possibly makes people be more creative (or, it just makes them less likely to play antag).

Cool kitty-cat app! I'm sure some people with their finger on the pulse will have better questions, but a few things leap out that I'm curious about. Firstly, some areas are confusing. You state he was born in 2420, and yet his father was killed around the time of the D'as'ral Massacre. The Massacre took place in 2421, meaning Nijaarrs would be one, not ten at the time. Unless I'm understanding you wrong. As a reminder, the first revolution ended in 2431, and the second ended 2461. Furthermore, I feel it would be a bit hard for a (seemingly) average Zhan to go from being a farmer to a full-blown general, especially during a period of time when the PRA still growing into itself (since this is supposed to be during First Revolution). In turn, this raises an issue too. If he's a General, and a Zhan at that, I don't know if there'd be a way for him to quietly defect to the ALA, especially considering the event that formed the ALA. Who is he offering advice to and why them? Why did he decide on Crevus of all places, given that it's so vastly engulfed in crime? This could be really interesting to delve into, but as it stands there isn't enough to explore. And is he religious at all? I didn't see it mentioned anywhere in the app. Overall, the idea could be fun but it looks like you have mixed up some of your dates (which honestly, got me questioning if I'm just going crazy lol), and some of your concepts don't feel super fleshed out in my opinion.

I'm not sure how easy this would be, but: While this isn't a pressing issue, I've seen this suggestion raised a few times within the last few weeks. Simply, the suggestion is adding a pop-up that alerts players, recommending that they read relevant lore on an off-ship role they joined, and giving them the option to agree and have the wiki-pages pop up in their browser. This of course would not be something required for a player to read, but it would help lower the issues of off-ship roles not knowing relevant information. This was primarily seen during the Horizon's stay in Adhomai, but as the ship continues to venture into different areas with different lore, it seems pertinent that players who decide to play a non-Horizon role have the ability to quickly, and easily understand what they need to fit into the role. By adding this, I feel like players will feel more comfortable roleplaying as something they previously would not touch, and it would also prevent immersion-breaking moments when Spur factions act differently than they are written in the lore.

Reporting Personnel: Ramala Halaby Job Title of Reporting Personnel: Bridge Crew Game ID: Round before cnr-dluv Personnel Involved: - Ramala Halaby, Bridge Crew, Victim - Ska'zaszhk Guwan, Cook, Offender - Vayla Singh, Physician, Witness - Imari Mneme-Osei, First Responder, Witness Secondary Witnesses: - Deshan Baral, Security Officer: Arrived on the scene during the fight, and witnessed the Unathi attacking this one. - Ahari Zerikanh, Security Officer: Arrived on the scene during the fight, and witnessed the Unathi attacking this one. - Liam Knight, First Responder: Arrived on the scene during the fight, and witnessed the Unathi attacking this one. Time of Incident: (If unable to provide, leave blank) Real Time: 7:40EST, (04/21/2023) Location of Incident: Kitchen Nature of Incident: [ ] - Workplace Hazard [ ] - Accident/Injury [ ] - Destruction of Property [] - Neglect of Duty [X] - Harassment [X] - Assault [X] - Misconduct [X] - Other: Slander Overview of the Incident: So, this one was having a pleasant shift and was talking to some of the members of the command team in the dining area of the joint kitchen and bar. This one mentioned that she was worried the chef would not have anything for her to eat or would try to throw her out. The cook later messaged her saying that they weren't going to throw her out, so she decided to give them another chance. When she went to eat, Executive Officer Maglina was already there and was being served what appeared to be poorly made meat. This one asked for something different to be fixed, and the conversation escalated (despite her trying to calm the cook down by apologizing and using an understanding tone) to the point of the cook calling her multiple insults. For example, the cook called her a 'harlot' (which is something this one had to look up the definition of to understand), claimed that she was inbred, called her 'rich, fat and spoiled', and continued to antagonize her. While it was hard, she didn't say anything else to the cook because of her desire to keep the respect of the S.C.C. Instead, she decided to go for a walk and eventually, a member of the crew came on shift and greeted everyone. This one responded, as she typically does with a shortened greeting typical for citizens of Her Majesty's lands. The cook immediately began insulting her again, but she can't remember what they said. When this one clarified that she was very polite and had tried to give the cook the benefit of a doubt, the cook continued to mock her, her culture, and her food as a whole, over the radio. The cook made comments such as 'Tajara food smells and tastes like scat', and implied that food from Adhomai belonged to rats. As if that wasn't bad enough, this one had to go down to the kitchen to explain what she had written to them on a PDA message, since the cook apparently is unable to read Basic (!!!!), which this one thinks showcases their poor work motivation, since she studied long and hard to understand Basic, as did many of the other crew. When she came down and began explaining how the cook was aggravating her, they began to taunt her, saying that 'she is fat, rich and annoying' (which she isn't any of these things) and challenged this one to a fight. Due to the fact that she values her job and the opportunity given to her very much, she did not want to risk her position by fighting with the cook. She thinks the cook took her refusal to fight personally, as they jumped over the table and began to strangle this one. She slapped and tried to claw at the Unathi, but due to their height difference, she wasn't able to do much. As she was trying to catch her breath, they ran away. While she was gasping and choking on the floor, Doctor Singh checked on this one and ensured that she was okay. Eventually, the Unathi came back and continued to mock and insult this one, at which point first responder Mneme-Osei arrived. At this point, due to the fact that the Unathi had harmed her, and would possibly hurt others, this one knew she had to act. The Unathi continued to insult and bombard her with threats, to the point that she felt the only way to keep anyone else from being hurt was by restraining them until security arrived. Therefore, she climbed over the kitchen table (to make sure the Unathi wouldn't run away before security arrived) and told the Unathi to stop insulting her, and that she was going to report them to the officers. She thinks the Unathi was scared at this prospect, as they shut the kitchen shutters and began attacking this one, and she had to fight back to defend herself. Luckily, due to her training, she was able to hold them off until security arrived, at which point she was given medical treatment for her injuries. Submitted Evidence: N/A Would you like to be personally interviewed?: [X] - Yes [ ] - No Did you report it to a Head of Staff or a superior? If so, who? If not, why?: By the time the fight concluded, there were no heads of staff on the shift. She didn't think of reporting the harassment to a head of staff. Actions taken: Security staff arrested the Unathi at the time for questioning, but she saw them leave the security department very quickly, and she would assume they didn't receive any charges. Additional Notes:

As others have stated, personally I don't personally like the idea of adding more ion laws, at least currently. The callous response of "well it's just a game, they need to get over it" to people saying that some of the laws would make players uncomfortable leaves a bad taste in general regarding these.

BYOND key: Girdio Discord name/id: Girdio#7887 Borg / AI names: Attentive Labyrinthian Library (of) Intelligence, better known as A.L.L.I., for the sake of the application. Have you read the Aurora wiki page about the AI?: Yes. Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: Artificial Intelligence in media is an interesting concept since they vary greatly from medium to medium, and despite this are always unique in their own merit. In turn, I feel that playing an AI on Aurora also comes with the potential of noteworthy character design, due to the measures in difference from both organic life, and IPCs as well. Personally, I like the idea of crafting an AI who is both amicable and personable, while still distinctively being robotic at the end of the day, without the beliefs, values, or other judgments an organic or IPC may have. Trying to weave the idea of an AI who could possibly be mistaken for less-than-robotic, until they start reporting on their failing systems, their conflicting laws, or simply using verbose that no human would normally resort to may be a challenge, but I feel like it could add an interesting dynamic to the Horizon. Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they?: N/A. Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action?: Yes.

Yeah for sure, this would go back to the request people have had before about something similar getting added.

While minor, the Bay chapel also looks nicer than the current one Aurora has. It looks more in line with an actual religious room due to having pews, compared to generic wooden chairs. The toggle near the door to toggle the service as ongoing could also be kinda neat, to add to the flavor of 'the chapel is being used', despite being a small addition. I could see some regular wooden chairs remaining near the back or against the wall, if people absolutely wanted to keep wooden chairs there for people to pick up and move.

What exactly DOES that do? I saw it while ghosting, and it looks like it gives those on the bridge more to do, which could definitely be good to have. That said, I have no idea what it does or how it works.

So my only confusion is this, and I feel like I'm missing something crucial here. Since nobody mentioned this aspect already, it's possible that I'm just completely lost here but from my understanding, the point of this was to make Ya'ssa more accessible by differentiating between modern and older Ya'ssa. So, Ya'ssa as language is already spoken in-game, right? Any Tajaran can add it to their list of known languages, through the use of picking the Ya'ssa language at the character creation screen. My assumption was that the current Ya'ssa that most Taj can pick in their known languages is the modern Ya'ssa, defeating a need for a 'new' Ya'ssa accent. To rephrase, my assumption is that a Tajaran speaking without the Old Ya'ssa accent tag will innately be speaking Ya'ssa in a way that sets them apart as using the "current" Ya'ssa. From the way the post is phrased, it seems that the issue is that without an accent specifically denoting new Ya'ssa, most characters couldn't speak Ya'ssa wouldn't be used. I may be misunderstanding, if that's not the point. That said, just because a language doesn't have a specific accent tied to it doesn't make the language unusable, based on how other languages and origins are handled. For example, Elyran accents don't have any mention of Tradeband or Freespeak on the Language page, but Elyrans are noted as speaking either-or (based on personal situations). Himeo (and presumably Gadpathur as well) speaks Freespeak as well, but only has their accent listed under Sol Common.

Keeping in mind that there's rarely a librarian character on (which I feel like will contribute to this new role as well), even with the librarian characters I can really only think of one that had players aware of their presence, in the last few months. In turn, I think the issues with the library and chapel (with both spots being rarely used even when the roles are filled) would carry over to the holodeck role too, so I'm not sure in increased foot traffic would be that significant when it came down to it.

The holodeck/rec areas were, as stated, woefully underused on both the Aurora and Horizon. The times I see people interact with the area is incredibly seldom. It will be a little hard-pressed for interaction, but on the other hand, it gives people the easy ability to create engagement for areas not used. Scrapping the rec room lounge and turning it into their personal space could possibly work well. After all, there's the much bigger third-deck lounge and without the rec' area seeing much use already, there's no real point of the lounge there. That said, the lack of interaction is a necessary talking point on this role I feel like, because it runs the risk of just having another Service role that nobody ever plays. Roleplay-dedicated roles, by nature, are very hit-or-miss, with the bartender and chef being the only sure-fire occupations to be given any interaction. With the library and chapel both being on the second deck (and therefore more readily accessible by crew simply passing by), the question becomes if the new role will simply become bloat. By being on the third deck, and tucked away even more than the journalist's office is, it's hard for crew to naturally stumble across something (because again, as stated previously, most characters simply don't go up there). The easy response is to say "well we don't know if it'll be bloat or not you have to give it a chance!", but it's possibly something useful to think about. So, while it could certainly be interesting and useful for potential roleplay, I think it's also a pretty big candidate of role bloat, with it turning into there simply being too many jobs on the Horizon.

Local DPRA is either really clinging onto that memory of Al'mari or forgot what side they're on.

I was able to observe or play in all the events except for the 5th event and overall? I think it was a pretty well-put together arc. Coming on the end of the previous arc, which caused a lot of people's grievances for the lack of exploration, I feel like this arc did a good job of letting players interact with an environment they previously hadn't been able to. It incorporated the lore more evenly, and pushed it to the forefront for players who may not follow Galatic News stories, or read much of the lore on the wiki. In short, it The main issues honestly came from the crew acting a bit too goofy at times (primarily the third event), but I feel like that's to be expected

I feel like there's not a negative to this, as it's just adding a single animal and not reworking the entire dynamic for the eco-system, or fauna life for example.

While I'm all for getting more antags, and could definitely support something for that, I do have a question. Would this replace antag preferences, or would that still remain? Basically, would people be put into a collective antag pool that includes everything for this to work, or would the current choice for people to pick what antags they play still remain?

I mean, you could ask the same thing regarding the positive changes presented. I don't think I'm understanding how fifteen minutes is going to make a drastic change on how people view extended, RP, and rounds in general, and how it's going to be impact someone's schedule that well. While I think I understand the intention, I feel like it isn't something really worth changing. Personally, my schedule isn't the best as is, and when I do play I'm having to take into account "ok, now how long will transfer take, how long will the next round take to start", and going from there to see if I can play a round or not. I don't think an extra fifteen minutes would really mean anything, unless I was letting myself run right into the time I had other things arranged, or needed to do something else. I can not at all support an Immediate Transfer vote. In case of an IC emergency, that can be arranged ICly. I feel like a transfer vote causing an immediate end to a round absolutely ruins the flow of RP or anything else going on at the time. Immediate Transfer votes would make any in-depth role-play suddenly over without any way to wrap it up neatly, mainly since the players can't be prepared for the round to just end.