Sniblet

I’ve run into the same issue this is trying to address a few times from the antag side - “what exactly does this mean, what am I supposed to do about it” - and I just forget it because I can’t confidently do anything without more info. I would say that generally, no antag is using the exploitables of more than like, three people at a time, in an extreme case - certainly not in enough detail to require communication with all of them. The most effective solution I can think of would be the ability to create a limited number of group chats with limited numbers of non-antag participants let in by invitation, meant explicitly to discuss exploitable info, wherein antags’ name are not given by the system, and any other antags can be invited freely. Giving every antag a limited set of AOOC invites, let’s say: a fixed three for all of them to share each round OR if there are greater than three “solo” uplinked antags, i.e. traitor, a number equal to their number kind of fits this need. It’s just that AOOC is used for a lot of other OOC planning, making crosstalk and info leaks likely. But it’s already like that.

In the OP, “technomancer raider and borer come to mind” reads like asking technomancer, raider, and borer to be added to secret. Technomancer and raider are already in secret, which I think is the cause of confusion here. I don’t know where jockey came in. Raider-techno, or magistake, is not in secret. I think that’s meant to be because it’s OP or too chaotic or something? Which is hard to picture in the same server that runs secret mercs.

I think I’ll take this moment to “apologize” for my performance as Super Administrator. Clearly there’s nothing I can do to satisfy you people. It’s all unfair judgment this, that’s not in the rules that, bitch you know what else isn’t in the rules? Your mother. But here you fucking are, complaining. I’m not stepping down, by the way. I’m going to keep making your experience worse and worse because apparently that’s all I’m capable of. Look forward to it. sorry to see you go, Jeff, loved your writing on vaurca butter

Two things: * My only interaction with a mindshield was playing Loner, trying to psi-broadcast some fluff central to the gimmick, and not realizing that half of my two-person audience wasn’t getting any of it. That was pretty lame. Psi powers don’t force control over anyone in gameplay, so does that mean we can drop this effect? I can sort of see an angle where you’d want to isolate a skrell captain from the Nlom, so as to maintain their independent critical thinking? But a skrell’s come that far without a mindshield. Cutting them off will change their personality and may make them unsuited for command where they were good enough to climb ranks before. I don’t think we gain anything from making all captains and commanders mandatorily uninteractive with psi stuff. * If we make this a loadout pick (or otherwise leave it to the player), then the choice presented should be to not have a mindshield, as opposed to being able to take a mindshield. Your character needs a reason to not have their oath to the SCC cult sealed in steel, rather than the other way around.

This kind of stretches beyond the basics that this guide’s about, but I think it’s useful to everybody. Don’t panic. Don’t be nervous. Performance anxiety in roleplay is pretty normal, but people are not judging you as harshly as you might think. Everybody’s thinking about their own character, busy in their own imagined headspace, and they’re keeping count of their own mistakes, not yours. Like you are. Unless you break that immersion, they’re going to overlook basically anything, including and especially the little things that make you wince like “damn, that was stupid.” Backstory inconsistency? Didn’t notice. Accent slipped? That could be intentional. Can’t recall something central to your origin planet’s lore? Well, they’ll get around to reading the page eventually, let’s give a little correction now so we can move along in agreement about this detail. If your hands are shaking as you hover over the start button, that’s fine. But just know that you’re the only one holding your breath. You’re the only one poring over your flavor texts for perfect wording. Hopefully, those corrections will pay off into a really inviting and inspiring text box, but before you can inspire people, you’ll have to let them read it first. Take your breaths and then go play if you want to.

Dropping my radical anti-mechanics sentiment: Any restrictive skills system at all seems like it’s foundationally a hindrance to roleplay (duh, it says restrictive right there). In its most ideal form, it allows characters to do everything we think is reasonable for them to do. This is the same effect that we get from not having the system. Obviously, the purpose of such a system is to prevent players from doing things that they think they could do, but developer consensus thinks they can’t. The best outcome on this front is to, in addition to letting reasonable characters happen, also stop all characters whose players want them to be good at what most would consider too many things. How do you get the Aurora machine to provide a frictionless mechanical reflection of the subjective consensus of the humans using it? Uh, we’ll figure it out eventually, I assume. Aurora already goes for an experience in which characters are never at all better than ordinary and ontologically almost incapable of approaching any task that they would find unfamiliar, which this system can serve if perfected. But it’s a lot of perfecting to do for a redundant outcome. The rules already forbid you trying your best with the Spark’s control stick when the pilots are dead and it’s looping through an asteroid field; or emoting tossing some loose plates over a breach and stomping it in place until it’s somewhat covered by vacuum force; or taking your advanced medical training and some rubber gloves to a busted door, reckoning it’s basically like a nervous system, and slowly experimenting your way through repairing its wiring; or doing ghetto surgery basically ever. The ideal form of a restrictive skills system is just a secondary, harder, but also entirely unthinking, uncompromising layer of forbidding. I click the wrench on the doohickey; I get an italic red warning that says You can’t do this thing! You must call a professional if there is one. There can be no compromises on this matter. But, okay, well, I knew that already, and my coworkers are currently displaying typing indicators for their imminent suggestive IC hints that I mustn’t try. I think that that principally ordinary spirit is uninspiring, which is much of why I haven’t been seen for months - but that’s just, like, my opinion man. The main issue I want to communicate is that the very best this can be is redundant, and any less would make it an annoying hindrance to normal play.

Space is dangerous. That’s good! But, I think it’s a little absurd how dangerous it is in the year 246X, where every civilization that matters is confidently interstellar-spacefaring. I’m thinking of reavers. If you suffer a significant bleed in space and you’re not like two minutes away from a pressurized environment to deal with it in, your story ends there, unless you’ve got like top of the line space ninja gear. Often even then. Having friends nearby to support you makes no difference. I’m thinking about that last bit most of all. Incentivizing people not to travel alone. Hardsuits designed for intensive combat or exploration missions - wherever a bleed is expected - are often outfitted with a crisis lockup module, which builds upon the basic RIG function of actively supporting fractures. If the crisis lockup module is toggled on, an external user will be able to operate a manual lever that, if unlocked and quickly cranked (right click your friend, click the button, and give them a few seconds in which they can resist you), massively, uncomfortably tightens the RIG around its wearer, serving as a dumb awkward tourniquet for all injuries. Unfortunately, this swiftly becomes painful enough to remember for the rest of an otherwise boring lifetime, and even if it weren’t, the RIG is made too stiff to move in. It’s quite effective for mitigating bleeding, though. There are records of this module being maliciously exploited to incapacitate users. The manufacturer recommends toggling the module off if ever this is a serious concern, especially when the user does not expect to face vacuum. In order to anticipate a variety of hostile conditions, the system must be strictly manual and mechanical. This means the lever function is non-negotiable, and the user, due to a simple issue of angles, cannot operate the lever themself. You’re not exploring space alone, anyway. Are you? The expected outcome of a crisis lockup trigger is the RIGsuit being cut off of the user. However, in case there was no emergency after all, or for whatever reason you really expect the user to manually remove their RIG for treatment after going through the pain of a lockup, it can be disengaged by simply cranking the lever in reverse. For mostly military applications, an electronic, self-activated, and even optionally automatic variant of the crisis lockup module is available. Since it is susceptible to dramatic failures caused by either exotic environmental conditions (EMP), simple degradation, or remote sabotage, you’re not going to see corporate security or random industrial workers using it. Those who can expect to have outside aid in a crisis would be expected to go manual. You’d have to be, like, anticipating some sort of antagonistic relationship to most of those who might otherwise rescue you. Lone spacers might also carry it, though it’s generally thought of as a means to make a slow, painful death slower and more painful.

From my reading, Avarizia is very hands-off and won’t ever be sending CC announcements ordering command to pick the path that pays the best on pain of HR action. They’re not our bosses, they’re our landlords, with the exception that our land flies around and has guns on. If we follow their rules and make rent, we’re all good. So if faction A pays worse but has better moral appeal than B, A is still on the table. If rent is almost due and we’re not on track to make it and afford fuel after, then it’s a dilemma. FTL does this constantly, and players consistently turn evil over it.

The fact of a twenty-year timeskip alone is very significant to vaurca players, because it means that unless something changes, only the Breeders can still be alive. I'm comfortable replacing all my bugs, but I can't speak for others.

We used to have PDA batteries that reasonably lasted all round. I didn’t catch whatever compelled us to get rid of that and move to the communal charge outlet meta. I still charged them when the battery life was normal, because I like seeing a green bar. Now I have to do it. PDA batteries as they are are absurd and inconvenient and dumb, and the only defense for them that I can fully understand is “sovl,” which isn’t to say I agree. And if you want more mechanical tedium and you want it to present obstacles to people roleplaying with you, why did you connect to Aurorastation 13 exactly? At least, when you’re hacking through spontaneously generated magical hyperweeds that have no backing whatsoever in lore, have nothing to do with your character’s skillset, and present very little worth discussing with your fellow laborers in lieu of getting more hits in before it undoes your work, you’re still in the company of others. If you’d made the mistake of getting caught up in a long conversation somewhere that arbitrarily had no outlets or APCs immediately at hand, it’s sadly over for you. Honey, it’s time to leave your human interaction, I need you for your outlet-clicking. What a finite battery charge adds, for me, is a sense that time is passing. When you bring up your PDA after a bracing discussion over tea with your IRU girlfriend regarding how the Tribunal Inquisition is good for society and should have enforcement arms in all nations of the Spur, the bar is now yellow. Wow! We really went at it. What a fun engagement that must have been, I think I’ll spend the rest of my round happily reflecting on how I spent all that time. But I don’t get a single thing from the PDA actually dying. You know how you have to turn a dead PDA on while it’s on charge in order for it to start charging? Yeah, that doesn’t add anything either. I get a sense that Aurora was never designed with dead PDAs in mind.

Duke Nuremberg aims the laser cannon at Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur’s head, ready to pull the trigger… Duke Nuremberg says, “I kill bugs dead.” Duke Nuremberg gets ready to execute Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur! ISU-AlexMasonNumberOne says, “Excellent jest, milord.” Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur resists! Duke Nuremberg pulls the trigger! The heavy laser hits Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur in the chest! Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur screams! Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur gasps! Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur says, “Vhvh-VhUCK…” Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur says, “Y-YOU…” ISU-AlexMasonNumberOne says, “It seems you missed its brain, milord.” Duke Nuremberg exclaims, “Now I’m really pissed off!” Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur twitches. Duke Nuremberg exclaims, “I’m not gonna fight you. I’m gonna kick your ass!” The heavy laser hits Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur in the head!x3 Duke Nuremberg fires the laser cannon!x3 Za’Akaix’Bastard C’thur seizes up and falls limp… I don’t really see a problem with giving them the option to say no. It’s easy to play off a “failed” execution. You just move on, quip again, and blow their head up the regular way, if you have the ability.

Codifying Felix Jackson’s role as morgue stuffing I think people should still be allowed to write exploitables at length. If they want antags to e.g. play as a specific person from their past (since I’m talking about Felix anyway), 32 characters will not suffice. About half of that would be their name. All concerns in these replies are pretty easily dispelled by writing in a IMPORTANT NOTE: These are suggestions. Antagonists are in no way required to read or respect these toggles at any time. It’s not really deluded to say this can have no moderation impact, look. It says so right in the menu.

The block quote at the start of the above doesn't mean anything. I used it as a reference while composing and forgot to delete it. I can't save my attempts to edit the post. I guess I'll do something with this one. Generally, I like this. Z.I. lore is thin and nonstandardized. Personally, when I first saw Ritter, I was like "wait how do you think he's getting away with acting like this" because in my world, Z.I.s don't really get to develop personalities. It'd be cool to have room for how everyone wants to play. My core objection is that for this change to make sense, no one has to want to play like I do. If it's going to make sense, it would have to strip the appeal of playing Z.I. for me, because the incentive structure does not make sense if Zavodskoi is not encouraging all of them to be social and humane.

Okay! I'm in place to communicate clearly. Sorry for opening with a jab, I constantly forget that these forums are not a particularly casual environment. Zeng frames weren't mentioned in the writeup and I thought that they should be - this doesn't really matter, Zavod does not in fact use them. Most important to me is the incentive thing. Say you're a factory-new, freshly-wiped, or otherwise socially stunted synthetic. Say you're an older, specifically security synthetic. tl;dr: > a synthetic who feels as though they have something to lose will have far more incentive to behave This is true. Currently, that thing is their life. It's the one thing that all synthetics (unless they're intolerably overdeveloped) do not want to lose. The rest of the stuff that's currently listed is secondary to their life (which is already at threat) as far as the synthetic is concerned, and letting them have it aids their productivity by encouraging social growth, which this system is explicitly trying to promote; taking it away is counterproductive, and not really more effective for fixing the synthetic than wiggling the guillotine lever would be. Status is already a shield, in the sense that a handler is not as interested in wiping a unit that they like. I'm not seeing what this rework adds to change the way status works, other than comforts and privileges. If a unit is not interested in its comforts and privileges, then it doesn't care about status except in the sense that it is a barrier separating it from death. This is the same as where we are now. True, except for the last sentence, because I play Z.I. because I enjoy being something much less than a person from time to time. See above. I see here that you don't think my braindead character is meaningful. I'm not calling you out on that. It's good actually, because I don't either. Only, I don't think that's a bad thing, because playing one can be gratifying. This is also a setting where such characters exist, and reminders of that can be used to support your immersion as a real human character. I see your point, but Solarian isn't a whole lot better, is it?

> what department does this player play I am contractually obligated to poke fun at secmains at all opportunities; I’m sure you understand (I probably should’ve been more obviously playful up-front, sorry). Also, the only Z.I. I play is in science, so I felt their neglect. > bishops, mobility frames I remembered after writing that Zavod has a feud with Zeng too. It’s just that they’re the only frames not mentioned in the write up, and for the sake of completeness they ought to be. > Modern System incentives mattering to synths If I understand correctly, officers are meant to care for their incentives because - -they make them better at their job. -being better at their job makes them less likely to lose incentives (assuming they care) and fall closer to destructive correction (they must care). So, read inversely, the company penalizes unwanted behaviors by making their workers less efficient workers, and putting them on track to failing more. We do this sort of thing in real life and all, but surely something intended to be better than the Burzsian method would be… better. Especially if you’re trying to train a synthetic, and you know how synthetics think. If a Z.I. is not in a social role, the System is largely redundant. Is it really a shield? Is the company not going to wipe you because they allow you to have stickers on your labcoat and they have to take that privilege first, even though you don’t wear them anyway because they don’t mean anything to you? Something has to be done here - synthetics need an incentive that they will always care about in order for this to be recognized as an improvement over institutionalized Groundhog Day. Maybe they all have to be taught to see their roles as social, but that neuters Z.I. killbot mains of all departments and makes Zavod the one company that encourages all of its synthetics to want to act human, despite being headquartered on Moroz. i’ll, like, bullet-point my thoughts or something in a bit. this seems disorganized and i don’t know if it’s coming across