hazelmouse

This all looks extremely promising, but my thought is that it also seems to cover an ambitious amount of ground. From what I can tell the core of this rework seems to be an expansion to IPC organs. I think I'd like to see a very singular focus on making the new organs work and getting them coded first, before anything else. I'll focus on them. I like the idea of EMPs triggering emergency power rather than immediately downing you. It'd force synthetics to disengage rather than flooring them outright, and an inability to really get synthetics to disengage without killing them is a problem right now. I really like the voice box and internal diagnostic suite organs. Losing the ability to coherently speak and losing the warnings of your current damage are both excellent reasons for you to disengage, similar to an organic receiving fractures or bleeds, that don't involve dying. I think it'd be beneficial if the loss of any organ were very clearly communicated - maybe in large red text in the chat, so you can notice it while in combat. I'm sceptical of the hydraulics and actuator organs in the lower body and arms. Targeting synthetic limbs is already common to slow them down just from how damaged prosthetic limbs already work, this feels as if it'd awkwardly perform the same function simultaneously. The power and cooling organs look interesting. I like the trade-off of water cooling allowing you for run for longer but requiring replacement coolant, against air cooling not requiring any coolant but limiting your sprint time. It'd also be extremely funny if you could burn yourself by taking the heat sinks out without gloves. I assume that, if damaged, the power organ would obstruct or prevent recharging, and the coolant organ would reduce your ability to sprint - both seem like good reasons to disengage.

If you just want to look at the map without loading it ingame, you could also install StrongDMM and load the .dmm files for the Aurora in there. It'd be a bit closer to using the webmap than just ghosting around, and it's pretty easy to use! It also allows you to take a screenshot of the entire map. https://github.com/SpaiR/StrongDMM

Lore Impact: Small to Medium Species: Human & Synth Short Description: This introduces an additional encoded language to the setting named Encoded Broad Spectrum Language (or EBSL), a communications standard similar to EAL that sacrifices a great deal of efficiency in its encoding in return for a limited degree of compatibility with appropriately augmented organics. Developed in its oldest forms by Eridanian dregs to help evade the law and competing groups with efficient, encoded transmissions, the modern augment and encoding standard has been developed and released by Orion Express to be sold to just about anyone with enough credits to buy it. As a result, it has quickly garnered a reputation as a tool for criminals and the destitute due to its usefulness for illicit activities, associated with financial uncertainty and desperate circumstances - but for those streetwise souls that do choose to adopt it, it comes with definite advantages, especially if one deals with low-income synthetics on the regular. How will this be reflected on-station? This application corresponds with a PR to add EBSL and the corresponding augment to the game, see here. Mechanically it's a new language, sounding if you don't understand it like a lower, slower variant of EAL. By taking the augment, synthetics would be able to use it as a traditional language, while organics would only be able to receive transmissions and send out any of a number of pre-set messages, similarly to the Ve'katak receiver. As this is a civilian augment rather than a paramilitary one, the pre-set messages would be less oriented around combat. Only organics with SBS would be able to take the augment, as a way to bar EBSL use only to the heavily augmented. This is a new language rather than an EAL receiver to keep EAL synthetic-exclusive, with the IC explanation that EAL is simply too heavily compressed for even an augmented organic brain to parse. It's purely local - it can only be heard within line-of-sight. Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists? It's intended to function as a bridge between synthetics and heavily augmented organics - yet another tool the augmented use to gain an edge - while also functioning as a lingua franca of dispossessed synthetics. It's should open the way for some classism between both synthetics and organics, being as it's a language associated with scrappers and dregs rather than something you'd expect a corporate synthetic or an organic corporate stickler to involve themselves with, or approve of their co-workers involving themselves with. 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? Of course! Long Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tR9f-QhZUkw6dhYCdkBiMnhK8BjBMQyMqGFvUXi3Pxc/edit?usp=sharing

Right now, offsites are the biggest thing on my mind. The pool is absolutely tiny at the moment, both because not many people are making them and because a lot of the ones we do have are excluded from the sectors the Horizon ends up in, which is a very serious blow to how satisfying exploration can be. I want offsites with a large scope and some very legitimate danger, and I want a lot more of them than we currently have. Another project I have in mind is touching back on Tau Ceti as a sector. Tau Ceti should really be a sector so well developed we're comfortable leaving the Horizon there long-term. More ruins for the lore planets would help, as well as some attention given to the ghostroles available there - I'm half tempted to prod at whether Caprice could be turned into a ghostrole site like Tret.

Ckey/BYOND Username: hazelmouse Discord Name: rattydew Position Being Applied For: Mapper Past Experiences/Knowledge: My experience extends exclusively to work in the Aurora codebase over the last nine or so months. I've made several mapping PRs mostly extending to ghostrole maps and offsites, plus a few minor Horizon mapping changes and several bugfixes. I'm dipping my feet into .dm and am very eager to learn more and improve with the language, but I'm very far from competent with it yet. Examples of Past Work: Hivebot Hub Rework Scarab Salvager Offship Remap Scarab Salvager, Izharshan Shuttle, Hivebot Hub tweaks & fixes Tramp Freighter Remap Hegemony Waypoint Lone Spacer Offship TCAF Corvette Remap (not merged) And some bugfixes here, here, here and here! Additional Comments: If accepted for trial I'll be particularly interested in the mapping and mechanics of odyssey, as well as those for any events people plan out. Mapping as a skillset is in a funny position in which a lot of both contributors and developers are proficient in it without knowing much more than a lick of .dm, and it's also very time-intensive to map effectively. I'd be very happy to contribute where I can, and to help others contribute where they can. I expect to have enough free time to contribute consistently for the foreseeable future, but some gaps of activity should be expected.

Interacted with Fletcher a fair bit during quite a hectic traitor round as security, he worked very well with security and was generally very communicative despite us having no direct line to him in the absence of other command. Routinely touched base to keep track of what was happening, stayed very calm and helped progress the round. +1

I'm very fond of this idea! I honestly already act as if this is basically the case - a representative of your corporation is your superior and has an immense sway over your employment, so why wouldn't you march lock-and-step with what they want from you? It'd be nice if they could do it without needing to constantly defer to departmental heads. I wish the exploitative power dynamic of megacorporate employment was represented more in-game, and I agree it'd work best when there's a stick representatives can bonk someone with if they refuse to play along.

All my experiences with Jasorn OOC and IC have been very positive and enjoyable and I'm quite confident he'd be very capable in command. I also think him having substantive experience playing as an antagonist is promising for knowing how to play with them as command without dashing the pacing of the gimmick. +1

Marooning offers more options, but isn't borging already as good as execution? I'm not sure I can recall a time when a borged antag didn't immediately jump into cryo.

I don't have too much to add to the specifics of how this would work, but my view is that there being means to kill antagonists is really mostly a mechanical necessity. I find it very hard to believe that, realistically, the SCCV Horizon wouldn't detain everyone to be tried under Biesel law, or to be extradited to their nation of origin. The idea of immediately executing an already detained criminal on a dime, instead of keeping them detained and having them questioned at length to get information out of them and determine the extent of their crimes and further details, is incredibly goofy to me. It's, however, mechanically important that command can do this because a lot of antagonists won't have an end to their gimmicks until they're killed. Vampires constantly fleeing security, traitors blasting out of the brig several times over, that kind of thing. My cursory preference would be that the means of execution, whatever we want it to be, should be locked behind a clear inability to keep the subject safely restrained. If you can't do that, all gloves are off, but otherwise you're keeping them HuT for actual legal and corporate processes to address the issue post-round. No sudden executions based on a cursory or non-existent investigation unless absolutely necessary for the safety of the crew, it cheapens the weight of the act and is very abrupt.

Last represents the Triple Moon. Tiny little crucifix to put on your stuff. Peace symbol, for those that would like to suggest something about the duality of man.

A few simple religious symbols, I'll be working on a few more.

Have an Idris Day!

The idea of a solo ghostrole set on a tiny ship that can do diverse things is actually very engaging, and I intend to give it a shot. These are all excellent ideas and I absolutely concur that more dynamic ghostroles have immense potential, especially since we have submaps with which we can randomise elements of maps now.

Could a brief description of how it works be provided, or linked if it already exists? I wasn't an engineer or an observer during the test round, so I'm not certain of how the mechanics work right now. A few things: How hard would it be to implement the same bluespace effect as is used in round-ending bluespace jumps, like before we had transfers, into the drive? The effect in the mini-event was a lot more rudimentary, I'd love to see the same effect as the old jumps implemented if it's not impractical. I absolutely love that atmos techs have a part to play with the drive, it's a wonderful bone to throw to an otherwise very limited role and it creates a nice trifecta of engineers, bridge crew, and atmos tech collaboration that I expect to find very enjoyable. For placement, I personally think that the gap on deck two between the supermatter and fusion reactors is the best place. It's in engineering, and it's in a strongly central point aligned to the spine of the ship. Failing that, either wing has a lot of spare space which I think could be made to work, especially if there's any appetite to add another drive to the other wing. A few ideas for mechanics: We need phoron to be obligatory to run the drive, but we also want complex atmospherics mechanics. You could design the machine to have two atmos inputs, one of which is obligatory phoron, and the other of which is a gas from atmospherics to act as some kind of supplement? Maybe the supplement could prompt the drive to engage a different kind of jump - so, chlorine causes one kind of jump, nitrous oxide another, etc, or each gas otherwise influences the final jump in a particular way? Maybe one gas makes it more accurate, another makes it drastically more accurate at the cost of distance, another makes it go drastically further at the cost of accuracy, so engineers can cook up their own mixes for different situations. If a dynamic system could be innovated that gives you a little more to do with managing the drive than simply finding the gasses with the best modifiers and sticking them in, that would be very inspired.

I like this idea! The machinist focusing on producing more relatively mundane, practical things, while research makes the funny stuff that requires research levels to access, feels like a strong distinction. The only thing I'd question is whether this would step a little on the toes of the cargo shuttle, which I'd imagine is used for largely the same thing?

I'd second this, I honestly think it's quite well used - very few people want to run all the way down to the remote deck one closet just to fetch some space cleaner. Janitor is already a fairly scarcely played job, removing the auxiliary closet wouldn't do it or service any favours. Security doesn't need any help staying well populated, I'd rather any expansions to it didn't come to the expense of less overwhelmingly popular roles.

This is totally fair, completely down to preference. I will note that the wiper gives the wiped IPC the option to ghost as soon as it's complete for what I assume is exactly this reason - if you took that option, and the antagonist complained that you didn't stick around, I'd say that's very bad sportsmanship from the antagonist. There is a built-in opt out if you don't want to play a near non-character, you can explain it away in-character as the wipe having rendered the IPC unresponsive.

I honestly never quite understood the angle for it not being in the uplink for those reasons, being as this is a server with vampire thralls, cultists, etcetera. I don't see the harm in wiping as a routine matter of maintenance being delegated down to machinists on-ship. I think the more stuff that can occur in the actual game rather than offscreen, the better. Failing it being given to machinists, though, I agree with Wevil that it'd fit far better with the OM than the RD. If it were at least in the same department as the machinists it might see a little more acknowledgement and use.

Captains can already order for someone to be marooned on a hostile planet or shoved into a cyborg, being able to order for the deletion of memories isn't so drastic. I strongly doubt it's ever been or will ever be used outside of antagonist shenanigans, but I like that it's on the ship. On note of the wiper, I'd question why we don't just outright give it to machinists? They're the people you'd intuitively expect to have it, they already have the equipment to borg someone, why wouldn't they have the equipment to wipe someone? They can't do either without the Captain's approval and I've never seen someone stick someone into an MMI without approval short of being an antagonist. It'd save the OM or Captain the hassle of having to deliver the machinist the equipment.

I've been around for every event in this arc, and by far the most impressive part to me has been how well it's involved every department. At no point did I feel that any department in particular had nothing to do or was forgotten about, and I'm especially glad that none of them - even the high intensity bloodbath - felt as if it were a security-exclusive occasion. I really, really like the idea of the Horizon performing more humanitarian aid. I played a service character for every event, which is typically not a department that has much at all to do in canon events, but I'm pleased to say that even service was kept quite busy in every humanitarian event. The first humanitarian aid mission was a little clunky on the service side for reasons I did push feedback for, and I'm glad to say that the two events after that were both insanely well supplied for service. The new event shuttle used for them was especially good, the current version of it contains absolutely everything I feel service could possibly need, as well as quite probably everything any other department could need too. The mapping for the arc was generally phenomenal. The first and last events were both full of an abundance of intriguing stuff to roleplay over, and the other three - particularly Mudki - were beautifully made. I feel a little sad that maps so well made as them might not see the light of day again. I'm also personally very happy with how the pacing was handled for the Izilukh event. I played a non-combatant character in the heat of the fighting, and in my experience it felt like there was a serious, real risk of death without it feeling as if the event handlers were trying to get people killed without their input. With the exception of the possibility of security failing, I never felt that there wasn't a good way for me to survive the fighting. Narratively, the betrayal by Izaku felt strongly like the crux of the arc, and it worked well for that. It produced a lot of interest from the crew with the vitriol aimed towards Izaku, and gave everyone a lot to talk about between events. A part of me does wish we got to play a support role in the campaign against Izaku, but I think there's very good reasons why the Horizon shouldn't have been involved at all, even if it were far from the fighting.

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/19741 If this change is accepted, it may also resolve the problem by simply reducing the length of the conveyor belts so that each machine can pretty much instantaneously accept materials.

I don't have much to contribute for discussion, but the idea of this kind of ship is extremely compelling to me. It's been striking how much more freedom, and how many more origins and concepts, I can explore when spawning into an ship like the freighter than I could ever with a Horizon character. The setting of an independent vessel with no particular allegiances or significance seems like it might fit a ship setting better than a gigantic corporate power projection that needs to be carefully slotted into the lore to go anywhere or do anything.

I'd absolutely love more fluff diseases. Right now, the breadth of ailments you can actually inflict on your characters that have any mechanical representation is extremely thin. If someone wanted to attempt to tackle more complex disabilities, like making asthma more mechanically complicated or introducing more illnesses like diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, I'd absolutely love to see what they could come up with. Think pre-existing conditions that may proc off certain things, may require particular treatments, may require medical oversight during recovery, but aren't particularly lethal. If they did that, another thing I do believe is that the recovery ward should be less remote. It's never used right now because of how far away it is from everything and everyone, if we ever want to push more low-intensity medical roleplay with some mechanical backing then it'd be best if recovery facilities were readily available and understood to be in the domain of physicians. None of this gets added until someone actually puts the time in to code it, though.