Mr.Popper

I understand the hesitancy toward real life drugs but weed is just so mainstream and normalized,at least where I live. Refusing to depict it is about as ridiculous as censoring nicotine or whiskey; we're not talking about complicated medicines that might be misrepresented nor hardcore drugs that kill people, it's an everyday part of pop culture. Do you know what is a hardcore drug that kills ~30,000 Americans a year? Cocaine, which is literally integral to an entire origin and regularly memed on by the community in and out of character. I'm not saying we should remove coke, but it's crazy to go after weed when we have that precedent. If ambrosia isn't changed to weed, it at the very least needs a more colloquial, slang name. Not just for worldbuilding—it's super jarring seeing "potheads" call a drug by its scientific name in everyday convo, about as weird as seeing a stoner in real life talk about smoking "cannabis"—but also for new player friendliness. I remember as a newbie botanist was one of my first jobs. Admittedly, I think I still had the Goonian goal of being the stoner botanist, yet when I went to find the seed in the machine it wasn't there; unbeknownst to me, weed was arbitrarily renamed "ambrosia vulgaris" which sounds like some nondescript medicine. This misleads newbies into any number of false assumptions, like recreational drugs being illegal in Biesel, while gatekeeping... um... getting stoned. It's not the hugest of deals but it's still bad design. Changing the item to a shorthand and more representative name like "vine", "juice", "puff", "shrub", etc. where it both sounds credible and is recognizable as a weed stand-in would kill both birds. Still, I prefer going full mask off as "weed" just for the sake of reducing the number of IRL things we have to dance around; how often are the timeline cutoff and lack of pop culture references brought up? Especially for new players who don't quite grasp where reality ends and Aurora begins? Weed culture pretty much already exists; a lot of characters regularly talk about their ambrosia escapades, and there's a more broad nonchalance over drugs with the aforementioned cocaine origin. Maybe you see IRL stoners differently or ambrosia stoners roleplay it different to reality, but if anything that's a sign that ambrosia isn't being properly associated with it's IRL counterpart and needs to be more recognizable. It's way easier to draw on real life experience, whether you're roleplaying a pothead eating everything at the kitchen or the grandma tweaking her nose at those Goddarned dank smelling teenagers, than it is to retrain your brain to work with something completely made up.

Thanks for the sneak peek! I like the idea of the Setting Summary as a "reference book" for the aspiring new player and I look forward to reading it as well. With that in mind, I'm going into this with the idea that the new player guide should be as condensed as possible, though of course everyone has a different metric for that. I'll try to be broad with these to highlight the thought process behind the things I like: The megacorp profiles are good and informative. I remember when I was a new player I was overwhelmed by all the options and tried to default to either NanoTrasen or independent for simplicity, but these descriptions would have given me a good idea of each faction's vibe. My only suggestion would be including something about Orion Express' grueling work culture; right now it gives a good idea of what the corp is, but not how it is. I appreciate all the OOC info, it's encouraging and down to earth. I'm not used to seeing real life allusions in Aurora and yet I found the Phoron-silicon analogy insightful even after ~2 years of playing. Grounded explanations like that really help someone getting into the lore. All of these are important, but to keep the guide as brief as possible these are things I would cut: Miranda isn't worth more than an offhand mention when explaining the lore to a new player; if anything someone like Frost or Torvald is more immediately relevant, but I wouldn't include them either just to keep things simple. I would limit her info to the portrait infobox near the bottom and maybe a mention of the Trasens in the NanoTrasen or SCC section. Violet Dawn is only really important to Solarian characters. It could be removed from the phoron scarcity section or possibly moved to a new area I will suggest later in this post. The picture is cool, though; maybe leave it and let that caption be the only explanation of VD, supporting the idea in the main text that everyone is after phoron without going into detail. The CCIA section. I'm conflicted, because while this is really good info about a confusing topic I don't feel it's fitting for a lore guide. Not saying to delete it because what you've got is good, just maybe move it to a different new player page? I'm not sure which would be most appropriate. Things I would change: While I like the recommended origins section, I feel the ones on offer are a little too similar. I might get a hoard of Callistean football hooligans on me for saying this but all 3 are democratic, varyingly multicultural Earth-like planets. That makes them easy to play, but I don't think they would capture the imagination of a new player as well as some other combinations. Keeping the faction variety, another set could be Callisto (easy), Himeo (medium), and Moroz (hard). Dominia might be too hard for a new player, but I hope you get what I'm suggesting; more contrasting origins, still different nations (so no triple Solarian origins for example). This is just visual stuff and I'm sure you aren't done on that front, but little logos for the corporations would be a nice way to break up the text. Maybe for extra flare put some matching flags by the recommended planets. Things I would add: A very brief overview of the human nations, ideally no more than a sentence each, just to give a vibe like the megacorp section. The ones in the current guide are a good basis but very outdated. I would move most Violet Dawn info here if it's still needed. If you want to include alien lore, I would group them by species and describe them from a human perspective to keep things simple. So for instance one blurb about Tajara and how they tend to be impoverished instead of going into all 3 countries. The average human (and new player) doesn't need to know about the political machinations of the Tajaran cold war, or what the Golden Deep is, or the three Vaurcaesian hives. Maybe a small intro to whatever the current arc is? It could be too much for this guide though, maybe a different new player page would be better.

I agree that some engineering players take the job too seriously (this goes for every job tbf). And reducing the slots would mean more gameplay per engineer, but to what end? Do we want engineers to be even more locked in, since the job would be more coveted and challenging? Harder gameplay would only encourage the hoarding prepper culture, so the next logical question is do you care more about the preppers not roleplaying enough, or that they're doing things you want to be doing? My issue is with the former, hence why I want a more lax engineering culture, but the latter is also valid, we simply fall into different engineer archetypes. I've narrowed them down to two, with some overlap and fluidity: The Soldier. Or "preppers". They want to work (gameplay) first and foremost, probably because they find it fun. Usually either new players or returning players checking out something new that's been added; I turn into a soldier when the comet expulsion event pops for example because I've yet to explore its effects. This creates tension when more than one soldier want to explore the same thing, since there's relatively little engineering content on Horizon. Good soldiers communicate with each other to divvy up what they want to do, but that's not always possible, hence the frustration in this thread. The Reservist. They've been there, done that, or maybe they just don't find the gameplay fun; either way, they're more interested in roleplaying and aren't too fussed if someone else does all the work. This describes me for the most part. I've done most of what there is to do and I'm content letting newer players get their fix while I roleplay domestic disputes. A good reservist is a mentor, preparing soldiers for when/if they're content with engineering and move on to reservist themselves or another job. This is not a binary good and bad, but a life cycle. New players turn into experienced players, experienced players teach the new players, the experienced players revert back to new players when they return from a break/something new gets added, the new experienced players teach them the new thing, etc. Yet it's only able to exist because of how many slots there are, and reducing them would disproportionately hit reservists, seeing as we can "just play off-duty". Should I be banished to the grey jumpsuit hell or play a new job? Maybe, it might give a newer player a fun round, but I don't find the "gameplay-first" mindset particularly conducive to roleplay and leaving room for mentors encourages character retention—imagine if every time someone got bored of a department their character vanished. Medical's already in a similar state to what the PR is aiming for and it's one of the most stressful, competitive, homogenous departments which only serves to breed a roleplay-second, occasionally even elitist player culture. More departments should be like engineering, not vice versa.

I strongly recommend you try a Star Wars Galaxies private server if you've never played it, I think the most populous one is still Galaxies Legends. The space portion of that game had no right being so good. Besides there being dozens of ships you can get with X-wing esque gameplay, there's fully supported multiplayer ship mechanics where you can physically walk around in a ship (ie. the millennium falcon) as it's flying, see everything through the windows, and pop back into a turret/pilot seat whenever. The only shortcomings are unfortunately the population is limited, still decent for a dead game, and you may have to grind the less interesting land-based gameplay to get resources. Space leveling is counted separately so in theory you could only play space stuff, but I don't think you would be able to afford good ships and equipment (the economy is almost completely player-run). If you're a Lucas Lunatic like me you might enjoy the land stuff, but be warned the combat's VERY dated. On the plus side it seems like the RP community is still alive so maybe you could get into that.

I think electrician would be fine for a few reasons: It has broad appeal. Everyone knows what an electrician is and they've probably met one before, to the point that when I think "electrician" I have a whole image of what one looks like. The vibes are distinct from the other alt titles in a way "electrical engineer" or "electromechanic" aren't. Even more anecdotal but I'm pretty sure I've seen a good few engineering characters flavor themselves as one. For it not fitting with the engineer job's duties, this is just an unfortunate gameplay limitation. Engineering isn't very deep, but realistically Horizon would have electricians aboard just as IRL ships do. I guess it's kinda weird to see John Smith, Electrician, starting up the supermatter reactor, but we already have atmos techs doing that and it's not like only Reactor Technicians will be able to handle them (or any other niche, this is just RP flavor). There could be a problem with electricians exclusively doing electrical things, but that goes for all these alt titles; I would be way more concerned about someone going "I'm the Damage Control Technician" and refusing to let anyone else build anything. You just have to give people the benefit of the doubt. I realized writing this that the generic "mechanic" would be a good title, it invokes a kind of nondescript grease monkey vibe, the type of engineer that's digging in your maint panels the whole shift, but the final list is pretty good.

Botanist is one of the few players I can say consistently brings something funny and/or engaging to the round. I'd love to see their approach to RP brought to the scale of command.

I don't know who this Shaman is, but this suggestion definitely isn't a diss at you or any other medical/security player. You're just following the regulations that are there. I like when procedure is fought over for roleplay like in your example, the issue is the procedure is completely one-sided in medical/security's favor and there's nothing the Chaplain can do to exercise their own authority. I agree that Investigator should take precedence, and a time clause would alleviate my concern of them sitting on the body the whole round. It definitely doesn't help that the Chaplain has no way of checking in on either department to verify a body's status. Maybe giving the job access leading up to the morgue and forensic labs? They definitely shouldn't be able to go directly into where bodies are stored, just far enough to get an in-person status report. I know security access is stingy, but it's a single slot job and Chaplains arguably have a place in the brig anyway seeing as IRL inmates are usually entitled to clergy visits. Besides, I'm pretty sure there's a door blocking decks 2 and 3 of security anyway.

It's lame trying to do a funeral, one of the only actual duties the Chaplain has, and being stonewalled with "That's not in the postmortem (there's none written)" or "They're being investigated (sec put it in a box and forgot about it)". I looked at the standard operating procedure, wondering if this culture is even allowed, and realized there's actually no mention of Chaplains at all. So here's an abridged version of what I think should be added to the Postmortem Wishes section: Harmless and gives the Chaplain more stuff to do. If it somehow bothers the deceased player, well, they can write postmortem instructions forbidding it.

Thank you very much for tackling this. Here are some suggestions I can think of off the top of my head: Shorten "Shipboard Systems Engineer" to "Systems Engineer". Systems engineering is a real field apparently and it sounds cleaner. More atmos tech variety, what Kermit said + maybe something like "emergency fire technician" for those leaning into emergency response. Definitely should be an electrical-focused engineer title like "electrician". As for which to replace, I'd say either Maint Tech or combine Reactor and Maint Tech into one job called "technician". The reactors are theoretically important even if they're static almost every round, while Maint Tech would probably just be the job for playing with maint panels. I personally think the devs should go crazy with adding as many alt titles as they like, but if that's too "bloat" the basic engineer/technician divide Kermit mentioned is the next best thing, minimizing what's actually in the game while giving players the tools to self-flavor however they like. It would be VERY cool if you could pick both your discipline and engineer/technician to mix and match (ie. electrical engineer, electrical technician, life support engineer, life support technician, etc.) but that's a lot more work.

Fyni does character voice really well from what I've seen, to the point that I was surprised to learn some of her characters are even played by the same person. In general she goes above and beyond for the roleplay, most apparent in her becoming one of the few storyteller mains keeping the odyssey gamemode going, and I'm sure that devotion will translate to playing Tajara. Mirrouen's backstory already shows a good understanding of the lore and I look forward to seeing her in the warehouse.

FearTheBlackout, also known as simplemaroon, also known as fearthegabby, also known as I'm gay. Straight. UP!, or just Gabby, has managed to become one of the main representatives of Dionae lore in my mind. I'm not especially familiar with the species myself, yet her Dionae I'm most familiar with, Winding roads ventured with Ozeuoi's blessings under the hot Moghesian sun, served as a great introduction for their form of Dionae and represents both Diona and Unathite lore well, proving she can represent the species to outsiders like myself. Moreover, she excels at worldbuilding with out-of-game tools like the relay, where you can find countless decrees from her Trinary Perfection Priestess Bristol-III bridging lore developments to the ship as well as spinning her own. This is the exact kind of writing that would translate well to articles, and Dionae would really benefit from the added visibility.

Lore Impact: Medium Species: Synth Short Description: Have you ever wanted to own a shell but felt wrong about it, or needed an industrial but it's too expensive? Meet Jack! You'll never mistake him for a human with his retro-themed polymer skin, and his actuators could give a G2 a run for its money. Every Jack is made with tender love and care, in fact no two are exactly identical! Here at Jackhammer Hardware Solutions, the environment is our number one customer, which is why all our positronics are made with at least 62% recycled materials. Even the positronic brains are ethically sourced from reclaimed units—which only the best Jackhammer technicians extensively erase to prevent anomalies. If you find your Jack repeating names of people you don't know, refusing to work, or speaking foreign languages, please call 313-755-JACK and we'll schedule a maintenance checkup right away! Why not build a better future? Buy your own Jack today! OOC, Jack fills the classic sci-fi trope of the mass produced uncanny android, albeit with a few Aurora unique twists. Their outdated appearances and deviant behavior are explained extensively in universe as products of corporate mismanagement, and complications from their recycled origins can be used to expedite character development for those wanting to play more personality. My goal with Jack is twofold: fill the niche of the creepy swarm of uncanny valley robots, which only an IPC brand can accomplish, and develop Orion Express' bare robotics division. How will this be reflected on-station?: A whole new IPC brand for players to explore. Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Yes. There's another shell brand, Hazel, but this is a very different execution. 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! I've tried to provide a complete picture with info for blurbs on both the IPC and Orion Express pages, but I realize a lot of it will inevitably be edited out or reworked. If anything I hope synth lore will be interested in some of the hooks I dropped and take them in their own direction. Long Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k7ToV5Hw2lID6cobEz8Wd3htVBHWy3soEKFdSayHX6E/edit?usp=sharing

I also wish emotes like *laugh and *scream were audible like other servers. I guess the argument against them is RPers don't want their characters voiced? But it's better than nothing imo, and if you don't like it you can just manually write the emote. Also Unathi and Skrell already have vocal emotes so it wouldn't be that much of a leap.

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