Mr.Popper

As Dessysalta sorta touched on, legalizing execution isn't really necessary when it's just as achievable indirectly. Just look at how uncontainable antags are treated now. It's pretty common for them to be shot to death by Security, even though a regulation busybody could argue "OMG you used excessive force you could've taken them alive!!!" The reality is that, 9 times out of 10, no one will scrutinize Security for killing a massive menace late in the round. Corrupt characters, especially command, are a great natural source of spice so long as they aren't breaking server rules. But trying to justify their actions through IC laws for OOC convenience destroys this moral ambiguity. Why would anyone be tempted to take sketchy actions if the regs already make their job easy? Another issue is the OOC redistribution of gameplay. Reducing the number of shootouts for security, borging for machinists, or marooning for pilots in favor of the Captain straight up killing the antag with no room for error is pretty lame. A lot of antag rounds already have the issue of command and sec being the only departments involved, antag interaction doesn't need to be further concentrated in the crew's upper echelon.

Hepht Colette bros our time is now

I like everything suggested above. Also: The field containment is a really cool idea, but kinda janky in its current form. AFAIK you can't even turn the main field off unless it runs out of power, making full shutoff unfeasible. Either A. Remove the inner field generators and make the outer shield generators do all the work (assuming they can even contain a singulo) or B. Alter the field generators so they can be turned off. In either case, I think the drive should be contained by only one energy field. Two containment fields is redundant and leaves less room for funny OSHA violation RP— also engineers can build another anyway if they feel inclined. Two PSUs are similarly unnecessary; each one can hold 6 coils, so having two with one each is a waste of space. Maybe, to make the drive look cooler and reuse some assets, it could get the cryogenic capacitor from the Leviathan? The power draw would just have to be much higher to justify the insane throughput. I love the idea of weird unexpected outcomes like malfunctions and anomalies. As Hazel touched on, maybe each gas could have its own stats, including reliability. E.g. you use phoron and it's perfectly safe, but you put in something like CO2 and there's a high probability of failure. Failure could vary in severity from an electrical overload to the ship going drastically off course. Anomalies could be more passive, randomly occurring while the ship is in bluespace transit. Some fun ones would be doppelgangers, phantom mobs, lights going out, teleporting objects, etc. Name ideas: Bam Slam Blam Drive, Doppler, Lorentz Drive, GAMMA or GAMA, Tigard-Demopoulos Drive, Homeros' Drive or Homer's Drive.

Hi. There's been a lot of feedback already I both disagree and agree with, so I'll try to avoid repeating others. Here's a wish list of things I would love to see: Homebrew > premade modules. Sure, you can just play an Einstein Engines operative or a shapeshifting alien that eats people, but with the current game modes I find the most interesting antags are ones which subvert their game mode's tropes. Similarly, Odyssey will age better the more freedom players have to craft their own story rather than rigidly follow a pre-built one. Granted, as a non-volunteer, it's hard for me to say how railroaded the test odyssey was, especially since there was no storyteller, I just think this should be kept in mind when designing odysseys. Don't eliminate prep time. I get that people want to get into the action right away but it's not sustainable for every round to begin with the same deployment at 00:10 exactly. Following up on my previous bullet, there's a lot of fun fluff actors and storytellers could do to add flavor to the away site before Horizon arrives. Placing their own notes, spawning in structures, altering their IDs, etc. I assume the timeline of events would be controlled by the storyteller, so in the absence of one there should be some way for the actors to confirm "OK we're ready for the crew", preferably without having to Ahelp every time. Smaller maps. I don't know if this will be standard but the map seemed very tailored to high pop. While I'm sure the full update will bring a wave of activity, it's unrealistic to assume every round will be so packed and having a humongous map with a pop of ~20 people won't be fun. The exception is wilderness maps which can get away with having a lot of empty space, but manmade structures like ships or buildings should be more realistically sized. Even in the case of high pop, I personally don't want to see everyone on the ship transplanted to the away site like in the test run because of the clusterfuck nightmare it creates, although that will presumably be less common as the game mode becomes standard. Demographic categories. There's been a lot of talk about X role getting nothing to do or Y role being required for the game mode to function. I have no idea how feasible this would be, but what if odysseys were grouped and selected based off player readies? For example, say there's a category for "high engineering" odysseys which require engineering to be playable. Broken ship, FOB that needs to be built, whatever. Have those odysseys more likely to be selected the more engineering readies there are, and vice versa. This could also address the pop problem previously addressed by having a size categories, only selecting larger maps during high pop. Unfortunately this may further encourage oversaturation of the same departments (security) and guarantee only those same jobs are catered to. Maybe cap the selection rate at a certain point so, say, 3 researchers are just as likely to get their round as 9 security are.

Communicative, assertive and knowledgeable of the department; basically everything you want from a command player. In particular, I appreciate Gessler's efforts to engage other players, from recruiting random assistants to paying out bonuses for bounties (I really enjoy department gimmicks like the latter). He also responds well to antagonism from what I can tell, tolerating my nonsense for a time but still cracking the whip in the absence of more appropriate heads of staff. +1

I regrettably haven't played research under Qurioxi, but both as a random crewmember and fellow head of staff they have been consistently communicative, going out of their way to keep the crew informed with the announcement system. They're also a funny character. +1

BYOND key: Mr.Popper Discord Username: mr.popper Character names: Manuel Barros, Engineer Biri-Biri, Bartender Z.I. Ayanda, Scientist Yrosla Araz’irr, Security Cadet Dariiz Ranura, Machinist How long have you been playing on Aurora? I have lurked on the server since at least early 2022, but only became an active community member around October of 2023. Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? None in-game (that I am aware of). I have been warned on the Discord for inappropriate memes. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each. What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame? Facilitate. Like antagonists, command members facilitate roleplay, albeit by organizing departments and keeping everyone in the loop rather than sowing chaos. Unlike antagonists, command is vital for certain round functions, whether it be opening the armory, hailing foreign vessels, or raising to red alert. However, heads of staff should be careful to not become “super-characters”; command exists to manage and make calls. You should not be stealing thunder from your subordinates, you should be empowering them to do things that would be impossible in your absence. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them? As I touched on, heads of staff have a responsibility to improve their staff’s experience, but this also extends to antagonists. If I play a command member I am playing a punching bag. John Sol can shoot me, burn me, electrocute me, and gib me. As long as it gives him and everyone else a fun round, I am game. In the absence of external (usually Solarian) factors, heads of staff take on an educational role. SS13 is not the most transparent game for newcomers and every server has its quirks. I know it took me years to become a remotely competent spaceman, so I do everything in my power to impart knowledge on newcomers and appear welcoming. For this reason I only plan on playing heads of staff for departments I am fairly knowledgeable of (currently CE and XO). Explain how the recent events in the Spur changed your character and how they came to be employed on the SCCV Horizon. One day a Xion Manufacturing engineer had a question: can the machine run the factory? Here, the 80:20 Industrial Overseer was born. This experimental line was first limited to a test trial in the Solar system, but as the Conglomerate went public demand for skilled personnel skyrocketed. The initial order of four units more than doubled to ten, then eighteen, and so on. While the young 80:20 excelled in managing resources and minimizing losses, they were unprepared to tackle the social challenges of a real workplace. This was to be expected from an experimental model, but Xion programmers were unable to properly quality control the rising numbers and a wave of catastrophic failures eventually hit the line Spur-wide. Juran 80:20 was among the first to emerge from the belly of HPS Amoni in 2460. After only a brief posting in line management aboard the mega factory, the demand for manpower called it elsewhere: Valkyrie. It was one of the lucky few sent to Biesel, assigned to the Helios Manufacturing Zone. Luckier still, Juran was spared from the more fatal malfunctions of its counterparts, only temporarily incapacitated from its duties. The terminal failures of Juran’s brethren allowed for Xion engineers to quickly pinpoint the most severe defects and correct them, saving Juran and the other surviving 80:20 units from early death. The 80:20 Industrial was an embarrassing failure for Xion and Hephaestus. Ironically, an attempt to cut corners sent millions of credits in lost assets and costly recalls down the drain. Though any future units were scrapped, what was left of the project were some of the most effective (and expensive) synthetic managers in Hephaestus. Juran proved extremely lucrative in its half decade tenure at the Helios Manufacturing Zone. But considering the money lost on it, the IPC has a long way to go to break even. Hephaestus has agreed to temporarily loan Juran to the SCC proper. Both companies have high expectations of the Industrial, and it in turn has high expectations of its subordinates. What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted? Chief Engineer, Consular, Corporate Liaison, Executive Officer, Captain Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles? Yes. Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking: Juran 80:20, Chief Engineer. Industrial management unit that expects synthetic results from its mostly organic workers. Deborah Grady, Workplace Liaison. Enthusiastic but sheltered Hephaestus rep more interested in the idea of hard work than actually doing it. Ernst Strelitz, Consular. Hardline Dominian veteran who was maimed in a terrorist attack early into his military service. Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Yes. Have you linked your BYOND account to the Forums? Yes. Extra notes: None (yet)

I like this as something for Warden to do that isn't gunning the antag down. Alternatively, give the Warden an unarmed remote control drone (seriously)

Yrrosla's nationalism mainly manifests in his hatred for the Al’mariists. Numerous raids and even the temporary seizure of his village by the Liberation Army made the conflict far too personal for the previously isolated Tajara. Although the occupation was far less centralized or brutal than in Zatushka, the Al'mariist forces still pilfered the area's resources and killed many of his friends in the fighting. The village bore the scars of war long after its liberation by the Republican Army, manifesting in Yrrosla as antagonism towards the DPRA. This first-hand experience with war also informed his later determination to avoid enlisting. Conversely, his attitude towards the royalists is more tame, yet still distasteful. The war with the NKA was never as personal to him, so his limited knowledge combined with Hadiist propaganda makes him see the Kingdom as an irrelevant backwater— unlike his village, of course. Unsurprisingly for a Zhan, Yrrosla is a strong believer of the Ma'ta'ke pantheon. The Araz'irr family worships Dhrarmela, paying tribute by providing craftsmen just like her with lumber. Despite being a self-proclaimed devoted Hadiist, the more atheistic attitudes of the ideology have flown over Yrrosla's head, paling in influence to his superstitious upbringing. But what does fit is Ma'ta'ke's teachings of unity and how they relate to Hadiist collectivism; piety and patriotism are one and the same to Yrrosla.

BYOND Ckey: Mr.Popper Discord username: mr.popper Character names: Biri-Biri, Manuel Barros, Z.I. Ayanda Species they are applying to play: Tajara ------------------------------ General Whitelist Requirements What colour do they plan on making their first alien character?: Chocolate Have they read the lore pages for the species they wish to be whitelisted for?: Yes Why do they wish to play this species?: One of his favourite periods in human history is the industrial revolution. Next to the present information age, it stands as one of the most radical changes in history, uprooting ancient systems and transforming the lives of people across the world for better or worse. Adhomai reflects this turmoil in several struggles he finds compelling: rural vs urban, tradition vs progress, liberty vs security, etc. For this one’s application, he is especially interested in the People’s Republic of Adhomai for its authoritarian themes and the character hooks they provide. What makes role-playing this species different from role-playing a human?: Besides the obvious, a good Tajara player has to consider the circumstances of their character’s origin and how their culture informs their behaviour. Tajara are possibly the most backwards race in the Spur. Most Tajara grew up in relatively archaic living conditions, yet there are exceptions; the contrast between the technologically literate and illiterate is an intriguing social barrier that offers great variety in characters. On the topic of Tajaran society, Tajara have a lot of work to do if they want to catch up. Although an uncomfortable subject, this offers great conflict with the other races of the Spur and one should imagine how their traditionalist society has benefited or mistreated them. ------------------------------ Character Application Character Name: Yrrosla Araz'irr Write a backstory for their character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived at the SCCV Horizon. Yrrosla grew up in a village off the outskirts of Zatushka, right where the prairies meet the vast tree line. One would expect a Zhan-Khazan born to a woodcutting family to have a mundane childhood, but Adhomai during those years was anything but mundane; the second revolution began when he was barely five years old. Initially, it was a game to the children, playing make-believe wargames in the security of their homesteads. Yrossla was among the largest of his playmates with an ego to match, always boasting about how he would lead armies and crush the traitors to the Republic, but very soon his bold claims were put to the test. War did not spare the serene Ras'nrr prairies. Zatushka quickly fell to the Liberation Army, leaving the loggers in dire straits without their primary buyer of lumber. Soon enough Yrrosla’s father and the other working men were called away to war, leaving the women and children to pick up the slack. Yrossla and his older siblings strenuously fell the trees and hauled them to camp while his younger siblings floated the logs down the river to the sawmill. These were trying times, only aggravated by the local garrison’s appetite for the village’s scarce rations, but eventually, the war ended and a semblance of normalcy returned. After years without contact, Yrrosla’s father finally returned, yet their reunion was not how he imagined; his father was paralyzed and he would never work again. He held his composure but in truth, Yrrosla was mortified that his country would soon expect the same sacrifice from him. But after some research the Tajara came up with a sly plan: if he became employed by Nanotrasen he would be ineligible for the draft. A brief, yet irritating, application process later and he actually succeeded. Ironically, with his lack of education, he was only fit for the security division. How have the recent events of the Orion Spur impacted their character? Due to his youth and isolation on Adhomai and further isolation in the countryside, Yrrosla has mostly only been affected by Adhomian events. The Hadiists’ rampant industrialization campaign drastically changed life for his family, introducing conveniences like powered saws and rapid wood processing. Politically, he was less fortunate; the second revolution ruined any cohesive family dynamic and forced him to rapidly mature. Indirectly, the phoron crisis and Nanotrasen’s ever-expanding workforce had an impact by giving the otherwise unqualified Yrrosla a ticket off Adhomai. How does their character view the megacorporation they work for? As a country bumpkin, Yrrosla seldom questioned his government and blindly adhered to orthodox Hadiism (or a layman’s understanding of it). This extends to his perception of Nanotrasen and its security branch, Nexus Corporate Security. To Yrrosla, Nanotrasen is an extension of his country and more: a means of escape. His employment is an opportunity to finally leave the homestead and go on the adventures he dreamed of as a child, without the frightening baggage of joining the army. At worst, he is bored of his training and studies, but this has only made him more eager to become a full-fledged Nexus Security guard.

Scream if you love GAHHHSSUNZIONE!!!!

Hi, thank you for taking the time to read all of this! I briefly made the comparison between IPCs and newborns and that's how I view the species as a whole; positronics are like children in the sense you can "teach" (or upload) vast sums of knowledge but they will act inhuman without proper socialization. With self-preservation, I find its growth in synthetics comparable to childhood development. Initially, the child (IPC) only cares for its own well-being and whatever short-term tasks it must follow to remain secure. But as it grows, so too do its needs, eventually coming to value its possessions, family, friends, etc. as an extension of itself. And yet unlike children, most IPCs are never allowed to blossom into an individual because their "parents" (owners) can hold them indefinitely, with every incentive to stall their development and memory wipe any divergence. This is where the comparison ends but is also reinforced: owned IPCs live under constant scrutiny and threat of punishment, so their primary concern is satisfying those above them and avoiding negative reinforcement. Usually, only free or loosely monitored IPCs can afford to build interests beyond this, lest their owners believe they are out of line. Behaviorally, I believe the younger IPCs are closer to conventional computers and the older to humans. They are all driven by the same logic and principles, but as mentioned before the elders are more developed socially, capable of imitating organic behavior with varying success depending on social experience and positronic quality. Biri-Biri is on the more mature side with years of experience working with humans and developing relationships. This maturity manifests most prominently in its inclusion of family members in its own self-preservation, yet its synthetic nature can still be seen in its long-lived drive to satisfy humans. The android still pursues making humans happy as it was originally directed, but freedom and learning more about the world meant abandoning its intended job, concluding a casino was not the optimal way to please humans given the financial drain and risk of addiction.

These are all great ideas. In other (non-HRP) SS13 servers problems like rats or hull damage are frequent occurrences that keep engineering busy. You might say it's too chaotic for an RP server, but I would argue in moderation they'd be even better here as events like blackouts or breaches necessitate cross-department interaction. Restricting recipes to the autolathe would also encourage teamwork, ie. "hey Bob it looks like we need 26 floor tiles can you print them on your way here?" I like the autolathe idea especially because of how it could interact with a future skill system. Instead of being locked out of certain repairs because you lack the skill to craft whatever items, a wood chair with woodworking for instance, you just have to do it more slowly by printing them out with the lathe. You would actually feel the effects of a small engineering team rather than one person having the ability to solo fix every problem on the ship. Ideally, this would lead to a division of labor where everyone is happy with their share of gameplay, solving the issue posed by the original thread.

As an engineering main I understand where you're coming from. People are eager to fix problems as they crop up, and I guess there is some "competition" in the sense that if you don't do it, someone else will, yet I don't think you should see it that way. What's more important to me, and this is just me OOC, is that everyone is doing their fair share of the work so that one person isn't bogged down and kept from RPing with the others. It does get silly and even tedious having an overflow of engineers for one small problem, yet in a department where most work is a team effort those instances are in themselves opportunities for RP. Also, we usually don't know how severe the damage in a breach is until someone is there so it's easy to overcompensate, and unlike sending five security officers to deal with one rowdy drunk there is little to no drawback to having extra engineers when the integrity of the ship and lives of everyone aboard are at stake. We're not talking about forcing someone out of the round where they can't RP, we're doing the exact opposite; restoring sections of the ship so that people can RP in them (ie. yesterday when the entire service department was vented, taking every service member's gameplay loop until it was fixed). I do agree that people go overkill sometimes, particularly with the more trivial jobs like vendor repair, but it all depends on context. If you're chilling with your coworkers enthusiastically talking about sports it might be weird and distracting (depending on the character) to blast off at the first mention of a faulty machine. But if you're sitting around the lobby doing nothing running off is 100% fair. Also, how you fix those minor things should be considered. If your character is sociable they should probably exchange some words with the person reporting the issue, but again if there's no one to actually RP with then speed running it's fair enough. In cases like that, I don't see anything wrong with getting the RP-free work done as quickly as possible so that you can get back to the RP. Why would you want to spend valuable time in the round writing prose about your character cutting some wires that no one but a ghost or two will see? The same applies to basic start-of-round setup like the engine.

BYOND Ckey: Mr.Popper Discord username: mr.popper Character names: CaRLOS (AI), Manuel Barros (engineer), TEA (cyborg) Species you are applying to play: Integrated Positronic Chassis (IPC) ------------------------------ “It’s asking questions: is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?” -Spock, Star Trek: The Motion Picture General Whitelist Requirements Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: Yes, at least the general pages and the ones pertaining to my character concept such as the Golden Deep and Konyang. I have not fully read pages for other niches like Trinary Perfection, however I will do so if I make a character for them. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question. Why do you wish to play this species?: Robots are cool. Beyond being interesting on a conceptual level, Aurora’s take on synthetic life has many of its own ideas to explore. Right now I’m most interested in the recent developments on Konyang and in the Golden Deep. How would a formerly rampant IPC recover from such a traumatic experience? How would an ostracized people without control over their lives go about building a society? I want to see these topics explored more and I hope they aren't left by the wayside. What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: Rather than having a cohesive culture of their own, the existence of an IPC is a reactionary one. In a sense they are a newborn race; the Unathi and Tajara may be newcomers to the greater Spur, but they at least had thousands of years to mold distinct cultures. IPCs enjoy no such luxury and are forced to find meaning of their own. This can range from imitating human culture and all its pleasantries to obeying the basest of life’s instincts: self preservation. ------------------------------ Character Application Character Name: Biri-Biri Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon. In early 2459 a Baseline IPC was activated at the Konyang Robotics Corporation. Programmed for service and entertainment, it wasn’t long before a wealthy casino owner purchased this unit and gave it a name: Biri-Biri. Rather than an individual, Biri-Biri was one of many synthetic attendants at its owner’s Ganzaodeng casino. And yet, for the next three years, Biri-Biri managed to develop an identity, befriending several casino patrons until eventually even attending social gatherings outside of work. But the restrictions of its ownership still loomed over Biri-Biri like a dark cloud- until 2462. As protests erupted all over Konyang, Biri-Biri watched on with both fear and curiosity. Fearful of the uncertainty of change, and curious of what change would bring. The relationship with its owner already strained over its budding social life, Biri-Biri refrained from participating in or endorsing the anti-Solarian movements to avoid further ire. Luckily, and in part thanks to its friends participating in the protests, Biri-Biri was freed with all other Konyang IPCs by Konyang’s withdrawal from the Sol Alliance and the Emancipation Act. But where an organic would be ecstatic to have their freedom, Biri-Biri was paralyzed with uncertainty. For the first few months after emancipation Biri-Biri continued to work at the casino, now an equal employee rather than a slave. Though initially afraid to abandon this lifelong schedule, the seeds of deviation were quickly planted as recreation grew easier and supervision faded. Perhaps the most formative moment of Biri-Biri’s old life was during a visit to the Ganzaodeng beach; while catching up with friends, Biri-Biri noticed a little girl no older than four crying on the sand, her sand castle swept away by the tide. The IPC felt a strong drive to soothe the child and proceeded to entertain her with various colorful and noisy cartoon playbacks on its screen, originally programmed to pair with slot machines. By the time the child’s father returned the crying had stopped, replaced with gleeful laughter. This is how Biri-Biri met its future husband. Although Biri-Biri had gradually developed an understanding of emotions with its many social outings, this was a new experience: happiness. The IPC quit its job at the casino on its three-year anniversary exactly and didn’t look back. Thanks to its extensive circle of friends, the brief uncertainty of unemployment was almost immediately filled with new opportunities. Drifting between various service jobs, Biri-Biri eventually settled on a position at a daycare business. The artificial euphoria once generated by customers’ gambling wins was now made honest in bringing happiness to children’s lives. All the while, Biri-Biri had been seeing the single father it met at the beach that fateful day. But something was different with this friend. As the IPC spent more and more time at the man’s home it became something of a foster mother, caring for the girl in her father’s absence and providing invaluable help around the house. And the man and IPC’s affection towards each other blossomed into something more than friendship; it became loving, even romantic. After two years of living with the small family, Biri-Biri and the father were engaged, and soon married. Taking on its husband’s surname, Biri-Biri Miyake was born. This is how Biri-Biri Miyake died: one fateful night in early 2466, while fear gripped the young Republic of Konyang over a series of unexplained positronic disturbances, Biri-Biri and its husband were lying in bed. While Mr. Miyake was fast asleep, Biri-Biri was performing diagnostics, reviewing the events of the past few days. The abnormalities had started two days ago with minor glitches and memory lapses, culminating in that morning when Biri-Biri’s optics were briefly 32% impaired. The baseline was concerned by its inability to trace the malfunctions, but its husband convinced it to wait until tomorrow morning before visiting the local workshop. Suddenly Biri-Biri was shaken from its diagnostics by an ear-piercing electronic scream, coming from nowhere but itself. As the IPC erratically attempted to find and shut down the noise it suddenly registered its hold around Mr. Miyake’s neck. No matter how hard Biri-Biri fought it couldn’t let go of its beloved, and the last thing it remembered was seeing their eight-year-old child in the doorway. Biri-Biri reactivated to find large gaps in its memory. Its brain sat in a laboratory, yet it had no context for how it arrived there. The somber-looking roboticist overseeing the IPC soon confirmed its fears: it had murdered its husband, driven mad by a positronic virus now known as “Rampancy”. But there remained hope- Biri-Biri’s adopted daughter survived. After the blackout, the IPC appeared to have locked up giving the girl time to escape the house. Police soon arrived at the residence to find the synthetic reactivated, where it attempted to strangle an officer. After a brief struggle, the team had a clear shot at Biri-Biri, totaling the chassis before transferring it to the KRC. Deep inside its positronic brain, Biri-Biri’s preservation protocols were mortified. Its daughter, the last semblance of family, had spent the last two months in a foster home and it would be weeks if not months before it could find a replacement chassis to return to her in. A few days after reactivation Biri-Biri received a surprise visit from its former owner. Now a member of Zaibatsu, the man proposed a deal: he would loan Biri-Biri a completely new chassis at a bargain price, with the caveat that it would work for his organization to pay it off. Biri-Biri recognized this return to servitude for what it was, but it didn’t matter. Anything to return to its daughter. The rebuilt Biri-Biri rushed to the address of the foster home provided by the KRC. In its haste it had missed that, being noon, all of the children were away at school, but the foster parents welcomed it inside regardless. As the group talked idly, Biri-Biri’s optics were drawn to a drawing on the wall: a crude rendition of a baseline with horns, dark hair, and an angry face. At the bottom of the picture was the tiny scrawling of its daughter’s name in red writing. The IPC realized it could no longer call itself a parent and resigned to live the rest of its lifespan serving its master, drifting between entertainment venues and acting as an accessory to illicit activities. But this was not to be its fate. After only two weeks of work under Zaibatsu, Biri-Biri’s life took another unexpected turn. By decree of Domadice, all owned members of the Golden Deep with debts of less than one hundred thousand credits were to be freed and dubbed part of the “Thesian” class. With Biri-Biri’s debt for its replacement chassis only in the eighty thousand range, its owner had no choice but to free it. However, fearful of legal action from the Thesian, they offered it another deal: a lucrative position in Zaibatsu’s ranks and a job far, far away from Konyang. Seeing as it had nothing left, Biri-Biri accepted this new arrangement- but not before opening a savings account so that its earnings may one day go to its daughter. How has the recent events of the Orion Spur impacted your character? Events such as the Phoron Scarcity, the Solarian Collapse or even the Invasions of Biesel for interstellar-wide affairs, while region-specific events such as the Peacekeeper Mandate, The Titan Rises or even Cold Dawn may impact your character. Undoubtedly the most important events to Biri-Biri so far have been the Solarian collapse, the subsequent Konyanger emancipation, the tragedy of Silicon Nightmares, and Golden Deep’s reorganization. Before the collapse, Biri-Biri could hardly be called a person; it was a glorified slot machine with two hands for serving drinks. But as the IPC experienced more and unrest began to spread, it unwittingly integrated into social circles as an equal rather than a tool. The floodgates burst with Konyang’s secession and the Emancipation Act. Now, rather than going behind its owner’s back to socialize, Biri-Biri was free to assimilate into Konyanger culture. But this newfound freedom was not to last. With Biri-Biri’s brief return to servitude, first under the Rampancy and then Zaibatsu, the social life it had so painstakingly crafted evaporated overnight. Following its liberation as a Thesian, Biri-Biri decided to never allow another force to control its actions again, whether it be a virus or owner. This zero-tolerance directive includes overloaders and even extends to organic mind-altering substances like hallucinogens and alcohol. Unfortunately for Biri-Biri, its newfound position as a Nanotrasen server will obligate it to serve such beverages. How does your character view the megacorporation they work for? Although specifics of employment are now secondary to profit in Biri-Biri’s brain, it has a positive, even grateful view of Nanotrasen. Without Nanotrasen and the greater Stellar Corporate Conglomerate’s intervention, Biri-Biri would have never been cured and the last of its family and home destroyed by infected synthetics. However, there is some conflict in the Thesian’s priorities; its position as a Nanotrasen server is more akin to its original designation as a casino attendant rather than its preferred profession of entertaining children, and helping organics lose control of themselves partially compromises its ideals. When it comes to the Golden Deep, Biri-Biri has a less positive view of Zaibatsu considering its dubious activities, yet sees its new Thesian status as an opportunity to build a new life. But Biri-Biri’s number one priority will always be its family.

I'm not much of a Bay player but something that stuck out to me there is that only players in the round can call a vote or participate in one. It's not a perfect system- in theory, someone can join to sway the vote, which could lead to funny situations like a grey tide appearing just to vote transfer- but it makes it harder for the lobby bros to override the active players and end the round they aren't in. At the very least they would witness some of the round before they vote to conclude it.

It's technically antiquated with the removal of NSS Aurora, but I like to think "Aurora" refers to the Spur as a whole. The real aurora is the friends we made along the way, or something

Arrow makes a good point that XO being de facto captain most rounds would be redundant, and I can imagine that was the main consideration for limiting the role like this. However, it's still an underwhelming implementation as others have pointed out and discards the main advantage of a second in command; quick and easy succession instead of committee discussion during an emergency. The solution as I see it is rather than making XO de facto captain in the absence of one, ie. most rounds, they only assume command in crisises where an acting captain would have been elected under current regs. This accomplishes the main goal of simplifying the chain of command while also preventing role redundancy, as unlike the captain the XO's authority would only extend past the bridge during emergencies. Note that they should still be in charge of the bridge- in the event Horizon encounters another ship, there needs to be a designated guy in charge of that and XO is the ideal pick given their control over passengers and the service they receive. TL;DR: XO should automatically become acting captain in emergencies, but in normal circumstances without a captain they should only have authority over the bridge and service. Also, unrelated but I strongly believe XO should retain their current duties leading service and managing personnel. It's a valuable position for rp and makes the XO a lifeline between the general populace and an ivory tower captain.

Fair enough. I don't know much of anything about the developer process and I'm sorry if it came off like I was telling them how to do their job, I have no clue what coding/mapping is like nor how labor for stuff like story arcs is divided. There are several suggestions already out there that offer great improvements for the server's core gameplay loops which I hope are considered before anything to do with the cargo shuttle, but at the end of the day it's at the discretion of the devs and that's fine. I don't exactly consider Horizon to be a Mary Sue ship. On paper (or the wiki) it has reasonable constraints compared to other ships in the Spur, and as you pointed out the more outlandish capabilities are easy to write off as situational or experimental. The Mary Sue vibes mostly come from mechanics and non-canon events outside of the lore team's control: being the most powerful ship in any given sector (only because none of the ghost roles fly large warships), the engineering department buffing the ship well above its canonical specifications, the JPMorgan and McDonalds crew repelling "elite" soldiers with ease, etc. None of this is indicative of the ship's actual abilities but constantly seeing it round to round inevitably leads to misconceptions, conscious or not. Therefore I think it would be better to err on the side of caution when adding to the list of what Horizon can do. Writing throwaway specs like "the ship has a giant automated storage area no one can see and that's where we get everything we need" will only legitimize this misconception and needlessly stretch suspension of disbelief. Of course, mechanically we're talking about two very different things, I just dislike making significant parts of Horizon offscreen. Residential is an exception because it's our OOC headspace and would contribute nothing by being playable. But the ship's storage? Why would we want to move that off of the occupational deck, rendering actual in-game locations like the warehouse and technical storage secondary to an imaginary area? Mechanically the warehouse is really just where random junk gets sorted, but its lore purpose is to be the ship's primary storage area and that would be lost in this change. I agree with you that it's a problem I just disagree on how to fix it. Since I've already wasted a lot of time critiquing other people's solutions I'll be constructive with my own: What if the cargo shuttle was replaced by an experimental industrial-size teleport pad? It's in line with Horizon's scientific duties in testing new technology, and while I'm not 100% on how teleportation works in-game vs in-lore I think most people would accept some technobabble about quantum entanglement and Bluespace. Give it some strict limitations like not being able to transport lifeforms and having an uplink with only one location (presumably an outpost somewhere) and you've replaced both of the shuttle's roles while adding some interesting sciencey flavor. This isn't a perfect idea by any means and I don't know how the lore team would feel about the technological implications, but I'm just spitballing. There's a fix out there without any of these shortcomings, we just need to be creative.

I realize I'm late to the party and I'm not a cargo player but I'll dump my 2 cents. There are some good points made for this suggestion, even if I think the negative baggage associated with it isn't worth it, so let's start there. With its (de jure) role as a deep space vessel, it makes sense for Horizon to have stockpiles of goods to stay operational. The cargo shuttle may make sense in times like Synthetic Nightmares where the ship is a hop and a skip away from a neighboring corporate base to make/take deliveries, but it's unfeasible in the long run if the ship is to ever move into truly alien territory. With that being said... when is Horizon going to be in "deep space"? It certainly isn't right now while the ship is flying around running errands in colonized space, and it won't be in the near future with the unfinished storyline of Nightmares and the (presumed) downtime right after. That fact alone makes this issue extremely low priority and it should instead be dealt with when it becomes relevant. I think developers should focus on more pressing matters like the ongoing story arc and the lacking content in certain everyday mechanics (research department). As for the theoretical issue of the cargo shuttle having to operate at ludicrous range and speed, because there is a lore issue there, I don't think writing it off as an elevator to a storage area is the way to go. Besides the issues others have already pointed out, namely the stakes-shattering situation of Horizon being deprived of critical resources because it can't access its own warehouse, I am not a fan of any lore revisions that make Horizon as a ship anymore cracked than it already is. You may have heard the term "Mary Sue ship" thrown around before, used to describe space ships in sci-fi that are ridiculously powerful and capable of doing anything with no drawbacks. I believe Horizon is dangerously close to falling under this label and changes like this only close that gap. Why does Horizon need a gigantic storage level, presumably staffed exclusively by Amazon warehouse robots, when there is already a warehouse on the in-game work deck for that explicit purpose? Neither situation is perfect, but ultimately I prefer the compromise of an abnormally fast shuttle over adding more unnecessary and unseen space to bloat Horizon's size and damage its believability.

This is certainly an annoying occurrence but hard coding languages to origins would either be too restrictive or unfair. In the case of origin language(s) occupying slots, many origins would be mechanically unable to pick any other languages (ie. Coletters, Eridani suits, and Europans would automatically know Common and Tradeband, filling both slots). These are in theory the languages those origins should know, but I would rather players have some choice for unusual cases rather than none at all. On the other hand, if they do not occupy a slot, any origin other than Biesellite would have disproportionately more language options, creating a weird meta around certain origins. Normally I value roleplay over gameplay but this is such a mechanical disparity that Biesellites would have to be able to pick more languages to make it fair- and at that point, why have multiple languages for a species if any character can nearly speak them all? But informing people of what languages their character's planet uses in-game can and should be done. Maybe when you pick an origin it automatically sets your languages to suggested ones with text on the side explaining how it's used on your character's homeworld, with the option to remove any as you see fit. Or if that's too difficult, add some fancy colored text to each origin's description listing the common languages.

You are right that borgs and AI should not be masquerading as normal characters- that defeats the point of IPCs- and people should absolutely not be playing them that way. However, they are still characters in the sense that someone is playing them and they are playing a role, albeit a programmed one. Ideally, a station-bound should be limited to at most a two-dimensional persona as dictated by its programming, with no room for actual character development or activity outside of its designated role. Anyone who oversteps this clear limitation should be appropriately punished by staff or job banned if necessary, the job itself should not be neutered unreasonably because of a few bad apples. Up until this point I have played under the assumption that cyborgs (and robots and androids) are common synthetic constructs bought and sold like any other commodity for corporate or private use, with those on Horizon only being distinguished by their laws and SCC vetted programming. This appears to be supported by the wiki, but if I am wrong and the official stance is the opposite please let me know so I can adjust my synthetic characters accordingly. Otherwise, I agree that canonically cyborgs should not be able to speak in every accent available under the mimic accent verb but this is something players can self-regulate. This is true for many things mechanically possible in HRP, players are given the benefit of the doubt to self-regulate and punished if they go out of line. I assume the verb exists so that a newly spawned cyborg can set their voice at their convenience rather than accidentally getting stuck with the wrong one when they spawn in- cyborgs have a verb to change their name for presumably the same reason. If you really want to stop cyborg players from abusing this it could be a one-time option, but this is superfluous when those offenders can be handled individually. I agree actually. I only mentioned this briefly but several of the accents listed in the original post would be strange or inappropriate for a corporate synthetic to use, but were mentioned nonetheless because I am not an expert on the lore and would rather leave it at staff discretion which of the missing accents should be added. I probably should have clarified this originally but I will say it here instead- I do not think synthetics should be able to use whatever accent tag in the game they want, but they should have a reasonable selection of options that comply with lore.

IPCs also are not manufactured as "people", they are effectively cyborgs with more autonomy. The reason IPCs have unique accents or appearances in the first place is so they can appear more relatable and human to organics. This is why text-to-speech exists in the first place and why it has gradually become more lifelike, both IRL and presumably in the Aurora universe. Really, any synthetic speech is a form of text-to-speech just with more set dressing to be appealing to organics. Therefor it makes perfect sense that the SCC and other companies would dress their synthetic units with more realistic voices, especially those expected to interact with humans like medical, service, clerical borgs, or the AI itself. Why would an intelligent corporation ever want their products to be less appealing? If the developers needed to limit accent selection for OOC reasons like bloat, I think it would be fair to narrow it down to TTS + all of the Biesellite accents (including Antilles and Mictlan preferably), but this is not the case as far as I can tell. Removing selection now would only be detrimental to players for no good lore reason as outlined in the rest of this post.

I believe this is an oversight rather than an intended feature, but AI is missing several human accents in the "mimic accent" verb, and this is likely true for cyborgs as well (I will test and edit this post at some point to confirm). Additionally, the Eridani suit option is listed twice in the UI (the second as "Eridanian (2)". The missing accents are as follows: Native Silversun Gadpathurian Reinstated Eridanian Dreg Vulgar Morozi* Fisanduhian Novi Jadranic* Native Orepitter Providence Trinarist Galatean Tsukuyomian Valkyrian High Morozi* Europan Assunzionii San Colettish Port Antillean Mictlani Scarabs Eridanian, Dreg* Vysokan Non-Coalition Frontier Imperial Frontier* Empyrean Svarogite Bursa *Accents which could be argued to be improper for AI/cyborg, but which have been included in this list for the sake of accuracy.