Nikov

1. Get rid of virtual reality. Nothing about this species lends itself to developing an elaborate technical industry required for even considering Pong, let alone VR. If they have no art, why develop a virtual world? If they have a virtual world, why leave their homeworld's caves, ever? 2. Simplify castes. There are lot of castes, types, and other fluff that really doesn't add anything. Model them directly after ants; Type A workers, Type B soldiers, Type C males and queens. Get rid of the mixed subtypes, which are confusing as hell. 3. All A's and B's are undeveloped sexually. A's are genetic females, B's are genetic males. B's may be identified as male as an honorific similar to knighthood. "It" is the common pronoun. They are not lobotomized; they are simply stupidly obedient and obediently stupid. B's have somewhat better autonomy thanks to their dormant male gene, and particularly strong or old examples begin to develop enough self-awareness to strive for certain "honors". 4. All free-willed, free-thinking Vaurca need to be Type C: sexual development begets intellectual development. Males; who compete as nobles, administrators and generals. Females; who are queens or princesses and revered as goddesses. A male might arrive as a diplomat on the station, any male in Nanotrasen employ as a subordinate is almost certain disgraced at home. Queens never leave their palaces, save young queens when carried in a grand "bridal procession" to a new palace. Religion? They worship their queen. Queens maintain a cult of a Grand Mother, which presents a handful of Commandments that straight-jacket males into the social order. The cult, that is the Queen and her relatives, is also responsible for deciding when to produce more C eggs, in a ritual nobody has witnessed. C's develop when an egg is exposed to a secretion from a female's naughtiest gland-sac, and females maintain this secret by sacrificing an esteemed personal attendant (a) or honored warrior (b) to be the larvae's "egg yolk". B eggs have slightly darker coloration, although mistakes have been made. It is believed to have an outcome on personality, but the specifics are a Cult secret. Females have completely ritualized sex. Females have no enjoyment in the act; their carapace is physically ruptured near their ovaries in an area with mercifully few pain receptors. Males practically have a seizure and swim in a pheromone high from exposure to the serous fluid surrounding the ovaries. The precise mechanics, like the egg ritual, are strictly taboo. Some Earth insects evolved a similar sexual arms race between male and female; Vaurca evolved intelligence as well. A's and B's have no concept of libido; the closest fulfillment possible is to be selected as a Sacrifice. C males have no sex drive beyond acquiring a Queen, and fulfillment is impossible without one. There is a dark penchant among older B's and male C's to rip enemy A's apart in a frenzy, however. it is considered a heinous war crime by most hives. That males are rare and females rarer creates a society in which males strive to create a gilded cage that a female is willing to live in. Since females deign to live in such cages, they control all the ultimate power. This provides a creative drive for males. Males select their strongest sons, invest resources in preparing them a hive, and have lesser sons manage the hive's daily operations. Lesser sons are content to serve their fathers creating wealth and hoping to position themselves into a hive. The taboos, religion and social norms are themselves carefully constructed control mechanics to keep the females in-power. The Cult is aware of several historical occasions in which a male learned the various secrets, and it is darkly rumored to be the pre-historic and "barbaric" state of affairs. Cult rituals are considered life-or-death, accordingly. A recent strategy is to send unwanted type A's and B's into Nanotrasen's employ under a low-ranking son... Goddammit I wanna re-write them. Its bad. Its really, really bad. So many basics of scifi realpolitik are ignored in their first contact. Hello strange species. We'd love to give you bluespace and the keys to invade every star in the galaxy. What's that? You're bloody-stupid overbreeding insectoid communists? I'm sure you'll fit right in! Lore needs to hold them as literal slaves being sent over and managed by third-rate sons to earn glass beads and hatchets from Nanotrasen to impress a first-rate son's future queen. This explains why Nanotrasen hires them; they are the natives in Heart of Darkness. A's and B's need to be DNC, with players allowed to respawn as an A or B with a new name. A and B names need to be a hive name, caste tag and a serial number. Every drone needs to be a complete throwaway with just a trace more hive-memory about how to do their job. We need to make these aliens alien. I posted way more than my imagined five-point plan to fix them.

The only use for the straight jacket is to put someone on the psychiatrist's couch for long, painful conversations about their mothers. It belongs in the psychologist's closet and under the psychologist's control as it is for use on characters who are insane.

I self-identify as a rapist. Our safe space is the boiler room under the quad. Its a consent-queer tolerance zone.

-1, unapologetic downvoting of an Unathi Head of Staff, particularly Head of Personnel. The resistance that Unathi would face climbing to the Captain's right hand is not sufficiently represented, as I know three Heads who -hate- Unathi and could write some nasty letters. He's a good character and a fine warden I am sure, but the idea of an Unathi having that much power should turn some heads IC. Now, if the rest of your characters weren't Unathi? You'd get a +1. So maybe more like -1/2.

Maritime law (don't start with the pedantic "its not a ship on water") traditionally holds the owner of a vessel responsible for full "cure" of sailors acting under his orders. ...but if by the master’s orders and commands any of the ship’s company be in the service of the ship, and thereby happen to be wounded or otherwise hurt, in that case they shall be cured and provided for at the costs and charges of the said ship. - Article VI, Rules of Oleron, 1266. This is a longstanding maritime tradition even among merchant ships, and although we are not pulling oars on cogs on the French coast, we are closer to SS13's timeline than the middle ages. It only makes sense to pay for medical care for injuries received from bar-brawling and other non-work related incidents.

Fiberglass cloth outer shell with several layers of metal foil between. But yeah. Emergency closets can have their softsuits replaced. We had a pirate round in which fussing and fumbling with getting a spare EVA suit for our captive caused long delays. A grab-and-go solution like a rescue ball would have Ana Morgan's contract sealed and paid for.

Where does this "humanist" philosophy sit with xenocide? Namely, how do we square a human supremacist philosophy not glassing every one-world species encountered? Or, have we been glassing planets quietly without informing our Skrell buddies?

I've got to agree with keeping the popup. The annoyance of knuckledraggers comes second behind keeping in my god-damned air. If anything, change it from legalese to "DANGER: 3.2 KPA AT -140 C DETECTED." Have WARNING for amber alerts, DANGER for red alerts. Big bold text, bright colors. Make it useful rather than useless as a popup.

I agree with the "present signed/stamped warrant".

If Mars was an early hotbed of Puritan / Pilgrim refugees from the gilded jackboot of Idealist state-sponsored philosophy, yes. I find a humanist world-religion of utopian striving for a communist utopia very goininnawoods-worthy. I recall when my cousin read Brave New World and saw a reference to "Baptist snipers in Tennessee", then said, "Yep!".

Manfred Hayden, for all your Engineering Apprentice Percussive Correction needs. CKey: Nikov

I disagree. Its one thing to go click click click, here's a chemical for medbay. Engineers laying a new power line takes several minutes and is almost likely to get you arrested without stamped paperwork. I spoke with Fowl briefly and it seems a web topology will be used. Our current network really displays the failure of bus topology at surviving damage. Exactly one cut wire will kill power to everyone but engineering, at a place that isn't even behind an airlock. If the power line ran behind Medical and into the medical/research substations, then connected into the civilian loop on the back end, which itself connected into Security on the left side... it wouldn't be so easy for a Visitor to kill power for the whole station with five seconds and no gloves. Competent engineers don't make a system which is easily broken and repaired. They make a system that resists being broken in the first place.

This suggestion had some good discussion and generally positive outlook, so I'd like to see it returned to public eye.

Well that particular shift you were me, attacking an engineer, in a very public place. With stolen equipment from the Chief Engineer. I'll remember to dislocate apprentice's knees next time they steal a voidsuit.

Well, no. He was targeting a security officer when the security officer moved. The bullet missed the officer, and hit the window. Listening to him after the fact, it was also clear he did not intend to hit the shuttle. That said, he's back now.

Whatever you do, don't handcuff a guy then dislocate his leg. Especially if its a Head of Staff.

It is acceptable to refer to them officially as Space Balls.

When describing your character, avoid precise figures or units of measurement. Nobody can tell you are exactly 5'6", but anyone sees you as slightly less than average height. For authentic smoking, occasionally hold the cigarette in your hand. Only the Atmospheric voidsuit is sufficient protection for plasma firefighting. Everything else, including actual fire suits, will get you killed. Atmospherics runs entirely on the ideal gas laws, which you forgot to pay attention to in high school. The station's distro loop can run comfortably on 60/40 nitrogen/oxygen, which will help people breathe without internals as low as 50 kpa. It is not until 20kpa or lower that you must wear a spacesuit to avoid low pressure damage. If the kpa icon is grey, there's no need to panic with internals on. Set and reset the fire-alarm to force open all firelocks. Useful for balancing air in long hallways if the breach is sealed. Cryogenic freezers for oxygen in medical are tremendous, 25 kilowatt power drains. Wait until the engine is started to avoid power shortages.

If we have a gateway, why do we use the escape shuttle? If a gateway lets you go from the Aurora to Mars, why do we even have spaceships? Why doesn't the chef just go through the gateway to Wal-Mart to pick up his groceries? Why doesn't the Quartermaster have a gateway to push crates through? Why doesn't the ERT or a battalion of Sol Alliance troops storm through the gateway every time we hit Code Red? Why doesn't the Syndicate build a gateway and throw a tactical nuke through it into our station? From a science-fiction universe setting, instantaneous teleportation over interstellar distances is a tremendously bad idea because it will destroy all these other elements. The short-range teleporter is one thing, since light is nearly instant at these distances, but I don't think the gateway has been considered for its impact on the universe.

Okay, this guy is a good pick. I had some IC, OOC, DO shenanigans crop up for me on an Extended round and he not only dealt with my politest bitching but talked me down, assured me he'd straighten things out, and generally acted like you were paying him to deal with a customer, rather than volunteering his time to lord over the masses. +11111!!11shift1!1

Yes, that's good leadership. Great leadership involves drinking in your office with the privacy shutters down, insisting you're doing paperwork. But good leadership manages.

Black callously ordered Aerianna to carve open Manfred's seared corpse for an autopsy. Great mental scarring had by all, and it created excellent roleplay.

Manfred loves Akela and doesn't mind her sticking to her work one bit.

Funny thing about McChuckleFuck. Turns out sodium chloride and various oils produces explosive compounds. Would be terrible to get welder fuel in an oxygen candle.

I am improving my trench into a proper bunker.