Nanako

I'm with kaed and skull here

Well i think you're already aware about the lore justification of them being powerful bluespace machines, so having an internal power source makes sense being very armoured also makes sense, though perhaps not to the extent of being almost indestructible They should probably require paper and toner, since those are things which are basically never used. we can order them from cargo, but when have you ever seen someone use a toner cartridge?

The fun thing about syndicate borg laws is that law 4 is overridden by the others. So if captured and threatened, their laws allow them to divulge information in exchange for survival.. And if you can convince the borg that its masters will all die unless they surrender, its laws will force it to tell everything that would aid that

People can be forgetful or fail to notice a request. So you're saying, if you're not paying attention, then you do your job less efficiently? Sounds like its working as intended to me, attention to detail is the difference between a good and a bad QM

Can you clarify a bit on why this is desired? Are unprocessed orders deleted if you call the shuttle?

Thats pretty unimaginitive of them to only want to deal with the basics. When the fridge is fully stocked is a perfect time for a chemist to experiment with advanced mixes, chemical smoke grenades, and making performance enhancing drugs for security You could say the exact same thing about another chemist doing it though I think time is the important factor here. If a research borg is doing chemistry, then its not doing research. Cyborgs are designed to hop around jobs and help where they're needed most Scientists do this all the time though. Being able to construct machines is part of the job description for science, they often make things for research use Its usually RPed that synthetics have access to a database to look up any information they need. As a reasearch borg he didnt have the tools to build things himself, i dont see an issue with instructing someone else as for permissions, synthetics are bound to their laws, not to corporate regulations. The only problem i could see with permissions is if you told him to stop and he didnt, because they have a law to obey crewmembers. Station bound synthetics are literally above corporate regulations, but they also have no rights. If something about cadmus annoys you, order him to stop doing it. If cadmus being in your department annoys you, order him to be reassigned to mining or something. Or demand him unlinked from the AI and given a new lawset, cadmus with PALADIN would be amusing There is kind of a problem that NT wouldn't want a cyborg who's so abrasive. But you don't fire cyborgs, they're not paid employeees with a right to freedom or their personality quirks, you repair them, and modify them, order them to act how you want. They are compelled to submit to modification by qualified personnel and to follow orders from station authority Is there any problem with cadmus breaking its laws?

This is literally fine. Chemistry is a scientific discipline as much as a medical one, only two borgs have a chemistry gripper, research and crisis. Also, during a malf round? Antags are pretty much allowed to powergame to their hearts content, it's necessary for them to function. Like a doctor with syndicate training to hack doors and computers, or a quartermaster who is actually a millenia-old vampire and has thus mastered advanced medicine I fail to see how this is possible, janitor borgs lack the appendages to pick up beakers

I think we agree that soap has some problems mechanicslly. But i think it's also worth noting that from an IC perspective, soap on a robot is really dumb. Why would a maintenance drone carry a bar of soap around, how could it even carry it? I'm thinking maybe drones would be better with some sort of mini scrubbing arm. And janiborgs? Why do they need it at all, is there anything their built in "clean by driving over stuff" can't handle?

Now this i like. I've thought about it, but not sure how to make it happen, ill need to dedicate some research to it

So, first of all, some background information. There is a bug, or perhaps a design oversight really, in the sound playing function that we're using. Explanation for nerds: the TL:DR is, you're supposed to be able to hear where distant explosions come from, but you can't because of a bug which instead makes them sound like they're all around you. However i can fix this easily. The reason i've created this thread, is to discuss the possible consequences of doing so. Because i think a lot of people have gotten used to how the current system works, and there might be arguments for or against changing it. Reasons i think hearing the location might be good: It would be more realistic, believable, and immersive. All sound has to come from somewhere, and the way it currently works doesn't make a lot of sense. It would involve more of the crew in the round, with people being able to know where things came from, they'll know to stay away from that area or (far more likely) go to see for themselves. Either way, bystanders will get to be more active, instead of sitting tight and waiting for security and engineering to tell them what happened, if they even do (they often don't communicate with the public) It might allow medical to save people more often, by immediately dispatching paramedics in voidsuits towards the blast area. Because dying in a breach is sucky and not fun for anyone Reasons i think hearing the location might be bad: With explosions being locateable, they might lose some impact. The confusion and terror of a bomb going off may be lessened if you know it's far away from you, and thus explosives could be a less powerful tool for an antagonist. Setting off a bomb will make everyone know exactly where the antag is (or recently was), which means people could check crew monitors or cameras, and quickly figure out who did it, or at least have a shortlist of suspects. Getting away with it would be harder. It would probably encourage validhunting. People often don't play how a character would really react. If a player hears a bomb going off down the hall from their office, their first thought is probably going to be 'finally, some action', and then they'll pickup the nearest weapon and head towards the explosion to play hero. Basically, i'm not entirely clear on what the impact of this change would be, i've got arguments for and against it, and i'm not sure which side i'm on. I'd like some feedback about this. How do you think it would affect rounds, would it be a good idea to change, or not?

I've seen this in action in lifeweb, and I didn't honestly like it. The idea seems good for a certain type of game, it would definitely make stealth more interesting/enjoyable/possible, but it runs into a severe technical limitation with your facing being locked to cardinal directions. Farthermore, i think it really detracts from RP. You don't interact with people you can't see, and my experience of the net effect of that is that the whole game experience is less social, and more confusing and isolating. I have an alternate idea that might work more, a shifted view. Imagine if, instead of having your character in the centre of the screen, the camera was offset a few tiles in the direction you're facing, so you can see more of what's infront of you, and less of what's behind you. No idea how that'd work in practise. But i've seen how this idea works, and it's not something i'd support.

hey man, chill out I agree with carver to some degree, this seems kind of a military thing. Having a dedicated engineering department is necessary because you're on a station in deep space, far from help. The supermatter afaik shares a dual role of both function and research, it's a living prototype. Medical is needed because when people get wounded treatment has to be immediate Mining is kind of extraneous, it'd probably make more sense to just have resources directly shipped in, but that's the only one that fits with that logic i think. Command Coordination is the AI, it exists for exactly that purpose. The Captain is the alternative human version of a departmental coordinator. That's two levels of redundancy, a third imo isn't needed (though we do often have many cases where one or both of those isn't filled) Recon is the detective, and security officers, and the warden watching security cameras. Tracking down people who call for help is their job. Though i would say its really dumb that they don't have access to a crew monitor. Advanced stuff like radio triangulation might be interesting, but it might also just make validhunting easier, and rounds shorter as a result of antags getting caught quickly An IT department is something many people have wanted for a while, because logically it fits. But mechanically there's not enough of a role for it, in order for it to exist, more content is going to have to be created to support it, and more depth and problems added that they can solve. A lot of ideas have been thrown around, but i've not seen many that don't just seem like pointless makework and adding problems for the sake of having them. It would need some serious focus on design, and a lot of work to implement. That's a big project, you could take it on if you feel up to it. Recon and coordination though, these people would be redundant to some degree, overpowered to some degree, and in any case only useful in cases of raider assault and serious antag activity. They are pretty overtly advanced security features designed to deal with complex threats, and players in those roles are going to find themselves awfully bored whenever someone isn't immediately assaulting the station. Personally i don't think those two would make a great contribution to RP, to the pace of rounds, or to enjoyment of the people playing them much of the time. Perhaps though, the two of them could be combined into one role, a Commander/First Officer. Think riker or spock, the captain's right hand man. With most of his authority and responsibility, but more focused on the micromanagement than the big decisions. Maybe a superior to other heads of staff, but overruleable by majority vote rather than unanimity

Someone's been playing too much lifeweb. Some parts of this idea are interesting, but aiming at specific bodyparts is -really- fiddly and not at all easy or intuitive like in real life. Examining someone would take forever if you had to keep reselecting specific areas, and i can't honestly think of any way to make that process better

I think there are a few mechanical changes we could make to help encourage this philosophy in practise. The biggest one i can think of, is allowing downed/stunned people to still hold and fire guns, so that preventing a hostage from being executed wouldn't be so easy. Right now the metagame of combat is imo a bit too focused on long stuns, disabling people is easy so a hasty assault is often mechanically wise A full economy system would also help, especially with regards to quantifying the various costs of medical and psych care

I think i addressed the point pretty squarely, what is it you think i missed. This doesn't seem like a suggestion thread, maybe you've posted in the wrong place

The thing to remember is, characters are people, not just a job with a nametag on it. We have people with multiple skillsets who jobhop as necessary, and thats fine, it helps add more lore to the world. We have a personnel department for reassigning people to validate this aspect To take a position as a captain means you've got the necessary work experience and qualifications with NT, passed the necessary psych evals and management courses, and been selected from among a vast pool of applicants as one of the few chosen elite to be given that level of security clearance. Like with military and research things in real life, security clearance comes with permanant obligations. You can't just go home at the end of the day and tell all your friends about the top secret technology your subordinates are working on. Being in a position of that kind of power is a major choice and it impacts more of your life than the time you spend in the office. If you get to that point then you should, and realistically would. have that clearance as long as your contract lasts, including the authority to take command if the situation calls for it, even when you're off duty The problem i see, and this is a technical problem, is that loyalty implants are given upon spawning as a job. I think it should be made so that loyalty implants are chosen in character creation, and you're blocked from spawning in jobs that require them, if you don't have it. Being implanted should ICly be a semipermanant thing, it might be removed when your employment with NT ends, but it's not going to be removed at the end of every shift or on weekends Personally i'd say we should have a houserule that any character who is normally captain/HoS/IAA, should act as if their loyalty implant is always there, and should ahelp to opt-out and be replaced, if chosen as antag

selfdestruct is a terrible round-ending mechanic, and personally i don't want to see it made any more acessible

I agree, i looked into making hatchets remove plants faster, it was a little more complex than expected, i should revisit it. The question is, what things exactly should be more effective against plants? A full list would be helpful plant-b-gone is also buggy as hell and in need of some work

This topic has come up plenty of times before, especially among staff. Opinions were divided. I'd like to gather more feedback before i submit a PR for changes here. I propose the following three changes: 1. Hunger gain will progress 50% faster than it does now 2. All foods will give about a 33% less nutrition, so you need to eat a larger amount to fill up 3. Characters will spawn with a slightly randomised amount of nutrition (I'm thinking a random value from 50-100%, rather than always spawning at full) This would probably be implemented alongside this http://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6312 I believe this would encourage more social gatherings in the diner, more RP with the chef, make the chef role more interesting, and give people a reason to meet up instead of sitting in their department all shift. In shifts without a chef, it will encourage greater participation in other means of aquring food (garden, xenobotany, chemistry, cargo, monkey cubes, hunting, raiding security for donuts) I want opinions here. First of all, answer this question with a yes or no only. Do you think characters should eat more often? Secondly, do you agree with my proposed values? If not, suggest your own

Ryan has a point. Xenobotany is pretty engaging because of this mystery, and work involved in creating stuff. However, you do also have a point that the round is usually close to over before you can make something cool. I have a compromise, and it's a simple one. Have a few genes each round be already identified. maybe 1-3 of the possible genes, chosen at random, you'll be able to know what they do. Perhaps there's research notes pinned to a wall from the last worker there telling you what they discovered This would keep the same process, but make it a little shorter

I'd like to see more accounts of feeding events. Do gestalts ever invade planets and start consuming the forests and fauna for biomatter? Also military conflicts. Being peaceful makes you look like an easy target, there's got to be a few people who have attacked them.

I've had thoughts about this kind of system, i'm not 100% sure if it's the best route, mofo has some good points. But also, its a lot of work. A Lot Of Work. A MASSIVE HEAPING SHEDLOAD OF WORK. You have no idea not really a rebuild, just augmenting various mechanics and adding in stat hooks. but there's a lot of mechanics. so many places. Hell no. If a random community member submitted a PR for this, skull would rightly tell them to fuck off. Because that PR would have to touch hundreds of files, and take weeks of his time to audit. If something of this scale ever did happen (and i'm not saying it will, or is even being considered) it would have to be done internally, involving the whole dev team. Adding it piece by piece in a modular manner might be possible, although things would be very unbalanced during a long transition period

The mounted RCD, energy gun, chemical dispenser, and powersink, are all toplevel technology, they should require rare materials to build Many of the others are sort of weak ish, and should only need R&D

Hey mister, you don't get to talk about 'snowflake shit' I've looked through the .dmis, there's quite a few special custom sprites with YOUR name on them. seems like someone had their own snowflake phase, i think a few of them are getting added back in, too

My application has been accepted! \o/ Not sure when/if forum/ingame status will be updated