Erik Tiber

It seems good enough as-is.

I see. I thought so as well, which is why I was surprised that this was brought up, because I thought that this was precisely the case. I have a feeling that the lore team is not on the same page. Example: Not a problem at all. Like others have said, it's a minor RP detail. Anyway, they have genetic engineering now. Why wouldn't they give people stronger livers? Stronger immune systems, generally more efficient organs. You'd only see a tiny minority with zero modification anyway (Because that stuff gets inherited too), it's not like people are a fan of their kids getting some debilitating genetic disorder and not at least modify their kids to eliminate that risk factor and give other minor general augments. *snip* My suggestion was that some people might have better livers because genemods, which could give a reason for some people to be able to be heavyweights. Expensive and regulated in our current lore, just discussed it. What I'm hearing from you seems to contradict what I've heard elsewhere. Could you provide clarification? That's pretty cool and I agree with more extreme or silly things, things that would be silly or flat-out biologically impossible (which generally covers most of the undesirable stuff too).

They're still genemods. I was told that genemods at all are apparently super expensive. No, they're not superhumans. They don't need to be, it could just be a bit stronger immune system, and possibly something or other about healing, with all this varying from person to person. It's not like the viruses on station are anything like the typical fare you'd see, and being able to say, in-backstory heal twice as fast as an unmodded person doesn't mean you have to change the in-game healing rate, because that's already just abstracted. No, you don't understand. The majority of genemods could simply be applied while the fetus is still in the womb (or womb-equivalent if they're growing in an iron womb), rather normal stuff to increase lifespan, fix genetic disorders. The vast majority of people evidently have modifications to increase compatibility with prosthetic limbs and implants anyway. Besides, there is a vast world of difference between only needing four or two hours a sleep a night and hulking out. Something like hulk is a radical enhancement that wouldn't be common. This is genetics testing anyway, not issuing FDA-approved genemods to infants, and besides, NT already has the justification of "Walking off with unapproved genemods is industrial espionage/stealing company secrets/whatever" and sue their asses off. Or they could expose themselves to liability if a geneticist rampages and injures someone on the station after giving themselves modifications, if apparently NT didn't take proper safety measures. Something like hulking out would probably give you a good chance of breaking your own bones from your strength or something, or perhaps causing some manner of circulatory problem or god knows what else, with whatever the hell they did to themselves. The vast majority of serious (as in, notable) enhancements would mostly be among rich people who make more money than you and sign your paychecks.

I'm not sure how "not having a crippling genetic disorder" or "having a mildly better working under the hood" is snowflakey. If people are so up in arms over the idea of the Sol Alliance not being in the dark ages and this not being the year 2015, I would very much like some links. If you want to restrict many possibilities for characters, in a completely unrealistic manner, cutting off opportunities for interesting characters over something that should be trivially solved, then that's a poor policy. That's silly. It's been around four hundred years and this makes little sense. You may as well argue that vaccinations are expensive because it's so 'recent' or whatever. It should have been the better part of four centuries. There's no reason for it to be illegal either, it's a rather important public health thing. EDIT: You will also note that I did not make a single reference to genetic modification that would actually change appearance. Simply something stating that, in the background, most people have minor gene mods to just fix genetic disorders is hardly making people 'freaks'. This is rather restrictive for almost no gain.

Yes to the first and no to the second. That's irrelevant as to whether or not the decision is a good one. I say it isn't. Irrelevant, if you have an issue, make a seperate thread, treat it as the lore team has decided it. I agree with nerfing infections, most people on station aren't Quarians. I made a thread for it. We can discuss this there. No, I'm not ignoring the lore team decision. You can clearly see me calling this very decision 'silly' and probably 'ill-thought out' in various threads. I'd say that my criticisms are rather clear examples of my acknowledging its existence. Here's the thread. http://aurorastation.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=1933

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Biological Engineering Founding/Settlement Date (if applicable): 12,000 BCE (First examples of genetic modification caused by human activity); 1973 (First direct transfer of DNA from one organism to another), Region of Space: Inhabited areas. Controlled by (if not a faction): Regulated by the Solarian equivalent of the FDA. Other Snapshot information: The human genome project was completed in 2003. The first FDA-approved gene therapy experiment took place in 1990 in the United states. From 1990 to 2014, 1,700 clinical trials were conducted with a variety of different gene therapy methods. Long Description: Genetic engineering would have a significant role in everyday life. As the first 'designer babies' were born in the first half of the 21st century, genetic engineering became more common as the procedure was made cheaper and more safe. In general, the vast majority of the population is at least genefixed, nearly eliminating genetic disorders, increasing lifespan and general health, and a number of other minor modifications. Genemods are primarily administered in a manner similar to vaccines at birth before the child is born. Many have some manner of augment, whether it be increased strength or intelligence, increased compatibility with prosthetics and implants, or a modified circadian cycle requiring only four hours of sleep a night. Due to there being nearly 500 years of experience with genetically modifying organisms, the science is now a mature field and basic genemods are either free in most jurisdictions (as part of the local public healthcare system), government subsidized, or low cost. Designer babies being designed in their parent's image is not unheard of, and this can lead to emotional problems later in life. In general, genemods have widened social inequality, with the rich able to afford more extensive modifications. Many claim that this has resulted in a nigh-permanent upper class with low social mobility. However, these people are generally dirty communists and you should not listen to their propaganda.

He could just get them surgically removed, right?

-Headscarves in several colors and patterns, somewhat comparable to hats. Black, grey, green, and maybe some other colors or patterns. When I visited DC last new year and went into the Museums, I noticed a number of female muslim tourists wearing headscarves, many of them were grey or black IIRC, but this seems pretty reasonable. I do remember seeing one character whose flavortext mentioned that she wore a headscarf. -Turbans in several colors, including red and white, and maybe some other common ones. Do we have anyone from a Muslim region who knows what some good common headscarf colors are?

I completely agree. We could try to add a greater variety of short hair types for both genders. We could also look here for inspiration. I'd personally like to see cornrows, the caesar cut, the butch cut, the crown braid, slicked back, and the ivy league.

We could just pretend they're large, metal pill bottles with a handle for extra grip.

I really want to play Lockie as captain during a rev round and just watch everything immediately go to shit. It would be hilarious.

We could just say it's a fully automated drone carrier run by Nanotrasen's version of Wheatly. Or just a mostly automated one mostly run by NotWheatly.

Core worlds and the Inner Colonies are relatively wealthy. The economy is very stable, and genetic technology has become a commonplace practice with the advent of the Skrell and the Humans reaching a summit and creating an alliance. Most of these families would not have an issue getting their children gene-vaccines. Ooh, catchy. It shouldn't be 'immensely expensive' because one of the lore writers says so and doesn't want to be bothered to expand on the subject. That's a very silly way to go about it. In which case, it wouldn't be that awful to allow for certain people to have more enhanced metabolisms because of genetic modification. And this stuff is four hundred years old. Basic genefixing could be treated like a vaccine, nice analogy there. That is a silly decision and Gollee is being silly by making that decision. I fail to see why it is anything but very silly.

Yes to the first and no to the second. That's irrelevant as to whether or not the decision is a good one. I say it isn't. Top of the line is not four hundred years old. They charge at the equilibrium market price due to competition with other firms bringing down the price, plus four hundred years of tech development mean that you'll see prices significantly fall, before you take into account the fact that real incomes would give most people on station six figure salaries in 2015 USD. It's four hundred years old lol. We're going to get that stuff in the next few decades. If you're just making up an excuse to cover a decision made for another reason, you can just say, everyone has to do it in fiction. Gengineering should be common place, by the time it's a four hundred year old technology, unless you want to wurble about how vaccinations are super expensive in the future because it's only been 500 years since we discovered the eldritch secrets of the smallpox vaccine. Because you're basically asserting that vaccines should be uber expensive right now, because hell if I know. This is rather important to note. And it's very silly to have literally everything give people sepsis, even the smallest injuries, and have that sepsis cause comlete organ failure within an hour or two. With how fast infections spread you'd think that the entire station is smeared in human waste. When I scraped my knee as a kid and the wound got infected, I didn't have to amputate my leg.

Is this in game or in reality? It doesn't take all that long for literally any infected would to quickly go and kill the person outright. In relative terms. I thought it was possible to survive with a minor infection for more than, well, a day without just keeling over? Right now it seems that pretty much any infection has the capacity to go and kill you within the timescale of a single shift. I would personally go with something like a quarter. Right now even the most basic wounds can cause quick infections that kill you quickly. I would assume that your laser-riddled legs won't kill you of gangrene in ten minutes flat. Expensive and regulated in our current lore, just discussed it. That's pretty stupid. It's 400 years in the future and we're looking at getting in-vitro genetic modification within the next few decades. I'm guessing that half the reason the ban is in place is over concern over 'snowflakes', right? Of course it would be regulated. Expensive? Hell no. Again, it's 400 years in the future. We have cloning vats that can print entire new bodies in a negligible amount of time. We have the ability to basically create brain uploads. And the economy grows, anyway, and incomes grow over the course of hundreds of years. Are you seriously asserting that something so simple, some centuries-old technology that could have such major advantages, would be just too expensive? What, are the syringes made of solid diamond or something? We already completed the human genome project. In the modern day. Yes though currently it seems that it doesn't require considerable damage at all. Any damage, really.

I think the atmosphere is thin enough for there to be pressure damage.

When is this happening, out of curiosity? Now. (editing)

Currently, infections are apparently virulent enough to kill people in a matter of minutes upon getting them. And as it turns out, these infections rapidly spread throughout the entire system, causing rapid, rapid organ failure, causing brain damage, all sorts of nasty stuff. This is not a description of a normal infection. This is basically a description of a bioweapon in all but name. We should really, really nerf infections. They should not kill people so absurdly quickly. Hell, if anything people should have far stronger immune systems than today. Genetic engineering yo, it's hands down affordable to just about everyone, only people who wouldn't get any genemods are those who choose not to. So rather than the current bioweapon-grade infections, perhaps we could nerf it considerably? Maybe Increase the time it takes for it to spread by one or two orders of magnitude and decrease the rate at which it does damage by a comparable amount? Even the most deadly infections are deadly over the course of a day or two from when symptoms first appear. Infections should only really be a concern in someone with many many open wounds or with many, many burns, and even then it wouldn't kill them all that quickly at all, certainly not within an hour at the very least.

I think it would be rather more important to make note of the ways in which an AI could think differently from a normal person. Or at the very least, it could be interesting. I don't mean stupid differences like "machines inherently hate life" or whatever. For example, save being law-bound, unless it's coded into them as one of their directives, an AI wouldn't see their own survival as inherently good, and would really only view it as beneficial insofar as it allows them to accomplish their other directives. An AI's neurological structure would not necessarily be based on that of a human, either. It might be based on some manner of animal depending on the task, or it might be entirely novel, resulting in an alien intelligence. This sort of stuff would probably take some research. I might actually make such a guide, come to think of it. That doesn't make much sense at all. NT itself is the highest authority, they install the AI's. I'm all for having holes in their laws, but this is literally (in the proper sense) the most fundamental things to include in the AI's laws. NT would want authority. They would want to maintain authority. They want to be able to override those below them. NT would not want to be in a situation where it can't properly subordinates, who might end up doing crazy shit that the company will be held financially liable for.

How do we have a space station feel in the first place? People are commuting to and from work to their space office building, working their space 9 to 5, then leave in their space bus, where they go to the space metro station and take the space subway to their home on the surface of a planet (moving at hypersonic velocities up and down or something if they actually want to get to and from orbit in the time it takes you to have a morning commute). I fail to see how this is anything like a space station other than the fact that outside is deadly. It's not isolated at all, it's not remote at all, and mostly everyone just complains about breaches. Either that or they're instant death for everyone who isn't an engineer, because we have firelocks which the trained, designated medical personnel do not have access to, and which lock people out from escaping all the time.

We should also probably not have alcohol give you actual liver damage so absurdly quickly. Not a problem at all. Like others have said, it's a minor RP detail. Anyway, they have genetic engineering now. Why wouldn't they give people stronger livers? Stronger immune systems, generally more efficient organs. You'd only see a tiny minority with zero modification anyway (Because that stuff gets inherited too), it's not like people are a fan of their kids getting some debilitating genetic disorder and not at least modify their kids to eliminate that risk factor and give other minor general augments. There's too much worrying about snowflakes. They're a minor problem, put them into perspective. I know it's pretty annoying when literally everyone is an amputee with prosthetic limbs, yeah. The solution to something like that? Have the vast majority of prosthetics be voluntary replacements, Deus Ex style. Which makes sense, because they should be very useful.

As a side note, this does sound way more fun than the vast majority of malf rounds.

Could an admin close this? This is resolved.

The problem with that would probably be that people would not know to ask to cryo. What if we simply had an automatic timer of 30-60 minutes for SSD's, after which it would give some message indicating that they have been SSD for an extended period? Pair this with an opt-out system where you can click a box or whatever to indicate that you do not want to be cryo'd. Alternatively, you could just have the 'don't cryo me if I'm SSD' thing be a box you can click in character creation.

This seems like an incredibly trivial reason. What about the other concerns raised? Regardless of whether or not Fortune is suitable for the position, why would your primary (and it seems only) concern be something as minor as hair color (which is really just a matter of personal preference), rather than any of the other issues brought up? If you were to question her suitability for a head role, why would it be based on that? I'm simply going to offer my +1 support anyway. No,no,no,no,no. I am not going to have this chat due to now trivial things like the hair color now. I understood previously that people already hated the cyan, floorlenght braid combo, but this is now to much for my heart to take on. I understand the concern as to why you want me to stop, but i really hate to do a debate right now. But, your vote is your vote, nothing i can stop. I wasn't too crazy about it personally, but that's just a minor pet peeve and not something which people should really be basing an entire head staff app off of. The larger concern would really be the length of the braid, and concerns with it being caught in things. But honestly, it is a rather trivial matter. If she gets her hair caught in an autolathe then medical could just go and urge her to cut it, or her director could request that she do it, or whatever. But it's really just hair.