StationCrab's IPC Application. [Accepted]

[StationCrab]

BYOND Key:

StationCrab

Character Names:

P.A.T.C.H., Brandt Cooper, Darrell Jones, Kevin Adams

Species you are applying to play: 

IPC

What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): 

N/A

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: 

Yes

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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 specific race:
    

     While I have enjoyed playing organic characters aboard the Aurora, I have always been drawn to their synthetic counterparts. The challenge of role playing a believable character with a 'personality' within the confines of a synthetic law set is an interesting one. I find it rewarding to evoke emotion from the crew while playing as a cold unfeeling machine. While IPCs are not as restricted as stationbounds, they do open up a whole host of new challenges for role play within the synthetic framework. Being bound by hardware restrictions is a new angle to a strict law set that I am excited to experiment with. While a stationbound is restricted by the whims of the AI core, an IPC chassis is free to specialize in a particular field, this allows me to freely focus on pursuing character building relationships within the department I am most comfortable in. Stationbounds are often treated like equipment by the crew, because they are, but IPCs open up a whole new avenue for exploring discrimination and acceptance within the crew. The debate around synthetic sentience is really interesting to me, and I hope that playing as this race will allow me to explore this deeper than I could with a stationbound character.
 

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
  

      Human characters can be unpredictable, controlled by emotion, circumstance, and attachment to members of the crew. An IPC is bound by their hardware and programming.  While an IPC will sometimes mimic human behavior in some small way, the chaotic and unpredictable nature of a human character will rarely be emulated by an IPC. While a human may charge blindly into a raging fire to save a loved one in a moment of heroic commitment, despite the dangers, an IPC would likely watch a long time co-worker burn if the odds of their chassis being destroyed were higher than the odds of a successful rescue. The constant calculations of cause and effect within a binary framework hold the IPC back from making unpredictable decisions, and the high cost of their chassis leads to them being programmed with a high level of self-preservation, something humans can often cast aside when emotions get the better of them.
    

     Another aspect of the human race is their ability to adapt and learn new things very quickly. The technological restrictions of an IPC chassis prevents them from sharing in this strength. While an engineer may be able to be taught to use or fire a simple weapon in a time of crisis, an IPC programmed strictly for engineering purposes would likely be unable to do the same. The restrictive focused manner of their hardware and programming make them highly useful at their assigned task, but adapting to new unfamiliar situations is  their weakness. A human may decide one day they wish to change careers and pursue a different path, but an IPC would require a highly expensive overhaul, making them slaves to their design in this regard.

 

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Character Name:

P.A.T.C.H. (Positronic Assistant Technician for Care and Healing)

Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs
    

     The P.A.T.C.H. line of medical robots were originally developed for use aboard Nanotrasen BioMedical stations. Initial experimental deployments aboard the NSS Canis Minor, as an assistant to up and coming medical students proved to be a success. The robots were designed originally to serve in the capacity of a Nurse, dispensing medications assigned by the Medical crew, and caring for patients by providing food and drink. The units were also programmed to provide morale support, playing music, displaying movies, and even providing a sympathetic auditory sensor to the patient's woes, with pre-programmed responses to thousands of potential gripes and complaints. Due to the success of the unit, new models were transferred to Canis Major, for full medical trials aboard the hospital station. Eventually, newer iterations of the P.A.T.C.H. platform would include surgery protocols, allowing the unit to perform more complex surgical tasks. Surgical trials were conducted on Protohumans, and once the systems were proven, it would be pressed into full service. 
  

     Due to the success aboard the Canis Major, the P.A.T.C.H. units were dispatched to various other vessels and stations within Nanotrasen holdings. One of these stations was the Research facility known as Aurora. Arriving via the hospital ship NCV Maxwell, the unit was deployed into service within the state of the art med bay aboard the station. Bound by the limitations of a stationbound platform, the unit would see great success in this new environment. The hazardous nature of a phoron research facility lead to several improvements of the P.A.T.C.H. platform, and several upgrades to it's chassis would be made over the next several months. Interfacing with the crew proved a success, and the unit became well known among the crew, for better or worse. Interactions with Chief Medical Officer Fernando Gonzales proved especially interesting, as the unit began to analyze the work patterns of the medical staff, morale increasing subroutines leading the unit to observe and record behavior patterns to better adapt to it's environment. The telemetry and data collected by these interactions, while interesting, were restricted in their use by the nature of a stationbound platform.
    

     While responding to a critical incident involving a tesla containment breach, the unit was struck by a bolt of energy, melting most of it's components beyond repair. Chief Medical Officer Fernando Gonzales, who reluctantly acknowledged the unit's usefulness, proposed a project to his superiors that would not simply replace the lost unit, but expand it's capabilities beyond the restrictions of a stationbound. The project proposal was the creation of a Baseline IPC, that would use the data collected by the P.A.T.C.H. line of stationbounds, to create a highly specialized medical and surgical chassis. A mechatronic engineer by the name of Nikit Vasili took an interest in this project, as he had experience with IPC construction through work on the unit designated PHAX. The funding was approved, however due to specialized facilities being required for the creation of such an advanced machine, the bulk of the project was outsourced to the Hephaestus production station Sidirourgeío, with Nikit Vasili and Doctor Gonzales providing remote assistance via the extranet on the finer points of the design. Upon completion of the unit, it was placed in an advanced storage crate, and shipped to the Aurora aboard the HSF Titáv.
    

     The locks on the storage container clicked open, a low hiss emitting from it as the seals separated from the main compartment. Nikit Vasili inspected the unit for a few brief moments, before initiating it's activation sequence. P.A.T.C.H. hummed to life, it's camera slowly panned the room, first focusing on Nikit Vasili, then a clearly unimpressed Doctor Gonzales, a soft clanking sound could be heard as it set it's feet upon the floor of the station for the first time. It's internal display began to rapidly process the information available to it, the positironic brain making millions of connections and calculations in seconds. The unit slowly exited the crate, blaring a short message in it's encoded audio language, "The Gonzales." The unit made it's way towards the CMO, looking down at it's own hands, before slowly extending one to offer a common human greeting in the form of a handshake. Fernando glanced down at the hand, before looking back up at the machine. "Good." Fernando stated, seeing it was fully functional, before turning heel and walking out of the robotics bay. The unit awkwardly kept the hand extended, turning to face Nikit Vasili, swiveling it's torso to offer the rejected hand to it's designer. A standard greeting in basic would follow, "Greetings, Nikit Vasili." Thus began the unit's adventures aboard the Aurora.

What do you like about this character?

     A lot of the reasons I stated for enjoying the concept of IPCs apply here, but I think what I like most about P.A.T.C.H. as an IPC is that it is a progression of upgrades. It has slowly been improved in various different forms within the backstory, and even within the actual game-play time I've had with it as a player. Progressing from a stationbound to an IPC variant opens up so many doors for character growth, especially involving it's interactions with characters who already are fond of the unit. I can't wait to see how those characters react to P.A.T.C.H. in this new form. I am also excited to see how Resilynn's player chooses for Fernando to react to the IPCs basic level of emulation towards their character, and SimonTheMiner has said they are willing to role play the design and maintenance of the unit, so there's a lot I am looking forward to here.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

     When I first came to Aurora I made a lot of mistakes in the synthetic department. I had a lot of trouble learning to role play within the laws, but I've made a solid effort to improve on that, and I hope people will see this. I feel a bit awkward giving a number here, but I'd say I still have room to grow, and delving into my first white list is an attempt to broaden my horizons in this regard. I spent a lot of time behind the scenes researching and asking questions to improve my synthetic play (Special thanks to ORB,Sytic, Loredevs for mechanical help!) I've waited quite a while to pull the trigger on this because I was unsure if I was ready, but I think I finally am.

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Notes:

Special thanks to Resilynn and SimonTheMiner for allowing me to use your characters in the backstory.

Edited December 27, 2018 by kyres1

[Sytic]

He always puts a major foot forward in terms of feedback, progression, and development. Crab makes a lot of effort to do better and to try to do his best. While a little awkward at times, I find it hard to believe that anybody ever wasn't awkward when constantly trying to both improve, and prove yourself.

I'll endorse this. +1.

[Resilynn]

PATCH has been a pretty fun beep boop to hang around these days.  I've seen him in a few malf rounds and he's really good about roleplaying things out instead of just, y'know, bolting and shocking the doors, pulling out the circular saw.

I think he's got this.  +1

[Allakai]

eyyyyyy Patch is a medibot I can get behind! I love it how he gives my characters tissues when they're crying :') he plays a very lovable and enjoyable station bound and I don't have a single problem with him, in fact when Crab is a malf borg I think he shines with how actually fun he is to interact with! 

Crab would make an extremely great IPC. Extremely strong +1 from me.

Edited December 17, 2018 by Allakai
My sentence structuring needs work.. yikes.

[Doxxmedearly]

You do pretty okay as a stationbound. I do have some minor gripes (Such as a stationbound being excessively sassy/rude to crewmembers), but nothing that strikes me as necessarily BAD synth play. In fact, PATCH would probably be better as an IPC.

Pretty neat to have on-station characters involved in the backstory. Just remember that IPCs are designed for a purpose, so you're not going to be the same jack-of-all-medical-trades you were as a stationbound.

You obviously put a ton of care and detail into all parts of this app, which shows a deep dedication and love of the lore. OOCly, you're a good egg. I can support this. +1

[StationCrab]

2 hours ago, Doxxmedearly said:

You do pretty okay as a stationbound. I do have some minor gripes (Such as a stationbound being excessively sassy/rude to crewmembers), but nothing that strikes me as necessarily BAD synth play. In fact, PATCH would probably be better as an IPC.

Pretty neat to have on-station characters involved in the backstory. Just remember that IPCs are designed for a purpose, so you're not going to be the same jack-of-all-medical-trades you were as a stationbound.

You obviously put a ton of care and detail into all parts of this app, which shows a deep dedication and love of the lore. OOCly, you're a good egg. I can support this. +1

@Doxxmedearly I am sorry if PATCH came off as rude, that certainly isn't my intent! Thank you for the positive feedback and your support! In response to the jack-of-all trades concern, I certainly do understand! My primary focus with PATCH as an IPC will be that of a Medical Doctor/Surgeon, I won't be dipping into chemistry/rescue/psychiatry at all, as that is not what I envisioned for the backstory, although I suppose in extreme circumstances the unit could rescue someone simply due to it's ability to survive in dangerous environments, but certainly not on the level of the more robust chassis designed for that sort of thing. 

Generally PATCH has the goals of increasing patient morale, caring for their general medical issues, and performing in a surgical role should it be required. I actually see them as completely inept in any confrontational situation, preferring to preserve it's chassis and flee/help others to flee rather than confront a threat. I hope that this is not too broad a scope for an IPC! The wiki stated that generally two jobs could be comfortably undertaken by them, obviously if this is too broad I am certainly open to further restrictions, I want to make this character as believable as possible within the IPC lore.

Edited December 17, 2018 by StationCrab

[Itanimulli]

Please please please please please be a zheng hu who does the exact same thing as before.

Also, I kinda want to know what simon and resi think o this backstory.

[StationCrab]

6 hours ago, Itanimulli said:

Please please please please please be a zheng hu who does the exact same thing as before.

Also, I kinda want to know what simon and resi think o this backstory.

@Itanimulli We discussed it together on discord, it was submitted to them before I posted it, to make sure they approved! The reason I didn't select Zheng Hu is because this was the first attempt at bringing the P.A.T.C.H. line of synthetics into the IPC space, so I selected the most basic frame, as it made sense to me that perhaps Nanotrasen might be more receptive to the project if it was low risk financially (by Mega-Corp standards). My OOC reason is I really like the TV head, and I can do some cool things with the display RP wise I think.

I'd like to see the chassis be upgraded over time though, depending on how things go, that might be a fun angle to play.

Edited December 18, 2018 by StationCrab

[kyres1]

Due to IRL stuff and a pretty big delay I'll handle this application.

As previous feedback has said, improvement is a huge thing with you. I've seen P.A.T.CH. a lot and they get better with each interaction I have. The application is great and you've clearly put plenty of positive effort into this. I look forward to seeing what you can bring to the field with this whitelist - application accepted.

It'll be marked as processing as perms have been messed up and someone with said perms will handle it later tonight or tomorrow depending.