Offworlders Announcement/Feedback thread

[kyres1]

 

Spacers have existed in our code for awhile now completely untouched. Seeing as our lore not only permits their existence but totally encourages it, the lore team has worked on a hopefully decent side project - implementing the spacers under a new name. This new name of course being Offworlders, which are basically the same premise (that being Humans affected by low gravity or the lack thereof) with completely unique mechanics. With the introduction of this subspecies comes a new faction by the name of Scarabs, storied nomads with origins rooted in the time long before the First Interstellar War. Several unique backgrounds are available, but general Frontier character creation rules can apply to them as well. After all, they’re just Humans with different mechanics.

 

Offworlders are not whitelisted. They are subject to much the same situation normal Humans are in, though are barred from certain roles due to their health issues in standard gravity. So far, the Offworlders can not assume the Chief Engineer, Head of Security or Captain roles - not due to discrimination, but due to health and safety concerns.

 

Taken directly from the design document is the following.

One can expect Offworlders to mechanically,

Have much weaker bones, meaning their bones break easily.

Have much weaker organs, meaning their organs take higher damage.

Be much more susceptible to toxins.

Be much more resistant to light and therefore flashes.

Be much more resistant to low pressure and have a much higher threshold for lung damage.

Only require bare minimum air to reliably breathe - somewhere around 15kpa ingame.

Require bracing of some sort through the ESS to stand.

Bleed much slower than normal Humans.

One can expect Offworlders to, in roleplay,

Experience discomfort in normal atmosphere and prefer internals set at a lower pressure to it.

Be very tall, reaching ridiculous heights with no gravity to hold them down. 7ft max please.

Be highly willing to seek out prosthetics/augmentation.

Be from any number of factions in the Frontier.

The standing mechanics are simple. You feel discomfort and receive a slowdown when not using some form of assistance to stand. All Offworlders spawn with the ESS by default, however this can be taken off at the cost of said discomfort. Alternatives to the ESS, and details on it are below.

 

RMT (Regenerative-musculature tissue) pill supplements

RMT pill supplements are rampantly used by those seeking to remedy the effects of prolonged zero-G adaptations. Mechanically, these work by nullifying the discomfort message and slowdown. You would have the option to pick a bottle of these for free from the loadout, if you wish to dedicate the space to them. They have no other effects or overdose. These should be easily obtainable from Chemistry and a full bottle at spawn should last the majority or entirety of a shift.

 

Prosthesis

Any form of prosthesis which encompasses both legs removes the slowdown and discomfort entirely.

 

Augmentation

When the Human augmentation PR found here, https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/5999 is completed, we hope to utilize these in a fashion that allows R&D to develop simple implants that assist in nullifying discomfort/slowdown.

 

The ESS (Exo-Stellar Skeletons)

The Exo-Stellar Skeletons, or ESS for short, are the Offworlder’s most unique asset. Utilized in much the same way as a standard RIG, it deploys into a tightly-fitting chest and headpiece. Both the headpiece and the chestpiece can be deployed, but neither covers the respective body part enough to be unidentifiable, or withstand depressurization. Essentially, these are simple support braces. These are equipped with very little universally, generally things to maintain and keep the Offworlder alive and well during their time in the hostile environments other Humans call home.

The ESS is equipped with…

An emergency injection system that, once the user exceeds a certain damage threshold, injects 5 units of dexalin and 5 units of inaprovaline into the user’s bloodstream.

An integrated vitals tracker that allows the player to scan their own body’s vitals and nobody else.

The ESS has no statistics of its own. There are zero armor values and it has no environmental protection.

The ESS does not splint broken bones.

For convenience sake though (because it’d get annoying) the helmet will offer welding protection. It does not obscure the face entirely to hide identities.

The ESS can only equip two RIG modules alongside the others.

The ESS’ two default RIG modules can not be removed.

The ESS can not equip the following:

Combat modules and construction modules (specifically the RCD if we can help it)

The overview of the wiki page will be the following,

Referred to as anywhere from spacers, to drifters, to star-men and even just offworlders - Humans negatively affected by low gravity are a common sight in the Frontier. Various examples of these Humans are the majority of the Techno-Conglomerate’s populace, or the Scarabs. Typically, the environments they are grown in take a massive toll on their body’s inner workings. They are often seen as atrophied giants with long, lanky limbs reaching heights of up to 7  feet when reaching adulthood. They require bracing and various means of comfort and life support to sustain themselves for prolonged times in standard atmosphere and gravity, though have no issue surviving in either for hours at a time. These deformations have been achieved by hundreds of years of time in space without zero gravity, with over a dozen generations meeting similar issues. Augments, prosthesis and genetic modification have stemmed the effects of it, helping guide and shape, albeit a rather large, Human form.

The offworlders on board NanoTrasen stations are not a new introduction, but higher gravity stations have recently began to see workers descending from zero-gravity environments. This is due to the recent proliferation of the unique ESS modules thanks to NanoTrasen’s mass distribution of them to workers seeking alternative job routes. These ESS, or Exo-Stellar Skeleton modules, are RIG-like exoskeletons that assist in movement and comfort in a standard gravity environment. Though old inventions, their recent mass upgrades from NT has allowed them to meet health and safety standards for comfortable work, and has sparked a large immigration back into the Core Worlds from these afflicted Humans.

In introduction,

We intend to present Offworlders (and test them live) through a series of minor unannounced and canon mini-events establishing characters and repetition. Rather than a grand entrance as if this had become a new thing, their integration with the rest of the crew ought to be seamless and gradual rather than imposing and sudden.

The concerns -

There are a few concerns to outline when introducing something like this that we’ve encountered. For one, it’s hard to determine whether or not this is bloat. This addition may get the wrong image and lead people to believe we’ve been working excessively on things that don’t really matter, but it should be known that this is a side project first and foremost. Secondly, there are concerns that the implementation of something like a RIG to unwhitelisted species is a tad outrageous. This is fine for the most part, but adding something to explain what exactly you’re wearing and how to utilize it may be pivotal. In failing this, we may have a lot of people just falling flat on their face in the Odin and unable to get up. There will be a message upon spawning as an offworlder explaining what the ESS is briefly and how to turn it on to help this, but as a result, the RIG in its current state is the biggest WIP addition.

In summary,

The Offworlders are basically a mechanical downgrade to normal Humans. They were made purely to exercise creativity in character creation, put some untouched code to good use, and permit exploration of rather untouched parts of the Frontier. Almost all lore writers pitched in to help out and any feedback is welcome. More details on the lore end, such as specifics on the Scarabs will come along as they reach the final stages of development, though will probably end up on the wiki in usual lore process. Feel free to ask anything!

 

The PR can be found here, https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/6078

Edited February 23, 2019 by kyres1
added alternative methods of standing

[Garnascus]

13 minutes ago, kyres1 said:

the Offworlders can not assume the Chief Engineer, Head of Security or Captain roles - not due to discrimination, but due to health and safety concerns.

What kind of health concerns disallow them from being these command positions but still allow them to be security? Looks cool to me though. 

[Neinbox]

Problem: Off-worlders are a name used to describe any species that does not live at their home world. It literally just means off-world and is used as a general term. My characters use it a lot for such.

[kyres1]

1 minute ago, Garnascus said:

What kind of health concerns disallow them from being these command positions but still allow them to be security? Looks cool to me though. 

The running assumption is that, in an unwhitelisted sense, we can't really or at least it'd be a giant hassle for administration to place restrictions on entire jobs. For command staff, it can be different as they have a whitelist in the first place and can be held to the expectation that they would abide by simple species rules.

[ferner]

I've wanted to explore spacer esque characters for a while now, so this would just be perfect. Seriously nice work from both a lore and mechanical standpoint.

[Snakebittenn]

2 minutes ago, Neinbox said:

Problem: Off-worlders are a name used to describe any species that does not live at their home world. It literally just means off-world and is used as a general term. My characters use it a lot for such.

We voted for the name collectively.

[Neinbox]

1 minute ago, ParadoxSpace said:

We voted for the name collectively.

I know this. I still do not agree to it for reasons that I stated. It's too general a term that can be used for any and all species that live off world, and is. "Spacers" means what it says. But again, I lost the vote so it no longer matters.

[LordFowl]

Democracy was god's mistake.

Edited February 20, 2019 by LordFowl

[zyymurgy]

Cool concept, I like it. It's got good roots and I'm interested to see where it goes. If I had one request it would be to see a stronger Transhumanist flavor; there's some tasty notes here but it would be interesting to take it further. Augs? Gene-splicing? Straight up surgical cybernetic mutilation a la Cyberpunk?

Also: elf ears when?

I always love to see new work come from the team and this has a lot of promise! Adding more species and variety to play with is very much not bloat and I look forward to seeing this develop. I might actually play humans when this hits. I strongly favor characters that come with a challenge so playing a 7ft twig who needs a piece of adaptive equipment to live is very interesting indeed.

[Neinbox]

Just now, zyymurgy said:

Also: elf ears when?

Body mods like that were harshly discouraged by staff. Do not expect it any time soon.

[LordFowl]

Adding new subspecies to humans of all things definitely is very much bloat, by the way.

[zyymurgy]

1 minute ago, Neinbox said:

Body mods like that were harshly discouraged by staff. Do not expect it any time soon.

Cowards.

[IAmCrystalClear]

Strongly agreeing with @Neinbox's point. "Off-worlders" is too broad a term, if this is a spefic sub-species of human, that should be noted. What do I now call my Tajaran princess raised on a rebel shuttle, having never seen the light of day before, if not an "Off-worlder"?

[LordPwner]

I also agree with @Neinbox. Way to broad in all reality. Not sure why anyone would use this. 

Edited February 20, 2019 by LordPwner

[Snakebittenn]

8 minutes ago, IAmCrystalClear said:

Strongly agreeing with @Neinbox's point. "Off-worlders" is too broad a term, if this is a spefic sub-species of human, that should be noted. What do I now call my Tajaran princess raised on a rebel shuttle, having never seen the light of day before, if not an "Off-worlder"?

A foreigner. A refugee. A tourist. I have never heard someone use the term off-worlder to describe literally anyone ICly.

[LordFowl]

The term "Space-Adapted Human" seemed quite precise to me. Not sure why it was changed to "Offworlder". Offworlder doesn't even sound like a good species name in general. Some variant such as "spacer" is still as vague but sounds better.

Also why are only humans space adapted? Surely all species have members who are adapted to space? Back when this was just a feature of a person's background and possibly roleplay the fact that everyone was identical mechanically was acceptable because everyone was identical mechanically. Now only space-adapted humans exist mechanically but everyone else doesn't. Tbh I don't think space-adapted humans should be a subspecies at all on that grounds alone. Their cultural items could still exist.

[Lady Fowl]

1 minute ago, LordFowl said:

The term "Space-Adapted Human" seemed quite precise to me. Not sure why it was changed to "Offworlder". Offworlder doesn't even sound like a good species name in general. Some variant such as "spacer" is still as vague but sounds better.

Also why are only humans space adapted? Surely all species have members who are adapted to space? Back when this was just a feature of a person's background and possibly roleplay the fact that everyone was identical mechanically was acceptable because everyone was identical mechanically. Now only space-adapted humans exist mechanically but everyone else doesn't. Tbh I don't think space-adapted humans should be a subspecies at all on that grounds alone. Their cultural items could still exist.

Essentialy this

[JMJ_99]

We have Scifi Artificial gravity. I don't see why it's needed. I can see a separate species being justified for something like belters in the expanse where they have nothing like that

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Just now, JMJ_99 said:

We have Scifi Artificial gravity. I don't see why it's needed. I can see a separate species being justified for something like belters in the expanse where they have nothing like that

The spacers have the circumstances that preclude them from artificial gravity in both their history and current times. They have been conditioned by centuries of living without gravity; more than any of the alien species. The unique situation on Earth, where people were haphazardly thrown to the winds of deep space leading to the frontier as it is, was not replicated by our other species. The second oldest playable species of the Skrell were much more methodical and organized.

[Snakebittenn]

Artificial gravity only became a thing 45 years ago.

7 minutes ago, JMJ_99 said:

We have Scifi Artificial gravity. I don't see why it's needed. I can see a separate species being justified for something like belters in the expanse where they have nothing like that

 

[JMJ_99]

1 minute ago, Senpai Jackboot said:

The spacers have the circumstances that preclude them from artificial gravity in both their history and current times. They have been conditioned by centuries of living without gravity; more than any of the alien species. The unique situation on Earth, where people were haphazardly thrown to the winds of deep space leading to the frontier as it is, was not replicated by our other species. The second oldest playable species of the Skrell were much more methodical and organized.

 

Just now, ParadoxSpace said:

Artificial gravity only became a thing 45 years ago.

 

Fair enough then I'm mistaken

[VTCobaltblood]

1 hour ago, LordFowl said:

Also why are only humans space adapted? Surely all species have members who are adapted to space? Back when this was just a feature of a person's background and possibly roleplay the fact that everyone was identical mechanically was acceptable because everyone was identical mechanically. Now only space-adapted humans exist mechanically but everyone else doesn't. Tbh I don't think space-adapted humans should be a subspecies at all on that grounds alone. Their cultural items could still exist.

These space-adapted humans come down from a long genetic lineage, well over a century. They're not simply humans who were born on a space station - they're humans whose mothers, grandmothers and grandgrandmothers were also born on a space station. Most species haven't launched their space programs long enough ago to have populations whose adaptations are as severe and apparent as in humans, except Skrell - however, Skrell are well-versed in genetic engineering, and may simply erase these non-beneficial traits for workers they plan to return to normal gravity again.

[LordFowl]

Zero-grav adaption is not genetic, so the idea that "They have been conditioned by centuries of living without gravity; more than any of the alien species." is spurious considering that the current generation of "human spacers" experience the same exact problems as all other xeno spacers, thus this idea does not nullify the complaint that you would see xeno zero grav adapted as well. This was not a problem back when being a spacer was not a mechanical issue.

[Ornias]

Something being a side project doesn't mean it isn't bloat, especially because it'll be immediately prevalent within every round.

Even if we want to say it's psuedo-epigentic, we have gravity generators in this universe, even on small shuttles and ships. I struggle to see the existence of many colonies at ALL which wouldn't get access to a grav generator almost immediately. If you want to say "grav generators were only made 45 years ago", does this mean that people from Jupiter/etc. will be afflicted by similar things? I mean, Sol got colonized quite a while ago. This is a dangerous precedent to try to explain.

This will not give more character variety. You can already say your character is weak/needs implants/etc. due to living in low gravity, or to make a character from anywhere in the frontier. This really does feel like unnecessary mechanical bloat, that I can't see adding much to roleplay at all. Plus, Garn is right - they should be restricted from most roles which require labour, like engineering and security, or allowed into all of them (and head roles) as a result of their special RIG pack. Why would a captain even be included on that list in the first place? A captain isn't a Head of Security - his duties are managerial, not defensive.

Plus, if it's genetic- what about people who were born within Tau Ceti after their parents came from the frontier? Can they not survive infancy? That's pretty substantial, and raises big questions about how a day-to-day life would be different for an Offworlder.

I don't like this. Until someone can provide concrete examples of what it would provide (the alien tendencies and opinions of our xeno races, the terrifying mystery of the dionaea, the grotesque tensions caused by Vaurca, the class-dissonance of tajara, etc. etc. etc.), this feels like it'll just be an extra thing cluttering the station.

Edited February 20, 2019 by Ornias

[SleepyWolf]

"This will not give more character variety."

I disagree, adding the 'Spacers' would encourage even more variety by giving expectations to what they are, "Hey, I CAN be a spacer." It's like selecting a class in DND, when you play a Paladin or Cleric you're expected to be lawful. It's the same, except with an expected history instead of expected alignment. There's probably a better thing to explain it, but I do have to say adding them would definitely give me more mechanical backing to roleplay I'd want to do, and we should have more mechanical backing to things. 

On the topic of bloat, I don't look at the species list and think "Gosh, that's too much!" I believe in terms of code, it doesn't hastle the server, and in terms of lore, they're basically already in lore.

 

please let me play a worm lady that cant stand in 1g