Things to do. How I feel we can improve things.

[Faris]

People like to post massive manifestos which usually don’t get read. I’ll try to keep this short and sweet. I’ll also provide a tl;dr at the end. I also want to say that I do not want any psychoanalysis of the community or long winded explanation to why people are the way they are. I’ll even be happy with zero replies as long as some of this post was taken to heart.

 

• Antagonists are nice for the round, but they shouldn’t be depended on to have fun for the round. Playing on Aurora is not like other games, you can’t always expect fun to come your way, sometimes you need to make your own fun. When you make your own fun, that fun and enjoyment seeps onto others. When others have fun, there’s less of a negative vibe.

A few examples of making your own fun. You can skip the spoilers until the end.

Command Roles: 

Spoiler

As a member of command, don’t act like a say Scientist+. You’re a manager, a leader. Under your command, you have control over your department and to extent, other crew. You have an immense capacity to dictate the flow of the round, use it!

Example 1: You’re a Director, you’re familiar with a scientist that has a few physical difficulties. You want to make their time working more comfortable and healthier. You can communicate with the CMO/Medical and possibly Engineering/Service/Supply to also help depending on the circumstances. Why would your character do this? Perhaps your RD is a caring person. They aren’t? Maybe they’re ruthless and and want to climb the corporate ladder by establishing a facade and a reputation that makes people want to like you. Still no? Maybe your Director wants to gain the scientists trust, perhaps you want to gleam knowledge and information they have for yourself, one they closely guard. 

Example 2: You’re a Captain, the largest authority onboard the station. Your capacity to dictate the round is only second to the GM running a event. You can treat this role and it’s responsibility interpretation very loosely. Maybe you’re a proactive person, very big on safety. You make sure everyone is safe and healthy. You encourage medical to be more proactive with check ups. Engineering could be told to upgrade safety measures. Science could be given a focus on life preservation and assistant innovations. HoP can be told to provide necessary funding, supplies and services provided. Maybe the Captain just cares, maybe he wants a very good review, maybe he wants to avoid violations that can get the company fined, or maybe even more recently, try to be better than their sister station!

Example 3: You can work with the rest of command as any command member to work on a confidential project. Perhaps with the Lii’dra infiltrations and such, command needs to keep a better eye. They get the crew working on things that they don’t fully grasp, the picture not fully painted as to keep the intent a secret from the infiltrators. Whatever they do, the lower crew will gossip, it’ll open room for intrigue and curiosity. Not everything has to be spelled out or visible. 

 

Standard Roles:

Spoiler

You don’t need extra authority or access to make your own fun. The sandbox nature of the station permits you a lot of freedom to do different things. Especially since you have less obligations and responsibility than a member of command.

Example 1: You’re a Warden. Warden for me is an active role, it’s not one where you just sit on cameras all round and handle the odd infraction. You don’t need to order weapons to interact with cargo, order rubber/flash ammo, flares, handcuffs, recreational items for communal. You can also ask service to supply you with food and drinks for communal and maybe the team as well. Coordinate with medical, they could send someone to give a prisoner that might stay a while a quick check up, make sure they’re brigged healthy. Speak to your prisoners, make a good inmate system, reward them, work them. Check records, flag troublesome employees and inform the relevant command staff. The list goes on.

Example 2: You’re an Engineer. All departments could stand to have a little improvement, refurbish them, improve them, work on your design in the future. Maybe security is dealing with prisoners that keep escaping and hurting your friends, make them the best cell out there. Work with science to build machinery and upgrade them. Your character likes new gadgets? Offer to field test some. Full house with mining? I’m sure they’d appreciate a project that helps them. Warden is busy with a lot of prisoners? Maybe provide quality of life changes? A disposals from the kitchen to provide a proper supply of food. A small room to treat prisoners which medical can use. 

Example 3: You work in science, notice how I didn’t specify one role. Regardless of the role, you have the capacity to work with all departments. Sure, not everything is mechanically advantageous, some things might just give a role play value, but that’s fine! Not everything has to be robust, it just has to be fun, and you have fun interacting. You’re literally pioneers of science, throw in some mumbo jumbo on why this strand of wheat is superior to this supposedly organic stuff they have. You can potentially literally solve galactic hunger, provide everyone state of the line hardsuits. Maybe shit has hit the fan, maybe your slime goodies can help the situation. 

 

 

• Negativity, it’s part of a vicious cycle, wide and continuous negativity demoralizes people, which in turn stifles creativity and willingness to do things. Having a thick skin should not be a requirement. This is a community, we spend our times together on a hobby we are interested in. For some, it develops further, making friends. I’ve met some exceptionally wonderful people during my time. In the words of a friend, we should not have to wade through a lot of shit just find good stuff. 

 

• We have rules and a setting, sure it posses some limitation yet neither of them are highly restrictive. We have both for a controlled and consistent environment, one in which we can immerse ourselves in. This still opens to you limitless concepts to use for character you want to make. Don’t be shy to experiment, acknowledge that not everything will work perfectly, sometimes some concepts don’t work for you or to your liking, try others! Down the line, you’ll find one that sticks with you, or even several. 

 

• Elitism. Don’t look down on new players to the server, byond or role playing as a whole. None of us have started as a master in role playing. We all were novices at some point. Some of us may have been taught, some of us have kept at it and so on. So don’t discourage people or be allowed to be discouraged. Instead, advise or ask to be advised. Play time may be a metric for certain things, they are however not a metric to being better than people. 

 

I feel these things needed to be said. I only hope what I said improves the general feel and atmosphere of the community as a whole and our experiences playing in-character. I don’t want any name calling or psychoanalysis of how people behave. I’m perfectly happy if this thread got zero replies as long as people took it to heart.

tl;dr Make your own fun, don’t rely on others all the time. Stop being negative. Be creative, rules and lore aren’t that restrictive. Elitism kills communities, stop it.

[MarauderW]

I very much agree with what you have said as if the words came out of my own thoughts. 

I wish this would be pinned as an example that this is what we, as a community, should strive to do and be.