[Denied]SonicGotNuke's Diona Deputy Application

[sonicgotnuked]

Ckey/BYOND Username: SonicGotNuked

Position Being Applied For: Diona Lore Deputy

Past Experiences/Knowledge: While ss13 taught me how to actually spell things correctly through time, I've been able to expand my creative expression more and more throughout my time here. My Diona whitelist is an example. I've also have a robust foundation with species lore and moderation experience on the server where sometimes you need to take a few lore things into account when the rules are involved.

I also have every other whitelist except for Vaurca, if that matters, to which my Tajaran whitelist is very poor.

Examples of Past Work: I've shared some of my spare thoughts with Yonnimer about Diona lore since I got my whitelist. My whitelist could be read as some past work I suppose. 

Diona: My opinions:

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Mechanics Vs Lore

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Dionaea as a whole species I feel is missing some great chunks of potential and it often times devolves into a trap which players find themselves powergaming with a few of its many mechanics. When there is a lack of understanding and detail within the lore, it allows players to lean more towards the mechanical perspective in the species and what the game provides. This leads to an arrange of issues and patterns including players mass injecting radium, acting as fearless damage sponges, with, at times, lack of basic self preservation. While I do agree that Diona should be tweaked, it needs to be done carefully. There also needs to be a balance of lore that can discourage certain behaviors. Diona is also the most annoying thing to encounter as an antagonist due to their near impossibility to kill between the gestalt and all the nymphs.

 

While some of this has been mitigated with amnesia when there is mass loss of nymphs, there is still an entire spider web of Diona species mechanics where you have to narrowly step on the thread between lore, balance, and ability while hoping not to fall. This is a point where the game conflicts with Lore. Radiation is good. Radium is a steady health pool that gives constant speed and health. Why shouldn't a Diona officer round start request radium bottles if it is stated that radiation is extremely beneficial. We typically use reasoning as a tool to define power gaming. There is a lore reason as a security officer Diona to keep mass injections of Radium 24/7. Is that power gaming when we bwoink people for preparing additional arms and supplies before there is a clear indication of threat? 

 

That is an example of  a conflict that need to be adjusted on either a mechanical or a lore bases. Radium currently has healing effects that are greater then Bicard as some of the many examples of Diona power. The species became known as more of a meme where you get the whitelist just for the upper edge then the actual species itself and what it can represent.

 

Nymph and Gestalt

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The Gestalt is a collection of Nymphs. I feel like there should be more of an empathizes and detail on individual Nymphs, relations, and inner interactions. The fourm provides a good start detailing how each government treats a Diona and its Nymphs. This can be expanded upon. Why don't all Diona combine into a singular entity? Why don't we have one massive Diona roaming the station? Why do Nymphs split off? How is knowledge stored and shared? How are experiences gained. Why can't I split off a nymph, sample the blood of every medical doctor, then not practice Medical perfectly and to its full extent? Why do some Diona speak slowly through a single Nymph. Others speak through all their Nymphs. Or just one main Nymph speaking? Why can't I split off a single Nymph and spy on the secret cult base remotely?

 

These are all critical questions left open ended that I feel are essential to Diona. I wish to expand more on the individual Nymph relationships to which common goals, experiences, knowledge, or protection defines the Gestalt. From there, they work together as a single entity to interact with the world around. They can chip themselves and later enter contracts with sensitive information where the Nymphs are forbidden from splitting off. (To define why we have RD Diona, CE, and CMO

 

Is killing a Nymph murder? That's a question that should add conflict and controversy. What's the line of Nymph stomping that considered murder? If you kill one of its Nymphs, is that Animal abuse or assault? I would like to expand on this idea without falling down the line of discrimination that both IPCs and Vaurca already earn. 

 

Diona Place in the Universe

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I think Diona being unknown should be expanded upon to add further conflict with interactions of the species. These are space caterpillars who suddenly broke away from their eternal peace, floating in space, to make friends with every species around. To involve themselves in affairs, to join raider parties, partake in criminal activities, or simple trading when they lack a materialistic need for anything except the background radiation of space. I think this unknown aspect should be carefully grown. This will allow the ability to create Diona lore arcs based around these mysteries instead of just things that exist for some reason. This is a species seeded throughout most of the galaxy and layed stagnant for thousands of years before suddenly deciding to interact with those silly humanoids and their petty Drama. If they're able to split off, there shouldn't be a reason why to not smash one rock against another in space just to create something that can at least fundamentally propel their seeds from one asteroid to another without just letting them drift aimlessly. They're intelligent. Intelligence likes to adapt and make things easier for itself. I find this extremely lacking in the lore and confusing why this one species layed technologically stagnant for eons until encountering intelligent life.

 

At the current state, Diona are more similar to carp. Carp are animals that like to eat, breed, and reproduce. Carp done it the same way across space because they lack higher brain capacity to make this task easier. Diona are intelligent, even more so then everything else, but still lay in this same process of eating and tossing seeds blindly into space until they suddenly don't.

 

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[Yonnimer]

Application denied, reasoning discussed with the applicant.