MattAtlas Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 Ckey/BYOND Username: MattAtlas Position Being Applied For: Human Deputy Lore Developer Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes. How long have you been part of the community for? Since August 2017. Past Experiences/Knowledge: Spoiler I will merge the answers for this question and the one below. I've never really held a formal writing position, but I have written and reviewed things several times for this server, as I do take a look at what lore posts in their channels and I give a helping hand when I can. This is often through ideas or reviewing big documents, as lore staff can confirm. As for what I've done for the server, here's a short list: Novi Jadran, a Dominian planet on the wiki, is my writing. https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Empire_of_Dominia#Novi_Jadran I was involved with designing and reviewing Gadpathur and Assunzione in their concept phases. The cultures & origins system is my creation. https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/13400 I was also a wiki developer at one point, so I am well versed in how the wiki works. Finally, I'm a maintainer and I'm fairly good at coding, getting work done or getting people to do it, as the cultures update would demonstrate. Examples of Past Work: See above. Why are you applying for this position and why do you believe you would make a good Human Lore Deputy? Spoiler I've been spectating lore's work through the lens of an administrator for around 3 years in total now. It is possible for me to contribute as it is, but it is a fine line to walk between interference and help. Having seen the gigantic steps that lore has taken recently first hand, I'd like to be involved to a larger degree and formally become a part of the writing team. A fair question to ask is "why couldn't you simply use lore canonization applications?" and the answer to that is that I'd also like to be involved in writing arcs and generally moving our setting forward. I believe I'd make a good deputy mainly because of my work ethic and the fact that many of my ideas have already, in some way, influenced human lore as it is -- thus, proving that I do have the creative spirit for the position. Additionally, I often participate in discussions with lore and the lore team administration and most of the team is already familiar with my views. I also think I have never really been one to be lazy or deviate from my server responsibilities, as basically anyone on staff can tell you. Finally, I believe I can bring significant coding talent to the lore team (or, at the very least, the human team) if they would like it, in addition to a good amount of talent in managing large projects and getting shit done. Finally, to get one question out of the way: yes, I do have time for this position, and the only time my availability would be sketchy is during exam seasons. What is your favourite part of Human Lore and why? What is your least favourite? Spoiler My favourite part of human lore is undoubtedly its variety. That is a strength that nothing else on the server can quite match: human lore has an amazing variety of factions, planets and origins that a character can be from. That's an insane strength in a roleplay environment: I've been playing humans for the better part of five years, now, and I still haven't run out of character concepts. I believe preserving this variety is extremely important as a result of this. The sheer amount of diverse character concepts you can create with human lore is basically unparalleled, as far as I am concerned, and I have all species whitelists bar Dionae to back up my claims. Human lore is also very accessible and at the same time provides a good challenge for people who want to put more work into researching their characters (as an example, Sol is basically plug and play for the most part, whereas Elyra would require more research from its user). Either way, the main reason I've been hooked with playing humans for the last years is the variety of human lore, and that is undoubtedly a strength that cannot be overlooked and must be maintained. My least favourite part of human lore is, to interpret this question liberally, simply the fact that the warlords have done practically nothing for the better part of almost three years now, which doesn't make much sense in universe when you think about it. I'm aware that there are internal factors that led to this happening and I'm aware of exactly what they are and that the human team is working on it, but a major reason why I made this application is to help with this process and sort out the warlord situation as soon as possible. Warlords are an extremely interesting part of the lore and the relative neglect that has been ongoing with their development is, to put it bluntly, missing on an extreme amount of potential. What are three projects (medium to large sized additions, reworks, or arcs) you would like to do or help organize if made Human Lore deputy? Spoiler Reworking Venus. Venus, as it is, is a walking plot hole: there's no history for the planet, so any Venusian character has no idea how their planet got to its position. Additionally, it suffers from a lack of lore for one of its halves, Jintarians, which are not only completely neglected but also absent in terms of on-server representation. I would rewrite Venus to mainly fix these two points: by removing the hate between Jintarians and Cythereans (an overplayed trope on our server, as we have too many factions that do this and too little maneuvering room for us to write with -- off the top of my head, dregs, Gibsonites, something else I'm forgetting) and instead making it into a symbiotic relationship of sorts (Cythereans do not work manual jobs and thus need Jintarians, whereas Jintarians sustain their communities off of the immigrants that Cytherea attracts) and by writing a section for Venus' history to finally clear up how the planet got there, ergo by being a social media and hedonistic hellhole sponsored directly by a certain megacorporation. Finally, I would elaborate more on the life of a Cytherean and how it's not really all that cool to be one -- massive social pressure, for example. Reworking the Scarabs. It is no secret that Scarabs and Offworlders in general have been neglected, and need some help. First and foremost, Scarabs must be integrated with the galactic community in a deeper way. It is no secret that entities that do not participate in any sort of intergalactic diplomacy are basically completely hampered in terms of both IC representation via arcs and in terms of character development (as an example, a Coalition-aligned character already has a set of 'pre-fabricated' sentiments that players can easily latch onto, but if a faction is independent, it leads to more confusion than there should be). This would involve the removal or at the very least reworking of the Scarab warlordism, because it makes very little sense for the Coalition to both sponsor it and be fine with it happening. This point ties in with how I would accomplish this rework, which is by turning Scarabs into a fractured multi-faction entity within the Coalition. I believe that this is the best course -- playing into the fractured nature of the Scarabs (as it is right now, the differences between the fleets are extremely minor in terms of differences of play) and by turning them into a mini-political landscape, we can generate conflict for Scarab players and provide far more diverse character creation opportunities, essentially killing two birds with one stone. Developing the warlords. As stated earlier, I believe that the warlords being essentially AFK for the better part of two years and a half is a gigantic missed opportunity and I would like to rectify this as soon as possible, and not by having Sol instantly nuke the warlords -- I would simply like there to be some stirring in the warlord factions (signs that something may happen, etc) and perhaps some news articles showing what it's like in those territories (as an example, take Xanu's reporting on Mars). Other than that, I would like to get working on the resolution of the warlord situation for the future, as it is a concept I deem deeply interesting. What do you believe are the current strengths and weaknesses of human lore? Why? What would you do to improve upon the weaknesses? Spoiler The biggest strength is by far, and without question, the vastity of human lore. It's true that it's a delicate situation -- a sort of bell curve -- where 'too much' is bad and 'too little' is also bad, but in our current situation I believe the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. We have such a large amount of origins, as written before, that people are hooked with human lore for a very long time. This is extremely important in a roleplay environment, and these origins aren't of middling potential, either! Most of them are extremely good and very varied. It is true that this vastity leads to a long process of reworking, yes, but this is something that has happened for most species in the game and is not unique to human lore. I remember, for example, Sleepy's vast reworks to Skrell lore or Paradox's reworks to Skrell history. To cite one more example, Crevus' rework is a similar issue. I don't believe this situation is unfixable nor that it is a particularly big problem as it is -- the list of 'what has to be reworked' is very narrow now and we shouldn't need to worry about it for the foreseeable future. Perhaps if we keep adding more planets, yes, but as far as I'm concerned the lore team administration has a good handle on what should and what shouldn't be allowed to go through. I don't believe things of middling quality that will require reworks will be added, as a result, and our current issue with 'maintaining' the lore is a temporary one. The current biggest weakness is, in my opinion, the ongoing lack of real IC development for any of the factions. This is something that Human lore is currently at a large disadvantage with compared to, for example, the Tajara and Synthetic teams -- they simply have more current IC development, which directly leads to more player investment as far as I'm concerned. IC development leads to having things to talk about IC and break the monotony, and also to players becoming more invested with certain factions (some have even picked up a faction solely because of an arc!). This is an opportunity that cannot be squandered, for me. Looking at the stats in the news forum, the last thing that Human lore posted was the XNS Mars arc. Even before that, the last major development didn't even involve a human resolution: it was all handled by the Skrell! It is a bit of a frustrating situation that I would like to remedy. To elaborate more, I'm not saying that we need constant articles, but I believe this is a point that deserves more attention than it has gotten. Lastly, I'm well aware of the internal reasons that led to this, but I think of it as a criticism that I have to bring up nonetheless. Speaking in terms of strictly lore, although, the biggest weaknesses are currently Xanu Prime, Venus, the Scarabs and Dominia lacking a planet page beyond Moroz. All for the same reasons: they are lacking lore that they sorely should have to put them on par with what is now the current standard for human lore quality. Dominia especially, as a Colonial empire, should have one written colony. The fact that they don't is honestly quite shocking. Recently there has been discussion in the community and among the lore teams about Offworlder Humans. If made deputy, what is something you would want to do with Offworlder Humans as a whole and/or their various factions? Spoiler To partly copypaste my answer above. Reworking the Scarabs. It is no secret that Scarabs and Offworlders in general have been neglected, and need some help. First and foremost, Scarabs must be integrated with the galactic community (ergo, the Coalition) in a deeper way. It is no secret that entities that do not participate in any sort of intergalactic diplomacy are basically completely hampered in terms of both IC representation via arcs and in terms of character development (as an example, a Coalition-aligned character already has a set of 'pre-fabricated' sentiments that players can easily latch onto, but if a faction is independent, it leads to more confusion than there should be). This would involve the removal or at the very least reworking of the Scarab warlordism, because it makes very little sense for the Coalition to both sponsor it and be fine with it happening. This point ties in with how I would accomplish this rework, which is by turning Scarabs into a fractured multi-faction entity within the Coalition. I believe that this is the best course -- playing into the fractured nature of the Scarabs (as it is right now, the differences between the fleets are extremely minor in terms of differences of play) and by turning them into a mini-political landscape, we can generate conflict for Scarab players and provide far more diverse character creation opportunities, essentially killing two birds with one stone. This, however, begs the question of what to do with non-Scarab Offworlders. This is a far more complex situation, to me, and requires more than just my input on the matter since it does still involve potentially axing a few player characters. I believe personally that axing non-Scarab offworlders following a Scarab rework is ideal as the presence of offworlders in most of human space (they can select all human origins right now!) is essentially a plot hole due to how Offworlders are born. With the rework I propose, the main focus would be placed on Scarab offworlders and there wouldn't be a lack of factions for them to come from, so removing non-Scarab offworlders shouldn't be much of an issue. It would help concentrate the Offworlder population into the new lore, at the very least. There is a current open thread on community suggestions for a planet page for Eridani I. If you are accepted as a human lore deputy, you along with the rest of the Human Lore Team, would work on this planet. What are some things that you would like to implement on Eridani I's new planet page if given the opportunity? Spoiler Culture. While it is true that Eridani sterilizes all that it touches, adding some unique culture is not a bad idea. I don't think it should be tied to Earth factions and it should essentially be a synthetic culture and expressly written as such, but I think dregs and suits from Eridani I should have something to go off of, a certain flair to base their character off of. Perhaps characters from Eridani I act a certain way, perhaps they are more prideful -- things like that. I don't quite have any ideas in the ideas tank as it is, but I'm sure that this is a point that needs to be addressed somehow. Immigration and tourism. This is a major point that has always been skimmed for Eridani. The EPMC supposedly hires non-Eridanians but there has never been a single mention of non-Eridanians in Eridani, their experiences, or even any mention of the EPMC in any planet pages for Eridani (beyond the weird SCP D-Class lore in Amon, I think). I believe elaborating on the treatment of non-Eridanians in Eridani I is a good idea and would contribute a lot to character creation in this case. Another idea is that non-Eridanian EPMCs are required to have an orientation period of one to a few months in Eridani I for them to grow accustomed to Eridanian culture (as most of their superiors are Eridanian!), which would give EPMCs an edge in the flair department, I think. With this in mind, we can add tourist facilities, etc to Eridani I -- which would allow Eridanian characters to tie their character in with tourism as well. We can make Eridani I more unique by virtue of having more tourist influence, for example, which can easily reflect onto suits or dregs: maybe they pick up offworld mannerisms, maybe they are (secret, as they still like soy food) fans of exotic offworld cuisine, etc. In general, Eridani has always had the issue of characters putting the same archetype in the printer and printing it over and over. Suits and dregs often feel like you've seen one and you've seen them all, but that is something that can hopefully, in my opinion, remedied through a planet page. Have you ever be subject to any strikes or bans of any kind from Aurora's moderators or admins? If so, how long ago were these actions and what were they for? One strike in 2018 for posting a copypasta in the discord general chat. One warning on my server account for 'rude behaviour in a staff complaint' from 2020.
Caelphon Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 Hi there, thanks for applying. Quote 1. How do you feel about interspecies coordination? Do you feel that you could commit to fostering an environment where other Species Lore Writers feel they can approach you with an idea in regards to interspecies coordination? 2. Do you mind writing an additional piece of content? I find your past examples lacking in giving us some kind of understanding of your writing ability. 3. You are a Primary Administrator. Do you believe this may cause confusion of authority on the Lore Team, considering you'd be in a weird place where both have and don't have authority? I cannot think of any additional questions at this point. Goodluck, there are no wrong answers.
MattAtlas Posted August 8, 2022 Author Posted August 8, 2022 1 minute ago, Caelphon said: 1. How do you feel about interspecies coordination? Do you feel that you could commit to fostering an environment where other Species Lore Writers feel they can approach you with an idea in regards to interspecies coordination? 2. Do you mind writing an additional piece of content? I find your past examples lacking in giving us some kind of understanding of your writing ability. 3. You are a Primary Administrator. Do you believe this may cause confusion of authority on the Lore Team, considering you'd be in a weird place where both have and don't have authority? Interspecies coordination is pretty crucial to make sure that the lore 'comes together', so to speak. Ideally the Spur should be interconnected and intertwined, with various areas of space that blend humans and aliens together, although it has to be done intelligently -- it's a bit of a waste to have a setting full of species and then never explore the idea of them being around in the same planet. I feel like there's a lot that could be done to improve that and I'm open to it: an example could be Skrell on Venus and how Cytherea could be a getaway location for failed Skrell idols or scientists who just want a break from it all. What exactly are you looking for, and how long do you want it to be? I don't feel like I have much to go off of if you just say "a piece of content". I can try to write a pre-alpha Venus rewrite, but I'd need to know how long you want a showcase to be, because I don't intend to put all the apples in my basket in public right now. I don't really think so as the two spheres are fairly separate, except if a lore writer lashes out in the chat and I have to handle their conduct I guess? Alberyk was in this exact situation as a lore deputy before and there weren't really any issues. The only issue there is right now is that I can read the channels and give my input, but I can't really officially write, and administrators contributing to discussions has always been a bit of a grey area. That would be resolved if I were to be accepted.
Caelphon Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 28 minutes ago, MattAtlas said: What exactly are you looking for, and how long do you want it to be? I don't feel like I have much to go off of if you just say "a piece of content". I can try to write a pre-alpha Venus rewrite, but I'd need to know how long you want a showcase to be, because I don't intend to put all the apples in my basket in public right now. Honestly, up to you Chief. The world is your oyster. Doesn’t have to be extravagantly long, however. Maybe some cuisine lore for Venus? Or some major holidays? Up to you.
MattAtlas Posted August 8, 2022 Author Posted August 8, 2022 1 minute ago, Caelphon said: Honestly, up to you Chief. The world is your oyster. Doesn’t have to be extravagantly long, however. Maybe some cuisine lore for Venus? Or some major holidays? Up to you. Would a history section for New Venus work?
Caelphon Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 Yes! That could work, I just mentioned culture because that’s typically what players normally latch onto - and it allowed for a writers flair to shine through, imo. Goodluck!
Marlon P. Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 Matt goes in 11/10 bare knuckle brawling on lore topics but never in demeaning or rulebreaking ways. He's more than willing to hear someone out. I've left enough whiney forum posts directed at him to see that. He's also pretty smart and knows how to organize given his time on the admin/whitelist team. I want to ask if you find the scope and number of human factions to be an issue? Theres a LOT. But in any case of an answer, +1
MattAtlas Posted August 8, 2022 Author Posted August 8, 2022 2 minutes ago, Marlon P. said: I want to ask if you find the scope and number of human factions to be an issue? Theres a LOT. If you mean factions in a macro-scale (so, Coalition, Dominia, Sol, ...) I think our amount is just right. I would not add any more than we have, as that gets very precarious. We don't really have much space in the Spur for it, and every faction we have is more active development required in terms of arcs/maintenance/etc. What we have now is enough for a lot of variety and just about manageable with a 3 person team.
MattAtlas Posted August 8, 2022 Author Posted August 8, 2022 @Caelphon Here is my writing submission. You will find my notes at the top and the wiki prose at the bottom. https://docs.google.com/document/d/14mRMwPrE1kV7EL-Y99Ae7IsOT7BM9_fQb1jgWKWsAsQ/edit?usp=sharing This submission is entirely new and establishes Venus' history. This is a vital part of my Venus rework and I have written it in about 2 hours. I included my own flair (as can be gleamed by the narration) and a good amount of culture details. I'd like to add that it is not entirely complete and omits some societal ideas I have (expanding on the VSI, the formation of the VPPF, the Alliance's exemptions for Venus, more Jintarian details) as 1) they are a bit out of scope and 2) I would need to speak to the human lore team to add them. I believe this shows my creative capacity nonetheless.
CourierBravo Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 Even though Matt and I have our rockyness, I do trust him to make good choices. I dont see why that wouldn't extend to his writing choices. I like that your 3 big concerns line up with some of mine about lore, and you're recognizing the areas neglected. It's a nice surprise to see that you worked on Assunzione, which is one of my favorite planets in terms of concept, even though I dont really play characters from there. Of all the planets, I think its the most unique in terms of "how a society responded to a crisis". A +1 for sure. However, just one question. I've always found human lore arcs to be nothing but war war war, and very little politics. While i imagine you'll have a hand tied behind your back with the warlords, will we see lore arcs where there's little martial conflict, but mostly politics instead?
Scheveningen Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 strong endorsement. really think matt brings a lot to the table here
MattAtlas Posted August 8, 2022 Author Posted August 8, 2022 37 minutes ago, Bejewledpot said: However, just one question. I've always found human lore arcs to be nothing but war war war, and very little politics. While i imagine you'll have a hand tied behind your back with the warlords, will we see lore arcs where there's little martial conflict, but mostly politics instead? I have some ideas that mainly have to do with resolving Dominia's existing political isolation (I'd rather not go into details to not spoil anything, but I have spoken to Schwann before about this). More than that, I'd like to write some kind of arc about a centralization-or-decentralization struggle for the CoC as that is an interesting facet of Coalition politics that is mostly unexplored on the server. My hope is to have characters discuss the merits and flaws of centralization and maybe set the CoC on a certain course depending on how the arc goes. This could be an interesting one to tie into the scarcity -- e.g pro centralization sides claiming that the ongoing scarcity won't be addressed if the CoC stays as a fractured entity. You are right however that warlords are the non-negotiable priority. There can be some politics written there (I want to run an arc on the Xanusii News Service investigating conditions in the northern warlord state(s) actually) but it will eventually come down to a fight, obviously.
CourierBravo Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 I'm satisfied with that. Regarding the warlord states, it might be interesting to see them negotiate a bit, like a couple teaming up to take down another faction before turning on each other?
KingOfThePing Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 I think Matt is a good and suitable candidate. After reading the replies I think this is even more the case. I would trust him with humanity and believe he can contribute interesting ideas, both in writing and lore arcs.
MattAtlas Posted August 8, 2022 Author Posted August 8, 2022 11 minutes ago, Bejewledpot said: I'm satisfied with that. Regarding the warlord states, it might be interesting to see them negotiate a bit, like a couple teaming up to take down another faction before turning on each other? It's possible but the issue is that they are all vying to take up the mantle of being the rightful Solarian government one way or the other, bar the ones that are just holding out for Sol intervention (MSRP, for example), and one of them is basically a genocidal hell state (SRF). I think it's more likely to see the big governments of the Spur back one of the warlords, but I wouldn't doubt the possibility of diplomacy. It depends highly on human lore's plans, really.
Marlon P. Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 I like the replies of op. I got my answer! +1 again. They're great for the team.
EJJ Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 I've interacted with Matt, he's cordial, he's focused and competent and he has an interest in a lot more of the lore than just the things that have been focused on historically. He already has some interesting take-aways and thoughts on lore that I haven't seen other people come up with. I'd love to see Matt in the human lore team just to see how he'd fare with a lot of the more interesting questions and topics of the lore. How he'd do with some of the greyer places in the Coalition or other places.
Lly2 Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 strong endorsement from me the only concern i would have with taking up this as an additional role would be managing time between current work and the additional deputy responsibilities, but i feel like matt already has a good handle on this. i see them fairly frequently contributing ideas or code to the species staff whenever discussions come up in the lore discord already; them having an official role to be able to contribute with proper staff capacity would be great, i think.
Desven Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 I agree with a lot of your points so this is mostly a nitpick, but I'm having a hard time to see how you picture to improve Eridani. I believe culture is crucial and to be honest I don't like the sterilized aspect too much. It makes sense but it has to be balanced—especially if you wish to add tourism. In the real world, culture is a huge aspect of tourism. I'm mentioning this because I know you don't really like to show the African roots in Eridani, but you would be willing to be more open to some remnants of it? It's mostly just a question, Eridani is a really challenging faction to write about.
MattAtlas Posted August 8, 2022 Author Posted August 8, 2022 4 minutes ago, Desven said: I agree with a lot of your points so this is mostly a nitpick, but I'm having a hard time to see how you picture to improve Eridani. I believe culture is crucial and to be honest I don't like the sterilized aspect too much. It makes sense but it has to be balanced—especially if you wish to add tourism. In the real world, culture is a huge aspect of tourism. I'm mentioning this because I know you don't really like to show the African roots in Eridani, but you would be willing to be more open to some remnants of it? It's mostly just a question, Eridani is a really challenging faction to write about. It depends on how it's done, and I put it that way because the human lore team as it is right now clearly intends to show the effects of an actual corporate dystopia and keeping Eridani disconnected from its Earth roots. If that's the way they wish Eridani to go, then having remnants of an old Earth culture is a bit dissonant -- they'd be the first things that a state like Eridani would stamp out. I can see them maybe surviving in dregs in one way or the other, but for suits it's a bit of a more complex argument, because they'd be the ones directly affected by Eridani's stamping out of old culture. I think it's possible, thinking about it, but I think it's important to keep in mind that it'd still be a 'synthetic' part of the culture: the state basically surgically removing the parts that might interfere with Eridanian culture and sponsoring the harmless parts, for example. A more definite and clearer answer would require research into West African culture that I haven't done (because it's a fuckload of research to do, and I don't want to start talking about people's culture without having done said research), but on a theoretical level these are my feelings on the matter. On the point of tourism, it's true that culture is a driving force behind it, but that's not really all there is to vacations, especially in the 2400s. I think Eridani could easily offer appealing things to tourists from abroad -- think expensive technology and all sorts of facilities/complexes for example -- to overcome this disadvantage.
Triogenix Posted August 8, 2022 Posted August 8, 2022 (edited) Round two. I'm doing this in a similar way to the way I did it on danse's application, feedback and observations, followed by some questions. The Good: I think the best thing I've observed that makes you a good fit for being human deputy is that while you constantly discuss lore with members of the team in staff channels, you know your limits. As you mention in your application, you know that as an administrator you walk a fine line between interference and help when it comes to lore, and while I've been on the team you haven't overstepped that line at all. This leads me to believe you'll know your limits as a deputy as well, and not overstep them and create issues within the team. In addition, it also leads me to hope you'll be involved with more teams beyond the human team, as I for one, view pinballing around the channels at breakneck speed discussing lore with most of the teams to be a benefit. In the end this is a cooperative writing experience, and the more members of the lore team who discuss a piece of lore, the better it tends to be in my eyes. Most of the other things I would mention you have already been mentioned by yourself or others, and so for the sake of brevity I am going to move onto my fears/concerns. Fears/Concerns: I think my biggest concern has to do with some previous discussion I've had with you surrounding game mechanics, primarily balance. While I believe now that you were correct in most of your statements, I felt like you were being rather abrasive and harsh/blunt during the discussion. While I admit this could have just been my perception and saltiness at the time, and myself being relatively new to the server, my concern is that while you might have good ideas for lore and writing, it may be difficult to explain not only those ideas, but your reasoning for implementing them in a way that does not make the person on the other side of the screen bristle. While no-one is perfect at presenting their views(Just yesterday me and Luka were discussing something before realizing we were thinking pretty much the same thing but presenting it in different ways), when the way a person presents their views has a tendency to make people annoyed, it can turn 30 minute discussions into day long slogs that no-one wants to participate in. I can't recall a recent time where I've discussed game or lore related things with you to a large extent, so I have nothing more recent to compare this to sadly(and I'm not going to drudge through logs to look for any recent discussions we've had). I hope that if you are accepted you are cordial with the team as other feedback suggests you will be, and believe I may have this concern only due to the fact I have not interacted with you much outside of times when I was newer to the server and rather bitter about certain things. My second concern is something that's very subjective, and difficult for me to put into words. Essentially, what I am worried about is if this application is accepted, the acceptance may be viewed as influenced by your position and relationship with the lore team by some. As you mention in your application, due to your position you've been able to edit, write, review, and discuss lore with the lore team in staff-only chats, something that is not available to regular players. My fear is that people may view this as unfair, given that you've never held a writing position on the server, but have the ability to interact closely with the team in a way they can't. On top of this, you are seemingly very good friends with both Omi, the person you'd be replacing, and Schwann, your would-be fellow deputy. Personally, I don't think it should matter, you've demonstrated that you don't abuse your position to ghost write with friends on the human team, and are an incredibly helpful person to have in the lore chats not only as an administrator, but doing minor things to help out one of the most bogged down teams. If anything, I view this as another good thing, it shows you're willing to help if someone else needs it, even if it's not normally what you do. However, I realize not everyone may think this way, so I am still concerned. Questions: Finally onto the questions. 1. To start, when it comes to your writing, what do you think the strongest and weakest parts are? 2. With the scarabs, do you see them being a multi-faction fleet that generally all follows the same culture that has a mini-political thunderdome, or each mini-fleet having a different culture as well as political stances? 3. While I agree that developing the warlords is something that should be done, where do you place it on a scale of priority compared to say, Off-worlders, Venus, and other non developmental work? 4. Last but not least, what are your thoughts on Ouerea and the human population there? Good luck on your application!(Trio don't use While 1000 times in writing challenge, impossible difficulty) Edited August 8, 2022 by Triogenix I cannot grammer
MattAtlas Posted August 8, 2022 Author Posted August 8, 2022 16 minutes ago, Triogenix said: I think my biggest concern has to do with some previous discussion I've had with you surrounding game mechanics, primarily balance. While I believe now that you were correct in most of your statements, I felt like you were being rather abrasive and harsh/blunt during the discussion. I think I can ease your fears in some way by pointing at the fact that I've presented my viewpoints many, many times in the staff lore channels before and I don't think I've ever come off as abrasive. Nobody can really give a 100% guarantee of "I'll never be abrasive" as that's just unrealistic really since nobody has a perfect zen state, but I'd like to say that the vast, vast majority of the time I try to not be a prick. 17 minutes ago, Triogenix said: My second concern is something that's very subjective, and difficult for me to put into words. Essentially, what I am worried about is if this application is accepted, the acceptance may be viewed as influenced by your position and relationship with the lore team by some. This is bound to happen, really, and it's a valid thing to believe or be concerned about. There's nothing I can really say about it other than hoping that my status doesn't factor too much into the application process. Of course it will always influence it a bit, but I don't think I'm ever going to win just by sheer status and I think I have the writing ability to back it up. 18 minutes ago, Triogenix said: 1. To start, when it comes to your writing, what do you think the strongest and weakest parts are? 2. With the scarabs, do you see them being a multi-faction fleet that generally all follows the same culture that has a mini-political thunderdome, or each mini-fleet having a different culture as well as political stances? 3. While I agree that developing the warlords is something that should be done, where do you place it on a scale of priority compared to say, Off-worlders, Venus, and other non developmental work? 4. Last but not least, what are your thoughts on Ouerea and the human population there? I think the strongest part of my writing is that I can come up with good ideas pretty quickly and put them to paper at lightning speed. The Venus rework I put out was written in around an hour and a half -- granted, I already had a good idea of what I wanted to write as I spitballed with Schwann and some others a few months ago about reworking Venus -- but I can come up with things and put them in prose fairly quickly and in an engaging way, as I think my narration is pretty good and entertaining to read. The worst part for me is that I have to backspace a lot of sentences because they get too long and windy, and even then I still miss quite a few. You can see some of these in that Venus document and it's a habit I'm trying to get rid of, although it's a habit that every Romance first language and ESL/EFL speaker has. I don't think the boat should be rocked much in terms of the Scarab ship cultures. The current segmentation of the fleets is fine, I think, and variety is definitely always a massive plus. Being able to make a character that has various beliefs from their culture, a different name or way of speaking -- that's part of what makes human lore good, the diversity we have. I wouldn't want to deprive Scarab players of that, and thus I think each fleet should have its own culture and its own political stances. The latter here is kind of necessary as I want to turn Scarabs into a proper quasi-federation with a lot of internal politicking between the fleets. Finishing the old lore cleanup is the first and foremost priority -- so, in my opinion, Off-worlders and Scarabs are the first thing to tackle. After that, perhaps Venus if it is considered old lore by the LTA and Lain, and following all of this the warlords would take direct priority as the big human lore arc. I actually had an Ouerean character once, so I'm glad you asked this question! I found him pretty hard to play because Ouerea is very, very barebones. I think Ouerea should remain a mixed Unathi/Human planet and I actually have some ideas I'd like to propose with it, mainly adding a far more developed history section with a slight rework to how humans got there (my thoughts are that Ouerea was involved in some sort of Hephaestus development programme and contracted workers ended up becoming permanent after a while, thus leading to a few permanent settlements). The other main problem is that the cultures of Ouerea don't really blend, thus you have no real reason or flair that incite you to make an Ouerean character or stick to playing one. This is a bit of a paradox because at the same time Humans and Unathi haven't really been there long enough to justify the creation of a separate Ouerean culture for Humans. It's a situation that needs addressing (albeit low priority for the Human team, in my opinion -- perhaps to be addressed after the old lore cleanup and during the writing of the warlord arc) and any further comments on this would need the Unathi team's input, as it's their territory rather than the Human team's.
Peppermint Posted August 9, 2022 Posted August 9, 2022 I don't think having clear opinions and expressing them is a bad thing at all. Nor would being friends with anyone on the lore team matter - people who are more invested in the community are more likely to take on more roles, and rub shoulders with others. Matt is continuously great and putting in a ton of hours for Aurora, and his writing ability is solid. Should def be given a chance to my mind. Guess I have to ask questions though. If you've been asked this before feel free to skip it, I've not checked the entire thread. A lot of human lore when it comes to events has been very restrictive in scope. It's mostly been sol, some more sol, and a little more sol, with nothing else really getting a chance to shine. A lot of smaller planets, especially those like Gadpathur don't really have much sticking power because of it. It's not a simple one step thing, but do you feel anything can be done to fix this and get greater diversity when it comes to impacting the overall narrative, or is it ok as is?
MattAtlas Posted August 9, 2022 Author Posted August 9, 2022 12 minutes ago, Peppermint said: A lot of human lore when it comes to events has been very restrictive in scope. It's mostly been sol, some more sol, and a little more sol, with nothing else really getting a chance to shine. A lot of smaller planets, especially those like Gadpathur don't really have much sticking power because of it. It's not a simple one step thing, but do you feel anything can be done to fix this and get greater diversity when it comes to impacting the overall narrative, or is it ok as is? I'm going to divide my answer into the theoretical and practical perspective. Theoretically speaking, how is the ongoing server narrative impacted? This is an interesting question to ask because if you want players to talk about a specific background event, or focus on it for more than a few days, you need staying power. A good example of staying power is King of the World. People were consistently and constantly focused on the IC events because they were reminded of them through both OOC means (articles!) and IC means (ghost roles, inability to leave the station). Our setting has since then evolved a lot and allows us a lot more freedom in how we bring staying power to the players -- we can use planets, ruins, ghost roles, and so on. Why is this relevant to the question? Sol has had a lot of staying power historically because our setting is Sol-centric (Biesel was for most of its history basically encircled by Sol and thus could not interact with any other factions IC), most characters are Solarian and thus people are going to be reminded of Sol more often, which inherently leads to people mentioning Solarian events more than anything else. However, now that our setting can actually move, we can get away from this situation. How do we make our setting not Sol centric? Moving to the Badlands is a great start. It puts us in an area where we can see things that aren't Solarian, mainly having to do with Elyra. In order to fix our Sol centricity, I'm going to take the Coalition as an example. We would come up with some sort of arc that the Horizon is involved in, one way or the other, and this arc should ideally be about an issue that the Horizon can resolve one way or the other. Offships would then be implemented that specifically relate to the arc in progress in some manner -- not in a way where they can directly alter the outcome of said arc, but more so to show off the ongoing issues presented by the arc. I don't believe being Sol-centric is a good thing and it's what King of the World is meant to remedy. I would say that the warlords being tied up are the last real Sol focus for the time being. I think space definitely needs to be given to IC development for the Coalition and other factions, in short.
SilverSZ Posted August 9, 2022 Posted August 9, 2022 As Matt himself says, he has already spoken with and talked to the lore team in our own channels. There's no doubt to me he can work well with the team and I personally think that his Venusian writing shows he can write to the quality that team expects. None of these fundamentals are anything that concern me. Similarly to Danse, He's also a personal friend. Other people have already raised enough concerns, so I'll merely move onto questions instead. And equally, only have one question as many others have been asked already. I should have commented sooner and seemed more intelligent. 1) Human Lore and Synthetic Lore are tied at the hip in many cases and I'd say there's no interspecies cooperation that occurs on the same level as between these two teams. Almost all of synthetic lore is in some way built off or intertwined with human lore. Even prominent parts of Synthlore that stand on their own still heavily involve humans such as the Trinary Perfection or Konyang. How do you feel about cooperating with the Synthetic Team in particular? Do you have any ideas of where you would like to use Synthetics within your own writing for human lore or anything you would like to see change or added to Synthetic lore that would also benefit human lore as well?
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