Susan Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 BYOND Key: SueTheCake Character Names: Ana Roh'hi'tin How long have you been playing on Aurora: Since September 2014. Species you are applying to play: IPCs What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): Robot colored. Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Oui. 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: The real honest answer is that I believe IPCs can be more gimmicky than other races. If you've ever played Fallout, for example, you know that a lot of robots in the care of the US army around the time were programmed with irrational anti-communist, anti-Chinese rhetoric that they threw into their speech. Or in New Vegas, all the robot personalities in the Sink, from the seductive light switches to the crazy ass toaster. There exist plenty of ways to play an IPC, from a self-aware machine with the desire to be more human to a shameless corporate construct resigned to a life of spouting advertisements while making breakfast. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Personally, I would say not much. IPCs were created by humans, after all, and it is our nature to design things comfortable to us. Even the rudimentary synthetics we possess nowadays (creepy Japanese greeter robot comes to mind) are designed in our image. From automated voices to robots themselves, apparently we love the uncanny valley sassy machine deal. Though they are more than just metal humans. They both have the potential to become emotional and question the nature of their existence or to be the cold, unfeeling automated drone that makes people feel a twinge of discomfort every time it lifelessly shuffles past. Character Name: SynthTech Refurb #245 Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs: In a cold, stainless steel factory, machines build machines. Human factory workers and overseers only watch from above as the automated assembly line churns out IPC chassis after chassis, smoothly attaching limbs with a surgical precision no organic could ever hope to achieve. Never tiring, never complaining. Day in and day out, the factory floor meets its quota and then some. Sparkling and shiny, the factory is a testament to human ingenuity and the popularity of artificial intelligences. They spent hundreds of thousands of credits and had made at least four times that back in revenue. That was before the recall. SynthTech brand IPC chassis were cheap and cost-effective. Not as popular as other brands for residential work, but in bulk, they were purchased for corporate interests. Lovingly deemed 'Working Joes' by the company and their customers, they were designed with the specific purpose of fulfilling menial maintenance and repair work aboard space vessels or ground facilities. For a time, their profits were high, but technology is an ever-changing thing. New designs, new positronic brains with better processing power, closer and closer to unlocking the complexities of the human mind and imparting them upon their synthetic counterpart. But SynthTech never invested in the newer designs. Their board never new how advanced the technology could get. And their aged products suffered. There were sales still, their cheap low-cost and low-tech workers employed en masse in construction and clerical tasks. But as with any outdated products there is always a higher risk of failure, and their products failed hard. Failsafes in newer models and evolving safety protocols were never present in the software that SynthTech used, leading to a catastrophic result. AI rampancy. An incident in a shipyard where a battlecruiser was being constructed led to a total recall of the Working Joes. Headlines in the papers detailed the bloodbath, and stock value for SynthTech crashed into the ground. The company barely had enough time to file for bankruptcy before finally dissolving, leaving behind a legacy of cut corners and shoddy design. Now the factory sits, abandoned in the corner of a Mendell City slum. The once shining walls grungry and rusting. The assembly line stripped of all valuable tech, leaving ominous machine-husks, hollow zombies of what used to be top of the line equipment. The stench of urine and stink from squatting vagabonds clouds the air, and what little remains of the legacy of SynthTech stews in the seedy underside of one of Biesel's largest cities. But behind locked doors and faded warning signs is a room filled with boxes. The once bright packaging faded, the small caricature of a Working Joe with wrench in hand warped and stained. Almost like a field of coffins, the rotting corpses within visible through the thin cellophane meant to show off their now-rusting forms. Buried and forgotten, SynthTech's greatest achievement and most prodigious failure lied in wait for a fortunate scavenger to happen upon. Expendable, low-value artificial people who were resigned to a life of servitude only to be tossed away like garbage when they inevitably broke under the pressure. The heirs to the legacy that is SynthTech, forever fated to an eternity of non-use. Days turn to months, months to years, undisturbed and waiting in their deep sleep. But then the silence is broken, the door unlocked. Aspiring teenagers discover the treasure-trove while on a dare. They'd been alive a mere fraction of these automaton's life spans, but to them, they were mere toys. Jokes turned to pressuring, and a carton is opened. The switch is flipped, the machine boots, and in the all-encompassing darkness the rays from their flashlights illuminate their fate, reflected upon the screens of hundreds of blank, staring machine corpses. What do you like about this character? Its a refurbished IPC from an old model line and lacks many higher processes that the new chassis have. Its thought processes are slower, its movement slower, and it definitely looks like an old piece of shit. It rarely talks, only doing the tasks assigned to it with cold, robotic precision. It's that unnerving robot that, when you look over your shoulder and see it behind you in the dimly-lit hallway, you feel the urge to run. No real personality, no name, no outward desire to be more than it is. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Depends. I guess I'd rate myself a solid 7/10. Notes: Not to toot my own horn, but I diiid come up with the precursor that lead to the development of IPCs. Well, maybe not entirely, but I like to think I had a small hand in their creation.
nanotoxin Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 Sue is a good roleplayer, I'll give them that, however.. Sue's robust as fuck. I don't know how I feel about her being an IPC when they're so durable.
Garnascus Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 Really well done app, the newspaper clipping is a great touch of detail. I see no reason to have anything bad to say about this app honestly
Jboy2000000 Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 I don't have anything to add, but I wanted to say that you apparently cannot use numbers in character names, I learned that the hard way.
Loow Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 The app is eye-catching, well done and makes for an interesting read. The character promises to be one worth seeing on the station. I've managed to get some good RP from Sue's ERT as an antag. I don't have a lot of experience RPing with Sue, but what I did get was an enjoyable experience that I would not mind having again. I believe Susan is more than capable of handling IPC's as far as RP is concerned. This application has my support. While I have the floor, Sue has also shown she is fully capable of abusing this power if she sees fit. Antagonist-hunting, power-gaming, fun-having, whatever you wish to call it, Sue has been accused of it in OOC and forum posts enough times that it merits mentioning. Depending on how Sue uses this app, we are either getting an interesting character or an unfeeling kill-bot. I look forward to seeing the former, but I will not act like the latter is impossible.
Eliot Clef Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 I have every confidence in Sue's ability to play some cool robots, and this application is just... good. I can't put it any other way. The effort in it is self-evident.
Frances Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 This is the most elaborate species app I've ever seen. It's also the first time in about a year I've seen Sue express interest towards playing a character other than Ana (and even when she did, it was because she didn't have her Tajaran whitelist on Aurora yet). The borg I saw her play at that time (Toots) contributed to some of the funniest stuff I've seen on the server, and I'm honestly very excited about this. I'm not going to comment much on the backstory, because I'm more concerned with addressing the issues a few people have raised. That IPCs have some quirky game mechanics that can be abused in ridiculous ways. And I personally don't see this as being a problem with Sue. Why? Looking at the incidents that involved Sue/Ana in the past, Sue showed a marked disdain for antags, as well as somewhat of a lack of respect for procedure vs "doing things Ana's way" (when it made sense and when less so). Basically all IPC chucklefuckery is markedly opposed to Sue's mentality - abusing IPC mechanics requires doing incredibly silly and nonsensical stuff, and I know Sue to (as a whole) be a person that hates nonsense and using game mechanics for the heck of it when they follow no "in-universe" logic. Yes, Sue knows how to use SS13 combat to her advantage (as should most people who get involved in combat regularly), and I don't think we should punish anyone simply because they know how to play the game. If there's something that confers someone what seems to be an unfair advantage, we're going to nerf it, not ask the person who's using it within perfectly reasonable IC and OOC right to stop using it (as happened with snipers. Sue and a few other people were decimating players into fights with snipers, so we nerfed them.) If we start seeing incredibly robust IPCs, then it'll hopefully make people learn ways to counter them (ion rifle instakills them, most EMPs instakill them too). If they're found to have no counters in certain situations, they'll be given weaknesses, or certain of their strengths will be toned down. But barring specific people from a vast array of roleplay opportunities simply because "they might be too good at combat" seems incredibly unfair to me, especially when anyone else would be just as free to use IPCs in that way.
Jakers457 Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 Does a priest need to validate his faith in god? Then I don't need to validate my faith in Sues ability to make am IPC that I don't find awful.
Guest Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 While I have the floor, Sue has also shown she is fully capable of abusing this power if she sees fit. Antagonist-hunting, power-gaming, fun-having, whatever you wish to call it, Sue has been accused of it in OOC and forum posts enough times that it merits mentioning. Isn't everyone who currently possesses an IPC whitelist more than capable to abuse the mechanical strengths of their race to completely roll over any opposition? I have one, and I've done outright silly things with IPCientists already. I actually do not play IPCurity due to how strong they are, I mostly just don't want them nerfed because they were heavily abused in stupid ways. Sorry, I just can't help but point out the blatant logical fallacies I've seen in this thread so far. It makes me laugh, at any rate. Also, thank you Frances, for addressing regarding the other posts in this thread, I happen to agree with you completely. Is there anything outside of doubt and suspicion regarding her mechanical (relating to gameplay, not a pun) combat ability that clearly states, "Sue is not capable of roleplaying an IPC"? So unless anyone brings up any instances where Sue is actually a bad roleplayer, I, as a player as well as one of the many here that possess IPC whitelists, would be more than happy to endorse this application and welcome Sue into the clankarmy.
Jamini Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 Give this woman this whitelist! Why? 1. I have long told Sue, and I firmly believe, that she needs to branch out a bit. Her development into Ana has been long-going and fantastic (No seriously, Ana has developed more than anyone on Aurora (except Drew) could possibly know. She's come a very, very long way as a character and sue has come a very long way as a player.) but ultimately is limiting. If she needs a bit of a push via extra whitelist to play as another character type... so be it. 2. She is a species maintainer herself. Such a position generally means she both knows what she is doing when playing as somthing other than the norm, as well as developing a fantastic story based around her character. She also CLEARLY just displayed this, going well above and beyond on her application. She is serious about this application, moreso than some already IPC whitelisted players. 3. Her concept has many self-limitations already placed in it. Knowing Sue for who she is, she will play this out to the fullest extent that she can. AND TO THE NAYSAYERS 1. Mechanical strength is not a good reason to ever deny an application. Various species should be balanced against one-another by development staff. It is not our place as players (and possibly even as admins!) to deny an application based on the argument that a species is too strong for a player to play it. That is the most asinine, self-centered, petty argument I have ever heard. It's offensive! Seriously offensive! If a species is too strong, then they need to be balanced out for everyone. 2. The primary complaint I field and see fielded against Sue grounded in her somewhat excessive attachment to Ana and Ana-related things. (An attitude that many of us, very much including myself, SHARE. Everyone is too attached to their "main" characters. Anyone who is saying otherwise is lying.) Adding a new character, and seeing her possibly roll with some antagonist roles enabled, would directly contradict that. I want to see this IPC and see what Sue does with it. That is regardless if she plays a wonderdeepful and complex social Robutt, an unfeeling killbot that only hungers for the blood of the innocent/guilty, or something so gimmicky that it makes Haruspex look like a tryhard scrublord. I think many, many people who oppose Sue on this application would be deeply surprised.
Crescentise Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 I think many, many people who oppose Sue on this application Where exactly do you see the many many people who oppose Sue on this application? I don't see them anywhere. If any exist, they certainly haven't posted yet. You'd better not be referring to nanotoxin and Loow. What I believe they were trying to get across was that there are undeniably issues between some players and the way Sue does things with Ana. They are not naysayers, if you were directing any comments about such at them. And what they were trying to say was relevant, believe it or not. Whitelist applications are not just about how good an arpee-er you are, they are also about your general-in character behaviour (arpee != character behaviour). This is perfectly exemplified by Sleepy's recent Taj whitelist app, and how it was stripped from them after a string of incidents involving their behaviour. It rarely talks, only doing the tasks assigned to it with cold, robotic precision. You see, this could be very badly taken were this a security IPC with Sue's track record. If you disagree with her methodology, this translates to 'It will never arpee and will solely hunt and eliminate antags instead'. To find out whether or not there is a risk of happening with this character, I just discussed with Sue some details that might help any potential naysayers (read: people who want to say no but have not posted yet, and not nanotoxin/Loow) to be more open-minded with regards to this application. That is, this particular character will not be security - it will be a Janitor or Engineer - and that it is not smart enough to doggedly chase people with batons in service to security, nor will it participate in any hypothetical brogineering milita vs. the world riots. In fact, it's going to be a mechanical zombie of sorts doing what it's told. Now that I've clarified all of that. Sue is capable of good writing, as demonstrated by this well-written application and her Taj lore. With all the clarifications I've managed to wrench out into the open, I endorse this application.
Baka Posted June 12, 2015 Posted June 12, 2015 I believe Susan has put a lot of thought into this application. The character itself being refurbished and scrappy compare to sleeker design (sorry but the cheesy 'Golden Age of Science Fiction' era always puts a smile on my face) appeals to my taste in robots, and overall, it would be interesting to see how she would roleplay as an IPC (also Toot as an IPC would be interesting).
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