Vaurca Feedback Thread

[ChevalierMalFet]

What class is this character of yours? Bound or unbound? and they are qualified for their jobs by hive standards but must prove it to their employers in some way

I have two unbounds - working as a roboticist and in security - and I have one bound, who's a miner. The one I relayed is an unbound.

[Rechkalov]

One thing I've noticed with Vaurca players is that in the case of bound Vaurca, there seem to be differences in opinion as to whether a Vaurca is meant to follow a hierarchy of command on board the station, or just obey any logical/reasonable command. I'm ignorant of the species lore at the moment so I don't even know which interpretation of being a drone is 'more' correct, but it might have implications for how Vaurca characters are expected to behave, and so some clarification there would be cool.

 

For the bound to follow the chain of command as comprehended and designed by NanoTransen would be, obviously, in corporation's best interest and perfectly sound by our standards; but if I can pretend for a moment to be able to conceive of an alien mind, I am inclined to believe that (given their insectoid origin) the bound Vaurca would naturally turn to the most rational authority present, rather than irrational (that is, the most competent and leading-type characters aboard as in comparison to those of highest rank) - the reasoning is simple: the authority they are accustomed to is biologically predetermined. Hence they ought to be more responsive to "natural" figures of authority.

...whether they will be thoroughly perplexed and unable to fathom the concept of irrational authority (which would be very entertaining, but also make them a giant pain in the ass for everybody else involved) or will eventually adapt our customs is, at the end of the day, up to each player, I suppose.

[ChevalierMalFet]

Salud. As we speak, I am currently writing this little thing for my own amusement about the Vaurca; I'm even calling it the Vaurca Dialogues. However, my whole understanding of them, and all my extrapolations, hinge on two specific factors that I want to get confirmation for.

1) Unbound Vaurca can return to the Virtual Realm from their material bodies, and from there eventually return to the Material Realm in a different body.

2) Unbound Vaurca will only die if they are in a body that is destroyed, or if their CA-host is destroyed, and cannot die of old age within the Virtual Realm.

My central image of the Unbound Vaurca is that they are essentially AIs, ageless, formless, who occasionally condescend to inhabit material bodies when the need arises or if they feel the need for adventure. All the work I've done with them is dependent on these two points. If these two points are correct, then I am happy; if they're incorrect, please correct them so I can work around that.

EDIT:

And, finally, I have another very important assertion - in fact, this is the most important assertion of them all.

3) Only a small proportion of all Vaurca born will have their personalities uploaded to the Virtual; the "number of Unbound" in the wiki section on the different Hives refers to how many Unbound personalities there are period, and not simply how many personalities exist.

[SilverTalismen]

It's iffy on if a Vaurca unbound is truely lost when it dies in the body, with how little is known Vaurca bodies are returned to their respective hives when they perish, bound or unbound alike, supposedly dark rumors circulate that the bodys are re-used to build the structures of their hives, but then again, who's to say?

Think of the Vaurca VR as a massive hotel tower, each room holds a virtual reality, a place as big or small as a Vaurca could want, When a unbound is moved out they are checked out of their room and usually someone else is checked in, when the unbound is returned they get a new room and continue where they had left off while the now bound drone returns to the tasks it had before becoming unbound

[ChevalierMalFet]

I just released Part 3 of the Vaurca Dialogues, which you can read here:

http://aurorastation.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=69&p=53379

So far, they've gotten almost 100 views, but I haven't gotten any in-depth feedback on them. I've taken very scrupulous care not to contradict anything written in the official wiki, but otherwise I'm just going fancy-free.

[Ordessa]

As someone who very recently made a vaurca app which is thus still in processing (hint hint), I'm not the best to comment on the situation, but I'm still inputting feedback. In my opinion, mechanically they are great, and how all aliens should be. Clear strengths, weaknesses, and mannerisms. I do have one question though, how do bound vaurca respond to threat? Say they are ordered to run through a fire, are they allowed to revert to primal instinct and run, or must thy obey? Same questions for all sorts of threat situations, can they act upon their instinct and retaliate, or do they have to obey?

Lore wise... Its best to say I don't envy your position. I don't know how much is written by you and how much by previous writers, but its a little bit of a mess. I have high hopes that as the players don't understand them are filtered out and lore inconsistencies or unclear issues are fixed, they will be played to as high a standard as the Diona. (Not that other species are played well, but I have yet to see anything other than a great Diona)

[XdwbX]

Speaking like a Vaurca

Speaking is a hard choice to make. While it can be complex, feel free to add/subtract certain parts of the speech effects that you care. This can be explained ICly due to knowledge of basic as an Unbound, or a high-tech synthesizer. Or simply different accents caused by various dialects of Vaurcese.

The common language, however, is guttural and harsh, often placing 'ck' and 'g' in front of vowels. For example, "My nagme isck Vigncentck." If this is too hard for you to memorize, try simply adding 'ck' when necessary. "My namck is Vincentck.", although it does not sound as interesting.

Some other variations of voice you might want to try: 'k' when necessary,("Seckcurity to skience!") buzzing your z's and s's ("Zzecurity to szzienzze!") or, as another variation, varying the breathing patterns causing irregular speech. ("Securitytoscience!" Or "Seckurity... toskience!")

 

This is just a tad confusing. How would "namck" be pronounced? Nah, nay? To me, this doesn't seem really well-thought out, and I don't see much consistency between Vaurca players, so I'm led to believe they don't really understand it, either. Also, the "skience" example was a poor choice. It changes a 'S' sound, which they would buzz, into a hard 'Sky' sound. Seems inconsistent, to me.

 

My central image of the Unbound Vaurca is that they are essentially AIs, ageless, formless, who occasionally condescend to inhabit material bodies when the need arises or if they feel the need for adventure.

 

Maybe it's just me, but were I in a virtual world, I probably wouldn't feel much need to leave it for adventure. It's the virtual world; couldn't they just simulate the experience? I just don't believe they'd have this kind of adventurous/restless spirit when most their time is spent thinking of subjects of study/interest in the safety of the immortal VR realm. The risk to their existence, in my opinion, would really deter many of them from even consider leaving. What compels/forces/requires them to leave the virtual?

 

3) Only a small proportion of all Vaurca born will have their personalities uploaded to the Virtual; the "number of Unbound" in the wiki section on the different Hives refers to how many Unbound personalities there are period, and not simply how many personalities exist.

 

This seems to contradict the following:

 

During this phase, all forms of conscious[ness] are removed an[d] downloaded into the Virtual Reality of the hive.

An embryonic consciousness appears in the larva, as it does in all sapient infants, but shortly after hatching the body is "Bound" - the corpus callosum is intentionally retarded and body begins its service as public property; the mind, or spirit, may enter the realm, enters the Virtual and begins its life."

 

This seems to say that all of them are uploaded shortly after birth. And why "may enter"? Is it a choice? Is it a raffle? Do they have to meet a certain prerequisite?

So, in a nutshell:

• When they are born, and determined to be viable, how assured is uploading to the virtual realm?
  
• Can we get clearer language guidelines?

[ChevalierMalFet]

Speaking like a Vaurca

Speaking is a hard choice to make. While it can be complex, feel free to add/subtract certain parts of the speech effects that you care. This can be explained ICly due to knowledge of basic as an Unbound, or a high-tech synthesizer. Or simply different accents caused by various dialects of Vaurcese.

The common language, however, is guttural and harsh, often placing 'ck' and 'g' in front of vowels. For example, "My nagme isck Vigncentck." If this is too hard for you to memorize, try simply adding 'ck' when necessary. "My namck is Vincentck.", although it does not sound as interesting.

Some other variations of voice you might want to try: 'k' when necessary,("Seckcurity to skience!") buzzing your z's and s's ("Zzecurity to szzienzze!") or, as another variation, varying the breathing patterns causing irregular speech. ("Securitytoscience!" Or "Seckurity... toskience!")

 

This is just a tad confusing. How would "namck" be pronounced? Nah, nay? To me, this doesn't seem really well-thought out, and I don't see much consistency between Vaurca players, so I'm led to believe they don't really understand it, either. Also, the "skience" example was a poor choice. It changes a 'S' sound, which they would buzz, into a hard 'Sky' sound. Seems inconsistent, to me.

 

My central image of the Unbound Vaurca is that they are essentially AIs, ageless, formless, who occasionally condescend to inhabit material bodies when the need arises or if they feel the need for adventure.

 

Maybe it's just me, but were I in a virtual world, I probably wouldn't feel much need to leave it for adventure. It's the virtual world; couldn't they just simulate the experience? I just don't believe they'd have this kind of adventurous/restless spirit when most their time is spent thinking of subjects of study/interest in the safety of the immortal VR realm. The risk to their existence, in my opinion, would really deter many of them from even consider leaving. What compels/forces/requires them to leave the virtual?

 

3) Only a small proportion of all Vaurca born will have their personalities uploaded to the Virtual; the "number of Unbound" in the wiki section on the different Hives refers to how many Unbound personalities there are period, and not simply how many personalities exist.

 

This seems to contradict the following:

 

During this phase, all forms of conscious[ness] are removed an[d] downloaded into the Virtual Reality of the hive.

An embryonic consciousness appears in the larva, as it does in all sapient infants, but shortly after hatching the body is "Bound" - the corpus callosum is intentionally retarded and body begins its service as public property; the mind, or spirit, may enter the realm, enters the Virtual and begins its life."

 

This seems to say that all of them are uploaded shortly after birth. And why "may enter"? Is it a choice? Is it a raffle? Do they have to meet a certain prerequisite?

So, in a nutshell:

• When they are born, and determined to be viable, how assured is uploading to the virtual realm?
  
• Can we get clearer language guidelines?

I can only try to answer your questions from my own perspective, but I'll do so.

1) After a close-reading of the wiki, I realized that I was initially wrong - I had thought that only some minds were uploaded to the Virtual and the rest were discarded; ie even if all the minds in the Virtual were to download to bodies, there would still be a lot of bodies left over. That was incorrect, and that statement was poorly fixed to reflect that new learning. I've already gone ahead and fixed it, to reflect the idea that every Vaurca enters the Virtual and that there are more minds than bodies.

2) I haven't gotten to this point yet in my dialogues, but the reason that they leave is that the only way to transmit information to and from the Virtual (I assume, anyway) is for someone to upload or download; information can only appear before the group if a Vaurca goes out, gathers it, and then physically returns. If the job requires nuance and is too far from the Queen or the nearest upload point, you have to send one or more Vaurca who are capable of decision-making.

3) As for the accent, I just do s to z, sh to zh, and c to k - but I skip it sometimes if that would make a word too hard to sight-read.

[SilverTalismen]

As someone who very recently made a vaurca app which is thus still in processing (hint hint), I'm not the best to comment on the situation, but I'm still inputting feedback. In my opinion, mechanically they are great, and how all aliens should be. Clear strengths, weaknesses, and mannerisms. I do have one question though, how do bound vaurca respond to threat? Say they are ordered to run through a fire, are they allowed to revert to primal instinct and run, or must thy obey? Same questions for all sorts of threat situations, can they act upon their instinct and retaliate, or do they have to obey?

Lore wise... Its best to say I don't envy your position. I don't know how much is written by you and how much by previous writers, but its a little bit of a mess. I have high hopes that as the players don't understand them are filtered out and lore inconsistencies or unclear issues are fixed, they will be played to as high a standard as the Diona. (Not that other species are played well, but I have yet to see anything other than a great Diona)

Well, three days have to go by for your Vaurca app to get feedbak, then I approve or deny as needed and your whitelisted in afew minutes or so.

Vaurca drones have baser survival instincts, and those instilled in them as a drone, facing direct danger they can attempt to preserve themselves, such as if someone attacks them, a breach occurs they have the instinct to put on internals, A gunfight could break out amongst themselves and while aware of it, unless they are hit or ordered to leave the area they will continue with what they are doing.