Tajaran Lore Feedback

[Susan]

What do you like? What don't you like? What do you wish to see? Give me all your feedback.

Serious replies, please.

[Mofo1995]

I don't know if this is quite the right place to bring it, but the civil war on Adhomai seems just about completely... ignored. The news articles and lore about it describe this brutal and desperate civil war which I love to read about, but never have I seen this really take an effect in game except for once a few days ago when Jboy's character brought up the newer conscription policies. Sure, on the forums and in OOC, people discuss the stereotype that Tajarans are terrorists, but in-game and ICly I fail to see all this rich lore manifest itself in any characters or in any discussions. In fact, I seem to witness racism in the form of thinking they're silly furries more often than they're hardened refugees from a brutal war.

I think that the lore is headed in a good direction and continuing to bring a rich background for people to draw their characters from. I believe the best solution to the aforementioned problems would be to have some sort of progression or advancement of events in the lore, to help bring fresh to player's minds the grimness of the Tajaran reality, which seems to be happening in stride with the recent batch of articles that have been posted. I think that biased war reports coming into people's newscasters from the three factions with contradicting claims and rampant propaganda would be very interesting.

[Rusty Shackleford]

More tajaran terrorists needed. Redirect the racism, as mofo pointed out. Make sure it's for the actual reason that's being applied to them.

[Guest]

More or less, the Tajaran lore's great and the work put it into is fantastic. The only issue is that it's all but ignored by not only non-whitelistees but also by the whitelist holders themselves. If there was more emphasis (though, not too much) on the plight and conflict of the Tajaran culture being slowly consumed by the ravenous hungry entity known as war, then it could lead to some interesting roleplay and reactionary stuff station-side.

I would suggest that the Adhomai government could start forcibly recalling uneducated, very young space-faring Tajaran males back home to be forcibly pressed into the military ranks of the People's Republic. This would cause a bit of an outrage, and the Resistance would put out a fair deal of propaganda calling Taj back to Adhomai to fight for Adhomai's freedom. On the front line, of course.

NanoTrasen's involvement would be generally grey, playing and investing subtly in both sides of the conflict by gifting unbranded weapons, armor, supplies, vessels, tanks, information, et cetera, just to play both sides of the conflict and see who would win.

[Demonofthefall]

I would suggest that the Adhomai government could start forcibly recalling uneducated, very young space-faring Tajaran males back home to be forcibly pressed into the military ranks of the People's Republic. This would cause a bit of an outrage, and the Resistance would put out a fair deal of propaganda calling Taj back to Adhomai to fight for Adhomai's freedom. On the front line, of course.

 

This would be great, I would like to see military recruiters come to the station and get those lazy young Tajara into the fight.

[Dreviore]

What can I say about the Tajaran.

Well they're the soul breakers of Aurorastation... Except they eat mice.

Honestly I don't really care for them personally, but I've seen a lot of players on Aurora who actually do the race justice.

Other then fur they seem like humans though. Which I don't really care for. They need more unique features.

[Jboy2000000]

I like it as it is. Nice, getting really good expansions, just like the dirty hoomens Sol Alliance and Biesel. The only thing Ill bring up is something Jackboot talked about a little bit ago.

Theres a bit of a disconnect between how advanced the Tajarans are, and how advanced people THINK they are. Pretty much everyone who was around when he asked thought they had the same level of technology that the USSR did during WWII/The Cold War, and no one honestly believed him at first when he said they were on par with humans. A little bit more of explanation on how technologically advanced are today would help with clarity. Beside that, mwah, den otta den.

[CampinKiller]

People need to start acting like Tajarans are actually distrusted and viewed as terrorists IC. It seems most of the station is just SJWs, and if you even mention Tajaran terrorism, or your dislike for them, you get shouted down, threatened, and even attacked by them. I like the lore for them, but people need to actually ACT like its the lore IC.

Also, glass Adhomai.

[Jboy2000000]

The above is one thing I don't understand about the IC connection with the lore. People keep saying that people should start treating all Tajaran's like terrorists, and being radically opposed to them. This is the year 2458, this is the time before the civil right's movement where everyone who wasn't white was lesser, I really hope the human race has evolved socially enough that a majority of the race wouldn't be so ignorant anymore. I also think it's a bit weird, because if I made a character who called black people niggers, treated them lowly, or started treating all Muslim characters like terrorists, Im almost positive Id be condemned ICly, OOCly, and probably loose any and all respect. But Im just following the mindset of people from this century have, which is something we're trying to apply to the human race nearly 500 years into the future.

[Frances]

I'd suggest getting rid of the "Tajarans are terrorists" issue, or reworking it somehow.

The main problem you seem to be getting with that particular idea is that very few people seem willing to play along with it. The race draws a specific kind of player, that kind of player doesn't take well to this particular conflict, and it sadly results in more OOC shenanigans than constructive and fun situations. I have seen a few players make a genuine attempt to treat Tajarans badly, but there aren't a lot who are actually succeeding, and feeling like the players get OOCly mad at you for trying to RP with them is kinda discouraging. This also ends up seeming like a one-sided act, because there's very little reward to playing the "Tajaran bad guy" aside from getting a small part of the station to arbitrarily dislike you.

The work you've put into Tajarans turned them into a relatively unique race, especially in comparison to their less-mentioned Baystation origins. On this server, they are this weird expy of Big Brother-communist-China/Russia transposed in the Roaring Twenties, and it's an interesting enough blend of styles to allow them to stand out from the generic blandness the term "Alien Race" can so often inspire.

Sadly, that is totally not something which is reflected in-game.

While the players are responsible for how the race presents itself, I would fault the lore for that at least a little bit. The main challenge with Tajarans isn't to create good lore, or to amass a playerbase, it is to incite the playerbase to involve themselves with the lore. And don't go and say "they're all furries and don't give a shit"; I'm pretty sure even furries will play along if you give them something interesting to play with.

So. Tajaran antagonists (and I mean antagonist in the broadest term, not as a gameplay system.) What should they be? Maybe, consult with the playerbase, see what they think would be fun to roleplay as to give a bit of conflict for the race. Terrorism as it's currently defined doesn't seem to be drawing that many fans, but maybe something else (an information network? a secret police?) will.

[Susan]

Well, the whole 'Tajaran terrorists' 'second-class citizen' is of the community's creation, not mine. They're on par socially more refined than Unathi - the only 'terrorist' thing they have done was bomb the human embassy on Adhomai.

Secret police and information networks are more their style - the Catstapo, was it was. Plus, Tajaran antags can also be from the Liberation Army and try to muck things up to break off NT's support with the Republic.

In the general sense, 'terrorism' was never really a thing the Tajaran inflicted on anyone but their own people, and that gave way to war and conflict. The antagonist is the government, and there's an incentive for hard feelings or dissension over the draft and harsh treatment of some Tajaran and the fact your commanding officers will execute you without hesitation if you flee from battle or desert your post. Adhomai is space Russia, and it is a terrible place to be - even under the Liberation Army, with administrative issues and soldiers who rape and pillage.

Two sides of the same coin - they're polarized. What one calls ' arresting rioters' the other calls 'massacring peaceful protestors'.

The Tajaran caught in the middle are hit the hardest.

[Frances]

Would you be interested in opening a discussion specifically on what form the community would like Tajaran antagonism to take?

I mean the present thread can kinda do that but there's a chance a specific topic like this one might get overlooked.

[Susan]

I don't see why not. You can post it, if you'd like - my intention was to make the Tajaran antagonism very inwardly focused. Unathi are raiding the Outer Rim, the Sol Alliance is on the brink of Civil War and wants to shit on Biesel, but the Tajaran are entirely focused on their own planet and problems - that's the kind of antagonistic behavior from them.

[Guest Menown]

Are litterboxes in use on Ahdomai?

[Guest]

I think that trying to tell and enforce how to play a long-standing alien species is a dumb and fruitless practice. When it comes to Vaurca, it's easy because the species is brand new, but in case of Tajaran, you are trying to tell people that have 2 year old characters that their characters are suddenly less-valid and that their choice behavior is non-canon.

Suggestion: Canonize the hordes of scumy, gypsie cats that have infested engineering and cargo. Then make the standard Tajaran species template to be "Edgelord teen, with inherent affinity for engineering and violence". There. The OOC reputation of aurora cats now fits the IC reputation of Aurora cats. We can now openly hate cats.

Also, alternative suggestion. Remove Tajaran and replace them with Owlmen, since owls are feathery baloons filled with anger and knowledge, no one will know the difference.

[Guest]

It should be noted, Bokaza, the Tajaran population and staffing of the Aurora probably does not properly reflect the opinions and viewpoints and image of actual Tajarans on Adhomai or even living/working in other parts of the known galaxy.

I don't think it's a good idea to base the canon off of what could be loosely defined as a misrepresentation of how Tajaran really act.

The OOC rep of Aurora cats, quite frankly, is based off of reddit memes and shitposting. So let's not go that route.

[Carver]

The OOC rep of Aurora cats, quite frankly, is based off of reddit memes and shitposting.

From quite a bit of what I've seen ingame, I'm calling bullshit on this.