Guest Posted August 27, 2016 Posted August 27, 2016 "what" No, I'm not joking. Allow me to explain. In StarCraft, a Terran Asset Protection Team is sent to a science vessel known as the "Amerigo", with the task of scuttling the vessel due to the Zerg infestation completely wiping out the staffing and crew onboard. Several Marines and a Ghost unit board the vessel with a big metal cooler being transported by the suited individuals and the special operative Ghost unit taking point. They set down the metal cooler and then pop it open, revealing ice, a whole lot of beer, and a tactical nuke explosive ready to be detonated. "Thank God for cold fusion." As a marine proclaims, "I got yer zerg right here," as he pops open a beer and chortles. A Zerg Hydralisk instantly impales the marine and pulls his corpse up to the ventilation ducts. The team is slowly picked off by several oncoming hydralisks, and quickly becoming over-run by savage xenobiological entities. Chaos ensues, the bloodshed ramps up again, gauss rifles discharging and hydralisks screeching and hissing in aggression. The Ghost unit is overrun with panick, realizing he won't be able to escape, and uses the over-ride to instantly detonate the nuke, entirely destroying the Amerigo and the Zerg infestation, along with the asset protection team sent to scuttle the research vessel. This sequence of events is known to be one of the most well-enacted video game cutscenes in history, exemplifying several sci-fi themes and injecting a bit of raw horror on the part of Zerg slaughtering human troops. The cutscene just screams "FUCKING COOL" in every aspect... especially the metal cooler. A common problem we have regarding the current nuke is that the moment anyone gets on cameras to check the Vault, everyone has a moral panick in regards to the fact that NanoTrasen literally has an unapologetic warhead stored right in the Vault. We all know NT is not stupid and would not allow it to get out that they house nuclear devices on their space station, whether for contingency or not. The media would twist this in so many ways possible that the black PR would be impossible to fight back and the actual controversy would be really difficult to fight back. I also don't think it's beneficial for roleplay for every single crew member to just accept that it exists and not be worried whatsoever that such a warhead exists to scuttle an entire space station, and perhaps kill everyone on it, if needed. I thusly propose we re-skin the failsafe device to be less obviously a nuke. The NT version would be a dark grey cooler unit with blue striping, the syndicate version would be a dark red with green stripes. You would also be able to (optionally) take cans/bottles of beer out to consume if you opened the" cooler units" with the key it requires: the nuclear authentication diskette, for additional humorous flavor. As it would change itemstate+iconstate, it'd have different flavor text for its current appearance. Non-suspicious cooler state: "This is a cooler unit. You see what appears to be a cooler. Could potentially contain items necessary for cold preservation." The cooler has been activated: "This is a fission explosive container. You see what appears to be cooler with beer and ice in it-- Oh my God, JC, a BOMB!"
Synnono Posted August 27, 2016 Posted August 27, 2016 I feel as though Manfred Hayden (Nikov) described it best when he called the vault nuke a scuttling charge. It could be reasonably expected that a megacorp like NT has a plan to neutralize their station in the event of a catastrophic security or engineering failure. As a research station, the things that go on aboard the vessel need to be kept in-house, and a nuclear fission device is a good way to ensure that they don't go elsewhere. I've never played StarCraft to the scene you've described, but I don't know that the obfuscation of the vault nuke would make a significant impact on what it is, or what it means. I don't think that the setting of that particular StarCraft level matches the tone of most SS13 rounds involving the nuke, either. People are going to either know it's there, or not, and react to it accordingly. Dressing it up like a drink cooler seems like it's adding a layer of ridiculousness to a scenario that is already ridiculous.
Fire and Glory Posted August 27, 2016 Posted August 27, 2016 I am sick of this song and dance regarding the nuke and would support anything that gets rid of this 'half the crew knows there's a nuke on board' thing, and so, I support this as well.
Zundy Posted August 27, 2016 Posted August 27, 2016 ERT Trooper says, "I got your changling riiight here heheheh."
Guest Posted August 27, 2016 Posted August 27, 2016 "That ain't no dog. It's a changeling, Lester. Smaller attack vermin. They shouldn't be this far out unless... oh shit."
TrickingTrapster Posted August 27, 2016 Posted August 27, 2016 A bomb? What a shame. Anyway, yeah, I support this. Maybe give people something else to whine to NT about other than OH NO NOOKS.
Nikov Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 No. The nuke on the station is a very readily understood bit of sci-fi that allows a number of scenarios to play out. All of these scenarios still play out with the beer cooler reskin, only now it will involve idiots breaking into the vault to steal beer, people insisting there's no nuke, just a beer cooler, and people being derplords dragging around the beer cooler because it isn't obviously a nuke. I'd rather people just stop continuing this stupid meme of "oh noes a nuke" than make yet another meme. Good cutscene though, I got the reference immediately. Maybe we can put this reference in somehow.
Nanako Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 i'm not really in favour of adding more memes. We are already stuffed to saturation with memes. You ever hear that wierd distorted voice that plays as background sound when you're in the AI core/upload? IT's fucking SPACE JAM. The space jam theme tune run through a few distortion filters. The exact words the distorted voice says are 'Everybody get up it's time to slam nowWe got a real jam goin' dowwwwnnn...." (fade into incoherence) Half the wizard spell chants are memes too. The mutate spell shouts Bruce Banner, the bodyswap spell shouts Captain Ginyu, fireball shouts onee-sama. We very long ago passed the point of meme saturation, i'm not in favour of adding more
Zundy Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 You all understand the bomb as is, is a meme right? It's a fucking 1940's "Little Boy" atomic bomb in the year 2458. Remove the retarded memes. The title for this suggesting needs to be re-worded really because the object in starcract isn't a fucking beer cooler, it's a cold fusion storage device which some enterprising marines have filled with ice and beers. Basically make the shitty nuke sprite into a storage device that, when opening, reveals the cold-fusion bomb within. Technically some ERT or Syndi bad-bois could use this to store chilled alcoholic beverages in if they were feeling frisky. Probably should remove all the shitty memes as well but that's a suggestion for another thread.
Guest Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 You are misconstruing what a meme is, Nanako. A meme is something unfunny, with no real value to it past it being restated over and over again for the sake of retransmitting an idea that not a single person asked for but will have to hear anyway. This is a suggestion to do a few things: 1.) Create a reference that is a nod to video game subculture, but this isn't wholly the objective. 2.) Cut down on the nuke meta by concealing the fact the nuke even exists entirely. And re: crewmembers breaking into the vault for "memes", they can easily be permabrigged for infiltrating a secure area and potentially threatening company secrets, so the matter of them breaking into the vault for memes is null. They would not even be able to open the cooler without the disk and the code.
Guest Complete Garbage Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 Delta, https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=5981&hilit=Who+knows+about+the+nuke#p59585 I think Nikov once called it a scuttling charge. Pretty sure knowing it exists in general isn't meta at all. People would know it's there. Some would probably believe it's a dud. No one but the captain should know that it's active, and that the codes for its activation are kept on station. The nuke disk is, again, only known to the Captain. He knows what it is and what it's capable of doing. HoS may just know that the disk is super fucking important, and that its recovery is paramount, but he wouldn't know that it's used for amazing purposes. Everyone else would see it as a random disk. As for stealing the nuke: I mean, it's still an explosive device and could be amazingly valuable in terms of the materials it has in it. Such things would fly like hotcakes on the black market.
Guest Posted September 1, 2016 Posted September 1, 2016 People will automatically assume it can be used as a nuclear deterrence by the company, however. It's not easy to keep corporate secrets secret when half of the staffing onboard a space station knows there's an inert nuke onboard the vessel. Most nuclear weapons are inert until intended to be activated. This is usually why you see in movies where key authentication with two persons is required to launch a nuke. NT would not fathomably get away with keeping a 1940s Fat Man in their vault. A inconspicuous cooler unit that, if anything, could be inferred to house something important that requires cold storage? It'd be a huge leap to say it could contain a plutonium core. Easy excuse is that it houses a very important scientific find that requires being put on ice.
Conservatron Posted September 2, 2016 Posted September 2, 2016 i like the scuttle charge explanation imo
Zundy Posted September 2, 2016 Posted September 2, 2016 That's the reason why we have a nuke on board. It doesn't explain why it's a lel glaring 1940s atomic bomb. I for one like the "inconspicuous cooler unit" idea.
SomeoneOutTher3 Posted September 3, 2016 Posted September 3, 2016 We can just pretend that the NT employment contract included a Non-Disclosure Act that prohibits the discussion of the contents of the vault, but people didn't read it to the point where it is told what's exactly in the vault,so they act all surprised when they learn that they signed a contract to not talk about a nuke. Seriously, re-skinning something which you never see anyways seems pointless.
Nikov Posted September 5, 2016 Posted September 5, 2016 Reskin the scuttling charge to something black and chrome then, but its a nuclear bomb, not a bit of referential humor.
Guest Posted October 16, 2016 Posted October 16, 2016 The recent meeting minutes discussed the clandestine nature of the nuclear device. Therefore this suggestion is more valid at this point, to further make the nuclear device even more clandestine than it already is. A security officer can still look at the vault camera and go "HOLY SHIT A NOOK" versus the possible "Why's there a cooler in the vault?" question that'll be posed if this is implemented. The latter is a more acceptable statement to hear than the first.
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