The Aure, Mechanically Unique Primitive Species

[WrongEnd]

Aure

 

The Aurae is an example of a species that has adapted so fully to its normal environment that it finds itself disadvantaged in other environments in certain ways. Living solely in cave systems below the surface of a barren planet, their eyes never evolved to accept bright light: thus, although the have excellent vision in low-light areas, they are effectively blind in what we would consider full-bright or normal lighting. This can be ameliorated slightly with the use of protective gear, similar to the smoked-glass goggles used by welders. Their bodies became lithe and wiry to adapt to the uneven terrain underground, and developed the ability to fly remarkable distances to traverse gorges and other sudden altitude shifts. However, this requires a certain amount of altitude to move any significant distance forward, so flight in low-ceiling areas is difficult and not always successful. Given that the energy cycle absent solar radiation is fairly low-energy, their bodies lack the robust musculature associated with most other complex lifeforms. This, combined with the fact that most other species in their habitat were significantly smaller, result in very little of their bodymass being devoted to defensive structures like the reinforced ribcages of Homo sapiens. In plain terms, they can’t take a punch.

Their ‘hands’, which are really just a system of phalanges attached to the largest joint of their wings, are agile enough to handle and manipulate simple objects, but lack the manual dexterity required to operate complicated objects (for instance, guns). Similar structures are found on their ‘feet’, similar indeed to the agile appendages found on Earth primates.

 

Feature list

 

- They have full blindness without eye protection in bright places. This can be alleviated for welder vision. Alternatively, every so often they can screech to get full vision for a short period of time.

- It is easier to kill them with brute damage. They are also minorly more susceptible to burn damage.

- They cannot fire weaponry due to their hand structure not agreeing with trigger guards.

- Similar to Vox, they have a verb that is reminiscent to leap. This allows them to fly forward several tiles in the direction they are facing, with a large change to hit their head and fall over.

- Due to their weak frame and hailing from a low-gravity planet, their pullspeeds are lower.

- Can grip the ground with their feet, preventing them from moving but also saving them from space wind, ZAS cannons, etc.

- Loud noises have a high chance to permanently deafen them. Can only be corrected with surgery.

- I’m currently brainstorming how to make movement different for the species. Stay tuned.

There are several places I can take the lore for this. The first option, and perhaps my most favorite, is a primitive civilization that hasn’t been able to develop agriculture. The next option is a semi-bronze age, where primitive tools have come into use but agriculture is still not in effect. Finally, a full on bronze age with algae agriculture. My question is, would you like to see this race, and if so, which race would you remove to make room for this one?

Furthermore, what roles would you like to see this race in? A few ideas of mine have been not considered sentient crew, instead given food stamps they are legally required to use to get rationed food, a collapsible bed, and not allowed off the station unless it is uninhabitable. Alternatively, they could be considered regular crew, but I’m not quite as much of a fan.

Are there any other features you'd like to see, like requiring an EVA suit due to pressure differentials, or breathing a different type of gas?

[Chada1]

I honestly like this, Unathi, Dionae, and Vaurca all have primitive undertones, but nothing to this level. This is like the 'legally non-Sentient' aspect of IPCs (At least right now), mixed with the 'legally non-Crew' aspect of Nymphs.

To become an actual Species, however, as far as I know, a Species would have to be removed, or it would have to be completely unlike anything we have. It's got mechanical difference, and it's got Lore difference, but i'm not sure if it fits the Criteria. I don't see anything that would make implementing this Species unhealthy for the game, or anything stupid about it. Like I said, I really like the 'Caveman' aspect. It's actually very Very unique.

It's entirely possible this wouldn't even really 'count' as a Crew Species, since ... it's technically not considered one? as you said, so it might fit the Criteria better than most others. I'm very interested in seeing debate on this, i'm... oddly in support, at the moment, but I don't know what Species I would want to lose, because I like all of the Species at the moment, I don't think I would want to lose any, so if that's a prerequisite, i'm stumped.

As for Lore, and how they came to be found, the 'Miners breaching their Caves.' angle makes sense.

My final note; I would want to see them locked to the Civilian department, or extremely minor non-Departmental roles. That could be the nail that defined them as Not the same as any other Species, unmistakeably.

[Fiskap]

If they're legally a pre-sentient species, that'd be an interesting approach since it gives them much more potential to be good cheap labour.

Yet they'd have to compete with other cheap labour species, so why would they be considered for work on a corporate space station, if their society is also very primitive? I came up with a few things.

- If they're legally considered to be animals, that means they could be exploited for experiments on a space station. Animal testing by NT in Tau Ceti would definitely be a thing, maybe not in other systems.

- Many would be gloryseekers that intentionally wanted to sign up to work with NT, perhaps it makes them feel superior to others that are still living in the caves. Perhaps others would be kidnapped and later indoctrinated. If they are actually obsessed about working for a corporation for only food and shelter, it would make them more docile. Few station species are truly docile or non-problematic, making it good in this aspect.

- As their vision is far better in low-light environment, it gives them more potential for mining. Yet synthetics and Vaurcae could be used for that purpose better, as they require less survival gear. Perhaps they could be somehow adjusted to make them even better for low-cost mining operations?

- Their gestation periods could be abnormally short, while at the same time, harsh conditions on their homeworld meant that their (infant) mortality rates were always very high. They could probably also reach maturity fast, while somehow having decent natural lifespans. The mortality rates alone would mean that the species' numbers would be low before human contact, probably less than a million, but if sent to human-supervised environments they could breed fast, and survive in high numbers. Essentially whoever controls it has a fast source of cheap labour.

- They could simply have the capability to learn fast from their experiences and adapt new technology well. This includes languages. Meaning that if some time were invested in training them, they could be competent for menial jobs like gardening, custodial or mining. Combined with the previous point, you could create entire generations of decently competent low-skill workers in no time.

A species like this really would have potential. Docile, competent enough for many basic jobs, content to work just for food and shelter, able to learn languages easily, short gestation periods which allows for mass breeding, not even legally considered to be sentient. Other cheap labour species would have many problems compared to this.

If I come up with more things, I'll post them too.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I told you in our first converstaion that it has been a longstanding development decision that if a race is added again, a current playable race would need to be removed.

Immediately after saying this, you told me that we could simply remove Resomi, which are not playable, and have never been playable on Aurora. During our conversation I was genuinely concerned for awhile that you were mistaking us for Paradise. You swore up and down that they were playable, at least during heist, and I had to ask several devs in staffchat to verify that you can't get them except if you get RNG'd with a staff of change or admin intervention.

After that, you casually said we could simply remove the Skrell or Tajara. I asked you if you played them, and why you think your race is more legitimate than these races, and it was then you said that you have no whitelists. You then casually said to remove Skrell but that it's okay because no one plays Skrell anyway, and only a day afterwards PM'd me again saying to remove diona. You've been extremely flippant on removing these races that you have never played, and dismissive to their playerbases.

It seems to me that after our conversation, and your talks about it, that this suggestion wasn't made because you think it's for Aurora, but because you want us to cater to your personal preference. I remain utterly unconvinced that this is more than you wanting this race for your own desires. You haven't put any time or investment into this server and its races to make me believe that this suggestion is coming from a place where you think it will genuinely improve the server.

 

 

 

[WrongEnd]

I told you in our first converstaion that it has been a longstanding development decision that if a race is added again, a current playable race would need to be removed.

Immediately after saying this, you told me that we could simply remove Resomi, which are not playable, and have never been playable on Aurora. During our conversation I was genuinely concerned for awhile that you were mistaking us for Paradise. You swore up and down that they were playable, at least during heist, and I had to ask several devs in staffchat to verify that you can't get them except if you get RNG'd with a staff of change or admin intervention.

After that, you casually said we could simply remove the Skrell or Tajara. I asked you if you played them, and why you think your race is more legitimate than these races, and it was then you said that you have no whitelists. You then casually said to remove Skrell but that it's okay because no one plays Skrell anyway, and only a day afterwards PM'd me again saying to remove diona. You've been extremely flippant on removing these races that you have never played, and dismissive to their playerbases.

It seems to me that after our conversation, and your talks about it, that this suggestion wasn't made because you think it's for Aurora, but because you want us to cater to your personal preference. I remain utterly unconvinced that this is more than you wanting this race for your own desires. You haven't put any time or investment into this server and its races to make me believe that this suggestion is coming from a place where you think it will genuinely improve the server.

 

 

 

 

I will admit that I want to add in this race because I like the design -- there would be no reason for me to work on the idea if I hated its guts. It'd be like asking me to work on Resomi instead, which is not happening ever. I am not building up the motivation under any circumstances to work with any degree of efficiency on Resomi. I will also stand by my decision that Skrell or Tajara are my personal preference for removal, Skrell for their lack of mechanical uniqueness, and Tajara for their horrible reputation. Diona came from asking other people what they would like to see gone for this race.

So yes, it is partially personal preference; I would not have the motivation to work on something if I hated it, pure and simple. I always design my races to provide value, however.

Furthermore, Resomi is still in code. Too much Resomi still left in code, in my opinion. Remove Resomi.

[ToasterStrudel]

I'll throw my two-cents in here. Most races are brought to NanoTrasen for their abilities to somewhat adapt to human cultures/etc. I don't believe in lore NT would ever replace some races like the tajara or skrell. (Especially the massive amount of lore and playerbase that would basically be thrown out for your new race). There are actually quite a few Tajara, Skrell, and Unathi players, who have throughly developed their characters, and have been throughly immersed into the server, how would you think they would feel if they had to get rid of their character because a race was replacing theirs. I hold a few whitelists myself, and me being a casually lazy person, i'd be annoyed that all of my work was basically just thrown away for a race that I probably wont play. The only suitable race I can see replacing is the Vox, due to their ability to be played as raiders, BUT even then, that means we lose are funny named bird people for raid fun, because your race probably wouldn't be very much suitable for raids. Honestly I'm sorry if this is being a bit harsh, but this is pretty snowflakey, our server is set up to where we can dedicate our resources into developing races and lore, and so far its working out fine for us, we have been doing great without having any new races. Plenty of races can be alien if you play it right, all races can be alien if you make them.

TL;DR this is a bit snowflakey for my taste, and it'll remove a lot of playerbase in lore that we've spent years making.

[sonicgotnuked]

I really don't see a race to be replaced with the bat people. Tajaran should be never considered to remove (I am a cat beast player and constantly play cat beast) due to the fact it WILL shit on everyone who plays that race (including me). Skrell lore wise is in a close relationship with humanity and would also never be removed. Tajaran is the most in depth lore wise and would also piss on Sue, hive, and mofo (Tajaran lore heads) work.

[Kaed]

I admit I was sort of leery of this race even upon reading the first post since they seem to be nothing but an attempt to insert a comically inept beast race into the game. While I myself am a fan of the hisslords, and I know there are TRASH people like ~Jackboot~ (<3) who play catbeasts, I don't think we need more of them. Upon learning that, for some reason, we would need to remove a race to add this new one, I feel like the nail has been set on the coffin for this idea.

We can't remove races that are established at this point, with the possible exception I suppose of the Vaurca, who are new enough and weird enough to hypothetically be phased out - but given that work that went into making them and their unique mechanics and the small group of people who really enjoys playing them, it would be a pretty shitty to replace them anyway.

The fact that you evidently have never participated in playing xeno characters but feel able to judge who can be removed to make room for your new furry bat race also does not speak well for you, either. The thing about you thinking we have Resomi also suggests you barely paid attention to our server's xeno array is also kind of concerning, since you want to add something to it??

[Chada1]

So, I have a serious concern, and multiple suggestions. My concern isn't really about the Aure, more that there's a serious lack of Constructive criticism in this thread, Fiskap is the only one other than me who actually gave ideas and suggestions and didn't shut it down completely. Why?

Are you all so opposed to new additions, especially ones that add this much to the actual mechanics of the game? This Species directly adds an actual USE of the night-lighting system beyond saving power, seeing as Aure can't even see without night-lighting enabled, which makes night-lighting literally a main mechanic in the Species. This means you can set up work zones and off-limit zones for this Species. That is actually genius! I don't see any real complaints aside from 'Too many Xenos. And you want to remove one of our Species', which has outright been stated by the Staff as a prerequisite for them being added as a Playable Species, that's literally not even WrongEnds fault, even if he did display disregard for the level of appreciation each of our Species have, seeing as they don't even WANT to remove a Species, so faulting them with that is extremely unfair.

My suggestions and ideas are simple.

1; Make them a Mid-round Species akin to Golems, Positronic Brains, and Nymphs, as opposed to a Join-round Species. This can easily be done in a tasteful and Lore accepted way, by ordering them via Cargo as something similar to a Service Animal, or Working Animal. This would also cement them as not being Crew and considered Sentient, seeing as you can only order Animals through Cargo, as well as giving a reliable way to play as them, yet still making it the Crews decision to allow them on the Station. This may also waive the requirement of removing a Species, however, it would also waive the necessity of a Lore developer for them, and effectively null any significance beyond the Specific round, a Lore page, and mentions. They would not be a Playable Species, as opposed to a Playable Mob. <= WrongEnd really liked this idea. And Skull132 said that implementing the Species as a Mid-round in a way similar to this, would make it not count as a Playable Species, and if that's true, entirely waive the 'Remove a Species' requirement.

2; Cement the fact that they need night-lighting enabled to effectively work in an area, and are blind otherwise. You've already got the idea of scaling eye damage depending on how long they remain in a bright area, but that could be too round-ending, unless they literally spawn with a blindfold to use. <= WrongEnd really liked this idea.

3; My final idea, and probably the one that would make them incredibly difficult to play, and definitely cement their playstyle as uniquely different, as well as their 'Non-sentient' vibe. Make them understand Sign language, but be unable to speak it. Make Sign language and gestures what they understand, and give them a screechy language to speak with each other that noone else understands. That way anyone could command them to a Basic level, but they wouldn't be able to actively communicate with non-Aure as much as be gestured around.

[Scheveningen]

My only concern is when we're getting bat-men ported over, I hope it's next weekend because I sure would love another arbitrary species choice with no set roleplay differences or significant depth introduced to our community.

But taking into very serious consideration, how many new species should we introduce on our server before the community's satisfied, exactly? One? Two? Five? Nevermind the amount of effort required to pull yet another human copy-paste with the only differences being magboots-but-you-can't-move (because somehow an animal can do that with their bare claws), reverse darksight mechanics, echolocation BS that permits you to have actual NVGs, being able to vox leap but you suffer a dumb-ass arbitrary stun and look like a dumb-ass doing it, the moment you get shot with a gun you're fucking deaf and you're a squishy worthless piece of shit that can't do dick in combat. Your survival rate is placed immediately below anyone else simply on the basis of existing as a bat-man, and you're like the sore thumb that sticks out except you look like you belong in a Final Fantasy game where your only purpose is to be genocided for laughs.

Why the fuck would NanoTrasen hire anything like this on their stations? They are markedly useless, clumsy and if this is lore then the only reason they lived for so long is not because of intelligence and innovation prolonging their existence but they offset their annual death toll for being so functionally useless that they fornicated so much to produce so many offspring to die more embarassing deaths than their parents did. Bats aren't even cute. They're fucking HORRIFYING (please see next post I am a cute doctor with a degree from an accredited institution). NT would be doing this pitiful race a favor by prematurely issuing them their own Darwin award and glassing their home planet.

I'm sorry for being mean but there has to be better things one can suggest than this

Edited March 9, 2017 by Guest

[Scheveningen]

>bats are cute

>aren't they adorable

>seriously tho

>fucking

>EWWW

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Geeze, you don't gotta be so harsh, Delta.

[Scheveningen]

You only feel this way because I called bats ugly and you disagreed.

I apologize for stepping over the line but I don't take back any of what I said.

[WrongEnd]

My only concern is when we're getting bat-men ported over, I hope it's next weekend because I sure would love another arbitrary species choice with no set roleplay differences or significant depth introduced to our community.

But taking into very serious consideration, how many new species should we introduce on our server before the community's satisfied, exactly? One? Two? Five? Nevermind the amount of effort required to pull yet another human copy-paste with the only differences being magboots-but-you-can't-move (because somehow an animal can do that with their bare claws), reverse darksight mechanics, echolocation BS that permits you to have actual NVGs, being able to vox leap but you suffer a dumb-ass arbitrary stun and look like a dumb-ass doing it, the moment you get shot with a gun you're fucking deaf and you're a squishy worthless piece of shit that can't do dick in combat. Your survival rate is placed immediately below anyone else simply on the basis of existing as a bat-man, and you're like the sore thumb that sticks out except you look like you belong in a Final Fantasy game where your only purpose is to be genocided for laughs.

Why the fuck would NanoTrasen hire anything like this on their stations? They are markedly useless, clumsy and if this is lore then the only reason they lived for so long is not because of intelligence and innovation prolonging their existence but they offset their annual death toll for being so functionally useless that they fornicated so much to produce so many offspring to die more embarassing deaths than their parents did. Bats aren't even cute. They're fucking HORRIFYING (please see next post I am a cute doctor with a degree from an accredited institution). NT would be doing this pitiful race a favor by prematurely issuing them their own Darwin award and glassing their home planet.

I'm sorry for being mean but there has to be better things one can suggest than this

 

The same could be said for Tajara. "Dumb speed boost, squishy worthless piece of shit, stupid nightvision." Vaurca, "Idiotic lack of spacesuits, shitty phoron farming thing, idiotic no need for radios." and Unathi, "Stupid spam messages about heat, terrible claws", and so on so on. I feel this is disingenuous by calling all the features shitty with no real reason as to why. The mechanics will explicitly support roleplay differences, and the depth is only as deep as you want to see it.

As someone who's around bats plenty, I have to disagree with them being horrifying, btw.

[TrickingTrapster]

I dunno. I like bats. Buuuut as for adding them as a race, well... I guess if we could add more races whenever we wanted we would have more than we have right now. Like was said earlier, it's just not possible to add another race without removing a current one. None of which are depraved enough TO remove. And when saying "remove", it's meant to be removed from playable races (human, unathi, tajara, skrell, IPC, vaurca, dionaea). Which is not going to happen. On top of that, coders are way, waaaay too busy with other important things just to code another race. And, speaking personally, I'd rather see slime people become an actual race than bat-people, however cute as bats may be. Or at least not baldify them when turning.

[Nanako]

We are not currently accepting suggestions for new races in any meaningful sense.

We are not adding any new main/crew species for at least forseeable future, and we are not open to adding any at all at present due to other development commitments.

The primary reason we're not adding new species is our approach to playable species. Each of the main playable species has a dedicated staff writer who creates lore for them and acts as a creative director for their mechanical design. Senpai jackboot, whom you've already spoken with, is the senior overseer of that team and the man with final veto power over decisions in that area.

As a small volunteer organisation, managing six staff in one department is no easy feat, and i don't think he's keen to add more.

In addition, every species brings with it a weight of development maintenance that we have to fill. I personally wrote most of our diona code and still maintain it. More species, especially if theyre significantly mechanically different, means more maintenance.

Secondly, a critical reason we can't add this particular species, is that we lack meaningful mechanical support for dark vision. We've had a few developers take a crack at it, and our youngest member is working on it part time just now. But i can't say its something we'll have anytime soon. I'd say thats a critical feature for a bat species.

Now all that aside.

We are not removing resomi. They exist in the codebase for special events and admin intervention, they are not generally playable and do not have a writer.

All of our existing species fill a niche, and satisfy most of the tropes, common archetypes and roles we want to promote.

You profess a couple of times to "work on" this species, but unless you're applying as a coder, its us that'd be doing most of the work, this seems disingenuous.

While i can appreciate the labour value of good design, the number of people who put studious effort into game design principles is relatively few. And the number of those who have the talents to realise their designs, fewer still. The world is full of people who think they have great ideas, but are wrong. I'm afraid you're one of those.

The design is derivative, doesn't fit our community, and to a degree doesn't really fit the game at all.

The whole darkvision/adapted to caves thing is a vaurca trait. They have that niche. There is no value in replicating it just to make it moreso. The trope is taken. The archetype is realised. If vaurca don't sufficiently satisfy your desire to play a troglodyte, your efforts would be better spent on thinking of ways to improve them, not replace them

Brute weakness is tajaran. The leap ability is from the vox, you even realised that yourself.

And a main crew species which can't fire guns is generally unsuitable for the game engine

Most of it is your favourite bits and pieces cobbled together from other species into a configuration that you personally like. But that's not how species work

A closing note:

You're not the first person to suggest a new species, you won't be the last. All of them have been declined, even if some have heartbreakingly high levels of effort put into the design. We are simply not entertaining new crew species right now, and that's not likely to change

[LordFowl]

Jackboot and Skull have both agreed against new species without change to how species operate as it is. Binning.