Vaurca Opinions and Changes

[tmmytbbt]

Hey everyone,

I'm the new Vaurca Loredev and I am looking for some opinions on what interests all of you about Vaurca. Now I will be reverting most of the current lore back to LordFowl's last update ( https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Vaurca&oldid=5354 ) and expanding from there. I have some ideas of where I want to go which can be found in my Loredev application ( https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=8891 ) however I am keen to hear what the community wants.

So, here are some questions I'd love to hear from both Vaurca players and those just interested in Vaurca:

What draws you towards playing Vaurca?

What do you like and what do you dislike about the current lore?

What changes would you make if you were in my position?

Thanks! Any feedback will be greatly helpful.

[Diggey]

I adore playing Vaurca not only for the fact that no one knows how to handle me,usually causing me great harm in the process,I also enjoy the hivenet,the fact that I don't need a spacesuit,I like needing phoron,a very valuable recource,to breathe,a need even deeper than eating,i enjoy the look of them,I enjoy the ability to talk in a way that is difficult for others to understand,usually resulting in complicated sentences that say very little in the process

What I dislike about the current lore is the massive focus on the unbound,while all the unbound stuff is okay I am kinda just looking at the Bound as a tiny little footnote on every article

I'm impartial about the varying hives and their interconnection,I do however like the K'lax non K'lax dynamic

Never been interested into the warrior aspect of the hive,I see Vaurca as,if you allow, Workers, that's why I call them Vaurca,their name ain't Vaurriors so the entire "big buff huge body for my Unbound to strut around and wax menacingly as he throws himself into combat knowing his conciousness can be recovered from the mangled carcass so long as the head is intact" really rubs me not at all

I really appreciate the naive dedication of the Bound and like that dynamic between players,especially when you have a very selfish unbound

I'd like for Vaurca to be capable of pulling things faster than other races,which is a weird fucking thing to mention to a loredev...

lorechangeswise,I want more illegal underground K'oisfarms that inevitably have sporebursts resulting in a crackdown and mass starvation leading to Vaurca gangfights over K'ois at great expense of Bound lives and so forth

make K'ois this hugely expensive recource even though it's piss easy to grow and harvest

maybe add some subversive elements who harvest K'ois,then seperate off the Phoron and just sell the K'ois paste,so it tastes different,but it's filling to the buggos and nourishing,but they will soon suffocate and they don't know why,the Bound won't even tell their superiors because they don't notice the K'oispaste tastes different or that their tanks are low until it is too late

meanwhile thousands of Vaurca die of suffocation while that food manufacturer gets rich off of selling both K'ois and pure Phoron

[tmmytbbt]

Your suggestions are greatly appreciated and have given me some good ideas for where I want to take the lore in the upcoming weeks. I have updated the Wiki page with a preliminary revert (and some additions) and will be using this thread for advice and helpful ideas like yours Diggey for where to take them in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to write so much and let me know what it is you're looking for in this species.

[Snakebittenn]

A good while ago, myself and the other OG vaurca crew composed this feedback. Pls read it. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i4yuk3oRuX6Jbi2c15ZI0RkNkHPWW--lQ1B79raS2cw/edit?usp=sharing

[NoahKirchner]

I don't play a Vaurca, but I find them endlessly interesting.

Some of the things that make them so interesting imo is how integrated virtual reality is into their culture and it'd be neat to see it ingame in some way shape or form.

[Diggey]

it'd be neat to see it ingame in some way shape or form.

 

w-wouldn't that be through the Vaurca themselves complaining about the lack of access to VR?

[tmmytbbt]

A good while ago, myself and the other OG vaurca crew composed this feedback. Pls read it. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i4yuk3oRuX6Jbi2c15ZI0RkNkHPWW--lQ1B79raS2cw/edit?usp=sharing

 

This document was integral to the initial revert changes I have made, but thanks for the suggestions included in it.

As for the VR in game I'm unsure there is any real way to include it outside of the Unbound talking about it and role playing the absence of it.

[Azande]

Can you make the dev team make it so kois puts phoron into the air? Or can you remove phoron gas production from kois lore?

We need one or the other - Presently in game, kois does not give off phoron when grown .

[Diggey]

Can you make the dev team make it so kois puts phoron into the air? Or can you remove phoron gas production from kois lore?

We need one or the other - Presently in game, kois does not give off phoron when grown .

 

Well removing phoron from K'ois would mean I would literally die 90% of the rounds,last round I had to break into botany to not die

like,they don't pay me enough to BREATHE man...

[Azande]

I said remove the phoron GAS production for kois lore, not having phoron paste inside.

[tmmytbbt]

While I do need to update K'ois lore I am still waiting to see what mechanical changes can be done before this happens. I will see what can be done and then figure out what the best changes will be.

[Bygonehero]

The wiki is currently a giant tire-fire of conflicting information. A mismatch of the old and new. Please fix, thanks.

As for the other opinions here, Bound are effectively nonsentient robots, yet they aren't played that way.There's no need to flesh out the singular life of a bound drone on the wiki. Players can do it sure, for their characters, but on the wiki you should be talking about the species as a whole, not the single life history of a nonsentient worker.

Speaking of Bound play, it's been getting worse recently. You, before you became the loredev are guilty this when you played bound. There were times watching you that I couldn't tell if you were bound or unbound and from that, I doubted you even know what it meant. I say meant because as the lore-dev you can make it mean anything now which is frightening. This coupled with the fact that there are more snowflake color Vaurca than ever before makes me extremely sad with how little anyone seems to care about the then established lore of Vaurca.

If it seems like I'm being hard on you, it's because I am. I've written more about them then anyone except for the last two loredevs and to see the work put into making them what they are thrown away so carelessly, as to be made irrelevant by the players as a whole is saddening.

[tmmytbbt]

Point out conflicting information so it can be fixed.

I realise for my personal character I break the rules for him too often and have him be too sentient at times it's something I catch myself doing and regret I even publically bitch myself out for it.

I haven't seen any snowflake vaurca colours outside of the acceptable variation range, a range that existed before I took over so next time you do please screenshot it and let me know.

As for the "fleshing out a singular life of a bound vaurca" thing the only thing I can think of were examples of character quirks for bound. These are merely examples of options that may be used. You may be of the opinion that all bound Vaurca should be 100% mindless robots I personally disagree and feel minor character quirks makes them far more interesting and weird as if they're trying to have rational thought and not quite managing. I feel as if Vag played by SleepyWolf is the best example of this as Vag will do things like come to help other bound if trouble happens or play dead when attacked.

I'm aware my character is a mess, me playing him as overcoming his bound status whenever I roll antag fucked it and I revert to that mindset in normal rounds all too often but overall I don't see having bound with minor personality characteristics as a problem as long as they still follow orders and don't think for themselves too much.

[tmmytbbt]

Including relevant posts from the discord regarding this.

 

[Diggey]

I for one don't mind these specific new changes

But it is quite the problem,because of course my antag bugs are Lii'dra in disguise and no one seems to notice when the bound Tlili suddenly starts speaking at all,demands things,uses forms properly,regards multiple people equally

like,I try so hard to make it obvious I am not actually bound,and me dragging around lockers and demanding profession changes because my "work is unfullfilling" and literally no one notices

I know there is occasional announcments saying Vaurca have the right to be supplied K'ois or Phoron if asked but I think any person whitelisted as head of security or head of Staff should be briefed on that sort of behaviour harbouring an impostor

If someone fails to roleplay a proper bound they should be arrested under suspicion of beeing a Lii'dra unbound posing as a bound in my honest opinion

[tmmytbbt]

You're right and if you see anyone playing bound poorly let me know and I'll have a chat to them.

[themaskedman2]

Right, so I love Vaurca, obviously, but here is a question i've actually had, that as far as I know, isn't particularly clarified anywhere. The particular "Type" naming schemes, here is what I know.

Type A = Workers

Type B = Warriors

Type C = Breeders

Simple enough, right? Then through wiki and lore article diving, it gets a bit more specific.

Type CA and Type CB

CA = Bound Breeder

CB = Unbound Breeder

Once again, fairly simple, though then it gets down to this part.

"Ultimately, all Vaurca currently employed by NanoTrasen aboard the NSS Exodus or NSS Aurora are of the least augmented tier - either Type AA or Type BA."

This somewhat confuses me, and it doesn't seem to follow any pattern, i've also heard in other lore news pieces of "Type BB's" and generally i'm not sure what all of these mean.

If I follow the logic of before, where the first letter applies to Type A/B/C, and the second letter applies to Bound/Unbound, that would mean it's saying they are All Bound Workers and Warriors, but that isn't true at all, because NT doesn't like Bound warriors, and we see both unbound and bound workers, so that consistency can't be correct... is it? Anyways it confuses me. I've taken it as perhaps it's supposed to be a mystery, because oooh who knows maybe there is a "Type XK" and other things, but that doesn't seem right either, so yeah.

Honestly, I am half asleep and likely wording this terribly indeed, but yeah, a simple sorta... "Chart" of the types explaining what it all means would be appreciated, and I am sure some of the types they refer to have never been encountered before outside of hiveships and what not. Especially not working in a normal environment, I doubt NT really wants giant augmented super Warriors on their ships. Anyways, now that I got that random question out of the way, lets answer these questions you had for us.

What draws you towards playing Vaurca?

Honestly, insects and caste systems, the "Alien" nature and how different they are, how vastly different members within the same species can be, just comparing a breeder to a worker for example, basically an entirely different species. The way they communicate and the culture of "bound" and "unbound", all in all it's just... fascinating. It's so weird and different.

What do you like and what do you dislike about the current lore?

Honestly, and while it's a major part of their character, I really can't say I care a "ton" about the VR stuff, now I certainly like it, but I feel with the way it is currently described and detailed, it could do with a bit more fleshing out to make it feel more indepth and real than. "Fantasy Perfection VR world". I like the contrast between living it up in a fantasy and being thrust out into the Material world, but I feel like the Virtual stuff could really do with a bit more refining to feel a bit more engaging, how much of the species lives are spent in the VR? Do the Queen's (Well, Lesser Queens at this point I suppose) spend most of their time in a fantasy world as well, do they manage real life affairs through the virtual? How does anything in the Material even get done if 90% of them are in a Virtual world all the time? I just feel like the whole thing while an interesting idea, leaves me more confused on how anything could actually manage to work. I understand everyone does "their time" pretty much outside the virtual but it seems like its not emphasized much at all.

Basically the Virtual leaves me feeling a bit confused.

What changes would you make if you were in my position?

Well, overall I honestly like most of it, I don't think anything needs to be "Changed", I just think things need to be "Expanded" upon. What I would focus on is making the Virtual more engaging, and while purely personal preference, I would like to hear a bit more about the inner workings of the castes and biological engineering they do. How well are they integrating into the real world? Are they even integrating at all or just moving their virtual tubes to a new spot? It just feels a bit vague at points. Just a bit of history about the state of things currently without having to dig through old news articles.

I probably sound a bit harsh and critical at points, and honestly, I don't mean to be, I could probably fill ten times more pages up with the positive things I like about them, but i'm bad at that, so these are generally my thoughts on the matter. I guess in conclusion, I love 90% of it, and I just want more of it, and the few confusing parts clarified a bit farther with more detail.

So yeah, and this was the mad 1 AM ramblings of a person who really likes our friendly bug aliens.

[Diggey]

"Ultimately, all Vaurca currently employed by NanoTrasen aboard the NSS Exodus or NSS Aurora are of the least augmented tier - either Type AA or Type BA."

This somewhat confuses me

obviously meaning bound and unbound workers

as bound warriors are not allowed to work for Nanotrasen and only intern level jobs are allowed for unbound so employing a warrior Vaurca Cadet is just weird,it can happen,but it's such a minority that it isn't worth mentioning

at least that's my impression

 

I really can't say I care a "ton" about the VR stuff, now I certainly like it, but I feel with the way it is currently described and detailed, it could do with a bit more fleshing out to make it feel more indepth and real than. "Fantasy Perfection VR world".

I feel like the Virtual stuff could really do with a bit more refining to feel a bit more engaging, how much of the species lives are spent in the VR? Do the Queen's (Well, Lesser Queens at this point I suppose) spend most of their time in a fantasy world as well, do they manage real life affairs through the virtual?

 

This is my personaly headcanon,now it might be this was formed due to me possibly having had access to a pre rework wikipage so take everything I say with a grain of salt, The Virtual is less of a place and more of a thing,in old-new lore there were Vaurca bread specifically so their brains could be cultivated as storage space for the virtual,inside the virtual you don't walk around,it's more of an internet type place,where you can talk with anyone at any time and exchange knowledge in an instant,you could "look at" (more like interact with) another unbound and would instantly know their life story as it is integrated into your conciousness,it's pretty rad yo

Yeah,internet is a good descriptor of my perception of the virtual,where your conciousness is just a buncha 1s and 0s only that it's not binary and the Vaurca used to be highly sophisticated in their technology before the degradation and collapse of their technology aboard the hiveships leaving them technologically crippled

I'm pretty sure there is "space" in the Virtual to "walk around" but the Vaurca don't seem like something so pointless is in their interest,they flourish in fullfillment,doing stuff...not sitting in a meadow stuffing themselves on virtual k'ois,they read,they think up stuff,they share in the Hive

which is why descending is so jarring,they can't just instantly do things,making a mistake is painful,you have to do things you didn't want to do before,it's all so forceful and unpleasant

How does anything in the Material even get done if 90% of them are in a Virtual world all the time?

You need only one Vaurca to command a few thousand Bound to be honest,and administrators have their role in the hive hierarchy,descending in this case is an honorable choice as it cuts your lifespan shorter to further the hive and shit

Again,salt grains,mad ramblings,correct me please

[tmmytbbt]

I appreciate this feedback and realise that another editing pass for clarity is needed on the wiki. I'll update when I have done this. Thank you.