Why do IPCs serving as HoS and HoP have to be shell, and nothing else?

[sdtwbaj]

title tbh. Seems rather ridiculous and pointless to me.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Hello!

If I remember right, I was the one that heavily pushed this status quo.

In the blurbs on character selection for IPC, and on their wiki entries, each IPC is shown to have a theme they are meant to be representing or going for. They have their specializations.

Shells are the 'service' borgs. They are supposed to have a friendly face and be as human as possible, with our IC corporate theory being that being human and friendly makes them more likable.

There is also the fact that shells are more expensive, and represent increased investment on behalf of the company and their owner. It also has investment from the player OOC'ly in that they are accommodating to the expectations, and more importantly, understand the expectation is there.

A HoS Industrial would be very silly. That is not the purpose of an industrial - machines are built for a purpose. It would be like using a perfectly functional $1,200 laptop computer as a paper weight. Sure, it's your favorite paperweight, but that's not what it was built for.

All of these combine together to justify the restriction.

[sdtwbaj]

How about using a baseline IPC? One can invest as much as they want into a baseline — it’s like building your own computer.

That, and I can understand that for an HoP, but not necessarily an HoS, where if you’re talking to them you probably either don’t care or don!t like them in the first place, since it isn’t a service role so much as a protective leading role.

As far as it goes OOCly, the shell restriction also adds a certain personality restraint. It somewhat entices someone to act like a human, so much that it defeats the point of playing as something other than human.

[Superiorform]

How about using a baseline IPC? One can invest as much as they want into a baseline — it’s like building your own computer.

That, and I can understand that for an HoP, but not necessarily an HoS, where if you’re talking to them you probably either don’t care or don!t like them in the first place, since it isn’t a service role so much as a protective leading role.

As far as it goes OOCly, the shell restriction also adds a certain personality restraint. It somewhat entices someone to act like a human, so much that it defeats the point of playing as something other than human.

 

First of all, all heads of staff need to be friendly and approachable, and capable of leadership. The HoS is no exception, even if he has guns.

Secondly, I think the personality restraints are intentional. An entity that is completely unlike an organic should not be leading organics. If you want to play a cold machine, play a shaft miner, or cargo tech, or something.

[sdtwbaj]

How about using a baseline IPC? One can invest as much as they want into a baseline — it’s like building your own computer.

That, and I can understand that for an HoP, but not necessarily an HoS, where if you’re talking to them you probably either don’t care or don!t like them in the first place, since it isn’t a service role so much as a protective leading role.

As far as it goes OOCly, the shell restriction also adds a certain personality restraint. It somewhat entices someone to act like a human, so much that it defeats the point of playing as something other than human.

 

First of all, all heads of staff need to be friendly and approachable, and capable of leadership. The HoS is no exception, even if he has guns.

Secondly, I think the personality restraints are intentional. An entity that is completely unlike an organic should not be leading organics. If you want to play a cold machine, play a shaft miner, or cargo tech, or something.

 

I could understand that, but only the HoS or HoP need shell. CMO, CE, and RD don't.

And a non-organic personality doesn't necessarily mean it isn't compatible, or capable. In fact, it could generate quite a bit of RP, seeing the dynamic that a slightly more robotic personality has when leading organics.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

It would be deeply uncomfortable to have a clearly robotic machine lead an armed security force, don't you think? Shells are expensive and meant to be indistinguishable from humans to make them as inoffensive as possible. HoP and HoS are the two roles that have the most "face time" on the Aurora - you'll be seeing them almost all of the time when you interact around the station, even if they're just walking by. They are also the most trafficked at Heads. You always go to the HoP for access, and you go to the HoS to deal with your security troubles or to complain at them for bad security. CMO, RD, and CE are more of the unseen beaucracy behind the scenes. They aren't the corporate face.

The corporate philosophy is that it's important for these two roles then to be as humanoid as possible. These are androids without laws - would you want a securiborg chassis being HoS? Most people wouldn't, and that's the extension of the logic in the thought.