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You could make a vox variant that's spaceproof pretty easily, or use the big vox caste for this. No reason that the vox can't make their raiders spaceproof with their skills in cybernetics and stuff. On the 'only trade with command' thing, maybe they should be made more like...smugglers. Make the things they sell explicitly contraband, encourage crew to meet with them in remote parts of maint for their neat loot, maybe even give them some surplus syndicate stuff they've 'acquired' somewhere else, then put it in space law/SOP that command must not deal with smugglers like that. Instead of one person just sitting in a meeting room with them they'd have to be.

I'm pretty sure that would just make things worse on the side of validhunting and antaging. I address the issue that you cite, Kyet, and I realize that it's one of the main reasons why the game mode is bad. However I think it is certainly salvageable. Interacting with departments rather than the captain. Though it is slightly disheartening to have a few pages of text dismissed in three lines, I realize that you've probably thought about this more than I have, and appreciate your response.

Be observer. Watch Mechanic break into Syndie Depot with enough tools to build another miracle. Watch Mechanic break through walls. Watch Mechanic break into trap room filled with plasma tiles and a welded shut plasma airlock. Watch Mechanic be smart enough not to-- nevermind, he welded the plasma airlock, chain reaction, everything burns and blows up, Mechanic dies to depot explosion blast. Good stuff.

The main issue I see with this is it encourages the chaplain to leave his null rod untransformed and pick his weapon form based on what the antag turns out to be. I prefer it if it's more of a fluff/personal preference choiuce.

A really detailed and well put together response, I like it, and agree with pretty much everything you've said.

This would be an interesting mid/late round event, I'd be onboard so long as it's implemented as a 'major event' along the vein of terrors, swarmers, blob, xenos, etc. I'm pretty sure this idea's been thrown around before. I haven't seen too many major issues regarding vox traders myself but some of the repeated concerns I've heard from server staff include: Back when vox had much tighter lore cohesion, vox raiders would often get unusual breaks from vox amongst the crew, regardless of their actions. Eler00 touched on this above. Given the server environment these days, I find only a select few players bother referencing the lore, and our lore is already structured in such a way that it conforms to the gameplay as opposed to vice versa. There aren't as many cases of Vox unreasonably sheltering or giving free breaks to one another, and I think I've seen the "Vox Inviolate" referenced about two or three times across my past two years of playing here, so I think there won't be as many players leveraging it into an excuse to help "their kins." Though I might be severely underestimating the degree to which vox players would willingly toe the line on self-antag rules as soon as the excuse presents itself. There's also problems with how the non-vox crew behaved as well. Storytime: So yeah, since the crew would receive contradictory messages about how to treat the vox from round-to-round, whenever Shoal Vox showed up, some security/AI/command would always follow "Policy-A" who would aggressively and relentlessly try to murder all the vox based on what CC had done in the past, then there would be the other half following "Policy-B" who would freak the fuck out and accuse "A" of being murdering validhunters because that's how CC treated them in the past. The argument would boil down to both of them saying "Well it's what CentComm wants!" while having equally justified yet diametrically opposed understandings of what CC actually wants. I know it's important to point out that vox crew tended to 'volunteer' themselves for the Vox Raiders whenever they could, but the other side of the coin was that sometimes command/ai/sec would be so obsessed with their valids that they wouldn't give the vox a chance to even go "Hihis!" before mercilessly wiping them out as if they were nukeops. This was particularly annoying for the vox raiders since the inviolate explicitly, painstakingly instructs them to avoid excessive damage and avoid inflicting fatalities above all else. Again, I'd personally be interested in seeing Shoal Vox trading/raiding parties as a midround: In terms of potential damage and de-railing the round they couldn't be any more disastrous than terrorspiders or swarmers appearing instead, they can shake up the round without derailing the round through excessive killing/destruction, and they offer a very wide variety of RP opportunities depending on whatever's going on at the time they show up. I'd go more into why I like them as an idea but Drakeven's already covered most of what made them fun in the original post. I have a wishlist of things that I'd like to see accounted for regarding shoal vox if they're re-implemented, but probably couldn't be budgeted within the focus and time investment of our coding team:

hah, it looks like he's pepper spraying a Neutral, I love it.

I dono, i feel that's just how Vox ARE, and you can't rework that without destroying their entire background. I wouldn't call it "Self-Antagging" as that is such a broad term it can be applied as a cudgel to stop something someone may not like. People should not be punished on server for following their races background and lore, because that lore was written and approved by the server itself. If a vox raiding party boarded, and followed to inviolate, more or less every vox in some way if asked, would pitch in assistance where they could, an unlocked door here, some medical supplies there, a key "accidentally" dropped, a long boring talk with the HoS by the detective to keep him busy, etc etc. That's how Vox are, they are VERY agreeable to assisting fellow Vox so long as it's not going to violate their Inviolate and that the vox in question has not either. Doesnt matter what Ark they hail from, what ship, what criminal past as the laws broken, are not THEIR laws. I got to interact with a small raider group once, and this happened, they weren't hurting people, they followed the inviolate, so what happened? Me, the Medical Vox helped them out, and the security vox? Did the same where he could, and in the end me and the sec vox joined their merry crew and escaped on a "borrowed" Sol trader shuttle that was once filled with xenos. In the end: Has the raider group seriously harmed/killed any kin or more than a few non-kin? Have they followed the inviolate? If No and Yes, then guarantee vox kin assistance of some kind, some where, If Yes and No, expect SERIOUS Vox kin RESISTANCE in every conceivable way. You can expect some help if you follow the Inviolate. You can GUARANTEE mass resistance if you don't. Such are the vox.

I miss the days when one could fill a fire extinguisher with pepperspray It was ridiculously overpowered but oh my lord was it funny to see massive clouds of pepperspray

Their expressions, oh my god. I love it