Keroman
-
Posts
1,031 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Posts posted by Keroman
-
-
The only suggestion I got for which job to improve on after Cargo Tech was Scientist so that's what we'll go with. Since there's only three jobs in the whole department (I guess 2 technically, since RD is basically both jobs combined) we'll do both at once.
Before we begin I want to stress that posting an idea in this thread in no way guarantees that it will be added to the game. I don't want that to discourage you, however! If you've got an idea that you think would be fun, please, please post and we'll discuss it!
Consider the following questions when posting your ideas:
- What are the responsibilities of the job?
- What capabilities do they already have? (i.e. access, equipment available, etc.)
- Potential for Antagonists
- How much does this job affect the round? (i.e. is the station crippled without it or do people barely notice when it's unmanned?)
Note: In 1 week (or when the thread has died out) we'll move on to the next job. Don't be afraid to suggest what job the next thread should focus on!
-
Alright, as a final review here are the ideas that have been suggested (some have been summarized). I'll bring this list to the attention of the rest of the staff and we'll see what ideas stand out the most. As stated in the original post I can't guarantee that any of these ideas will be implemented in the game at any time, but at least this is a step in the right direction towards improving the game!
- Cargo as a stopping point for passing ships delivering items to other locations. CT/QM verifies contents of crates being delivered, chance of dangerous equipment/mislabeled crates. Add supply points for ensuring these crates are packaged correctly, deduct supply points for improperly marked/tampered crates.
- Require mailroom to be staffed more often or open up a mailroom separate from cargo which can be staffed by CTs/QM. Require gathering of empty crates from around station. Require delivery of crates by hand.
- Give CT/QM basic access to all departments.
- Allow locked crates to be opened in the same way abandoned crates are. Tampered crates will show evidence of tampering/sound alarm/take photo of area around crate. Failure to unlock crate locks it down completely except to Captain-level ID.
- Cargo shuttle occasionally needs maintenance.
- Add Stock Market/Trading Console
- Convert credits to supply points and/or vice versa
- Shipping manifests in crates include "stock tip" (if Stock Market feature is added)
- Add telepads throughout station for use by cargo. Allow players to beam themselves to any telepad by using RCS from inside locker. Allow RCS to be made in autolathe.
- More items in autolathe, both hacked/unhacked. Possibly add autolathe "upgrades" which can be ordered.
- Station-wide scavenger hunt - some items listed as giving supply point bonus if shipped back on cargo shuttle.
- Allow CT/QM to use console to search for other Cargo Shuttle destinations for different price lists/ordering options/return rewards: SolGov, Syndicate (for emagged cargo console), black market
- Youtool vending restock crates
- Add custom vending machines - players build vending machine, add items, set prices.
- Suppy points restocked by purchases from vending machines rather than slowly gained over time.
- More options for emagged consoles/console boards.
- More options for shipping mistakes - Syndicate contraband sent instead of metal crate. Mistaken orders can be sent back or broken into.
- Webbing for CT/QM.
- Switch to station-economy system (not really in the scope of this post but worth talking about anyways!)
- Add conveyor belt/mass driver delivery system
- Remove most equipment from station at round-start to require crew to order equipment based on current need.
- Add supply point reward to raw materials so Assistants have incentive to hunt for it in maint an return it to Cargo for reward.
- More hostile mobs around derelict, add abandoned section to station, potentially with hostile mobs.
- Add more gear that can only be ordered from Cargo, especially high-tier/late-game items, like things that can be deconstructed in R&D for illegal tech.
- Add personal crates/lockers (like the ones in locker room) for order from Cargo so players can lock their items up for safety/contraband version that locks out even the Captain.
- Add teleporter crate that can be ordered so Cargo can set up more telepads and/or direct teleport between two locations.
- Add "risk factor" to Cargo shuttle. None = same as now, low risk = minor danger but minor reward, high = high risk high reward.
- Add random-item spawns to warehouse so Cargo has random stock of items at round start that they can sell/trade/dole out.
- Move ORM to the inside of Cargo.
- Add ore request form?
- Require signature/fingerprint for delivery. Add console to monitor things like package arrival time, delivery time, who delivered, who signed for.
- Remove autolathe from R&D so the one in Cargo must be used.
- Remove all high-tech machines from round-start so Cargo and R&D must gradually build up tech level of station.
- Small mailroom in each dept. where package are received/signed for
- Give QM Command radio access and Station Announcement access.
- CentCom request list: items that should be sent back on the Cargo Shuttle in order for Cargo to get a "Job Complete" at end-round screen.
- Add function for people to write destination on packages and drop them into disposals so mailroom can direct them to the right place.
---
I'll get the next job improvement thread up shortly.
-
Hello and welcome! Definitely seen you around in-game and on the forums here. You seem like a pretty reasonable player, recognizing your limits but not afraid to push out of your comfort zone to learn new things. Don't stress about people getting mad at you for attempting to learn things on-the-job, that's just part of the game!
When you do decide to try out Security again try partnering up with another officer and just stick close to them. Two Sec Officers together can take out pretty much any of the "secret" antags (i.e. cultist, traitor, vamp, changeling, shadowling).
-
Welcome welcome! We talked a bit in deadchat just a short time ago but I'm glad to see you've decided to sign up on the forums. I think you'll fit in just fine around here.
-
Nice work, man, I'd like to see these added in for sure!
-
"LOOC - NewbieMcTator: y r sum words bold?"
Just kidding, I like it!
-
HereticChurch did this a few times but instead of a lamp he used a gold ring.
-
Be able to convert credits into supply points (and back again?), and trade on a fluctuating stock market, that may be able to have some hints. Perhaps every shipping manifest gives a "stock tip" that will come to pass at a given station time.
I'd be in favor of converting supply points to credits but not credits to supply points. Someone wins millions of dollars on the slot machines every other round, which would give Cargo way too much buying power.
I think there should be more cargo telepads throughout the station. Make it possible to beam yourself inside a locker using the Rapid crate sender. Make Rapid Crate Senders produceable at autolathes.Yes more telepads. Beaming someone in a locker is already something you can do, but you have to have someone else use the RCS on the locker while you hide in it. Allowing someone to teleport themselves would be kinda OP.
Make a wider variety of items available via lathe, and even more if hacked.Agreed.
Allow cargo to order lathe upgrade modules. That provide additional lathe options under the "imported" tab at extreme supply point prices.Agreed.
Open up a mailroom separate from cargo, that cargo techs can staff. This has been discussed elsewhere.Not really sure what the point of this would be. The entire point of the existing mailroom is to prep packages for delivery via disposals/RCs. We just need to help Cargo Techs get more familiar with those methods, or make them just as viable as, say, delivery by MULE or by hand.
I agree that crates should be able to be hacked, but in the event of complete failure, instead of blowing up, the crate instead locks down and now only a Captain-level ID will unlock it, instead of the usual access staff. Perhaps high-security crates such as weapons not only lock down but also take a photograph with a radius of three tiles that gets locked inside the crate of who was around the crate at the time of lockdown.Yeah, I did intend that a crate that's tampered with locks down completely, although forcing a Captain-level ID in order to open it is kinda iffy.
Have bounty bonuses: the supply console will display a list of unique or semi-unique items that will award significant supply point bonuses if sent to CC inside a crate. Things like fountain pens or a blue zippo lighter or the clown's stamp. You can negotiate with the relevant parties to obtain them... or try to steal them...Sounds like a good way to give the greytide something to do. Thumbs-up from me.
Make SolGov a more permanent fixture. Have the QM have the ability to redirect the Supply shuttle to SolGov (10 minute trip to move the shuttle and "obtain permits"), offering a slightly different pricing scheme, crate types, crate contents, and rewards for returning plasma, crates, research and manifests. Then 2 to 3 minutes for one-way shuttles afterwards.Sure, more ordering options are always a plus.
Allow cargo to order Youtool vending crates... probably the only vendor people would really care about restocking.Doesn't the restocking "glitch-aka-feature" allow you to just instantly restock Youtools as well? We definitely need to fix that, but also make restocking via modules a viable thing.
And, it's been suggested before, I think: allow cargo to install their own custom vending machines with their own items and prices. Voxxy make corporate empire, yaya?Agreed! Custom vending machines would be a great addition!
Perhaps all vending purchases on the station earn a small amount of supply points. Perhaps there is no regeneration at all, it is all driven by station commerce.I'm not sure I'm a fan of tying supply points to vendor usage, but as long as there's multiple ways to earn supply points (i.e. you can still get points for sending things back on the shuttle) then I'm all for giving it a shot.
More interesting options available by emagging the supply console.Agreed.
Instead of some crates coming with one fewer item (the ones you are supposed to mark the manifests as denied), instead send obvious syndicate contraband (nothing egregious) every now and again to spice things up. A mix-up with the bluespace supply management system. Now that order of a metal crate has a tiny chance of being swapped out for a locked Syndicate crate (only hackable or sliced open violently) containing any variety of items such as freedom implants, or no-slip shoes, Syndicate balloons or syndicate toolboxes. Sending Syndicate crates to CC with their locks intact offer a huge supply point reward by CC, or... you can break open the crate, which could be a gold mine, contain worthless items or be completely empty. Deal... or No Deal?I'll admit that I didn't even know crates with items missing on delivery was a thing. At any rate I'd be fine with having other shipping errors that Cargo must fix, but I don't really care for the idea of a crate of implants showing up instead of a crate of metal sheets. Sure, syndi-balloons or suspicious toolboxes are fine, as is anything that you might be able to find in maintenance.
Give cargo techs webbing vests.Security will probably steal them every other round, but sure!
A la genetics, allow cargo techs to attempt to ping different combinations of numbers with the purpose of "identifying new supply vendors." Having the random number Gods smile on you by identifying such vendors could mean that a new crate option or three becomes unlocked for all crew to order from. Maybe 10-20 such crates among 5-10 additional vendors from the relatively useless (Donk Pockets crate) to the Syndicate themselves (Blood-Red Hardsuits + 3-4 other crates at ridiculous costs - traitor cargo techs could spend TC's on a Syndicate Supply Rewards Card which reveals the Syndicate frequency and offers a 50% off "friends and family discount") That way, there is something to do when nothing is going on.Sure, again having more options for ordering stuff is a plus. Having more options for traitor Cargo Techs would be nice as well. The most we see from a traitor Cargo Tech nowadays is them ordering a bunch of weapons and attempting a killing spree (emphasis on attempting.)
We could totally go to goon's style of cargo and I am -beyond- okay with it, but that's a BIG Overhaul and it'd take a lot of work.Be able to convert credits into supply points (and back again?), and trade on a fluctuating stock market, that may be able to have some hints. Perhaps every shipping manifest gives a "stock tip" that will come to pass at a given station time.It'd be great to have a real, functioning economy in-game but there's some limiting factors. Persistency is probably the biggest one, since we don't have any way of deciding which rounds should be "canon" for any given character that's playing at any given time.
If we can find a way to make it work, though, I would love it.
Given how unsecure cargo really is, it's bad idea to incentivise even more people to break into Cargo to nab tools or goodies from their lathe. This would only lead to lathes having access restrictions like the RnD machines or Cargo ordering terminal, which is also bad. That said I do like the idea of raw or recycleable materials being strewn about the station that Cargo/RnD can break down for metal and glass or be exported for points to give assistants something to do, it'd be like harvest moon except your not searching the woods for honeycombs, your scavenging the abandoned parts of the station for goodies. That might even incentivise people to go to the derelict (aka the most underutilized facility in the game) to cannibalize it's systems to make the Cyberaid even better.Yes, like alexpkeaton's suggestion of having items that grant bonus supply points when being shipped I'd like to have random loot be a more widespread thing over multiple z-levels. Once you get away from the station (aside from the recently added random space ruins) everything is more or less the same every round.
As for people breaking into cargo to use the autolathe, well, that's why I suggested moving it to the lobby. Let people use it as they wish with part of Cargo's responsibility being to keep it topped up with glass and metal. This will also let them focus on orders from the supply console since nobody needs to ask them to print out a bucket or a flashlight anymore.
Increasing hostile mob counts around the derelict could make things interesting, or having an abondoned wing on the station that fills a similar purpose and maybe overrun wtih spiders or other potentially dangerous pests that the crew could either clear out every round or just barricade and seal the wing to keep the !FUN! stuff in there (do I hear reasonable place for a xeno hive?)Space needs to be more dangerous, yes. As for having an "abandoned" wing of the station... it might be worth trying out if someone's willing to map it. Lore-wise it's difficult to explain why there's even a single vacant office on the station, much less an entire department. Still, if it adds more variety to the game, sure!
-
Well welcome to the game fellow Kevin! I did notice you around the last few days, particularly because I recognized the name Zahir from Avatar: The Legend of Korra.
Don't be afraid of joining the Discord, most people only use it for the text chat and not the voice chat! From what I can tell based on your post your English is just fine - in fact it's probably better than a lot of native English speakers.
-
Stock market computers =p
Yes please! Or even things like trading via console, where the QM gets alerts about nearby ships looking to trade and offering a list of goods and things they'll accept in trade. I'm certain I saw something like that on another server once when I was very new to the game.
-
I was waiting until a few people posted here before making my own suggestion. There's two things that I'd like to see for Cargo Techs (which would also affect the QM).
1) I'd like to see what would happen if Cargo Techs had basic access to all departments for the purposes of hand-delivering crates. I think this would make people more likely to pick Cargo Techs because in general people see more access as being better regardless of their role. They still wouldn't be able to meddle with anything that's not related to their jobs, and if they're entering a department just to greytide around they can be kicked out and demoted, but antags could easily fabricate a reason to enter a department by ordering supplies for that department and hand delivering them.
2) Locked crates should be openable in the same way abandoned crates are. The caveat here is that as soon as you attempt to guess the code a tamper alert pops up which is visible to anyone who examines the crate. The tamper alert remains until the crate opens, so if the person the crate is intended for just opens it up without examining it the Cargo Tech might get away with tampering. This would by no means guarantee that Cargo Techs could get into every single crate, since you only get a limited number of chances to open any given crate, and really if they're opening crates of weapons and running around shooting people they're going to get bwoinked pretty damn quick.
NethIafin:
I'm having trouble understanding what you're suggesting regarding the secondary station. Maybe I have to read over your previous post about that.
I do like the idea of having mystery crates arrive with potentially dangerous things inside, although deciding what should be included would be another thread in and of itself. I could imagine a Cargo Tech antag item which allows them to have a booby-trapped crate with a custom name they could set manually (so it mimics the name on the order form). Crate gets delivered, person opens it and goes boom.
Holyass:
I'm not sure what you mean about bombs and toxin sprays. That stuff doesn't really have anything to do with Cargo Techs, but maybe you could bring it up when we talk about the Scientist role? I would like to see the autolathe get moved to the Cargo lobby so anyone can use it, and it's up to the Cargo crew to keep it stocked with materials.
I'm not sure forcing Cargo Techs to man the mailroom or face punishment would make the role more fun, per se. Gathering empty crates form maintenance is definitely something that Cargo Techs can already do, and I have seen it happen several times. Maybe add empty crates to the round-start random maint spawns so there's more of them?
-
EDIT - I've decided to include the Quartermaster job to this thread since they function essentially the same as a Cargo Tech but with Mining access. Miners will be covered in a thread of their own.
There's been some talk among the staff about what we can do to make the game more fun for people and one of the things we seem to agree on is that some jobs just... aren't fun to play. I'd like to take some time to go down the list of jobs and get suggestions from you, the players, about what changes could potentially make jobs better or more interesting. I'll compile the ideas that show promise (i.e. support from multiple people) and we'll discuss them among staff to see what we think would work out well.
Before we begin I want to stress that posting an idea in this thread in no way guarantees that it will be added to the game. I don't want that to discourage you, however! If you've got an idea that you think would be fun, please, please post and we'll discuss it!
Our first job is one of the most basic jobs on the station:
Consider the following questions when posting your ideas:
- What are the responsibilities of the job?
- What capabilities do they already have? (i.e. access, equipment available, etc.)
- Potential for Antagonists
- How much does this job affect the round? (i.e. is the station crippled without it or do people barely notice when it's unmanned?)
Note: In 1 week (or when the thread has died out) we'll move on to the next job. Don't be afraid to suggest what job the next thread should focus on!
-
@ Keroman no no no That A HUGE debuff for them as they don't eat, bucause they have no Mouth to speak of.... and that they only need light to live... and given if the regen is slow down then what you say to offset the debuff? so far for cons, They slow as hell, 2 sparys of plant be gone and they are dead, and need light to live, and weak to burn damage... now you want to add needing plant matter to live? oh god that will just Tie them down to the job of Botanist just to LIVE, YOU EVIL MAN!
Ps. do you really think that the Botanist will give the plant matter to them for free? hahaha, no.
You basicly Killed all diona if this is added.
Well to start with it'd be fairly easy to make it so they CAN eat. I don't intend that they MUST eat to avoid penalties (for instance, how Humans slow down if they don't eat enough), just that their regeneration works by drawing on their nutrition and they gain nutrition by consuming plantmatter. Their regeneration rate right now, even just in regular light, is pretty ridiculous - and this is coming from someone who does play a diona character off and on.
But this is all hypothetical anyways. Diona are significantly different from other species already so there's not really a reason to start changing them around unless we're trying to affect game balance.
-
I've actually talked about potential Diona changes in staff chat on the Discord.
Some of the ideas I had were:
- Tie their healing ability to their nutrition.
- Make their nutrition require plant matter.
- Regeneration rate is slowed (I'm open to debate about the appropriate amount)
- Increase movement speed to account for this debuff to regeneration (again, open to debate about an appropriate amount)
-
I'd like to compare this:
I pretty much can explain why there are so many vulps and IPC on para. For the former, it's a combination of being overpowered with no weaknesses (no downsides vs human) and people who have canine or fox fursonas that drives their population higher.To this:
The difference when vulps do it is that vulps are socially the same as humans in fursuits. They don't have unique vocabulary, or culture, or ethos. The only thing that separates them from humans is superficial changes so in a practical sense, it becomes a meta-clique.How do you justify calling Vulpkanin "overpowered vs. humans" and then elsewhere in your argument call them "superficially no different from humans"? It's one or the other, not both. But now that I've pointed this out I bet you're going to move your goalposts. I don't think you've done this intentionally out of any sense of malice. Hell, maybe I've misunderstood one or both of your points but the way you've worded them here, even taken in context, is absolutely mutually exclusive.
As a side note you never actually make a case for why there's so many IPCs on our server. Not really important to the topic at hand but I'm still interested in what you have to say there.
If everything was equal, we'd have equal numbers of each species. Instead, we often have 1-2 each of Skrell, Diona, Grey, Kidan, Drask and large numbers of humans, vulps, IPC. Part of that is karma locking, and part of that is the mechanics of the race.On a magical ideal server, sure, each species would have equal representation. The truth is that people are generally going to gravitate towards a type of character they're comfortable with, hence the fact that the overwhelming majority of characters on every server are Human. Now consider the fact that a goodly proportion of the other popular SS13 servers don't offer Vulpkanin as an option, and in many of them Tajaran characters are considered "lesser" in some way (whether that means they're valid at all times or they aren't allowed to play Command jobs or any other way in which they're treated differently from other species).
Paradise is inclusive and welcoming to players who are actively shunned by other servers. In fact, it's similar to the idea that any player who can't or won't conform to our ruleset goes and finds another server to play on. Paradise does not need to pander or cater to "furry" players, they come willingly looking for a place where they won't be shunned. We don't hold "furry" players above anyone else, we simply make sure that players don't call them "furfag", much like we wouldn't let a player call a Human character "faggot" or any other sort of hate speech.
I will agree that karma-locking species influences the number of that species found in-game, but game mechanics often have surprisingly little to do with it.
The difference when vulps do it is that vulps are socially the same as humans in fursuits. They don't have unique vocabulary, or culture, or ethos. The only thing that separates them from humans is superficial changes so in a practical sense, it becomes a meta-clique. Vox can make vox-environment rooms, screech at each other in vox-pidgin and talk about how skrek the station is outside of Voxtopia.Also, because of the reputations the species have, if two vulps go into a room together, I'm going to assume it's to either do relationship RP or ERP over skype/discord.
As Tully has pointed out lore has very little say in how most players play their characters. Even Vox players don't always follow lore (case in point, several well-known Vox who speek perfect Galactic Common.) I get your point that what makes a Vox a Vox has to do with all the little pieces that fit together, and I even agree with you up to a point. My problem is that your issues with Vulps don't seem to extend to the other species that are similar. Aren't Skrell, Unathi, and Tajarans essentially reskinned Humans with superficial differences? Your dislike of the Vulpkanin species comes off as insincere when you try to claim it's because they're just a carbon copy of another species without including these other species in your argument. To those of us who don't care about players' species preferences it really seems like you're focusing on Vulpkanin for other reasons, and actively trying to hide what those reasons are.
Also, because of the reputations the species have, if two vulps go into a room together, I'm going to assume it's to either do relationship RP or ERP over skype/discord.Careful, your biases are showing.
Being a furry heavily implies a sexual attraction towards anthropomorphic animals, and identifying with a particular one which becomes a fursona. These are very common for people who self-identify as being a furry, and Vulp cater to the top three species of fursona. This doesn't mean every person who plays vulp is a furry and is playing out their fursona... but they are definitely there and not just a few. Hard to prove, but statistically there must be some reason that vulps are so much more common than taj.Given that there are rules against ERP on the server I fail to see what sexual attraction has to do with anything here. And I'm not sure what use there is in speculating about the Vulp-to-Taj ratio is when you yourself admit that it's to prove whether or not someone is playing out their "fursona". Despite that you still seem quite eager to judge Vulp players by their choice of species rather than by their actions in-character. Since you're going to speculate without evidence I'll feel free to do the same: I'd be willing to bet that the number of Vulpkanin characters and the number of Tajaran characters aren't nearly as different as you think they are.
A mary sue is an idealized self-insert, which is where the similarity comes in. As a result, they lead to similar problems of identifying too strongly with their own character.Similarity =/= Identical
Throwing around the term "mary sue" is, again, meaningless on a server where every player is allowed to know every job and every antagonist. You are conveniently framing these characters in a way that deliberately excludes species that you don't have a problem with, while ignoring that plenty of species suffer from these very same problems. Again, it comes off as if you're trying to conceal some other reason for focusing your argument on Vulpkanin.
Regarding my avatars : I wear them not because they are what I like but because I highly appreciated the artists that took their free time to draw my character and some without provocation ( I even linked their forum threads in the description). I wear them as a badge that happens to look like my character and considering I don't want to play another character I wear it appropriately here in the forums. It was only after much while longer that I changed my 7-8 year old steam avatar to something more fresh and did away with an even older and childish username ( the glories of old runescape days).To me, this sounds like rationalization to me for that improbable series of events, but hey, you do you.
I fail to see how his description is improbable. Some server artists voluntarily created art of his only character and he's showing his thanks by displaying the art and linking to their respective art threads. Could you elaborate as to what part of that description seems unlikely? I mean, you can literally verify the authenticity of his story by viewing the threads that he mentioned which are linked in his signature.
You being questionably roleplaying didn't really have anything to do with playing a vulp, but with playing yourself/a fursona. However, vulps represent the most common types of fursona (fox/wolf/dog) and thus it is /more likely/ that a vulp player is in fact playing a fursona. A non-zero number of vulps on the server at any one time are assumed to be playing fursonas or snowflakes.Oh look, more blaming Vulps for things that happen just as often with other species. Since we've relisted the number of neon colored afros I've seen on Humans has increased... exponentially. In fact I would argue that the proportion of snowflakey Humans to snowflakey Vulp is pretty damn even. For every neon-furred Vulpkanin I could absolutely point you at a neon-haired Human. Several Vox regularly run around with pink hair. Tajarans often pick highly contrasting colors for their fur and markings.
---
I'll be honest here. From my point of view the majority of your arguments against Vulpkanin seem to be about making them out to be this dangerous, unstable "other" element that needs to shunned in order for Paradise to survive as a server.
I fully believe that the opposite is true. Vulpkanin players (and "furry" players in general) are regularly shunned and pushed out of other communities. For all of Paradise's faults our ability to remain inclusive and welcoming to players of every stripe is one of our greatest strengths and one of the reasons we have remained relatively popular during a fairly rocky year.
If you don't want to play on Paradise because "muh furries" that's not on us, that's on you.
As a side note I do want to say you've been a lot more civil in this discussion than you have in previous posts on our forums. I do notice and appreciate it.
-
OK, if people like Toroic and the Staff are both willing to take time out of their day to make these massive wall's of text, then surely there is enough mutual interest in the game's improvement to reach a compromise?
There is a widespread dislike for the Vulpkanin, inside this server and out, and there is a large player base for the Vulpkanin, inside this server and out. The compromise I would propose is to keep the species with the understanding they will be massively improved on in lore and mechanics, and at the same time cracking down on character names/clique behavior that disrupt station functions and RP.
I would honestly love to see a comparison between the following two groups:
Group A - "I dislike furries, but not enough to let it stop me from playing on Paradise."
Group B - "I dislike furries so much that it stops me from playing on Paradise."
(SPECULATION TIME) If we removed from those groups anyone with permaban in place I'm willing to bet the number of those left over would skew heavily towards Group A. (END SPECULATION)
Those with a ban in place have demonstrated that they don't care about our rules, and so we really shouldn't care what they have to say until they've taken the time to post an appeal and have the ban lifted. While there are some decent people on /r/ss13, and even some legitimately funny ones, it definitely is not representative of the average SS13 player.
Now regarding improved lore and mechanics? Great! I'd love that! Hell, the Lore Team has actually been working on rewriting the Vulp lore, though I have no idea how far along they've gotten in the last few months. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what they come up with. For game mechanics I'm definitely coming around to the idea that we should start experimenting with slight imbalances between species to see how things work out.
Give Vox their leap back but give it a minute-long cooldown and if they crash into anything (including another person) they're stunned for 10 seconds. Let slimepeople ventcrawl again as long as they're naked and they take a decent amount of brute damage per second while in the pipes. There's any number of decent mechanics that could make the game better (or worse) and I would love to see us try them all out at some point or another.
You mention metacliques again, and everyone seems to have a different definition for it. To me metaclique means dragging your friends around, talking to/interacting with nobody but them, ignoring (or half-assing) your job in favor of spending time with your friend, repeatedly letting your friend into restricted areas just to hang out. If you mean that sort of thing then we are cracking down on it when we see repeated instances from the same people. You can actually usually do something about that stuff IC by speaking to the IAA or NT Rep. If someone is breaking SOP or Space Law because "muh friendos" then they can face the IC consequences.
The naming rule, in my opinion, could use another look. I'd definitely like to see us move back towards a more conventional naming rule. I'm fine with people using names from video games/tv/movies, but silly names (I saw a Civ last night named Skel Eton) should be limited to the Clown, Mime, Borgs, and AI. The restriction I see as being most reasonable is that it must sound like a real live name. There are several problems to having that sort of naming rule, however:
1) There are any number of people who will test the limits of such a rule, and when told that their name, Chi Ken Wang, is unacceptable will point to someone else and say, "But you allowed Bill Wonka as a name!" and argue endlessly about why their name is just as acceptable.
2) There are already a lot of people with names that would be considered unacceptable under that rule. While I'm sure some proportion of those people will be willing to change to a more suitable name I'm also sure that a significant number of those people will fight tooth and nail to keep the name despite the rule change.
3) Non-human names are difficult to police. We, as Admins, don't memorize all the available names that pop up from the random name generators during character creation. For all I know some of the players with weird or cutesy sounding names just hit the "Random Name" button until they came across something they liked. How do we police that? Certainly there are going to be names that are obviously not randomly generated and would break the rules, but then I'm gonna point you back to points 1 and 2.
-
I have an extremely difficult time taking you seriously, because you play your fursona on paradise. At it's heart, ss13 is a roleplaying game. You're not roleplaying here, because it's just you in a fox suit. When people are playing themselves, or mary-sueing up a storm, there's gonna be more drama because you're irrationally emotionally invested.
I dislike the attitude that because someone enjoys playing the game as a "furry" race that they're not actually RPing. First off, who are you to be telling someone else what's going on in their head? Playing a character that you enjoy and feel comfortable with is a big part of RPing, regardless of what type of character that is. There are a ton of people who just play as "themselves" regardless of the species they choose. There's nothing wrong with doing it, and it is not at all a phenomenon that is unique to Vulp players. The term "mary-sue" means nothing on a server where everyone is allowed to know everything about every job and every antag, and especially now that flavor text is required to only describe things that are visible. Saying that someone is "emotionally invested" in their character just because they happen to play a species you don't like is disingenuous at best and malicious at worst. You're trying to justify a hatred for these players where none should rightly exist.
A lot of the complaints about Vulpkanin and Tajarans are also applicable to Vox. I have never heard someone complain about groups of Vox running around talking solely in vox-pidgin because that's just one of those things that Vox do, but they get a pass while Vulp/Taj don't, even when Vox do that sort of thing way more often. A lot of people claim it's because Vox are unique and have decent lore, but to me it always comes off as being that way solely because Vox aren't "furry".
The reason people have an issue with "furries" is because historically they have been an outspoken group online and in some places gained a reputation for being complainers, sort of a proto-SJW group. For most "furry" players that time has long since passed but the stigma has remained and certain people pick up on it as evidence that "furry = trash" when really at this point they're normal people who want to play and enjoy the game, just like everyone else.
People who get all up in arms over "furry" species just... I don't understand them at all. This is not a game based on reality, there is plenty of shit that's going to break immersion, and you can't handle fox-people of all things? It's one thing if they're breaking rules - please, please report them if they seem to be meta-communicating or self-antagging in any way, we will crack down on that just as if they were anyone else breaking the rules - but don't act like a shit towards them and expect them to do anything but respond in kind.
One of the most common themes I see when people complain about "furries" is that they form cliques. For starters, everyone's going to build up a group of friends. For Vulps and Taj it's very obvious that these people share common interests and so it's easier for them to make friends, but that doesn't mean they won't make friends with other species too. My first character on this server was Human and I had no trouble at all making friends with several Vulpkanin and Tajaran players. I can only assume it's because when I see someone playing either of those species I don't automatically assume they're somehow worth less just because of the species they picked, and so I treated them just like I would treat anyone else. I have never seen any real cliques in this game and never been attacked, or even ignored when approaching groups of Vulpkanin. Even now, when I'm playing a Vox or a Skrell I still don't see Vulp players as being hostile, or really any different from any other players.
You know what I think when I see a post on /r/SS13 about someone getting attacked by a "furry"? I believe they're leaving out the part of the story where they initiated the confrontation by calling the other person "furfag" and other insults, following them around and shoving them, tabling them, putting them in the disposals. People like this reinforce their beliefs because they treat other people negatively and then, when the other person reacts in a negative way, they point and shout, "SEE? SEE? I WAS RIGHT!" It's one of those ugly truths about human perception, that people are willing to overlook their own poor behavior while calling out the poor behavior of others.
If you have a problem with "furry" players I would recommend you try treating them like a person for once and see how it works out. You might be surprised.
-
Welcome to the game and to the server! Finally someone who's older than me (30) so I won't be the old fart on the server anymore.
Don't be afraid to ask questions in-game if you need help. Lots of people are willing to guide newbies in-character (although some people can be jerks, it's part of the game) and Mentorhelp is always an option. Also if you think someone is breaking a server rules use the Adminhelp function so we can look into it!
It sounds like you'll mostly be playing during the "night shift" so you probably won't see many of the crazy rounds with 100+ players.
Good luck to you!
-
One thing I'd like to point out with regards to players not using ahelp when they should is that I think lots of people get this perception of ahelps not producing results when, in fact, the results are just not readily visible.
If a player breaks a rule and it's their first offense they often get a warning. Because a warning isn't a visible punishment the person who sent the ahelp may think that nothing was done. It's incredibly easy for Admins to forget to follow up with the person who sent the ahelp in the first place, particularly when we're dealing with multiple ahelps at once about different situations that are happening.
I know that when I'm observing (which seems to be more and more often these days) I'll end up spending the vast majority of the round sorting out ahelps and PMing people who appear to be breaking the rules, even when there's other Admins on to help handle this stuff. I'm frequently amazed at how much multitasking Tully is able to achieve considering I start to feel overwhelmed as soon as I have more than 2 PM conversations going on at once.
So please, please remember that even if your ahelp isn't answered, or if it's answered but you can't see the results, that doesn't mean nothing was done. If you really believe that the ahelp was ignored then please post in the Player Complaint thread and I guarantee it'll be looked at and someone will get back to you after reviewing the logs.
-
YOU CAN DO IT SPORK
-
Updated:
Maxwell Edison - Now serving as a Lieutenant as part of Central Command. Unlikely to be seen on the NSS Cyberiad unless he's accompanied by an ERT or other CC officials.
-----
Name: Zix Volqil
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Race: Skrell
General Occupational Role(s): Security, Engineering, Cargo/Mining
Biography: Generally considered of below average intelligence for his species Zix Volqil struggled with growing up on Jargon IV. Most of his peers seemed to have a natural affinity for scientific pursuits in which Zix struggled. Zix's interests were purely mechanical in nature - construction, robotics, and especially weaponry. When the time came for Zix to seek a job he hopped the first trader's ship that would have him on as Quartermaster. Over half of Zix's life so far has been spent on space ships, serving as Quartermaster, Engineer, Armorer, or generally some combination of the three. In general he is not particularly committed to staying on any one ship, often following opportunities as they come up, though he has occasionally moved from a higher-paying position to a lower-paying one simply to stay on the same crew as his friends.
Qualifications: Master Armorer Certification from the Intergalactic Rifle Association, two years as Chief Engineer on the Karronakh - an privately owned 60 kiloton freighter operating frequently within SolGov and Vazzend space.
Employment Records:
Pre-Cyberiad Employment (mostly unverified) - Engineer for ships of varying size, from light scouting vessels to heavy cargo freighters. Armorer for several vessels, including at least one militia known to hire out their services to both NanoTrasen and the Syndicate.
Employment on board the NSS Cyberiad - Frequently requests positions as Quartermaster, Miner, or Engineer. Occasionally takes work in the Security department when he knows his friends will be working Security.
Security Records: While Mr. Volqil does not seem to hold any particular loyalty towards NanoTrasen he also has not done anything to harm the corporation.
Medical Records: Likes to drink heavily-watered alcoholic drinks, even when he knows the risk to his liver.
Personnel Photo (Appearance text): A medium-height blue-green (more blue than green) Skrell with a mild smirk on his face.
Commendations [only to be added by admin]:
Reprimands [only to be added by admin]:
Other Notes:
-----
Name: Guy Mann
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Blood Type: B+
General Occupational Role(s): Chaplain
Biography: Guy Mann was born and raised in the colony of New Straya, a settlement that was originally set up to handle prisoners charged with crimes against NanoTrasen which eventually became a small, mostly-autonomous outpost.
Qualifications: Infused with the HOLY SPIRIT of our Lord Neca Ladun, God of Bogans, Drop Bears, and Chundering.
Employment Records: Chaplain, ye cunts!
Security Records: Generally good-natured, but prone to occasional bouts of hooliganism, stating that it's part of his religion. Drunk or stoned for 90% of any given shift.
Medical Records: Rarely goes to medbay except after the occasional scuffle. Sometimes handles venomous animals as part of his religion, usually because he's trying to wrangle them into cages in the Chapel, so keep charcoal handy!
Personnel Photo (Appearance text): A gap-toothed, dark-haired, tan-skinned, fellow wearing flip-flops and a wife-beater, holding a beer in one hand, which also has a cigarette tucked between two fingers. His face is mildly dirty and has perpetual 5 o'clock shadow, but he sports a wide friendly grin.
Commendations [only to be added by admin]:
Reprimands [only to be added by admin]:
Other Notes:
-
Arthur Dent
Excuse me, I think you mean Dentarthurdent. As in The Late Dentarthurdent.
-
13 days in Morocco
-
What up, nerds, I'm back.
Holy shit I love traveling. Morocco is a beautiful country with wonderful, welcoming people. I got to see Casablanca (yes, I watched the movie Casablanca on the flight in), Rabat, Meknes, Fes (bought a fez, bitches), rode a camel dromedary into the Sahara, saw Ait Ben Haddou, Ouarzazate (the Moroccan Hollywood), and goddamn Marrakech.
It might have been because I was tired from traveling but Casablanca wasn't all that great. I'm glad I got to see it just so I can say that I've been there. It does have a super nice, super huge mosque!
Rabat was beautiful and clean and our tour guide was one of the most welcoming and friendly people I've ever met in the entire world. He even brought our group into his house and offered us tea. We also got to visit the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, grandfather of the current king, but we had to be quick because apparently the king was actually on his way to visit the Mausoleum and so they were closing off access to the public! We also got to see one of the main government complexes in the city, and while we were out on the main parade grounds heard the afternoon call to prayer from three sides. I'm not a particularly religious person but that was definitely near the top of my "spiritual experiences" list.
Meknes had one of the larger medinas that we went through. Every major city had a medina - these are the densely packed buildings and labyrinthine alleyways in the older parts of many of the major cities - and the one in Meknes was the first one we went through. It was intense and interesting and definitely something everyone should experience at least once! For lunch I had roasted eggplant and a camel-burger that were just heavenly. We also toured a ceramic factory which makes mosaic art of the kind you see all over middle-eastern countries. Beautiful work from true artisans!
Fes was one of my favorite places, and we stayed several nights which was nice. The medina there has a famous tannery where my brother and I bought camel-leather jackets. The tour guide there was hilarious and pretended he didn't speak english for like 10 minutes, then surprised us all by busting out his best cowboy accent. Dude was an amazing salesman.
After that we worked our way down to the edge of the Sahara desert and rode some dromedaries (one hump, not two!) into the desert. I named my dromedary "Mahumped Ali", and he was a chill dude until I was giving him pets after the ride and he tried to nip at me. Not cool, Ali. Our group spent a night out in a camp next to a massive sand dune, and a sandstorm actually hit just as we were arriving. Pretty intense!
Ait Ben Haddou is one of the largest old cities and one of many UNESCO World Heritage Sites that have received funding for restoration. We hiked up to the top of the city and back down, taking breaks to see some of the locals ply their trades.
Ouarzazate was neat, but only a minor stop along our way. They showed us various movie sets left over from films that were shot in the area, including at least one set from Game of Thrones, although we didn't get close to it and I didn't really recognize it from the show. I probably would if I watched through the show again.
Marrakech was definitely one of the more interesting stops. The main market is home to snake and monkey handlers, performers of all types, and merchants showing all manner of goods, including fake iPods and watches and shit. At night food stands are set up in several long rows. I had some really good fried calamari at booth 41! Got pictures with a snake around my neck and a monkey in my arms giving me a kiss on the cheek. I bought a leather satchel for $35 (haggled down from like $80). It's kind of funny, the merchants seem to fucking love haggling - like they're happier when you've talked them down to half of their initial asking cost than if you had just agreed to pay full price. It's surreal and hilarious and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it.
On the way back home I got to stop in New York City for two days, since I didn't really get to see it on the way over to Morocco. NYC is a crazy place with so much to do. Coney Island was a blast, and I got to see Central Park, Grand Central Station, Times Square, the UN building. I missed out on seeing the Statue of Liberty but I was super exhausted and navigating the NYC subway during the weekends is like pulling teeth. I got to see 90% of what I wanted to see in NYC and that'll have to be good enough.
But for now I'm back home, tired as shit, still suffering from mild.. err.. "intestinal distress", and have to work in the morning.
Improving Jobs: Scientist/Roboticist/Research Director
in Suggestions
Posted
I definitely had that thread in mind when I posted this. I'm going to include that in the list of ideas when I post a staff thread for us to discuss what's posted here. I'm definitely a big proponent of a lot of your ideas there.
Davidchan: I really like your idea of having players utilize prototypes in order to increase their tech levels. That would make any department that benefits from R&D way more involved in the process.
Bot control consoles in Robotics would be neat, especially if it gave them the same kind of control over bots that the AI has. Having a larger variety of bots as well as necessitating the need for them to charge also adds a little more for Robotics to do.
The ideas for the RD are intriguing but I feel like that might also give a lot more power to antag-RDs which are already pretty damn powerful.
tzo: Fuck the EXPERIMENTOR for sure. Scichem lab should definitely be better reinforced. Xenobio does need a bit of a rework but I think you're forgetting about other things it can produce, like bluespace tiles and self-charging power cells. Remove the hostile-mob gold slime core reaction and make it so ANY mob spawned with a gold slime core has a chance to be hostile so people can still get their pets but with some risk involved. I would move the low-tier parts from R&D to Tech Storage.
Yes, fix Security-bots and the Phazon. Buckets? Why not, or at least make them easier to get (see previous thread about putting autolathe in a publicly accessible area). More bot types = yes.
I thought Lamarr's display case was based off the Captain's display case, and that one doesn't work particularly well either so we should definitely look into getting them both fixed. I'm iffy on the idea of RDs having medbay access. It's not difficult to get into Medbay in the first place, and all the things that need upgrading are within line of sight from the main medbay loop. Messenger console password should spawn in several different places = RD's office, Server Room, Captain's Office, Vault. There should be a way for antags to access the PDA message console functionality without having to go into the Server Room - possibly a module they could plug into a laptop to get that functionality.
Geneticist will get its own thread as for now it is still kind of in a weird state of being between Medbay and RD.
Neth: Your first point is a very good one. There shouldn't be any item that can be made at the protolathe that can be analyzed for the same or higher tech level than was required to make it. That's one of the main reasons people are able to complete R&D so quickly. Your second point is intriguing but seems like it could be difficult to implement. I do like the idea of having R&D use items produced by the other Science subdepartments to improve tech levels. Slime cores of various colors could improve biotech (with a rainbow core being the highest level), grenades from the chemlab could improve things like combat tech or biotech depending on what's in them, hell deconstruct a maxcap toxin bomb for some levels. Miners should be able to bring things like hivelord cores, goliath plates, or even some of cult/wiz/traitor items that are regularly found on the asteroid.