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Taking requests when I should be doing commissions. No. Wait. When I SHOULD be studying for my test worth 50% of my grade in three days. But how could I resist? Vespa is cute. PRINCESS Vespa is CUTER. But also strangely foreboding. Who knows. BUT HEREEEEE SHE ISSSS!

The other day, I felt the inspiration to tinker with the beloved "Thunderdome" track. It impressed me greatly back when I discovered the station. Spend then the evening in the band garage, resulting into this: It's done with assorted rock instruments, scratch keys, as of I tried to do the lead part with guitar. I recorded the stuff with my old multitracker. Result is bit distorted by peaking, due the hasty way I recorded the drums. Had fun time playing this, so that I wanted to post the outcome out here! And as of credits of the track were, not too long ago, discovered, the great original is here: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/312622

When it comes to the ancient secrets of the universe, there aren't many people you can turn to for help. The chaplain has his godly magic, but knows next to nothing outside of his domain of work. Wizards... well, you're lucky if the worst that happens to you is you get turned into a corgi when you meet one. So who should you turn to when you come across some ancient artifact or book? How about the guy that has access to all the knowledge? The idea behind this to give the Librarian a minor duty that they can perform in their spare time. It's not mandatory, and can feed into RP with the mechanics you have to deal with to 'discover the secrets of the universe'. Ancient Items: At the start of the round, randomly spawned books, artifacts, and containers will appear. They'll rarely show up on the station, and more commonly be seen in space ruins and Lavaland. These 'ancient artifacts' are a bit similar in mechanics to strange objects, in which their exact use is unknown until studied. However, unlike strange objects which you just toss into the EXPERIMENTER to learn their use immediately, these artifacts take a bit more work. They'll vary in appearance depending on the possible results from unlocking them, giving you a hint as to what it may be. Decoding: In order to unlock or activate the artifact, you need to either do something specific with the item, or solve a puzzle of some kind. Before that though, you need to translate the inscription on the artifact. At the start of the round, a few different Ancient Languages will be randomly created. For simplicity, they'll be the normal alphabet scrambled in a random order or made up of numbers matching certain letters. The first step is to determine what language the artifact has on it. To help you, you can print out a 'Translation Text: (Ancient Language Name)' from the library computer. It'll take a bit of trial and error testing out the different languages, but you may be able to narrow it down depending on if letters or numbers are used. Once you figure out what language it is, you use your translation text to figure out what the message on the artifact is. After translating the message on the artifact, you will then have to do one of two things. The Word of Truth: The first possibility is a riddle or puzzle. The answer will usually be one word for simplicity, and must be spoken aloud. However, simply saying the word in Galactic Common won't work. you'll need to reverse translate the the word into the ancient language, and THEN say it to unlock it. If it is an especially rare artifact, you may even need to have the word spoken in the language of a certain species. Have fun trying to find a Kidan to speak the code word in Ancient Chittin. To prevent cheating, the artifact won't react to synthesized voices, such as the AI, borgs, or pAIs. Once you get the word spoken, the artifact will react and reveal it's true form. Fire Will Reveal the Truth: The second way an artifact will be revealed is though subjecting it to a certain stimulus. These can be anything from 'The secret will show when exposed to flame', to something like 'The artifact is awoken by the screams of a dozen people'. With those two as examples, you would have to either expose the artifact to fire, or get a dozen people to scream near the artifact. This has a lot of RP potential to it as you will have to often recruit people from around the station to help you unlock the artifact. Once the proper stimulus is used, the artifact will activate and reveal its purpose. Unlocking True Power: So you got a Vulp to swear in Canilunzt, or you got a miner to toss it in lava. The artifact is now unlocked! What did you get? The thing that is revealed is dependent on the type of artifact that you found. There are three different categories, each with their own table of potential items. Items: This artifact takes on the appearance of a rust and dirt covered... thingy. It's hard to say what it is, only that it's some sort of useable item. This can potentially be rare weapons like wizard staffs, cult clothes and weapons, alien tools, or even stuff that has been lost to history (return of removed items?). Or you could reveal a trombone. I mean... it's not the worst thing you can find. Ancient Text: These books are old, dusty, and full of cool secrets. Of course, whoever wrote it didn't want their secrets to be discoverd so easily, so the nature and use of the book is locked and hidden till the proper trigger is used. This book can potentially be one of several things. You have a chance of getting a single use wizard spell, such as the Recall spell. Great for those DnD games where you need to recall the d20 that jerk keeps throwing across the room. You may get a book that has a complete translation of a language, allowing you to instantly learn and speak it. The book may hold secret information that may be of value to others, such as which gene is linked to a certain genetic power. Worst case scenario, you uncover a generic book that a miner accidentally left on Lavaland. Ancient Container: This is the lootbox of ancient times. This box could potentially contain anything! It draws from both the book and item artifact table, and if you're really lucky, may actually contain multiple items. They're a bit harder to crack than the item or book artifact, but tend to have better rewards to make it worth the effort. However, with reward comes risks. The container has the potential to house something bad, like vampire bats or a gas trap that poisons you. And don't think about simply trying to break the container open. Doing so will destroy the contents. So that's my pitch for a new librarian/library mechanic. I'm aware that something like this would probably take a ton of coding, and I'm not expecting it to be something that's accepted. Still, it's fun to theorize about possible new mechanics. I'd love to hear any thoughts or suggestions on how this can be altered or improved.

Not sure about you guys, but I think that the server's gateway needs more a maps. Maybe a jurassic world? Frozen map? Changeling map? Clown planet map? Nar'sie cult map?

You'll need a fresh copy of paracode for it. Open paradise.dme, this will bring up the dreammaker. Compile, and then look for "map_files". The gateway missions are at "randomzlevels". Opening the .dmm files will pop up the mapeditor. I've never tried to seriously do anything with the mapeditor, so I don't know what-everything you have to keep in mind while tinkering with the maps, but it sure is fun to play around with them, at least.

Cardboard Golems Super, super weak. Can turn themselves into any kind of cardboard box and will be immobile. Can be used as extra storage. Will require completely meaningless code changes.

So. I was playing Bobbie Wilkins, a Chemical Researcher, and I was playing it hard. My goal? Create life through chemistry, analyze and record it, and submit my completely pointless and arbitrary findings into the RD for a fat bonus. Suffice to say, things didn't go according to plan. Initially, things were great. I got all my chemicals quickly, even the coveted Omnizine, which I need to reach my goal, set up my station, and had the first call-out of changelings on the station after a lucky escape from an incredibly unstealthy doctor examining their newly obtained armblade, but this is when things started to fall apart. A doctor reported one "Bobby Wolinoski" attempting to murder them with an armblade, and unfortunately, due to the fact that Bob W. is a relatively rare name on the station, they completely bypassed the actual guy and went after me. The AI shut down the power for the Sci-Chem lab, and trapped myself and three others inside. And then it dawned on me. Two of my fellow chemists had the same name, Alorea Bennett, the same face, and I went into panic mode. On a false accusation, I had been caught in the quarantine zone, and there was a very viable threat. Security was no help, in fact, as the later reveal changeling began to work, my station, the area in which I was waiting out the quarantine in, became filled with noxious gas, and as I was crawling around on the floor, fainting and vomiting, they were entirely oblivious to my plight, and the Detective requested that I, incapacitated and choking on the floor, go and meet him on the other side of the door. I didn't know what to do. So I did the only thing I could think of, I went ahead with my plan, and through the magic of chemistry, the first of my creations were born. A beacon, a xenomorph, a bear, a koi and an icewing watcher. It was amazing. I was going to be able to document my findings, and bring this newfound knowledge to the scientific scene. But, again, I was stopped in my tracks. As the AI finally opened the door, security flooded in and painstakingly check everyone in the room for signs of being a changeling. Somehow, they did not find the changeling, who was hiding in the disposal chute. Then security left, only myself and the two dopplegangers left in the room with me. As one, who I deemed the changeling, approached towards me, I set off another one of my concoctions, this time in the main chemical station, not in the testing chambers, and ran like hell. As a small horde of creatures rampaged through Sci-Chem, killing the innocent doppleganger in the room, security was once more called to the scene to take care of the threat, which they did shockingly well, and then left. Finally. I was to have peace with my creations, contained and able to be studied further. But, one of my fellow chemists wanted them all dead, them all blown to bits, and I, seeing as I still had some concoction left, reluctantly gave them permission to destroy my subjects. I'm not sure what this particular chemist was thinking, because, instead of procedurally filling the chamber with flamable gas and igniting it, they opened the main door and attempted to throw a grenade in. Seeing the door open, the original subjects of my experiments were freed, killing the chemist, pursuing me through RnD and calling security once more to the scene. The xenomorph intently followed me through, all the way from RnD to North of the Bridge, when it got distracted. I was then arrested, for which I, at the time, was unaware as to why. Apparently, I was still under arrest for being an accused changeling, even after being tested, and I was brought to processing. Through no little effort of my own, I convinced security that I was not, in fact a changeling, and also that I was not, in fact, responsible for the creatures ravaging through the science department. Upon returning to my station, albeit, tired and still damaged from the changeling's gas, I announced a third trial of my experiment, in order to make sure that everyone was aware of what I was doing, and to under no circumstances open the testing chamber. However, threats from all manner of the other RnD staff forced me to leave, and go into hiding, the RD threatening a demotion of the entire department for whatever reason, and then proceeding to actually demote Alorea, the innocent chemist who I had inadvertently killed earlier. Hiding in North Arrivals Maints, I heard a report of some else opening the chamber and letting the creatures out, which, as they were dead, left me to take the fall for the damage done. A brief exchange with the AI and some command staff later, I remained hiding, as I was to now be arrested on sight for not surrendering my possessions. It was at this time that a Syndicate Comms Agent, known as Havoc, first contacted me, probably having overheard discussion on the station of how I was a changeling, a traitor, liable to treason and death. Anyways, Havoc made me an offer. They would attempt to get me passage off the station, on the condition that I bring with me some sensitive materials from RnD. I initially agreed to Havoc's request, but then proceeded to walk into the main Arrivals Hallway, where I was seen by the Assistant RD and within 10 seconds, I swear, the Captain, HoS, RD and half a dozen security officers had cornered me in the Vacant Office. My possessions were confiscated, and I was brought to the Brig to serve my time, a measly 15 minutes after gaining favor with the Warden, a stark difference from the promise from the Captain of "never seeing the outside of the Brig again". I served my time, walked aboard the escape shuttle after a crew transfer was ordered and left, being proto-fired from Nanotrasen. And thus, I was finally free to go about my research, no bureaucracy or incompetent co-workers to mess me up.

Be a first time IAA. A document is sent to my office titled: "VERY IMPORTANT!". I stupidly fax the document on thinking the Rep or whoever sent it intended it to go to Central Command. Get made into a cluwne. Greytide beats me to death for my crime of simply existing. Central Command did not appreciate the ass attached to the otherwise blank stamped document.

Casually minding my own business in the halls. Some civilian with a flashlight is running past. Suddenly, i get instakilled. It was him. No one bats an eye. Thankfully, said tatoraide had the decency to deliver me over to Robotics afterwards.

Tator fakes stumbling in the arcade and dropping a pizza box. "Hahaha, that's obviously a pizza bomb" I open the pizza. It's a pizza bomb.

Other servers have a 'fugitive' event that spawns some people in maintenance without IDs and crew can chose to help them or not, though they also spawn some hunters with the task of capturing the fugitives. Reminded me of that.

Instead of using ordinary power cells, make a special, more expensive, harder to get type of cell. This would guarantee that Security would have large or more plentiful laser weapon power cells much later into the round, as oppososed to rushing Science for hyper-capacity power cells when they reach all 5 tech levels excluding Toxins.