HugoLuman

The question is finding something that people won't ask "Well why not Tajaran too."

No like, they still got colonies on other planets by the time they meet the rest of the galaxy, but they didn't yet have the means to travel to other star systems. They (As in the government of their system, not the species as a whole) basically have a tension between wanting to explore the galaxy and being wary of too much contact to avoid being annexed by anyone.

The reason they're not around sooner is that they hadn't discovered FTL spaceflight yet. There really is no need to have yet another pre-space race that NT supposedly helped. And again, extremely similar to the Tajaran lore there.

As the one who wrote the current lore, I feel I should chime in here. First note, the current species lore were written well after any of them were added to the game, as part of a single project to revamp the lore. The dust had long since settled (well, as much as it was ever going to. Vulp's addition to the game was before my time, even) My intent had also been to make them less "dog people" and more alien, though I could only get away with so much. Couldn't change their name from a mashup of Earth words for dogs. One thing that eventually got axed was that their integument was chitin rather than keratin (got changed to fibroin, but that's still different than dogs). I'm all for things to make their biology more alien, and not just "dog." Plantigrade was already established and I had no argument there because I thought it helped better distinguish them from dogs (and from the other "animal" aliens who by lore are digitigrade). I do object to the suggestion that we drop their tech level down to hunter gatherer though. We have too many races already who were pre-spaceflight until they were subsequently discovered and exploited by NT. People already constantly complain that vulps are too similar to Tajarans

Hello. Yeah, it's been a long time since I've worked on this. A lot has happened in my life and I've had other projects come up, and have changed computers more than once. I've thought of coming back to it several times, but when I take a break, there are significant factors I have to account for and it's a pain in the ass to update what I have to the current code base before I can get working on anything new. Still, if there is interest here, I could come back. To be honest, I may need some help though.

Here's what siphoning power looks like

Well to be honest I haven't seen Revenant play that much, so I'm not sure how good an answer this is. But the main difference is it's not preying on the crew directly, for the most part, and engineering can do a lot to fight it.

So, if a maxxed out Luminary meets and Ascendant Shadowling, what should happen?

The nerf I'd suggest is making emagged drones identical to regular ones, aside from being antags. They really don't need extra tools (or ANY weapons, like the drill) to be massively useful to antags, so the extra gear is heaps unnecessary.

Bear in mind that their planet is at least 10 times further from their star than Earth is from the Sun. So even at the surface it's quite a bit darker.

Death: If the Luminary's health is depleted, it will contract into a small, brightly glowing ingot. This can be destructively analyzed for massive tech levels, sent back to CentCom for cargo points, or enslaved via surgical implantation (as a symbiote or as a brain? Not sure yet). However, if left alone too long, the Luminary can reform, at a somewhat weakened state.

One important question I need to answer for development: how should they feed? Should they seek out SMES's, drain power from rooms (APCs), or drain power from cells/items with cells? It should probably be one of these things, rather than all, as otherwise gathering power would be way too easy.

That's kinda what I was going for :v

(Still very much WIP, especially on the design front!) A newborn being of pure energy has come to the station, drawn both by curiosity and the enticing power flowing through its machinery. They desire only to feed, grow, and learn, but the crew may find this interfering with their work... and safety. As creatures of energy, Luminaries are not subject to many physical restrictions, enabling them to travel through the station's electrical fixtures such as lights, computers, and consoles (though only powered and unbroken ones). They are also immune to most forms of attack, and in fact absorb fire and energy projectiles; though disablers, ion rifles, and temperature guns on low settings are effective. Those wishing to stop a Luminary will likely have to use different tactics than a guns-blazing chase, however. On the other hand, Luminaries by default have no directly harmful abilities. Even their melee attack only does stamina damage. They may sometimes unlock deadlier powers as they progress, however... GAMEPLAY Luminary objectives include gathering a certain amount of power from the station's devices and learning more about the things on board the station (via interacting with certain things in certain ways). As it gains more power and knowledge, a Luminary will develop new skills/powers, likely based on what it has been studying/doing. Here are powers as designed so far: Transmission: The Luminary's most basic ability, incorporeal travel via electrical devices. Works similarly to bloodcrawl. Galvanization: Finding a dead creature, the Luminary probes its internal energy pathways and figures out a way to restore the flow, reanimating the body with a surge of energy. Corpses missing hearts or brains receive a couple... improvisations. Reanimating humanoids may count towards a learning objective. A corpse with no owner becomes eligible for ghosts, which creates a new mind with no memory of the body's original life. Such beings may or may not receive objectives (as some kind of reanimated minion, probably), needs discussion. Assimilation: The Luminary feeds itself into various machines and computers around the station, learning how to use/mess with them. For instance, entering an autolathe. Another probable research objective. Network Lance: One of the Luminary's few offensive abilities. Having studied the powernet, the Luminary directs it against a single (or not?) target, causing arcs to strike them from nearby machinery. More machines nearby, more arcs, more damage. Lightning: A non-damaging variant. The Luminary discharges chain lightning, stunning nearby humanoids. Translation: The Luminary gains the ability to pull an incapacitated (or willing?) target into the airwaves with it when it transmits.

One of the best clowns I ever saw was a Vox, gave people "Prank certificates" to sign after slipping them, clownstamped those and turned them in to the HoP. And cut that shit out immediately when Red was declared. However, Vox clowns are often pretty shit :v

Security pet peeves: Being ignored as HoS, especially when calling out priorities/threats, telling folks to max sensors, go in pairs Being ignored as an officer, especially when calling for backup Poor communication in general Having 4 or fewer total in the department, especially as roundpop never seems to dip below 60 No HoS or Warden, threat needing armory shows up Especially when Captain/HoP are either too swamped or too apathetic to appoint acting HoS or Warden Pressure hijinks with fastmos, especially overpressuring brig lobby People making a nuisance of themselves when there's more imminent threats Conversely, not having time to properly RP with folks in processing Getting called to the bar to see what fresh hell awaits Getting shit from the rest of the crew when someone else in sec does something shitty Suspects making false claims about SoP/Space Law When other officers fall for that When other people in Security don't know/make false claims about SoP/Space Law

Alright, now it's time to work on the shells again. Sorting out the inventory system for those (a borg-like hotbar of items) is unfortunately something I have little clue as to how to go about.

Success! I've managed to defeat a lock-up/runtime that occurred when ejecting or when the humanoid shell is gibbed.

I don't even know why folks think it's political to acknowledge that space plants don't have private parts, but I guess it's better to err on the side of caution. Folks in the real world are all up in arms about any topic that even remotely gets near gender, after all.

The sentences in lore like "Though Greys are not sexually dimorphic, they often adopt male or female accoutrements for the sake of clarifying communications with other species." were only included due to the lore team needed to comply with the then-mechanics. Given that there is now a genderless option, the races that would make sense to pick such a choice would be: Grey Slimes Diona Drask Maybe Plasmamen and Vox as well. But those are a bit more iffy.

Why not just give it to them? In species that don't have biologically distinct sexes, it seems kind of weird to assume they'd all copy the races that do just to fit in. After all, taj/vulps don't shave just to fit in with the humans and skrell :P

Titlecard for a thing

On and off. Life keeps getting in the way but I've come across another stretch of time in which I can \o/ To solve a long-standing issue with the pilot creatures, I'm going to refactor how their creature vs organ status works. When its time to switch from one to the other, rather than creating/destroying new instances, they'll be swapped between each others' inventories.

Couple more things, not Spessmens related though

I've solved a couple bugs and fleshed out the HUDs for the yin and their shells a bit. Also, the Yinvader shells have some animations for situations now, such a powering on/off, dying, and gibbing Updating checklist of things to do: -Finish Yinvader shields -Fix runtime when Yin eject from or are dismembered out of Yinfiltrator shells -Solve Yinvader icon update bugs -Implement tool selection in HUD of Yinvader shells (could very much use some help on that front) -Create the engineering shells and give them a cool name -Create the Yin Controller shell and all the necessary HUD, view, and roundtype code for it -Finish the Yinslaved. Figure out how to work their icons, including inheriting clothing fit sprites from their original species, create the organs/implants they need for mechanics -Playtest and balance