I can confirm Joshua's reaction, since I was specifically next to Crosswell during their discovery and learning ICly of his past. Dissapointing US woulnd't even entern a tavern to talk about something as serious as that matter was.
I would think it was obvious i was referring to actually being out of commission 3 days and not timeskips done now, guess I was wrong.
Ok, my thoughts: I play, take a geuss. Cole Ombre. Im gonna hit on some of the main topics so far: 1: the scanner I believe that the scanner is a -bit- much, and I also think that the scanner is the main reason that no one ever visits the USCM cities. You cant keep your weapons, you cant stir up trouble, you cant, pretty much, have fun. And I agree that this pretty much ruins the whole point of playing in a city. 2: RP events My own thoughts about this were already stated, but I will reitorate and add some more. We would -love- to get involved in out-of-faction events, but, like was stated, no one wants to involve the military faction into their own events. Now, we are trying to lessen that a bit, and include osme people in our own events. Recently, we included some of the Order in our latest one. A faction war would be great for the RP, and at this point I dont think id even care how it turned out, I'd just want to participate. 3: Strength "mentioned" by duskfeather I myself have always thought of the USCM presence in Antares as not entirely "strong". We have never had many troops, both IC and OOC. We are just supposed to be a small sector-based operating team. We do, however, have good equipment. As for Navy, well, I honestly have no idea. Id assume itd just be our character ships, maybe one or two extra NPC ships, but the topic was never really brought up. Personally, Id be more than happy to lose some fights, as long as it was fairly fought. 4: Miscellaneous (sub-tabs FTW!) 1. While I understand your reasoning here, Id also like to point out that in the true military they get months to train recruits, we get a day, maybe two if we wanted to push it to that. 2. While it might sound mean, if you're traumitized by non-lethals, albeit all in a row, you shouldnt be a soldier. On the two other small topics: Sim/dating: I dont even know what your talking about. Truthfully, I have no idea. We do have romances here, but its straight forward, regular RP stuff. The "Crazed Floran Corporal" Just gonna start off with this: While you would assume that eevrything faction-wise, such as promotions, would be entirely IC, it really isnt. Mattulip as a soldier and a character has been with us since early february. You cant just keep that kind of dedication stuck down at Private rank. I know it might sound wrong, but seeing as we are one of (if not the only) faction to have survived this long, we must be doing something correct, right? Last topic: (maybe) On the thought of the USCM cities, I would haev a question. If we were to build a new city/hub, what should we do differently to appeal more to everyone else. Because I'll admit, it gets INSANELY friggin boring just sitting in Hammer Point all day. Leaders have been sporadic, I'll also admit, but thats just how it goes. Any of the "higher-ups" in the faction are fit for leadership, should the need arise. Ok ok last topic: I have kinda stated this before, but here goes again. We have been a faction since the birth of teh server. We have had high times, where we have had maybe 15-20 active members, and we have had low times, like the month where it was just Me, Josh, Dusk and Matt keeping all of Marathon USCM-ed for a month. All in all we have survived, and thats alot more than I can say for all the other trying factions that have emerged. Granted, some currently have the look of survival, but more than I can remember have come and gone within a month. Ive been with this factions since Early february, and like hell Im gonna let it die. TL;DR: logic, reasons, excuses, facts, etc: I kinda agree I kinda disagree We need community input as to how to be more open. dam ive never typed this much
I will keep it short, because I'm not a clever man and I deleted my mcfughuge post by an accident. I am talking about simple people who had no experience before. Some are weak, sure. But you train them to become soldiers. You ran a long, exhausting course and then you get mauled by about four non-lethal weapons that are STILL traumatizing. I am talking about simple people. Not former mercs with certain experience or cyborgs who might be able to handle it. As for floran corporals. He is obviously not fit to lead troops. You could've thought of another way to reward him for his dedication or whatever.
I'm not going to argue with a majority of your post, but I can say that I did decide against confronting Crosswell for some decent reasons. (In my opinion) The big bar incident involving Awe comes to mind, the last time we decided to confront someone in a territory that wasn't ours. Especially the Wolves Den, where we aren't particularly liked to begin with. I was at least trying to think of the consequences regarding such action, and how it would affect our already negative reputation.
While I can respect his IC decision, it all comes out to diplomacy. Fleet was banned from Den thanks to a band of grunts acting like jerks, and we had to talk our way in a month later while the entire tavern (including non-wolves) were pointing guns at us (literally, everyone walked to stairs, looking down to us, and drawed out their weapons).
I don't know enough about USCM internals to know if what I've pointed out are symptoms, or causes. That scanner has to go, though. If you want to IC'ly prevent contraband and weapons smuggling, do it properly. The magic scanner is just a massive OOC turnoff, even for people who don't want to cause trouble.
Couple Seven of things: 1: I completely agree with the scanner. I think its OP and i realize that without it our colonies and our RP in general would improve. 2: I enjoy conflict, at least OOCly. But I'll gladly lose if I realize that there is in fact no way I can come out of this on top. Or I'll just choose to lose, because sometimes losing is more interesting. 3: Im going to start by saying that I could be entiryl wrong with this next part, so please correct me if I am. The Holy Fleet members, at least the low ranking ones, to the extent of my knowledge, throw away characters. Now, I could be wrong, but my experience, ICly and OOCly with those characters yielded those thoughts. I know that a few of our characters in the USCM are our mains, and have been in the server for months. This makes us a little more reserved about casualties. As for corrupt leadership: Ashe. Not the best we've had, and I also know it isnt the best example. 4: The Wayrest event: I cannot state this enough: I had no idea, nor was I online, when this occurred. From looking back on the pictures in that thread, it looked like it couldve been interesting, and Im sad we didnt do anything. 5: Avian pepper spray: Off topic, im truly interested, but what in Avian biology would render them immune to pepper spray? Back on, I dont remember this happening, so I cant really vouch for anything. 6: As for the comm "retribution", well, I dont really know what to say. I myself am humble with our faction and its strengths/weaknesses. 7: If someone wants to attack us, in any way shape or form, be it cyber, physical, sabotage, maybe just want to infiltrate our city, anything, Im entirely open to any and all suggestions. Please. We are really trying hard right now to get back out "public" I guess. Even if we're hated, so what, it gives you all a common enemy. Maybe thats what we were meant for. Of course, these things are just my own opinions, and, sadly, do not reflect on the rest of the USCM. Most of them, but truthfully not all.
Gonna be quick on this. Birds (BORDS!) are not affected by capsaicin. Capsaicin being the thing in peppers that make them hot, and the thing that is concentrated to make pepper spray so effective. While at those concentrations it MIGHT have some effect on a bird, it would be considerably lesser than that on a mammal. Birds simply don't have the receptors for the protein that causes the burn. This is (theoretically) an evolutionary thing. Peppers are spicy to drive off animals that would destroy their seeds, but birds tend to carry seeds and spread them more effectively than mammals. I'll just post a quick quote, via Wikipedia. : Addendum: The Fleet, from my understanding, did use throwaways from time to time. But more than that, the characters of the Fleet had a general policy of permanent consent to death. They're soldiers. If they're soldiers, they should expect to die. Often, once a character was lost, they'd make a new character for the Fleet. This gives the illusion of throw-aways, simply because people were willing to lose their character, and continue playing for the same faction. It's not that they MADE throwaways. The characters who died often had fully written personalities, back-stories and such. But in dying, they didn't often have a chance to fully explore those.
Eyeballs aren't digestive systems, though. Anatomically speaking, bird eyes are the same as normal eyes only more powerful and akin to reptilian anatomy with a nictitating membrane to wipe things out of the eye. Even then, they're still capable of flushing things out with tears; which means they are still capable of having their eyes react to it. They may be excellent company for Fuego! Muy Picante Space Mexican bar and grill (especially for getting them to eat super spicy plates and betting on them while everyone bets against), but I don't think they're immune to blindness.
I'm one of the players who made throwaways for the Fleet (an acolyte and two sunguards, one dead). I played with them mostly to provide numbers, by playing low ranking characters who, while having distinct personality quirks, existed only to serve as muscle on Liberty Mills. I wasn't interested in doing social RP with them. They're soldier characters for soldier RP. This was back when Billy Badasses would attack it day in and out and no Fleet were online to deal with it. Given that, only one of these characters has actually died (he lasted 5 minutes, from beam down to a direct grenade hit to the face, don't even remember his name), so you can hardly call them throwaways if they're all still alive. Having characters that die to enemy fire is satisfying for the enemy. Too bad for them (but good fortune for my characters) most of the Fleet's enemies consisted of yelling OOC on other planets that the Fleet is corrupt and filled with neo-nazis, and people who expected to solo the entire Holy Fleet with their Billy Badass. I do not think throwaways are a bad thing, if used appropriately. Using them defensively is fine, using them offensively can be okay as long as there are consequences (I'm looking at you, Wreth and your army of no-value Floran-built kill robots). The important thing is that the Holy Fleet as a whole reacted to the loss of a Sunguard with mourning (I believe it was the first Fleet casualty). Another case of the Fleet reacting to loss (of throwaways? I'm not sure) was the two acolytes who were killed on Taranis. Huge political repercussions.
No no. The TRPV1 receptor (the protein that literally is the reason mammals are affected by capsaicin) doesn't respond to chemical signals from capsaicin in birds.
Another thing that gets me about the uscm, is despite being a lore faction, it completely ignores any and all "negative" elements that could make them interesting, and instead just strives to be a bland hero faction. It also harbors some of the most un-avian Avians on the server, but that's more of a personal gripe.
This is the thread for it. What would be some negative aspects they could represent? Give some ideas Also slightly curious on what makes an avian, "un-avian" as I don't play one myself, i have no clue
I believe Skarti is referring to Avians that are... for lack of a better word, Humans. They're simply Humans with beaks and feathers. And talons. There's no link to the Avian lore, no ties to their culture, no attempt to make them somewhat traditional. They're simply... Human. It irks me a bit too, but I'm not going to fight about it. We usually play what we know. Easier that way. And none of us have ever been a vaguely Mesoamerican/Egyptian bird person.
Penal colonies! Pretty big topic that's somewhat overlooked. Xenophobic high command. Speaks for itself, really. Give humans special treatment, 'cause you can't trust those freaky aliens, right? Isolation! The uscm is scattered and alone, how would the troops feel being stuck on some random planet, not hearing from the central government/command for such a long time? Even then, if it's a military, any military organisation has its own issues. Why do you fight? Who's giving orders? Etc. The world isn't black and white, it can't all be pure good and pure evil. Mix it up a bit. With regard to Avians, I find that if a character talks like a human, holds human values, has an in-depth knowledge of human culture, etc. etc. They might as well just BE a human. A character's race shouldn't just be a coat of paint, it should be a defining feature.
Penal Colonies, from what I've seen, they are RPed as no longer being associated with the USCM, at least our sector, and a finder's fee is offered for any people find. As to how you could RP these, that's also difficult, as it's kinda impossible for npc's programmed to murder all to lay down weapons, or be re-integrated into society, would be open to ideas here Xenophobic High Command: Used to be a big thing,[ashe and verita, michael at first] was hated by people both IC and OOC, hence the gradual integration and removal of those who held prejudice. Having a few recruits or such who still harbour those sentiments could be something, as the USCM needs recruits badly enough to deal with racism. /hinthint Isolation: That's something that could definitely be done, having the currect "chapter" if you will, losing all contact with other branches an high command. And having lost that contect, could RP up some of the loneliness that would stem from it And as to your comments on Racial being paint, I wholeheartedly agree. Less so addressed to this thread but agreeing on personal gripes Glitch that throw away prefix speech and a sort of medieval mindset completely Florans that throw away the lisp, broken speech, and third person speech for no good reason. [raised by humans is not a good reason, it's cliche] Any race having knowledge of human culture that aren't human, especially pop culture references.
I think you're taken the penal colonies quite literally, I don't expect you to actually find one and yell at the NPCs to surrender, but maybe try setting up one yourselves? The universe is full of BAD PEOPLE doing BAD THINGS, so an actual prison type place (which is more than just holding cells) could be interesting. As for the Xenophobia thing, this is something that I feel is wholly ignored/shunned in the server, and that to me makes zero sense at all. I understand that IC racism often attracts OOC hate, but people who hate you OOC for IC racism are just dumb. Really, I can't think of a better way to put it. It's a game people! If someone doesn't like you because you're a plant/ape/bird/fish, Boo-hoo. Good thing this isn't real life, and you can switch bodies at will... It's just dull when every character has a "peace-and-love all beings created equal" motto. Sure, when I created Skarti, I expected to be disliked, but I feel I have to turn up the prejudice to make up for the server's severe lack of it. Eh, I'm getting sidetracked. At least I'll spare you the speech on the server's standard Floran character.
