Month: July 2018

Server Reorganization

Coming from a background on IRC where one had a single chat room for RP and a single chat room for OOC talk to a medium where one can have nearly any amount of channels they’d like on a server it was easy to just make a channel for everything! However, as per the results of the user survey, I recognize that it can be quite overwhelming to do that. I know that I’ve got a number of issues there, specifically with the number of channels for a lot of the categories, many of which go unused most of the time. Now, an unused channel here isn’t a big deal, it can just sit there unused without a major issue.

That being said, it is a bit of an issue in that it becomes overwhelming for new players and even hard for older players to know where to play. Originally, 90% of the play was supposed to take place in the tavern on (at the time) Blazing Umbra station. Even when the tavern moved to Nimbus, that is where I envisioned most of the play taking place. However, that is still a hold-over from IRC days where one had a single RP channel – maybe you had auxiliary channels but usually not so much because people didn’t join all of your channels so a lot of times no one knew what was going on in the auxiliary channels.

Now we’ve gotten to the point where the RP is shifting around to different areas, the paradigm that everyone goes to the bar and that’s where everyone interacts is dated and doesn’t really work all that well. At the same time, having a channel for everything possible also doesn’t work very well. Thus, I’m trying to think of different paradigms to structure the server with.

Starting out, I’ve removed a number of channels, notably the starship-specific channels in favor of a more generalized #starship-1 and #starship-2, other than the #stellar-horizon channel which gets its own area as it is tied to the postings on the forum. I’ve also removed a number of channels that were not being used or somehow redundant. I’m still looking for ways that channels can be done and organized in such a way that it is easy to navigate for both new and old players.

I’m also considering creating just like 2-3 channels for each setting that get used as needed (so like #blazing-umbra-1 through #blazing-umbra-4 or some such, I’m not sure yet. When one looks at the server, we usually don’t have more than 4-5 RP’s going on at the same time and less than that in a particular setting. however, I am concerned that this would get generally confusing. As with everything, it is a balance.

Commentary is welcome.

Appeal for Patronage

I’m not one to ask for money really. I try hard to cover the server costs (web servers not the Discord server of course) myself as I dislike asking for money. However, as the use of the web services has increased my cost in providing those services has as well. I would also like to find a way to fund doing a contest with awards like gift cards and such to boost participation. As such, I’m, again, seeking those to become patrons of the server and what we do here.

I enjoy doing the work I do trying to create new content and help fit everything together but it does take a lot of time and energy to do so. Thus, I ask anyone who is willing and able to help to please do so. Here is the Patreon URL.

Thank you, everyone, for all of your support (of all the forms it takes). I appreciate it greatly!

Writing Prompt Image

So, since the lyrical writing prompt didn’t really work I’ve switched back to an image as the writing prompt. Now there are a lot of obvious things that can go with this one, so I’d like to encourage everyone to respond but try to think outside the box and play around with the loads of information the image doesn’t specify.

As always, have some fun with it.

Racial Tensions on the Rise

Following the recent attack on the hangar claiming that humans should rule and aliens should be purged, the racial tensions have increased significantly on the station. It appears that an undercurrent of intolerance may spread throughout the station if left unchecked. Complaints about racial slurs being used in civilian settings have increased significantly, though not from humans but instead against them. So far the term xeno has shown to be used most often, though other terms have been used by the Sangheili. Statements from Governor Maddox have attempted to reassure humans that this is a natural extension of where they came from, the investigation into the Spartan’s revealed a world in which the Sangheili were in a brutal war with human-kind. The governor has encouraged citizens to remain peaceful and attempt to be understanding though his statement also asks for non-human races to attempt to do the same, noting that the ship which attacked the station was not from this universe. As a side-effect of this there is a small, yet growing, momentum toward an isolationist philosophy though a movement has yet to form around it there are reports of isolated pockets of such philosophy among civilians who feel threatened.

The unity initially brought by the attack appears to have been short-lived and the prevalence of humans in the highest ranking positions of Solas Tempus has again raised questions about it’s leadership. Sentiment, especially among civilians, is starting to shift toward questioning whether or not it should matter that the leadership of Solas Tempus has a lot more humans in it than not. Humans on the station, especially within Solas Tempus security forces, have reported feeling as if they are under a microscope and that they thought the universe had grown out of such things. As it happens, several other prominent races feel as if they too feel this is society going backwards. In particular the Vulcans and Andorians, once bitter enemies, cite their own coming together to help form the United Federation of Planets as proof of the idea that so many different races can coexist.

As tensions increase on the station officials from Solas Tempus have urged for people to remember that regardless of race or origin, we all have challenges to face and the planet one is from or color of ones skin matters only as much as society says it does.

SPECCOM / STMC Training Orders

Credible intel has lead to the discovery that Onyx has obtained the designs for the Mark X Informational Assistant, or XIA. It is very likely that they are constructing these units. Due to the obvious potential threat, as of now all SPECCOM and STMC personnel shall begin training in using area of effect weapons to disable XIA units. Disabling XIA units in the field could become critical to defense in field operations. Training schedules will be available using a variety of weapons for multiple time periods as well as testing for weapon designs and deployment.

See your direct commander for additional information about the new training protocols. Personnel should also remember that continued use of derogatory terms for potential threats is to be stopped immediately. Derogatory or racial terms used while on duty or off can result in disciplinary actions as they limit perceptions and thoughts.

Fallback Services – When Discord Fails

I’d just like to remind everyone that we have some backup chat services in the event that Discord fails. However, before getting to that, for those that don’t know we have our own site Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Twitter
Facebook

Those feeds should keep everyone up to date on site news. In the event of a Discord failure that lasts for a significant period of time, information will be posted to those sites first. I have configured all 3 of the following fall-backs for people to be able to regroup and continue RP or other such things in the event of an extended failure of Discord.

Slack

Slack is a business-focused chat service similar to what Discord does but it has no voice or video features and has pay-features which we will not be using (obviously). This is very easy to set up, and can be accessed simply from this complicated invite link. This link there dumps a person directly into the Slack server, which is basically at this team address. Slack is a bit different from Discord but should also function as a reasonable fall-back for a lot of people given it’s mobile application support as well as simple sign-in-and-go process.

Keybase

Keybase is a security and identity service which allows a lot of things, security, encryption, identity verification, but what we are interested in is the team-chat feature, which is a fall-back in case Discord is not operational. The team name is moltenaether, anyone may request to join the team and then have access to the chat as well as a lot of files stored in the keybase secure storage.

Keybase is a bit complicated to use, however, and not everyone is going to want to set it up. Thus, we have other alternatives.

Jabber / XMPP

Now I know that Jabber and XMPP are basically dead except for as an underlying technology of other shit (Facebook and Google both have used the protocol). However, we do operate a Jabber / XMPP server, to get an account one has to go to here. This is basically like any IM software and is mostly about presence and one-on-one chat, I can personally be found at cyclops@blazingumbra.com as my Jabber / XMPP address.

Human Supremacy Terrorist Attack

On Sunday morning a distress call was received by one of our allies. Shortly after Nimbus Station responded, the call claimed that a shuttle was losing power and requesting landing. Per station protocols the vessel was allowed to land in the auxiliary hangar. After skidding to a stop in an nearly catastrophic crash landing within the hangar, the ship’s doors were opened with the message from the suicide bomber that the aliens should be experimented and the humans shall rule. The detonation of a significant amount of explosives has crippled approximately half of the auxiliary bay.

The shuttle itself came from the Janus Gate from a universe from which the Avali colony also arrived from. Missives has been dispatched to the Protectorate, the authority for that reality which has existing relations with Solas Tempus requesting more information about the shuttle and where it came from. The leaders of Solas Tempus have been unavailable to comment, at least one (Fleet Admiral Lance Thomas) is still in the hospital following the attack on Soteria. The Prime Minister of the Serenity Concord has denounced the attack as a shameful act of cowardice and stated unequivocally that those who planned and executed the horrific plan of terror will be brought to justice. Pledges of assistance have come from the Klingon Empire, Bajoran Government, Romulan Star Empire, and the United Federation of Planets as well as a number of smaller entities. Members of the Senate have also spoken out saying that the in-fighting and ill-timed investigation so publicly made was a sign of weakness with the prevailing feeling that the organization may have been better suited to handle such an impending attack had their focus been on threats outside rather than potential threats inside.

The office of the Prime Minister and the Department of Protection and Investigation have been declined to comment on the state of the investigations that are ongoing. On condition of anonymity a member of the Civilian Oversight board with knowledge of the investigation stated that the investigators have been told to quietly continue their work but that further acts beyond the gathering of information have been suspended. The attack seems to have galvanized the government and citizens, though questions still arise about how Solas Tempus manages its affair. Recent polling indicates that Solas Tempus is enjoying a rather high confidence rating, though most do still think a reorganization of perhaps a change to training procedures may be in order. The thought that criminal charges may need to be brought against members of the organization has diminished significantly in favor of mandating more subtle changes which the organization can apply to itself. Given both the recent attacks, the civilian colony project has also been put on hold while a threat assessment is reworked.

A Lyrical Writing Prompt

So rather than an image this time, I’d like to do a lyrical prompt, this comes from the song Off to the Races by Lana Del Rey, one of my personal favorites. I would suggest to people to not be tied to the song itself, the artist is clearly painting a vivid picture of a certain kind of relationship. However, don’t be concerned with straying away from that and into the realm of places one can take the verse itself on its own merit.

Because I’m crazy, baby
I need you to come here and save me
I’m your little scarlet starlet
Singing in the garden
Kiss me on my open mouth

For those that want it, here is the original song.

Stellar Horizon RP – Functional Vision

Alright, so, I want people to be able to do smaller sub-plot and even just one-off’s of the RP while we do this. Since the main story is going to take place on the forum there will be down-time while waiting for posts, thus on the Discord server I have created a channel for the ship.

My goal is to have the main story going on with the forum and allow for smaller plays to go on live on Discord, since that is what most people prefer to do. Most smaller stories don’t have to get summarized at all to the forum but we can adjust that as needed. If we find that the channel is used a lot, we’ll make others and make it a category.

We will also be making heavy use of NPC’s during the game, and I’d like to invite players to feel free to create NPC’s for the story.

As a final note, I know this is going to take a bit to pin down into something that really works, I’ve seen a few different methods of doing something like this so we’ll try a few as problems come up and hopefully settle on something that works and everyone is happy with.

Commander of the Stellar Horizon Chosen

From the very beginning the crew of the Stellar Horizon was a difficult one to choose, such a historic mission for the young government – to reach out into the stars and not rely just on the efforts of Starfleet and other organizations to explore, but to set their sights themselves on what the organization needed and wanted to know. The crew is crafted carefully to be eclectic, with many skills and many backgrounds.

A former Borg engineer, a Spartan security chief, a tried and tested warrior as chief medical officer, and now the commander of the vessel has been selected to be Vladimir Zima. This selection has brought into focus something more than simply the idea that the Serenity Concord would like to reach out into the stars but a symbol of belonging and acceptance for the new arrivals to this reality. A concept that, not that many years ago, would have been the work of fiction has become a fact of life. There are other realities and every possible kind of being exists and every possible kind of history likewise exists. The Stellar Horizon has become more than just a ship or a project, but proof that the new arrivals to this universe are welcome and can not only contribute but excel here.

The rest of the command crew has also been selected.