non human CE and CMO

[EmpressMaia]

hello. i think ive passed this idea around before but never in a policy thread. one of the main reasons against non human heads is the constant AI squabbles that come from it. but by letting only the heads that dont directly have ties to the AI be non human we dont really have to worry about it

[Itseasytosee2me]

I don't like the change primary because of theming. I think we would loose what little distinction we have from any other kitchen sink space opera setting with aliens that are basically "humans but weird." But that's entirely my subjective conjecture.

[Bmon]

wouldnt this be a code change? you can't pick which heads human authority is disabled for in the config.

[TheLoLSwat]

Related quotes from headmin candidate debate thread regarding a similar issue ~6 months back

i personally have no interest in this.

do i OOCly dislike nonhuman players? no, of course not. it's a fictional character in a video game.

there are good arguments for allowing nonhuman heads of staff, but alas if it's down to personal taste then my personal taste is that it's an interesting limitation of the setting. i would vote strongly to keep it in place.

we rarely have elements of the setting appear in the game in this way. it's interesting to see and experience the ways in which different crew respond to the emergence or enforcement of this kind of prejudice. sometimes slimy individuals will use it to put someone in a bad position because of their nonhuman status, and sometimes people will band together to overcome that prejudice and allow a nonhuman to self actualize.

there was also a policy thread where i argued for this pretty strongly:

there are a lot of good, valid arguments in support of this but honestly to me it just comes down to a preference in how i like to see the setting enforced. allowing non-human heads removes the human supremacy aspect of the setting. i like the asymmetrical aspect that this brings to the game, and i'm saying this as someone who only plays a non-human character. humans are only superior because they say they are, when in reality the differences between the species is skin deep. this is interesting to me to see in action as an obstacle. it feels like it's sanding off a very nice and respectable sharp corner of the setting.

there are more posts from me elaborating on this in that thread if anyone feels so inclined.

Predominantly flavour reasons. Nanotrasen is a human-run operation so of course they want humans to remain in power. It creates in-universe animosity that can lead to some interesting stories, in theory.
Secondarily, alongside Asimov (I am anti-crewsimov) it gives humans an actual advantage over non-human players, as Dendy has written above.

[Jacquerel]

I do not believe headmins actually have the power to do this without code changes and the current headcoder and maintainer team are unlikely to want this for vibes reasons.

[EmpressMaia]

ah. then damn

[Vekter]

My opinion on this hasn't changed much - I don't personally care that much about whether or not non-humans can be heads from a lore perspective, as I don't see the "human supremacy" aspect to be absolutely critical to my enjoyment of the setting, but I do think that it's not inherently a bad thing that we need to get rid of.

I do think that our current set-up is probably the best way to handle it. I like the idea of Nanotrasen normally not allowing non-humans to be command, but sometimes permitting it as a "DEI initiative" (via a station trait) because I find it very funny and realistic that Nanotrasen would sometimes pay lip service to the ideas of equity but only so they look like they're being progressive when they really aren't.

[Longestarmlonglaw]

What if we added crewsimov instead? No more squabbles with the AI

[Jacquerel]

What if we added crewsimov instead? No more squabbles with the AI

I dislike crewsimov; not because it "humanises" felinids but because it "dehumanises" wizards and nuclear operatives.

[Itseasytosee2me]

I do fear that it is inevitable that one of these terms we will get a batch of headmins who will get enable nonhuman heads of staff and then it will be impossible to go back.

[MooCow12]

nuclear operatives.

Arnt nukies technically “crew” but a different one with their own ship.

I guess a more believable instance would be certain types of pirates who literally have a ship and crew.

[dragomagol]

Not interested in this change.