Goonhub
11-22-2020, 07:37 AM
I think it would be fair to say the most of the proponents of this idea are primarily coming to it from the perspective of the AI, and the confusion and awkward grey areas that they experience. Therefore, I do not think the fact that people usually choose deliberately to be a mutantrace is particularly relevant, because the AI does not have any control over that choice.
The problem is for an AI: Technically you do not have to treat them as human, and technically you do not have to follow their orders, but technically they are also protected as humans by the server rules and technically you can and possibly should follow their orders, and technically very few people will probably adminhelp you if you prioritise a lizard captain over a human HoP, but technically that's still against your laws, and technically this is all a huge mess - this isn't even touching on the fact that, in order to even approach this issue, the AI first has to learn of the existence of a single wiki page called "Human" which is the bible for who is technically in one position or the other (which is often not easy to intuit!). We can't fob off this mess onto the personal responsibility of people who choose to play mutant races in the first place, but, considering the increasing popularity of mutantraces (which will only increase further if they receive unique mechanics) I don't think can simply shove it aside and assume it'll be fine either. Once again, as well: I have never encountered a situation where this has resulted in fun. If somebody else has, I invite them to let us know.
The suggestion of considering station mutantraces as subspecies of human seems effective, but I fear that could be confusing for new players again ("so the green dude is human, but the blobby green dude isn't...") - how do we make it clear and intuitive in-game which races are human and which aren't?
The problem is for an AI: Technically you do not have to treat them as human, and technically you do not have to follow their orders, but technically they are also protected as humans by the server rules and technically you can and possibly should follow their orders, and technically very few people will probably adminhelp you if you prioritise a lizard captain over a human HoP, but technically that's still against your laws, and technically this is all a huge mess - this isn't even touching on the fact that, in order to even approach this issue, the AI first has to learn of the existence of a single wiki page called "Human" which is the bible for who is technically in one position or the other (which is often not easy to intuit!). We can't fob off this mess onto the personal responsibility of people who choose to play mutant races in the first place, but, considering the increasing popularity of mutantraces (which will only increase further if they receive unique mechanics) I don't think can simply shove it aside and assume it'll be fine either. Once again, as well: I have never encountered a situation where this has resulted in fun. If somebody else has, I invite them to let us know.
The suggestion of considering station mutantraces as subspecies of human seems effective, but I fear that could be confusing for new players again ("so the green dude is human, but the blobby green dude isn't...") - how do we make it clear and intuitive in-game which races are human and which aren't?