Greetings fellow VORE players! I am here to gather your opinion on a topic. I am sorry this post is so long, but I have to impart a lot of information.
We as admins have discussed and are in favor of moving the code to be based on Polaris, another SS13 server, which itself was based on Baystation. Right now our code is 'based on Baystation' in that it was copied from Baystation. However there is no easy way to obtain updates from Baystation's improvements over the last couple of years. As a quick history lesson, Polaris was created by many of the Baystation developers who were unsatisfied with Baystation's management, which is why it is very similar.
Moving to Polaris would allow us to receive updates (when we want) from Polaris' very active development team. Any performance improvements they make (of which they have already made many), we would be able to easily put into our server.
We would of course move all the vore mechanics, fluff items, and 'custom stuff' that Virgo has, and you would not need to do any work to do this. This is more a question of 'are you okay with change'. With regards to how you play the game, there would only be two significant things to consider:
--- New Map ---
Polaris has a custom map as they did not take Baystation's map. The map is, in our opinion, better than Baystation's map. It has all the same departments... medical, security, etc. A bridge, an armory, etc. All of that. You would need to spend your first shift re-learning where things are (there are wall-signs that point to the departments. Most departments have been expanded in size, some significantly. Robotics, Xenoarcheology and several others are at least twice as large as they are on our current map. I've color-coded Science, Security, Medical, Cargo, and Engineering on this little map below.
One advantage of the new map is that, because it is based on an asteroid, there is quite a bit of space to expand. Our current map, if medical wants a new room... tough. On this one, there are many places to grow departments and Engineering could help with that. There are several new areas, including a park and a cafeteria. Larger pool. Etc. In general things are bigger.
We can always make changes to the map, of course.
--- Storage ---
Belts don't really exist for anyone except engineers. We could readd them. But, there is a good reason they were removed. Storage is now VOLUME based. For example, I can fit about 30 pills into a backpack. Or 14 PDAs. Or 7 medkits. It varies based on the size. I can carry 13 beakers and 3 syringes in a Chemistry backpack. If I want to be a crazy person, anyway. There are also dufflebags which Polaris probably lifted from TG, which are like mega-backpacks, but slow you slightly when wearing them.
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Everything other than that is an improvement, or the same as current. The game runs much smoother, there is no movement lag, the server itself runs much cleaner, you can rotate the view if you really feel like doing that. Alternate PDA sprites, pick the pronouns used to refer to you in addition to your biological gender, many of the 'blank white' interfaces like the door interface for AI/borg have been replaced with pretty ones. The list is too long to put into this already-long post.
If you're wondering if 'how you play the game' will change, no. Chemistry drugs are the same. Security's guns are the same. Surgery is the same (with new features!), medkits are the same, engineering is the same, etc.
So. Reply to the poll above! Let us know your thoughts! You don't have to do any work, we do all the work, but we want to know how you feel about this idea! If you have any questions, ask here or (more preferred,) hit me up on Discord.