makkenhoff

I can understand not liking virology, but some people do find it fun, might consider that the gameplay itself needs reworked, to make it competitive; some of the reworks I've seen has virus that helps the crew, sort of a custom tailored disease that provides benefits as well as disadvantages, much like genetics. Baystation got rid of genetics way back when, with similar justification, and it didn't last. Might be that virology should be removed, but another rival system should be ready to be inserted into it. *edit* I should note, this was in reply to some other stated comments that seemed to imply removal of virology.

I like this. The only concern I have is the nullification by pill; this cheapens the disadvantage, as I see it. Future research options that mechanically remove the limitations are fine, because that's progress, like curing the blind. The ESS is fine, as I believe it strengthens the idea that you are forced to accept robotic assistance in order to work on the station - on the part of built in weld protection, I love the idea of it not being a hassle to have to fumble around with it. As for the whitelist concerns.. the only thing about this race that might warrant a whitelist is the ESS itself. And really, it's not a huge advantage on a heavy roleplay server.

Well, if we consider mice as a player, would this complaint be necessary? Keep in mind I don't have an issue with mice, nor with more human-ish mice. I mean, hell, we are in space with genetic cloning that takes minutes complete with previous memories. Give the reality check a break; this is a game about silliness that has extra rules for the purpose of fostering role-play as is fitting for a role-playing server. I'd be the first one to admit, I've seen pretty stupid things with mice, and drones for that matter. I've seen the same from humans and in some cases aliens which are thankfully a bit more policed here. The easiest solution at the administration level, is to equally apply the rules. This means a roleplay nerf for mouse behavior certainly, the application of which would result in mice unable to point or generally do any action outside of your standard mouse. Since a mouse lacks any human skill whatsoever, it would be incapable of doing anything that would even resemble human behavior. If a mouse wished to have such a "skill" it should be required to apply for a whitelist, just like aliens, because it is a non-standard human player. Personally, I've seen Nanako doing the mouse thing, and sometimes it bugs me. When I see complaints about being squished as a mouse, that really annoys me, especially when I'm in dead chat, having been killed. I just think, ultimately, more options should be considered first, before removal is considered. A few options off the top of my head: As a regular mouse it is consistent with powergaming/meta behavior to do things a mouse would not know/understand, no new rules need be created, apply it to misbehaving players or staff and be done with it. Add a few "pet" options for those who would like to be a cuddly pet; perhaps even whitelist it, while policing it within the already written rules, I've seen it add to roleplay, I've also seen it horribly detract from it when too many are added for the sake of having them. Another option, though admittedly it could easily end up more outlandish than I intend, is to allow a more intelligent mouse, perhaps even calling it a "lab rat". Applying it to science makes sense, as someone else suggested, though admittedly that is a lot more dev work to come up with a good reason to have them aboard, and some use in testing. Perhaps in Xenoflora as human analogs for chemical testing? Xenoflora doesn't really have a huge area to work out of, so it would make sense to keep a small number of rat cages. These could perhaps be antagonists for a lab rat escape game mode, for the more audacious idea. I can see why removal should be considered, I just don't think it should be the first consideration, as it appears to me to be.

I don't think putting all your eggs in one basket is a good idea, regardless of how convenient it is, regarding server hosts. Having dealt with a bunch of different hosting problems over the years, I know you need that fluid ability to switch hosts; sometimes in a hurry if service goes downhill in a hurry as it tends to do. That said, transparency is always going to be an issue, and perhaps you could find a service that could ultimately accomplish both. A VERY brief internet search revealed this http://www.donationtracker.org/ as a potential option; which may or may not apply to this community's budget. I don't mean to create unnecessary headaches, either way; I'd much prefer a happy medium for anyone who donates to feel they are helping pay for the server costs, while giving server host administration ease of fund use.

I like the idea of having sounds to go with emotes, but when I think about how rampantly things like this are abused elsewhere (and even to some extent within SS13's community) it really makes it hard to justify in my mind. By giving everyone access to this, abuse will certainly happen at the least some of the time. If, as a result of concerns of or actual abuse, this becomes a "white list" only feature, then it makes this even harder to justify the cost in both development time and also policing its usage. It isn't a stretch to say I don't support this feature request, but it would be a stretch to say I oppose it directly. I personally just emote the buzz, beeps, etc when I play my "robot" cyborg using /me; I'm not really sure what this would do for someone with the sound muted either; other than be a glorified button to press, assuming you intend to have actual buttons for the new emotes in the IC section, depending on the race. Now, with my opinion stated; on to useful suggestions of different emotes, as I noticed humans lacking some. Humans: *sigh Male/Female sigh noise, emote stating "player sighs." Humans: *growls Male/Female angry growl noise, emote stating "player growls angrily." (Humans can and do get kind of feral when really mad) Uthani: *shrieks I'm thinking sounds like a Leopard Gecko, but a shriek like noise when they are angry or about to engage in 'honor'. "player shrieks angrily."

I've played many late nights/early mornings (+5 GMT) with Alice Knapp as the HoS, I've never had a bit of trouble with their words/actions. They seem to write well, and respond when talked to, for the most part. I do worry that having them as a moderator in the deadtime, it might make it harder for them to play as an HoS. I know that from experience it does add a lot more stress than just playing a head of staff, especially if it is a busy time for staff.

I'm alright with the sandwich idea - though I'd suggest it be limited in scope so as to not detract for our chef's good work. (Or absence of, in many cases) I don't think food gets enough credit honestly in SS13 in general.

If the decision is made to go blue security, I'd go with making command a dark red.

The point I was attempting to make, and the point you seemed to miss is that it if it looks that way to someone in dead chat, and it looks that way to someone in the round, it is ultimately affecting people's ability to trust the two of you and ultimately trust the server staff to foster role-play in a fair and fun manner. The words "no evidence" does not, unfortunately, mean anything to me; the evidence is ALWAYS circumstantial at best, for true proof you'd have to have physical access to the machine in question as well as the personal accounts (usernames at the very least) of the person you were attempting to prove was guilty, as well as proof that the person in question was actually the person using the computer at the time, and admittedly that is a very tall order, even when your talking about real life cyber criminals, but I digress. The ONLY thing server administrators can do is watch behaviors, and I pointed to the behavior between two players as suspicious, and in hindsight off-putting. In other words, I thought it was suspicious behavior at the time, and now, after the fact I just feel off-put by the experience as a whole. I'm certainly not intending it as a personal attack of character on yourself, or youbar as people. But I will call behavior as I see it, and I can certainly respect your dislike of it. Drama is going to happen regardless of your presence on the forum or not, that's why I take the time to post on forums. You can either try to head it off (my preference) by talking openly about issues, you can ignore it and the risk of the community itself splintering over drama and hope it gets better (most of the time drama blows over in SS13, but not everywhere else), or you can try to be the peacemaker after all the salvos have been fired, though it takes a special kind of person to be able to soothe ruffled feathers without further ruffling. The fact is, everyone role-plays differently and bringing things like this up in a public manner allows for a discussion of the offense, and how people feel about it, and that does let people vent their frustrations as well as give constructive criticism on how to do a better job - they want the player in question to improve, and more importantly know why they should improve and what parts to improve on.

I was also in this round, as the Forensics Tech Edward Lombardi. I was spaced as a result of our crafty plan to cover up getting the captain cloned - the bartender wasn't in on this plan, and honestly believed I was going to stop the captain being cloned. (Because, I said it over comms in order for the 3 members of security to be let out of the bolted and electrified central access security hallway... we were role-playing trying to come up with a plan when the AI bolted and electrified the doors around us.) So, when Cheshire and I were "spacing" the body, the bartender came in and fired on us. Somehow during the exchange, I got thrown out, or perhaps shot out of the mass driver into space. About all I had time to do was say WHAT THE HELL.. before I passed out and subsequently died. After realizing that I had zero chance of rescue (I landed on the derelict space station I think) I ghosted and began to watch the round. I made the comments, at different times at how the AI was just being ruthless, murder boning, and meta-gaming behaviors. Don't get me wrong, the station AI of all players in SS13 should know how to quickly kill the crew - I don't think that's really the issue that bothered me the most. I just felt it was excessive in the extreme. I did make an ahelp, to verify the intent of the bartender, and thankfully by that point Garncanus had some relief by way of incognitojesus, I believe who answered my ahelp. (Mind you, I'm posting within 12 hours of the round, but I have slept a little since, so perhaps not 100% accuracy of my memory.) Finally figuring out that the bartender believed we were really spacing the body of the captain without cloning him. As the round progressed, I slowly watched crew member after crew member die. And panic and terror largely took over the round. I was glad when Helmut showed up in the round, (He's amusing to watch for me, as well as work with.) he managed to join a small number of crew and made their escape to the asteroid's outpost. You could tell the players were expecting murderous borgs when they arrived. Frankly, they weren't wrong to worry about it. One final closing comment, that struck me as... suspicious was the pairing of JADE and BIG BROTHER. They seemed to be really in sync on what they were doing, going so far to send the exact same type of message at the beginning of the round as the other, one was just better/more worded than the other. Either they think a lot alike (A distinct possibility), or something else was going on (Voice chat or the like), it was just suspicious in my eyes, and a little off-putting in hindsight. I'll admit that I left the round after this due to the fact that I didn't want to take a chance of having a second bad round like that. I've only recently joined the community here, and honestly, it was one of the worst rounds I've seen since I started here. I've played over 10 different rounds for certain here. This kind of round was something I'd have expected on a light role-play server, but seeing it done on a heavy role-playing server.. well, it surprised me to be honest. I still love the malfunctioning AI game mode, but this round, for me, it was not really enjoyable to partake in, nor to watch. I feel obligated to note - Garncanus was the only staff member on by his own admission, as a former Admin/Developer on Apocalyptic Station, I know exactly how it feels to be the only one doing everything, and even then, it was a smaller population than what Garncanus had. At the high points we might see in the mid 20's while I was doing Developer work, by the time I was officially made an Devmin (combination title for Administrator + Developer) we were averaging in the teens and maxing around 26. Garncanus had over 35 to manage, I am not envious.. I know how stressful it is. But I'm not really sure admin intervention would have changed the situation much, even if Garncanus had told him to lay off the murdering, I still think we wouldn't have saw great role-playing from the AI, in my opinion.