Scheveningen

As above, I'm against tasking admins/mods to have to deal with inconsequential issues. Mute LOOC if you're irritable, I do it all the time.

Supporting. If this is part of your job unofficially atm, you should be signed on to make things easier to do officially.

In essence: "To draw, show or exhibit a weapon to another person in a threatening or aggressive display." The details: A 'weapon' in this context is any dangerous tool that is designed to cause lethal or serious bodily harm - even tasers count . Mouse-guns are not weapons, and therefore cannot be brandished. It doesn't matter if a handgun or energy gun is unloaded or empty. Why?: Basically I'm really tired of seeing security officers draw their .45s and tasers when they do not have to - likewise I'm sure that everyone else that has to deal with security in this kind of situation is also rather tired of it, because without an explicit regulation to deal with this kind of behavior it's extremely hard to deal with it when the majority of our rounds where this regulation could be relevant would be non-canon. Same deal with cargonians openly brandishing self-made swords that they made and trying to be vigilante badasses instead of responsible weapon holders. Weapons are not really meant for taking the law into your own hands (yes, looking at you, security, this counts for you too), they're meant primarily for giving certain people the right to defend their own lives or the lives of others with deadly force. Yet I've seen many such cases where this doesn't happen and a firearm gets brandished and later set off because there's an anxiety connotation for when a deadly weapon gets drawn and someone gets threatened with it, and both parties freak out over it and someone gets hurt unnecessarily because this kind of behavior isn't regulated or necessarily given a punishment in the first place. Yes, this really is a situation that doesn't have flat out charges barring this kind of behavior. "Gross negligence" is far too vague and any head of security worth their salt still has to inevitably half-ass various other vague charges just to get issues like this tied up properly just to police their own department. "Contraband" would not easily count either because a weapon doesn't have to be legally owned to be brandished - security is the case example of who does this the most anyway, and there are plenty of code red cases where I allow emergency weapons to be made by the crew so long as they use them for self-defense and not aggression. But then how am I supposed to deal with them if there isn't an explicit charge to deal with the people who abuse the right I give them to have the means to protect their own life, or the lives of others? Therefore, implement this charge as an orange level offense, since brandishing a dangerous weapon is a rather different threat of bodily harm and can't necessarily be construed as assault either. This shouldn't be a yellow charge since regulation of weapons use is not a mild issue, it's pretty serious.

Do it again!

Five would be fine. No more than that. Make sure crossfire ignores this rule and stays at 4-4 for each side, imo. I'd actually argue it's high time mercs and heisters both get their bases overhauled, but that may not be relevant to this thread.

Flip side of this suggestion: If a bunch of people who ready up for security roles also have antag roles switched on, the entire security department is vacant while mercs/heisters get 5-6 heads to bash into the station.

What's being planned specifically to trim the bloat back? I figure that enforcing an embargo for an indeterminate period of time while we already have some offensive loadout items in place won't exactly fix the problem, even if it does stop it from growing for now. There's also the issue of how in-game equipment lockers have spare alternative outfits which lead to issues with visual fidelity and being able to pick out a security/engineering/medical/science team member from a crowd easily. What's going to be the fate of those? I don't mind taking the middle road approach because it's a balance between two issues of 1. stealing the visual identity of other servers to incoherently mesh with our own and 2. still trying to make the game and its characters look good with a reasonable influx of content over time.

It hurts to have to read over what was posted already in this thread, and equally hurts just as much for what I'm to post. The sentiments already posted here are on justified grounds, in my opinion. I don't personally think jade is unqualified for lore writing, but rather her qualifications as a staffmember are questionable from how she seems to treat people, from hot/warm/cold flashes of emotion to outright unpredictable outbursts towards people she disagrees with. Assuming whatever happened on Hestia did indeed happen, I'm sorry you had to go through with that. But I'm rather skeptical about your sudden change of heart about this server, considering how you seemed rather happy to get away from (and also harshly criticize) Aurora when you signed on with Hestia initially. And prior to that, I have recollection of past tensions between the two of us before we mended that divide and became better friends after having overcome our issues before. But then that didn't last, either, because I experienced a rather vile outburst by you not too long ago to the point where I had to rethink things. I don't think anyone can really get a read on you for the most part, I'm really skeptical as to whether anything you've posted here is actually what you think, because not a few months ago you had a very different opinion on things. You can contribute in other ways, jade, but I don't think stepping up to the plate of staff this soon is what's best for you or the rest of the lore team.

This seems like a good idea. The various species (and department, arguably) discords fracture the community a bit too much which leads to activity issues when the smaller groups' numbers start to dwindle. This'll likely have the positive consequence of bringing lore-invested community members a bit closer together and away from their lore bubbles. People with different interests interacting with each other may lead to interesting discussions and much more interesting interaction in-game as a result of it.

You and your character are both pretty interesting conversationally. I haven't quite seen how you fare under pressure as command but RD is not a particularly stressful role compared to the others - you don't really strike me as someone who cracks under pressure, though. You seem to be pretty interested on the OOC side of things contributing to the server's code development as well, which indicates that you're really attempting to commit. I'd say +1 on my end. I don't usually give feedback, I'm quite bad at it, frankly. If I think of anything else to bring up, I probably will, but as mentioned my impression of you + your character was pretty positive overall.

I'd have to agree with Nienna's conclusion. An extended round may start somewhat unpopulated but it almost always fills with additional players as time goes on, just like any other game mode. As I've observed, though, there is still a population of folks that cryo when 1. they don't get antag 2. they don't see or hear of an antag within the first hour. Extended doesn't seem to hemorrhage players in the same fashion, since most who connect to an extended round choose to stay because it is extended.

fake news, I never called Lupo a hoe, it was just sort of implied...

I am not supportive of this. It is difficult enough to get an entire lobby convinced that extended is the desired game mode. Extended is often only voted when the majority of carry-over players have no intention of doing yet another antagonist round after a very chaotic and stressful round prior to that. If people want a different game mode, they have to vote a different thing to get their thing, as Coalf already mentioned.

#serious_discussion could be a discussion channel, similar to how #general_discussion is meant for discussing literally anything under the sun barring a few inappropriate topics, the same deal can be attributed for the former case but with the caveat of being as serious in tone as possible, with all participants at least being expected to present their points seriously and honestly. At least in terms of how I think it'd work, ideally... But I think there'd be some divisiveness over a channel that would inevitably create stigma as yet another debate channel, except this time officiated as one. I'm not expecting the hypothetical #serious_discussion channel to be particularly political, but I feel it could recreate some of the same problems #political_thunderdome did in being incredibly coin-flippy in terms of who you may end up seeing discussing things there, what you may end up seeing discussed there, etc. Most people tend to shy away from conflict as well, and I am not entirely confident that #serious_discussion's uses would be entirely benign for the community in, say, a year from now and further on.

This is an old strategy I used to employ back when the dexalin in question contained 15 unit dexalin pills instead of 5 unit autoinhalers. It was less problematic back to grab the dexalin considering dexalin pills were pretty terrible, but dexalin when inhaled has a mechanic that makes it more efficient (can't spitball an exact percentage, meh) than if it were injected normally. Also, is tricordrazine actually good again? I wonder what changed.

1. Yes, I apologize once again for the lengthiness. Part of the struggle with concisely putting my thoughts is the difference between using an easy, simplified, but not always true statement or using the boring, lengthy, terribly time-consuming explanation that requires some level of fact-checking and thought on my part. It was never my intention to act as if I know better - I frankly do not believe that I do, despite my experience in dealing with various types of situations in this game and out of this game, I am by no means a real authority on any subject. Even the sources I have provided may be experts in their field but even they have to be taken for what their word and experience is really worth. always 2. I accept the apology. It's fine, really, at worst you made a mistake in phrasing your rebuttal the way you did. I'm sure you meant better. 3. No, I believe you're allowed to express disagreement, I simply view that an important part of expressing constructive disagreement from my experience is to at least minimize emotionally charged aspects of a talking point, in spite of how difficult a topic like this can be, since it has real-world implications too. When someone mentions not just frustration with someone's argument but slightly more than that, it led to me to believe you had something personal to settle based off what you read. And that concerned me a bit, since I wasn't expecting that kind of response, but I'm glad I was incorrect in my evaluation. The manner of how you disagreed was primarily what motivated my initial reply to you. The irony is also not lost on me with what argument escalated between us in the span of a few paragraphs. Self-fulfilling prophecy. 4. Yes, I agree. But making things more concise without losing vital parts of a core point - or vital details that support the core point - is an incredibly difficult endeavor. Pick and choose any sort of thing I could possibly say as an observation of how something works, but because I did not cite "why" something works the way it does, it becomes an easy thing to poke and prod at as if it were a fundamental part of the whole argument, even though in reality it was just a weaker, less significant part of the whole. I've had many bad experiences with cherrypickers, so much so that they pretty much single-handedly influenced me to re-do how I explain things. To the point where I overthink things. It's terrible. 5. I think your motivations are still fair - whether selfish or not it's really of no consequence. I think I can understand a bit where the very brief debate started, and it's that the motivations of the two of us very clearly stand in opposition like the door-frame example I wrote about earlier. As you've admitted, you're results-oriented, I'm personally rather details-oriented first and results-oriented second. That's a sort of ideological opposition in a way, but I'm still rather glad you came around to test the waters and see if there was anything that could be learned. I don't particularly care about having my point proven right per se, but I do like when I learn something new or useful, so I appreciate you participating. Thanks.

I believe the removal of rats from the config would not be a bad idea, all things considered. There really isn't much to it in terms of purpose that roleplaying an animal at-will presents and there's also the issue where the 5 minute respawn time creates problems where - despite that the rat player has to wait 5 minutes - will just continue being a massive pest instead of a minor pest. Playable rats sort of take more away than they give is the problem. I'd like to see more NPC rat mechanics and such, though, but that can come at a later point in time.

Now that the meta has pretty much settled, I want to point out how powerful pneumalin is at saving lives seeing as how lung ruptures are the most common form of injury. I'd argue filling every autoinhaler with pneumalin is a better idea than the regular inhalers since doctors will blow through the unrefillable (I think) standard inhalers like its nothing, and it is better for them if they only use 5 units at a time. The basic chems are really good to make, and the only things I normally skip at this point are less useful specialist chemicals such as imidazioline and the anti-rads, seeing as how uncommon such injuries are to see in the medical bay. I think it is vital to focus on the basic chemicals listed above -- especially a lot of dexalin plus -- as well as pneumalin and peridaxon, as they form the crux of what is essentially some of the most potent pharmaceuticals in the game at the moment. Everything else can effectively be ignored or only made when it is needed.

I hope this isn't longer than the original post, sorry in advance. There was a lot to unpack here. The nature of a roleplay server is simulating real-life social and physical interaction through characters as proxies. Antagonists are a side feature of the game to drive conflict and therefore hand-deliver problems to the majority players to solve, survive or overcome. As the initial preface says, though, it doesn't have to be that way you describe as "pixelated space police that type out one world and click people horizontal". I'm not sure what the writing style of this has to do with it unless you are honestly attempting insinuate that no one should care, or people put far too much effort into thinking about these issues, etc. I believe people have the right to ambivalence, but ambivalence stops being really ambivalence when in-group is telling out-group "you're not allowed to care." Likewise, I think this issue is important! I believe I already covered what my intent was of actually writing this. Further, why did you feel the need to share these other thoughts of yours, already highlighted in bold? Because these seemingly hostile questions have seemingly established a few beliefs of yours without me really needing to answer them: 1. Someone else writing up a lengthy post about an unfortunately complex subject is somehow attempting to intimidate people with their own intelligence. 2. An admission that just because the reading level of a passage was above your own patience or desire to read (going so far as to unnecessarily express how reading anguished you, even), it is your belief that it is above everyone else's capability to read. 3. An accusation of authorial vent/self-indulgence in writing something. We're not really past breaking down this paragraph yet, and I'm of the impression you believe this thread was an act of bad faith from the start. I think it wouldn't be useful to attempt to convince you otherwise as I don't think you have a basis to hold that belief. Further, I have no expectation that people need to or should read anything I post, much less even respond. Skimming is completely fine -- but I admit I will be disappointed when someone who admits to skimming later posts with indication that they didn't read crucial aspects of the post even through appropriate skimming. But I really don't hold grudges in that case. People can do whatever they want. What I have posted is ultimately still my thoughts, and I believe I have gone to such pains as to keep the initial post as inoffensive to anyone, as well as constructive as possible. It is still your belief this is a bad faith post anyway. Another thing is that I have redrafted this quite a few times, and it is pretty much impossible to simplify a subject like this. Further, it's not only academic requirement to have to form basic foundation through providing sources or reason for larger arguments, but it's also essentially social courtesy to have to justify one's belief with evidence or reason. And that requires a lot more writing than just citing a talking point with no justification. Understanding the "why" of things is an important part of critical thinking - and I do not say this as some supposed attempt to self-indulge or lord over other people with my enlarged-and-possibly-roided-out cerebral cortex or something. It's demonstrating that improving a way of doing things is certainly possible and within reach. Yes, the amount of writing is truly unfortunate. I wish I could simply convey concepts without needing to explain or justify them, and I also wish I could understand things without needing to hear as to "why". But it's not how it works, as "why" cannot be explained "just because", because frankly a person can't be prior educated on every subject that exists, it is impossible. But, I believe you seriously underestimate the ability of other people to grasp concepts. I'll attempt to do better in the regard of improving how I make things more and more concise anyway. The Austrian author being cited was to help determine how conflict can escalate to greater extremes over time on its own - perhaps to apocalyptic ends, even - when there is no concerted attempt by other human beings to de-escalate themselves, and instead engage in further perpetual acts of conflict between the in-group and the out-group, primarily as they are armed with the belief that their own escalation is justified by preventing a future attack upon themselves. This relationship can also be reciprocal, and the reciprocation (eye for an eye) may even justify further escalation to the next level of conflict. This is a useful - though not absolute - gradient to be aware of, as it helps describe where the relationship between two out-groups seems to lie, and how stable the relationship seems to be. Further, you'll notice I didn't cite specific methods to deal with various situations because life is not that simple and no two situations are the same, ergo using the same methodology every time is essentially what I am advising against in this very thread. I might actually say that coming up with specific methods to deal with specific problems is something that needs to come after understanding a different ethos of doing things, which is primarily what I'm using the soapbox here for - to describe a different line of thinking that can be taught and utilized to more humanitarian effectiveness. I criticize the existing "use of force continuum" doctrine that is used even in the real world today, because it is not only binary but the very model presumes a situation can only get worse until a subject is, funny enough, subjugated. I then highlight all the problems with that, which I don't need to repeat twice, really. Beatings and/or death should not be the go-to to resolve every situation despite being objectively effective at resolving conflict short-term, if we ignore having ethics. The grandmother example was one of describing how conflict is not only when violence occurs, but also when social interests find themselves in opposition. It was primarily intended to be written to help demonstrate that conflict is not only when two people start hitting each other over a box of raisins, but rather to describe that conflict starts at disagreement, and also often escalates from there, with situations barring a grandma and substituting a stranger instead. As it is more common to deal with arguments than it is violence, people are more likely to avoid the unfamiliar, dangerous and uncertain measure of conflict that is "violence" yet some will walk straight into an argument with another person and fiercely debate their position against the out-group. Because ultimately, debates are safe, and nothing is truly lost when neither person gets their way. But as we know, disagreements can escalate into worse circumstances much later if nothing resolves from the initial argument about an issue. There is no de-facto method that solves this, it largely depends on the situation. Some would tell you to forsake your own principles in an attempt to maintain harmony with the out-group. Others would insist that escalating to action in order to resolve the issue that disaffects the in-group is more important than your relationship with the out-group. The grandmother juxtaposition is a relevant example to what can result various IC conflicts that happen on server, especially between security and everyone else. It essentially states right off the bat that a smaller conflict between two groups will likely build up to a larger, more problematic one later on - even if it's just a discussion about grain, the disagreement creates ideological struggle until resolved. If it even can be resolved, that is. This is often relevant a million times over over the course of a week's rounds, because how many times do you see people observing rounds and saying something to the effect of "You reap what you sow"? I think the forum is buggy with image attachment, I really shouldn't have bothered, should've gone with URL pastes instead - and I've tried incredibly hard to remove the very image appended at the bottom of the page. I've no idea why it shows up like that. Tried fixing it more than twice and no dice, really, I'll see if I can fix it for the last time. The intent was for it to only show up twice (one was the original image, the second was a modified image). Specifically, the Norfolk Marine Security Forces model. Regarding the matter of expectations of absolute victory - the expectation wouldn't exist if everyone was of the belief that compromise and meeting somewhere in the middle on occasion was the right thing to do. Certain ideologically devout persons have zero intention of compromising their values, ever, and will gladly burn their opposition in the way. And how do you convince someone like that to not view things the way they do? I can't give a concise answer about this, because this is genuinely a real issue in real life too. Radicalization itself does not have an easy fix, and it isn't as simple as proving them wrong either -- because they may just interpret it as you trying to sabotage their cause or etc, putting you on their list. It makes diplomacy seem like it isn't an option, and that pointless violence is the only answer. Fundamentally, that isn't fun or comfortable for anyone to deal with. If I was capable of giving a singular, right response to answer that, I would've given it in the OP. Once again, though, I have to use the same talking point about how there is no one tool for every job, however, as decision-making isn't like using a hammer or a wrench to solve every problem (because you'd do some good in situations that require those tools, but just as often more bad if you "solve" every problem that way), it's more like using a multitool (not the yellow door tool) instead. You have to know what works beforehand, which involves needing some level of experience or a strategy. Frustrating as it is to be told "not every problem can be solved with a bullet" and not much else, the statement is used as an invitation for people to think as to what else works besides bullets to solve problems. Think of much of much of my post as like that, irksome as it may sound. Personal truth must be determined based on the situation and must be made to work for you and what your values are. I can tell you what works for me, but it will not necessarily function for you, because even I deal with situations that don't work out well in the end for everyone involved, because that's just how it goes sometimes.

Preface: This thread will largely attempt to detail - and make ethical use of - the concepts of the use of force continuum (in this context, it is a universally applicable standard by how law enforcement should respond to a subject's actions in a given situation) and the doctrine of de-escalation of force (in essence, knowing when someone has had enough and to drop your alertness accordingly to what is reasonable, so as to not unnecessarily harm another person due to a variety of potential reasons). To justify the arguments soon to come I will use a few sources: my own experience (low credibility), from the research I have done on this subject (decent credibility), and the insight of the individuals considered experts I have sought out in order to achieve better clarity and specific knowledge about details of how these abstract concepts work (much better credibility). One more thing that I must specify is this: I understand that there are a few/some/many issues going on right now in the Western part of the world, where what I will talk about is a rather heated topic. Understand that nevertheless, I intend for this thread to be apolitical as possible while still establishing what I view is effective, what I view is ineffective, what is right from my perspective and what I also view as wrong. Please be considerate and understand that, ultimately, this is still my insight which I will attempt to justify with some manner of sourcing. Please also be considerate in not making this topic heated or political in the replies, if any. The intent of this thread is to provide helpful insight and information, not to rile people up. Though I will still understand if there is a different intent involved with how people may inevitably interpret these sorts of things. I will say also that I will try to keep this as condensed and as simple as remotely possible, but I will also point out that this preface is already quite long, so the future of this thread is already quite bleak in that it not be a short read. Apologies in advance if this becomes too lengthy for you. You don't really have to read any of this. But it'd be nice, and it'd be just as nice if someone does read this over and change their way of thinking and doing things for the better. This really is a subject that requires a basis to understand the full picture of what I propose should be goodcurity behavior. No, really, why?: I'm non-essential, American, and quarantine hasn't lifted yet. I'm straight up not having a good time, bro. I suppose something like this was what I always wanted to post anyway. How this thread intends to be useful: Fundamentally, this is a thread with the intention of equipping regular and/or would-be security players with a different perspective of playing their role - and perhaps equipping those who don't play those roles with the knowledge of how things do work on the security side of things. Or perhaps the security regulars or newbies I mentioned are already in line with what ethos I will detail, but they wish to improve how they do things already. As mentioned before, I understand that what I've already detailed and what I have yet to detail will have some political relevancy. Again, though - with everything that is going on it will provoke a lot of emotion, dependent on the individual's position close or away from what is happening in the world right now. But a majority of this information that will be provided is for the make-believe game world, the immersive experience that a fairly sizeable number of this community plunges into everyday for their own interest in social simulation and investment in what amounts to be a community, ultimately. I cannot say anyone would be particularly wrong that whatever information I am liable to share will have some value in its translation to the out-of-game sphere that is real life. Or perhaps in how the OOC community behaves, we can only guess at that. We'll see how it works out. In the beginning, there was fire: Conflict is described as a process, one of a clash of interests. The basis of conflict may vary, but it is always a part of society (please apply your clown make-up and bright colorful costumes now, in order to better vibe with this). Difference of opinion, of religion, of tribalistic and cultural differences, political and international reasons. There are so many things that can cause conflict, and while many might downplay the significance of certain conflicts in an attempt to erase or ignore a pressing issue because they may not think it matters, conflict as a process is constant, the individual symptoms or causes of conflict are not. You may be able to understand conflict better if we illustrate these symptoms of conflict. Luckily, I did not have to do this myself, and instead I found a useful gradient which was largely inspired by Friedrich Glasl's (an Austrian economist and expert on conflict) model of conflict escalation. We will consider this a prototype graphic example, as this only forms one particular basis of thought regarding conflict and how it works. Oh, sourced by "Friedrich Glasl: Konfliktmanagement. Ein Handbuch für Führungskräfte, Beraterinnen und Berater (Conflict management. A handbook for managers, consultants)." In this model, you'll notice there are three specific levels of ranges of how conflict escalates... downward. This is intentional, as Dr. Grasl represents escalation "not as an ascent to higher and higher stages of escalation, but as a descent to deeper and deeper, more primitive and more inhuman forms of dispute". As you may be able to infer, the more one threatens to escalate, the more they put into danger and ultimately put themselves (as the actor) and others (the acted upon) into more and more worse off circumstances. "Win-win" determines the methods of escalation where two parties stand to gain from the milder forms of conflict, both the in-group (us) and the out-group (them). "Win-lose" determines escalation methods which aim to put the in-group in an advantageous position and the out-group into a losing position, which further puts the former into a more powerful position. "Lose-lose" is described in which both parties will be harmed, as the range itself describes destructive or aggressive acts. Note that, yes, sometimes the in-group can deal the most damage to the out-group and thus there is a very clear difference in distinguishing where the most harm was done and who dealt it the most. This category does not seek to make that distinction, as this is not a model for that. Use a scale of weights if you wish to see how pressure on an in-group weight can influence the position of out-group weight, if you wish to see a model about such a distinction in an indirect fashion. The specific rungs of acts are likely to be self-evident and I do not believe they require detailed explanation for each. It is notable that in each range (or 'level' as originally described by Dr. Glasl, but I like the word 'range' here as there are comparisons to a numerical axis to be made, which illustrates this much better), however, each end of that range describes an extreme -- whether it is of relative safety or potential danger of entering another category of conflict escalation. A model like this was designed to help bring more depth to existing escalation of conflict models that did not sufficiently detail how severe or mild a conflict can get, as well as a sense of understanding of how rapidly escalating conflict methodology can inevitably bring harm to all if allowed to continue. Fighting fire with fire: This is where one ethos of conflict resolution emerged from recognition of these concepts -- whether it was merited from an understanding of conflict from an abstract way of thinking or simply established by animal instinct (yes, we humans are still animals, after all - not to understate our great capacity to think about and do things). Against an out-group using a method of force, such as violence, in order to put its own members of the in-group first, it is decided to meet their violence with violence. But naturally, this is, in itself, an extreme example. It is not good to start with extreme examples, but I have structured this on purpose. Many people, unfortunately, first rush to the thought of dealing with violence with immediate, reciprocal violence! Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, blood for blood. Yet there are fair arguments for meeting force with equal force, and not dropping a level down to meet that level of force. It is important to give the "eye for an eye" methodology some credit, however, as we cannot possibly do better without understanding the qualities that a method or process might provide in terms of advantages or negative consequences. Say for instance that you get into a discussion with your hypothetical retired grandmother about current events that are happening as small talk, as you visit her every weekend to share information to her about what goes on out in the world. Your grandmother is known to read a reputable, albeit not always honest, newspaper known as the Daily Moonshine. You find all your news off an internet site known as the Tiger Queen, a source just as reputable as the Daily Moonshine's paper but similar propensity to get things wrong. The subject matter drifts after you make a comment about how the pricing of grain has skyrocketed in recent times due to investment manipulation by securities fraud criminals attempting to take advantage of the recession. Your grandmother wholeheartedly disagrees, insinuating that the pricing of grain skyrocketing was a result of crop famine. Not wishing to be called wrong, especially when you're of the belief that you are most certainly correct and your grandmother is mistaken, you ask where this gets this opinion from. She tells you she read a column from an expert's contribution to the Daily Moonshine. You retort by attacking the legitimacy of the newspaper, citing some articles in question that were discredited by scientists. She responds by attacking the legitimacy of the source that you attempt to cite, ditto. At this point, you have both escalated from a cordial discussion to a full argument attacking each other's source material in order to justify your beliefs about why the price of grain went up! Of course, you are not at each other's throats wanting for blood, not even close. After a few seconds of cooling off, you both have a similar epiphany. You both understand that the nature of relying upon information from a not-entirely reliable source is both equally your fault all on your own. You both pledge to do better in being diplomatic and expeditious in ensuring your source material is reliable, impartial and honest. Yet you come out of this in realization that such a natural conversation immediately led to an escalation of conflict (opinion vs. opinion -> heated debate of these opinions both believed to be fact) simply because you both believed you were right, but not that the out-group was correct. Imagine what you would have done if you were an authority figure in this instance, with all the rights and powers that be to enforce your personal opinion and escalate against your grandmother as you see fit! Of course, it may be somewhat ridiculous to you that manhandling your grandmother because you disagree with her regarding the share price of grain is absurd, but it's not all that out there, is it? Where the continuum of force doctrine comes in: (Image provided by Marine Corps Security Force Regiment, Norfolk, VA. Thanks, moist defender squids.) The use of continuum of force comes into play primarily as a guideline for more serious situations in which an individual is trained and specialized ahead of time to have pre-determined responses for how a conflict may escalate. Ever been pulled aside by a security officer on code blue to be randomly searched? A security officer in that instance is trained to employ these exact strategies in the above model, primarily to keep themselves safe and (hopefully, and ideally) keep you safe unless you decide to attempt to hurt them. The continuum of force is not universally observed by all law enforcement entities, unfortunately, and even when it is observed, law enforcement (due to the unfortunate fact of employing human beings, well known to not have perfect judgement in all cases) may fail to meet criteria of appropriate force escalation. And yet security may escalate anyway. In this instance, however, professional adherence to this doctrine is absolutely possible, and not only can it prevent security from having to hurt someone in order to ensure the subject is compliant with any lawful direction or request, but it also can help prevent injury to the "sentry" (it's this model's way of saying 'security officer', really) in question should the subject decide to escalate to attempting to commit bodily harm or death upon the sentry. Well, you know, in theory this is how it should work. I will say, in terms of gameplay with how I have applied this doctrine, it has worked. But it has in some situations also led to the harm of the subject I'm dealing with anyway, because they made the wrong move or decided to escalate when they could've saved themselves more trouble by not doing so... but then, there are situations where I did not apply this properly and I got my character and their character hurt because of poor judgement in the moment. In policing, particularly in protection of private property and protected installations, this doctrine is most useful when a sentry is required to engage an unidentified subject who may or may not be trespassing. Unfortunately, this doctrine has flaws. Because this model fundamentally teaches that response to conflict methodology can only go upward, and the observation of the subjective nature in which how difficult it is to qualify whether an act by a subject is an active measure of resistance or a passive one, this can still lead to a situation where a sentry decides to attempt to pacify the subject anyway, who then attempts to defend themselves from a wrongful escalation of force, which inadvertently provokes a higher level of response from the sentry. And then it downspirals, most likely into the sentry electing to shoot to kill the subject. A sentry could kill a subject because they incorrectly decided to escalate force before it was objectively appropriate to do so, and then the subject's sudden -- but not necessarily malicious -- resistance to such an unfair call on the sentry's part also factored into their own death. It's unimaginable that such a doctrine could be so misused -- or simple mistakes could be made on either individual's part, or both -- that it leads to the last resort being resorted to in no time at all, despite the subject not being chiefly at fault in the first place. Remember what I said about "It can only escalate?" This model is graphically formatted in such a way that there is no de-escalation, there is only neutralization of the subject as a threat. One way or the other. Whatever your ethics, one cannot deny this is pretty much what this model is telling you. Cause, effect, result. This is all illustrated. But the problem is that this model is results-focused, it is binary and essentially expects either pacification or death of the subject. Don't think I'm exaggerating, every resolution shy of "lethal force" on the right is simply framed in a way to ensure the subject is pacified based on what they do, until they use force that the sentry themselves evaluates as lethal force. "Submit or die" is unfortunately the objective of this doctrine. Another unfortunate thing about this doctrine is that the average person who is stopped by a security officer for a random code blue search is probably not even aware that any action of theirs could have immediate, serious and harmful consequences if they do anything that could possibly be interpreted as a hostile move. It is often taken for granted in real life that someone who is generally meant to protect the general "you" could just as well kill you. These are some scary things to think about, isn't it? I mean, sure, this is just a game, but get immersed for a second in what I'm saying. In my opinion: It shouldn't have to be this way. Because it doesn't have to be. But it does not have to end in fire: "Submit or die" does not need to be the way to play security, or even as an antagonist. In general, we should not have to be content with that ethos that an archaic escalation of conflict model teaches people to play along with. It shouldn't be the way to play, even. I've been through these periods where security has been unable to trust antagonists to be sportsmanlike, and inversely antagonists are unable to trust security to be sportsmanlike. This leads to a vicious cycle of unnecessary, instant and dissatisfying violence that only angers both groups and makes one another unable to see the viewpoints and merits of the other side. This is not a matter of 'both sides are wrong', but rather that 'both sides can be at fault'. There are no absolutes to dabble in here. Just a recognition that anyone can be wrong, or even right. But it is important first to recognize that we can be wrong, and thus can do better. This is therefore the culmination of what security newbies could learn, and what security regulars could certainly aim to do better for. This is my proposal of an evolution of doctrine to you, you may be very familiar with this image. Bear with me, it won't take long to explain - Despite this being a long thread already. You will notice two differences: that I added "downward" arrows to what existed before, and I added a bar to the "serious assaultive -> deadly force" level. Regarding the former, I believe it is required to have a measured understanding of mercy, that so long as someone does not escalate to lethal force, the sentry should still give them the benefit of the doubt after the initial force was applied and step down their continuum of force accordingly. And, if in fact a subject de-escalates their own behavior to start with (and does not try to immediately re-assault you, of course) then the sentry should once again bring their level of response down. Regarding the latter, it must be understood that someone who has demonstrated such a disregard for someone else's IC right to life -- even if they're a mall cop -- is a potential threat to more than just the mall cop. If your answer to a problem is murder, well, one must not be surprised if you get killed too. I would not expect any security players to have to use LTL force against armed, murderous mercenaries. That would simply be ridiculous of me to ask. It concludes: If you've read beginning to end, skimmed or read every detail -- doesn't really matter -- thank you for reading. If you scrolled to the bottom -- heyhowareyougorg? For those that did read, I hope you found this interesting, and I await to see any discussion or rebuttals about this. Hopefully, there can be a cordial forum discussion that can be had about this, that's been quite rare to see since discord got popular. Have a wonderful day, hope everyone who views the forum here is safe.

I was making a joke about Beepsky, c'mon...

The actual pages have more salient advice than what a single text box can go over. The point is to click on them to learn more about them, like any page on Wikipedia or any entry in an encyclopedia. I say this isn't a problem.

On paper, the QM's the one responsible for making orders of various products and ensuring that tasks are delegated to the CTs to ensure everything that was ordered gets delivered to where it should be going. The role of the CTs is to push boxes around to ensure everything physically gets where it needs to go, whereas the QM is supposed to manage who is doing what and etc. De facto, there is nothing the QM can do that Cargo Technicians cannot do on their own. They are not command, and they do not possess demotion authority. The difference in access is pretty much marginal, and the QM at the same time also behaves as a Super Cargo Technician. In what happens in practice, the QM is basically a redundant middle-management role that doesn't necessarily have any real authority whatsoever, as they are not command. Since it is a corporate environment, nobody takes the QM super seriously anyway (what are they gonna do, beat people who disagree? that's a security thing), thus QMs recognize this and act like CTs are of equal rank and importance to them, hence why cargo mafia is a thing.

The only useful thing on the roof was the huge solar network and the guardpost up there. Which, honestly, was not a whole lot. I also would say the bottom-most z-level has no purpose either, it only has the radiators from the engine, which could be moved to be directly outside the SM on the main level.