It is an unsolvable topic. While I agree with many things that are said here and while I, personally, think that canon progression of characters and lore is the only correct thing and non-canon stuff can be fun once in a while, but ultimately not adding to a progressive narrative, the problem is once again not only the game - but the players.
Even the way of freeform antags as they exist on our server, if you inspect it in more detail you come to the quick conclusion that antags are extremely limited by design of the server, the setting and of course, the game. You can be as creative as you want, and some people really are, but the amount of original gimmicks(tm) are exhausted. Period. You can maybe bring a spin to one or something unexpected happens and steers said original gimmick(tm) into a new direction but ultimately it boils down to the same thing in the end. That is why antags need to be non-canon, as is right now. People also do not WANT to keep interactions with antags canon. Hell, they don't even want to keep events and consequences from CANON events canon. Something that has been incredibly confusing in KOTW because it was allowed and the lack of guidance regarding the matter didn't help. But I digress.
People who know me know that opinion of me: People, for some reason, do not want lasting consequences. I see it in Incident Reports, too, regularly, when talking to involved people. It is a problem that also factors into the whole "keep all antag related stuff non-canon". But I digress again. Antagonists as they are, even if they were made even more freeform as they are, in some way, do not add anything for the long run, in my opinion. The fact that the same people over and over and over get drafted as antag speaks for itself - most people, myself included, don't play antag because the way of storytelling, delivered by antags, is just lackluster. It's a bit of action movie shooting, much talking over nothing, the ten millionth vault raid or stupid wizard from another dimension shouting ONI'SOMA over and over and over again.
Of course I know that the server would be dead in a week (Alert: dramatic exaggeration) if we'd only play 24/7 extended but that is why I loop back to my first sentence in this post: It is an unsolvable topic, for now, I think. The setting of the space station Aurora is just too limiting to be really creative and bring new and interesting antag interactions in 2020....and onwards. This is no new problem - lore events in the past sometimes felt that you had to go out of your way to include the Aurora in intergalactic events in some way.
I also want to echo what nienna said above, something I also have been saying for a long time now:
HRP in SS13 standards is MRP - at best. Really depends on the people. By no way I mean to elevate myself or anyone else over other players, but that the game is just limiting. Of course it is, it's a game, but it shows with the standard antagonists more than in any other way, in my opinon.
To sum it up, there are three problems with antagonists and canon narrative:
- The setting is limiting as it is, a research station out in a asteroid nebula.
- All original gimmicks(tm) have been done a billion times over and over again - you all know that.
- People get buttblasted about actual consequences. There needs to be a solution to this, even if it is through rules or anything else.
It's a hard topic and I cannot give the perfect solution - or any solution to that matter, but I find it very good that a discussion has been started about it. Even if it is no new topic it is important to be talked about