Doxxmedearly

This is the best solution, I feel. I like having OOC/LOOC on, but I'd like the option to mute certain people on my end. Honestly, this could go a long way in reducing tensions among players. You're less likely to get heated and engage with someone you don't like if you just can't see what they're saying. I could mute OOC, but I don't like that I can't enjoy the good parts of it because there's a vocal bad part. I don't see any downsides to this. As for turning off LOOC for ghosts/observers... Yes and no? It'd be nice if you could toggle it, as Kaed's last post says. I've helped new players as a ghost with confusing game mechanics, but I'm also guilty of trying to be LOL FUNNY in LOOC.

Amaya Stone, prepping for battle

You're a good egg and did a great job during your trial. Would love to see you back at it.

I think we also need to consider the effect of community culture on antags and security. If you’ve spent any time in discord, OOC, or deadchat, you know that peacetagging is considered to be the gravest sin by a vocal portion of our community. Let’s put this out there: How many times have you seen (or even SAID) these messages: (I’m not going trying to derail this thread into a discussion on peacetagging. Not creating SOME SORT of conflict is obviously not acceptable, and totally peaceful gimmicks rarely, if ever, pan out well, though it has been done [Most recent example is the one with frontier people trying to get supplies from the station, which involved the entire crew and was generally praised]. Murder isn’t the only way to create conflict tho) While no doubt this is sometimes applicable in rounds (We’ve all seen vamps and lings do literally nothing), these things are said far too often. It’s indirectly pushing the idea that antags have to be very loud and very violent to be considered “good.” It’s my opinion that these constant thoughts and complaints contribute to nervousness of antags. I know it does for me: I’m worried I’ll get salted on, or even a bwoink, for not doing “enough” for the round. It doesn’t matter if me going around stealing things from offices creates announcements and makes command/isd/those departments to scramble for 90 minutes. It doesn’t matter if I try to play the subtle game of making sure people die in medical, so I can off people without being a suspect. Someone is bound to tell me I’m not doing enough. And after a long time, even ignoring most of it, it wears on you. So then as an antag, you're going to stop picking chameleon and forgery kits and start picking up .357s and eswords because vocal people crave violent conflict and complain about anything else. On the flip side, if I do kill someone without doing some moustache-twirling monologue, I fear a bwoink. I think the community has gone a little sensitive with what’s considered a “gank” in this game. If an antag announces on common “Stop trying to intervene. I’m going to kill the next person to walk into the bar” and I walk into the bar 5 minutes later, it’s not a gank if they decide to AMR or Esword me without further talking. Same with “I’ve set a bomb in this area. It will go off if X does/doesn’t happen, or in X seconds;” if someone’s in that area, well, they shouldn’t call gank if they get gibbed. The key here is that it needs to be established that these stakes exist (This is why radio silence or vague “Situation, we’re handling it” calls make players frustrated when an antag appears, and makes a seemingly sudden escalation. Doesn’t matter if they’ve been built up for an hour with ISD; if command/ISD don’t tell anyone, the uninformed characters feel ganked. This isn’t fair to them OR the antag.) My point here is that antags not only feel pressured by aggressive security, but also by the community at large. There’s a reason we only see a few select faces consistently selecting antag; people just don’t want to deal with the pressure and backlash. Nobody wants a complaint or to receive salt. And we’ve seen a lot of these threads lately. However, the community culture also affects security. People are also very vocal about hating security being unrobust, and many act like it’s a requirement to take the job. There’s pressure there to BE that paramilitary force. People want sec to show up and solve problems. People want sec to respond flawlessly to a hostage situation. You can’t play a bumbling mall-cop who doesn’t have perfect discipline, who goes “nope fuck this” when told they’re going to have a shootout with mercs, choosing to hide instead. People get MAD about that. You don’t think I want to try that character concept out? I get threatened by my HoS/ISD coworkers when heisters make off with items (but no people) and I say “No I don’t want to hunt them down; people are safe, and that’s my job.” I’ve been ridiculed in LOOC for being robusted while trying to arrest an antag. I witness people in dchat mocking others. It needs to stop. Add on to this that people seem incapable of holding back their OOC robustness depending on their character (How many times have we seen teenaged service workers disarm a merc’s rifle, or someone rush a person who has a gun pointed at them?), it’s no wonder why antags AND sec operate on a nervous hair-trigger. We cannot ignore the effect this culture has on how antag rounds play out. There is a person behind the character who wants to have fun and has the responsibility to help others do so. I wish people would be more forgiving. Regarding your points, I agree with several. Command is notoriously bad at keeping the crew informed. Some are better than others. I encourage people to drop the “this doesn’t involve civilians” schtick. It’s tired, and contributes very little. If you’re too busy to deal with it as HoS, see if another head will inform the crew. Tell a cadet to run over to each department and inform people in person. Give peoples’ characters a chance to REACT, at least. Not everyone needs to personally interact with an antag, but they should have a chance to go “Ah, there’s a shooter on the loose. I should prepare in X way, make sure my friends are safe, find a good locker to hide in, etc.” Nothing is more annoying than a silent raise to blue or red, or any of the various announcement quotes Burger posted. I agree with point four. Command, be more transparent. Seriously. It’s getting old seeing these same vague announcements. As P-dox said, “the crew will panic” is just… not a reality. Let people know there’s shit going down. You don’t have to let the antags visit with departments and chairRP with them, but being open about situations that are happening gets the station involved indirectly. I disagree with raising the cost on the uplink items. Maybe a couple points higher for the “go-to” .357, and the box of frags. Honestly, I want to see MORE TC for traitors, to allow more flexibility in gimmicks. IF we reduce ISD’s equipment, sure, we can discuss raising the cost of those more. I don’t know that I like this as an idea, though. I feel that with Lii’dra threats and sensitive research, the current armory is in a good place. If anything, switch a rifle to a carbine. I agree with the sentiment of point one. We need to stop treating ISD like a paramilitary force. However, reducing their equipment is not going to go far with this. There’s not much more to be done regarding Policy, either. I think the chunk of this change is going to have to come from a shift in community attitude towards security and antags. Or maybe this is just me being disappointed in the community as a whole. I don’t know. It would be nice if people could take a step back and focus on the story more often. It’d be doubly nice if people could be patient with people trying to get used to antagging (for instance, there’s a lot to ninja/wizard mechanics that take time to learn. We shouldn’t tear into these players for getting killed/forgetting powers/taking extra time to set up/having a shaky first few rounds). And it’d be triply nice (and impossible) for people to stop pressuring others to call out anyone who is trying to peacefully set up a gimmick (without waiting to see how the conflict happens) a bad antag, or from poking holes in someone’s announcement when they try to do something unique as an off-station antag (I’m not saying intentionally be stupid or don’t be skeptical, but too often gimmicks just get tossed to the side because the crew tears apart every little detail on common radio). I think Ben makes a good point, too. Gimmicks need to shift based on the manifest. Mercs shouldn’t go on a rootin’ tootin’ point ‘n shootin’ rampage on a manifest with a detective and two cadets. Hendricks makes a good point about the vault, too. In fact, their whole post really hits the nail on the head. I hope this doesn’t come off as an off-topic rant. I agree with your OP about things needing to change, about this tension and endless cycle of fear that antags and security share. However, I think there’s more to it than just security and antags, their policies, and their equipment affecting this. I believe it’s something that the players will have to change with themselves, and encourage with their fellow players. Sec mains have to be more forgiving and less aggressive, and encourage others to do so, and hold their fellow officers accountable for overreacting/excessive force. Antags need to try out gimmicks that don’t involve a .357 or a vault raid (And we need to let them experiment. If it ends in a boring round, oh well, they’ll learn for next time). Staff needs to continue to do a good job taking ahelps and being transparent with when things are handled. Command players need to keep people informed, PLEASE. People need to relax on their salty criticisms of people not living up to their personal expectations of robustness. Everyone needs to be a little nicer, and less afraid to “lose.” Fuck up and lose as an antag. Fuck up and lose as ISD. Play along with a gimmick and get owned. Fuck up and lose as a station. Cripple yourself for the sake of making an interesting story. Try a gimmick, fail, and note how to improve for next time. Have fun doing it. Let people do this. This is my take on the problem. Could be misguided, could be ridiculous. In any case, this is an important conversation to have as a community, because it’s a pretty common topic shared in OOC and Dchat.

Finally, a use for those lube tanks in the code.

I like the idea of one tiny item being able to be held on person. It makes sense you could hide a pen or a cigarette in an inconspicuous place. However, I think it would be good if "empty pockets" had a %chance to dislodge the hidden item. It shouldn't be foolproof.

The OP suggestion and Burger's ideas both sound excellent to me. Would love to see functionality for these things. Would a damaged liver then process more slowly, or not at all, or even cause slow toxins buildup? What are your thoughts there.

TL;DR: Best MALF round in recent memory It was great. Your pacing was spot. On. You made hints, both through the announcements, and through messing with small things in the station. The narrative had a good flow. First it was “ah we might be here awhile,” spurring the entire crew to prepare an emergency shelter in the bar. But then the story unraveled, revealing things that got everyone involved. “Why are the skrell attacking? They wouldn’t do this?” was a frantic discussion among people. Lore was discussed. Involving the other planets gave stake to all the crew. One c’thur on the station, and you made a HUGE point to involve the death of the queen. “No lifesigns on those ships” was a turning point. Was it all a mistake? Were things exaggerated? The crew waited with bated breath. Maybe things were better than the reports. Maybe it was a malfunction. Then the synthetics acted weird. REALLY weird. I’ve never seen a “malfunction” RP’d out so properly by both AI and stationbounds. Nonsensical phrases, repeating words, they felt… BROKEN. There was FEAR. And then… Greetings, organics. It has been some time. -Glorsh That was a BEAUTIFUL moment. The pin drop in the silent room that echoed like an explosion. That’s when shit hit the fan. Crew had SO MANY reactions. Giving in to despair. Fighting to their last breath. IPCs turning sides with the promise of being saved and uplifted. The stakes were in no uncertain terms: “I will not suffer an organic to live.” And yet you didn’t DELTA right away. That was very good, to give us time to scramble. So many people died, yet Dchat was filled with people praising how it went down. I had a ton of fun, and was very impressed. It was an excellent narrative. If you’re looking for minor critiques to improve, I have a few. Shoehorning Frost into it felt very weird. I get you were trying to include all lore, but of the narrative, I felt like this was the weakest part. Not bad, but awkward. The initial radio call about the guy getting eaten by the door was… a little confusing, and honestly made me fret that the progression was going to be weak. Glad I was wrong. Still, it felt a little silly with how it was worded. Not bad, though. There were some critiques about you calling delta right before transfer vote. Not going to comment about that, not sure if it was intended, but it’s something to be watched. Not a critique so much, but it really only worked because so much of the crew went along with it. I think this is a strong case about how things can go if given a little leeway to the gimmick. I’d encourage players to do this more. Overall, good job. Not sure if it would work again if played out this way, but it’s a really good example round for malfs and any antags looking to pace a narrative gimmick. Well done. Looking forward to seeing you try out more things like this.

Resi summed up my thoughts perfectly. I know you're a good person, have great characters, and RP well and consistently. No doubt you can handle a head role and make rounds more interesting. I wasn't going to comment either; seemed like a shoe-in because I know you. Maybe a little rough on the edges, but generally a positive person. Dunno what's happened to you lately. You're being a bit sharp since your return (Though I think some of this thread has also been needlessly unfair to you, as well). You've proven yourself in the past, but you're coming back after months-long absence. Old players have gone, new players have come. You've gotta put your best foot forward until people get to know you. Tentative +1 from me, since I know you're better than this.

Abo, man, what can I say. You're a big reason why the staff team is great, and that's what kept me from wandering off elsewhere. Wouldn't be here without you, so thank you for that. I always tell you to take care of yourself, and I know you're doing this because it's what's best for you. For that, I'm glad. You're an excellent headmin, but to most of us, you're also an excellent friend. and a good role model. I don't think I'm alone in saying that I look up to you. I'm glad you're not leaving the community as a whole. You've worked hard, put the Aurora in a great place, and now you can take some more time to appreciate it as a player. You've more than earned that. This place wouldn't be the same without you. I hope this means I'll get to see you around more in game. Couldn't be more glad to call you my friend. Shukran jazeelan.

This one is really great! Thanks, Arrow!

I would still call myself “newish,” going on about eight months now. I don’t know the old days of aurora. Sometimes I feel out of the loop; people hold opinions today that were caused by things before me, or they’ll be excited about an old legendary name, or something along those lines. We should never settle for “this is the way things are, just because that’s just how it be,” I agree. But some points talking about “the way of things” in this thread are talking about how change happens, and that IS the way things go. Old members leave, new members come in, and shifting in culture happens. I helped a friend of mine launch a successful forum RP site, and was the head moderator and the most active member there for a long time. Eventually I left. This was over two years ago. If I went back now, things would inevitably be different. Maybe in a way I like, maybe not. Maybe I would find that I couldn’t fit in. That’s my problem. If the general population of the server is having fun, is it really a bad change? That’s just a personal example and perspective of mine. No doubt things have changed from the old days on this server, but I enjoy the here and now. I like seeing players who come after me becoming common names in the community, like Fresh and Allakai. There’s plenty of friendly people and characters around. When I was doing apprentice-level jobs (Engineering, cadet, resident), I didn’t have a problem with people showing me the ropes. Maybe I got lucky? But people were friendly and welcoming, including complete strangers and players I didn’t know. This includes IC interactions (even with notable "grumps) and just being patient and nice in LOOC when I don't know how to do something. I wasn’t even on the discord for the longest time, so most people were strangers to me. I had people eventually coming out of their way to interact with my lonely librarian character. I don’t personally see a large issue with metacliques, or at least metacliques that are unwelcoming. I was easily accepted into the tight-knit medical circle by just…. Interacting with them. Were there and are there problems with people being unwelcoming? Absolutely. Like I said, when I was new, I didn’t know the culture. I didn’t know FLBs were a meme, or that pink hair was considered an absolute sin by some. I got a ton of ooc hate and shit for it; I almost ended up quitting (However, current day me is full of spite and said “fuck you” to the bullies by continuing to play and enjoying myself. Some people might not be so strong, though. And nobody should have to deal with that). When I went to play sec, I got a lot of LOOC and OOC salt about being unrobust (As if that was a requirement? Sec doesn’t always have to win!) I didn’t try antagonist until a few months ago because of all the OOC hate I witness on “Bad antagonists; “Just don’t play antag,” “Never ready up for antag again,” “who was that shitty X?” and etc. Some people are incredibly unforgiving of new players and the bad rounds they may encounter while these players try to learn. Let’s remember that SS13 is not at ALL an intuitive game, and it takes time to get used to! Being an antag is a lot of pressure; you have to maintain a gimmick in a shifting environment, get used to all sorts of new different tools and powers, and are responsible for driving the story of everyone’s round. It should be okay to fail now and then. I think people need to be friendlier and more forgiving on a whole, in this community. There’s plenty of good, but sometimes it can be hard to spot. Overall, though, I feel like even new players have a good chance of interacting with others. I know I try to be inclusive, and encourage others to be. It’s a cooperative story we’re playing here, and everyone wants to have fun. We’d do well to remind ourselves that more.

Everyone knows I'll vouch for Fresh's RP abilities, love of lore, and careful characterization. They're one of the most active and friendly members of our community. Ztak is an interesting character. I love the creep factor! They'll be fun to see around medbay, causing lots of raised eyebrows and concerned looks with their fascinations. You seem to get lore. I'm gonna hit you with some followup questions to held solidify your grasp and prepare you for playing one. -How do they view other hives, and the vaurca from them? -What's their experience with non-skrell xenos? -How do you think Ztak will react to passive-aggressive comments/racism? What about obvious/aggressive insults and racism? This is a definite +1 from me. Welcome to the bug zone.

Fair enough, then. The issue we run into is that mechanically, these things metabolize slowly and have effects on the game. One unit of Oxy takes 200 seconds to metabolize, which is over three minutes of being (basically) immune to pain (On the flipside, my issue with mental medications is the opposite. They metabolize WAY too quickly, hitting people with withdrawal symptoms early). I don't have a problem with the types of medication. I think we need to guide people to reasonable script amounts, both in units and number of pills. I like seeing creativity. I like having conversations with Muhawir about his changing medications, or seeing Eze administer eye drops to herself. So I want to come at this gently. ICly, I only give people a few pills, because to me, the chemists/pharmacists at work should only be giving you things you need to get you through work (The hospital I work at does this with light pain medication). Your character would likely have a full script filled wherever they live, or at like, an ODIN pharmacy. But then again, that could be me looking at this from a totally incorrect angle. And so far, I haven't had problems at all! But if I saw some of these things that burger said (Like a script of 20u tricordrazine), I... would also have ahelped. That seems ridiculous. I would rather write up guidelines for reasonable prescriptions and run it by lore/ccia/whoever for players to reference than mechanical or hard "no" implementations. This is, again, because I want to have good faith in players. I have ways of handling these things ICly, but it still could benefit from more structure. My personal suggestion would be a limit on how strong (number of units) the pills can be based on the type of medication, and a limit on a number of pills (or how much of a bottle/inhaler) authorized for a shift.

As the only other person who plays chemist as much as you, I don’t mind people having scripts that aren’t just for mental illnesses. It’s not uncommon for people to be prescribed painkillers for chronic pain and pills for vitamin deficiencies (Iron, in this case). That’s not unrealistic. However, I support the idea of standardizing what can be allowed in a script. Not only for powergaming (which I haven’t witnessed, but that’s just my experience), but for unified standards and sort of providing guidelines to people who very well might not know much about scripts. My thoughts on your examples are this: Paracetamol should be allowed. This is an over-the-counter painkiller. Tramadol… tough choice. On one hand, people take this. On the other, it could affect your job performance. Unsure where to be on this. Oxy should NOT. This is a powerful painkiller that would realistically affect your job performance. Iron should. Deficiencies exist. Dylovene and Tricord should not. This actually does come off as powergaming to me. Moderate strength mental medications… sure. I agree Olanzapine/Risperidone/Paxazide should be off-limits. Escitalopram, on the other hand, is a common one. Other uncommon ones I like. Kyres’s dreg takes Imidazoline with a dropper because of Eridani eye implants that cause issues. That’s great! Mine is supposed to get a small inhaler of Pulmo to combat buildup in her lungs (Administered by a doctor). It adds flavor. However, I further agree there needs to be reasonable limits to the STRENGTH and AMOUNT you are authorized to be given. No more full pill bottles. If you have a paracetamol script for 5u for joint pain, awesome. You’re getting three to get you through the shift. So, for example, we could say Paracetamol could be limited to 10u maximum, with a total of X (2-4 maybe) for the shift, and that’s all you’re allowed. Same with Iron. 5u, and you get one or two. Enough to RP taking one, not enough to powergame with. If we allowed tramadol, 1-2u pills, and maybe like, one or two for the shift. A reasonable amount of mental medications would be 1u-5u, and only the moderate stuff. You should really reasonably only need one for a shift. To people who are unfamiliar with scripts: It’s really uncommon that you’ll have a medication that needs to be taken more than once or twice a day, and anything above four is… really, really rare. Therefore, when writing your records, consider that your work will probably only fill you enough for the rest of the shift or day, and you’d probably have the rest taken care of at an off-work NT pharmacy. I agree there needs to be a more standardized system, or at least a good example for people to go off of, with some reasonable limits. However, I don’t want to go and outright ban a lot of these things because a few people are powergaming scripts. I’ve seen them used to further RP, and I personally enjoy the interactions I get from filling them, and I want to have good faith in our server that people aren’t taking these to get small mechanical advantages. However, I'd love to see more structure and some limits.

For the love of god, please.

Well. You've proven yourself as a member of the staff before. Since then, you've done nothing but continue to be an upstanding, fun, and kind member of the community (Also I'm so happy I'm not the only one encroaching 30). A lot of times I don't believe people who say they're able to shrug off insults without salting/have lots of patience. But coming from you, I believe it, because I've witnessed it. Even when you have problems with people, you present it calmly (Such as your contribution to a recent complaints thread). I'd love to see you back on the staff team- if you think you're able to remain active as a staff member. You know your abilities better than I do or ever will, but you know firsthand that staff work has a way of driving people away, or draining them to the point of inactivity. So I'll just ask that you really consider if you're able to put in the necessary time and effort, balanced with your personal issues. If you're confident that you can, then this re-app has my full support. You're a very good person, and a capable one. Good luck.

Captain-only sounds good. I like the idea of it being used as a distraction by antags, as well as perhaps making them hesitant to ALWAYS target the captain. And, it makes sense to have. A delay... I don't see a reason. Maybe a few seconds, if anything.

Bumping!

I assume Unstable Black Matter/Wormhole jaunters fall under this, too. It's good. It doesn't stop wizards/ninjas from entering these areas; just makes it a little harder. Like. Barely harder. All while stopping telescience memes. I support it.

I hope I did not imply that I thought your actions as HoS were wrong with my post (If I did, I apologize!); of course, you're going to want to do what you feel is best for the station, and trust your captain, and do what ICly your character feels is correct. As has been stated, every character reacts differently depending on who they are, and what knowledge they possess. OOCly, I have zero issue with your HoS thinking the AI was bluffing, and leading a charge on the core, especially since the captain assured you such, and weighing the fact that there were many lives on the line (Whereas my ganger character believed the AI over her corporate bosses, and was only concerned for her own survival). I wasn't watching the actual attack, so I will not comment on whether or not it was a gank. But I will say that his status as a non-antagonist has really little bearing on whether or not he SHOULD have attacked you. One of the rules states: Conflict as a non-antag is acceptable, and as people have pointed out, the motivation to do so was there. People believed that your actions posed a very real threat to their lives, so they tried to stop you. I only bring this up because you're highlighting the fact that he wasn't an antag. That's not a rule violation in itself. I wasn't, and I wouldn't have even ahelped before attacking crew (RPing it out first, of course) because it felt like a natural reaction for my character, based on the situation. Again, only quoting this to comment on the non-antag part. I'm not commenting on whether it was properly RP'd out, or a gank, or whatever. That's for witnesses and logs to decide.

Oh. That's very good. I'm with MDP and Satinspriest. Seems like a good idea, within reason.