Playbahnosh

As you said, people go into a round with certain expectations. Everyone have their preferred round types. If they know the gamemode at round start, they can decide to join or not. Secret is intentionally a wildcard, and to many, not knowing is half the fun. You know something is up, but don't know what exactly, and it can be exciting. You were never forced to play a gamemode you don't like. People could always leave or join at any point in the round, so when they eventually find out what's going on, they can simply cryo or, in fact, join in if it's to their liking. This method has worked pretty well so far, I don't see the need to change this. As for rev specifically, it has multiple issues. For one, it's the most RP heavy game mode, since most of the fun/point comes from the revs making up a believable enough reason to revolt in the first place and convince a bunch of others to share this reason and having the opposing side react properly. Revolutions don't happen overnight, it's always a slow process of rising discontent, spreading anger and emotions, each small attrocity feeding the fire, years of having to suffer from one thing or another, until it finally boils over to a proper revolt. It's almost impossible to establish a proper narrative in like 5 minutes and rope so many people into it, even with insane RP skills. It's really hard to RP joining rev too, just yank your boring miner or bartender from it's job and switch your brain over to rev-think when really nothing bad has happened to your character, definitely not enough to just throw away your job and possibly your life. Even if you wanna join, desperately trying to come up with some sort of narrative for your character so your choice would make sense, it's very hard if you don't wanna half-ass it. Even harder if you are simply not invested in the narrative. Realistically, no one's gonna launch into a full armed rebellion over timed bathroom breaks. Even if the opposition/command plays their part, it's kinda hard to justify sudden pay-cuts, enforcing silly, overbearing rules, oppression or even declaring martial law without any prior reason. What I mean by all this, it's really hard to make rev work without a TON of preparation. It can work really well as an event, when there is an interesting pre-made narrative for the revs and the opposition to start from, but it doesn't really work to thrust a player in there and tell them to "be pissed about...something". But narrative issues aside, the meta also needs a lot of work, as described above. The lack of endgame especially. Let's say you successfully formed a revolt, for the declaration of The Station State of Cargonia or something. You barricade all the doors, you get some KAs from mining and....then what? Command has a whole slew of resources they can use, the entire sec department, riot gear, weapons, the ERT, etc. The revs usually don't have much of anything but the proverbial pitchforks and torches. And blowing up enough of the station and/or crew to force an evaq seems like a very phyrric victory. Even the most robust rev rounds end in a giant bloodbath where the stations gets evaq'd either way, so nobody wins really. The revs need something to strive for, some kinda end goal. Like comandeering a shuttle to go and join their brothers and sisters in arms. Or force the command staff to testify live on air about the attrocities NT is committing. Something. They also need some support mechanisms, being able to get outside help like items, or reaching the comms array and calling in their own form or ERT, like Zundy said, mercs, Syndie, etc.

My thinking is, that this is a server full of NT's most secret and very dangerous/illegal research data, and it's only known to the RD and the Captain. Nobody else on the crew knows about it (and very few people in NT at all). On paper, Aurora is just a backwater phoron research station with barely any strategic value. The mere knowledge of a top secret repository's existence would throw hordes of rival corporate spies, pirate raiders and god knows what else at the station. And this is even without RnD doing anything that round, since the server is there at round start, filled with all sorts of valuable/incriminating stuff. This is a prime target for basically any antag role and makes sense lore-wise as well. Nuke Ops could be tweaked to create a different mode: a rival corporate hit squad that has been tipped off about the repository, but even if they manage to breach the station, they'll have to find it first, and then access it, and that's the hard part. Revs will finally have a main goal, and that's to find the incriminating evidence about NT's shady sh*t that's, again, on the server. This could be a new goal for ling and tater as well, maybe the server has revealing information about lings or the Syndicate and they don't need to access it, but destroy the data, hopefully without anyone noticing. As for the server room itself, having a huge, obvious vault with turrets and glaring warning signs plastered all over is like a beacon for shady elements, that something very valuable is in there worth stealing. But put it in a room that looks like nothing from the outside, and people just walk by without giving it a second thought, might as well be a broom closet or something. That's the beauty of hiding in plain sight. Putting it in a mildly frequented area could up the difficulty of breaking in unnoticed. Unlike the AI core or the vault, someone dressed as an engineer hacking at an unmarked door with a blowtorch wouldn't really raise any suspicion, but it would alert the f*ck out of the RD/Captain if they get wind of it. It would also be a very interesting RP challenge how the RD/Cap would handle trying to defend something nobody else even knows exists. As for the AI involvement, I would limit it for the same security reasons, and as another difficulty to overcome, but this could be optional I think. The reason is, the AI doesn't have to know what's in the room or why it's ludicrously important to defend and keep it a secret, it just has to protect it. What you don't know you can't spill, so even hacking/forcing the AI wouldn't yield any information about the server or it's contents (even if given a direct order by someone in command), because the AI simply doesn't know, but when pushed/circumvented it could tell it's location and that it's very important to protect (hint hint).

I +1 this with some other ideas. The secrets console should be in a bolted room, but no turrets or anything. However, the console should be protected with a bioscanner (fingerprint/retina scan, etc) coded to the RD/Captain. Failing that, a backup password on a crack-card in the safe (you know, those plastic cards you have to break in half to get to the password inside), but breaking it would immediately PDA the RD/Captain/Central (only silent alarm, no public announcement, that would defeat the purpose of a secret server). The console should not be emag-able or wire-hackable, and trying so would send the console into timed/permanent lockdown and send the silent alarm. This would be excellent target for ling rounds. Or maybe you can try and lift a full print from RD/Cap with a fingerprint kit, or lift...you know...the actual finger/eye. Getting to the backup password shouldn't be that hard (the safe is emag-able), but cracking the card (based on the response of the RD/Captain) would put you on a pretty strict timer to download the data and GTFO before sec arrives. Also, being very secret, there shouldn't be any cameras in the console room, and the AI shouldn't normally know what's behind the magic door, only that it's very important and should be protected against intruders at any cost!

I know, but it's a tad unhealthy to take off your RIG in hard vacuum to pry out the cell for charging... Also, it would be really cool if there was an air port in Robotics, to fill the air tank of EXOs. We spent half a round tinkering with engineering to hack a makeshift port into the atmo grid, but it does work. There are sometimes broken down EXOs in Cargo at round start, and all of them come with a completely empty air tank. Fixing up an EXO is no big deal, but there are no accessible air ports for refilling the tank. This could help a lot!

This is exactly what I wanted to add. It's not whether or not you'll make mistakes, because you will, command or not. It's about owning up to them and fixing what you broke, ultimately changing your behavior so it happens less in the future. And Soul changed before my eyes from round to round as Sterben. He stopped lunging at every issue himself, and started delegating, only getting hands-on when it was absolutely necessary. Does he make mistakes? Damn right he does! BUT I never once seen him trying to wriggle out of a mess or trying to blame someone else. He owns them and strives to be a better player overall. As for the deputy/interim command thing, I wasn't here for that particular event. But Sterben did make me (as Jurgen Mauser) a deputy CMO and tasked me to run medbay a few times, while he took care of other, more important stuff. A good leader knows when they are spread too thin, and asking for help and delegating is not a sign of weakness but a sign of trust. A leader who doesn't delegate is the one you should fear...

Cargo breakroom has nothing to drink, it only has a snack and a cigarette vendor. There is a sink, but nothing to drink from, so maybe a box of glasses would be good. Add a cell charger in the miner area, there are desks in the south corner. We have lots of industrial equipment, but not way to charge the cells for RIGs, etc.

+1 I played extensively with Sterben in the medbay, and I have to say he is one of the best CMOs I ever had. Granted, at first I, too, had suspicions about powergaming on the account of Sterben being able to perform basically any role in the medbay (and then some), but after playing with him 10+ rounds, I understand now. Sterben is a CMO, so to oversee the work of the medbay, he needs to have at least some understanding of each role performed there, be it surgery, pharmacology or psychiatry. Also, being an IPC (essentially a walking supercomputer), he can and should have access to the lexical knowledge about each job. He might not be able to automatically perform everything like a pro, but even a complete amateur can mix together a few liquids and powders going by a recipe for example, let alone a highly trained IPC. I personally only ever seen Sterben use this knowledge to keep the round going. If we didn't have a chemist, he made basic medication (not advanced stuff), if we didn't have a surgeon, or was busy, he jumped in to save a life or two, but I never seen him actively being a medical supergod. I didn't see him do any virology or psych stuff at all. But if the medbay was adequately staffed, he delegates. Sterben never took the work out of anyone's hands, he took a step back and only did management/oversight, just like a CMO should. He is a lot of fun to RP with and he always responds. I had CMOs (on this server and others) who basically shut themselves in their office or the bridge and didn't react to anyone. Sterben is "the people's CMO", medical staff can contact him with anything and everything and he always does his best to answer questions and provide help when needed. Sterben is not nice. Sterben is an IPC, devoid of emotion. He is highly calculating, logical, but weirdly enough, has a surprising sense of empathy. Sure, his behavior can come off as cold and brash with his short, blunt and sometimes terse responses, but it's completely in-character for him. He takes his job very seriously, and that job is running an entire department that's tasked with keeping the whole crew healthy and alive. This is why he expects precision and obedience from all doctors, because in this job, lives literally hang in the balance. Him declaring, that malpractice and disobedience will be dealt with harshly, is not even expected, but actually welcome in my case. As a doctor or surgeon, if you screw up, people can die. The CMO needs to be iron fisted when it comes to the crew's wellbeing, and if as a doctor you don't like or agree with this, you shouldn't be in the medbay to begin with. I wholeheartedly support SoulThief's application.

This could work as an event, I think, but not as a main part of the game. The round-based nature of SS13 works against this idea big time, because each round is essentially a clean slate. Some thing carry over, like you can largely keep relations between characters, but then things like dying and/or the station being destroyed and then reappearing the next round fine and dandy, does not. This would also screw with the game modes, since Secret rolls the dice on lots of very different antags and events, so having a persistent ling/tater/vamp/whatever wreaking havoc on top of a civil war, a pirate raid, nuke ops, etc, is just a bit much. I can, however, imagine this as a daily event, where the game modes are restricted to tater/rev/cult/ling (one of these) but it is shown as Secret to everyone else. You and your antag friends are tasked with infiltrating and taking over the station in it's entirety which could mean replacing/recruiting all the heads or something. While you remain in obscurity, you will respawn as the same antag round after round. But you must work carefully and methodically, because if your plot is discovered and you are revealed as the bad guys and the crew starts actively opposing you, that's the last round. That's when you see if your preparations were good enough, you either win or lose, accomplish your goal, perish or flee the station. After this, a new round of antags are selected, etc. I think this could be fun.

I don't do necrophilia, but... As someone who plays medical almost exclusively, I do have some things to add. "-Injured folks will RP with medical staff and visa versa." Yea, no. In almost every single video game, getting hurt as a player is a temporary inconvenience. You either have automagically regenerating health or you just rub a medkit on yourself and you are good to go. Worst case, you die and respawn a few seconds later or reload a savegame. Players are not used to having to suffer through medical treatments (or the consequences of their actions in general), it's just not a thing in video games. This is why people hate medbay with a passion. To most players, getting injured and being dragged away from their RP to be poked and prodded by "doctors" with sometimes highly questionable medical skills, is a nuisance. With more serious stuff requiring surgery, it becomes downright boring/annoying. The time they have to spend in the medbay is time they cannot do the things they actually want to do. In my experience -playing medical for years- the vast majority of people can't or don't care to RP being injured, most of them just AFK until they are "fixed up" and punted out of medbay or straight ghost out because they don't trust medical to save/heal them. Handicaps are the worst, literally no one RPs losing a limb or suffering drain bamage, they either act (if any) like it's some nuisance or straight go cryo/ghost because it's just easier to grab a coffee and just respawn with a healthy character than deal with being a cripple/vegetable for the rest of the round. I hate to say it, but the medbay people are just as much to be blamed for this. Very few of my fellow doctors actually act like doctors, instead they treat the medbay as any other department, where RP and mechanics are usually separate. Either you are doing something or you sit and RP. But in medbay, doing something is the RP, eg. treating patients. You can't "play to win" in the medbay (or at least you shouldn't). No one likes when a doc runs up to you without a word, whacks you with the mediscan, stuffs you in the advanced scanner, injects you with god-knows-what and kicks you out with a "u fine", so they can get back to their chatty-RP session. The absolute worst is, when as a patient you do pain/injury-RP and it's the doctor who tells you to shut up. Not even a few days ago I suffered the same fate, because I was screaming/agonizing because of my torn off leg, and the doctor straight up tranq'd me because she was annoyed. When the giant red text tells you are in a huge amount of unbearable pain, you can and should RP that, and be allowed to. If a patient's screams of agony are clogging up your chat, maybe consider giving them a painkiller or talking to them to calm them down (not "shut up or I tranq you"). Of course you can't RP proper bedside manner when lives hang in the balance, but talking to the patient, explaining what's wrong with them and what you're gonna do about it is an integral part of being a physician and you should make the time for it, if even in a few words. Someone who is injured and probably in pain, is also scared and wants to know what's happening and what you are doing to help them. Silently injecting people and stuffing them into various machines is the exact opposite of patient care. On the other hand, patients shouldn't just AFK/ghost and do RP being injured and in treatment. If you can RP being a tator, ling, warden or CE, then you can be expected to RP being hurt. Period. Also, the usage of long-term/RP-intensive patient care is largely dependent on people willing to play the patient, and sadly, almost no one does. This goes for doctors as well. Aurora has very detailed and well made Psych mechanics, even separate antag roles, but just about no one ever plays any of it. As a Psychologist, I had three (that is 3) patients in 11 rounds, and one of them was a ling trying to eat me. If you want people to use and RP these mechanics and parts of medbay/medicine, there has to be a willingness to do so from both sides, and not an arbitrary timer forcing them to do so. "-It will potentially encourage players to think about getting injured before running into a gun fight, uncharged baton in hand." Nope. 80% of injuries coming to medbay on average are all "self-inflicted stupidity". Eating Vaurca food as a human, falling down holes or elevator shafts, staying out in a rad storm, robusting yourself in the head trying to open a toolbox, bringing a knife to a gunfight, good 'ol alcohol poisoning, etc. Increasing healing times just gonna make people hate the medbay even more than they already do, and will increase the AFK/ghost ratio sky high. When your normal IC healing time from a boo-boo is longer than just ghost-respawn, you might as well get rid of the medbay entirely. "-Antags would get better healing items due to their role in the rounds story (they shouldn't die like little bitches)." Antags are already more protected than anything else. Anyone not security, who dares to even oppose an antag, gets bwoinked immediately. Antags are already untouchable by law, unless they screw up royally, which is their fault. It should be hard to play antags, they don't deserve any special treatment health-wise...or rather shouldn't...