Kaed

.... That's pills. We're talking about food right now. The process is entirely different from using the chemmaster

I... no? Not that I'm aware of? What are you talking about?

Back in the day, I made a thread about adding the ability to change the name and descriptions of food items in some fashion. I don't know what happened to the thread, I can't find it anymore. Maybe it was cleaned away during a dead thread purge? Either way, I know for a fact it was a long time ago, well before the current cooking system. And we need it even more now than before. There is a MASSIVE amount of procedural naming going on in the kitchen, especially when you start throwing more than 2 ingredients into the oven. It looks really ugly, and there's like, usually this weird big space in the food names generated too? Please, just let use name and describe our own food. This really can't be that hard to do. If I had VV access, I could do it in about ten seconds, but since most players don't get that (for very valid reasons), something that could just emulate that for the two specific text areas (item name and item description) of food would be just swell. Thanks!

Did anything ever come of this?

Wow, uh. That's a cool comparison, man. Food, which is 95% roleplay flavortext, is definitely in the same category as armor, which will literally keep you alive in a dangerous situation. I don't see any particular reason why having to take a few seconds to take on and off a bulky piece of armor that significantly reduces damage and/or keeps you alive in a vacuum you take does anything but reduce cheese tactics.

Your arguement is that it is already too difficult to AI properly so why not as well give up on beeing an AI and abuse current AI players? That makes no sense No. My argument is that playing AI in the 'traditional sense', i.e. constantly scoping out the whole station and flicking between people via the tracker, is not super feasible anymore on this map, and we should give the AI a different activity to do that can occupy their time while at the same time facilitating communication between the rest of the crew. Frankly, I think we should be shifting their focus away from being the eyes of the security department anyway, and into something that helps everyone else too.

You're kind of missing the forest for the trees here, buddy. This thread isn't a list of complaints about people doing annoying things over common. It is about doing something that significantly alters the difficulty of the game. The ease of public communication here is the main focus of this thread. This proposes to make things just generally require more effort than it currently does, and opens venues that are not workable while it's there. Certainly, you could list off ways to get around the issues I give until your hands fall off, and yes, you could technically have the whole station tune into a specific frequency, creating a faux common. But just because it's mechanically possible doesn't mean it would be feasible. That would require the distressingly difficult task of getting every crew member to cooperate with you in matching the same channel. Maybe they have their own private friendo channel. Maybe they don't know how to change headset channels. Maybe they just don't super care. Do you know how difficult it is for medical to get non-antagonist characters to turn on their suit sensors? The effort to do so is absolutely negligible to them, and it offers them almost entirely benefits and security, but they still don't do it most of the time. As for the AI having their hands full... when was the last time you played AI on this map? This map is so mind-numbingly big that you'd really just filling your time by trying to view it constantly. A lot of the time, trying to jump between levels causes BYOND to crash. Being an AI is a whole lot of doing lots of nothing useful with occasional requests for some kind of service, like opening a door. Most of the times as an AI I am just talking at people for the sake of having something to do. Going back to the bits about the forgery kit, let me posit a couple things about that you may have overlooked. Yes, they could just PDA your head immediately, but when they do that, they are directly messaging a SINGLE person. That person might, at the time they are PDAd, be busy, or afk, or some other potential issue could be in place such as the messaging server being down, or someone having stolen the head's PDA, or them currently being captive of a different antagonist. But even if they do answer, you're still only getting that one person by asking them. If you go to cargo, asking to order something potentially suspicious, and they inquire over common, they're not just asking the head in question, they're telling EVERYONE that this situation is happening in cargo. Security will immediately know that, for instance, the assistant Urist McTator is trying to order a box of insulated gloves, and may decide to have him searched for 'suspicious conduct', even though no one specifically informed them of this. Other heads may also chime in, shutting down the request because they don't like the idea. Maybe he lied about engineering being out of them to get the box, and any member of engineering could also say "no we're not.". There is a world of difference between there being ways to directly ask a person for clarification and there being a public channel where anyone can hear and respond. This carries over to the voice changer concept too. The person you are impersonating might not be next to an intercomm when you talk into it in their voice, unlike when you broadcast in common channel.

I've been pondering making this thread for this for a while, but for the most part, I've been holding off because it ultimately feels like it won't go anywhere. But I'm going to try anyway. This thread is about the common channel. You know, the green-text channel that every headset in the station has access to. More specifically, this thread is about removing it. I feel like this is the point where I'm going to lose a lot of people reading this thread. And I understand why. The common channel is probably a mechanic as old as SS13 itself, though I admittedly wasn't around during those early times. It's insanely useful, to the point of being an actual crutch for not having to seek out meaningful communication. But hear me out, here. The common channel causes a lot of issues as far as the flow of gameplay. For starters, it's relatively unmoderated, and during busy rounds, it's possible for the flood of random chatter to drown each other out. What you basically have is a couple dozen people all talking at once, but they're all holding individual conversations and ignoring everyone else. This is technically possible to do since we as players are all actually just reading and can skim over things that aren't relevant to us. But it's still all there, and when you have three or more channels running at a time, like several heads do, it gets even worse. The majority of what is happening on the common channel isn't actually important. It's just random chatter flowing back and forth, and you can miss important things because of it But for the stuff that is important, it drowns out a slew of other viable communication mechanics that exist in the game due to it's sheer ease of access. For example: -The PDA messaging system. -The intercom system. -Using the request consoles. -Using the station AI as an information relay between departments (also getting more extensive use out of the station holopads) -Using the IRC program that exists but hardly anyone knows about. -Using the newscaster to broadcast your fucking speeches instead of wall of texting everyone on station. -Maybe some other stuff I can't think of right now. The point is, we aren't starved for choices on how to communicate with each other. By removing it, you won't exactly force people to live in an isolation bubble, you'll just cause them to move to methods of communication that don't clutter up everyone else's screen. And now I suppose I should get to the other side of this coin. The common channel and its issues with antagonists. It's frankly obnoxious how much people will use the common channel to tattle on every little thing that happens, from seeing a weird guy in blue robes to having a literal gun pointed at them with a demand to shut up. It causes security to respond with near instant attentiveness the moment any crisis happens, because a single person can instantly alert the entire station to the location of a threat. It renders several antagonist mechanics that exist in game near to completely useless. Here is a few examples: -The traitor forgery kit. I don't think I've seen a single person since I started playing that will take a forged paper at face value. They will with near universality just ring up the active head and ask if they actually signed this piece of paper. -It stifles the ability for people to use voice changing abilities, because the person whose voice they are mimicking will just immediately speak up and claim that isn't them. It also renders the AI to little more than a door opener, when it could have so many more uses as an interdepartmental information relay and threat tracker. Frankly, people just tend to dismiss existence of the AI when they don't need it, because they don't actually have to rely on it most of the time (do you know how often I see people demand the AI do something, assuming it's just going to be there when they need it? Sometimes, this even happens when there is no actual active AI. That's how little attention people pay to it.) When the AI is an antagonist, it could also lie to people when relaying or giving information, in a fashion that is less likely to be instantaneously debunked because everyone heard the original information on a common channel or can just inquire about it within seconds without putting themselves at risk. The station would probably be a lot quieter like this, sure. But it would also encourage people to do more than sit in one place the entire round and get by on gabbing with random friends across the station where everyone can hear them. I feel like maybe, though, a few individuals, such as the captain and AI, should be able to make emergency-related universal broadcasts that span every department channel at once? Though maybe the station announcement mechanic already covers that. Some methods of communication would need to become more common, like intercomms and holopads. And I'm not sure how assistants would deal with things, because they'd basically be the only ones starting with no channels. Maybe have them start with an empty headset, and give every department a stock of encryption keys for their department channel, so they can give them to assistants? They'll have to manually walk to each department asking if they need help, but hey. Roleplaaaay~ I'm open to suggestions here I might not have thought of, but I'm pretty much just expecting a lot of 'noooooooo D:' because no one likes giving up something so useful. >_>

I think it would be a kind of fun feature if vampires wouldn't permanently die unless you stake them. (which can be made from wood). Maybe adjust their blood healing to function even if they are dead, and have the ability to revive them after a while? ()this would also rely on them having blood left, so obviously if you kill them over and over they'll eventually stay dead) Sure, that's kinda like changelings, but having to stake vampires to kill them is a pretty damn pivotal part of most vampire lore. After you stake them maybe their body is destroyed, turning into one of those bone piles you get when someone is killed via supermatter or similar.

Skull's changed were interesting and fairly comprehensive, and I vehemently oppose 'rolling them back'. He worked hard on them. Some tweaking wouldn't be bad, though. I honestly didn't know chaplains were useless on vampire rounds now. Maybe some of those functions should be restored? But not the thing about walking into the chapel setting you on fire. That was stupid as fuck even back in old vamp, and now that the chaplain's office is basically a glorified janitor's closet and the 'chapel' is just a holodeck function, I don't see any reason why it should have particular potency. It's barely even a location of faith anymore.

Don't forget to make command order the Card Swiper battery pack so they can activate the swiper machines, allowing them to call an ERT. Gotta order one for each swiper machine! Because I heard ERT suck and make it hard for invader type antags to get anywhere. (but yeah, this is pretty dumb put into this context)

In Ye Olde Times, space lube used to send you careening across the floor, usually into a wall or window. Now, it has become tepid and just slips a person like they walked on wet floors. This was also back in a time when run was the default speed, to be fair. Maybe it can just slip you if you are walking, but sent you flying if you run over it? It's just lame now, man. Make traitor janiborgs fun to play again, along with anyone who breaks into a chemistry lab for Evil.

While I can sympathize with the frustration this causes, uh. Vaurca are not very popular with a large number of characters. They're weird, gross, and annoying to have to lizzzen to, with few notable exceptions, and a lot people ICly don't super give a fuck if a vaurca is blinded by flashes, especially if they were doing bad things. They barely even have rights in-character, nor are they particularly treated as people in any sense other than the technical legal sense. Yes, I'm aware some people like vaurca who are not vaurca. And those people are fine. But they don't occupy a spot of very high priority or civil importance for a lot of the non-vaurca crew. By playing as a vaurca, you're not signing on to play as a person who happens to be a bugmans, you're signing on to play as a bugmans who would like to be treated as a person. Assuming you actually want even that. I've seen some vaurca who are content to be a literal carpet people walk over.

I don't have a lot of stakes on this conflict here, but I feel I should point out 'except that you can kill it' applies to captains, too. Captains aren't immortal and are generally capable of being tasered (or lasered, or bulleted) to the ground, something that borgs are not vulnerable to. That's not really a good argument. So let's be honest here. This isn't about it being hard to take out captain antags, don't use that point as a fulcrum for your arguments against it. This is about how you feel the implicit power you'd be giving antagonists at the start of the round would undermine rounds. This is about how it would undermine the throwaway McGuffin of trustworthiness that is the loyalty implant, a mechanic that currently serves absolutely no purpose in the game except to be something everyone can point at and go, yep, that's not an antag, Because they have a no-antag chip in them, and it can't fail or be subverted because then we would have to make some kind of reasoned judgement about whether someone is trustworthy or not. Both of those are valid issues with this suggestion though, despite my clearly sarcastic tone. There's a current roleplay dynamic available with loyalty implanted command positions that definitely has a strong impact on how people view HoS and Captain characters. Of course, whether that is a dynamic that needs to be kept is sort of subjective. I personally have never much cared for loyalty implants. While the concept is sound nothing is ever DONE with them, beyond using them as a not-an-antag plot token. They are barely even defined in-game, and are so ambiguous ("you feel loyal to nanotrasen") that it's easy to forget they are even there until you need them as a justifying plot coupon for why someone shouldn't be/isn't currently antagging. I think that they need to be taken off their silly pedestal of perfection. Much like how AI are supposedly not known for malfunction, but everyone in existence nevertheless is somehow constantly on the lookout for any signs of synthetic uprising or free will, loyalty implants need to be something more than what they are now, even if that means situations occur where an active antagonist ends up having one inside them. What does being loyal to nanotrasen even MEAN? It's just generally taken as 'you can't do things that would be antaggy', but plenty of people do awful things in the name of a cause they are loyal to. Sorry, this is getting really philosophical, but the point is, I think I like this suggestion as a groundshaker for the stagnant situation we have right now with loyalty implants.

Did anyone actually read the original suggestion? You know, including the part about 'this is completely optional and for flavor on your character?' I guess a lot of people just knee-jerked a reaction on what they thought the thread was about after skimming it, which was apparently 'forcing people to have handicaps'. I think it sounds like a fun idea to implement.

And the reason why science, which can literally create entire sentient robots and bluespace enabled guns, can't just circumvent this gun lock mechanic easily by being bloody scientists... is... uuuuh... /shrug I have to agree that this seems dumb and unnecessary for the sake of trying to nerf something that's fine already. I mean, it's better than R&D printing out all their guns in a magical lockbox that spawn from bluespace, but still...

Also it's really silly that you seem to think all guns in the game would use something as primitive as a 21st century firing pin to work. Particularly the lawbringer, which I think is some sort of crazy advanced bluespace gun? Not to mention that energy guns don't even ignite bullets.

No, I don't mean so you can run around, spamming vomit puddles everywhere. But it actually could have some legitimate uses. For instance: -Your character just saw something disgusting, like a crew member exploding and spraying blood and guts everywhere. -You want to fake being sick for some reason. -You've just eaten something poisonous, and somehow found out about it. I guess there should probably be a cooldown between using it, so it doesn't just become some kind of shitty meme. Maybe there should be two versions, the one where you're trying to make your character emote legitimately throwing up, and one where you emote inducing yourself to throw up (you know, sticking a finger back into your throat). I dunno. It's gross, but used correctly it can create some interesting scenarios or enhance others.

In an interesting bit of map design redundancy, the captain's office has two computers in it, both of which are capable of running the command/comms console program. The multipurpose computer to the lower left of the captain's seat, however, does it better, and is generally better worth the time of using, since you don't have to do the process of pulling out your ID card so it's in your hand and you can log into the computer. I propose the other, outdated model of Command Comms to the right of the captain's seat be replaced with a security camera console. At least that's something the captain would get some use out of, while he spies on the activity of his subordinates.

Tumblr? Petition?? Furries can't vote, they aren't people, got no rights. Noisy furries only one thing: The axe.

NOOOOOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO i have neither the want nor the business of arbitrating whether a situation does or does not call for an ERT. It must be called IC with the means available to you. If an antagonist has sabotaged your attempt to call an ERT or you just physically cannot get to the authentication devices then that is just how the cookies crumble sometimes. Deciding whether or not to send an ERT with a fax as the only way to summon an ERT opens up an enormous can of worms a gigantic head ache i do not think we should be dealing with as staff. I am much more willing and able to punish players who abuse the function to call ERT for bad reasons. I remember a time when we didn't have the auto-swipers. There was no crisis cyborg, red alert was done by one person at the command console, and it was entirely up to admins (if they were on) to call an ERT after a fax was sent in. Dark days, that. Azande, I don't know if you realize what a hassle it used to be to get a response team within a reasonable amount of time. Foisting it over to a group of people uninvolved in the actual round to decide whether they should send an ERT. Things aren't really that bad as they are now, so while I don't disagree with Garn or Scheve, still I don't think it would hurt to have a sort of delay on the ERT arriving if the intruders are so grossly overcompetent they defeat security within minutes of arriving. It's definitely somewhat justified to call for an ERT at that time, but I'm not sure it's strictly fair for competency to be met with a murder commando squad within ten minutes of security revealing they sucked.

If you lock calling the ERT entirely to an hour in, then in the event the mercs take over before that, what is going to happen is they are going to prevent the ERT from ever being called. Either by murdering or capturing all the heads, sealing off the rooms with emergency swipers, destroying said swipers, or making trying to get to them so dangerous anyone who does die horribly. I oppose the idea of a hard limit on this, because sometimes you actually need to call an ERT less than a half hour in, and it's completely illogical to let everyone die just to serve a narrative. However. A soft limit would probably work. You can call an ERT at any time, but you won't actually get them until a certain time in the round. Maybe an hour to an hour and a half in. Make it a random window rather than a specific time. Let the crew know an ERT will come, but there may be some delay. Then, it's time for the crew to hold out for rescue, rather than be hopelessly crushed with no way for the civilians to survive.

I dunno about this. Sometimes, the mercs just slaughter the entire security team within the first hour. Then what, you're supposed to just let them take over the station because no ERT allowed yet?

BYOND Key: Kaedwuff Staff BYOND Key: Scheveningen Game ID: N/A Reason for complaint: This individual has become steadily more aggressive and hostile conduct towards me, leading up to what appears to be an warning for being 'spammy' when I replied to a topic with a viewpoint that was on topic for the actual thread but differed from their opinion. Evidence/logs/etc: https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8829&p=82652#p82642 Looking over my initial post here, I think that it was this bit here that illicited so much rage: Yes, this could have been worded in a way that was less accusatory towards the staff themselves, and if I had been issued a warning for attacking staff, that probably would have been something I could cop to. It was a bad way to word things, and I post-emptively issue an apology if it offended someone. But the actual warning is this: Which is telling me that by expressing agreement with the original topic, and not factoring in this.. frankly unrelated information related to Jackboot's round into my statement, I am creating irrelevant information that is not welcome on this forum. This was actually addressed in another part of the offending post I was issued this warning for: This is not the only time that that they have behaved this way, being dismissive to the point of near hostility, as you can see here: https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=8838#p82651 I'm not super sure it was necessary to post a snide comment like this in a joke thread in Off Topic? You know, I don't particularly care that we seem to butt heads a lot. That's discourse on the internet. And if they take offense to my feelings towards the way the server is run, that's pretty relevant to them, since they are also staff. But using their position to tell me that expressing my opinion when it contradicts theirs is spammy deserves a warning? That's gross misconduct by any standard of staff conduct I'm aware of. Additional remarks: I'm not actually sure if this complaint is against forum rules, because the thread linked here about the general forum rules does not actually lead anywhere, it's a dead link, to a thread that doesn't exist (anymore?). I've made a cursory attempt to find it despite that, so if I somehow missed it, please do let me know.

There was, in fact, a reason why I placed it here in off topic instead of in the official suggestion thread. It was also not particularly directed at you. So I guess it's also too bad you wandered over and wasted your time trying to be spiteful at me. )':