evandorf

The thing is, you can't balance chances for victory between the crew and antags in the way I assume you mean. Their goals are too different. The crew's objective with a hostile antagonist is to simply stop them either by making them flee, killing them, or permanently detaining them. Antags can't achieve the same, both because the crew is too numerous and because our HRP focus and rules forbid killing crew without good reason. What I recommend as antag is to have a goal for your gimmick and a victory condition for your round. I see too many Stephen King gimmicks; good setup and interesting premise but the ending lacks focus. Give yourself a clear target, telegraph that to the crew via announcments, radio, RP, ect. and then work to achieve it. Even when the crew inevitably takes you down you can succeed in your mission and if the crew is involved and informed they will enjoy it more. It will make it more difficult sure, but mechanical knowledge and prepwork can go a long way.

First rule of antagging is that you will eventually lose. Exceptions being game modes like rev where the majority of the crew can be made antags or very lowpop rounds. You just don’t have the action economy to keep up with a ship full of people. At best, you escape on a shuttle or fly your antag ship back to the starting area. This isn’t something that needs to be fixed though. Giving antags some way to definitively “win” is just ego and rarely adds anything to the round. Losing Narsie and the Merc nuke didn’t really change the flow of the round. You might fuck up the ship enough to force a scuttle but that decision should stay with command and the moderation team.

I refute the claims that sec is insular. During peaceful times they live in the central hallways. As far as the suggestion goes though, I have a security bias, but beyond that this would require ops to be manned. And if it’s not then you’re sorta SOL and I wouldn’t want to set a precedent of security being allowed to break into other departments to grab equipment.

I think I can safely say that removing antags and having perpetual extended is not something that most people would enjoy. The recent round and population trends may turn out to be cyclical but the extended enjoyers haven’t turned out in the numbers needed to keep a decent pop during multiple consecutive extended rounds. If I were to try and distill the goal of antags into a single statement it would be: To cause disruption to the normal flow of a round/shift in such a way that is enjoyable and engaging while maintaining HRP standards. The rules say that the goal is to drive a story but you are limited in what stories you can tell by your toolkit so I think what would be useful is to expand the antag toolset. Currently if you need something done which is outside the scope of your antagonist abilities you ahelp to ask for it to be done. This is only available if the proper staff are online and they are willing to take the time to interact you at length. What if instead there were an “observer antag”, a DM, a storyteller present in every round. They would have access to an acceptable number of admin tools such as the ability to make global ambient messages, create terrain and creatures, view the exploitables and have access to aooc. The breadth and scope of what they would be given to work with can be debated and altered but we need to give antags influence beyond what their characters can do. Such a position would need to be whitelisted and I know a lot of people will be against giving an antag what is essentially meta powers but I believe it will appeal to those players who don’t enjoy being a normal antag not to mention all those ghost mains floating around out there, many of whom I know will be responsible with such a role.

There are already ways to circumvent the sensors. Radio jammers work a treat and can be crafted by anyone using parts from the public tool storage.

I generally give antags three strikes. You get caught once, fine. You buy c-4 and blow a hole in communal? Fine, isolation time. You escape again? It’s time to maroon you. Nothing is being gained by keeping you alive to continuously get caught.

Make feeding faster, draining the victim faster, and therefore more dangerous. But also cut the reserves in half to maybe a max of 500 instead of 1K so that if you want to be able VW regularly you’re going to have to feed tactically, which would be doable if the blood drained quicker.

I feel like the Srom is underutilized but seeing as how traditionally vampires are able to affect people’s dreams and subconscious it would be neat for them to be able to interact with it mystically, without the need for traditional psionics. Either to antagonize or affect the Skrell inside (I think thralling a Skrell via Srom sounds neat) or using their powers to force others asleep and pulling them into the dream.

I would like more interpersonal powers for vampire. Give me access to exploitables, maybe via mind reading or something, and give me more coercive abilities like presence.

Or to put it another way, the more proficient you are as antag the more responsibility you have to make the round enjoyable. New antag players should be helped to understand their role better and old antag players should be held accountable for poor play, but it’s a problem on a player level and trying to coax those changes via the mechanics is the wrong approach.

I do think that yesterday’s game was an outlier and I completely take the blame for the goose chase it turned into. The story/plot the round was propped up on was flimsy at best. I could have allowed myself to be captured seeing as I would have had assault charges at best, and gotten out of prison later but instead it devolved into the antag v sec game, which later turned into the antag v crew armory game. I don’t think we should be making changes to antags based off the poorer rounds. Nor do I think we should make changes based on how people who know the mechanics inside and out can leverage them. The majority of antag players are relatively new and making precise knowledge of the mechanics a prerequisite to having a good time as a particular antag will just push them towards other “better” antag prefs.

I get most of my blood from sucking people, especially early encounters when suspicions are low. If I turn off sensors I can get to enthrall levels of blood off my first victim. Then up to 700ish off my second, maybe more depending on how risky I want to be. Blood bags are usually only good in a pinch and since medical is usually populated you’ll get found out. I don’t know if making blood more difficult is warranted but maybe make taking so much from one person more life threatening, the obvious downside would be that you’ll have more accidental deaths from feeding and no one wants to take people out of the round. Something I noticed was that even though you couldn’t interact with me while in veil walk, you could still pull me, which incurred the blood cost per tile. More than likely a bug but if we put VW on a cooldown I’d want to make it more useful for talking and RP so this sort of thing would need to get fixed.

Veil walk has no cooldown, to the point where if I accidentally double click I will blow through 80 - 160 blood. Veil walk lasted as long as it did because it spends blood as you move so you want to use it for short jaunts. If you stand still it uses blood at a trickle which I think is good because you can use it to stay in one place and talk with opponents without risk of getting bodied. The problem is that I had around 1K blood when the fighting started so I had a lot of reserves. I think the blood cost is fine but stick a timer on it like glare and hypnotize have so it doesn’t get abused.

I think, in hindsight, the round that preceded this complaint was one where I was extra ornery but wasn’t an antag. I try to only get super combative (relatively) as an antagonist so I’ve got no issue toning down the command comms barbs during normal rounds.

I've actually really enjoyed the changes. I get 10 points to buy whatever I want and only have to kill people to respec, which I rarely need to do anyway.

Hey, Solomon here, I'm truly sorry for making you feel frustrated. If it helps, the entire point of the character is that we know from an OOC perspective that what he's harping on about are things that we suspend for the sake of RP and fun. Whether it's you being late, the commander being light handed for the sake of antags, or any other operational nitpicks, Solomon's purpose is to cause strife and he uses the realistic, bureaucratic, and mundane aspects of the job which are normally ignored by unspoken consensus. No rational command player is going to demand the bridge crew stay at their posts but, as you said, realistically it would be required. His position as representative and the strange nature of our suspension of disbelief makes him difficult to dispute but ultimately he has no real power. He's an asshole to be ignored or interacted with as you prefer.

Reporting Personnel: Solomon Shaw Job Title of Reporting Personnel: Idris Incorporated Representative Game ID: cpR-dCWr Personnel Involved: Maja Gretzsky - Engineer (Injured Party) Marcus Lombardi - Security Officer (Offender) Amani Kharazova - Chief Engineer (Witness) Secondary Witnesses: Artemis Grey - Captain (Witness) Konstantyn Lovad - Operations Manager (Witness) Time of Incident: 00:15 Real Time: 0015 GMT 19/09/2023 Location of Incident: Engineering Department Nature of Incident: [ ] - Workplace Hazard [ ] - Accident/Injury [ ] - Destruction of Property [X] - Neglect of Duty [X] - Harassment [X] - Assault [X] - Misconduct [ ] - Other _____ (Place an x in the box that applies. If other, replace line and specify.) Overview of the Incident: Early in the shift it was reported over command comms that Officer Lombardi had engaged in an altercation with the "entire engineering department." By later reports he had been proselytizing to them and when they insulted his religion he thought it was a good idea to teargas the lot of them. It was handled in sufficient time and the officer was detained and suspended. However, this behavior is entirely beyond the pale for officers aboard an SCC vessel and harsher punishment is required. I would be lax in my duties to the chainlink and Idris Incorporated if I did not bring this behavior and the quality of this PMCG officer to light. Submitted Evidence: Transcript from a meeting on the bridge between the Operations Manager and the Captain regarding the event. [00:00] Recording started. [00:06] Konstantyn Lovad says, "I talked to the engineers and arrived right after it happened." [00:09] Artemis Grey says, "Okay." [00:35] Konstantyn Lovad says, "So - the officer was loitering around the lobby allegedly, preaching to the engineers." [00:45] Konstantyn Lovad says, "They asked him to leave several times, allegedly." [00:54] Konstantyn Lovad says, "Gretzky called his religion fake." [01:08] Konstantyn Lovad says, "He walks off, comes back with his gun drawn and chucks a tear gas grenade into the lobby." [01:19] Konstantyn Lovad says, "I am serious." [01:21] (Unrecognized sound) [01:30] (Unrecognized sound) [01:36] Artemis Grey says, "I believe you." [01:39] Konstantyn Lovad says, "He was also actively beating Gulay while she was in medical, on the ground." [01:47] Artemis Grey says, "He's being uh." [01:51] Artemis Grey says, "Suspended." [01:59] Konstantyn Lovad says, "He would've beat her near death, if I didn't draw my disruptor." [02:06] (Unrecognized sound) [02:08] cat.exe says, "Ren had to break it up." [02:11] Artemis Grey says, "I believe you. He'll be suspended, he's in custody right now." [02:13] Konstantyn Lovad says, "Cat saw and can attest." [02:28] Konstantyn Lovad asks, "Anything else from me?" [02:36] Artemis Grey says, "Get a positive ID on all of your staff." [02:38] (Unrecognized sound) [02:42] Artemis Grey says, "Abdul is currently teleporting around." [02:49] Konstantyn Lovad says, "Guwan saw some things too, I'll check with everyoe." [02:59] Solomon Shaw stops the recording. [03:01] Recording stopped. Would you like to be personally interviewed?: [X] - Yes [ ] - No Did you report it to a Head of Staff or a superior? If so, who? If not, why?: The Head of Security and Captain were aware of the issues from the beginning. Actions taken: The officer was suspended and returned to residential. Additional Notes: If needed, given the outcome of the investigation, Idris can provide a replacement Officer to fill any gaps left by Mr Lombardi.

I can't speak to how vented or not it was. There was the original breach, but then the shutters were closed and air from nearby halls came in. Baral was lighting oxygen candles but the raiders were opening more shutters as well. I can only say that I retreated when I was in pain, which in retrospect I think came mainly from being pointblanked but at the time I was unaware of that and I thought it was because area had become fully breached.

I enjoy interacting with antagonists and providing meaningful interaction but when faced with a group of raiders claiming to be from Turgonia who stealth various areas of the ship stealing things and speaking like cavemen there's little de-escalation that can occur. I gave them ways out in the leadup meetings and asked them to come peacefully but they refused. I can't ignore blatant threats to the ship and crew. I agree with you that Tokash is very direct when it comes to dealing with problems but that's intended. There is not much nuance to his methods and as far as combat goes I'd rather leave officers to flank and maneuver as they wish rather than micromanage. My attention was already stretched thin with the burglars badgering him about Yahaolom and getting the consular to pile on.

I don't think the firefight needs any justification. Kyres summarized the lead-up pretty well. Security had had run ins with the raiders twice before and the second time they were told to leave and would be shot on-sight if they returned. I'll give a rundown of the events of the firefight though and my perspective on the context. The breach was in the brig communal, the shutters were down, most of the fighting was done in communal's antechamber and due to people forcing shutters we were not fully depressurized for a time. I was wearing a full mask with a full pocket tank so I wasn't in danger of popping a lung. The raider wearing the Dominian gear went down first and dropped his rifle but it only had three rounds remaining. Another officer had dropped his SMG due to the airflow and/or wounds from the first raider; that was mainly what I used. I tried to repel the raiders in communal but Kyres used cleaner grenades for area denial and eventually a flashbang. For the latter half of the fight I was deafened and could not hear any calls for ceasefire or retreat. I wasn't aware that I was pointblanked because the screen was white from the flashbang and the logs were lost in the scroll. After I was able to stand up again, I re-engaged, firing the SMG at those remaining in communal but at this point I was really starting to hurt so I retreated back into the main security hallway where medical collected me. I had thought that the area had finally depressurized enough to where I was feeling the effects but in retrospect it was more likely pain from being pointblanked while flashbanged. I went to medical and they did surgery to remove the shrapnel but by the time I was awake the raiders had fled.

Bugs aside, your death can generate RP for others even though it might not be canon. There’s also the crew armory and ops even if the security armory is unavailable.

Ban lifted.

I'm not opposed to lifting the ban but you have a history of poor antag behavior ranging from lack of escalation to DC'ing when caught. Based on the context and age of some earlier bans I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt but going forward you will be on thin ice so if there is any question that you might be in violation of the rules please ahelp first. As to security, they are expected to deal with threats to ship and crew accordingly. Finding someone trespassing on the bridge is sufficient reason to detain them on-sight. If you are worried that being caught will end your round, make sure you have contingencies. Personally I like the compressed matter implant, you can hide a single item ranging in size from your PDA to a rifle in it and call it out when needed. Familiarize yourself with the tools available, ask on AOOC, check the wiki, ect.