evandorf

CCIA Staff Application Basic Information Byond key: Evandorf Character names: Suvek Tokash, Solomon Shaw Age: Too Old ( If it's super pertinent you can DM me ) Timezone: CST (GMT - 6) What times are you most available?: Most Weekdays after 5 PM CST and on the weekends Experience How long have you played SS13?: Approximately 8 - 9 Years How long have you played on Aurora?: Since August 2015 How active on the forums, discord and/or server are you? I'm fairly active. I won't post a lot unless there is a topic I'm invested in but I keep up to date on what's going on. Have you ever been banned, and if so, how long and why?: Surprisingly no. Have you ever volunteered as moderation staff for any other servers, SS13 or otherwise?: I've only moderated for Aurora. Once around 2019 and again currently. Do you have any other experience that you believe would be relevant to a position in the CCIA?: I've had administrative positions IRL managing small to medium teams, dealing with disciplinary actions, hiring/firing, ect. Personality Why do you want to join the CCIA?: Primarily to help the server run smoother and give you guys another set of hands to handle issues but I also enjoy paperwork and bureaucracy RP. What do you think are the most important qualities for a CCIA Agent to possess?: Patience and and eye for detail. What do you think the purpose of a CCIA Agent is in an ongoing round?: To provide guidance when appropriate or solicited; this might involve answering fax requests or pushing for information on an extended code red, ect. When most characters in a round are focused on the ship itself you can provide a wider perspective from an outsider's point of view. What do you think the purpose of a CCIA Agent is outside of the server?: Primarily dealing with IC disputes that spill over between rounds or for some reason can't be resolved on the server itself. Unless you are playing extended there are many times where the pressures of the round prevent a true look at the interpersonal struggles that happen. CCIA can take a look at the reports, logs, and statements and parse the noise into something coherent and help find a resolution. How do you handle stress?: I feel like I handle it fairly well. I'm not easily riled and when it comes to workload all you can do is set a pace for what you have on your plate and work through it. How well do you work autonomously?: Fairly well. If I have questions I'll ask but if for some reason I can't reach anyone on a time sensitive matter I have no issues making a choice, owning consequences, and learning from mistakes. Additional Notes: Nothing really to add. I really enjoy the server and would like to help more than I currently am.

I'm generally against removing mechanics without a good reason. Your argument as to why this should be removed is that it doesn't mesh with HRP because it's an inconvenience to high-intensity antag/security play. I would argue that, while not mutually exclusive, too much of a focus on antag/security play is detrimental to HRP and reducing the cost of engaging in high-intensity engagements will just lead to them being more common.

I get strong Han and Chewie vibes from this.

I get the frustration of not being able to find what you need but two things: There are mechanical remedies for some of this already. For example, the raiders specifically have a tracker for the nuke disk. There is also a door hacking tool to remove the need for grabbing the spare, or simply using an emag. Most often the Captain will place things in their safe or secure briefcase, either one can be hacked with standard tools and are easy places to look, There is also an expectation for heads of staff not to metagame overmuch. If you feel like a head of staff has gone out of their way without clear IC reasons to keep something from an antagonist then I'd recommend ahelping it.

I've personally never had an issue with the disruptor against unarmored opponents but I also don't use it with the assumption that it should be able to bring down an enemy on its own. Pepper them with a handful of shots and the pain makes them easier to manage for the remainder of the encounter. It's a good option for doing the least amount of harm to a crew member who is escalating to physical violence and looks less severe than using the baton. I'd never recommend using it against a more serious threat, and I don't think that's its intended use. It's also worthwhile to remember to always call for backup, even for small escalations. Two officers with disruptors will put an unarmored assailant down pretty quick.

Hey, apologies for the delay. I'll be reaching out to you soon to schedule an interview.

We have nothing in the rules that requires antag gimmicks to be grand and I personally agree that they shouldn't have to be. This is more of a attitude shared by some and is completely ahelpable if people are excessively salting on your gimmick. In your anti-corporate example, I would say that you didn't provide sufficient RP beforehand but there are many ways to provide it other than the radio. For example, the other day I had a traitor round where I wanted to use the Xanu Rep's exploitable info as cause for an assassination attempt. I did a few things leading up to the actual killing. I purchased an encrypted headset key to keep tabs on what was happening. I made announcement that Xanu intelligence warned of an attempt on the life of a Xanu citizen aboard the Horizon. I purchased a burner laptop and and agent ID card to use for texting so I could send the rep threats beforehand. They were quickly relayed to Command and Security but could not be traced to me. I installed a closet teleporter between a locker on the Intrepid and a locker near the Rep's office. After I let the crew simmer on the threats and sec work to try and figure out who the attacker was I purchased some frags and made a lame attempt by tossing one at the Rep and the bodyguard assigned to them from Sec. I fled to the Intrepid and launched towards nearby rangers, bolted the airlock between where the teleport comes in and the cockpit, and waited for the inevitable boarding attempt. In the end they decided rather than teleport into danger they would take the spark and do a boarding operation. Once that was in full swing, I took the closet back to nearby the Rep's office, purchased a rifle and did what I set out to do. I'm not listing all this to brag, only to show that there are many ways to interact with the crew and also ways to avoid confrontations with security while also achieving your goals. I agree with you that too much pressure is put on antags to carry rounds but also antags need to think beyond simply clashing with security.

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.