Blue

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Okay, I don't usually post but some people want me to post. Okay people. I'm posting. Don't know if my opinion will do anything but here it goes. The stun baton is pretty iconic with sec. Being one-hit stun, it can end any criminal scum easy. When I started playing sec, it was the classic "everything in your belt fucks up the antag's day". Meaning, everything was an insta-stun. Flashes, baton, spray, taser, everything took down your target in one hit. Didn't leave much room to combat. But I loved it. I was powerful. Then, taser nerf happens. Tasers take two hits to stun someone now. Two successive hits. Now you gotta aim. At first I was upset because I wasn't the super antag-destroying security guardian I was before. But hey. I adjusted. And I got a little bit more robust, too. I've had antags actually escape me this time because I failed to shoot them. I've also been at the receiving end of the taser, and I felt a little better when I could get hit, and not wind up bucklecuffed to a bed in godknowswhere. Now there was wiggle room for a firefight. And I liked it. Now the taser wasn't more effective than a lethal gun. I loved it. But Blue, that's about tasers! This is about batons! I know that. I also played sec when the baton was nerfed the way Bay had it, so that it took multiple hits. Now, it wasn't an end-all, your round is over go rot in the brig you filthy greyshirt tool for the security players. Now, you had to look out, or else you'd get disarmed and then promptly detained yourself. Also, the flash is also the only true insta-stun weapon after this (maybe pepperspray. I haven't been in that many situations where I needed it). Now, officers that jump to the baton when a flash will do are literally putting themselves at an inconvenience and at risk of being robusted. I like it. I'm also going to point out that what Jamani suggested also sounds like a great idea. The concept of having intents factor in to batons would make it more interesting. Someone pointed out that other antagonists have stun tools too. Well, they're supposed to be antagonizing. If they weren't even slightly more powerful and effective than sec's stunning tools, there would never be a reason for security to up to the big guns. Plus, most of what antags can use to stun you is either a magic incantation, a talisman infused directly with the essence of a blood goddess, or a biological toxin administered through a stinger. I think these all deserve to be better than a glowing stick, No? edit: completely forgot IPCs. I'm fairly positive a coder could work a way for IPCs to get affected by batons and tasers. Also, the fact that flashes don't work on them is ridiculous.

Okay. So people are making me post things. Okay. I hate Skrell. I hate them with a burning passion. And that stupid slur is just the most minor reason why (It really is hard to take seriously. And if you don't take it seriously you're racist and your job gets threatened...Tool...) Why do I hate Skrell then? Their lore. The way it sets them up as the best guys in this side of the galaxy. So they have better medical and science fields than us. That's great. Oh, they also have the best military too. Skrell are their own independent power while the other races are barely living off of NT (note, I haven't really brushed up on lore in a bit. Feel free to correct things). So essentially, Skrell are best at everything. And they spend their time soaking naked in the pool, soaking naked in hydroponics trays, fussing about how they can't eat meat, and warbling incomprehensible things. In my opinion, that's rather bland. Tajara and Unathi have a unique and flexible relationship with NT in terms of RP. Since they are considered 2nd class "uncivilized heathen savages" like Vittorio puts it, you can easily be racist towards them. They can be racist back. You can sympathize with them because they're prejudiced and stuff. You can have a Taj claim his race is the best because they have the greatest willpower. Or an Unathi because they are the greatest warriors. With Skrell, there is no arguement; They have the best of everything. I'd think it would be better for the lore if Skrell were dependent on NT. They lacked the proper "elite" military force. They need protection in order to survive, and NT gives that protection in exchange for Skrellian tech. But that's gonna rip the floorboards off of some people's characters so...yeah. Just my two cents.

I just signed in to say that One Out Of Many Out Of One, my diona, is -70. I beat your test.

But they're not always pink.

In real life, hostage situations are effective because the hostage-taker is in a position where they are able to exert force against the hostage, and thus use that threat as a method of coercion. Thus, an antag creating a valid hostage situation should be able to create some sort of believable threat they are able to enforce against their hostage. Why is an additional, hard-OOC measure necessary on top of that? I'm looking for the full explanation here, because I believe debating this issue requires us to analyze the situation in more depth than "resisting against your captors is powergaming". Because the Aurora I remember has strictly frowned upon scenario 1 happening. I've been the "officer" (really, detective, makes it even worse) in that situation and it was shitty for everyone. Skull told me off, yada yada, and I thought it was already pre-established that scenario 1 was terrible. This thread hints that it is not... Anyhow, hard-OOC measures. This game is based off clicking to win. Unless your hostage-taker goes the extra mile and stuns you and cuffs you (which, depending on the situation, could be gank itself. You just popped out of nowhere and stunned them? Yeah, not good), you are in a position where you can click to win. Clicking to win is not fun on roleplaying server. Yes, a good chunk of the community recognizes this and will not click to win, but an equally good chunk will grab whatever weapon they have on them, or even disarm intent and click away at Mr. Syndicate. Unless you want antagonists to gank, there needs to be some kind of insurance that they won't be insta-stunned when they try to take hostages that don't actively have a tool of self-defense in their hands. Like Delta said, if I'm pointing a gun at you, you shouldn't be able to reach into your holster/belt and pull out your stun weapon. You would get shot just for trying that. If I were a nuke op, I'd be dissatisfied if I saw my target, crawled out of the dark towards them, drew my SMG on them, went "Hey little thing, what'chu doin' all by yourse-", and the target in question immediately pulled out a tazer from their belt, spamshot me with it, harmbattoned me while I'm down, cuffed me, and screamed 'I GOT THE NUKE OP!' on the sec radio. It's entirely detrimental to roleplay and has no excuse.

The first scenario is incredibly powergamey, offers less chance for RP interaction, and is equally as bad as downing the antag on sight when he has a hostage. No server under heavy roleplay (that's what we still are, right?) should ever encourage it, or even allow it.

JamesCampbell, don't get me wrong. It is defiantely frustrating to see other people regularly promoted to "Vice HoS" or "Interm CMO", and to have you yourself denied that role, even when your character is definitely qualified in those fields. However, allow me to play devil's advocate, with my own personal story. Once upon a time, I was a CMO. I had a nurse join me and proceed to ask me for additional access. I asked them what they needed access to. They answered with chemistry and genetics. First thing I did was check their records. Now, they did have records. And they were absolutely beautifully constructed. They had wonderful formatting, dates of qualification, years of practice, years of study, incidents, and everything was so specific it gave my inner bureaucrat a boner. I should also note the contents of their records; They basically had training in everything from surgery, nursing, virology, chemistry and genetics. I didn't scream Mary Sue because the character was rather nice to interact with. Now, chemistry was already stocked, and you didn't need genetics as medical unless somebody was already dead, in which the CMO could open genetics up for them. They understood. Here's when things start flopping out. A patient is admitted to the medbay, with terrible physical wounds. The nurse went and pulled them. That's right. Pulled them. Over across the hall. I screamed at them to use a roller. They didn't know how. I had to show them how to use the staple of medical transportation. Then somebody needed surgery. A procedure which would have taken 2 minutes instead took 20, because she kept messing up. Now, I cannot stress enough that heads aren't the ones to jump in and powergame everything. If someone is struggling with their job, you gotta help them do the job, not jump in and do the job for them (unless it's a dire situation, of course), so that's what I did; Not jump in. Instead I advised from the observing room, giving them instructions on how to do the surgery both IC and in LOOC. It still took 20 minutes. As CMO, I felt it was my duty to have a chat with this character. I pointed out their records to them, and how marvelous they looked. I also pointed out how the nurse's display of her knowledge in medical was not properly reflecting off her records. She apologized, and promised she'd do better. I let her go. Unfortunately, somebody had died. My CMO character was not trained in genetics, therefore someone else had to do the cloning. Yep, you guessed it! Nurse Disappointment had to do it! She plopped the body, clothes on, inside the scanner. I informed her that she had to strip the body down first, and she was puzzled. Nevertheless, she did it. Then she popped him back in, his the scan button once, and said "He's gone, there's nothing we can do about him." I told them, IC and OOCly, that they had to hit the scan button multiple times, so that a ghost has time to get back into their body. Surprise surprise, they ended up being cloned after that. Now if you thought this was horrible enough, read on. After cryo and Alkysine were given, and the clone was dressed, he then inquired why he was in the medbay and why he doesn't remember anything. Can you guess what Nurse Disappointment said? Mhm! You guessed it! "You got cloned." Solo Jenifer Clewett, chasing a crazed half-naked man down the hallways with a syringe gun in one hand and a straight jacket in the other. She eventually got him down, and delegated his care to the psychologist. I had another sit down with the nurse, this time a little less passive. She didn't even know CMD! The one rule in medbay everyone is expected to know by heart (and follow at will). I told her that I was going to fire her, but she RP'd an emotional breakdown and begged me not to let kick her to the curb. Jenifer was a pure, kindhearted character, who reluctantly forgave her. This round gave me too much stress. I decided to promote someone to acting CMO and go cryo. A friend of mine, who was playing chemist at the time, later informed me after I left, that the nurse threw a patient down disposals to avoid treating them for whatever reason, and was eventually banned. I never saw nor heard from them again. And to think that I nearly gave them all-access within medical... --- What's the point? It's that just because you have fancy records and you're doing good roleplay, doesn't mean you should be promoted to high positions. While that character had the records and backstory fluff to be the best CMO ever, the player themselves lacked the actual experience to play really anything in that department. Or maybe they were a troll and didn't give a shit. Anyone can go and type whatever fabulous records they want, therefore, they cannot be a surefire way of determining who has qualifications or not. I'm not against the concept of characters having to prove themselves towards other characters (namely heads) before they can be given any kind of IC advancement. It sounds to me like you had already obtained that criteria from working with the HoS, but not the HoP. I can see why that might be upsetting, and personally, I feel like you should have gained the promotion because you had the word of the head of security, who knows better about his department than the head of personnel. But again, take what I said above with a grain of salt.

Thuuuuuuundy! and also poor Dea But Thuuuuuundy!

We used to have one. Then we stopped doing events.

There is. http://wiki.baystation12.net/index.php/File:Sakeglass.png

Well yeah, but isn't that overcomplicating it a bit? If there's nothing that shifts the game in their favor, I don't see what the point of restricting blue shoes is.

I don't really see what the point of restricting footwear to races is. Gloves, I can get it. But shoes?

Because nothing bad has ever come fro- https://gyazo.com/724d058aac6b1e4a98868159f9507cd3 ohshit

Selecting "Can read/write but not speak X" is just too specific. Being able to go [tradeband] speaking words [/tradeband] would be nice enough.