Screemers Posted April 29, 2019 Posted April 29, 2019 I've been playing on Aurora for a few months now, and I realized that at multiple occasion there was an emergency shuttle called for what could appear trivial matters. The reasons I've seen to call an emergency evacuation shuttle have been from "The events caused psychological distress to the crew" to "Well nobody died but our security is not able to take control of the situation,” and there are plenty of others that I'm sure all of you have some examples of. (The examples given are a bit caricatural but they resume well the core of the reasons given.) The reasoning, on the lore side, for a stricter guide line for the emergency shuttle is that NanoTrasen is a corporation in place for profit, and evacuating for anything other than the station being totally unfit to sustain life, the crew is totally unable to maintain reasonable research work (reasonable could be detailed here) or if it's overwhelmed without any chance to take back control by hostile forces, it will result in massive preventable income lost for NT. Any organization of that size won't let a costly action like that going on without pushing huge repercussion on the person that pulled the trigger. Other reasoning for the gameplay part is that some person like the play in chaos from time to time, so having an end of the round forced at the first sign of a struggle when people still enjoy it seems a bit against the whole purpose of the game which is to have fun. But I understand there is some sort of balance to maintain to stay in the RP of the station, therefore the suggestion of clear criteria before arriving at an emergency shuttle situation. The idea of the proposition pretty much came to me when a shuttle was called seconds after an extension of the round vote passed for one of the reasons I've stated. Of course, none of that applies to the transfer shuttle. If there is an end of the round vote passing, it's the end. So in short, the idea would be to not be able / permitted to call an emergency shuttle unless: Station is unfit to sustain life anymore Station is unable to maintain reasonable research work Station is overwhelmed by violent hostiles and there is no chance to take it back Also, enabling people to play a bit more in chaos when it happens could eventually bring some new additions like "safe zone" or more escape pods. Well, I hope my first post was clear enough, English is not my first language, so don't hesitate to ask questions if you need clarifications.
Goret Posted April 29, 2019 Posted April 29, 2019 (edited) I have seen cases where a shuttle is being called when the crew can easily fix the problems, so I would agree to put some criteria in place. Edited April 29, 2019 by Goret
Resilynn Posted April 29, 2019 Posted April 29, 2019 I totally agree. I don’t like that command has the ability to end rounds that just frustrate them. I’ve seen command characters who hate wizard, for example, call a shuttle at the 2 hour mark on blue alert because the wizard couldn’t easily be beaten. Honestly I feel like emergency shuttles should be more difficult to call- it should be red alert, the AI shouldn’t be able to call one (except on malf), and the station should be in a grave situation where the crew WILL die, not might get hurt, if they do not leave.
Scheveningen Posted April 29, 2019 Posted April 29, 2019 5 minutes ago, Screemers said: Station is unfit to sustain life anymore Vague qualifier that might otherwise be misinterpreted to an unreasonable extreme. 5 minutes ago, Screemers said: Station is unable to maintain reasonable research work Well, how would you define 'unable to maintain research work'? Personally, I think heads of staff should be reported more for calling the shuttle for foolish reasons. "The events caused psychological distress to the crew" is an absurd reason to be trying to end the round for. People with whitelists should be far more considerate both OOCly and ICly when the topic of calling a shuttle is referenced to.
Arrow768 Posted April 29, 2019 Posted April 29, 2019 A first step could be to require a reason to be specified when the shuttle is called, which is then mentioned in the announcement. That would make it easier to ensure there is a sufficient reason for a shuttle call and avoid the "why shuttle?" questions on common. (Maybe do the same thing when raising the alert?)
Screemers Posted April 29, 2019 Author Posted April 29, 2019 1 hour ago, Scheveningen said: Vague qualifier that might otherwise be misinterpreted to an unreasonable extreme. Well, how would you define 'unable to maintain research work'? Personally, I think heads of staff should be reported more for calling the shuttle for foolish reasons. "The events caused psychological distress to the crew" is an absurd reason to be trying to end the round for. People with whitelists should be far more considerate both OOCly and ICly when the topic of calling a shuttle is referenced to. I was vague on purpose in that case. It was just a layout for the idea as I don't think that me alone should be the one drawing the lines. I can make suggestions if people want more details though.
Xelnagahunter Posted April 29, 2019 Posted April 29, 2019 This is very agreeable. It's one of the things I think of in the command whitelist application when it asks about IC and OOC responsibility to the station/server. Not abusing the power to end the round like this and ruin the fun of the players playing antag, ERT, or anyone involved in the scenario, is an important part of having the roles whitelisted. Where exactly these stipulations would be placed is something to think about as I'm positive most will agree that we don't need more directives to clarify this.
ben10083 Posted April 30, 2019 Posted April 30, 2019 17 hours ago, Resilynn said: it should be red alert Nah, likely should be blue/yellow, red requires multiple heads, which is sometimes not possible. Perhaps make it required to send a fax/ebs first explaining the situation, and if they do not send such a message CCIA/admins can cancel the shuttle at their discretion.
Asheram Posted April 30, 2019 Posted April 30, 2019 21 hours ago, Screemers said: Station is unable to maintain reasonable research work This one here is a bit far too open for my tastes.
VTCobaltblood Posted May 1, 2019 Posted May 1, 2019 (edited) On 29/04/2019 at 22:37, Screemers said: Station is unable to maintain reasonable research work Ironically, "nobody died but security can't handle anything" and "the events have caused psychological distress" can qualify as this extremely easily. Or, for example, science being out of power and there being no engineers would also then qualify as a valid reason to call an evac. Or literally any structural damage caused to science without engineering crew present. Bomb range is destroyed? Call evac, we can't do research! Or all of the scientists being dead/otherwise unable to work (all scientists are drunk in the bar -> they can't do research -> call evac ). Etc. etc. Evac shuttles are a means to end the round on red alert. If the round should end, then by God's name, let it end. If an evac is called, chances are that everyone is very tired of the round and wants a new one. It's not an extremely common occurrence. Edited May 1, 2019 by VTCobaltblood
TheOrleans Posted June 14, 2019 Posted June 14, 2019 On 29/04/2019 at 21:46, Resilynn said: I totally agree. I don’t like that command has the ability to end rounds that just frustrate them. I’ve seen command characters who hate wizard, for example, call a shuttle at the 2 hour mark on blue alert because the wizard couldn’t easily be beaten. Honestly I feel like emergency shuttles should be more difficult to call- it should be red alert, the AI shouldn’t be able to call one (except on malf), and the station should be in a grave situation where the crew WILL die, not might get hurt, if they do not leave. AI being able to call an emergency shuttle has to stay. However, I would accept that missuse of this could easily lead to an AI-ban
Screemers Posted July 16, 2019 Author Posted July 16, 2019 I saw something interesting from @MoondancerPony while browsing the forums today that could also be a good alternative as the lines of when to call a shuttle doesn't seem to be at the same position for everyone. Adding vote to evacuation shuttle calls I think it's worth looking into as it will be the people in game that would vote to end it. Like that, people playing command would be able to say they did what they were supposed to even if the shuttle doesn't come.
Pratepresidenten Posted May 10, 2020 Posted May 10, 2020 Although we pinch people for calling the shuttle willy-nilly, a more solid criteria system would be good. On 29/04/2019 at 22:36, Arrow768 said: A first step could be to require a reason to be specified when the shuttle is called, which is then mentioned in the announcement. That would make it easier to ensure there is a sufficient reason for a shuttle call and avoid the "why shuttle?" questions on common. This pretty much makes it easy to discern validity of a shuttle call with an easy to find the reason inround using a newscaster. A good start!
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