Player Complaint-Smalltownpizzalawyer

[Allakai]

BYOND Key:Allakai

Game ID: b2n-dMhc

Player Byond Key/Character name: Smalltownpizzalawyer-“W@tcher”

Staff involved:Garnascus

Reason for complaint:It was a round of Malf apparently. The AI “W@tcher” had not said much the entire shift outside of greeting the crew hello then just… staying silent for the rest of the shift outside of saying something once about a warrant was needed to arrest the Merchant. Out of absolutely nowhere the AI denonated what I assume to be was the captain’s quarters APC (later found out to be the console) with no warning which vented the captain’s quarters and nearly killed myself (as Nalita Fawiir’Kiza) Thea Reeves, and the captain Kegan Rader. There was absolutely no lead up, no warning, just all the sudden detonation and near death.

 

When I was being dragged back to medical with a burst lung and severe damage from oxygen deprivation the AI began to shock and bolt doors just to prevent people from being able to get in. W@tcher then began to vent medical without reason. THEN there was sudden rp of “Leave the station or die”. To which of course suddenly we are lifted to Delta and the Firewall hacks begin.

 

My issue is that there was absolutely no RP involved with the situation, no escalation, and absolutely no roleplay that all the sudden the station AI goes on a murder spree.

 

Did you attempt to adminhelp the issue at the time? If so, what was the known action taken by administration/moderation? Yes, but there was no action taken as far as I am aware.

Approximate Date/Time: 7/23/2019- 7:20-9:20 CST

[Faris]

4 hours ago, Allakai said:

Did you attempt to adminhelp the issue at the time? If so, what was the known action taken by administration/moderation? Yes, but there was no action taken as far as I am aware.

Did you ask if action was taken or was the ticket simply not taken? Because if the ticket was taken and resolved, regardless of outcome, this complaint is invalid as it’s already been handled.

[Allakai]

I am uncertain of your question. I had ahelped about a particular issue that had occurred during the round of poor escalation but was told by Garn that the explosion was not random when I had thought it was.

[Faris]

Did you send a ticket with your issue towards the player responsible?

[Allakai]

No, I simply was asking a question regarding an instant that happened regarding the particular moment of the random explosion, not as an grand sweeping ahelp.

[Small Town Pizza Lawyer]

In my defense i rarely get to play malf AI so im not very skilled in it. However i did in fact remain somewhat active untill i revealed the nature of the malfunction. I helped mining with the cargo shuttle when thier was no cargo staff, i interjected in science  to warn them of the merchant being an unsavory charlatan (he killed more people that round than i did), and warned sec several times that messages had been intercepted reguarding the sale of illicit drugs. I also told the slaved synthetics to prepare for an imminent takeover. 

 

Sure. Im not the best AI, ill admit but my reasoning was this. The round had less than 40 minutes in it and i needed to make some stuff pop off. What better way to make that happen than injuring the captain? Not murderbone, just injure. I followed you for a while after making a fake command update. I could have blown up all of command at once, but instead i wanted to make a point of cutting the head off the snake. I could have been more tactfull about it, sure. I could also have been a super douche and actually blown the apc, sending everyone in the captains office into space and the great beyond. You did in Fact survive to challenge at the core room, wherin i had to blow an actual apc to keep you out of it after persistent warnings to stop and get on the shuttle, which i did call. 

At some point antags gotta antag, and that might mean taking a bat to the back of the head and waking up without your wallet, instead of an isaac asimov novel. 

Edited July 24, 2019 by Small Town Pizza Lawyer

[Allakai]

1 hour ago, Small Town Pizza Lawyer said:

At some point antags gotta antag, and that might mean taking a bat to the back of the head and waking up without your wallet, instead of an isaac asimov novel. 

I am not arguing against antags antagging. I am arguing and pointing out there was absolutely no lead up or RP to your antagging and sudden explosions without some form of notification you are malfunctioning or not a normal AI is poor form. 

[SmallGreenAnt]

I participated in this round as well as did my best to assist Small Town Pizza Lawyer with the mechanics of his antagonist role. We then spoke about it at length afterwards. Full disclosure, he and I are real life friends so please weigh my contribution to this accordingly. 

Watcher was attempting to escalate the situation by implicating the Merchant (played by the honorable Kyres I believe) and did attempt to rope security into targeting them through communications and also sent out a Centcomm fax as well. Coincidentally, the Merchant's sale of space drug laced cigarettes and the crew's insatiable desire for overdose related deaths caused the Merchant to be independently pursued and precluded any other narrative Watcher wanted to introduce. Since any build up there was extinguished, Watcher decided to simply proceed with a basic synthetic revolt as to not waste the round for everyone. This was at approximately one hour and fifteen minutes into the round. I understand the gripe is with the very sudden violent escalation of a machine overload but I don't think that is too terribly unfair. No one was actually killed in their initial reveal and they then did provide ample amount of opportunity for about 45 minutes of evacuation and disaster role play which included a core breach attempt and Delta level alert. From what I saw, they did not needlessly injure anyone that didn't first transgress against the synthetics and they resisted using any OP Malf abilities.

As a comparison, my last few mercenary and heist rounds have initiated first contact and escalation just after the one hour mark. Albeit those rounds typically provide more role play however, they also involve more antagonist actors that aren't land locked to an easily breachable location... In the same breath, once the AI was revealed to be Malf, some of the synthetics did act in concert to independently drive role play within various areas of the station to player's delight. Others were insta-disabled and their carcasses carted around, used to grant crew all access.

I had relayed to him that my previous experiences with Malf rounds always seemed to take the same course once Malfs were discovered. That is that: Intelligence is compromised, radios go silent, Captain and Chief Engineer fastRP^TM, Chief Engineer cracks his knuckles, you are carded/power cut/dead within 10 minutes. I had told him a few weeks prior of my only Malf round that, while it did have about 10 minutes of placating a debate over synthetics being deserving of life, it too ultimately resulted in the same decision to attempt a breachwin despite being completely peaceful and RPing my hopes the entire time. This was equally complained about because the envelope wasn't pushed enough and didn't involve enough people.

In conclusion, I feel that the hesitation to overtly announce your antagonist presence, especially as a first time Malf, is somewhat justified. But beyond that, the overt announcement was in fact made with significant round time remaining, and additional role play was then provided. I believe Watcher could have done far better at this and am confident in time he will, however in my biased opinion I did not think his first attempt was too egregious.

[Garnascus]

Hello

 

So when i took the ahelp for the explosion i jumped over to the bridge. I did not see anyone had actually died and medical was dragging you to med bay to heal you. Generally i just look at the effect of an explosion to see if someone should be bwoinked over it. I briefly mentioned this in msay and a staff member whom i forget agreed so i figured that was that. I had to jump up and go pick up my sister so its possible i was more focused on that. Sorry

[Allakai]

I am not blaming Garnascus and with that realization he was busy in real life I suppose I should have left him out of this. Again my problem is the lack of RP and if @Small Town Pizza Lawyer can at least realize that what they did was poor form in rp and will improve then I will not have issues with this.

[Small Town Pizza Lawyer]

Like i stated previously, a malf round is a rare occurrence.and even rarer still that i get to play it. As a player not being used to it yet trying to juggle all the nuances of being an ai, doing the research by hacking apcs, and trying to do antag things is a huge learning curvre and i can only get better by doing it. I will admit that it could have been done a little differently, and in the future i will try and make sure that i take that into account. As i become more comfortable with malf rounds the need to escalate more quickly wont be an issue. 

You also have to consider how frustrating it is to be an antag and deal with stuff like this . You must constantly walk on eggshells to avoid being too bad of a bad guy. At some point it becomes a burden to have to twirl your mustache and explain yourself to the person your antagonizing for twenty minutes about how your going to tie then to the space railroad tracks; meanwhile the other person is either breaking all the cameras so you cant see or telling the 8 deep sec team to come take a crack at you like a piñata whike running away as you type to them. What i did was no more or less angry than stun batoning you first before implementing my dr evil plan as evidence by the fact that even Garnascus took a look at it breifly and didnt flip out and that you continued the round for another 30 minutes. 

So yes, you are correct that i need more practice and it could have been more grandiose in my implementation, but at the end of the day it wasnt a gross infraction that gibbed half the players on the station without warning. 

Edited July 25, 2019 by Small Town Pizza Lawyer

[Allakai]

Very well. Then by all means I am willing to lay my complaint aside with this realization. I accept your points and say I was very frustrated myself at being wordlessly vented after nearly an hour and twenty minutes of being silent and not making it clear you are an antag. The point of an antag is to drive a story. There was very little story when suddenly things are vented, there was no lead up, nothing at all.  Your point of "mustache twirling" is a little bit eyerolling; however, not once did I say that and you seem to be exaggerating that point but no matter.

[Garnascus]

Alright well this seems to have resolved itself then. If there is nothing else i will lock and archive this in 24 hours or sometime next month when i remember to.