Removal of the Unwritten Expectations Placed on Code Red

[Butterrobber202]

In a recent round, I had the following ticket exchange with a staff member after I raised to Code Red as Captain, at 1:56 round time. 

Spoiler

Two issues I have with this exchange:

The first: If my whitelist is at risk for "bad play/form", then those expectations, if they go beyond what is in the rules, simply need to be written down somewhere so everyone is held to a textbook standard.

The second, and focus of this post, Code Red is a reaction to events on the Horizon, it is not an actual choice that Command/the Captain makes, so much as an evaluation of the current situation. Command has little actual agency over what the Code is from an IC perspective, as its their responsibility to see the correct Code applied for the current situation. 

Incase anyone hasn't reviewed the Codes recently, here's what's on the wiki for Captain/Command to go by regarding each of the standard codes. 

Spoiler

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Captain#Alerts_and_SOP

 

During the round this ticket occurred in, Security was getting thrown around by a hulking vampire, on top of another two active hostiles. But, because this hostility ramped up at 1:56, I was held responsible for delaying the round's end for my response to the situation, a response mind you, that I am expected to preform as Captain of the Horizon, so Security can act as needed within the bounds of the regulations. If I lowered the Code on a canon event round because 2:00 was rolling around despite there being an active situation, I'd almost positive the CCIA would throw my Captain in the trash without a second thought. On an OOC level, by not raising to red and preforming my job duties as a non-antagonist, I'm actually bordering on breaking quite a few rules in the "Roleplaying Characters" section.

We are not /tg/station, CM, or MRP/LRP. We're a HRP server, where our main focus is firmly on roleplay. The fact that the staff currently expect Command players to ignore IC situations if they are close to 2:00 round time is not conductive to a HRP environment. If ghosts are complaining about the delay, there are multiple ways to join an ongoing round. If a current player is in a round and wants to leave, there are multiple ways to do that. Aurora's longstanding policy, unless it has simply changed without notice being given, is that the priority is always on the active players within a round, not ghosts or people queued to join the next round. 

The only current OOC guideline for Code Red that is written down, and the only one that I believe Command can reasonably held universally accountable for by that virtue, is that Code Red should never be held when unnecessary. If admins are determined to have rounds end at 2:00 sharp, I believe that such expectations should be codified on the wiki or enforced via mechanics. Until that happens, Command members should not be bwionked for doing their jobs. 

[GeneralCamo]

What if we just removed the vote restrictions during code red? Seems like that would resolve this issue entirely. 

[Butterrobber202]

3 minutes ago, GeneralCamo said:

What if we just removed the vote restrictions during code red? Seems like that would resolve this issue entirely. 

If this was done, I would only want players that are actively in the round to be able to vote. No ghosts or lobbysitters.

[Boggle08]

I've seen other captains get slapped for putting red up right close to the end. A command whitelist has a lot of OOC expectations that kind of box people into playing a particular way, beyond what could be ICly plausible or acceptable. Knowing how things are, it might be best to include a bolded note on the ship procedures page about it. It'll prevent people from incriminating themselves.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Boggle08