Player Complaint - ReadThisNamePlz

[FlamingLily]

BYOND Key: FlamingLily
Game ID: Round preceeding co4-a0bG
Player Byond Key/Character name: Artemis Grey/ReadThisnamePlz
Staff involved: No ahelp made; Melariara approved the Delta Alert
Reason for complaint: 

At the end of a changeling round, a particularly combat-heavy one but one that security had resolved by the end of it, Read, as Captain Grey, activated Delta Alert. This occurred a few minutes before the server restarted and had no purpose within the story of the round, it seemed to serve solely as a last minute surprise. The decision was not discussed with any other command to my knowledge (Unsure, however), and it was not discussed with security. There was no discussion on common, no announcement, no information relayed to the crew about it until after the activation; And the announcement that did follow did not give any justified IC reason to activate it.

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Evacuate to the Intrepid. This anomaly is unable to be detected and I have no way of knowing who is and is not infected. It is set to detonate in thirty minutes.

In the round up until this point, there had been absolutely no discussion of "infections" or "anomalies," nor really any RP regarding what was going on at all. For all intents and purposes the changelings were just shapeshifting monsters and that was all that mattered. And, again, by the end of the round all of these monsters were dead. Security had handled everything. The self destruct was absolutely unnecessary ICly and OOCly.

Let's talk in character justification for a moment, if we were to assume this was a solely IC motivated decision, it would mean the character of Artemis Grey is willing to destroy the homes and livelihoods of the entire crew, strand them all in deep space, potentially kill a lot of them, and destroy a trillion dollar vessel, all because she doesn't think the ship's security, science, and medical teams could take control of what is apparently an infectious anomaly. She comes to this conclusion with no discussion, no team meetings, and no forethought (let's bundle the entire crew into a much smaller space so that any infections spread much faster). This is not the type of captain the SCC would allow past their background checks.

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Requesting the code should only be done if the ship has expended all of its resources in containing a threat and failed.

This was not the case.

 

After the round, a brief discussion was had in OOC [Which got slightly heated and as such I was directed to make this complaint.] and more justifications were raised about the idea that it was spreading. The reasoning provided was that it was spreading because three crew members had been changed and it appeared to be the case one after the other. This did not appear to be a viewpoint held by anyone in security or anyone tangentially related. Even were it to be a justified reaction, the manner in which it was used was completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things, which harms the legitimacy of a self destruct as a mechanism. For a captain to activate the self destruct long after the round has ended and with no time to appropriately react, it sets an OOC precedent that delta alerts can be used in this way, which they shouldn't, because it's a meaningless shock-value point that's a borderline end of round grief moment and not something you can easily get emotionally invested in because of this fact.

This is also not the first time this has happened. I don't recall the game ID or even when it occured, but I very clearly remember a separate changeling round having an unprompted delta alert called at the end of the round. I can't give many details, as this was a while ago now.

Ultimately, this was either an OOC motivated character decision performed for shock value and 'spice' made at the expense of the round, or a purely IC motivated decision that results in the character of Artemis Grey being fundamentally unfit for purpose.

Did you attempt to adminhelp the issue at the time? If so, what was the known action taken by administration/moderation? No time
Approximate Date/Time: Server time 30/Jul/2023 ~6:40; AEDT 30/Jul/2023 ~4:40

Edited July 30, 2023 by FlamingLily
forgot a quote and spellcheck

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Hi, I'll provide my thoughts on this. Both IC and OOC. 

When I joined the round, I heard about the chef murdering someone and then dying. Almost immediately after I was verbally briefed, the chef vented security and was fought a couple of times before being taken into Xenobiology. So ling #1 was established and already handled by like, 30 - 40 minutes into the round. 

-- OOC Information --
I made a server announcement asking for two volunteers because it was a high pop round and the sole antagonist had been stopped. I am allowed to do this as an Administrator and none of the other staff members online cared - I picked two volunteers, linged them and then gave them each 7 Genome points instead of 5 to make up for the lost time. The two I picked were the Warden and then some Hangar Tech. The Hangar technician ended up cryoing after a while, and then the game auto-selected an Engineer as a ling. Xim, I think? So over the course of the round, after my announcements, two additional lings began to make themselves known/cause havoc. 

-- IC Information/POV -- 
By the end of the round, the Wardens ling had been killed. They were in the horror form, and were killed pretty fast. The shift change was called and we remained in code red with no objections from command until the end of round because of how violet and covert the other two lings had been. Specifically the Warden, who had almost killed the HoS and several officers seemingly out of the blue. 
So, it's liike five minutes until end of the round - two until the gamemode message comes up - and I hear on the engineering channel that Xim (engineer) is acting weird, then like ten seconds later Security is called over because Xim is another one of these creatures. Great. 

Normally this would be fine if 
1.) The first ling was not back alive as a literal skeleton terrorizing people. We shot it, dismembered it, and had it spaced and it still showed back up on ship.
2.) The Warden did not nearly kill a command member and several others due to being so covert, then turning into a large abomination of flesh and bladed bones.
3.) A third member of the crew showed signs of also being like this anomaly and was actively hurting people (I have no actual confirmation if Xim tried to kill someone, i just am able to go off of comms)

So, as I explained in ooc after the round - there was a clear pattern being portrayed. One that others saw as well. The lings were not isolated to one person and if someone had direct contact with them (Like the Warden with the Chef, and the Engineer with the Warden), then they were at risk of turning into or being infected. So, I made an EBS message asking for the nuke code and decided to set the station (in like the last minute or thirty seconds) to code Delta to end the round with some extra spice/flavor.
 

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Let's talk in character justification for a moment, if we were to assume this was a solely IC motivated decision, it would mean the character of Artemis Grey is willing to destroy the homes and livelihoods of the entire crew, strand them all in deep space, potentially kill a lot of them, and destroy a trillion dollar vessel, all because she doesn't think the ship's security, science, and medical teams could take control of what is apparently an infectious anomaly.

We could not contain it. I'm not sure who you played, but we spent an hour or so trying to contain the first ling in Xenobiology and then xenoarcheology, they kept cutting through walls, and reviving. We even spaced them and they showed back up. Sorry, but we did do everything in our power to try and contain them. Tsisana Caladius's player, Pirouette (I can't mention them for some reason) can verify this. So can the engineering apprentice, Lalu and maybe even @Evandorf (HOS). 
 

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In the round up until this point, there had been absolutely no discussion of "infections" or "anomalies," nor really any RP regarding what was going on at all. For all intents and purposes the changelings were just shapeshifting monsters and that was all that mattered. And, again, by the end of the round all of these monsters were dead. Security had handled everything. The self destruct was absolutely unnecessary ICly and OOCly.

We exhausted every possible avenue of containment and study, and the lings just kept showing up seemingly out of the blue. Also, the monsters were not dead by the end of the round, it had been proven over and over that they weren't able to be killed/spaced - and that others kept surfacing. 

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She comes to this conclusion with no discussion, no team meetings, and no forethought (let's bundle the entire crew into a much smaller space so that any infections spread much faster). This is not the type of captain the SCC would allow past their background checks.

I do not need to have meetings or input from other command to reach code Delta. It is solely the Captains call/a Captain level decision. 
But, the reason I did not consult command or anyone else is because I did not know if anyone else was infected. The only person that would've been able to retain the trust of not being infected from my Char was the XO because he manned the bridge all round. The HoS came into direct contact with a ling that tried to kill him, the CMO was treating people who came into direct contact, etc. 
I mentioned the Intrepid because I was intending on EBSing central that the intrepid is full of potentially infected crew-members and will need to be handled or quarantined, but it is much easier to do so than to do that for an entire ship with potentially countless of these entities. 
Also, scuttling would've destroyed all of the fluids, body parts, and trace of the lings that were already on board, which would've isolated the infection to the Intrepid - making it easier to contain. 
 

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Requesting the code should only be done if the ship has expended all of its resources in containing a threat and failed.

Okay. Sure, maybe from your POV it did not seem like this, but taking mine into account, it definitely did. 
 

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Even were it to be a justified reaction, the manner in which it was used was completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things, which harms the legitimacy of a self destruct as a mechanism. For a captain to activate the self destruct long after the round has ended and with no time to appropriately react, it sets an OOC precedent that delta alerts can be used in this way, which they shouldn't, because it's a meaningless shock-value point that's a borderline end of round grief moment and not something you can easily get emotionally invested in because of this fact.

I think I can see where you're coming from with this? The thing with this is that the round did not end though. The third ling showing up is what finalized my decision to go through with this. I EBS'd the code, Mel and the CCIA Lead both agreed that it was fine as long as the timer was set uber long to avoid the explosion and lag, so I went through with it. 

I do not think I need to add anymore, feel free to ask for clarification on anything. 

[Garnascus]

The Captain alone is empowered with the authority of when to use the self destruct sequence. They do not need to consult anyone. It is their omega directive. Of course that doesnt forbid us from examining a captain's reasons for doing so. Will need to establish a timeline of events. 

[Melariara]

Hello, I have been asked for my input here, so, here we go.

 

My recollection of the round is pretty fuzzy at this point, but I do remember asking CCIA for approval. I do remember us deliberately waiting for the round to get near to being finished before Delta actually went through, and I vaguely remember Read agreeing to that. After the round ended, however, I did express regret about approving the Delta, as, in hindsight, there wasn't enough buildup to the Delta in terms of announcements, or telling anyone else what was going on.

I was also in round at the time, so I do believe I was tearing my attention between the two.

Sorry if this isn't enough.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

7 minutes ago, Melariara said:

After the round ended, however, I did express regret about approving the Delta, as, in hindsight, there wasn't enough buildup to the Delta in terms of announcements, or telling anyone else what was going on..

I want to follow up with this. 
 

I firmly believe that there was enough communication from all parties involved about the deaths, study of the lings, and sudden appearance of more lings - I do remember trying my best to keep people informed, but when it comes to Delta - I typically do not tell Staff because it is incredibly easy to prevent it. Also, icly I did not know who was “infected” and who was not. 

[Garnascus]

Its really hard for me to gauge whether calling delta here was appropriate. I think it was a bit of a stretch to think the changelings where some kind of virus that could infect people. That being said theres a reason you need staff approval to do it and that was granted here. Its not really read's fault they got permission to do it and it seems mel already acknowledges it was a bad move. Dont see any action that needs to be taken here.