Why do you think security so well staffed?

[jackfractal]

So I've been playing on Aurora for about a week at this point. I've seen rounds where there were no Engineers, I've seen rounds where there were no Doctors, and most rounds have nobody working in science, but I've never seen a round with no security.

I also play on Paradise, which is a high-population low-rp server. No requirements to RP. Most nuke teams announce their presence by brutally murdering the AI, then bombing several parts of the station simultaneously, and a good 1/3 of the rounds there ends with the air lighting on fire or the singularity getting released.

And Paradise struggles to fill a security department. I'm talking a single security guard and a Warden for a round with ~100 players.

If common wisdom were true, and people played security for a chance to hunt criminals and shoot badguys, wouldn't you expect the opposite to happen?

Why do you think security is so well staffed here on Aurora where, theoretically, it's not the action that is supposed to keep you interested?

[Cassie]

Due to how Aurora organizes their gamemodes, particularly nuclear, wizard, mutiny and many other antag rounds - security (and command, which has only five slots and needs a whitelist) will experience the gamemode a bit more.

There's more things to do (arresting people), more paced, more action, and you will often by the only job rank who will consistently be involved with antags and will be well-informed on everything that's going on. Secondly, I think generally you'll find that despite what people here playing say about it, Aurora has the tamest antagonist/grief environment compared to Hypatia and Paradise, not saying it's perfect, per se, but you can definitely be security without dying most of the rounds.

On Paradise, the antags spread themselves out more so nearly everyone will witness, or somehow see evidence of an antag during the round. Because of that, no one will feel the need to stack sec to feel the excitement of the particular game mode. Paradise has a slightly different community with different preferences than Aurora (that said, people on Paradise who prefer calmer rounds often just avoid peak hour).

Antags are also a slightly more aggressive and people often cut the RP to an extreme during peak hour, and sometimes it's not optimal to get caught in the clusterfuck and have the responsibility to fix it as a security member, rather would just be in a role where they can be flexible if they want to duck out or go in. I wouldn't want to be caught up on a rev round on there for sure.

[Tainavaa]

I wish there were more staff with no doctors on. From what I've seen, Medical is second to security in being overstaffed.

[Eliot Clef]

Cassie pretty much has the right of it. Security is very involved, almost always has something to do, and very often has TOO much to do. You're not likely to get bored, or get too much peace and quiet (except maybe on extended), and you're allowed to interact with the antagonists as anything but a set piece or victim without getting grief for it. When violence needs to be had, you're among the people to have it, and you PROBABLY won't be taken out of the round permanently even if you die.

One time, I saw a nukeop put his back to Ana while she was a nurse. She happened to have the defib on hand, and I knew as soon as the nukeop broke line of sight with Ana that he was fucked. And so he was, she defibbed him and shot him with his own gun. People usually bitch to high heaven even when Ana is very effective at security, but hoooly shit the outrage at what she did there.

Some departments are only truly active when the shit is REALLY hitting the fan, and a lot of departments are only particularly useful in specific circumstances.

Security, Engineering, and Medical will always be needed at all times.

Cargo is useful but optional. Not having it is a severe impediment if some limited supply or another runs out, but you can live without it.

Research is SUPER useful, but to be frank most of what you learn to do there is better applicable as an antagonist than it is as a regular crew member. Robotics is the most immediately useful sub-department for general station usage.

Toxins testing? 100% useless for non-traitors. (Could transfer bombs have applications in mining?)

Telescience? Widely hated for stealing things even though the same people who use it that way use it to rescue people.

Standard research? I usually don't see people churning out upgrades here, and when I do see them they're primarily being directed to Robotics in the form of battery upgrades, or buckets. Or, in nations rounds, mass-producing the most powerful equipment in the game and rapidly dominating the rest of the station.

Genetics Labs? (Not cloning) More reviled than telescience because random new players show up and abuse it to cause problems.

TL;DR: Security, Medical, and Engineering almost always have useful if not critical stuff to do, and there's very little disadvantage to playing any of them relative to other servers. (I came here from Goon, and started playing security because I knew high RP servers would kill and therefore frustrate me less.)

[Erik Tiber]

Cassie pretty much has the right of it. Security is very involved, almost always has something to do, and very often has TOO much to do. You're not likely to get bored, or get too much peace and quiet (except maybe on extended), and you're allowed to interact with the antagonists as anything but a set piece or victim without getting grief for it. When violence needs to be had, you're among the people to have it, and you PROBABLY won't be taken out of the round permanently even if you die.

One time, I saw a nukeop put his back to Ana while she was a nurse. She happened to have the defib on hand, and I knew as soon as the nukeop broke line of sight with Ana that he was fucked. And so he was, she defibbed him and shot him with his own gun. People usually bitch to high heaven even when Ana is very effective at security, but hoooly shit the outrage at what she did there.

Some departments are only truly active when the shit is REALLY hitting the fan, and a lot of departments are only particularly useful in specific circumstances.

Really though, it's that so many people have no sense of self preservation for their characters (but this is often a problem with security), or the antags simply don't give the majority of people any reason to feel actual terror or fear, or have any interaction with them. I think part of that would be linked to the fact that a bunch of people want to move away from heavy RP and towards action, so it's not like antags have much opportunity to do something without being robusted by security or random suicidal civilians.

Eh, Ana does have a lot of problems with being very play to win, it's nothing new or controversial. I'm more than willing to take a discussion on that into another thread to avoid a derail though (and would not mind at all if Sue gave her opinion or whatever).

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

it's nothing unreasonable, it's a response to the game mode. Security is usually understaffed during extended or low pop rounds because there's not much to do. But if there's 40 people on the station, security is going to have a lot to do. Same thing with engineering, it's just people wanting to get as involved in the round as possible.