Regarding the Staff Complaint thread from a month or so ago

[Guest]

http://aurorastation.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=269

In this thread staff members discussed the issue that was brought up because of a vote that suggested adding antagonists on an extended round, which had so happened to be one of a consecutive string of extended rounds. People in OOC cried, Frances decided to call for a vote and assist when it went through, but other people got upset because it broke procedure or something.

Evidently the plaintiffs in the thread were not upset because of the fact that the round was changed-up a bit, but rather because Frances added antagonists. Antagonists are defined as specialized characters that stand out from the rest of the crew (at one point or another) and attempt to disrupt the day-to-day functionality of the station.

This is where events usually start being shit. We keep adding /antagonists/, not custom, unique characters that don't generally appear in voted rounds. Sometimes you get a certain someone who decides it'd be funny to punish the pubbies by spawning combat droidekas and marauders for their bad RP. Other times, you get very unique, tense situations that become remembered for days to come, and allow the possibility for pubbies to come back and enjoy the server and its RP again.

The latter doesn't occur as much anymore due to the former happening more often than it should. We shouldn't discourage players from asking for custom events. Better yet, we should start asking the community for more involvement in the Event Suggestion subforum. We can start linking people to there if they're legitimately interested, admins and players can form a battle-plan for how said event and a basic walk-through of happenings, thus making fluid, fun, and challenging situations for players to figure out on their own.

Basically, we should stop adding antagonists to make the round more interesting. We /should/ start adding unique situations when an extended round is in the need for some spicing up. Note that "spicing up" does not mean "escalation to code delta."

[Frances]

How have we discouraged custom events? What sort of adminabuse has happened, where mobs were spawned for the sake of creating "hot combat situations"?

There's a big difference between custom events and antags - one is much easier to implement, while another requires constant attention and supervising/involvement from staff over a time window of several hours. I'm in agreement that we've been lacking in events - and while I'd like to run more, I've been sadly taken up by organization/management work on the server, coupled with real-life obligations/issues, which have severely cut down my playing time.

Also, might be a bit irrelevant if your complaint is mostly that we're lacking in events, but another consideration is that people are free to play their own original and interesting, non-antagonistic characters whenever they want. If they don't, there's very little we can do to push them to, outside of events. Whereas good antags are an option that's not open at the start of a non-antag round, and needs to be enabled.

Edit: Seeing the way this conversation is going, keep in mind my post is simply a defense/inquiry of staff actions, not one on the subject as a whole. I am all for more freeform, open-ended round. They're simply challenging to realize.

[Rechkalov]

A thousand times yes nid.

I would maybe like to add that in most of the memorable cases, the actual tension is "projected" by the crew itself, and in a sense has more to do with the antagonists' presence rather than actions.

What I am trying to get at is, lately I've noticed that while there usually are quite interesting RPs going on in relation to the threat/problem at hand, they are quickly pushed into the background by the antagonists simply going triggerhappy (or whatever is the equivalent of that with 'lings, vampires and so forth). In other words, there isn't always time to develop the atmosphere and make full use of the situation's potential.

(it is a sidenote of a sidenote, but a BRILLIANT exception to this had been the "Peace cult" round, where the cultists did TREMENDOUS job of spreading their religion completely on the basis of IC convincing. Namely Tina Kaekel, who was portrayed like a scientist fascinated with understanding the phenomen, had managed to fulfill her cultist "responsibilities" without compromising the character whatsoever - as in, it was great to see a cultist who isn't a zealot trying to convert you to his religion. All of my +1s.

Point being, the round dragged - which was in no way a bad thing, quite the opposite. I'm just trying to show that memorable events just cannot be rushed - and can be achieved with the already preset antagonists, with some good will.)

So, to the would-be constructive part of my comment;

I think it would benefit the game greatly if players were more often faced with impersonal problems and dilemmas, rather than specific antagonists. In a sense, having a specific enemy limits the playing field, nudges you towards action, and if there is any discussion to be had, it is about the details of the nature of the action taken.

Less is more.

(I remember spending an entire round crawling through the maintance shafts with another crewman, comms down, without meeting a single soul, and THAT WAS INTENSE.)

Or that one time the crew was divided, because some sort of pirates offered to spare the station if they give away their supplies and women - it takes merely radio messages on the part of the antagonists, and has the potential to include ALL of the crew in the event.

...

Got carried away, forgot my point. I will be back!

[Skull132]

I actually think that the staff has done neither for a good amount of time.

This is down to the Admin team losing a good lot of people over the past few months, and the existing admins being slightly more than strained with the server/other shenanigans. The thing is, running events, usually, takes a good deal of planning and can be relatively stressful. So, acknowledging who our current admins are, I can completely understand the lack of events currently.

However, we are looking to rebuild staff, and while it will take some time, the long term prospect of more events is there and being striven towards. Just, yeah, time. As much as I like judgement calls of, "Hey, they look like they should be admin, let's go!" that isn't the best way of going about it.

[Guest]

The latter doesn't occur as much anymore due to the former happening more often than it should. We shouldn't discourage players from asking for custom events. Better yet, we should start asking the community for more involvement in the Event Suggestion subforum. We can start linking people to there if they're legitimately interested, admins and players can form a battle-plan for how said event and a basic walk-through of happenings, thus making fluid, fun, and challenging situations for players to figure out on their own.

 

I'd like to address this issue here, firstly by linking the event suggestions board: http://aurorastation.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=22

The issue I'd like to address is "lack of events". As it has already been stated, admins are caught up in all sorts of shenanigans, mainly irl shenanigans. However this does not mean the community can not contribute. The community are well aware that the event suggestion board exists, however no suggestions have been put in as of recently. Yes, most event ideas may be ignored because they're simply too hard or stressful to run. That does not mean the community should stop giving their ideas through.

What would also be useful is if the community members could provide their input on any events held, or to simply put Give Us Feedback. Staff do take the time and effort to get feedback from events they've held with custom votes or asking in OOC chat, however that only lasts for that duration of time and is most likely forgotten afterwards.

As we're all probably aware, Halloween is this Friday. A perfect opportunity for the community to give us possible ideas of what we, the staff, can do for you, the community on that day. Remember that this is a server for everyone. Everyone's input is valid and welcomed.

[Chaznoodles]

Did I hear a call for some Martial Law rounds?

[Farcry11]

Come on, Space Nazis... Daddy needs a new pair of events...

[Dice rattling intensifies]