Project: Revwork

[Mappel6]

Allow me to start by saying that before today, I thought Rev was a perfectly fine gamemode. However, I'm sure you heard of one particularly horrible (in the opinions of some) Rev round that happened today during deadhour--where Joseph Birkin (UnknownMurder), the RD was the only head rev, I (Masuno Kukarumo), as a Visitor, was the only head loyalist, the revs very quickly gained over half the station, and eventually the whole thing devolved into arguable murderbone with a highly 'join or die' outlook. People were complaining about unprovoked deaths and such, but I am pretty sure that somebody else is working on that in another thread, so I won't be bringing it here. Instead, I'd like to discuss how we can make Rev better or possibly take the idea and make it into something new to replace Rev entirely.

I'd like to start with complaints that both UnknownMurder and I, as the heads of that round, had about the round and gamemode in general. UnknownMurder suggested (and I highly agree) that Rev be made to fit with what Mutiny used to be--where the revs have some sort of objective or reason to rebel at start. This way, they don't have to go with the generic communist route or spend twenty minutes at start of round discussing (with the head loyalists listening and more than likely trying to convert people). I believe this is a major reason as to why a lot of people are frustrated with Rev rounds nowadays--they just become old, stale, and the same stuff over and over again.

I believe some more drastic changes are in order, honestly. As the Head Loyalist, I noticed a few things. One, the Loyalists' first reactions are, generally, to lean on and get a foothold in the Heads of Staff, these being the most trustworthy and relevant crew highly trusted by NanoTrasen and others. However, this is impossible when the only head of staff is also the head rev and any other heads of staff appointed by them are trusted revs. In just about any case that this happens, it's going to be fairly impossible for the loyalists to win--especially if the sole loyalist is a Visitor and every person they could potentially convert was already converted to Rev before that point. (not complaining about the round, UnknownMurder actually played his cards very well, but it did show a fatal flaw in the gamemode.) On top of this, Loyalists generally do not have an IC reason to actively seek and take action until the Revs make themselves public, leading to a heavy disadvantage to the Loyalists whenever the Revs play their cards right. Revs, on the other hand, generally work on the power of numbers over the power of... power, and still have a chance to fight back and win whether or not they have a foothold among the heads of staff at all.

With this all said, I'd like to make this into an ongoing discussion on how to change and rework the Rev gamemode to make it better, for the players, game, and the community. I'd like to start with a few suggestions on my own: On top of UnknownMurder's suggestion, I'd like to suggest that a few changes be made to the antags, how they are chosen, and who they are chosen from. Personally, it makes absolutely no sense for a head of staff who has been with NanoTrasen for 10+ years and has made a career out of their life to suddenly want to rebel and destroy just what got them where they are. Very much on the same end, it also makes no sense that a low-level worker or someone who is randomly visiting the station would want to stand up and call for the greatness of NanoTrasen, almost on a whim. Perhaps some people can make it work in some cases, but 9/10 times it doesn't. Because of this, I'd like to say that Heads of Staff should be limited to spawning as Head Loyalist, though non-Loyalist Heads aside from those loyalty implanted should be fully able to join which side they agree with. Likewise, assistants, visitors, and all of the 'intern' roles, as well as MAYBE the lower-level jobs such as Chef, Bartender, Janitor, etc. should be limited to starting as Head Rev, but be able to join which side they want. On top of this, and this is a personal idea that I'm not even 100% sure of, perhaps there could be a third role called the Undercover NanoTrasen Agent, who sides with the Loyalists and is sent from Central under the guise of a low-level worker to investigate unrest in the workforce. I'd like to see this new third role be sent with extra equipment, such as, perhaps, a small sidearm, and an extra ID that has more access than their job normally allows, although this is once again fully up to debate. This would allow the Loyalists to have a little poke in the right direction, having someone with the knowledge that something is going against them on their side. Finally, I'm very tired after staying up until 6 AM, so I'm going to be leaving this up for discussion here. I welcome everybody, those who like Rev and those who do not, those who played this round and those who played other rounds, good or bad, to voice your opinion on the Rev gamemode and give your suggestions on how it can be improved. With enough suggestions and debate, I fully believe we can make Rev into something people will enjoy yet again.

For records' sake, the Game ID of the round in question that sparked this was Game ID: bPJ-a9eC. If it is felt to be necessary, perhaps admins can review what exactly happened there and maybe even come up with ideas of their own based on it.

[BRAINOS]

While I'm iffy about the agent role, the rest of the changes sound like common sense.

Some lower workers have IC reasons to never want to rebel, like being visiting heads of staff n such, but all they have to do is turn off the rev pref and join the loyalists when they bump into em.

The head loyalist should be tipped off about revs, giving them IC info to use from round start to prevent revs from instantly converting the whole station.

Just like how cultists start with a tome, this guy could start with a stamped form to show around and say "hey watch out for some weird unrest among the workers" and get the loyalists just as active from roundstart as the revs.

It's a hard gamemode to balance for sure, but I definitely like the weighted system where the higher up you are, the more loyalist chance you've got, and the lower you are, the more rev chance.

[JamOfBoy]

Hey, you used Revwork. Where's my credit? (/j o k e)

I agree that the round in question, although I didn't participate in it, wasn't the best, and highlighted a lot of glaring issues with Revolution. I will say now that these issues need to be addressed, but I'll also say that this sort of thing can happen in other gamemodes, and that the low-population is something you have to consider. The Revs got a strong foothold mainly because there was no one to oppose them - Security was SSD or the Revolutionaries. It's like playing a match of basketball with one team. There's quite literally nothing to stop you. I'm finding it very difficult to explain what I mean, but the Rev situation isn't as dire for me as it is for you. This is a difficult gamemode to balance. I agree with the Heads not getting Rev and having more chance as loyalist and vice versa. However giving someone at round start a gun sets the tone for the mode as violent. There are a lot of issues I see when the Security department finds out the Chef has a gun and is claiming to be an undercover agent.

[Mappel6]

The sidearm is meant as a self-defense weapon, and could easily be like the revolvers detectives used to have with rubber bullets. Ideally, they wouldn't let anyone know they have it and would try to meet with a head of staff in private to inform them of what they know, while using their position as a low-level worker to gossip with other workers and gain more information.

Rule one of being an undercover agent is that you don't tell anybody about it unless you absolutely trust them and need to reveal yourself. It's also a 'basic idea' and is easily subject to re(v)work magics as well, but I thought the general idea would be something some people would like to see and might also be something people could work with to pitch other ideas to make the mode better and more balanced. I'd really like to see someone take that and perform some voodoo over it to make it a great idea in general.

One thing I remembered in my sleeping is that when in a Mixed gamemode, the Rev is almost always completely overshadowed by the end of the round. Sometimes the Rev and Cult will team up to achieve the Rev's goals, for example, but that usually just ends up in the Rev just becoming Cult and it's just another Cult round with more cultists than normal, but that's the most I've usually seen from rev in a mixed gamemode. On top of these changes, I think that whatever happens to Rev, they should just have more power and opportunities (on both ends--loyalists too, in my opinion, the two sides should be evenly matched) so that they can compare to some of the other, crazier gamemodes they're paired with in Mixed.