[Policy] Require the Rev announcements/orders to be at least somewhat plausible [Implemented]

[Arrow768]

I really like that revs have the option to send their own announcements, because it can make a round interesting, but please dont blindly approve everything they send as valid.

Here are some examples from two rounds in the past days:

Round 1:

The first announcement ordered us to ship off any lethal weapons and ammunition to aid the PRA against the war on Adhomai.

We faxed central and raised our concerns that we wish to keep back a small stockpile of weapons in case we have spiders / carp.

CCIA responded that this and all future announcements are to be considered valid orders.

Shortly after a second announcement has been made which allowed us to keep a small stockpile of weapons in the armory until research has produced new weapons.

Then we are to store a few of them in the armory and ship off the rest to central.

Aside from the first announcement being somewhat questionable there was no issue with the orders up to that point and they were carried out.

By the time the third announcement has been made we have shipped of the entire contents of the armory and 2 lawgivers, 7 AEGs and 2 Vaurca Blasters.

The third announcement mentioned that as we were not following the previous orders, the research department is to be shut down and personnel is to be trained for combat and then prepared to be shipped off to Adhomai.

That there is complete bullshit. Suggesting that a company can train and send its employees to fight in a war on some planet they have no affiliation with is really stretching the boundaries of what is possible.

The IA Agent on board confirmed that these orders would only be possible for PRA Citizens, so command staff is put into a difficult position. On one hand side they have ccia telling them that all announcements are valid. On the other hand side there are the orders that have been verified by IA as illegal (for almost all crew members) and go completely against common sense (why would NT train its personnel on a research station for combat in some war, when they have a military division for that).

Something that might be slightly of interest: The first announcement has been reused from another rev round that happened a day before this one.

Round 2:

The first announcement ordered the pay of Synthetic Crew members to be cut by 50%

The second announcement ordered the pay of the Xeno Crew to be cut by 50% and the pay of Xeno Command Staff to be cut by 70%

The third announcement ordered the saving accounts of all crew members to be emptied and another budget cut of 50%

So that leaves synthetics with 25% of they pay, Xenos with 25% of their pay and xeno command staff with 15% of their pay. All while their saving accounts have been emptied.

The issue here is the last announcement that ordered the saving accounts of the crew to be emptied.

Just a few days ago CCIA confirmed that the company can not touch the saving accounts of the crew members (not even if they are suspended)

As crew members were already calling for a armed rebellion when the third announcement hit and due to the savings part being clearly illegal it has not been carried out.

However, CCIA again ordered it to be carried out.

These are just two examples of a absolutely unlevel playing field.

One side can dictate the terms for the other side and CCIA just waves even the most ridiculous announcements through and orders them to be carried out.

I appreciate that revs can make their own announcements, but they should be at least somewhat believable and not completely stupid as these two examples above.

I see three options to solve that:

• If revs make such announcements then these are voided by ccia and not waived through
  
• The announcements are turned into a two step process, where revs submit them and admins or ccia have to approve them before they get broadcasted
  
• The announcers are removed from the rev loadout and they have to ahelp again if they want to have a announcement
  

 

And for the revs: Please think of something other than the standard budget cut. I feel that at least half of the rev rounds are based on budget cuts or forced labor in the mines.

[whiterabit]

Our policy on rev right now is unstable to say the least, and I'll agree that there should be some tighter restrictions on it. Recently, the decision was made by the administration that all rev announcements were to be considered canon, this was of course to try and deter command staff who's first instinct the moment they see an announcement is to fax about it, forgetting their job should be to provide conflict for the round. The issue being that most revs/loyalists seem to be fucking retarded when it comes to designing an announcement.

Your example on the PRA war campaign is one that I decided not to confirm because it made literally no sense in the context of our lore. We have changed our policy to start coming down on announcements that break logic. Revs/Loyalists are expected to make announcements that are still plausible or we'll shut them down and replace it with something else.

Regarding:

 

Just a few days ago CCIA confirmed that the company can not touch the saving accounts of the crew members (not even if they are suspended)

 

This is correct, however, rev still does provide some leeway on legal activity. Syphoning funds from station accounts is different than corporate drafting employees to fight in a war. "Pay Cuts" are overdone and are a poor method of obtaining the ire of the crew. Taking money from their accounts is better at it, and there is still some argument to be made as it is in a company account. Not allowed under normal circumstances, yes, but it's rev and there needs to be conflict.

[Azande]

yes pls for all reasons stated.

[Butterrobber202]

Yeah, all head revs are generally actual retards when it comes to make a plausiable announcement. I’d move to have this added.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

It was my assumption that CCIA played it by ear and used their best judgement in clarifying what announcements they would back, to deter metagaming by loyalist command "faxing Odin for confirmation". I had them say "I got you fam" for me when a HoS tried to kneecap an announcement I myself made, which was nice. I would support having it sit for a moment to be approved by adminstaff if the announcement slot is returned to the announcement sender with a concise remark that it was rejected for being silly.

Paycuts are generic but gimmicks can get stale, so we shouldn't ban it.

[ForgottenTraveller]

Hells Yes. +1

There has been talk of just flat out noping any more Adhomi war effort or similar Rev notices, the last one only made it through at admin request. It has tested out patience giving the benefit of the doubt to silly ones. Or those relying on us to just rubber stamp their I can do whatever I want coz central stuff, Antags need to stop using the Odin for a bloody crutch.

The main issue was deciding when to tighten the screws, this thread is a good spur on.

[Faris]

This is very loosely but enforced at times when brought to our attention.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/131481488762994689/389925355210932235/rev_announcements.PNG

So I fully support this and will discuss this with the administrators to put this down as an official policy and in writing on relevant fronts.

[ForgottenTraveller]

New counter suggestion.

https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9818

[Faris]

https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=124&t=10299&p=92667#p92667

[mention]Arrow768[/mention]

Is this good enough for you?

[ben10083]

I like the idea, but I feel that the reason CCIA agents are so accepting of fake announcements is because command staff almost always tried to invalidate such announcements every time, and CCIA do not want to shut down every gimmick it sees.

[Arrow768]

Yup, I thought that has already been closed.

[Faris]

Closing this and deeming it implemented.

We also clarified it on the wiki.