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Straight Jacket Issues


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Now, to begin with, I want to preface this topic with an acknowledgement that I searched for and found a similar thread about this exact topic before, located in the bin here - https://tinyurl.com/y9bgxfjp. It seems the main argument against allowing people to escape straight jackets is that there needs to a way to keep frustrating antagonists down because they won't stop being asshats.


The problem with this argument is that it only addresses one aspect of the issue with straight jackets. Yes, there are claims that straitjackets are a last-ditch effort and that the station needs them for the worst antagonists, and that there is some sort of imaginary regulatory situation where one can get in trouble for using them too soon. Maybe that's true, but there is almost no regulation for antagonists utilizing a straitjacket. This is, of course, because they are outside of IC regulations, and generally speaking, outside of most ooc restrictions for behavior. Speaking as someone was straitjacketed to a bed by a traitor who wanted to do torture porn but couldn't focus enough to stay in the room for more than a couples minutes at a time. At one point, they were gone for nearly ten minutes, maybe more. I should have had optimal time to make some sort of escape or at least do SOMETHING other than sit helplessly in a bed waiting for them to return to the ass end, barely visited department they took me to. After which which point I was summarily spaced, still unable to do anything to stop them.


After dying and reading the previous thread by Jackboot, I saw yet another suggestion from someone that antags can contact an admin. Out of curiosity, I posed the question to an attending admin, and got this for a response.

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Which to me seems to mean it's possible an admin would have interceded if I thought to ask at the time, but generally they only bother to in situation where an antagonist is helpless. People who are antagonist victims are pretty SoL.


Which brings me to my main point. While I agree with Jackboot that they should be escapable, I acknowledge that a lot of others are against the notion of their final solution being rendered less potent. So, I offer you an alternate angle with which to approach this situation. If you don't want to change how straight jackets work in effectiveness, fucking change how they are accessed and utilized. They are one of the most powerful items in the game, because once one is applied to you, you are out of action nearly without exception (the sole exceptions I know of being having your mob change via something like monkeyform or wizard polymorphs). There is no way to get out, without assistance from another party.


I don't like absolutes like that in a game setting where even death is designed to be reversible, but sure, okay. If that is how you think straitjackets need to work, then why is there absolutely no regulation on accessing them. There is one native straitjacket (that I know of) in the current map, and it spawns on a table in plain view in the middle of the medical along with a muzzle. Anyone who can access that room in medical can grab that straitjacket, and almost universally, someone does. No one thinks twice about it. No one asks 'where did the straight jacket go?' Someone grabbing it is an offhand, casual action that I don't think I have ever seen questioned.


Why is such a potent item basically being overlooked until anyone actually considers that they need it, when other dangerous things, such as guns and fire axes, are counted and eventually noticed by anyone who walks into the room they are stored in?


It's because the game does not treat them with any particular importance. They are just issued lying on a table in the open. You don't have to open a special cabinet that requires the CMO's approval to open, or any such even mild attempt to keep anyone from walking off with it for potentially nefarious purposes. I can tell you that it is not normal for doctors to carry around straight jackets and muzzles as regular supplies, anymore than I would expect them to carry around handcuffs or cable ties. Something needs to be done to make it more of an actual issue when it goes missing.


So, if no one wants to nerf strait jackets (even though I think they should), for craps sake, at least redesign access to them it so someone might actually have a ghost of a chance of noticing if one goes missing for illegal purposes. If they're intended for use against antagonists specifically on a semi-metal level as a 'take out of round permanently' solution, make it harder for antagonists to just run off with them unsupervised.


If there is a missing straightjacket when the station has only one of them, it should cause alarm, not be something that is entirely overlooked except for the random assistant who got jacketed and is now trapped in some horrible bondage roleplay forever.

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There are two straitjackets. One in med storage, one in psych. I reccomend giving the one in med storage to the CMO, as this resolves most issues involving SJ abuse, and also the CMO and Psychiatrist are really the only people with a reason to have an SJ in the first place. On newmap, I know the psych has one, but I'm not sure if there's another, or where it is. Either way, I'd ask the second be given to the CMO, as this solves some issues the SJ has and also still lets antags access them if they really want to.

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I never use SJs as antag because I just think they are a shitty way to restrain someone. As a non antag, they are a last resort. A straight jacket is similar to removing someones arms, you can't interact with anything. If you are a antag and straight jacketted as a last resort, then I would ahelp. Another shitty thing is to straight jacket, muzzle, and blind the person when there is not much of a reason, then forget about the dude in a room (I would honestly ghost at that point)


I always just stayed away from straight jackets, antag or otherwise, I don't believe in using them. This should not be a thing about throwing the dude in a room and forgetting about him. At least the brig can be escaped if no one is paying attention.

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Straight jackets do not need to be nerfed, they need to be made escapable. The fact that straight jackets are utterly impossible to combat is by far one of the most obnoxious oversights.


I recall an earlier thread where it was brought up and dismissed due to the idea of straight jackets being an "OOC method against shitters."


We already have this.


They are called admins.

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I'm inclined to agree with Nursie, despite having a different view on it in the past, we're perfectably able to give chucklefucks or self-proclaimed insane characters the boot if it becomes an issue.


But otherwise from a gameplay perspective, straitjackets do what sedating-deathchems are supposed to do, in that they completely disable a person's ability to resist, but straitjackets have the important caveat that it's a permanent solution to someone breaking out of cuffs or overriding stuns, rather than a temporary one that chemicals are. Chemicals, especially the right ones to be effective enough to be a sedative, require you to use a lot of chemistry resources just to dope someone or multiple people. And it wears off after a significant time, or it kills a person. Straitjackets do not require much effort beyond stun, cuff and then put a straitjacket on someone.


It's a good thing there are only two on the map and no more can be spawned, but...


Straitjackets completely nullify any sense of risk and they're too powerful despite being a non-harmful method of paralyzing someone.


Nothing pisses a player off more than being restrained with an article of clothing that has no counterplay to deal with as soon as it's put on. It's toxic game design and nobody deserves to be taken out of the round, in spite of what certain people might think.


They don't need to be nerfed, however, as mentioned. They should be harder to get out of because it's a straitjacket, but five to six minutes as a timer would not hurt.

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Straight jackets do not need to be nerfed, they need to be made escapable. The fact that straight jackets are utterly impossible to combat is by far one of the most obnoxious oversights.

 

Making them escapable is exactly what I meant by 'nerf them', I thought that was sort of implied given context clues, but at least we're on the same page.


See, I agree with these things, but my scope from the last thread (which is linked in my OP), was that everyone was desperate to keep their 'shitter trap' and flat out refused to make straitjackets escapable. If ya'll want to do that, I think it definitely needs to be done.


But it's still a good idea to make them harder to easily walk off with.

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I think making them escapable would be nice, as long as there is a bit larger of a drawback than just breaking out of cuffs. In a perfect world, straightjackets should be used to keep batshit fucking crazy belligerent "I'M GONNA KILL YOU ALL" antagonists from actually being able to do it, but right now (as has been previously mentioned, my apologies for preaching to the choir), they're sort of a set and release way to nullify conflict from a character.


Another option would be to make them only administer-able by the CMO or Captain, and only temporarily (something something humane, something something "Human rights violation", to keep their ability to restrain indefinitely, but putting it's abilities in the hands of someone who has a whitelist and will then be expected to further roleplay with their position.

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There's a PR on paradise which makes straightjackets escapable but require a 10 minute delay. So basically. You will never ever fucking escape one if you're being actively guarded. But if you're forgotten about, you can BTFO eventually. We could emulate that?

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What if we had it so that when the straight jacket comes off (longer than it would take cuffs to be resisted) your arms/an arm will be dislocated? That's how straight jackets can be forced off in reality.

 

This really defeats the purpose of the resisting mechanic and I don't think this would be a good idea. It would make that arm useless until some outside force helps you.

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What if we had it so that when the straight jacket comes off (longer than it would take cuffs to be resisted) your arms/an arm will be dislocated? That's how straight jackets can be forced off in reality.

 

This really defeats the purpose of the resisting mechanic and I don't think this would be a good idea. It would make that arm useless until some outside force helps you.

 

But you're free of the straight jacket, and that's step one! On the other hand, can't someone pop their own arms back in?

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