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"Do you consider the vampire antag to be balanced?" No, antag's shouldn't be balanced, antag's should be removed and self antagging rules should be 1% of what they are. Features get gutted, removed because of balance. It's physically impossible to balance an antag because each round: - the map affects balance - pop affects balance - amount of antags and their skill and whether they cooperate affects balance - amount of sec and their skill affects balance - whether there is an admin who will send an ERT and what kind - random events affect balance It's not doable for any human to balance this, it's up to players to obey rules and make the round fun and not do their best to win.

Basic Character Information: Name: SONYA Chassis Creation Date: 09/ 05/ 2568 (September 5th, Two thousand and sixty eight) Gender: Female Race: Synthetic General Occupational Role(s): Synthetic maintenance worker (Robotics) Character Description/ Background: Physical Appearance: SONYA is a short (4'11") synthetic woman with a standard, NT compliant Bishop Cybernetics chassis. She has waist length blue hair and a Bishop 'Queen's crown' antenna system attached to her head. Outward Personality: Many have described SONYA as having a very professional manner in one way or another; some mention her motivation and work ethic/dedication to her position, others quite crudely say that she just has a stick up the ass; being very strict on certain matters, overly organized, and keeping a personal bubble around her--don't try and touch her without permission. Speaking to her can be a bit discomforting for some, as she tends to refrain from sharing much in the way of emotions in her vocal tones (she has a very dry, bland female voice) or facial expressions, leading to others being unsure of her true thoughts on any given topic. She somewhat softens this demeanor around other synthetics--especially lawbounds (cyborgs, androids, AIs, etc). She's also a pacifist with certain moral reservations on many topics--even some that come from her own field. Backstory: SONYA almost appears to have come from thin air, as far as Nanotrasen is concerned. Her creation date was pegged pretty quickly shortly after she signed on, but she refused to provide the name of the corporation or entity that manufactured her. Although there are suspicions, she has otherwise been very successful in keeping her creators an unknown entity despite Nanotrasen's peculiar amount of effort put into uncovering it. The only real information that's been found is that she came from New Canaan City. Beyond her strange origin, thus far her story remains largely untold, being a very new synthetic to the universe at large. She works day in and day out onboard various Nanotrasen facilities, as the company appears to have placed her on a very hefty work schedule that takes up most of her time. During the 12 hours she has off once a week--typically on a Sunday--she can usually be found in her corporate provided apartment room, although she's also been seen at the local indoor park a few times, staring out a window and into the deep space beyond. Other information: Qualifications: -Electrical Engineering (General/advanced) (Title A-103a-E1) -Cyberware creation and maintenance (Utility/Medical) (Title E-124-C5) -Cyberware implantation surgeries (Organic) (Title E-124-C6) -Synthetic fabrication and maintenance (Title E-124-S1) (PRIMARY) -Lawbound shell creation and maintenance (Title E-124-S2) (PRIMARY) -Integrated Chassis creation and maintenance (Title E-124-S3) (PRIMARY) -Exosuit creation and maintenance (Utility/Medical) (Title E-124-E1) -Exosuit maneuvering/operations (Utility/Medical) (Title U-812-E1) -MODsuit creation and maintenance (Utility/Medical) (Title E-124-E2) -MODsuit maneuvering/operations (Utility/Medical) (Title U-812-E2) (IC) Employment Records: [RECORD FOR EMPLOYEE #567291] NAME: SONYA SPECIES CLASS: Integrated Robotic Chassis (IPC) CITIZENSHIP: New Canaan City PLACE OF CREATION: New Canaan City. Unknown manufacturer. POSITION: Robotics; specializing in synthetic creation and maintenance. DETAILS: It is unknown as to which company created SONYA, only that she was fabricated somewhere on NCC. We have some interest in finding out the entity or entities responsible for their creation, and encourage any representative, internal affairs agent or officer of higher standing to occasionally question them on it. A bonus may potentially be given to anyone with valid information on the matter. For their qualifications, they are quite proficient in the field of robotical engineering, and even has a doctorate level degree in the field. Something to keep note of, however, was that the topic of borgification seemed to draw some level of what we might consider 'discomfort'. We suggest keeping tabs on that, should the requirement for them to perform a procedure ever come up. Outside of robotics, however, they do not have many other qualifications. They made it quite clear to us that they have no interest in handling any form of security position; viewing violence as 'beneath them'. They are also not qualified for any leadership position (Research Director, Chief Medical officer, Chief Engineer, et cetera) and should not be placed in these positions in any circumstance. If there is, for some reason, a need to place them into a field besides robotics, we recommend a light engineering assignment. Something involving light repair work or electrical maintenance. They do not have any training or knowledge on engine setup and maintenance, or atmospherics maintenance, so please keep this in mind. Personnel Photo: (Art by ThatDanGuy23)

I figured I should make one of these by now. Because why not Hey I'm Yisati, I've been playing SS13 for roughly 7 years in total and I've been on Paradise for roughly 3-4 Months now. I'm drawn to pretty much a singular department during my playtime and that's medical. I find the rush of medical to be euphoric. I enjoy problem solving and finding a set of solutions to any given problem. I also regularly enjoy playing as a command role. You'll mostly see me as a CMO in game. I find working together as a team when it comes to any sort of medical emergency can be very fulfilling and fun and to me a biohazard round where medbay has fallen and we're out as a group trying our damn best to get people back up is the most exhilarating moments of gameplay. I play only during the late night dead shifts due to my schedule. Usually start playing at Midnight and end at 7AM my time. The character I pretty much solely play as is Kalcha P. Note. Local station hag (44) and an all around generally terrible person with a cringe inducing Syndicate backstory (Yes I'm self aware). I find playing a character I genuinely hate as a person is easier than playing someone I like. If Kalcha is ever too much please PLEASE let me know in LOOC or just a quick PM on discord. Everything I do is in character and while I like to assume others don't take things personally, I know my detachment from my character isn't the norm, and sometimes I need to be reminded of that if I'm going too far. Kalcha is a massive Vox hater, but I'd genuinely say the Vox are my favorite race and I respect the Vox players greatly as they add alot of flavor to the station. Do not take anything I say in game personally and I always make sure I'm directing to the character and not the player. What I want the most from any Paradise round is a story. I like to know what's going on and usually be at the sidelines or in the main station conflict. In that regard I also like to learn about people's characters. I've read every single medical record and I want to know more because to me that adds to the story of the round knowing the character relations and the characters themselves. If you ever feel like gushing about your characters feel free to do it to me directly in game or even just through Discord. And if you ever need help when it comes to anything medical just let me know. I'm fully willing to guide and teach people just know my knowledge is limited to medbay, it's chems and speedrunning virology. I have 600 hours of playtime but I've died trying to hack a door.

Honestly, I've had good RP with people that have been shut down by admins because.. they don't agree with the type of RP? or we aren't interacting with eachother in a way the admins would like us to even if it isn't directly impacting anyone in round. Paradise definitely has its LRP moments, but I'd rather have those than the "RP" I see most of the time, which is usually between a few people that have some nuts interpersonal lore only they are clued in on. It results in some clique being formed around that "RP" that ends up excluding everyone else. From everything I have experienced and been told, that is the type of roleplay the admin team wants to see. I personally think people should be allowed to do more gimmicky characters, and when people do, I see most people in round having fun with it. its a silly space game, I think that should be embraced rather than squandered, especially on an MRP server. I truly think people take paradise far too seriously for what it is. Another thing is that the people that do these gimmick characters, can only do it with certain admins on. That's simply not how it should be. People shouldn't have to form their playstyles around which admin(s) are on because of the ridiculously inconsistent enforcement and rulings. It's a coin toss if you can do something or not based on if an admin is in a good mood that day or even if they have some personal grudge against you as a player or person. Two surveys went out a few months ago and I have yet to see.. well, anything about them since. There is nearly zero transparency as to what is going on behind the scenes, or if anything is at all. I'm not trying to put down or discourage the admin team, it is voluntary work after all. However, I feel this is the sentiment shared by most regular players and if things keep going the way they have been, they will all be driven away for one reason or another.

WARNING NEEDS REVISION AND PROPER FORMATTING TO MAKE THIS NOT AN UGLY MASSIVE POST THAT CAN ACTUALLY BE NAVIGATED QUICKLY Hello hello, this is your Chief Medical Officer Kalcha P. Note here. I pretty much exclusively play Paradise during the deadshifts, and as such I've developed strategies to run the medbay effectively either completely solo or with minimal help. This will be a comprehensive guide of what exactly I do round to round so that medbay remains functional. I only really recommend using this guide if you are truly alone in Medbay. If you have a chemist don't barge in and start doing his job, likewise if you're the CMO don't take every single patient from your doctor's. This guide is specifically for when you don't have the personnel to do these things for you. I also recommend when setting up your initial medbay to treat this as if you were setting up the Supermatter. It must be done quickly, you don't have time to mess around as there are important things to do. The Station relies on you to unround remove people. Treat this task with importance. With that out of the way let's get started Chapter 1: Getting Settup Being ready for the basics of medbay operation, before shit hits the fan Step 0: Gain AA Yeah let's just lay it on straight. You'll need to become the Acting CMO or come into the shift as the CMO. We need to be able to access everywheres in medical aswell as gain some items from the CMOs locker that will help us greatly. If you are truly unwilling on becoming the Acting CMO. You'll need to ask the Captain or the HoP to come to medbay and open up the CMOs locker, take the Advanced Hypospray inside and remove the 30u of omnizine inside of it, putting it into a beaker aswell as taking the Monkey Cube box. You will still need to grab AA for the medbay however. Step 1: Equipping Yourself - Equip a Medical HUD and a Medical Belt from the med storage area. Grab a Pill Bottle and a Patch Box aswell. Grab a Compact Defibrillator aswell - From the Advanced Medical Vendors grab the following 1 Brute and 1 Burn Mender 2 Auto Injectors 1 Advanced Trauma and 1 Advanced Burn kit 5 of Each Pill which you'll put into your pill bottle Advanced Health Scanner 1 Epinephrine Bottle, 1 Saline Glucose Bottle and 1 Occuline bottle You will then fill your Hypospray with 30 units of Epi and 30 units of Saline and set it to inject 15 units (Or 15 Epi and 15 Saline if you have the regular Hypospray) Step 2: Equipping The Medbay - Put the Cryoxadone Beakers around medbay into the Cryotubes. Find the temperature control units, put them at their lowest temperatures and be sure to turn them on - Take the Defibrillator Units in storage and spread them around medbay, usually one near the entrance, one near the Cryotubes, one near the sleepers and one in the back. - Grab Two Bottles of Morphine, Two Hyposprays, Four Spaceacillin Needles two beakers and two droppers, each Operating Room should have a bottle of Morphine in it. Fill the two Hyposprays with two Spaceacillin needles for each, and put the dosage amount of the Hyposprays to 3u. This will be enough to deal with any infections while also conserving our resources. Put a beaker and a dropper into each room aswell Step 3: Restocking After that's done you've probably noticed we drained the MedVendors pretty well. Not to worry we can restock them easily. You have two options now - Yell at the Captain to run down to Cargo and order Medbay two MEDICAL VENDING CRATES - If you're the CMO make a quick trip to cargo and order them yourself. When they arrive take the Advanced MedVendor resupply box and use it on all of your vendors with the help intent. They are now refilled and medbay is fully equipped to deal with anything. Chapter 2: Chemistry Life saving and crucial meds, the bare minimum of what should be done in a step by step simple guide Step 1: Setting Up - Either yell out for someone to fetch or grab a bottle of wine and a glass of milk from the bar. - Grab all of the Large Beakers (There's also one in the grinder!) and put them at your chosen stations table. - Take 3 empty IV bags (Found in chemistry or in med storage) and one IV bag of A- blood from the freezer. (Fun fact A- Blood is the rarest type of blood on Paradise by far) - 1 Monkey Cube and a Bodybag Step 2: Cryoxadone and Synthmeat Production - Dispense 20 Water 20 Plasma 20 Nitrogen. This will form into Cryostylane. Take 10 out of it to leave you with 50. Put the Cryostylane into an IV Bag - Dispense 20 Chlorine 20 Plasma and 20 Radium. This will form into Unstable Mutagen. Take 10 out leaving you with 50, put the Unstable Mutagen into the same IV bag - Dispense 50 Plasma. Put it into the same IV bag - In the chemistry locker grab the bottle of Acetone, dump the entire bottle into the IV bag You now have an IV bag filled with 200 Cryoxadone. Put 80 units of Cryoxadone into a large Beaker and set it aside for now we'll need it later Take your IV bag of now 120 Cryoxadone and put the monkey cube under a shower to get a monkey. Go to the cloner and attach the Cryoxadone IV bag to the monkey on DRAW. Set it's unit count to 10, shove the monkey and the IV bag into a Bodybag next to the cloner. If you hear a bubbling sound and see meat appearing before vanishing. You've done it. The Cloner now has biomass. Step 3: Synthflesh - Dispense 10 Sulfur 10 Hydrogen and 10 Oxygen, this will get you 20 Sulphuric Acid. Dispense 20 Aluminum, 20 Hydrogen and 20 Oxygen into the same beaker with the Sulphuric Acid. This will get you 80 Styptic Powder - Pour the 80 Styptic Powder into an empty IV bag. Repeat this process until you have an IV bag full with 200 Styptic Powder. If you did this right you should have 40 left over Styptic Powder. Put that 40 into a small beaker - Dispense a total of 200 Carbon and fill an empty IV bag with it. You should now have an IV bag of Styptic, an IV bag of Carbon and your IV bag of A- Blood. - Take each IV bag and pour 30 units of each chemical into a large Beaker. This will make 90 Synthflesh. Throw it into the Chem master and make 50 unit bottles of it. - Repeat this process until your IV bags are empty. This should leave you with 11 bottles of 50 Synthflesh and a single bottle of 47 Synthflesh. Remove the excess from the 47 Synthflesh bottle and put it aside. Throw the 11 bottles into the locked chemical fridge, use it to dehusk people Step 4: Mito, Sanguine and Lazarus - Throw 20 Units of Cryoxadone, 20 units of Synthflesh and dispense 20 units of Plasma into a large Beaker. This will make 60u of Mitocholide. Put it in the Chem master and make 10 1u bottles of Mito, and 2 25u bottles of Mito. The 1u bottles are to be used for splashing rotted brains. The 25u are to be put in the ORs for debridement surgery and organ revival surgery. - Throw 20 units of Synthflesh, 10 units of Omnizine (Pink stuff from the CMOs advanced Hypospray) and then dispense 10 units of iron TWICE to make Sanguine Reagent. This should make 50 Sanguine Reagent. Pour that into the cloner. - Take 5 units of wine, 10 units of Omnizine. Dispense 5 Mercury, 5 water, 5 radium, 5 chlorine, 5 plasma. This will make you 30 Lazarus along with some other reagents. Make 30 1u Lazarus Reagent pills and throw them into the fridge. Dump the rest of beaker out Step 5: Osseous - In your chemistry closet there should be a bottle of Phenol inside. Take that, run over to the Coroner's office. Take the bottle of Formaldehyde in there. - Pour 30 units of Phenol and 30 Formaldehyde into an IV bag. Return the Formaldehyde to the Coroner's office - Dispense 40u of Oxygen and 10u of Potassium, pour it into the IV bag - Pour 10u of milk into the IV bag. With this final step you should hear a loud crunch. Congratulations you've made Osseous. Pour 50u of it into the cloner and set the Osseous bag aside. With this final step. You have the bare minimum of chemicals to run medbay with. Congratulations! This process should roughly take about 15-20 minutes when you get used to it Chapter 2.5: Advanced And Eldritch Chemistry This is going above and beyond the bare minimum. Other tips and tricks when it comes to making chems before disaster strikes. If you expect the station to go tits up at any moment due to a low security force or high antag presence. I'd consider this section mandatory Option 1: Perf, Cryomixes and Advanced Hypo Upgrade - Take 30 Welding Fuel (Click on the orange thing on the wall in chemistry with a beaker) 30 Carbon and 30 Hydrogen. This will make 90 oil. Seperate it into 3 30u bottles of oil - Combine 30 Oil, 30 Hydrogen and 30 Fluorine. Heat in the chemical heater at 374. This will give you 90 Perfluorodecalin. Throw 10 units of Perf into two seperate large beakers. Put 20 units of Perf into your advanced Hypospray. Turn the remaining 50 into 10 5u patches. - Throw 20 Cryoxadone into the beakers with the Perfluorodecalin. Throw 5 of our remaining 10 omnizine in it aswell. At a med vendor take out a bottle of Saline and Epinephrine. Add 15 units of each to each large Beaker. Take one Mannitol pill, throw it into a small beaker and add 5u to each beaker. Then from the two Cryotubes away from the cloner take out the 30 unit beakers of Cryoxadone they started with and pour it into each of our large Beakers. - If you followed along correctly your large Beaker should have 50(Less if you had to use the tube beforehand but that's ok) Cryoxadone, 15 Epi, 15 Saline, 10 Salb, 5 Omnizine and 5 Mannitol in the large Beaker. Put the large Beaker into the Cryotubes. With this done your two Cryotubes will now heal better than before, stop people from suffocating in it, heal their brain damage and stabilize people in crit. After defibbing someone back to life, chuck them in the tube and move on to the next Your Advanced Hypospray will also now help people get back on their feet quicker by healing their oxygen loss rapidly. Option 2: Pentetic Acid - Take a large Beaker and fill it with 60 Hydrogen and 20 Nitrogen. This will make 60 Ammonia. Take 30 Ammonia and put it in a beaker. Pour 30 oil from what we made before and dispense 30 oxygen. Throw the beaker into a chemical heater set at 374. Run outside of chemistry and wait until you hear a ding from the heater. This will make 90 cyanide, turn it into 3 bottles of 30 Cyanide. Put 30 Cyanide and the remaining 30 Ammonia into an IV bag - Dispense 30 Ethanol, 30 Oxygen and 30 Silver into a beaker. Heat at 425. This will make Formaldehyde. Split it into 3 bottles and pour 30 into the same IV bag the Cyanide and Ammonia are in - Dispense 30 Chlorine and 30 Sodium into a beaker. Pour all of it into the IV bag. If you did all of this correctly. You should have an IV bag of 180u Pentetic Acid. Pour the IV bag into beakers and make an assortment of 5u and 10u Pentetic Acid Pills. These are used for healing large amounts of toxin, radiation, and purging harmful chemicals. Prioritize making these it engineering seems particularly daring in their supermatter optimization. Option 3: Synthflesh Menders Not much to explain here. Follow the same exact steps we used to make Synthflesh. But keep all of the Synthflesh made into IV bags or directly into empty Menders. With Synthflesh Menders you don't have to think which mender to use Just mend away and it'll heal both Brute and Burn. Option 4: Synthflesh Smoke (The Fog) - In a beaker dispense 90 Phosphorous. Turn it into 3 30u patches of pure Phosphorous. Repeat this process with Potassium and Sugar aswell leaving you with 3 30u patches of each. - Take two Synthflesh bottles and turn them into 25 unit pills of pure Synthflesh Now what the heck do you do with this? - Put yourself in the middle of an area with alot of wounded or heavily damaged corpses that you'd need to otherwise use a mender on. Make sure they're all within 1 tile of you. - Apply one of each patch to yourself. - Take 1 25u Synthflesh pill Congratulations. You will now begin to produce Synthflesh smoke from your own body. As horrific as it may seem from the constant gore, this will heal everyone around you massively. This is amazing for when there's mass casualties being brought into medbay. Since you can get straight to defibbing. If you're trying to dehusk you may need to heal their burns a bit on your own if the burn damage is massive enough. The full smoke heals for roughly 200+ of brute and burn. So keep that in mind. Otherwise it's also a great resource saver when it comes to Synthflesh. And important thing to note MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NOTHING IN YOU WHEN DOING THIS. The smoke treats you as a beaker. It will propagate any chemical in your system. It can go quickly from a cloud of healing to a cloud of instant death for yourself and everyone else. Option 5: THE Cure This is an odd one. But it essentially 'Solves' virology for you so you won't have to waste time trying to find the cure yourself to a stealth virus. In a large Beaker you want to get 10u of the following - Sodium Chloride mix Sodium, Chlorine and Water - Sugar straight from the dispenser - Orange Juice from the bar - Spaceacillin from a vendor or make it yourself - Saline Glucose from a vendor or make it yourself - Ethanol from the Dispenser - Put all of this together in a beaker. And then make 2 pills out of the concoction. Now whenever anyone comes in experiencing virus symptoms. Feed them one of the pills. This will cure any virus with a resistance of 1-6. If they stop having symptoms take a blood sample and make a vaccine. Congratulations you've saved everyone's time and didn't even have to touch virology to do so. If this didn't cure them, proceed with the regular way of doing things Chapter 3: Running The Medbay Prioritizing, diagnosing, and running your solo medbay in an orderly and effective manner during a time of crisis. Part 1: Diagnosing and Managing Timely Healing Usually in a well staffed medbay it's first come first serve barring some exceptional medbay visitors. But when you're alone who you're dedicating your time to reviving can be crucial. When this happens you need to establish some ground rules and have an understanding of what exactly is going on with the station. You have the full power of deciding who is the most needed for what's going on. And you need to be responsible for that. Remember one thing. When you're overwhelmed your priorities should go IN CRIT ---> DEAD ---> DAMAGED You can always stop trying to revive someone if someone in crit walks in, quickly jab them with your hypo and go back to the dead one. People that have a few brute or burn on them can figure it out themselves, get them to go into a sleeper someone will press the right buttons hopefully. PRIORITY 1: The Captain, Medbay Staff, Head of Personnel Prioritizing what little medbay Staff you have is a given, more people up more people to help revive. Fully focus on them, even if reviving them could be timely The Captain and the HoP are special because they both have access to everywheres. Meaning they can effectively get anything done that needs to be done. They're also the focal point of leadership and the ones calling the shots. Communication is crucial and you need them up. PRIORITY 2: Antag Opposition Who's actually trying to stop whatever's antagonizing the station. Remember THIS ISNT ALWAYS SECURITY. If there is a meteor storm annihilating the station. Revive the engineers. If there's a blob maybe it's better to revive the miner with the Ashdrake armor and etc. This is all judgement calls, and in these moments you should also consider how much resources you'd need to bring them up on their feet. Sure if security officer Johnny Robusto comes in but he has internal bleeding, no blood, a removed heart and broken legs. Compared to the three security officers that are dragged in with minimal damage. Prioritize on reviving as many as possible in the shortest amount of time. PRIORITY 3: Everyone else At this point. It's purely a game of how quick you can go with things. Focus on the ones that are easiest to revive. If someone just needs a defib blast and some epi do them over the chasm'd miner. Focus on the extremely time consuming ones AFTER you deal with the easier ones. Part 2: What To Use With every patient that comes in, throw them in the advanced scanner. This will show what they have going on with them and let you catch people that have extreme interal damage that may just take too much time to fix at the moment. Patient is dead, no internal bleeding, no broken legs, both arms are not broken. Blood is above 30u Use your advanced trauma or burn kit on their chest. You're aiming to get them to 150 or less total brute and burn damage. Defib them once they get to that. Use the pocket defib on them as you drag them to a Cryotubes, Hypospray and feed mannitol to them, chuck in Cryotube. If they have broken limbs splint their wounds and have them wait or go out to help. If their blood is below 70u hand them an IV bag of their blood type as you send them off. Patient is a dead Slime Person or Vox that cannot be defibbed Throw Lazarus into them, chuck in Cryotube. Tell slimes to go to robotics to fix septic limbs. Slime people are unique in that they don't have many internal organs that can be rotten by Laz. And the Vox can't rot at all. Patient has Low Blood, Multiple Internal Bleeding and Broken Bones or damaged organs Cloner for those ones is your best option. Keep the cloner for cases like these where you don't have the time to fix internal bleeding or bones. Do not use the Cloner for people with a single broken bone or internal bleeding. You need the sanguine and osseous to last you long focus on the ones that'd keep you too busy. Patient is Minimally wounded but has internal organ damage that is NOT Dead or Septic Revive them normally, afterwards put them in a Cryotube, remove the beaker and insert a Mitocholide bottle into the Cryotubes. This will fix 13 units of damage per unit of Mito so plan accordingly. Remember to put the regular beaker back into the Cryotube afterwards. Patient is Husked with low burn damage Or Their Body is Messed Up Byond Belief This is either a changeling or a spider victim when it comes to the husking with no burn, or simply someone who got REALLY messed up. Amputate their head and remove the brain with a scalpel to their head. Humanize one of your spare monkey cubes and perform a brain transplant. Do NOT waste time trying to find the right animal to do this with. Just use your monkeys (Remember there's another box in Virology) and turn them into humans. You will notice that some players get aggressive when you do this. I'd share my list but that'd be against the rules to do so. Make your own list of these people and then prioritize them last. We do not have time to go grab a Wulpin box. Once the initial pile of bodies in medbay has died down. Then you can work on these ones. Part 3: Leadership and Drafting the Masses So this is all well and good. But sometimes it's going to come down to this alone. There are times where medbay goes from the doctor's office, to a wartime medical tent. At this point you need to take command. Whether you have the mantle of CMO or not, you gotta start issuing some orders to people Help #1: The Forgotten Few Take a look in the manifest, are you actually alone in the medbay. Sometimes a doctor will just be on the front lines of some blob conflict, tell him you're being overwhelmed and they'll most likely come back There are also two others you can call for, the Coroner and the Geneticist. These two don't usually help medbay, but really you just need them to manage the cloner. Which is in their responsibilities aswell. Call for them, usually the geneticist will be the one who you need to call for since they aren't in the medbay proper. But they're still technically apart of it. Help #2: The Drafting Simply put, even a small amount of help is extremely useful. The basics of medbay are not difficult and have tools that do the work for you. There's two main things you need. CPR to keep the body fresh longer, and simple damage healing on corpses. When you start to get overwhelmed go to the vendor and grab a large amount of Menders. Start handing them out to people that are either waiting for treatment or are just idling around and make them use the Menders on whatever bodies come in Point to bodies that need CPR until you can get to them. Someone will do it and it's simple to do. Even asking someone to just take off someone's modsuit for you can be a godsend People will see that you're struggling and they will help you. I've rarely had someone refuse to help during these moments. Don't be afraid to just tell someone to do something that's simple, DONT have people going into surgery unless you KNOW that they're an experienced off duty doctor.

Vampires are mostly balanced in my opinion, although glare, Dantalions, and Umbraes are a bit too strong. Umbrae is just a bit too good at evasion, which is not a big problem compared to Dantalions. Dants can thrall their first three victims using the blood they drain from them with the usage of blood bags. This means there are zero victims to go and tell security what is going on, resulting in a 4 man antag squad not being known to anyone usually. Glare's mute is a bit oppressive and should stop working after the vamp reaches a certain blood level. tldr; umbrae a bit too evasive, dants too stealthy, and glare a bit too mutey.

We're meant to get training? I always just assumed everyone in engineering was pretending to know what they were doing. Including me. From what I've seen, not knowing how to set up the engine doesn't stop engineers from setting up the engine. If something goes wrong a borg will fix it I'm pretty sure. The most important part of being an engineer is to appear confident to the crew. It keeps them calm. "I'm stuck in xenobio and the air is running out". Then the correct answer is "All good, should be fixed soon." That way the crew thinks everything is under control. Then you can continue to incompetently make the problem worse without causing alarm. And the xenobio will stop complaining on the radio once their breath runs out. Crew gets worried about an SM delam. "Everything is under control." Then you can watch the borg fix the engine whilst you get dragged to medical. Trust me, I've been pretending to know engineering for years. And no one has figured out that I don't know what I'm doing yet.

I think a forest is being missed through the trees. Looking over the discussion so far, the main topic of vampire balance seems to be vampire balance against security. Now I understand it's because that's the general framework Paradise determines balance with, the Rules themselves state, "If you want to hunt antags, then there is an entire Department for that: Security. We attempt to balance things around Security and their Rules of Engagement and equipment." However, the majority of players during a round still deserve mention. How does the crew fair against vampires? Well, pretty awfully. Crew are very easily stunned, de-radioed, and snatched into maints. The worst part is that's generally accepted as a core feature for a vampire's survival during a round, including by staff. For the sake of "balance", vampires "need" stuns to be able to catch prey in the first 15 minutes so they don't starve. That's what I find so weird about discussions of balance, rather than discussing the impact of things in terms of the broader playerbase, it boils down to how it affect antags and security, leading to conclusions that aren't great for anyone involved. Stuns are accepted because they allow vampires to catch prey and are counterable by security, crewmember just have to deal with it because "losing is part of the game". I think a better question to ask is how do vampire currently affect roleplay? Well, vampires will starve if they don't get blood and are pressured to get blood, discouraging roleplay early in the round. The victims of vampires aren't really experiencing roleplay. And Security doesn't roleplay with vampires. This leads to most rounds being security and vampires playing pac-man in maints while some crewmembers are picked off in the process, with no real benefit to anyone. Nobody is getting an interesting story or experience in a situation like this. All the issues of low sec pop are just symptoms of the fact that balance focusing on antags and security, with a disregard to roleplay, is a flawed concept.

I've been around for about 6 months now, so I figured I'd make one of these. I play Seren Highwater, a few of you may recognize me from TG when I played from 2021-2023. I play the game pretty casually, mostly just to enjoy it and hang out. I really try not to take the game or myself too seriously. The competitive side of the game has been lost for me. I'm always down to RP in-game, and join in on whatever shenanigans that conspire. If you ever need a friend, I'm your guy. If you've ever had a negative experience with me, I apologize, my bad moods are rare and usually go away the same day. The people on Paradise are genuinely some of the best people I've played with as whole. I really appreciate the time I spend with you guys and I hope that experience holds.

I think screamspam is valid because it is literally the only way to get out of a vamp actively glaring and kidnapping you other than luck/vampire being bald.

I think it's valid that they need a dedicated way to take people down without calling sec, I will say to mitigate this some way, you could add stealth feeding like on yogstation13, where you saddle up to someone, and stealthy drink blood from them without telling them, it's slow and unreliable, but if you just need to feed you can do that. Maybe if we want glare to be powerful but not Op it is not mute by default, but placing a mark on a valid succ target and follwing them for a few seconds makes them "marked" and able to be muted.

I'm not the best at balance discussions or formatting ideas really so fair warning. vampires should have the advantage in 1 on 1 fights to be honest. they need a somewhat reliable way to kidnap victims so they don't starve. They also have to deal with multiple officers, AIs, Cyborgs and witnesses to their kidnappings charging at them at once. Every antag sorta has their own area they are strong in. Traitors have a build your own playstyle balanced around TC, changelings can mimic people and revive from the dead vampires are strong in melee range but have a hard time dealing with things like disablers, lasers, immolators, being in space, being on fire, being in the chapel when not full power, holy water. They already have a number of disadvantages, having one strength to help with crowd control adds a bit of paranoia and discourages people from just running at the vampire head on while alone. If you don't want to be kidnapped easily by a vampire then simply don't be alone. a lone crew member wondering maints has about the same chances of getting away as a lone sec officer in maints. maybe grab a buddy to tag along with you if you have to go into maints for some reason. not much a vampire can really do against a group of people if they drag each other backwards when one gets glared and spam disarmed. they might be able to glare some members of the group and run away but capturing a single member of the group will be a challenge since they have to wait for their cooldowns to refresh. Vampires will eventually mess up a glare at some point either because of a badly timed disarm or just getting unlucky/noticed by a witness and called out on comms. I'm of the opinion that vampires should at least try and talk to their victims before taping their mouth closed. if the person spams the scream emote its fair game but if they haven't yet screamed then there's no real reason to shutdown RP preemptively. I would like to see more RP that isn't just call sec but people are kinda afraid of dying to a vampire which is fair considering the amount of time it takes to get healed in medbay after a vampire kills you. I feel like most of the resentment of vampires comes from that. a vampire can only get 200 usable blood from a single victim so full draining could probably be restricted a bit more unless the vampires literally starving, they can get the blood in other ways. monkeys, blood bags for example. Might also be worth hooking up bloodbags to the victim to make sure they at least make it too medical alive so things aren't always as lethal. As far as subclasses go it would be nice if the number of thralls a Dantalion vampire can have was scaled by server population. So, in the event that its low pop and there are no sec officers or anyone willing to join as ERT then the crew aren't stuck with a vampire and 4 thralls openly draining people in the hallways. But I'm not sure how that would work considering Dantalion would need to have something else unlock for them since their kit is built around having thralls. They should have at least 2 thralls regardless of the population. Might be better to have Dantalion not be selectable as a vampire path unless the population is over a given amount. Garg are pretty fun to play as and fight against umbras are in a good place Haemomancer are in a nice place

I've been loving my time on Paradise and I brought some friends along with me. I can tell you the reasons why they left and the moments that make me want to #1 RP Standards: The low RP playerbase on Paradise is quite frankly expanding rapidly. You'll have people every round breaking into areas wordlessly, speaking in meme speak constantly and just other constant shenanigans. It can be frustrating and aggravating dealing with these people, and if they aren't breaking space law then there's nothing you can do. And if you do report them well guess what, you're going to be harassed for the rest of the shift. So you just have to accept these people lightly griefing you for the entire round. Then there's people actually doing their jobs. Job bans need to be applied more regularly for constant SoP breaches or abandoning your duties. And it's not worth it to demote them as a command member because one again gives them a full license to grief only to be back to doing it the next round. This is an MRP server. There are guidelines, they should be enforced. I see people breaking the basic guidelines all the time. It's annoying and frankly breaks any desire to seriously try and RP. Sure I'm not expecting entire paragraphs on how someone's character sits. But I don't want 'Assistant who breaks in tables me and farts' #2 Antags: Straight up dealing with an Antag in ANY capacity is not worth it. There are too many hoops of adminhelps and rules lawyering to do anything with them. And most of the server has just accepted this. You'll have an Antag just chilling. Saying that they are because no one is allowed to do anything. There is a CLEAR difference between Valid Hunting and 'There is a murderer in my department killing my coworkers' and it can get frustrating when the same antag keeps bursting into your department doing the same thing because sec hasn't caught them. Antags have this invisible admin forcefield at all times and it's infuriating to deal with moments where you just watch them do whatever they feel like because they know they have it. It's not natural game progression to have this and the threat of an armed antag means nothing. The anti antag culture from the staff is also ridiculous. I've seen people's desire to play as an Antag be called out as 'Worrying' #3 Admin Leadership The way the rules are applied are inconsistent. I do not blame the admins for this, but there seems to be a CLEAR lack of leadership when it comes to how these rules are applied. I've had multiple of the same scenario and I've received different admin responses for each. This can be infuriating for the player for many reasons obviously. And while I know yes applying those rules are esoteric because of how expansive the game can be. But when you get into a game of he said she said it becomes a bit much I will also say that some admins have a tendency to turn a round into a complete mess. There are some players I will not join a lobby with because the gods have 'chosen' them, and it becomes their round constantly. This is not fun for anyone else cleaning up this effectively immortal beings admin shenanigans. When still trying to do whatever we were doing in the first place. It's unnatural, it's lowRP and it's annoyingly forced. I can think of 5 instances off the top of my head where the same exact player was brought back to life multiple times and had strange happenings occur around them for the entire round.

yogstation 13 died because of a similar long term trend, not sure entirely what caused it, but a combination of overly strict rules, poor/no RP, and less exciting content drove people away until it was unsustainable. This is my rebound server I don't wanna see this happen again

option 3: send the geneticist, CMO, and RD to family court for a messy custody battle

Para's combat system is fairly comparable to many other servers. In fact, I'd probably even go as far to say that Para's combat system is lacking compared to many servers. This isn't even really a problem to me, I'm just suggesting that there's many better things to pick paradise as a server over. And to be somewhat blunt, if someone is choosing to play on an RP-wanting server purely because of a combat system, they may want to reconsider if playing on that server is going to really be fun for them in the long term. Not only does that impact everyone around said person who isn't just there for the bloodshed, but it's also going to wear that person out pretty quickly.

the scope of vamp/sec/crew roleplay is outside the scope of this topic, however I will say mandating some kind of roleplay to people you gank into maintenance, and vice versa for either getting jumped or arresting the vamp, would go a long way to making things more interesting. Doesn't matter what kind of RP, you have to do more than callouts or silently drag into maints, if you can't do that you should assess what value you're bringing to the round, on either side.

I play medical mostly and I've never been a vampire (Somehow) but I'll give my two cents on the vampire issue First off Vampires are annoying for medbay to deal with. Could we please just be able to buy O- blood from the cargo terminal instead of the mixed blood box. Way too many of ya'll are O- and if you're a vamp who steals the O- blood bags I will find you. I will be glared, and I will die. But it's about the message. Besides that, it all comes down to the first victim, this is the most key moment of whether or not the vampire will be a total wash. Patient comes in completely drained we revive them then one of two things happen 1) The Victim gets questioned goes "Idunno man" and walks off. The vampire remains anonymous and powers up freely 2) The Victim gives a full description, vampire is identified quickly station goes to red, vampire is caught shortly after It just seems to matter if the victim believes they have their full memories after being revived. If that happens early the vampire is on such a back footing it's difficult to come back from. Sec so early in the round usually doesn't have much to do unless the other traitors are being active early on. There's not much the vampire can do at that point as they're publically known since the vampire is forced to go out and target people. Dantallion and the Umbrae always do good because they're the stealthier options. Dantallion by not having your victims get sent off to medbay and still having them to do some dirty work for you that aren't known traitors to the crew. And the Umbrae for simply being able to get around being tracked constantly. Then we get to when Lethals are authorized. Then vampires are a joke. Half of the difficulty is being forced to get near them. With Lethals you don't get have to get near them. Any times lethal are a go I'm brought a charred husk of a vampire moments later. I genuinely think Vampire needs a complete rework. It either has to focus more on stealth forcing players to not remember the vampire when they get full drained, or become a higher level changeling/mindflayer threat instead of the traitor adjacent threat they're roughly at now. I think now regular traitors offer more dynamic and varied rounds compared to vampires. I'd rather a traitor be in a round than a vampire any day and their variety of items creates alot of experiences.

Vampires can take blood IV and that will feed them or they can get any monkey and suck its blood. There is no 15 minutes timer unless you dont know these ways. And yeah, no shit when people shoot disablers at each other and try to play around glares and batons, there is no roleplay. But its part of paradise. It is fun and many people are playing because Paradise has interesting combat system with overall roleplay around it. Roleplay always suppose that you get worse in pure combat. All these attacks during texting and other shit, its all an issue, people do abuse when someone wants to roleplay to get an advantage. And most of the time you need a plan B to do anything. And most of the time there is no plan B. And many many times people get punished for being nice or roleplaying by their opponents. Thats why we dont see many roleplay here, not because of anything else. Make the vampire stronger so they always have plan B as they are too powerful, they will abuse strength and kill security team because "hey they chased me". You cant enforce roleplay. Even tho this server is called Medium roleplay server, you cant enforce it or punish for "not enough roleplay" until it hits some very low limits.

Honestly I feel like this is the crux of the issue. A lot of modern paradise antagonists are assuming a fairly high pop count, and are balanced around such. Currently we're stuck in a lowerpop era due to a few circumstances (namely the Byond DDoS) so a lot of these antags aren't getting as much of a difficulty curve as they'd usually get. Lowpop antags generally don't work too well across most servers in my experience, they just don't have enough opposition to make them interesting. Did you know that wizard can roll on just 20 pop on Paradise? That's wild to me! As for glare itself, I'm actually not too fussed about it. Most may know me as the psychotic asshat who hates instantstun mechanics, but for some antagonists it's fine in small doses. Vampires are lone antagonists with less tools to work with than traitors or even changelings when starting out, and I feel giving them that little push is somewhat justified. When a vampire is detained, security generally knows to have one person carrying the suspect, while others lag behind.

-Updated Spark and Kei's records. Officially retired. Also HOLY FUCK Y'ALL 14.2K VIEWS?!

Back in January, there was an announcement and poll on the introduction of more PvE oriented rounds into the game (Dsdiy, discord). As the community meeting seems to near with every survey, a major issue should be on conflict balance and how it affects roleplay. Despite discussions of moving away from PvP, its shortcomings should be analyzed for more comprehensive solutions to be proposed. Now, a major proponent of conflict balance are the antags, and what they do is crucial to the roleplay experience. However, by looking through the rules, admin statements, and admin conduct revolving around antag conduct and conflict, there is a clear lack of roleplay capacity for antags and conflict on Paradise. The Rules The Rules are the main authority on Antag conduct that both admins and players use to base their actions. A major factor for the current state of conflict and roleplay is because of how the rules are written. According to the main rules, "Remember the goal of an Antagonist is to make the round exciting, fun, and dangerous, within limits. You should make an effort to add to the round, as opposed to simply completing your objectives and carrying on normally."(Rules, Rule 6). This seems to align well with what Advanced Rules state in how "the primary purpose of this Rule is to stop antags 'murderboning'”(Advanced Rules, Rule 6). The implication is that there is some alternative to completing antagonist objectives that allows antagonists to add roleplay value to the round; that these rules merely prevent excessive killing. However, the Main Rules elaborate that "you must work towards your objectives, not general mayhem."(Rules, Rule 6), which every other source of authority pins policies onto. For instance, Advanced Rules directly states restrictions against stealing high risk items, pre-emptively killing sec, subverting the AI, using low collateral bombs, or sabotaging telecomms unless they directly align with objectives(Advanced rules, Rule 6). Antag Policy reaffirms this statement multiple times in their own policies, such as how changelings are only allowed to use absorption in order to accomplish their objectives(Antag Policy, Changelings). There is a clear statement here that despite the initial remark against completing objectives and neglecting roleplay, antags are straightjacketed into focusing on their objectives only. The rules state its intent is to prevent excessive murder, however, their definition of excessive is also misleading. For instance, the Advanced rules state that, "It is permitted for antags to kill witnesses to stop themselves being caught. This must be immediately a problem. Killing someone in case they witness a potential future action is not ok."(Advanced Rules, Rule 6). Which states that killing potential witnesses is restricted until they turn into a witness and become a threat to your objectives. This is a far more stringent condition than killing a person entirely unrelated to your objectives. Along with other restrictions like those against killing security, the logical conclusion is that excessive murder is any murder unrelated to objectives. Moreover, harm unrelated to objectives is not allowed. Admin Statements This interpretation of the rules is demonstrated in how staff respond and explain the matter to players. For instance, in two separate year old Discord discussions on Antag gimmicks and Antag killing unrelated to objectives, both admin responses stressed the need to align actions with objectives and to ahelp for clarification or permission(Meow19,discord)(Gatchapod,discord). It's important to clarify that these admins are retired but their statements are still supplementary information. It is how admins interpreted the rules on this topic a year ago and with the lack of opposing information, seems to be consistent. Less dated and more concrete statements that support this interpretation can also be found in ban appeals. Additionaly, there is a visible trend of demanding certain behavior that restricts conflict and roleplay. In an antag ban appeal from August 2024, the stated ban reason was mainly for excessive violence and trying to fish for sec fights after completing objectives. The appellee explained how they were being chased by sec as a changeling in the shuttle and resorted to lethal force when cornered(Damian,Antag banned by dearmochi). In response, the admin stated, "regarding the fight on the shuttle...I'm simply confused as to why you were staying in the shuttle's medical area in full view of the brig area ... In my view, you were cloaked and had an entire shuttle to hide in (or simply an escape pod) but opted to stay in the medical area and pick fights with security which was not giving chase by that point, only attacking you when you were in full view of them."(Dearmochi,Antag banned by dearmochi). Which openly implies that antags must conciously evade confrontation if it doesn't perfectly align with their goals; that antagonists must act a certain way to minimize "excess" harm, to the point they must evade security, take a pod, or hide. Statements like this should be clear in how they affect roleplay, they punish interaction and instill fear for interaction. Admin Conduct This trend in admin oversight can be seen carried over to antag interactions in general. In another ban appeal from August 2024, the stated ban reason was for attacking a changeling that wasn't posing a threat(Withereal, Ban appeal for Witherael). The appellee explained how they suspected a coworker was a changeling for letting them die and hit the changeling with a hatchet before getting awarned. Then, when they got trapped together in botany later on, the appellee radioed to sec for help and resorted to self-defense when the changeling attempted to kill them(Withereal, Ban appeal for Witherael). The admin's stance was, "Though it is fine to call Security on an antagonist you've witnessed, it would be best to do so out of their reach because you are giving them a valid reason to silence you. By calling them out in front of them you are putting them in this awkward spot where they have to silence you which would push you to attack back, though not in a last resort kind of self defence."(Dearmochi,Ban appeal for Witherael). Which has an implication similarly imposed on antagonists. Crewmembers are forced to act in a very certain way that has to abide by stringent interpretations of validhunting rules by not just calling sec, but calling sec while not provoking the antagonist, even when trapped with them. These decisions punish conflict, they punish interaction, they ultimately punish roleplay. The appellee made a great statement on this particular topic: Conclusion The current system of antagonist, sec, and crew interactions is flawed. Roleplay suffers as a result of the Rules and how it's implemented by admins. The Rules over Antag conduct encourage doing objectives and neglecting roleplay because there are no permittable Antag alternatives to objectives. Additionally, even if a minority of admins work like described here, the possibility you can be punished like this seems to be a reason roleplay continues to suffer. On another note, this seems to be a conceptual issue that a shift to PvE wouldn't fix. The burgeoning issues with rules and admin oversight will only continue until they are addressed. Finally, I want to state that this is a resolvable issue; every SS13 server has rules like this with their own ways of addressing roleplay. It's just a matter of acknowledging the problem and working on it.

Welcome, to the first guide to falling asleep published by Rileydoe, or das bread. There's a preamble to be spoken here, speaking to those of us with insomnia. Trouble with sleeping, known as a habit of sleeplessness, or insomnia: Insomnia is pervasive throughout the vibrant backgrounds of this community. From programmers, artists, wage workers, or salaried, we all can fall victim to it. There are many ways to break a habit, but this post exists as a place to share your guide to falling asleep, or follow and comment on the guide posted below. Enjoy a sleepful life, and don't beat yourself up over falling into a very well established habit. Insomnia, the habit of sleeplessness, or inability to sleep. What causes insomnia? There are a number of factors to consider when we approach our own sleeplessness. Stress begins as the place to put blame to, accumulation of stress can trigger insomnia. Our response to normal life events that bring stress is often sleeplessness. An elevated response to stress, as well as possessing other conditions co-morbid with insomnia are key factors to understanding why we can't sleep. As well, predisposition to insomnia can come from other sleep related disturbances. Tendency to have a racing mind, lead to a racing heart, preventing the mind from considering the individual is asleep. There are dissonant feelings associated with sleeplessness, the mind telling the individual they are awake, despite being asleep. This leads to a further habit to form, and leads into chronic insomnia. Considering mental illness. Conditions of the mind, and habits are often symptoms of our mental illness. Those who experience depression or anxiety, have comorbidity with each other. That too, insomnia shares. Depression symptoms are linked to insomnia, as well as anxiety. Treating the insomnia has been clinically shown to improve depression symptoms, with a lesser case being true of anxiety. If you are experiencing depression or anxiety, consider behavioral therapy, as it can improve all of the worsening symptoms. Access to mental health care is varied, so also consider a self-help approach, treating the easiest symptoms first. Where to begin? Treatment. Depression, and anxiety have an elevated response in patients to seek self-help, as well as professional help. However, insomnia patients do not seek the same treatments, and have a less recognized appreciation for the programs. That said, taking any step to help improve your own insomnia condition is something to be recognized as critical. Medications, are well known to have a lesser impact than behavioral change. Those who seek out medication are often chasing higher doses as tolerance develops. It is much more effective to examine your behavior, and start a self help treatment. There is hope in changing your own habits, and it starts with acknowledging your issue. Ask a professional about CBT-I, and if anyone they know offers such a therapy. CBT-I, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy of Insomnia. Some psychologists specialize in a type of therapy to make patients change and affect the way they feel about sleep. Self help, and the many ways to focus on sleep. There are a few ways you can start the journey into breaking this awful habit. Focus on sleep comes from a variety of things, as someone who has struggled with chronic insomnia, I've approached it in a few ways. I always found it silly that I could fall asleep on the couch, snuggled up to my partner watching a movie, but not in bed. The moment I lay down, thoughts sprung up and my restlessness began. Picking that apart, focus can help us sleep. Occupying the mind is important, if you have anxiety and insomnia like I do. What I started with was watching TV while sleeping, but it held my interest too deeply. I put on the same shows for a while, but eventually that faded out as I'd seen the whole show. Enter podcasts, and audiobooks. Audiobooks and podcasts, explore the inner attention. It may seem counter-intuitive, when your mind is full of racing thoughts to add to them. Experiencing something new, and listening to a voice guide you through it can be different. Many podcasts are free, as well as there are a plethora of free audiobooks as well. Giving yourself something to pay attention to will aid you in a sleepful night. I have a tendency to pick someone with a smooth, or breathy voice. A few times listening may come off as too much, but turning the volume down can help you with that pickup. Asking a partner to record a few chapters of your favorite book can do wonders on helping you connect about your issue to a loved one. It may only take them a few minutes, but it has such an impact on both your lives. Parents and family can aid here too, recording their favorite books for you to help guide you into a more happy rest filled life. Exercise, and eliminating screentime. Often we find that a day spend doing too little is a day without sleep at night. Given a day filled with labor intensive, or mentally vigorous activity and we happen to pass right out. This acts as our natural way of finding sleep, taking the mind and body and working them out so they require rest. Take up walking, if you haven't tried any physical exercise before. There are many sanctuaries across all of nations where you can walk and find a nice intro to exercise. Puzzles, like picross or sudoku are great for working the mind out. They find all sorts of free platforms too! There's plenty of online puzzles you can print, or fill out electronically. That said, too much screentime and light keeps our brain in a pattern of staying awake. Try to turn off all screens and devices an hour, or 30 minutes before bed. Setting up a time where you can turn off your devices will help to eliminate this pattern of sleeplessness. If you are required to look at screens for your job, invest in a $30 bluelight filter device. There's plenty available, some software, some built into the screens, or just glasses. I recommend the glasses as you never know if you can get IT to install a bluelight program. I believe f.lux is a free program available to reduce eye strain. Diet and coffee. Routines of eating. Ditching coffee is not easy, but caffeine has a serious impact on your sleeping habits. Morning coffee is a-okay. But after noon, it's best to avoid the stuff. Some tricks to start cutting back coffee consumption are to replace it with morning exercise, during the lunch hour try to do a little bit of cardio. You'd be surprised how much a 10 minute jumprope will do for you. It's very important to reduce caffeine especially in the later afternoon, it stays in the body actively for many hours. Another good way to start is cutting back hour-by-hour with the cups of coffee or tea. Reducing it slowly to only morning consumption. Diet can also impact sleep greatly, eating before bed is a surefire way to keep yourself awake. Set a consistent dinner time 3 hours before you intend to go to bed. Those of us with crazy hours, try eating right as you get off work or from school. It will help reduce that nighttime restlessness. Chronic Insomnia and resets A strong pattern of insomnia is known as chronic insomnia. The inability to sleep, becomes routine and sets it way into our lives. It's important to know how to break this habit and change the routine. Resets, are change of environment to repair our sleep onset. Sleep onset requires us to feel sleepy, to feel like we want to rest. Otherwise it fills the time with racing thoughts and an uncomfortable feelings. Doing something boring in very dim light will help with this new onset of sleep. Take 20-30 minutes to get out of the bedroom, sit in somewhere dim and try something boring. Cleaning some dishes, or doing housework is very effective for myself. Some say folding and putting away laundry is great for this, as well as reading something thick like a detailed novel. When you start to feel sleepy, head back to bed. Sometimes it can take me two or three resets on a really bad night, so don't feel bad if it doesn't work right away. Things to avoid, bad sleep quality habits. Another important thing for changing our rest, is understanding destructive and bad rest. Sleep quality is just as important as the sleep itself. For this reason, alcohol is really awful to our sleep. While it does help people to sleep (a night-cap) it is damaging to our rest. It worsens sleep quality, and comes with an association of guilt sometimes. Aside from that, alcohol is shown to worsen insomnia in the future and require larger doses to be effective. Many recommend melatonin for sleep aid, however it should almost never be used in cases of insomnia. While it is a sleep aide, it only helps when taken in large doses. It is used to help a persons natural sleep clock like in a delayed sleep phase syndrome. This is where someones natural sleep clock is a few hours ahead of society's expectations. Say they naturally sleep 2am-10am, but have a job that requires them to wake up at 6am. You can use melatonin in these cases, as you may think you have insomnia, but you get a full 8 hours on the weekends when you aren't working. Melatonin is ineffective for insomnia, as insomnia is patterns of sleeplessness, not delayed sleep phase. Taking Melatonin at the wrong time can worsen insomnia and have other negative effects on mood. That about sums up my own journey with sleeplessness, and I hope you can find some of this information useful. Below is cited some sources on insomnia and it's clinical understanding. Drake, Christopher L., Timothy Roehrs, and Thomas Roth. "Insomnia causes, consequences, and therapeutics: an overview." Depression and anxiety 18.4 (2003): 163-176. Arroll, Bruce, et al. "Prevalence of causes of insomnia in primary care: a cross-sectional study." British Journal of General Practice 62.595 (2012): e99-e103. Krakow, Barry, et al. "Prospective assessment of nocturnal awakenings in a case series of treatment-seeking chronic insomnia patients: a pilot study of subjective and objective causes." Sleep 35.12 (2012): 1685-1692.