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Kyet

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Everything posted by Kyet

  1. https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Standard_Operating_Procedure "Random searches are not permitted without express permission by either the Head of Security, Captain or Magistrate. However, searches are still permitted if there is reasonable suspicion of a crime" If you get express permission for a search, is it random? Genetics should be part of Science, and ONLY Science. Medical Doctors can handle cloning. Genetics is, and always has been, a job where people spend 95% of their time doing genetic research, and it is a farce to pretend otherwise. Having it split between two heads just means nobody looks in on what they're doing. They need clear accountability: which means having only ONE boss. Clearer SOP for security handling vamps/changelings (ie: when it is OK to execute them simply for being what they are) would be helpful. Civil disputes, xenoarch, etc should be removed from SOP, legal and otherwise, since they are unused. More generally, we shouldn't have things in SOP which are currently useless, and are only there in the hopes that they might possibly become useful one day, maybe. "Though it does not trigger Code Delta, Nuclear Operative Nuclear Operations should still be considered as a Code Delta situation" This is a typo? Or just terribly worded. "In the case of a Malfunctioning AI Unit, all Security personnel are required to drop whatever it is they are doing, and proceed to neutralize the AI Unit. Any relevant help from station personnel (such as Engineers or Scientists) is not to be turned down;" We no longer have malfunctioning AI units. We only have traitor AI units trying to activate doomsday devices. "In the case of an AI unit attempting to activate the doomsday device, ..." "In the case of Nuclear Operatives, defusing the bomb is not recommended. Security personnel are to escort all other personnel off-station;" Should probably be "attempting to defuse the bomb is not reccomended. If it cannot be spaced, evacuate the station by any means necessary." "Procedures are irrelevant" Any instance of this can be deleted. "Emergency Response Teams are not to be called without majority approval from Command;" Nobody follows this, ever. Scrap it? "Emergency Response Teams officially outrank anyone short of a Central Command Officer. Unless their actions are blatantly illegal and against the best interest of NanoTrasen, the station and its crew, their orders are to be followed above anyone else's" This treats ERTs as command authority. Most of the time, ERTs are essentially all-access grunts. Worth keeping, probably, to encourage ERT to take command of the situation... but I still feel like this misses how ERTs are actually played. "In the event that the NTV Charon is called, all personnel are to wrap up their current task and head to the Escape Lobby within, at most, five minutes before departure;" Nobody ever arrives 5 minutes early. Even a couple of minutes early is "early". Many people don't even arrive before the shuttle docks. "Promotion to Acting Head of Staff requires authorization by the Captain or Acting Captain;" I would add: "Acting heads of staff are to recieve the title of the position they are acting as. For example, someone acting as HoS should get the title 'Head of Security'. This ensures they are properly shown in the Command department on crew manifests." "In the case of a demotion, Civilian-level access is recommended. Alternatively, jobs such as Janitor or Clown may also be used;" Perhaps add: "Any Civilian so incompetent as to warrant demotion from the job of Civilian, is, with Captain's permission, to be terminated from NT employment entirely." "Personnel are to report to the Head of Personnel for dismissal/demotion. Failure to do so will lead to Security detaining them forcefully;" I would also add: "Heads of staff may help physically enforce demotions when necessary, including seizing department items from individuals being fired from their departments." Under "Causes for Demotion and Dismissal", I would add "use of department items in a way which substantially inhibits the productivity of the station overall, such as a clown covering the main hallway with slippery items, a geneticist smashing walls, or a HoP giving out access they shouldn't" "Deliberately opening Hazard Locks during a Fire/Gas Spill in order to open way to the Hazard is to be considered Sabotage/Grand Sabotage;" This belongs on the Space Law page, not here. Also, nobody follows it, ever. It is arguably pointless. In general, SOP pages shoulf follow a consistent format. Either every point should end in ";", or every point should end in ".". Probably the latter. Right now, we have some points that end in ";", some that end in ".", and some with no punctuation at the end. This last category, in particular, looks incomplete. "Lethal force is fully authorized" Either it is authorized, or it isn't. There is no such thing as "fully authorized", as that implies there is such a thing as "partially authorized". Which there isn't. So "fully authorized" doesn't exist either. In the words of Yoda: "Do [authorize], or do not [authorize]. There is no try [authorize]." COMMAND: https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Standard_Operating_Procedure_(Command) "If a Department lacks a Head of Staff, the Captain should make reasonable efforts to appoint an Acting Head of Staff, if there are available personnel to fill the position;" This should require proper title for the person being appointed. It might also state that the appointment is temporary until an actual head arrives. "The Head of Personnel may not leave their office unmanned if there are personnel waiting in line." I would prefix this with "at the start of the shift". Later on, it is perfectly reasonable to talk to the person over radio before deciding whether to go back to the office. HoPs should not be required to return to their office every single time that someone asks for them. Many (most?) requests later on in a shift are going to be denied anyway, due to code red and other factors. "The NanoTrasen Representative must attempt to resolve any breach of Standard Operating Procedure locally before contacting Central Command. This is an imperative: Standard Operating Procedure should always be followed unless there is a very good reason not to;" I would add: "Repeatedly contacting CC about matters they have failed to take up with local authorities is considered to be wasting CC's time, and grounds for CC demoting them." "Blueshield Officer" I would add a new point: "The Blueshield is not permitted to ask for all-access, especially at the start of the shift, unless the station is at code red or higher." ENGINEERING: https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Standard_Operating_Procedure_(Engineering) "The Chief Engineer is permitted to grant Building Permits to crewmembers, but must keep the Station Blueprints in a safe location at all times" Do blueprints allow the user to see where pipes/wires/etc WOULD BE in normal layout? If they do, this is a very valuable function that would greatly assist station repairs, and there should be a SOP exception allowing the CE to carry them for this purpose. MEDICAL: https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Standard_Operating_Procedure_(Medical) The CMO might benefit from a requirement that they keep the cloner stocked with biomass. It is perhaps their most important job - without it, players stay dead / out of round for ages. Just like the RD has to ensure research is done, as it is their most important job, so the CMO should have to ensure the cloner is stocked, as that is the most important thing in their department. "Xeno Organs may be harvested at will, but may not be implanted without express permission from the Chief Medical Officer" RD, surely? Do we even want to allow Xeno organ implantation in SOP? They're usually used to listen to alien hive comms and totally wreck xeno infestations. Or to allow crew to play as pseudo-queens. SCIENCE: https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Standard_Operating_Procedure_(Science) "The Research Director is not permitted to authorize Anomalous Artifacts to be brought onto the station prior to full testing and cataloguing;" There are no such things as "anomalous artifacts". Xenoarch was removed. SOP should reflect this. "It might get re-added one day" is not a good reason to keep it in SOP now. "The HONK Mech is not to be constructed without full approval by the Research Director and Captain;" The Reticence (mime mech, that can create invisible walls, and has a silenced light machine gun) should be classified as a combat mech in point 2. "The Roboticist is freely permitted to construct Cyborgs and all assorted equipment;" What about illegal borg modules? They're VERY powerful - they give sec borgs an infinite lasergun. "Scientists are not permitted to bring Anomalous Artifacts aboard the station without express verbal consent from the Research Director. Regular Xenoarchaeological artifacts are permitted;" Delete, as above. Exotic Implants THis section should be its own page, and it should be linked to by both the Medical and Science SOP pages. That way there is only one copy, and we don't risk two copies getting out of sync with each other. SECURITY: https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Standard_Operating_Procedure_(Security) "3. Security Officers may forcefully relocate crewmembers to their respective Departments if necessary;" This never happens, ever. SERVICE: https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Standard_Operating_Procedure_(Service) 3. Botanists are not permitted to cause unregulated plantlife to spread outside of Hydroponics or other such designated locations; Perhaps add "this includes glowshrooms". It should be obvious, but everyone ignores it. Chaplain Perhaps add: "The Chaplain is not permitted to act as a crusader, e.g: wandering maint carrying a weapon and wearing templar armor, unless authorized to do so by security." Janitor Perhaps add: "When cleaning main hallways, and other high-traffic locations, space cleaner is to be preferred over water whenever it is available. Making primary hallways unnecessarily slippery is an unnecessary interruption for crew. Janitors should strive to clean unobtrusively, rather than being an inconvenience." LEGAL: https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Legal_Standard_Operating_Procedure For IAA, perhaps add: "The faxing of crude or insulting material to Central Command is grounds for the immediate termination of the IAA's employment contract, and life." For Magistrates, "Magistrates have the final say on whether or not Trials take place" conflicts with "Security can and should refuse legal representation to a person, even if the Magistrate orders a trial". For trials, "4) Find a location. Normally, this ends up being the Holodeck" should probably reference the courtroom, added in brig remap, not the holodeck.
  2. My advice, for NT reps: - Send a very short fax to CC at the start of the shift, saying that you are on-duty and will be monitoring the station for SOP compliance. This makes sure we know you exist, and can bear you in mind when making future decisions (like how to handle a terrible Captain). Don't expect an answer to this fax - we don't generally reply to faxes unless we have to. - Don't fax us over anything trivial. We don't need to know that a security officer mistakenly harmbatoned someone once. We don't care that someone broke into the HOP's office and stole Ian. We are already well aware that the Clown typically isn't funny, and insists on slipping people for no good reason. Etc. - For serious matters, it is up to you to CLEARLY EXPLAIN both the problem, and the steps you have already taken to try to address it. For example, If the HoS is giving sentences that are not allowable under Space Law, the first thing you should do is tell the HoS about this, and then ask him to correct it. If he refuses, you should take this up with the Captain, and ask him to correct it and/or replace the HoS. If the Captain doesn't do this, THEN you should fax CC, explaining the problem, the steps you took, and the result. A tape recorder is very helpful when it comes to catching heads breaking SOP. Do NOT automatically default to faxing CC about matters that you haven't even taken up with the relevant head, and then the Captain. Always work your way through the chain of command (head, captain, THEN CC). Do not skip straight to messaging CC. - If you have a specific request, such as an ERT, a replacement captain, or whatnot, state it. Don't demand it, but do state it. "Almost all of the heads are captured and/or dead. Requesting additional backup, such as an ERT." is a good fax. "They're all dead! Help!" is a bad fax. - Never ask for a Deathsquad. Nanotrasen does not operate "death squads", and anyone saying they do is a dirty syndicate traitor attempting to sow dissent within the crew. Report all dirty syndicate traitors to Nanotrasen Special Security Squad promptly, so they may be re-educated into productive citizens. - Never ask for a Gamma alert. Gamma alert is overwhelmingly powerful, intended only to counter the very highest level threats, such as runaway blobs, xenos, and adminbus. It is very unlikely that you'd ever need Gamma. If you really believe that is the only solution, you can ask - but 90% of the time, when people ask for Gamma alert, it isn't the right answer. Think about that before you ask for it. - Feel free to request a Gamma ERT, though. They're less powerful than Gamma alert, and more likely to be granted. Just be aware that the bar for granting them is quite high. Much higher than a regular ERT. - Don't ask us for an ERT after nuclear operatives have declared war. You aren't getting one. War ops almost always lose, even without an ERT, because they're 5 guys against a crew of 50-100. When the crew get armed, and cluster around the Captain, 5 guys have no chance. You don't need an ERT, any kind of ERT, during war ops. You just need teamwork. - Always [sign] and stamp your faxes. While I am personally quite relaxed about this, many (most?) admins will completely reject/ignore any fax that doesn't have BOTH. You aren't even guaranteed to get a reply fax explaining what you did wrong. So, always assume you need to use both. Also, PROOFREAD it. Faxes can be rejected due to poor spelling/grammar. - Keep documentation. You can make a much better case if you have a clear record of what happened.
  3. I've already got the code that implements this, saved on my desktop. I was just waiting for https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/6766 to go through before I put up a new PR for it. Originally it was part of that PR, but I took it out because Neca wanted the two features to be separate.
  4. Kyet

    Senior Roles

    I like this idea.
  5. Delisting is just sticking our head in the sand, and refusing to make a serious attempt at tackling our problem. The problem is that we don't have enough jobs, job slots, or, sometimes, space, to handle our popularity. That's the real problem, and we need to address that. Here's how we could improve things: - Merge all the job slot PRs on Github (+11 job slots for existing jobs, including several currently understaffed jobs, like Security). We could probably add more than this. - Merge the new job PRs on github (up to +6 slots) - Get cracking on implementing Lavaland, complete with lavaland roles (up to +10 new job slots, e.g: tribesmen, syndi researchers, etc) - Look beyond that for more new jobs that we could add (+5 or so, e.g: Coroner, Goon Mechanic, various gimmick/RP jobs like regional director, wrestler, movie star, etc). They don't need to be super fleshed out. RP roles are fine too. - Decentralize the handling of Civilians seeking jobs. Merging https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/6766 for example would enable heads of staff to handle some of the jobseekers, eliminating the massive queues at the HoP line, and reducing riots/greytide dramatically. - Expand the current map with more things for civilians to do, like Goon VR, and more space in general, so at ~150 pop the station doesn't feel so crowded. If we do these, we'll massively reduce the greytide, with over half of civilians getting jobs, and even the remainder having other options besides causing trouble. That would make an enormous difference to the number of concurrent players we could support. It would also open lots of new RP options, from small-scale things like interfaith rivalries between multiple chaplains, to big-scale event options like a massive engineering team being charged with a huge construction project. Paradise, like SS13 in general, is a multiplayer game. As the number of players increases, so does the potential for interaction, and fun, unexpected things. In short: the more players, the more awesome it can be. Looking for ways to turn away players is the *wrong* approach. Instead, we should be looking for ways to increase our capacity so that we can have one hell of a party, as the biggest, most popular SS13 server out there. Full of curious humans, shrieking Vox, beeping IPCs and mysterious Plasmamen. We should be the rockstars on stage, the feature event that packs the hall. Let's not be the shy kid at the back, hiding in their little clique, too scared to handle the crowd, or meet new people. That's not Paradise. Paradise is meant to be awesome. We can be awesome... if we embrace our popularity and run with it, instead of hiding from it. We have player numbers other servers can only dream of. Let's not flee from success. We've earned it.
  6. The Labor Camp is not viable. The asteroid has no oxygen or pressure, and is filled with monsters. Sending prisoners there with no suit, no internals, and no way to defend themselves is effectively throwing them to the lions. It is just a matter of what kills them first. Suffocation, explosive decompression, or savage monsters. Take your pick. We can't give them all the gear they need, either, as they'd then be able to escape. In order to be at all viable, the Labor Camp must be moved to an entirely new asteroid, one with atmosphere, no monsters, no random caves, etc. Oh, and an outer layer that prevents, or at least discourages, escape attempts. Second to that, we'd have to streamline the process of using the labor camp. It should take minimal effort for them to be sent there, they should be able to do their work promptly, and they should, once their quota is met, be able to get released automatically, picking up their stuff along the way. The hassle for sec should be kept to an absolute minimum, and the labor camp should produce something valuable enough that security feels like they're helping the station by sending people there.
  7. I am still of the opinion that this is essentially a Bouncer, who chooses to work in medbay: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/6610 I might make 'Medbay Bouncer' or 'Orderly' one of the alt titles for Bouncer in the PR.
  8. Re: Phazon being bugged, I actually fixed this recently: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/6742 Re: 'The interface appears to be damaged', don't illegal upgrade modules also do this? Before screaming that a borg is rogue, it may be worth checking that your partner, or the RD, did not upgrade the borg with an illegal module. Possibly worth adding: "don't steal all the minerals". R&D should get first dibs on minerals, both because they are necessary for higher tech levels, and also because they are used to print parts for upgrades - upgrades that can also benefit Robotics. Robotics needs more minerals overall, most shifts, but R&D should always get minerals *first*.
  9. Thanks! Here's the result from the round-end satisfaction poll: Did you enjoy the Terror Spiders round? - Yes: 52 votes (77%) - Meh: 12 votes - No: 3 votes I don't think its ready to be a gamemode yet (that round required a fair bit of adminbus to have it go so well). Still, perhaps with a few more PRs, it could be.
  10. I too would like to see IAA/magistrate buffed, but this is not the way to do it. Trials, in general, are a bad idea. If we want to buff IAA/magistrate, then a better way to do that would be to have security actions (e.g: brig timers) automatically create records that they can look at. If that was done, then they'd have better access to information about what is going on, which would help them do their jobs.
  11. Don't use credits. The economy is too broken for this. It would also encourage the Traders to simply take people to Jupiter Station (the Trader start area) and let the crew buy whatever they want. It would turn Traders into mere taxi-cab drivers, and be totally broken. Some form of Trader Points, that only Traders get, might be viable though. It would be fine to clear out all the useless junk that Trader spawn has, but nobody ever wants. Things like tier 1 micro-manipulators. Nobody ever trades that stuff. If you want to add new, cool things that Traders have, be sure to remember: - It should probably be at least a little randomized, so we don't end up with a single 'best combination' that every trader picks. - There should be multiple categories, from food, supplies, etc, to weapons, engineering items, strange objects, etc. - The Sol Traders work for Sol Gov. I'm not sure how willing they'd be to deal with Syndicate items. After all, if its Contraband in NT-owned stations, wouldn't it be contraband in Solgov ones too? Why would they allow a Syndicate NPC to flog Syndie items there? Why would the Syndie NPC even agree to sell their stuff there?
  12. I've posted a PR to remove "growth serum": https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/6433 If you support this, give the PR a thumbs up on github.
  13. PR created: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/6431
  14. I was going to put up a PR that makes Gateway Explorer into a real job. Not a karma-locked job. Just a normal job. At peak times, we can end up with 50+ civilians. That's nuts! We need more job slots! Gateway Explorer is a job: - That can have several job slots, maybe 3-5. - Which people already do, and enjoy. - Which requires no map changes to Cyberiad to make it viable, unlike most other suggestions for new jobs. Show me ANY other job that can match the points above. I don't think such a job exists. Given that we need to add more jobs, for their job slots, Gateway Explorer is the #1 most obvious job we should add. I played HoP the other day and I got 18 people coming to me in series at shift start. A third of them just wanted to be Gateway Explorers. That's nuts. Its already treated as a real job by many. So, let's make it one. Here's what I have so far, if you're curious: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradis ... plorer_job The comments are there to explain it - I'll remove them before I submit the PR.
  15. Growth serum should be removed completely. It looks awful. Just look at those sprites. SS13 character sprites are NOT meant to be that size, and it shows. They look terrible. It doesn't function well, either. While working on Terror Spiders, I tried creating giant versions of the spiders for bosses. It did not work well. They kept ended up biting themselves, getting suck on doors, etc. It was a mess. Character sprites in SS13 shouldn't be wildly bigger than the norm - it leads to issues. I have to say, I prefer old botany. - No giants running around. - No weird tomatoes that fill everyone with teslium, lead to people dying from electric shocks on the shuttle, and don't even show up properly in the logs. - No botany rooms that look like the local college's biodiversity department 10 years after chernobyl hit.
  16. If we want to buff this event, I'm not sure this is a good way to do it. Part of the issue is that often, the mobs it spawns are weak. Snowmen, nurse spiders, etc. We wouldn't need more mobs if the mobs it spawned were stronger. I've actually got a PR ready to go that does this. I'll submit it once there are less open Map Edit PRs. I was holding it off due to there being several open PRs with map edits, and I did not want to create merge conflicts. Interesting ideas. The problem with this is that it would have to be a physical break. Any sort of "turn X equipment off" event could be fixed by the AI in 15 seconds. I've seen them. Vortex anomalies are nice. Pyro ones aren't very strong. I can't remember the last time I saw a bluespace anomaly. Enabling the morph event could help. Yeah. Worth investigating. I was debating doing a PR that modifies their spawning method, so that they can only spawn on top of a vent that nobody can currently see.
  17. Sounds very close to His Grace, except more powerful. If I had to create a hijack item for clowns, it would be a biohazard banana peel dispenser. Anyone who slips on one gets a virus that slowly kills them. Clowns could buy this, then place peels all over the station to create mass havoc. An indirect weapon, sure, but far more in-keeping for clowns. Alternatively, a version of the spray flower which shoots horrific fire/whatnot over a substantial area directly in front of the clown. Both deadly and terrifying. You could even make a hijack version of the bike horn that gives the victim some crippling condition when you HONK them with it. Rather like vampires give you grave fever. Chainsaws seem a little too common. If we're going to give the Clown a hijack objective item, make it memorable, unique, and clown-themed.
  18. Hi. I'm the guy coding Terror Spiders. There are several reasons for this: 1) Currently, Terror Spiders cannot reproduce. Once https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/6097 is merged, they will be able to. 2) Terror Spiders are new, and people don't know how to play them well yet. Originally, I had guides embedded into their verbs, which you could bring up in-game, but I had to remove that after an objection from a coder. You can look at the wiki to learn how to play them, but not everyone who plays them does this. Some of their mechanics are not instantly obvious. E.g: wrapping a human corpse gets you increased health regen, use the 'Status' tab to see your health %, etc. This problem will dissipate over time as people learn their mechanics. 3) Of the 10 types of Terror Spiders I have coded, only 4 of them are in the game right now: red, gray, black, and prince. Even those only have about half their coded added. Red and Gray are Tier 1 spiders (the lowest level of spider). Blacks are Tier 2, but spawned rarely. Princes are Tier 3, but rarely spawned, and are the subject of an extensive buff/rebalance in the upcoming Terror Spiders 2 PR. Once the current PR gets merged, you will start to see higher-level spiders appear - up to Tier 4. The higher level ones are FAR more dangerous than the lower level ones. 4) When I put Terror Spiders in a round, I generally do a "level 3 biohazzard" alert announcing them just after they're spawned. Sometimes with a siren, like meteors or nations get. This jump-starts the security/command response to them, and ensures they are immediately understood to be a serious threat. This is necessary because I want to see what the balance is like when security is actively trying to fight them. In future, they are not always guaranteed to be announced in a timely manner. If they happen, and command/security doesn't respond to them, rounds will go very differently. In short: Terror Spiders are not at their full strength yet. They will get stronger as: - more types are added - they gain the ability to reproduce - players learn how to play them - command/security stops getting a loud heads-up the second they are spawned So, balance wise, the two issues are: 1) Spiders have no counter to all the vents being welded. I agree that they should have a counter, but it should be rare and expensive. 2) Spiders have no counter to crew armed with laser guns. I am less sure about this, but I have been experimenting with some options. Gray Terror Spiders have a very powerful ability already: their bite silences their targets. They are stealthy, assassin spiders. They are intended for spinning webs across corridors, then hiding in a vent. Once someone runs into the web, you pop out of the vent, and kill them while they're stunned by the web. Due to the silencing poison, they can't even scream for help. Once they're dead, web them, and pop back in the vent to await the next victim. This is how grays are meant to be played. They're meant to be ambush, stealth spiders. They are meant to take out weak targets (e.g: civilians) without anyone noticing. They're essentially the monster that sneaks up on you and murders you in the dark, before you can even scream. They are not meant to be front-line spiders, or ranged spiders. That said, there is a type, being merged in the next PR, which has a ranged attack. It is the Queen. Its ranged attack causes poison damage and hallucinations. It will be very rare, however. As of the next PR, the Prince of Terror will have the ability to smash (ie: unweld) vents and scrubbers, as well as be more robust in general. In general, for laser-armed crew, spiders have several options: - Make clever use of the terrain, such as by staying behind a corner, ambushing via vents, using space to their advantage, spinning webs to block shots, etc. - Evading the laser-armed crew, and going after the soft, delicious, unarmed crew. Spiders drink blood. They are not picky about whose blood. - Reproduction. Even the best gun runs out of ammo/charge eventually. Eventually, spiders allowed to reproduce unchecked will overwhelm the crew.
  19. The bot takes 4+ minutes to even start to fetch you, plus time to fetch you, plus the time it would normally take for someone put in cryo by a third party to despawn. And that's assuming the bot wasn't busy with someone else. If you're gone for 5-10 minutes, the most you'll have to do is step out of cryo and walk back to your department. Not a big deal. Heck, if you simply buckle yourself to a chair, the bot will ignore you forever. Ditto hiding in a locker. Ditto simply going SSD in a locked area. Ditto many other conditions. You can easily opt out of the bot if you want to.
  20. Not really. Not as immersive. I don't think its possible for him to phase through doors. I could, though, spawn an invisible forcefield on his tile that lasts a few seconds, in addition to the fact he triggers the door to close manually very fast, to prevent people tailgating. When this is introduced, it won't be part of the map by default. Admins will manually spawn it in at roundstart to observe how it influences the round. If it goes well, it can be mapped in to be part of the default station. If issues arise, I'll look to fix those in another PR before it is mapped in.
  21. The Chaplain has many factors that encourage validhunting: - Easily able to space people (mass driver) - Easily able to destroy bodies (cremator), and even has a SOP rule giving them explicit permissions to do funerals for anyone who "cannot" be cloned. Nothing says this doesn't apply to DNR people. - Roundstart weapon (null rod) - Weapon (null rod) that can be customized to have any one of a number of beneficial effects, from being undisarmable, to penetrating armor, to being a space-chainsaw. - Has a weapon (nullrod) and item (holywater) which are extremely effective against several types of antags (vampires, cultists, revenant, etc), often uniquely effective. - Is immune to being a vampire or cultist, which ensures they're typically trusted by security in any situation where these antagonists are around, or suspected to be around. - Has most of their area as "blessed ground" which protects them on their home turf against vampires, and means vampires are brought to them for testing. - Has maint access and almost no demands placed on them, giving them no reason not to wander maint looking for trouble. - Has a rule in their SOP prohibiting the use of the null rod except in self-defense, but this is rarely enforced. Command/sec won't turn down the help, even if the Chaplain is breaking SOP and Space Law. - Has a full riot suit (named "templar armor", but actually a subtype of sec's riot suit!) in their locker at round start. Roundstart riot armor! - Can self-heal at will with their bible. Can heal other people, too. - Can acquire immunity to space by choosing to play a Vox chaplain, including immunity to space carp by choosing the carp-based version of the null rod. As far as I am aware, this is the ONLY way to become immune to space carp, which are perhaps the most commonly encountered hostile NPC in the game. - Is the only job that gets its own definition file in the code, due to how many roundstart options it has: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradis ... haplain.dm -- not even Captain or the Centcom jobs get this treatment. - Is almost never held accountable by their head of staff. Security officers who screw up can be demoted. I can't remember ever seeing a chaplain demoted for validhunting / being too aggressive. Right now, chaplains are effectively crusaders / knights templar, not priests. Not due to any one, single cause, but rather due a combination of all the above factors. Yes, the null rod was ported from another codebase (TG: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/4505 ), but TG is lower RP than we're meant to be, and their influence shows. Ideas for fixing chaplain: - Add paranormal ERTs. Only paranormal ERTs get the full null rod. Normal chaplains get a weaker version. - Split the chaplain into two jobs. Priest and Prison Chaplain. Priest spawns where current chaplain does, but doesn't get a null rod at all. Prison Chaplain is rather like Brig Physician, getting a full null rod, but they answer to security. They also help keep an eye on the brig, and talk to prisoners. Might also have the benefit of reducing brig boredom for prisoners. - Start enforcing anti-validhunting rules against chaplains who validhunt. - Remove their immunity to being vampires, cultists, etc. Lore-wise, their faith is strong, but not so strong that they can resist Nar'Sie magic or hostile bluespace entities. They're priests, not wizards. This makes those antags slightly more powerful, and also ensures security won't *always* give the chaplain the benefit of the doubt, so it reduces their license to validhunt. - Remove their maintenance access, so they're not cruising maint all round. - Move their templar armor to the brig, so they have to ask security if they want to use it. Or make it an item ordered from cargo. Or make it only accessible/usable on red alert. - Make the null rod an item ordered from cargo. This way, when one chaplain cryos, and a second one joins, the second one can still get a rod. Also, chaplains don't get a powerful weapon at roundstart, but can still get one in an emergency. Even if chaplains order it every round, at least it gives cargo something to do. - Add mechanics that support chaplain RP and provision of religious services. E.g: all characters, not just chaplains, can select a religion, and chaplains can offer services in that religion once or twice per round (AOE spell-like ability). When activated, everyone in the area gets a small bonus that lasts for 15 minutes. People of the same faith as the chaplain get double the bonus. This would make chaplains useful for blessing a squad of officers before they enter combat - not just wading in swinging a nullrod themselves. Perhaps you have to be inducted by a chaplain in the round before you can pray - or you can pray without it but your inducted/not status is visible to admins and might make the difference between your prayer being granted or not. - Another example: chaplains could have a 'convert' spell which, after a delay, converts adjacent humanoids to the chaplain's faith. The recipient has to accept this before they can be converted, and if they decline, they can't be prompted again for the rest of the round. The chaplain could have a job objective to convert at least 20% of the station to their faith using this method. Conversion to the chaplain's faith doesn't have anything to do with being an antag, and does NOT give any mechanical benefits - its just a fun RP mechanic that lets the chaplain try to spread the word of whatever religion the chaplain character has.
  22. Suggestions: 1) Rethink the difference between "stuff the Captain can do on their own" and "stuff that requires two swipes for". Currently, going from blue to red requires the swiper, but red to blue is just a button press. The Captain can send a totally freeform message to Centcom at any time. Via radio, and via fax. But sending the short ERT request message in particular requires swiping. The Captain can order the AI to bolt open/closed/etc maint at any time, but making maint all-access temporarily requires a swipe. I'm not saying we necessarily need to change these things, but it would be nice if we at least acknowledged there is very little consistency here. 2) Encourage the crew to actually use the Captain as a sounding board for their grievances. So many times IAAs will go straight to faxing Centcom just because they can, cutting the Captain out completely. Similarly, I rarely get complaints from crew about their heads of staff, even when it is justified. People don't seem to like contacting the Captain with a complaint. Many people seem to have the attitude of 'why complain about sec, nothing will be done'. So they don't complain. So, of course, nothing gets done. Not sure exactly how to do it, but some system that encourages people to take their issues to the Captain would be a good idea. 3) Give the Captain some form of smart HUD glasses, rather than normal sunglasses. Seeing peoples' jobs at a glance, for example, is quite helpful for a Captain. It doesn't need all the functionality of a sechud, it just needs to show job hud icons. 4) Create a sort of... overview computer for the bridge. Something the Captain can use to get a quick status overview of each department. For Cargo, it could display current orders and points total. For Engineering, the # of alarms. For medical, the # of items in the fridge, whether the cloner is stocked, etc. For Science, it could display R&D levels, the # of borgs, etc. For security, the # of people in cells. Yes, in theory the Captain can go around asking for this information, but IMHO the more information the Captain can call up automatically, the better they can be as a manager. 5) Increase the requirements for playing Captain, and/or be quicker to job ban people for doing stupid things as Captain. Every time I see a Captain rolling in a pile of weed, crusading around maintenance hunting for slings on their own, or saying things like "NT sucks!" I feel like we're missing something, RP-wise. Captains don't all have to be super-serious, but we do need to increase the standards we expect from them. "Captain is comdom!" should not be a commonly heard phrase. 6) Give the Captain flavor choices that they can apply to the station as a whole. For example, the Captain could have a remote that grants them one special request from NT, out of a list, once per shift. Each option corresponds to a department. For example, the Cargo option would ship a selection of emergency gear, or just give cargo bonus points. The security option would loosen space law with regards to the treatment of greytiding assistants. The medical option would ship a selection of braindead bodies, of multiple species, to medbay so that medical could injure them and then practice healing them properly. The science option would contain a small shipment of minerals - useful when there are no miners. The Command option would allow the Captain to REQUEST (not necessarily get!) one custom-written change to space law or SOP for the shift (admins would have to manually approve it). By using this flavoring device, the Captain could bias the station slightly towards one department during their shift - or address a critical need within a department by giving them a small resource boost. 7) Give the Captain job objectives. Rather like Science has "ship disks to centcom", Captain could have "ensure the station has heads of staff for each department for most of the shift. Heads don't count while dead or incapacitated." as an objective. Or perhaps "Ensure at least 50% of the starting crew make it off the station alive". Or "Spend less than 50% of the shift in code red". Something to encourage Captains to do their job and take responsibility for the integrity of their station. 8) Update the wall safe in the Captain's office so that it isn't trivial to break into. 9) Give the Captain their own, really tiny, escape pod between their bedroom and gravity generator. The space is unused, anyway. Put a bottle of whiskey and a book titled "The Hero" in it. 10) Get rid of the Captain's crown. It encourages people to act like kings in the role. That often results in comdom-like behavior.
  23. Splitting up the suggestions forum will just reduce the visibility of threads within it. It would require someone to manage it, and achieve nothing.
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