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Title: Lief's Bluespace Banzai Lore: After Lief Cowart's successful vampire creation experiment, he's going above and beyond to create something even more terrifying: A Revenant. However, he got the amount of bluespace wrong, which is causing a resonance cascade that is teleporting all sorts of creatures, turning crew into vampires and other bluespace entities, and causing stuff to turn into things they are not. Central Command has a solution, and that's to send a supermatter explosive device into the heart of where the experiment happened. Will the now superpowered crew be able to blow up the bluespace nexus event? Or will the station forever be trapped in an endless cycle of teleportation, transformation, and summoning? Event details: Lief sends a highly classified experiment request to CC, and they accept. Afterwards, Lief grabs a bunch of bluespace and a dead person from the morgue. However, once the experiment commences, a bluespace disturbance causes a resonance cascade to occur. Random people will start turning into bluespace entities (Vampires, low-tier wizards, etc.), random creatures will appear through tears in space-time, and stuff will start teleporting around. CC will send a supermatter explosive device to destroy where the experiment took place. Event endings: A. The crew blows up the bluespace nexus, and the entire station returns to (Relative) normality B. They fail and the station is relegated to bluespace anarchy. Event reward: If the crew disables the nexus, they will all receive a ton of credits and a random reward. NO MAP CHANGES

A syndicate cleaner is pretty much what it says on the tin: a guy either rolls for one at round start, or randomly becomes one, and their objective is to assist syndicate agents with committing crime and not getting caught, something of a rival for the detective. Their uplink will contain advanced janitorial equipment, cleaning supplies, forensic gear (including forensic or black gloves), bodybags, maybe a disguise, some kind of non lethal self defense like pepper spray, and a configurable guest pass to get into one department of choice. To get in contact with the syndicate agents, the cleaner can anonymously message agents through the uplink, and their messages can only be read through the uplink, although they'll get a message notification through their PDA when the uplink is closed. The cleaner can see each assassination target, theft target, etc, but won't know whose job it is to do what, so they have to ask around. They themselves can't normally be an assassination target. Generally their gameplay will be cleaning up after traitor's either break in somewhere or assassinate someone, quickly and quietly so the traitor doesn't get caught. If the cleaner is caught, they will of course share the crime due to aiding and abetting. If the uplink is at risk of capture, the cleaner can activate a self detonation button inside the uplink itself, which will root the cleaner, making them unable to move or drop the uplink, and it will kill them and destroy any gear they had on them. I forsee a problem that all cleaners will resort to something like the chapel for round removing, so maybe give them an objective to clean up messes without ever using the gibber/cremator/etc. Make it an interesting puzzle of hiding the body without destroying it, unless the traitor has "permakill them" objective.

Some doodles planned to be use on a comic that yet to be thoroughly plotted. These were already shown on Discord months ago but might as well post them here as momento just in case. "A case that solved on its own in my earliest days. Job well done, she said. Tapping for Janitor at the same time." "Before we could even catch em'. Poor bastard was already crisp on his own. Smell ain't just plasma in there." "Scan and send it all packing in the Evidence. Aye, I've heard that for over 9 years already. Same ol' story." "He got the better shot on em' than I. But to be fair. He had the whiskey, and I had the C4."

I appreciate that. Thank you.

suggestion 3 just makes a virologist become a pain to chemists, demanding they get their resources to perform their 'important work' sooner, and will usually wait around pestering if you can believe it, virology used to be even more busted, as you could stack two beneficial viruses together

That is fine, your words have been removed.

I retract permission for referencing my words or using them in this. When I gave permission to use them, I was unaware of what context they'd be placed in and for what purpose it'd be used.

I've been playing on Paradise for a Month now, but I focused solely on medbay amassing 200 hours at this point. But there's been a glaring issue with medical Virology Is Way Too Quick to Finish Beneficial viruses are quite powerful when given out to the crew, constant supply of salub, occuline and mannitol in a person's body, nullifying any other random diseases and the well known damage conversion through toxic compensation and toxic filter. Now, the process for it can seem complicated to an outside view, but once you get it down this is a simple 7-10 minute task on average. There's a reason for this and we'll get to it. But for now we have a department who's entire 'goal' can be finished before most other departments are even done setting up. And due to the Antibodies-Metabolism trait even the entire 'finding a cure' to a random disease aspect of the virologist has been completed for you. The Virologist now has absolutely nothing to do. I Enjoy Virology I like the fantasy of it, I think diseases are an integral part of the game, and creating a beneficial virus should be a momentous occassion. Not something you churned out on a lunch break. I believe that if nothing is done with Virology it will be next on the chopping block, you rarely see virologists anymore in any round. The Problem Virology is slightly too strong in my opinion for the effort that's put into it. But if those effects were removed or nerfed (Such as Self-Respiration only removing need for oxygen instead of also supplying Salbu) there'd be even less of a reason to go into virology. I've made a list of suggestions that focus on increasing the time investment needed to make a perfect beneficial virus. Or to l Suggestion 1: More Traits The most intensive way to fix the issues would be adding more traits, at the moment the virus trait list is quite barebones. Which has an adverse effect of making the RNG of finding specific symptoms much more tilted in the players favor. While this may be a large fix as for this to work it'd need to double the current list, virology may very well be deserving of it. Suggestion 2: Make Virus stats matter more while increasing the negative stats for positive traits At the moment a full optimized beneficial virus will have an abyssal virus stat array. But in the end it doesn't matter, many of these stats have an amount they won't actually go under by. It's a complete non-issue when thinking of a beneficial virus and it's why everyone just shoves all of the beneficial traits together. Negative Stage speed could have a malus that can make the virus go down in stage instead of up, negative resistances could make the virus just cure itself with basic medication, and you could increase the stealth stat of all positive viruses to make it more difficult to scan with the Pandemic. Suggestion 3: Remove the Starting Plasma Dust and Diphenhydramine Virology has access to. Virology at the moment has access to too much resources at round start, this would artificially increase the time it takes to make a beneficial virus aswell as cut into the stock of plasma the station has access to as a downside of creating a beneficial virus, it'd also force the virologist to interact with the rest of medbay by having to ask the chemist to make Diphenhydramine. This would be the easiest change by far but I see it as a much more temporary solution.

I've been playing on Paradise for a Month now, but I focused solely on medbay amassing 200 hours at this point. But there's been a glaring issue with medical Virology Is Way Too Quick to Finish Beneficial viruses are quite powerful when given out to the crew, constant supply of salub, occuline and mannitol in a person's body, nullifying any other random diseases and the well known damage conversion through toxic compensation and toxic filter. Now, the process for it can seem complicated to an outside view, but once you get it down this is a simple 7-10 minute task on average. There's a reason for this and we'll get to it. But for now we have a department who's entire 'goal' can be finished before most other departments are even done setting up. And due to the Antibodies-Metabolism trait even the entire 'finding a cure' to a random disease aspect of the virologist has been completed for you. The Virologist now has absolutely nothing to do. I Enjoy Virology I like the fantasy of it, I think diseases are an integral part of the game, and creating a beneficial virus should be a momentous occassion. Not something you churned out on a lunch break. I believe that if nothing is done with Virology it will be next on the chopping block, you rarely see virologists anymore in any round. The Problem Virology is slightly too strong in my opinion for the effort that's put into it. But if those effects were removed or nerfed (Such as Self-Respiration only removing need for oxygen instead of also supplying Salbu) there'd be even less of a reason to go into virology. I've made a list of suggestions that focus on increasing the time investment needed to make a perfect beneficial virus. Or to l Suggestion 1: More Traits The most intensive way to fix the issues would be adding more traits, at the moment the virus trait list is quite barebones. Which has an adverse effect of making the RNG of finding specific symptoms much more tilted in the players favor. While this may be a large fix as for this to work it'd need to double the current list, virology may very well be deserving of it. Suggestion 2: Make Virus stats matter more while increasing the negative stats for positive traits At the moment a full optimized beneficial virus will have an abyssal virus stat array. But in the end it doesn't matter, many of these stats have an amount they won't actually go under by. It's a complete non-issue when thinking of a beneficial virus and it's why everyone just shoves all of the beneficial traits together. Negative Stage speed could have a malus that can make the virus go down in stage instead of up, negative resistances could make the virus just cure itself with basic medication, and you could increase the stealth stat of all positive viruses to make it more difficult to scan with the Pandemic. Suggestion 3: Remove the Starting Plasma Dust and Diphenhydramine Virology has access to. Virology at the moment has access to too much resources at round start, this would artificially increase the time it takes to make a beneficial virus aswell as cut into the stock of plasma the station has access to as a downside of creating a beneficial virus, it'd also force the virologist to interact with the rest of medbay by having to ask the chemist to make Diphenhydramine. This would be the easiest change by far but I see it as a much more temporary solution.

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.

Ok so Iggy/Alpha-5/Jessie/Uliu was spitballing ideas in discord. The lawnmower idea, which Sjusk(Volqu-uu/Spacehead/Alexei shared, we all thought was awesome. Along with their Kudzu experiments. But then the idea of a Hobo role. Restricted to one person. They would spawn without shoes. Wearing clothes made of newspaper. Which protects against cold. But is flammable. Wearing shoes or taking off their 'uniform' brings great shame. They can make shelters out of cardboard. And only have maints access. Their ID when examined seems to stitched together from multiple other IDs. It has their name written on the front with some unidentifiable substance. Stamped with 'Cemtral Conmand'. They are the only civilian allowed in maints on red. When examined, they smell terrible. When being cuffed or attacked they spout lines such as 'I do NOT consent!', 'I know my rights!', 'I'm traveling, not driving!' 'I'm a human bean!', 'I'm not addicted to meth, unless you have some.' Eating mice heals them. And because of a bureaucratic error, they get pay. But it is a lot less than other crew. I don't know if it would actually work in practice. It is kind of a gimmick role. But we thought it was a fun idea. As a side note, I told Iggy that I was going to take full credit for everyone's ideas when I wrote this. But I didn't think anyone would believe that I came up with good ideas. So I credited them instead.

04/13/2025: @Baredolf1 Returned as Trial Admin.

The nuke was the friends we made along the way.

Now, there was newly acquired information given to me months ago that I should've posted here. It had to do with defending others in terms of location, like whether the incident occurred in an unrelated department. Before I inquired, this was the position I stated in the thread. So, after talking with a Head staff, they stated that trespassing does matter as well. There is leeway but the general rule of thumb is to not defend coworkers in another department if you witness them being attacked. So, here is the current state of my understanding on this topic. My Understanding I believe the contradictions and solutions discussed in my initial post(please read if new to thread) still hold true with this new info. Regarding contradictions, something new I noticed is that both provisions on reasonable force and trespassing are referenced in Space Law's self-defense description. However, I noticed the description also states, "beating someone while they're down should be considered Assault unless the defender's life was in danger.", which contradicts the Rules own statement on this topic, "hitting someone while they are already down, is not self-defense." It's just unfortunate that this situation is allowed to continue and sow confusion because Space Law seems to be the connection between all these unknown Rules limitations, but also seems to openly contradict the Rules. There's also always new discord conversations on what's allowed and new limitations constantly appear, statements such as that post against cuffing and also statements against going into maints. I've read some ban appeals and don't plan to again for my own sake, but I've read posts allowing chasing into maints to save others; maint doors aren't an invisible wall. On the other hand, I have read cuffing being noted as a compounding factor for a validhunting/self-antag ban, but blanket statements against cuffing irrespective of intent seems questionable. Irrespective of the validity of these constantly growing limitations, confusion from them will only continue unless the core issue is addressed and communicated properly. Regarding solutions, trespassing is now just another factor to address. I most prefer my initial proposal to follow a "face value" interpretation of the rules that mainly focuses on intent, irrespective of reasonable force and now trespassing. The ability to escalate to lethal force if responded to lethally when saving someone is still a major point of discussion if it's decided that provisions on reasonable force and disarming should be followed. The limitation against saving others in another department is also up for debate now, I personally believe there shouldn't.

Fresh out of yesterdays xeno round.

My three favourite screenshots to date (a bit old)

Hi, sorry for not responding earlier. Don't worry about posting out of place, in fact, this thread wants admin input. Anyways, I believe your opinion/suggestion aligns well with one of my suggestions in the "Proposed Solutions" section of my first post. A very important point you brought up is the potential lack of consensus among staff on this issue. Especially because I have seen recent discord conversations of staff members discussing this topic and asserting that their interpretation aligns with headmin rulings. In particular, I found this discussion; Some posts have been cut but this was the general thread of the conversation. This topic of admin inconsistency is extremely important because, as shown by the previous discussion, some staff are telling others that headmins and staff have a set policy on this issue. This stance, even addressed in the discord conversation, would still be an issue because the public still doesn't know it, which adds to the eggshell mentality you brought up. Like, I didn't even think about cuffing apparently being prohibited, these compounding interpretations will only continue to sow confusion, doubt, and frustration until the core issue is openly addressed. Now the end of this discord conversation implied that this issue would be addressed, but this was from February and the issue still seems to be there. Now, I want to say again, I understand why this topic of self-defense and Valid-Hunting got in this condition. But something I have realized is that, from playing other SS13 servers, this is a uniquely Paradise issue, there isn't any other server I know that connects Validhunting and self-defense to provisions in Space Law. I have noticed this reductive framing by staff, where they simplify their interpretations of defending others by saying, "you can defend others, you just can't kill or cave the attacker's head in". Which just hides the real RP and gameplay implications of being superficially restricted to disarming. It affects your round experience greatly, I remember being saved by someone doing everything they can to stop my attacker, hitting them with a fire extinguisher and all, that experience still sticks with me. So yeah, I believe we hold common ground on this issue. I may have a more bleak view of the topic.

my cat looks like a fuckin alien

03/30/2025: @farie82stepped down from Headcoder and @Warriorstarstepped up to replace them.

its me again, friends! k'oalde nreezinnj, that's pronounced... "cold n'reezin", like if you were 'cold and freezing'! my pa gave me that name... at least my adoptive one, i meant, i dont really know who my real parents were... other than them having been USSP soldiers or something... i couldnt know much about it of course, classified information and all... but anyway onto what i was saying, my pa named me that because when i was really young i would always be very cold and shivering, heh, it was cute, i would be dressed in all types of sweaters and big coats to try and warm me up, and its funny because tajaran are usually more resistant to cold enviroments, but not me! apparently i was born with some genetic deformity, causing my body to not be able to produce its own body heat, throughout the years i've been able to adapt to feeling cold all the time, but i do like it when i get all snuggly in my bed and blankets, hahah.. anyway! today's topic... productivity! and things alike so recently on my shifts onboard our beloved and great stations, ive noticed that a lot of them have been going through noticeable changes, redesigns in their blueprint, or maybe new models for our assets onboard, heck, sometimes ill take a week off, and return to a station i can barely recognise! but dont try and this as something bad, its something i very much appreciate! its nice to see our great corporation reinforcing the efforts to modernizing our equipment, stations, and even protocol! after all, being progressive is the only way to not stay behind! although of course, some employees may prefer the old designs to our new ones... but thats something as old as time itself, people not being able to move on from something they have gotten used to... to those people i tell you, it might take some time, but you'll be just fine with newer things! i know it can sometimes be a little overwhelming for so much to change so quick... but its because we are finally starting to focus on improving ourselves! that is something we should be happy about, yeah? and so ends today's blog post... have a secure day, everyone! ta!

I can't lie the idea of turning your mech into a trophy wall is very appealing

03/23/2025: @Anteci returned as Trial Admin.

I remember MANY years ago the Ripley mech used to be a powerful endgame tool for miners, but it has since fallen behind due to the speed and efficiency of newer equipment like the hoverboard, advanced plasma cutter, and bluespace bags. BRINGING THE RIPLEY BACK! To bring Ripley back into relevance, I propose a significant upgrade that would make it a desirable choice for miners once again. The new Ripley could feature a cooperative unlocking system between Science and Robotics, allowing them to develop a powerful new "Plasma Cutter" - three plasma cutters firing simultaneously (similar to how the drill works). This would give the Ripley the ability to mine more efficiently! I also believe another small boost to its movement and attack speed (cycle speed?) would keep it competitive against faster mining methods. Lastly, to help maintain a interest with advanced Lavaland players, you could even take it a step further by allowing them to showcase their Mega Fauna kills on the Mech (Drake armor changing its appearance and adding lava immunity). With these upgrades Ripley would become a key tool for miners, especially in clearing out Lavaland of all its ore, making it the ideal choice for large scale excavation.