Leaderboard

Basic issue: Security is often understaffed, severely enough that it's a major topic of concern. The statistics are pretty clear: most people just don't find Security a fun enough job to play. General causes: A. Overpopulation: The server routinely hits over 120 players, with the map and game balanced for closer to ~50 player size. The population issue leads to moments like this, where the station's regular jobs are rapidly filled, and anyone hoping to join is left to either ghost, go as an assistant, or salt about it on Reddit. Perhaps more pertinent, though, it also leads to a ridiculously large Assistant playercount with little productive work to do (i.e. greytiding galore), and: B. Excessive antagonist numbers: Most game modes assign antags based on the total number of players, not the total number of Security players. Combined with the overpopulation problem, this can lead to a fairly ridiculous Sec-antag imbalance once the server reaches 80+ players as it commonly does. I've often seen hilarious imbalances where antagonists like changelings, vampires, or shadowlings (who are designed to reliably win or tie a 1v1 confrontations) outnumbering Sec members at roundstart. Furthermore: C. General overwork: Between prisoner processing, greytiders, responding to crew calls for "SEC DORMS" and the like, or simple Public Relations requirements (manning the front desk, responding to accusations of Sec misbehavior, etc), there are far too many tasks for the average Sec Officer to handle at once. D. Being "valid:" Regular Security Officers are seen as valid targets for antagonists, which means that they're frequently attacked, killed, and taken out of the round (husked, spaced, decapitated, etc.). This is obviously fairly un-fun for the officer getting valid-ed in this fashion, which contributes to the Sec staffing issue. The two most common reasons for this include reducing Sec numbers, and taking their gear. E. Escalation and capability gaps: Security Officers rarely "level up" throughout a round, despite there being plenty of legal methods for doing so. Few of them get implant/augment surgery, for instance, and the average officer rarely gets even basic equipment like holsters. Much of this is due to the aforementioned overwork, as there's always something else requiring their attention. However, much of this is also due to: F. Difficulty communicating and cooperating: There's a significant lack of cooperation between different departments, and mechanically, there are few methods of encouraging that cooperation short of "Heads of Staff chatting on private Command comms." Scientists, Botanists, Engineers, and Cargo techs all lack access to Security comms and areas, and vice versa, resulting in different departments generally heading off to do their own thing (Cargonia, Engistan-Atmosia, Medistan, Scientopia, etc.). G. A difficult learning curve: There's no "learner's course" for Security, and no way for a newbie to easily mark themselves as one without drawing trouble down on their own head. This is a problem in other jobs, of course, but the high requirements placed on Sec makes this much more notable, and more of a barrier to entry for prospective members. Conclusion: There are some long-standing problems like the issue of Security Officers being whacked for their loot or the learning curve for the job, but the more recent issue is simply the overwhelming playerbase size and the attendant issues which go along with it. Goals: Overall: Mechanically encourage more-positive player interactions involving Security by lowering the demand on individual players, allowing for more-casual participation, and reducing the negative consequences involved with the role. Tl;dr make Security more fun to play. A. Balance the Sec-antag numbers so that Security isn't completely overwhelmed by the threat of the day. B. Add in specialized Sec roles to help with the overwork (and also let people play those specific elements of Sec without getting swept up in the general antagonist-hunt). C. Try to keep Sec players from being taken out of the game quite as easily. D. Give new players more ways to "stretch their legs" by either indicating they're a newbie, or by playing a Security role which is less-intense than the 'frontline' ones. Game-mechanics changes: A. The "AutoTraitor" approach: Currently, the AutoTraitor gamemode balances antagonists with Security Officers, the legitimate antag-hunters. New traitors are generated either from existing players or from new arrivals depending on the number of Sec players in the round, to keep from overwhelming them. I'd like to see this mechanic extended to other antags (changelings, vampires, and shadowlings in particular) to keep Security from being overwhelmed from the get-go. B. Job auto-availability: As it stands, the only way for new jobs to appear in-game is via someone with ID Modification access (i.e. the Captain or HoP) mechanically adding new job slots, or by demoting existing players. The job-slot mechanic is intentionally slowed to a rate of one modification per minute, to prevent ridiculous imbalances, but this leads to the situation above where there simply are no jobs available whatsoever. In order to head off some of the issue of "too little work" and the attendant strain on Sec, I'd like to see the following jobs automatically increase: -Every ten new players above 50 (i.e. 60, 70, 80, etc.), one new job slot for each of the following: Station Engineer, Security Officer, Scientist, Medical Doctor, Constable (see below) -Every twenty new players above 60 (i.e. 80, 100, 120), one new job slot for: Botanist, Atmos Tech, Roboticist, Shaft Miner, Cargo Technician, Janitor, Forensics Technician (i.e. Detective, but starts with a Forensics Scanner) -Every thirty new players above 60 (i.e. 90, 120), one new job slot for: Chef, Dispatcher (see below) New jobs: 1. Constable: A lower-intensity Security role with the duty of handling the non-antag-focused portion of Security. Expected to spend a lot of time around the Bar corralling drunks and greytiders. 2. Dispatcher: A lower-intensity Security role with the duty of watching station cameras and getting officers to where they need to be. Also positioned to assist with processing and prisoners as needed. 3. Armorer: A Science role, but starts with a mindshield and access to Sec comms. Expected to help gear up the Sec team over the course of a shift. Notes: The Constable is a role for either newbies (unlocks sooner, fewer responsibilities) or someone looking to play the non-violent side of Sec (fewer responsibilities). Although you can still play the role as a regular officer if you want, it's meant to let you play as the CSO/SRO archetype without forcing you into the "Sec vs. antag" shenanigans which happen most shifts. Much like the 'Global Antag Candidacy' button we have now, if you want to play Sec without having to 1v1 a vampire in Maint, go play a Constable and smoke a fat blunt with the Botanists before telling greytiders to 'just chill, man.' By contrast, the Armorer is meant to let Sec 'scale' up as the shift goes on, by providing a mindshielded Scientist who can be trusted with Sec comms from roundstart. This is meant to keep Sec Officers from being as horribly outgunned by the usual AEG/teleshield/meth-using Science traitors who could otherwise kill the shit out of them with little effort. The job is meant for the mad-scientist sort of player: you're downright expected to make cool toys, deliver cool augments to the BrigPhys to keep 'em from getting bored, and are trusted enough by Sec that they'll actually let you put cool chem implants in their teeth. The Dispatcher is a role for helping minimize the amount of chaos inherent with Sec: their job is to watch cameras religiously, update records, and to get officers to where they're supposed to be. Although the Warden can help with this, ultimately the Warden has too many plates to juggle at once: processing prisoners, distributing gear, checking in with perma'd prisoners, etc etc etc. The Dispatcher is effectively a second (or third, or fourth) Warden who'll be watching dem cameras, updating dem records, and generally keeping the (un-fun) chaos to a dull roar rather than a full crescendo. Tweaks to existing jobs: As before, these additions are primarily meant to scale the Sec team up with the total playercount per game. One Detective is definitely enough for a 40-person game, but when there's a good 115 players running around, suddenly they're a little overwhelmed. These tweaks are meant to minimize the general chaos going on; they won't prevent people from being dipshits, but they'll minimize the effect of the 'bad apple' sort of rank-and-file Sec players by increasing the numbers to compensate. New antag role: Notes: The goal here is to provide a decent number of low-level antagonists who're causing minor, but measurable, amounts of trouble. This is meant to provide license to perform a little griefing, but less 'Maint murderboning' and more 'steal someone's ID to drain their bank account' and the like. This could be expanded with basic gear that could be purchased with in-game cash (insulated gloves, etc.) to provide an incentive for more low-level crime. While that might seem a bit counterproductive, I think Security would be more enjoyable if their targets weren't always well-powered antagonists and were sometimes just mundane opponents like a greytider mugging someone for cash. Gear changes: Note: The goals here are to make Officers less likely to be attacked in the first place, and more likely to come home alive. With a camera active on them 24/7 and Dispatchers watching those cams, it's harder to just whisk away an Officer for a quick murder. On the flipside, between their HUDs being read-only and their headsets being a dangerous item to carry around, looting them for gear becomes a much less attractive plan. Should an Officer pursue an antag 1v1 into the middle of Maint, then they're still liable to get cryostung/glared/etc. and taken down quickly, of course, but it'll increase the odds of their body being recovered and the player not getting ejected from the game. Quality-of-life changes: A. The "Security Cadet" name: Much like an Engineer can call themselves an "Electrician," I'd like Sec Officers to be able to name themselves "Security Cadets" or the like. This would let a newbie announce themselves as one in a mechanically-simple fashion, without any changes in the gear or access they receive in the process. (I'd also love to see that for other jobs, but Sec has perhaps the worst learning curve, so I figure that'd be the best place to start) B. An "Inspect" arrest status: The current standard arrest statuses are *Arrest*, Incarcerated, Paroled, or Released. This is all well and good for antag-hunting, but when dealing with Code Green-level issues like "Grey McTide might have made a stunprod, please check his pack," there's no way to mark someone for arrest without also sic'ing the bots on them. I'd like to bring someone in quietly like SOP demands, but if they go by Beepsky or an ED-209 with an *Arrest* status active, they're heading to the Brig in cuffs whether I want it or not. A yellow "Inspect" status would mean "arrest this person, but do it nicely," and work in conjunction with the standard one. Conclusion: This is a lot to read through, and I apologize for the length. At the same time, I think that the lack of Security players is due in large part to the job simply being unenjoyable, and I'd like to see the job made more fun rather than just focusing on the antag greentext rate. If you'd like to add to this* or suggest a rework, please keep that in mind. I'd like to see some means of rewarding success on Sec's part aside from just redtext (some way of rating how safe they kept the station...?), for instance, so if anyone's got an idea of how to implement that, I'm all ears. *Slith-Skaar had suggested a rework of the X-Ray gene and implant to make it less ridiculously effective, for instance. This'd let antags get away more easily from Sec and in turn make the Detective's and Dispatchers' jobs more valuable in catching them, which I think is all-around a good idea.

Here's a bunny and a Lynx Here's a fun Star Wars AU with Zeke, Jonah, and Slade

I'll take reasons Security shouldn't be 100% garunteed to never have antags in their department for 200 Alex.

Its not clear to me how you require a transfer, and not have security become even worse of a job. We have a moderately capable security staff, that at least if the crew is hostile, it needs a good reason. If it were actually possible for security to be antags, shitcurity would be replaced and every arrest would be suspect. So many of our game modes now revolve around the security/antag dynamic its not clear this would not cause a significant unbalancing and make security an even less attractive job.

He can say that all she likes, but we know the truth.

I was told by a lot of people that sec was also EXTREMELY vetted ICly so that’s also another reason.

Hello there! I almost never post or browse around here because of this old laptop I have to use since my good PC broke down. So opening any browser here is kinda difficult. Also being robust is hard for me, but still, I try. Anyways, good day everybody! So, I play Argyro Lakkotrypis most of the time, but I also have other characters, such as Syzygy, Zarko Lakkotrypis (rarely use this one, but they are Argyro's brother) and Eawyn Hammer (yup, she's me, too). I pretend on writing a backstory for Argyro, I got her story on my head, but long story short, she's supposed to be this dark past character, with smuggling and piracy and crimes on one of her's work, nothing too much new. I'm always helping people and am considering applying for mentor in the future! Not coming online so much because of my new job, also I got a banned for, well, making a silly mistake; although It wasn't proposital, I still gotta pay for my actions. Oh well, everybody do make mistakes, and I sure do learn from them. But yeah, I mostly play as Blueshield and Security, but sometimes I go Scientist, or HoS, or Captain, or HoP; though I master Robotics. Argyro's the character I deeply developed, and like I said, I plan on posting some history of her around the forums here, probably gonna try to gather some art for her, too. So, Paradise is the server I play the most on SS13, and since I have this forementioned ban on my account, I haven't joined any other server since. Anyway, I think that's all for now. Thanks everybody for their time reading this! Glory to Nanotrasen, and let's all have a wonderful shift!

I wanted to make myself a new background.

- Clowns. Their entire existence annoys me. ~Slipping crew and stealing stuff from them, causing shit for no reason, constantly coming back to the Captain or HoP to ask for all access. ~Committing actual crimes, then trying to incite riots when they get brigged. (Looking at you, "kidnap-prankers") ~Breaking into places for tools or chemicals that they shouldn't have neither should they know how to make or use as a clown. ~Getting acid bananas or lube for any reason when they are not a traitor. Stop it. Get some help you sadist. - Botanists. ~Ignoring the chef, making no food items and instead mass producing weed or death nettles. ~Finding out there's shadowlings and producing leaves that light half the station or glowshrooms that they place everywhere. Kinda ruins the round for the slings. ~Acid bananas. - People who commit crimes when they are not an antag. ~Not including the general assault on a shitler, more focusing on the people who break into places for stupid reasons. ~Breaking into Security for the sole purpose of wandering around and letting people out. ~Breaking people out of their cells. ~Breaking into Security when not an antag. ~Breaking into Genetics for a monkey or for powers. ~Crying or killing themselves when they get caught and put in a prison cell. ~Being forced to treat the prisoners who keep breaking out of cuffs and killing themselves as Brig Physician because it's part of my job. ~Those who incite riots because they were brigged for completely valid reasons. ~Screaming at Security for ruining their fun even though they're just doing their jobs and their "fun" was breaking space law. - People who neglect their job duty to do other stuff. ~Doing telescience when not part of the Science department, then proceed to steal high security items and kidnap people using it. ~Refusing to make food as the Chef, instead using the position to just make blood soap and smear it across the station when not part of a blood cult. ~People who throw all job integrity out the window to let their friends or "kin" into high security areas just because they are the same species or their characters have an in game relationship. (Slimes, Vox, Humans, Vulps. Usually the Captain with their Civilian buddies.) ~Giving anyone access for any reason that isn't giving them an actual job which requires it. (Bridge Assistants, Waitresses, Lab Rats.) ~Command staff who get assistants when not needed, just so they can make the assistant do their job and neglect their duties. (Usually the HoP.) - Madilynn Drago ~Not that I wanted to name and shame, but Jesus is she annoying. ~"Tawks wike this aww the time" ~Madilynn Drago does a cry. ~Madilynn Drago cries. ~"Why you take Madi's ducky?" When being searched. ~"I did nothing!" When being arrested for breaking into the Captain's office to steal the fucking duck which can be found in the dorms bathroom. ~Breaks into Genetics to get the small gene, or becomes a Geneticist purely to find the small gene, then goes off to greytide all shift. ~Runs into the HoP office under the desk with the small gene, then screams when she's batonned and/or arrested. ~Cat ears. ~Madilynn Drago does a cry. - People who break into the Gateway at the very start of the shift rather than rush to the HoP office to get one of the (usual) three explorer jobs. ~Causes unnecessary Detective work and also wastes Security's time while they search for the idiot. ~Usually ends up electrifying the door so those who try to get in legitimately get shocked when they try to enter. ~Can easily get access but decides to break in anyway because they can't be bothered to actually interact with another player. - Expanding on the last point: People who break into the Gateway while it's bolted and depowered. ~Usually, this is during a Quarantine or Red Alert, which both state that Gateway Excursions are not allowed. ~This also, usually, results in calls for the AI to be destroyed for being a "Useless piece of junk" for following Standard Operating Procedures and/or their lawset. ~Also causes unnecessary Security/Detective work during a situation which requires them to focus on other issues, such as whatever is causing the Quarantine/Red Alert. ~Why the hell would you break into a bolted and depowered Gateway after being told there's Terror Spiders on the other side? /end salt