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Here's a commission for our resident Russian Space Lizard, @CheekyCrenando, as a medic from the USSP. Filthy Space Russians... Hm...I guess this one is okay.

In theory: The IAA or HR is suppose to be an impartial watch-dog for the station that has the ability to investigate and report on matters of SOP, Space Law, and other affairs as they go on the station that wouldn't otherwise fall under Security. This office is suppose to be the one-stop area where you take all your complaints, claims, and considerations for it to be compiled into a detailed report and given to the applicable head or CC itself. In practice: The IAA or HR is free access for any would-be antag who wants to get into security without much of a fuss. More often then not, it's easy to find an IAA or HR because if you manage to catch them before the SSD from boredom, they're usually anywhere other then the brig area doing their best impression of greytide. If you actually have a complaint you're more then likely to take it to your relevant head and if they're not listening you go and bug the Captain or NT-Rep maybe. IAA are usually cannon fodder for all intents and purposes and serve little to no purpose when the vast majority of issues can be handled on a local level that otherwise excludes them entirely. Most of these players who jump into this role are absolutely new and wanted to be a "lawyer" or a psudo-sec member at least (since I have already proven that new people love to flock to Security regardless of if it's a good idea). How do we address the issue? First and foremost, this is something that the community is going to have to chip in with as well. Currently, if someone threatens to speak with IA/HR it's a statement that will likely get you laughed. IA/HR derive all of their power from two sources: Heads and CC. The issue with the heads is that they are not obligated to listen to IA in anyway. This is both a good and bad thing, but it does ultimately mean that IA/HR doesn't have a lot of "teeth" to it. On top of that, most people will likely just complain about something or someone to their respective head or to the captain rather then bringing it to IA in the first place. This is because it's usually a lot faster and easier then actually going to IA which, more then likely, won't get anything done anyway. The issue with CC is that if the heads aren't listening then you have to pray that the almighty fax manages to not only reach CC but that someone has the time and want to read your report. In my experience, very few of either IA/HR/or even NTRep reports actually get enacted upon, despite the severity of their content. This can be for a variety of reasons but it's literally the highest degree that IA can report something to and if that doesn't work- then you're literally just out of luck. One way to assist this matter might be to simply change the direction that IA/HR is pointed. Rather then be a departmental faction that has no teeth and no one cares about, give them more of a role as attorneys. This change would prompt IA to take a better interest in focusing on appeals, proper prosecutions, and ensuring that players are being dealt with in a timely manner. This would also allow the rarely used and rarely tested trial system to be a bit more useful as players can more willfully sue or appeal before the magistrate on their cases provided their time in jail is sufficient (over 30 minutes would be worthy of an appeal and investigation in some cases).

https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Internal_Affairs The IAA's job includes: Conduct investigations and write reports Ensure SOP is followed Ensure Space Law is upheld This means: For them to be able to conduct an investigation, either they have to witness a problem, or someone has to come to them with a complaint For them to ensure SOP is followed, they have to work with the department heads, who in practice have more authority and knowledge than they do, which makes them largely redundant For them to ensure Space Law is upheld, they need to work with Security. Problems: Few people bring complaints to the IAA, for various reasons. The IAA rarely work with the heads of department. If there's a problem and the head is willing/able to fix it, no reason for the IAA to be involved. If they're willing but not able, IAA involvement is pointless. If they're able but not willing, that's when the NT Rep gets involved. The IAA usually don't work with Security effectively. For example, they usually don't check on processing enough to notice when someone is in there longer than they should be. The IAA is generally considered a joke role. I've lost count of the number of butt faxes I've got from IAAs who don't take their role with even an ounce of seriousness. Solutions: IAAs need to take the job more seriously. This really is the fundamental requirement. If they won't take the job seriously, nobody else will take them seriously either. This means I shouldn't be seeing cases of IAAs buttfaxing centcom as much as I do. Every time you buttfax CentCom as the IAA, you make even admins less willing to take IAAs seriously. IAAs need to remind heads that they exist, and are available to help with investigations. For example, they could adopt a policy of faxing a short note to every head, or sending them it via PDA, at the start of each shift. Simply to remind the heads that they exist, and they're here to serve, by assisting the heads with investigating potential violations of SOP and/or Space Law. For example, the head can contact them to ask about the status of members of their department who have been convicted of crimes. The head can contact them to ask for help in investigating members of their department for doing stupid things. Etc. IAAs need to actively put in the time to monitor Security. This means paying special attention to them in the hallways and reminding them not to run around with tasers out. This means paying attention to brig timer notices and double-checking that the time given matches space law. This means checking on processing often and making sure nobody sits there forever. And so forth. Above all else, IAAs need to ensure they aren't sending pointless faxes to CentCom. CentCom doesn't give a flying hoot if a single officer hits a prisoner with a baton once. That is NOT CentCom worthy. That's the sort of thing the HoS is expected to sort out themselves, assuming it wasn't an accidental misclick. Just about the only time the IAA should be sending faxes to CentCom is if there's a serious problem with the Captain, Magistrate, Blueshield, HoS, or similar high-ranked position. If we want to actually change the game to make the IAA's job easier: Add a timer in processing which generates an alert over sec radio when someone is held in there with no charges for more than 10 minutes. Improve the documentation available to IAAs, to make writing GOOD faxes easier, and to discourage bad faxes. Make it easier for heads to work with IAAs. For example, create a 'private radio kit' which has 5 radio keys all set to the same, random frequency. Have the IAAs start with this kit. The IAAs could then hand out these keys to heads or other informants who want to work with them, giving the IAA eyes and ears throughout the station and a much better chance of detecting problems they can then investigate. Another example would be making it easier for IAAs to be granted access to departments. Usually when I see IAAs in a department now, its because the Captain or HoP gave them the access without even asking the head... which tends to annoy the head and make their co-operation much less likely. Heck, just move their office right next to prisoner processing (separated by shutters) so they can always see who is being processed. Make their boss the NT Rep, rather than the magistrate. The NT Rep can manage them and advocate for them better than the Magistrate can, anyway. Create a new crime "obstructing an investigation", which can be applied to people who completely ignore the IAA while they're trying to ask them about the subject of an investigation. Allow IAAs access to records that allow them to check that SOP is being upheld. E.g. HoP's records of job transfers, Coroners records of who is in morgue trays, Science's records of R&D levels, Cargo's records of what is being ordered, etc. Basically make them record central - bring the information to them.

A lot of these sound more like event ideas than Halloween themed content. That being said, here are some of my ideas. Trick Or Treat Bags: Random loot that can be found in maintenance at round start, or made from wrapping paper. The random spawned ones will contain either a variety of candy items, a costume, or (Very Rarely) potentially magical items like spell books, Lavaland loot, or DNA injectors with a random power. Zombie Gamemode: If the zombie virus is fixed, then there's the potential for a game mode where one or a few random people are infected with the zombie virus and given a short amount of time before they die. After the virus revives them, they get the goal of infecting a portion of the living crew, while the crew has the goal of either killing all the zombies, or surviving till the shuttle call. Since this would be considered a biohazard (Perhaps a Level 4 if given an announcement) the crew will be encouraged not to do an early shuttle call. More Pumpkin Food: Pumpkins can only be used for two foods. Either the Pumpkin Spice Latte or Pumpkin Pie. However, there're a lot of other potential foods pumpkins can be used for. Make a bowl of Pumpkin seeds by baking a pumpkin with salt. Pumpkin bread by baking a pumpkin with dough and an egg. Pumpkin cookies by baking unbaked cookies with a pumpkin. The Spirit Board: I've seen it only a few times as an admin spawn, but it'd be fun if Spirit Board could be made obtainable. It is essentially an ouija board that ghosts can use to spell out words to people.

Tator fakes stumbling in the arcade and dropping a pizza box. "Hahaha, that's obviously a pizza bomb" I open the pizza. It's a pizza bomb.

Well maybe some hosses and wardens should be fired by cc for ignoring legal sop as an examole? This may give iaas more power in other peoples eyes. Actually, if you play the role as intended, you will find people who are willing to talk to you and help with investigations. Problem as always with low effort players, newbies and glorified greytiders. I am not sure if it can be fixed at all. I totally support the idea of records access though, if you are investigating comdom hop, its quiet hard to get their records from them. And access to records would give no power to people who just abuse the access and tools iaa has. Absolute win. Nt rep doesnt really need to be boss of iaas, they can and do work in tandem easily without it. As well as with magistrate. Thy dont really need "boss"

Got to love cargo