Leaderboard

I've been on another jimmy buffet kick recently. Take this chill vox in these trying times

I just wanted to post this picture of the renown traitor L-15.KO showing off their skills..

Players at this moment in time, either do not seem to care about using SR willy nilly the moment they get an uncloneable corpse, or they are maliciously using it to gib people. Of my last 5 vox deaths, it has resulted in 5 gibbings by SR, resulting in a ruined round for the rest of the game, until the next one. Frankly, I'm quite tired of this happening. As a result, I am proposing one of two things to occur to prevent this from happening still. 1-Give Strange Reagent a hard warning, similar to that of SSD warnings. When a player attempts to adminster SR, make them acknowledge the risks and that the body has to be under 200 brute and burn total, in order for it to work. Toxin and O2 damage does not count towards that total. 2-Make all races cloneable. With 'newcrit' making bodies unrevivable in ~2 minutes now, unless a doctor is immediately jumping on that vox/slime body (sometimes plasmamen), that corpse is going to become unrevivable, and needs to cloned. This is fine for all races, except the vox and slimes, who suffer greatly from this mechanic as a result.

BoTW AU is AMAZING.

A drawing of my DnD character Auriel when he was a sad child. One round someone asked me on how Zeke got hired for NT Rep, and clearly it's because he looks great in the outfit... and low expectations help too. Trying to get into the LoZ BOTW mood again, so I decided to start up a new AU. So here's Zora!Zeke, Hylian!Jonah, and Fairy!Churchy

Jimmy Buffet? No cheese burger? but?! BUT!? THAT LOOKS LIKE PARADISE! (ba dum tish)

I am largely in favor of kidan. Yeah, that no glasses thing really hurts, I will admit, but i find the lore, aesthetics, and quirks to be worth it. If you want an extra challenge as an antag, kidan are also great. Their brute resistance is good for brawls, the lack of eyewear means outside a welding helmet or implant a flash will take you down, and, as I discovered the other day, being the only of your species on station makes disguising yourself interesting, to say the least. Slime people seem to he stronger with their slipping blood and regen, but I reckon kidan make for a fun challenge. Plus, love their lore. I'm a sucker for good/interesting lore

I strongly agree here. As it is, Code Blue for 'suspected threats' barely, if ever, gets any use. If officers find a husked corpse with a missing ID in a locker, the response isn't "Oh, maybe this is a murder victim, maybe just a freak accident, Code Blue while we investigate," instead the sensible thing is to conclude "this person was murdered and looted, probably by a changeling. Code Red." Frequently even if I, as the HoS, only get partial reports and feel the alert should only be set to 'Blue' while the detective and security finish investigating, frequently the rest of command will go over my head and swipe for Red regardless of whether the threat has been properly confirmed or not. I'm not sure about the 'genesis' of the Code Blue/Code Red system, but I recall on older code builds, Code Blue was activated automatically about 5-10 minutes into the round, along with a small CC report that IC'ly listed all of the possible EoC types--this was primarily a RP facilitator when ignorance about antag types was enforced, just so the Captain could eventually announce "Yes, these are traitors" or "Yes, these are changelings" rather than the entire server being forced to feign incredulity for the entirety of the round. Now that things tend to stick at Code Green rather than escalating automatically to Blue, I find Blue barely ever gets used for it's intended role. Even then, the window of time between Security getting enough evidence to 'suspect' a threat and then calling for red because the evidence inevitably leads to a confirmation is extremely slim, so Code Blue is really going to waste as it's currently implemented. The value judgement between Blue and Red should be a judgement that command makes between security abuse versus antag activity, something like this: The overall goal for Nanotrasen is to maximize the station's efficiency. EoC activity and capital crimes reduce efficiency, as they generally threaten the crew. However, giving Security too much power ALSO reduces efficiency, as officers will waste the crew's valuable time by accosting them for random searches and department sweeps, sometimes detain crew over false positives or misapplied charges, and too much security meddling distracts the other departments from doing their job. Therefore, I suggest Code Blue should be for situations where EoCs are confirmed, but the inconvenience posed by EoC activity is still lesser than the inconvenience that would be caused by letting Security off the leash. Code Red should be for when the EoC activity has escalated to a point where the EoCs pose greater inconvenience than allowing Security to go full shitsec, or for a crisis like blob or xenos. Proposed Code Blue Changes I'd argue that blue should be for cases where evidence is confirmed that EoCs or capital crimes are being committed and investigated, but security is still expected to adhere to SoP and Space Law. The SoP permissions for blue are generally fine for this, but a slight edit to the armoury permissions: armoury gear should only be authorized for specific, singular situations, and with the expectation that officers will immediately return any checked out armory gear once the specific situation is resolved. The only time a shotgun or lasergun should leave the armory is if the HoS can, specifically, describe who or what the shotgun or laser is going to be fired at, after which point the shotgun or lasergun must be returned to the armory if it's still Code Blue. Officers should not be allowed to passively patrol with lethals during Code Blue or Code Green. Use of lethal force on a crewmember during Code Blue should prompt an investigation by IAA, possibly resulting in the demotion of the officer if it was determined that nonlethal force would have been sufficient, or the demotion of the HoS if they authorized lethal force for a situation that could have been clearly resolved by nonlethal force--especially so if the misuse of lethal force results in a fatality. Note that EoCs who demonstrate clear immunity to nonlethal force are, by definition, not definable as a threat that can be resolved with nonlethal force. This last part sounds so obnoxiously obvious but I've had players argue that sec should just keep pointlessly using nonlethals on a traitor who's going crazy with anti-stun stimulants or 500u of meth in patches while sprinting around maint stabbing officers with an esword, so I'm typing it down for posterity's sake. From the perspective of a Security main, tightening up SOP here will be a net positive: At present, distributing any lethals during Code Blue generally means the officers greedily squirrel their weapons away until they either get killed or jump into cryo without returning the weapon, making it very difficult to get everyone armed when an actual Code Red crisis occurs later and it turns out all of the equipment lent out during Code Blue is now missing. Proposed Code Red Changes Code Red should not be an automatic response to discovering EoCs. Instead, it should be reserved for situations where the overall safety and integrity of the station are at stake: Things like massive bombing sprees, vampires on a killing spree, or any infiltration antag who got enough meth patches to be basically immune to stun weapons. These are threats where security has a reasonable chance of failing even if they devote their full attention to confronting the threat, and therefore need permission to treat everything else as periphery until the threat is dealt with. Shadowlings, major biohazard infestations, or vamps/lings/traitors who either murder aggressively or render vast areas of the station inaccessible by bombing, and conditionally cultists due to the risk of a major summoning or they're using teleportation runes to evade nonlethal capture. On change I'd like to see in Code Red SoP is that crew should be obliged to carry and present their ID cards to security upon request, and failure to do so may result in detainment as it qualifies for "suspicious behaviour." If the crewmember has a plausible excuse for not having their ID (basically, if it was stolen. "I lost my ID somewhere" is a dumb excuse and shouldn't be accepted at face value,) then security may escort said individual immediately to the HoP in order to receive a replacement. I haven't seen anyone dispute this when it gets brought up in-game, but for the sake of posterity I'll point out it's not actually written down anywhere in SoP when it probably should be. During Code Red, officers do receive access to lethal armory gear, but there should be stipulations about how to use lethal equipment during a Code Red situation. Obvious threats like xenos and nukies don't really need a lot of instructions, but there need to be some rules if Code Red is used for a more murky situation like an extremely robust hijack traitor During Code Red, officers may use lethal force in self-defence (particularly if there is an attempt made to steal an officer's weaponry), or to confront an individual guilty of a crime at Exceptional severity or higher (The only crimes at 'Exceptional' severity are Murder, Manslaughter, Grand Sabotage, and Grand Theft, so repeatedly looting the hand teleporter on Red Alert as a joke might not end well). Officers should always attempt to use nonlethal force when resolving crimes of Major severity, but a crewman guilty of a Major crime who evades nonlethal detainment must either surrender willingly or, if they are worried about confronting security, surrender themselves to a member of command, at which point they will be transferred into security's custody. If a crewman commits a major crime on Code Red, evades nonlethal detainment, and refuses to surrender to custody, security should be permitted to use lethal force. Note that certainty is important here: if an officer's poor judgement or hubris leads to lethal force being used on an innocent, the offending officer should be demoted and charged with either aggravated assault, manslaughter, or murder. Medium crimes should always warrant nonlethal force. Repeated, consecutive Medium crimes during a Code Red situation may result in prolonged, conditional detainment until the Code Red alert is cleared. Minor crimes during Code Red should be noted in the crewmember's record, but security should refrain from prosecuting minor crimes during Code Red until the alert level is reduced to Blue or Green. Certain minor crimes may have their severity escalated based on context, especially if the crimes directly impede the crew's attempts to confront whatever crisis warranted Code Red. (e.g. A doctor hoarding surgical equipment and hiding it away from the wards on Code Green counts as petty theft; doing this during a Shadowling crisis could be charged as a major crime, or even as aiding and abetting the Shadowling if the crewmember demonstrates enough pettiness. A clown slipping officers trying to confront a blob situation should be thrown in a cell until the blob is dealt with, etc.) The intention here is to drastically reduce the number of distractions that security is forced to deal with during a crisis situation. While adherence to SoP is important for curbing shitcurity during calmer moments, it's a liability when dealing with a crisis. So for instance if I as a non-antag, slip and kidnap a shotgun-toting officer on Code Red, then try to use methpatches to make myself flashbang immune as a non-antag, well... firstly, I'd expect to be straight up banned since that's basically self-antagging, but otherwise if the admins are busy then security should be able to treat self-antagging players on Code Red as if the offending party were actual antags. Again, the intent here is that Code Red should be reserved only for exceptionally dangerous situations when security needs to work without distractions to deal with a primary threat. Code Red should not be the immediate go-to button for when any EoCs are identified at all, but only for situations where Security is at risk of losing control of the station. Wrapping Up Currently, the only appreciable difference between Code Blue and Code Red SoP is that Code Red permits officers to detain without warning (and even then, only when evidence connects the detainee to a crime), and officers can forcefully escort crew back to their departments (I have never seen this enforced without causing major griping about shitcurity from the crew). The HoS can technically authorize lethals on blue (generally there needs to be a good reason for it, but the same judgement applies when requesting Code Red). I argue that making the alert levels more varied gives Command more precision in controlling what Security is allowed to bring to bear.

Right now, as someone who really latched onto Xenobio for one of my "Get to know the game" areas back when...I quickly found out why people either get super bored and don't do it....or why they do it and cause hell with escaped sentients that cause trouble, or otherwise create hostiles that are an issue....It gets super boring, and once you get Red/Dark Blue/Yellow....your obligation to the station is pretty much done, unless golds are needed for DNA vault. (Personally I don't get bored, but it does get slow and meandering because I refuse to become one of those people who make a mess and issues.) Anyway! Onto the idea! Using either a randomly picked gateway, or even a lavaland alternative, lets get some slime rancher in here! Xenobio would only start with a couple slimes, and instead of growing them, waiting for splits and colors...once fed enough, they produce a crystal...This crystal can be fed to other colors to make new colors...though at higher areas, the danger of creating a monsterous slime that cannot be used and require extermination. Cores would still be a thing, and used as they are now, but the crystals would be the paths for getting certain colors, and also a way for Science to make more money for the station in a way, or simply used themselves as a sort of new decorative construction component. Shiny crystal chairs, walls, ect. Could also cross into botany in that some slimes might not want to eat monkies/people (at first) but plant-matter (Beware Dionas!) Coding Difficulty: I don't code, but suspect it'd be quite hard Scope: Could be pretty large, thinking on it. Balancing: Tricky, figuring out the "Mutation" chance for coloring slimes, and if they'd become a monster, or some rarer form of color (Imagine Rainbows being very rare, needing a very quick feeding of many other colors in an order, else monster!) Was just...a random idea/suggest popped into my head after playing the game the idea is based on, and also so many people saying Xenobio is boring.

Due to the general lockdown, I had some time to spend alone at the band garage. Thought then to record one for you, fellow spaceman friendlies! This time, a cover shot of "We will be strong", by Thin Lizzy, year 1980 at album "Chinatown". As it says, keep up the spirit, and toolboxing, out there. I dig various kinds of music, yet Thin Lizzy has always been the personal favourite. Rough sounds, rough lyrics, that kind of stuff I mind to sing too. This arrangement and all sounds played by me.

Be me, IPC warden. Processing a Sleeping Carp user for perma alone because no one would listen to my repeated calls for an assistant officer. Shove him in isolation for the the time being. Stun, uncuff, stun again... He gets right back up almost instantly and punches my limbs off to death Sit in robotics for 15 minutes getting revived, find out prisoner was executed for murder, go cryo because the lack of assistance made me grumpy.