Deanthelis

You guys completely missed the joke. Good job.

Fax Machine Operation Standard Operating Procedure Transmission of a message utilizing the Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine implies that the individual(s) transmitting the message (hereafter referred to as the 'User(s)') agrees to follow the Fax Machine Operation Standard Operating Procedure and consents to the punishments, restrictions, limitations, bans, or other consequences, negative or otherwise, listed herein or within any official response by Nanotrasen Central Command to the aforementioned User(s) or those empowered by an official response to carry out the will of Nanotrasen Central Command at that time. A 'Message' is any information, be it visual, text, auditory, olfactory, telepathic, trinary, encrypted, unencrypted, in a quantum state, or any other form, so long as it is possible for information to be passed from the User(s) to Nanotrasen Central Command, that is delivered to Nanotrasen Central Command by a Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine. User(s) will verify their identity in any outgoing message to Nanotrasen Central Command by providing the following information and adhering to the following steps. Nanotrasen Central Command may terminate, demote, ignore, deny, or penalize User(s) who fail to properly verify their identity in this manner. Written messages must be addressed appropriately; an appropriate address includes, at the minimum, a header containing the vessel, outpost, station, or facility of the message's origin and the intended destination of the message; Written messages must include the current date in an appropriate format, i.e. DD-MMM-YYYY, and time relative to the location of the User(s), i.e. HH-MM-SS-MS. If possible, the User(s) should include the reference frame of the vessel, outpost, station, or facility of the message's origin, to assist in location triangulation in case Nanotrasen Central Command deems intervention or assistance necessary. Written messages must include the full name and account ID of the User(s). Attaching a photo showing the User(s) and their surroundings is not required, but is highly recommended to prove that the User(s) is/are not under duress. Written messages must be stamped in triplicate with a stamp representing authority at or above the workstation the Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine is located in. If a message is at all related to a Nanotrasen Standard Issue Clown, the Clown stamp is required in triplicate in addition to any other authorization stamps. Similarly, any written message transmitted to Nanotrasen Central Command by a Nanotrasen Standard Issue Clown, even tangentially or via another individual, must be entirely composed of yellow or rainbow crayon. See Nanotrasen Workplace Morale Association Document #2282-33-45-A for additional information. Written messages must be signed by the User(s) in at least two places, one of which must be at the end of the message, followed by the Nanotrasen logo. Failure to include the logo represents a direct compromise of security and may result in termination of the User(s)' contract. If the User is a member of the Nanotrasen BureauClone Program, they must provide their Clone Identification Number in addition to part 2.3. Failure to provide this information will result in termination on grounds of programming malfunction. Messages must be clear in their intent and provide reasoning within the message justifying the cost of transmitting the message. Messages must be free of spelling and grammar errors, and may only be transmitted in a language other than Galactic Common if it utilizes another language as part of a form of encryption, and this encryption may only be used if the User(s) have tangible evidence of a malevolent entity or entities capable of spying on the messages in transit. Messages may not, under any circumstances, be written in blue ink. Red ink should be used in place of black ink during a nuclear emergency only. In all other circumstances, ink used in a written message must be black; crayons do not use ink and are not subject to these restrictions, but may only be used in yellow or rainbow, and only by or on behalf of a Nanotrasen Standard Issue Clown; see part 2.4. Messages may not, under any circumstances, include a photo of a posterior or synthetic QR code. The Automatic Interstellar Disintegration System (AIDS) will attempt to terminate the User(s) with Bluespace Artillery rounds should this occur, and the cost of repair and sanitization of the workstation containing the Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine used to transmit such a photo will be taken from the User(s)' credit account and Nanotrasen Life Insurance policy. Similarly, such a photo automatically voids the User(s)' Life Assurance Policy, and an individual reviving the User(s) may be subject to termination. Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machines may not, under any circumstances, be used to send trivial or unimportant messages to Nanotrasen Central Command. Failure to adhere to this protocol three times may result in termination. The appropriate procedure for transmitting a message via a Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine is as follows: Compose the message. Ensure the message meets all of the above protocols and regulations, as well as any additional protocols, rules, procedures, regulations, instructions, orders, or other authoritative commands specific to the User(s)' occupational responsibilities or tasks, species, or special circumstances. Repeat part 8.2. Attach any supporting documents, photos, transcripts, etc. in the order they are referenced in the message (if any). Place the message in the Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine, footer first, with the content of the document facing the front of the Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine. Insert the Identification Card (ID) with the highest authorization level among the User(s) authorizing the message in the Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine, in the appropriate slot. The slot is keyed; do not attempt to force an ID into the slot in the incorrect orientation, as this may damage the ID, the Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine, or the User(s). Press the 'Log In' button with one to three fingers. If the User(s) do(es) not possess fingers, a substitute may suffice so long as it will not damage the Nanotrasen Standard Issue Fax Machine. Ensure the connection to Nanotrasen Central Command is established. If a message has been recently transmitted, this may take several minutes. Submit the message. Once a message has been sent, a photocopy of the message in its entirety is to be created (if possible; avoid attempting to photocopy olfactory or telepathic messages) and stored in a secure location, preferably a Nanotrasen Standard Issue File Cabinet or Nanotrasen Standard Issue Secure Briefcase. Nanotrasen Central Command is not obligated to respond to any given Message. Do not send a duplicate message more than once every 30 minutes relative to the User(s)' location, to avoid scrambling by spatial distortion.

Making stealth antag items (let's face it, it's just Traitor items - no other faction has stealth anything) actually sneaky is a good idea. Making it so only R&D or - here's a novel idea, the DETECTIVE - able to identify the item as a Syndicate one is a great way to get more cooperation going (and for people to listen to the Detective already goddamnit). It's already a rule that Security can't arrest on suspicion alone, evidence or witness testimony is required; however, much like the Security SoP that's been around forever that clearly states that an arresting officer has to announce who they are arresting prior to making the arrest, giving them the chance to cooperate, it's often completely ignored. If the average officer is physically incapable of confirming that a pen or a mask is a Syndicate item just by looking at it, they have less reasonable cause to demand that a crewmember hand such a thing over outside Red. However, what I see this leading to is, instead of valid-obsessed officers tazing and cuffing people with pens in their ears, examining the pen, and declaring them a traitor, they'll instead taze and cuff people, take the offending pen and the cuffed person to R&D or the Detective, and declare them a traitor. Only this way, if the guy's innocent, the officer's wasted 5-15 minutes of time, not just two. You can't force people not to know things. It doesn't work. Even with the Deathsquad, when Epsilon's announced, people mysteriously start grabbing all the weapons and bombs they can and running to places of safety - even though absolutely no one, ERT or Captain or regular Assistant, should be aware of what it means. Trying to do this with something as large and frequent as antags is, plainly, impossible, and the idea of it, in my less than humble opinion, idiotic at the worst, and blatantly ignorant at best.

This puts more workload on active admins, since inevitably antags are going to whine and complain that they got caught regardless of how ICly the sec officer who nabbed them or whatever obtained the knowledge of the macguffin they got caught for, which means a lot of talking to players on the admin's part. As much as I'd like a perfect world where people weren't shitlers, no thanks. I'd rather deal with omniscient security than never-available admins (though this is probably because I play Paperwork Peon and am biased by fax response speeds). EDIT: I mean, fuck, I see at least one person a day screaming in the common channel about the Deathsquad. We can't get people to not know about ONE THING, let alone all the tater shit.

Testing locally, the Tesla engine can be set up by one person (who knows what they're doing, anyway) in about 10 minutes, 15 if you have to do a lot of extra wiring. If you account for the average american latency of 0.2s (worst case scenario, a 20% increase), and maybe +50% time to account for general incompetence, that's still under a half hour, which is hardly a whole round on any round that's meant to last a while. The only way I see this backfiring at all is in Meteor rounds, since it'd be a good deal harder to set the engine up, but that's already basically impossible to do, so I don't think it matters. I will probably find a means of making the Tesla quieter, but only while in containment, when I do this, if it isn't already done. The Singularity turning the engine chamber into a vacuum isn't a big deal, mostly because the Singularity is pretty much incompatible with the rest of the engines; either you run it, or you don't. Rounds where the engies use the singularity would turn out just like they have for ages - it'd just take a little longer. Frankly, if you aren't wanting to do Engineering work as an Engineer, you probably shouldn't play an Engineer, just like Medical Doctors shouldn't play Medical Doctor if they don't want to help injured people in any way. I will probably be postponing starting on this at least until the major problems with Metastation are fixed, because there's practically no reason I shouldn't do both at once, and whatever I do on one, should probably be mirrored to some extent on the other.

Singuloth is easiest to work with entirely because it's already almost wholly set up and ready to go - like in the OP, there's no actual engineering involved, Engineers are technicians at best - and the rules preventing people from releasing it are one of the strongest reasons why it's stayed the dominant engine and not, say, the Supermatter in that spot.

While I agree, random events are outside the scope of this thread and the PR that will eventually follow. It should be noted, Fox is working on porting -another- engine's code, and in a tangentially related PR I may make an effort to make the TEG not godawful and worthless, so that brings the engine count to five (Singularity, Supermatter, Turbines, Tesla, Thermoelectric Generator). It should also be noted that it's definitely possible to combine the Turbines, Supermatter, and TEG; The SM spontaneously generates plasma gas while it's running, which can be fed into the Turbines to burn with Oxygen and create heated CO2, which can then be fed into one half of a TEG chamber (the other half utilizing space for rapid cooling, since the TEG runs off of heat differential, while the Turbine is based solely on total temperature). But none of that is possible without what I have described going into effect. As it stands, Singuloth is the dominant engine, and the rest are novelties at best.

A Clown with a RNG default name 'borrowed' a spare ID. Then found an ID computer.

During my rather significant period of absence, I had a fair amount of time to mull over some things that I liked and disliked in SS13, usually while in a waiting room for one thing or another. The thing that stuck with me the most, and that I have thought about the most, was Engineering - not the mechanics of how power is generated, or how much power is generated, or what-have-you, but the workflow and process of how Engineering runs. At the moment, the typical shift with a CE, a couple Engineers, and maybe an atmostech or maybe not (their relevance has become shockingly minimal thanks to LINDA), generally goes as follows: -Everyone gears up. Gloves, multitools, and usually a hardsuit. -The Singularity engine is set up. Or, to be more precise, it's safely activated - there's not a whole lot of actual construction or engineering going on, it's a simplistic, rote procedure that goes nearly identically every round. All of the machinery is already in place, it's just a matter of turning everything on in the right order and shoving plasma tanks into the radiation collectors. -Everyone proceeds to wander off and do whatever they feel like doing, and since setup took at most twenty minutes, unless the player joined in with a project in mind (Turbine, disposals funride, etc), there tends to be a whole lot of sitting around and waiting for something to be broken or for someone to call for you. I don't really have an issue with the third part of that. Engineers are usually a reactive force on the station, like Security - what is not broken cannot be fixed, after all, only improved upon at most. However, I do have an issue with it being the largest portion of the department's time spent, and while I will not claim that EVERY engineer does this, it's generally typical, as far as I can tell, and has been for a very, very long time. What bothers me is the complete lack of, well. Engineering. That happens in Engineering. That is to say, there's basically no room for creativity, ingenuity, or innovation, despite Engineering possessing all of the tools to apply those things. You get one option for an engine, and if you don't use it, you hook up the solars, and while the solars work fine, they're also just as rote and boring. Atmostechs have been arguing and experimenting amongst themselves for literal years now about what the best, coolest, most fun, etc. way to set up Atmos is; why shouldn't Engineers be able to do the same on some level? Now, those who know me fairly well are probably aware that I tend to frown upon presenting a problem without proposing a solution to it, or at least having some idea of what a solution might be. I consider it whining, and nobody likes whining. To prove that I am, in fact, not whining with this post, I will therefore present a solution, one that I think is fair and might be helpful for more problems than just the one I've presented (though, I suppose, some might not consider it a problem; in that case, you can safely ignore the rest of this thread). I propose the following changes be made, and as they are entirely mapping changes, I am entirely willing to do all of the work myself. I will happily place every tile, pipe, APC and so forth to make this happen, but I won't do anything if this doesn't get any support from the community. -Expand Secure Storage's total floor space, and place everything that is currently in the Singularity Containment area into it. -Move the Radiation Collectors into Secure Storage. -Add a Supermatter Crystal crate, a crate containing four sets of basic Turbine equipment (Boards, some Metal, wires, internal components, etc), and other objects that are convenient for engine setup (extra Plasteel, some Plasma glass, etc) into Secure Storage. -Double the amount of power in the SMES at roundstart. Currently, they'll last 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how many departments are staffed and how much power they're pulling. 30 minutes is enough to last for about a quarter of most rounds, since most rounds end in either a very late emergency shuttle or a crew transfer shuttle. Meteor rounds no longer require Engineering to risk setting up the singularity and having it be bombarded to hell and ruined, obliterating the station. Low-population rounds are less at risk of running out of power, as this is intended to give the station enough power to last long enough for one moderately competent person to at the very least set up the solars before it all runs dry. -Fill in the Singularity Containment area with floors and air, relabel it the 'Engine Room'. -Remove the little room that currently houses the Particle Accelerator. If the Engineers want the PA to be in a secure spot, they should probably do the securing in a way they see fit, and that little room is totally unnecessary for Turbine and Supermatter setups. -Add three blast door airlock setups to the aft side of the engine room, in the wall that borders space. These are for setups that involve dumping a gas into space safely - they'd work like the blast doors in the Incinerator. -Add in some walls and airlocks to separate the SMES room from the engineering lockers, CE's office, Engine Room and the room outside Secure Storage; the layout would change, but the total dimensions of the Engineering department wouldn't. Just some organizational rearrangement to help keep things as secure as they are now. -Add a pipe that goes from the Engine Room into Atmospherics, but connects to nothing but an unattached pump, on both ends. Clever Engineers and Atmostechs could hook the engine's atmospheric concerns (For the SM and Turbines, anyway) into the main Atmospherics section, which would probably be handy for giving that gigantic tank full of gaseous plasma a usage besides grief and Escape Alone Traitor/Malf AI flooding. The general idea is to adjust the general activities of Engineering to the following: -The shift starts. The CE, or the Engineers all together, decide amongst themselves what Engine to run, if any. -The Engineers and Atmostechs gear up. Gloves, hardsuits (if necessary at all), etc. -Engineers start hauling equipment and material into the Engine Room, while the Atmostechs engage in the Great Pipening and do whatever they need to do so the various engines will run both efficiently and long enough for the station to have power for the whole shift. -Construction occurs for, ideally, around a half hour to forty minutes, during which various antags will have opportunities to attempt to complete their objectives, interrupt the construction process, etc. as their objectives see fit. This provides an interesting and much larger set of Ways Things Can Go Wrong, which is a large part of SS13's FUN, and makes the Engine an actual, valid target for antags to sabotage without worrying about getting bwoinked (even the singulo could be sabotaged at this stage, since the engineers would still be arranging field generators, emitters, etc.). -The engine setup is complete, and the engineers now only have to operate at a maintenance level of operation, giving them more freedom to fix whatever was blown up, broken, melted, hulk-punched, EMP'ed, emagged, or any of the other wonderful ways the station almost inevitably gets ruined in the half to three-quarters of an hour they were busy. High-population rounds can afford to spare engineers from the setup process prior to engine completion - and should, since more players means more things break - but, conversely, low-pop rounds can't afford to spare anyone from the engine, but fewer players mean fewer explosions and fires, and if push comes to shove in any round at all, the solars can be set up by one Engineer (who probably drew the short straw) while the rest scramble to fix everything as quickly as they can. Before anyone mentions this or starts it again: Yes. I am aware that the debate of which engine is better or should be on the station is positively ancient and has been done a hundred times already. It is also irrelevant, because this change has nothing to do with the engines themselves, and it gives the players the ability to choose which engine is being used each round, instead of leaving it up to the admins. This is important, because as far as Engineering players go, nobody really fully agrees on what way a given thing should be done, and no matter what engine is pre-placed onto the map, not everyone is happy with it. This makes that whole matter moot by adding player agency - an absolutely vital part of any game in a style similar to SS13 - and, most importantly, gives Engineering, traitors or loyalists alike, the opportunity to choose how much time they want to expend each round setting up power generation or on other things, which is a key factor in how Paradise balances its game mechanics. Knowledge, skill, and time are the factors that most (but not all, I'm looking at you, Genetics and Virology) of the game centers around when deciding how powerful a given feature is or should be, and Engineering should be the same way. I will repeat myself only once: I am willing to do all of the work required to make these changes. I am also entirely open to critical feedback, especially negative feedback, so long as it is constructive. If it amounts to insults, is brutally misinformed or ignores what I have already said, or doesn't propose even a vague idea of a solution for any problem pointed out, I will ignore it.

As it turns out, it's just one define that controls how much power each solar panel produces. I doubled it and tested the results, it seemed pretty reasonable to me. https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/1509 While solars are HERESY against LORD SINGULOTH, they should be a viable power source. Otherwise, they should just be removed; I favor the simplest option of changing one line of code in this instance.

Yeah, that's why I wanted to fix that whole RNJesus part, so that virology would have a purpose and be fun and whatever. At least, in theory. This is a lot of work, I don't think anybody cares enough to fix it. I'd love to see a variety of brands of prosthetic limbs, and have them actually do different things. But that's not in the scope of this thread - I might make another one later. Maybe. Probably not, the current trend of not giving a fuck is unlikely to change, it seems.

You have successfully proven that you neither read my document nor know how paradise Virology currently works, and here's how I know that. "There's going to be rng in any system like this. Otherwise, someone's just going to write down the exact steps to get super gibbintons catbeast, spawn in and have the virus released within 4 minutes of roundstart." Except, no. That's not how my proposal works. It takes a minimum of twenty minutes to produce an Injection only, Human only, Gibbingtons only virus, due to the number of acid blocks you have to change. "There's no such thing as a beneficial virus in bay viro, and you shouldn't delude yourself otherwise. Anything you make can and *will* mutate at some point into a new strain over the course of a round, and cause terrible shit." Viruses mutating in hosts was removed literally months ago. They simply don't do that here anymore. "edit: Also, you forgot to mention that a non antag virologist's job currently is *only* to generate antigen soup and be on standby." I did mention that, though. In a sarcastic, pessimistic manner. But you didn't read anything I wrote, so you didn't get it. If you don't know what you're talking about and aren't willing to read what I've proposed, don't bother posting anything.

Well I mean. Amino acids are real actual things. And Goon isn't open source. Like, you can... Google any of the acids I listed, all I've done is heavily simplify things. I figured having a loose basis in reality would be good, just like a lot of Chemistry recipes loosely mirror real life compounds. I don't play on Goon, so I really have no idea if it's similar to Goon's. If it is, then, well okay I guess. Code this, port Goon's version with their permission, either way works I guess. I didn't really want to completely rip out our existing structure though. Either option would require considerable effort to balance. Just get the RNG part of it excised like a malignant tumor, that's the important part here. I simply don’t like the practice of complaining about a problem without offering a reasonable solution.

A more humble title would probably be more appropriate, but if you clicked on it, then HA! I got your attention. It's too late now! Basically, playing Virology is shit. Your only job is to stand around and wait for viruses to show up so you can go not cure them because the Chemist and CMO did it already since you don't even have radium in your lab, and in the meantime, pray really hard for RNGsus to give you a virus with symptoms that you want. I propose a means of removing that second part! Because seriously, fuck RNG-based balance. It's bad enough with Genetics - there's even a thread up wanting Hulk removed because it takes NO SKILL to acquire, just blind luck. That isn't relevant to this discussion of course, but it's a terribly similar issue - ancient Baystation code that makes jobs into painfully boring, almost unplayable crap. The full page on my proposed changes is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i5Y ... cslist_api It's way the hell more informative and goes into the details of how I'd see it done. It's complicated, though! Oh no! Well, it's just a series of steps to a desired goal that takes time and knowledge to perform. Just like Chemistry, or Engineering, or really almost every other fukken job. This thread serves as discussion and commentary on the idea I have proposed. I do NOT want to discuss anything about the symptoms themselves or viral curing mechanics, they're outside of the scope of this thread and it's not a good idea to add in too much change all in one go.

In the case of there being no observers/ghosts/etc with ERT preferences matching what they want? Absolutely, that'd be fantastic. Too many times I've seen heads call an ERT and make decisions based on them, only to have them never show up.