grinkdaboy

Name of Event: Paradise Station Mad Libs One Sentence Description: Low RP comedic round with real-time player feedback/interaction via discord. Map Changes: No This should function on any of the maps. Code Changes: No This should not require any coding changes or code done Suggested Number of Players: As many as you'd have in an average round Full Description of Event: I conceived of this idea after hitting my weed vape. It would essentially be kind of like mad libs. It would begin with someone on the title screen and present the round as like a storybook. It would be goofy in nature and generally be comedic. I say 'Mad Libs' because the idea is to have a bunch of "blanks" (things that could happen via admin spawn/control/etc) that would need to be filled in. I would say every 20 minutes (with the events at the 40, 80, and 120 minute marks being of more consequence to the round). Prior to the round starting there could be a general theme to be voted on. So for example we could have the theme that won the vote be: Nanotrasen, The Wizard's Federation, The Syndicate all agree to a ceasefire for one day to hold a big picnic. Then afterwards, each of the ie 20 minute mark (small, inconsequential in scale) choice a) One of the miners bringing goliath steaks was killed! (Send a crewmember, kitted out wizard + syndicate agent down to Lavaland to go hunt for and bring back goliath steaks, there could be more spawned) choice b) There's no vegetarian friendly dishes available! (Have a carp attack, send crew + wizard+ syndicate agent to go hunt carp and bring back the filets) 40 minute mark (Big, shape future direction of round) choice a) Furious at not being invited, a sect of Nar'sie worshippers plan a attack! (could spawn in cultists with gear to fight against the combined strength of the crew, a few syndicate agents, 1-2 wizards) choice b) Tensions are high after it's been discovered that one of the wizards has been poisoned! (ideally none of the food would actually be poisoned, just pick a player and fill them with poison, this could lead to hostilities if they are not saved in time!)

i think it would be interesting if there was one map where rather than serving aboard a nanotrasen ship, the crew is serving aboard a syndicate vessel. traitors would instead be nt spies, etc. this would mostly just be an aesthetic thing allowing for a different kinds of designs/expression or could be played up somewhat comedically to just show that they function/look almost the exact same but with a different coat of paint (think spy vs spy)

rather than just getting rid of them i think there could be a few alternatives to make the experience of playing as and against a traitor/changeling head of staff more pleasant: 1) Add more complex and or difficult objectives ie for one such objective the hop could be required to steal (and not make) an ID from each department and have it on their person. chief engineer could require the total power load to be below or exceed a certain threshold or have an active tesloose on the station while also escaping alive. or ensure that you are the only member of your department alive at the end of the shift. 2) Reduce the amount of TC available to traitor command staff due to their already expanded amount of access/trust/privilege associated with each of the departmental head roles, this could be a sort of balancing mechanic. some definitely have more than others ie you would probably get more mileage out of a traitor rd than you would a traitor ce or cmo. the more "privileged" ones could have reduced TC (maybe 50?) and the lesser ones could have slightly more (65 or 70)

so in response to this: what if some measure of SOP/something like SOP were added for antagonists? basically just some principles or guidelines to try and promote making the round fun for everybody. mind you this is not a condemnation of the culture here on this server or me saying "i like goon better this place would be better if you made it more like that :)" but this place just invokes a similar feeling of ss13 from the mid 10's where you had rampagers and people soloing the crew. now obviously that isn't the case here with most antags but with how potent some traitor gear can be, they can certainly feel that way. and a little sidebar but by god midrounds are the most boring thing. rounding a corner and getting killed in 2 hits by something you couldn't see or anticipate isn't very exciting gameplay. even if i were on the other end of it i would also be brought to tears. i think these, coupled with how much of an inconvenience death is (pausing your game for maybe 10-15, maybe 20 or more if youre unlucky) just kind of glom together and make what could be a fun experience just really frustrating.

maybe it could retooled into a mediator rather than whinging about soandso and someone or other fighting

i think the way its implemented now is perfect since it directly invokes what made asimov's story with the laws of robotics what they were: wonderful on paper but in execution it just goes sideways. if i were to play with this lawset i would just be extremely detached from what's going on around me

i cannot help but feel that the graphics would look very purty and nice and provide a new look to the game if such an option were implemented

i've played ss13 for quite a long time since about maybe 2009 and i've played on many different servers. many different servers with different cultures and attitudes. i think paradise is really strange in how it presents its focus on roleplay yet this is not entirely reflected in gameplay. for a long while i've mostly played on goonrp which is pretty light on procedure (space law is more of a suggestion than a list of procedures to be followed and executed.) the big thing though is the presence of escalation. What is escalation? the idea of escalation is to properly build up towards harming people. on goon, the idea of escalation is such that antagonists are able to create more roleplay opportunities for other players. give security and other roles something to react to, because thus far my experience has been either getting wordlessly stunned and killed in a maint corridor or drag someone kicking and screaming and fighting every step of the way to the brig because the only thing left to do is either find something else to do for the next hour and a half or so. the only standout experience when i was lured by a mindslaved blueshield officer and was asked to go through a mock hostage situation which lead to me getting garroted as their master ordered my death. now i was not mad or upset that i was killed, but more invested because i was roleplaying with other people. What isn't escalation? a quota or benchmark or some obligatory thing. it should be a natural buildup and creating a scenario for people to react to. if you're thinking "wtf i dont want to do this" then why play on an rp server? where's the roleplay in that? all it leads to is increasing player frustration. i spoke with an admin regarding this and he agreed this sort of thing was a problem. i mostly play security so how it goes is: person gets outed as an antag, security swarms on them and the antag is dragged kicking and screaming into the brig and thrown into perma. any future visits to the perma cells will result in at least one attempted assault by the prisoner because they are being forced into a cube where they are not allowed to interact with anyone else (besides other perma prisoners, if there happen to be any) for maybe an hour or hour and a half. that just isn't fun for anybody. there isn't much to relish about "oh sorry chud you have to go in the hole now for the next hour. good luck on your next antag round though!!!" it isn't fun for me as a security officer trying to act in good faith towards prisoners and it sure as hell isn't fun for the people on the other end who got caught and brigged. overall i am left feeling annoyed because my efforts to try and respect other people's time is being rewarded with being left dead in a maint corridor. that makes me want to not do those things or try to actually roleplay out a conflict with an antag and instead makes me want to shoot first and ask questions later and just huck them into perma because fuck you. i don't imagine the concept of escalation being an instant quick fix, but, i think it would lead to more fun for both antag players and non-antag players. i understand the necessity antag players might feel towards this kind of behavior but all it does is embitter people when it comes time to interact with other antags in the future.