Kyet

The big snowball effect with shadowlings comes when they start thralling security. It only takes a few sec officer thralls to tilt the balance heavily in favor of the shadowlings. After all, security have gear/weapons designed to subdue people non-lethally (for conversion, exactly what slings want). They're trusted. They have access to sec comms. And crew have no way to know they're thralled until they're tasing you (since nobody but other sec officers asks sec officers to remove masks, ever). If you want to limit the snowball potential of shadowlings, then just make it so that mindshields *prevent* thralling. Not just slow down, but totally prevent. Just like they already do with mindslave implants, flashes during rev, etc. A 'shield' that fails after a few seconds isn't really a 'shield', to my mind.

Last time I tried to get the barber to reverse an inappropriate dye job, they wouldn't truly listen to the Captain. Let alone the HoP. Someone ranked under the HoP... I don't imagine anyone in Service would pay them any attention... unless they had the authority to actually fire people from the Service department. Putting people 'in charge' without actual, direct, 'they can fire you' authority, simply does not work.

Making the Gateway require Captain-level authorization is rather pointless when almost anyone can break in. In theory, the restriction "limited gateway access on higher codes" makes sense to try to make people deal with the threat to the station, but what if they're non-combatants who want to hide out on the beach? Listing where the loot is in each mission only encourages people to play each mission optimally, in search of the loot. It takes a lot away from the exploration angle. IMHO, we should codify Gateway Explorer into an actual job, and make it less subject to the whims of Command players. That said, we might need to remind GEs that any weapons they pick up are subject to seizure when they return. Ditto obvious contraband, like red hardsuits.

Problems: (A) RD is kidnapped (B) Rogue maint drone running around shocking things (C) Vox holding crew hostage in cargo (D) Constant fights in the bar (E) Medical is a mess (F) Sec officer #1 is arresting a clown for having a syndie toolbox. (G) Sec officer #2 is pointing out the chaplain is set to arrest for no reason. (H) Brig phys acting as SWAT (I) Sec officer #3 apparently tased everyone in science. (J) Sec officer #4 has retired to the bar. (K) Detective is SSD. (L) Warden is slow to respond and has been robusted in prison once. (M) Botanist has det's gun General philosophy: Get backup. Recruit as many people as possible to help you deal with the problems, starting with the rest of command, but also the crew in general. Communicate. Before moving an inch, issue communications that get everyone on the right track as fast as possible. DON'T deal with the Vox first. By the looks of the QM's messages, the situation has been somewhat stable for awhile, and as angry as the QM is, sending in officers one by one may well just destabilize the situation and get them slaughtered. Instead, deal with the immediate problems in the brig, and rally my team, THEN respond to the Vox with overwhelming force, so as to minimize casualties. Rather like a real SWAT team. TO-DO list: Say on Command radio: "Blueshield, we need you to find the RD. (A). CE, please have engineering fix medbay. You yourself, see if you can cut the AI control wires in grav gen so that the drone cannot keep turning off power there. (B, E). HoP/Captain, please set the jobs of Sec Officer and detective to HIGH priority, open more slots for them, and ensure a new CMO is appointed. If there is no blueshield, set that job to high priority as well. (K, E) AI, please turn grav back on. (B)" Say this on public radio: "Attention! We have a rogue maint drone. It is RED. If you see it, kill it immediately. Heads, use your door remotes to bolt open key doors in your department so it cannot shock them. If anyone finds a shocked door, report it to the AI so it can be fixed. " (B) Say this on sec radio: "Officer 1, don't arrest the clown, just search them. If nothing more then the toolbox is found, release them immediately. If more is found, report it here, and process according to space law. Either way, come follow me as soon as you are done." (F) Say this on sec radio: "Brig Phys, I need your backup. Come to me at <location>. Warden, be ready to hand out guns." Reply to the QM's PDA message, with: "I am gathering my team and will raid cargo ASAP, but you have to hold out until then." Check why the chaplain is wanted. If it turns out there is a good reason, deal with it. Assuming there isn't, and it was just officer #3 setting them to arrest for stopping their rampage, say: "Officer 2, chaplain was set to arrest by #3 on bad grounds, I have cleared their arrest status. Nevermind the chaplain for the moment, just follow me." Then, to the chaplain: "Thank you for your service, I will take it from here", and take custody of #3 from them. Ask #3: "You have until we reach my office to explain exactly why you were tasing everyone in Science." as I pull him to my office. Once I get to my office, and while I am waiting for #3 to respond, say this on sec radio: "Officer 4, we are swamped here. The team needs your help. If you can, go get the detective from <location> and put him in cryo. At the very least, keep an eye on the bar and ensure there are no more bar fights." (D and J, possibly K as well) Announce on public radio: "Botanist X, we know you have the detective's gun. Hand it in immediately to the Warden at the brig, or we will come get you.". Then radio the warden: "Warden, give Botanist X three minutes to come hand in this gun. If he isn't here and handed it in by then, set him to arrest." (M) By now officer #3 should have explained why he did what he did. Assuming #3 doesn't have a good reason for his actions, strip him of sec gear, demote his ID using the management console in my office, and throw him out on his ass. Make it clear to him that any greytidey behavior from him will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Before throwing him out, ahelp "As HoS, I just fired officer 3. They apparently went around tasing a ton of people in science for no good reason, then got robusted by the chaplain and a civvie." (I) Tell my team that we are going to load up in the armory, then raid Cargo and subdue the Vox. Take my team to the armory, where the warden should have guns ready to hand out. Remind everyone that they need a ranged lethal weapon, and they should immediately shoot any red maint drone they may see. As they arm up, evaluate my team. Do I think I can handle the station with this team? If no, radio command that we're about to raid cargo... but the situation is bad enough they should call an ERT for backup. Remind them all that the botanist is on meth, stun-resistant, and armed with a deadly weapon, and they are free to shoot him too if necessary. Just before leaving Sec, on command radio, say: "AI, Security is now raiding cargo. Track me, and open all doors in our path before we reach them. Send us any borgs you can spare, too." Just before we leave, remind the brig phys: "Brig phys, this is your time to shine. There may well be casualties. Keep sec alive first, but beyond that, help any injured you see." Roll through cargo with my team, ensuring the Vox is subdued. (C) After the Vox is dealt with, check my team is alive and well, noting if anyone is out of action. From there, split the team up. Ideally, assign the Brig Phys to help the Warden in the brig, with two officers scouring maint together, forming a search team for the RD. Give them instructions to search anyone remotely suspicious en-route, so they have a chance of uncovering the person who emagged the drone. At this point, go see officer #4 in the bar, and try to convince him to rejoin the team. If he refuses to be useful, take him to the brig and fire him. Remind him that failure to do his duty is a serious problem, and sometimes he just has to suck it up and pitch in - that the crew is probably not very happy about him chilling in the bar during an active hostage crisis. Finally, go check the crew monitoring console in the bridge and re-deploy officers towards whatever area of the station has the most dead people - with instructions to detain/search the suspicious, terminate red maint drones, and get any dead crew bodies they find to medbay. Upon giving this order, if there are many bodies, announce on public radio that medical should be prepared for incoming casualties, and advise command as to whether a shuttle is necessary.

Not the craziest appeal I have seen. Still, that's probably for the best, as that makes it more plausible.

To clarify: he's talking about the gun from the syndie supply depot. It is most definitely a syndicate weapon, but it is not listed on: https://nanotrasen.se/wiki/index.php/Contraband

Well, there is already code that detects when people request an ERT with no GA online. It shouldn't be that hard to detect when people are faxing/messaging CC... with no GAs online/active.... and say something like: "Sorry, communications with CentCom are temporarily offline. Try again later."

So: In general, I agree that every fax to CC should get a reply. Even if the reply is boilerplate, faxes should never be ignored. I've been of this opinion since long before I became an admin, and I make a point of always replying to faxes when I see them. However, I'm just one admin. There is no guarantee of admin availability when it comes to faxes, and I'm sure some admins believe that certain faxes simply don't merit a reply. That said, faxes should be a last resort. The NT Rep isn't there to be an investigator, sent to report every event on the station to CC. They are there to advise. First, advise the crew and the heads. Then, advise the Captain. If nobody is following SOP, or there is otherwise systematic failure that warrants CC intervention, only then do you fax CC. I know that some admins consider "department grading" faxes to be not just useless, but actually annoying. I find them useful, but typically not worth replying to with anything more than a "good job" boilerplate fax. If you are at all tempted to do evaluation of departments as the NTR, I would say... do it! But don't think of it as a report to CC. Think of it as a report you can give the heads of staff so that they can see what they could do better. So that they can be made aware of SOP breaches in their department. So that they can be more effective managers. If they are totally incompetent, or their department is in shambles... highlight this to the Captain, so that they can consider bringing in outside help. The only part of a routine status report that arguably should be sent to CC is a report that evaluates the performance of the Captain themselves. The individual departments are up to the heads to manage. The heads are up to the Captain to manage. Again, the point of the NT rep is NOT merely to give everyone a 'score'. It is to help them improve, or help ensure the situation is fixed if they just can't. Giving them a score an hour after the fact is useless. Better to inform them right away so they can correct the problem, and learn. The heads themselves should ALWAYS be your first port of call when you notice issues. CC should ALWAYS be a last resort, typically for matters concerning the Captain themselves, or positions that have special responsibility directly to CC, such as the Magistrate, IAA agents, and Blueshield.

The first fax practically screams "no response needed". The entire first paragraph concerns stuff that is entirely typical, and something the HoS should be able to handle. The second paragraph starts with "there is no need to take any action". Further, you say you'll tell CC if, in future, the station needs help, but that it doesn't right now. The only thing you say that merits a response in this fax is the last sentence, which is please reply just to confirm that you've read the fax. If that was the entire point of the fax, don't even include all the previous stuff. Simply send a fax that asks "CC, are you receiving this fax? We'd like to confirm that faxes are being monitored. Any reply is fine." or similar. Get to the point right away. Don't bury it in the last line of a multi-paragraph message that leads with several indications of the fax NOT needing a reply. The second fax concerns unauthorized distribution of genetic powers, which is against SOP, but again, something that should be handled by CMO/RD/Sec. Not something you need to fax CC over. It isn't until the second paragraph that you explain the heads are ignoring it. OK, that kicks it up a level. Did the CAPTAIN ignore it? If the Captain is ignoring it (and their heads not doing their jobs) then you can write to CC and explain that Command is ignoring SOP by choosing to ignore hulk being given to crew. But as is, this fax doesn't include any mention of the Captain, nor does it confirm that you actually talked to any about them and asked them why they did it before you faxed. This sort of fax is a minefield for admins, because if we reply, without knowing more facts about the situation, it is entirely possible we'll end up ordering Command to revoke genetic powers from friendly crew during a hijack attempt, or otherwise prioritize things that aren't dangerous over things that are. It is also entirely possible that Command had good reasons for making the decision they did, but we don't know about them. In short, this fax treats the reporting of SOP violations far too literally. It isn't enough to say that SOP was violated, you also have to establish that there was no good reason for it to be so violated, which requires you to talk to the people concerned, and the Captain. Replying to a fax like this would take several minutes of dedicated investigation to even determine if we should reply. The more work you ask admins to do in order to respond to your fax, the less likely it is that you will get a response. The third fax is good. It is short, and to the point. Just bear in mind that it is essentially an invitation to online admins to run some sort of mini-event involving the documents - something that *won't* happen most of the time, because, most of the time, admins won't be making a routine thing into an event like this. This is a much better written fax. The topic is not something that's likely to get a response, but the fax itself is well-written. Prayer and LOOC are bad ways to ask for an answer to a fax. Adminhelp is better. Prayers are IC. Adminhelp is OOC. LOOC, while viewable by aghosts, is not obvious. Ahelps are obvious. Ahelps are a far superior way to ask for a fax response. Were I in your place, here's what I would have done: For a roundstart fax: "CC, I would like to confirm that faxes are being read. Could you reply, to confirm this? Any reply is fine." Since admins frequently join/leave rounds, getting an answer (or not) at shift start doesn't really mean anything in terms of you getting an answer later. It is for this reason I never bothered with roundstart faxes. For your second fax, here's what I would have said: CC, be advised: - Genetics is giving out unauthorized hulk powers to crew. - Neither the RD/CMO care to correct this. There are syndicate agents, and the RD/CMO don't consider it a priority to deal with hulk power distribution. - I asked the Captain, but they too seemed not to care, being more concerned with the activities of the syndies. - I ask that CC remind the RD/CMO that they should generally enforce SOP in their department, and leave worrying about syndies to Security. I also ask that you remind the Captain that they are responsible for ensuring their heads are doing their jobs, not all trying to do the HoS' job. For your last fax, if anything, I would have said: "We have recovered syndicate top secret documents from one of their agents. We will be holding onto them until crew transfer. If you have other orders for us, please tell us." Short, and to the point. No reply would be expected. Were I in your position, I would not have sent the first fax at all. I might have sent the third, but I would not have expected a reply to it. As to the second, I would only have expected a reply to that if I could show, clearly, that the whole chain of command up to and including the Captain was ignoring SOP without good cause. IE: that I'd asked them why they did it, and they simply did not care to do their jobs, and the Captain did not care to do his job by pushing them to do theirs. And that there was risk of damage to station (hulks smashing things) from this. With all those elements in place, I might have expected CC to do something, but whether they reply to me, or contact the Captain directly, is up to them. I'd still only put 50/50 odds on getting a reply in this case, even with all my ducks in a row. Without all my ducks in a row (e.g: not having asked them why they did it) I'd put the odds at more like 20%. You can never reach 100% odds of a reply, since 50% of the chance is down to admin presence/availability. You can, however, maximize the other 50% of your odds by getting all your ducks in a row, and doing as much of the investigation yourself, so that you aren't asking admins to stop whatever they are currently doing and spend several minutes investigating the situation and composing a reply. Faxes are about conveying as much useful and relevant information in as little space as possible, on a topic that merits CC intervention. If they have insufficient useful information, lots of irrelevant stuff, or the topic just isn't important, a CC reply is unlikely.

Before I became an admin, I was quite frustrated with the lack of admin responsiveness to faxes. After becoming an admin, I realized that the most common reasons faxes don't get a response are: - Issue is so minor it isn't worth CC's attention, e.g. sec officer batoned a prisoner - HoS is expected to deal with that. - There are OOC gameplay balance reasons that CC should not respond. E.g: NTR requests gamma alert due to war ops. War ops always lose anyway - giving the crew Gamma just turns a loss into a curb stomp battle. Another example: command may be panicking about traitors, but if we see there are only two traitors, and 6 sec.... we aren't going to send backup, as the traitors are already badly outnumbered. - GAs are AFK or absent. TAs cannot even see faxes, let alone respond to them. Ditto all other messages to CC. - GAs are simply busy playing and miss the fax notice - or assume someone else will get it. - The fax is unhelpful. Long, vague and/or otherwise time-consuming to deal with. Escalation Procedure: - If the issue concerns a normal crew member, their head should deal with it. - If the issue concerns a head, the Captain should deal with it. - If the issue concerns the Captain, or the entire chain of command up to and including the Captain is not dealing with it adequately, THEN you fax CC. - This requires you actually at least try to talk to people in the chain of command. DO NOT automatically fax CC without talking with anyone. Good reasons to fax CC: - The Captain is an idiot, and needs to be replaced. CITE EVIDENCE for this. - The station is in widespread chaos, and requires an ERT, but most of Command is dead / you're unable to officially request an ERT. So you fax instead. - There is an unusual situation (admin event) going on, and you want advice. - The station is being consumed by a blob/xenoarmy/etc and your request for the nuclear codes has gone unanswered. If you think you have a good reason, and CC isn't responding: - You can call a vote of the heads to remove the Captain. - You can ask the HoS/Captain to arm the crew to combat emergency threats. - You can ask the crew for advice. - You can (usually) call the shuttle.

That is one option. Another would be to simply ask them why they suggest it. If they say "well, you're injured, right?" then they're just treating it like any other medical condition. In which case, you might answer "this isn't something new this shift, I've been this way for years, I've adapted... I haven't really learned spoken language like you have and I couldn't simply start speaking even with mutadone". If they say "well, its a pain that you can't talk - everything is more difficult because of that", then consider working out a better non-verbal communication system. If they say "well, I wanted to do X, but your being mute prevents it", then work out an alternate way of doing X. Etc. If you very occasionally get people trying to cure your character, its probably just them treating it like any other condition (which, in-game, it is). If you get it regularly, though, it might be worth asking them why they do it. Understanding the why might be better than trying to resist it mechanically.

If people keep suggesting that you take mutadone, maybe that's a hint that your muteness is annoying them. Sure, you could get annoyed with them in return for even suggesting it. You could vent your annoyance by suggesting that roundstart conditions like that be made incurable, so people stop trying to help you. Maybe, though, that's taking the wrong lesson from this. Maybe a better lesson to take would be asking yourself: "is this person getting frustrated with my playstyle?" If you regularly encounter people who seem like they'd really prefer not to deal with your playstyle... maybe you should reconsider your playstyle. On the other hand, if its just one or two people, well, you can't please everyone. Maybe just ignore those people.

From the doctor's point of view, if they're using cloning instead of SR/defib, then odds are, they either don't want to use SR/defib, or SR/defib is not available. In these cases, an option that makes it impossible to clone you is probably just going to get you thrown in the morgue even faster.

https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/8302

I thought simply refusing to re-enter your body would stop you being cloned. In my experience, when I did not want to be cloned, I just ignored the 'someone is trying to clone you!' prompt, and after a couple of tries, they gave up. Adding a new preference just so that you don't have to ignore one or two prompts per round you die in... I'm not sure its worth it.

Your experience might not be representative. Admins are more likely to give extra objectives to players who aren't that deadly. You're very deadly, and thus you're less likely than most to get extra objectives.

Antag objectives exist largely to limit antag behavior - and make sure the station doesn't go to hell in the first five minutes. In general, most antags don't have hijack, and some may just be out to steal, which adds a degree of subtlety and discourages mass-murder. If you let people choose their own objectives, and reward them with points for doing 'harder' ones, then the people who kill the most will end with the most points and thus the most freedom, which will result in chaos.

What are they going to do? Slash the suspects?

Request an ERT. Use borgs to supplement the organic security force. Request AI assistance. Arm the heads. Wait and hope more officers arrive. Etc.

Yes.

It is hard to replace officers that are fired. Security is often the last department to fill up, and the department most likely to end up short-handed. One sec officer being fired, unless they obviously deserved it, tends to lead to other officers cryoing, further reducing manpower. While the HoS can ask the HoP to prioritize Sec Officer job slots, or open more, they're still dependent on people joining as those slots, as its generally a bad idea to accept transfers into Security. Sec thus suffers from the double penalty of recruitment issues and lack of transfers. Given this, the bar for firing a security officer is, in practice, higher than some other departments. The HoS often asks themselves "yeah, this person is terrible, but can I afford to lose the manpower?". Often, the answer to that is no. In general, HoSes are better off asking for an ERT than trying to find a replacement officer. ERTs are stronger, more numerous, and sometimes easier to get than a replacement officer. Often, HoS' decisions about whether to fire a Sec Officer have more to do with how easy they think it will be to replace that person, and the person's attitude, than they do with what the person actually did.

I've put up a PR to add Code Alpha, rather like the Zulu level from your list of ideas: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/8054

If a head suicides, AHELP it. Admins take a dim view of heads suiciding. They're meant to ahelp, tell command, put items away, and cryo if they want to leave the round. Using suicide to get out without these notifications, especially if its because they're being brigged for being terrible, is a job-bannable thing.

I agree with removing both the Lawyer and Public Defender titles. Both of them encourage behavior we don't want (pointless arguing about everything, and always defending criminals, respectively). Neither of them accurately describe the actual job that IAAs should be doing as well as the IAA title itself does. While you could argue this is a player behavior issue, rather than a title issue, I think that misses the point. The point is that these titles *encourage* players to behave that way, and as such, we should remove them. Will removing them solve all issues with the IAA role? No. Of course not. But at least we won't have titles that actively encourage behavior we don't want. To me, "don't have systems that encourage bad behavior whilst adding nothing valuable" is just common sense.

Thoughts: - Code blue already permits random searches. This doc implies it doesn't. - You really want to give Security and Engineering the authority to order all other crew around on blue? - Requiring red to be periodically re-authorized sounds like it would often lead to things slipping back to blue simply because everyone in charge is to dead/busy to keep it on red. Not ideal. - Why are orange/yellow better than the captain just doing an announcement? - Why is Sierra better than just having the timer displayed as normal? - I do like the idea of something like Zulu, as a "this is beyond red alert but doesn't unlock gamma armory" level. I was actually thinking of making that myself. - I don't think its a good idea to put the whole station under command of the ERT lead. Half the time ERT teams don't even have a commander, and when they do... he doesn't want command of the station. - Why would we have a condition charlie, for an event that lasts all of 30 seconds? Ditto Hotel, what would we use that for? Overall: - There are WAY, WAY TOO MANY alert levels in this system. Every alert level needs its own code, monitor graphics, etc, so as a general rule, alert levels should be kept to a MINIMUM. We currently have 6 levels (green, blue, red, gamma, delta, epsilon) and I've been debating adding a 7th, but this has way, way too many levels. - The best idea in here is, I think, Zulu. The idea of an alert level between red and gamma, set by CC, and basically equal to gamma without the gamma armory. It could automatically be declared during war ops. That sounds like something we could realistically add.