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Three different issues here: 1) Antags not realizing they're antags. The best way to solve this would probably be a special antag sound effect that plays, say, 30 seconds into the round. And/or a reminder text message 5 minutes in, in case they missed the original message in the chat box. 2) Antags not liking their objectives. Perhaps we could add a "reroll objectives" button? Better someone get new objectives than do nothing because they feel their objectives are impossible. 3) Antags not wanting to be antags. Perhaps a reminder at round start that "If you do not wish to be an antag this round, ahelp it and we'll give it to someone else instead". Or even better, a way to drop antag status and have it automatically transferred to someone else? Say, via a "Drop-antag" verb? Only usable for the first 5 minutes of the round, and so long as you have not used any TC. (If you have used TC, it may remove the items, and/or the new antag always gets killing you as an objective) Heck, it could spawn a 'syndicate beacon', an object that turns whoever uses it into a traitor. Make it anchored, too, so sec can't just hide it. That way you could be reasonably confident that whoever DOES find/use it would like to be an antag.

Either would be great.

I have to say here that I completely agree with you. Security's performance can be inconsistent, at best, and even when they're decent, they're still spread thin covering the entire station. However, this is where our viewpoints differ. You recognize that yes, there is a problem in practical terms, and you'd rather work around it so it doesn't cause more problems. This works. I, on the other hand, would prefer to take the, uh, lengthier and harder route of trying to fix the underlying problem. Maybe it's a pipe dream, but it's something I'd like to try anyway. Fair point. Good luck. That will not be an easy task. SMGs (and projectile weapons in general) are better against players, as they break bones, etc. High-damage laser weapons, like the laser cannon, are (IMHO) better against monsters, because of their high per-hit damage and the ability to fire through glass windows with them. As RD, when I need to deal with most monsters, my go-to weapon is the laser cannon (if they are few) or dual AEGs (if they are many). I disagree immensely. Someone who's out to hit someone with a crowbar isn't going to politely wait until the Color Code is increased. Those things hurt. Brawls and scuffles happen on Code Green all the merry time. That was intended as a satirical example of the "we don't need it right now, so lets not equip it" thinking. Not a serious claim. You severely overestimate the amount of times Omnizine and Strange Reagent is even produced at all, at least outside of Sleepers for the former. Not to mention Sedatives are useful for races that can't receive regular anaesthetics. I make both pretty much every round I am CMO/medchemist, though usually I don't need to use them. I admit I may be the exception to the rule. I have not checked how often others make them. Linear Station, Quadratic Science. Much like mages, you start off small, then end up massively outclassing everyone else. I actually like this. Then again, I like linear warriors, quadratic wizards in D&D as well. I like facing the choice of "kick ass now, or later?" I feel it adds depth if the balance changes over time. I don't think it has to be exclusively one or the other. A SOP based exclusively on IC viewpoints risks being ignored because it is often useless, and in some cases, actively detrimental. A SOP based exclusively on OOC viewpoints risks being ignored because it is artifical and in some cases, very alien to natural RP interaction. I feel a balance can be struck between these. This nerfs it so hard you might as well remove honk mechs entirely. HONK mechs should be constructable IF you want to reward a clown, but difficult to construct otherwise. Perhaps the best solution is to make HONK mech chassis lockboxed, locked to RD/Captain access. Actually, I like it. Think about it: it prevents R&D weapons from being confused with weapons stolen/borrowed/lost from the armory, and actually enforces more accountability for both loss of sec weapons (can't claim you got it from R&D) and also science weapons (you know where it came from). Mechanical job objectives are almost meaningless - they don't exist for most jobs, and even for science (the only major department that has them?), they don't even begin to cover the things you should be doing. Doesn't mean they should be completely ignored, it would be awesome if every job had job objectives - it just means they're not very important in the grand scheme of things, and aren't a very good justification for anything. I am not arguing that the RD should be able to open weapon any new kinds of weapon lockboxes themselves. What I am arguing is that if the HoS/Captain see fit to give the RD a weapon, or weapons, other people should not be complaining on the grounds of SOP, because if things have got to that point, there's probably a good reason. Essentially, the same point as Tully makes: SOP can be ignored if the situation requires it, as SOP is standard operating procedure, IE what you do when everything is going well, NOT what you do in the event of a major disaster. CC might send more men, but that is rare. Usually they just ignore your request completely. CC often completely fails to respond to messages/faxes. Butt-faxes almost always get a response, but they're the only kind of fax I've seen that does. I've seen people fax in about confirmed xenos, almost-winning blobs, etc only to be met with total silence, yet butt-faxes about CC being comdoms get almost-instant BSAs. Many bad command decisions could be avoided if admins made a point of responding to EVERY fax/commsconsole message, and EVERY ERT request, even if the answer is "Sorry, we can't authorize an ERT because one guy set off a bomb near bridge, security is expected to handle that, perhaps you should consider going code blue, checking prints, etc". Ignoring the command crew's pleas is a large part of why said command crew panics and does stupid things - they don't get any guidance during the moment about what they should do, even when they specifically ask for it. So, they assume they're on their own in a hostile situation, and overreact. ERT requests are the worst. CC often decides whether or not to send an ERT based on factors that the command crew has no possible way of knowing IC, and never says anything about the request. IMHO, something like an ERT request should always, without fail get an official response. The biggest factor I've observed as a ghost influence whether an ERT request gets an ERT actually sent is... deadchat. Which the command crew has literally no possible way of knowing about. That makes ERT approvals/ignores seem totally arbitrary to command teams. If I could make any one change to SOP to address a grievance in SS13, it would be: "admins must grant or send an official 'no' response for any ERT request sent by the command team within 5 minutes. If they fail to do this, the ERT request should be automatically granted by the code, under the presumption that they are either AFK, do not care what happens, or are otherwise unresponsive. If the answer is 'no', a brief note about why should be included, so the command team learns what is, and what is not, an acceptable situation in which to request an ERT, and future invalid ERT requests are less likely." You may joke, but saber SMGs are not the best weapon to use against lings. And I have seen plenty of shifts late at night where one or two lings get the run of the station because there is ZERO security staff and nobody wants to be one. The context can be very important. "Let security handle it" is all well and good, but what if there IS no security? That actually happens quite a lot, late at night. Yeah, more people play at peak, but how things operate in the middle of the night should be considered too. I play security regularly. Just yesterday I was sec officer, and took out 3 spiders in science before I even asked the HoS to issue me a basic egun - and even then I'd have preferred to be in the action, but talking was all I could do at the time because I was stuck waiting outside OR1 for surgery to fix the bones the spiders broke. Science is not "toysrus", and that attitude pisses me off. As RD I frequently find myself cleaning up after characters with that attitude who are responsible for blown up rooms and letting rampaging monsters go free. Security is a stressful job, I know, I play it quite a bit. Still, every job needs to default to treating the others with respect.

Doesn't matter. The telebaton is robust. The armor isn't. The armor being expensive, prototype, unique, etc doesn't matter when its not useful, and thus most RDs refuse to use it. Having something that most RDs completely refuse to use at all, because they feel it is useless, be more restricted in usage than the more useful thing they spawn with, does not make sense. Disagree. Science has an ungodly amount of maint tunnels, where there are often carp/spiders/etc. Science is the only department with the experimentor device, which spawns hostile mobs. Science is the only department to breed dangerous aliens, like slimes and "tame" xenos. The RD is directly responsible for making sure robos don't make rogue combat mechs. Science is the department where a traitor can walk in with an emag and walk out with a lasercannon/teleshield in under 30 seconds. Science has, or gives access to, several traitor theft objectives, and many other things useful for completing objectives. The RD is responsible for all of this, and is likely carrying at least one theft objective (hand tele) on his person at all times. They deal with a bunch of threats (often monsters, which, unlike the crew that sec deals with, are immune to stuns), and have a huge target on their back, both on their department and on them personally. Science is also far away from sec, and thus prone to lengthy response times. RD also doesn't have much in the way of protective gear. No hardsuits, no damage-resistant armor, etc. Ideally, sure, sec could be counted on to handle all of this - but in practice, this is usually not the case. RDs can and should take responsibility for what happens in their department, like any head. RD is still not security - but it is their job to manage a department with lots of dangerous things that can eat you. Aside from the above, they're the head of the department that produces the dangerous objects and regularly has to deal with various kinds of monster out to kill them. Expecting the RD not to carry an appropriate weapon for these sorts of things within their department, is like expecting the CE not to carry metal/rods to deal with hull breaches. Pretty much. No sec player is going to stand guard over an empty room all round. Won't happen. Engineers have no reason to make stunprods, cablecuffs, etc. Security has no reason to be using body armor on green. Docs don't need to walk around with sedatives, enough omizine to kill a horse, and strange reagent that can gib the body. Cargo doesn't need to order an igloves crate, basically giving them the ability to hack into anything. None of these people need to carry around the interesting stuff they carry. Yet they do. Every round. Science is entirely based on the idea of research - ie: do work, make better stuff. They're the only department that actually has to research items to get them. Everyone else gets theirs from round start. Making mechs is a little trickier than you suggest - it requires mining to make/deliver minerals, someone to do R&D, someone to upgrade machines, someone to build them, and then either getting permission or accepting the fact you're probably going to get shot to ribbons by sec. Oh, and firing back with lethals as a non-antag in a mech will get you boinked. Yes, science is powerful, but it takes work to get there, and even once there its very easy to screw up, lose all your shit, and get demoted/killed/banned. Sure, but the fact is, it is. This is already in the RD's office by default. If we want to go this route, perhaps lockboxing the AI core board to RD access would be an idea. General rule: the more rules you have, the less attention each gets. Personally I would aim for the absolute minimum number of rules, so they have a good chance of being memorized easily. Nobody bothers. This is why I did not advocate for their complete removal from the game. Clowns need *something* to encourage them not to just be assholes who slip everyone. Just as clowns who make the crew miserable by slipping hallways need to suffer more, clowns who make the crew happy need to be more rewarded. I could definitely see giving a HONK mech to a clown who does a really good job, making the crew happy, or say, robusting multiple traitors, as a valid reward. It can always be destroyed with an ion gun if they abuse it - but for a clown to get one, they probably have to be so responsible that I doubt they would abuse it. IMHO, the best way to nerf HONK mechs is actually unrelated to science - reduce the value of bananium ore in mining to zero. Thus, miners no longer have an incentive to gather it, and its very unlikely to be acquired in quantities sufficient to construct mechs out of it. Logic + SS13 = Danger Will Robinson! R&D is one kind of science, out of the 6 kinds (robo, telesci, scichem, xenobio, toxins, and genetics). Making a rule that RD must max one kind of science, ignoring all others, is weird. Good points, however: 1) I believe that medbay is very under-utilized as is. There are times medbay is lucky to get a couple of patients in the whole shift (I know, I've played medbay a few times over the last few days, and not once was there any substantial action). Aside from chat/hang out, there's not a lot for them to do most shifts. Frankly, I think docs could use the extra work of handling the cloner. It would give them something to do. 2) There's nothing stopping genetics research from providing their products to medbay even if they're made a proper sub-department of science. Heck, I support the reinforced windoor/desk-in-the-wall thing to encourage this. At the very least though, CMO should have exclusive authority over cloning, and RD should have exclusive authority over genetics research.

What useful things can you do with that level of research, but no minerals?

Updates: Added new spider type: green terrors. Think weaponized nurse spiders. In normal spider infestations, they're the primary method for spiders to breed. In games with a queen, they function as early nest guards - and decorators. Adjusted balance for reds and purples. Reds are no longer guards, they are now the generic terror spider attack class. Much more dangerous than regular spiders, but without any special AI or abilities from the other terror spiders. Their stats have also been reduced, since they'll be more common. Purples, on the other hand are most definitely guards for nests - they're only created at nest sites, and have AI that makes them serve as bodyguards. This includes returning to the nest if someone tries to kite them away to strike at the queen. Yes, they detect some common player strategies and adapt to them. Made new sprites. They're still bad, but at least they're getting better. I really need a spriter to volunteer to help me with this project. Added in two somewhat-hard counters to the terror spiders. One is a science item that, when used on a spider, deals huge damage to them and turns their regeneration into degeneration, ensuring the death of that spider once enough time has passed. I'm not sure exactly how to balance this, but suffice it to say the laser cannon will NOT be the best way to fight these things with maxed R&D - there will be another item which is substantially more effective against them. The other method is medical-based. Yes, there is actually a counter to white spider venom now. No, it isn't charcoal, calomel, or surgery. None of those work against white spider venom. The solution is both more creative and more powerful. Used right, it becomes not just a treatment, but also a defense - and even a weapon. Yes, this opens the door to the possibility of farming whites for their venom to weaponize it... but bear in mind this is exactly what the syndicates were doing when they breached containment and killed the whole crew. Good luck if you go down this road, xenobiologists! On the subject of hard counters, I am trying to design the terror spiders so that no department is useless in fighting them. Sec is obviously the most important right away, because they have the ranged weapons which can actually kill the terror spiders without their wielder dying (melee weapons generally can't). Cargo is vital too, because, like in a blob, running gun crates through cargo during a spider infestation can save the crew. Medical and Science have new counter options being programmed in which take time/resources to develop but are very effective once you do develop them. Engineering, of course, has perhaps the most powerful ability - welding the vents, which limits spider movement greatly - but it is risky and requires manpower to execute. The queen's AI and survival chances continue to improve. She's not as skittish as she was before, now uses nurse spiders, makes less noise when setting up the nest, deals with cameras properly, no longer creates breaches to space, and has better handling for her ultimate attack. What I'm considering now: Just as purples are tier 2 reds, and whites are tier 2 greens, I am considering adding a tier 2 black spider. Tier 2 spiders are not straight upgrades of tier 1, they have specialized roles that are filled by small numbers of dangerous but specialized AI spiders. The tier 2 black would be the infiltrator, and its function would be to go around the map breaking open welded vents. It would be the sort of spider which is spawned only once, in queen mode, late in the game. I'm still unsure if I want to add this. I don't want it to be OP. Where I can find a sprite-maker who can make decent sprites for these spiders. How I'm going to balance all their stats so they're killable if you approach them the right way, but very hard to kill if you do it wrong - yet still feel like a fair fight in either case. The various ways they can get into the round. Currently I'm thinking I might have the normal spider event have a small chance to spawn a red/black/green trio, a new major spider event (rare) that spawns 3 whites (when it happens, again, this would be a rare event) and the queen be in the code, but never spawned except via admin spawning her in. Assuming this is finished at some point and included, I can then ask the admins to run an extended round, spawn the queen, and have it run while I watch. This would give me insight into how players approach them, and let me do more balance tweaking before I finalized the various events. Dunno if the admins will go for it, but I figure something like that where I watch some rounds with my spiders in them would be a very quick way of checking they work in reality.

Adapt however you see fit. Since you already covered "what do I make?" I sought to go after "what do I distribute?" instead. The two are quite different questions - there are lots of things that you make as medchemist which you don't distribute freely. The SS13 equivalents of prescription drugs.

Bluespace artillery fire detected. Brace for impact. I would add "assuming mining delivers adequate minerals, including diamonds" to this. Otherwise, RDs will get blamed for not maxing research when their department doesn't have adequate minerals to do so. Even if it is possible to scavange parts from other machines for levels, you'd be breaking those machines, and it would still be pointless because lack of minerals would still stop you building anything with those levels. Good. They can carry a weapon (baton, etc), but not a defensive armor? Weird. Another good rule, as it is annoying when people meta and make unslaved borgs just because they know ion laws / malf AIs are a thing. This is a bad rule because it constrains the RD to one weapon, even on red alert. Competent, armed RDs never carry just one weapon on red alert. They might have a tranq RSG or stun revolver for crew-based threats, a temperature gun for dangerous slimes, an AEG/lasercannon for carp/monsters, and/or a bluespace portal gun for utility. Whatever combination the situation requires. All of these have completely different uses, and you can't replace one with another - stun weapons are useless on monsters, you don't want to use lethals on crew, and temperature guns are bad at everything except slime control. Restricting the RD to one weapon just means they're more likely to get killed (because that one was ineffective against what they faced) or, more likely, they're always going to choose the "best" weapon (AEG/lasercannon) and be more aggressive with it, because they know they have no backup. Second, it is an unnecessary rule because the RD can't unlock weapons (except the bluespace projector). Only Cap/HoS, and maybe HoP if they elevated their access, can. Presumably if Cap/HoS unlock a lockbox for the RD, and let him keep the resulting weapon, they're giving him a weapons permit to carry it. Since the RD already has to get in-person permission to carry via lockbox opening, what's the point of having it in SOP? There's already the lockbox mechanic, which is a far stronger way of enforcing the need for Cap/Hos permission. Third, why exactly do we have restrictive SOP on red alert? Red alert is do-or-die time in the face of a major threat. Crew understand this and often throw SOP (and anything else that gets in the way of surviving) out the window because of it. If I was playing Captain, and I saw an RD only use one gun against a blob, when more were available, because "that's all SOP lets me carry on red" I would view that as total incompetence on their part. Surviving is always priority #1, and SOP should serve that goal, not get in the way of it. These rules completely gut the use of combat mechs, to the point it is no longer worth building them except to be nice to security. Sure, some kind robos will continue to make combat mechs, despite knowing that they'll go to security and the robos themselves will never get to have any fun with them. That's the kind ones, though. The majority might not bother. As RD, I frequently give sec whole lockers full of improved gear and watch in sadness as the warden/hos lock it up in the armory and refuse to distribute even the basic non-lethal items like stun revolvers and crew monitors to their own trusted officers! Typically, after giving HoSes science items, I get a group of sec officers at the R&D desk asking them when I am going to give them stuff - because the HoS never even told them there is equipment waiting for them. If sci gives sec mechs, they'll either rust, unused, for the rest of the round, or a nervous HoS will parade around in his own personal mech "for protection", never using it effectively and ensuring his team can't sneak up on ANYTHING. Worse, the majority of hazards which really need a mech to help deal with them (blob, xenos, etc) are fast-growing ones. If you wait until red alert is declared to even think about starting to build one, its probably not going to be very useful by the time it is done. The relationship between science and other departments has to be one of give-and-take. An excellent example is Cargo. Cargo supplies science with minerals. In return, science upgrades the ore machine (meaning more points for miners) and gives them upgraded gear. Under this SOP, however, science can't do shit without permission, and even if they do get permission to build cool shit, they probably don't get to USE any of it because it gets locked up in the armory where they will never see it again. That is not a give-and-take relationship. The HoP should not have any authority over people not in the civil department. Second, all he really needs is to be *informed* that someone is getting borged. Getting his permission shouldn't be required, and seems like 100% pointless paperwork. This directly conflicts with the earlier rule in the RD section which states that ONLY the cap can authorize new AI units. Does this include temperature guns? Those are very helpful for xenobio. What about if a sec officer asks for something? What about if the BS asks for something? What if the HoS asks for something? Can you turn down the HoS' request for ammo because you can't reach the captain and you're interpreting it as "and"? Not even for R&D purposes? If science has less incentive to make these things (because they never get to use them), then a lot less of them will be made. IMHO, make the CMO the sole authority on cloning. Make the RD the sole authority on genetic research. Having them share joint authority just sets up conflict when they don't agree. Or, better yet, just make Genetics a solely science job, and give the doctors authority over cloning. They already do 90% of the cloning anyway, and pretending that genetics is a joint department when its staff spend >90% of their time doing science is a obvious fiction. The only thing medical that genetics does is clone people - and not only do they not usually do that, doctors could frankly use the extra work to do officially, seeing as they're usually the ones doing it anyway. Why? So people can break in and quickly hulk themselves with notes the geneticist was forced to keep? That does not sound like a best practice at all. If the Geneticist wanted to keep notes for others' benefit, he already would. If he doesn't want to, this rule won't force him to. He can keep his notes in his head, write them in a format only he understands, etc, any of which would make the notes useless to anyone else. Why does anyone even care to look at a Geneticist's notes, given that any powers they develop can be reset with a syringe gun and a few units of mutadone, regardless of what they are? You don't need notes to reset powers. Telesci/Xenoarch Realistically, I don't think there is much chance of either of these jobs coming back. When/if they do, I will happily eat my words, but in the meantime I don't see the point in having 100% unnecessary extra words in the SOP document which is already going to reach godzilla-sized proportions. The word "and" there is quite important. It means the RD can say no to a HONK mech even if the captain says yes. In practice, this means that unless either: A) The captain and RD both agree on making the HONK mech (unlikely) or B) The captain wants a HONK mech so badly they're prepared to fire the RD if they don't say yes to it (unlikely) - that no HONK mechs will be made. RIP HONK mechs. I shed no tears for their loss. If you don't regularly play science, it might be worth pinging the regular science players you see, and see what they think of this new proposed SOP.

As written currently, there are two different types of terror spider infestation. The first kind is a major event, like blob/xenos/etc that can happen late in the round. Here, some of the spawned spiders can generate new spiders by interacting with crew. However, they can't grow unless they can interact with crew. The second is queen-based. Basically the queen spawns, finds a nest spot, makes a nest and starts spawning spiders at regular intervals, until she is killed or the station is evacuated. This is intended to be more of its own game mode than a random event, because if left alone the queen's brood will definitely overrun the station. Either one has the potential to whelp, loldestroy, or everything in between, just as any random event does. That said: 1) In the first case, this isn't such an issue, because its a major event that happens at the end of a round. Shuttle was going to arrive soon anyway. Also, the spread of the spiders is directly determined by how the crew interacts with them - a crew which behaves stupidly is going to have a much shorter life expectancy than a smart crew. 2) In the second case, there are actually several mechanisms built into the queen's AI specifically to stop her being zerg rushed and killed 30 seconds into the round, as wizards and blobs often are. She will destroy lights and cameras nearby when she starts nesting, so AI can't track her and crew can't normally see her since she lives in the dark. She will put up defensive webs, to stop people scouting her area. The first spider eggs she lays are always praetorian guard spiders, so she has some defense early on against a quick zerg rush by the crew. I am debating giving her AI which means she will only nest in out-of-the-way places - crew should really never find her nest early on, crew should have to look for it, and when they do find it, it should have defenses. It will still be possible to single her out and kill her... but I am trying to prevent her dying in 60 seconds because she spawned in the middle of medbay, as happens to blobs who spawn in the science server room. Also, important note: I love xenos too. These terror spiders are intended to be their own thing, NOT a replacement for xenos. They're intended to be different enough to xenos that they can stand as their own thing. I just wanted a lore explanation for their origins, their use of combat tactics, and a way to explain them by referencing what players already know and I can compare/contrast against. A lot of how they act was drawn from various kinds of real-life spider. The black spider, for example, isn't just called the giant black widow because I thought it would be cool (though, it is cool . She has a red hourglass on her abdomen, her bite causes vomiting, pain, trouble thinking/moving due to headache, muscle cramps, etc. The previous version of the Queen spider had her carrying her young on her back, like the Wolf spider does in RL.

What is it about xenos you don't like? What is it about xenos you like? Or are you just saying they need to be different from xenos? These things have many differences from xenos: They have a variety of attacks. Some, like the red, simply bite you to death. Some, like the black, want to poison you and watch you die from a distance. Some, like the white, have other things in mind for you. Some, like the queen, don't want to fight you at all. Some, like the praetorian, just want you out of the nest. Unlike xenos, whose attack pattern is always disarm-facehug-drag, each of these types has its own thing. Right now, they're all ai-controlled. If I enable player control of them, I am only going to do so for some classes (probably the attack classes) - because nobody wants the queen to do a suicidal attack in the first 60 seconds, or the guards to leave the nest and not be there when needed. Basically: enable player control only of the interesting roles, and leave the boring ones to AI. They don't have a "creep" mechanic, the xeno flooring, which buffs them in certain territory. Instead they spawn eggs, webs, etc, which hurt others rather than buff themselves. They don't use ranged attacks, like the xeno spit. I might add a range spitting spider in future, but it will be only one class - the rest don't use ranged attacks. They don't acid walls, though they do break glass. They spread out of vents, rather than from room to room. They're not designed to abduct crew. They'll bite, yes, but managing prisoners is not something they do. They're much more get-out-there-and-hunt then that. Their reproduction isn't based on killing people. It is possible for them to reproduce without serious harm to anyone. Their young don't "evolve" between classes like xenos do. Instead, spiderlings have a defined type when they're created (usually from queen's eggs) and they grow into that type. Sure, the queen can lay eggs of one type rather than another (and will, according to what the nest needs), but once a spiderling is born a red spiderling, it will always grow into a red spider.

The above is all IC. The OOC version is: I've long been disappointed with current space spiders for being both unrobust and not particularly spider-like. So, I'm coding new kinds of spiders, called Terror Spiders, which have the following attributes: Much more dangerous than regular spiders. Designed in such a way that they reward thinking, tactics, strategy, and appropriate gear selection - but will wreck anyone who decides to try to take them on in melee. (realistically, its a giant, venomous, 8-legged bioweapon, wtf are you thinking trying to melee it?) Cannot be ignored - if you ignore these they will breed, and ultimately take over the station. Open up new gameplay options, such as extracting the Black Widow venom for traitor use, or providing new ways to use existing items. Ideally, I'd like to make them playable, either as mini-antags (the first three) or a full blown game mode (with the queen infesting the station rather like a blob or xeno queen does). AI that is worth a damn. They should choose their attacks and targets tactically, flee when necessary, remember friends and foes and treat them accordingly, etc. Right now, I'm testing them locally (yes, I've written most of the code for them already). I'll probably put up the code soon so others can test them. In the meantime, I am looking for ideas. What cool ideas do you have for spider types, or spider-related things? What sort of questions would you ask if these things were added? I want these things to be fun to play as, and with, but I also want them to be challenging. They're an infestation, like blob or xenos, which could be a random event and/or its own round type. Getting them to be both is going to be tricky, but that's what I am shooting for.

We've been getting scattered reports of new kinds of space spiders terrorizing NT and Syndicate outposts. These spiders are thought to be the result of a Syndicate bioweapons project involving crossbreeding space spiders with xenomorphs. The experiment went horribly wrong, the Terrors breached containment, and are now loose, with an instinct and ability to kill far beyond that of normal spiders. From the scattered reports, we have been able to identify five types, henceforth classified the "Terror Spiders" due to their effects on NT crew. They are, in ascending order of lethality: 1) The Red Terror Spider Also known as the "Crimson Terror" and "Bloody Butcher" spider, this is a juggernaut of a spider. A weaponized version of the familiar red-eyed guard spider, this monstrosity has nasty, big, pointy fangs, and a vicious streak a mile wide. It moves slowly, but don't be fooled - its bite rends through flesh, bone, even armor as if it were paper. No humanoid has ever survived melee combat with it. It is not the smartest of the terror spiders, and it moves slowly, but woe to anyone who gets within reach of its jaws. 2) The Giant Black Widow Spider Also known as the "Black Devil" and "Shadow Terror" spider, this is a tricky spider. Thought to be the results of experiments to weaponize hunter spiders by endowing them with venom derived from syndicate scientists, and intelligence from captured xenomorphs, these spiders produce an incredibly deadly neurotoxin that has effects similar to Tabun. Unlike Tabun, however, it scales with the amount of venom in you, thus multiple bites lead to fatality in under a minute. This spider is sly, moving quickly to strike and inject its venom, then retreating, relying on its potent venom to finish off its prey. It is also known to hunt aggressively - using vents to travel throughout the station to seek vulnerable targets. It is known to switch targets mid-fight, to hide in dark areas where its black coloring gives it a natural advantage, and to generally display tactical awareness. 3) The White Death Spider Also known as the "White Terror" and "Ghostly Nightmare" spider, this creature is perhaps the most deadly of the three basic types. Its speed is unknown. Its size is unknown. Its appearance is unknown - though it is rumored to be deceptive. It is the unholy offspring of spiders, xenomorphs and nightmares. Never engage this spider in melee. Your only chance, if you cannot shoot it from afar, is to hide and pray it does not find you. Just one of these spiders is believed to have resulted in the death of the entire crew aboard Syndicate Weapons Research Outpost Gamma-4. The only thing known about it for certain from the fragments of Syndicate data we have recovered, is the fact its attack is absolutely horrific. Worse even than the Black Widow's, it was termed "the most evil, insidious, downright horrifying way to go I've ever seen" by a leading Syndicate chemical researcher, shortly before contact with their outpost was lost. The only records we did recover revealed that its attack is very difficult to treat, medically. In addition to being the most deadly, it is also known to be the smartest of the three standard types, being known to adapt its attack based on its target, to flee when tactically appropriate, and to influence the behavior of the other types. Any sightings of this beast should be reported to your command staff immediately. 4) The Praetorian Spider Also known as the "Violet Terror", this spider is believed to be an offshoot of the Red Terror, specifically adjusted to serve as a guard for spider nests. While Red Terrors will wander far and wide in search of prey, this spider will not. It stays close to the nest it was born in, protecting the spiderlings until they grow and are ready to hunt for themselves. This kind of spider is very rare - no more than two have ever been seen on the same station, and even then, only in the presence of a Queen Spider. 5) The Terror Queen Spider Undeniably the most deadly of all the five types, this spider is classified as a level 5 biohazard by NT, similar to a blob or xenomorphs in terms of threat level. Initially, it is harmless, avoiding people and seeking a quiet, isolated area to build its nest. Once it finds such an area, however, it behaves much like a queen xenomorph, fortifying the area, and laying eggs. These eggs hatch into Terror Spiders. The newly hatched spiders' first instinct is to hunt for food - which they do by using vents to track down and kill isolated crew members. Once enough eggs have hatched that the queen is confident of her brood's strength, she deploys a pheromone throughout the ventilation systems, one which causes all other spiders to become incredibly aggressive, actively seeking out any non-spider life on the station in order to exterminate it. She is dedicated to egg-laying rather than combat, but she is always accompanied by at least one Praetorian to act as a guard for her nests. NT intelligence reminds its employees that these things are called TERROR spiders for a reason. If you attempt to greytide them, you will die, and serve as a cautionary tale for others. An armed response by station security, preferably with laser rifles, is required to deal with these monsters. Report any sightings immediately, and remember, stay vigilant!

IMHO, here is what you should/shouldn't distribute as medchemist: 0) ACTIVE PURE CHEMICALS: Don't distribute these at all, with the following exceptions: ONLY give Radium to the virologist (if he asks, there is probably a virus, so consider it your top priority!) or people you'd trust to try to cure a virus. Put this in someone with a virus, and they'll take lots of toxin but probably cure the virus in that person. This will result in their death unless you also give them potassium iodine and/or throw them into cryo at a moment's notice. ONLY give Sulphuric Acid to robotocists/scientists (even then, they should get it from scichem if they can). ALWAYS give people iron pills if they ask - but make note of anyone who asks. Iron restores blood levels. It is useful to bleeding victims, and to you yourself if you use a syringe to extract your own blood for the purpose of making synthflesh. No more do you need to ask for monkeys! However... iron is also extremely useful to people deliberately donating blood to vampires, which happens surprisingly often. If vampires are reported, and people are asking for iron pills, that's very suspicious. 1) COMPONENTS: Don't distribute these at all, with the following exceptions: ONLY give Ammonia or Diethylamine to botanists, and other people growing plants. ONLY give Sulphuric Acid to robotocists/scientists (even then, they should get it from scichem if they can - asking you is lazy). 2) CORE HEALING MEDICINES: ALWAYS give these to anyone who asks. They save lives, and can't be used for anything bad. As chemist I usually leave a bunch of 45u saline pills in the medbay lobby - a single one heals most injuries. You can also give them to Sec, who take them before fights for much improved robustness with no downside. 3) SUPERIOR HEALING MEDICINES / UNIQUE HEALING MEDICINES: ONLY give these to patients who need them, other medbay staff, and the medical fridge. It is very possible for incorrect use of these to be harmful. Omnizine, Morphine, Ether and Strange Reagent deserve extra caution. Omnizine heals very effectively below the OD threshold, but above that it KILLS very effectively. Morphine and Ether are often used for sedation/kidnapping. Strange reagent is capable of gibbing corpses when used incorrectly, which renders the victim much harder to revive. Be wary. 4) NARCOTICS NEVER make these. If you use or distribute them, that's a crime under space law. If someone you give them to overdoses/suffers, that's arguably negligence on your part, a further crime. More generally, meth is often used by criminals to escape/resist security, and security will come down hard on you if you distribute it. 5) PYROTECHNICS NEVER distribute these. They're only useful for making things explode and/or die and/or catch fire. Medbay has no use for them. Generally only traitors intent on causing chaos ask for them. The only people who should have these are scientists, and they should be making them in scichem, not asking for them from medchem. 6) FOOD RECIPIES Despite playing chemist regularly, nobody has ever asked me for these. 6) TOXINS NEVER distribute these. Their only purpose is killing people. All of them are dangerous, but Tabun, Formaldehyde, Neurotoxin, Cyanide and Capulettium / Capulettium Plus deserve special mention as being especially dangerous, due to their killing, silencing and stunning potential. Even a single syringe (15u) of Tabun can kill someone, and even 5u of Capulettium is enough to determine the outcome of a fight. 7) OTHER RECIPIES In general, ONLY distribute these to someone who has a good reason to need them. "HONK!" is NEVER a good reason. Worth particular mention are: NEVER give anyone space-lube, especially the clown/mime. This stuff is so ridiculously effective in combat, I am surprised it is not classified as a chemical weapon! I have personally seen entire nuclear strike teams taken out by medbay staff wielding this! NEVER give anyone FluroSulphuric Acid. Its most common use is throwing on someone in order to burn their face/skin off - or destroy forensic evidence. Either way, very bad. NEVER give anyone Condensed Capsaicin. It is pepperspray - a weapon. Sec can get their own from their brig dispenser. NEVER even mix "EMP". It shuts off your headset, screws up equipment (including cameras and doors, yes, including your doors!) and is a right pain in the ass to deal with. ONLY give metal foam in grenade form, and even then, only to people like engineers whose job it is to plug breaches. Expect them not to actually use it when it would help, even when they specifically asked for it. ALWAYS offer to give the Janitor Space Cleaner. It allows them to clean without slipping anyone or having to put up signs. It is a miracle in a bottle. The only reason Janitors don't use it is that they are grumpy assholes who WANT their crewmates to be miserable. ONLY give out thermite if the AI is malf and people have to breach its core to save the station. Thermite's primary use is in quickly destroying reinforced walls and breaking into maximum security areas faster than anyone can react. Be especially wary of mimes who ask for this - any mime asking for thermite has >50% chance of committing a capital crime in the next 5 minutes. ONLY give Unstable Mutagen to botany. Anyone else who asks doesn't need it and is probably going to hurt someone with it. ALWAYS give holy water to anyone who asks. You will need wine from the bar to make it, but it is very useful against antags, and super-easy to make. It only shows up as "Water", so be sure to separate it from normal water. NEVER give Colorful Reagent to anyone. It turns SS13 into an episode of MLP. Hideous. NEVER give "Life" to anyone. High chance of it leading to people dying. 8) OTHER ITEMS NEVER give anyone the medbay's syringe guns. It is classified as a weapon for a reason. Chemists and the CMO are really the only people who have any business carrying it, and both of those two jobs can pick one up from storage if they want. Anyone else, probably wants it for nefarious reasons. ONLY give out other medbay items if the situation seems to really need it. The assistant does not deserve to get that medical HUD when there are doctors who still haven't found one. If medbay is almost unstaffed, though, maybe it is time to give someone who hangs out in the bar a healing kit. You can't be everywhere. Lots of people dying of toxins, with no doctors around? Maybe time to start handing out toxins kits. Be careful, though - other people can't be trusted not to run off with vital supplies, and non-medbay staff can't even be trusted not to waste a whole toxins kit healing 5 points of toxin damage because "I gave it 5 seconds and I still felt sick!" MISC: CYROMIX: It is a VERY good idea to mix cryoxadone and mannitol in a 40/60 ratio in cryotubes. It makes the cryox last long, and it ensures people in cryo have their brain damage healed as well. If hulks/etc are on the rampage, it can even be a good idea to use a 40/50/10 cryox/mannitol/mutadone mix. SELF-DEFENSE: In general, you shouldn't need it. You're right in the middle of the station, in a highly-visible area right next to the bar. If you're blown up, people will notice and clone you quickly. If you're attacked, people will see it. If someone is breaking in, merely radioing "; breaking into medbay chemistry!" will usually have sec on their ass in seconds - sec really hates antags with chem weapons/bombs/etc. If, however, the situation has gone to absolute shit, its code red, cult everywhere, etc, and you're fighting for your life, there is one very simple thing you can do which will get you out of >80% of most fights: load up one of the medbay syringe guns with neurotoxin syringes. NOT the chemical neurotoxin. This is a different neurotoxin - you get this by mixing ether (which you mix) with Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster (a bar drink). Mix the two together to get "Neurotoxin". 5u of this in a syringe in a syringe gun is an instant stun, much like a taser. Great defensive weapon - just don't shoot someone with a bunch of 15u syringes of it, because that could be harmful. EDIT: Bartender Exceptions: I have been told by an experienced bartender, that sometimes bartenders want: iron (for the drinks Amasec and Beepsky Smash) sulphuric acid (for the drink Acid Spit and the food Diona Roast) ether (for "Neurotoxin", different to chem neurotoxin, an extremely strong drink and stunning agent) epinephrine (for "Suicider", a drink) radium (for "Singulo", a drink) blood (in a syringe, for Demons Blood, Devil's Kiss, and Red Mead, all drinks) silver (for Patron, a drink)

Are you imagining something like this? http://www.tiikoni.com/tis/view/?id=9ab2d88 A big room designed for things like a second engine, or other major construction on-station? What exactly would you build there? I'm curious. Usually when I am CE I only bother building small hidden rooms. There's already a construction room next to the drone control unit in north eng. What would be big enough that it would really take all that space, except perhaps a second engine?

Ideas: Delete everything about the recruiter. Doesn't exist anymore. Delete the bit about asking for a custom title. Most custom titles are terrible, and people should not be encouraged to use them. Even bringing up that they exist is unwise. Divide the rest into the three reasons people play assistant: new players, greytide, and casual RP. For new players, add info about how to do basic things, links to help pages, and info on how to find a department who would like a helper. For greytiders, add a section on how to greytide responsibly. This would include how to acquire items without theft (maint, asking, etc), how to stay on the right side of sec, how to make autism forts in maint, guidelines for vigilantism, etc. For RPers, give tips as to public areas they can RP in. Bar, civil sector in general, acting surprised when you see xenos in maint, etc.

I wish we could be automatically listed whenever pop <40, and unlisted otherwise. I know it isn't possible, but I can dream.

I would favor simply deleting E-N. Of all the shifts I have played in science (most of them, probably) he has been nothing but an annoyance. He screws up your movement in robotics, his sparking always makes you wonder what is making that goddam annoying noise, and I have never seen him be useful in any way. He's not even cute, like Runtime, confined to a case (like Lamarr), or even limited to a seldom-used office (like Araneus or Lamarr). Instead he's a useless, annoying creature in the middle of a small but frequently used sub-department. A monkey mascot for science seems like videogame cruelty potential. Have you *seen* how monkies are treated in science? Hint: science has space cleaner for a reason. Also, monkies are common as dirt. Science deserves a theme-appropriate, non-annoying pet. A white lab mouse, for example. Thematic, not annoying (it cannot push you because it is too small, it doesn't make loud/annoying sounds) and cannot be confused with the lab testing animals. Plus, when you eliminate dogs and cats, what else is there which is small, fuzzy and cute? Mice are one of the surprisingly few options. Give him a tiny labcoat on his sprite and call him Dr. Cheeses. Or, if you want to give him a serious name, "Nano".

Yes. Please outright remove the gamemode and replace it with something else. This mode is only fun for the vox/command staff. To everyone else, it is just like a very short extended round, where nothing happens but the shift suddenly ends with no warning at an unknown and unpredictable point. They're fine as a short early-round event, but not as a gamemode. As an event they may need some tweaks to account for the fact they might show up later in the round (thus, they arguably deserve better gear, they're underpowered now and would only get more so if they showed up halfway-through the round). Personally I would love to see their mode replaced by TG's abductor mode, rather than another trade'n'raid gamemode. Ultimately, trade'n'raid gamemodes are very hard to balance. People will try to figure out which approach is optional, and always go for that. If they have enough weapons/armor to raid, they almost certainly will, because it is faster, more fun, and entirely within their control (trade is heavily dependent on the RPing of the captain that round). If they don't have enough weapons/armor to raid, they're forced to trade - but that just collapses into the same un-fun situation the vox traders were in. If we want to do a replacement gamemode that isn't TG abductor, it would be better to ditch the trade aspect and just do the raid aspect. Since I still hope we will add TG abductor at some future point, and TG abductor is focused on stealing crew, the Wryn Raider (or whatever you would call it) mode should probably be focused on something other than crew - like theft of objects. Sometimes those objects could be unique items on the station (drive conflict, see if the cap will give up his laser gun...), sometimes they'll be special Wryn objects seeded on the station for the Wryn to collect (ie: an excuse for the Wryn to split up and explore the station, or to claim they need to go around interacting with the crew rather than just spending all shift in the heads' meeting room). Either way, it should be possible to make some more interesting objectives/gameplay with object acquisition objectives, while leaving the crew acquisition objectives to be the abductors' thing for when the TG abductor mode is ported.

I see two issues with this page. 1) Too much text telling you *what* something is, but barely any text telling you *how* to get maximum value out of the thing. Examples: Example, "Security Belt" This contains a seclite by default. You can attach that seclite to your starting taser, and turn the resulting gunlight on via right-click. Placing your taser in your suit storage slot keeps it accessible and means you have a permanently-active flashlight, whilst only taking one slot. Many officers use their security belts for storing extra handcuffs/zipties. Example, "Portable Flasher" It is a very bad idea to deploy these unless they are really needed, because (1) It is against SOP to deploy them at all on code green. (2) They will stun borgs in their AOE, including sec borgs, meaning they can do more harm then good in situations where you're relying on sec borgs. (3) They will burn out from repeated use, meaning if you overuse them they may not be available when you really need them. (4) Their main use is area denial to invaders, but deployable barriers against the sec/maint doors are better for this, because unlike portable flashers, trespassers can't simply walk past them. Example, "Ion Rifle": This is an extremely dangerous weapon. In addition to being able to one-shot IPCs, it does severe damage against borgs, disables cameras, can bolt/electrify doors, shuts off radio headsets, and does extreme damage to organics who have robotic limbs, often causing these limbs to explode and potentially cripple/kill their owner in the process. The best way to disarm someone. Its main use is taking down mechs produced by rogue robotocists, and very rarely, a syndicate nuclear strike team's assault borg. It can also be used to deplete an opponent's energy weapons as the first move in a fight, enabling you to take them out more easily. Since NT generally uses energy weapons, and the syndicate/etc generally don't, this is of limited usefulness because it is a weapon that is generally far more effective against fellow crew (who have energy weapons) and their creations than our listed enemies (who don't). It is also very visually distinctive, and something many traitors would like to have. Taking it out of the brig without good reason is probably a bad idea - friendly fire is a serious issues with this weapon, and if stolen it can hurt security a great deal. Another, "BulletProof Vest": Excellent for security officers to wear during large-scale syndicate assaults, such as nuke op invasions, as they tend to use projectile weapons almost exclusively. It is of limited use against fellow NT personnel, or anyone else wielding energy weapons. Lastly, "Combat Shotgun": This is a rare, NT-issue projectile weapon. It can have good damage, depending on ammo type, but you must get used to reloading to use it effectively. Its main uses are against enemies that must close to melee range to be effective, such as spiders and zombies. It is possibly the best NT-issued weapon to use against syndicate nuke ops teams, because they tend to reflect normal energy-based weapons using their energy shields. 2) There are some bits that are simply incorrect. Example: Energy Gun "The combination of a taser and a laser gun, just click to alternate between a killing laser and a stunning taser; they default to stun." No. They alternate between laser gun and DISABLER. Disabler and taser are different things. The difference can be quite significant - tasers are instant stuns but they do not pass glass walls - disablers take several shorts but will go through non-opaque materials. Confusing the two is not helpful.

I'm very much against removing the NT rep's authority to swipe for red/ERT. As the rep for CC, the SOP expert, and probably the least well-equipped / in-demand person with a swiper, he is arguably the ideal person to be doing these swipes. This is especially true for ERTs - an ERT request is one of the most important messages a command crew can send to CC, and to lock the NT rep, whose responsibilities include CC communication, out of this very important communication channel seems very silly. Portable swiping stations aren't necessary. Getting to a swiper is pretty easy already. Also, stationary swipers encourage heads to retreat to a safe place to swipe, rather than just standing there in the hallway trying to do it. Swiping should be semi-hard to do, but also taken with the utmost seriousness when it does happen. Also, personally, I love the blue flash the stationary swipers make. Usually you have to bug people several times to swipe before you manage to do it at the same time. I don't think increasing the swipe duration would change this much. IMHO, when an ERT swipe is successful, there should be a Priority Announcement to the whole crew, along with the sound effect, to announce the ERT request. Something like: "Priority Announcement An Emergency Response Team has been requested for the Cyberiad by [key_name(event_triggered_by)], and the request seconded by [key_name(event_confirmed_by)]. This ERT was requested for the reason: " + ert_reason Admins should really respond to every ERT request, too, even if the answer is: "Priority Announcement The ERT request by the Cyberiad command crew has been rejected. ERTs are sent only for serious external threats to a station, such as a blob, xeno outbreak, nuke ops incursion, hostile takeover of the station, or other threat of external origin which is beyond the manpower of the current crew to handle. ERTs are not sent for minor threats such as the odd explosion, murder or other events that your staff is expected to handle themselves." Or (if the admins fail to send a yes/no in a timely manner): "No reply received from CC regarding your ERT request. Signal may be jammed. Please try again in X minutes." However you cut it, ERT requests, IMHO, should be treated a lot more seriously than they currently are. Requesting an ERT for a stupid reason should get a response from CC that explains that is not an acceptable reason for calling an ERT, and outlining a list of other acceptable/unacceptable reasons for doing so. Requesting an ERT for any serious reason should ALWAYS get a response, even if the response is "You can handle this by yourselves".

IMHO, there are several issues with perma: 1) Gameplay wise, it is the least fun of the three capital crime sentences (the other two being borging, which keeps you in the round, and observing, which at least if you're being removed from the round lets you see how it is going). It is also the default sentence, both for capital crimes (it is the only one that doesn't require captain-level authorization) and for massive accumulation of brig time. This is kinda messed up - we should be trying to keep people in the round, not leave them to rot in perma. 2) Because it is the least fun, it has a hugely high suicide / escape attempt rate, which further makes sec officers hate it. Why bother jailing someone when they're probably going to go SSD / suicide / try to escape as soon as they're jailed, because they have nothing better to do? Borging (for example) would be better. 3) It is super-isolated, with almost no chance of seeing visitors, or really anyone except the odd sec officer. In RL, even people with life in prison are allowed visitors sometimes. Personally, here is what I'd like to do to fix issues with perma: 1) Create a 'phone room' - a semi-public room in sec that has intercomms linked to the perma prison (and nowhere else) which prisoners can use (with sec approval) to talk with visitors. Sec could use it to interrogate from a safe distance, sec could listen in to prisoner/visitor calls to get intel, etc. RP opportunities. 2) Redesign perma such that there are things prisoners can do there, be it playing arcade games, doing basic botany, or whatnot. There is still an isolation room for people who have to be absolutely confined - but I don't think most perma prisoners are like that. This is actually in sec/NT's best interests - more distractions means fewer suicides, escape attempts, etc. Giving perma prisoners something to do isn't to be nice to them ICly, it is to keep sec / the station happy ICly and everyone happy OOCly. 3) Place some roburgers (or an item with equivalent mechanic) in the execution room. A prisoner who voluntarily eats one would turn into a borg. They'd be scripted such that force-feeding them to someone was impossible. The idea is that if prisoner is going to be sentenced to perma, they can instead ask to eat a roburger and be left in isolation until they turn. This is better for them (more gameplay options), better for sec (no chance of escape/reoffending) and better for the station (they now have a new borg helper). Perhaps these borgs could have a slightly more restrictive special lawset, to ensure that asking sec for one of these roburgers did not become the preferred way to self-borg. 4) Have the 'prisoner transfer shuttle' actually transfer prisoners. IE: lore-wise, send them back to NT and get replacement crew instead. In-game, send them off-map then gib their body and return them to the new player screen, letting them rejoin as a different (perhaps random?) character. That way their character is permanently removed, but their player is not. Great way for sec to reward players who give interesting RP while being captured, etc, while still ICly giving them a suitable punishment for their crimes. 5) Fix the labor camp. It is broken, and used by no-one (except sometimes antags). Ideally, it would be easier for sec to control (ie: prevent break-outs), harder for prisoners to accidentally kill themselves (or be killed by monsters) in, and actually work to effectively release prisoners who compensate with their crimes using labor. 6) Create a safer form of 'supervised release' in between timed brigging and perma. Basically, parole. Parole implants would be like tracking implants, except that people with them have to revisit security and be approved by a sec officer every 20 minutes or so. Failure to do this in time causes the parole implant to broadcast, every 5 minutes or so, the parolee's location over sec radio, and/or act like a tracking implant, and/or incap them like a chem implant full of ether. Oh, and they issue an alarm if removed. Basically, they are very good at controlling a character, and can be used as an alternative sentence for co-operative criminals - or to let some reformed perma prisoners out on parole in certain conditions. Heck, you could create a new karma job, "Parole Officer" whose job it is to manage parolees. This would require quite some balancing (all of the above ideas would be OP together, but maybe some combination would work). Still, if done right, maybe it could create interesting new RP opportunities for both prisoners and sec.

To the best of my knowledge, the RD, not the CMO, is in charge of genetic research, including authorizing (or not) the distribution of powers. Conversely, the CMO is in charge of cloning. The wiki is inconsistent on this point, but whenever I have asked for clarification, this is what I have been told. I play RD a fair bit. Here's how I handle genetics when I am RD: Make sure they get a medibot at roundstart to treat toxin damage and ensure faster research. Make sure their equipment is upgraded when we get maxed R&D and bluespace RPED. Especially make sure their cloner is upgraded to enable autoprocess, and that if medical is completely clueless, at least genetics can get synthmeat from science so people can be cloned. Also, prescan myself and yell at all other heads to prescan themselves too. Ask for xray/leap when it is available (so useful, you'd be crazy not to). Tell them exactly who they can give powers to (usually sec/command only). If I have reason to not trust the genetecists I will list the specific powers they may distribute to sec/command (usually leap/xray). If I trust them, I will assume they know that giving out, for example, incindiary mitochondria, morph, etc are terrible ideas. If they hand out powers against my orders, I will have them demoted back to assistant. This includes confiscation of all their genetics gear, SEs and science radio key, as well as giving them a shot of mutadone. I won't try to arrest them myself (not RD's job, really) but I will pester sec to do it until they do it. If I notice they are breaking walls with hulk, hitting people with TK'ed objects, or otherwise being a pain with their powers, I will make a mutadone Rapid Syringe Gun or two for sec, along with explicit approval to strip powers from anyone misusing them, and a statement that if they catch any genetecist doing so they should ask me whether I want them demoted for it, because the answer is probably yes. If they tell me powers are ready, I will make an announcement to sec/command to come over and get them.

Sounds like a good idea.

I agree that the CE's RCD should be unique. Possible steal objectives: HoS' laser gun is unique, and spawns in his locker. RD's teleport armor is unique, and spawns in his locker. Cap's gun is unique, and spawns in a locked, alarmed case in his office. AI is (usually) unique, and spawns in the AI minisat, arguably the most secure place on the whole station. Hand tele is not unique, but there are only two, one in the captain's office, and one in the tele room. Jetpack is not unique, but they are located in EVA, which is a secure yet highly visible room with a motion alarm. The CMO's defib is unique, spawned in their locker, and usually carried on their person for most of the round. The CE's magboots are unique, and almost always worn by the CE. The CE's blueprints are unique, and stored in his locker. The NASA voidsuit is not unique, but they are bulky, obvious, and stored on telecomms. The slime extract is not unique, but they are stored in xenobio. The captain's medal is unique, and stored in a locked box, in his office. The captain's nuclear disk is unique, usually stored on his person. The secret documents are in the vault, usually accessible to nobody without AI intervention or very obvious hacking. The hypospray is unique, spawning in the CMO's locker, and usually carried by them. The ablative armor is unique, and stored in the secure armory. Of the 16 items, 12/16 are unique, 2/16 there are only two of (hand tele / NASA suit), and the remaining 2 are in areas it is very easy to be caught breaking into (jetpack/EVA and slime/xenobio). Additionally, most of the 16 are in some sort of locked container (locker, case, whatever), not left out in the open. The normal RCD is not unique, it is not in a locked case, and it is easily printed by multiple departments (cargo and science). Heck, you can probably get one just by asking the QM, a scientist, etc. Arguably, it is by far the easiest theft objective to obtain. Making it more in line with the rest of the objectives would require making it unique (e.g: advanced RCD), and likely moving it to the CE's locker, where the blueprints already are. I also agree that the CE getting the advanced RCD would be nice for construction purposes. It would be rather like the other heads' unique items - unique and useful for their job. I don't think it is necessary for the advanced RCD to be able to configure airlock access, but I do think it would be neat if it was: An advanced RCD, instead of a normal RCD, making it unique. Stored in his locker, or at the very least a locked container, like the majority of other head items. Preloaded to full capacity (because nobody wants to load all the cartridges in one by one!) CEs don't generally do large scale construction, possibly due to how tedious it is relative to the short round length. Perhaps that's the best argument for this - it would enable eng to do larger-scale construction projects not previously possible.

v2 Screenshot: Changes in this version: Added an additional cell in the bottom right. This increases capacity to 3 solo cells plus another 1-2 can be put in the top right area (which I am adding chairs to). Dropped down to one camera, from two. Dropped down to one set of vents/scrubbers, in the central area. I was concerned the previous setup might provide uneven pressure and/or potentially over-pressurize cells. Fixed placement of light switch, door alarm, and fire alarms. Removed the stupid poster. This room is designed to replace the main processing area for most prisoners, enabling them to be processed while somewhat split up, and with a timer to prevent them being held forever with no charges being filed. It is not intended to be a place to mass-brig people after riots. It can handle, I'd say, 3-6 or so people brigged that way, but if you want to brig a large number of people for a very short time all at once, I'd want to design a completely new room for that. Potential issues & opportunities for further improvement: Might replace the exit door with an exit chute, which would prevent prisoners from taking the lockers with them when they leave. Not essential, though. Might move the light on the left door so it isn't over the doorway. Might add a second set of shutters so that cells can be isolated from brig lobby. Currently, I lean against this. Would like to find a way to make the screens always rez on top of the grilles/glass. Might replace western walls with rwalls. Might add a garbage disposal unit to the room. Currently disinclined as there is one in the equipment room next door. Might replace some of the rglass windoors with rglass walls. Unsure if the loss of mobility would be offset by a gain in strength. I need to test whether the fire alarm works correctly in this setup. Might place a table with a basic medkit in this room, considering how often prisoners and/or officers come in injured.