alexpkeaton

2 MANY NEW ADMINS, WE'LL NEVER BREAK THE RECORD

Not bad, makes me feel inadequate (about armory stuff, not the space law stuff). I'd suggest removing free response entirely and adopting a multiple choice system for parts 2, 3 and 4 for expediency. Part 4 could be okay with a free response for minutes of sentence while having the option of selecting one or more crimes, some in space law, some made up. Ideally, you would want this test to be taken in 5 minutes or less, not a half hour. Despite its value, it won't be used unless it can be taken quickly. Something else that could be of value is adjusting/supplementing part 1 with a ranking system to force some tough choices. For example, on a scale from 1 to 6, where "1" is most important and "6" is least important, rank the following: My life My fellow officer's life The clown's life Following SoP Following Space Law Following orders Maybe a couple of free responses that could be valuable: Do you dislike any species in general? If so, explain. How do you feel about clowns?

People getting in and out of cargo easily... ...it's called disposals

ROFL 1 Jack Edwardson facepalm

3 I've never understood how DumnDumn counts as a player here

Simple suggestion here. Today, there was a round where the heads gathered in the courtroom to talk. Some one bombed the hell out of the meeting and chaos ensued. Now, I know what you may be thinking: A) "I remember that! I was in that round and just want to say..." B) "Bridge has a conference room for this very reason." So, let's try to avoid those in the interest of staying relevant. Regardless of the circumstances in one particular round, the demonstration of a bombing outside the courtroom proved how easy it might be for someone to get to a tribunal of three heads sitting in judgment against someone who could be a fellow antagonist. They sit right up against the hallway wall and could easily get ambushed by a device out of their view yet only a few tiles away. The exterior wall is not reinforced. This should be changed. And, in the event trouble is expected/occurs or the hearing is disrupted by one/many greyshirts, there should be blast doors available to heads/warden that seal off the hallway entrances. I know the courtroom will be rarely used, but I've already used it as Magistrate once and have seen others use it as well. It's the best part of the sec redesign to me (of course as a frequent IAA/Magistrate player I'm heavily biased here), and I think adding an extra layer of security here might be valuable.

I actually like this idea as sort of a pAI 2.0. To all those who say "we have mentors for that"- sure, but seeing what someone is doing and being able to make comments on it is a big deal, especially when something is complex or potentially dangerous. Plus, this can be a short-term way to return to the round. The only drawback I see is antags/validhunters teaming up to take advantage of the pop-in/pop-out nature of this to jump in from dchat to their buddies still alive so they can blab about who is an antag, or "sec's on to you", etc. Maybe that's just me being cynical, and of course anything close to that will get you permabanned.

Quoting from brainstorm thread to keep that thread on track: I think it's a great idea as long as it is an opt-in system. Perhaps "knowledge restrictions", "quirks" and "aspirations" could be separate categories one could select to receive random prompts from.

Done. http://nanotrasen.se/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8121

Respectfully, I think that is your opinion of the purpose of the role and it needlessly restricts RP here. I participate in processing much like staff defense counsel at an arraignment (see "Night Court"). It does not restrict resources, in fact my presence to participate in that role often has me ensuring that things are done more efficiently. Your opinion should not be forced upon the rest of the server. If I would like to act as a lawyer in that way, and it does not impact balance, I don't see why I should be prohibited from it. I'm not asking for a specific right for an IAA to be lawyers for the accused as some will obstruct the process, I'm only asking that this RP opportunity not be specifically excluded from the role. IAA is already mostly useless and it is a 100% RP role. Please do not restrict this opportunity to RP as a "lawyer" for accused criminals.

Re: (1) I have a problem with this. Let's face it. Trials never happen. I wish they would. But powergamers will silence the RPers every time, and the accused antags (guilty or not) will hang. So basically this says an IAA never gets to provide legal representation unless hell freezes over. As IAA, I like to hang out in processing and act as a legal advisor/counsel/advocate to whoever gets dragged in. Not be obstructive, but ensure justice is swift and fair. This line as I read it might strip me of that. Re: (3) "Impede" may mean different things to different people. For a comdom HoS or Warden, it may be "impeding" to simply be in the processing area observing. It's happened to me more than once. But, as I say above, I like to participate without being a bad influence on the process. I think it is fair to permit IA participation at processing in at least understanding the nature of any charges brought and having access to the accused in an unobstructive way during processing so that they can properly challenge improper things expediently through appropriate means.

Wait, this is a thing? If so, +1!

I can no longer claim to be a regular in the Paradise community, in fact, I can not even claim to be active on the server more than a couple of shifts every couple of weeks. Suffice it to say, great things happened in my life, and the cost of those things was giving up the time I spent playing here. That being said, I've lurked these forums several times a day lately. I miss Paradise, and I've been disappointed to see several threads bemoaning problems with the server/community, lower RP, stagnation, etc. I've contributed a few times in ways I hope were productive. Some people (full disclosure, I identify with this group) wish Paradise would embrace more RP, more restrictions on prior knowledge - job-related or antag-related. However, there is a history apparently with such restrictions (not a good one) and a genuinely-held reservation that enforcement of such restrictions might destroy the playerbase. So, here's my suggestion: create a list of random restrictions as well as quirks: for example, "your character knows nothing about vampires or cults", "your character holds no medical knowledge, he does not even know basic first aid", "your character is absolutely terrified of blood". Now, allow indiviudals to request a random "snowflake objective" if you will, during gameplay. Simply a prompt to provide an RP challenge to those who wish to give it a go. No punishment if you fail, in fact, no policing whatsoever by admins, just self-policing. This is simply to encourage an added layer of RP and fun. No greentext will be awarded atthe end of the round, but your objective and name will be published in the end-round report. Or, if the community prefers, no mention need be made at all. I think that this will cause people to try out a new level of RP. They might find they like it, they may find they hate it. But some will try it, and that would be a success in my book. I think the random nature of the objectives plus the possibility that the community will respond with a number of suggestions, interesting and bizarre, to add to the random list will add new dimensions to the community and the game. The gameplay, however, is 100% retained and the playerbase as well. Stories post-round of what some characters were handcuffed by will bring about new perspectives on the game, and people will be challeneged to play the game in ways they never have before, or at least never have since being a newer player. To me, this game is a game that is best when discovery is involved, and some regular players who have mastered everything surely have been getting diminishing returns in that regard. I look forward to my next shift with you all.

This notion by itself is a decent concept to consider. What if there is a high chance of tripping and dealing minor brute damage if you run in a completely dark area? Perhaps a 5% chance that tripping in the darkness will break a bone, and a 20% chance that tripping will knock you unconscious for 30 seconds, with a bleeding head wound and minor brain damage. Any trip would cause you to fall prone for 3-5 seconds. Tripping can be avoided by walking, or using lighting of some variety. Maybe not grues, but the notion of actually avoiding total darkness is a good one.

This event is what took Paradise from good to great for me. I was a new Captain, maybe my second shift. Val was my HoP. Orders came in from CC, I was ordered to marry a queen to come aboard imminently, for the sake of NT's agenda. When this order came in, my thought was to ahelp "no thanks, I'm uncomfortable with this" and cryo. I didn't feel comfortable RPing at a higher level than I had been. But I persisted. I called a meeting of the senior staff, told them that I was certainly not going to be forced into such a marriage, and if they didn't support that, I'd resign. I retained command. I gave an impassioned speech about the importance of freedom to choose. The NT Rep and I went back and forth. Johann showed up and was incredulous. I mobilized the station to fight CC over it. And then, as we were waiting for the death squad to show up, Val stepped forward, against my orders, and offered himself as a husband to the queen, to save the crew. I was in chains at the back of the Chapel as it happened screaming my protests. I had so much fun that round. That storyline would continue with Val's divorce later on. I made in-game friendships with Val and my BS that round, Kayala Guttieres, among others. All because I learned to be comfortable RPing at one notch higher. I think giving admins more creative license and more leeway for the inevitable mistakes is helpful to the community. For my part, I think Elysian is a master storyteller, and the thought and level of detail he puts into his events is incredible.

33 faxes sent to CC without any response

What if there was a round in the rotation that rewarded RP? And not Nations. There's no incentive there, no goal, unless it's actively adminbussed. Imagine how we could win over even the P2Wing shitlers if greentext was awarded based on RP alo... wait a second... I had a thought as I was typing that... What if... we had a roundtype where greentext WAS awarded by good roleplay alone? What if, in order to call the shuttle, all the crew has to do is to make a simple decision through voting on their PDA (and it reports who everyone voted for in the last round so you can campaign to those peopke). Something like: "vote for your next Captain" or "select a delegate to be sent to CC to help select the next NT CEO." And until a majority/supermajority/unanimous (I actually think unanimous would be great as people would be pulling their hair out to find X who keeps preventing the vote from passing) vote happens, either the station is crippled (PA console and/or comms console is locked down) and/or the shuttle cannot be called. It could even be a pointless vote: heads or tails, boxers or briefs. Vote either one, but the vote must be unanimous! Imagine the sense of accomplishment of getting 50 people to all vote for one thing, by convincing, or because they were set to arrest by the HoS for obstructing the vote and are in a cell with their PDA safely locked away as everyone else votes. It might be a stupid idea, but I think we might be thinking about this the wrong way - we can get the P2W base to work for us here... all we need is to give them a spoonful of greentext to make the RP medicine go down... (I get it, my idea as formulated doesn't really include any greentext, but it does create a goal to aspire to, achieveable by RP)

I think this is the right idea - higher level roleplay. Just a tick higher. And I wish validhunting could be killed dead. This could help. But here's the biggest problem: Officer A: Joe, stop a moment, we're at Blue and I am conducting random searches. Joe Antag: Okay. Officer A: (*searches backpack*) Why are you wearing that gasmask? Joe Antag: None of your damn business. Officer A: Right. Okay. (Officer B overhears) Officer B: Yeah, let me see that gasmask, anyway! (*Joe hands it over*) Officer B: Shit, this is a voice changer! LOOC: Officer A: Did you hear about the new rules, B? We're not supposed to know about stealthy traitor items. Here's a helpful link to the forums about it: link.com LOOC: Officer B: Yeah, I know all about it, and I think it's bullshit. I can know whatever the f#&$ I want! [security]: Officer B: HoS, got an EoC here, Joe Antag, bringing to processing now. LOOC: Officer A: Wait a sec... LOOC: Joe Antag: What a dick. [security] HoS: Nice. Good work, B. We'll be waiting. [security] Officer A: Hold on, HoS, I think that B might be mixed up ((He's clearly ignoring the new rule on limited knowledge, caught voice changer, ahelping now)) [security] Officer B: No mix up! [Common] Officer B: JOE ANTAG IS A TRAITOR, HE HAS A VOICE CHANGER! *bwoink* Okay. Stop. Sure, B gets the hammer. That's the easy part. The hard part is, how do you enforce this rule when any one person who A) doesn't read the rules or B) reads them but who, like Officer B, doesn't give a shit could give away the farm in one sentence over comms? And when that happens, what do you do? As sec? As admins? It's hard to put the toothpaste back into the tube. You could let Joe go, but everyone will know that he's a traitor, he won't be able to get away with anything. Joe's round just got ruined. After thinking about this, I honestly do think we should put this into action. There will be plenty of slipups like above. 90% will be unwitting, people who didn't inform themselves or forgot about it. It will take time and there will be a lot of bitching and moaning. And to that, I say, hold fast and sharpen your hammers, admins. Because this sort of rule will take time to implement, but in the process the players we really don't want here, the ones unwilling to budge, will be filtered out in the end. They will either leave on their own or will face the hammer. Change isn't easy. And for a higher level of roleplay there needs to be conditions on knowledge of some sort. It will be tough to implement and tough to begin to enforce, but it will be that way regardless of what condition you set. So bite the bullet and do it. Just have a plan for how to handle what to do for the antag whose round got ruined because someone spilled the beans. My suggestion: respawn them in 5 minutes as a different antag, or give them an antag token.

I haven't played that much lately, and I am woefully inadequate at any of the jobs starboard of the bridge. Supply and command or IAA are my stomping ground. Points east make me nervous. That said, as Captain, I love to encourage these crewmembers to aspire to something greater than what they are handed on a silver platter at the start of the shift. I once encouraged a CE to make a supermatter engine, unfortunately a minor design flaw wrecked everything, put the CE in crit and then dusted me when I rescued the CE and went back to secure the supermatter. Unfortunately, the crew proceeded to lynch the CE for conducting such a dangerous enterprise aboard their station, and also unfortunately the Captain was MIA to tell everyone to calm the f down because he sanctioned the whole thing. When the xenos organs update was handed down, I worked with science and medical to obtain a xeno queen and harvest its organs for surgical purposes. I've encouraged the use of the EXPERIMENTOR to raise tech levels. I am not sure the problem is with the lack of complexity, but perhaps more the resistance that is had when someone tries something new or unorthodox. While I didn't get lynched in game for it (got lynched in dchat instead), once I handed out all-access to all crew during a nations round. There was a method to my madness, the notion of a sunshine act. Let the sun shine on the departments that typically close themselves off to the world - force them to communicate and trust one another, else a department with too much power or secrecy be lynched by the rest of the crew. There were flaws in my logic and execution, but it amazed me how resistent everyone was to a new or different idea. Captain during a nuke ops round where war was declared. I commandeered the paramedic's ambulance because it could move fast and scramble the ops team's pinpointer. But the warden thought me a fool and started a mutiny by ordering my arrest. I was dragging the mime along with me and actually gave him the disk - if shit happened and I fell, the pinpointer would point at both of us and no one wold think I gave it to the mime. The mime turned out to be an admin who actually thought my plan had merit, he would tell me later. But with sec revolting, I tried to keep the battle on just one front - the real bad guys - and handed the disk over to the warden who promptly died in the middle of a corridor while looking for trouble. Who then bashed me in OOC postround for my idea. If there's anything I wish paradise could learn, it would be a little bit of tolerance for new ideas and new styles of gameplay. I'm not saying all or even any of my ideas or strategies mentioned here were solid gold, but I get the impression that because a few people have crunched the numbers and powergamed all the aspects of all the jobs, that you are a comdom if you do things outside the norm or a bad traitor if you spend TCs on certain items or a bad wizard if you don't buy certain spells. And while I am a huge fan of SoP, I think the one bad side effect of the new SoP's is that it could stifle some innovation and push boundaries back into the box. One time, to see how they could perform, I want to order medical to deactivate their cryotubes and rely more on chems and sleepers. Or order engineering to not use the tesla or singularity and use the turbine or supermatter. But I would get lynched for it. Because it's unduly harsh. Because it's unusual. Because it kills the powergamers. Because it's not SoP. I'd only suggest these things because it's a challenge and a goal to aspire to. I wish more paradise players cooled their powergaming for a moment and embraced the unorthodox a little more.

+1 RD antags can wreak tremendous havoc, and during cult or shadowling rounds, an RD antag can and has effectively cut off the whole of Science from the rest of the station. As Captain, I once had to have a full sec detail escort my handpicked replacement RD (original was cult, was still on the loose and had converted most of the department) to Science to fix the mess. Sure, RD antags are challenging foes, but they have incredible access and resources that can cripple (or subvert) the AI, borgs and telecomms, quickly, sometimes with the press of a button.

Supply reporting in, please give us shutters! When things go to hell it's good to keep the masses at bay when you need to. Also, in the maintenance disposals (the end of disposals after the cargo portion), that "grinder" device that's one or two squares from where the disposal pipes enter the area? That should wreck you IMHO - definitely broken bones and 25+ brute if you walk over it. Instead, it does nothing. I think this is a good thing for multiple reasons, primarily that people who use disposals as an escape route get rekt. Maybe it's the supply-side "get off my lawn" attitude here, but I do think that adding an environmental effect could be cool there. While we're on the subject of disposals, for the love of God let dead things be able to pass through cargo disposals! It's bogus that when there's a spider or carp infestation that the first thing everyone does when they see a dead spider/carp is to stuff it down disposals, where it gets trapped in cargo forever because the bloody conveyor belts won't allow dead bodies to pass into the final disposal chute. Also this to rid the world of that damed Poly when the CE decides to assign the QM to petsit. I don't care about committing vandalism, that damned bird is a vandal. GET OFF MY LAWN! Have the blast door controls on the bridge simply bolt the side entrances instead of triggering a blast door which inevitably will crush a head who was coming or going. I don't think Captain's gloves protect from electricity. They should. Starfleet uniforms. TNG style with department color on the shoulders. Do it. Maybe that deserves its own thread considering it's a bigger concept. Please do fix the ambulance with the janicart engine. And that fucking stretcher. Why dont just allow any portable bed to attach to the ambulance? Why can't you drag the ambulance stretcher anywhere?! Honestly, medic should get extra access, not less. Toxins always blows up and there's like 4 locked doors in the shortest route to get there. Perhaps an emergency door override that can be used once a shift or takes a LONG time to recharge in a recharger and makes a loud noise and alerts over sec comms. HoP should lose sec comms but gain all other channels to be able to contact people and provide jobs. HoP's not implanted, can be a traitor and shouldn't be HoPcurity. And yes, they become acting cap if the cap isn't there, but otherwise they are just another head. So lose their sec channel and give it to... The Blueshield! They SHOULD have sec comms. But I think I'm beating a horse killed by the admins on that one.

+1 Vox TRaiders is a round-ending mode that never involves 90% of the crew. Typically, it is one person negotiating with the Vox and no one else cares until BOOM ROUND OVER. It should be a mid-round event but despite multiple suggestions to that effect, it hasn't happened. So we should just port this in lieu of it. I think that this could be highly versatile, and could even include the possibility through coding or adminbus to require the raiders to nuke the station (provided their own nuke and pinpointers like nuke ops). The ultimate robustness test: let's see if you can destroy the station without all your tech, just dart guns and pneumatic cannons!

It is worthy of note that resurrecting xenoarch is currently a side project of some coders. I don't know which ones, and I'd pull up the thread myself but my internet connection is currently through a potato. 0.34Mbps. So before any grand ideas are hatched regarding the research station, keep in mind that there are likely as many plans to rearrange the sci outpost by the xenoarch phoenix team. On the flipside, if and when xenoarch is readded, that would be an ideal time to merge any other changes to the sci outpost with it. Maybe someone who knows more about the xenoarch project can speak to it or suggest someone who can?

This, this so much.

Why not move toxins and the test range to the sci outpost? It makes zero sense how testing unstable explosives is undertaken where it can destroy other components of science and the station. That would also give a decent reason for the outpost to be legitimately utilized. Plus there won't be any more confusion when you hear an explosion aboard the station and have to figure out whether it was a test or not.