JarlElbow

I edited the suggestion to mark off my second suggestion, since I realize that the first one is enough to really improve the system. All that's really needed is for people to be able to give out karma more to the people they think deserve it, and not some radical gameplay change.

Yeah, the second suggestion was a bit of a stretch, even I'll admit that. As for the first, I think it's a pretty simple idea that will only benefit people. It can't be abused, since no more than one of your three karma points can be given to a single person each round. People might feel more inclined to give out karma if they have more of it, instead of just waiting to find someone doing something crazy.

Yes, I know how many times people have made suggestions like this on the forums before, and I know how many times they have been shot down. Though, allow me to bring this discussion up again, since the karma system is the one problem that I've always had with paradise. Not because it's completely broken, but because I don't feel like it's utilized to its full extent in rewarding players who perform and RP well. The basis for the system, letting players reward others for good performance in return for letting them unlock new jobs and races, is a great idea, but I want to touch on some of the issues I have, and a couple of possible solutions I'd like to offer. The Problem: Now, my main issue with the karma system is very simply how little the player-base utilizes it, and how players that are doing their jobs perfectly, still are not very likely to receive any karma over a single, or multiple rounds. Mix this with most of the unlocks requiring up to 45 karma, and you have a system that feels completely unbalanced. When I was talking with another player about the system, they gave me this analogy that I liked. Say there are five players in a room. Two of them are regular, run of the mill players, one is a great roleplayer, one is doing their job perfectly, and one is doing a hilarious gimmick in this round. At the end of the round, the player with the gimmick will have gained four karma, and will give his karma to the person who has been RPing the entire round. This isn't every single round, but it is the majority, from all that I've observed. Sure, all the other players could just start coming up with great gimmicks themselves, but that doesn't really reward them at all for what the system attempted to accomplish when it was added, and the players just trying to do their job will hardly see any reward at all. Some people I've talked to have gained less than 15 karma over multiple months of playing, despite being exemplary players in almost every way. My Solutions: My first solution is a pretty simple one that I got from another person. Increase the amount of karma points that someone can give in a single round to three, yet make it so that they can only give one KP to each player in that round. If a player is forced to choose a single person to give their KP to in a round, of course they are gonna spend it on the antag, or the person with the most spectacular gimmick in that round, and many players might seem scared to spend their karma in the first place, in case they come across something later that they'd want to spend it on instead. The system is meant to reward players, so why limit the number of points someone can give, if they feel like multiple people deserve those points? This next suggestion is the controversial one, and the one I expect to have shot down immediately. I'm not even quite sure how this system will work myself yet, but there is a chance it could work out. Perhaps having KP also tied to certain objectives over the course of the round. I've already seen a suggestion for adding more job objectives to players, like making a certain chem in chemistry, or breeding a specific color of slime in xenobio. Why not reward these objectives with a single KP whenever they are completed, that way players who are doing their jobs well can still get karma, even if their job doesn't have the chance to interact with people as much. It might seem way different from how the system is handled now, but not every player has the ability to come up with great gimmicks, and not every job gets to RP that much over the course of their round, so why leave them out for those reasons? (Decided that I don't like this idea anymore.) Also to counterbalance these, the KP costs might need to be raised slightly. Though to what degree, I have no idea. Unlocking new races, especially the more expensive ones, should still be a time commitment, but it should at least be one that the average player could do in a reasonable amount of time. Conclusion: Like I said at the beginning, this isn't the first time karma has been brought up in suggestions, and isn't likely to be the last, but I'd just like to spark discussion on the topic a bit. Tell me if you think the system needs changes, or why you think it's fine as it is now. The biggest reason I get from people as to why the system hasn't changed is because it's been part of the server in this form for so long, and players don't like big changes. Either way, let's get some discussion about this in the comments!

I actually don't mind this suggestion at all. Increasing the time required to play security, even if just a bit, would only benefit the server, if you ask me. A single, experienced security player is generally far more competent in dealing with most situations than three new security players, so having the entire sec team be comprised of people who actually know how to play the game, and know how rounds run, would generally reduce the level of abuse across the board, and quell the shittyness of shitcurity a bit. Also yeah, having a junior security role, or something similar to it would help players with less time start to learn the department, without having the responsibilities or equipment of actual security officers. Maybe this role could be restricted to helping out in the brig most of the time, since the warden could definitely use some help there on more hectic rounds.

I totally support this one. People say it's unbalanced, but IPCs are one of the squishiest races on the server, and can get damaged very easily, so having a way to repair some very light damage to themselves wouldn't be too much to ask for, especially since everyone else starts with autoinjectors, which are plenty useful at doing the same thing, more or less. With how little fuel an emergency welder has, and only having a few wires in the wire stack, it'd only really be useful in repairing them enough to get to robotics, if they get heavily damaged. Plus, every other race aside from them has the ability to regenerate blood passively, so having them start with a bit of oil wouldn't hurt anyone.

Nobody says the goals have to be harmful, and if anything, having a few of these added to certain jobs could help focus the rounds and reduce griefing, since a player could be so focused on completing their goal, that they don't get bored and start messing around.