Stokes52

Please see the full description here: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/discussions/19557 Feel free to add comments or suggestions here or on github. I really appreciate your ideas!

Is it reasonable to create a "Trial Maintainer" or "Junior Maintainer" role who doesn't get any other admin privileges? Just something to relieve pressure from the main maintainers. This is a volunteer effort after all and the volunteer community wants to help.

Hey, good thread. I've only just starting getting involved on the contributing side of Paradise, but I quickly noticed the backlog. Whenever I would ask on the discord what's up, the answer from others has always been some variation of "heads aren't approving things." which it seems is not the full story based on this thread. I wonder if more transparency in the process would help. As a new contributor, it would be nice to know: 1. What the process actually is. I had to learn about the github approval process by asking around and I'm still not totally clear on how it works. I understand that heads vote to approve features, but I don't know much beyond that. As far as I know the github merge policy isn't actually documented anywhere? 2. Transparency on the head votes/approvals. I often see Kyet on github very helpfully approve or object in a comment, but I am never sure what that means. Is that him voting for it? Does that mean it's approved to be merged by all the heads? What else needs to be done? Do the other heads need to vote as well? 3. A clear indicator of when the baton has been passed to the next stage. Maybe this can be accomplished with PR tags or comments, but its not clear to me who "has the baton" on most PRs. Is it awaiting head review? Is approved and awaiting code review? Does it need changes? Has it been objected to? It would be nice to know clearly what stage a PR is in. Sometimes github comments show this, but other times I hear through discord that the story is different on certain PRs. For example, I got a PM from Neca saying he voted for one of my PRs (thank you!), but based on what's in github I don't know what the other heads think, if it has been approved, if they need something more from me, etc. 4. Is it okay to PM people about github stuff? I imagine staff get pinged all the time about random stuff. I don't want to add unnecessarily to the noise, but I'd also like to know how staff/heads/maintainers feel about discord PMs on github issues. Is it okay to ask what the status is or would you guys prefer we keep things in github comments? Is there already too much noise for you guys or is it okay? The impression I get from discord is that many contributors feel their work is being ignored, but maybe that's not the case. Some of the suggestions above might help people see "Hey, we're looking at it, we just haven't been able to move it forward yet." Or, at least it will help people understand what stage their PR is in. Related to maintainers: Like I said, I'm new to the contributor side of things but I've already seen what a madman AA07 is and the work he puts in. A big thank you to everyone who contributes and maintains the github. It's often thankless work and I'm sorry you guys have had to deal with any abuse at all. You make the game possible and we players really appreciate it! It's unfortunate that angry players are usually louder. I don't know what the process is for this, but is there any way we can make it easier for maintainers? Are there any PR reviewers that can step into the role of trial maintainer? Are there any contributors that are ready to step into the PR reviewer role? Is there anything the average player/contributor can do to make their lives easier? Lastly, big thank you to the staff here. Paradise is a really amazing server and the work you guys put in has made something special in SS13 history IMO.

This has been submitted as a pull request here: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/16003

Hello, one problem I have been noticing often is that antags are severely punished for RPing with people while doing their nefarious deeds. I've come up with an idea for a new item that will make it easier for antags to RP with the crew without putting themselves at a severe disadvantage by revealing their identity. Please let me know what you think and if this would be a good addition to Paradise. Adds: Chameleon voice scrambler traitor item 1 tc Craftable voice scrambler gas mask Both can be found in maints loot What do they do: While wearing the voice scrambler, your identity shows as Unknown and when you speak, you speak as Unknown. The craftable version looks like a gas mask with a voice analyzer thing attached. The chameleon version looks like a gas mask with all the associated chameleon abilities. Recipe: Craftable: voice analyzer, 5 cables, gas mask, (multi-tool? tape?) Why it's good for the game? This idea would implement a weaker version of the voice changer that is easier to acquire but cannot mimic voices, only hide them. Antags need a way to easily talk with and RP with their victims without immediately giving away their identity. The chameleon kit is too expensive when all you want to do is be able to talk and its not available to vampires or other antags. Many antags won't talk to anyone because their voice will reveal their identity which leads to a boring cycle of no-interaction traitoring. While it's true that antags can whisper to hide their voice, this feature is not widely known and is severely limited by only being able to speak to someone next to you. Obviously, as an antag, there are many reasons you wouldn't want to be next to people when you are typing a message. Making it an uplink item gives traitors immediate access, while a craftable non-chameleon version makes it available to crew and vampires if they find the right items. The other reason a craftable version is important is so that you cannot metagame by knowing that "Unknown voice = traitor" Because anyone can make one of these, it adds some ambiguity as to whether the person is truly a bad guy or not. Contraband/Space Law/Griefing: I would recommend the chameleon version to be class C contraband, but not the craftable one. That way security doesn't have a reason to immediately shoot as soon as they hear someone speaking as "Unknown". However if this seems too easily abused, they could both be class C. There is some potential this item could be used by non-antags to do griefy things, however I don't think it will be a big problem. If someone wants to hide their identity and greytide, they can already do it. The only thing this adds is the ability for someone who is greytiding to speak, which I would argue is still slightly better than silently greytiding. Let me know what you think and if this would be an improvement. I am very interested in making it easier for antags to RP with the crew without putting themselves at a big disadvantage.

I've been wanting to play more IAA/paperwork/RP roles like this and I'm absolutely going to now. This is fantastic work!