Security Improvements

[Vivalas]

 

Alright, so today I came across an interesting post on /r/ss13 asking the reddit what kind of changes could be made to make security better. And a few of the responses I read were really interesting.

 

I've rolled security almost exclusively on all the servers I've played on during my spessman career, ranging from LRP to HRP, and each was a different experience. Security can be fun and rewarding with a competent and cohesive team, and.... downright cancerous to the crew and competent security players with a bad team. Nevertheless, I think Paradise security is the most rewarding and engaging out of all the servers I've played on, and I really like our system.

 

On legacy Paradise before the relist, the system worked pretty damn well. It could get overworked at times, but with a competent team that was communicative and helpful, the workload was manageable and the station maintained a semblance of order. The brig remap just streamlined the process even more. However, the relist has stressed security and its players to the limit, which has highlighted a few issues with the system, mostly the inability for security to respond to threats or acknowledge reports of crime at best, and the complete break down of law and order at worst.

 

As I was browsing through reddit I read some interesting ideas that I feel we should consider, if not put to the test, and the purpose of this thread was to try to create a healthy and contention free zone to try to discuss and brainstorm to develop an even more efficient and capable security system that is able to withstand insanely high workloads that are common during listing.

 

 

1. Close off the Security wing, specifically the brig section. Having glass-and-grille barriers for cells facing the main hall means your poor brig is a toolbox away from The Great Escape at all times.

 

(For the record I think jailbreaks are cool: I just wish they were more complicated than "CLICK WINDOW 4 SMASH" to pull off.)

 

2. Slip-resistant jackboots. Security should not be completely unslipable, but tripping over every wet floor tile mid-chase is hella obnoxious.

 

3. More than one warden slot and/or jail guards. Between updating logs, processing many criminals at once (because criminals don't take turns getting caught,) managing the armoury and a ton of other little tasks, the warden is easily the most overwhelming and thankless security job. Having a second warden or a couple of jail guards to process criminals and maintain order would be amazing.

 

4. More than one detective slot. Similar to the warden, the detective can be stretched thin just by reporting 2 crimes at the same time. A second detective means pursuing more than one case and/or forming a buddy-cop crimefighting duo.

 

 

Really the 3rd point here is the one I am referencing, but number 1 is also worth considering as well.

 

Since I started playing security again, I played two rounds as warden, and both rounds quickly became overwhelmed with requests in processing, rowdy prisoners, perma prisoners robusting newbie officers, armory break ins, and a whole bunch of shit that stacks up and leaves you salty and leads to shitty treatment of prisoners. I think having a few "brig officer" or other job subordinate to the warden might accomplish this well. They could help in processing, help the brig medic with treating prisoners, watch perma, handle requests in the lobby, and in general act as a second hand to the warden. This would greatly streamline processing and help increase the efficiency of warden related tasks as described above.

 

Needs better comms. Something like cargos order manifest system. I want to be able to walk up to a computer, see potential threats, who entered it, leads, last seen etc.

 

Oooh boy, I actually have lotta thoughts about security. Here goes:

 

Add the full functionality of security console to sec glasses, including the proper interface.

 

Streamline the security console interface to make it piss easy to report crimes and keep a record of ne'er-do-wells.

 

Connect the systems of reporting crimes and wanted status together, rather than having them be totally separate.

 

Build the Warden into the system more officially - make it so effectively using the system REQUIRES a warden/HoS. Ideas for doing this:

 

Only the warden can change wanted status

Editing security records require access to specifically the warden's console. All other consoles can only add notes or suggestions, which the warden must approve.

The warden's console can be used to directly send orders to, and receive messages from, a security officer, regardless of the status of tcomms.

All functionality of the warden's console is anonymous. A crafty traitor with the warden's ID could give officers false orders, and use a pAI to bring the functionality of the warden's console with them.

Everything the warden can do, the Head of Security, Captain, and AI can do if they aren't fucking eachother busy.

The prison wing should be removed or reworked entirely. Ideas:

 

Rather than putting a perma prisoner in the brig for the rest of the round, they are put in cryo tubes, to be left on the station. (and picked up between shifts by a maintenance team or some lore shit like that). While cryo'd they may ghost and observe the round.

If someone tries to unfreeze a cryo'd prisoner, they may return to their body and wake back up.

If a full cryo tube is destroyed or sabotaged, its occupant dies and their corpse is ejected. They may return to it if they are revived in any way.

If a traitor is being held in a cryo tube, existing/midround traitors may receive a bonus objective to rescue them, in exchange for extra telecrystals or bragging rights.

They may also receive an objective to sabotage the cryo tube, killing the captured traitor and stopping them from revealing any secrets.

All long-ranged security weapons should be dangerous bordering on lethal. The only options for subduing someone should be Lethal and Short Range. In particular, Tasers should have about as much range as pepper spray, and very limited ammo.

 

Tasers could even have a chance to fail at a range of 3 or 4 tiles.

 

Energy guns are dumb. "its a lethal weapon with a stun mode!" no. If you want a stun mode get close and start whacking the greytider with your baton. Guns are for killing people. The armoury should contain lasers and lethal bullet weapons only.

 

Enough of this kiddie "you get 9 minutes timeout" shit. If someone is breaking the law they should get fired from their position. Give the HoS the ability to strip people of rank or demote them to a menial job like janitor, shaft miner, cargo tech, or cook. America uses its legal system to force people into slave labour, so can NT!

 

Streamline the system to open new jobslots when someone leaves/dies/gets demoted.

 

Streamline the process for equipping demoted people. Dangerously low-tier mining suits or shitty janitorial equipment should be on-hand in security or cargo, and more should be cheaply available from the cargo system.

 

Now that security doesn't have long-range harmless stun guns, there is a lot more weight behind their decisions to use deadly force to apprehend criminals. Surely this would mean admins would have to be way more attentive of security, leading to even more frustrating BWOINKS and red tape, right?

 

Wrong. Now that you can go up against security and not get harmlessly and easily stunned at long range, rebellious activity is way easier. If security is being dicks, the station can actually fight back. Laser weapons aren't great against even a handful of angry greytiders, especially if chemistry has slipped them some burn patches. Admins can take a much more hands-off approach to asshole civilians and shitcurity, because each side has the actual power to fight the other. And if everything falls apart and the station descends into chaos? Congrats, the game is going exactly as it should!

 

3

 

 

In the last quote here, everything leading up to the part about perma is my focus here, but the rest is interesting.

 

You might see my point if you see the relations between these two quotes. Sure, crime reporting is decent and keeping records updated is streamlined when there are idle people around able to do that, or officers able to listen. But often in the chaos of a typical game mid-late round, petty crimes start to go unnoticed, or if things get really bad, anything that's not related to security's current backwash of petty crime and accusations of antags.

 

Let's face it, relying on humans to keep records up to date and keep track of all crimes during a security overload period is unreliable even at best. Trying to filter out screams for help in the convoluted mess the chatlog is when everyone is screaming over security and general channels at the same time is nigh impossible, so what if we had a better solution?

 

Well, we already have the underused request consoles that have an even more unused "report anonymous information" feature, so what if we expanded on this system? The idea of tying together records, automated record updating / easy crime entry, and crime reporting is every officer's dream, and if tied into radio chat / PDA messenging, would probably increase security's efficiency by at least double in high stress situations. An idea that came to mind was adding "crime kiosks" to hallways and major places that allow crew to report crimes, and maybe even add pictures or add witnesses that would be able to verify the credibility of the accusation. Perhaps even a PDA app that could be used to similar utility would be life changing. Tie this together with records and we have something coming together already. Another thing that fits in with connecting crime reporting with records is itemized crimes, meaning every crime is available as "objects" you can add or remove to people's records, or even add to crime reports. Add on metadata, such as time of infraction, location, status of crime, time served / sentence, arresting officer, and we have a database approaching a professional level. Of course we would have to verify and process these entries, but that would be something the aforementioned brig officers could help with.

 

To try to show the utility of a system like this, let's use an example.

 

Johanne Bach is assaulted by Mozart BallSacxz in the dormitory. He is punched a few times, tablestunned, and his ID is stolen. Having occured in the dormitory, there is a crime kiosk nearby. Had he just screamed "HELP IN DORMITORY ASSAULT BY MOZART BALLSACKS!!!" he would probably be ignored, but not because of this new revolutionary technology. He reports a case of assault and robbery, by Mozart Ballsacks in the dormitory using the device, adding on details of his ID being stolen, with the computer automatically adding the time of infraction (appending a "reported" to the end of the timestamp).After he submits this, a radio message is automatically sent over the security channel notifying officers of this, as well as PDA messages to the warden and HoS, as well as anyone in the chatroom the warden linked the announcer to. On the security records, under "Mozart Ballsacks", two new crime objects show up in his records with the status "pending". Additionally, every officer who sees Mozart will see a beige "I" above him on their HUD, for "Investigate". After processing a criminal, a brig officer gets a request over security comms for any crimes that need investigating. He finds his nearest records console, signs in, and uses the "pending" and "at large" filters. Mozart shows up with two pending crimes. Now, say Bach added a few witnesses in his report, these would show up under the crimes in Mozart's records, and after the brig officer talks with the witnesses and PDAs Bach himself, decides the crime is valid. He presses the big red "validate" button next to both crimes in Mozart's record, and he is automatically set to arrest, and the status of the crimes changes to "at large". Additonally the system notifies Mozart via PDA of the crimes he is now charged with and advises him to turn himself in if he wishes for possible reduced punishment, or to contest the charges. Okay, so Mozart was drinking in the bar, when an officer a few stools over got the radio message also sent over security comms by the system stating the new suspect with "at large" status and the details of the crime. The officer sees Mozart and the red "W" above his head, and detains him and brings him to the brig. (This next part about cuffs is optional) Due to the smartcuffs the officer has, the system automatically sets him to incarcerated and notifies over comms of his arrest, and the alleged crimes. If he had no crimes, it would give a warning that the arrest was made with no stated reason, leaving the officer to explain. The status of Mozart's crimes are now "arrested - awaiting processing". Now he brings him to the brig, and another brig officer drags him to a cell, searches him, and puts his name in the cell timer. The cell timer finds the two crimes in Mozart's records and automatically sets the timer, stating the minimum and maximum sentences to the officer (choosing the middle one by default), and clarifying the charges to the prisoner. Then, Mozart's status for his crimes is updated to "arrested - serving time", and the time served metadata for both crimes is updated according to his sentence. Finally, after serving time, Mozart is released (automatically updating records of course), and he is given a stern message by the cell timer to obey the law and work hard for Nanotrasen.

 

Does this sound too badass to be true? Really it's well within what is possible if we decided to give it a shot and update our security records a bit to something other than Microsoft Excel. This system coordinates officers, makes them justify arrests, keeps records up to date, and keeps the legal team in the loop at all times. What more could you want? This could be expanded in a billion ways, such as making it easy to issue wanted notices on newscasters with a click of the button. Really the possibilities are endless.

 

There are a few other honorable mentions I want to post here too that stood out a bit.

 

Some sort of security Ai/silicon who's primary job it is to set arrest levels,assist sec officers,and lockdown the brig if needed. It would also br able to take direct control of security bots like beepsky and the EDs.

 

Don't have much narrative for this, interesting idea worth discussing.

 

Security needs panic buttons on their suit or as an individual item. To many new players travel solo into the tunnels and get Honk/cult/ling/sling stomped, and the force on the station is severely depleted because of it. If an officer were able to press a button, or toggle an item to report their coordinate case of an emergency, I think it would help out a lot.

 

This could be contentious for obvious reasons and might make it too hard on antags, but a watered down verson might be worth discussing.

 

Finally there was something I wanted to add that I thought of myself. Whitelisting security has been suggested numerous times, and is often shot down. I can understand why, as it takss time and could deter new blood from entering thr security field. However, I thought about karma-locking it, and the idea grew on me. Now don't get me wrong, nothing outrageous, just a mere 1 or 2 karma points, maybe even that they don't get used in the purchase, just as a requirement to play the job.

 

Security is always held to the highest standard, and understandably so, because they can make or break a round and really ruin the fun of other players because of the extra powers they have over other players as necessary to fufill their duties. Karma points are rewarded by other players, and generally as a result of positive interactions among players. Putting an arbitrarily small karma price on security would act as a sort of dynamic lock that new players could lift by themselves by having positive interactions with other players, something all security players should definitely be able to do. At the very least it would stop complete newbies from playing security until they learn the game and prevent griefers from taking the job. By ensuring players are able to interact positively with other players before allowing them to assume the responsibility and authority of security or command jobs (could maybe be extended to command as well), you go a long way towards increasing the quality of the players in those roles. And in my opinion, unless you have at least 1 karma point, you have no business playing command or security anyways.

 

Anyways these are just some small ideas that could go a long way towards changing the way security functions on our server, and maybe in the SS13 community as well. Please discuss these ideas, and if you disagree please explain why. This is a brainstorm so constructive criticism is not only welcome but encouraged.

 

[Kyet]

 

1. Close off the Security wing, specifically the brig section. Having glass-and-grille barriers for cells facing the main hall means your poor brig is a toolbox away from The Great Escape at all times.

If we want to go that route, reinforced plasmaglass windows might be better. They're ~4x as strong (if memory serves) but don't block vision.

 

2. Slip-resistant jackboots. Security should not be completely unslipable, but tripping over every wet floor tile mid-chase is hella obnoxious.

 

Jackboots as a whole are rather meh. They have no advantage over shoes, but constantly give away your position with noise.

Yes, they should probably have an advantage to balance their disadvantage.

 

3. More than one warden slot and/or jail guards. Between updating logs, processing many criminals at once (because criminals don't take turns getting caught,) managing the armoury and a ton of other little tasks, the warden is easily the most overwhelming and thankless security job. Having a second warden or a couple of jail guards to process criminals and maintain order would be amazing.

 

Interesting idea. Perhaps "Guard" as a new security position.

 

4. More than one detective slot. Similar to the warden, the detective can be stretched thin just by reporting 2 crimes at the same time. A second detective means pursuing more than one case and/or forming a buddy-cop crimefighting duo.

 

Yes, this is needed.

 

Needs better comms. Something like cargos order manifest system. I want to be able to walk up to a computer, see potential threats, who entered it, leads, last seen etc.

Interesting. Would be a lot of code.

 

Add the full functionality of security console to sec glasses, including the proper interface.

 

Not necessarily a bad idea, but might need to lock it to people with sec IDs.

 

Streamline the security console interface to make it piss easy to report crimes and keep a record of ne'er-do-wells.

 

Yeah.

 

Connect the systems of reporting crimes and wanted status together, rather than having them be totally separate.

 

I think this would slow things down.

 

Build the Warden into the system more officially - make it so effectively using the system REQUIRES a warden/HoS. Ideas for doing this:

 

Not viable. There are many lowpop rounds with no warden/hos present. This idea would break those rounds.

 

The warden's console can be used to directly send orders to, and receive messages from, a security officer, regardless of the status of tcomms.

Station bounced radios already do this.

 

All functionality of the warden's console is anonymous. A crafty traitor with the warden's ID could give officers false orders, and use a pAI to bring the functionality of the warden's console with them.

Is this bad?

 

Everything the warden can do, the Head of Security, Captain, and AI can do if they aren't fucking eachother busy.

 

That's normal.

 

Rather than putting a perma prisoner in the brig for the rest of the round, they are put in cryo tubes, to be left on the station. (and picked up between shifts by a maintenance team or some lore shit like that). While cryo'd they may ghost and observe the round.

There's a "Virtual Reality Prison" idea that might be better.

 

All long-ranged security weapons should be dangerous bordering on lethal. The only options for subduing someone should be Lethal and Short Range. In particular, Tasers should have about as much range as pepper spray, and very limited ammo.

 

Or just be limited to disablers.

 

Tasers could even have a chance to fail at a range of 3 or 4 tiles.

 

Seems kinda arbitrary.

 

Energy guns are dumb. "its a lethal weapon with a stun mode!" no. If you want a stun mode get close and start whacking the greytider with your baton. Guns are for killing people. The armoury should contain lasers and lethal bullet weapons only.

 

 

Enough of this kiddie "you get 9 minutes timeout" shit. If someone is breaking the law they should get fired from their position. Give the HoS the ability to strip people of rank or demote them to a menial job like janitor, shaft miner, cargo tech, or cook. America uses its legal system to force people into slave labour, so can NT!

 

What America does is not relevant.

If you give the HoS the ability to demote people, HoP is semi-redundant and we get even more dictatorial HoSes than we have now.

 

Streamline the system to open new jobslots when someone leaves/dies/gets demoted.

 

It already does this in some cases.

 

Streamline the process for equipping demoted people. Dangerously low-tier mining suits or shitty janitorial equipment should be on-hand in security or cargo, and more should be cheaply available from the cargo system.

 

Not a bad idea.

 

Now that security doesn't have long-range harmless stun guns, there is a lot more weight behind their decisions to use deadly force to apprehend criminals. Surely this would mean admins would have to be way more attentive of security, leading to even more frustrating BWOINKS and red tape, right?

 

Any idea that dramatically increases the admin oversight required is probably a bad idea.

 

Admins can take a much more hands-off approach to asshole civilians and shitcurity, because each side has the actual power to fight the other.

Encouraging sec to use lethals when they don't have to won't lead to RP. It will lead to people being out of the round early.

 

Let's face it, relying on humans to keep records up to date and keep track of all crimes during a security overload period is unreliable even at best. Trying to filter out screams for help in the convoluted mess the chatlog is when everyone is screaming over security and general channels at the same time is nigh impossible, so what if we had a better solution?

We need automatic crime tracking, based on what people get brigged for.

IE: brig someone for 10 minutes for crime X, this fact is entered on their record.

 

"crime kiosks"

 

If someone wants to report a crime, using the radio is faster, enables the AI to jump to them, etc.

I doubt crime kiosks would see much use.

 

Does this sound too badass to be true?

 

No, it sounds like something any greytider could abuse by reporting 50 crimes against everyone they see. All of which have to be tracked and resolved in the system.

 

Some sort of security Ai/silicon who's primary job it is to set arrest levels,assist sec officers,and lockdown the brig if needed. It would also br able to take direct control of security bots like beepsky and the EDs.

Why not simply ask science to create a new AI?

 

Security needs panic buttons on their suit or as an individual item. To many new players travel solo into the tunnels and get Honk/cult/ling/sling stomped, and the force on the station is severely depleted because of it. If an officer were able to press a button, or toggle an item to report their coordinate case of an emergency, I think it would help out a lot.

Solution: don't travel alone. Use suit sensors.

 

Putting an arbitrarily small karma price on security

We have a policy of never karma-locking default jobs.

We should, however, consider upping the requirements to play security.

 

[BiberDark]

 

Vivalas wrote:

Some sort of security Ai/silicon who's primary job it is to set arrest levels,assist sec officers,and lockdown the brig if needed. It would also br able to take direct control of security bots like beepsky and the EDs.

 

Why not simply ask science to create a new AI?

 

 

 

@ tzo

No no no. A second Ai is bad in all cases. A special Ai with other access levels would be fine.

 

First it can be easily corrupted.

It is independent from an apc/SMES unlike the original one. This is bad ( at least i think it is so, if not correct me)

It can cut the power of the original ai in an instant ( see point one )

If you build a second Ai it should be bound to the Master AI like a borg

It should have no access to the AI Sat Systems if it is not installed there.

Really everytime I had a second ai in my shift as Ai it was a desaster.

 

[Kyet]

 

Vivalas wrote:

Some sort of security Ai/silicon who's primary job it is to set arrest levels,assist sec officers,and lockdown the brig if needed. It would also br able to take direct control of security bots like beepsky and the EDs.

 

Why not simply ask science to create a new AI?

 

 

 

@ tzo

No no no. A second Ai is bad in all cases. A special Ai with other access levels would be fine.

 

First it can be easily corrupted.

It is independent from an apc/SMES unlike the original one. This is bad ( at least i think it is so, if not correct me)

It can cut the power of the original ai in an instant ( see point one )

If you build a second Ai it should be bound to the Master AI like a borg

It should have no access to the AI Sat Systems if it is not installed there.

Really everytime I had a second ai in my shift as Ai it was a desaster.

My point was: this seems very similar to having multiple AIs, and historically that has not worked out well.

 

[Sothangel]

 

I think some of the main issues with security ultimately stem from sec:crew and sec:traitor ratios.

 

From what I've been seeing, security is normally the least populated department. Even then, when 100 people are playing and everything is full, I think the normal maximum is 8 officer, the Pilot, HOS, Warden and Detective, for 12 personnel. Assuming someone hasn't gone SSD, died or what-have-you. The fact the ratio is so high (Normally 1:8 at best, last I saw it was 1:12) means that security have no down time, they rarely have any time to do paperwork, interact with prisoners, or catch their breath for 5 minutes.

 

Warden and Detective slots can be opened, and I think they should be increased to 2, each. This would help prevent the prison break-outs and perma riots, which make the whole situation a lot worse.

 

But the more serious issue is "Why is security the least played department?"; and I believe this is due to two things:

 

1. Being constantly under the microscope by Administrative staff and players,

2. Everybody hates security.

 

Really though. They're there to stop you having fun. So get your lube and spray up the hallways, steal their shit. Make their lives hell! But only until the moment when you actually need them, in which case give a vague ;HELP MAINT and get salty in dsay when they didn't help/find you.

 

If Paradise wishes to improve security, security has to look like a more attractive thing to play; and with every passing day it gets worse and worse. The so-called "goodsec" don't play security any more, or at least nowhere near as often. This means poorer, or newer people play it instead, which means they'll make more mistakes than the previous people. We all know that people make mistakes, and that's fine - Except it isn't in game. Because you make a mistake, you'll get hell released upon you. Why would anyone put themselves up to that?

 

[Farya]

 

I suggest spliting Forensic technician into standalone job. Its like detective but with more aim for working in the lab. Rework detective office - add a tiny morgue with one tray here, additional autopsy scanner and scalpel. Also would be neat to add some kind of forensic database detective and forensic tech can update. Maybe detective scanner can send data here every time detective make a print and empty out internal data?

 

Prison guard would be a good idea. Warden is alone(or mostly alone if there is brig physician) to do his job inside brig.

 

No-slip jackboots might be good, but their downside still can be easily negated by shoe rags and they offer some foot protection. Also that would somewhat reduce value of janitor galoshes - the only crew no-slip footwear. And people also can easily get jackboots in clothes vendor.

 

Loltaser problem might be solved by removing Hybrid taser. Instead officer will start with voucher similar to one miners have. It can be redeemed in secvend to get either disabler or ordinary taser. We might also give security firearms loaded with stun or rubber bullets. They are less-then lethals but on the other side lacks instastun capability.

 

Also security should be a bit more free in using violence with codes increased but more restricted during green.

Once there is nothing wrong happpened security dont bother crew at all. If you trouble security during red however - get ready to be shot repeatedly with rubber in your ass. Or maybe even lasers.

Its understandable that security are not always the best people. It however does not justify acting like asshole towards them and preventing them from doing their jobs.

 

UPD. If we dont have to return webbings how about adding dispatch radio to secs? Station bound radio worn as attachement for jumpsuit. Its have only Security Intercom channel access and have its own radio code like . So comms sabotage would not be so effective as before for nuke ops.

 

 

 

[Rurik]

 

I think adding a sort of jail guard, that is security but their sole purpose is to help the warden out would be a great idea. I think that having the jail guard, directly subordinate to the warden, would be better than two wardens. One reason being that the wardens office is really only layed out for one warden, and another being that having two wardens that have the same authority may lead to them contradicting each other and disagreements. It would be better to have a jail guard of some sort that listens to the warden and takes care of any tasks the warden is too busy for. I also think that this would be a better alternative to adding another security officer slot

 

No slip Jack Boots sounds like a disaster as it is easy to obtain them and not at all limited to security. This would also nullify the janitors galoshes. I agree that Jack Boots need some sort of up-side, but it is too common for such a advantage as No slip.

 

I would be fine with spliting detective and Forensic technician into two seprerate roles or adding another detective slot, but both would need a map layout change. Reason being that the detectives office is only modeled for one, and only has enough supplies for one.

 

I dont think anything needs to be changed disabler/taser wise. I think a good balance between the two has already been achieved.

 

A special AI for security sounds a bit too unneeded for me, some sort of jail guard, or if need be, two wardens would be more practical.

 

As tzo stated, reinforced plasma glass would be more practical then completely closing off the brig cells.

 

Thats all the ideas I really care to comment on, all in all there are a couple good ideas in there, but a lot of em are a no go for me

 

[Vivalas]

 

Keep in mind most of these ideas aren't mine, and I really wasn't supporting the "no-slip" jackboots thing.

 

The two things I think out of all of these that would make security 100x better is a brig officer job (which helps avoid security processing backlog which makes people super salty and helps to keeps order in brig), and the streamlined crime reporting / record system.

 

Abuse of the system is a very real threat, and so I think being able to group crimes by their reporter (for mass deletion of crimes reported by a certain person), and being able to blacklist people from reporting crimes would fix this. You could even go so far as pre-emptively blacklisting assistants if you wanted.

 

[Machofish]

 

I'd be interested in the concept of having one or two extra slots for dedicated "Detainment Officers" who help with prisoner processing and keep an eye open for potential breakout attempts - it could be a good way for new sec players to 'test the waters' before they dive into the experience of being a full security officer. I imagine these detainment officers would be given slightly less versatile equipment compared to standard security officers, reducing the associated risks of losing dangerous gear if they get robusted in the brig.

 

This might sound like a bit of a bubble-wrapping feature, but I wish SecHUDs were altered so that they couldn't set wanted statuses without wearing an ID with appropriate access. This isn't to make things tougher on antags, but there are way too many situations where there are civvies wandering around with SecHUDs because that round's RnD department decided that they're going to be part of the problem instead of the solution. I don't mind civvies being able to spy on who's wanted and who's not, but actually going as far as to screw with the records should require a security officer's card level of access or higher. Needless to say, things like EMPs, emags etc. could reasonably be used to break the access permissions of the HUDs. This'll also make it easier to track comments/status adjustments made from SecHUDs rather than security consoles.

 

The process for firing people in general needs to be streamlined. If you're in sec and someone from another department is abusing the gear/access from that department, you can usually PDA the relevant head of staff and get authorization to fire the perpetrator - lots of times I've managed to use this to deal with people who are 'toeing the line.' If there was a way to fire someone that didn't require jogging their ID all the way down to the HoP office which may-or-may-not be functioning, give the ID to the HoP or Captain who may-or-may-not be functioning, then jogging it all the way back to the guy slated for demotion (usually a 20-40 minute process due to command incompetence), then I'd be very happy. (alternatively, I assume that the detainment officer would cover this stuff if it was implemented as a separate job.)

 

Anonymous/indirect crime reporting is a good way of giving security a gigantic headache instead of helping them. Usually I've found that people who have a crime to report will try to PDA the HoS. Unfortunately, since the HoS is up to their eyeballs in griefers and greytide, and can no longer detain someone on verbal testimony without getting bwoinked, this particular method is not as helpful as it used to be. Personally, I'd like to see the IAA department's role expanded to include gathering and arranging eyewitness statements and attempting to collect info about alleged disputes.

 

Generally speaking, I think security needs tools that specifically counter/suppress greytide more easily, without making things harder on the antags.

 

[BiberDark]

 

It would be good if every idcard has a unique intern code. So the HOP / ID Console could remotly give them access rights or remove them if needed.

 

Exp.

Hos to Hop: I fired Mr. X because he was incompentend and lost all his ID cards in maintainance.

HOP looks at his console Mr X has ID Card # 124-235 --> click remove access

ID Computer : ID 1124-235 is not longer valid --> automatic prints a copy of this access removal on all id computers... ( grief block )

 

If now anybody tries to use this card --> access denied

 

Exp:

HOS to Hop: Mr. X (detective) needs temporary access to toxin lab for investigation

Hop console : ID 123-456 change access level --> prints out a copy of the change

 

 

As a security measure you could add a timer to this change like the job slots (5 minutes). So nobody can quickly strip command from all access. If that dosnt work the ai can help them to restore it.

 

[Vivalas]

 

It would be good if every idcard has a unique intern code. So the HOP / ID Console could remotly give them access rights or remove them if needed.

 

Exp.

Hos to Hop: I fired Mr. X because he was incompentend and lost all his ID cards in maintainance.

HOP looks at his console Mr X has ID Card # 124-235 --> click remove access

ID Computer : ID 1124-235 is not longer valid --> automatic prints a copy of this access removal on all id computers... ( grief block )

 

If now anybody tries to use this card --> access denied

 

Exp:

HOS to Hop: Mr. X (detective) needs temporary access to toxin lab for investigation

Hop console : ID 123-456 change access level --> prints out a copy of the change

 

 

As a security measure you could add a timer to this change like the job slots (5 minutes). So nobody can quickly strip command from all access. If that dosnt work the ai can help them to restore it.

 

While this seems like something a state of the art research station should be able to do with its access control systems (we see this type of thing in movies all the time), this would be way too hard on antags, and crew in general if a powertripping shitter lands in a command sport. Either way it seems like a bad idea.

 

Streamlining demotions would be a huge help to security.

 

Finding a way to surpress greytide more easily without fucking over antags is really hard. Although it sucks because in theory if all of security's very numerous tools were utilized by competent people, greytide would be dead.

 

[Farya]

 

Integrating IAAs, magistrate and NT rep into sec more would help. If IAA would be able to get into departments for investigation they could help security alot. Because shit scientists violating SOP is more like job for them and RD then for security. And NT rep is alone/rare part of the crew to effectively help security, its also not his job. NT rep reports to centcom about situation on station in general.

 

Remote ID changes sounds briliant but that would also give ALOT of abuse potential and also potential for powergame. Antag stole high level ID? Just terminate such ID remotely.

 

[BiberDark]

You could add a traitor tool that changes the ID-Code of the card or hide it in the system. So no antag has a problem but they greytide has no way to fuck arround. And i think the timer would prevent from fuckery with ids also to mention the paper it prints at all consoles.

[Farya]

 

You could add a traitor tool that changes the ID-Code of the card or hide it in the system. So no antag has a problem but they greytide has no way to fuck arround. And i think the timer would prevent from fuckery with ids also to mention the paper it prints at all consoles.

Traitors have untrackable agent ID already. Which can also copy access. But its cost should be changed after update then.

And vampires/lings dont have such things at all.

 

[Splgrk]

 

Integrating IAAs, magistrate and NT rep into sec more would help. If IAA would be able to get into departments for investigation they could help security alot. Because shit scientists violating SOP is more like job for them and RD then for security. And NT rep is alone/rare part of the crew to effectively help security, its also not his job. NT rep reports to centcom about situation on station in general.

 

Remote ID changes sounds briliant but that would also give ALOT of abuse potential and also potential for powergame. Antag stole high level ID? Just terminate such ID remotely.

 

And don't forget the other way around. Antag steals a spare captain ID and terminates all heads and sec.

 

I mean, I hate those situations where you have to fire an officer for prisoner abuse and they just grab all te weapons they can get their hands on and run into maint, but the opposite seems just as bad. Maybe some kind of process where you need two heads giving confirmation? Like, relevant department head and HOP/captain, over the swiper system that raises alarm levels?

 

 

Also, I kind of love the idea of civilians not being crew? Split the civilian position, as it exists at the moment, in civilian/tourist and assistant. The former is not crew and can be severely punished for dickery. The other is unlocked after playing, I don't know, two shifts worth of SS13. That would help a lot.

 

It also makes some sense from a lore standpoint. They aren't NT employees, they are random people wandering in, hoping for jobs. Or to make chaos. Of course NT would respond harshly.

 

[Splgrk]

 

You could add a traitor tool that changes the ID-Code of the card or hide it in the system. So no antag has a problem but they greytide has no way to fuck arround. And i think the timer would prevent from fuckery with ids also to mention the paper it prints at all consoles.

Traitors have untrackable agent ID already. Which can also copy access. But its cost should be changed after update then.

And vampires/lings dont have such things at all.

 

It would mean that stealing an ID would be more of a short term thing. You assault a head in maint, tie them up somewhere, steal their ID, rush their office, steal a thing, then throw it away as it is usless as soon as they alert command and it is changed. Could be interesting. Surely more so than a traitor just having the captain's ID in his storage implant all shift.