by Aces » Tue Dec 23, 2014 1:54 pm
wierdo2000 wrote:i made a simple code where a lil window pop up on the screen and you can see the person you just devoured, curled up tightly in your tummy,
It could need some work but if you guys are willling i would love to share the code to you,
by Link13112 » Wed Dec 24, 2014 2:05 am
by Mech__Warrior » Wed Dec 24, 2014 2:28 am
Link13112 wrote:Is the server down for anyone else? o.o
by ultimated » Wed Dec 24, 2014 6:37 am
wierdo2000 wrote:i made a simple code where a lil window pop up on the screen and you can see the person you just devoured, curled up tightly in your tummy,
It could need some work but if you guys are willling i would love to share the code to you,
by EternityTheory » Thu Dec 25, 2014 9:26 am
by maraudingmarauder » Thu Dec 25, 2014 12:51 pm
EternityTheory wrote:Other one is, seeing things you normally wouldn't thanks to things like x-ray vision or security cameras in otherwise hard-to-reach places. These, generally, you should ignore; just because I can see in to parts of Engineering from Surgery with x-ray vision, doesn't mean I should report what I see there; clearly, the people involved did take efforts to make it private, and it's a situation they shouldn't really have had to plan for that has them being discovered. At most, you should OOC PDA message them or something to see if they mind you IC seeing them; otherwise it's best to ignore it. This is, tangentially, one of the biggest issues an AI player has to face, because with their all-encompassing vision and the power they have they have MASSIVE scene-wrecking potential, and need to be really careful when it comes to these things.
by Aces » Thu Dec 25, 2014 3:02 pm
EternityTheory wrote:There are some topics that a lot of people, myself included for a few of these, have been really confused about. Because these come up a lot, I figured I should make a post about them, clarifying how exactly things work in these situations. Not all of these are in reference to specific events, and in fact one I ended up finally learning the real rules about it in a situation that was completely unrelated to it itself. So, without further ado, some common questions/misconceptions people have regarding various topics here, IC and OOC.
Is the Head of Personnel the second-in-command? No, that is 100% false. More like 50%... I'll explain why later. The Head of Personnel is the acting Captain when there is no Captain, but outside of that situation they are equal with all other Heads (and even then they don't have the full powers of a "real" Captain). When there is a Captain they have no power to boss around the other Heads or even people in other departments unless the heads of those departments are absent, EXCLUDING security, and are in fact arguably the least-powerful Head since they only have control over the Civilian sector; while they control who gets access to what, they can't just give away access to the other departments without that department's Head's approval or the Captain's, or if they are acting Captain, but if they abuse this the other heads of staff can vote to demote them in a tribunal. In fact, it is outright illegal for them to do so unless the Captain or acting Captain says it's okay. Admittedly, most Heads on this server wouldn't try to get them arrested for that in and of itself, but if an HoP gives someone access to a really dangerous part of the station without authorization and that person uses it to do some serious damage, that HoP is probably on the chopping block alongside the criminal and they will probably get job banned.
HoP is both the most and least powerful class outside of Captain. It is a very dynamic role. If any head slots (beside HoS) are not filled, the HoP should be filling in or assigning new heads. If all the head slots are filled, they have a pretty cushy job and should mainly focus on logistics and checking in with the other heads of staff to ensure everything is running smoothly, even if they have no authority to order the other heads around. The person IS however, by all rights, probably next in line to be Captain, and you do not want to disrespect them.
Tangentially from the above, outside of areas in their jurisdiction no Head has the power to boss around people from other departments. While, as an example, a CMO demanding that the hallways be cleared so that a dying person can be transferred to Medical can do so (and better be listened to because it is a hell of a crime to get in the way there), that same CMO demanding that a scientist give them a Maurader would not only not have to be listened to, but would arguably be guilty of Exceeding Official Powers. While a CE ordering you to get the hell out because there's a hull breach should be obeyed, you don't need to wait on them hand and foot in your day-to-day activities. This is even true of the Captain, which leads to my next point...
It's all about context. You should probably obey heads of staff no matter what department you're in just out of respect, but you won't be fired for not obeying an irrelevant order from someone outside your department. In fact you should probably report dumb orders.
Does the Captain have absolute authority to do whatever they want? No; while the Captain has a lot of authority, there are some things they can't do. The obvious one, since it's explicitly stated in multiple places, is that the Captain still has to follow the law, but there are a few other areas this applies. Although the Captain might have a good reason for breaking the law at times too. Again it's all about context. Security is not allowed to arrest the Captain on a hunch and if you arrest the Captain over something stupid like a minor crime, you'll not only be laughed at and called shitcurity, you'll likely be fired, by the Captain you arrested, the moment he gets out of jail... and CentComm will probably back up his choice.
A big one is that, generally, the Captain is not supposed to give orders to individual crew members; the Captain, like everyone else on the station, is bound by the Chain of Command, and the Chain goes link by link, which for the Captain means that they give their orders to the Heads, who in turn relay them to their various departments. If the Captain wants an army of mechs, then they give that order to the RD, they don't just barge into Robotics and tell the Roboticists to get on with it themselves (or, even worse, just start making the robots themselves and getting in the way, disrupting the department's ability to function). If the Captain circumvents the Heads, then the Heads will have no idea what's going on in their own departments and everything will be thrown into disarray. This isn't a rule but it's very good practice. Captain should only skip links if it's urgent or if the head is a dit. A CMO and RD trying to deal with an emergency on the Science station, only to discover their departments busy making weapons and weird drug cocktails for the Captain's impromptu Gateway mission, are a CMO and RD who are going to hate their Captain and probably push for a vote to demote them. (That aside, most of the crew SHOULD still follow any orders the Captain goes and gives them directly despite everything above, as long as they aren't blatantly illegal, because wow does the Captain have the power to make their life hell if they want to. Getting in touch with their Head, who can talk to the Captain, or even Central Command if necessary, is their best option, listening to the Captain until then.)
Besides that, there are some areas where a Head's power is greater than that of the Captain. A HoS who has good reason to suspect that the Captain is breaking the law can detain and arrest the Captain Wrong wrong wrong wrooooooooooooooooong, wrong wrong wrong wroooooooooooong. Wrong wrong wrong wrooooooooooooong. Wrong wrong wrong wroooooooooooong. That's wrooooooooong. That's wrooooooong. That's wroooooooooooooooooong. "Good reason to suspect"--NO. You must have clear and SOLID EVIDENCE to arrest the Captain or CentComm is gonna send an ERT to robust the whole security team the moment they overhear "Mutiny!" over the comms, and if the Captain is infected or otherwise physically or mentally unwell the CMO can have them quarantined or declared medically unfit for duty until they receive treatment again, has to be pretty obvious, and you should probably alert CentComm if this happens. These are situations that the Heads need to be careful as hell in, because if they misuse their power here then they will not be in Command for long and may even be arrested and executed, but there are occasions where a Head can outright demand that the Captain do as they say. There is no situation, ever, that a head of staff can "demand" the Captain do anything. They have no such authority. If your Captain is ignorant of your suggestions, it'll be his fault when the station falls into chaos, and CentComm will fire him.
Should the Captain know everything about and be able to do everything in every department? No. But they should know as much about how things run as possible. The Captain is not a superhuman, they are an administrator. They have the Heads below them for a reason; the RD should know everything there is to about science, the CE about engineering, and so forth. That's why they're there. The Captain is there to keep them all in line and make sure the station keeps running. Besides that, not only are characters who can do literally everything, probably better than you can, kind of annoying, but a Captain who doesn't quite understand everything the departments get up to makes for more interesting RP. For example, Ace (my character) knows security in and out, he knows how to build and pilot mechs because he's worked here forever and has been taught, knows how to start the engine because he had been taught, but doesn't know how to run the engine on advanced Oxy mode, doesn't know jack-all about most of medical outside of basic first aid, doesn't know how to cook, doesn't know a damn about Xenobio, can barely do atmos... The Captain should have a broader set of skills just from experience working on the station, but shouldn't know everything. The CE and RD are butting heads over who should have access to certain materials, the CMO's trying to claim that a person the HoS wants locked away is medically unwell and needs treatment immediately, and the HoP is trying to organize some weird event with the Civilian division and is generally being kind of annoying. The Captain has to sort all these things out, and the fact that they don't have omniscience regarding how all the departments work not only makes their dilemma more interesting, but it gives the Heads more room to try to make their cases and push their agendas, whatever those may be.
Does the Captain's authority to authorize executions mean that they can have whoever they want killed? No. Hell no. Executions are a possible sentence for major crimes, and major crimes are sentenced via tribunal. For someone to be sentenced, a majority of the Heads who are present must agree upon that sentence. Execution is a possible sentence, but the Captain needs to authorize them for them to actually take place; even if all five Heads want an execution, the Captain can keep that from happening. (Though in that case the Captain may be in trouble because five Heads united against them is enough to get them removed from duty if it comes to a vote, but that's a different subject.) Keep in mind though the Captain -can- assign death warrants, especially to major criminals on the run, but if they abuse this it's a fast track to getting fired, or even sparking a justified mutiny.
In short, it's actually the opposite of how a lot of people interpret it: the Captain cannot sentence anyone they wish to die, but they can override any death penalty Command passes down. (Tangentially I have actually never seen a tribunal happen on this server. I don't think most people even know they're a thing. We really need people to read their dang Space Law because this is kind of important, since they're supposed to happen for every major crime and I think can be requested in the case of lesser ones, among other situations where they're relevant.) Major crimes are also very rare on our server. When they happen, we do have tribunals usually.
What exactly constitutes trespassing? Basically, being in an area that you do not have access to (on your own; stealing an ID does not count here and is in fact another crime) without permission from someone who does have access. It gets a bit more complicated when you take in conflicting opinions and the issue of cyborgs and the AI, who have access to everything. Basically, a Head's permission or lack thereof overrides all others; if the CMO does not want you in Medical, you cannot be in Medical, even if a doctor let you in. (Unless you're the Captain, in which case unless you're actually in the way they have to put up with you.) Even if they're in the way. Too fekin' bad.Though a good Captain should FOLLOW THE ADVICE of his damn crew. We've seen one Captain who didn't do that and look how he ended up? Fired. After nearly being mutiny'd outta power. The AI is even lower than normal crew members here, and the cyborgs below the AI; if the AI opens a door in Science for you but a scientist tells you to get out, listen to the latter before they call Security on you because they can and probably should. AI is a servant to the crew. AI has no command and its laws do not apply to the crew--although if you need an extra head for a tribunal, they can fill the role because they are smart enough and unbias enough to do so.
Tangentially from this, the Hos has access to the main areas of all the other departments, but despite this, if that department's Head demands that they leave, the HoS has to listen. If they don't have a legitimate reason to be there they aren't allowed to loiter around and be in the way.
Is the Head of Security next-in-line to be Captain after the HoP? (And, tangentially, exactly how does succession work?) Sort of, but not always. The Head of Personnel is always acting Captain when there's no Captain but there is a Head of Personnel, but if there's neither a Captain nor an HoP, the acting Captain depends. If there is an emergency going on, then yes, the HoS is acting Captain. If there is not an emergency, however, then there is no default acting Captain; the HoS is equal with the other three Heads. Exactly how they resolve disputes can be a bit of an issue, but generally isn't a problem on this server at least. Have a damn vote for the captain. When the heads come to a unanimous choice, the conflict is resolved. You guys never do this.
On the topic of Captains, when there isn't one, even if there is an acting Captain present (i.e. there's an HoP around), Command can elect a new Captain, either from among themselves or from the crew. The exact process for this I unfortunately don't have on hand; I'll edit it in here when I have time to play and reread the Chain that Binds. The main point, however, is that there is a process for that sort of thing, and given that there are some things that only a Captain (not an acting Captain, a proper one) can do, it can be a rather important one. Literally, at least three heads of staff (or two and an AI) must be present, same as a tribunal, and they must all vote unanimously to promote someone to Captain. That's it. It's that simple. The voted person becomes Captain. Not acting Captain. Full fledged Captain. This remains in effect even if another Captain shows up later in the shift. If that happens, either have another vote, have two Captains (not advised), or ask CentComm to resolve it. As a courteous though, if it's early shift and the Captain just isn't here yet, I'd hold off on voting especially if you have an HoP.
Do the cyborgs and AI have to listen to every order they're given? No. While obeying the crew is one of the AI's laws, their laws are not hierarchical and should be weighed against each other depending on the situation. If an assistant demands access to Toxins or Virology, the AI should probably figure that the potential risk to the crew is great enough to ignore that order. Additionally, there's the case of conflicting orders, where usually the person with higher authority is the one whose order is obeyed. Possibly the most important but least-noticed example of this is that the Chain of Command and Space Law are orders from people higher than anyone on the station, and thus no one has the authority to make demands of the AI that go against them. (There are still situations where the AI probably should go against them, but that's a different topic.) In short, the AI should consider the orders they're given and whether or not they should be followed, both because their laws demand it and because blindly following every order is going to cause hell on the station. The AI follows its own laws before anyone else's orders. There are no "command override" switches or any bullshit like that. Someone trying to do that can be ignored. And laughed at for powergaming.
What exactly is the deal with scenes and can I get involved in ones I'm not a direct part of? The simple answer is that public scenes anyone can interfere with, while private ones are against the rules of the server to screw with (even if some people like to run with it when people stumble into their private stuff; that's a matter to be handled with LOOC). The real question is what exactly constitutes "public" and "private", and unfortunately that's a bit harder to answer, though there are two big things to consider, plus a few specific scenarios I've seen that I can answer about as well. (This is mostly based on how I've seen admins handle these situations and admin answers to my questions, but until an admin confirms these things please take them with a grain of salt; I am not an admin and their word here overrides mine. I'm just trying to offer advice based on what I've seen them say and do.)
The first big thing is, well, is the area public or well-traveled? For example, anything happening in the hallways? Public as hell, you have every right to get involved. The middle of the diner? Arguably even more public, plus the bartender has a shotgun explicitly so they can break up shenanigans happening there. Pretty much anywhere you can see from a hallway normally, even if you don't have access there (the Bridge, Hydroponics and the Kitchen, Chemistry, and so on, for example) are also technically public because, well, as was just stated people will see what's happening in them just walking down the hallway; you don't necessarily have the right to enter yourself (particularly for the Bridge), but it's a thing you can react to, call help for, etc. It gets a little more complicated when you get inside of the departments, since some people have access there and certain ones are well-traveled even by people without access. For example, the main area of Medical is bad, as is anywhere in Genetics (despite its extremely restrictive access requirements it is separated by one of the most-visited parts of the station by only a glass wall so anyone who comes in for a scan or cloning can see everything that's happening in there), and the break room isn't much better, but the Morgue is pretty decent, and the patient rooms or Psychiatrist's Office with the shutters down are definitely private. A decent rule of thumb is that, if it's not an area people are likely to go as a part of their normal work day or routine, it's probably pretty private. (Though some areas like the break room north of the bar are sort of "semi-private", since people don't use them much and you can't see into them from outside, but they're open or at least widely-accessible, so use these at your own risk, unless you like the idea of people maybe walking in I guess. Maintenance and the dorms are probably the best areas for private scenes that don't require a specific job/department to access, for general reference. You can even lock the latter.)
For securely private scenes, use your own private offices, the dorms, or make a hidden room in maintenance somewhere and drag your victim inside.
The second one is, well, did anyone involved spread knowledge of it? If someone calls for help on the radio, not only does that mean you can get involved, but if you're Security it means you should, because that's your job. If the scene is in a private area as explained above, then only the victim should be calling for help. If someone else calls for help on their behalf without being asked because they gotta play the hero, that's a ding dong bannu. Similarly, PDA messages asking for help or leading you to the place a thing is happening are more or less OOCly asking you to come there. If your hands are ICly restrained, how the hell can you use your PDA? If you aren't OOCly okay with a scene, SAY SO IN LOOC. I think using PDAs to call for help is bullshit. Which, tangentially, leads to a big, BIG point since this has been a point of concern and the cause of some problems recently: If you do not want people to get involved in your scene, do not spread information of it over the radio or otherwise make knowledge of it open to people. You are involving the entire server in your thing when you do this, so you cannot reasonably expect them to not react, or to react the way you want to. You don't get to dictate how other people RP (beyond the obvious things re: preferences, which is not at all related to this and I am only mentioning because I know some smartass would bring it up otherwise). This is a particular issue because sometimes people have partial information broadcast, or make it really obvious what's happening without having an explicit call for help, which in addition to IC factors forces the meta question on all the players of if it's enough to justify getting involved in. Bragging about eating someone on the radio isn't grounds for security to arrest them unless they are ordered to stop and they keep spamming comms. Bragging about eating someone UNWILLINGLY, however, is, because in the first scenario Security doesn't know if willing or not, but in the second scenario you pretty much straight up admit to breaking the law. While these things tend to be judged on a case-by-case basis by the admins, I think a good way of looking at it is that, if you do not want anyone getting involved, do not let anyone know about it. If you broadcast a muffled scream over the radio or have your villainous character chuckle into the mic and strongly imply but not outright state that they've got an unwilling victim trapped in them, you are forcing the players who hear it to weigh reacting to things IC with the question of "if I get involved in this, will I be banned?" (which, yes, has almost happened a few times). That's a really dickish thing to do. If you're gonna play the villainous type, brag about having an unwilling victim, then whine when security robusts you, I'll probably just ban you. If you're just mushing your belly against the mic and being a tease with no clear indication of the victim being willing or unwilling but security kicks your ass and arrests you for murder anyway, I'm going to ban the security member who thought that'd be a good idea. Although if they wanna arrest you for abusing comms, they totally can, provided they told you at least once to stop.
Now, a couple of edge cases. First, situations where there's some really obvious signs that something's wrong there, but you know there's probably a scene going on from an OOC perspective, such as a trail of blood leading to a door or busted/hacked doors. Generally, these are alright to get involved in, from the cases I've seen; the trail of blood one I even specifically asked the admins about, and after they had a bit of a laugh about it they said that yeah, that's something to investigate (though the blood turned out to be a bug; it was a willing digestion thing, but for some reason they started bleeding and the blood was trailing behind their predator even though they were completely inside the stomach). This is similar to the publicly visible and public knowledge things above; there's blatant IC reason to get involved there, and the signs leading to it are the fault of those involved, so if they did want it to be private they probably should have cleaned up after themselves better.
Other one is, seeing things you normally wouldn't thanks to things like x-ray vision or security cameras in otherwise hard-to-reach places. These, generally, you should ignore; just because I can see in to parts of Engineering from Surgery with x-ray vision, doesn't mean I should report what I see there; clearly, the people involved did take efforts to make it private, and it's a situation they shouldn't really have had to plan for that has them being discovered. At most, you should OOC PDA message them or something to see if they mind you IC seeing them; otherwise it's best to ignore it. This is, tangentially, one of the biggest issues an AI player has to face, because with their all-encompassing vision and the power they have they have MASSIVE scene-wrecking potential, and need to be really careful when it comes to these things. AI has no need to get involved unless a victim says they want help. It's that simple. Although eavesdropping with radios and overhearing a 'help me!' or two doesn't really count in my opinion. (On a different tangent, personally I end up using x-ray vision to avoid busting in on scenes more than anything; it lets me know not to walk into the semi-private areas I described above, allows me to see exactly why that patient room is closed so I don't have to wonder if it's a scene, a legitimate patient being treated, or someone just forgot to raise the shutter when they left, and so on. Also, since I play CMO a lot and thus need to know where all my department members are, being able to see "oh they're in a scene over there, hidden away" lets me know that I shouldn't be hounding them when an emergency's going on and I need all free people to get to me immediately, because even if they ICly should come to help, OOC they're doing exactly what the server's for and all.)
So, there is a (much longer than I first imagined) list of common questions I've seen and my answers to them. If anyone has something they'd like to add or comment on, or an admin has some corrections to this to make, please tell me so I can add to/edit this. I wrote this to try to help people out (as I said, I've seen questions about all these things a LOT), so if something needs to be changed I'd like to do so ASAP. Otherwise, I hope people benefit from this.
by devian0 » Mon Dec 29, 2014 11:40 am
by Aces » Mon Dec 29, 2014 1:07 pm
devian0 wrote:Server down? Suddenly got disconnected before the next round started, can't reconnect.
It's been a lot of fun so far. I missed SS13.
by Aces » Wed Jan 07, 2015 7:41 pm
by Pyro » Thu Jan 08, 2015 2:40 pm
by Aces » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:54 pm
Pyro wrote:Meanwhile, still no feline taur sprites.
by CaSeSeNsItIvE1290 » Fri Jan 09, 2015 7:32 pm
by Us3rn4m3 » Fri Jan 09, 2015 7:54 pm
CaSeSeNsItIvE1290 wrote:My account on SS13 is banned for some reason, I need help.
by CaSeSeNsItIvE1290 » Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:24 pm
by Mech__Warrior » Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:36 pm
CaSeSeNsItIvE1290 wrote:Im like banned for ban evasion? maybe somebody has the same IP as me, that happens sometimes
by pauls4eva1223 » Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:40 pm
Mech__Warrior wrote:CaSeSeNsItIvE1290 wrote:Im like banned for ban evasion? maybe somebody has the same IP as me, that happens sometimes
Might want to PM Spades than bring it up on the forum.
by Mech__Warrior » Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:41 pm
pauls4eva1223 wrote:Mech__Warrior wrote:CaSeSeNsItIvE1290 wrote:Im like banned for ban evasion? maybe somebody has the same IP as me, that happens sometimes
Might want to PM Spades than bring it up on the forum.
How would i do that?
by pauls4eva1223 » Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:46 pm
by Aces » Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:46 pm
pauls4eva1223 wrote:Mech__Warrior wrote:CaSeSeNsItIvE1290 wrote:Im like banned for ban evasion? maybe somebody has the same IP as me, that happens sometimes
Might want to PM Spades than bring it up on the forum.
How would i do that?
[16:14:36]SAY: Sloan Williamson/Pauls4eva : FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
[16:14:39]OOC: (LOCAL) Sloan Williamson/Pauls4eva : Hah feg
[16:16:47]OOC: (LOCAL) Sloan Williamson/Pauls4eva : Faggot
[16:16:50]OOC: (LOCAL) Sloan Williamson/Pauls4eva : Fagooot
[16:16:50]OOC: (LOCAL) Joan Risu/JoanRisu : Oi
[16:16:54]OOC: (LOCAL) Sloan Williamson/Pauls4eva : FAGGOOT
[16:16:57]OOC: (LOCAL) Sloan Williamson/Pauls4eva : U MAD FAGOT
[16:16:59]OOC: (LOCAL) Joan Risu/JoanRisu : Stop that
[16:17:03]OOC: (LOCAL) Sloan Williamson/Pauls4eva : U a mad faggot
