RP - Soulstolen - Admin Events on RP

[knouli]

BYOND Name of complaint against: Soulstolen

Your BYOND name: Knouli

Date of issue and round ID: 6/29/2019, RP shift ending approximately at 2:51PM EST

Reason for complaint:

I’m upset.

I’m upset at how a furry 2-d spaceman game on an POS outdated engine is managed.

This is stupid and I need better outlets in my life, but I’m still upset. And rather than venting in the echo chamber that is the Discord I wanted to do something about it.

So I am here.

I just had the displeasure of partaking in a psudo-cult ‘round’ managed by, who I am to believe was admin Soulstolen. Through the course of the event a series of paranormal happenings occurred across the station before things manifested into a massive disturbance across the entirety of the Tether. This ending in what was essentially a total server kill as players were given the opportunity to play cult constructs and left to their own devices, which was of course to immediately kill everything that moved. Oh yes, and faithless mobs cropping up everywhere until the station was evacuated and the round promptly ended with the summoning of Nar’Sie.

Not atypical for what you would see from a ‘standard’ cult round.

This ‘event’, as I have no better word for it besides ‘abuse’, is just one in what I as a long running player of two years here perceive as an even longer string of wanton use of the RP server as an ‘admin playground’. And I’m upset at that.

I can talk about how things were handled by Soulstolen, or how they replied to scrutiny after the event – but in truth, they are just the straw that broke the camel’s back, and I would much rather ask as a whole: ‘is this supposed to be acceptable’?

In the view that I hold for the RP server, which might very well be in conflict against how it truly is, I feel that it is not. There are too many examples of good ‘events’ that have occurred in the past for me to accept this. Events that are purely on an opt-in basis where those who are not interested are wholly unaffected. Or even if the event is expected to be a massive influence upon the shift and against the typical run of the round, are announced using any of the event management tools available within the server – voted in ad-hoc by the players. Better yet – substantial events that are announced prior to the date on the Discord for players to decide if they want to be involved or not. Which leaves me curious to the responsibilities of the event-admin role we once held.

In my view, such administrative involvements should be to promote incidents upon which character development and interaction can take place at a deeper level than ‘click sprite with laser-gun’, or minimized to strict player and rule moderation. I feel that the RP server should be a place segregated from the typical chaos seen upon the main server – that, if people should feel that ‘itchy trigger finger’ they should attend to their desires there, upon the server that caters to exactly that experience rather than having it foist upon the RP server. I feel that there should be a greater transparency in these ‘events’, that there should be a greater accountability on the general level of roleplay on the station, that the ‘roleplay’ server should cater to it’s supposed audience.

But that’s just how I feel. That’s my view on the RP server. So I ask: ‘am I wrong’? I’ve been here for two years, played main when the ‘RP’ server then was just an empty mirror not used, and have been exposed too many times by the warcries of hungry valid-hunters angry at all the extended votes to ‘go to RP for RP’. I watched the inception of the roleplay server at it’s very beginning with high hopes only to watch the slow downward spiral into progressively lower and lower roleplay levels, the promises of ‘purges’ to rectify what went wrong only to find nothing. Am I the wrong one in thinking that an RP server event shouldn’t be ‘crew vs NPCs’ - with this current iteration having taken place so recently after the station’s ‘spider infestation’ that brought forth even ERT requests? That this is a gross misuse of the RP server’s intended purpose?

[Keekenox]

I agree tbh.

[AvaricePleonexia]

I was playing as a Security Officer during all of that. I personally didn't agree with Soul's bussery, and, I still don't. I trusted he wouldn't let things get out of control, or, that he would go about things with a bit of tact. All I know, as I stayed in character all that round, was that there was a suicidal person who got gibbed by a rune. Then the Faithless showed up, and, the whole of Science got turned into a Cult Construction zone. Yes, I do agree that the event was ill thought-out and on the side of the spectrum that we'd call admin abuse.

If it's any consolation, I do feel a bit of regret for not saying something to Soul: that things were starting to get out of control and he should really choke up on the cult construct's leash, but, I didn't. You're not wrong for feeling the way you do. All I can offer is an empathetic shrug. I wouldn't have done things this way, the two past events (my only two events, really) that I curated were just a rat nest in trash pit that got promptly eraticated once it was found, and, mine and Kazkin's expedition Deathclaw Nest idea. I'd also like to say that I didn't agree with the spider infestation, but, I didn't play that shift and I've only heard about it second-hand, so, I got no clue what actually happened there, and, thusly take my opinion with a grain of salt :')

In the end though, yeah. I totally see your point and do agree, I just don't know what to do about it, besides breathing down the neck's of the other staff members: which A, I don't want to do, and, B, doesn't really set a healthy atmosphere for the relationships we have between one another as peers.

[InfinitelyThinRectanges]

Just wanna yeet right in here quickly to point out that to the best of my knowledge, not only did he basically spawn a cult round without announcing it so that people could get in or out of the round as their preferences dictate, but he basically supercharged the cult.

Normally they have to put in effort to start creating constructs, it requires preperation and sacrificing people and all that jazz and they're usually fairly limited in number. To the best of my limited knowledge he just SCHEDADDLE SCHADOODL'd people into absolute deathmachines and let them go nuts, and then kept spawning them NPC allies, and apparently even bussed sci into some kind of cult lair?

I feel that this may amplify or explain the problem here, if it was a regular RP cult thing it might even have been interesting.

Full disclaimer, wasn't there, can't really comment any more than this, just wanted to point out that straight up magicing 4/5 people into constructs isn't "Having a cult round", that's a whole other level of threat. One juggery boi is supposed to be able to fight like 3 to 5 armoued, lethal-toting sec officers, imagine 3 or more of the things with endlessly wave-spawning mobs of faithless as backup. I genuinely don't know what on earth you could do about that short of flee.

[snow n' chrysanthemums]

Spiders event was Kered/blackmajor I think.

Asked to code dive and dove. I do not know who coded this (not bay). My guess is Polaris since vore no antags. That coder needs a gulag cell.
In short there are several cult mobs:
ALL cult mobs immune genetic (bio) and radiation, no O2 loss damage, no toxins.
Damage types aside from four types are melee,bullet, laser, energy, bomb, bio, rads

Shade:
10% res for everything, immune to tasers, can self heal
Juggernaut:
300 HP (base for humans is 200), 30-40 brute damage on hit, can break walls sometimes on hit, 70% melee resist, 30% all other, 80% chance to reflect energy/beam weapons, immune to taser/flash/stun, cannot be knocked down
Wraith:
200 HP, 25-30 damage, causes bleeds and fractures with chance on hit, can damage walls,
Artificer:
150HP, 5 damage usually, can go to 15 damage, can damage environments, this is the most "balanced unit"
Behemoth:
Admin spawn only mob. 750 hp, 50 damage on hit MINIMUM, 5 speed, 60% resistance except lasers at 30%. 80% chance to reflect energy projectiles, immune to taser/flash/stun, cannot be knocked down.
In the coding notes for the behemoth it says, "Admin-allowance only, still try to keep it in some guideline of 'Balanced', even if it means Security has to be fully geared to be so."
Harvester:
150HP, 20-25 damage, can cut (bleed), can damage environment, 10% melee resistance, 20% all others.

Now, spells:
Gonna skip construction/new shard spells. Not that those are balanced either but irrelevant.
Forcewall:
20 second duration 300HP shield. Cannot pass through as non cult, juggernaut has special colors for unicorn powers.
Force doors:
Harvester only, forces open doors
Etheral Jaunt:
Allows you to pass through walls for 5 seconds.. Not sure who gets this spell
Fortify:
1 Minute damage taken debuff (not sure what it does... looks incomplete). . Not sure who gets this spell
Repair aura:
30 seconds, repairs nearby constructs. Think it is artifacer only...
Ambush:
Shadekin 2.0 basically with low (maybe no cooldown), not used??? I see no proc for this.
Inversion beam:
Depends on mob type it only has harvester only so uhh?????
Harvester beam:
no delay, 5 second cooldown, 15 damage, 60 armor pen (AKA: Ignores armor basically), lowers light level by 2
Harvester pain orb:
4 tile range, stun/sleep for 1 second, 4 fire damage (Per second I think?)
Juggernaut/Behemoth slam:
Oh gods this is broken.
weakens by 2, 30-50 damage, throws 1-3 tiles, dismantles nearby walls, 15 second cooldown.
Heal:
15 seconds to heal specified mob (I think? I don't understand this one's code). Not sure who can call it, if any/all can.

Oh btw, they nerfed null rod so it doesn't do massive damage to the constructs.
Holy water seems nerfed from bay original, no damage on contact to cult constructs, can only deconvert cultists/remove runes.

[snow n' chrysanthemums]

This has been removed due to Knouli believing it to not be pertinent to the complaint.

[knouli]

Now my separate thoughts.

This . . . . has nothing to do with what I am trying to bring up here at all.

While I’ve my own opinions on antagonists on the RP server, this is not the place I want to voice them, nor discuss them. I’m wanting a definitive yes/no on if these disruptive ‘events’ that have been popularized of late are in line with the mission statement of the RP server.

What you are bringing up is the integration of antagonists, a whole different discussion altogether and is detracting from what I’m attempting to bring to light in having made this complaint.

[snow n' chrysanthemums]

Now my separate thoughts.

This . . . . has nothing to do with what I am trying to bring up here at all.

While I’ve my own opinions on antagonists on the RP server, this is not the place I want to voice them, nor discuss them. I’m wanting a definitive yes/no on if these disruptive ‘events’ that have been popularized of late are in line with the mission statement of the RP server.

What you are bringing up is the integration of antagonists, a whole different discussion altogether and is detracting from what I’m attempting to bring to light in having made this complaint.

They are to a degree related. I will recant my earlier statements if you do not believe so since you are the complaint writer.

For the record. I will quote Kevin on discord. Th administration staff may have changed it's stance. I do not see anything.

to the next rp server event 'discussion':
events being good or bad are subjective.
you not liking an event doesn't mean it's terrible or that everyone didn't like it.
so before anyone starts harping on how the event was "good" or "bad", or who is "right" and who is "wrong", take a good moment of calmness to think about if the event is terrible to everyone, or just you.
it's impossible to please everyone, and while i wish we could there's just no way to. admins try their best to make good events, and i don't think anyone does it out of malice to harass players.

if you're on the rp server for spacegame rather than a graphical erp room, be considerate enough to realize that sometimes things go wrong in spacegame, hrp or lrp. just because it's a hrp server doesn't mean things can't go wrong, icly or oocly, whether caused by ""ordinary"" players, or admins.
while we want to reduce the amount of lrp behavior, if we wanted to completely shut down all conflict we would have already. consider that many things are grey lines, instead of black and white.
and on another note, even if it's a bad event, state your piece, say why it's bad, argue a bit, and then drop it. don't get too emotional. people fuck up, people improve. if someone fucks up repeatedly, point it out. but this kind of behavior, which i have been observing from almost every single time someone has dared ran an event on rp, is why rp has no events. maybe you want it to have no events, zero staff involvement, if so, well good for you. but a good amount of us are here not just for the rp/emote aspect, but for the rp being on a ss13 game/server. the spirit of ss13 should live on regardless of the ""rp level"" of a server. and sometimes, that means your round gets interrupted. we all get interrupted. no one likes being interrupted from what they were doing, but interruptions are what makes the place a ss13 server rather than a chatbox."

I am willing to furnish picture proof if you need it. Kevin is 'Runtime' in the picture.

[Kazkin]

I'll chime in for the few things I often thought about. To begin, I was not apart of this cult round event so I can only go off what I've heard and been told. However, I was HIGHLY involved in the recent spider infestation event. To try to keep this from being a text block I will just bullet point my views.

Cult constructs, especially juggernauts, are designed to be equal matches to a durand combat mech outfitted specifically to fight them. Even with defense mode active a juggernaut can, on average, drop the hull integrity of a durand to roughly 60% in melee. A single juggernaut can wipe out an entire security team even fitted with the correct armor and lethals, only the combat shotgun with the right ammo can counter it without using mech support. Be that as it may, its understandable that most would not know this on this specific code base, but multiple constructs was a bad idea.

An event revolving around fighting npc's is actually a good idea when done correctly. The spider event is a good example of this, as the spiders only spawned in maintenance in places you'd have to actively seek them out. As far as I'm aware nobody was badly injured who didn't actively seek combat, the spiders were also not a map/server destroying threat. Security, along with volunteers, wipe out the spiders in less than half an hour. A lot of people had fun, specially me since I was warden and gave out weapons, ammo, and armor like candy. An event based around npc fighting, much like what exploration is based around, does have an audience. The mistake with the cult round was forcing everyone, especially those opposed, to deal with.

For example, the expedition deathclaw nest idea I had with Catmin/Reijiih. This event was liked by the people involved because they signed up as explorers specifically to do this event, so it was *fun* for them. Admins can run good events, the issue I see reoccurring is they get members who are not good event runners. I get this, I've been dungeon mastering tabletop games for years and it takes a certain set of skill to do and you'll fuck up a lot before getting good at it. The common mistakes I see are:

• Forcing an event on people who don't want it.

• Not understanding what makes an event interesting or involving.

• Lack of player input, i.e. the event runner choosing everything about the event without considering how players will feel about it.

I've said this before and I'll say it again, event manager should be a specific rank given to people who, after some try outs, prove capable of running quality events people enjoy. The best events are usually small mini-events or large pre-planned events. An admin taking it upon himself to spawn additional creatures for an expedition team is a great idea because, provided it doesn't just wipe the expedition team, it makes their already chosen task more interesting and varied.

[Karamitsuko]

Personally, I enjoyed the round. I think it's fine every once in a while for there to be some chaos. Could it have been handled better? Yes. Was it forced on people? Yes. But there will always be people who complain about events regardless, whether they're shit or godly. I don't think it's that much of a big deal. If this /really/ is an issue, I'd say it's a slap on the wrist issue. It was an event, and the person involved in mainly organizing it, soulstolen, should take this as an opportunity to learn. We shouldn't sit and complain because it was a tough event. I've been in their shoes before--making events, having them turn out real bad, either because the players behaved unexpectedly or because the event was going to conclude too quickly, so you have to jump in to give it more strength. Is it a bit abusive? Once again, yes, but it shouldn't be a big deal, honestly. These things happen, and event rounds like this are pretty much once every two weeks. If one gets messed up, there is MORE than enough uptime of standard, non-bloodrush gameplay to make up for the shitshow.

So to restate and summarize: I personally enjoyed the event and think it was pretty fun. I saw a lot of people who enjoyed the event post-round. Was it handled a bit poorly, yes it indeed was, and there were things that could have been done better, and it could have been smoother. Do I think it warrants this player complaint and all this over it? Nnnno. I think that if you had a problem with the event you could contact Soul directly, like I did to give my thoughts on it. I'm sure Soul will learn from this.