It should be stated more clearly and in no uncertain terms that loosing is not permitted for II infected persons.
I’ve seen it argued that it is “station ending” or that they “consume bodies”, but if you’ve played this is almost never the case, with many people dying merely of radiation poisoning. This is arguable and not nearly definite.
Using the singularity to cause chaos and cause casualties isn’t outside of reason with this in mind. If it is going to be a bannable offense, it needs to be more explicitly stated.
This is from the in-game guidebook for Zombies. Notice in bold where it reads “maximize your chances of taking over the station”.
This implies the following:
There are additional zombies that are created from bodies
There is a station to take over
If you singuloose, the singularity consumes things that enters the event horizon. This includes mobs, floors, and walls. This therefore renders both points above moot as there would be:
No additional bodies to turn into zombies
No station to take over
Thus, we can conclude that loosing the singularity is outside the scope for not only the Initial Infected, but any subsequent zombie because the singularity also would eliminate the chances of any further brains to be found.
This is taken from the wiki, which has our current rules for what is excessive beyond your objectives. Again, loosing the singularity (as we have now established) is well outside the scope of what the Initial Infected should be doing, and therefore is against the rules.
Respectfully, I disagree with what has been extrapolated from the ingame flavour text about zombies.
“Maximise your chances of taking over the station” is predicated on context. An Initial Infected is being driven by their illness to infect the station’s inhabitance under a creeping time pressure.
Maximising(make as large or great as possible) changes under context. This is different from something being maximal or maximised. It’s not a binary.
The Initial Infected can feel that the infection is overtaking them(let’s assume that they know as it seems they do), this is the context within which they are attempting to maximise the propagation of their host infection.
Lastly I have never seen a singularity consume an entire station. This just doesn’t happen. At worst some people are directly consumed by the singularity(and it’s never substantially large amounts of people unless they are particularly unlucky), most casualties will be from radiation poisoning. At worst there is almost always is a feasibly large amount of survivors waiting for evacuation while the singularity goes out into space. There are bodies, better yet there are living people all gathered into one place.
Since this has been made into a discussion regarding my ban, I will go into the context further. I wasn’t the sole Initial Infected on the station now that I’ve provided you with the rationale. And I don’t appreciate the antagonistic manner by which you “boinked” me especially when you saw me making a mistake.
To conclude, “no station to take over” is an unfair extrapolation because again it’s not clear what is meant by station. The station as an institution, private property or the actual physical hull? In which case what does it matter to an infected person? I’ll hedge my bets that by station they mean the people on it, not so much the hull.
I don’t disagree with the ruling. Rules are rules and I fumbled by loosing under pressure but I don’t agree that it is clear, and the proscribed logic for IC characters in this context isn’t sound or considered(this isn’t your fault) and it’s not true to life(let’s not get into the fact that the wikipedia wasn’t even an up-to-date resource until recently).
The reason that a station is isn’t defined is its very clear what the station is. the station is the station. the crew work in the station, the hull is part of the station. a singloose can rip departments open and eat large parts of the station and causes massive damage, Telsa loose is the same but even more dangerous as it hunts down APCs one after the other until everything is killed taking down nearly all the walls.
Actually, I never made this into a discussion about any ban. You stated in your original post:
Therefore I was commenting in my reply that it was against the rules. Nowhere in my reply did I explicitly or implicitly state that my response was based on any current bans. I even included that my response could be expanded to include infected crew.
For any discussion regarding your ban, I would suggest you open an appeal.
I mean my headcannon was that II were sent by the syndicate to take out and basically husk a station. cant exactly husk a station thats destoryed. lots of materials lost.
Including many people who are now in hardsuits that weren’t before you loosed.
I can’t imagine you made their rare chance at being an II better by loosing and getting evac called prematurely.
are we deadass
I don’t care how much nitpicking and endless debate you’d like to make over “what IS a station?”, as an II you want to make sure you have as many bodies as possible to infect. Loosing makes every single one of those bodies want to leave where you are, making your job harder/impossible even if they’re all grouped up at Evac. Any less than competent Secoff, Engi, and Command member will realize that a loose was caused by A) workplace malpractice or B) malicious intent. Scenario A goes out the window in practically no time at all because people ask each other what went wrong/ what they were doing at the time of loose. Scenario B will have everybody on-station on edge waiting for the next attack, which is NOT ideal for any II.
I’d recommend using common sense and a little more creativity next time you’d want to have a mass casualty event that helps you and your fellow II before loosing and prematurely ending the round for everyone.
Regardless of what CAN be inferred from rules (Which no, it isn’t as clear as it is implied here). It REALLY would not hurt to add “We want the station to stay somewhat functional”. It would go a long way.
Just make clear that the station can’t be turned into irrecognizable scrap as that is not the goal.
When you have antags like nukies or wizards which have the same “antag” status, this is NOT obvious.
