In-game Username: Kowlin
Discord username: Kowlin
Characters you play: Ullis-Ress
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 10-15h
Days you are available to admin on: Weekdays and weekends.
How old are you? 28
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I played extensively on RMC and Frontier.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? Yes, I’ve been admining for game servers ever since I was 16, back in the prime days of Garry’s Mod from 2013 to 2015.
Furthermore, I’m the project manager for a open source project named Red-DiscordBot, the self-hosted Discord bot some of the SS14 and SS13 maintainers have build addons for. Where my tasks include team management, moderation of the Discord and GitHub org, & manage the code base and software releases of Red. (Red-Policies/policies/active/0003.md at master · Cog-Creators/Red-Policies · GitHub)
I’ve also been a volunteer moderator for Epic Games’s Fortnite Discord server back in the day from 2020 to 2021. Where my day to day operations were to manage the Discord server and develop moderation tools to figure out problem spots.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? No, I have no prior bans on any SS14 or SS13 server.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? My primary interests lay with in-game rule enforcement, answer new and experienced player’s questions on game mechanics and rules. I also don’t mind dealing with post-round stuff such as ban appeals and replay and log reviews. Besides that I have a minor interest in running the occasional in-game event. Preferable with other admins if their up for it.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? One of the things that has always annoyed me is rule lawyering, especially when it comes to the Silicone law sets that some players get. These tend to always be a massive OOC argument from what I’ve seen and the conversation quickly gets annoying for all parties involved. But its sadly enough a thing that’s part of game administration that has to be dealt with.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Game admins serve the purpose of ensuring that problematic situations that cannot be resolved in character are dealt with in a appropriate manner with professionalism. I feel like most situations can be resolved in character, but when that cannot happen it’s nice to have a 3rd party step in to clarify and handle the situation. Furthermore I feel like admins have to be a guiding hand for new and experienced players alike, someone who can be approached for questions or guidance, that doesn’t mind taking the time in explaining some aspects of the game. Such as example on how to deal with power or chems. When no other in character resources are available.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
My journey in SS14 began on the Leviathan server, which I still play on frequently and consider my favorite server to be on. With the recent drop in player count on Wizden and knowing some of the reasons behind it, I want to help however I can. For me, that means contributing through something I know and enjoy: in-game administration.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
I mostly play on Leviathan and Grasshopper, so my perspective will be from those 2 servers. But overall I feel their pretty good! There are definitely situations where I feel that a lot more in character issues could be resolved by just talking to each other. But besides that I’m pretty happy on the state of things. There will always be people who will focus on winning more then roleplay on LRP, but I feel that just comes with the territory.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
For me a few of the biggest impacts admins can have is interacting with the player base in a in character way, think of responding to a prayer, a fax or other minor ways that aren’t round altering outside of admeme events. Besides that helping out players where they got completely stuck, such as helping out a ghost role because they got flinged into space.
Have you ever had a negative experience in the game or with a game admin? If so what, if anything, would you do to prevent other players from experiencing this?
I didn’t have any negative experience with any admin, they’ve all been very pleasant to work with and talk to! Of course there are the times that raiders took over grasshopper, and I’d like to be able to intervene in scenarios like that.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Oh boy, I have a fun one. I remember a time where I was with another player in space on the map Oasis, we had a random rod spawn in, and by sheer misfortune it happened to impact the shuttle, gibbing the other player, destroying the generators, and leaving me stranded in space. While completely ignore the station. I cried out on comms for help, yet the station was preoccupied with their own antag situations and had no time for me. I prayed out to the gods, and after a few minutes had passed. A crate was bluespaced onto the remaining wreck, it contained a set of solar arrays for me to build and limp back to the station. Only to be discovered by a lone op demanding my stuff, and proceeded be executed in the process.
I still remember that round VERY vividly, and I greatly enjoyed my time with that entire situation.
Scenario Questions
Scenario 1
It is the start of the round. There are 60 players on the server. The game mode is traitors, traitors have not been selected yet. There are three players who decided to observe the round instead of join it orbiting you. Two of them are encouraging you to “do something funny”.
Due the fact that the round just started, traitors not having been rolled yet, and that it isn’t an admeme round, I’d ignore their requests for “something funny”, maybe have some general small talk with them if they feel up for it. If there was a naturally spawned ghost role they could interact with, I’d tell them. Otherwise I’d move on my admin duties for the round.
Scenario 2
This scenario takes place on LRP. The Head of Security has decided to coup the Captain. The Head of Personnel agrees with the Head of Security and has taken up arms in case it is necessary to aid in effecting the arrest of the Captain. The Captain is hiding with the Quartermaster in the cargo shuttle to avoid the Clown who has stolen the captains saber as a non-antag. There are five people named in this scenario. Please describe what actions, if any, you would take in relation to each, and why.
That’s a lot to unpack, I think we this is easiest broken down into 2 distinct problems.
Problem 1, figuring out why this coup happened:
I’d message the HoS, HoP, QM, and Captain, asking why this coup is happening. Which is important to figure out who’s at fault here.
1: If the Captain is at fault for this situation, and is found to miss-use their position for whatever reason, then I’d say that this coup is valid and will let it continue for the roleplay, and Captain will receive at the minimum a roleban from Command for “Abuse of position of authority” and “Unreasonable incompetency in a role” following the Admin Banning policies. Depending on their history in their admin remarks. Furthermore, I think its fair to remind all parties that being in command does not exclude them from Space Law, it gives then leniency but not full immunity from it.
2: If the Captain is NOT at fault here, and is NOT found to be miss-using their position. Then HoS and HoP are at fault here. QM is NOT at fault here due the fact that they may not know about the coup that’s going on. More on that in problem 2. HoS and HoP will be at minimum be receiving a roleban under “Abuse of position of authority”, and “Unreasonable incompetence in role”, an additional “Taking actions a reasonable person would view as to be to the detriment of the station as security/command” for HoS can be argued here. However I feel that would be too much. in this situation. For both HoS and HoP, the bans will be according to their admin remark history and banning guidelines. Furthermore, again in this situation I’d remind all parties about Space Law and the fact that they aren’t immune from it.
Problem 2, the clownery of the clown:
The clown has stolen the Captain’s sabre, QM is hiding from them in the shuttle. I would message the clown, asking their intentions with the sabre. And would tell the clown to return it to security or command. There is no reason for the clown to have the sabre as a non-antag. Thus at the very least will be getting a note for self-antagging. And may receive further punishment depending on history. However, if the Clown DOESN’T intent to return it to security or command after being told to. Then I would go over to a temp ban for the Self antagging.
As for QM, QM is not at fault here. They are protecting them selfs from a threat. There would be no need to message QM for theft of the sabre, as they have nothing to do with it.
Scenario 3
You are ahelping a player about an issue. The player has no prior noted issues. A few days earlier, an admin had told you that this type of situation should result in a temporary ban for a first offense, and you are confident that this situation is not substantially different from the type that admin was describing. During the ahelp, another admin pings you on Discord with a link to the ongoing ahelp and tells you to just indefinitely ban them and make them appeal. Excluding trialmins and headmins, all admins are equally “ranked”. A headmin is not currently available.
I’d explain what the first admin told me to the second one. I’d also ask about clarification on why the second admin thinks this is the right thing to do in the scenario. As this is conflicting between 2 admins, I’d choose for the temp-ban in the current situation, while documenting differing opinions from the 2 admins. And would ask a head-admin to re-evaluate the situation, and if after the review, the ban needs to be raised to a appeal only ban. Then it can be raised. In my opinion, it’s better to work with clear, detailed instructions.