In-game Username: Local_dumbass
Discord username: bluekiller79
Characters you play: Henry Shaw
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: ~8-10
Days you are available to admin on: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and weekends
How old are you? 20
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I am part of Sector Umbra, Frontier, and RMC
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? I do not have any prior administration experience.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? No. (I did have a minor discord ban a few months ago, but I am not sure if that was what this question is asking).
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? I am primarily interested in resolving conflicts with space law, and helping new players.
I am interested in helping resolve conflicts with space law because it is constantly argued about. When people break space law or thing somebody is breaking space law, it almost always results in either IC or OOC arguing that is likely followed by a string of ahelps. I would not be surprised if ~30% of ahelps are about space law alone. I have played HoS for a massive amount of time with no issues of breaking space law, and have essentially memorized it by now. I would welcome the opportunity to help resolve disputes about space law as an admin and hopefully make the rounds more enjoyable for players.
I am interested in helping new players because this game is extremely confusing, and even after 1k+ hours I am still learning new things. I would welcome the opportunity to help any player that is confused how the game works and needs help through the ahelp relay.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? I am least interested in doing admin events. I do not know how to do them, but also do not have any good ideas as for what to do as an event.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
I think that the role of game admins is to ensure that the round is enjoyable for the players. From my perspective, the rules are there to ensure that everyone on the server has a good time and admins serve as a way to ensure that those rules are followed. Nobody enjoys being round removed by a non-antag or having to deal with a passenger screaming slurs, and admins are a good way of preventing or addressing those kinds of behaviors.
I also think admins serve as a way to help newer players or answer any questions players may have. As I previously mentioned, this game is extremely confusing to newer players. The server rules, space law, and admin clarifications are very helpful but do not cover every possible situation (nor could they). Admins can serve as a way to clarify difficult situations or mechanics and make the shifts more enjoyable for everyone involved.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that space law has become a serious issue IC and OOC. There are constant arguments about it in game and on discord, and if space law gets violated the shift is miserable for everyone involved. There are likely dozens of ahelps about space law every day, asking for clarification or reporting another player for allegedly breaking space law. These situations are common enough that several people have expressed that they are tired of arguing about it and have even stopped ahelping altogether.
As of the time of this application, the admin team has expressed frustration and severe burnout. Situations about space law are miserable to deal with IC, and must be extremely frustrating to deal with on the admin side of things. I do not blame the admin team one bit for burnout or lack of activity.
I would like to become an admin to help address these issues and ahelps regarding space law. I have a massive amount of experience regarding what you can and cannot do regarding space law, so I feel that I would be a good choice for helping resolve any ahelps about space law. I understand that the constant arguments are extremely exhausting for both admins and players, so I would like to become an admin to help resolve these arguments and provide more admin coverage for the servers.
Though my primary interest is resolving conflicts about space law, I am interested in performing all of the other duties of an admin as well. I think it would be interesting and would make the shifts more enjoyable for everyone involved.
In particular, I would welcome the opportunity to answer questions from players through the ahelp relay. This game is extremely confusing, and I would welcome the opportunity to help guide new players through this complex and enjoyable game.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
Personally, I feel that the current roleplay status on the servers is slightly subpar. I have noticed an increase in net speak, metagaming, or simply a lack of RP on Salamander over the past few weeks.
That being said, I feel like the roleplay standards on Salamander in particular are much better to how they were a month ago during the extremely high pop shifts. I hope that this trend continues!
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
I believe that the biggest positive admin actions are answering questions that players may have. This game is very complex, and players often have questions about rules, mechanics, or other topics that they may ask through the ahelp window.
Having answers to these questions is super helpful, and genuinely improves the quality of a round. It also helps prevent players from making mistakes that could severely hinder the enjoyment of a round for themselves and others.
I would welcome the opportunity to help answer questions as an admin.
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 do not have any notable negative experiences in the game with a game admin. However, I have had some extremely bad experiences in the game.
The worst one I can think of was unfortunately my first syndicate round. It was my very first game, and I didn’t know about fingerprints on implanters. The detective caught me instantly, and asked me to go to sec. I complied, and was brought to sec in cuffs. Despite my compliance and the detective’s insistance, the warden outright ignored me and refused to process me for over an hour while I constantly asked for help or legal representation over common. I also sent out some ahelps about the situation, but they were unanswered. After about an hour and a half, the captain heard about my situation and released me. The HoS was unaware, and felt bad enough that they provided me their OOC name in LOOC as an apology so I could report them. This one round almost burnt me out of the game altogether, but I am glad that I stayed.
If I was an admin, the best way for me to prevent other players from experiencing this is simply to be there. If I saw a player report a similar situation while I was online, I would look into it and make an appropriate decision based on what I found.
I do not blame the admins at all for not answering my ahelps that round. The admin team is small compared to the amount of players, and they cannot be everywhere at once. Part of why I am submitting an admin application is to provide more coverage and help support the already existing admin team.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
A very long time ago on Salamander, I was a HoS who had a fresh cadet on the team. It was their very first cadet shift, and they had absolutely no idea what they were doing. We had a very tiny sec force (me, an officer, the cadet, and a warden) for a station of 60+. I was going to teach the cadet myself, but an admin saw our manpower situation and decided to do something extremely kind. The admin started an IC “centcomm training program” through the cadets PDA, and talked them through cadet duties, searches, arrests, etc. for the entire round. This was extremely helpful for the cadet, and allowed me and the secoff the time to adequately keep the station safe during a traitor round. By the end of the shift, you could tell that the cadet was absolutely elated for the help.
This round has stuck with me as one of my favorites, and I still remember it despite it happening months ago. If I get accepted as an admin, I would LOVE to do something similar and provide genuine assistance.
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”.
I would either ignore them or simply say no. Ideally, as an admin I would not be intervening in a round at all unless I am needed. Doing “something funny” could disturb the flow of the round in a negative way.
The fact that traitors have not been selected yet would not impact my decision, nor would the round type or number of observing players.
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.
The first thing I would do is to take a step back and observe the situation. A security coup supported by other command makes me think that something major may have occurred during the round (either from HoS & HoP or from the captain), and rather than potentially make a misinformed knee-jerk reaction I think it would be best to look at the replay and figure out what happened prior. During the round itself though, I would closely monitor the situation for instances of rulebreaks or self antaging (particularly from the clown, as they have stolen a weapon as a non-antag and have committed actions that lead the captain to fleeing on the cargo shuttle).
Rather than make any decisions during the current round, I would look at the replay and figure out three things.
- What factors led to this situation in the first place
- The reasoning as to why the HoS decided to coup the captain
- Why did the clown take the saber, and what did they do with it
As to the actions I would take, it depends on the context. I have broken each of them down below. Before taking any punitive actions, I would likely consult with another admin first due to the complexity of the situation.
HoS:
- Did the captain knowingly break space law and resist arrest? If so, I believe that the HoS’s reaction to the situation (trying to arrest the captain) may be justified.
- Did the captain do anything to deserve a coup? If not, I believe that I would punish the HoS according to a previously established standard (likely a role ban in this case, but I am unsure what the previous standard is at the time of my application.)
HoP:
- Where there any other security that could have assisted in the arrest of the captain instead of the HoP? The HoP is not a security role, and thus should not be performing security duties (especially those involving armed weaponry). If there were no other security members that could realistically assist and the coup was justified (captain broke space law and resisted arrest), then I would likely take no action regarding the HoP. If there were other security members that could assist and volunteered to assist, then I would likely make a note regarding how HoP abandoned their role to help arrest the captain.
Captain:
- Did the captain knowingly break space law? This is an instance where I would ask the captain what happened while the round is occurring, before going back and verifying through the replay. If the captain knowingly broke space law (leading to the coup) and resisted arrest, then I would follow a previously established precedent when dealing with the captain (likely a role ban).
- Did the captain retaliate against any uninvolved crew members while making their escape? If so, I would likely issue a punishment for self antagonism given the use of force against those uninvolved.
I would also likely ask the captain to return to the station during the round, given that the captain is not supposed to abandon the station.
QM:
In my opinion, the QM is a bystander in this situation. I would likely not end up taking any actions against them. I would still spectate them during the replay to confirm if they were actually a bystander in this situation, or if they knew that the captain violated space law (or server rules) when assisting them.
Clown:
- Why did the clown take the sword? If the captain was using the saber for a hostile purpose and the clown took it, then I would not take any actions against the clown for doing so. If the clown took the sword for personal gain (and did not turn it in), then I would likely add a note against the clown for self-antag or follow a previously established precedent.
- What did the clown do with the sword after they took it? If the clown returned the sword to security or command when they could, then no action would be taken against the clown. If the clown actively used the sword (particularly against other crew members), then I would likely add a note against the clown for self-antag or follow a previously established precedent.
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 would proceed with the temporary ban (or an explicitly outlined previous standard) instead of the indefinite ban, and follow up with the other admin (or ask a headmin) later on. My decision would be informed by the following factors, and each reinforces my decision to go with the temporary ban:
- There is a first offense from a player with no prior issues
- Previously established precedents suggest a temporary ban is appropriate
- All admins are equally ranked
These impacted my decision as follows (with each numbered response corresponding to the factor of the same number)
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Given that it is a first offense and the player has no prior issues, I simply would not feel comfortable giving an indefinite ban. This is their first real offense on the server, and I believe bans should serve to correct behaviors instead of acting purely as punishments. The temporary ban would signal to the player that there is a problem, while giving them an opportunity to fix the problem. A permanent ban for a first offense does not seem appropriate to me, especially given the backlog of ban appeals. I’d rather give a player an opportunity to improve instead of outright punish them.
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Previous precedents suggest that a temporary ban is the correct course of action here based on what the first admin was saying. I would much rather risk placing a ban that may be too lenient (and then realize my mistake by verifying the precedent later), than to risk placing an overly harsh ban on a player that did not deserve such a ban.
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Given that all admins are equally ranked, the other admin’s request can be ignored. If the other admin was not in the round, they likely do not have the same context as me and are making a decision based solely on the ahelp relay. I would not trust such a decision to be accurate, and would ignore them. If they were in the same round as me (had the same context) and I simply got to address the issue first, I would make a mental note of their request but proceed with the temporary ban anyways. I would follow up with the other admin after the round and ask what factors lead to their decision, and if I was in the wrong it would serve as an opportunity for me to improve going forward.