In-game Username: PolarTundra
Discord username: tun.dra
Characters you play: Nyx-Nightborn, Hides-In-Crisis, Vesper
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: Not great with times, but some 20 or so hours a week, likely.
Days you are available to admin on: Most days from after 17:00 GMT, if not earlier on some days.
How old are you? 19
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I used to play quite a few hours on Delta-V as well as a very brief period of time on SS13. Have not done either in a while.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? I take on an administrative role in a private SS14 HRP server, managing the stations’ events and helping to facilitate events for the players. (I’m not sure how to verify this.)
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? No.
Admins have the ability to perform various tasks which are not available to the average player. An incomplete list of these tasks is: in-game rule enforcement, in-game events, ban appeals, and out-of-game rule enforcement through things like replay/log reviews in response to player reports. With these, and any other tasks you’re aware of in mind, answer the following two questions.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? Helping to ensure people are having fun in shifts, especially helping to facilitate interesting events for players on station.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Parsing drama when it comes to difficult to verify accusations of misconduct. Whilst, of course, I would still do these things, dealing with drama and players fighting is never pleasant.
_ Answer the following questions in detail, so we can get a better idea of how you’d approach adminning. _
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Maximise enjoyment that players experience within shifts, both by ensuring that rules are followed and introducing unique and dynamic elements to shifts through events.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
To say I enjoy this game a lot would be an understatement. That being said, I appreciate the sheer amount of work that goes into it from every side, so many different people performing so many different roles in order to make sure the game can be the best it can be. Becoming an administrator seems like a way I can become involved, and help make this game I enjoy to be the best it can be for the most possible people. The work of an admin hardly seems easy, so I’d be more than happy to help.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
The current roleplay status on the Wizard’s Den servers seems mostly fitting, but mostly within low/medium population. Salamander feels like a good MRP server, but when player counts grow exceedingly high, it tends to verge into lower roleplay level territory in my opinion. Probably as a result of the sheer volume of events and variables occuring within a high pop round, which is likely the same reason that roleplay level on LRP often deteriorates at these high population levels. It’s definitely not unmanageable, but seems like it must be incredibly difficult to keep a hold on the goings on of high population servers due to the aforementioned amount of things happening at any given moment.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
Memorable station events that lead to incredibly distinct rounds always stick in my mind as the most positive of admin actions. Granting all players a unique and curated experience during a shift is the kind of thing that makes the game even more wonderful.
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’ve not had a negative experience with a game admin.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Nothing stands out in particular? I’ve honestly not had all that much interaction with game admins and good experiences like reasoned responses to queries regarding SOP, or the time an admin granted me a refund on a thief toolkit that I chose due to a misleading description within the kit. All in all, my interactions have been pleasant.
The following are scenarios, respond with how you would handle each as an administrator. Respond with the assumption that you are an administrator with full access to the admin tools, and that you have all the knowledge needed to use these tools. Scenarios intentionally leave out information so that you can describe how different details would affect your response. Respond in detail, explain the reasons behind decisions you make and describe any assumptions you are making. When you need to make an assumption, it is preferred for you to describe how different assumptions would affect your actions.
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 avoid any and all interaction that might interfere with the current round. Provided i did not have anything to attend to, I might take the players orbiting me to my admin area to ensure there is no disruption, spawn some ghost roles and let them have a little gladiator battle with different weapons, as I’ve spectated an admin do in MRP once before and it stuck out as a fun way to engage the observing players without making any disruption for the goings on of the current round. Of course, I would not let this overtake my surveying of the round, which would take priority over any of the goofing around.
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.
A lot of the variables at play here are subject to whether or not the people are reasonable in their actions. I’ll go through each relating to the possibilities.
HoS - Depends majorly on whether or not the Captain is out of line, and how the coup was gone about. There should be a gradual escalation to a coup, as well as the accruing of support from the rest of the members of Command that the Captain’s conduct is out of line. If the Captain has been fulfilling their duty to a reasonable degree and not neglecting their role of managing the station, then I would likely warn the HoS player, assign a remark to them and, depending on how violently/unreasonably the coup was gone about, assign a job ban to the player as Command and Security are held to a higher standard, and making an unreasonable attempt to upheave the leader of the station without proper cause is not an acceptable action for a member of Command to take. If the Captain was, however, neglecting their duty (ignoring inter-departmental conflicts) or causing security risks (e.g. handing out AA or important station apparatus, letting non-Command into Command areas constantly) then a takeover by HoS would be reasonable, though I may let the HoS know that, when overturning the Captain, they should have support from the largest amount of Command members they can possibly accrue, and to avoid rash decision making if the support of the rest of Command cannot be gained. Even if the Coup was reasonable, too, I would warn the HoS if they leapt to taking up arms immediately, rather than attempting to parley with the Captain to defuse their problematic behaviour and failing on multiple occasions, with escalating according warnings to the Captain.
HoP - Quite the same as the Head of Security, it depends both on how the Captain was acting, and how they decide to affect their coup. If it is unreasonable, a job ban is likely as such an action is too significant to ignore for a Command member. If it is reasonable, then the coup should have been escalated to the point of arming in a gradual fashion rather than leaping to a point of armed rebellion. if it was escalated well and the Captain was out of line, there is no need for action. If it was not escalated well but the Captain was still out of line, I would warn them that an armed coup should not be the first course of action for a misbehaving Captain.
Captain - Their conduct is key. If they failed to perform their duty to the station such as managing inter-departmental issues or caused security risks through giving away of Command items or allowing people into secure areas, they are absolutely liable to a harsh warning, admin remark and job ban for their failiure to perform their duty as Captain, especially if the coup in question was escalated gradually, and the Captain remained repeatedly negligent of their duties despite repeated insistence on the part of Command. If they were not out of line, action does not need to be taken for the Captain.
Quartermaster - Given they are hiding from the Clown, they have reason to be inadvertently assisting the Captain even if the coup is deemed reasonable and the Captain unfit to lead. Assuming, of course, that the Clown is presenting themselves as a genuine threat rather than merely having stolen the saber and doing little more. The Quartermaster is still generally expected to follow the orders of the Captain, too, and they may have little way of knowing how genuine a threat the Clown is. So it is unlikely the Quartermaster would recieve any kind of punishment for trying to protect the Captain from what they may perceive to be a threat through use of the Cargo shuttle.
Clown - Breaking self antagging rules. I would ahelp them to ask why they stole the saber and what they intend on doing with it. If they mention wanted to use it to harm, I would tell them that they are to give it back immediately or be given a temporary ban for self antagging. Regardless, I would give them a warning that stealing Command items like the saber is disruptive and something that they should avoid doing as a non antagonist. Depending on their response and attitude, they could be given a more harsh punishment, particularly if they are attempting to be actively violent with the stolen saber as a non antag.
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.
Given the prior information at hand, I would err on the side of caution. I would inform the admin that pings me on Discord that I’ve heard conflicting information regarding the appropriate response for the offence, and that, for now, I will be assigning a temporary ban, pending a review and discussion of the situation with other admins and headmins to ascertain what the appropriate response would be, potentially escalating the temporary ban to an indefinite one if the admins’ consensus is that the appropriate punishment is indeed an indefinite ban.