This is a request for Feedback from the Wizard’s Den Playerbase on changes to our MRP rules 2 weeks ago. This will be accompanied by votes in accordance with admin policy.
Background
On 2025-01-07 changes to mrp rules were put in force. Admin policy requires that such changes be put to playerbase discussion and vote 2 weeks after they are put in place.
Votes
Should the new rule prohibiting Powergaming become permanent.
Yes
No
0voters
Should the rule prohibiting mass sabotage to the Emergency Shuttle become permanent?
Yes
No
0voters
Should the rule requiring that crew members do their assigned role duties, and not constantly leave their department/station unless their role requires it or they are an antagonist become permanent?
It should be noted that this is an updated MRP amendment to the “Do not abandon your role” rule. If this change is dropped it will revert back to “This is more strictly enforced on MRP”
Yes
No
0voters
Should the rule requiring that crew members not constantly change out of their role or perform the duties of another role become permanent?
It should be noted that this is an updated MRP amendment to the “Stick to your role” rule. If this change is dropped it will revert back to “This is more strictly enforced on MRP”
Yes
No
0voters
Should the rule requiring that players not utilize LOOC for communicate with other players except where necessary for teaching become permanent?
i think the rule about “Assigned Role Duties” being “do not leave your department” harms RP due to well… if you are a engineer, medical, science or… any non-service role you sould “never leave your department” meaning you lose out on roleplay an interactions.
I feel the LOOC rule needs a revistion and carlifaction rather than removing. As it stands i’ve seen lots of forum confusion over can you use it at all? I think the rule should be updated with its intent “No having convesations in LOOC”
The rule about not leaving your post makes sense. The game can easily get ruined if you are just taking up a slot to mess around. Anomaly loose and no scientists? Time to loose a department. Atmos issue and no atmos? Gotta call evac.
There is a reason why incompetence can result in rolebans. And doing nothing is probably worse.
But as walksanator said, this just kinda ruins the main aspect of the game. Fulfilling one’s role should require going outside the department more, or players could have mandatory breaks that they can start at any time to be exempt from work for a bit.
But having a strict rule that goes against the clear intentions of game design (interacting with the rest of the crew while being confined to an area that the rest of the crew cannot enter) is non-sensical.
I feel that folks should try to stick to their role, i remember i had a game couple days ago where both chems abandoned station in MRP and as medical having both chem players AWOL was terrible, also they wasn’t doing labels correctly (no OD labels) If folks want to roam about they can do the many roles that are focused around that.
That being said, i feel the enforcement level was fine for this. I could as medical roam to cargo order a space heater and wait for the ship to get it, go get a multi-tool from science and return back to medbay to setup cryo heating without a warning. I’ve also stopped off at the bar as atmos and gotten a drink or two making a bit of small talk as a ‘break’ and to refresh my thirst meter.
I believe the role abandonment thing is more to those who waste an unreasonable ammount of time, such as going graytiding rather than performing station critical services. Maybe having it adjusted to reflect that you can leave station if its justifable in character is fine.
This is already the ruling with the don’t abandon your job rule.
Leaving to do something completely unrelated to your job (build a shittle as cargo tech, work on artifacts as engineer) is already not allowed.
Those times you left also caused issues for others in the same way the 2 missing chemists caused issues for you. But it is just how the game is. Vague rulings like “don’t abandon your post” aren’t going to solve this issue, because they already fail at that.
We need a more clear and defined ruling that staff can act upon to fix the issue and less sources of the issue, like an IC time limit or having more ways to do your job outside of your department.
To me the “Do not abandon your role” is something that should be done IC by the department head. Your engineers/doctors/etc screwing around while the station is falling apart is something that should earn the ire of the department head.
But if the shift is quiet the department head may loosen their requirements to stay in the department, the main thing here being that its all done IC and not enforced by a strict “Stay in your department or else” server rule.
With that said, there does need to be some kind of IC punishment for a job role still refusing to do a role after the head cracks down on them. Perhaps NT needs to enact some labor laws? I mean it’s kind of up to the department heads to roleplay this out, but it would be nice to have some kind of guidance.
If a player is just taking a job role, being a tider, and not listening to their department head (without being an antag) then sure maybe some kind of admin enforcement action is needed, warning or role ban on MRP.
On the LOOC rule, I think it should be amended to “No round information in LOOC”. The use of LOOC is fine and can be filtered out of the chat window by players already, the problem comes in with people going “hey I’m a syndie” and such.
I mean, by that logic all rules could be made IC. And they already are.
But if someone is going off to do whatever, chances are they do not care about IC punishments or would even welcome fighting sec.
But i do agree that punishing people for basically not doing their job should be more common.
Like “HoS, i called for Urist like 7 times and they haven’t even given me an excuse, mark them for insubordination”.
Heads of department should have an intercom with a direct mic to sec for this and other reasons.
The main reason why it is an OOC rule is due to NRP.
Looc rule is a bit harsh. The metagaming sharing of info should be forbidden. But if someone say something like “Dude i love you. Your RP is great” should not be.
About sticking to department. People need to eat, visit bar, request from cargo, negotiate with sci for better tools etc. Damn even animal interactions or basic rp interactions.
It would also open a way for metagaming against antag.
“Oh i saw X walking out department, i made a mental note” because this is just how human brain works.
Also if everyone inside their department. Good luck stealing anything. Want to steal Ian with HoP being welded to chair 24 on 7 without breaking pacifist by welder bombing? Good damn luck on that one.
Also if everyone locked in departments. You can literally remove roles such as Clown or Mime from the game.
Because without self antaging they will only interact with sec on patrol or barmen.
Librarian may as well commit go to chaplain and commit /suicide or /ghost together. Since they will just sit there and hope Nukies will come to end their suffering, so why not just skip a step?
Same with Atmos. After pipeline done and since there is no negotiation with cargo to sell tritium. You may as-well put tritium in your air tanks and huff it. Since after seting up farm, there is nothing to do. Unless something spaced.
But there will be entire engie department fighting you for a chance to live the prison of their department.
Chef can only cook slop. Since he cannot interact with people for fun food until they come.
I do get they Full NT corporate dystopia is lore accurate. But people have enough of that irl and play to relax and do RP stuff with people.
P.S. Also that stuff even heavier then HRP, department bound is crossing any HRP server i ever played on.
While the LRP/MRP/HRP monikers completely lost all meaning to me on SS14 I feel like the MRP server isn’t something I’ve been willing to try out for the reasons that it reminds me far more of the HRP servers on SS13.
There’s too many land mines where any gameplay and interactions one could deem “natural” would end up falling into breaking some not-so-obscure rule or an interpretation of it, leading to the game being more about rules-lawyering in your own head, not arguing it TOO much with the admins, and rolling with the punches when the inevitable bwoink comes. It feels too hostile to me and I’d rather avoid the negative experience entirely as I’ve been burned too much by it on servers like in Gmod etc.
I always feel like gameplay and mechanics should be the driving force of the roleplay, and the rules are established for things that are not yet developed, or impossible to reliably enforce without a human present, such as the bare minimum of banning slurs. Censoring filters are easy to implement to cockblock saying slurs but if the user starts subverting those filters, they make their intentions blatantly clear and it’s an easy admin action.
But something as vague as “I left engineering on a slow shift to grab a drink at the bar and I got bwoinked” is where the line is crossed for me where I am uncomfortable participating in that kind of environment, unless I literally pick the Passenger every round and just discuss with HoP whatever job I want to do for a bit with lower stakes and responsibilities.
Also if the type of rules proposed to be enforced quite literally break A LOT of workplace laws all over world and would be a class action lawsuit.
And from psich eval perspective, unless you literally put SEC as dead squads and did mass public executions. Any normal human would rebel against this conditions by lynching command.
Unless again they were death squads
If we want super realism here
And if we use food intake ratios. Then people should go to dorms for sleep after two medium food intakes
I would role chaplin every round. Take all candles i can find. And invite everyoen to pray to the god of Debauchery bu punching each other while full alcoholic to death in a bar. And then go pray in med to be healed.
Basically i would became activator for bs until i get unjustly banned for expressing “My religion” of Pinkpath. /s
As the person who wrote the MRP rules, at no point was “going to get a drink at the bar”, “going to pray at the chapel”, or any minor break from your role considered to be abandoning the role. It was more things like:
As an engi, fucked off to maints dive for an entire shift, but not actually repair or maintain anything (instead just getting maints loot)
As cargo, sat in the bar for 80% of the shift and drank themselves into a stupor
As sci, went to the boxing ring and fought Willow 58 times, winning only twice
Situations that genuinely make no sense for them to do for their role, and could more be seen as them hogging the slot from someone who would actually be performing said role.
If you’re actually trying to do your role, at least to a reasonable degree, and you’re going around the station while doing it? Go ahead. Cargo tech going through maints every once in a while to see if there’s the odd bounty? Checks out. Sci doing a pass around the station because anoms? Yep. There are any number of good reasons for an occasional duck-out from your department, but if all you are doing is ditching your department, then that’s not exactly correct.
The church was joke. But if Head of department see their employee slacking off. They should get them demoted to Department assistant and assign them mandatory task under supervision.
Would bring an interesting interaction for HoP. While make Head of department engage in workplace bureaucracy and not be be just department worker with good loot
Ideally, yes. The head of the department should be the one handling it, but if either the head isnt on station, the chain of command isnt able to act, or if it’s a persistent issue, THAT is when the admin team would intervene in MRP. (Gentle reminder that this isnt an LRP modification)
Yes. That is indeed needed in that situation type. Until Head arrives or Captain\HoP appoint a new one.
Also when code RED happens, everyone should return to their department unless specified by higher authority to do otherwise. And get out if department no safe(spaced, no breathable atmosphere etc.).
Not traversing maints for lolz for majority of time(unless power\air alarm gone off there or other work related thing. Like people go missing and sec checking them out)
But i think people should be allowed to take initiative in absence of Head. For example comms are down? Engies can go check it
Somebody scream Bob Tesla is loose? Sci should be allowed to grab particle decelerator and help with issue
Someone scream we have wounded? Paramedic should be allowed to say “You can demote my corpse later” and leave to help wounded
X attacking station got comms, no warden\cap\HoS in sight but there is gunshots. Even rookies should be allowed to break into armory at fear of demotion.
A.K.A. Follow common sense(no sane person will go towards gunshots with nothing but a baton).
Another thing have to do with backstories. If character who for example now botanist have “suspended engineering license” in their backstory. They can tell if tesla is loose or know way around tools.
The rule prohibiting powergaming is fine. Honestly this should be a rule on LRP too.
The rule prohibiting shuttlebombing is likewise fine, and should definitely be a rule on LRP.
The rule requiring crew members do their assigned duties is, well, a tough one. On one hand, it’s important that jobs get done and that people not fill slots just to get ingame (as that’s what Passenger is for) or just to hang out with their friends. However it does severely restrict roleplay, for some department more than others - Botany on Cog, for example, is so far out of the way that nobody interacts with them, especially since there’s mail. I’ve been dead in Cog Botany for half an hour without anyone noticing before because of how far out of the way it is. Chemistry and Atmos are in a similar boat on most stations because of the nature of their job. Salvage already never interacts with anyone to the point that seeing a salvager on-station and not in cargo is inherently suspicious.
I personally have no problem with this, though ‘performing the duties of another role’ can be rather nebulous at times and could be painful if there’s nobody doing that role for some reason. I have absolutely done Chem as a botanist before because it was war ops and the CMO had better things to do whereas Botany’s job is nearly worthless in war ops anyway. With allowance for emergencies and in-the-moment situations like fighting an antag trying to kill you or beating up someone who stole from your department and is running away, this is a good rule.
As others have said already, I think this rule in its current incarnation is good, but too strict. Personally I think LOOC should not be used to argue, attack other players, or hold extended conversations.
but the fact that a majority of people were able to believe that it was the “never ever leave your department under any rason” means the rule needs rewording.
I mean it’s kind of up to the department heads to roleplay this out, but it would be nice to have some kind of guidance.