In-game Username: Silentniko
Discord username: Silentniko
Characters you play: Niko Phalanx, Shittle(Borg) and AI. I also sometimes play my Moth Daisy, but I have them temporarily deleted.
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 7-10 hours
Days you are available to admin on: Wednesdays, Mondays, Fridays, Saturday and Sunday, note I am from Europe, so I will be on a different timeline than most.
How old are you? I am 33.
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I have played around slightly with the solo, just to get a feels of things as well as some other servers just to see how they do things idfferent, otherwise no. I do not. My experience with SS13 was mainly watching my friends play it.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? I have administration experience in many other games but not in SS13 or SS14, this extends to WoW Private servers (RP), Counter-strike, GMOD, Terraria, Discord and a Minecraft server.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? No, never. Do not have a reason to, discussions should be kept civil and rules can always be talked about before attempted to be bent.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? Keep a presence, people tend to be more civil and respectful when an admin is around, not even having to do much. Some also tend to want to “Show off” their skills more of good behaviour which just smittens over to others, don’t even have to use a command, just being there will most likely be enough.
Other than that it is also important to note that I do enjoy bringing slight intervention to things where there is a lack of stuff happening. If we go for example 40 minutes without anything happening a very gentle nudge can bring life into the whole server.
I also love interacting with people and showing them the correct way to do things, a banhammer or mute is not always the way, sometimes just someone of authority saying “Like this” is enough, and will silence the other crowd screaming at them how it is supposed to be done. As much as you can do this as a contributor or with any other significant role, admin roles also fulfill other interests of mine.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Going through hours and hours of dialog with someone, but that is no-ones favourite thing, unfortunately something that must be done.
Another thing that is not interesting is having to be this “Power shell” for people, something for people to use as an excuse to have something happening, it must come natural or feel natural to be engaged in with to be the most fun.
Feeling like the “Pet” of the main administrator, yes of course you are supposed to follow your own rules and guidelines and not skip off to nothing and do your own thing, but having someone constantly watching over your shoulder is the worst feeling in the world.
I have had this happen before and seeing this community is already a massive improvement.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
I believe admins serve a different role depending on the server. On lizard it would be rule and law upholding whilst making sure no-one absolutely trashes the fun for everyone else, but perhaps also keep up the fun for everyone if nothing is happening at all.
It is a delicate role to say the least, I would almost say you should uphold the rule of “God” in futurama. No-one will know what you have done but will be happy, that is the right amount of doing, in a pacife situation at least. sometimes you would need to pick up your figurative cuffs, hold them down and let them know they did something wrong.
Straight out banning someone instantly I would say is a very rare case.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I feel in some of the hours where I play, at least since I am on a different part of the world, there isn’t much activity for a few hours, this is an hour where it could be helpful, even if I do play on Salamander mostly and the people there usually have a pretty good idea of what to do. I do find myself playing on Lizard when the player count is too low, and even there, there is only one admin or perhaps none at all which means the protection against players being absolutely trashed of their fun happens.
I personally have only seen it a few times, but it could still be a burden to new players who might just want to learn the game and then someone comes along screaming at them for not doing their job or perhaps bombing the absolute crap out of the station instantly, even when it isn’t needed. It would break the fun experience they might otherwise get.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
As said I mostly play on Mander, so I will talk about that one first. I feel the roleplay is high- I have played almost every role and everytime I get into scenarios where it actually feels like talking immersive to someone in their respective role.
I have been a psychiatrist where someone has come in due to PTSD of killing the clown, as their father was someone who beat them in a clown costume.
Hilarious stuff from an OOC perspective, even if it is harsh IC.
On Lizard it is more loose however , not to say it isn’t there, but there is little things that still shine through like when you see a janitor screaming suddenly and you ask whats up and they come up with this 2 page long story about how this smudge is intolerable.
There are ofcourse roleplay that will always come too high and some too low, but it is the balance of it all and not failing fully that really brings it together, you never know what to expect, and that’s the great part.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
Well, banning problematic players will not be my first resort always, unless of course they do something absolutely atrocious like just ruining it for everyone INSTANTLY, and without break. Like they are the Doom player…
Other roles however could be as I have said in all my other answers, incorperating a bit of fun into a dull day like causing a small ruckus somewhere for them to deal with, or perhaps including yourself as someone into the station that brings attention to it all. Maybe calling out “Oh no, this has happened!” To alert everyone.
And the most important of all, show the community that the administration team actually is there for them. We play like them, talk like them and we are there for them, not against them.
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?
Yes, against myself actually.
I was playing the AI at one point and I won’t be naming anyone as I hate singling people out, but as I played it I had several law changes, and at one point I almost killed some of the crew, before it was all fixed and I returned to normal.
An admin, though it might be just how they talk, seemed very passive agressive in the way they were typing to me. It was constantly with mhm, and no real feeling. Which made me think they were angry with me or I had done something wrong.
I always try and be precise in my way of speaking to people, no short one liners, unless it is “Great!” or something similar, bring emotion into my words so they know precisely what I want to convey, that it is okay, and I understand.
Not something where I am unsure if they were sarcastic and actually pissed at me, it is a horrible feeling as no-one really wants to talk back to an admin.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
One of my favorite experiences, and I feel they might deserve some credit, would be with Nyx. Now I am not sure if they are the ones who did it, but the entire station was rather dull and we were the science team. Having a grand old slow time, but of course, any station part becomes dull if nothing really happens, and nothing happened at all… It could be felt on the common chat on the station.
What happened suddenly was a power outage before the borgs suddenly all became hostile, before an invasive force came in. Needless to say we fought to our last breath as the science team but perished rather quickly, before the rest of the station had to fight off the rest. It seems they had much more fun with that suddenly, it wasn’t explosive and it wasn’t fast, but enough to bring in just a little more than just another dull work day.
I personally really liked this. I think the game had run for 40+ minutes wihout anything happening.
Now again, I am not sure if they were the ones doing it, but I really loved how it all happened.
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”.
Personally I do not like intervening with the start of the round as so many things can happen so fast. This all depends on how the last round went and if I know these people slightly.
If I know they are chill people who want the best for everyone around, I might select myself as traitor with two others and I concuct a wild elaborate plan to take over the station using an unorthodox method! Or perhaps I make NT apperance and I want to take over command of the station… The list is endless honestly.
If they however are just random people who want me to “Do something funny” I might ask them what they have in mind, and then deny or see what I can do with how the round goes.
We aren’t there to make everything happen afterall, few peoples idea of fun can quickly ruin the majorities.
It might also just be me shutting them down instantly saying “No, lets see how it plays out.”
If all else fails, there are fallbacks now from the community that might make it all more fun in the end, but if the random events that happen already go as they should, then it is all fun as it is!
Perhaps if it is all dull for a long time, I could make a dragon event happen and tell them. “Have fun, try and befriend crew and tell them all animals must die.” and see how they take it.
As said, it is all dependant on how they communicate it to me, and who they are in general. There is no one way to handle everything. Though from a perspective of other games, it is usually not good to tamper with a round at the start, unless it is predetermined in the chat with a vote, which is usually how I would do a larger event.
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.
As this is LRP, people shouldn’t self antag in any case, if anything has happened.
I would figure out why the security is going with a coup against the captain, has this been a larger RP thing because nothing else has happened? Is it a nice little scenario they made out? I fully endorse good RP after all.
Why does the clown have the saber? Is it just a ‘practical joke’? and were they warned about consequences in such perhaps making them an antag?
If no good RP was made and they just decided to suddenly kill the captain out of nowhere I would most likely find myself intervening in some form of RP way to start, not wanting to completly just stop it right then and there but de-escalate the situation.
I would try and figure out IC why the captain is getting hunted, what is happening, and how. If they simply are just going “He needs to die.” and nothing else, I am going to put my foot down and say that they are the head of security, their job is to protect the captain.
If they still refuse to elaborate I might have to whisper to the captain to rally the crew against the Head of Security and pull an NT card to warn them they are overstepping their boundries, though I am not entirely sure if that would be possible.
As for the clown, I would have to find out why they have the saber suddenly. If the captain gave it to them I would question it but it would in the end be their own decision. If the clown then attacked the captain and went on a rampage I would halt them pretty fast if security hasn’t, do not self Antag after all. Perhaps put the rat king on them or something, A ninja who has to steal it back, perhaps take on that role, and then let security handle it. Then warn them after the round.
I do not like banning someone mid round unless they seriously overstep their boundries and go out of their way to go against rules and admins. I would be warning them somehow, either through a DM or whisper.
This has potential to be fun and good RP, but it has to be done right, and not something I would stop immediately on the spot without figuring out more context.
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 not go for the indefinite ban in any case. I am the one handling the issue after all and if I have been taught this type of situation should be handled with a temporary ban, it is so.
The other admin who tells me to ban them indefinetly can step in as I am just a trialmin if that is the case. There are too many times someone else might have an issue with a person and I will not make that issue my own. I will take it as I am taught and not go beyond that.
I will bring this up with a headmin later to see how they would handle it and follow the example moving forward.
However, this will most likely be noted upon if I am being taught the basics.