Syndicate Refugees are like playing a disaster victim on hard mode. You have no food or water, there’s only one suit and 3 people, You’re unarmed, and you’re not affiliated with Nanotarsen so people will attack you on that basis alone.
Security especially has a problem with abusing their power when it comes to syndie refugees. If they aren’t robbed of their belongings, they’re made to strip the clothes they’re wearing off for “being contraband” or they’ll just be attacked and arrested despite not having commited any crime.
Syndicate Refugees are non-antagonists. In the game they are just passengers, not agents or operatives, though I feel like that gets forgotten alot and people just assume “Syndi = Bad”, and it really sucks to be playing the role for the fun roleplay possibility, only to get shot almost to death by a cadet because you tried to save someone that shoved themself in your ship’s locker.
I feel like the fact they’re non-antagonists should be emphasized more in the guidebook and rules to discourage murder of the refugees or they should be free agents.
I also feel it’s scummy that security can just. Take the syndicate key out of their headset and spy on the traitor comms. Either give refugees passenger headsets (but in blood-red) or have it so sec can’t just steal the headsets from them.
Again, syndie refugees are civilians, they only come from a different company and did not ask to be involved in the corporate war
Thank you for reading, I do enjoy the role because roleplaying is fun, but i just wish people would stop mistreating them.
They are not part of the crew, openly carry hostile gear(And like half of it security and command are obliged to take away) and usually barge into station uninvited so they can easily be viewed as hostile invaders rather than guests. Susbox is arguably dangeorus weapon too as its enough to crit people in few seconds.
Making them free agents would make sense, yes. Being non-antags is just… silly?
they only come from a different company and did not ask to be involved in the corporate war
Does “death to nanotrasen” ring any bells? Syndicate is not just some “other company”. Their goal disruption and destruction of NT, no matter how many lives it costs, innocent or not. If you do not want to be treated like enemy of nanotrasen at very least ditch hostile gear as soon as you can to not be viewed as one.
While you are right that the syndicate is not just some “other company”, the syndicate is actually just a loose connection of companies, agencies, and NGOs (as visible in previous ss13 lore(if we even count that) and possibly brought here)
In addition, the game makes it clear that the survivors are simply passengers. Attacking and killing people who are effectively civilian refugees is not allowed
(and if people are attacking you/killing as a syndicate refugee, solely for being a refugee then you can aHelp it.)
Not everyone who works for the syndicate is a terrorist at haves to be killed on sight. If you go and murder a janitor just because they work for the syndicate, even if they are not related to any kind of terrorism at all, that only makes you just as bad as the syndicate.
The only thing i can agree with on this statement is at the victims should be free agents instead of non antag, the moment those guys step into the station command and/or sec will try to get any excuse for steal the syndie stuff they have (which is not surprising considering at for some dam reason most of the meta/powergamers are command/sec players) and this makes victim pretty much unplayable until you give away your gamer loot most of the time.
Its not meta/powergaming to take away contraband as sec/command. Its avoiding being banned(2.14.violation 4) for enabling crew/guests using contraband, at least one that can be used to harm or help in harming someone in any way.
There is plenty of room between KOS for wearing black jumpsuit(which used to be totally alright according to rule, though obviously rarely used because of nearly identical tacticools + option to just stun; and of course being wack in itself) and doing literally nothing when seeing someone being literally being made out of contraband that is not even crew. Ignoring that as sec just because you as player know about such ghost role would be the metagaming here.
I’ve seen this happen less often, not saying it doesn’t happen but in my experiences sec has been generally terrible towards the refugees. I’ve been shot with lethals to near death and arrested for not doing anything illegal as a refugee.
I dont see how clothing is contraband, syndie refugees have practically nothing yet ive still had sec force them to remove their clothes for being “contraband” despite some of the clothes not even being illegal (black gloves and jackboots for example), some are literally pointless as categorized by the uplink (scarves and hats), and some just spawn on the maps randomly. There’s no buffs or anything, its just cosmetic.
I’d argue sec using a refugees’ earpiece to get information on the Traitors is meta gaming. They’re not supposed to use contraband so why is stealing refugees earpiece keys any different than a secoff buying stuff from someones uplink to use?
Plus, if sec would just let the refugees explain the situation and not resort to killing on sight, it wouldn’t be breaking the rules to let them go free with their stuff (minus the syndie gasmask maybe), but most of the time the crew doesn’t really wait to listen which really ruins the roleplaying experience and the fun of playing the game because it’s frustrating when no one will listen to you.
Operative jumpsuit hides you off grid and won’t even show as unknown so even this have nefarious uses should command/med pay attention but it rarely matters outside of nukies so sec often will turn a blind eye.
Syndie masks give flash(so reducing sec effectiveness and forcing them to escalate), weld protection and armor on top of being obviously of syndie orgin.
Susbox can cause someone to start dying in just 5 hits, its lethal version of truncheon.
Syndicate encryption is obviously illegal and nobody from crew can monitor it without confiscating it… Do I really have to explain things like this? Its also only contraband crew is allowed to use even not during emergencies so space law basically encourages using it and listening for any syndicates to keep crew safe.
Scarves and other truly harmless contraband is still contraband so its up to sec if they truly have nothing better to do than confiscate those. And if sec is letting dragon mass murder crew because taking away some scarf from someone is more important then thats easy ahelp for incompetence.
Operative jumpsuit is just a suit with no cords at you can FIND IN MAINTS, anyone with cords off can have the same result and i am pretty sure it isn’t even contraband.
The encryption key is the item at sec and command powergamea the most. Sec and command have higher standars and they shouldn’t be metagaming syndies/nukies by stealing those keys and using them on sight.
The other ones may be justifiable if the victim brings them into the station but otherwise if they never do that they should be fine.
And you can’t justify this kind of behavior saying at not doing it breaks one rule when doing it actually breaks like 4 rules (power/metagaming, escalation rules, higher standards for command/sec and don’t be a dick). What command/sec should actually be doing is act like normal people and try to recruit the victims into the station and if they are successful they would finally able to take the syndie stuff from the victims legally (and even in that situation they are not allowed to use any of it, not even the encryption key).
Operative jumpsuit is just a suit with no cords at you can FIND IN MAINTS, anyone with cords off can have the same result and i am pretty sure it isn’t even contraband.
You can find Cybersun Pens and Sus toolboxes in maints too. Space Law is clear that, if it’s Syndicate-branded, it’s contraband.
Under Restricted Gear:
[None] Syndicate clothing
[None] Syndicate equipment, excluding communication equipment
The encryption key is the item at sec and command powergamea the most. Sec and command have higher standars and they shouldn’t be metagaming syndies/nukies by stealing those keys and using them on sight.
They are allowed this via an exception of using it to listen in on Syndicate communication. It’s not metagaming. Use of contraband
Visitors to a station are subject to the laws of the station. Sec should not just jail or kill a disaster victim on sight, however it’s not unreasonable to ask them to hand over contraband and punish them if they fail to do so.
They are very suspicious infiltrators bad seemingly at their job in eyes of security, you can’t just metagame “oh they are just that silly passenger role” when the gist of what crew knows is that syndicate sends agents and infiltrators to cause trouble and till processed security should treat them as such as they are potential threat to crew.
I’m moreso speaking about instances where sec will detain and steal from a refugee or forcing them to strip their clothing in the middle of the hallway first before asking them to fill out a permit or anything of the sort.
They’re not agents, they’re disaster victims, refugees of a crisis. Their station was destroyed but just because they’re from cybersun it doesn’t mean they a terrorist.
They dont have uplinks or any of the weapons or tools an agent or operative would have.
They spawn with paper to write to the station to communicate the situation, clarifying how they aren’t threats and are seeking shelter. Once at the station they can get a normal passenger ID and headset.
Since they are visitors, space law applies to them.
Sorry, i was using them interchangeably but you’re correct. They’re disaster victims.
They can seek asylum (sort of) by faxxing the station for help (if the letter is seen by the recipients, sometimes it’s missed) and getting sorted out with HoP as normal passengers until it’s time to go home
They’re not agents, they’re disaster victims, refugees of a crisis. Their station was destroyed but just because they’re from cybersun it doesn’t mean they a terrorist.
You do not know that IC until investigated. Syndicates are capable of advanced technique called lying and players are not supposed to metagame.
They dont have uplinks or any of the weapons or tools an agent or operative would have.
Susbox is already deadly enough on par with truncheon, often open carry syndie gear after breaking into departments. They wear elite(sic!) syndicate clothing instead of being given for example syndicate recruit which would scale them down considerably IC on initial contact. IC they might as well have full auto viper ready in their pocket at any time so sec is perfectly reasonable to approach them at very least with caution and distrust, after all their and crew life are on the line.
They spawn with paper to write to the station to communicate the situation, clarifying how they aren’t threats and are seeking shelter. Once at the station they can get a normal passenger ID and headset.
I would love them to use it at least once rather of the usual break into station, raid departments, steal stuff, refuse to comply at all and fight to the death for their contraband if need be because shitsec dares to ask for it.
I’m moreso speaking about instances where sec will detain and steal from a refugee or forcing them to strip their clothing in the middle of the hallway first before asking them to fill out a permit or anything of the sort.
Assuming whole context of secoff-syndie encounter is that there was no kind communication and deescalation before they detain and confiscate contraband from walking contraband christmas tree is still reasonable thing for secoffs to do, though preferably not down to the skin in the hallway when checkpoints and brig exist. From there its usually smooth sailing to becoming recognized as visitor or even crew and getting a job.
Fax in my experience was never used and over many, many hours disaster victims used trade station once or twice to communicate peaceful intentions via cargo techs…
If you would like to look at a possible solution to this I am working on my own version of space law that outlines how to handle those seeking asylum and visitors.
Their goal disruption and destruction of NT, no matter how many lives it costs, innocent or not. If you do not want to be treated like enemy of nanotrasen at very least ditch hostile gear as soon as you can to not be viewed as one.