Citadel Community

BYOND Name of complaint against: Nylonblitz

Your BYOND name: LiquidFirefly

Date of issue and round ID: All dates and times listed are given in M/D/Y format, and the timezone is always EST. The times for the first two are estimated, as I am using discord messages as a marker for when these incidents occured.

2/28/19 - ~1:00-2:00 AM - Virus Outbreak (Proven Not to be Nylon, leaving in for posterity.)
3/8/19 - ~1:00-2:00 AM - Friendly Xenos
3/11/19 - 1:00 AM - Spider outbreak (Proven Not to be Nylon, leaving in for posterity.)
3/21/19 - 6:00 AM - Meteor Shower

Reason for complaint:
Virus outbreak(Proven Not to be Nylon, leaving in for posterity.)
During an expedition to Virgo Four, An admin had spawned a shuttle that contained multiple live virus samples. There were eleven different strains to be exact. After the expedition crew had encountered and taken them back, these samples evolved into a full blown, rapidly evolving and near incurable pandemic that resulted in crew transfer.

This event shows a multitude of things relating to the event admin's general incompetence. I was told that the spawning of so many was the result of a glitched command, spawning more than they had intended; However, the spawning of virus samples in an event scenario alone is questionable, as our code's virology is largely a neglected, broken down, and downright unintuitive system that is rarely used by most members of the station. It's a miracle if someone on a lower population shift knows how to properly operate the apparatuses in the lab, and it's an even lower probability that they happen to be medical that round. This shows an unfamiliarity with station mechanics and expected outcomes yet again.

Secondarily, the use of viruses in an event presents a second question. What exactly does the populace get from this event? Good intent for clean roleplay was obvious in the xeno example below, but here I simply have to tilt my head and gawk in awe at the sheer lack of a purpose. Viruses are an entirely random, mechanic controlled system that leaves no room for proper roleplay that isn't holing yourself up in a corner, turning on internals, and hoping it doesn't spread to you. Even then, sometimes that doesn't work, should the virus have evolved in a specific way. This shows a lack of planning and a lack of understanding of the consequences of their actions. This event added nothing to the round, and instead detracted from it with stationwide panic leading to a crew transfer.

Thirdly, the inability to fix the obvious results of their glitched command. I know full well that when something is spawned, all admins on the server receive a chatlog message telling them what was spawned, where. As an admin, they should be familiar with this, and the implications that the prompt showing up multiple times would have. The solution was simple, delete the samples to bring them back down to the desired number before the expedition crew arrived. Through their inaction, the event admin either showcased neglect of the consequences of such a mistake, or they showcased an unfamiliarity with the admin interface with which they have been trusted with.

Last but certainly not least, was the use of multiple virus samples; This was the reason the event was so bad in the first place. While one virus should be fine enough for our average crew to deal with (While completely unnecessary) eleven requires a level of work that most fully staffed medical teams simply can't hope to achieve, even if science and cargo were to help in any way they can. Each virus sample contains a separate virus, this should be apparent to anyone who would have access to admin commands. Each virus requires separate, uncontaminated research for an entirely separate cure for each. Every infected crewmember would have to receive separately made vaccines for each. The spawning of eleven of these samples highlights gross incompetence and an unfamiliarity with the code entirely unbefitting of someone playing medical, much less someone in an admin position.

Looking back, this event specifically was when I started to write most 'events' off as an unsalvageable round. The gross incompetence and general thoughtlessness that resulted in such an event was simply staggering.



Friendly Xenos
So, after having announced a round prior that he was to be running a xeno related event, Nylon proceeded to spawn 'Friendly Xenos' to make a nest around solars. Most of the security team, having not seen this announcement, and having been prompted of their presence by the station AI went to check it out and purge the SOP mandated shoot-to-kill biohazard. While the xeno code is entirely broken, leaving player controlled xenos entirely defenseless, what would proceed was the rampant spawning of hostile mobs until the team reached the queen. At which point Nylon utilized a full on admin PM do tell them to stop proceeding. Not a subtle message. The players had to justify their action themselves. They cited 'A strange voice in their minds.' He never prompted them to move again, but after a good fifteen minute pause, they headed back to the station. It was at this point the station was sent a fax with exactly these words, not edited. "We could use some live specimens. The creatures your attacking are not the ones you would think. they seem different." Wrong form of your, missed capitalization, highly ambiguous, and only formatted with the default message text. It only took a little while for the mismanaged xeno forces to overtake the lower levels of the station, despite being horribly gimped by the under-maintained antag code. A short push from security purged them.

While this isn't a damning incident in itself and no bans were handed out, it shows a level of misunderstanding of what makes a good event and how to run one properly. For instance, the expectations of what an OOCly uninformed crew would do in this circumstance. It's not right to expect security to do anything but purge a level five, shoot to kill biohazard. The familiar face of xenos would instantly incite violence in any well read crew. With how they were introduced, it seems asinine to expect much else. This shows a poor grasp on the playerbase, a poor grasp on what makes a good event concept, and a poor grasp on SOP itself. While this event could have been salvaged by proper management, my points below showcase how that was simply out of reach.

Secondly is the use of an OOC admin message to prompt the halt of security forces. This also shows incompetence, an inability to adapt to narrative scenarios, and a general air of inattentiveness. Firstly, there exist commands to influence the minds of crew without resorting to a bwoink. A simple telepathic message of peace from the queen, or potentially a compulsion to immediately return to the station would have sufficed. Instead he simply sent an admin message, and didn't give any further prompting to our crew for an extended period of time. A bwoink typically signifies the threat of admin action should they disobey and has no place dictating properly thought out, in character action even in an event scenario. Not to mention how he left the crew hanging for an extended period of time.

Thirdly is the content of the fax. It again highlights the same characteristics that make for bad events that were showcased in my previous point.

"We could use some live specimens. The creatures your attacking are not the ones you would think. they seem different."

Spelling and grammar mistakes aside, the brevity and ambiguity of this message doesn't properly inform the crew's IC actions in any meaningful way. This could mean any number of things. 'These xenos are highly toxic and carry with them a deadly plague' 'These xenos are particularly dangerous and require extra care when combatting', It doesn't specify how these xenomorphs are different from the typical populace, and gives the demand for a live specimen, which rather than having the intended effect on crew activity instead prompted infighting among science and security as they bicker over the danger of xenos and the rightful point that keeping one wouldn't be worth the risk. This resulted in crew injury.

To summarize, this event shows an inattentiveness and unwillingness to conform to crew activity, a lack of narrative creativity required to run an event that doesn't result in the station burning down, and potentially a show of incompetence when it comes to navigating his own admin commands. It was enough to make me question his competence at the time.

Spider outbreak(Proven Not to be Nylon, leaving in for posterity.)
An admin used admin commands to force the hostile and usually disabled event that results in a number of non-dud spiderlings to spawn all around the station. For those unfamiliar, these evolve into a random variant of giant space spider, many of which have the potential to devastate crew and in the case of phoron spiders, entire rooms.

This should be self explanatory. This kind of event is disabled for a reason. It also shares a prompt with the much reviled solargrub spawns, leaving it disguised for a moment as a minor annoyance before the crew catches on to what's actually happening. As with the virus outbreak, there was no potential for RP with this action. It added nothing but danger to crew, nobody is going to properly RP response to a mechanical threat- Not to mention one that randomly spawns on main. While this event is small and relatively inoffensive compared to the round-ruining chaos that the other two caused, however it's no less telling about what Nylon considers an event. It shows an inability to think of what consequences their actions might have on a running round, the spiders instead detracting from any goings on, adding nothing other than a small talking point or fear. I was the Chief Medical Officer this round, and multiple people had to be treated for spidertoxin injections or wounds inflicted by the dangerous mobs. This kind of event has no place on the RP server.

Meteor Shower
In keeping with previous events, merely a few hours before finishing this Nylon had spawned a meteor shower on the RP server between the hours of five and six AM EST. The following were the prompts typed by Nylon prior. Again, spelling and grammar mistakes abound. These meteors proceeded to breach multiple locations across the station due to a lack of engineering staff on the station. One engineer, to be exact to fix the whole thing. As I had entered the round, there were five separate air alarms all indicating breaches, and repairs were already underway. I cannot confirm the exact number that had to be fixed by just a single engineer with the help of a dogborg.

So, let's start with again, what did this event hope to add to the round? I can see no proper RP added except the vacation of breached areas, with the dangerous potential for death of crew. This was compounded by the fact that I know medical was breached in the random showers of meteors, especially so given the only medical staff online at the time was a psychiatrist. This has more potential to shut down any goings on in a dead shift, rather than liven it up. Mechanical work kills talk.

Secondly, and my biggest issue. This was at six AM. The crew amounted to a few civilian personnel, one scientist, a few pathfinders, one engineer, one psychiatrist (The only person on the station with medical access at the time the event was launched) and one dogborg. This type of event has no place on a shift so understaffed, and the fact that it was launched at all on a shift like this shows gross incompetence, neglect, and a general dismissive uncaring about how he might impact the round of players.

I cannot see one good reason to launch an event like this ever. Even in the most populated shift, much less this one. As an admin, he had full ability to check shields, check crew manifest, check literally anything to indicate that the crew wouldn't be able to deal with something like this in a timely manner, and they certainly wouldn't be able to deal with the possible injured should it impact in more than one populated area. I shudder to imagine what would have happened should RNG have been unkind.

Conclusion
In conclusion of all of this. Nylon has repeatedly shown that he is unfit to run events on the RP server. Poor grammar and spelling, poor managment, poor planning, neglect of staff and situation, an inability to produce even a minuscule amount of foresight, an unfamiliarity with his own admin commands, and a complete disregard for how his actions might interrupt ongoing RP instead of adding to it. I entirely believe that he should be removed from staff, if not simply completely barred from running events. This kind of behavior cannot stand.

I'm going to address a couple of these events from my own perspective as I've actually helped Nylon with building up and attempting events and participated in some of these listed.

First of all, I can tell you that I know for a fact Nylon is not doing this will ill intent. I will agree that some of the events, like the Friendly Xeno one where I participated, could have had a lot more clarification. I will also agree that it's poor choice to run an event with low populations that are destructive. If you've looked at my previous complaints, this is an issue because the code-base is very unforgiving in regards to events that can cause station destruction. All it does is cause people to get upset because rounds on RP can last 4+ hours, and for some that means they're unable to play at all that day if the map is too damaged / things are too chaotic and they don't want to deal with that.

Ultimately, I think what Nylon lacks is both the tact and the actual understanding of how certain events can unfold due to the playerbase, vs what he portrayed in his mind. The Xenos were openly advertised OOC, the Xenos were completely and utterly friendly and even attempted to be nice to the crew only to get squashed by two security members who did nothing more than try to secure those valids. In that instance, he tried, but the playerbase decided they'd rather squash Xenos than actually RP out something along the lines of interacting with them, so it ended up going sour fast.

If anything comes out of this admin complaint, it should be that Nylon should not run events unless he has multiple admins guidance and can plan out events in advance, when the rounds are well equipped to handle it. His behavior is not overly hostile when asked about this, and I know he's personally reached out to me and I've assisted him with running successful events (Like the pawn shop / ticket booth event) in the past. All it takes is guidance, because it's very easy to frame an event in your mind and be unable to corral it when it starts slipping out of that frame as a solo administrator running it.

I personally believe that there should be an event manager, or someone whom can drum up and schedule events relatively in advance, and work as a team of admins to do this.

The only fault here for a majority events, which he would put notices/questions up regarding it beforehand, is the fact that he's mostly doing these solo and that can get incredibly overwhelming, which makes things quickly get exponentially worse. A tip for Nylon would be use what sliding scale I'd use, where the lower the pop the more genuinely "fun" and goofy the event would be, to where the higher the pop the more experimental and potentially damaging events can be run.

Right, first thing to say... Not all of these were even Nylon, and generally I'd consider it good form to confirm who ran events before attempting to tack them all onto one dude.
Anyways, the ones that actually were Nylon, I agree can be problematic. Events in and of themselves aren't a negative thing, though I do agree that Nylon may have issues with deciding what events would go well with the current population, and how to handle the event going in a way you didn't expect. As much as all players enjoy the idea that events are just one button and have fun, they take a considerable amount of babysitting and log watching. This is why they aren't done often, because there is no way to run an event that makes everyone happy. It isn't possible. That, however, doesn't excuse it when it's done poorly. I think all admins need to spend some time on a private server practicing with the commands to learn what is/is not a viable event idea.

these samples evolved into a full blown, rapidly evolving and near incurable pandemic that resulted in crew transfer.

As is such with most viral outbreaks that are so deadly.

Let me clear up the viral outbreak thing as the CMO that round.
Twelve samples. Not eleven. Four of which shared the same antigen so actually just 8.

You don't know how viral spawn mechanics work. There is a tab to modify the strength, infection type, affected races, and infection pathway with the syndromes and antigens (if any, yes you can spawn an incurable virus, but it has a big, "You fucked up" prompt go up and makes you click "YES") and then SPAWN in into a person. So unless the viral disk broke (non help intent), it was manually spawned into someone. You cannot remove the sample once you spawn in in someone for obvious reasons ( I don't think Aheal works either!). If any issue, the only thing Nylon possibly did wrong was spawn the viruses to affect all races (I would assume that given this was a "research" virus that might be possible) alongside spawning 12 viruses.

Side note: If you are a custom race, you are susceptible to the base race you made your char from, so if it uses the base human sprite, it is vulnerable to human viruses etc, etc. More testing needed because I have no fucking idea what they did for that in vorecode.

The issue with spawning twelve viruses as a "bug" is somewhat of a misconception I created, sorry! I did some testing and it appears that only happens unless you 1) Deliberately create twelve viruses, 2) IF you have a sudden increase of latency and you click the prompt multiple times it will spawn multiple viruses (not consistent when I tested!!!!) . I have no comment on which one happened.

Virology is constrained by two things, first, the spawn rate of anti-gens can be forced with radium but usually kills the subject (needs lots of dylovene/ possible surgery). The other method is to wait for it to spawn naturally, this is determined by the tick rate, the progression (syndrome level) of the virus, and strength of the virus. Roughly a tier 4 normal strength level virus has 25% chance, rounded down of spawning antigens when those syndromes first manifest.

Second, virology is constrained by the two isolation centrifuges. They take one vial each. Most real centrifuges take 8-12 vials. Each vial generates 15u of antigen ( you can make more but the code is wonky regarding that), and you need at least ONE unit per person to be effective AFAIK for a cure/vaccine. Enough said.

Third, the entire expedition team died because they were entering shock and the CMO decided that it was impossible to cure all of them at once (read the second point) and decided it was better to save the rest of medical staff from being infected (Mainly because you guys took 10 genetic damage, and 10-20 toxins damage A TICK due to the final stage 4 syndrome all being "genetic degradation" and this was after the surface got evac'd).

My main gripe with this is that at no point in time was the chief medical officer informed of the mission to retrieve the viral samples. That raises some pretty major questions considering the CMO and medical probably have more experience with viral contagions than an explorer/pathfinder. Had I as the CMO been informed, I would have ordered everyone to avoid contact with each other, and assign the SNR to wear a special biohazard suit to retrieve the virus, and then quarantined the entire station until it was actual safe. Granted. 12 viruses is not really going to be cured regardless.

Were the station not evacuated, the belongings/bodies would have all been incinerated most likely.

Lessons to take away:
1) Don't spawn 12 viruses in someone, definitely don't spawn one with the mostly same syndromes.
2)Rework centrifuge to isolate all antibodies/pathogens for multiple vials and perhaps make a separate machine that directly identifies the antigen type.
3) Don't spawn a virus that everyone is a vulnerable to.
4) Tell the CMO when your objective has to do with biohazards????
5) Add a mini incinerator to virology.
6) Maybe add a code black (I had suggested this before) for major medical emergencies. Not that this helps the OH MY GOD WORLDS ENDING mindset of the station, but could elevate the CMO above other heads.

Honestly I would chalk this up to a few mistakes. Everyone makes them, and Nylon is a competent administrator in my humble opinion given my extremely limited interactions with them. I'm not commenting on the xeno round as I was only there for round end and I missed the meteor/spider spawn.

raiq wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 2:25 am

First of all, I can tell you that I know for a fact Nylon is not doing this will ill intent. I will agree that some of the events, like the Friendly Xeno one where I participated, could have had a lot more clarification. I will also agree that it's poor choice to run an event with low populations that are destructive. If you've looked at my previous complaints, this is an issue because the code-base is very unforgiving in regards to events that can cause station destruction. All it does is cause people to get upset because rounds on RP can last 4+ hours, and for some that means they're unable to play at all that day if the map is too damaged / things are too chaotic and they don't want to deal with that.

To deconstruct some of your points in favor of Nylon. I never argued that he doesn't have good intent. Every event is usually run to add some kind of flavor or spice to a round, and I pointed out how each one listed simply doesn't, and instead detracts. I also argued that this was the result of incompetence when it comes to thinking about what consequence it might have on the round. Not to mention serious negligence that frequently results in crew transfer once the bomb is set. For example, deadly viruses. How does this add anything but stress for the medical team, even if done right? In light of new knowledge regarding viral mechanics, creating antigens is a massive pain in the ass, and the entire system is even more horrifyingly tedious than previously imagined. It gives no ground to roleplay on other than 'OH MY FUCKING GOD, VIRUS.' The entire station saying 'OH MY FUCKING GOD, VIRUS' Isn't quite as thrilling as you might imagine, and actually promotes crewmembers to separate themselves and spread out.

raiq wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 2:25 am

The Xenos were openly advertised OOC, the Xenos were completely and utterly friendly and even attempted to be nice to the crew only to get squashed by two security members who did nothing more than try to secure those valids. In that instance, he tried, but the playerbase decided they'd rather squash Xenos than actually RP out something along the lines of interacting with them, so it ended up going sour fast.

Your call that validhunters ruined this event clearly shows that you're not thinking of this with SOP in mind. Xenos are a level five biohazard, not to mention an antagonist that is frequently run (to deadly effect) on many other servers. The reaction taken should have been immediately anticipated, and most members of security (Including myself) had simply no idea that these were supposed to be 'friendly.' OOC isn't turned on for everyone, and OOC information shouldn't entirely inform in round action in the first place. I showed how he continually attempted to get the event back on track, and how each attempt showed a general incompetence for how to communicate with crew that's unfitting for anyone running an event.

raiq wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 2:25 am

If anything comes out of this admin complaint, it should be that Nylon should not run events unless he has multiple admins guidance and can plan out events in advance, when the rounds are well equipped to handle it. His behavior is not overly hostile when asked about this, and I know he's personally reached out to me and I've assisted him with running successful events (Like the pawn shop / ticket booth event) in the past. All it takes is guidance, because it's very easy to frame an event in your mind and be unable to corral it when it starts slipping out of that frame as a solo administrator running it.

The only fault here for a majority events, which he would put notices/questions up regarding it beforehand, is the fact that he's mostly doing these solo and that can get incredibly overwhelming, which makes things quickly get exponentially worse. A tip for Nylon would be use what sliding scale I'd use, where the lower the pop the more genuinely "fun" and goofy the event would be, to where the higher the pop the more experimental and potentially damaging events can be run.

These events are rotten to the core. No matter who ran them, should they stick to their core concept they would almost invariably be a flop. I illustrated these points, and even in light of newer evidence, they still stand. These are not the fault of someone who simply can't manage so many people and mechanics, or it's set and forget. It's downright incompetence and an inability to see the effects of his actions on a running round. This is unacceptable. The fact that he's using OOC channels to inform inround reactions to these are entirely negligent of informing the IC actions of the crew, and it's frustrating to continually be in rounds that just get trashed by the errant 'event'. Considering your past as someone who strictly played main, I wouldn't argue that perhaps full on pandemonium and station destruction might be something you're used to. However, this is RP. The players here simply wish to interact with one another, and events should be a useful medium for that. They should never be used to wholesale deconstruct the station or apply mechanics that kill crew wholesale.

Nik707 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 6:37 am

Right, first thing to say... Not all of these were even Nylon, and generally I'd consider it good form to confirm who ran events before attempting to tack them all onto one dude.
Anyways, the ones that actually were Nylon, I agree can be problematic. Events in and of themselves aren't a negative thing, though I do agree that Nylon may have issues with deciding what events would go well with the current population, and how to handle the event going in a way you didn't expect. As much as all players enjoy the idea that events are just one button and have fun, they take a considerable amount of babysitting and log watching. This is why they aren't done often, because there is no way to run an event that makes everyone happy. It isn't possible. That, however, doesn't excuse it when it's done poorly. I think all admins need to spend some time on a private server practicing with the commands to learn what is/is not a viable event idea.

My apologies. I did not have confirmation as to the spider event, however, that was the only one. My points about it were in keeping with Nylon's previous behavior, and I still take issue with the actions that were taken by the admin team, in that case. I never argued that events were negative, I argued that events are negative when they entirely rely on mechanical hazards and have an effect on the station itself. As this is RP, events should be centered on RP. The xeno spawns were the only one on the list that even attempted to include elements that weren't simply mechanical, and it was so horribly mismanaged and mangled that it devolved quickly. The fact that yet another admin thought to spawn spiders is downright worrying, and I think that, like you said, this should prompt staff to think about the consequences of their actions when attempting to 'spice up' a round. For most of the players I've talked to about this, many of these happenings simply incited rage or irritation. Nobody is overly enjoying slicing up a spider, or fixing a breach, or dealing with twelve viruses at once. If they did, they'd be on main.

snow n' chrysanthemums wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 8:30 am

You don't know how viral spawn mechanics work. There is a tab to modify the strength, infection type, affected races, and infection pathway with the syndromes and antigens (if any, yes you can spawn an incurable virus, but it has a big, "You fucked up" prompt go up and makes you click "YES") and then SPAWN in into a person. So unless the viral disk broke (non help intent), it was manually spawned into someone. You cannot remove the sample once you spawn in in someone for obvious reasons ( I don't think Aheal works either!). If any issue, the only thing Nylon possibly did wrong was spawn the viruses to affect all races (I would assume that given this was a "research" virus that might be possible) alongside spawning 12 viruses.


Side note: If you are a custom race, you are susceptible to the base race you made your char from, so if it uses the base human sprite, it is vulnerable to human viruses etc, etc. More testing needed because I have no fucking idea what they did for that in vorecode.

The issue with spawning twelve viruses as a "bug" is somewhat of a misconception I created, sorry! I did some testing and it appears that only happens unless you 1) Deliberately create twelve viruses, 2) IF you have a sudden increase of latency and you click the prompt multiple times it will spawn multiple viruses (not consistent when I tested!!!!) . I have no comment on which one happened.

In light of this evidence, that means that Nylon willingly spawned a virus on an isolated expedition team member with the settings SET for it to become deadly and infectious. That only makes me tilt my head more at the thought of how he expected this to go. I take issue with the virus settings almost as much as I take issue with there being a virus at all. What did this have to offer in terms of an interesting roleplay experience except 'ZOMG VIRUS!!!?' Panic, sequestering yourself away in fear, or just generally putting on internals and hoping it doesn't spread. It's not something that incites crew to come together, and it's not something that incites a particularly interesting interaction either.

In light of this evidence, my previous point of miscommunication and neglect of deletion still stands. He knew at that moment that he had just spawned twelve viruses, as it still sends logs to all admins online. In light of this information, and how viruses usually work, he could have LOOC'd or DMed the infected crewmember saying 'Hey, I just fucked up a command for the viruses a little bit, and the mechanics are fucky enough that I can't fix it any other way. You mind taking off your clothes so I can delete you and give you a new body?' The solution is simple and rooted in admin commands. Just that little bit of communication and thought fixes the entire round. The fact that there was no mention of this to anyone else simply shows that he doesn't have the communication skills required to run even the most simple mechanical events.

snow n' chrysanthemums wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 8:30 am

Virology is constrained by two things, first, the spawn rate of anti-gens can be forced with radium but usually kills the subject (needs lots of dylovene/ possible surgery). The other method is to wait for it to spawn naturally, this is determined by the tick rate, the progression (syndrome level) of the virus, and strength of the virus. Roughly a tier 4 normal strength level virus has 25% chance, rounded down of spawning antigens when those syndromes first manifest.

Second, virology is constrained by the two isolation centrifuges. They take one vial each. Most real centrifuges take 8-12 vials. Each vial generates 15u of antigen ( you can make more but the code is wonky regarding that), and you need at least ONE unit per person to be effective AFAIK for a cure/vaccine. Enough said.

I’ve already addressed this tedium inherent in the virology system, but it’s actually worse than I thought when written here. This only reinforces my point that Nylon is entirely unable to think ahead when it comes to this sort of thing, especially considering how horrifyingly under maintained and archaic this system in its entirety is. Why someone would think that it makes for an interesting ‘event’ is entirely beyond me.

snow n' chrysanthemums wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 8:30 am

Honestly I would chalk this up to a few mistakes. Everyone makes them, and Nylon is a competent administrator in my humble opinion given my extremely limited interactions with them. I'm not commenting on the xeno round as I was only there for round end and I missed the meteor/spider spawn.

The biggest mistake present was running this event thinking that the populace would get anything from it. Competency running events, and being an administrator in general comes from the ability to communicate with crew, understand the consequences of actions you take, come up with solutions to any problems you’re creating, and generally keep things orderly, transparent, and organized. These events showed Nylon’s inability to do any of those things.

The viruses weren't Nylon either.

Nethaufer wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 12:47 pm

The viruses weren't Nylon either.

Apologies for the mixup then. My quarrels about both still standing events are entirely still in place, and a new question has to be brought up at this point. If all of these events are different admins, what is the general admin expectation for an event? The realization that these are spread across multiple people rather than a single person is honestly more horrifying than the knowledge that just one of the team is incompetent. It almost feels like a worst case scenario. Every complaint that I have about the event still stands entirely valid, the names change, but the details stay the same. I still feel like this should be a wakeup call for admins that do this sort of thing regularly, it happens far too often and makes a round unappealing rather than interesting. Nonetheless, I will change my OP to reflect this new knowledge, just a few small parentheticals and pronouns.

expect a lengthy response from me in a bit

or a 2 sentence one who knows but i'm busy typing up a paragraph somewhere else :^)

Just going to shed some light from my perspective and oh boy it's a doozy going through all this so let me keep this response short and simple. No need for me to get repetitive. All I can say the tone of this complaint seems very driven by a certain bias. This is of course of a complaint which is a common place for symptoms like this but it is something that will weigh down your complaint quite a bit that even if you write an entire thesis will lose merit very merit. I know, I'm being bold with this starting paragraph but I want to put all the things that irritated me reading this first hand before making points to validate your arguments.

So, after having announced a round prior that he was to be running a xeno related event, Nylon proceeded to spawn 'Friendly Xenos' to make a nest around solars. Most of the security team, having not seen this announcement, and having been prompted of their presence by the station AI went to check it out and purge the SOP mandated shoot-to-kill biohazard. While the xeno code is entirely broken, leaving player controlled xenos entirely defenseless, what would proceed was the rampant spawning of hostile mobs until the team reached the queen. At which point Nylon utilized a full on admin PM do tell them to stop proceeding. Not a subtle message. The players had to justify their action themselves. They cited 'A strange voice in their minds.' He never prompted them to move again, but after a good fifteen minute pause, they headed back to the station. It was at this point the station was sent a fax with exactly these words, not edited. "We could use some live specimens. The creatures your attacking are not the ones you would think. they seem different." Wrong form of your, missed capitalization, highly ambiguous, and only formatted with the default message text. It only took a little while for the mismanaged xeno forces to overtake the lower levels of the station, despite being horribly gimped by the under-maintained antag code. A short push from security purged them.

Let me clarify this decision, once the It was all still in a planning phase as I was debriefing with the xenos but the attention of the station kept pulling me away to address it promptly before anything happened. The xenos in question broke into the solars shed and resulted in them being caught. The AI soon immediately alerted the crew about their existence so I try to attempt to buy some time to have a thorough plan before security arrives. I had made the announcement which was accidentally hidden so I decided to tell security to read the report. Note that I told them several times before going out to hunt down xenos using the intercom messaging system. As soon they spotted the first xeno, they opened fired with a huge arsenal of weaponry that proved to almost be immune to xeno attacks. I bwoinked them as soon I saw alogs of this happening, told them to hold it and ask pavel directly about the issue of how it started. Not going into details about the admin pm as I suspected to be some shittery but a good question became apparent. It doesn't matter as much as of how much staff but how competent, behaviour, and potential reactions responses to certain events (not events in this context). Jim Sanders and Pavel Marsk are Security mains. With a long history of being very proficient in combat situations. Pavel brought this up and explained the actions with one post so I had things resumed after 5 minutes. It was not 15 mind you. A subtle message was not a good choice if there to be shitter behaviour that I might suspect of. When I arrived at the scene, Majority of the xenos where already dead.

On to the topic of "friendly xenos." I never said they will be friendly but I said they can be. If they are going to be gunned down indescrimintely will make it obvious. it's not about following SOP, it's about making genuine roleplay experiences and my responses while being on the central command side of things should have been obvious that these rules are overwritten. Overall, I'm not going to babysit players on what to do. All I will do is attempt to make the round from going sour but that is up to the players to decide of how they will react and take in. When I put good faith in them unless you would think otherwise like how some are generally incompetent.

Also for the poor English and lack of formatting was the result of stress and lacking attention. because most of my attention was on the events going on. Admins are not omniscient. The logging on this codebase is garbage.

In keeping with previous events, merely a few hours before finishing this Nylon had spawned a meteor shower on the RP server between the hours of five and six AM EST. The following were the prompts typed by Nylon prior.



Again, spelling and grammar mistakes abound. These meteors proceeded to breach multiple locations across the station due to a lack of engineering staff on the station. One engineer, to be exact to fix the whole thing. As I had entered the round, there were five separate air alarms all indicating breaches, and repairs were already underway. I cannot confirm the exact number that had to be fixed by just a single engineer with the help of a dogborg.

So, let's start with again, what did this event hope to add to the round? I can see no proper RP added except the vacation of breached areas, with the dangerous potential for death of crew. This was compounded by the fact that I know medical was breached in the random showers of meteors, especially so given the only medical staff online at the time was a psychiatrist. This has more potential to shut down any goings on in a dead shift, rather than liven it up. Mechanical work kills talk.

Secondly, and my biggest issue. This was at six AM. The crew amounted to a few civilian personnel, one scientist, a few pathfinders, one engineer, one psychiatrist (The only person on the station with medical access at the time the event was launched) and one dogborg. This type of event has no place on a shift so understaffed, and the fact that it was launched at all on a shift like this shows gross incompetence, neglect, and a general dismissive uncaring about how he might impact the round of players.

I cannot see one good reason to launch an event like this ever. Even in the most populated shift, much less this one. As an admin, he had full ability to check shields, check crew manifest, check literally anything to indicate that the crew wouldn't be able to deal with something like this in a timely manner, and they certainly wouldn't be able to deal with the possible injured should it impact in more than one populated area. I shudder to imagine what would have happened should RNG have been unkind.

Ok first off on the image.

Debris resulting from activity on another nearby asteroid is approaching NSB Adephagia.

Is literally from the events panel that triggers automatically and not typed by me. Majority of players have seen this prompt before. If you are a long term player on RP then you should know this.

The breaches where only to non-vital areas to which a borg partially vented out an entire Atrium from the bathrooms by which I had to use admin tools to solve the issue for the borg was taking WAY too long to fix a simple issue. The atmos tech did a superb job at repairing and offered them a special RCD to fix an issue with what happened in the end. There were a total of 3 small breaches that were promptly fixed while the last one was a single meteor that decimated part of the thickest area of the asteroid. I will take fault on that for not knowing about it but before you argue about it, we're all human. We learn and move on.

In conclusion of all of this. Nylon has repeatedly shown that he is unfit to run events on the RP server. Poor grammar and spelling, poor managment, poor planning, neglect of staff and situation, an inability to produce even a minuscule amount of foresight, an unfamiliarity with his own admin commands, and a complete disregard for how his actions might interrupt ongoing RP instead of adding to it. I entirely believe that he should be removed from staff, if not simply completely barred from running events. This kind of behavior cannot stand.

"I entirely believe that he should be removed from staff, if not simply completely barred from running events. This kind of behavior cannot stand."

Pretty bold to go there. Let me do a refresher. I have a total of 15 to about 25 events throughout the entire year since RP was switched to Virgo code. The majority were small and moderately to large impactful rounds were rather shaky and I could say that I have been incompetent in some and should probably have things differently. I may not be the perfect admin who can run events perfectly every time but I will always try my best to put the players first in mind. For this complaint, I don't see it really going anywhere. Rag's complaint against me had a lot more grounds and understanding while this just seems more of a rant than a complaint that would speak for most of the players of RP. This is how I see it.

In conclusion.
I agree with your points in mismanagement and I should learn to things better. Perform in ways to meet the roleplay and improve a great experience within a roleplay rich environment.

However, I find this complaint more personally driven and not something that would immediately be relevant to other players. Going beyond what is in good faith and disregarding other people's opinions on the matter unless it promotes your stand is just immature to go about it. Your direction with this complaint is truly ambitious for what it demands but you should think more realistically on what might be solutions to remedy issues than just "admin man bad, get out of staff." The tone of this entire complaint gives it away and some of this information I find it hard to believe it was distinctly my fault.

Finally, what I can say that is I'm sorry that I haven't been able to perform the best as I could have and should have done things differently. I won't devalue you as a player despite this complaint sounding like you genuinely hate me but that's what I view it as. I am sure things will be different after this complaint so be certain it was not in vain. Thank you for bringing this to my attention and hope to hear from you again on some ways that will be good starting points for future events of either small or large.

Nyny wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 5:24 pm

However, I find this complaint more personally driven and not something that would immediately be relevant to other players.

I'm not going to comment on anything other than this since I wasn't here for the events, but this is definitely false. There have been grumblings about the citadel events since before the RP server even existed. The event should be properly outlined before it starts to go anywhere, xenos are quite literally "shoot to kill" in SoP and the very vague command reports sent did nothing to make security think they weren't a serious threat.

If you have a clear direction you want the event to go, both sides need to have their goals clearly laid out in advance, otherwise you end up having to micromanage player actions via whispering to them or PMing them, which takes away player agency and makes the players believe they are on a strict guided path that they'll get in trouble for ever straying from in future events. There are people who refuse to play security during events because of this.