Let’s see here, rules and rules adjacent updates:
- Space Law was updated + tweaks
- Exploration got SOP
- Silicons got naming policy (Rip Borgsworth, my old Cyborg name)
- Discord got the English rule that I didn’t even realize was missing from discord
- “Leaving the game” was clarified to include antagonists alongside heads and the AI
- Antagonist policy was “clarified” in various ways (This clarification actually made me horribly misinterpret them at first)
Admin policy updates:
- Role bans may no longer be issued upon request
- Players under 18 may only be banned by head admins due to the necessity of ban suppression
- Antagonist tokens may be exchanged for a lot more roles now
- Notes may no longer be appealed after three months have passed
- Given I already cross referenced space law every time I handled anything to do with it, nothing will change there.
- Exploration SOP doesn’t actually change much about how they will be handled
- Silicons will get naming enforcement when reported/noticed
- As stated above I didn’t even realize discord didn’t have this rule since it’s in the game server rules, and I’m pretty sure that’s because enforcement never really came up so I can’t say anything has changed here.
- I will question antagonists I notice going to cryo or otherwise leaving.
- This antag rule update is the most complicated one and I’d want to be sure I’m on the same page - My understanding of it is that it enables antagonists to use high-impact means against others and the round as long as the goal is to immediately complete an objective or approved gimmick. My initial interpretation was that they are only allowed to do this if the high impact method is successful, and they will be punished if they fail which is why it sat poorly with me at first because it would promote min-maxing.
The admin policy updates are very cut and dry changes - I’ll follow the new directives accordingly.
Circumstances are everything and being a clown is a particularly noteworthy circumstance when it comes to cases of mild self-antag. In the vast majority of cases like this, the clown in question here is probably a shitter and should be handled as such, but not always.
- Sometimes the HoS is the instigator against a clown
- There is a difference in stealing the gun for the sake of stealing, and stealing the gun for the sake of spacing it. Intent matters, and is also the difference between also being powergaming (clowns have clumsy by default and can’t even use the HoS gun properly in this case)
Every situation is nuanced, and making hardline “100% this is always X offense” isn’t always possible, even when it comes to plasma flooding.
Having a genuinely ignorant player come upon an emagged holodeck and accidentally plasma flood the station because they thought the holodeck was purely holograms is an occurence I experienced as an admin in the past. I did not and still would not punish in this situation, even though their actions directly resulted in the round being ruined for nearly everyone.