Why do fools powergame?

I’ve played three rounds on this server, two of which are cult rounds. Why do AI and head of departments rush measures despite it being against the rules? Surely my boss shouldn’t force holy water on anyone with red eyes and roboticists shouldn’t ask if they can help shoot people or the emergency shuttle is called ASAP over little incidents. If non-antags don’t jump the gun, group antags won’t be forced to be aggressive in converting everyone, leading to more interesting rounds.

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Cult is essentially an LRP gamemode and is treated as such.

Where is that in the rules?

Crew / antagonist interactions are written here: Escalation Policy - BeeStation Wiki

Blood Cult (Nar'sie)	Antagonist	N/A	Prioritize converting/deconverting until Halo stage is reached. Becomes murderbone/hostile at Halo stage.

That’s helpful, and thanks… But still not seeing justification for powergaming prior to the halo stage, which I observed both times.

Let me expand this further.

People powergame because other people powergame too.

Why should I let sec/antags wordlessly murder me out of nowhere?
Gotta have some trick up my sleeve in order not to die !

And cult rounds are extremely special!
It’s the only gamemode where people think it’s okay to plasma flood a cult base in maints on a green alert 10 minutes into the shift and go validhunt regardless of your job.

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Admins need to start recalling shuttles that get called because of a head who’d rather end the round than even attempt at fighting an antagonist

The cult’s lucky if it’s not a bored scientist in toxins who wants an excuse to make maxcaps instead

Shuttle curse should be proportional to how early the shuttle is called, the earlier the call, the more time the curse gives.

Surely my boss shouldn’t force holy water on anyone with red eyes

Forcing people to drink holy water when their eyes are glowing (a clear cut sign that they are a cultist) is not powergaming. It’s part of the gamemode conversion/deconversion mechanic. Any cultist can just stab themselves with their knife to convert holy water in their system into a chemical that heals them.

It’s as if loyalty implanting people when there’s revolutionaries around counted as powergaming. It’s what the gamemode is about.

Vast copium required

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How would your character know what a clear sign is? The rules say you should act as if normally shifts are boring and a cult springing up is far from common.

when you examine someone when the cult gets red eyes the text about their eyes is
X’s eyes are glowing an unnatural red!
yes its in bold text and it is a CLEAR indicator of cult

How would your character not recognise the fact that their co-worker has suddenly gained giant glowing blood red eyes as suspicious?

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Yeah, not X’s eyes are glowing an unnatural red because they’re cult!
There’s plenty of sci-fi reasons for someone’s eyes to be glowing red without it being a cult. Genetics is incredibly normalized on these stations. Perhaps the connection between cultists and the eyes should be roleplayed out, as that’s what the rules allude to.

Yes they should be suspicious, but when you’re suspicious of someone in real life you don’t leap to conclusions that it can only be one thing, right? You use deduction and process of elimination of things that it could be. If you saw the person by cultish runes and they have red eyes it’s pretty reasonable to go, “Oh snap I think this person’s in a cult, I should arrange for them to be detained and searched to see if they have some sort of ritual blade that could endanger me and ask them what’s going on.” But if you only have a single puzzle piece and suddenly demand people drink holy water that’s illogical. In the context of the game, the latter is power-gaming because you’re prioritizing a win condition over the entertainment of a slow-burn story.

I consider this a shitpost now.
and will elect to ignore this topic forevermore.

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That’s very big brain of you to stick your head into the sand about what the rules say.

one thing is the genetisct giving you edgy red eyes, another is having bright red glowing eyes

And how would a random person know the difference, or have knowledge of a cult to join the dots?

Because NanoTrasen freely distributes information about defeating said cult as part of their efforts to suppress it. The in-game newscaster openly reports about the cult being crushed.

The cult is well known enough to have a drink themed around them available in official NT bars. The cult is mentioned in NanoTrasen’s official laws, available in-game as a book. There is even replica cult equipment for sale.

You might have a point when it comes to the specifics of all cult equipment, but the average station employee will absolutely, through a combination of official training and rumour from those rare crewmembers that have faced down a cult before, know at least the basics of how a cult works and how to recognise it.

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