Blob Classified Report

[Stickymayhem]

Not sure why the classified blob report is necessary. It just encourages meta/powergamers to hang around the console around blob pop time and makes life really hard for a growing blob.

Spoiler:

Reports indicate the probable transfer of a biohazardous agent onto Death-World Spess Junk Seven during the last crew deployment cycle.
Preliminary analysis of the organism classifies it as a level 5 biohazard. Its origin is unknown.
NanoTrasen has issued a directive 7-10 for Death-World Spess Junk Seven. The station is to be considered quarantined.
Orders for all Death-World Spess Junk Seven personnel follows:
1. Do not leave the quarantine area.
2. Locate any outbreaks of the organism on the station.
3. If found, use any neccesary means to contain the organism.
4. Avoid damage to the capital infrastructure of the station.

Note in the event of a quarantine breach or uncontrolled spread of the biohazard, the directive 7-10 may be upgraded to a directive 7-12.
Message ends.

As far as I can tell this pops out the console as soon as the blob pops.

[Steelpoint]

If not already, make it appear once the official Centcom alert is broadcast. So that it actually makes sense, and reword it to match the fact that blob has burst.

[Kangaraptor]

The report is fine, though it could be delayed until the actual CentComm report yeah.

[Stickymayhem]

Yeah to clarify, I have a problem with the reports early arrival and not with the report itself.

[cedarbridge]

The report showing up early is kinda shit. Though I'm not a big fan of the automated vox report either. "Confirmed outbreak" where everyone including the station AI is asking "Where?" is not a confirmed anything and just puts the crew into full blebhunt mode without any other required info. Cuts down on misdiretion gimmicks where you can scream about nookops, revs whatever else to distract the crew from a possible blob. When that autovox goes off, everyone knows 100% there's a blob.

[Ikarrus]

I do like having some kind of warning for the crew. It basically acts as a cap to the stealth advantage, so the blob can't get an extreme advantage if nobody just happened to stumble upon it, which is significantly easier now that maintenance is butthuge.

I believe the classified report is currently set to announce 4 seconds after the blobs burst. It could stand to be increased to a minute or so.

[Stickymayhem]

I do like having some kind of warning for the crew. It basically acts as a cap to the stealth advantage, so the blob can't get an extreme advantage if nobody just happened to stumble upon it, which is significantly easier now that maintenance is butthuge.

I believe the classified report is currently set to announce 4 seconds after the blobs burst. It could stand to be increased to a minute or so.

I entirely disagree. A blob found within five minutes of popping is a dead blob. A blob found near theannouncement time has a fair chance.

I think the report and announcement should occur at the same time.

[Ikarrus]

A blob found within five minutes of popping is a dead blob. A blob found near theannouncement time has a fair chance.

You are mistaken. The public announcement is currently set to announce 3 minutes after the blobs burst.

In any case, I've put up a preliminary PR to make these tweaks.
https://github.com/tgstation/-tg-station/pull/4610

Feel free to comment.

[bandit]

Ah, so that's why during blob rounds there is a classified announcement over comms the crew can't see the text of.

As soon as this becomes public knowledge it's going to be metagamed to hell. Period. The only other possible thing it could be is admin fuckery, which leads to even more metagaming (adminwho, welp none of the Event Admins are on, FIND THAT BLOB)

[Scott]

The report/alert should either be removed or take longer to trigger. Blobs simply do not get enough time to get their shit together.

[Kuraudo]

The report/alert should either be removed or take longer to trigger. Blobs simply do not get enough time to get their shit together.

I agree with this. As soon as the announcement is made, people start searching for the blob with even more dedication than a search for a power-sink. And it leads to the scenario we all know: blob gets his ass handed to him swiftly after a waltz involving welders, emitters, riot suits and laser guns: Crew wins, blob only fucked 99.9999 % of the station.

[bandit]

We're talking about two different things. Sticky isn't referring to the "level 5 biohazard" announcement but the classified announcement that comes up before it, which is not readable by general crew (like all classified messages). The problem is that people either are or will shortly use the very existence of a classified announcement near roundstart -- one whose contents they can't even read -- to metagame that there MUST be a blob.

[Stickymayhem]

A blob found within five minutes of popping is a dead blob. A blob found near theannouncement time has a fair chance.

You are mistaken. The public announcement is currently set to announce 3 minutes after the blobs burst.

In any case, I've put up a preliminary PR to make these tweaks.
https://github.com/tgstation/-tg-station/pull/4610

Feel free to comment.

Many blobs take longer than two minutes to be found and properly begin the fight after the announcement as it is still small and not everyone has maint access.

[Scott]

Every has access to maintenance through their departments, now some may have access to better parts of maintenance than others.