[Atlanta-ned, ExcessiveUseOfCobby]Spawning a Killer Shuttle

[AnonymousNow]

Byond account and character name: AnonymousNow, Dr. Derrick Cobb
Admin: Atlanta-ned, ExcessiveUseOfCobby
Time and Server incident occurred: 31st/01/2017, roughly 1:15am (GMT)

Detailed summary:
This is not so much for me, since it didn't change my round much at all - though I was caught up and killed in the shenanigans - but to call out some worrying behaviour from these admins.

This was a clockwork cult round, and evidently the cult was having difficulty, because it was tiny and all but wiped out. An/the admin(s) decided to push some buttons, including one to summon the Speedwagon, one to summon guns (which made most people into gun-thief antagonists) and then one to summon a tiny green shuttle which spaced people who entered it, without warning.

Yep. You'd be teleported to a small border region of space that you couldn't move from, whereapon you'd die from exposure (or float there in a spacesuit). This was worsened somewhat by then spawning turrets around this spot a few minutes later, to attack and kill any spacesuit-wearing survivors.

Current Admins:
Atlanta-ned is a GameAdmin
Durkel is a TrialAdmin
ExcessiveUseOfCobby is a GameAdmin

PM to-Admins: A one-tile shuttle that teleports people to space? Are you serious?

-- Administrator private message --
Admin PM from-ExcessiveUseOfCobby: l o l
Click on the administrator's name to reply.
-- Administrator private message --
Admin PM from-Atlanta-ned: Yes
Click on the administrator's name to reply.

(Note: it is because of the above responses that I am focusing on these two admins, as it is possible that Durkel was not involved.)

You could argue that everyone was now valid, since they had been turned into antagonists by summon guns. But I'd say turning everyone into antagonists so you could kill them with the shuttle is even worse than just making the killer shuttle. In particular this undermines all existing antagonists in the round (the Clock Cult).

I only ever say this every few years or so, so it's quite alarming to see admin abuse like this. Yes, there are gimmick shuttles like the supermatter shuttle, but those are recognisably dangerous and easy to avoid; walking into a shuttle only to be teleported to certain death is distressing, especially when it happens to more than a dozen people.

This is poor conduct and in my time this was the sort of behaviour that would get an AO ruffled and an admin stripped. It sets a concerning precedent for behaviour as well.

Edit: And please don't tell me that this was just some sort of custom shuttle made by players/prebaked for selection. Nothing could teleport people into glitched space like that, surely.

[Atlanta-Ned]

We pressed buttons because the cult was insolvent at that point (down to one living person). Lola asked if they'd be cool with us pressing buttons, they said yes. Not much more to be said.

EDIT: I'll go on to add that this was an hour into the round and the cult had done nothing noteworthy.

[AnonymousNow]

We pressed buttons because the cult was insolvent at that point (down to one living person). Lola asked if they'd be cool with us pressing buttons, they said yes. Not much more to be said.

EDIT: I'll go on to add that this was an hour into the round and the cult had done nothing noteworthy.

So you DID ask the round antagonists if they'd be fine with you pressing buttons?

Better, but not perfect. I'd say it still wasn't fair on the rest of the crew to create such a shuttle.

[Cobby]

You would think a noticeably different shuttle that doesn't look like a preset would make you traverse a bit more carefully.

Not seeing much of the issue outside of the free antag round getting "ruined" because people didn't know how to pass the fairly simple "coop shuttle" despite the hints in things like Centcomm chat and the obvious visual queues [like a greentext book named 'TEAMWORK!', not to mention the color of the shuttle was obviously edited so you knew it was going to be memey].

As for the free antag round, the cult was all dead minus 1 and the remaining was told he had 5 minutes to make a move [it had been about an hour and they only converted 1 individual] or we [adminbus] were hijacking the round, which we did. One cultist got revived after we had already made everyone traitors.

Again, no one's round was "ruined". The cult killed themselves off and every other player was traitor through Admin shenanigans. The shuttle WAS usable, hence why several people were on it at departure [but all but one escaped because the others fell into the chasm]. People could have also used the pods if they were feeling overly play2win

[AnonymousNow]

=

With the new shuttle buying system, strange shuttles have become the norm. That doesn't mean that they should be deadly. Wherever these visual cues were, they passed under the radar during the shuttle rush; to head towards it was to be pushed, and to be pushed was to enter. Still disappointed.

[Cobby]

=

With the new shuttle buying system, strange shuttles have become the norm. That doesn't mean that they should be deadly. Wherever these visual cues were, they passed under the radar during the shuttle rush; to head towards it was to be pushed, and to be pushed was to enter. Still disappointed.

If you went through the single tunnel the shuttle was located on I would have a really hard time believing you didn't see the shuttle. If you died, see rule 10. At least this event could have been avoided by simply choosing the pods over the obvious memeshuttle. If you couldn't tell it was obvious, again see rule 10. That could have been prevented by paying attention [which you should have been doing if you choosed the single lane the shuttle was on, as the others didn't even have anything on them that would mislead the individual]. You even said yourself there's nothing wrong with shuttles that are "recognizably dangerous and easy to avoid" in the OP, which this was both [only one lane to enter in and it was SMALL AND GREEN AND OBVIOUSLY ADMIN INVOLVED, could have been avoided by simply using the pods].

I don't see what you're disappointed about. It's a single round that became a nice cooldown from the norm with summon guns and all traitors as a sort of mulligan from the lost cause that was the cult. Again, if you wanted to be a play2win nerd, you could have still done so with ease. Even if your round was ruined because you died by admins after getting traitor [from admins], it ruined all of 5 minutes [go play on basil as assistant and screw around while you wait or just shoot us a pm asking for CTF since you got meme'd].

I'm sorry you feel this way but I legitimately believe I've done nothing wrong and in fact plan on continuing making ingame unique shuttles of varying levels of lethality on a game that has historically touts itself as being a "metal deathtrap" unless told otherwise. Lighten up please.

[TehSteveo]

Honestly, I don't find this really actionable for what occurred as a round was floundering on and the admin got permission from the last antagonist. Buttons were pushed and likely most people didn't mind it. Yes, getting killed by a gimmick shuttle sucks but curtailing admins from trying to run occasional events and/or gimmicks makes things dull(as well as overdoing events/gimmicks it makes things dull).

However, the complaint in of itself should serve as a reminder for admins when they do events/gimmicks to try make things as fun as possible for everyone involved and not just fun for themselves as they don't get affected by a large swath of people dying as they are already observing. While amusing to admins and deadchat; players really don't like it.

[AnonymousNow]

=

I still believe that the defining feature indicating the shuttle's "admin-ness" was only evident after it was too late to do anything about it, eg. the fact that you're now in space, hope you brought a suit. It's not so much the behaviour in this round, but the precedent it sets - if you're honestly telling us that this is a matter that was prearranged with the round antagonists and that won't lead to making equivalent destructive creations, say, in the middle of the corridor midround in the future, then this thread could be closed.

From the beginning I said I was worried about precedent. People can let things carry them away quite easily. Admins used to be able to possess and control singularities, y'know. A bit more of a warning would help - capturing Centcom's sardonic style - or making the lethality less absolute, like the Supermatter shuttle. Were those turrets needed?

And telling me to lighten up is like throwing sugary sweets into a black hole. I'm British. We do not "lighten up".

=

I'm not cutting down events. I like events. I remember when we had them more often, and when admins dedicated their potential playtime to instead running interesting events. But, well, read above. Meat grinders aren't fun, especially if they run the risk of screwing over an antagonist (which was avoided, debatably, in this instance).

[lzimann]

As TehSteveo said, not really actionable.