Imitates-The-Lizards wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 9:55 am
sinfulbliss wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 7:47 am
Fatal wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 7:32 am
If you can justify why that service is not being given, from an in-character perspective with a reasonable reason, that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned
I feel a point people have brought up is being ignored here. The issue isn't being able to justify yourself or not. The issue is it would fuckin suck having to explain to an admin why your character
isn't doing their job.
Whether or not it's justified. People don't enjoy having to defend themselves in a bwoink, even if they're entirely in the right, it just kinda sucks and makes the round less fun. Especially if it's a long essay bwoink with one of the handful of admins you know are going to enforce this policy hardcore.
It's such a wishy washy policy to have to justify yourself against. Would telling the admin "I wanted to go fuck around in the bar" even make sense? Is that a "reasonable reason" from an "in-character perspective"? There could not be a more vague standard one could possibly set. Hell, most people don't even know why they do the shit they do in SS13, they just do it because they can.
It would just be a nightmare to have to get into a bwoink about "WHY ARE YOU ROLEPLAYING AS A BOXER INSTEAD OF SETTING UP THE SM?" Because I feel like it. "WHY DIDN'T YOU GO ASSISTANT IF YOU WERE GONNA BOX?" Because I didn't meticulously plan out what I would do the next round, it just popped up and I joined in. "NOTE: As a non-antag engineer, neglected his basic critical duty of setting up the Supermatter Crystal. Please ensure the power is up before going off to play Assistant+"
I'm like 99% sure that "A reasonable reason" means "someone who isn't you did something to impact your round in some way that merits a response that would cause you to deviate from your expected job duties.". So, for example, say at the start of the shift, before you set up the engine, a graytide broke into the lobby and punched you four times before dipping as fast as they could because you called for security, you would be justified in leaving engineering without setting up the engine so that you could get medical treatment and then go on a wild goose chase to hunt them down.
Or the Captain, at the very start of the shift, announces that they are auctioning off the spare hand tele. You leave engineering without setting up the sm because the auction is a time limited event, buy the hand tele successfully, and use it to break into the vault instead of doing your job, and end up in perma.
Something like that. Meanwhile, you just up and deciding you don't want to do the most critical services of your job by yourself, spontaneously, would not be allowed.
At least this is my interpretation. Fatal can say whether or not this is correct.
That's a pretty good interpretation yes, and along the lines of what I'm intending here for sure
As for having to explain yourself to admin as to why you aren't doing your job:
Personally, if someone adminhelped that the engineers have abandoned the engine and not set it up, before actually speaking to anyone, I would observe each one, and see where they are. If there's only one, and let's say, from the example above, that they're in medbay being healed, I wouldn't even speak to them about it because it's pretty clear what happened
And if you did have to speak to one, is it really so hard to quickly explain why? We're not some ban hungry goblins looking for any excuse to throw you off the server, provided you have a reasonable in character reason, I imagine such a conversation to be quite swift
As for an example of when it would apply to any job other than engineer. My main other thoughts when making this policy thread was medical. Often medical is highly staffed (especially when I play it) and yet I find myself alone in the treatment centre being the only player actually reviving people or performing surgery on people that people are unable to perform themselves, some wounds you can self heal, but often you cannot fix yourself, so that is my other department that comes to mind, however I feel to make this policy fair it must include all jobs (even those that clearly do not offer a critical service, or any service, such as clown and mime). In my example above, yes, I am in medical providing that critical service, yet multiple people have wordlessly run away from the department (usually taking the syringe guns with them probably loaded with an explosive mix) to do whatever gimmick they have in mind until a valid appears, or just goof off doing something else. This is fine occasionally, but when it comes an every round habit, it does get frustrating especially how critical medical is to keep people in the round
As for all the gimmicks sinful brought up: If you cannot spare 2 minutes of your round to actually do the bare minimum, then yes, join as an assistant, because an assistant has no responsibilities, and nobody gives a fuck if you go do a gimmick, and if you cannot spare 2 minutes of a 30 minute and longer round, to ensure other players can actually do the stuff they wanted to do as well because this isn't a single player game, then I think this rule does apply to you pretty clearly and a note would be entirely fair in that situation
I'm not asking anyone to meticulously plan out what anyone is going to do in a round, but I'm not asking for THAT much change to anyone's freedoms either