/tg/Station 13

As things are, I think the SEC HUD and security records could be changed a bit. The primary suggestion I have concerns the 'modes' for people. I feel that the modes could be better improved for the utility and roll play aspects of the security force. I have 3 things that we may want to consider for these reasons. Just as a refresher these are our current modes:

Nothing
Wanted
Incarcerated
Paroled
Released

Before my other suggestions, I would like to point out that Released is completely useless. Even when used properly it just causes confusion since Nothing implies Released. It may be best just to get rid of this mode entirely.

Right now, Wanted has a broad definition meant for any kind of arrests that need to be made. This being the case, many people take this to mean (unless told otherwise) “taze them the second you see them and wordlessly cuff them”. While it gets the job done and in some cases is the appropriate action, it's not always the best thing to do. I think the addition of 1-2 new modes may be able to solve this.

Detain/Indite: This is like a light version of Wanted. This is for people who need to be spoken to or questioned, but not brigged or the like. For example, an officer who starts a random search can set this mode to the person he is searching. If the suspect runs away, beepsky and officers know to arrest him. This mode implies that the person has not committed a crime, but still needs to be detained, hence the name. Using this mode, we can get rid of a few stun-cuff arrests and increase the chances of good arrest roleplay.

This next one may be a horrible idea, but here it is anyway:

KOS/Do not clone: Kill-On-Sight. It's pretty obvious what this means. If you see this guy, kill them. If somebody is a known ling or alien, and is too dangerous to arrest, there is no point in setting them to wanted. Using this mode, officers will know to make others' safety a priority and take surrender only if the player can prove they are no longer a threat. This of course has the potential to be abused, so if implemented it would probably have to be harder to set this mode than wanted.

I play security a fair bit, and I like to try and arrest people without the stun-cuff routine as much as possible. By implementing these modes, officers would better know how to handle and RP in a given situation.

Just leave it as it is.
Released isn't really useful to indicated 'released' but it is useful whenyou want to mark people out for other reasons.
Adding the extra options just removed need to communicate.

Keep it simple.

Just fix the identity bug and remove the job icon.

Huds now serve to show implants or wanted, which is really the most important info.

I really like the job icon though, I find it highly useful in a game where people fly by so quickly

I don't know about removing release, it could serve a purpose maybe. I kind of like the Idea of detain as a light "Wanted" mode. for KOS though, i think for that it'd require like, approval from the captain's console or something as it kind of conflicts with the Asimov laws. An AI might see that and conclude they need protection for the sake of human harm, unless they're a lizard.

Released and Paroled make beepsky more likely to arrest them on the Threat system.

For example, if you have a gun on your belt and beesky is set to arrest for unauthorised weapons, you get +3 threat. However, if paroled or released (or wearing wizard clothes), that adds +1, taking you over the threshold and bringing THE LAW down on you.

Lizard people gets +1 to threat by default, too. Specism is hard coded.

Finally, confirmed knowledge that lizards do have a hard mechanical disadvantage.

Ammunition I can use. SPECIES TRAITS, AHOY!

I use discharged all the time, it prevents me from having to go "did we already bring x in?" every time.

A suspect or search/detain mode would be really nice.

Lots of situations in which clues point to a culprit being an engineer/scientist etc. In such a situation I want to mark those people for a search without beepsky or the other officers immediatly batoning them down.

What he said. Please. As Warden, sorting out who is arrested for a crime and who was just flagged for a search is a PITA.

Nothing: No icon. This is the default.
Suspect: A light blue S. This indicates 'watch this person closely' and adds +1 to Beepsky's counter.
Detained: A light orange D. This indicates they're in custody... or should be. This adds +1 to Beepsky's counter.
Wanted: A dark red W. This indicates 'arrest this person' and adds +4 to Beepsky's counter, meaning it arrests on sight.
Released: A dark gold R. This indicates 'this person is a convicted criminal', but doesn't touch Beepsky's counter.

If the user of the HUD or console has HoS access, they can activate the following mode:
Lethal: A black-and-red L. This indicates 'unzip your harmbaton, boys', and adds +4 to Beepsky's counter.

'Discharged' (no, it's not called 'released') is actually useful. It's a good way to see if someone has committed crimes before (which is a consideration in how you react to people), a good way to mark someone as 'searched' if you're profiling (e.g. search all engineers), and generally a decent thing to have if you want to use it for some other purpose.

Instead of changing all the letters, why not just change wanted to two options: a small w and a capital W? Small w for minor crimes, W for everything else. It's simple, effective, and should be a much smoother transition.

Detained is supposed to add like +3 or something, so a "detained" guy who is perfectly fine otherwise escapes wrath, but violating one other aspect of his code and BAM

I was the one that added icons for Released and Paroled.

Reason for giving Released an icon was to make it easier to see who was a repeat criminal.
Cheridan apparently thought people were too dumb to tell the difference between the released icon and a RevHead icon (they were originally intentionally similar as a tongue in cheek joke) because some asshole got hold of a sec hud, was set to release and went "oh I'm going to murder some bitches then claim I thought I was a revhead because of the icon", so it got changed to discharge instead.


Anyway, I agree there should be a more verbose Wanted system - it would be useful just to mark someone to Question for questioning, and a KoS marker (I'd say it should require armory access to be able to assign) to mark someone that you want to smoke on sight


Security records could also do with more divisions, at the moment its only Minor and Major crimes - minor crimes never gets used because who bothers arresting people for drugs possession so everything gets chucked under major.
So it should be expanded to have the Space Law categories of Minor, Medium, Major, and Capital.

And to make it easier to fill in the records it could pop up a grid of crimes like there is at the bottom of space law, with an added option of putting in a custom crime.

Edit: And one thing I'd really like to see is a log of who changed someone's arrest status, that way we're not having to ask "Who set such and such to arrest?"

Just remove the minor/major division entirely. Its way easier to just read the offense than to fill in/ look at was this a minor/major/capital/Idontcare crime.

Also KoS targets are virtually always well known.

I dont like the idea of a "KOS" icon much because if you can't communicate to your team "KILL THIS GUY DO NOT ARREST" and have them believe you, why is the guy on KOS anyway?

A KoS icon would not be effective without communication anyway. I am not going to kill someone with a KoS symbol without having ANY idea of what he did. Detain, yes. Kill, no.

You wouldn't be surprised by the amount of times I've said someone is kos and some sec officer has seen them and gone "is X still wanted?" without even detaining them

Malkevin wrote:You wouldn't be surprised by the amount of times I've said someone is kos and some sec officer has seen them and gone "is X still wanted?" without even detaining them

Having a KoS icon wouldn't help with that. You HAVE to ask, otherwise its just too easy for a traitor HoP/capt/AI to just put their target as KoS.

Just add a "Person of Interest" flag.

Someone who is suspected of something or should otherwise be observed, but not arrested.